First!

Re: the point about Masch/Lucas, I would suggest playing Lucas in lieu of Masch when up against the bus parkers at Anfield. Lucas is a shade better at the attacking part of the game and we need those against the Stokes/Fulhams/Burnleys when they visit rather than Masch’s defensive qualities. So the central 3 should be SG/Aquaman/Lucas against the bus parkers and SG/Aquaman/Masch against the better teams.

The only worry will be Luca’s propensity to concede silly freekicks which will see said bus parkers pumping a set piece into our box…

Any thoughts?

TQ Gerry fer once again making yer point bout Lucas crystal clear.

In yer previous blog, ye reminded what a great job our other Brasilian did in the heart of midfield. Any idea when Aurelio will be fit again?

Had you written the part of the blog directed at Lucas, at the end of last season, I would have agreed.

But Gerry, so far this season, Lucas hasn’t lined up as a sitting midfielder once.
Yes he was forced to play that way when Jamie Carragher decided to do a Bruce Lee impression and Kung Fu his defense partner at Spurs, but that also meant that Insua and Johnson had to stay home and not get forward… changed the whole game plan and put Spurs int he driving seat.

Other than that, he has been deployed ahead of Masch, not sitting deep next to him… (surely I can’t be the only one that sees this?) …culminating in Rafa’s rather brilliant tactic vs Bolton, of having the man-shackled SG drop deep and push Lucas into the hole.

Not only has he gotten forward in every game and gotten on the end of a few things, but he has done more than short 10 yard sideways passes… one pass in particular vs Bolton, that split the defense in a manner that would have had Xabi Alonso asking “oooh, show me that again, how’d he do that?”

Yes of course he needs to do it more often, but that is exactly what we’ve been seeing in these opening fixtures, as he is being given the license he was never previously given, to get forward more.

Any argument of Lucas is clouded by the seasons past. All I ask is that judgement be temporarily suspended and we analyze the only contributions (or lack thereof) that matter… his games this season.

Frankly I’m disappointed. There have been a fair few lacklustre displays this season, yet Lucas despite getting his head down, and doing exactly what was being asked of him, gets half a blog dedicated to him.

Spot on Gerry about the disgusting shite the media came up with.

Before the Bolton game, I flicked to watched Sly News on my satellite channels, and they were showing a programmed interviewing all those dim-witted pundits from Fleet Street. There was this Daily Torygraph dickhead that dare proclaim that because Xabi has left us, last year was our “only best chance” of winning the title.

I instantly lashed out at him and shouted “BULLSHIT!”, while my folks watched me in shock and horror. Needless to say, I got chewed out for “overreacting”, but I dare say I would do the same if I see him saying the same stuff again.

Sometimes I wonder why I even flick to that fucking Murdoch channel.

Aitch #3, im glad we think on the same wavelenght.

Yes Lucas is not Fabregas, Kaka, Essien or Gerrard. It is clear to see he isnt a top world class player. I also agree that to be extremely competative you need a world class player playing in that position.

HOWEVER, based on the first 4 games, I’d keep him in the team. He has been tidy, kept possession and made some good splitting passes. There are other players who have not performed in their first 4 games and are not getting attention based on their past reputation.

Against Bolton, For their second goal Macherano didnt track his player and you can see that from the replay (was 15m away). Whilst i can understand a Gerrard not tracking back a player (since he plays behind a striker), it is Mascheranos no1 job to track midfielders. Yet lets blame Lucas for giving away a free kick.

Yes Gerry good fact about “passes completed”, but saying that he plays too “cautiously” i do not agree with. Sometimes i’d rather passes that make their target. Sorry to use the Macherano example again, but he has failed to make 10m passes on numerous occassions.

Well said about the media, Gerry. I know it’s a continous bugbear of LFC fans, but it got ridiculus last week.

On that wee note. Did anyone see Setanta Irelands coverge of the match on Saturday?
Pat Dolan is one of the few Pundits/Journos to say it how he sees it.
He carried on his thoughts in the Irish Daily Star yesterday.

He believes that Rafa is too good for the Yanks. He thinks Rafa should quit. Not for the reasons the normal media churn out, but because Rafa will never reach his potential under the Yanks.

There has been a lot of god articles written by LFC fans regarding a number of issues that Rafa has had to face, I’m going to email them to Pat and see where he takes them.

That should read “good articles”

Am I the only person who can see that far from Lucas being the problem so far this season, it is the defence and more particularly Jamie Carragher.
The guy plays too deep these days to compensate for his loss of speed and allows opposing teams to get far too close to goal and get in behind us and he has not got the legs to outjump any attacking forwards any more either. Not to mention his hoofing the ball up to our forwards and totally bypassing our midfield making it a lot harder for us to get a foothold in a game. Sir Jamie is far from perfect and all fans should start to look at him again. As soon as Agger and Skrtel are fit, I hope for our sakes that they are the starting two with Jamie used as cover for them. Even Sami is better than him but he was our cover not starter.

I know what you are saying Gerry about Lucas. Our midfield seems to be crying out for a different kind of midfielder because every team now just seems to send a nanny to stay with gerard and our game plan seems to be thrown out the window. Bolton did it, chelsea did it last year to and until Lucas can earn some respect and take over games we will always have questions and teams will keep man marking Gerard making hard for us. I like his cool though and he has a tendency of being in good positions and the more games he gets the better he is going to become.

Super stuff Gerry,

The media will always be on our back and it will only get worse so be prepared.

I think the Lucas thing is done to death to be honest.People have their mind made up about him whatever it may be.

Most people just go along with popular belief that he`s shite.

I for one can`t wait for Aquaman to see what he`s like but Lucas can do a job for us while we wait.It`s not soley his fault we lost those two games.

Hopefully we can have Fabio and Dagger back soon so our bench won`t look so weak.

No pressure on Aqualani then!

Apparently Rafa is confident that both Agger and Aqualani will both be ready for first team football at end of September/beginning of October. Not before time.

You are absolutely correct Gerry. Lucas is good and good enough to be in the premier league top four but to be in the centre to pull the strings to win the premier league is a big ask of the lad.

Good blog Gerry, i’m still new to this so it has been interesting to read all the posts on this blog as well as your previous ones.

I agree, the Lucas debate needs to be done and dusted. whether you like it or not, he is part of rafa’s bigger picture and until Aquaman is fully fit,dont expect to see anything other than Lucas filling in for now

Well Gerry, only an hour to go and news filtering through yet. As much as I would love to see another name coming in, it is looking highly unlikely

Well thats the way it goes, we are everyone’s favourite scapegoat.

When we win its because of luck, when others win its because they did well.

When Rafa changes a player, its call rotation and when some scumface did it its call resting players.

And back here in Singapore we have got a totally dim witted journalist who have decided to make a come back to journalism this week. Aparently the joke is that Liverpool are the new Spurs, big expectations and always fail, a just a cup team…bla bla

Its tough being a Red sometimes, you feel like punching these assholes.

What a knobhead. I didn’t even know there was a new blog up, so posted a few times in the last one and only thought to check when I seen no one else commenting. Gobshite.

Oh well, spot on Gerry. A good blog as always and about time you had a good old rant about the media. What bastard’s they are.

And make no mistake, it’s not by accident. There is and agenda. And barring a few exceptions, they do want to see us fail. As for what they’ve done, and continue to do, to Rafa, I think it’s criminal. And some might think it’s not worth getting bothered about, well, let me show why it’s not just some harmless distraction or bias…
Rafa Benitez has today been charged by the FA for improper conduct.

What was Rafa’s crime…
After the Spurs game, he was asked about the 2 penalties we were denied, he said, and I qoute…
“Some of the decisions were poor.”

Yes. Shock horror, how terrible of him, the johnny upstart forigener, had the temerity to say…
“Some of the decisions were poor.”

Now that mightn’t seem like much, bit of a fine and a slap on the wrist. But how long before this constant shite shovelled upon this man, makes him say, Fuck it, I’m off.

Could go on, but I’m going to leave it at that as I’m going to post my comments from the previous blog in here. So, please excuse anything that seems to be waffling away off point. I do that all the time anyway. But there is a few things I wrote in the last posts that are relevant in here, such as injury recovery times. But I can’t be arsed reading them over again and editing them. So….

This was written in the last blog as an answer to Aitch on something, but it contains what I’ve read about the injuries. And, as I said, I can’t be arsed editing it….

Aitch it would be nice to have the option to buy them. 4 wins with Barry in the sqaud by now? I doubt it, but it would be nice if Rafa at least had the option. In fact, it would be nice if he just had the bloody money he should have.

Someone, Keith I think, said earlier about letting H&G know exactly how we feel by pelting them next time they come into Anfield. Well, they’re under no illusion how we feel, and so I doubt they’ll ever show their faces again.

There was a demo and a anti-owner’s leaflet distribution at the Stoke game. H&G wouldn’t give a fuck. But short of shooting them, I don’t know what we are supposed to do. In fact, even shooting them wouldn’t work as parasites of that type spawn their own kind and another would just step in.

With no one really credible waiting in the wings to buy, it looks like we are stuck with them. And I hate to get straight onto the doom and gloom, but there’s no point in doing an ostrich job. But having said that, there’s no point in wallowing in it and getting depressed either. So, I’ll leave it alone until there is something happening that needs to be commented on, but I think people should keep in mind what Rafa is up against when they start criticising.

That’s not to say, him or the players are beyond critiscism. Of course they’re not, but we’ve got the fantasy league for transfering Lucas out and bringing in Essien. Which is nice. Because nothing of the kind is happening at the club.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Thankfully Aurelio is back in full training and should be fit after the international break. It’s such a shame that lad’s so injury prone. I think he’s a cracking little player.

Agger is… well, I’ve seen 2 reports one I posted in here that says he’s back in full training. Which came from Sky but they got it from Denmark off a national team mate of his so I thought it was probably reliable. But I have seen another saying Agger is only walking at the moment, but all went well with the operation and he is expected to start training soon.

Aqualani is now working in the pool and the gym, but the earliest I think we will see him is October, and it will probably be November by the time he is fully fit. Which is a shame as I think he’ll be a great addition to the team/squad But that’s where he is and we’ve no choice but to be patient.

El Zhar is also near back to full training, and though I think he’s never going to set the Prem on fire, he’s not a bad little player to have in the squad or on the bench when we need a different option. He’ll also come in handy in the Carling Cup, which I can’t fucking bear but we have to compete in.

So, getting them 4 players fit should make a huge difference and give Rafa the options he loves to have. And Corkie’s right, for once the international break has worked in our favour – just hold your breath now hoping all the lads come back unscathed.

And I had to put this in here for our American lads….

One bit of good news…
I haven’t read it all myself, but thought I’d post it for the American lads…
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=Channel&cid=1104779628701&s=prog

As far as I know it’s a free show that will be in direct competition with Cohen’s pay to listen internet thing. It’s hosted by an English and Irish fella that have lived in America for a long time, and used to work with Cohen but bailed on him over his vile views as one of them, Nick, is an LFC fan.

So, surely it’s going to be better than anything that disgraceful cretin can come up with. And I love to tell you so… So I told you so. It wouldn’t take long for someone to fill the void Cohen has left, and all the commercial opportunties it holds. And as I said, they’ve surely got to be an improvement on that sad bastard and the poison he loves to spread.

FS-I don’t know what to make of the new show. It appears as if it will be World Soccer Daily but with new hosts. Nick Geber, the Englishman, and Keith Costigan, the Irishman, who US fans should recognize from Fox Soccer Channel.

Both of them are Reds, so that should be a good start.

Geber is co owner of World Soccer Daily with Steven Cohen so I’m curious to know what’s going on behind the scenes with that. Geber used to co host with Cohen but left to pursue his interest in Poker.

Last word for now…
Hate to say it Gerry, but looks like your source has gotten this one wrong.

From what I’ve heard Rafa was told he had to sell Della Vale when Fulham came in with an offer of 3 million for him, but Rafa refused to unload the lad. He was then told that all none essential players should be sold, if bids come in for them. So, Rafa slapped a price tag of 5.5 million on the kid and Fulham pulled out saying it was too much.

I’ll dig up the link. It comes from the Danish media, but from what Dalle Vale’s family said to them. So, I don’t know if it’s gospel truth, but I can’t imagine the Danish media have an axe to grind with Rafa like these bastards over here.

Yeah mate, I read up on the background of it, but I can only see anything that goes against Cohen and in direct competition with him as a good thing.

Hi gang,

Haven’t seen who went where in the “last dramatic (sky) transfer day deadline looms soon”. But from what I don’t read above it looks like no-one in for us. Nothing for either for Utd ? Arsenal ? Chelsea ? I was looking at “The Sunday Times” and at least 75% of EPL clubs have spent more than us this summer, that was even with them getting our transfer figures wrong (imagine that).

Nice blog Gerry.

To me it will be a bit early to come into any conclusions. It is incorrect to say that we are not title contenders following our 2 defeats.In a similar way, a win against Bolton does not make me think that everything is sorted and we are back to our best.

The judgement has to come only when we are half way through the season. Thats a decent mark to check where we are standing.

Okay. So the window’s shut. I can’t be arsed digging up links and doing all the figures properly, but it’s time to look at this now…

We were promised the usual 20/25 million quid plus the Keane money.
So that’s roughly 40 million right there.

Then we was promised all the money from sales.
There’s about another 40 there.

So, not that I ever believed a word of it, I think it’s fair to say we had been promised a budget of somewhere around 80 million quid.

So, besides a few quid on a another few kids this has been our outlay…
Glen Johnson Portsmouth £17,500,000
Alberto Aquilani AS Roma £17,100,000 Sotirios Kyrgiakos AEK Athens £2,000,000

The above is cut and pasted from the LFC History site, as reliable a source as any. And it arrives at the figure of…
£34.6 million.

It’s common knowledge that Rafa had to beg, borrow, scream and loan out a top young prospect, Nemeth, to get the 2 million for the Kyrgiakos fella.

On top of that, Rafa was first instucted to let go another top prospect, Della Vale, for 3 million but he refused to sell.

Then he was instructed that all “none-essential” players should be sold if a “profitable” price was offered.

So, determined not to let the lad go, Rafa jacked the price for Della Valle up to 5 million quid. If Fulham would have met it, we would have now lost a kid who is expected to go onto really great things.

Also, apparently another 2 un-named premiere clubs joined Fulham in trying to get the lad. And the bidding got up to 4 million but all 3 clubs stopped at that price and Della Vale remains a Liverpool player.

But what if Chelsea, Man U or Arsenal had been prepared to pay that?

Is Rafa now expected to not only drive us on to success with no money, but also pay off the owners debts?

How long would you put up with these circumstances?

How long would you be ridiculed by a foriegn country’s media for, amongst other things, wasting gazzillions of quid, when in reality he has consistently made the club money and is expected to bring huge success on a shoe-string budget compared to his main competitors.

In fact, I could go on about the likes of Stoke etc, having more. But Dougle has posted the statistic.

And all I can say at this moment is… If I was Rafa, I would be on the next possible plane to Spain.

@FS

Bang on target you are. My point is exactly the same. Where did all the initial trasnfer kitty which we were suppose to have go? Add to that we sold Alonso for 30m and i am surprised how Rafa found it difficult to strengthen his squad.

Is it a intentional ploy by those Americans to stop Rafa from winning the league and ultimately trying to replace him with someone of their choice?

Those bastards have frustrated me ever since they came. Is their any work going on at the Stadium site? Can anyone update please.

FS, once again, we are discussing something we essentially agree on.

Would it be nice if we could afford players? In a perfect world… (you know, the one Rafa and we do NOT inhabit) … of course it would.
But then you have to ask yourself what players?

If we had dosh, then obviously you want to be talking about the Silvas & Arshavins of this world, hence we buy Johnson and (hopefully) Aquillani.

But our situation has us loaning out one of our most promising youngsters, simply to acquire a stop-gap Greek who looked about as comfortable at centerback as Deggen does at rightback. (I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt for now, since it was his first game and he was tossed in at the deep end… but this is our reality!)

Barry would have been a decent signing, though admittedly I don’t rate him as highly as some others do, but some of the other names? I’m not so sure.

I don’t want to bring Lucas into the argument, but surely if some people insist on arguing that he is “not the sort of player that can run a title winning midfield” then the same can be said of the majority of the other names some people have suggested we scramble to buy before the door slams shut?

…hell… someone on the BBC site this morning texted that they had inside info that David Bentley was at Melwood for a medical and would sign imminently.
Not a bad player, but is David Bentley better than our current options… and if he’s that good, why aren’t the Arse, the Chavs and Scum fighting us off for him?
After all that is the argument often used against Lucas! (doh… I went there again)

@Aitch

Your point is true. But the point here is we did not spend even upto the limit which we all thought the owners must have promised Rafa. Rick Parry went, we all thought this summer would be a different transfer season for us. Rafa would get the players he wants with some quick decision making process behind the scenes.

What we see now is, inspite of the fact that we bought Johnson and Aquilani we are no where close to the spending which was expected. Selling of players,loans etc has been the pre requisite to buy new ones.

I refuse to believe that Rafa is happy with what he got. He will surely try to do his best but he surely wanted a few a more quality signings.

And FS, I wonder if what you posted in #23 might go some way to explaining what I would describe as the lackluster performances in the last few games.
I mentioned in the last blog, that to this observer, I think the body language is all off at the moment, both on the field and on the bench.

If Rafa has been instructed to sell non-essential players…. that could constitute a LOT of players!

I mean most people refer to our team as a “core” consisting of Pepe, Carra, Skrtel, Agger, Masch, SG, and Torres…. (I guess Johnson would be added to that list now, and Kyrgiakos and Lucas for the time being,) then “the rest”

So for all those that buy into the idea of this “core” of players, that means…

Frist teamers like: Insua, Dossena, Riera, Benny, Kuyt, Babel, Voronin, Ngog, Aurelio,

Fringe players like: Cavalieri, El Zhar, Spearing, Deggen, Plesis

and a whole host of others who looked promising in pre-season, like: Ayala, Kelly, Nemeth, Darby

plus about 21 other names on the 1st Team Squad List

Everyone not listed in the “core” would have been under the axe, under the Owner’s directive,yes?
How is that supposed to build team unity and insure concentration on the job at hand???

and THAT is what Rafa has had to deal with.

I hope aquilani hits the ground running and proves to be a good replacement for alonso otherwise i think were shagged.Beside the signing of johnson we seem to be going backwards.Its obvious that alonso made the team tick his loss is as great as if we had lost Gerrard or Torres if aquilani does not fil alonsos boots we have no chance of winning the league.if were honest chelsea and Man utd are favourites as they have better squads.we have a brilliant 1st team but the replacements are ordinary all the fuss over lucas proves this.Are squad is built on a house of sand if Torres gets seriously injured whats our plan b ?.i dont think rafa trusts the kids otherwise he Would be playing them.i dont blame rafa the club is skint Like FS i thought there was money to spend 1 more proven striker Would have lessened the burden on Torres and Gerrard as we stand we have to pray none of them get injured.we have our best manager since paisley and he has been shat on from a great height.YNWA

Has NEMETH been loaned out?

I don’t quite get what you mean Aitch. Don’t mean to be a twat, but it looks like 2 points to me…
1: It is what it is and we have to get on with it sort of thing.
2: We’re okay with what we’ve got.
3: It’s cack and we could be forced into pretty much selling any of the lads.

Probably me mis-reading things, but for instance, well… if you think back we actually tried to throw a last minute bid in for Arshavin when he was left hanging round a hotel at Heathrow airport by Arsenal. But the yanks wouldn’t give us the money. And you know exactly what happened with the Silva bid.

So, yes. That’s exactly the type of players Rafa would now be bringing in if the dough – the dough he should have – was available.

The Barry reference was made in the last blog. If you read it again, you can see why I cut and pasted it into here, but instead of me trying to explain it all it would be quicker if you just looked at the last comments on the last blog. It’ll make more sense that way.

Anyway, I don’t think the performances can be blamed on any of this. I think we just haven’t clicked yet. I’m not worried about that so much though as we soon will. And like I said, we’ve got some great players on the way back and we should be okay.

But yes, that was my whole point… “Who is essential and who is not?”

Could that mean the likes of Bennayoun?
I don’t know.

Could all players should be sold if it’s for the right profit mean Nando could go for say 50 mill?

Again, I don’t know.

I’m just reporting what I know.

And it’s probably easiest to explain it all by answering Somnath…
The only bloody ploy involved in any of this is to do exactly what the yanks said they would do from the start – milk our club for every possible penny they can as Mr. Hick’s said himself…
“To be successful doesn’t mean we have to be a success on the field.”

And in a nushell Aitch, I’m not saying all the troubles and strife means we will fail this year. We still have as good a chance as anybody. But, let’s face it, it’s shite.

And I never even mentioned the telly money or the Champion’s League money. I think we’ve enough shit on our plates right now.

#30 Yes. He went as part of the deal to bring the Greek fella over.

Who I thought done okay on Saturday Aitch. Bit shakey in moments, but that’s only to be expected due to the circumstances. But he was shit hot in the air – which could come in very handy this season and even bring back the airial threat at set pieces which left with Sami.

Rafa surely realises the potential of the kid Dalle Valle.I`m glad he wasn`t bullied into selling him.This kid by all accounts has some future and i hope its with us.

Christian Purslo our MD was hired to do what?Give some sound financial advice?Well this financial genius has come out and said that Rafa had been backed in the transfer market and we`ve spent around the same as the last 5 years or so around £20 million before sales.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6814314.ece

What a prick.And another thing he supposedly went to Harvard back in the day with Hicks` son.

The futures bright eh..

Sell any non essential players if they generate a profit.

These pricks are more stupid than i thought.It looks like some act of desperation now.Who knows where it could lead?

Non essential players..if one was to ask Rafa who they were he couldn`t tell you.Why?.Beacause he dose not have any.All the players at the club are with his say so and in his opinion “essential” to the cause.

These parisites don`t understand the game and see anybody no in the first 11 as “non essential”.

Whats that you say again FS about the mind boggling?

Dalle Valle may not be in the first team plans as we speak but my guess is we`ll be seeing him in the next 2 years making appearences for the first team.

Fuck it. Here’s something from the good old M&M (Mullet and Mussie) days…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onUuVNUXqRo

It’s in 5 little 5 minute sections. If you’ve got the time to spare it’s well worth the look.

Ahhh, happy days.

Ha seen that not so long ago FS.

A friend of mine posted that link to me said he stumbled on it.

Brilliant Doc.Those were the days i`d say.Even the wives were more understanding back then!

The kicker to the 20 million spend this summer is that it included all the new contracts that we’re given out this spring/summer.

Nando, Dirk, Dagger, Yossi were all given new deals, and I’m sure I missed someone in there. My guess is Rafa thought he had 20 million to spend on top of those extensions, H&G thought otherwise.

Cocksuckers!

I knew I forgot one. That Gerrard fella (anyone familiar with him?) had his deal extended.

Probaly right there Ivcjmac.Unless Alonso went for an undisclosed £10 million!

Last season we were lucky at the start of the season.we were lucky to be in the champions league.we nicked it from the belgian team.and if were honest we had a few last minute winners in the league which took up to the top of the table.then we let utd back in .and then after boro beat us we played the best football i’ve seen us play since the late eighties.we are basing our aspirations for the title on our performance at the end of last season.but we were lucky to be in that position.also chelsea Imploded and that wont happen this season.if we qualify for the champions league this season with the criminal lack of investment it will be a achievement.YNWA

They have indeed tied all contract rises into the transfer money.

And bollacks to it, some one has got to say it…
We Are Fucked!

Here’s one you’ll like Tim mate…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kLZORIeeJE&feature=related

Should send him over to have a nice quiet civilised chat with The Borrowers, eh.

Ya maybe,if he fancys some more free food and as we paddys say when we head over “looking forward to a night at her majestys leisure!”

Bit of a loony though i`d say who is he a mate of yours?

Nah. Just thought you’d get a laugh out of him. Good lad to pass the message onto H&G though.

Liverpool have to get the best out of players like babel and agger to compete i think both players could be big for us if we could get them working well within are 1st 11 i Would like to see babel on the right instead of kuyt and agger alongside skrtel I admire kuyts hard Work but i think babel Would pose a bigger threat if he was running at the fullback on his natural right side and with the threat of him getting to the byline and getting crosses in on the otherside there is no threat of crosses and the fullback knows what hes gonna do .Agger offers us a defender who can play out from the back 2 very important players who we need to play there part.YNWA

Too right

RM, i agree babel needs to step up when called upon but i`m confident now Agger has got his injury soerted properly we will see the best of him.

RM don’t be silly. Kuyt is the best defensive forward/attacking midfielder in the league. The lad is indispensible to us and how we play. An absolutely cracking footballer.

On top of that RM Johnson is a class act with a natural inclination to go forward, there is no chance Rafa will play Babel with him (I think) cos who’s gonna do the defending ? Kuyt has the brain to balance Johnson, Babel has not shown the concentration or inclination to do that.

http://www.yanksout.com/

I’m going to go a bit stir crazy with no matches for two weeks, but hopefully the break should do us some good.

The injuries to our CB’s (Carra, Skrtel, Agger) should be sorted out over the next few weeks, and the schedule appears to be pretty kind to us into October, at which point we’ll need to be on top of our game.

12 Sep Burnley H
16 Sep Debreceni H
19 Sep West Ham United A
22 Sep Leeds United A
26 Sep Hull City H
29 Sep Fiorentina A
04 Oct Chelsea A
17 Oct Sunderland A
20 Oct Lyon H
25 Oct Manchester United H

Here’s asking the moon, but if we could take all 18 points from our next six league games, we’ll be in great shape.

No problem, wins away to West Ham, Chelsea, and Sunderland as well as a couple of home bankers (Burnley, Hull, and the Mancs).

Realistically, it’s one game at a time and I’m hoping we take maximum points going into the game at the Bridge against the Chavs.

Last year, in those corresponding fixtures we took 16 out of 18 points, the only dropped points were to Hull at Anfield.

We didn’t play Burnley last season, but we beat all three of the relegated teams at Anfield last year.

Let me see if I can put it in much mroe simple terms then FS.

We will win the Prem this year… with the players we have. (might even do a double as well)

I never wanted the Yanks in the first place, or the Arabs. I was quite happy with Moores and us doing things “the Liverpool Way” … and by that, I mean “not buying the Prem”. We were spending 20 mill per season with Moores, so what have G&H brought to the table other than debt and lots of it? I fear for the future of the organization.

Obviously we needed to revampt the way we were doing things, but that was not with ownership, that was with management across the board.

If we have to settle for 1 big money buy per season, then so be it. I’ve never been of the mindset (and surely you can at least remember thismuch about my past postings) that big money is the right way.
We got Torres last year. We got Johnson this year. And as much as I like both of them, I like the rest of them as well. The only player in the firwst team squad (proper) that isn’t up to snuff in my opinion is Deggen.

Outside of that, I think we can win the league with the players we have. Some would call that deluded, but then they probably would have sided with Hansen when he announced to the world that “no one wins the League with a bunch of kids.”
And we all know what happened after that statement.

Well someone will jump on that error made while typing fast, so yes… I know Torres was not bought last year.
But the principal is sound.

‘Confirmed’ in and outs as provided by the Independent

CONFIRMED TRANSFERS IN:
Alberto Aquilani, undisclosed
Glen Johnson, undisclosed
Aaron King, undisclosed
Sotirios Kyrgiakos, undisclosed
Chris Mavinga, undisclosed

CONFIRMED TRANSFERS OUT:
Krisztian Nemeth, loan
Andras Simon, loan
Alvaro Arbeloa, undisclosed
Adam Hammill; undisclosed
Xabi Alonso, £30m
Astrit Ajdarevic, free
Paul Anderson, £250k
Charles Itandje, loan
Jack Hobbs, undisclosed
Sebastian Leto, undisclosed
Sami Hyypia, free
Jermaine Pennant, released

Not sure about the figures but how is Alonso the only one that has a value when the deal was delcared by the club as undisclosed. On the other hand Aquaman’s terms is in the full light of day but is termed undisclosed. Wanker’s the lot of them!

On top of this if G&H are considering that wage increases are part of the rafa’s yearly ‘transfer budget’, then it is truly a fucked-up scenario.

How much he loves LFC or not, I am not sure how much more he can put up with this type of treachery.

The only thing that I hope is that guy at the portaloo, where the new stadium should now be being built, got a good pay increase this year!

Aitch you can’t get any more simple than me.

Anyway, read the yanks out link I put in. that explains things in a nutshell.

Sad thing is, demonstrations, chants, leaflet campaigns, none of it means fuck all to H&G. If they can bleed South American sweat shop peasants to fuck without a second thought, any opposition we can mount won’t even register a second thought with them.

In my opinion, the only way we could oust them would be to boycott games, have empty stadiums, and block all merchandise sales.

This is impossible to achieve.

Proof… everytime I go to Anfield, I go to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign shop and pick up a roll of Don’t Buy The Sun stickers and also JFT96 stickers. Not making meself out to be a Saint. I just do it, put a few quid in the campaign collection and then hand them out at away matches. It’s a done thing. Lots of us do it.

I took a roll of each to Spurs and here’s the rub… some people I tried to hand them to refused them. They was there in their replica Torres shirts, enjoying their day out and didn’t even know what the stickers where about.

I didn’t mention this until now because I couldn’t see the point of just looking like I was whingeing again. But what chance do you think we have of keeping Anfield empty and enforcing a merchandise boycott when the people who turn up don’t even know what the Hillsborough Justice Campaign means?

All summer long i had this feeling that the yanks
would redeem themselves and surprise us all and
sign Silva or Villa.If only to make a fortune on
shirt sales and to make more money by winning the
prem or CL thus gaining better sponsorship/adverts
revenue.Now to me that sounds like a good plan for
someone motivated by money.
But allas it was not to be why because G&H are
A Idiots
B C*nts who are out to milk the club for what
they can.
Now to be honest i’ve suspected the answer to be
B for a while,but wishful thinking has blinkered
my reasoning.So the only way to get rid of them
would to boycott the matches,but will it happen
will it F*ck we love the team too much and they
know it.
FS I find that hard to believe about the fans at
the spurs game but believe it i do.
Gerry One word that explains the treatment Rafa
gets in the media is racism and its hidden behind
oppinion and free press.If he was English he wouldnt have to put up with it.
YNWA

Rome77: It’s complete and utter truth. I never bothered mentioning it before. What’s the point? But I take the stickers to all away games with me. I walk around, handing out bunches of them hoping everyone posts them. I’ve had bemused looks before but only at Spurs have I had people refuse to take them… sort of like people shying away when getting asked to filled in questionaires in the street.

So what hope have we we got of putting on proper protests that will really affect H&G?

Bob hope and no hope, I’d say.

So, all I can say is… it’s not time to panic and give in yet. I’ve said it a million times, we can still win this. But when critiscising the team and boss, stop, take a breath, and consider all that first.

Lads,
I have absolutely no love for G&H. They are an abomination to all that is LFC… the successes and the tradgedies that are our great history.

rome the answer definitely isn’t A.
I know its borne out of frustration, when lads call them idiots, but it has to be said that neither of these guys are idiots. We like to think they are, but you don’t get to run a Billionaire’s empire without brains.

The problem lies not in that they are idiots and morons, but that they just simply don’t get Footy, and how Footy teams are run.

Though you would think they’d had enough time to fuckin figure it out, they still haven’t adapted their business model. They are trying to run LFC in the same manner they have run their U.S. sports franchises… and that is a fatally flawed plan, coz Yank sports and English footy are two completely different animals.

So B it is then…. they are just Cunts!

And yeah FS, that is truly disheartening.
Also perhaps puts into context some comments that get made in here, from time to time, I think.

…and anyway, what the fuck are yuo still doing posting in here… isn’t it 3am there????

It’s called Elecky Vimto… Port and Blue Wicked. Sort of like liquid crack. Keeps you up all night, but results in a terrible crash… and knowing my luck, probably gout.

But what’s the point in explaining them pair of cunts or anything they do? Read the history of Weetabix. It say’s it all.

PS… The answer is C: Complete and utter pair of twats.

See the yanks out link I posted

If rafa has to explain his position to the FA, fungus would be in jail by now….

Rafa should start bringing up some FACTS concerning the Purple Nosed Twat’s behaviour during the disciplinary hearing.

C’mon Rafa, we’re behind you!

They are gonna persecute ye anyways, so ye might as well call it as ye sees it – FA are a bunnch of scum-loving syncophants.

lvcjmac #51, surely the League Cup game against Leeds doesn’t count that much, as Rafa will no doubt rest most of the main squad for that Mickey Mouse competition.

When put that way, it goes like this for our 1st 3 Champions League games:

12 Sep Burnley H (touch wood this isn’t the new Stoke)

4 days rest

16 Sep Debreceni H (a draw is sinful)

3 days

19 Sep West Ham United A

1 week

26 Sep Hull City H

3 days

29 Sep Fiorentina A (depending on the Debreceni game, a draw caused by a rested side against the Chavs may or may not be acceptable)

5 days

04 Oct Chelsea A

13 days, but have to factor in the International break, so in actuality only 3 days for Rafa to prepare

17 Oct Sunderland A (Steve Bruce factor, fucking Scum clown he is)

3 days

20 Oct Lyon H (same as Fiorentina situation above, a draw with a half-rested side may be acceptable)

5 days

25 Oct Manchester United H

Not going to predict how many points we’ll potentially get as there’s still too many permutations when it’s still ages before the Burnley game.

All I’ll say is, if Burnley can be dispatched, then there wouldn’t be any confidence crisis against another “small team” like Hull (and Debreceni for that matter). And then we can worry about West Ham and afterwards.

No sign of Degen in tonight’s reserve team.Injured yet again?.This is beyond a joke.He has cost £4 million already.Was nobody prepared to make a decent bid for Babel and Voronin?.

Hi!

Alonso it seems said that his decision to leave anfield was taken last season only. He has spoken highly about the fans but his comments should finally put to rest all the speculations surrounding the reason behind Alonso’s departure.

He was a player who Benitez wanted to sell to raise cash to get Barry(A better player last season). This season the money we got doubled. Only sad fact is Alonso wanted to leave.

somnath, don’t count on anything being put to rest.
The article (reposted on TIA even.. how sad that the TIA site has fallen so… ) with the headline:

Alonso “pushed out by Rafa”

…even though in the body of the article, there is no such quote, which leads me to believe he never said any such thing in the interview and in fact went on to dispel such a quotation by actually saying he had “no problem with Rafa” and that they had “a professional relationship.”

Perhaps Alonso is an example of what G&H consider to be a “non-essential player”?

Fuck this for a game of darts!!

Lads piss and moan all ye want

I too want Kaka and Baggio

but fucted if we’re goon get them

we have a fairly strong squad so lets have a craic and give them a go

I have no idea whats gonna happen this year and although i’ll hazard a guess I dunney have a fucking clue whats gonna really go down I;m sick of guessing

But ill support the fuck out of the lads and fucking tackle anyone that says otherwise

So say it once and say it Loud!!

I’m a LFC fan and I’m proud

Over and out

BTW……………..great blog Gerry

Over

Preach it Brutha donal!
Here, Here!

BTW… (FYI Warning to everyone)
& Gerry you might want to give the site lads a heads up.
My Security Software is giving me triple Trojan warnings, every time I visit TIA & Kopblog

If you don’t have protection software (who surfs nowadays without it??) you might want to grab something from C-NET or download.com and scan you box.

Somnath, the only sad fact is that we had to sell Alonso to fund the purchase of another player! Who is to blame for that?

In any working relationship there will be misunderstandings and disagreements, whether it be in football or anything else. Usually both sides are guilty to an extent and this seems to be the case here.

ressies are 1-0 up at the moment but interestingly Pacheco is the playmaker in midfield – what could that mean

2-1 lurgan i was watching it while ago but the kids demanded that i stick on Spongebob SHITTY PANTS instead so who am i to argue!

Who scored the second?

That Pacheco looks way out of his league if you know what i mean..

dont know TT because everytime I lost the link there was a goal scored!

Anyway, I was more interested in the performances than the the result. Pacheco was the star again, running the midfield with a notable mention for Bruna and Eccelstone.

Ended 3-1 and Pacman should have scored one at the end.

Would love to see him on the first team and let him on in midfield when we are 3 nil up. Probably will happen against barca in the CL semi-final

He`s doing his chances no harm Lurgan.If he keeps playing like that he could force his way on to our bench for a game or two.
It will be very interesting to see him in action against leeds in the carling cup.Maybe we will know more about how close he is after that game.
Obviously he has the technical ability and all that but he will be up against a big physical presence and quicker pace game against Leeds than he`s used to in the ressy games.

Since its international week and without much to talk aboout i heard an LFC fact today and i said i`d throw it out as a teaser i don`t think i`d ever of got it but here it is…..

Who was the only man to have captained both Liverpool and Everton?

No googling lads!

peter beardsley???

Thats a no-no sorry!

Kevin Sheedy …. ? I know thats a long shot as he barely got a kick at Anfield but I can’t think of anyone else right now.

Not Sheedy Dougle !

Steve McMahon?

TT @ No81.

“Steve McMahon. The only player to have captained both red & blue halves of merseyside . . .”

That’s how he’s always introduced as a pundit here in Asia.

now babel is making noise about not getting playing time and agitating for a loan move in january, to bolster his world cup chances. with our squad now wafer thin, this is something we dont need. then again, with aurelio and riera back in action, and benny can cover our left wing, plus dossena to cover left back should aurelio be pushed forward, reckon we might as well just sell babel back to ajax.

redneck

we should’ve loaned him out to pompey in exchange fer nico. good player that nico.

just wishful thinking now . . .

I see that Monaco signed Eidur Gudjohnsen from Barca on a free. Surely he would have been worth considering as a backup to Torres?

There is one major fact I know about being Red. I know I will never walk alone and that I’ll keep smiling regardle

There is one major fact I know about being Red. I know I will never walk alone and that I’ll keep smiling regardless of the ignorant crap hurled in my club’s direction.

I keep reading sites like the “objective” Beeb and wonder whether they have journos or just a bunch of busybodies who enjoy the sound of their own hollowness. Doesn’t matter coz I’m Red and they’ll never be. The likes of Sly I won’t even listen or tolerate.

In truth, there’s lots of jealousy for all that this unfashionable club has achieved. I knew from my supporting onset that we’d never be a “glamour” club like Barcelona – and neither did we ever need to be. Shanks set up this club to be a people’s club. This is easily evident from our worldwide following to date (Asia, Africa and the world). Despite lies spewed about this club, whether regarding Heysel/Hillsborough, whether regarding the “overspending” by one Benitez, or us being “lucky” in Istanbul, our “defensive” game even when we lead the scoring charts in back-to-back seasons, etc., a fact remains that we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.

I’m not a starry-eyed idealist; of course there are elements of such. Liverpool FC will never be perfect in the eyes of many but it will remain an unachievable ideal for most.

Is zonal marking a total failure? Are we more than the Gerrard-Torres axis? Will we ever attract the caliber of world-class player who can drastically alter our playing landscape? Will we ever win the PL under RB? How come there was no televising of our second goal against Bolton, a classic of the pass-and-move reels? How come there was no comment regarding Gerrard’s winner, a near carbon copy of Cohen’s second for the Trotters? How come the Spurs never receive flak for their expenditure, yet they’ve consistently outdone the Reds in the transfer market with far inferior achievements?

It all comes with the territory. Signing such overrated players as GJ and Torres is exactly why LFC hired Benitez for. Winning the CL and FA cups by fluke is actually part of RB’s chief mandate. Beating the likes of Chelsea, Juve, Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona, MUFC and Arsenal while playing defensively is our bread and butter as a team. Having the most vociferous fans on the planet, who stick through thick and thin with their team (all things considered) is just part of our rich heritage as a club.

Being Red is not part-time; just a lifetime pursuit. It’s an attitude, a way of life, a religion if you may, a lifestyle. We might have “murdered our own” (as sung by Blues fans last season) but we sure know how to annihilate the opposition. We might specialize in slowing down to get fouled (read Gary Megson) and throwing ourselves all over the place (ditto), but that’s who we’re.

We’re the Reds and no one EVER will. Support the Reds. Keep the faith.

YN(Ever)WA(Ever)!

Did anyone notice we actually won 50 million in prize money for coming 2nd last year, the money was passed on through the FA to LFC as a result of the upgrade in TV money. Well we must be paying of some debts with that and all the rest.
.
Maybe we just covering all the severence payments to moved on staff. We moved some on. Glad the windows shut but my goodness there was some crap posted in rumour land.

Sam W Great post
C’mon you Redmen.

It seems i’m not the only one who is getting
annoyed with Babel,how long ago was it when he
was saying he’d fight for his place.Now he wants
to go back to Ajax rather than buck up and pull
his finger out,his attitude reminds me of a spoilt
brat.The reason he has been dropped from the Dutch
squad is because his performance is not up to
scratch not because he is’nt getting enough time
on the pitch.
SAM Im sure its a typo but we never “murdered our own”
Gaz Not sure how much but i think we got a few
million for getting to CL QF.

YNWA

SW: I know you’re making a rallying call and so didn’t intend any harm, but never (ever) say we murdered our own.

If you are interested in Hillsborough or Heysel, there is plenty of things to read that will tell you the truth of both tragedies far better than any chant from idiots on the terraces.

As for Babel, I’d pack he’s bags for him. I’m sick of the lad, and I can’t see him ever fullfilling his promise.

The problem is, if we sell him in January anything we get will only end up in The Borrower’s arse pockets.

Mind you, I don’t think Rafa would get much for the few conkers, couple of ollies and a Mars Bar that he’d probably get for Babel anyway.

Arsing about aside, he knew this season was the last chance saloon. But Rafa kept his promise to him and gave him the start against Spurs, but he done fuck all to try and make the position his own. And how many more chances can we gamble on giving him?

I don’t mind the lad staying as the squad is rather thin, but I only see him being any use as a substitute in the last 20 minutes of games when legs are starting to tire.

If he’d be willing to accept that, then I’d have him on the bench for most games. But I’d start with Riera, Yossi, Aurellio even Dossena before I’d give him the start.

I’ve seen a few of these fellas over the years – start off well and look as if they’re going to be great and then go to fuck and just move on to a lower level. I now have no doubt Ryan is one of them. And yes – this was a mistake by Rafa in the transfer market, probably his biggest.

Babel just hasn’t got the game to be good enough to play on the left wing for Rafa’s Liverpool in the PL. I don’t believe he has a poor attitude and I don’t go along with the widely perceived notion that he doesn’t try or can’t be arsed. Against Spurs he worked as hard as most other players. He was shite, as was everyone else with the exception of Pepe. Most fans singled out Babel and Lucas as scapegoats for the defeat. Lucas has his manager’s backing. Babel does not. He must get the feeling Rafa doesn’t fancy him. I also get that feeling.

Is Rafa wrong not to pick him? No.
Is Babel within his rights to be unhappy about spending 2 years on the bench? Yes.
Should he be moaning in public? Probably not. However when a young guy is frustrated, is back in his home country and is asked time and time again by his home media if he is frustrated not playing more games – chances are he is going to have a moan.

Babel will never fulfil his potential at Liverpool and I think he knows this. Benny and Riera are better options on the left. Kuyt has made the right wing his own. Babel couldn’t get a game up front even when Torres was injured and we sold Keane. I don’t think he has started more than 2 games in a row. He isn’t going to improve on the bench and Rafa is not prepared to carry him in the team until he improves. I reckon he’ll go to a smaller club in Jan or next summer – maybe back to Holland and re-establishes his career. I can see him reaching his potential at another club, it just hasn’t happened for him here.

Examples of players who have gone to a big club quite young and didn’t do well but went on to be a success after re-establishing themselves elsewhere:

Glen Johnson – Chelsea to Portsmouth to Liverpool
Thierry Henry – Juventus to Arsenal
Patrick Kluivert – Milan to Barca
Lass Diara – Chelsea to Arsenal to Portsmouth to Real Madrid
Jon Dahl Tomahson – Newcastle to Milan
Diego Forlan – Man Utd to Atletico Madrid

Ahh someone to cross swords with again, nice to have you back LB. Where’ve you been, you big contrary fucker you!!!

Whichever way you look at it, I think the bottom line with Ryan is… he’s just not good enough to be a regular starter in a team that wants to win the title.

Shame that. I’d honestly love to see the lad help us win trophies, but I also honestly think he’ll never be good enough. But I admit, you might be correct. He might go onto establish himself at another major club. But I think it’s more likely he will drop down a level.

Best example I can think off of the top of my head right now…
Diouf.

Arrived at LFC looking the business, leveled off to his natural ability, so wasn’t good enough, went down a notch, and done quite well.

Please lads, don’t remind me of all the shite he done. I know. I am just using him as an example because he came to mind first.

Oh and what I first came into say…
Just listened to the Cohen fella on the Irish News Show.

I was a bit pissed off with them for even giving the fella air time at first, but after listening to it, all I can say is… hats off to the lads who had him on.

They done a fantastic job there.

Oh and where’s Digger disappeared to?

LB all the players you posted above has some amount of game intelligence.

I don’t think that Babel has this attribute and if Rafa could not succeed in providing him with it, after more than 2 years, then I don’t see how he will ever succeed at the highest level.

Also, I wish that he would keep his gob shut whilst he is on international duty, since this is not the first time that he had done this. Seems to be trying to engineer a move away for himself, which if it is the case, no more loans for this lad, he should be sold.

Was he not due to be sold during the summer anyway but he pulled the plug on it? Also, do you think that Rafa ‘promised’ that he would be a regular starter if he stayed. Can’t see it meself.

FS, good to be back! I actually wrote that out before seeing your post. You could be right, he may do a Diouf. I just think or thought that he has more talent than Diouf. Only time will tell I guess.

The bottom line for me is that Rafa has lost belief in Babel and so unless he starts playing like Ruud Gullit in 1988 he will never get more than a sub appearance or at best one solitary start in isolation. His confidence is shot. When he first arrived he was electric coming off the bench. Very confident, remember the goal against Derby? It all went sour at the start of last season when he got injured and then went to the Olympics. Rafa signed Riera and Babel could not get a game for love nor money. I remember a game he did get though – the CL away game at Marseille, I believe he psyched himself up for that game as he was running nonstop, worked hard and looked very sharp. Showed some breathtaking skill. After that game he was left out of the next 3 games. That’s when the bottom fell out in my opinion. The confidence and self-belief went, he got less and less minutes on the pitch and so asked to go to Ajax. Now he is a shadow of the player who arrived. He looks afraid to attack the fullback. He trips over the ball. He is apprehensive in possession. This apprehension is perceived as not caring or not trying. And now he just wants to fuck off home. A real shame I think.

On another note. I think Masch should be giving us more. With no Alonso and Aquilani injured we’re expecting Lucas to run the midfield while Masch just makes a slide tackle and passes the ball 3 yards sideways and backwards. Masch is the Argentina captain £18m player who wants £100k a week. I think he should do more. Like pass the ball forward sometimes and make the odd run. He is capable of doing some good box to box work. He can run with the ball and must be able to play a 20 yard pass. I’m sure I’ve seen him play in through balls to the strikers before. Would be good to see it more than twice a season. He spent most of the 2nd half against Bolton camped deep into their half and looked urgent in an attacking sense. “Please Masch can we have some more?”.

FS, I caught the end of the cohen interview thanks to a heads-up from Timmmy.

I too was a bit worried about him getting some air-time but I needn’t have worried because he made a complete cock of himself.

His main argument was I believe I am right, so everyting is OK. I thought the two lads interviewing him done a good job, just giving him enough rope to hang himself with.

In summary, Cohen is a waste of space and oxygen. Nuff said!

During the Spurs game when Carra was off the field
I noticed Babel lost the ball and just stood and
watched as spurs surged forward.I’m sure he’s been
told what is expected of him and Kuyt as shown him
what to do to get in Rafa’s good books,but
sometimes he just does’nt seem interested which comes down to attitude.As for playing on the left
maybe he would be better on the right or upfront
but time spent on the left should make him a
better player,as all great players are two footed
and are comfortable shooting with either.Something
Babel just won’t do whether thats confidence,
stubbeness i dont know i only hope he does come
good but i’m starting to lose faith.
Maybe he should decide,footballer or rapper
because the lifestyle of a rapper is incompatable
with that of a footballer IMO.
Apart from John Barnes
YNWA

Lurgan I think Babel has got game intelligence but his confidence is such that he doesn’t show it. In the under 21 European championship he looked a very intelligent player. In his early games for us I remember some good moves between him and Gerrard. When he dummied 2 defenders and put it into the top corner against Derby I thought he showed game intelligence.

These days he looks lost on the pitch, doesn’t know where to run, where to stand or what to do. That’s what you do when you are apprehensive about every aspect of your game and the apprehension comes from severe lack in confidence and belief at this level.

You talk about him wanting to engineer a move while he is on international duty. I reckon he goes back to Amsterdam, meets up with friends and family. Remembers how life was when he was playing good football every week gets home sick and then makes noises about going back to Ajax. What I call engineering a move is telling your agent to speak to Barca then to Rafa, then telling Rafa you want to go to Barca and if I can’t then can I have a pay rise please.

Rome77, I’ve seen Gerrard give the ball away and stand watching a few times. I’ve also seen Torres do it. I’ve seen Riera do it. As for being a rapper I don’t see how the odd visit to the studio and an interest in rap music affects his game? Just another stick to beat the lad with. He chased many stray passes in the Spurs game, tried hard to stop balls going out for throw-ins etc. Yet you single out probably the only time he didn’t chase the ball. The fact is against Spurs our midfield created nothing and so our attacking wide players could not get into the game at all. Gerrard and Torres could not get a sniff either. So what was Babel to do? Drop deep, get the ball off Insua 20 yards in his own half, turn, beat 5 players and score? I realise the lad has been poor for a while but for me he has taken over from Pennant as the guy to whip. Most of us reckon he’ll never cut it at LFC but then we’re pissed off that he wants to leave? As FS would say…. the mind boggles.

I think what’s happened is… we wanted to sell Ryan to Gala and get some money off the price of their winger Arda Turan. And I’ve heard two different stories…
Ryan didn’t want to go.
Rekjaird didn’t want him.

Doesn’t really matter which ones right. Bottom line is Babel stayed, and Rafa bigged him up saying he would be a really important player for us this year.

Why? Well, it’s all opinion really – Rafa meant it. The state of our finances and not being able to bring in better players. Rafa trying to buff up his ego and give his confidence a little boost?
Bit of defiance to other teams and managers?

I suppose it was a little of it all and some more. But whatever happens/happenend, Ryan should really just pull his boots on and do his best to force his way into the team. If he fails, well he can say he gave it his best shot and no one can accuse him of not trying.

But to come out with transfer talk a day after the window shuts, well, not the wisest decision the lad’s ever going to make.

And I do remember how good he can be LB, but I think that was just good moments for him and his consistent/natural ability level is somewhere inbetween the worst and best we’ve seen from him.

Lots of players make these kind of statements whenever the World Cup is rolling up. Ryan should take a look at Micheal Owen… you can say anything you like, but the only real way to stake a claim is to force your way into the manager’s thinking.

And please don’t take that wrong… I use Owen only to show that playing for a big club, and blowing your own trumpet isn’t enough to force your way into an international team.

Other than that, I think it’s a pointless argument really as I reckon we’d all like the lad to succeed but probably all think he never will – well, not at LFC anyway.

But reading the comments and thinking of old players to compare him with, I’ll just say this… Rafa got shut of Cisse because he considered him to be too much of a one trick pony, i.e. Speed Merchant.

And if you think about it, Cisse had far more to his game than Ryan. So what chance really does he stand of ever being a Rafa type player? He doesn’t have the versatality and the defensive part of the game expected from him has always been beyond the lad.

So at the end of the day, I suppose it’s inevitable, and probably for the good of both, that he moves on. But like I said, we won’t see any of that money if he does and so if he goes in January it will only weaken a squad that already looks a little thin at times.

As for Masch, sometimes I actually dread him getting forward LB, as I usually sit there screaming “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t fucking do it!”
Only to see Masch hit another stupid powerless daisy cutter straight at the keeper from outside the box.

Yes he can get forward and hit some decent passes when he’s up there, but I suppose Masch is one of them players that shows being a one trick pony isn’t a bad thing… just as long as you are one of the world’s best at that trick.

PS Lurgan… “Gave him enough rope to hang himself with” was the exact words I was going to use in my post about Cohen and the lads who interviewed him but I just kept the post short as I didn’t want to go on about the horrible bastard.

But I tell you something, when I listend to that incoherent, inconsistent ranting drivel that he came out with, something dawned on me… the man probably has some sort of diagnosable mental pyschosis. He really did sound like a mental case, and I can see him having some sort of break down.

One sad man, him.

FS, I think the ego boost for Babel came a bit late from Rafa. It’s clear to me and probably the player himself that the manager wanted rid of him. So coming out when the world knows the club is skint and saying Babel will play a big role is fooling nobody. I don’t blame Rafa for that part because after getting shysted by G&H he had no choice but to big up the likes of Babel and Voronin. But I do think Rafa should take some of the responsibility for the lad not developing at the start of last season. The fact is he paid £11.5m on a player and never ever gave him a run in the team. Rafa never signed Cisse and it was clear from the start he didn’t fancy him.

Masch’s shooting is terrible. But he should get forward more and play little passes higher up the pitch where Torres, Gerrard and the wingers are rather than the 10 yarders to Lucas, Carra, Insua and Johnson. Fucking Pepe is more ambitious in his passing than Masch at times. If we have Gerrard in midfield or Alonso then we can afford Masch to be a one trick pony. But I’m afraid it’s not enough with Lucas next to him.

Morning lads, Well its morning in NY! Still here big fella, just took a few days out of the Lucas debate. Had made my point many times and was just sick of it to be honest so took a breather. Still reading everyday of course and I see this morning me old mate LB is back so had to post ‘welcome back lad, place wasnt the same without ya!’ Any links to the Cohen interview with the 2 irish lads?

Cheers Digger. Where do you stand with Babel?

I agree entirely about what LB has said about Babel, and I also feel the situation has now come to a head.

Rafa either has to back the lad and give him at least a run of 10 games (90 mins each) to prove himself or prepare to sell him in January.

If Babel has got it in him, a 10 game run will show that. If he hasn’t got what it takes, a 10 game run will show that as well!

It’s unfair to give him bits and pieces and then conclude that the lad can’t cut the mustard. Totally unfair.

As LB said, confidence is the key here and if Babel is given a prolonged run then he will gradually get the confidence and positional sense back without even thinking about it. If he is given a real go and still can’t rise to the challenge then we should cut our losses. I hope he can prove his worth.

So, we should givbe him at least 10 games when we’ve already lost 2 and need to do our damndest to ensure we don’t drop anymore?

The mind does boggle indeed.

As for Cisse, I know Rafa didn’t buy him. I said he didn’t fancy him because he doesn’t have the versatility to be the sort of player Rafa likes to have at his disposal… but unlike Ryan, Cisse chipped in with quite a few goals, he got a different range of goals, i.e., left foot, right foot, tap ins, long shots and even a few headers. Something Babel will never contribute even if he plays every game until he’s 50.

That’s why I said in the original post that Babel is probably Rafa’s biggest blunder in the transfer market. Yeah. Yeah. I hear the screams of Josmi etc. But the fact is, Rafa paid quite big bucks for a player who was probably never going to fit his vision of how a wide attacking midfielder/forward should play.

As for Masch, he’s probably in the top 5 defensive midfieldrs in the world and though he hasn’t been at his best, and I’ve been critical of that, he does warrant his starting place in the 11.

I can’t wait to see him lining up with Aqualani. I have a feeling the will be a great combo. Their games should certainly compliment each other better than Lucas and Masch.

So, nice to see you back an all Dig.

I think he’s in his last season at Anfield LB. For whatever reasons, right or wrong, he hasnt fulfilled his potential. Real shame. But ya never know what could happen between here and january. He could turn it all around but its becoming increasingly difficult to see how.

Just going to drop the missus and lad at the train station. They are off to London for a few days, so not ducking anything. Just won’t be about for an hour or so but will have plenty of time to argue the toss when I get back.

Love it!

And eh, Digger… what’s the craic with them transport tickets in NY City? I want to get a couple of them ones that last a week for the tube and busses. I know there’s loads of different ones, do you use them, can you recommend one?

In fact, I think that’s the problem… Rafa bought Babel expecting to be able to mould the raw talent the lad has into the type of player he wants in his machine.

Sadly Babel doesn’t have what he wanted. That’s certainly not Babel’s fault.

Right off out see you shortly. Love a good joust.

FS, no you’ve missed my point there. When Rafa signed Babel and he was at his most confident, playing well and also at the start of last season where he played well at Marseille. Those were the times to give Babel a run in the side. When the manager believed in him and the player believed in himself. We just can’t do it now. Which is why I said in my original post that Rafa is not wrong to bench him the way he is playing now.

I’ve now come to the same conclusion as you and most other LFC fans. That he ain’t gonna cut it now here now. But that’s why I can understand him wanting to go back home. He probably feels that it’s all over now. He has lost the belief that he will be a success at Liverpool.

Now unboggle that mind.

Steve in #111. Were you one that wanted Lucas dropped and stevie back in the middle? (not to bring the lucas debate up, but just to show we cant give someone 10 games, especially when they are well below par)

Just realised FS, you were responding to Steve – take no notice of my last post

Nice one Steve, but I do think it’s too late now. Rafa can’t afford to carry any passengers – we’ve lost 2 games and leaking goals. Just can’t do it. Every game Babel has for us the confidence just goes one way and that’s through the floor. He gets the ball and tries to beat a player but runs into a blind alley. The crowd go “AGHHH” he looks at his skipper and gets a scowl, he looks to the bench and sees Riera or Benny stripping off the tracky. He’d bet his life number 19 is gonna appear on the 4th officials’ board.

Lucas, Kuyt and Crouch all did well playing through that similar period but the difference is they were being backed big time by Rafa. “Babel, needs to work harder, he needs to improve certain parts of his game”. That’s what Rafa will say about Babel. However no matter how shite Lucas plays: “He is a player of quality, game intelligence, good professional, nice boy”. Similar comments about Kuyt…. and Crouch – before the Robot dancing.

Rafa and Babel both know it’s not gonna work. Can’t blame Rafa for keeping him because the squad is thin. Can’t blame Babel for wanting to leave either. IMO.

Our best midfield will be Gerrard on the right, Masher and Aqua in the middle with Aurelio on the left.K and T up front.Insua, Skrt, Carra/Agger and GJ @ THE BACK.

Here’s the big news of the day; the Chavs have been banned by FIFA from signing players in the next two transfer windows.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/03/chelsea-fifa-transfer-ban-gael-kakuta

I’m guessing this will find its way into the courts and the Chavs will simply pay a huge fine?

Rome77, that reference to us “murdering our own” was indeed shamefully sang by Blues fans at Stamford Bridge when we beat Chelsea there last season, a fact I remember a fan on BBCs “606″ making an apologetic reference to. Sections of CFC fans also called us butchers, the reference being those twin disasters of Heysel and Hillsborough. Sorry, I can’t get the exact reference but it’s what I remember.

LB What i wanted him to do when he lost that ball was go and get it back,
instead of just watching, especially since we were a man down.
And i am in no way blaming him for the result, you mention Pennant well he’d
of chased that ball down even if it meant him ending up way out of position
that was something i liked about him.
As for rapping ” jack of all trades master of none ” springs to mind and i’d
prefer him to be master of one, and thats football.
Its not a stick to beat him with nor do i think he’s the new whipping boy
Lucas and before that Kuyt have had that job for a while and both have
improved.

Babel is one to shake your head over.

I disagree with Steve the Red (#111); we can’t afford to give Babel a run out of 10 games. Although the season is still in its infancy, we simply can’t afford to drop silly points.

It appears that the width of this team is going to come from it’s fullbacks (Johnson and Insua) bombing forward. I don’t have the exact numbers, but I know a large percentage of our goals have come from the fullbacks getting forward and playing a ball into the box.

We can’t afford to have a LM that doesn’t track back to defend. I can’t see Babel and Insua working well together. With Babel in front of him, it is going to limit Insua overlapping and getting forward because Babel doesn’t show an inclination to cover defensively for his FB.

Kuyt and Johnson will work on the right because Dirk is such a smart player. If he sees Johnson bombing in front of him, you know that Dirk will make the run backwards to cover defensively if needed.

I think most of us will agree that Dirk will always make the run or effort if that’s what is needed for the team. How many of us really believe that Babel would do the same?

Fair enough Rome, I’d have liked him to chase the ball back as well. It’s not something all players do all of the time. I do get your point though. But like I said Kuyt and Lucas were whipping boys Lucas still probably is but at least they know the manager believes in them. Much easier to perform when you know that your boss has your back.

weren’t kuyt and babel strikers before they came to liverpool? i reckon rafa succeeded in making kuyt a winger but babel just didnt cut it.

Babel’s biggest impact for us has been coming from the subs bench. He developed a reputation as a super sub his first season here and he made some great late game impacts.

The most notable of those were drawing the penalty against Arsenal in the CL second leg at Anfield and the game winner against the Mancs last September.

From what I’ve seen this season, I would prefer to see Voronin come off the bench at the 70-75 minute mark more than Babel. I know I most likely will catch flack for this one, but the man with the ponytail has played well for us thus far.

Whether he plays in the hole or out on a flank, Voro seems to know how to hold onto the ball, where to pass the ball, and what areas of the pitch he should be running into to receive the ball or at least create some space. He appears to work really well with Nando and Stevie, and he’s an intelligent footballer.

I know the man’s limitations, he’s not fast and he doesn’t take his chances as well as you expect for a striker, but he’s a lot better value for what we paid than Babel.

He should have got as a point at Spurs when he was mugged inside the box, and the pass he played to Torres against Bolton late in the match on Saturday was fantastic. I don’t know how Jasskalinen kept that one out.

Babel played left forward in a 4-3-3 formation at Ajax. Similar to where Ronaldinho played for Barca and where Henry plays for Barca now. In that formation there is a left forward, left midfielder and obviously a left back. It means Babel didn’t have to worry about defending at all at Ajax. I can’t remember Ronaldinho or Henry tracking back at Barca either. At Liverpool Babel has been asked to play as a left winger in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. Means he has a lot more defensive responsibility in the role. Doesn’t look like he can cut it. Might explain why he was always better coming off the bench when we needed a goal. Didn’t have to track back in those circumstances when we were chasing the game. Just concentrate on surging forward.

Sam It was just the way you said We might have “ ******** *** *** ” (as sung
by Blues fans last season) but we sure know how to annihilate the opposition.
As i said im sure you didn’t mean for it to come out that way
YNWA

I don’t think there is anything to unboggle between us LB. In fact, I think Babel is one of the things we agree on and I remember both of us talking about when Rafa said, he’s going to be a very important player for us this season.

And we both agreed, it was last chance saloon and the lad needed to grasp on to it and perform. Well, the fact is… he never.

The difference I think between the situation compared to that of Kuyt, Lucas and even Crouch is… Rafa didn’t/doesn’t really have any/many options in them positions.

With Babel, he can play Bert, Yossi, Aurelio, Dossena and even Insua in that slot. In fact, I think that’s the one position on the pitch we are well covered, if not overloaded, in. And that alone doesn’t bode well for Babel.

But LB think back, we even discussed it when it first raised it’s head and Babel complained that he was being allowed to develop as he was expected to do too much in defence. You thought Babel should be given free reign to do his thing. And I said he had to conform to what Rafa wanted and put in the defensive graft.

Well, whoever is right the point is… he never done, or he can’t do, what was asked of him. That’s why I thought he was a blunder by Rafa, but I suppose he looked at the lad for a long time, like he does, and was convinced he could do the job.

Yep. Even members of GogagonRafastackle.com know he gets somethings wrong. But looking at the early Babel you can see it was an easy mistake to make.

But you don’t have to go back that far to see what Rafa was thinking. And I always bring up Valencia as the yardstick. But there’s no point now. You can see Rafa’s vision on the right wing. And I believe, it’s the best in the league if not the world.

Kuyt, the ultimate defensive forward and Johnson probably the best attacking full back in England. (The lad’s a monster). And that vision of Rafa’s is years ahead of anything else on show in this league, but will he get the time and money to achieve it on the right is a far more worrying question than what will become of Babel.

And I came into break the news, but Ivjmac beat me to it… some turn up for the books that. But you can bet your bottom lip it was Mr. Platinni who pushed that through.

PS LB… missed your last comment, but I think if Babel would accept a role as an impact sub he would be worth keeping.

But you can’t blame the lad for wanting regular football, even if it’s more than a bit daft to come out with it a day after the window shuts though.

But if he was willing to come in the last half hour twenty minutes of games, he would be a great weapon in the locker. We know that as he has showed it many times. But like I said, probably best he just goes…

Then you know the problem after that. Enough to drive the Pope to drink.

FS if you remember Rafa wanted Danny Alvez as right back. Only Parry thought he knew better. 3 years later he finally gets what he wants – a classy attacking right fullback.

If Kuyt occasionally got injured like everyone else i rekon Babel would have
played on the right more often and we probably wouldn’t be having this debate
but as Kuyt is some kind of Mr unbreakable ( probably all that fish he ate as a
kid ) the chances haven’t come.
PS Hope i haven’t just jinxed him.

Is correct LB. And have a guess who found Alves in the first place… Rafa and Macia and that data base of there’s.

But the point is bang on… if he’d just been left alone to do the job, not even backed to the hilt, we would have probably won the league by now.

But things are looking that bad, I’m in fear he might fuck off before finishing the job. Don’t really want to open that can of worms again though, as it’s just too depressing.

Regarding the Chelsea news, here’s something to ponder. We all rate the Chavs as genuine title contenders and their inability to grab a couple of players this January could have an effect.

The African Cup of Nations runs from January 10 to January 31, 2010. I’m guessing the players will need to report to their teams at least a week before that.

Chelsea have four players who will be away playing for their national teams and it could have an impact on their league form.

Drogba
Essien
Kalou
Mikel

Kalou may not be that big of a loss, but with both him and Drogba gone, Chelsea will have to rely on Anelka to play up top by himself.

They’ve got an easy run of fixtures:
Hull away
Sunderland home
Birmingham home
Burnley away

Could cause some dropped points that they were expecting to take?

That run of fixtures I listed are their January matches while the players are off to Africa. Sorry for the confusion on that.

The ACON question rears it’s head whenever it’s on mate, but usually it ends up causing no real problems.

But I agree… the ban on them signing anymore players for 16 months is a huge development – not only for a cheque book team like the chavs but for footy as a whole.

It’s a monster decision and this time I think Platinni and his plotting got it right.

Did anyone watch the manc v arse game? I was foaming at the mouth at that as if I was a gooner. How the hell did the mancs win that? How lucky are they? When Diaby nodded the ball into his own net I couldn’t believe what was happening. They must have sold their soul to the devil surely? Then the 4th officials sends off Wenger – into the stands where baying manc fans are. A day earlier Fat Sam Allardyce does the same thing Wenger did but not a word from the 4th official? Was that a case of old boy’s club?

I bet the chavs appeal, go to court and the ban of signing players gets lifted.

Surely none of that still shocks you LB?

Mancs at home. Ferguson’s arse kisser in chief refeering. I honestly knew before the game started that the Mancs would be given the win. Sometimes I think it’s a waste of time even playing these games and the Mancs should be just given the points before hand.

But yes, the hypocrisy involved is disgraceful. Look at how Rafa has been charged by the FA for saying, when asked about the referee denying us 2 penalties at Spurs (one contencious, one bang on)… “Some of the decisions were poor.”

Beyond the pale indeed.

Missed 139: you’re probably right mate, but it’s still a huge development

Wait till G&H find out about the Chav transfer ban, before we know it they’ll sign
some kid by some unscrupulous means.

I wasn’t shocked FS, more disgusted. That ref – I’d love to give him a good slap. Don’t know how the players and manager keep calm sometimes. It was a disgrace what happened with Wenger. As for Rafa – I knew the FA would charge him. Any excuse. Yet Fungas slaughters officials after every game and gets his back heartily slapped by the establishment. Makes me sick. That’s why although I couldn’t give a shit about Arsenal. I danced a jig when their team of foreigners and foreign manager won the league at Old Trafford a few years back. I remember Fungas’ face at the final whistle and I only hope he’ll be there when we win the league at their ground. God I’d love it. A Lucas diving header in the 97th minute at the theatre of illusions. 3 points we win the league. Rafa moons Fungas, gives Sky Sports reporter the middle finger and does a Shane Warne booty shake in front of the travelling scousers.
On can but dream…..

LB: I’d add gives The Tramp’s red nose a little comedy tweak to all that.

But it just made me think of something… maybe Wenger kicked The Tramps White Lightening over

I’m gonna write something that’s probably going to be a bit long winded here, so bear with me…

War and Peace coming up….

‘maybe Wenger kicked The Tramps White Lightening over’

Fuckin’ burst our laughing at that during a meeting – put it down to something going down the wrong way :->

Lurgan, how are you reading Kopblog during a meeting?

This needs considering, and it sort of touches on all the things we’ve been talking about…

Why has this happened to Chelsea? Well, probably because it involved high-jacking a player from a French team.

But why was fuck all said last season when The Tramp literally kidnapped Berbatov at Manchester Airport when he was on his way to sign for City?

In fact, if I remember rightly, the FA actually kept the window open for Berbatov to complete the move to Man Utd.

Also The Tramp done pretty much the same thing as Chelsea have, when they tapped up Macheda and give his family a bung.

Then you have to think about the double standards towards the top team’s and their manager’s in the media.

Take this last week – would the FA have charged anyother top manager than Rafa for such inocent comments? Of course not. But make no mistake about it the media plays it’s part in all this. As the FA know they would get slaughtered in the papers if they pulled such shite against the Mancs/The Tramp.

And look at the Babel stories, basically they all say Babel has taken a pop at Benitez? But there isn’t one qoute where the lad has said any such thing. All he’s done is say, he wants regular football, especially as it’s a World Cup year.

Mark my words, this will soon turn into the old nutshell… Rafa’s lack of man management skills.

All you have to do is read last week’s screaming headlines about Rafa attacking Gerrard and Carra. He done no such thing. He defended Lucas by telling the truth… The senior players let themselves and us down.

It didn’t matter that Gerrard agreed with that and said so publically. The agenda is set… rotation, zonal marking, lack of man management, arrogance, stubborness.

They just drag out the same old chestnuts in no particular order whenever the chance arises.

Well, the fact is… when the English media was slagging Rafa for his lack of man management skills, the players he was supposedly abusing all came out and said how playing under Rafa had improved them.

And no matter what you think on Babel’s situation, the fact is… if the lad had been able to do what Rafa instructed him to and expected of him, then he would be a far better player and the situation wouldn’t have even arisen as Babel would be in the side week in week out.

Lastly the most damaging bit of propoganda… Rafa’s huge spending. Even after this transfer window showing that Rafa has consistently made the club money on transfers, and hasn’t been given any major funds beyond that, Rafa is still being attacked for wasting millions on players.

This is the most damaging as H&G will invaribly use it against Rafa if and when he asks for more transfer money. The spin is already being used by that bean counting fucker Purslow who Hicks has installed.

This is why I agree with what LB said about the joy a league title will bring me. Of course, I just want to win it anyway. But I pray Rafa gets the opportunity to stick 2 fingers up to all of them… the owners, the media hatchet men and the more stupid of our fans. The circumstances this man has to suffer from both in and outside the club is an absolute disgrace.

I wish it ws just peace LB. But yeah, unfortunately War and Peace about sums up how I feel over this shite

Smashing stuff today lads. Some really good comments.

My 2 cents worth.

FIFA ruling:
The FA makes its decisions with an agenda to protect/promote Scum. While I’m in complete agreement with your point FS, I think you’ve overlooked one important factor.
Prem teams being 3 out of the 4 semi-finalists in the CL.
You just KNOW that sticks in UEFA’s throat like a dry 5 pound dumpling.
This is move #1 in Platini’s plan to “level the playing field” and drive the Prem teams (read: silly English k-niggets) from his beautiful game.

In the short term, this doesn’t even effect us much, since love ‘em or hate ‘em (and oh, how I hate ‘em) the Chavs have pretty much a complete squad, with top players in every position and cover for each of them. (Ancelloti and Roman probably laughed at the ruling and taunted “I pass wind in your general direction.”)

Babel:
Its worth bearing in mind that the only reason that Babel is in Holland to speak to the Dutch press is because someone else got injured and he got called up as a late replacement.
The press will work this like its Fungus keeping Ronaldo out of the team for fucks sake.

Babel is and always had been a bit part player. We’ve been sold the “player with potential” bag of goods so many times in the last 10 to 15 years that we are so sick of it, that many can’t see that this lad was the one player for whom that tag really did mean something.

Is he a lazy fuck, a stupid fuck, does Rafa have no faith in him? Someday a couple of biographies will answer those questions.
For now, he simply does not warrant a run in the team based on his current performances.

Propaganda:
I mentioned this in #71, but …Yesterday the TIA website led with an article titled – Alonso “pushed out by Rafa”
…even though in the body of the article, there was no such quote, which would lead me to believe he never said any such thing in the interview. In fact the article dispelled itself by then quoting him as actually saying he had “no problem with Rafa” and that they had “a professional relationship.”

It is likely babel never said that Rafa “broke his promises” to him. If only because, while he might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, surely he’s smart enough to realize that saying something like that is the sure-firest way to not play again in a red shirt… and want a move in January or not, surely he’d like to get at least a few games in, between now and then?

Aitch mate, I never over looked anything. I just left it at saying, Plattini will have enginereed it. I thought that was enough without going on.

I was at the game when the man forged his hatred of all English teams – especially LFC. So, believe me, I know how much he hates us, and how much it gauls him to see any English team succeed in Europe.

And like I said to LB, I know Chelsea will appeal this, and probably win it on restriction of trade laws. But like I said, it’s still a huge step.

And the day you actually do see a story with a direct slatting of Rafa by an LFC player is, no doubt, the day you will see headlines calling for Rafa to be burnt at the stake.

Just wanted to know what you guys think on the topic of diving. These past days the media has been rife with articles about diving. Graham Poll mentioned a couple of players, Torres amongst others but suprise, suprise no ManU players. Havent seen divers from ManU either. But my question is does Torres dive and do I just turn a blind eye to it? I admit I have seen Gerrard do it once in a while. Lets be honest.

I didn’t mean that you didn’t know that FS, just that you hadn’t stated it.
There are many in here that won’t take the next step in the thought process… don’t take that the wrong way lads, I know there’s more than a few who do, but it always amazes me when something I would consider rudimentary knowledge gets posted, the number of people who then post, “I didn’t know that”
… so just trying to add a bit of food for thought to that discussion.

Torres has “gone down easy” on more than a few occasions, red … but when you get seriously fuckin mugged as much as this lad does, I suppose you can sympathize a bit.
And that is coming from someone who, as a coach, kicked his best player (by a country mile) and leading goalscorer off the team coz he couldnt’ stop trying it on all the time, against repeated instruction.

SG is a bit of a bugger for it an all.

It needs to be stamped out for sure… but again, who does FIFA go after? An Arsenal player.
Like Barca, Real, Inter, AC, Beyern, Porto (etc. ad-infinitum) don’t have their blatant divers.

But surely if you are going to review a “diving incident” and inflict punishment, then does that not open the door (er well obviously not, but should that not open the door) for a discussion of clear and blatant pens not given?

Case in point.
Scum vs Arse.

There was more than one suggestion that Rooney took a dive.
Now clearly if you look at all the replays, Almunia clipped him… which was so stupid coz Rooney was playing for it… so maybe not the best example.
But… If Almunia had stopped short, Rooney was planting his feet to take the dive and had he not caught him, it would have been blatant.

Compare that to the absolute crystal clear cut hacking down of Arshavin that was waved on?

Well, Aitch there’s certain things that should be known by all “fans.” But yes, you’re right. Some of the basics they don’t even know is amazing

Aitch-it was UEFA who went after Eduardo and not FIFA, but your point is spot on.

From the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, I find the media in England to be quite funny. The press seems to have an agenda when it comes to foreigners (non-Brits).

Eduardo (foreign lad) dives to win a PK and there’s front page coverage of him being a cheat. Every time he touched the ball on Sunday, the crowd at Old Toliet booed him. Rooney does the same thing during the Arse match, and I can’t recall seeing anything written about it.

Wenger or Benitez complain about getting bad calls against them and they are labeled as whingers or brought up on FA charges. Mr. Ferguson (that has to be my favorite Rafaism) does the exact same thing, and he always gets off with just a slap on the wrist.

The whole diving thing comes up every few years – a bit like tight jeans being the fashion and then it’s flares.

The Eduardo dive was just that. The one with Rooney was get your toe to the ball just before the goalie and wait till he hits you – a defo pen, which was not to far away from Glenda’s against the spurs.

If we could cut out the ‘Eduardo type’ dives then it would be a good start.

As for H and G, I would be more than happy for LFC not win the PL/CL for the next 5 years or so (and maybe beyond) if it meant that we got rid of these guys and remained in a semi-healthy state.

The real problem is if Rafa wins the league, then they will earn even more money and more people will be eating football cornflakes to pay for Liverpool cereal club and thereby fucking the club for every penny it has now and in the future. The worse type of cancer you could have are these two.

Call me silly and uneducated, but why was the Rooney/Almunia incident a PK?

Rooney takes a touch before Almunia gets to the spot and that touch carries over the touchline and out of play. Once that happens, Almunia does clip Shrek and he tumbles to the ground.

My point is before contact is made, Rooney touched the ball out of bounds. Almunia did not deny him a goal scoring opportunity because Rooney had played the ball out.

LB, I was working from home today and was having a telco meeting on my mobile.

Anyway, I usually put the mobile on mute when not talking but this time I forgot. I was reading FS’ comment and then it all went pete tong. Prompt a prolonged silence and then people asking me if I was OK

The best I could come up with was that I had a drink of water and it went down the wrong way. Not sure they bought it though!

You see the trouble you get me into FS.

lvcjmac, let’s get a benchmark here.

Do you think that Glenn Johnson’s pen against spurs was really a ‘pen’?

lvcjmac, You are silly and uneducated!
(you asked for it )

I said it wasn’t the best example.
Of course it was a penalty. Almunia clipped him. But it was a stupid thing to do on Almunia’s part, coz Rooney was going down whether he touched him or not.
If you get the opportunity to watch it again, particulalry from behind the goal camera, you can see Rooney looking down, and planting his feet.
He clearly played for the penalty and Almunia was stupid… but its still cheating.. or at best “gamesmanship”.

The only difference between the Rooney incident and the Eduardo incident, is that the goalie was cleverer and pulled out of the challenge.

Similarly, Lucas knew exactly what he was doing when he got clipped from behind against Bolton. He knew the player was right behind him and he just slowed down and waited for his heels to get clipped.
Same deal. SG does it often and Didi Hamman was a bugger for doing it. He knew just how to time his touch or turn to get the call for a foul.

In my opinion, gamesmanship is just another word for cheating. You are doing something on the fringe of the game’s laws to gain an advantage.
Though I’ll grant you it’s a gray area and isn’t as clear-cut as an obvious open dive.

I now understand where you’re coming from Rome77. I was actually being part sarcastic and the other part fanatically pro-Red when I wrote what I wrote. You’re right though about not meaning it like it sounded. I wouldn’t dishonor such sad memories as our twin tragedies. Thanks for pointing it out.

Actually Lurg, I think that’s a good comparison

GJ’s pen vs Rooney’s is a more direct comparison.

I think both are harsh pens, but its the rule of the game if contact is made.

In both instances the ball is running away from the goal and over the touchline. Both players get a touch on it, carrying it on that track or in Rooney’s case further away from the goal.

My recollection or the GJ pen though, is that he didn’t plant his feet and prep for a tumble. He touched the ball away as he was clipped. If he hadn’t been clipped, both he and the ball would have run over the touchline for a goalkick.

In Rooney’s case, as I’ve already described, I recon if Almunia had been smart and pulled up, Rooney goes down anyway, coz that’s what he intended and he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself.

I can clear this up very easily, the rules on both penatly kicks and media treatment of manager’s in the premeirship are the same…
1: You give penalties against Mr Ferguson’s opposition.
2: You don’t give any penalties against Mr Ferguson.

Simples.

I have just caught up on your thoughts on Babel lads, and it seems that the general concencus is that he is not going to make it at Anfield, even if he were given the chance of a sustained run in the side. That’s fair enough and will probably turn out to be the case. While my idea of giving him a 10 gam run seems crazy to many of you, it is what Rafa is doing for Lucas, because Rafa has real faith in Lucas and has said so many times, which is commendable.

Who is to say that if he had done the same for Babel, young Ryan would not be a far greater proposition for us now? Maybe, maybe not.

As for the fact that we have already lost 2 games (and let’s not put the blame for that squarely on the shoulders of Ryan Babel) our goalkeeper says in an article on the main site that it’s o.k to lose a few games as long as we turn draws into wins……. hmmmmm, the mind really does boggle.

By the way Akka, I am not one who urged the axing of Lucas, My opinion was and still is that the lad needs more time but will never pull up any trees.

Here you go. I wondered what would be next. Didn’t have to wait long, consistent if nothing else our owners and their bean counters…

The current financial climate is continuing to delay work on Liverpool’s proposed new 60,000 seater stadium, the club’s managing director Christian Purslow confirmed today.

The club’s co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have faced heavy criticism after promising work would start straight away following their takeover of the club in February 2007.

But almost a decade after plans were first announced to build the new stadium on Stanley Park, just yards from the current Anfield stadium, there is yet a “spade in the ground”.

“Construction on the stadium will begin when the current contraction in the banking industry ends and the global financial markets re-establish their equilibrium,” said Purslow.

“The centerpiece is to deliver a world-class football ground that everyone can be proud of, a new home for the club with a stadium of at least 60,000 seats, giving the best possible match experience.

Liverpool risk being left behind financially from the revenue made by rival clubs due to their higher capacity stadiums.

Manchester United can now hold over 76,000 fans in Old Trafford whilst Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium holds 60,000 supporters.

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2009/09/03/liverpool-confirm-new-stadium-delays-to-continue/

Steve, Lucas is getting the games because Rafa has no alternative. Well, he could pull Gerrard back but obviously he’d rather trust Lucas than break up the Gerrard/Nando patnership.

I tend to agree with that. While, like Babel, I think Lucas can’t be expected to run our midfield for a season,, I don’t mind the kid filling the void. And, let’s face it, he hasn’t really done much wrong besides the shite 15/20 minutes he put in against Villa.

On the other hand, Rafa has plenty of options in Babel’s slot. And that really means only one thing… Babel has to prove he has it in him to dislodge Bert or Yossi.

I agree with you FS, and would say that Lucas has made some progress, which is obviously good news.

You said it, Babel needs to prove he can dislodge either Bert or Yossi who have taken their chances and are both now first team regulars. But Babel is caught in a bit of a catch 22 here because he won’t be given the prolonged run in the side that he needs to increase his confidence and give himself the chance to impress because doing so is considered too much of a risk. Just how do we solve a problem like Ryan?

There is no solving it Steve. Even selling him just means this pair of lying bastards will dig deeper into our club…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEcOdOpxtxs&feature=related

It made me sick listening to/watching that. The lying bastards sat there saying all that and knew exactly what they was going to do to us.

George is going to cry! Fuckinghell, I feel like pulling me hair out when I think of the tears the dirty lying bastard has caused over here.

Your’e not alone FS. I still remember very clearly the day they took over in February 2007.

The pair of cunts sat there saying how they were only custodians of the great institution that is LFC and how they would uphold and honour the clubs rich history and traditions in striving to make LFC the best club bar none.

You know how the old saying goes: “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is” Dirty fucking bastards!

I reckon if the goalie is stupid enough to bring down a player when poses little threat to the goal he deserves to give away a pen. Almunia was a bloody idiot. Rooney was going wide and out of play yet he brings him down. Wally.

I hadn’t realised until recently that Gerrard is perceived by fans of other clubs as a big time diver. Go on youtube and you’ll see a collection of wonderful dives.

As for Nando he tends to arch his back when he is challenged from behind or from the side. But cleverly he does not appeal. If he doesn’t get the decision he just gets up and gets on with it.

Players have to ride challenges. If you plant your feet into the ground and you get a hard tackle then you are fucked. Kiss the season goodbye and say hello to the surgeon. There is a fine line between riding a challenge and going down easily.

I don’t mind diving myself. It’s feigning injury that really pisses me off. When a player rolls around for 5 mins as if he has been shot, holding his face and looking sorry for himself. Then he gets up and he’s fine.

This has got to be the worst ever…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVksdN4QnvA

Jesus christ its busy in here today!

I post a little teaser last night,wait around to see if anybody guesses it,2 wrong answers later i`m fooked and have to go to bed.I get up head to school come back and there`s a hundred feckin posts!

Aitch,Well done you got it Steve mc Mahon was indeed the only player to captain the reds and liverpool reserves..or sorry Everton.

Your cheque is in the post my pal

Ok a lot to catch up on,Ryan babel..I was so excited with this lad when he signed for us and early on,he showed what he could bring to us.He had a dcent first season with us and i agree with LB`s point that he never recovered from that period of when he went to the olympics and came back injured.His chances have been stop-start since and his confidence/belife in himself seems to be beyond repair at LFC.

I sincerely hope i`m wrong and he can knuckle down but i just can`t see it happening.Saying he wants a move after the window has closed was not a good idea though.

Diving,well they`re all at it these days.A sad fact of modern football.

Chavs ban,wouldn`t it be great?Too good to be true i`m thinking they will have it easily overturned in the european courts.

Finally,watched that vid there FS i`m sorry but i couldn`t look/listen to those pair of pricks for more than 25 seconds,i had to turn it off.

Next one was ace though ha Rivaldo not there was a player,shite actor though

TYPO..noW there was a player!

I know only too well youtube can make Fat Scouser look like Rodney Trotter but i think this is worth a butchers….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BE_qH5hb7A

This situation with the Chavs could be detremenal for us.

Why you ask??

Well i`m thinking the two American pricks will go out tomorrow and tap up every youngster they can so then we`ll get banned for a few transfer windows so they won`t be able to give Rafa any funds for the next couple of years..

Thoughts

I don’t blame you one bit for that Timmy, but that’s part of the problem. No one really wants to think about it as it just feels like there’s nothing we can do. But if anything we’ve talked about today is a catch 22 it’s this, and it ends up just giving them a walkover.

I even made a concious decision not to say anything about them a while back, unless it was really important. But then the latest round of shenanigans came along and there’s really no choice but to face up to it. Even if we just want to talk about the football, it’s impossible not to think about them as they affect absolutely everything about the club.

There’s been something’s taking place and more are planned, but it’s so hard to do anything against them. I posted in #58 how hard it is to get any sort of concerted effort going. But I know some things are planned. The hard thing is though, until something comes up that people who don’t attend the match can do, there’s not really much we can do in here as none of us are regular match goers. I get to about 10 games a season, 15 tops. So I just end up feeling frustrated when discussing the pair of bastards.

But I think we should all be ready to help in anyway we can, and also consider what Rafa is up against when criticising.

PS… I’m more Del Boy than Rodders

Agreed FS,all our on-off field problems can one way or another be traced back to those pair.

Oh who are you lot kidding?

LFC would be turning a profit in an 80,000 seater SuperStadium, already won the Prem and Euro 08, and be the first team to qualify for the World Cup Finals in South Africa… if only that Stubborn Spanish Waiter had gotten out of their way and let them run the club right!
(just thought I’d air SkySports opinion on the situation, to keep thing on an even keel )

I always thought a 60,000 seat stadium was only half way to solving the
revenue problem,as the mancs would still have a edge with 75,000 which
means a extra half a million quid every home game. That would pay the wages
of another Torres and a Gerrard,so we’ve got to go for a 75,000 seater with a
roof that closes,because since G&H arrived we’ve had 3 pissy wet summers
and yes their probably to blame for that.
And as for lending all that money in the first place they probably caused the
Credit Crunch.
Timmy check 142 they say great minds think alike.
YNWA

PS I have often thought that the players read this blog and after todays Babel
debate i notice Kuyt as posted his comment
http://www.thisisanfield.com/2009/09/03/kuyt-says-babel%e2%80%99s-heart-is-still-in-it/

My favorite part of the press release:
“Construction on the stadium will begin when the current contraction in the banking industry ends and the global financial markets re-establish their equilibrium,”

Equilibrium?
Global financial markets haven’t been in equilibrium for decades, if they ever were. Greed, rampant overspending, processing unsecured loans by the trillions… it was a fuckin house of cards waiting for a shudder or a stiff wind.

To recap:
You took a solvent asset, bought it with an unsecured loan, with a plan to refinance before the first balloon payment was due, thereby instantly converting a solvent asset to a debt ridden asset.
You then refinanced the now debt ridden asset with an almost doubley larger unsecured loan, thereby rendering a debt ridden asset a barely solvent one, barely capable of functioning, in the HOPE that it can once again be refinanced before any real money is due to be paid.

There’s a name for that… its called a shell game!

Does anyone really think the chelsea transfer ban will be upheld on appeal?

Seriously.

Coz if it does, the scum are up next . . .

Well, obviously they are going to appeal. And I think they’ll win because 1: They’re so rich, 2: It’s probably a restriction of trade, which to my massive legal knowledge, is illegal.

But I can’t see UEFA losing face over this, so I reckon there’ll probably be a compromise worked out… I’d think Chelsea missing one transfer window, probably this one in January.

And if that or something like it happens, it might seem like small potatoes but it isn’t really. As I hear they might be going after Man Utd next, and obviously they are determined to do something about the disparity in football. Which isn’t a bad thing really.

And I was wrong. Well, I wasn’t really – Platinni hates English footy with a passion. But this can’t be seen as an anti English move, because I’ve just found out UEFA set a precedent by imposing similair sanctions against Roma and a French club (Slipped me mind which one).

But it’s still a huge move, and maybe the tip of the ice berg. I don’t want to go off on one, making up allsorts of mad scenarios. But I have to say this one… What if UEFA, decide to really get heavy and start banning clubs from their competitions?

And don’t think that’s beyond the realms of reality. It’s already happened in the past.

Banning clubs FS,especially of the size and magnitude of the mancs would be highly unlikely IMHO in this day and age of money mad commercialisation(wow thats a big word for me,prob spelt it wrong) and advertsing in the game.
It would significantly damage the “Uefa Champions League” brand if a big clubs like the Mancs and Real,who have been at it for years,were to be banned.

It’s been done before Timmy. Whether it will again remains to be seen and like you say, it’s only the money that would stop them.

But the thing is, all the sponsorship and television deals are done years ahead and run for years. Okay, some sponsors might want money back because the competiton has been diminished, and some might even want to pull out. But I reckon if they banned the clubs concerned for one season, it wouldn’t affect any money that much.

And I’m certainly not saying that banning clubs is going to happen, but just think about it…
Platinni hates English footy. He does want to restrict them somehow. Remember what caused the last ban on them? Remember Platinni was playing in that game, and it just strenghtened his hatred of English footy. (Yeah he hated it before that). Who is the club he hates most? And what would happen to us if we was to lose £20 off million nicker for even one season?

Like I said, I’m not saying any of this will happen. But make no bones about it, Platinni is out to find a way to stop English clubs dominating European footy again. And what put an end to that last time round…?

PS: Just announced that Man U is the richest sporting club in the world. And that’s sporting organisation, not footy team. I’m sure that’s going to please our friend’s at UEFA.

But anyway, I came in to post this interview I just found with Albert Riera…

Liverpool winger Albert Riera has told Spanish publication AS of a bust-up he had with manager Rafael Benitez and confirmed his anger at failing to start the first three games of the season for the Merseysiders.

“I didn’t play the first game because I started training late after the Confederations Cup, like [Pepe] Reina and [Fernando] Torres,” he said. “I was angry and had a flare-up at Benitez, but the day I don’t get angry for being a substitute I will retire.”

After sitting out the defeat to Tottenham, Riera had to be satisfied with a late substitute appearance in the 4-0 win over Stoke City and he was an unused sub in the 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa. However, he earned a starting place in the 3-2 win over Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok last weekend.

Despite not featuring as often as he would have liked so far this season, Riera holds the Liverpool boss in high regard.

“Benitez is a special coach who defends his own. I know he is with me, because he said so,” he added.

The former Espanyol man also said that missing out on Spain’s Euro 2008 victory was difficult for him.

“It was very hard but I will work to get to the World Cup to compensate for it,” he said.
*************************************

Someone should pass it on to Ryan Babel.

Ya he does have it in for the English clubs especially as you said Liverpool after they ruined his “big day”.

Prat,if nothing had happened that night the reds would have won number five.

He`s trying to introduce the 6+5 rule and 3 coming from the big leagues.He`s probably pissed that french football has fallen behind the rest as regards quality.

Good attitude from Riera.I`m thinking he`ll be even better for us this season.He seems a passionate fella and wants to do well for us.

Hey FS,we`ll probably see that interveiw in the rags and Sly sports tomorrow minus the part where it says:

Fat Scouser
Posted on September 4, 2009 @ 11:13 am

PS: Just announced that Man U is the richest sporting club in the world. And that’s sporting organisation, not footy team. I’m sure that’s going to please our friend’s at UEFA.

But anyway, I came in to post this interview I just found with Albert Riera…

Liverpool winger Albert Riera has told Spanish publication AS of a bust-up he had with manager Rafael Benitez and confirmed his anger at failing to start the first three games of the season for the Merseysiders.

“I didn’t play the first game because I started training late after the Confederations Cup, like [Pepe] Reina and [Fernando] Torres,” he said. “I was angry and had a flare-up at Benitez, but the day I don’t get angry for being a substitute I will retire.”

After sitting out the defeat to Tottenham, Riera had to be satisfied with a late substitute appearance in the 4-0 win over Stoke City and he was an unused sub in the 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa. However, he earned a starting place in the 3-2 win over Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok last weekend.

Despite not featuring as often as he would have liked so far this season, Riera holds the Liverpool boss in high regard.

“Benitez is a special coach who defends his own. I know he is with me, because he said so,” he added.

I just well and truly fooked that up there.I was meant to copy and paste the last two lines of your post FS but i copied the lot!

Timmy lay off the ale, it’s not afternoon yet.

Wish i was LB but its back to the grindstone for me tonight!

Let’s hope Riera and Rafa have not fallen out permanently like Alonso and Rafa did.

Rafa didn’t leave Japan in 2005 to attend his fathers funeral, so couldn’t understand why Xabi missed a Champions Leauge match to attend the birth of his son. You can say Rafa cannot be faulted for his dedication to the club, but can anyone really blame Alonso for wanting to be present at his childs birth? I certainly don’t blame him.

When Rafa has retired, maybe he will look back and regret not attending his fathers funeral. Maybe he won’t, who knows?

Excellent comments lads

Anyone notice the big clamp-down on diving and play-acting after Ronaldo left

Conspiracy maybe?

Nothing new to add to the Babel debate
I’m still on the fence but he’ll have to get his finger out
LB you have a good point about his confidence but I’ll hope for the best at this stage of the season

Fucking 2 weeks is a long time after just starting

I’m hoping Gerry has a good backlog of Blogs to keep us going

Over and out

Here’s something everyone should read….

New Anfield to open in 2009 says leaked document
Written by Jim Boardman
Saturday, 30 December 2006

According to today’s Liverpool Echo, the Reds new stadium will be open in two-and-a-half years. The paper claims to have seen “a secret document” revealing Dubai International Capital (DIC) hope to have completed the takeover of the club by February. As soon as the takeover is complete, the new stadium would start to be built, with “less than 28 months set aside for construction.”

The report, under the headline “Red’s new stadium open by July ’09″, says the DIC document refers to the club having already spent £10m on the stadium project and also having budgeted to spend a further £10m by March. One important point mentioned in the story is that naming rights on the stadium are being considered, with a figure of £4m per year being reported.

The document is said to include estimates that “at the current bid of £156.7m for 90% of the club’s shares, DIC could increase profits, excluding tax and interest, by 25% a year”.

The document is said to name Laing O’Rourke as becoming the “likely contractor” for the building work, and that although the deadline of July 2009 is tight, it must be met in order for DIC’s investment calculations to work out. To further protect their investment the building contract would be on a fixed price basis, with the contractors facing penalties of £950,000 per week if they overrun the deadline. LFC are “poised” to place orders for materials such as steel and roof cables to meet the “tight schedule”. There is a 15-20% contingency built into the estimates for the costs of building the replacement ground.

Part of the costs of building the new ground, £28.5m, would come from grants.

The document reportedly talks of stadium plans being agreed by the end of January, and that trial events should start to take place in July 2009. Trial events are an issue that will be familiar to anyone who followed the long drawn out (and still ongoing) Wembley stadium rebuild, because big events can’t be staged until “trial events” have been successfully staged.

The overall takeover costs are broken down as £156.7m for 90% of the shares, £10m in fees for lawyers and £45m to “refinance existing debts”. The Echo says the costs will total £221.7m but doesn’t mention where the other £10m is being spent.

DIC are planning to raise “£300m through bonds to fund the construction of the new ground which will account for the repayment of £120m of existing debts to fund the stadium, a further £105.8m to complete construction and £5m of professional fees.”

According to the report, DIC have approached Bank of Ireland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of America to help fund the project, with Bank of America appearing “to be favourites”.

The report also quotes the following lines about the club from the secret document: “Recent performance has been strong and the club appears to be on its way to achieving consistent results both on and off the pitch. Opportunities exist to boost returns by unlocking ‘hidden’ value, mainly through developing property and leisure projects on the current Anfield site.”

The word “brand” is unfortunately used when talking of how the deal will reflect well on the Middle East’s link to a “strong brand with an equally strong international fan base”.

There’s also a mention of existing deals worth £8m with Adidas for the club’s shirt deal, and the £21.6m deal with Carlsberg as shirt sponsor. It also talks of the £2.5m Liverpool have set aside for possible legal costs relating to the dispute with Reebok, the previous shirt sponsors who failed to deliver stock on time (Liverpool were said to be having to buy kit from JJB boss Dave Whelan at one stage for sale in the club shop). LFC feel that Reebok don’t have a case.

Another revelation from the secret document is that in 2004 Liverpool were subject of three failed takeover attempts, all offering different valuations. The document also claims that George Gillet has been told that DIC are the preferred bidder. It says that David Moores has made the decision to sell because the club needs a capital injection to advance to “the next level and he is unable to provide this himself”.

Interesting also is the mention that the document “sets a seven to eight-year period to re-evaluate its investment in the club and includes several option to realise a profit, such as selling the stadium” – which could be where the author of two Manchester United books who wrote a doom and gloom article earlier in the week (Mihir Bose) drew his ridiculous conclusions from. As the Echo says, “such a timetable is normal in takeover deals of this kind. A business plan will include a fixed period to assess the success of the investment, and the Echo understands that DIC intends to retain its holding in Liverpool for the long term”.

It seems this whole article is DIC’s indirect response to Mihir Bose’s article from earlier in the week, and it pours scorn on his claim that DIC won’t be providing cash to Rafa Benitez for new signings. It says, “fears that DIC will not provide transfer funds for the manager appear unfounded as the business plan includes a pledge to ‘infuse funding for the club to achieve its business plan objectives and drive a virtuous circle of success’”.

Another point to take from this story is that when you read the transfer rumours for this transfer window you don’t need to pay attention to any that talk of deals depending on the takeover going through. This document shows the takeover won’t be completed until after the window has closed.
********************************************

I had to cut and paste it, as the original article is no longer on the web. If that doesn’t show what a fuck was made when, “Selling the family silver,” I don’t know what will.

I always stick up for Moores and say he’s as gutted as all of us, and I still believe that to an extent. But what a fucking gobshite.

I know it’s doom and gloom to read, but it really does show where we could have been by now and what a ridiculous fucking set up we had. The bloody Borrowers must have been rubbing their hands in glee when they had to negotiate with the soft bastards.

I can just see them now as they licked their lips like The Child Catcher, buying the club for nothing and dreaming of what they were about to milk it for.

I hate to put up things like this lads. I’d far rather just talk footy, have a laugh or even an argument. But the more I find out, the more it makes me so fucking angry. And I think everyone should know what went on, what is going on and will keep going on until we get rid of this pair of thieves.

I think most of us realised where we “could be” FS but that has just copperfastened it now.

For those who don`t that will really open their eyes..good work pal.Everybody needs to realise what they`ve done.Moores too.

That is truly disturbing Fatty. Whats more frightening is ‘whats to come?’. On a lighter note the mta website http://www.mta.com will show you all their different tix and prices. The one I always recommend when family or friends are coming over is the 7 day unlimited ticket. These wee gem costs about 30 bucks and allows you to take any bus or subway anywhere in the 5 boroughs as many times a day as you like! Good value in any mans book methinks.

Thanks Fatty

Over and out

Good man Digger. I knew you’d know the craic. I’ll get onto that in a mo. Not long to go now. I’ll be over for the Chav game if you fancy a pint in the Supporters bar on 11th street. Bit of a rick for me, that to be honest. It’s on early in the morning so, I don’t want to bevvy too much as I only have the one Sunday there and I want to spend it in Central Park. I used to love Sunday’s in the park, smoke a bit of crack, drink a few cans, just to be sociable with the natives, then do a bit of people watching. Great place, always loved it.

Anyway, back to work. As for the Borrowers, it is indeed frightening what may happen yet. And I know that we all know it’s fucked, but I thought that article was worth putting up as it shows how it could have been.

Moores and Parry, so much to answer for.

Digger, click on that link man. I’m after a fucking bus ticket not a limo to the oscars!

Ya daft bugger.

Is it the metropolitan transit agency I’m looking for?

Got it Digger. Just cvame back to me, it’s the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

I’ll get on that later. Busy right now. but thanks mate.

Check this out lads (add the h at the start):

ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8238560.stm

Fergie agreeing about Eduardos suspension.
Im sure he wouldnt agree with it had the likes of Rooney, Ronaldo, Nani etc been banned. The cunt (pardon my language, just got to me)

He`s the biggest hypocrite in football.

Ah fuck it. Here’s a wee treat from the good old days…
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=40905

Just got round to reading your post on the DIC proposals FS. I wonder what proposals H&G put to Moores & Parry?

Of course, silly me. There were eight million reasons why LFC were sold to the yanks.

Ah bollacks to it all Steve. But to this day, I still believe Moores is a broken man over this and when you’ve got his sort of dosh, and love for the club – yes, he really does – 8 million knicker is… well, put it this way, I bet Judas’s pieces of silver never felt as bad.

But as I said, I’m loooking at better days. Here’s something. Just found it. Don’t miss it. It’s incredible. And there was a little chubby rag arsed 9 year old in the middle of that, and I still remember it like yesterday…
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=44189

FS, he may well be a broken man or he may not be but I can’t believe that this multi-millonaire ‘businessman’ was so stupid to sell the family silver to these two fucking parasites without suspecting anything!

Something no right there, in my minds-eye anyway. The phrase ‘if it sounds to good to be true it usually is’ comes to mind.

Great clips btw. At the start I thought it was the theme-tune to bugs bunny.

FS, there’s a short skinny little twat of a scouser sittin on his Dad’s shoulders in that mess somewhere too!

Those were the days… but we’ll see them again before we’re pushing up daisies!

God, I hate International Breaks

That’s what bothers me as well Lurgan, on the one hand I’m thinking surely Moores wouldn’t just have sold the club to the highest bidder and to hell with the consequences.

On the other hand what other possible explanation is there? Many of us have said it would have been easy to check those two fuckers out before even thinking about seling to them.

Ah well, I suppose we can question it all we like, but it would be nice to know exactly why he sold to them and not DIC. Perhaps FS is right and the £8m didn’t make such a big difference in the end. Perhaps H&G did such a good job at pulling the wool over his eyes that anyone would have sold to them. I guess we’ll never really know.

Not like that we won’t Aitch. I’ve had the good fortune to go to many, many homecomings over the years. But that’s incredible. The glamour of The FA Cup, indeed. You wouldn’t get that sort of reaction for the treble now. Mind you, I’m sure 19 will see a do that will make it seem like it’s been worth the wait.

As for Moores, lads I’m in a very small minority. Believe me, most people I know would have his eyes out and they’ve got their point. I just happen to think he got hoodwinked and, yes, all the dough will cushion the blow. But I wouldn’t want to live with it. It’s not as if he was some Johnny Come Lately who didn’t give a fuck about the club. He’s like the end of the dynasty that finally fucked it all up and will have to bear that weight for eternity. Still hard to feel sorry for the daft bastard though.

Well all I can say is that I have some inventions that may interest Mr Moores:
1. A sky hook
2. Tartan paint
3. Chocolate teapot/fireguard
4. …

At the moment I have no sympathy for the fool or his ‘advisors’.

I the Tartan paint one Lurgan, believe it or not I have never heard that one before! I know, I know, I need to get out more.

216 should read I “like” the Tartan paint one.

A bloke walks into a circus and asks one of the Gymnasts if she can teach him to do the splits.

The Gymnast says: “hmmm, it depends. How flexible are you?

The man replies: Well, I can do any day except Wednesdays”!

Sorry, lads how sad is that joke? I’m extremely bored in case you couldn’t tell, and I’m at work!

I know where you are coming from FS, ’65 will live with me forever.
Sealed and cemented me as a die-hard Red (not that I’d have had a choice either way mind) for good and proper…
…but “not like that we won’t” … does strike me as a bit rose-tinted.
There’s still plenty of old school die-hards around and a fair percentage of young lads that have the right way about them.

Surely the CL homecoming was pretty close???

I mean, I wasn’t there and had to settle for hunting for live-streams, but weren’t there like a million and a half people turned out for that one.
My nephews were there and tell me it was bedlam in town for 48 hours after the match and 48 hours after the homecoming.

I was still in Istanbull, but I know it was brilliant. But Aitch, look at that again. It was fucking bedlam. We’ll see the homecomings. They’ll all be good. And number 19 will rival them all. But players getting off the train with the league, walking through the station with the fans, the manager walking through the fans shaking hands with everyone, no segreation at all. Utter chaos and bizzys getting swamped like that… Nah. We’ll never see that again mate. But in this day and age. I suppose that’s a good thing.

And I believe the 8 million quid got paid in 3 pound notes, Lurgan.

I see where you’re coming from.
Its well different now. The players and the fans were a different breed back then. Players ended up in town on the piss with regulars…not in swanky clubs, but in the pubs.
There’s defo a seperation now that is far greater than existed back then. Part-n-parcel of modern times and millionaire status, I reckon.

God, international breaks blow. For what it’s worth, here’s our CL Squad list:

Goalkeepers
No. Name
1 Diego Cavalieri
25 Pepe Reina
44 David Martin

Defenders
No. Name
2 Glen Johnson
5 Daniel Agger
12 Fábio Aurélio
16 Sotiris Kyrgiakos
22 Emiliano Insua Zapata *
23 Jamie Carragher
32 Stephen Darby *
34 Martin Kelly
37 Martin Škrtel
38 Andrea Dossena

Midfielders
No. Name
4 Alberto Aquilani
8 Steven Gerrard
15 Yossi Benayoun
20 Javier Mascherano
21 Lucas
26 Jay Spearing
28 Damien Plessis *
39 Nathan Eccleston *

Forwards
No. Name
9 Fernando Torres
10 Andriy Voronin
11 Albert Riera
18 Dirk Kuyt
19 Ryan Babel
24 David N’Gog
46 David Amoo *

Notable exclusions: El Zhar, Pacheco and Degen.

Back in the day Aitch, it was nothing unusual to have a bevvy up with the players. That’s just another thing that went the way of the Dodo when Sly and the Premiereship came along. I knew quite a few of them, but I don’t tell the stories cos, well… just sound like Billy Bullyshitter.

But it’s nothing special, loads of lads have the same stories and far more than me. And there’s still a few who are in with them nowadays. They aren’t all stuck up their own arses.

El Zhar, Pacheco and Degen are still all egible though. They can be added to the B list, and I think that’s until the knockout stages begin.

FS, as you say, it was a different story back then. Billy Bullshitter or not, I wouldn’t mind hearing a story with the likes of King Kenny, Rushie included. I need something to cheer me up!

Also, if Moores needs to change them 3 quid notes, I have some nice fresh 9 quid notes. I will do a deal, 2 for 1!

He can’t be that thick, can he?

I got a King Kenny story Lurg….

Kudos on the international break Aitch

I’ll watch the Ireland game though

Over and out

Lurgan – we’re heading to Brittany today for a couple of weeks. That’s nowhere near you is it ?

Could never forget that story Donal!

Dougle, I live on the other side of France but if you want to make a 1400 round trip for a few beers, then your more than welcome.

should have been 1400KM round trip…

quick question lads, has James Pearce replaced Tony Barrett at the echo, or is he just a temporary stand-in?

Hey people!!

Haven’t been around lately so just wanted to know what’s cooking???

Lurg,
the people who own the Echo told the peoplpe who run the Echo that all “non-essential” writers must be sold.
The Times stepped in with a “big money move” and so Tony was off-loaded to London.

Barrett has been quoted as saying that he “made up his mind to leave” in January when they tried to sell him to the Accrington Stanley Press Telegram, but that in-spite of this, he has maintained a professional relationship with the Echo management.

Worst piece of business by a Liverpool team this summer, I reckon!

Pearce is not a good enough writer to help win the Echo a Pulitzer Price over a full season. Too many short pieces and side-bar articles.

(badum-tish)
Thank You, I’ll Be Here All Week!

Kopking…

Parmesan Infused Chicken with a Garlic Basil Sauce.

(recipe can be found on GordonRamseys-F-Word.com)

You know in medieval Japan, when those samurai warriors did stuff that disgraced themselves or their masters, they would have to commit seppuku, where they slice open their belly to atone for their sins? (Look up wikipedia yourself for the term)

That’s exactly what Moores and Parry should do for this obscene piece of treachery in which Rafa and the fans are still suffering for it.

If the Arabs from Dubai were in charge, there would be no Rafa being forced to sell Xabi to make funds available.

234 post and this is the first time I can make one. It been a hectic few weeks, but I managed to read the post and comments but did not have the time to post. Great as usual Gerry and more or less spot on expect for the getting forward bit because I think he does, much more than Alonso did. He is the best we have at the moment, which is not the lads fault, but H&G’s fault and he is defiantly not letting the team down. However I agree that he should not have the reasonability of a tile tilt resting on his young shoulders. I just would like to see the self proclaimed most knowledgeable fans in football judge him on his performance in term of where he is at in his career, his age, his progression and not judge him by Alonso and Gerrards performance which is very unfair. Although until last year, I thought he outplayed Alonso the year before, hence the reason Rafa sort to bring in Barry at Alonso expense.

Couldn’t agree more Kinny and I see you are on form Atich, please send the recipe it looks good.

Stadium by 2019 I am so excited by THIck’s proclamation; we all bow down to his generosity and foresight and are humbly great full. I wonder what will be left of the team by then. On the bright side we could be champions of the Championship by then as Uber Klinsman (Flash Klinsman) of the Master race and Universe leads us back into the Premiership.

I wonder if we can get them listed on the terrorist watch list to prevent them from traveling. They cavort with known mass murders G.W.Bush are obnoxious, poisonous and pose serous health risk for Liverpool supporter’s world wide. It’s a thought; if Mandela is still listed anything is possible.

Now I know how Rafa must feel.

All the big names (FS, Dig, LB etc) have fucked off for the weekend, to play with Italians, or their mates from London…

… and I’m left kicking around the hollow, empty halls of Kopblog with Keith, dougle, Lurg, Kinny & KopKing…

(though technically speaking, I guess Gerry would be Rafa and I’d just be … I dunno… I’ll still give myself a bit of cred and go with Carra!)

Tumbleweed…………………

Check
Check … 1
Check … 1 … 2 …Check

…er… is this thing on?

Roger that Aitch

How did the Chicken turn out? and did you curse as much as Ramsey making it?

Fuck all else to talk about!!

over and out

Anyone watch the Argentina v Brazil game?

Could Argentina really miss out on world cup next year?

Is Maradona fooked?

What’s going on with this site?
Somebody needs to sort a few things out… it keeps logging me out and asking for a password every time I come in. That’s no big deal really, but I also get swamped with pop ups everytime I come in an all and I’ve got a pop up blocker turned on. Bloody annoying to say the least.

But here’s me real moan… Hicks is now insisting the stadium will be built as soon as the recession is over. As if anyone would believe him anyway like. But why does he think we are so bloody stupid? The man obviously thinks we are complete idiots.

Well, it’s obvious he’s thought that since day one, but why bother with this latest round of lies?

We all know he’s skint. He knows we all know he’s skint. He knows we all know he’s a complete and utter liar. So why bother saying that?

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. But I’m just surprised he’s stuck his head over the ramparts on this issue and treated us as complete and utter fools. Obviously, for anyone who has money, a recession is the best time to invest. Think how cheaply you could pick up a house, or the land to build one on right now. And then, there’s the fact that desperate companies will provide all the materials – concrete, steel, etc – as cheaply as possible. Labour bills would also be down, and government insentives, grants, etc, would be easy to get as they try to get the economy going again.

And surely he knows even the stupidest of us know that. So, why the fuck is he coming out with that cack now?

On top of that, he is congratulating Purslow on the job he has done. Well, all I’ve seen him do is deny Rafa money, make all contract rises come out of transfer monies, and take tickets away from locals for more corporates and tourists.

Can’t wait for the footy to come back, even if it’s just to give me something else to think about. Bad times, indeed.

1400 km not miles well that makes a huge difference Lurgan. I’ll be over for tea !

I watched the Pathe film of the seme-final thanks FS (#209).That was the prelude to me going to Wembley to see the Reds beat Leeds in the Final the first time they won the FA Cup.
I was on the first train back to Lime Street station,there was a big crowd there and I was greeted like a hero by big men crying their eyes out. What memories!

That must have been fantastic Jack, and I hate to make a negative comment after such a happy one from yourself, but…
Looking at them old films and remembering them happy days reminds me of all the things that annoy me so much about modern day football, footballers and football fans.

Maybe I’m just turning into a grumpy old bugger, but when I think back to them times – even the fallow years when we won nothing – they seem so much better than what we have today.

FS, Hicks is waiting for the economy to pick up and be “booming”. Why? because interest rates will increase and that can be his new excuse: “interest rates are too high at the moment to borrow to build”

Oh and yes, I do know somethings are better today, and time makes memories rosier. But it was such a joy to be a Liverpool fan in the 60′s and 70s.

Well Akka as I said, we all know he is lying. We all know what he is saying is absolute nonsense. I was just wondering what the motive behind it was. And I might be worried for no reason, but I think there’s something lurking behind this and it’s not going to be good.

I guess that we’ll have to just wait until 2018 to find out if he really is lying. What a complete pile of crap!

Here’s an interview that he done in the Guardian in 2007.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/may/22/championsleague.liverpool1

Summarym weetabix = LFC

No worries Dougle, I’ll get the frog’s legs on right away!

Oh I have a feeling we’re going to find out something a bit before then Lurgan mate, and I doubt we’re going to like it.

I mean why, why fucking bother coming out with this horsepiss for no reason?

Might seem I’m going over the top, but let’s be honest… everytime one of them bastards surfaces, something horrible happens or soon follows.

Unfortunately FS, you’re probably right.

Well Lurgen mate, I honestly hate to spread the doom and gloom and, even more than that, I hate to start people worrying about something that hasn’t even happened. But I suppose, that’s just how life is under H&G.

FS, don’t worry about spreading doom and gloom mate. I know what you are saying and I think that you and I are both on the same page here and regard H&G as the most dangerous thing to happen to LFC since, well, forever.

These guys need to be stopped but how do you go about it? As you say the only real way is a boycott but there are plenty of takers for tickets if the regulars/season ticket holders decide not to go. What would happen to season ticket holders if they done this? I think we know the answer!

Between a rock and a hard place and the devil and the deep-blue sea.

I (think that I) read that THicks will sell the texas rangers for about 400 million USD but he says that none of it will go to LFC since it is a different business. Typical but would you expect anything else?

Anyway, I am fucked-off reading his shite and for our ‘fans’ believing everything that is written by these journo’s is gospel. Maybe this is the dumbing down of education is not helping anyone either – now that’s a can of worms. Not football/LFC related but the best thing that I was ever told by a teacher was that I only needed to ask myself 3 questions for any problem/situation. Why, why and why!

I think that it sums it up perfectly. Why, why and why is this shit-face coming out with this now?

Still no sign of dougle though!

You`ve every right to be pessimistic about the situation FS.Why should we swallow shite like that that comes out of hicks` gob.

Missing the footy.The internationals are cack to watch so i don`t even bother.

All it is lads, is I’d much rather talk about the footy and good times. But to not talk about this is just sticking our heads in the sand.

As for what can be done about it though, I’ve no idea. SOS have been handing out leaflets at the matches explaining the situation to people and they’ve also got some demos planned. But we all know these things mean nothing to H&G. So do SOS like. They aren’t dummies, and they are always thinking of ways of acting against the owners. So hopefully they’ll eventually come up with something that will have an effect.

But that’s one of the things that got me wondering why Hicks is coming out with this. He knows the gloves are off. He knows the situation is beyond redeeming and that people won’t be satisfied until both him and his gargoyle are gone.

And he’s also been praising the new fella, Purslow. So, I started to think why? Well, as I said earlier, I can’t work it out yet but I’m sure there’s something behind it.

Purslow as far as i heard went to Harvard with Thicks son back in the day.So to me he`s only another one of their puppets in the boardroom.

Also the banks have given Thicks until october to get his shit together regarding his finances so the sale of the Rangers should do that,but the club won`t see a penny of it i`m thinking.

In fact,i know we won`t see a penny of it.

From what I’ve read Timmy, he’s keeping a controlling amount of shares in Rangers and, if anything, I could see him syphoning funds from LFC and putting them into keeping hold of Rangers.

Shi* Lurgan,
Where are you man? I’ve been driving now for 6 hours and I’m almost in Switzerland…. hmmm …Am I close yet ?

dougle, the frog’s legs have been eaten but there is a second batch, if you make it back from Switzerland.

Maybe the next time mate.

Cheers,
Lurgan

Holy hell, I’m thinking we need to reopen the transfer window during these international breaks because there isn’t much to talk about.

It’s a three day weekend here in the US, and this is the first chance I’ve had to get in here since Friday lunchtime. I thought I would have a ton of comments to catch up on, instead I only needed to read up on about 40 of them.

It seems the two hottest topics in that space of time were: 1. Waiting to see if Dougle has caught up with Lurgan for tea and 2. how Aitch made out with the Parmesan Infused Chicken with a Garlic Basil Sauce-Gordon Ramsey style.

Sadly, I don’t have much to add. Keep those fingers crossed and hope all the boys make it back home injury free from their international duty.

I’m concerned most about both Masch and Lucas. These South American players are wonderful to have in your squad, but the journey the boys have to make each international break is quite grueling. It’s a lot easier having a squad of European players who travel one or two time zone at the most to play their matches, but these boys are traveling 5-7 time zones and that just wears you out.

Masch is in the midst of a must win qualifier for the Argies, so you know he is going to play the full 90 minutes and go all out to get the Argies on some safer ground heading into their last two matches. I’m nervous that since Brazil has now qualified for South Africa that Dunga might give Lucas a bit of a run out in their mid-week game to see what he offers them.

We can ill afford to have either of them injured right now. I’d have been much happier if Lucas would have sat on the bench for both of those Brazil games this international break.

Until Aqualini is fit, we’re quite thin in that position.

Time to fire up the BBQ grill and enjoy the traditional last night of summer here in the States; kids are back to school tomorrow. Tonight we’ll sit back and relax with a night of burgers and chicken wings, along with 6-8 pints of some chilled Canadian lager.

Right, this cross France road trip has got me a thinkin’. I’m a simple guy and it’s there in black & white as far as G&H is concerned. We are a cash cow for them, simple. They have no interst in football let alone the nuances of english football and don’t make me laugh with “the guardians of the great heritage etc.. ” malarkey.

You could say the same thing about the Glaziers at manure. The difference is we have the second-rate muppet version of blood-sucking parasites “running” Liverpool.
Manure have the “biggest” crowds in the biggest stadium every week, the Utd PLC vibe is in every dirttrack town from here to Timbucktoo. They have (had) 40-50 million every year to spend and NO public washing of dirty laundry, not a peep.

Well compare that with our situation. Our muppets haven’t got the readies or the buddies to make it happen. They are broke Billionaires. We are crocked, knobbled and always hobbling along. But we are paying their debt, at least the interest, and we are a huge potential asset. Ironically enough as long as Rafa keeps qualifying us for the final stages of the Champions League it keeps up the profile, whatever the threadbare reality behind it. That’ll do it for them. And that’s it, anything else is a bonus, financially for them and it keeps the fans off their backs (I mean the 606 fans). But as for the significance of #19 …. Dream on. They couldn’t give a flying f***.

Right, Mrs Dougle wants the computer so I’m signing off now. IVCJMAC, I agree about Mascher, for me he (and Torres) have been the most “burn’t out” by this international scene since they joined us. However I actually think it might be good for Lucas to play with the Selecao a bit. It would surely up his confidence levels and that is the vital ingredient for evryone but particularly him right now.

I actually would prefer to be playing “a big team” after these breaks as I can’t imagine Burnley providing too many players for world interntional teams. Nope, Mr Coyle has had his bunch of boyos and his video machine and has been training up his lads specifically with us in mind for the last 10 days. My money is on a real battle on Saturday and I really think we’ll need the first goal (as ever). On with the flack jackets boys Saturday is coming around the corner.

The first goal on Saturday would be wonderful. Aside from the Stoke game, we’ve conceded first in the other three and we’ve had to chase the game, with rather poor results.

It’s a problem we suffered from for large spells last season when we ended up taking the most points from a losing position. I think it’s great that the boys find a way to dig down and pull out a result, but feck me, I much prefer when we grab the first two in a match.

I can’t think about Saturday’s game just yet. Need to make sure all our boys return healthy and then we can focus on our next three points.

I’m off an all now. Agree completely on the Burnley game… it’s a bannana skin waiting to happen, but I think we’ll pull through okay.

As for the international football, I’ve felt like this since I was about 16 or so. I remember as a kid looking at the England and Scots squads as soon as they were announced in the papers and feeling proud to see all our lads in there. Then I started to realise how many came back crocked and seen the disruption it caused our squads.

I know what you mean about the travelling too. But sadly, nowadays there’s no avoiding it. We don’t produce enough absolutely top notch footballers to equip the team, and we can’t just go out and buy the top Europeans. So, don’t be surprised to see even more South Americans and Africans over the next few years – especially if Rafa has to start rooting round the bargain basements of the footballing world.

Take Lucas for instance – I remember signing him, and being amazed that we’d got the Brazillian young player of the year for 6.5 million. You wouldn’t get a decent kid for that here nowadays. And then if we sell Masch (Which we probably will next season) that’ll be some profit to pay off George and Tom’s debts.

So, I’d love nothing more than to see a midfield made up of today’s equivalent of Kennedy, Souness, McDermott and Case, probably the best midfield I’ve ever seen, but them days have long gone.

As for H&G, Dougle I think we all now realise exactly what they are. And the only question/problem now is getting shut of them. But this latest round of lies has got me worrying. I honestly can’t see any reason for Hicks to come out with this sort of nonsense anymore. He knows quite well how hated he is and he knows nobody takes any notice of his shite anymore. So why bother sticking his head above the parapet?

I’m telling you lads, mark my words, something’s rotten in the state of Texas.

Anyway, happier times….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjIgizeNc4&feature=PlayList&p=C8B541C21AC320C6&index=0

JACK!!! This is posted especially for you, but I think pretty much everyone will enjoy it.

It’s in a few segments but well worth the messing about to watch it all. More than a football play. It’s a great bit of social commentary and history. But in all truth, I just remember being like the Grandson. He might be a blue, but it took me back to some wonderfully happy times.

Oh and last thing…
I was sitting here and on the aol welcome screen, it said “Britain’s best boozers.”

Of course, I had to take a look and was surprised to find this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjIgizeNc4&feature=PlayList&p=C8B541C21AC320C6&index=0

Bet you had a few in there in your time Jack. I used to be in there that often, they should have charged me rent.

Littlest things can wreck your night. Cow dandered onto train track outside Dublin. Train came along. Cow decided, “I’m staying put.” One vet, and one bullet 90 minutes later and train starts moving again.

I suppose the cow had a slightly worse night.

Not a joke……made me have to stay late at work tonight.

Ahhh only in Ireland.

Anyway, what’s with all these fucking pop ups – anyone else geting them? They’re driving me mad

Well, quiet one again. No problem with that, when there’s nothing to talk about. But Gerry have a word with the tech fellas. Everytime I turn the computer off, the site logs me out. Putting in me password everytime isn’t a real big deal, but with that and all the pop ups that have suddenly appeared on the site, it’s becoming a pain in the arse.

What’s with the pop ups? Is it for advertising and getting a few bob. Fair play, if it is. But if it’s just something that’s attached itself to the site, it needs fucking off.

I know nothing about computers, I’ve killed 3 in the last 4 or 5 years. So, I get a bit paranoid about pop ups with them cookie things an all that.
Besides, it’s just a pain in the arse and I don’t like being solicited by Manc sponsors Vodaphone.