Liverpool Plan £15m Bid For £60,000-A-Week Striker
Liverpool are believed to be weighing up a £15million bid for Aston Villa’s power house Christian Benteke. The club is already in the market in search of a potent goal poacher and Benteke could rightly fit in into the bill at Anfield.
Liverpool has seen all their strikers struggle for form this season and that has really derailed the club’s target. Summer acquisition from Ac Milan Mario Balotelli has not justified the £16million price tag Liverpool paid to bring him to Merseyside. He has not scored a league goal since his summer move to Anfield.
Rickie Lambert also seems to be lost in the world at Anfield and has not been the man he was at Southampton. Fabio Borini has hardly had a chance to showcase his talent under Brendan Rodgers.
The summer sale of Luis Suarez and the persistent injuries to Daniel Sturridge ( both players were the highest goal scorer and runner up respectively in the league last season ) has left a huge gap in the Reds attack.
Signing a striker will be paramount on Brendan Rodgers list and every good striker will be linked to the club. Liverpool will indeed need to sign a good striker if they want to get their campaign back on track.
Christian Benteke would be a good acquisition and at just the quoted £15million, will be a good bargain for the club. The fact that he is on a mere £60,000 per week will also be a plus for Liverpool.
He has a good Premier league experience, and already a proven striker in the league. He has scored 31 league goals in 68 appearances for Aston Villa since joining the club in 2012 and will likely improve that ratio with better players at Liverpool around him.
He won’t be shot of services as players like Sterling, Coutinho and Henderson will provide him with adequate passes to get the goals.
Liverpool will however face a stiff fight from Villa boss Paul Lambert whose team is already struggling in the league and will want to keep their best players to help them escape the drop.
Lambert will be keen to keep Benteke at Villa Park and will fight to the end to see his man stays but Brendan Rodgers should be able to convince the Belgian to move to a bigger club as Liverpool.
Liverpool has been linked to a number of strikers across Europe. Former Bayern Munich forward Xherdan Shaqiri turned down the chance to join Liverpool and opted for Italian side Inter Milan while the link to Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain has remained at speculation level.
If there are no relapse in his rehabilitation, Daniel Sturridge could be set to return to action anytime from now, but Liverpool will still need a striker to cope with the riguors of playing in the domestic league as well as in the continent especially with the lack lustre performances of Balotelli and Lambert.
Christian Benteke will be a great addition as he can play as a lone striker and can be paired with Sturridge just as he is doing with Gabriel Agbonlahor at Aston Villa.