Ryan Babel signs 5 year deal at Liverpool joined by Benayoun

Liverpool are set to sign striker Ryan Babel from Ajax after the two clubs agreed an £11.5m deal for the player.
The Premier League club have told BBC Sport that the deal to sign for the 20-year-old has not yet been completed.

But a statement on the Ajax website said: "The striker, who had a contract until 2010, will sign a five-year deal with the Champions League finalists."

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Israeli sources also say Yossi benayoun has signed for Liverpool

It better be £13.5M

So Liverpool have tapped him up and given him a medical without Ajax's permission??? Ofcourse a fee has been agreed.

Mendoza wrote:It better be £13.5M

€17.5m was today's rumour - which is more like it.

Kimbo wrote:So Liverpool have tapped him up and given him a medical without Ajax's permission??? Ofcourse a fee has been agreed.

edited

Babel, Kuyt, Torres, Crouch, That other guy.

5 Strikers, the more to rotate

Kimbo wrote:So Liverpool have tapped him up and given him a medical without Ajax's permission??? Ofcourse a fee has been agreed.

Liverpool and Ajax are so close concerning bidding and asking that Ajax has given Babel permission to speak with Liverpool.

He did so today and an agreement between player and club has been reached, it's now up to Ajax and Liverpool to work out the final details of the deal :


Babel en Liverpool zijn er samen al uit

11/7/2007 18:56

Ryan Babel speelt binnenkort in het shirt van Liverpool. De aanvaller kwam woensdagmiddag tot een persoonlijk akkoord met The Reds. 'Het wachten is nu op het moment dat Ajax en Liverpool tot overeenstemming komen', vertelde zaakwaarnemer Winny Haatrecht aan VI.nl.

'We zijn er uit', reageerde Haatrecht vlak nadat hij woensdagavond met Babel Anfield had verlaten. 'We zijn tot een persoonlijk akkoord gekomen.' Babel keert terug naar Nederland en zal pas terugkeren in Liverpool om zijn contract te ondertekenen. Binnenkort zal hij dan met de Engelse club op trainingskamp gaan naar Zwitserland en Hong Kong.

Liverpool had woensdagmiddag al laten weten dat het bijna tot een akkoord was gekomen met Ajax en dat de club van de Amsterdammers toestemming had gekregen om met Babel te praten. Die onderhandelingen met de spits verliepen razendsnel.

Over de hoogte van de transfersom en de duur van Babels contract mocht Haatrecht nog niets vertellen. Naar verluidt zou Liverpool zeventien miljoen euro betalen voor de twintigjarige international.

TM wrote:Babel, Kuyt, Torres, Crouch, That other guy.

5 Strikers, the more to rotate

We have lots of possibilities

The other guy is Voronin. Babel is more likely to be LW than a second striker.

Yeah i didn't bother trying to spell it..

Liverpool have attacking options, but they really needed a classy left winger, if Babel isn't going to play there IMO.

Malouda or RQ would have been ideal, but it looks like neither will be brought.

You always have Kewell

TM - Kewell is the definition of a classy left winger - a comment like that suggests you've never seen the guy play.

The only problem is he's injured most of the time.

It's a big problem to be fair

Roger Hunt wrote:TM - Kewell is the definition of a classy left winger - a comment like that suggests you've never seen the guy play.

The only problem is he's injured most of the time.

Never rekindled his Leeds form IMO, he was immense for them, but like you said the injuries haven't helped.

For Babels sake i hope he doesn't fail.

Its not the worst signing Liverpool have made in this transfer window.

He may prove to be worth the money eventually, though I have my reservations

What is the worst then Tweedle?

Tweedle wrote:Its not the worst signing Liverpool have made in this transfer window.

He may prove to be worth the money eventually, though I have my reservations

Who is?

Tweedle wrote:Its not the worst signing Liverpool have made in this transfer window.

He may prove to be worth the money eventually, though I have my reservations

It's a gamble, it all depends on how Benitez is going to use him and if Babel can keep on progressing the way he did.

I do think that it's a *ridiculous* amount of money that is being paid for him, but I also think that of the fee for Nani & Torres to name a couple...

Compared to what, Axe? £11m for Berbatov or £16m for Bent?

Torres, for the fee paid.

He'd have been a decent signing for £15m but £21m and Garcia I think is overexcessive

It's hardly an awful signing though is it, Fernando Torres

Do none Arsenal fans think that Arsenal fans are gutted that Liverpool have signed Torres and Babel?

Batman wrote:Do none Arsenal fans think that Arsenal fans are gutted that Liverpool have signed Torres and Babel?

And who have Arsenal signed that's so impressive? if it was them who had signed who we had signed and vice versa i'm sure a lot of people would have different opinions.

Luis wrote:It's hardly an awful signing though is it, Fernando Torres

He's a good player but its a risk- especially for that much.

Dutch players have a history of doing well in the EPL.

La liga forwards do not - with the one exception of Garcia.

£13.5 is a great fee for Ajax. The lad has potential, but is incredibly frustrating to watch. Hope the Pool fans give him a chance.

Tweedle wrote:

Luis wrote:It's hardly an awful signing though is it, Fernando Torres

He's a good player but its a risk- especially for that much.

Dutch players have a history of doing well in the EPL.

La liga forwards do not - with the one exception of Garcia.

Every transfer is a risk from foreign leagues, Bent for 16 million is a risk as well.

Tweedle wrote:

Luis wrote:It's hardly an awful signing though is it, Fernando Torres

He's a good player but its a risk- especially for that much.

Dutch players have a history of doing well in the EPL.

La liga forwards do not - with the one exception of Garcia.

Garcia didn't do great in the epl either

Luis wrote:

Every transfer is a risk from foreign leagues, Bent for 16 million is a risk as well.

I find it less of a risk - he's already played two seasons here, scoring 19 goals then 14 goals and for a far less creative squad.

Bellamy scored 12 for Rovers, then moved to a better squad and did worse, so playing with better players doesn't neccesarily mean more goals

Batman wrote:Do none Arsenal fans think that Arsenal fans are gutted that Liverpool have signed Torres and Babel?

I am not gutted.

A player like Babel is not what we need as we already have a few players that play his position, one of them being Theo Walcott. With the reportd fee of Babel I would like to think Wenger would rather spend that on a Obafemi Martins.

I like Fernando Torres, but he is not a *huge* improvement on Adebayor or van Persie at the moment, he is 23 so he could go either way in development terms.

Luis wrote:Bellamy scored 12 for Rovers, then moved to a better squad and did worse, so playing with better players doesn't neccesarily mean more goals

He didn't get a regular run of games at Liverpool though - if he'd played as much as he did at Blackburn I'm sure he'd have got 12 goals