Five overpriced transfer targets this summer
The summer is here and teams are readying their chequebooks for the opening of the transfer window, as managers up and down the country look to improve their squads ahead of the new season.
Some business has been wrapped up already, such as Rickie Lambert’s Liverpool switch, while others wait patiently, examining their options and trying to get the best players at the right price, as nobody wants to pay over the odds for a player who could flatter to deceive.
Obviously teams do not want to lose their best players and will look to ask for exorbitant amounts if they are to be tempted into a sale, but the likes of Tottenham Hotspur found out last summer that throwing large sums of money at a club does not necessarily get you a wonderful player.
Everybody also remembers the £35million that Liverpool paid for Andy Carroll, and Squawka has already noted a few players that, while still good players, are not worth the fees currently being quoted to capture their services this summer. Here’s five to keep your eye on.
Adam Lallana (Southampton)
Poor old Southampton look like they could be completely dissected this summer having already lost manager Mauricio Pochettino to Spurs and striker Rickie Lambert to Liverpool, but they are digging their heels in with everybody else in order to stave off the vultures.
Liverpool may not be done with the Saints just yet, though, as they have lined up Lallana, and with a bid in the region of £25m turned away already, you feel as though the Reds need know when to walk away.
There is no doubt Lallana is a very good player and had a fine season, but to suggest that he is worth £30m seems excessive, given that so much of career has been forged in the lower leagues and he has no experience in European football at all, with just a handful of international appearances to his name.
Aged 26, he is now in his prime and there is little chance of improving even further, and nine goals represents a season’s best tally for the Saints’ playmaker, while five assists is the same amount the much-maligned Fernando Torres achieved this season.
With cheaper options like Xherdan Shaqiri available and looking for moves, Liverpool should just accept that Southampton simply do not want to sell, as Lallana is unlikely to be able to live up to such a hefty price-tag.