The Independent, a credible source and not Tribal football are reporting that Liverpool’s offer of 13m euros for 20 year old Ryan Babel, a winger with blistering pace out on the left, but shoots with his right, has been accepted by his club, Ajax with just his medical left to complete the transfer.
Rafa Benitez was spurned by Florent Malouda who is joining Chelsea, pairing up with ex-Guingamp team mate Didier Drogba, to give another point man. With Babel pairing up with Fernando Torres, the Liverpool attack just got better a hundred fold. Imagine what they could do with that speed and the amount of space that they could potentially create.
Babel was keen on joining Arsenal, publicly proclaimed, because of his admiration of Wenger and friend Robin Van Persie. However, Wenger himself was not keen on paying such a price for someone who was a bit short in commanding a first squad position.
I can see Wenger being wary of the hype but Babel played extremely well in the U21 Dutch team that won the Euro, scoring two goals for the champions. He has also earned 14 caps for the senior squad and has already found the back of the net, four times. So although he is very young Babel has already had quite a bit of international experience. He was much more on the radar than Eduardo Da Silva, for which Arsenal is reported to have paid 15m euros. Babel also plays in the more highly rated Eredivisie.
As much as I admire Wenger with his eye for cut price talent, I think his decision not to pursue Babel will hurt us. We would have benefited by both De Silva and Ryan Babel at a cost less than 30m euros, money underwritten by the Henry transfer, and the proposed Reyes and Ljungberg transfers.
22 comments on “Liverpool gets Ryan Babel: Wenger will rue this decision”
For all those people criticising Wenger, he doesnt make mistakes with players.. he is the only manager in the past 4 years to make money for the club on transfers.. he is renowned for not splurging on players.. clearly we could afford Babel.. but we already have a possibility of two left wingers..VP and Eduardo both can shoot both can play on the left both have a better goal record both are diverse players! the signings of Sangna and hopefully Martins should be all that Arsenal need. Wenger doesnt need to spend 20 odd million on average strikers.. and he can quite easily buy unkown players.. Henry, Overmars, Anelka…
I couldn’t agree more, there’s nothing betta than a player willing and wanting to join a club, Babel has express his desire to join Arsenal on numerous occasion. With the acquisition of Sagna(lets hope it falls thru)hope Eboue is push to right flank behind Hleb, and they both did well, if not I think Mr Wenger will lick his chops on this one
£9m for a prospect? I personally can’t blame Wenger for saying no.
The bcc has a piece with Babel’s agent saying the fee is £13.5 million not Euros.(roughly 20 million Euros). In light of this….Let the scousers have him
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6285040.stm
The bbc have a piece with his agent saying the fee is £13.5 million as opposed you Euros as you’ve suggested. In light of this…let Liverpool have him – he’s a huge gamble and whether or not he is wishes to join them is undecided. He was hardly declaring his admiration for Rafa like he did with Wenger in the press. He was confident of playing for Arsenal at some point, “One day i will play at arsenal..but not now”(paraphrased)so maybe he and Wenger both know something we all dont..
Babel is better than Martins ,lets get taken over
start buying some class
and stop mucking around!
Ribery,Malouda,Torres,Babel
Davies,Tevez all these players have been missed due to tight fisted board members .
Babel is good fast and strong. Yet the Dutch First Division is at a lower level than the Premier League. t may take him a season to adapt. Having said that , he reminds me of the Henry who joined Arsenal.
I hope Arsenal buy Sagna so Eboue plays right wing, and Arsenal go after Drenthe.
Liverpool will do well if they buy Benayoun.
What a pity Ryan Babel decided to go to mersyside.He should have been a gunner if Arsene pusuited him. I don’t think Martins is better that Babel. Babel is younger and winger which can score and drible, and the most important is, he has a heart of gunner.
I am very upset after Ryan Babel likely going to liverpool. We need a winger man very much, even much eager than liverpool. But now we are likely missing a man who once considered as “the next thierry henry” by holland legend marco van basten.
13 million quid for a unproven talent – is too much, Wenger isd right again.
21 years old and 13 Mil, no way. Wait and see in a year or two before you make a decision.
16 Mil for Henry who has come second in the World player of the year or 13mil for a kid never to have kicked a ball in the Prem.
‘But now we are likely missing a man who once considered as “the next thierry henry” by holland legend marco van basten.’
Perhaps not, though, by Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger. I know who I trust.
Everyone keeps comparing players transfer fees to the Henry deal. Well the Henry deal wasn’t a realistic amount for the player, and other factors set the price. Would Ronaldinho, Kaka or Gerrard be sold for anywhere near £16m at the moment? I don’t think so. Arsenal will struggle to replace Henry for anywhere near the money they got for him.
That said, £13m+ for a winger is a bit too much imho. He does seem to be a scoring winger though, who can also do it seems, on an international stage. Hopefully he can justify the price, should it go through.
The price for Babel is what happens when a buying club is known to have money, luckily the Benayoun deal (again should it go through) seems more of a bargain. 😉
If Arsene was interested in Babel we would have had him by now. Having scouted Babel for the past few years, the Arsenal brain thrust must have seen something at this point in his career which makes him unsuitable.
Why do we fans keep second guessing Arsene and his experienced scouts when they have done a fantastic job in the past. Let the plan unfold and see what happens.
I also do not see Arsene going after Martins at this stage. I may not be right but this buy seems all wrong. Martins is a striker, not a winger, will be out for 4-6 weeks for the ANC after coming to a new team, has dubious character and costs somewhere in the region of 11 million pounds.
Arsene has one more ace up his sleeve, let’s see how he plays it.
Martins played one of the toughest league, Serie A and scored more goals on his first season in Newcastle (17 goals) compared to Babel (7 goals) last season for Ajax. Plus, Babel didn’t provide that many assist for his club, so playing his as a striker or winger is both risky. Martins is still young, only 2 years older than Babel, so he has many years ahead of him as well. He will be a better buy than Babel.
i think the arsenal fans will have to make a mother fucking comment about the arsenal boeard because all what is happening now is because of them , they dont like to spent a huge money and buy experience players becausee they are fucking poor management, but ton avoid this they have to sell the club to someone who can make the club big an dwho will speng much and see he build the team with experience player that means keorenke
RAFA’S RECRUITMENT POLICY REVEALED:
Get some cheeky scouser to follow AW’s scouts around the world, sniff out who he’s interested in and then bid double what the player’s worth just to ensure AW doesn’t follow up with interest…nice one Rafa!
Seriously whatever Babel’s worth, Torres before him, what’s a few million quid nowadays? Let’s hijack the move and give scouse Rafa a dose of his own medicine…he seriously needs some as he actually thinks Pennant’s a good player!!!
I’m a Liverpool fan and I must agree with Rafa following AW’s scouts 😀
Seriously tho Babel will be a good signing for us and the league. He’s fast, strong, young and will learn loads at Liverpool. Price abit high but wasnt Henry at over 10mil when you first got him?
On another note, Arsenal shouldn’t buy Martins, they can do much better. I may be a Liverpool fan but I respect Arsenal and AW. Should go and buy Fred from lyon.
henry for 16m, what was schevchenko bought for last season?. i like the way arsenal operate because no one likes a team who buys premierships. if they do they are fuckheads. i would rather a young team that plays with style than an expensive team playing shit football ,ie. chelsea,. im from australia and the only teams that ive veiwed playing “beautiful football” are barcelona and arsenal. consistently. we get premier league games and champions league games as well as spanish premiera. babel would fit in well at arsenal but not for a huge cost. da silva in my opinion will do well. a player who id love to see at arsenal is ibrahimovich , bit out of left feild,. i think wenger can bring out the best in young talent like few other coaches. babel in my opinion would flourish under wenger, not so much under benitez. i may be wrong. benitez would cut him rather than work and pursue with him. with american funds he can do what he wants.
What is this rubbish posted by Sydney Gooner “13 mil on unproven talent”….erm Theo Walcott…u utter knob. Its sheer jealousy! Keep your comments to urself unless you have anything intelligent to say, doubt we will be hearing from you again then!
Its about time the red men had a bit of cash to throw about instead of just dabbling in the 7-8 million bracket each year,,lets not forget wenger has splashed the cash big before on young talent ..reyes was 20 million wasn’t he???
Just to clear up the accusation that Benitez is nicking Wengers long time scouted players. I think you’ll find that Liverpool scouts have been watching him for the last 5 years when he first came to there attention while Houllier was in charge.
By the way when was the last time the great Wenger brought his own youth players through the ranks anyway? Doesn’t he always poach young players from other clubs after they’ve done most of the hard work, Fabregas, Walcott, Reyes come to mind.
The only player i can think of is Cole and look how he ended up!
Babel is next Thierry Henry.
If they purchased Babel, what would Arsene have done with Walcott? However, The squad still need another left sided player to replace Baptista/Reyes. Plus we need another Centre Back. Another Striker to cover for Adebayor when he is gone to ACN. Sagna is great cover for Eboue who will be gone also.