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The Daily Express declares this morning to all who will listen that Liverpool are CLOSE (their emphasis, not ours) to securing the services of Radamel Falcao for the princely sum of $50 million, funding any move by offloading FLOP (again, their emphasis) Mario Balotellit to Sampdoria.
It's a classic piece of "2+2 = clicks" journalism from the paper, who've taken two perfectly plausible scenarios and spun them into a transfer story. That Radamel Falcao will be sold by Monaco this summer is a certainty given the club's finances, and Manchester United look less and less likely to pay the $60 million option they agreed with the Ligue 1 team back in September to make his loan move permanent. Similarly, with just four goals in 25 appearances, Mario Balotelli has done little on the pitch to warrant the tolerance of his half-assed attitude and off-field antics. Throw in these quotes from Sampdoria President Massimo Ferrero - "I would take him - he’d be the real Balotelli again here" - and suddenly Liverpool have both the need for another striker and the wherewithal to purchase one.
There's little reason to suggest that Liverpool's struggles this season would deter Falcao from signing for the Merseysiders: the Colombian has a proven track record of signing for teams with no Champions League football, having not played in Europe's premier competition since 2011. What's more, regardless of his travails at Old Trafford this season, Falcao is arguably a step-up from Super Mario, especially if he can remember how to do this:
So Balotelli out of Anfield and Falcao in isn't the daftest scenario ever painted by the papers. How much the fabled Liverpool transfer committee would be willing to pay for a 29-year-old striker with a history of knee trouble is, however, an entirely different matter: we question the sanity of paying north of $50 million for Falcao at this stage in his career, especially when someone like Danny Ings (9 BPL goals this season at struggling Burnley) is available for a tenth of the price.
In other news, Roberto Martinez is looking to work his Spanish connections to bring Barcelona prospect Sergi Roberto to Goodison Park next season, while Edinson Cavani is set to disappoint Manchester United by remaining at Paris St Germain.
