New Signings, the Europa League and Luis Suarez

Carroll on his way out ?

Starting off with a news bit from The Daily Mirror, the official reason why English striker Andy Carroll has been left out of the Liverpool squad headed to Belarus is due to a groin tweak. According to the paper, ”But the reality for Carroll is that his Liverpool career is over, leaving West Ham and Newcastle to fight for his signature…. Rodgers is keen to avoid an injury severe enough to scupper a deal he is keen to see go through”.

Ideally, if Andy Carroll would take the offer to go to London, that would be the one that I would be most satisfied with. We would pocket 2 million pounds and a potentially rejuvenated Andy Carroll should they go down, whilst at 19 million pounds, that’s probably more than we would probably get for the lanky Englishman anytime in the future. His EURO 2012 and end-of-season form prompted a higher valuation for the 1.9mts striker.

Signings are also on the way to Liverpool, it seems. I reckon that Joe Allen deal is essentially completed, although Liverpool will definitely try to haggle their way to a better deal. I’m slightly worried about the personal terms, given the fact that Allen has said that it would ‘set him for life’. Definitely hoping it isn’t one of those ‘Joe Cole deals’ that we will look back and regret anytime soon.

This might stop the Dempsey move, but I definitely see Olympic star Gaston Ramirez following Joe Allen to the Merseyside club this summer, with the club severely lacking a winger, whilst Craig Bellamy is set to join Dirk Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez out of the club, with him looking like re-signing for Welsh side Cardiff City in the coming weeks.

Vargas has emerged as a new target, and that would give Downing some much needed competition (thank you, Brendan Rodgers) on the left flank. A good crosser, but I don’t see why that would be something that Rodgers would have signed him for. According to WhoScored, his passing is weak, whilst his concentration is terrible as well. I seriously can’t even imagine Vargas and Enrique should both have those occasional concentration lapses on the left flank. Will bring you guys more on that in the coming days.

In other news, Luis Suarez is set to return from the Olympics earlier than expected, with Uruguay being kicked out by Team GB, after being undone by the likes of Craig Bellamy, Joe Allen and Jack Butland. It could work both ways for Liverpool FC – either he would be upset and raring to go, and he can come back into the squad earlier, or it would have been better if the morale was higher had he won with Uruguay. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. At least he might be back just in time for the first game of the BPL season.