By Alistair Duncan
ClaretandHugh’s
No 1 blogger
So, Liverpool want our hot shot new boy Diafra Sakho, if we are to believe the stuff going the rounds at the moment.It may be a load of rubbish, just paper talk or agents’ talk (much the same thing) or a wild flyer..Whatever, I tend to believe there is a grain of truth in every transfer story, somewhere.
Why wouldn’t they want dynamic Diafra? Such is the paucity of the Anfield club’s striking department at the moment.
Of course there is no chance. He has only been with us five minutes, scored a few, got injured, then scored another as his partnership with Andy Carroll just blossomed before our very eyes.
The striker, I believe, has a water-tight three year contract, with no options to leave. Only a clause that gives him a healthy pay-rise after 20 or so matches. Fair to say we got him on the cheap by current standards, much like Winston Reid, and we all know where that is going.
The only way he would go is if he starts making noises, or his agent does, to suggest he wants away. But I feel Big Sam will have seen all this before and will dismiss it very sharply.
The problem with even these sort of flyers is that they gather momentum around the world as deadlines, date lines and the multitude of websites get their teeth into something. A wild rumour one day is cast-iron certain 24 hours later.
Liverpool may well have ‘planted ’ the story..no quotes obviously..and they have plenty of previous for such behaviour. Mind you, everybody does it!
There is no point us getting annoyed, certainly with our recent track record. Stand up Baroness Brady of wherever it is. The only question for you is, exactly what part of the regulations involving illegal approaches to players do you not understand?
You cannot publicly, or otherwise, approach a player under contract to another club. We got pretty upset, I recall, when Fulham tried their luck with Ravel Morrison last season(Maybe we should have just taken the money then, and run).
Sometimes I wonder how other clubs think of us. We can certainly be a bit wide-boy, garish, even loud for some tastes. But delightful Karren’s latest wheeze takes the biscuit.
Anyone who saw her column in the Sun at the weekend knows what I mean. In it she basically told Steven Gerrard that there was always a place for him here at Upton Park if Liverpool continued to be beastly about his new contract.
There has even been suggestions elsewhere that Brendan Rodgers and Gerrard have fallen out. No chance there, the Liverpool manager is currently renting Gerrard’s former Southport mansion now he has split from his own wife and is living with a girl from the travel department.
Gerrard, incidentally, is having a new mansion built for him and his own family and is camped elsewhere at the moment. Rodgers and Gerrard get along just fine.
Now for a senior executive of a major club to go into print offering a new home to the captain of another major club is just not allowed. It is not tongue in cheek it is foot in mouth.
I don’t know whether Liverpool have complained, what’s the point. But a conspiracy line I will float, without the slightest evidence I must admit, is that Liverpool’s supposed interest in Sakho has surfaced just a couple of days after Brady’s blatant illegal approach too Gerrard. Just saying.
The views expressed here are those of the blogger and are not necessarily shared by ClaretandHugh
IMO instead of “foot in mouth” we should definitely read “tongue in cheek” especially if you have read KB’s article in full.
As for stories concerning Reid and now Sakho being wanted by the mousers, well that’s just paper talk!
Despite all the speculation there is yet to be a single offer on the table for Reid and there is a £25mill price tag attached to Sakho! Nuff said! COYI!
I was just going to say that Phil!
AD, FFS there has not been a single offer for Sakho and if there were the board would not entertain it. Why would they? BTW I heard Sakho was on a 4 year contract, Valencia on a five? Anyhow, all our deals for players go past the first year in the OS. Who would leave us beyond 2016?
Have the Prem League picked the Baroness on her Gerrard comment? No! Because it wasn’t an illegal approach, that’s why!! Frankly I bet we wouldn’t have him if he were available, after all he can’t get into the mid-table Liverpool team
He’s under contract. She offered him a job. Tongue in cheek or not that’s an illegal approach. We can’t always believe our own truth.
So sue us then Prem League! They bring clubs up for much less! They won’t because it wasn’t an illegal approach! An illegal approach is when an agent makes contact, this was a comment in a lighthearted column nothing more. And anyhow, like anyone in Liverpool reads The Sun hahaha!
PS you have changed the title Hugh! Why?
Preferred it
Somebody keeps “planting” these liverpool are buying West Ham player stories in the media. I don’t know what the motive is but I suggest it has something to do with us buying Downing and carroll – two in form players from liverpool – and liverpools subsequent loss in form. (Admittedly mostly to do with the loss of suarez other than Downing and carroll but oh how they could do with Downing and Carroll). Since they are not going to buy Downing and Carroll, what great mischief to plant a story that liverpool want reid and now sakho. That’s the trouble with teams like West Ham and southampton being successful. Our players become prey to teams with deeper pockets than ours. Personally I don’t think reid is going anywhere near Liverpool since he has just spent a lot of dough on an apartment in Canary wharf.
Surely as a part timer she can say what she likes on her employers the Sun Saturdays??
Who do you hate the most Rugger, Sam or Karen? You accuse them both of being part-timers, you don’t think they could be the same person do you? Has anyone ever seen them together? A quick shave and a bit of slap in the Chadwell toilets before a meeting with the Daves in the boardroom….
I expect that Liverpool haven’t reported her because they know that there is no way on earth that Gerrard would join us. If he leaves Liverpool it would be too play abroad somewhere or for one of the big boys, Chelsea or Man City…
I think she does let a few clangers escape when she speaks especially when she proposed the West Ham Olympic but I have a feeling these ideas are not necessarilly her own and are floated by DS she or his sons twitter are usually just the mouth piece.
Illegal approach my arse.Its just a comment in a newspaper.Nothing to start conspiracy theories about.I think some people forget that these people are shrewd business men & women.Im sure they have better ways of tapping up a player than some throw away comment in a paper.IMHO it was just a piece of an article that metioned the fact we would happily have him if liverpool didnt want him.It is hardly saying we have a contract on the table,come sign it Stevie!.’Tongue-in-cheek’ is spot on,unless you have nothing better to do than to look into it deeper trying to find a hidden agenda.Anyway,why the hell do we want him.He plays for a middle table team,we only sign quality these days,not players in their golden years 😉
Damn right Rads, we are West Ham United, Champions League, Barcelona, Liverpool and Arsenal are our feeder clubs. We would take Steve G only if we wanted him.
I felt oddly good saying that…