With Luis Suarez now enjoying his bites to eat in Spain and Alexis Sanchez deciding the bright lights of London suited his needs more than a trip to England’s north west, Liverpool still need that major signing that will get their fans salivating and warn their rivals that they once again mean business next term.

The options seem to be limited for the English Premier League side, who want that marquee signing that’ll stand out this summer and help fight for titles, both domestically and in Europe.

But maybe, just maybe, the Merseyside club could look to the French Riviera for that elusive star summer signing.

Last season Monaco were the football world’s big spenders, spending around €170m in new personnel as they challenged for the Ligue 1 title last season. They pushed PSG most of the way before coming undone in the title run-in (a bit like Liverpool). But this summer has seen the ambitions of AS Monaco change. As Andrew Gibney reported on Bleacher Report things don’t look so rosy for ‘Les Rouges et Blancs’. Talks are reportedly on-going between ASM and Real Madrid over the possible €85m sale of James Rodriguez, this summers star at the World Cup. If Monaco were truly ambitious would they sell their biggest commodity? I don’t think so. As Andrew pointed out in his piece, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev has just lost a big divorce case and has had to handover almost half of his vast fortune to his ex wife.

The dreams of running a hugely successful European football club are vastly different to the reality in what needs to be done. Looking at the Monaco transfer dealings from the last six months, you get the idea that Rybolovlev has suddenly realised this too.

Where does this leave Monaco’s main striker Radamel Falcao? The Colombian was brought in last summer for around €60m. But within a month he was already being linked with a move back to Spain. He never seemed settled or happy in the Principality and the rumours of him quitting Monaco continue to grow.

But say James signs for Real, along with Toni Kroos, that would/should mean that Real Madrid wouldn’t be interested in spending more to get Falcao. Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Chelsea have already brought in there main striking transfer targets. No one in Italy could afford the fee and the Colombian’s wage. Barcelona, Manchester United and Manchester City don’t need anymore forwards at this time.

So that kind of leaves Liverpool; as they have the budget, the need and the big club/Champions League status.

Could they get The prolific goalscorer for a £40m fee? I believe it could be tempting enough to get AS Monaco to the table to at least discuss the idea.

Obviously the frontman suffered from a terrible anterior cruciate ligament injury in January that kept him out of Colombia’s World Cup squad in June. But the striker has already started to train again and by all accounts takes his fitness very seriously, even before this stint of rehab. So he should come back a stronger individual and hungry to once again prove himself as a top drawer striker.

His skills as a goalscorer shouldn’t be in any doubt. He has 199 career goals in 303 appearances. His goals can light up any football ground and the fans at Anfield would certainly have a new hero to cherish. Players like Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge, Steven Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling would have a great focal point to all their lovely creative attacks.

Falcao wouldn’t be a like for like replacement for Luis Suarez, the closest they could have got to that is Sanchez. Radamel is more of an instinctive finisher and new age target-man, his interest in assists isn’t the same as the Uruguayan. But he would help replace a big chunk of goals that Suarez managed to get during his ‘Reds’ days. That might mean that Sturrigde needs to sacrifice some of his goals to help form a partnership with the big number nine from Santa Marta.

But if Liverpool could convince Monaco to sell and then convince the Colombian to sign on, they would be getting a star fit for a tilt at the Premier League title. At twenty-eight the hitman should be entering his prime years. At Anfield he’d be joining a huge club, ready to help him meet his ambitions if he can help the club reach theirs.

Remember this is just a blog about what could happen. Its all about adding two and two together. Maybe I’ve come up with four, maybe the player will stay at Monaco and maybe Real Madrid will stick two fingers up to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules and swoop for another big name signing. At the end of the day its just a theory on where Liverpool could go and improve their squad.

Posted on July 17th, 2014 by scott
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