Although i think its regrettable that we will lose Masch to the olympics, i have no problem with his patriotism and wanting to play for his country. As someone who is feircly loyal about their own country, i can understand where Masch is coming from. If i was ever given the chance to play for Australia, i would do so as often as possible. If it means alot to Masch that he plays in the Olympics, then i will support him. The lad has a chance to be the first ever Argentinian to defend a gold medal and i can understand that meaning alot to him.
We are a big team, and we can cover his non-attendance for a few weeks. I dont agree with the point of view that Masch should repay Rafa’s faith in him. Masch does that every week by playing his guts out and never taking a backwards step.

Masch if you want to play in the olympics, then go over there, win your gold medal and get back to us as quickly as you can.

As far as Billy Liddel goes, me gran met him once and said he was one of the nicest gentlemen she had ever met. She also met Emlyn Hughes once and said the same of him. Its nice to support a club where such dignified class filled legends played for.

YNWA

It bugs me the way people get bent out of shape about the inabilities of a player to say kick a ball with his right foot. When you talk about JAR the way you do.

By saying that the lad should mind the door hitting his arse on his way out is a bit stink for the poor fella. If the fact that he went from 80 miles an hour to 0 in the space of one failed clearance kick is enough to banish the rouge top to history with a negative bad reputation then shame on you all.

I clearly remember the praise and songs being rained on him when his more than capable LEFT foot left many a net bulging or many a team saying “where the hell did the ball go” only to be picking it out of the net 5 seconds later when they realised who had sub-sonically sent the ball screaming into the scoring basket.

So the guy made a mistake and clearly we are all upset about it. Give the guy his due credit and let him walk out of the club (if he goes) with a pat on the back and his head held high. I seem to remember a certain song about holding your head high while your walking through a storm…

I hate to be a downer but I don’t think that sort of criticism is what this clubs supporters is all about. More than happy to give Rio (what’s wrong with your mouth) Ferdinand a kick in the shorts on his way out of Anfield, but then again he’s not one of ours.

Off to add my webbed footprint to the Billy Liddell petition.

Kiwi

Where abouts in Kiwi are ya from Kiwi??
Im moving to Auckland in August.

Riise has been a good servant for the club, i agree, but the inability to kick the ball with both feet is a massive issue. Even our goal keeper uses two feet…and uses them well i might add. I wish Riise no disprespect and wish him all the best, as he clearly loves the club and desperatly does not want to leave. but it is time for him to move on. his form has dramatically dipped and no longer is he able to provide those wonderful left foot goals (which perhaps papered over other short comings in his game) and he is no longer good enough.
He does seem to be making alot of demands of the club about his future, which although i dont like it, i guess is understandable as he is being forced out of a club he clearly loves.

I agree that his ability in defence has been questionable of late and like Xabi had a lean year, but in going forward and holding up the ball and the occasional glimpses of absolute genius (I refer to his end to end ballistic missile against the Sugar boys at the Millennium (Wow). I just would hate the see the guy walking out with his tail between his legs as one H Kewell has. And I hate to say it Harry’s was one of my most prized shirts too!

It suprises me Australia’s not palming him off as a Kiwi yet.

Funnily enough Aussie I live in Sydney. Keeping the Soccer (football) punters in the Sutherland shire honest.

You can have Kewell…and please take back Russell Crowe while you’re at it.

That’s a bit harsh Kiwi and also incorrect in my opinion. Riise hasn’t gone from hero to zero because of his one failed clearance, at least not among the guys on this site.
The fact is all players have an expiry date and Riise reached his about 18 months ago and many people on this site have been saying that since then. The criticism of him has not just come about because of his failed clearance and his piss poor performance in the second leg, these things merely confirmed what many people have been saying here for a very long time.
Rafa tried to replace Riise with Heinze last Summer, this season he has often been behind Aurelio and Arbeloa in the pecking order at left back and Rafa is once again trying to find a more competent left back in Dossena.
Like it or not, Riise has cost us goals this season, just as he did last season.
I’m quite prepared to let any player leave the club in a dignified manner but when a player goes mouthing off to the press don’t expect them to be given a pat on the back for it.
Some people may say it is perfectly understandably for him to seek some clarity from the boss about his future and I would agree. But the boss isn’t very hard to find, he works in a big office that says Rafa Benitez in big letters on the door, so why can’t he just go ahead and have a conversation with him without feeling the need to go and blabber to the press about it beforehand.

Aussie, I’ll try not to turn a fruitful conversation and dedicated blog about our Reds into antipodean banter but if your off to Auckland be prepared for a completely different colour and mentality. Its an All Black shirt (not a red one) and its more like Rugby Rugby Rugby Oy oy oy. Last time I lived there football of any sort hardly got a mention on the news.

Not exactly my cup of Milo; but the Speights Gold is good and the skiing excellent I’m sure you can still find a good game of EPL (Sky Sports) on two hours later than the ridiculous hours we all get up to support our boys over here.

Thats a fair call Gerry

And I’m happy to take critism for my comments. It is after all just my opinion. I was also trying to put a positive into the conversation.

I guess the crux of my point was that although he may have handled himself in a less than dignified manner the press are the press and we will never know exactly what happened or what was said.

Not in any part am I going to say that his presence on the field and his defending hasn’t resulted in goals against, but Rafa still puts him on the field. If he pulls on a red shirt its because Raf thinks he’s good enough.

I was implying that he has been a good servant to the club and bought us quiet a few memories, although his form may have dropped I just didn’t want to see him wander off with us saying these sorts of things about him.

Thats ok mate, i like my rugby too. Am use to having fuck all football news on over here. i Shall survive. I was in NZ for two weeks over new years. i really enjoyed having EPL games on at a half descent hour. Can definately get use to that. the only problem is they arent ever on at night over there, so you cant catch a game if your out on the piss (which is one thing i really like about having the games on anytime from 9:45pm to 3:00am over here in OZ).

Does anyone think Voronin will stay at Anfield?? im begining to think he wont be moved on. Now, im probably gonna get slated for this, but i’d like to see him have another season. At the begining of the year, he was pretty bloody good. Injury and a lack of confidence seemed to destroy him towards the end of the season, but even so, he was still getting in really good positions…he just wasnt putting the ball in the back of the net. i think his movement and positiong is actually quite good. with a few goals to his name and abit of confidence, i think he could proove a useful player. he is never ging to be first (or second for that matter) choice striker, but i think he may be able to do a job for us. If he hasnt improved any by january, then drop him like a bad habbit in the transfer window, but im prepared to give him another chance till then.

Super post, Gerry. The true measure of a great club with passionate supporters, is unlike the Chavs, modern fans can still appreciate and recognise the greatest players to have played for their club regardless of whether they had seen him in person. Billy Liddell is undoubtedly one of the greats, just by looking thru his data. But above, all he seems to have been an incredible gentleman, even among his contemporaries. Some players today should really have a look back and be ashamed of himself.

I previously got a great idea of what the man was like thru this:
http://www.bobpaisley.com/liddell-week.htm

I suggest to any other Red here to read it, if you have not already.

I think Torres has a smiliar quality to his character, which is why we all love him.

Will definitely sign up, although I am not sure if you have to be a British citizen to do so.

In any event, i won’t comment any more on the Olympics because, at least from a footballing perspective, it is shite. And I am totally pissed off that Masch and Babel are even considering to take part in a crap meaningless tournamment. I hope both countries lose in the group stages.

aussie, I don’t think there would be much of an issue in keeping Voronin since he didn’t cost us anything. He will probably be shipped off, but if we do not get any decent cover in the attacking area, we might need him in an emergency crisis. As you say, just like Kuyt, he is always in the right position and his movement without the ball is really quite good. He just hasn’t been able to finish it off. As long as he is willing to stay on at a relatively low cost, and is willing to accept that he will be playing third or fourth fiddle, I would not mind seeing him stay for another year. I just would hate to see us having to regard him as a vital part of the squad just because we cocked up in the transfer market and lamenting missed signings.

Who has the team “Swiss Alps” in the Euro 08 fantasy football comp??

To answer you question from the last blog Keith:
A classy lady, romantic music,a few candles and a shit load of paint.

Nice blog Gerry, I’m with AussieMe on the Monster/Olympics subject.
The lad is as proud of being an Argie as he is of playing for Liverpool. He is dedicated,loyal and has enough in the tank to play all year round. Thats why we love him so I wouldn’t change that for a few weeks at the start of the season.
You know he’ll be tearing the arse out of it when he gets back with his gold medal.
I also think Leto, Insua and Lucas will benefit from it.

Though there’s no fucking circumstance that Babel should be allowed go just coming back from an injury, he doesn’t have the same drive as Monster and probably wouldn’t be arsed going anyway.

I reckon Voronin will stay on next year and he deserves a chance …plus he can score a goal or 2
when he puts his mind to it.

over and out for now

God I’m such a muppet, sitting there commenting to myself on the previous blog. Gerry with regards to our potential formations next year, I was thinking this one could be interesting…

GK: Reina
3 x CB: Skrtel, Carra, Agger
2 x WB: Degen/Arbeloa, Dossena
1 x HM: Masch
3 x AM: Babel, Gerrard, Barry
1 x S: Torres

Not sure about the “balance”, ie we might be a bit vulnerable on the wings, but we’d be so strong in the middle it might not matter.

Barry could obviously also play at left back, and the likes of Kuyt or Benayoun take his place in the attacking 3. As I said (to myself) in the previous blog, I like it, I think I’m going to email Rafa

…and now onto this blog.

As I’ve said previously, I admire Masch’s patriotism, and having thought about it more, I’m most pissed off with the Argentinian team for selecting him. For fuck’s sake, this guy is treated like a slave sometimes – dragged off to Egypt, South America, Central America, Los Angeles for mickey mouse games in the middle of a taxing EPL season. Now he is asked to turn his back on his club for the Olympics of all things… not even a real football tournament.

Re: Voronin – I see him staying and I’m OK with that, as long as we get either a gun striker or gun winger in ahead of him in the pecking order. Voronin was good at the start of the year, and he’s the kind of guy we can stick on the bench most of the year and not feel too bad about it.

Re: Riise – I don’t think he really “mouthed off” to the media. He was probably just asked where he saw his future and answered “I don’t know, I need to find out”. He’s been a good servant and has always tried hard, he just happens to have gone to shit recently. I think Rafa is partly to blame (and I just mean partly) because Riise said that Rafa told him to just concentrate on the defensive side of his game, and stop practicing things like shooting in training. Riise used to be one of the best attacking left backs in the league. Once he let that side of his game slip, it has turned out that defensively he’s not that great (which is of course his fault). But I’m not sure he has been asked to play to his strengths that much.

Not sure my congrats went through in the last blog as was having some difficulties with the web, if not well done Gerry.

Regarding Masch, cant blame him for going, I do blame the IOC for having football as a sport in the olympics, the olympics should be the highest level of a sport, winning gold in football is nothing to lift the world cup, CL etc so it shouldnt be there.

For anyone who missed it in the last blog, ive re-posted in here:

Due to the rageing succes of the Kop Blog EPL fantasy football competition (all 5 of us who joined up), and considering we all play fantasy football in here on regular occasions, ive created fantasy football league for the Euro’s:

Kop Blog Cup —
http://en.fantasy.euro2008.uefa.com/
Code to join this league: 59136-11069

Come on lads. Lets get as many in as possible. i challenge you all to beat my team, “Sporting Lesbian”.

Firstly – I hate international football of any kind, shape, form or manner. I could give a long list of the reasons why, but why bother. It’s shite.

I’m surprised you’re paying any heed to what’s said in the papers, Gerry….
Probable truth – Risse asks his agent to have a word with Rafa and clarify his situation.
Reporter get’s hold of it. Next morning’s headline – JAR: “Play me in every game Rafa, you fat Spanish prick, or I will kick your goatee in.”

Well, maybe not that exact headline as JAR would probably miss if Rafa snuck up on him on his righthand side. But you get me drift.

And, talking of the media, especially Sly Sports News…. When are they going to change it’s name to MUFCtv?
I put it on this morning for the first time since we lost the semi final. Being dazzled by The Dark Lord Fergus Of The Brown Bottles gleaming trumpet is not my idea of how to start the day. So, I was going to turn it off immeadiately, but – just as a little experiment – I’ve left it on for an hour or so.
It’s been nothing but an hour’s worth of shameless MUFC promoting. And tonight, there’s the treat of an hour long interview with Sir Tramp and (No. Not a sports journalist) Sir David Frost no less. What a mutual arse kissing session that will be.
But I don’t know why they’re bothering putting on the interview. I’ve suffered most of it already. It’s a disgrace.
Apparently Dark Lord Fergus, can now heal the sick. And he would have saved poor Paul Gascoigne if he’d only gone to Castle Greyskull instead of having the temerity to sign for Tottingham.
The man’s ego knows no bounds.
But in telling that story, he has just sat there telling how he had his players try to tap up Gascoigne to join MU. And in the next breath the hypocritical alcoholic bastard is slamming Real Madrid for approaching Wee Willy Winky. It really is a proper disgrace.
How can he keep getting away with this shite?

Well, fuck him and on to a real gentleman… I hate them bloody crappy statues that are popping up all over the country. Again, I could give a list of reasons why. But I’ll leave it at this…
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/2007/03/southamptons_te.html

Surely, something better could be done for Billy?

And sorry this is so long winded, but the English summer is back with a vengance. Yep. It’s absoultely pissing down outside. So, I’m missing a days work, again, and skivving in here instead of decorating. But I’ll leave you with a true story….
An aul fella I know was sent to borstal by Billy Liddell. Billy became a magistrate when he quit playing. Apparently he was a bit of a hanging judge too, real old time disciplanarian. He sent old Tommy, a proper mad red, to borstal for something really trivial. Years later Tommy approached Liddell, with a copy of the great man’s biography and asked him to sign it. He did… To Tommy, glad it all worked out for you and that you saw the error of your ways. Sincerly, B. Liddell.
Funny thing is, Tommy hadn’t said anything about the borstal.

PS… they’re going down quicker than Derby and there hasn’t been a ball kicked in anger yet. Torres is the latest of ours to get injured in training.
I fucking hate international football.

Torres has a ‘minor’ ankle injury. The problem with ‘minor’ ankle injuries is that they become ‘regular’ ankle injuries.

We really, really need someone who can score goals when we need to rest Torres during the year. I just don’t think his body can hold out if we push him too hard. The lad is young but he’s already played a LOT of games… I’ve said this before, but other pacy attacking players who played a lot of games at a young age include one St Michael Owen and Harry Kewell, and look what happened to them in their mid/late 20s.

I fucking hate international football. Except the World Cup. Who’s joining me in South Africa 2010? Aussie, you’ll be a full blown Kiwi by then.

Yes, it is depressing that players are going down like they’ve got the plague due to the international games. I seriously think there should be a proper compensation ruling because it is just frustrating to be given back our players all messed up when we are paying their wages.

Torres has suffered minor ankle injuries for the last 3 years I think – he’ll probably suffer them throughout his career.
I wouldn’t play him in any cup games next season. CL and PL only unless we get to an FA or Carling cup final then I’d put him in.

As for international football – I actually enjoy it. I don’t passionately support any team but I love the world cup and euros. The first tournament I remember watching was Mexico 1986. Watching France v Brazil in the quarter finals and then Argentina v England with Maradonna and all that (Barnes coming off the bench). There have been some epic matches down the years in these tournaments and I find them a nice break away from week in week out club football.

I don’t understand all the complaints about players wanting to represent their country. The disadvantage of signing young foreign players near Olympic year is that they will be off to represent their countries in the Olympics. If Rafa was not aware of this then it’s his own fault really. The call ups should not come as a surprise.

Will i bollocks!!!! I’ll be back in Gods Country in one year. i gaurantee you that!

SA 2010 i shall be there!!!!

I remember there was a Stevie G for England Campaign years ago, when we look to sign players, if they are not full international, we tend to dismiss them.

I am sure other teams will be missing players also, so all in all, if we start using this as excuse at this stage, what hope do we have next season.

Super stuff Gerry.I reckon JAR was on his way out anyway before he forgot how to use his right peg.He`s been on a downward spiral for a while now and i do think his comments had “arms and legs” put on so in my opinion he was a good player for a while and we shouldn`t forget that.

As for mash,i`m surprised people are shocked he`s going to the olympics.Everbody knows the guys passion for his country so we should give him our blessing.I blame the IOC and the argie FA for taking this too seriously not mash,he`s only answering the call so to speak.

On billy liddel,the mans a great.legend is a word which is thrown around too much these days but billy is certainly one.He was well well before my time but i do know the history of the club fairly well so i can appreciate how good he really was.
I`ll sign that gerry he deserves something.

If you take away Mash’s pride and passion then you wont have a Masher. Good luck Mash at the Olympics. Babel on the other hand doesn’t have the drive and determination, it’s what makes Mash the person he is.
.
Maybe the reason we can’t get a decent fucking left winger for the last whatever years is because Billy used up all our good fortune in that position. RIP Billy. 500+ games WOW.
.
As far a JAR is concerned we all continually claim the press is just shit when it comes to all things LFC, but then jump on players backs when they allegedly say something in the PRESS. Good luck for the future JAR.

Explain why Babel doesn’t have the drive and determination lads? (click on link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KomyQCPCudU

I think sometimes a lack of confidence and being a bit unsure can appear to look like a lack of drive and determination. Anybody that saw Mascherano play for West Ham would see that.

The scum have agreed a fee with cardiff for Aaron Ramsey.

I know it looks like i`m reporting good news for the manure but i just thought i`d reveal the news because i seen a lot of comments on the kid in here.another one that got away,the story of our club.

No, you’re right to point it out timmeytorres. Rooney, Walcott, and now, Ramsey. Surprise, surprise, we lose out yet again, on another youngster. Really pissed off. Really. My ulcer will never recover at the rate we’re going, bloody transfers. All I’ve been hearing is shit stories, and no bright news whatsoever for our club.

Lads a quick question who should be wearing our no 7 and 10 next season .. How about babel 7 or is that too much pressure ? Ive only ever seen billy liddell on archive footage but the history he created for us is truly legendary carrying the team single handedly sometimes hope he gets his rightful place in scottish football history travesty that he hasnt already

It’s interesting it’s only the scousers who couldn’t care less about international football. I feel the same as F/S. I don’t knock any player for wanting to play for their country. I don’t think gerry or F/S are using it as an excuse. what we are saying is that for us LFC is more important than any country when it comes to football. I don’t want any LFC player going to play in meaningless friendlies or crappy tournements and risk getting injured. I would rather LFC won the premiership than ingerland win the world cup. I don’t mind watching the world cup or the euros as it’s footy but I never watch friendlies as inglerland are crap, can’t pass the ball and bore the pants off me.

Billy Liddell – Legend
Dalglish – Legend
Cally – Legend
Hunt – Legend
Keegan – great player
Souness – great player

What makes a legend in my opinion? The achievements with the club + attitude as a player and person + their love for LFC.
that’s why Billy Liddell is certainly a Legend.

Voronin offers no danger whatsoever. Looks to me like he couldn’t score in a month of sundays. Get rid.

Rise – Not good enough simple as. Bob Paisly used to say ‘a player’s not finished when he leaves Liverpool, he’s just finished at Liverpool.’

Gerry, if you hiding a perm under that cap, I reckon you would be a dead ringer for Graham Souness!!

The previous pic of the cool dude in the specs, who was that?

F/S taggart is the worst example of a hypocrite there is. He thinks that he is above the rules and I don’t understand why people seem to be in awe or scared of him, i mean he’s an old whiskey drinking man with a red nose who wasn’t even that good a detective. I certainly hate it when people call him sir alex especially ex LFC players. Slur alex more like.

Riise has been one of my fave pool players in recent years. I’ll be sorry to see him leave. It’s always
a bitter-sweet moment when talent leaves. I do think he suffered under the Rafa caution regime. He was
one of those whom you knew was not the best, but a firm favourite. I foe one won’t muddy his name.
Thanks for the memories JAR.

PS before some reminds me of the memory of the o.g., it was an honest fuck up. He did put his head where
a boot could be flying.

If you like a laugh in the kop sense check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH_BoxsQ7MY&feature=related

corklfc, the cool dude in the glasses and the scary dude in the baseball hat are both me. The only difference between the two is alcohol!

Good blog Gerry.

One point you brought up was the scenario where Masch alone holds the sitting position, particularly where we are playing weaker teams / chasing the game ourselves.

We’ve had a pile of chat about full-backs and having some sort of potency on the wings… great, we DO need it.

But I think you’ve got an interesting point. It’s hard to score at the best of times but if your back 4 are just that and not giving anything and you have 2 more “defenders” hoding the space in front (as we saw so many times last year) well there ain’t much thinking to be done for whoever is trying to keep us out.
We’ve been down this track before – post Chavski CL exit chats – but I do really think it’s an option Rafa’s got to look at.

However it manifests, be it pace, power, guile, skill, long-range shooting etc .. I think we ought to look at packing an extra option through the middle. Xavi has the shot, the passing range and the skill but he hasn’t been producing (injuries accepted) and I think he’s also been penned back by Rafa’s tactical instruction. So is it the player or the manager here ?

I think that of the mid-fielders we have and know both Benny and Lucas have the skill, technique, passing and overall game intelligence to play around Stevie. Also they could exploit any gaps that could appear if Stevie, who will be a marked man in every sense, dropped deep and off ‘Nando. I’m talking about a fluid 4-1-4-1 formation as an alternative to Rafa’s favourite 4-2-3-1.

As a matter of interest I would not go for the 3 at the back option spoken about earlier in the blog. Too much of a temptation to concentrate on defense for an already defense minded coach.

What do you think gang? Is it the lack of players, ability or willingness on the manager’s part… Or am i talking **** !

(By the way Corky, here’s another one for you .. bacon & rashers for …. ?)

Later dudes ..

All our players who have given us good service leave with us wishing them well but there is no room for sentiment if we want to step up to the next level. rise’s defending for the own goal was diabolical, it was worse than school boy defending and so was arbeloa’s to let the cross in in the first place. I think arbeloa is a good squad player but rise has to be moved on.

About Rafa being cagey or safety first. Nonsense. Rafa is building from the back. The only time I have seen LFC played off the park was by Valencia- twice. as regards he doesn’t like flair players again nonsense. torres, Babel. There were plenty of flair players at valencia as well. The players have to couple flair with a winning mentality and I for one think that’s the way it has to be. Even rollando runs for the whole ninety minutes and if it’s not going his way you can see him ready to have a tantrum or cry at any moment.

Formations and tactics are important, but if players don’t have pace and mobility, your going no where. This is Xabi comes up short, its the same with the most of the defence his season when Agger has being injured. It fair to say Xabi has the ability to more than compensate, but I think Barry is much better suited to the PL.

Bacon & Rashers for the Blarney Slashers!

Hay & Oats for the Donoughmore Goats!

Dougle, I reckon your watching my house.

Well done on the award , Gerry Lad.
As far as Billy Liddell, I started watching Liverpool in 1963 so I just missed seeing him play, but like you have said he is truly a legend
in English Football.
From all accounts he was a true gentleman and represented Liverpool F.C. well.

As far as the JAR situation goes.
I have always been a fan of his, but the last two seasons have seen him slip.
He really has nobody to blame but himself, he obviously has never taken the time to put in the extra practise time to develop a right foot.
I was a naturally right footed player, and I would spend hours working on my left peg.
I never played at anywhere near the level that he has, but I recognised the need to develop that side of my game.
I wish him well if he does leave Anfield.
He has been a good servant to the Club, and his goals have given us all something to Cheer about.

Watched Barry in Trinidad game last night……I reckon he is totally different to Alonso. Plays further up the field where Gerrard plays… thus making one of them useless….Gerrard was M.I.A in the game….very very concerned if we sign Barry and get rid of Alonso….

So no that I really give a fuck, but WHY is Mark Hughes moving from Blackburn to Man City??

He’s spent a fari amount of time at Blackburn getting the players he wants and making them into a decent mid-table team.
Man City are also a mid-table club and he’s hardly stepping into a “formidable squad” left by his predecessor. Add to that, the way SGE was treated by TS being fairly appalling.

It gets trotted out like a showpony anytime someone makes a move these days, but I’m sorry… are Man City “a big club” really?
Are they that much bigger than Blackburn?

I just don’t get it.

On another note, I hope Special Needs takes Lumpy and Dogbreath to Milan and I hope Ancelloti snubs them and they end up having to settle for 3rd choice.
Could be just what we need to unsettle them for the start of the season.

God I hate the offseason…. coz I really don’t give a fuck about anything I’ve just typed.
Come on Rafa sign or sell someone, so we’ve got something to talk about!

I know how you feel Aitch, but it looks like Dossena is undergoing his medical tomorrow and is all set to sign, so thats something to smile about. And as for Mark Hughes, I think its all about the money, although I believe he also lives in the area.
What do you think the odds are that somewhere along the line next season, we will be drawn against Inter in the CL and we’ll have the whole Benitez vs Maureen rivalry stuff done to death once again in the media.

Id bank more on Chelsea drawing inter. The Rafa Mourinho thing is getting boring.

come on, someone in the nightshift must have something to say. ANYTHING. Doesnt even have to be interesting. Dont make me do work here lads!!!!!!

I’m invigilating an exam at the moment and I’m dying for a dump!

well take your laptop with you that way you can write something interesting whilst in the jacks!

Chelsea reckon Benitez has made contact with them and asked to be considered for the vacant position at stamford bridge.

Complete bollocks me thinks. But if it was the case, you could hardly blame him after the way he’s been treated by H&G.

i reckon its just a ploy by Chelsea to try and unsettle Fernando abit.
Either that or planted by benitez’ side to losen G&H’s purse strings abit.

Jaysus next it will start raining frogs

the end is near lads…

Can’t see Rafa managing those cunts

he’s a scouser for fuck sake!!

The things with us and rumors is

1) were linked with a player 2) we haggle for a month over a million quid 3) we sign him

so next month we might have Villa and Ribery and Barry

Apparently Villa has been put up for 17 million and Aimar for 6.5

There you go Aussie chew on that and waste a few minutes!!

Aimar could do a job I reckon. Must admit i havent seen him play in a couple of years, but when i did see him last i thought he was class.
whats others thoughts on him???

Villa for 17….seems abit cheap??? straight swap for Pennant and a packet of crisps?

Seeming as im still playing fantasy football, i’ve just read that Newcastle are going to offer us 20 million for Crouch and Riise. Cant say i believe that one…although if anyone is dumb enough to pay that much for those two, its Newcastle!

I still think we should sign Snoogy Doogy though.

bit lonely in here eh Donal?!?!?!

I read the Benitez and Chelsea thing as well, I think Chelsea are playing a few games at the moment, Torres, now Mr B – Maybe they could take Parry off us instead.

I read somewhere Hicks is after City’s CEO to replace Parry???

i think Rafa wrote the Parry article.

Morning lads. The rumour mill is going off full tilt then eh. Yeah. Hicks is supposed to be replacing Parry with Alistair McIntosh, his opposite number at Man City. I’d say that’s pure bollacks, for just the one reason…. He’s got his own man lined up for the job and sitting in an office in Liverpool, keeping an eye on things and waiting to be installed as soon as shithead can get rid of Coco. And yes, Coco definetely has to go, but not before Hicks. the only reason he wants shut is, Parry is the easiest target to oust from a board that is thankfully still slightly stacked against him.

Be sort of ironic though if Coco loses his job to Frank Sinatra’s man. Just think the daft cunt was about to seel us to that little criminal before the other two yankee criminals stepped in. Rick Parry you should be jailed for aiding and abbetting nevermind fucking sacked.

As for player signings, I am still waiting to see the wrapping paper getting peeled off them in Anfield before I believe anything. But on the good news front, to anyone that belives this sort of thing… the one rumour that will not die amongst other fans is, David Villa. Now that’d be good. But so would new owner’s, a new stadium and a new CEO. I won’t be holding me breath.

Bit lonely alright Aussie

I had a fucking busy day with exams and no Liverpool news worth a damn

Now I’m finished for the summer

now I’m off to get pissed and let the early birds educate us with their insightful banter

Have a good day fellow reds

Over and out

Gareth Barry £15 million don’t make me chortle.

David Villa would have me purring. He’s skillful and works hard like torres. Those two as a forward line it’s the stuff dreams are made of. Sadly buying him is probably that – a dream

Dossena a done deal? Lets hope so.

I have to admit that I have not seen either of our new signings play yet, so like most of you, I shall have a keen interest in the Euros now, with Deggen and his Swiss mates kicking the tournament off on Saturday.

Not too keen on the last Swiss defender to play for one of the big four, so I just hope that Deggen is alot better than Sendusoff.

Deggen and Dossena the “double D”
Fingers crossed they dont play like two huge tits!

if he’s as good as our swiss defender henchoz we’ll be alright.

Question: where exactly does Villa play in our formation?????? Where does Villa play in Spain’s formation??????
It’s great to want as many of the best players in the world but seriously, do we NEED Villa? Villa and Torres have yet to combine on the International level and as a result Spain only play with one striker…
I’m definately of the opinion that wingers are of greater nescessity and high quality wingers at that… Interesting to see the Portugese papers saying that Anfeild is the prefered destination of Quaresma and are looking more likely to sign him… I know theres alot of talk that Quaresma lacks the work ethic and team-spirit but we need creativity and the fact that he was ear-marked to be greater than Ronaldo as a youngster says alot about what he is made of… 15mill is alot but better than the stupid rumours about Ribbery…
Dossena looks to be done and dusted, Barry is probably not far away and I do think 8mill plus Crouchie is a good deal (only cause Crouchie is in his last year). Sales from Alonso, JAR and Peanut and Crouch’s swap should pretty much cover Rafa’s spending to date for Dossena and Barry (that’s realistic not the stupid 15mill for crouch, 7 mill for peanut, etc,etc). In my mind Rafa should have the balance of his Transfer kitty left maybe a little more…
Which could put more credance on a 15mill bid for Quaresma and perhaps leave Rafa with 5-10 mill to spend on another Babel type player… Food for thought I’d say…
I haven’t heard a peep out of Rafa and the fact that we’re on the verge of our third signing in as many weeks indicates a happy and maybe exhausted Gaffer…
I’m prepared to hazard a guess at 5 new players with Carson again sent out on loan(poor lad)…
I do have a nagging feeling that alot will hinge on our new fullbacks next year even though I’d prefer thay rode the bench earning the privilege to wear that red shirt…

Oh, thanks Gerry great blog, always love reading bout the old days and players that graced that feild…

As I’ve said before if Rafa reckons a full back is worth £7m-£8m then I’m happy and confident that Dossena is a good player. I based that on Skrtel and Agger who cost in the £6m-£7m region and are very good players. Degen concerns me but we’ll know a lot more while watching him against Portugal and Czech Republic in the next couple of weeks. If he has Quaresma and Nani in his pocket while rampaging down the wing himself – I’ll have a broad grin on my boat race (face).

Many have discussed the 4-2-3-1 formation and various alternatives. I don’t think its neccessary to have 2 holding players in midfield. I understand that when Rafa was coming through the coaching ranks he visited Milan in the early 90s and was a huge admirer of their system. They played 2 holding players in midfield with Desailly and Albertini. I think now football has moved on and is more attacking. Masch as the only holding player works for me. Put Barry next to him but still allow him to play his natural game. He’s disciplined enough to do his bit defensively. He’s a box to box player. With this in mind I see no problem in selling Alonso (as long as we get Barry).

I believe Rafa is a cautious first manager but is realising that to challenge for the PL you really have to attack the opposition. Sure he has bought attacking flair players in the past. But they all say that the manager stresses the importance of working back and defending, being disciplined etc etc. I don’t know about you guys but when I see the team go into a game they know they have to score goals they play totally different to when its a middle of the season away game. The attitude is miles apart. E.g. compare Marseille away to Blackburn or Reading away last season.

I read somewhere an idea that if you draw 0-0 in the PL you get no points. Interesting.

Hello, night shift. Cheer up. Just had my dinner with my brother who is staying for the night.
Had a look at the news. Martin O’ Niel wants Barry for fucking Stg8 million + Crouch.
Better we quickly sell Crouch + Riise for Stg 20 million to Newcastle, I say.

Gerry, nice write up about Billy Liddel. Till you wrote, I have never heard of him.

Hyde, thanks for the lead on BL. What a player. What a man.

alright lads,porto just kicked out of europe for bribing officials in 2003-04.
Now is the time to go for Quaresma.There going to loose millions because of this so they will have no power at the negotiating table.We could get him for around £10m.
Looks like the chavs have made a boo-boo by forking out 16m for bosingwa.could have saved themselves a few million quid if they held out.Feel a bit sorry now for Roman after wasting his hard earned cash…HE HE HE

Also the bitters have agreed a fee with cardiff for ramsay.Looks like Cardiff are intising a bidding war.Lets get in while we`ve got the muscle…(sarcasim)

Here’s another lead in the Daily Mail- Rafa is offering Stg15 million for Barry:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1024005/Liverpool-boss-Benitez-offers-15m-package-Villas-Barry.html

mourinho’s team caught cheating. thats strange.

we should not pay any more to villa than what well sell Alonso for.

They should strip porto of there 2004 title then maureen can no longer call himself a “european champion” like he did every second day when he was in england.

I still like Mourinho from when Porto knocked out the mancs and he went screaming down the Old Trafford touch line, slid on his knees to celebrate with the players. I wont hate on his achievements.

Quaresma for £10m is not going to happen. You can double that mate – a £10m offer would just piss them off I reckon. Inter are already lining up a €32m bid. Unlike us they have a huge transfer kitty this summer and apparently Quaresma tops their wish list.

Riise linked to Roma for Stg 5 million which could outbid Newcastle or Villa.

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=722494

Stop dreaming about Quaresma guys, it’s not going to happen. Mourinho will have him at Inter quicker than Parry can say “I’ll make an offer after my golf holiday”. Plus I don’t think Rafa even wants him, and I don’t think he wants to play for Liverpool – not with the lure of a more ‘glamorous’ city in Italy, he’s a real showpony remember.

I’ve read ‘arry Redknapp say that he’d take Crouch for 10 million quid. Offer him for 11 or 12 and I reckon it’s a done deal. Then use the money towards Barry. I then think we’ll ship out Riise, Carson and Alonso for combined fees around 25 million, to be spent on 1 more quality attacking signing and maybe a youngster.

next we’ll be hearing chavski have been bribing officials no | know that’s stretching it too far.

Steve the Red _ That was funny man, i keep giggling to myself like an idiot.

I’d love a show pony at the club. Someone in the David Ginola mold. Get you on the edge of your seat with breath taking skill as opposed to the fist clenching gestures and “get stuck in there lad” when watching Kuyt close down a fullback giving away a throw in.

Fantasy LFC time:

If I had my way I’d have a Quaresma type on the left, Babel on the right with Villa behind Torres. Gerrard next to Masch. Dossena and Degen as full backs. I calculate that to be a £57m outlay.

Sell:
Alonso £16m
Carson £7m
Crouch £11m
Riise £5m
Pennant £5m
Finnan £2m
Total £46m

Net spend £11m

Reina
Degen Carra Agger Dossena
Mascherano
Quaresma Gerrard Babel
Villa
Torres

I got Babel and Quaresma on the wrong wings.

Not much happening in the transfer market at the moment so I´ve decided to see if anyone knows this. Has there been any disciplinary action been taken towards the manchester players for the bust up at the Bridge? Or against Ferguson for approaching the ref at half time? Might of missed it but my money is on the official double standards rule that was implemented in ´91.

Red4life – We’re on the verge of signing a new left back – thats some news mate.

I wouldn’t worry about whether or not the mancs will be punished. You’ll only end up frustrated and develop even more bitterness and hatred. Fergie blatantly came out and called the ref a cheat after the Portsmouth game and the FA disciplinary panel cleared him of the misconduct charge. The FA were going to appeal against their own disciplinary panel because they realised their ‘respect’ campaign looks like a joke.

A word on Mark Hughes and why he would have left Blackburn to go to Man City. City are a much bigger club. Got over 30,000 people in the stadium where they were in the 3rd tier. The owner has a few quid to spend and there is potential to take the club forward. As long as he’s successful he’ll be alright. At Blackburn – they can’t really get any further than they are right now.

LB,granted we might not get Quaresma for 10m but there`s no way in hell inter will spend 32m on him.forget that.And why would inter be more attractive than liverpool.?They have a squad of has beens viera,crespo,materattzi,cruz etc.First maureen will have to have a clear out and they won`t get much money back off that bunch.It will cost them more money to fix there squad than we do.They are nowhere near a CL challenge mate english clubs have that sewn up for the forseeable future.
And if its fancy cities footballers want they`d be all going to Paris and we all know they have a shite team.
The premiership is the place to be at the minute seria A is on a downwards spiral and has been for a while.

Aiyic. Glad you enjoyed the “double D” line, I just hope they dont turn out to be a couple of tits, and that Rafa has sorted out our full back situation with players that will give great service for years to come. Heres hoping.

Steve the Red – Dossena took this goal well. I’m still laughing mate!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIg7s3sFVFU&feature=related

Dossena looks good there.We`ll have to wait and see though looking at a footballer on youtube is like looking at a bit of rough after an all day bender!!

Timmy note I said €32m EUROS which is around £25m. Inter can afford that, we cannot.

Alright seen that,even they won`t pay 25m now after porto being kicked out.Porto haven`t a leg to stand on financially.Your right though if it did go to a bidding war we wouldn`t stand a chance.

LB, how do you know we cannot afford Quaresma? That is a weak arguement, especially as our sales will be more than our spending on both Dossena and Barry…
Even IF Raffa was given 10mill from H & G, which I doubt would be that low, we’d still have enough for a 15-18 mill offer, which would be more than enough…
The Reds are feared in Europe, so we do have a powerful stance when attracting continental players, I wouldn’t say we’re not attractive to come and play for. Unless youre a sky sports supporter…

That’s the thing Timmy – it would go to a bidding war because the player is or would be sort after if available. Its that whole supply and demand thing I keep going on about. When something is in demand and is in short supply you have to pay big money for it. Skillfull 2 footed wingers that score goals, can dribble and cross are not too common.

To be honest I dont even think Rafa would want him.

YNWAlancey – I dont have enough to go for Quaresma either. We have two fucking idiots in charge of the club who dont want to put any money into the club. Everyone is thinking we’re going to get 20 million plus player sales to spend on new players, ive seen nothing to suggest this and given the form of our owners it gives me no confidence that this is going to be the case. We have Coco the Clown in charge of the club who is more interested in licking windows, playing golf and driving his shiny new ferrari than actually pulling his finger out of his arse and going and signing a player. Quaresma is a sort after player AND no matter how much financial trouble Porto are in, he will get a very descent transfer fee, because there will be a bidding war for him from a number of clubs. Bidding war = liverpool No compete. So, i agree with LB, no, i dont think we have enough money for Quaresma.

knowbody knows anything because nobody knows what Rafa has to spend.We could talk about selling to buy and all that but how do we do that when we don`t even own torres,mash and babel.
I`m no financial expert,far from it,i`m all footie me,but i think the two clowns will use player sales to pay towards the other 3 we bought last season.

since we`re on a billy liddle blog i might as well tell a story i heard before.
Not only was he a legend on the pitch with over 20yrs service plus staying with us through the 2nd divion days and a gentleman off it,he was instrumental in altering the path our club took.

Apparently when one Robert Paisley was dropped from the 1950 cup final team after scoring the winner in the semi`s he didn`t take it too well.So bad in fact he was ready to pack his bags and leave for pastures new.Steadfast in his decision nothing could change his mind until mr Billy Liddel stepped in and wholeheartedly convinced him to stay.
So thanks for that billy what would have happened if Paisley had left then? would we have had Rome`77 wembley `78 `81 in Paris and all the leagues? I don`t know if anybody else could have folllowed shankly like sir bob.

Just thought i`d add something different to this depressing transfer talk.

Do we not own Torres, Babel and Masch? I saw the article in the times saying we bought them on credit but thought it could be bullshit. Again we’re relying on media reports to form an opinion.

Who knows how much money we’ll have to spend but note in the last 18 months Rafa has spent over £70m. Since January 08 £24m has been spent. Whether the money has come from loans, credit, tv money, player sales whatever… it has still been spent. Why are we not confident more will be available during the summer?

The banks own torres, babel, yossi, Skrtl and masch etc. Kuyt was the last plasyer we bought with our money…and that came out of Moyes’ pocket.

Right, all this talk of Euros ismaking me hungry for a punt. im going to the betting shop to put this on:

Czech republic to make Quarter Finals
Portugal to top Group A
Switzerland to be knocked out in the group stages
Germany to top group B
Spain to make the quarter finals

$20 outlay = $230 win

Im all over it like a fat kid on a cup cake. Get on it and then thank aussie for making you money!

Precisely, why are us Red’s fans saying non-sense about who we can and can’t afford??? I don’t know how much we’ve got to spend and I’d guess Stevie G himself wouldn’t have a clue, which is why I don’t understand why we shoot our beloved club in the foot any chance we get..
My point is that Rafa is silent at the moment and we are continuing to make signings, two so far and apparently Barry is to follow… Riise and Alonoso are almost through the turnstyles as well…
If Rafa was making comments to the press about being too slow to compete in the summer transfer market or a lack of funds we would’ve definately heard it by now…
But not a peep from Rafa of late, just signings and the odd peice of media to pressure the other clubs into completing a deal… To me something smells different about this year’s off-season. I don’t know what it is but it smells as though both H & G are standing behind our manager in regards to what he wants in playing personel (I’m sneering as I write this, but it appears to be the case)…

I like that bet aussie, gl!

aussie – i didnt know david moyes paid for dirk kuyt. that was mighty friendly of him, buying a player for us reds. haha, just takin the piss.

YNWA

heads up me arse this morning. you know what i mean.

haha, can you imagine that troll Moyes, coming over to the Anfield and dumping a big bag of cash on David Moores. “here ya go. Go buy that dutch fella you wont so much. lets call it a present from your little brother”

If we look at the transfer proceedings in a positive perspective, as YNWAlancey hints, maybe the fact that Rafa is not coming out public with his frustration is a sign that something big is going on behind the scenes. At least with Spanish players, I am sure he has a good underground connection that maybe even Juande Ramos hasn’t. We might find that Rafa has already talked to Villa or Silva and asked them for a proper chat with them after the Euros. In the meantime, he maybe focusing on selling his current players to amass the money needed for someone like Silva, who we desperately need more than Villa. Let’s just hope we are all being fooled right now.

I know most of you don’t give a toss but I thought the handling of SGE and Grant was disgraceful, but isn’t it even more disgusting that Mark Hughes, who had lambasted that players still in contract should not even consider moving when the David Bentley issue came up, decides to swap ship whilst still in the middle of his own contract with Rovers. What a total cunt, and I don’t think he has even half the calibre of SGE as a club manager. How irritating off-seasons are.

OR Rafa has kept quiet cause last time he dared speak against the Hicks regime, he was nearly fired and replaced with Herman the German Klinsman.

i think this is more likely why Don Juan Rafa has kept quiet.

Rafa may have been quiet lately but both him and SG have been pleading with the owners and anyone who listens to buy quickly.
.
Yes we now have two players in, Degan and Dossena but like all LFC fans, I wanted to here some cracking big names this summer. Both of these lads may turn out to be wonderful buys, but like the last 4 seasons it’s wingers we need.
.
Hughes just shows there is no loyalty in football it’s all about money, simple as that.
.
Lets face it we all seem to want Barry, but hell he’s the captain of his team, on the most money and still he wants to leave to further his England career, which most people here don’t agree with.
.
As far as our Queresma link, didn’t he claim he wanted to make the Liverpool supporters cry when we played Porto in the CL. Big fuck off to that lazy twat.
.
Ps whats wrong with bringing Anderson through, if we continue to loan him out why not just sell him. If Ramsay is worth 5 million plus Anderson and Hammil on loan what the fuck are they still doing at our club. Bring them through of get rid of them.

How funny is this Chelsea trying to find a manager business.

I like the part where Roman goes to Ancellotti for advice, Carlos obliges with two choices he thinks will fit, so Roman offers the job to Carlos – bwahahahahahahahahahah, fawlty towers all over.

How long till the mad russian decides he will manage the team himself.
WE SHALL WELEASE…… WOMAN ABWOMOVICH!!!!

I think the reason we all assume we don’t have a hell of a lot of money to spend is down to a few things

1) We haggled over the price of Dossena for at least 3 weeks or more, when other clubs were probably circling

2) We clearly appear to be needing to sell to buy – otherwise I don’t think we’d even talk to anyone about selling Alonso

3) We’ve stated we want Barry, but we’re trying to get him by trading them a bunch of our unwanted players + small change in cash

4) We signed a free agent no one has ever heard of for an important position we need strengthening in

Now don’t get me wrong, if Rafa can pull all this off plus use sales to bring in a gun winger and/or gun striker, it will certainly have been some very smart business to improve our squad. But obviously if we had the money, another way to improve the squad would have been to go out and buy a gun winger, striker, left back, right back, and slap 15+ million down for Barry.

When Man U wanted Carrick they walked in, slapped down a ridiculous 18 million, and got him. I’m not saying we SHOULD be doing that, but if we had plenty of money to spend, we might be doing something at least close, instead of haggling.

Maybe we should raise 20 million from player sales, and put it all down on Aussie’s Euro Quinella and turn it into 230 million!

yep andy, the most important of the points you highlighted is the fact that we have to sell Alonso, which i am totally disappointed at. If we had the money, Rafa would never even want to consider losing him even if Xabi has been a bit wayward, but now that we need to address certain positions urgently, he has to look to sell an asset.
It was the same when we went for Torres. If given the chance, Rafa would have both kept Garcia and Torres. I just hope Xabi’s sale is not for the money needed for barry. Barry, if Rafa wants him that bad, should be bought independent to the Xabi money. Would be a total waste of the sale. Hopefully, it will all be used to secure a winger or a second striker.

btw aussie, how come i can’t see the selections of that you or others have made in the Kopblog cup? Can we only see it once the competition has started?

yeah you wont be able to see anyones team until the transfer window for that round has closed.
stops you the stealing the aussies ideas!!!

Well the Euro 08 fantasy comp is a looking like a raging success. pity i dont know who half the people in it are??? Obviously AKKA, Donal, Lance, Andy and Hyde are in it…but who are the others??? The mythical readers who we are told read but do not comment perhaps?

Better watch out for those Muck Savages… I hear they have been bribing officials already! Fortunately I’ve heard they plan on having a big night out on the Guinness before the first round.

Aussie – regarding your post #88. You state that as fact mate, what do you base it on? The Times article or other evidence? I’m not saying its bollocks coz I honestly don’t have a clue if these players are owned by the banks or not. But we dismiss a lot of articles in such newspapers as total bullshit. Why then treat this one as nothing but the truth?

No doubt we can’t spend money on the level of the mancs, Chavski, Barca, Real and the Milan clubs but we have spent money. As I said £70m and thats in the last 12 months not 18 as I said before. Regardless of net spend – if we can spend £70m (gross) in the next 12 months you’d think it would be enough for a PL challenge right?

I hope people dont read this and take it as an endorsement of the owners. I’m talking exclusively about the amount of money used for transfers thus far.

Not sure why some of you are so gutted to see Alonso go. Since 2006 he has not been good. I like the lad and remember how good he was in his first 2 years but what has he done for us lately? No time for the club to be sentimental if we want to progress. £16m for a player who has been off form for 2 years is great business. All the other players that are likely to be sold are clearly surplus to requirements as well – I’d be worried if we were selling a key player at his peak and in form.

Great Blog Gerry and I had a smile on my face all of yesterday. That must be one of your better lines.

“I mean if I really felt a burning need to see a load of drug-induced morons running as fast as they can and jumping over fences etc, I’d just take a stroll down to one of the parks or fields in my local area and wait for a police car to turn up.”

I can just picture it and spot on about Billy, I was too young to see him play but read all the stories and profiles.

A little harsh about Masch, if he stated he did not want to play for the Argies he would get slated in his home country and by the rest of the world and media. Then blame lies at the Olympic Committee. If it is to be an Under 23 competition then make it so. Fuck the 3 over aged players; they should stick to the age group. The overage players are probably to avoid having to disqualify the African countries for dodgy birth certificates.

Aussie Hairdo you are getting as bad as FS with all razor blade scenarios. I must admit things are looking better by the day. We have the left and right back sorted and Barry will be a Liverpool player soon. Those are quality additions in areas that we were vulnerable last season.

Barry is an improvement on Alonso, he is quicker, more mobile, more versatile, more attacking and better suited for the Prem. Alonso would cause disruptions and would not be happy sitting on the bench, with Lucas and Plessis as well as Masch, Gerrard we have more than enough midfield cover. Crouch and Carson takes care of his fee.

Dossena is quick and attack minded and if Rafa has paid 7 mill that equates him in the Agger , Skertal category and I am well pleased with that. Jar, Guthrie and Finnen takes care of his fee.

So that leaves us with Alonso and Peanut fees plus anything that Rafa gets from the twats. Yes we can be all pessimistic and say he will get nothing but if we really think about it he will get something in the region of 10 to 20 mill. That leaves us with a 30 to 40 mill budget for quality wide come strikers, not too shabby. The saving of Kewels 70K a week frees up a lot of the wage bill to get decent signings as well. Don’t bet against Rafa convincing Ramsey to come to LFC (wide right player) ManU with Nani and Wanker being young counts against them, Everton give me a break, Spurs might be an option but Liverpool has to be the best option for him.

I still think there will be a decent surprise (Villa please) that Rafa will pull out of the bag. Agree Vorronin will get and deserves another chance. Next year could be a very interesting one. Forget Quasi Modo it will never happen.

Any money spent by the club since The Borrowers have came in, is heaped against the club – as any money spent in the future will be.

The investment put into the club by Twit and Twat comes to the precise and princely sum of 0. Yep. 0. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Fuck All. Nix.

And that’s to buy, the club lock stock and barrel, and the players that have came in since.
So, in their time of “stewardship” our club has gone from manageable debt solvency to walking a tight rope of crippling debt.

We are in an even more dangerous situation than Man Utd – whose larger fan base, stadium, merchandising and recent success – has to be carried on or they will crash.

Of course, along with his other lies Hickabilly said you only have to look down the East Lancs Rd to see how not to run a football club. and then went onto to do exactly what the Glaziers have done. Taken into consideration with the fat cunt’s own business mantra – “On field sucess isn’t important to our success only brand loyalty is” – means if we ever fail to qualify for the champions league, we could then be forced to sell our assets to meet the payments on the debt he has heaped onto the club.
None of it is personally underwritten. But this is nothing new. Many smaller clubs have tread this path before us. The recievers books are full of them.
But Ho hum. Musn’t grumble.

Agreed LB we will make a better challenge next year of that I am positive and that will be despite the lack of support from the two twats. Moors could have given him 20 mill, that is just some of the profits from the CL run so it won’t come out of their pockets. Our wage bill is 70 plus mill, we get 29 mill for T.V, 30 odd mill or more for the CL run, 12 odd for the prem and the rest comes from tickets sales and merchandising ( 30 odd mill, that would have increased since the last published figures) so we are well covered even if they give Rafa some bucks to play with.

To get 40 odd mill on payer sales shows what a great job Rafa has done in improving the squad, instead of what he had to cope with when he arrived. Next year will be a big step forward, but we have to understand that the CL, because of the money, will be the priority for Rafa because his job will be on the line if he does not make it passed the group stages and that is reality until the ownership issue is sorted out, hopefully before the start of the new season.

The success mantra works in the USA but not in the Prem FS. With the draft system the bottom teams gets the first pick of the new players coming from the College system, which in theory even out the odds slightly and balances the strengths of the teams. There is no qualification for additional competitions and making the play-offs is not the big money spinner that the CL is.

With that in mind and if they want to cover the debt repayments they have to invest in the team to ensure that we stay in the top 4. If they don’t they will crash and loose a shit load of money (their primary concern) So yes they have put fuck all into LFC, have loaded the club with debt but are caught in catch twenty two situation in terms of releasing money to improve the team because if they don’t they risk LFC being caught by the chasing pack, who are spending big money to catch up.

If we slip out of the top 4 we become another New Castle or Aston Villa with a value of 70 to 150, 250 odd million tops because of our past success and then they will loose big time. It is unfortunate but Rafa’s success has enabled them to stick in there without having to cough up any money.

What Rafa has done in the relatively short space of time with a net spend of 2 to 3 odd mill per person is remarkable (70 mill nett divided by 30 odd players), especially when you consider the squad he inherited.

FS – point taken.

Keith – I like those maths. Would be good if Rafa pulled a Villa/Silva style rabbit out.

I had a look at the signings last summer and the vast majority were done in July. I suppose we should hold our horses and let Rafa get on with it. It’s fun to speculate in the mean time though.

This Ramsey kid – jas he signed with the mancs or not?

No he has been given permission to speak to Everton, Spurs, ManU and LFC as these clubs have met the valuation criteria. He will have to decide on personal terms and where his best opportunity lies.

I was going through the stats, Rafa has brought in 20 players that have already played for the first team ( this excludes all players that have been bought and sold) and that are currently on the books and 17 players for the reserves. I have not looked at the academy team but he has brought in a few there as well.

That is a staggering achievement for a nett 70 mill spend, under 2 mill per (1.79) person. With JAR and Finnen going, only Sammi, Gerrard and Carra will be left from the Jed Eye Reign. Of those only Sammi was bought by Ged.

If you take Masch and Torres out of the equation he has spent 900 000 per person for the rest. We have won a CL and FA and Club Champ. cup, made the final of another CL and Carling cup while achieving this, not to mention the minor matter of the on going war between Dumb and Dumber.

They call Maureen the Special One and say Wenger is a genius, not to mention the living legend that is the Fungus.

LB, I feel you on your comments in 104, spot on in my books, as with you keith in 105… I’m feeling good about next year, although I’m not bold enough to say we’re gonna win this and win that, but we’re FINALLY getting to the point where we’re getting a balanced team.
It seems to me Rafa is starting to assemble what looks like a crack team, able to bring ANY team down by using Rafa’s doctorate in Football Tactics 601!~!
FS, good to see you’re still alive and kicking!

Great comments overall guys, to be honest we’re starting to look scarily good, in my humble, red eyed opinion…

Keith, if you were Ramsey’s Dad where would you advise him to go. What’s the likelyhood of him getting first team action at Manure and LFC? Is he a right winger or centre mid? I recall him being pretty central when he came on in the cup final.
Imagine being him at the moment though. 19 years old with LFC, Man Utd, Spurs and Everton fighting for your signature.

Regarding net spend. I heard a point of view saying net spend was irrelevant. The argument was that if you sell Bellamy for £7m and buy Torres for £20m does that make Torres worth £13m? Would you still not expect a performance from Torres worthy of £20m? Looking at it broader – if you sell players worth £50m and spend £100m would you not expect a season’s performance to reflect a spending of £100m?

I never thought about it from that point of view but it did get me thinking.

Well Aussie, we’re not that mythical.
I rarely comment but I love reading what u guys come up with.
YNWA (from Mauritius)

Arggghh, It reminds me of a dog chasin his tail LB, in regards to your arguement…
Sly sports will interpret Rafa as wasting $$$, whereas I’d say he’s done exceptionally well with what he’s had- from a retrospective view… Eitherway my head starts to feel sore with that arguement of yours…

Oh, I hate how Wenger won his trophies early in his time with Arse and brought himself immunity and yet Rafa has virtually parred Wenger and trumped SAF at the same points their careers and yet he’s still talked about as if he hasn’t acheived an aweful lot and is just “lucky” not a Tactical genius by most media…

I wonder what would happen if we DID win the PL and maybe the Carling Cup next year… He’d probably be lucky to have won all there is to be won with Liverpool FC (except the UEFA Cup- which we dont want anyway…)…

But I hate being so negative about our team…

I agree with you YNWAlancey that what Rafa has achieved with the money he has been given and the pressure he´s been put under is remarkable. Unfortunatly for most parts is goes unnoticed. The media are so far up Wengers and Fergusons a**holes the the cant see the genius that is Rafa. Sure, Rafa has bought some duds but for the most part they have been cheap and quickly offloaded.
As mention before if we had managed to convert some draws into wins who knows what could have happened. If´s and but´s, sure. But valid noneoftheless. The line between success and failure is so thin. I think we are close. So close that I can smell it. Maybe not next season. But there is a destinct whiff of success in the air. Hopefully it will still be here at christmas. Who knows, even Londonbarnes might be able to smell it. They say christmas is a time of miracles

Some of you Rafa worshipers are a bit over sensitive. As if his name should not be spoken without adulation.

I would say that the media are pretty poor at recognising how crap the squad was on Rafa’s arrival. And they dont take that into consideration when they talk about the amount of money spent.

I’d say net spend is very much relevant when talking about a manager wasting the clubs money. Houllier wasted a lot of the clubs resources. Same cannot be said of Rafa.

My previous post is more referring to the expectance of performance based on money spent regardless how much money has been brought in through player sales. It’s not my argument either – it’s an argument I’ve heard and to be honest I’m not sure if I totally agree with it or not, but it is interesting.

Yeah… FS, who would Rafa have lost the most amount of money on? That chilean winger that didn’t work out two years ago, but we made money from his loan fees and eventual sale from- I think his name was Gonzales, or would it be Peanut’s impending sale?
Ballamy was a great peice of business, Kuyt perhaps was a little expensive but aint going no-where because he’s too important… Rafa’s defensive buys have been fantastic in the least. I mean who the hell were DAgger, Arbeloa and Skrtyl before they arrived at Anfeild????
Sissoko gave us a fantastic first year and then a fantastic profit as will Alonso…
Perhaps Kewell??? Paid 5mill for him ontop of 70k per week, but wouldn’t insurance have paid a significant chunk of that wage bill???
Morientes cost us 6mill and left for 3, so perhaps Morientes has that crown… However both Kewll and Morientes represent small fish compared to the 15mill +++ price tags of today’s transfer market…
But to be honest it’s boring to report that Rafa has made small loses with his duds and made pretty handsome profits on the majority of his aquistions in general, far too boring, far too true…
It’s easier to say he’s been “lucky”, uses negative, defensive tactics and buys too many “duds” with his huge transfer budgets…
Although right at times, is far from the truth in so many of the cases…

my two bits on the rubbish that is the media and why i dont believe a single word in the newspapers – early this year practically all English newspapers ran stories on how DIC was buying Liverpool that very week. This ran for days, everyday confirmed reports, that DIC were buying, then not buying, then buying, not buying etc etc. Four months on and nothings happened, the media got bored of their own stories and gave up.

I enjoy fantasy football and i think bloggers need this specially in the off season, but i know we have a player when i see him in Anfield with Rafa.

Aussie, apparently Torres is 11-1 to be top scorer at the Euro. Surely worth a punt!

YNWA

LB lets examine your gross/net spend arguement. Lets do a 2×2 matrix – Gross spend vs Net spend. This is what I think:

High GS & High NS: This is generally achieved when you are a club like Chelsea/Scums. When you can keep affording big players without much coming from player sales (Scums net spend figure looks respectable because of the Beckham sale. And now probably Ronaldo).

High GS & Low NS: This is the sign of a squad being built with a high squad turnover. This is where we find oursleves. These teams will take time to be built

Low GS & High NS – This, for me, is the place to be. Just a couple of quality additions every year. The squad remaining almost the same. Scums have had the luxury of this for years.

Low GS & Low NS – This is where most of the clubs are stuck. Of the top four, Arsenal would be closest to this.

Well done to those who managed to keep reading this drivel, but i feel that stage 3 is where Rafa is taking us.

YNWA

LB regarding your point (or the point you are passing on – I understand you aren’t arguing the point) about net spend vs team value. I can understand it and it does hold some merit. But firstly what I’m thinking is that if you look at our current team “value” in terms of combined transfer fees (including subjective assessments of what players like Gerrard & Carra are worth), we are probably performing just about right on our value, in terms of where we are finishing.

I haven’t done the sums, but I don’t think there’s much doubt that the 2 most expensive squads by the same assessment are Chelsea and Man U. It’s probable that Arsenal’s ‘value’ when you do the sums is less than our’s, but they only finished one place above us this year and we finished above them last year. But, they’ve been together much longer than our squad.

Which brings me to my other point – “net spend” becomes a factor when you look at what it means in terms of TIME. Squad turnover obviously takes time, new players settling in takes time. Also, not having players on your books who know your system ready to slot in during emergencies is also a factor which can cost you points… if you had to sell them off to raise funds, you’re left with some other younger face to step in before they are ready.

Fuck bhav, you’ve managed to say in a few lines what I hopelessly tried to explain in 20. Very clever. You should sign up into our fantasy football league.

yup, very good summary….

Good comments boys
Andy I hope your not in finance
you can rest assured the muck savaged will have a healthy dose of Guinness on Friday night but don’t confuse it as a weakness,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,It’s rocket fuel!!!

sorry I have nothing more interesting to say

over and out

It’s OK donal, I just happen to work for one of the 4 biggest banks in Australia…

I remember some French banker last year got away with stealing 500 million euros or so for trading. I wonder if I can get away with a making few sneaky player purchases on the bank’s behalf to donate to the cause.

lancey, Rafa didn’t buy Kewell. He was left with a half-fucked Kewell upon his arrival by Ged who continued to play him injured for an entire season, thereby fuckin us, Rafa and the lad for the duration. So he can’t be attributed your loss assessment to Rafa.

As for valuations…. well they’re a bit arbitrary aren’t they. Too much bloody Champ Manager!
The notion that someone somewhere say that a player is worth 15 mill and we all nod our heads like obedient little doggies and say yup, yup, 15 mill player that one!

How much was Carra worth last season?
How much is Carra worth this season?
How much next season?

I find the whole concept of player valuations to be somewhat ludicrous…. and before I get accused of being too precious… yes I have indulged in it and I know it is the reality of the current climate…. but it isn’t based on anything real.

Real are talking about offering Winker 300k per week in a 75 mill deal over 5 years.
Is any player worth that kind of money??

I love LFC. It is my passion. I want desperately to win any silverwarre on offer, every season…
But I wouldn’t want to win it with a team of mercenaries. The more we spend to win, the cheaper that victory.
That’s my opinion anyway.

Reports coming out of switzerland suggest the winker wanker wants to go to Real Madrid.

Ive been too lazy to participate lately. Anyway here is my 2cents. On player valuation. I always have a saying when people complain to me about how over/under priced a player is. “A player is worth what someone is willing to pay for them”

And yes indeed, earlier so called ‘reports’ are suggesting Winker is on his way out if in fact he is compensated with such a rediculous wage. 300k after tax, thats rediculous. Thats probably Torres x 2.5.

Aitch – Real Madrid probably have the best merchandising sport. As a result shirts sold with Ronaldo on the back would probably make them a profit on what they pay for Ronaldo. I read that they made loads of profit from Beckham merchandise – a lot more than the sum of his transfer fee and wages. Zidane as well as the other Galacticos, so while they were not winning anything they were still raking in the cash!!

Any industry that generates huge sums of money has to pay its stars accordingly. Tom Cruise gets paid a shit load of millions per movie because when he is in a film it will probably break box office records. Robbie Williams signed an £80m contract with EMI records because he was selling millions at the time. Tiger Woods and Roger Federer earn big millions because them turning up at an event means big companies will sponsor the event, TV companies will want to show it and advertisers will fall over themselves to be associated.

As for spending big to win. Is that not what we used to do in the 70s and 80s? Break transfer records to get the greatest British players in order to dominate. Fair enough the money back then is a fraction of what is spent these days but the principle is the same. We out spent our rivals did we not.

Yeah, I’m tending towards your stance Aitch… I’m sick of hearing he’s worth that and this… Just a whole lot of rubbish most of the time and unless someone is being sold it shouldn’t matter…
As for “buying” a trophy- we are all trying to buy the trophies that are available, so I really don’t care about that argument…
Just like Raffa says we’ve got to buy the right players with the right mentality… He doesn’t say we gotta spend the most money because that’s what we used to do (albeit successfully). Unfortunately thats logical and as result not really out of the video game simulations…

Who cares about Ronaldo anyway? I don’t… I’m hoping the Gaffer gets a break before we challenge next season… I want him ready to bring us some pretty cups to shine!!!

Oh yeah, cheers Aitch, wasn’t sure on Kewell… Must mean Morientes was his worst player huh?

Financially speaking lancey, yeah,
Morientes was the biggest loss financially…. I think he has signed worse players though.

Again though, another example of where people were slating the lad as shit, and in a different environment, he’s now back to banging them in. He just didn’t fit in with us and in particular, in the Prem…. but perhaps thats a different argument and I’m letting the off-season get the better of me and wrench up all my pet peaves.

Anyway, I get your point and am not arguing the “how it is” aspect of things LB. I don’t have my head stuck in the sand. I just have a fundamental problem with the whole idea that someone is worth these exhorbitant figures, wether they be footy players, movie stars, pop idols, or Fortune 500 CEOs

And no, I’m not a communist, but its fuckin obsene that Cruise gets paid 25 million per film and the guy that shoots it only gets 300,000… but then again, the poor P.A. that steps and fetches for one and all makes 8 bucks per hour, so there you fuckin go, eh?

Likewise, Major corporations will lay-off 5,000 employees because they can’t afford their wages, at the exact fuckin same time as they are paying the CEO a 5 million bonus. Absolutely Disgusting.

And yeah… I’ve taken College level Economics, I know the hows and whys of it happeneing, but it don’t make it right. The world has gone to hell in a handbasket and we’ve all been convinced that this sort of financial might is right and we just gleefully accept it and fork over our hard earned money to pay for it all.

Now… as I climb down from my fuckin soapbox, and I don’t expect too many people will agree with me on this idea, so I’m not trying to sway anyone….
… let me just conclude that, while I concede that we were the pack leaders back in the 70s and 80s in terms of signing big name/price players, and fundamentally, I don’t disagree with the idea that we were the big spenders, I think it was a bit different back then, not just in terms of the amounts of money that was being spent, but in the way we went about it.
Perhaps we can even be blamed for starting it, I don’t know, but I think its certainly gotten out of hand when, regardless of how much money you think you’ll make back, you pay some faggoty little fucker (he says, disguising his true feelings about the lad) 350,000 per week.
I thought the two Beckham deals were disgusting, but this….?

Jimmy Hill can be directly blamed for the economics of football today. Seems crazy I know, but Old Chinny and Johnny Haynes the Fulham player were the first to break the £100 a week pay packet.
Jimmy Hill also formed the players union and forced pay packets up all over the divisions. But before you go blaming Chinny for today’s madness, before he made his stance, club directors used to just walk away with all the money and pay the players little more than the poor fuckers who worked down their pits or in their mills.
And for most footballers of the time it was straight back into the pit, the mill, the factory or the building site straight after they finished in the game. The shrewder ones of them used to put a little by and end up with a pub, or some little business or another. I used to eat in Ron Yates cafe in the early 70′s. Lovely fella and told a good story while knocking out a great fry up.
I could, and I would love to, go on about them days a bit more, but….
As for our transfer policy in the 70′s and 80′s, true we would break the bank if deemed absolutely necessary – as when Keegan left and we brought in Dalglish. (Four hundred and forty thousand knicker – a transfer record at the time, but surely one of our best ever bits of business).

We also spent big money on the likes of Tony Hateley, Alun Evans, Graeme Souness – necessary parts of the jigsaw.
But that wasn’t the usual. Normally we nurtured our own talent, Sammy Lee, Jimmy Case, etc.
And we bought from lower league clubs, Emlyn Hughes, Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence, Ian Rush and turned them into Liverpool type players.
(As shown by Man U nowadays, once you have a succesful team, it’s always easier to transition into the next one rather than build from scratch.)

And we always, always sold at a profit, except for players who had been great servants and we then gave them a testimonial to boost their retirement funds and sold them for a nominal fee so they could play out their careers and make a few more bob.

So, if anything, Rafa is taking us back towards them times. I.E… A few big buys – Torres, Masch, Babel. Good players from smaller clubs to fit our pattern, Benayoun. And talented youngsters, reared at home and brought in to nurture until ready.
And yes. I know football has changed. But we were once the measure of how to run a club properly. And I can only see 2 reasons why we can’t be again.

Last word…. funny enough Man City were the first club to start throwing around the crazy money. And the first to break the one million barrier for a player – Tony Dalley. Who was a complete flop.
Nothing much changed there then, I suppose.

Oh, and another thing…

These aren’t arbitrary numbers that we are talking about lads.

Put in no uncertain terms…
Lets suppose for a second (and FS, try to prevent your head exploding from the mere mention of such a possibility) that DIC do come in and offer 410 million to buy LFC from G&H.

(Now that is based on the last speculative reports… and while there were many unreliable ones, I’m going off of what Bennet last reported in the Echo, so it has at least some credibility..)

What that ammount represents, is the 350 refinance, plus the supposed 30mill each walk-away money.

Do you think that DIC does not expect to make that back? …coz they do.

So we get 30 million TV money. Where does that come from. It comes from every sap that buys a Sky Sports subscription.
Oh, but I don’t buy SS, I hear you say… I watch it for free down the pub!
But you are deluding yourself. The pub buys it. And they buy it coz they know you’ll be in there, parting with your cash for Carlsberg, Stellar, (insert poison-of-your-choice,) a pork pie, a bag of cheese-n-onion crisps, and a packet of pork scratchings.

It comes from gate receipts every time you buy a ticket to a match. It comes from Shirt sales, it comes from LFC logo cigarette lighters, bed sheets, lampshades, license plate frames, golf accesories, anything bearing the mark of LFC that we all so desperately fork out for to proudly fly our colors.

In short… G&H would walk with 30 mill profit each…. free and clear… and every fuckin dime of it will eventually be bled from our veins.

I don’t know how much any of you guys make in a year, but it does make me more than just a bit sick that Stevie G. makes 100k per week.

Its exponentially far-far more than any of us paid to see Hansen, Barnes, Beardsley, Rush and far-far-far more than my Dad paid to take his little lad to see Highway, Keegan and Toshak, and exponentially far-far-far-far more than my Dad paid to go see St. John, Smith and his ilk when I was just a glimmer as they say.

The times they are a changing….
…but not methinks for the better?

Not for the better at all Aitch. Capitalism my friend. 98% of the world’s wealth is controlled by 2% of the world’s population.

Yeah and that 2% are the owners of Real, Barca, Chelsea, Scum, and the Milans.

What we need around here, is a good old fashioned REVOLUTION! Off with their heads!!!

(oh wait, I said I wasn’t a communist, huh?) Damn!

Aitch,if Hansen,barnes,beardsley and rush were playing today they would be on more than the 100k stevie is on.
I don`t agree with the way money is been thrown about these days either but if you compare steve gerrard to most other players at his level,he`s on a lot lower salery than the majority of those players.
Considering he`s probably the most complete cenral midfielder in the world isn`t he on less than the “going rate” at 100K ?

There’s so much that pisses me off about the modern game lads and this whole money thing is just one of them.

Players who get paid this kind of money but don’t give it their all.
The concept of “oh it was on his other foot!” (and no I’m not just referring to JAR… all of them should be better than they are, with very few notable exceptions)
The Press.
The Press Love Affair with the story-du-jour.
ALL Man United “fans” (even those too young to realize the man that sired them is a cunt and has destined them to meaningless life)
The People who own the Press.
80% of Chelsea “fans”
ANYONE who believes the Press.
People who have never played the game or coached the game, but have the opinion that Dirk Kuyt is Total Shit regardless of how much grunt work he does so others can grab glory!
Referees Assistants. (they’re fuckin linesmen unless they are gonna wave for an obvious offense they’ve seen right in fron of them regardelss of what the man with the whistle saw or did not see… don’t get me started.)
No Penalties being given to the opposition at Old Trafford this season. (as though this season is unique in that respect)
The Fourth Offical… otherwise known as the bloke that gets pilloried for 90 minutes in both ears.

…. okay… I’m fuckin rambling now, but you get my drift…. I hate summer!

well said Aitch, you exho most of my sentiments.
Especially about modern players and their skill levels.
Also the so called Assistant Refs, what a load of shite they mostly are.
I still remember the one who called Pepe Reina over the goal line with his goal kick against Bolton, that really pissed me off

Yeah FS, I know the players were hard done to back in the day.
For sure, there needed to be some equality, some spreading around of the millions that the directors used to take home.
But that idea has gotten out of hand. What we are talking about in the modern game, is not an even distribution of wealth.

Torres and Stevie make double or even treble what some of their teammates get. I know the argument is they deserve it, but again, if you are doing the same job as a coworker and you accidentally get a glimpse at his paypacekt and find out he’s making a few bob more than you, don’t tell me you say to yourself “fair enough, he works harder”!!! Bollocks you do, you’d march straight in to the boss’s office and demand parity.

And yet we expect their teammates to accept their situation in the pecking order and the wages they’re on? And so as soon as they have a decent season, they march right in and demand more parity…. and so all the wages rise.

How many fuckin Aston Martins, Ferraris, Lambos do you fuckin need, FFS???

The lads at the top end of the scale are increasing the size/scale of the money spiral, while both tipping the balance and creating an ever increasing disparity upon the spiral… and growth can’t sustain itself indefinitely.
At some point something has to give. (Leeds/Gretna, The British Empire, The Virgin Global Domination Corporation, the Soviet Empire)

I’m not suggesting I have a solution, coz you can’t impose fee caps and wage caps and rights caps. But while all and sundry are braying about the strength of the Premiership, UEFA are plotting its demise…
(do you really think they like the fact that Prem teams are dominating the CL quarters and semis have been in the last 4 finals?)
(why do you think they are trying to instigate this 5+6 rule?)
(They were just waiting for trouble to kick off in Moscow… unfortunately for them, neither sets of fans are passionate enough for fuck all to have happened!)

And the spiralling finances are built on our hard earned dosh being willingly thrust over/through the counter/turnstile/subscription window, while the clubs overextend themselves financially, to pay higher and higher wages, in the hopes that they’ll continue to win and the prediction that we will gladly keep doing so.

Okay, my apologies for banging on… I’ve just smashed my soapboz to bits and chucked them on the fire.

The Reverend Aitch has stepped down from his pulpit after a hard days preaching, and has retired to the rectory with a spot of sherry.

Gerrard and Torres deserve more money than the rest because they do more to win a game than the others. People who get better results get paid more money – thats how it should be. If your a surgeon who gets great results you get paid more than the surgeon that fucks up sometimes. If I’m a sales man and I make more money than anyone else in my department I expect to be rewarded as such.

Gerrard, Torres, Carra get paid the most. If others want parity then their performance needs to be consistently at a high level such as the aforementioned.

I’m not arguiing that for a minute LB, but if you bring in 10% more sales, you don’t deserve 50% more commission.

We can argue about if there performance is 10% more than the rest, 30%, 80%… we’re all gonna have a different take on that….
I’m not arguing that each and every player should be paid a flat fee, but the disparity between those earnings is just ethically and moraly wrong.

granted its the world we live in, I said that, I’m not arguing that. I also know there’s ought can be done about it.
Don’t make it right!

Grumpy old men, the lot of ya’s!!!

Aitch, if the money didn’t go to the players, who should it go to? The players today get paid more than the players of yesterday because there is more money in the game. The main reason there is more money in the game is because technology now beams every game (and it’s advertising) to 200 countries and millions upon millions of viewers. The players of yesteryear are just unlucky that the technology didn’t exist in their era.

If the players didn’t get this money, it would either be kept by the club (which most of it is anyway) or kept by Sly Sports. At the end of the day, it’s the clubs and the players who are generating that money, so to me it is only “fair” that they get it. It is just a quirk of society that means THIS set of professional athletes gets paid more in a week than you and I do in a year (I assume).

Remember one thing though – there are millions of football players out there in the world, literally millions. These guys are the cream of the crop, in the top 1% of all football players in the world. Can the rest of us say that we are in the top 1% in the world in our job?

What I WOULD advocate is making this all a bit cheaper for the fans. A Sly Sports package isn’t cheap, nor is a ticket to an EPL game – although, people still pay it, and as they say, something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. But that still doesn’t mean your average fan can afford it, which is disappointing. But I think Gerry did a blog on that last year.

the reality is, there should be wage caps. this would ensure that the few biggest clubs cant be the best targets in the world. players would want to play for a certain club for another reason besides money, the reality that manchester city might actually buy ronaldinho is hilarious. multiple time world player of the year playing for city?! its ludicrous. its all cause of the money.

but people say, then where would the money go? the owners? no, definitely not. i know this is impossible, but really, there should be a limit to how much sports clubs can make for the owners and the club as an entity itself. sports are entertainment for the supporters, most of which are middle or lower class (at least they used to be). these people are spending large amounts of their spending money on kits and tickets to support their club, but what does it provide them other than the highs and lows of a victory or defeat (on a VERY basic level).

i’m not trying to say Liverpool doesnt give me more than that, because it does. what i’m trying to say is that football clubs should be accountable for providing more to their community. building libraries, funding education, funding more football schools and after school programs, building parks, etc. i know most clubs do a little towards this end, but with players earning 5-7 million pounds a year, and owners making 10+ millions a year, and transfer fees being 25-50 million pounds a year now…it’s obscene the amount of money that is going into this people’s sport. this is no longer about the game. football is a game played by all, and these pretty boys are just playing it at a professional level. why should they earn double in one week what a school teacher or fireman makes in a year?

YNWA

andy wirral, true, mate. in reality, with the money the clubs make from tv, merchandise, and marketing, they could almost make matches free at this point.

YNWA

Good points Alec. I guess we all understand WHY it is how it is, we just don’t necessarily all agree with it.

Do keep in mind though – these guys on 5-7 million pounds per year are paying a few million in income tax, so in fact they are pretty much paying the teachers and the fireman’s salary out of that. That’s something at least.

Id prefer Gerrard and Torres get 5-10 million a year than that go into the Hick’s pocket.

you cant stop it. its jsut hte way it is. You put a salary cap into the works and they work a way around it. They have the salary cap over here for the rugby league and people clubs just rort it and figure out ways around it. Theres a bloke who use to play for the Sydney Roosters, who despite retiring 5 years ago is still being paid 70k a year by the club to be a “doorman” (and will continue to be paid so for the next 10 years)…despite the fact he hasnt worked one day in his life at the club as a doorman. If they dont do that, then they give them a house to live in, or a shiny new car or something. Unfortunately, the salary cap isnt that effective. it helps i guess, but isnt perfect…then again, what is?

They had a salary cap in football years ago. the players union protested that in any other proffesion they couldnt be told “this is all you can earn. you cannot earn more than this” – if someone wants to pay you more, then legally there is nothing that can be done to stop you earning that. imagine if in your job, your boss wanted to give you a pay rise but couldnt cause the law says that someone in your proffesion can only earn 50k per year and no more. You’d be pissed off. everyone wants to earn as much as possible

Its a shame though, cause back in the day, small town clubs could have something to offer players as they were all played the same. The clubs could offer residence in a nice quaint town, rather than the hustle and bustle of the big smoke. and thats attractive to some players.

ah well, its all ifs ands or buts, cause its never gonna happen. if europe intoroduced a salary cap, then all players will bugger of to Dubai or the US.

OK enough about the money, it’s stunned us all into silence.

I want to hear some more REALISTIC suggestions about which attacking players we should be aiming to bring in. Apart from Quaresma and Ribery – neither of which is going to happen because Inter will get Quaresma and Bayern won’t sell Ribery – I don’t recall hearing many suggestions.

To me, we need a quality attacking player out on the right wing. Someone who can play the position in a 4-2-3-1, but also fill in for Torres when needed (both as the 1 in a 4-2-3-1 or partnering Kuyt/Crouch/Voronin in a 4-4-2).

That means he needs to be quick and skilful, can beat his man out wide, but can also play as a natural striker. In the premiership, and I know that I’ve said this before, it makes me think of Robbie Keane. Spurs have a plethora of strikers, so is he an option, and would he really be all that expensive? Who else is there – David Silva or David Villa I suppose? The latter two feel a bit out of reach, but we’ve played fantasy football with them already I suppose.

Or, should we be aiming for an out-and-out right winger plus a bigger stronger centre-forward?

Aimar.

Aimar is getting on a bit… which hurts to say because he’s the same age as me! (28)

Was he any good for Zaragoza this season? They had a shocker and got relegated, so he can’t have had a great year. But it should also mean we could probably get him for a bargain price, if Rafa thinks he’s worth it. Ditto for Diego Milito then I suppose.

Hmm I just checked. I know statistics aren’t everything, but Aimar only started 16 games this year, came on as a sub in another 6, and didn’t score a single goal. That’s just stats though, I have no idea of the story (eg injuries etc).

28 isnt old mate (older than me, but not that old nonetheless). Gerrard is about that. Lampost is older than that.

Dunno how he played this season to be honest. But i wouldnt base Zaragoza going down as any reflection on how Aimar played. You could have put torres in Derbys team and they would still have gone down. Anyway, form is temporary, class is permanent. Aimar is class.

I’m not against us getting Aimar… though if he’s 29 this year (another website claims he’ll be 30 this year) then we realistically may not get a lot of time out of him, so he’d just be a stop-gap measure. But hopefully a quality one at that, as long as he isn’t injured a lot. Having to adjust to the pace of the premiership could be real test of his ageing body.

I meant to add that we can probably get him for about 5 million quid too, so it’s not exactly a huge risk.

Aussie, looks like you and I are the spine of the blog again. Come on you lot, if I have to keep carrying the blog like this, I’m going to pack my bags put myself on the transfer list to head to Chelski… then change my mind overnight.

Good point, we are indeed carrying the blog today. wondered why my back was so sore. Where are Donal and Hyde today?? they’re letting the night shift down!
Whats your email address andy?? speaking of chelsea ive got a few good chelski emails. Im on [email protected] drop me a line.

You know, my FIRST player I put into my Euro fantasy league was Sweinsteiger, so if I were to have a free pick out of any winger in the world it would be him for Liverpool… But that’s just me and I’d bet heavily that he’s not in the frame….
Like I keep saying guys I’m smelling a rat, and a good one too… Barry IS comming to anfeild and it looks as if Reira is gonna hold his team to ransom to come to Liverpool so I’d honestly expect to see them in a Reds shirt come the 1st July (the first day of the transfer window)…

The Rat for me is probably the empending signing of another marquee player, under the proviso that Rafa manges to sell enough players… I’m thinking along the lines of Dani Alves as our new right winger…
It’s funny how people think of him as a RB, but to be honest I think he’s a natural Right sided winger in the PL. Thankfully he should be able to cope with the physical nature of the EPL thanks to him playing as a RB for so long…

I think Barry, Reira and Alves are the final 3 players left for Rafa to sign, while Alonso, Riise, Peanut, Guthrie, Crouch and perhaps Finnan will all be shown the door…

To be honest I think 3 weeks to tie up Dossena’s deal was pretty bloody quick… Hope people stop saying that we fluffed that deal. I also think should we pinch Barry that would’ve been done in an acceptable time frame as clearly Villa do not want to sell him, we’ve had to force their hand somewhat as with Reira…

I don’t think Carson will be sold this year, we’ll just take the fees instead and hope that he plays well for a season…

im with ya on Sweinsteiger. I reckon he’s class. but yeah, he aint on the radar.

I dont want Reira though. to me it’d be like signing diego forlan. He was pants in the premiership the first time, then he went to spain and played well…but that doesnt mean that he’d make it in the premiership now. Riera was rubbish at city and i dont see whats changed.

If i could pick absouletly anyone, id take Mario Gomez at Stutgart. I know i keep going on about it, but the lad oozes class. he will show himself to be the champion striker he is at the euros. Ive got money on him to be top scorer – 15/1. reckon he would compliment torres a treat. they’d compliment each other well. Gomez = think berbatov when he was at his best…but not a cunt.

Has Alves ever showed interest in coming liverpool?? i seem to remember him being abit of a prick about the prospect of signing for liverpool the first time we tried to get him. i could be wrong on that one, but i have a vague memory of something like that.

I recall Alves being much more interested in going to Chelski because he wanted the big pay packet and to live in London (moreso than Liverpool). Same reason why I think he’d prefer Milan too, probably less of a culture shock there too. I’d say we would be at least 5th in line for him behind Chelski, Manure, and the Milans – although Chelski may not want him now they have Boswinga

Not sure bout that, I just know that Rafa seems to like Alves, personally I feel hes more suited to Arse. I feel we need bigger wingers as stevies passes are class but freaken strong, thats why Kuyt cannot control them, but Babel can… We’re a direct playing team so I’m keen on bigger stronger wingers that are fast- just like Babel… Reira looks as though he fits that mould, just wonder if that’s why Rafa is targeting him…
Seriously Stevies passes aren’t easy to control not with premier league defenders constantly muscling in on wingers in this league, I think wingers need to be bigger and stronger, I’m thinking of along the lines of Michael Essien..

Yeah Gomez is freakn good, Reira wont be the starting Left Winger so I really don’t care who we sign- Milner or Reira, I don’t care cause they gonna ride the bench anyway… Harsh but true, unless they prove their worth in trainning and the cup games they’ll probably be in the turnstyles in a few years… But we need cover- and 6-8mill for a winger is peanut(s) (no pun intended-haha!)…

Yeah still think Alves is in the mix- but he’ll be the last signing as Rafa will probably need every last penny of his transfer kittty for him… He’ll probably combine well with Torres, might struggle with Stevies game though…

Still would prefer Sweinsteiger, Haha!!!

I don’t want Riera either. Watched a bit of him in La Liga this year. He’s OK, but often all flicks and tricks with no end product.

sorry lads, constant flow of work have kept me out. Besides, too many issues to comment, what should I pick.

I’ve started looking back at the Spanish league now, and Riera is crap. I don’t want him. If we’re going to buy that type of lad, I would rather want Maxi Rodriguez.

Sweinsteiger is a class player, but the last I saw him was at the WC. How has he been doing in the Bundelisga? Has he kept his form?
And even if he has (or because of it) and is worth a consideration, I think he would cost nearly as much as Alves. He is still young, and I certainly don’t see Bayern wanting to sell him at around 15 million.

We can’t talk about realistic players because this team needs real class, and that means we have to be willing to spend the bulk of our money to get the winger we are lacking, not someone we can buy for 8-13 million. I am not saying they aren’t around– go to Brazil or Argentina, I am sure there are thousands of cheap gems lying around, but that’s something we should be doing as a back-up, and not as the main policy for transfers. but if you all insist and asked me to compromise, I think we could get Barnetta, the swiss lad, for around 10 million.

oh, and i didn’t quite get your points on some wingers not being able to control SG’s pass!? If they can’t, it means they’re trapping abilities are crap, and that’s not the type of player we need.
It is not as if a winger is going to receive a pass with a stopper right on his ass, like Torres or Crouch. Most of the times, he should be in a position to at least receive it without too much pressure (at least directly to the body), and so should be able to control it.

I can understand the argument that Alves may struggle in defense, but i do not think he would have much trouble in receiving SG’s passes. He is brazillian, you know.

oh, still on the subject for buying wingers cheap, isn’t Hleb free?

As far as i know Hleb is barca bound hyde.

Bastian Schweinsteiger I totally agree would be a brilliant signing. His a very creative player and scores brilliant long range goals! Good work rate as well

Hleb isn’t free is he? I think he has 1 year remaining on the contract and maybe going to Barca.

Interesting talk about player wages from the night shift. Was it Andy that pointed out that the yplayers pay a lot in taxes? E.g. Gerrard gets £100k a week – approx £35k of that is going to the tax man – which pays firemen, doctors, teachers etc etc. Excellent point.

I must say I agree that Albert Riera is not the answer to our wing problems. We could get a playmaker like Arshavin and put him behind Torres, put Gerrard next to Masch and Barry on the left with Babel on the right?

Whichever attacking player(s) we get have got to be high class. Which means big money. Hopefully with the sale of Pennant, Crouch, Carson, Finnan and getting a possible £25m we can get someone with proven pedigree.

When I read names like Riera, Milner, Downing I get pissed off. These are not better than Kuyt or Benayoun so what’s the point!?

ah, timmytorres, that’s right, I forgot. Typical of Barca to go for someone like Hleb. I think we wasted a good opportunity, not that I think he would have opted for us.

LB, the only prob is that Arshavin is going to cost quite a lot. Having said that, luckily, he is suspended for the first 2 games of Euro, which might mean that Russia may disappear without Arshavin being able to show his stuff. Hopefully, that would keep his price around 17 million max. Then again, don’t count this new-look Russia with Hiddink at the helm out too easily. Damn annoying these tournaments, hiking players’ prices up.

We have 4 players (might be 3 soon) in the Spanish squad. Should get them to tap up Villa and/or Silva.

In the meantime wrap up the Barry and Dossena transfers, sell Alonso and move things forward. Rafa can go on holiday and come back after the Euros and then go for a striker and winger. I’m assuming Pennant and Crouch will be sold so we’ll need replacements for those positions.

I see the Bentley links won go away as well as the Milner and Riera. I hope it is a smoke screen, however saying that Rafa will bring in the player he thinks will fit into the system he wants to play so maybe we should just wait and see what transpires. I am pleased with the first 3 Deggan, Dossena and Barry so there is still plenty of time for the rest.

I cannot believe how quite is has been on the DIC and G&H front. Is that good or bad news? Well if something is happening they are at least keeping it out of the press. However I see the stadium sharing has popped up again. Can you imagine being in the visitors section for the local derby in your own stadium?

Interesting indeed: http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2008/06/06/david-bentley-next-as-liverpool-close-on-gareth-barry-64375-21032569/

That’s better Tony Barret from the echo has just written that a spokesman for THicks has categorically stated they are not interested in a share scheme as well as Rafa is not interested in Bentley.

Yeah the Bentley talk seems a bit of empty speculation. Its Torres getting tips from the goal keepers coach I found interesting.

The ground share talk is doing my head in. F*ck off with that. The council just do not want to lose Everton which is one of the biggest Orgaisations in the city. But with Everton and Liverpool both bot interested in sharing – why the f*ck do the council keep going back to the idea? Which part of ‘NO’ don’t they understand??

Nice article about Dossena, the usual in terms of the best left back in Serie A and that a lot of teams where after him, but having the opportunity to work with Rafa is what made his mind up as well as being the first Italian international to sign for LFC.

Where is the article Keith?

Don’t worry – Found it!!

I’d like the Riera link ruled out like the Bentley link did.

Don’t know why the English newspapers continue to link Alves with LFC when Barca have agreed a complicated deal worth €32m with Sevilla for him.

The reason why I keep mentioning Stevies passes is cause the difference between Babel and Kuyt receiving Stevie’s passes are a world apart- combinations are the absolute key to success…
Maybe it’s just Kuyt, but the next Right winger surely must be able control such passes or possess the speed to link Torres-style to Stevie’s through balls… I beleave that Rafa must have this in his mind as he’s always talking about the “little” things that make the difference and the first touch for a winger is just as vital as his speed, on-the-ball skills and his distribution, perhaps the most vital skill (maybe that’s worth dissecting…).

Back to the question about who should we sign as our wingers: All I truly have to say bout that is thank GOD I don’t have to solve that riddle… That’s Raffa’s job, not mine, haha!!!
Seriously who would want his job?

I know I brought both Alves and Sweinsteiger up, but in all reality it’s just more fantasy league stuff and rehashing old news (in regards to Alves)… Who really knows apart from Rafa, Perry and H&G…

Perhaps it’s the off season screwing with my head!!! Hopefully Stevie and Carra are resting up on some nice beach in Spain, charging up their batteries for the comming season!!!!

Kuyt’s first touch is usually pants. There’s your answer YNW!

It goes without saying that any attacking player we sign has to be able to receive all kinds of passes with ease. If you can run fast and dribble and cross, all that is wasted if you cant control it in the first place.

i would honestly be happy with any of these players: silva, bentley, mancini, quaresma, joaquin, sweinsteiger, rodriguez. realistically, i could see us getting bentley, mancini, or rodriguez…

regardless of who the top winger we get will be (and i hope we actually get one this summer), i think we need to offload pennant, and throw paul anderson as a backup. maybe loan him out for half a year, but the lad is class in my opinion, and he needs to get into our squad soon. otherwise, he’s gonna be picked off by another club. nobody likes being loaned out year after year. i would love to see nemeth, pacheco, plessis, and paul anderson in our squad by next fall.

YNWA

Fuckin hell. Now Spurs have just signed Dos Santos!!! Fucking hell…Spurs

How can they be so quick off the blocks and we’re still humming and harring….what year is this 1992,93,94……2006????

In Rafa we trust!

AK,Spurs have the money to be quick out of the blocks.Their owners mean business and they will back Ramos no end.
Our owners are the complete oppisite.We have to sell half our squad before we can buy a half decent player.If Rafa was backed like Ramos i would be very confident of a genuine title challenge.

That Rafa column was a bitch to read. Jeez!

Alec – when those young players you mention play in the pre-season matches and train with the first team squad Rafa will have a better idea on who is ready, who needs to go out on loan and who needs sticking back in the reserves.

As for Spurs – I wonder where they are getting all this money from. Are they doing a Leeds? They are basically spending money on youngsters no other club is willing to pay. You talk about us selling half our squad. We’re selling players surplus to requirements. Spurs lose their best players. What good is Giovani Dos Santos if Berbatov fucks off?

Who is Giovanni Dos Santos anyway? He made a couple of sub appearances for Barca and scored 1 or 2 goals. He looks a good player in the making but if he was the next Messi I doubt Barca would sell him.

spurs are the last team we need to worry about. Everyone is saying we need to buy class, top drawer players blah blah and then we start talking about spurs buying dos santos a 19 yr old. we’ve got enough players for the future at the moment, lets buy players who can hit the ground running. I don’t care if they are well known as long as they are good enough.

as regards Stevie G’s passing – eh? he’s one of the best passers around. 33 goals for el nino many of them coming from the left and right peg of stevie g is proof of that. The through ball for the goal against newcastle was sublime as was el nino’s pele like shimmy only torres scored whereas pele put it past the post.

Hallajullah Aitch. And You Preach Brother, Preach!
I honestly don’t know any answers either. But the game I loved disappeared into a deep black hole a long time ago. And sadly, the club I love is plunging after it head first.

Sad times, brother. Sad times.

fucking brilliant. Something at last. SOS are taking over Anfield on Sunday. I will see you lads when I get back.

Spurs are a selling club anyway, let them risk their money on players that are a maybe…
Exactly my point about Stevies passing Kingkenny, how many times could you see Kuyt linking the same way Stevie does with Babel, Torres and even Lucas??? Hardly ever I’d say… Although I see Kuyt as Liverpool’s Jee Sun Park, hes versatile, does a job but perhaps we could find someone else who will break a game on a more regular basis on that right wing… Leave Kuyt to the bench always thought he’s a great player to have when we’re defending a 1-0 lead, especially an aggregate 1-0 lead going into the final leg…

If you beleive the tabloids, the Chavs are lookin at Quaresma… That’s IF you beleave the tabloids…

I had an idea you’d be with me FS.
And let me just say one final word on money matters.
My proposal for where the extra money would go (since someone asked above) would not be into the owners pockets, or the players pockets… but the fans…. in the manner of a new 80,000 seater Super Stadium that makes the San Siro and Bernabau look like Gresty Road.

I was speaking truly conceptually and I know most don’t wanna fuck with that, coz its pie-in-the-sky. Salary Caps and such are a non-starter and no way can we reduce players wages or restrict them now… the horses have bolted and its far too late to be trying to close the barn door now (the fuckin barn is on fire anyway and the Yanks have fucked off with the fire buckets!!)

But all that money streaming into football could be helping clubs like Gretna (one of the oldest going) from going belly up, or supporting lower leagues and grass roots footy… or like I said providing for low entry fees to certain games.

I saw something the other day that said season tickets prices for all Prem clubs. Arse were 1,900 quid per season. Scum 1,700 …while we were 900. So we may get our shiney new stadium, but in the current fiscal climate we might regret it when it comes.

And I’ll jump into the Stevie G. pass critique discussion here by adding that he is a good passer of the ball, but hardly “one of the best” and that’s my opinion because what I see is, he overshoots his target half the time.

Oh and by the way… for all those suggesting Kuyt can’t control the ball… Stevie might have provided half of Nino’s goals, but Kuyt provided a quater of them too. Look at his assist rate before you get too critical.
Also take a look at his control in the last month or so of the season. It got better and better. I reckon the lad was severely affected by his father’s death last season… a lot of people in the coming season are going to be asking “why couldn’t he have played like that last season.”

You want a new striker? I give you the all-new, revised and super improved Dirk Kuyt.
(that’s my out-on-a-limb prediction anyway)

Oh, my fear when we signed Mash was that the owners may have told Rafa that he could forget any serious funds from them in the off season…..
Sort of like an early x-mas present as a youngster…
What a shame if that’s the case as we’re so close to having a crack team… I would love to get to that stage where we sell very few players but buy a couple of high class players for either now or for later…

Added my signature to get Billy Liddell into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
Riise is past his sell-by date,get rid,got to be ruthless if you want to get ahead nowadays.

The Telegraph has identified 6 players to watch at Euro 2008. It included 3 players Liverpool are chasing: Mario Gomez, Villa and Queresmo:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/06/07/sfnsix107.xml

Ahh Jack’s back. Hello Jack. Nice to see your name in the comments box. Don’t worry about Ruthlessness Jack. The Boss has got it in shed loads.
It’s always a bit sad to see a good servant of the club move on, (reminds me how old I’m getting). You must have seen some great players come to the end of their Liverpool careers. I remember watching Shankly’s first great team go over the hill, and out the gates. I was broken hearted. But your right, when it’s time, it’s time. And it won’t be long for many of the current lads, not just JAR.
Like everyone else, I just want to see us win the league again because I just want to see it. It’s been far too long, and, because of that, I think the next one will like the best of them all. But I’d really love to see lads, like Hyppia and Cara get a winners medal before time catches up with them.
Anyway, I’m off to Anfield later. Can’t say too much right now. In fact, I’ve been instructed to say nothing in here or elsewhere. So, I’ll leave it at that but will let you all know what happened later.

PS… It’s a nice thought Aitch. But greed will always win, mate.

can’t agree about stevie g just being a good passer of the ball but opinions are opinions but in my opinion he is one of the best around, i’m not saying he’s an all time great passer of the ball but there are few around to match his range.

I agree it is sad when players come to the end but that’s the way it is. St John was bitter when Shankly told him it was the end but it has to be done. for me not being ruthless enough was houllier’s problem, he was loyal to players that he’d bought even when everyone knew they weren’t good enough diouff, diao etc. rafa is loyal but only to those who are good enough and only to those who will benefit the club. proof of this is alonso. One of Rafa’s faves, a great attitude etc but who will probably be moved on. Rafa will get the job done sooner or later. If he’s backed it will be sooner if not then it will be a bit later.

As regards Kuyt. I agree i think the death of his father affected him big time. I like Kuyt as a player and as a man. Works his socks off and has a knack for important goals. Champions league final, semi’s against chavski, quarters against the arse, penalties against the bitters. he’s got bottle. His touch isn’t the best but I think it’s good enough.

by the way kenny dalglish lfc legend is me king kenny but i lost my pasword so at home i’m king kenny and at work i’m kenny dalglish lfc legend. am i sad, a grown man calling himself kenny dalglish?

Lads just a note for all the lads going to Anfield today or tomorrow which every it is time wise. Our Texan cousins got smashed 12-4, lucky their brand loyal crowd still turns up.
.
Looks like since the money’s been slowly disappearing, so has the heart and passion, just a thought lads.
.
Well 16 runs in baseball is entertainment at its best. Lots of kids catching the ball over the outline.
.
FS it’s a pity you can’t make a banner up with all our user names, it’s probably the closest we’d get to Anfield, pin it on the wall with a big F Off written all over it. Good luck at the gig.

So King Kenny you aren’t the real Kenny Daglish?????

Anyway thought I’d put my 2 bits in and say SG is a very very good passer of the ball. Watch him and he doesn’t tend to pass to feet but rather into space hence expecting team players to run those “empty” areas. Our players (Pennant) have been quite poor at getting to them. But put quality around him and he’ll give a lesson in passing – guaranteed (Torres, Babbel)

AND I know we aren’t Spurs but to buy one of the most promising talents from a european powerhouse says alot about Spurs’ intention. He may/maynot turn out to be the greatest footballer ever but to be backed like that when all they’ve won is Carling cup says alot about their board! And its a million miles from the cunts we have at our board!

So no I’m not jealous of signing DOs Santos I’m flabbbergasted that we are again bargain basement shopping while everyone around is spending huge on the best talent around the world!!!! For last 4 years we’ve seen Chavski spend the GNP of Africa on a couple of players, we’ve seen Mancs buy big when they won the title (just to stregthen) and once again we’re holding our dicks but still EXPECT no 19.
Like I said before what year are we in? Cos pick any from 92 to now (and that was for SLy sports who obviously introduced football to the public from 91 onwards)

Whinegr has just said he’s shopping at the euros! Forget me if I’m wrong but Ivory Coast, Gambia, Cameroon etc are not in Europe.

Expect citizenship changes to suit Le Arse! Wankers the whole lot of them

In Rafa we trust

I’m sorry lads if anyone thought they were speaking with the real king kenny I should have owned up before that was unfair of me, although I bet he does comment on here as an alias.

anyways I don’t care who the mancs sign they can only play 11 at one time ahem maybe i should shut up as taggart will be straight on to the FA to suggest he should be allowed extras players o n the field. sorry i forgot he already has, the ref, the fourth official etc. Seriously who can the mancs buy that would make them that much better? arse don’t seem to have the spending or pulling power that they had and chavski are strong but without a manager and all the top managers have distanced themselves. I really feel Rafa will do i soon bring home number 19.

I could then die a happy man.

KK wishful thinking! Like you I don’t give a hoot what other teams are doing but it does piss me off to see us doing nothing!!!

Ask yourself if you were in Rafa’s shoes -you’ve probably helped bring in £200-300m (I’m guessing) over the last 4 years with cup runs and league and what do you get in return £6-7m every now and then but then thats against the club rather than using monies previously generated!

I say Lets fuck the petitions lets just start putting money together and I’ll bump off G&H

Airfare £500
Short book read at Heathrow £16
Buying a gun in a dark alley in NY = $300

Watching G&H cry while I bulletspray their brains all over Priceless!!

Have I gone too far?

In Rafa we trust!

Thing is, even though everybody is spending money we have the major positions covered so we don’t have to spend big to maintain the status quo of top 4, year in, year out until Stevie finishes with the Reds… We are suited to making deep runs into Cup competitions, so we generally make hefty sums because of this revenue…
What I’m getting at is that we don’t have to dispair about not spending 70-80 mill every year (like we did last season- including Skrtyl and Mash’s massive fee)…
Every signing upwards of 6mill for a Defender has paid massive dividends for Rafa, so Dossena must be given respect by us Reds…
As for Degen, hes free… He’s been given a chance, its up to him, eitherway we won’t lose anything by signing him…

Stevie G is the backbone of this team and Rafa is surrounding Stevie with the types of players that complement HIS game…
So what I was getting at way back when we first started talking bout stevie’s pass was that we need players that fit into his game…So, for me flashy wingers may not work with Liverpool. But say a big, strong and fast winger (ala Babel) would probably link in well with Stevie’s passing…

I appreciated everyone’s opinion of SGs passing ability. Its not like we are on the opposite ends of the spectrum here.
When I judge a player, I tend to be extremely harsh in terms of where I set the bar. So my judgement of him is based on that and most people I’ve spoken to are far more tolerant.

In my opinion…
In order to be classed as a “Great” passer of the ball, I expect you to complete 80-90% of the passes you attempt. SG doesn’t do that, so in my book, and probably only in my book, he’s not great… and by that definition, few are… but he’s certainly very, very good.

By the same token, I refuse to say that Torres is a great striker. Simply because I’m not swayed by one season. If he duplicates his form next season, then yeah, he’s climbing among the greats and if he does it again in his 3rd season, fair enough, here’s your “great” membership package, fully paid up, with an invitation to apply for “legends” status soon.

Like I said, I judge by a slightly harsher criteria. (like Rafa bollocking Cisse who scored the winning goal beacuase he failed to make the correct pass in the 93rd minute, 10 seconds before the whistle blew.)
(THAT is why I think Rafa is the right man for the job, by the way.)

Also, I meant to add this…

I’m among those who don’t think we need to bring in 3 superstars.
If Deggen and Dossena turn out to be half as competent as Agger and Skrtel we’ll be on a winner and if we sign (along with Barry) 1 or 2 more like them, I’ll be happy.

As I said, I predict Kuyt will have a good Euro and be a revelation next season and I also think Vorronin is well capable of shaking off his first season and delivering his pre-season form (I don’t know if he will, but I think its a possibility… and you know how Rafa loves his “possibilities”)

I think Riise, Crouch, Carson will go for sure. If we can get a good price for Peanut, he’ll follow, otherwise he’ll be a bit player against the Cannon fodder. Finnan might go also, along with a few of the young lads and that’ll pretty much be it.
Let Scum, the Arse and Chavs go further into debt and we’ll be oddsed out of ratings and be the dark horses coming from behind… which is our best position!

And WHEN we win 19, we can have a good laugh at all the rest coz it didn’t cost us 300 million to achieve!!!

aitch i hear what your saying. great player and legend are terms which are bandied around far too much nowadays. I do think stevie g is a great player and will be a legend for us. torres has some way to go but if he carries on the way he has he certainly will be. It makes me laugh when they call mr spud u like rooney aka shrek a great player, he’s talented but i’ve yet to see that fulfilled same as rollando, he was great this season and credit where credits due was probably the best player in the world but it’s one season. Lets see him do it over 5 and then well start talking about legend.

cally did it for about 17 seasons, a great proffesional and a great man, same as king kenny and ian rush.

Aitch im afraid your in dreamland mate if you think we`re going to win the premiership without spending big.
I have trust in rafa and like you wouldn`t change him for any manager on the planet but he can only bring in players within the small budget he has.
Do you think rafa would be going out and bringing in the likes of phillip Degan if he had the spending power of the others.Not a hope.He`d be out looking for the likes of alves,villa etc.

Don`t get me wrong degan/dossena might turn out to be gems but the difference is when you buy top drawer players you know what your getting.I honestly can`t see us winning number 19 at the minute because quite simply we have the fourth best squad in the country and the three above us will add more to their squads.
We will always have a chance in the CL because its cup football.

Barca just have agreed a deal with seville for daniel Alves worth 29m euro`s.

timmytorres 4th best squad? Are you sure? If i’m honest manure have the best squad and that’s quite clear but i don’t think there’s much to choose between LFC, chavski and manure. On our day we can match anyone. a couple of good additions and with a bit of luck ie if we stay clear of injuries to key players we can win number 19.

KK, yes i do belive that.I`d say we have about 7 players (reina,agger,skrtel,mash,steve,carra and torres) that would be a match for any team in there respective positions.Outside those besides the young players with potential we have very ordinary players compared to the other 3.

I take your point i know we are a match for anyone on any given day,but a league is played over 38 games and we have always come up short.

I hate admitting this but theres no point kidding ourselves,we need serious investment to sustain a challenge and Rafa knows this but sadly the owners don`t give a monkeys.

KK i agree with Timmy, it is the 4th best. Look at the chavs and the quality they have on the bench. Whilst chelsea have their problems geling as a team, they have so much individual talent on the bench that over 38 rounds they are able to be competative. Im not saying i necesserily want any chelsea players, im just saying when you can afford to have a few players worth 20mil+ pounds on the bench it makes life easier.

To be honest I think you’re bein a little harsh TT, but that’s your right brotha! Granted your comment about the “squad players” bein a little too weak if probably valid with exceptions. I do feel that’s absolutely fine as long as they have the ability to work as one co-heisive unit, maximasing each other’s abilities. Rafa always says it’s the little things and surely this is partly what he’s talking about… I’m thinkin of the Senegal team when they knocked France out of the WC. Sure they didnt win the Cup but they were stable and co-hesive, allowin them to over-acheive and that’s what sports is all about…

Oh, and before I move on I’d just like to say that even though I think Crouch is talented I want to see him bein kicked into touch by Rafa. Seriously what right does he have to be cryin to the media about this and that every other week? It’s not like he’s missing out on select for England or anything, he’s played a major role helping to destroy crybaby Wenger… We’re always goin on about the old days, how great players had to bide their time on the bench in order for the team to suceed… Crouch should’ve kept his mouth shut and perhaps he may have some shinny medals in the next few years… I’m not impressed with him and quite frankly I hope he moves on, sad as that maybe for our cause… Expect Rafa to shine his axe…

Yeah Aitch, I’m with ya on Rafa too. I’d hate to piss him off as a player. Even if he liked a player I’ve the real feeling he’d have no problem kicking them for touch if he thought they were holding the team back… Ouch, that’s part of bein a real manager if u ask me- Ruthless, but strangly loyal (Alonso bein a case in point)…

Oh, I’m gonna love to see Rafa when he gets to Manure’s level as far as squad quality… I can see Sly sports critcizing him (ala Stevie sub earlier this year) and tryin to pull him down only to get a shit load of egg on their face when our master Tactician is proved right (ala Lucas’ penalty against the Toffees in that same game)!!! I can still see the camera shots of us fans wondering what the hell was going on, yet now that I think about it, it was nothing short of PURE brilliance…
Yeah, I’d say our future looks bright, not necessarily beacause of our team but because we can all see Rafa grow as a manager, year in year out…

Sorry KK was talkin to TT in regards to 209, bein 4th best squad… We’re probably 3rd as Arsenal are too thin…

Hi Guys,

Have some very interesting news. I work with a collegue who is directly dealing with one of our clients in england. (I cant name names cause otherwise i will be sacked). His “client” has direct ties within Liverpool.

In regards to DIC. Apparently negotiations are ongoing and a resolution between DIC and knob americans are moving forward on the condition that everything is kept out of the media. This explains why we havent heard too much.

Secondly, and he is very unsure (so this part is more speculation than likelyhood) but apparently Liverpool are expecting a 40mill pound bid for Gerrard, he isnt sure on the team.

Please dont shoot the messenger, thats ME, on this one. Im just rellaying some info, and i think some of you may be interested!

tt… its only a dream until it becomes a reality.
You speak from a position of strength right now, coz we’ve underachieved al ittle, but if the likes of Kuyt, Vorronin, Benayoun, Babel, Arbeloa and Aurelio play to their full potential, and if Deggen and Dossena show up like Skrtel and Agger, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
Scum won the league this season by 2 games and because of 1 player, plain and simple…. so really… their squad is MUCH better than ours?
I don’t want to start an argument, and you’re entitled to your opinion, but I couldn’t disagree with you more wholeheartedly.
The Arse 1st team is pretty good, but they have no strength in depth.
The Chelsea squad is pretty good, and survive on brut strength and intimidation.
Scums squad is good, but far from great, or even their best in the last 10 years.

The LFC players I’ve named above, are considered outside “the quality spine” of the team and yes, in most cases, they didn’t perform as required this past season.
Perhaps where you and I differ is that I think they are all capable of more than we’ve seen from them.

Spot on Gerry, these “games” have lost their real value and don’t carry their amateur status pride any longer.

In all honesty, they have become a drug infested gathering and who can take things serious when the reigning rugby champions are the USA?

Gerry,
Could we have a new post please? Thanks!

Aitch,i`ll agree arsenal haven`t much outside there first 12/13 players but the other two certainly have a lot stronger squads than us no question.Ronaldo didnt win the league on his own,sure he scored all the goals but the scum won it because they were able to rotate throughout the entire league season without it effecting the strength of the side.
Do you reckon so that Torres carried us through this season and without him we wouldn`t have qualified for the CL ??

No one player can carry a team for 38 games.Football is a team game som teams just have standout players thats why they are labelled “1 man teams” by bitter rivals.

FS.Any news on the SOS meet at Anfield yesterday??

Totally agree about 1 man teams, no way did Ronaldo win the league on his own. Simple it’s a team game that’s why Man U needed Styles, Sky Sports, Andy Grey, the FA, dubious decisions and countless back room staff, not to mention their players. Ah yes it’s a team sport.

Im glad everyone paid attention to my interesting news on post#216, ahah.

Im starting to like this inside source. Been going through a few dodgy gossip sites (ie goal.com) and it appears moun-inho is considering putting in a bid for gerrard.