Baros out,
Stelios in
Melwood Insider News
Daniel Macmillan
Tuesday, 23 August 2005
MILAN BAROS will finally complete his £6.75million move from
Liverpool to Aston Villa today.
The Czech striker will leave Anfield as Stelios Giannakopoulos is
poised to arrive on Merseyside in a £2m deal from Bolton.
Baros, 23, has been chased by Villa for the past month and David
OLeary got his man when the player refused to join former Kop boss
Gerard Houllier at Lyon even though the French champions had made a
£8.5m bid.
But Baros snubbed Houllier after being left on the bench for long
periods during his final season in charge at Anfield.
Now Liverpool have agreed a straight cash deal with Villa and the
fact that Nol Solano is not part of it means Rafa Benitez has
settled on £2m wide-boy Stelios, 31, to solve his right-wing
problem.
Kop boss Benitez will now use the remaining cash to bring in at
least one centre-back with Brondbys Daniel Agger and Stuttgart
defender Fernando Meira the favoured duo.
Agger, 20, was hugely impressive in Denmarks 4-1 win over England
a week ago and Liverpool will check him out again when he faces
Ajax in the Champions League tomorrow.
Yet while he will cost up to £6m, Portuguese central stopper Meira,
27, is available for as little as £2m.
Liverpool scouts revealed Benitez was chasing Agger and the
Liverpool chief confirmed the news yesterday.
He admitted: I have read in the Press about centre-backs and the
information was correct.
We have been linked with a lot of players and I need to talk with
Rick Parry to see what we can do.
I would like at least two new players maybe two centre-backs
but we will have to see how much money we have available.
Baros will complete the formalities of his move to Villa
tomorrow.
