The standard of football reporting by some of the tabloids has been abysmal. Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid have been at some stage linked with every major Liverpool player. In fact, you start to feel sorry for the poor lads who haven’t been the subject of such wild speculation. Come on Real Madrid – tell us you’re interested in bringing Skrtel in for £120 M. Poor old Carra as well – he would love to start work on a chain of his restaurants on one of the Spanish costa’s.
Newspapers these days are a dying breed. With internet access 24/7 – newspapers, especially the Sundays, need something that little bit special to make people trot down to the shops. To do this, in general, they introduce complete fabrications. Some sensationalist websites also completely fabricate stories – and most Liverpool websites and forums have introduced their own policies to prevent some nonsense slipping through.
However, one story refuses to go away and that is the Mascherano one – and principally because his agent is so pro-active on the Argentine’s behalf.
At the end of the season Masch was pleased to say how he was staying but within a couple of weeks his agent was popping up left right and centre to try and get his player a move to Barcelona. The fact that his agent is so visibly attempting to broker a deal and that Mascherano hasn’t stipulated he wants to stay and reigned in his agent speaks volumes for me.
If a player isn’t committed to the cause, irrespective of his name, and assuming Liverpool receive a valuation of the right magnitude then it is entirely reasonable to sell the player. Mascherano is a good player, but he is far from being one of our greatest ever players. Last season he was hailed as having a terrific season – although in the final analysis Liverpool actually performed better without him than with him.
When he was struggling to get a game at West Ham, it was Liverpool who salvaged Mascherano’s career. The player owes Benitez and Liverpool a great deal – and as he runs out as Argentinian captain it is something he may care to consider. When he’s on the bench at Barcelona or Real Madrid will his country be so keen on having him play for them?
If Liverpool’s valuation for any player is not met then they do not have to sell assuming the player has a decent amount of time left on their contract. And our club is not the type that will allow players to sulk off. The manager won’t stand for it, and the fans won’t stand for it either.
So if Mascherano wants to leave Liverpool and if somebody offers the club enough money then I don’t think the reds should be desperately trying to persuade him to stay. Take the money and bring a player with desire and passion for the red shirt. And if Mascherano does go – fingers crossed that Newcastle will be back in the Premier League soon so that they can rescue him from his bench-warming, international career ending Spanish journey. Hmm.. sounds like somebody else we used to know.