So, what of Aquilani?

[Ben_Itez]

Official: Aquilani leaves on loan (LFC)

Aquilani loan deal agreed

21 August 2010
LFC.TV

Liverpool and Juventus have agreed a one-year loan deal for Alberto Aquilani.

The midfielder will undergo a medical in Italy on Monday.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

[SimonNo7]

Confirmed on Radio 5 just now as well.

[Craig_H]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

[wiw]

Ridiculous. Would much much rather we kept him

[Shaggy]

We'd better have some good players lined up FFS.

[Mostar]

Ridiculous. Would much much rather we kept him

Agree million times

Stupid piece of business imo unless we have someone lined up to replace him.

[Bender]

Agree million times

Stupid piece of business imo unless we have someone lined up to replace him.

the stupid piece of business was buying him in the first place....rather than taking him on loan......he's damaged goods now ain't nobody wanting to buy him hence the loan deal

[wiw]

Saying that though, having Shelvey a bit closer to the first team can't be a bad thing. He was pretty raw but looked quality to me

[Mostar]

the stupid piece of business was buying him in the first place....rather than taking him on loan......he's damaged goods now ain't nobody wanting to buy him hence the loan deal

Perhaps but we will not know for sure, will we? He was not given any opportunity to show why he was purchased in the first place and that is unfortunate.

I can see the point of loaning him if we have someone else in pipes but if not I am not convinced this is a good decision especially for this season.

To me we should have kept him as he can give us more creativity and dept (what do we do if JC and SG are both injured which happened to both quite a lot) which were/are things we are in short supply.

[Mostar]

Saying that though, having Shelvey a bit closer to the first team can't be a bad thing. He was pretty raw but looked quality to me

Relying on Shelvey and/or Danny as potential replacements for Stevie and Joe is a very dangerous game if not a suicide. I am afraid we are leaving ourselves very short in terms of proper back-up there and we have all saw what happened last year with Aurelio and El Nino being injured and youngsters Insua and Ngog playing too much too soon.

[Vermilion]

Well, he's gone to Juve not Scunthorpe, so they must rate him.

[little dave hedgehog]

hodgson must have someone else lined up otherwise we will only 4 senior central midfield playes going into the new season and with question marks over masher.

Compare that to

man utd - scholes, carrick, anderson, fletcher, gibson, hargreaves
chelsea - essien, lampard, mikel, ramires
man city - milner, de jong, barry, michael johnson, viera, yaya toure
liverpool - gerrard, mascherano(?), poulsen, lucas

unless defour is coming in this could be one of those season defining moments especially given that gerrard has probably only managed 35 games in each of his last 2 seasons.

to be fair, i don't think hargreaves counts as a player anymore. and didn't gibson get loaned out? if mascher stays i really don't think we're far behind anyone, although more quality is always good.

[Vermilion]

So will this effect the price i wonder, it puts pay to any add ons for now, due to trophies won or games played for liverpool.

[little dave hedgehog]

good shout. we may be saving a few million here which we can put in the pot as well, and without permanently losing a player if he happens to prove himself.

[Craig_H]

So will this effect the price i wonder, it puts pay to any add ons for now, due to trophies won or games played for liverpool.

The 20 million EURO transfer fee is broken up into the following:

- 4 cash instalments of
- - 5 million EURO upfront
- - 3 million EURO by 4th January 2010
- - 7 million EURO by June 30th 2010 - PAYMENTS ALREADY MADE
- - 5 million EURO by June 30th 2011.

Further Add ons include:

- 300,000 EURO for every year Liverpool qualify for the Champions League from 2010/11 to 2014/15

- 250,000 EURO everytime the player reaches 35 appearancs, 70 appearances, 105 appeances and then 140 appearances.

- 1 million EURO the first time Liverpool either wins the Premier League or Champions League by 30 June 2014.

- 5% of any future transfer fee will be paid to Roma.

So based on that, we've paid €15m for him already. That last June 2010 payment is a bollock, because we've paid it and shipped him out shortly after.

None of those add-ons look likely to be triggered anytime soon. If we finish top four, it'll trigger a €300k payment for next summer, but that's small fry.

He aint gonna be reaching 35 appearances for us anytime soon, if ever, let alone 70, 105 or 140.

And we aint gonna be winning the PL or CL anytime soon either.

5% of transfer fee, if we sell him outright, will obviously still apply.