according to the australian, lucas neil is a boyhood red! how many times have we heard this, this summer? guranteed to get him a transfer to Anfield!
Neill set for dream move
By David Lewis
August 24, 2006
AUSTRALIA star Lucas Neill is poised to team with close friend Harry Kewell after a $100,000-a-week dream move to English Premier League club Liverpool - the team he idolised as a child.
Neill, 28, was the stand-out performer for the Socceroos at the World Cup finals, and Anfield's incumbent Aussie, the defender's roommate in Germany, is a big fan of the gifted Blackburn Rovers player.
"Lucas makes defending look easy, he's so assured and reads the game well," Kewell said during the World Cup.
"He's one of our most important players."
Neill will become the third Australian after Craig Johnston and Kewell to sign for the five-time European champion, if the switch from Rovers, where he is out of contract in a year, is ratified later this week.
With the transfer window set to close at the end of the month, Neill was tipped to go to Tottenham Hotspur until Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez made his interest known.
The conundrum for Neill, 28, remains whether to opt for a club at which he will face stiff competition for a first-team place, with the likes of England international Jamie Carrahger, Sami Hyypia and Dane Daniel Agger also on the Anfield books, or head to White Hart Lane, where a starting place is guaranteed.
Neill would expect to earn $125,000 a week at Spurs, money is not a consideration for a player more concerned with perfecting his craft than purely boosting his bank balance.
Neill was Australia's trojan under former coach Guus Hiddink at the World Cup, elevating his game to uncharted heights in a switch from right-back to the centre of the defence.
His father Ed, a former amateur goalkeeper in his native Northern Ireland, could not confirm last night whether Neill was about to live the dream, but he did reveal: "Lucas has been a dyed in the wool Liverpool fan since he was a kid.
"His heroes were players like Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness and, of course, if this move comes off, it will be a dream come true for him.
"But any decision he makes will be made purely on football grounds, not on sentiment.
"He'd assess any situation on its merits whether it was Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Real Madrid.
"It's all about Lucas going somewhere where he can continue to progress.
"Whether he goes to Liverpool or not is still unclear. He hasn't said anything to (his parents) over the past few days.
"If it happens, that's great but nothing is certain in football until it's signed and sealed.
"Like a lot of the Australian players, Lucas stepped up to another level. He never ceases to surprise me with the quality of his performances."
Those performances won Neill a host a new admirers, even if he did begin the new Premier League season with Blackburn by being sent off, for the 10th time in his career, against Portsmouth last weekend.
Logged
