(Today we publish part two of our special feature where we name the players your club should be going all-out to snag this summer. Messrs Dalglish, Mancini, Ferguson and Redknapp….get these signatures, no matter what it takes, and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with in 2011/12. That’s a Cutter guarantee. So worry about UEFA’s forthcoming financial restrictions another day. These boys will bring you glory!)
LIVERPOOL
KIERAN GIBBS (Arsenal) – The 21-year old has played the dependable understudy at the Emirates for too long now. He needs to step out of the long shadow cast by the (currently) superior Gael Clichy and begin to carve out the successful career that his obvious talents merit. Liverpool meanwhile desperately require quality on the left side of defence and have a self-imposed mandate to bring through and develop youngsters with promise. It’s potentially a match made in heaven.
GARY CAHILL (Bolton) – How Villa must rue letting this lad go. In over six years at the club he barely made thirty appearances before being turfed over to Bolton where he has gradually built a sterling reputation for reliability and regularly nullifying the best strikers around. Following recent England call-ups this is now his time to move onwards and upwards.
Securing Cahill’s signature will potentially give the Anfield club an all-English back-line alongside fellow newcomer Gibbs, Glen Johnson, and the avuncular Carragher keeping them all in line.
ANDREA PIRLO (AC Milan) – Out of contract until the end of the season and in a long drawn-out dispute with the Milanese outfit over extending it. The player wants to stay. Milan however are reportedly only offering half of his current salary. Still only thirty-one and up there amongst the best ‘quarter-backs’ in world football, Pirlo has been the type of player Liverpool have greatly missed this season since Alonso’s departure to Spain. Any success the club have enjoyed in living memory has always been largely due to such a pivotal figure orchestrating things from deep, from the autumn blossom of Gary Mac to the much missed Alonso. Pirlo could be an instrumental and key signing, pulling the proverbial strings and striking up a cerebral understanding with the wily Suerez. The wages would be high but with no fee it amounts to a steal.
EDEN HAZARD (Lille) – The French club has publicly intimated that their glittering jewel could be available for a little over twenty million. Aside from there being an awful lot of clubs inevitably clamouring to secure his services you have to query whether such a relatively steep figure is within the new owner’s remit at Anfield. If the answer is in the affirmative then this is a golden opportunity to really stamp a declaration of intent to the rest of the Premier league. Because Hazard is a truly special player. In alliance with Suerez and a fully-fit Gerrard he could revolutionize the club, revitalizing their fortunes and making them genuine contenders once more.
Suddenly the twenty mill doesn’t seem quite so steep after all.
The young Belgium is a thoroughbred in every way – his parents were both professional footballers.
Danger Hazard
ALEXIS SANCHEZ (Udinese) – A boyhood Liverpool fan with a nickname of El Nino? Hmm we’ve been here before. Sanchez however, despite often being employed up front, is a different proposition to Torres entirely. The young Chilean is a veritable bag of tricks and devastating pace and should be utilized on the right side of an attacking three, providing some much-needed width.
Several clubs are circling around Sanchez following a sensational season in Serie A and big money is being muted, yet so often we see such rabid speculation fall away to nothing as alternative options are sought instead, leaving the player restless and unsettled.
Liverpool should swoop late, offer 14 million, and stay strong. If such a move fails they always have Daniel Pachero waiting in, or rather on, the wings, who many believe is ready for his breakthrough season.
MANCHESTER CITY
FABIO COENTRAO (Benfica) – City fans are still very much undecided on Kolorov, who produces a mixed-bag of qualities and flaws in every game he plays. Dangerous when striding forward yet is seemingly incapable of beating the first man. He has thunder in his boots yet is hardly lightning quick. His positioning is sound yet looks suspect at the back.
Mancini himself has indicated uncertainty in the big Serbian by employing him in a variety of positions already in the short time he’s been at the club. Yet this was the man drafted in at great expense to finally solve, once and for all, the problem left-back area.
Coentrao might instead ultimately prove to be the solution. The Portuguese international has endless stamina which allows him to dominate an entire flank, helped in no small part by him starting his career as a flying winger. The only potential blot on the landscape is an ineffectual brief loan spell in Spain but this doubt aside, he is fast becoming one of the very few world class left-backs around today.
WESLEY SNEIJDER (Internazionale) – City have placed great emphasis on having a strong and powerful midfield this season, staffing the area with Barry, De Jong, and Vieira, or the industry of Toure and Milner. Generally the imagination and flair is left to those further upfield. What they have been crying out for on occasions, particularly at home against stubborn resistance, is some craft and guile to open things up. Construction over destruction. The addition of Sneijder would take the side onto a whole new level, respecting Mancini’s cautious outlook with his disciplined work-rate but also driving it on, introducing momentum, urgency and creativity to build up play that has often looked jaded and somewhat slothenly at times. For most clubs to recruit such a wonderful player would require breaking the bank. For City it’s a Friday afternoon withdrawal.
Being able to attract the Dutchman – and where he could potentially take them – is precisely the reason why City have so strongly coveted finishing fourth or better over other possible silverware this season.
JAVIER PASTORE (Palermo) – The latest rumours are that this twenty-one year old genius has agreed to stay put at Palermo for one more season before possibly joining his best mate Messi at Barca. It would certainly take an earth-shattering amount of money to bring him over to these shores considering the Italian club’s chairman recently claimed that they had turned down a £43 million offer, believed to be from Chelsea.
Yet such bluster is often a sabre-rattling prelude to a bidding war, designed to further bump up a sensation’s already-hefty price tag and, as we all know, ultimately every player has one.
Pastore, often likened to Kaka, is an otherworldly talent who would light up the Premier League.
MANCHESTER UNITED
MANUEL NEUER (Shalke 04) – When Van Der Sar hangs up his gloves this summer United will be very much hoping to avoid a repeat of the last time a goalkeeping legend called it a day at Old Trafford. Following Schmeichel’s departure their strategy in finding a suitable replacement seemed to be a prolonged case of trial and error, with the latter all-too-often being the consequence. A litany of flops later they finally settled upon the outstanding Dutchman who should really have been their first port of call to begin with.
The qualities he possesses, most noticeably a calmness under pressure and a self-assurance that radiates through to the back-line, are ones shared by this young German whose reputation grows with each passing season.
At 25 he is still a baby in goalkeeping terms and has the potential and talent to establish himself as United’s number one for many years to come.
JACK RODWELL (Everton) – Ferguson has coveted this gifted youngster for a couple of seasons now and, with Scholes’ likely imminent retirement, this is the summer to swoop. His versatility means he can provide able cover at the back for Vidic and Ferdinand (with Johnny Evan’s rumoured to be leaving) but it’s in the heart of midfield that Rodwell will develop into an imposing box-to-box player. Mature beyond his years he has an innate footballing intelligence that fully allows his abilities to flourish.
An England midfield containing the two Jacks, Rodwell and Wilshere, is an exciting proposition.
A United midfield containing Rodwell and Fletcher is somewhat less so.
Which is why they must also go all-out for…..
BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER (Bayern Munich) – United remain saddled with the heavily restricting debt from the Glazer’s financial manoeuvrings and such a stellar, costly signing appears, initially at least, to be beyond their means.
Yet it has become very evident this year that United have an ever-increasing need to dramatically over-haul their midfield as the succession of successful teams Ferguson has moulded through the decades comes to a natural end of another cycle.
The all-action German international would welcome a fresh challenge after a disappointing season for Bayern and, at twenty six, is at the right age to do so.
His energy and endeavour would revive a United engine room that has looked staid and predictable this term.
Schweinsteiger's girlfriend. A potential Old Trafford WAG alongside Coleen. Germany 1 England 0. It didnt even go to pens.
ASHLEY YOUNG (Aston Villa) – Reports of this switch increase in credibility by the day. It now seems almost inevitable that Ferguson will look to the Villa winger to take on the high mantle left by Giggs and provide direct pace in the wide areas that puts defenders on the back foot. Although the club already possess wide-men of the quality of Valencia and Nani there is a noticeable lack of strength in depth in the creativity department with Bebe and Obertan consistently found wanting at this level and Young comes with the added bonus of being affordable. A firm bid of ten million should secure the services of a fleet-footed England international who will slot comfortably into United’s quick counter-attacking style of play.
Young took the departure of O’Neill (who, like Ferguson, also favours breaking with pace) harder than most – he viewed the Irishman very much as a father-figure – and would, presumably, be only to happy to leave the chaos and conflict behind at Villa Park.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
THIAGO SILVA (AC Milan) – Spurs have an abundance of centre-backs, all proficient and of Premier League standard. Most however are crocks of varying degree. This has proven costly to the White Hart Lane outfit this season as Redknapp has struggled to pair the same two guys in consecutive games. As sad though it is to say, surely Woodgate’s career has now stalled irreversibly to injury and will no doubt be courteously moved on before next season begins. Which means that, with their talisman King also a regular absentee, Spurs will require a top quality, bank-busting defender this summer.
Silva would take some shifting from Milan as his athleticism, superb reading of the game, and dedication to the all-round art has made him a firm favourite there.
They know a good defender in that part of the peninsula.
The player however would possibly require little persuasion (although for him to even give it courtesy thought it is entirely dependant upon Spurs reaching the Champions League once more) after witnessing his side out-played and out-fought in their two recent encounters.
Silva, who has been capped twelve times by Brazil, is a class act who would relish, and excel, in the frenetic environment of the English game.
SERGIO CANALES (Real Madrid) – Let’s face it, no club is likely to topple the likes of Chelsea or Man U in the long-term with Jermaine Jenas guiding their midfield.
Spurs are additionally blessed with several superb talents in the middle of the park but fighting on all fronts can bring with it eighty or so competitive games. It is unrealistic to expect their sole central schemer Modric to remain fit and influential throughout alongside the plethora of more solid stock they possess.
Canales has long been admired by the French professor down the road but Arsenal lost out to Real last summer. Since then the guileful Spaniard has only played a bit-part in Mourinho’s revolution and could conceivably be on his way.
A graceful footballer, reminiscent in movement of a young Michael Laudrup, but with the build and nous to play centrally, Canales could improve Spurs immeasurably.
CONNOR WICKHAM (Ipswich) – Redknapp likes to rotate his strikers more than most and the sensationally gifted, but still raw, youngster from Suffolk would be the ideal summer recruitment. Undoubtedly a superstar in waiting, and more than capable of causing defences all manner of problems with his height, pace, and work-rate, during his debut season in the top-flight, he would also, crucially, not bring any disharmony from the bench. Wickham is a sensibly grounded lad who would be content to acclimatise to the step up in standard and incrementally develop his immense potential under Harry’s wing. It all sounds like luvvly-jubbly music to Redknapp’s King Lears.
Do you agree with our suggestions? Or violently disagree? Have your say by joining us on Twitter (thedaisycutter1) or adding Daisy Cutter on Facebook (with the added bonus of the profile pic being Michelle Marsh wearing nothing but goalie gloves!).
Alternatively simply leave a view on our messageboard.
