Latest news with #MilosKerkez
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Arsenal legend makes controversial claim about Liverpool £200m transfer business
Former Arsenal favourite Charlie Nicholas believes Florian Wirtz's transfer won't prove to be "a massive jump forward" for Premier League champions Liverpool. And the former Scotland international has also claimed the addition of Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth is not a huge upgrade on Andy Robertson at left-back. Advertisement The Reds confirmed the £116m addition of Wirtz last week in a deal that could become a British record if the add-ons are achieved, while the capture of Kerkez at £40m was also confirmed on Thursday. Both targets are part of what has so far been a hugely exciting transfer window so far for the Reds, who will welcome the June additions alongside £29m pair Jeremie Frimpong and Giorgi Mamardashvili to pre-season training on July 7. READ MORE: Liverpool chairman Tom Werner on Arne Slot, historic transfer spend and FSG's future Anfield plans READ MORE: Alexander Isak Liverpool transfer next step clear as fee and wages positions explained Advertisement However, Nicholas, who won the League Cup with Arsenal in 1987, scoring twice in their 2-1 Wembley win over Liverpool, remains unconvinced by the champions' summer business so far, which has cost more than £200m, telling Sky Bet: 'Liverpool have made some interesting moves so far this window. "Is Milos Kerkez going to be better than Andy Robertson? I don't think so and don't think their defence has drastically improved. "Florian Wirtz is a fantastic signing, but he may take time to settle - the buzz is mainly around the big fee paid, like when Arsenal signed Declan Rice. "Everyone at the time thought that fee was ridiculous, but he's proved to be a valuable signing. I'm sure Wirtz will be too, but I don't think it's a massive jump forward for Liverpool. Advertisement 'As for Manchester City, they've signed well, but not overwhelmingly so. They need to replace Kevin De Bruyne and get far more out of Phil Foden, and the new signings will take time to settle in. "The big thing they are waiting for is Rodri's return from injury but defensively I don't see them being much better than last season. I think the league is a three-horse race again - Arsenal, Manchester City, and Liverpool.' Nicholas also gave his verdict on Darwin Nunez, who is the subject of interest from Napoli, adding: 'Nunez has good assets - his pace, movement, bravery - but his big disappointment has been his erratic finishing. "It's as if the pressure got too much for him. When you see Luis Diaz and Mo Salah being calm in important moments, he just never seemed to produce that. When the pressure is on you, and you're not getting in the team, and it sounds like he's had rows with Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot, asking why he's not in the team, and they would've probably said the same as me. Advertisement 'He's not handled the pressure of being a finisher for a club this well. Saying that, we're waiting on one big striker transfer in the Premier League that will set a domino effect for a lot of clubs. "I think he could still do a great job in the Premier League, but I don't think he'll be looking to stay - he should go somewhere else in Europe and re-establish himself. He needs a clean break.'
BBC News
13 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'I'd be making it clear I want Robertson to stay'
The Mail Sport's Dominic King believes Andy Robertson still has a huge role to play at Liverpool. He told BBC Radio Merseyside: "Milos Kerkez's challenge is to play 50 games a season like Andy Robertson."The situation with Andy Robertson is complicated at the moment because he's got a year left on his deal and there has been interest from clubs on the continent in him."He's weighing things up. He's at the stage of his career where his next deal is probably going to be his last big one. I've seen examples of people leaving Liverpool in recent years and it hasn't worked out for them."Andy Robertson has been too big a character, too good a player, too influential in the dressing room for it to go somewhere else. Yes, it would be a brilliant challenge but I still think he's got a huge role to play at Liverpool."[Because of] his leadership, what he stands for, what he knows and the culture he has helped set, if I had anything to do with running Liverpool I'd be making it clear to him that I want him to stay. "Listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds
BBC News
17 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'Relentless, expressive and full of fire'
Milos Kerkez does not so much play left-back as explode into the 21, he has already redefined it for Bournemouth - and now he is set to do the same for as Andy Robertson's heir-apparent, Kerkez arrives not as a promising project, but a ready-made menace, forged in the Premier League and sharpened in Andoni Iraola's press-heavy two players made more overlapping runs than Kerkez's 237 last season, he ranked top three for open-play crosses, and covered more ground than nearly every full-back in the this is not just a story of engine and enterprise. It is one of decision-making, discipline and timing. For instance, his 'true tackle' success rate (61.3%) outperformed Robertson, fellow new boy Jeremie Frimpong and ex-Reds full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold's last he is elite. Positionally, he is aggressive without being exposed. And crucially, in an evolving Liverpool set-up, Kerkez balances out the equation with bite and balance on the is also very Liverpool in spirit - relentless, expressive and full of fire. He does not wait for space, he makes it. He does not defer to experience, he defines may have grown up in a Manchester United-supporting family, but one gets the sense Kerkez was built for Liverpool want full-backs to be full-throttle again, they have just signed the fastest gun in the west.
BBC News
17 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'Speed of change has not slowed' - Kerkez's rapid rise to Liverpool
Milos Kerkez has never been big on patience. "That's always the problem," he joked midway through his breakout season at AZ Alkmaar, a teenager already agitating to play more, train harder and reach 18-year-old's would have been happy just to be there. Kerkez wanted more - and always has. From leaving AC Milan's academy to become a first-team starter in the Eredivisie, to rejecting bigger names for a chance to explode at Bournemouth, his trajectory has only ever pointed one was born in Serbia and moved to Hungary at 15, vowing immediately to represent their national team. He captained youth sides despite barely speaking the language. "He's a crazy guy," one youth coach said. "He'll make it to a top-three league or be in prison." After all, Kerkez started as a number 10. By 16, he had moved to left-back and then, at 17, he signed for Milan. The speed of change has not AZ, the club handed him a dossier thicker than a phone book, containing stats on his reaction time, pressing habits and recovery devoured it. He tackled with his head, launched touchline assaults like a man possessed and emerged as one of Europe's most relentless full-backs. Bournemouth came calling with a well-crafted pitch - and won out over bigger then, he has been a talisman in Andoni Iraola's turbo-charged system, combining ferocity in defence with electricity going the pitch he is a Twitch streamer, a Fortnite fanatic and a forest fisherman. Maximus the rottweiler waits at home and, in Serbia, so does his father's dream of a farm and training centre, which Milos now hopes to is fiery and funny, and friends with new Liverpool team-mate Dominik when the Hungary starlet rifles into a top corner or tackles a winger with his forehead, you realise the kid from Vrbas is not just rising. He is he is doing it his way.
BBC News
17 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Liverpool's relationship with Hungarian football continues to blossom
Hungary was not Milos Kerkez's birthplace, but it is where he became a 15, he moved from Austria to Hodmezovasarhelyi in the south of Hungary, and made a decision: "If I get to a good enough level, I want to represent Hungary's national team." That decision today looks is now Hungary's first choice left-back, has already played more than 100 senior club games, and this season made many people's Premier League team of the year - all at the age of is also not the only Hungarian moving to Liverpool. This summer, Liverpool have not just signed Kerkez, but also Armin Pecsi - a 20-year-old goalkeeper from Puskas Akademia, the club closest to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban's symbolism is impossible to ignore: the most storied club in England tapping directly into Orban's £3bn football history with Hungarian players has been patchy at Kozma joined in 1992 but never settled. The highly rated trio of Krisztian Nemeth, Andras Simon and Krisztian Adorjan flattered but faded. Even Peter Gulacsi, now among Europe's elite goalkeepers, was once just 'the other keeper' behind Pepe Reina and Brad Kerkez - like Dominik Szoboszlai before him - is the product of a very different the past decade, the Hungarian Football Federation has begun building a modernised system to become a sophisticated footballing is not only about money - though Orban's vast investment has played its part. It is about momentum and method. Data-led development, better coaching pipelines, and a renewed sense of national pride have combined to give young players real has followed that pathway. With AZ he saw the vision. At Bournemouth, he chose the project, not the he is moving to the Premier League champions and one of the biggest clubs in the Liverpool? Well, the Hungarian market is beginning to bear very different to get news alerts on your Premier League club
