Liverpool haven’t had a whole lot of luck shuffling players out this summer. With Reds boss Brendan Rodgers expecting to raise upwards of £30mil through player sales, it looks like the transfer committee is going to have their work cut out for them.
Pepe Reina’s permanent move to Italy appears to have crumbled with Napoli boss Rafa Benitez confirming that the Seria A side aren’t willing to meet the Anfield outfits valuation of the veteran ‘keeper even after having him on loan last season. If that’s not bad enough, another loan deal the Reds were hoping would turn into a permanent move looks to be on the rocks with Stoke City at odds over their move for winger Oussama Assaidi.
There were questions as to whether the deal would happen considering the Moroccan’s highly publicized injury problems, but Tony Scholes, Stoke chief executive has confirmed that there has been contact between the two sides on a permanent deal — they just haven’t been all that positive. “We’ve spoken to Liverpool about Oussama and we’ve spoken to his agent,” he told the Stoke Sentinel. “Sometimes deals look difficult to do and this one, if I’m frank, this is in the very difficult section. We’ll see.”
The Reds, who value the 25-year old somewhere in the region of £7mil, are looking to turn a decent profit after signing him for £3.5mil from Heerenveen back in August 2012. Scholes, who has already brought in Phil Bardsley, Steve Sidwell and Mame Diouf for manager Mark Hughes since the season closed, isn’t at all interested in Liverpool pulling in some walking around cash. “It’s a deal we would like to do, but we will have to wait and see” he continued before letting everyone know that Assaidi isn’t the only player they’re considering. “You have to make sure you are tracking a number of players for any particular position at any particular time. If one deal isn’t possible you have another to go to.”
