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The Tuesday Troll : Babel to quit Anfield?
Published by Ian John on November 24, 2009
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This weeks troll through the weeks transfer news begins this morning at Anfield where Dutch winger Ryan Babel has dropped a bombshell. No, he isn’t actually going to try and live up to his £10m price tag with some consistent performances, but instead he is ready to quit Anfield in January unless something drastic happens. Babel stated;
“We have agreed to look at my situation in the winter. If there’s no improvement then, I have to be honest, I want to be somewhere else.
“I don’t play a lot so I can’t be happy and I can’t cheer out loud. Sometimes I wonder how long I can sustain it but I will fight for my position – what else can I do?”
In the past Babel has been linked with a return to Ajax, initially on loan, but whether Benitez would allow that, given Liverpool’s current financial state, remains to be seen. There is no truth in the rumour that Andrei Voronin is about to be swapped for two traffic cones. Indeed many Reds fans may feel that two traffic cones would be an unnecessary extravegence in exchange for the Ukranian striker, whose performances this season have so underwhelmed Anfield that Lucas Leiva in comparison is a Kop icon.
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has stated that he would prefer a “smaller squad” come the end of the January transfer window. This is, in actual fact, Bruce speak for “I am about to sell Anton Ferdinand to the first Premier League manager who hasn’t taken his pills that day.” As usual Harry Redknapp is looking likely to be interested in the £8m rated defender. Who rated him at £8m is yet to be confirmed, but Ferdinand’s agent had a big grin and was ordering his new Aston Martin at the weekend.
Birmingham and Aston Villa are believed to be chasing a deal for Middlesbrough’s tall defender David Wheater. Wheater, who is coincidentally, also rated around the £8m mark (which seems to be the going price for tall, accident prone, gangly legged English defenders who have only a slim chance of playing for their country). Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp (yes, him again) has also been linked this week with Celtic midfielder Scott Brown and Marseille’s Hatem Ben Arfa. This is presumably because Harry is down to his last 300 players in the squad and needs a couple more to see him through to the next transfer window. That and the fact he needs cover for Ledley King who is recovering from a broken toenail.
Chelsea have been told that they will have to break the British Transfer Record (capitalised for extra impact) by Atletico Madrid, if they wish to sign striker Sergio Aguero. This has peturbed Roman Abramovich so much that he worked for an extra 10 minutes yesterday on overtime to raise the money in order to be able to fund the deal for Aguero. Obviously this week the Argentinian son in law of Diego Maradona is the flavour of the month. It must be his turn as it was David Villa last week.
Wigan players have, so generously, decided to repay the Wigan fans ticket money from the debacle at White Hart Lane. Club skipper Mario Melchiot explained the decision by stating something predictably trite and meaningless. It is a magnificent gesture by the Wigan players though, as given the 1000 or so Wigan fans who went to White Hart Lane at a cost of £40 a ticket, that is almost £40,000 that these 15 or so millionnaire footballers must pay back between them That’s nearly £4000 each! Half a days pay for some! My God, at this rate they may actually have to turn up and play next weekend. Whatever is the world coming to?
Image Courtesy of ***Joe Miles*** at Flickr.com
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