Milan Baros is in talks with Valencia regarding a possible summer move – according to their president, Juan Soler.
Soler was talking to the Valencia-based Radio Nine about how the Spanish club were looking to make improvements to the squad after a disappointing season. He said, about Baros: "We are negotiating with the Czech and with four or five players of the same quality. These players are from Europe and South America and we are trying to do things in plenty of time, both with Baros and the others. Some of the players who are coming are going to replace those already here, so it’s best that we do not speak too much about the subject.
Liverpool’s current boss Rafa Benitez had been manager at Valencia – an extremely successful manager – until last summer when he took up the offer to replace Gerard Houllier at Anfield. The departure of Benitez caused a lot of acrimony, and Raf was replaced by Chelsea’s former coach Claudio Ranieri. Ranieri wanted to change things and was given a decent budget, with which he bought Italian players. These signing included Marco Di Vaio, Bernardo Corradi and Stefano Fiore.
Ranieri was unsuccesful however and was soon fired.
Soler says that that he wants the current team to keep on with the task of qualifying for Europe, which is why he’s trying to keep under wraps the identities of the other players – "I don’t want the team to lose concentration as we aim for our objective of returning to Europe," he said.
With all the recent fuss over illegal approaches to players by Chelsea, the question needs to be asked – how has Soler been able to speak to Baros? He could of course be saying something that’s completely untrue – not the first time "talks" with Liverpool players turn out not to have happened. If he has been talking to Baros, then it can be only an illegal approach, unless it’s been made with Liverpool’s blessing. Liverpool may well have given permission – so that Benitez can bring some of his own former players over to England in a swap deal.