Football Soccer Goals

Lille striker Gervinho is planning to announce this week which club he will be joining this summer.

John Barnes told Sky Sports News that Liverpool’s owners must give Kenny Dalglish money to spend.

In other, less obvious circumstances, the ominous prediction in the banner would be something to be proud of given how accurate it turned out to be. After a dull 0-0 draw with Hull City to close out the 2009-2010 season, though, it was generally accepted that things couldn’t continue as they had during a disappointing follow-up to the second place finish a year before. We all sort of had our ideas about the whos and whats, and it seemed as though some of the changes had already been set in motion, which makes the above statement more lazy than anything else.

But I’m not sure any of us could have predicted the number, manner, or impact of the changes that this season saw, and with things relatively settled, at least for now, it’s probably as good a time as any to take a look over our collective shoulder at all of the comings and goings to see just how the hell we ended up here.

In a season with so much turnover, this type of post was always bound to be long, so brace yourself for two-thousand words worth of things you’ve probably already read. But before you get into it and lose interest, I have to make mention of the tireless work of Noel in organizing our end of the season polling feature, and the help of the collaborating blogs—Oh You Beauty (nate), Paisley Gates (steven. and Nathan/Grubb), and Anfield Asylum (Sam)—as well as our guest editors, Amy from A Football Report, Gareth from Well Red, James from Unprofessional Foul, and Mike from Avoiding the Drop. If you somehow missed out on the festivities, go here for the final results post from Noel, which also has links to all the previous posts and polls.

And now, the year in changes and major turning points:

Rafa Benitez Leaving Liverpool

What I said then: “For all the ambivalence I’ve had about his tenure, especially this year, I got the worst sinking feeling in my stomach just now. Not sure what to make of it, but it’s tough to take.”

What I say now: The situation was untenable, and it had little to do with Rafa. With different owners—hell, even the current owners—who knows what would have happened. And that sinking feeling mostly turned out to be a premonition that Liverpool were about to get a steaming Daily Mail special delivered on their doorstep with a side of hoofing and disappointment.

Liverpool Announce Roy Hodgson as Manager

What I said then: “So when Liverpool finally confirm what we’ve heard in the past few weeks about Hodgson’s appointment, I almost find myself manufacturing a reaction.”

What I say now: Looking back, as we’ve used many times this season, there was only one acceptable reaction.

Yossi to Chelsea

What I said then: “Chelsea fans will probably not be jumping out of their seat at the prospect of picking up the Israeli. But since he cracked the first team in the second half of last season, he’s been an integral on-field presence for both the measurable and the immeasurable.”

What I say now: If we’re talking about this thing as a swap, and it more or less turned out to be, Liverpool got hosed. He was injured most of the year, but Chelsea supporters jumped on the bandwagon (odd), and things on the Liverpool end were decidedly less successful.

Liverpool Sign Joe Cole

What I said then: “Cole was always going to attract attention after leaving Chelsea, so Liverpool being able to sign him up gives hope that the club aren’t necessarily the pariah we’ve thought. ”

What I say now: Right, it just turned out that Joe Cole was the pariah. I mean, he got a compilation video for his performance against Rabotnicki (and he’s apparently very popular among the commenters there), but that’s more like a stunning paradox in which he peaked while bottoming out. Also, this.

Fabio Aurelio Back at Liverpool

What I said then: “Yes, Aurelio’s struggled with injuries, but he at least temporarily fills the void at left back. I’m assuming the club aren’t done looking for a more permanent solution, but if he’s able to stay fit he could undoubtedly be battling for a spot in the starting eleven.”

What I say now: He struggled with injuries, temporarily filled the void at left back, battled for a spot in the starting eleven when he was able to stay fit, and the club aren’t done looking for a more permanent solution.

Aquilani to Juventus

What I said then: “Well, shit.”

What I say now: One of the things that didn’t need changing, but now I’d prefer they correct it. Not sure if it’s a possibility, although I can say I very much prefer him to Charlie Adam.

Masch Headed to Barca

What I said then: “It’s just a bad time for all of this to go down, and whether it’s the media narrative or me just being butthurt, I’m not feeling too understanding at the present moment.”

What I say now: Everything’s better now that he dedicated the Champions League victory to Liverpool, yes? Really though, I can’t say that Liverpool missed him, as Lucas alongside whothefuckever turned out to be more than enough in midfield this season.

Liverpool Sign Raul Meireles

What I said then: “I’m guessing he’s joined to provide some sort of forward fluidity to the midfield—not strictly defensive-minded, but not one to bomb forward completely, he’s probably unlike any of the midfielders currently in the squad.”

What I say now: Had it not been for Kenny Dalglish or Luis Suarez, Meireles was the signing of the season. Once he settled and steeled himself for the English game, he was almost always reliable and regularly magnificent.

Supporting the Manager

What Noel said then: “A yes man for the owners as they foolishly ship out Insuas and Aquilanis to replace them with Koncheskys and Poulsens in order to bleed the club a little more, or simply an old man set in his ways who doesn’t seem to really feel, deep down, what it means to be in charge of Liverpool Football Club?”

What I say now: Noel’s Liverpool Offside bow in a guest starring role that turned into much, much more. And, to answer the question, the latter.

Board Agrees a Deal, Hicks Still a Bastard

What I said then: “Board agrees to sale of club to New England Sports Ventures—Broughton impressed, process been taking awhile, owners blocking. Shit has gotten real.”

What I say now: Obviously a major turning point in the club’s season and history, and subsequent interviews and, more importantly, actions have shown that the new owners’ shit is, in fact, real.

Court Decision: Victory

What I said then: “Hopefully we’re in the middle of a giant step forward for the club, and the days of worrying about whether or not the owners actually have a vested interest in the club’s success are over. NESV aren’t going to walk into this as saviors, and they’ll rightfully have some convincing left to do.”

What I say now: As I mentioned above, the January window proved that they’re invested in the club’s success, even if they magically changed their name to FSG at some point over the next few months.

A Sad Day for Liverpool

What Noel said then: “In the end he came up with exactly the same thing we’ve seen week in and week out, and Everton was more than happy to take advantage of that. Moyes, apparently, isn’t a complete idiot: he knew what was coming. I think we all, when we weren’t trying to trick ourselves into feeling optimistic about it, knew what was coming, too.”

What I say now: One of the moments that will stand out from Hodgson’s Liverpool reign is earmarking the 0-2 result at Goodison as one of Liverpool’s best. As Noel said, we were tricking ourselves, and this brought it to light.

Damien Comolli Joins Liverpool

What I said then: “It’s hard to get a read on what exactly this means beyond the role to which he’s appointed—hopefully this assuages some of the concern about Hodgson’s skill in selecting talent to bring in, as a gaggle of Christian Poulsen clones probably isn’t the type of big spending anyone’s looking for.”

What I say now: Slowly but surely, Comolli’s making a positive impact on the Liverpool squad. January was a start, and this summer apparently promises to be much more active. A new title in the months that have since passed, but still here to serve the same function—help make Liverpool great again.

Roy Hodgson Out, Kenny Dalglish In

What I said then: “Great news—this doesn’t immediately change things or fix the problems the squad has had, but I think it does quite a bit for changing the atmosphere around the club. The immediate response seems to be one of optimism and relief despite what’s sure to be a media indictment of supporters, but, you know, the media can fuck off.”

What I say now: Saying that it “does quite a bit” in terms of changing the atmosphere around the club turned out to be a gross miscalculation. Even with the struggles of the last two weeks of the season, this Liverpool is not the same Liverpool we struggled with from September to the darkest days of early January.

Luis Suarez Joins LFC

What Noel said then: “Suarez is here, so let’s all get oiled up and dance to techno! Oh, wait, that’s just the obligatory soundtrack to his Youtube Top 50 Goals video. Well, that’s good, too.”

What I say now: As it turns out, getting oiled up and dancing to techno is as close an experience to actually watching Luis Suarez as it gets. Twisting, turning, dancing, ecstasy, people getting taken advantage of, unbridled euphoria—it’s all there when he’s on form. Gamechanger.

Fernando Torres Moves On

What Noel said then: “We’re moving up again, and meanwhile Chelsea is slipping further away from the title. So while I won’t be wishing the striker any luck with his new club, and in fact hope he struggles for form and has trouble fitting into an over-crowded front line with Drogba–frankly, I hope he never wins a thing with them and goes on to watch Liverpool capture silverware in his absence as Owen did when he foolishly left–at the same time I don’t truly feel the rage of the betrayed. In fact I might even feel a little sorry for him, and for his short-sighted foolishness. For in the end, he will lose more from the events of the last few days than we will.” Also, “Andy Carroll has officially signed on. Like Suarez it’s a five and a half year deal for our newest record signing, one who eclipsed Suarez as our record signing after his short time on top having topped Torres’ fee.”

What I said now: So that turned out to be scary accurate, didn’t it? Jury’s still out on Carroll, and we’ve heard plenty about the transfer fee, but it was a nightmare finish to the season for Torres.

Kenny Dalglish, Permanent Manager

What Noel said then: “It’s great to have the King back for good, even if everybody was fairly certain it was only a matter of time. It’s also amazing how far not only Kenny Dalglish has taken the club on the pitch, but how far things have come in so little time on almost every level. It hardly seems fair to have to wait out a summer transfer window now to get to the next chapter.”

What I say now: Aside from the promotions of Ian Ayre and Damien Comolli, it says loads about Liverpool’s transformation that this was the only substantive change of the second half. As Noel mentioned at the time, the summer promises more, but for Liverpool to go from a tumultuous first half to a relatively benign, blasé, and welcomed finish to the year.

Two thousand words later, that’s the story of the season in changes. And, depending on your perspective, the beauty or the horror of the thing is that it’s all starting over again. Hopefully more focused, less dramatic, and, in the end, that it’ll lead to us having something to celebrate.

It was a bad time to be a football supporter, and it was a perfect storm of sorts, with a long list of contributing factors building up to a tragedy—from the violent actions of Roma Ultras against traveling Liverpool supporters at the previous European Cup final to the crumbling Heysel stadium itself, a venue the club officially requested not be used for the match and a situation further worsened by allowing mixed areas amongst opposing fans. Not that any of that makes it better. Not that any of that serves as an excuse for what would follow.

Taunts and chants were exchanged outside the stadium, leading to missiles being thrown by Juventus supporters within that supposed neutral, mixed area, leading in turn to a group of Liverpool supporters charging through a makeshift chicken-wire fence at their Italian counterparts who fled towards a support wall that crumbled under the pressure as a panicked crush formed. The steel surge barriers in the area were left warped and deformed by the weight of hundreds of Juventus fans who had tried to retreat en masse and found no exit. It was a match that ended with 39 dead and over 400 injured. It was one of the worst examples of football hooliganism and terrace culture, given a chance to spring to life after multiple failures in organisation and a bloody set of circumstances.

A year after violence in Rome, with dozens of Liverpool fans stabbed by roaming gangs of ultras while hotels locked them out of their own rooms and the police stood aside, there was an unspoken state of war that existed between the most violent segments of English fandom and any Italian supporter who might happen to get in the way. As a result, Heysel not only saw sections of Liverpool’s support eager to seek out some kind of symbolic revenge, but hooligans from other, more notably violent English supporter groups from West Ham to Millwall to Newcastle coming along with an eye towards evening the proverbial score. The Belgian police, despite being warned of the heightened risk of violence, were nowhere to be seen until after the fact.

In the end, Juventus won the European Cup 1-0 that year in a match many would much rather forget. English clubs would be banned from the continent for five years; Liverpool would be barred for six. And 39 people went to a football match and didn’t go home.

Alfredo Di Stéfano, Johan Cruyff and Ruud Gullit have, like Lionel Messi, inspired their clubs to feats of surpemacy

Real Madrid 1956-60

The only side to have won five consecutive European Cups, the first of which they achieved in the inaugural year of the tournament. Real were blessed with flair and aggression, epitomised by Alfredo Di Stéfano, the Argentinian forward signed in 1953, who sealed his legendary status by scoring a hat-trick (Ferenc Puskas hit four) in the 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park in 1960, regarded by many as being the greatest European Cup final of all time.

Ajax 1971-73

Winners of three consecutive European Cups and the architects of Total Football – the philosophy of ultra-fluidity established by allowing players to interchange positions at will. It was instigated by the Amsterdam club’s manager, Rinus Michels, and implemented on the pitch by Johan Cruyff – figurehead, idol and the scorer of both Ajax’s goals in their 2-0 victory over Internazionale in the 1972 final in Rotterdam, the moment this all-conquering team reached the peak of their powers.

Bayern Munich 1974-76

Also winners of three consecutive European Cups, this side’s strengths lay in their precision and power. While Gerd Müller got the goals it was the captain, Franz Beckenbauer, who inspired their success, a feat he repeated internationally by leading West Germany to the 1974 World Cup. It was in that year that Bayern beat Atlético Madrid 4-0 in a replay of the European Cup final in Brussels.

Liverpool 1977-81

Managed by the genial Bob Paisley, this was the most ruthless side Anfield has produced. Tight at the back – the 1979 title winners conceded 16 goals in 42 games – they also knew how to exploit space in attack, no one more so than Kenny Dalglish, the team’s talisman and scorer in the 1-0 win over Club Brugge at Wembley in 1978. Alan Kennedy, a full-back, got the winner in the 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the 1981 final – their third title – highlighting the all-round threat of Paisley’s men.

Milan 1989-90

The last team to retain the European Cup and one that blended the strict pressing of Italian defending with the fluid attacking threat of Total Football, promoted by the Dutch trio of Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and the leader of the pack, Ruud Gullit. Managed by Arrigo Sacchi, Milan beat Steaua Bucharest 4-0 in 1989 thanks to two goals each from Gullit and Van Basten before retaining their crown with a 1-0 win over Benfica in Vienna, with Rijkaard this time getting on the scoresheet.

Javier Mascherano has dedicated his UEFA Champions League triumph over Man Utd to Liverpool fans.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish insists that not being in Europe will not affect the club in the transfer market.

Those who follow Liverpool are hardly a monolithic block. How could they be, with the global nature of modern football fandom? For better or worse, in a world where it’s at times easier to watch the match live if you live in Singapore or Sydney than it is if you live anywhere in England, one can hardly expect that all who spend a foolish amount of time obsessing over a football club will have passed some rigorous standardised test to judge their fitness. That’s even assuming that in the days when one could only realistically follow a club not only in their own city but, more often than not, from their own community, that everybody wearing certain colours would think exactly, dogmatically, the same way. And that, of course, would be a foolish assumption.

There may be a tendency amongst followers of a club to share certain beliefs, perhaps in Liverpool’s case beliefs befitting a club coming from a city that has never elected a Conservative member of parliament, that has faced down a history as the butt of jokes for their smug southern neighbours, and that has a strong connection to the blue collar dock workers whose industry carried the city—not to mention a corresponding collective loathing of Margaret Thatcher. There may be a tendency, but even still it would only be a tendency.

Globally, one of the most prominent American fans of the club is, rather bizarrely, television personality and former right-wing Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, a man who would probably choke to death on the phrase “Shankly socialism” for all that it was never meant to deliver a political message. And some would quickly point out that in a world where most of the club’s starting eleven makes more in a week than many of the club’s followers do in a year while the club signs on to lead the marketing campaign for Honda Motorcycles in Thailand, talk of them somehow representing those working class, left-leaning roots becomes difficult at best.

Some of those who follow Liverpool may even profess some level of affection for other clubs, clubs such as Real Madrid whose histories and core support generally speak to a very different world-view. Which, in a roundabout way, brings us to tomorrow’s Champions League final and one of the few things that is non-negotiable if one wants to consider themselves any kind of fan, follower, or supporter of Liverpool: Manchester United. It also brings us around to Martin Samuel, one of the most committed and bitter Little Englanders in the press. While Henry Winter, one of the key media architects of the installation of Roy Hodgson at Liverpool last summer, was busy turning up bile by glowingly comparing Alex Ferguson to Sir Bob Paisley, fellow founding member of the Everything wrong with football coverage in the English media club Samuel was having a go at Liverpool fans in the Daily Mail for not throwing their support behind United.

“This isn’t progress,” he called out with the crux of his argument, “and don’t let anyone kid you that the new tribalism is what football has always been about. It never used to be that way. It is only the new fans, or the middle-class warriors, who know nothing else.”

Back in the day, he suggests, fans of an English club would have done the proper thing and gotten behind another English club. He even points to Ferguson himself, a Rangers player who cheered when Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup¹, as the virtuous pinnacle the modern fan has fallen short of:

“I was in Hong Kong with the Scotland team when Celtic won but I know that, from my part of Glasgow, everyone was behind them, even the Rangers fans,” [Ferguson] said. “Maybe there was the odd one who was against, but you are always going to get that. Basically, we all thought it was an amazing achievement for Jock Stein to build that team of players, all from within 20 miles of the Glasgow area.”

Nearly half a century on, it is a different story. Last week Ferguson was bemoaning the fact that many English football supporters will be cheering for Barcelona on Saturday.

“It’s a different story these days,” he said. “We live in a country of tribalism.”

And you can almost feel Samuel nodding along sympathetically to it all, such is his distress at the situation—and such is his almost slavishly worshipping approach to everything that is Alex Ferguson, Defender of the Faith.

Of course, if one looks back a couple of years, it becomes almost laughably obvious just what a load of self-congratulatory, conveniently blinkered swill it is being dished out by both Samuel and Ferguson:

Sir Alex Ferguson has taunted Liverpool ahead of their Champions League final against Milan, claiming there is “no way” they can win, and promising to toast their failure with a bottle of wine he was given by coach Carlo Ancelotti…

“I told Carlo at the end of our semi-final that there is no way he can now not win this competition,” said Ferguson. “Carlo gave me a magnificent bottle of wine. But I immediately told him there is no point in giving such a wonderful gift if he then fails in the final. In fact, I told him I would only drink his wine once I see him lifting the Champions Cup.”

When Ferguson now laments the lack of support from rival fans when his club goes up against continental competition, it is a matter of convenience for a man who for all his faults at least always knows exactly where his loyalties lie and makes no excuses for it. Certainly he knew where his loyalties lay when he openly cheered against Liverpool in 2007. For Samuel and his ilk, on the other hand, it’s a rather pathetic cherry picking of so-called facts as he cries out for the days when the sun never set on the British Empire and the occasional Scot, Welsh, or Irishman was about as foreign as it got in English football. Either way, though, there’s absolutely no excuse for a Liverpool fan to look towards Saturday hoping for anything but a ritualised slaughter of Manchester United on the Wembley turf. No matter what Martin Samuel might say, and no matter what English television coverage might blare incessantly in the hours leading up to the match, hoping for United’s inglorious demise is the only reasonable course of action.

There may be reasons for some not to actively hope for Barcelona’s victory, from other sympathies to the at times insufferable smugness of some of the bandwagon fans who have hitched themselves to the Catalan tiki-taka machine in recent years. There may be reasons to shut off the television, to head out for a beer or to see a movie and to generally pretend the whole thing just doesn’t exist. But there’s no excuse for hoping in any way, shape, or form for United to succeed. You never cheer for your rival, and those who suggest otherwise are simply clueless or disingenuous.

¹ And never mind that Samuel’s nationalistic talk of all England all the time temporarily morphs into the larger construct that is Britain in order to include Scottish side Celtic when it suits his argument.

* Note: I originally referred to the 2005 CL final instead of the 2007 edition, which as Anurag kindly pointed out in the comments was kind of not right.

Player of the season. It’s the final poll. The last question. The end to our attempts at gathering together with fellow bloggers, fans, followers, and supporters to look back at some of the best and worst of the 20010-11 Liverpool season. And let’s be honest: This one was never going to be close.

In the end, amongst all the highs and lows, the uncertainty and chaos at times both on the pitch and off, there was one person you could count on throughout this whole crazy season to perform game in and game out. That one certainty was a resounding choice amongst both the voters and the panel of bloggers and editors who took part in these season-ending efforts.

That person was Lucas Leiva, Liverpool’s player of the season:

steven. of Paisley Gates:
It’s either Lucas or you’re dumb. That’s not to say that Suarez isn’t hell on wheels or that Raul hasn’t brought home the bacon. No one is downplaying that Reina has been the rock against which all others will be judged or saying that the Flying Dutchman hasn’t soared above all reasonable expectations. But it’s been our Brazilian (at least the one that isn’t permanently injured) that deserves the plaudits this time around. Man of the Match performances in a number of key games, the kind of footballing intelligence required to win matches and a hair cut that makes him look less like Ellen than ever before. Consistency is key and despite his lack of flair or panache, Lucas has quietly won the hearts of the haters.

Amy of A Football Report:
Lucas. Lucas. Lucas. Once upon a time he was the slightly slack-jawed, greasy haired, supposed Brazilian wonderkid whose true potential was a secret known to Rafa and Rafa only. Fast forward a few years and it seems as if we’re witnessing the work of an entirely different individual. Before, the perennial target of any kind of criticism, now—a truly changed man. I can’t honestly claim to be one of those who ‘always knew he had it in him,’ but it became clear early last season when consistent players were few and far between that something had changed. This Lucas was a new beast. One who was a potent defensive force as well as a more than decent passer of the ball. The mind boggles at some of the stunning pass completion rates he notched up over the course of the season, and he particularly came into his own under Dalglish. To think, that if not for a rare lucid moment from the one and only Roy Hodgson, Purslow could have had his way and shipped the Brazilian out. Then, not many in the media—or indeed among the supporters—would have batted an eyelid. One superb season and a richly deserved contract extension later, that’s not the case anymore.

Nathan of Paisley Gates:
Lucas is the right choice for me. Suarez has transformed our play to a greater degree, but it is Lucas who has performed game after game for the entire season. He has been my Man of the Match on many occasions, and is probably the one player in the team who can claim to have been good under both Roy and Kenny. Finally free from the looming shadows of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, Lucas has been his own man in some very heated midfield battles, performing so impressively he has managed to sway popular opinion about himself. Once an object of ridicule, Lucas is now a key player for Liverpool and Brazil. While he may never reach the heights of his aforementioned midfield mentors, Lucas has proven he is LFC quality and is the deserving winner of this award.

Noel of the Liverpool Offside:
I thought Lucas might have been Liverpool’s player of the season last season. Last summer I may have argued that I’d rather lose Mascherano than him. I’ve even at times used him as a kind of litmus test to judge how others approach the game. Which is all to say I might not be the most objective person when it comes to measuring his value to the club. Except that there’s the manner in which he dominated Chelsea both at home and on the road, or the way he’s outclassed United’s midfield every time he’s come up against them, or how he’s increasingly shown against the likes of Fulham and Birmingham that if the movement is there he can pick a pass as well as anybody—something he first started to show many of the doubters in the fall with Brazil, a country whose midfield he’s set to anchor in the forthcoming Copa América. So except that there’s all that and nearly sixty percent of Liverpool fans in just about every season ending player of the year poll saying that the objective thing is in fact to say that this season Lucas was absolutely fantastic, end of. Heck, by the end of it he’d even managed to exceed the expectations of those who already believed in his ability. And the best part is, it doesn’t look as though he’s anywhere near done growing as a player.

nate of Oh You Beauty:
I wish I had a time machine, just so I could take footage of Lucas this season back to 2008. It’d be nice to get a head start on proving the Lucas haters wrong. Then maybe I’d stop Hitler. But first, Lucas haters.

It might have been hard to imagine a few years back, but it’s hard to imagine another answer to the question of player of the season right now. And now, with that final question answered, we’re just about done with this series of posts that have bounced you from blog to blog and dragged in a handful of great guests over the past two weeks. We do hope you’ve all enjoyed it. In any case, many of us will be wrapping this whole thing up in our own ways at some point now that all the winners have been revealed, but for now, for those who haven’t seen all of the results posts yet, here they are:

* Winner: Flop of the Season
* Winner: Signing of the Season
* Winner: Best Win
* Winner: Worst Loss
* Winner: Performance of the Season
* Winner: Goal of the Season
* Winner: Young Player of the Season

• ‘I won’t be committing to a new deal’ says Stewart Downing
• Brad Friedel and Ashley Young also interest Liverpool

Stewart Downing has offered Liverpool encouragement that he will push for a move to Anfield this summer by revealing he does not intend to extend his contract with Aston Villa.

The Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, is targeting three Villa players who are approaching the end of their contracts: the veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel, who becomes a free agent next month; Ashley Young, who has 12 months remaining on his deal and has been a target for Manchester United; and Downing, although he still has two years of his contract to run.

Villa’s player of the season, however, has signalled the start of what may prove a protracted transfer saga by casting his future at the club in doubt. Downing said: “I know the club are keen for me to extend my contract as I only have two years left on my deal and that my agent [Struan Marshall] had a recent meeting with our chief executive [Paul Faulkner]. However, I am 26 and at a major crossroads in my career so I won’t be committing to a new deal at the moment.”

Arsenal have also been linked with the Villa winger, a £12m signing from Middlesbrough in 2009, and Downing admitted in an interview with the Northern Echo to a desire to play in the Champions League “at some point”. However, Liverpool remain confident of prising at least one of Downing or Young to Anfield and have an established relationship with Marshall, who also represents Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.

Signing Downing from Villa will not be easy. The club have proved to be tough negotiators under Randy Lerner, as Liverpool know from experience with Gareth Barry and Manchester City discovered last summer in their efforts to buy James Milner. They are understandably reluctant to allow their midfield to be shredded during the close season. There is resignation inside Villa Park that Young will be leaving for around £15m this summer rather than nothing in 12 months’ time, while Nigel Reo-Coker is heading for a free transfer having rejected a contract extension in November.

As was the case with Young last summer, the Villa hierarchy – who also have to resolve the uncertainty over their manager Gérard Houllier’s future – may elect to hold on to Downing for another campaign. But the admission that he will present Villa with yet another contractual dilemma has raised hopes at Liverpool that Downing is willing to agitate for a move as the summer progresses.

Downing, who is in the England squad for the European Championship qualifier against Switzerland next Saturday, admitted that the former manager Martin O’Neill “was one of the main reasons why I went to Villa”. Regarding his future, he added: “I want to keep playing and enjoying my football. The most important thing is to play football, but I do want to play in the Champions League at some point.”

Liverpool are willing to sell David Ngog having received inquiries from several European clubs but want £8m for the young French striker. Ngog, 22, scored eight goals under Roy Hodgson this season but barely featured once Dalglish took charge in January.