Liverpool Reject £25 M Benteke Bid

The fax machine barely had a chance to cool down before Liverpool rejected Crystal Palace's £25 million bid for 25-year-old striker Christian Benteke late last night. Liverpool, it seems, are dead-set on holding to their £30 million valuation for the Belgian striker.

Many Liverpool supporters assumed that Benteke would be sold with any reasonable bid, and Palace's first effort was certainly that. It would have gone a long way toward recouping Liverpool's second highest transfer fee, and gotten Benteke's sizable wage bill off the books.

The Belgian international was always a square peg for Liverpool, and despite scoring some important and high quality goals for the Reds (including the winning penalty against Palace), he never really asserted himself as the top striker at the club. In fact, Danny Ings and fellow countryman Divock Origi passed Benteke in the pecking order, and non-striker Roberto Firmino also threw himself into the mix.

Still, Liverpool executives looked at the current inflated transfer market and decided to hold firm on Benteke. By all accounts so far, Palace are not the only interested party, and the transfer window has just opened for business. And he's not the worst option (if an expensive one) to keep around to bring off the bench against a stubborn Alan Pardew or Tony Pulis side.

So, Liverpool find themselves in the exact opposite situation as last summer, when Aston Villa refused to sell for anything less than their asking price. Hopefully our resolve is as good as theirs.