Borini In. Maxi Out

It has been a big day today for Liverpool FC, Brendan Rodgers first foray into the transfer market has resulted in the signing of Fabio Borini from Roma. However Maxi Rodriguez has departed for Newell Old Boys despite Rodgers reportedly asking the Argentine winger to stay.

I want to start with the departure of Maxi. After 2 and a half years with Liverpool he has decided to leave and who can blame him really? He clearly wasn't part of Kenny Dalglish's first team plans and I think it's very unlikely that he would have been in Rodgers' starting eleven, I believe the reason that Rodgers wanted Maxi to stay was because he is a top quality squad player who doesn't make too much fuss about not playing every week. Steve Clarke even described him as "a complete professional". I personally am slightly split about his departure, while I never believed Rodriguez to be a player that could set the World alight I also never felt that it was going to be a bad day when I saw his name on the team sheet. I do think though that Maxi is a very erratic player and while he generally looked like he deserved to be at Liverpool there were a few games where I thought he would not have made it a league lower. What cannot be questioned is the effort and commitment that Maxi has shown to LFC and I think that everyone at the club wishes him all the best as he moves on with his career.

Now on to the other big story of the day, the signing of Fabio Borini. Depending on which stories you listen to Borini has cost LFC anything between £7m and the much more likely £12m. Now I know that I have not given the signing of Borini my full backing in the recent past but now that the 21 year old is at Liverpool I will give Borini a clean slate and a real chance to prove himself. I must say my first impression of Borini at Liverpool is a good one, having seen his interview in a car on the way to Melwood I would say that the Italian has real belief in the way that Brendan Rodgers likes to set up his team and he really enjoys playing that way too. He is the kind of player who will create space and this could free up Luis Suarez to start banging in the goals. I would say though that this signing probably signals the end of Andy Carroll at LFC, Rodgers tends to play with one out and out striker and Carroll is unlikely to get a look in with the new man about. I really hope that Andy Carroll does stay, he has just started to hit his form and letting him go now will surely result in a big monetary loss. Anyway whatever my opinion on Borini signing I can at least relax tonight with a couple of cans of lager and know that Liverpool are moving forward before the new season.