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Was just talking on a Villa forum about the summer Liverpool spent trying to get Gareth Barry off us. In the end we didn't fancy a swop involving likes of Ngog or Reira and kept him and they signed Robbie Keane for the money we wanted instead.
Seems he kind of gets forgotten in the striker flops of last 15 years but just looking at his record it was two goals in the champions league and just 5 in the premier league with him having to wait until 8th November to score his first for Liverpool.
What's interesting is that he scored a couple over the xmas period (really good finish in the 1-1 at Arsenal) so was probably starting to adapt to Liverpool style and Torres was getting a few injuries yet Liverpool just sold him back to Spurs for what they paid six months before. Scored 5 in 13 games for Spurs in remainder of the season.
Could it have worked? Of course Torres was main man and they also had Kuyt who could fill in centrally but you're talking a fantastic midfield behind of Mascherano-Alonso-Gerrard. From what I remember in the early part of that season Keane missed an incredible amount of one on ones with the keeper then got dropped and Benitez decided he wouldn't work in the system and that was that. Or perhaps he was just past his best in premier league as Spurs loaned him out to Celtic the next season.
Spurs had a shambolic transfer period around that time. Sold Defore, Robbie Keane and Berbatov within six months of each other and replaced them with Pavlychenko, Dos Santos and Frazier Campbell which lead to the infamous 2 points from 8 games start. Then got back Keane and Defoe in the January 09 window.
Edit: Just seen @GuybrushThreepwood did a good post on his Liverpool spell in the recent Anelka thread, sorry to steal your thunder chap!
Seems he kind of gets forgotten in the striker flops of last 15 years but just looking at his record it was two goals in the champions league and just 5 in the premier league with him having to wait until 8th November to score his first for Liverpool.
What's interesting is that he scored a couple over the xmas period (really good finish in the 1-1 at Arsenal) so was probably starting to adapt to Liverpool style and Torres was getting a few injuries yet Liverpool just sold him back to Spurs for what they paid six months before. Scored 5 in 13 games for Spurs in remainder of the season.
Could it have worked? Of course Torres was main man and they also had Kuyt who could fill in centrally but you're talking a fantastic midfield behind of Mascherano-Alonso-Gerrard. From what I remember in the early part of that season Keane missed an incredible amount of one on ones with the keeper then got dropped and Benitez decided he wouldn't work in the system and that was that. Or perhaps he was just past his best in premier league as Spurs loaned him out to Celtic the next season.
Spurs had a shambolic transfer period around that time. Sold Defore, Robbie Keane and Berbatov within six months of each other and replaced them with Pavlychenko, Dos Santos and Frazier Campbell which lead to the infamous 2 points from 8 games start. Then got back Keane and Defoe in the January 09 window.
Edit: Just seen @GuybrushThreepwood did a good post on his Liverpool spell in the recent Anelka thread, sorry to steal your thunder chap!