Rafa on the Paletta signing

[Guest dannylad]

More like our jamie according to the gaffer.

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RAFA: PALETTA CAN BE ANOTHER CARRA

Rafael Benitez has insisted new signing Gabriel Paletta has the qualities to match the inspirational leadership of Jamie Carragher when he arrives at Anfield.

The young Argentinian defender will join the Reds in the summer after Liverpool agreed a four year deal for his services.

 

Benitez is delighted to have beaten off stiff competition to land the highly rated youngster and is confident he'll waste no time in proving himself on Merseyside.

 

He said: "I've worked with other Argentinian defenders in the past and there is a good tradition of tough, aggressive and tactically strong defenders from the country.

 

"Paletta is very tough and he's exactly the sort of player we need who will suit the Premiership. When you talk about the Argentinian defenders I worked with in Valencia, Paletta is more like Ayala than Pellegrino. If you're talking about Liverpool, he's more like Carra than Sami Hyypia. This is good because we will have a balance in the style of defenders.

 

"He is a defender with a lot of aggression and we're sure he has a great future. He will learn a lot here, like Daniel Agger, and provide competitiveness in our defence.

 

"We were watching him in the world under-21 championships in Holland recently. That's when our scouts spotted him and we identified him as the kind of player we'd like.

 

"He has attracted a lot of interest from top clubs in Argentina like River Plate and Boca Juniors. River Plate even reserved a number six shirt for him, so we had to move quickly to sign him. We're delighted to have done the deal now."

[Guest hagis]

I'd not heard of him before we signed him, can anyone with an interest in Argentinian footy give us some back ground on the lad?

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

he said that about Josemi

[Guest dannylad]

he said that about Josemi

 

I think he hadn't realised how good carra was when he signed josemi. I don't think you'd catch him saying that now. Josemi had problems here, at least paletta has 6 months before he moves to prepare. I think if he spends that time learning english he'll settle alot quicker. Just send him some carragher audio tapes or jan molby's book "how to scouse in 12 weeks" and he'll be fine. Being serious though i think rafa's judgement on the carra-like signing will carry a bit more weight these days.