by Toffeehater » Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:39 am
The £11m Man Who Could Lead Liverpool To the Title
by David Fairclough Supersub on August 24th, 2009
Just supposing that Owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett do want to retain an ounce of credibility at Anfield and that they do have the decency to give Rafa some of the cash from the Xabi Alonso sale to the Liverpool boss before the transfer window closes then this is the player who could well take the club that bit nearer to the ending their domestic league hoodoo.
Rafael Van der Vaart is a class act who has incomprehensibly been treated very badly by Real Madrid to the extent that the Dutch international has not even been given a squad number for the forthcoming season and as such clearly has no future at the La Liga giants. The former Ajax and Hamburg man has stated he wants to move to the Premier League and apparently we, along with Arsenal, are the most suitable option.
Apparently so keen are the Spanish side to cut their wage bill and trim their squad, that they are willing to listen to offers of around £11m for the exciting playmaker, which is an absolute steal and surely the Americans can stump up that sort of cash. To put the fee into some semblance of perspective, Stoke City are about to bid more for Sunderland’s Kenwyne Jones!
With Alonso gone we could do with an attacking option in our midfield. Aquilani is a decent player and I am very much looking forward to seeing the Italian recover from injury and in a Reds shirt, but Rafael offers an entirely different option for the club. Van der Vaart is a player who has fans on the edge of their seats and is still just 26 and therefore has a lot in the tank and will be keen to prove any doubters wrong.
Yes we are a more attacking team than many give us credit for, and yes we scored 100+ goals last term. However we are still very dependent on Stevie G and El Nino to provide and finish moves, even more so with Xabi out of the picture. VdV would offer the club a myriad of options as he can play in a variety of positions and could serve best as part of a two pronged attacking midfield diamond behind Fernando Torres, with Gerrard alongside the Dutch International and Javier Mascherano offering the defensive balance.
I truly believe that this signing is a viable one and not one that would break the bank, but the real fear is that Hicks and Gillett are just not in the market to bring in new faces and simply want to siphon off money to cover bad debts but hell that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
