Liverpool Miss Out on Konoplyanka
If not for a lack of trying, Liverpool’s last ditch efforts to bring in talented Ukrainian winger Yevhen Konoplyanka on transfer deadline day collapsed at a late hour with the two sides unable to meet an agreement.
Reds Managing Director Ian Ayre has been locked in talks with the FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk hierarchy trying to hash out a move for the talented 24-year old, but despite the player pushing for a move and completing a medical, the two sides were unable to come to an agreement with the Merseysiders offer of between £12mil and £15mil not enough to budge multi-billionaire owner Ihor Kolomoyskyi from his “No Sale” stance.
After the Anfield outfit missed out on FC Basel winger Mohamed Salah earlier in the window, capturing the Ukrainian became almost as much as matter of pride as a needed reinforcement, but once again, Liverpool came up with the short end of the stick after negotiations reached a standstill. Reds boss Brendan Rodgers, who expressed an interest in making a major signing following his sides 4-0 trouncing of cross-town rivals Everton on Tuesday, will now be left to work through the last 15 matches of the season without any fresh blood — something that might not be such a bad thing.
The Reds go into the weekend cemented in fourth place having scored the second most goals in the English top-flight to date. Although a number of additions, namely a defensive midfielder and a fullback, would have been welcome — if not necessary — additions to the squad, Rodgers has reiterated his desire for a first team player rather than someone to flesh out the squad.
“I think it’s difficult in order to bring certain players in that are going to help us immediately,” said the Reds boss. “The availability of the player, and of course the affordability, are always the two factors involved in getting a player in.”
Whether our lack of activity in the transfer market will come back to bite us remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, and that is that Rodgers will be looking for major backing in the summer — something he certainly deserves.
I fail to see how Ayre has not got the sack yet… but surely it can not be far off now? Or at least let Ayre negotiate sponsorship deals and hire some one else to negotiate transfers.
Why do you want Ayre to be sacked,l think they are doing the right thing and a good job too.We can’t sign just for the sake of it.There are quite a number of players that need to go first.And that happens normally at the end of season. We need to manage our wage bill,these great/good players are highly paid and as such will inflate our wage bill which we can’t afford right now.After all we have a decent squad why worry.
I really understand how this works. According to the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/01/liverpool-ukraine-yevhen-konoplyanka-dnipro-16m, the buyout clause was met but the owner didn’t want to sell so he said fuck you, I’m not signing the paperwork. What’s the purpose of a buyout clause if it doesn’t mean anything?
Lufert you are a moron! We have a very stretched squad and only 5 or 6 of our main players are good enough to win the league, of course we need more players!!! And Ayre’s job is to sign them, which he can’t do!
AYRE OUT!!!! Useless git!
Moron!
I probably wouldn’t have said it as passionately as you, but spot on. This time around it has nothing to do with FSG or even BR. FSG gave Ayre upwards 20 M to sign Kono, easily enough. BR didn’t really have much of a say except “get him” so yeah. Ayre’s incompetence cost us a great buy.
On another note, Liverpool should definitely investigate into the circumstances they lost out…something just doesn’t add up. I mean, it was reported we met a buyout clause, agreed to terms, and gave Kono a medical. This all points to LFC genuinely believing that we would get the player. However, the owner refused the paperwork and the deal fell through. If we had no chance of signing him, why would we go through the hassle of preparing for his arrival? And if there was a release clause, wouldn’t the owner be breaking the contract? Again, something doesn’t add up…
That means we would have bought Costa in the summer as well. We met that buyout clause too…
Sounds like the owner didn’t want to sell, plain and simple. Billionaires are used to getting what they want and nothing changed here. Don’t think this one is on Ayre…
As long as we hit fourth place all will be quickly forgotten.
I’m sure if he was an incompetent as everyone makes him out to be he’d be gone already.
True that 🙂
Yes we need to be sensible with the players we bring in, but that is very different to trying and failing to bring players in over and over again.
I have never seen Liverpool try and fail to bring players in so frequently. Correction I have never seen any team try and fail to bring players in so constantly.
Yeah but Costa signed a New Contract instead… Then he came out and said he was so close to moving to Liverpool… So disappointing.
On the Bright side our guys have had a good talk with him and he will only have 12 months contract left in the summer so maybe we can get him at a cheaper price later on.