The battle from Jermaine Pennant to make himself a Liverpool player seems to be another step closer to paying off, with the Press Association reporting that a £6.2m bid has finally been accepted by Birmingham City.
The report from PA says, “Sources close to the Coca-Cola Championship club claim a deal has been agreed and that the player is on his way to Liverpool for further talks.”
The actual amount Liverpool have bid and the amount Birmingham want has been speculated about by many, but it’s pretty clear Liverpool want to buy him, Birmingham want to sell him. Now it looks like they’ve finally managed to meet in the middle. Other reports have suggested that the two parties were negotiating the finer points of exactly how the fee would be paid, including clauses for appearances on so on, to lessen the blow initially. In fact it’s a clause in Birmingham’s original deal with Arsenal that’s got them hanging on for more. Arsenal require 25% of any sell-on fee, around £1.5million if the latest figure quoted is correct.
The only potential problem with this latest story is that one of its writers was reportedly responsible for trying to chalk off two of Peter Crouch’s goals as own goals last season. He was of course proved wrong on that, so we’ll wait for the time being to see if he’s right with this story.
If this deal does still go through, Rafa will be looking next at bringing another striker to the club. He’s already said this week he’d like another 1 or 2 players to be added to the squad.