Great blog Gerry!

Super blog Gerry, and agree 100%. There are those that agrgue Rafa must go, and (sort of) back up their argument with ‘facts’. That’s fine, but it’s the juvenile wankers, uneducated plonkers, & general gobshites who say ‘Mourinho to save us’ and ‘get rid of the fat Spanish waiter’ who you can’t educate. Not enough common sense or grey matter between them to have an argument with anyway.
News just out: Broughton says we are not selling Gerrard or Torres. Let’s hope he is not telling Porky’s.

Jean Luc Picard, did I miss a joke Gerry, are we intending to phaser the oppositions midfield

Just a little joke about Shelvey, mate. The lad is coming to Liverpool so he better get used to the humour.

LOL at the young Captain Picard remark, Gerry. You sure he’s not a Scum-supporting Romulan spy sent out to sabotage us? (Never mind if you don’t understand the blatantly nerdy Trekkie reference – Was referring to the 10th movie Nemesis )

I suppose he’ll run at warp speeds of at least Warp 0.1 then? No?

Oh, and do keep Rafa.

Excellent stuff Gerry and reflects my sentiments entirely.

The keyword for me here is ‘trust’. Out of all the people/fuckers who have some influence at Anfield, Rafa is the only one I trust to do the right thing for LFC – now it seems that Purslow is a snitch as well undermining Rafa and providing inside info – and God knows what this Broughton bloke is all about.

It’s a total mess and we need Rafa at the helm to at least give us a chance of getting us back on the right track.

Woe woe and thrice woe.

What did Coco Parry do to deserve a £4 mill pay-off.I thought he was a lifelong fan!.Parry’s true level in life was teaching kids in the local bog standard comp!.Seeing as the club is losing £1 mill a week,a Leeds style meltdown is well underway.The interest payments are killing LFC-As much as £40 mill next year.3-1 to the Reds tomorrow, put them in a quad with Chavs, Arse and Mancs.

a great read ger, cant say i agree with it all, on the footballing side of things i think the manager should take the blame and go but with whats going on in the background and the huge losses the club is making (did we not make a 40mil profit the year before?) i think the right thing to do is probably stick with a decent man who loves the club and hope that we can get rid of the leeches some time this side of christmas.

We cannot sale Torres and Gerrard. If we see what happened last summer, we managed to buy Glen Johnson and Aquilani. That time i clearly remember posting here that with the transfer activity happening at ManUtd and Chelsea, we might actually do quite well in keeping our team intact. Utd lost Tevez and Ronaldo. Chelsea didnt buy anyone major and we had already bought Johnshon. It was tough luck on our part that both Xabi and Arbeloa wanted to leave. Had they continued,it would have been a different story.

This season however we need to strengthen our 1st XI. As Gerry as mentioned, a winger,striker and a left back is the priority. I dont know about the young kid who is coming but i think the position of Xabi Alonso has still not found the correct player.

Lucas and Mascherano are two similar kind of players. Gerrard(A lot of people say that he had bad season)has been starved of those killer passes all season wrong. From what i have seen of Aquilani, i dont think he can replace Alonso’s role. I dont have a name to suggest but the engine room of our team is that crucial position and we need a good playmaker there.

Good accurate blog,keep Rafa,quickly find a White Knight.

The disgraceful behaviour of Sky Sports is not limited to their sports section, even their news section is full of such idiots.

Was just watching a live election report of people staging a rally outside the LibDem HQ, and this Sky woman kept on hounding the protest organiser, telling him to go home and all that. Fucking disgraceful bitch she is, let the man talk! Her pro-Murdoch and pro-Tory agenda is there for all to see.

Very good blog there Gerry. I’m not sure if I agree enriely as well, but I do think Rafa will be here next season regardless…

Great blog Gerry! One of the best.

I particularly liked your comments: “Bad owners + large debt + failure to properly invest in the squad = disaster. This simple equation is the root cause of our current problems and by far the biggest reason behind our dreadful campaign.”
You can also add + many players off injured tom the equation above. As you said, at one time, the list of injured could field a full team. I remember writing about that too.

Jack, I am a Knight, unfortunately not the White one you are after. Haha

From Tony Barrett in The Times: Liverpool’s debts sour to Stg473 million, up Stg51.5 million. And thatb is considering Rafa made money for LFC by having to sell players more than buying them. Rafa at least tried his best to balance the book. What about the rest of the Board members? Damn!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article7120084.ece

Yet another stellar blog Gerry. Another candidate for “blog of the season” despite its gloomy content.

And knight et al… Here’s the most telling paragraph in Tony’s article for me…

So they reduced their debt by 100 million… everybody remember being told that?
…That they had injected “their own money into the club” to bring the debt down!

I’ve been jumping on this point every time I’ve read press-mention of it, or someone mentioned it in here… coz the math didn’t make sense!

Sure, they reduced the £350 to £270 (which I pointed out at the fuckin time, was NOT £100 million, but in fact £80!) but then it was only vaguely reported a supposed additional £100 million “debt on the club” had appeared (coincidentally) around the same time.

So now we find out that they did NOT invest their own money… NOR actually reduce the debt …a supposedly “demanded” clause from RBS if they wanted a 6 month extention… which they got! (err… and have now been given yet another 6 months!)… but simply shuffled the debt form their left pocket to their right.

Anyone remember Lehman Brothers?
They are one of the BIG banks that fucked the U.S., and with it, the World economy recently.
How they did it…
Lehman Brothers was holding $500 Bilion dollars in unsecured debt and had an audit fast approaching.
They created a shell company, who bought the Lehman debt, so that when the auditor checked the books, there was a check for $500 Billion in income sitting there… and the books balanced.
One week after the audit, they cancelled the check, buying back the $500 billion in unsecured loans, and folded the shell company.

Now if you or I tried that… it’d be called “fraud” and some Lord justice or other would be pronouncing a sentence in fuckin Wormwood Scrubs for fucks sake!

Anyone who thinks Rafa is the biggest problem LFC faces this summer, is deluding themselves!

When G&H first held DIC to ransom for £400 million, (then pissed about with them demanding £450, then £500…)
…they would have walked away with a HUGE profit of £130 million on their investment.
…even after they refinanced, they still could have sold to DIC (who masochistically came back in for a 2nd round of negotiations with these douchebags) who yet again tabled a £400 million offer, which still would have seen them walk away with £50 million (plus an unclear amount that has only cloudily been reported as “unaccounted for” on the books!)

Now £450million won’t pay off the debt!

But all is not lost… yet.
Most of our players aren’t half as bad as some would have you believe. And Rafa isn’t half as bad a manager as some would have you believe.
A quick sale, and even a modicum of cash provided to Rafa and we just might recover from this load of steaming bollocks.
If it stretches on though… with £100,000 being hemmoraged out our arseholes… and we might be looking up at Citeh and PSurs backsides for a time to come!

…and think about that figure for a moment (stop making us do fuckin math for fucks sake, I hear many of you shouting )
£100,000 X 30 days in May = £3 million
That might buy decent left or right back cover.

£100,000 X 30 days in June = £3 million + May’s £3 mill = £6
That might buy very decent left or right back cover, or even a decent striker at the end of his contract somewhere.

and £100,000 X 30 days in July = £3 million + May’s £3 mill + June’s £3 mill = £9
…and now you just might be buying someone to go straight into the first team.

For some reason it did not include the quoted paragraph… which was…

“Last year, Liverpool reduced their bank loan from £350 million to £290 million, but only because their offshore parent company increased its loan to the club by £86.2 million to £144.4 million. That loan, on which Liverpool has to pay 10 per cent interest, is likely to have increased.”

Gerry, what’s surprised me most this season is how the club’s “foreigners”, have stood up for LFC. I will however excempt three – G & H and Riera! Where are the Scousers, including the captain and past officials like Parry and Moores (Judas & cohorts!)? I’ve seen commitment from Masche, Lucas, Kuyt, Reina and Torres. I will include Rafa here. He has stuck it out with the most stupid “owners” ever and a clueless board. He’s not made personal demands for funds, other than for signings. Who else around would be willing to put up with such shit? I am unapologetically pro-Rafa and pray he stays to become the legend he is. PS: you were absolutely on the money regarding any press darling, which is EVERYONE except RB, would by now be caught in the midst of knighthood calls

Oh, bloody hell. This whole fucking mess with our debt is getting worse by the minute. Now that some concrete information (however difficult it is to comprehend) is actually surfacing everyone will perhaps finally realize what the REAL problem with Liverpool is, as if it hasn’t been clear enough for ages.

Is it going to stop the hardcore anti-Rafa squad claiming everything might get better if the manager leaves? Perhaps, but my bet is a lot of people will still go on about the failed signings, bad substitutions and Mr. Scapegoat Lucas and thereby burying their heads in the sand. I read a comment on the Tony Barrett Times-article today. Some fellow stated that Torres was the only successful signing Rafa ever made for Liverpool. I wonder, is there truly no cure for fools? I always hoped there was, but I can’t deny I’m beginning to waver here.

What I find the most incomprehensible about the whole debt and the American owners is how on earth it can actually be allowed to do what they have done with our club? The financial meltdown with Lehman Brothers one of the main culprits that Aitch is talking about is of course related and I do understand the regulations in world economy were too weak; that the whole system went haywire because of this. But put simply, I just can’t fathom how it can be allowed to buy a football club and then put hundreds of millions of £ of debt upon the club itself. Reason tells me this cannot be considered as anything else than a criminal act – and yet it isn’t. Unbelievable.

Put simply sachem… the people that regulate these things (national and world economies, football leagues & clubs) have their fingersin the pie.

Platini’s proposals to “even things out” or encourage more “fiscal responsibility” aren’t done out of some noble crusade… they are done to swing the financial balance back in a direction that means more dope for him and his cronies!

The Premier League is out of control.
The debt at Portsmouth, Man Utd, LFC, the Billions Chelsea spent, the Billions Citeh are about to.
…but no one will really do anything until at least one BIG club (and no disrespect to Portsmouth, but bigger than them) collapses spectacularly!

and frankly the players bare some responsibility in this too.
We can bitch about our greedy Yank owners all we like, but how many players at LFC are on 100k per week?
Rafa had to renegotiate half a dozen contracts recently and that is the neighborhood it took to tie the players to us.
There needs to be a salary cap… but it’ll never happen coz that genie is already out of the box.

Gerry,

Thanks for this blog! You’ve been saying what I’ve wanted to say for the entire season!

We’ll have to stick together as supporters and pray for the best for the club from now on.

Great, great blog Gerry one of your best and I agree with Atich that this should be one of the blogs of the year. (great posts by the way Atich you have been doing a stellar job its really appreciated)

I agree 100% with all that you have said and if any Moran out there that still wants Rafa to go or thinks he is to blame read this chilling report;

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/in-six-months-the-benitez-era-will-seem-like-a-golden-age-2173371.html

It is a very good article and backs up every thing Gerry has posted and more. The post about our MD on the last blog just sums up what it is like, along with the two utter complete dick heads that own us, to try and keep the ship that is the good ship LFC afloat and competitive.

Rafa has been in a no win situation for so long that I admire and applaud his devotion and loyalty even more than normal and with some section of our support hounding him I wonder if we deserve this man. I thank God we have him because I would hate to think what would happen to us if he left. The exodus would make the proverbial rats leaving a sinking ship look positive. It would take us a decade or more, to stabilize us. That’s would be on the back of a rich surger Daddy willing to pump in money on the scale of a Man City or Chelsea. The reality could be we will end up like the Bitters or a Villa fighting just to make it in the top half of the table.

That is the reality and peril we now face. The only slightly positive spin is our history and name. I do not think the Banks will allow THicks and the poisoned dwarf to hold on to a profit and will force them (with administration) to take the best and most reasonable offer that will be put on the table. An offer to cover all debt, in total, plus the funds for a new stadium should do it and it would be poetic justice for these two parasites to walk away with absolutely zip. If they could walk away with a loss even better.

Don’t think that is too far fetched as their debt sits in an off shore company and the banks could foreclose and cover the debt on their books only.

Lets hope they force the sale sooner rather than later and that Rafa remains has, as Gerry said 15 odd mill to spend, because I think that could be enough to see us back up there and challenging despite this year of anus horriblus.

Spot-on Aitch. These two parasites did not put any of their own money into the club. They simply paid of £80 million from LFC’s debts and placed £86 million onto the Kop Holdings Ltd parent company.

The only guy to be in the black was Rafa, again. Here’s an extract from the annual report.

“Acquisitions to the playing staff since the year end are Aquilani and Kyrgiakos for total guaranteed fees of £20.4 million. In addition, the Club has sold Alonso, Dossena and Voronin for total guaranteed fees of £29.7 million. These sales will result in a profit of £13.4 million based on the net book value, which takes into consideration the fair value adjustment made on the acquisition of the Club”.

If anyone is interested I have shared the annual report at the following location:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/39297117/c0d367b7/kopblog_Stuff.html

It should prompt you for a password and, original as ever, just type ‘kopblog’.

The frightening thing for me is these are the accounts up until July 2009. What the fuck have these two idiots been up to in the past 10 months. It does not bear thinking about!

Keith, that is an accurate and chilling article from Fanning. Anyway once Jose rides in on Hi-Yo Silver, we will be OK.

PAH!

A very good article you posted indeed Keith.

Rafa is indeed a flawed hero as said by Dion. I’ve actually been inspired by Rafa’s perseverance over the years, fighting battle over battle with (1) the 2 clowns, (2) Prick Parry, (3) the press, (4) Fungus Face & his cheerleader girlfriend Sam, and it seems this season, (5) the referees.

I’d have given up and jumped ship to Juve if I were given an opportunity like him. And I won’t blame him if he chooses to do so.

We’re into one of our darkest ever period in our beloved club’s history. Relegation like Newcastle or even administration like Portsmouth or Leeds are now real possibilities.

Forget about which players we can sign in the summer as long as the two leeches are still the owners. We may even have to make do with whatever players we have left after the sale of our most valuable assets like Torres and Gerrard.

For whoever interested:

Liverpool: Reina, Mascherano, Agger, Kyrgiakos, Carragher, Lucas, Gerrard, Kuyt, Babel, Aquilani, El Zhar. Subs: Cavalieri, Ngog, Degen, Skrtel, Ayala, Robinson, Pacheco

Really, really depleted squad. Come on you Reds!

Arrrghhh..! MyP2P.eu froze at 73rd minute.

Luckily it came back on for me. Lucky enough too to witness a record-breaking appearance by Robinson.

Same here SOAK but got it back to see SG giving some punter a bit of a slap at the end of the match.

Not sure what that was about.

Another failure to secure away win. Aquaman & Gerrard hit the post at the end of each half.

Story of our season. I’m so glad it’s over….

Pacheco and Robinson combined to have two shots on goal at the end there, that would have been so good…

The last five minutes were the best, but we did have chances in the game – hit the bar, hit the post and a goal-line clearance…

Goodbye Cruel Season
& Good Riddance.

That was shite, just as the season has been.

Time for a bit of reflection, by all parties.

READ THE ANNUAL REPORT AND THINK FOR YOURSELVES.

YNWA

Thanks for a great seasons blogs Gerry – you are the Shanks of bloggers.

When we lost Keegan I thought he’d never be replaced – along came Kenny…

When FatScouser hungs up his boots I thought that’s it for sense around here – then along came Aitch…

Cheers, guys, (& gals?) for all the banter, comment and information and for keeping me sane through the madness…

Oh, and utd didn’t win the title

Froom the Beeb.com
“Alberto Aquilani hit the bar from close range for the visitors in the first half, while Steven Gerrard slammed a shot against the upright late on.”

as you said ax… its the sort of statement we often trot out ironically after such a game…

…but it is IS a rather interesting statistic for a team that has an “overly cautious approach” and is “too defensive” …that WE HAVE struck wood more times this season, than any other team in the Premiership!

As for the finances… I feel comfortable in stating that we have yet to learn the full extent of our current situation.

Remember that those financial figures are from season ending ’09…
… so doesn’t take into account all the renegotiated contracts (Pepe, Masch, Agger, Nando, Benny… and their higher wages,) that took place this season.

but on the bright side…
That’ll be another £110,000 quid please, and the same tomorrow! Cha-ching.
Its gonna be a long summer!

Gerry,Fantastic stuff there pal.Great blog.

Not much to add to it at the moment except i`m glad this season is over.

Usually the summer break is filled with anticipation and hope for new signings but `im afraid this is going to be one long summer for us.With the debt seemingly multiplying i cannt see how anybody will pay enough t make the two bastards walk.
I`m not too clued in on the financial side of thing lads but why would anybody come in and pay the debt they levelled on us.

Does it make good business or what?

Have we a hope of selling?

The only ones laughing are RBS in my eyes with the 100,000 every nine days.

Maybe they should sell Stevie altogether his would be wages can pay off the debt

In a game which we dominate, whenever we attack:

1. we are sloppy in possession and opponents get a counter attacking chance

2. we’re sloppy in our finishing

3. we actually show heart in our attacking, only to fall INCHES short

4. same as 3, but we end up hitting the bar/post/opponent’s buttocks/etc

5. extremely crap refereering

Besides 5, all 1-4 has happened today. Pretty much sums up this season.

I’m just glad this ridiculously disgusting season of unprecedented scales is all over now.

Now we will wait for the next few weeks to see where Rafa will go. I personally will not be so naive as to hope a new sugar daddy will be parachuted in, but if Rafa stays, he will at the very least keep this leaky ship from sinking completely.

On the bright side – Mister Ferguscum, so much effort this season and only a League Cup to show for? He might as well go to Madrid and beg the diving wanker to come back by offering to suck his cock.

Eighteen titles the Scum may have won, BUT NO MORE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

As a life long LFC fan I refuse to allow myself to drop into the undignified state of wanting someone else to win other than my team. I have never begruded any other team winning, thats what they do. However normally my team doesn’t go out without so much as a wimper, and lads a wimper it was.
.
To the Chavs well done. I spent the afternoon in a bar in Chelsea, 2 minutes after the game, no one was left in the bar. Atmosphere thumping.
.
However one thought came through my mind, we have struggled all year with park the bus type teams. The very same team we have become. Athletico 2 shots in anger.
.
I went to watch LFC play Sunderland wearing a shirt with twat squared minus dollars equals LFC, off course in the mathematical lingo. However that doesn’t stop us defending against the likes of shite. (insert team). At one stage in the Fulham game I was hoping someone would pass the ball back to both teams, because it was stuck at the half way.
.
Rafa that’s your job, second best team in the land, suddenly 7th, twats are the same as the year before.
.
Lads get of your arse, Rafa give us something to believe, twats fuck of. End of pissed rant. Burger 3-1 what are you drinking. Liverpool concede against Hull, fuck sake lad.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez: “We had a meeting last week which was positive. We will have another meeting on Wednesday next week. It is very clear what my situation is with the club. I have four years remaining on my contract and I have made a strong commitment to the club. I am really pleased to have been here for a long time and hopefully I can stay here is the conditions are right.”

Clear as fuckin’ mud!

So we are both stuck on 18 and I don’t see either side making much progress in this metric in the years to come, considering the ownership problems.

Probably the best we could have hoped for considering the shite that has went on.

I am sure Digger will agree

Question: How do you know that E.T. is a manc?
Answer: ’cause he looks like one!

Thank you very much. I am here all week!

Fuck, I’m bored.

I wouldn’t be writing Scum off too quick Lurg.
they were one game away from #19.
And its pretty fair to say, that was mostly down to one player.
Now yes, others chipped in at points, but take away Rooney for half-dozen games and I doubt they finish so close to the Chavs.
Last year, you could say the same about Ronaldo.

We finished 2nd last year and didn’t have Torres for half the season. This year we were without him for 2/3rds of the season.

It shouldn’t come down to being a one man team… and it never does… but one class player CAN make all the difference. (The Chavs have several??) (The Arse have 2)

yes this season we witnessed very poor footy… but the same players are capable of much better, and a fit-n-firing SG, Torres, Aqua, with a fit team around them, is certainly better than a 7th place finish.

Its not all doom-n-gloom on the playing side of things.
Good players do not become bad players overnight (all evidence this season to the contrary) they will bounce back!
The issue really does come down to what happens in the next 3 months.

Best hope WAS that RBS would force a sale… but they won’t because that cuts them off from their tidy little £110,000 per/day.
…that is why they gave G&H the extention in January, and it is the same reason they got one for June!
(This is my current concern… among others…If Broughton is a Barclays appointee, which master does he truly serve? G&H, Barclays, RBS, or LFC?)

But investors are out there… we just need the right one.
A Buyer has 3 options.
Outright buy for cash.
Purchase the current debt hold.
Purchase part outright cash, and part debt hold.

I suspect any deal struck will be the 3rd listed option.
It provides the “best” way for G&H to walk with some cash… and still represents a way for any prospective owner to own the club with a minimal upfront investment, but get the debt substanntially reduced to a level that they can operate with.

For instance… just pulling speculative numbers out my arse…
…the debt is now supposedly £433 million.

So, Prospective Owner could purchase the club + half of its debt for say £300 million.
This could equate to paying down the debt with £200m taking it from £433m to a manageably refinanced £233m held under a new “Kop Holdings” leaving £100 milion in cash for G&H to split.(abscond with!)

obviously the numbers will vary depending on how greedy/realistic G&H are, and on what favorable terms any Prospective Owner can wrangle from the banks.
But this type of scenario represents the onyl way for all parties (excepting us the fans of course)to win/win.
New owner gets a good deal, G&H get a deal, banks still have their fingers in the pie.

…under such an arrangement, if the New owner only had to stump £300 to buy the club, it is feasable they would be able to provide funds for Rafa… and down the road a stadium.
But G&H can still be unrealistic douchebags about it and not go for such a deal… continuing to demand a ludicrous £800 milion??????

Aitch, that last sentence in #43 could well be the scary truth. Didn’t one of them say just recently it will take at least 2 years for any deal to materialise?

I really hope our performance this season sent a strong message to those two twats. I had a dream that everything that happened this season, from the ‘bad’ form of players to Rafa’s ‘hardheadedness’ to even the beachball, were really a conspiracy to drive away the two twats from our beloved club. The longer they linger around, the lower we will end up in the table after each season.

the myth of beautiful football

aitch, i think you’re on to something there (in 43):

how many of our decent – but unfulfilling – games this season would we celebrate but for torres or gerrard knocking in a wonder goal or two?

how many games would have been unlocked by a wonder strike from torres a la blackburn last season?

how many games are changed by flukey openers or penalties where the guy is at the edge of the 18 yard box and going nowhere?

there is a myth about beautiful football. we say we want it but REALLY it’s only when winning.

i’ll say it…

…at times this season we have played beautiful football. maybe only for moments, but at times our passing has been beautifully intricate; movement deceptive and creative; counter-attacking swift and explosive. at times…

(then of course for at lot of the season we can’t find a man in a red shirt for love nor money!)

arsenal have been criticised for years for beautful football without an end product. for all their attacking prowess, barcelona were held by inter.

without the breathtaking (or jammy) first goal, beauty gets you nowhere…

i try not to watch them but utd have played well a few games this season – but only a few. the rest of the time they’ve been distinctly average but they have belief and have then been bailed out by rooney popping up with goals.

the key to all our heartache might simply be the obvious – we’ve missed a fit and firing torres. for two seasons. what might we have been able to do with him fit all last season? where might we have come this season?

i’m caught between the philosophies and theories of the great tacticians like rinus michels and the simplicity of needing the team to keep the game ticking over while one man scores you goals and helps change history.

utd horseface/winker
arsenal henry
chelsea dogbreath

the fact that you have a consistent goalscorer turns those average games into good ones in the mind’s eye – and wins you titles whilst doing so

liverpool torres
sigh, if only he could keep fit!

some reaction to the email campaign on ballague’s site:

http://www.guillembalague.com/blog_desp.php?titulo=On+the+Benitez+golden+age+at+Anfield&id=446

crashed his system? looks like we made ourselves felt. doing it, i was proud to be a red!

love the line – the campaign was orchestrated by rafa – now that’s paranoia

there’s absolutely no doubt McrRed, that each and every one of us wants to see beautiful football week-in, week-out… but I garauntee you there wouldn’t be too many people bitching up a storm if we were winning ugly!

In fact, after each and every win this season, Kopblog was awash in praise for rafa and the boys… and the fact is, we didn’t play well when we won, let alone when we lost… but that gets glossed over when you win.

The idea of playing beautiful football is a philosophical one… and its an interesting discussion to have… but its disingenuous for anyone to suggest if we’d somehow managed to win ugly in just 7 more games… we wouldn’t be laughing our fuckin arses off while we danced with #19… and there wouldn’t be a single fuckin dissenting voive!

I distinctly remember how pretty much EVERY LFC fan got great mileage out of taunting Mancs with our Treble Season!
No one was calling the Carling Cup insignificant, or the UEFA Cup a distraction we should just deliberately lose that season were they?

Just watch Mancs trotting out “at least we won a Cup this season” now they’ve won fuck-all “that matters”!
All of a sudden its not so Mickey Mouse is it?

Great Blog Gerry and some very good insight from everyone, particularly Aitch and KeithSA.

This will be a long, long winding road into oblivion the way things are going. Our finances are getting sucked into a Black Hole (or up G&H & RBS’s arse).

Now are hopes lie solely on Broughton (a Chelski fan) to get us out of this mire and it seems just when things couldn’t get any worse, we descend into a bottom less pit: Recently I have read news about our managing director Purslow, so successful in his short time here compared to Coco in bringing in additional revenue from sponsorship deals and a well educated Liverpool supporter has supposedly been undermining our manager? ? So what ally does Rafa have left if this were true? I also read Hicks openly admitting that he has paid a terrible price and that this isn’t his life (or basically he couldn’t care less other than the income), while also stating that it could take “2 bloody years to sell” by which time we might as well going into administration after selling all our assets and battling relegation fodder. The 800 million valuation will just about put off even the richest of Sheikhs and there just doesn’t seem to be any logic in the loan structure of RBS other than their tidy profit.

When we are still making an unprecedented loss even with our operating profits (a record high) and consecutive years of CL revenue and Rafa’s frugal transfer funds of late where does that leave us going forth.
At this moment, only lucrative sponsorship deals such as Standard Chartered which were supposed to help boost our transfer coffers will keep us afloat. I don’t know what kind of negotiation with the banks took place but when you purchase anything that you can’t buy outright which involves a loan, you have to prove that you have the income to pay the loan repayments. You don’t just keep increasing your debt and then simply expect to sell again for some absurd amount to cover your own stupidity. Now that the full extent of the debts (hopefully) have been revealed in an ideal world the banks should force these bastards to sell up for what should be deemed the going rate and they should be hit with the losses they have brought onto the Club with ill practices just like the Lehmans, AIGs and Northern Rock’s of this World have done. Meanwhile the new buyers should have an agreement that the assets at the Club will be kept during the buyout and the banks will ensure that the tossers don’t sell any of the star players at the risk of depreciating the value of the Club.

The season is now over and we supporters should get some feedback over the Broughton, Purslow, Benitez meetings as all the doom and gloom articles and alleged Man City links are becoming tediously frustrating and depressing to the point of feeling suicidal.

If anyone has any knowledge about what went on in those discussions which I am sure we are all dying to know please let us know.

I curse Parry for running off with a 4.25 million pay off! That is almost the cost of Lucas and the guy did nothing other than making a very marketable Club not realise it’s potential and denying Rafa funds for key targets such as Bosingwa, Malouda, Simao, Danny Alves, Barry, e.t.c. while doing next to no research and blindly selling us down the river to the Yanks, while fooling the equally gullible and trusting Moores (who also had a handy kick back).

I pray that we have good news in the summer of a successful buyout for no more than 400 million because it will be criminal if Dumb and Dumber run off with any significant profit. These are the darkest most testing times we may have faced since the Hillsborough disaster and Souness years in recent memory. God Help Us!!

I meant to write our hopes lie solely in the hands of Broughton!

Needs to be a massive player clear out.If you can’t score V Hull, it’s time to call it quits.Kuyt has scored once in his past 17 games, Aqui scored 1 prem goal all season.The away form is @ a par with the Souness era.Babel and Lucas should be on their way, again their goal contribution has been minimal.Can’t see Maxi doing much, looks well past his best.A win would of given the Reds sixth and a later start to next season.A fucking shambles on and off the pitch.Sorry about the 3-1 prediction.A touch optimistic.

cunting shiteing arsefuck cockpiss fuck. that’s all i’ve got to say about this season (and i’ve censored that for the sake of jack hill and our other more sensitive posters).

cheers lads. haven’t posted for a while cos i’ve had absolutely nothing to add. i’m off to bury meself in the garden until next season. dig me up if england win the world cup. if usa beat us, build a bungalow on me.

Burger, Aqua only scored 1, but he hasn’t played too many games. The jury is out on him (& rumours that he might be sold back to Italy – but who fecking knows with runmours & LFC these days). I personally have seen enough to think that he might have an impact for us next season. Ran around a lot v Hull (and in other games) without anyone passing to him. Gerrard could have played him in when he was alone alone inside the box (on the right). Anyways, Maxi has also done enough to convince me that he can do a job for us. Maybe off the bench, but he has enough class & skill to be able to pick out the the likes of Torres, ? and ?
Babel can go, so too Riera, elZhar, Aurelio – ONLY if Rafa can use the money on ‘new’ players.
If only….Oh well, at least I have the WC to look forward to in my own back yard.

I agree Rafalution. Selling Aquilani and Maxi after they’ve just got started would be madness. Then again, we did sell Keane before his feet could touch the ground….. On a side note it always amused me that many in here strongly advocated the idea that a player had to be given a full season to settle and adapt before he could be fairly judged. Apparantly not the case when Rafa calls time! Then its ‘he had to go’ ‘he dident cut it’ and ‘brave move by Rafa’. Indeed, indeed. Might have been handy this yr….

P.s, you live in South Africa? You jammy hoor! You close to Kruger National Park? What about Shark alley of the SW coast where the great whites come to feast on the cape fur seals?! (after Digger, Attenborough was my hero when I was a kid! Come to think of it he pretty much still is.) Anyway, I’ll get there one day….

Come on Digger, pay attention in class…

Keane wasn’t cutting it on the training ground was missing sitters in games and was about to trigger payment clauses…

If Rafa doesn’t like what he sees from Aquilani (or anyone else) he’ll be gone too (if he can use the money for better players). If a player can’t help LFC in Rafa’s eyes then he’s surplus to requirements.

I like that in a manager.

Sorry Mcred, wasnt aware you were at Melwood during Keanes time there. Also wasnt aware that he missed more sitters than oh say, the 3 in 10mins that Ngog missed vs Birmingham and a multitude of others throughout the season (open goal vs blackburn springs to mind). But the myth has become fact as regards Keane and like I say, some fans amuse me. I reckon we could have done with a proven prem striker in 9′s absence this yr and we sold one in a political battle. I dont like that in a manager.

Yeah Keane winning the golden boot this year was just twisting the dagger wasn’t it?

Rate him or hate him, Keane was just one of those deals that didn’t work out.
You can suggest it was for something simple, like Rafa and Keane not getting along, Keane not following instructions, Rafa not wanting him in the first place, RK being caught in the middle of a power struggle between Rafa and Parry… but it was a combination of ALL those things and probably 10 other things we DON’T know.

What is inescapable is that when Keane went back to Spurs, he couldn’t force his way into the team, and then went to Scotland …where it is supposedly easier to score… and yet has still found it difficult to rack up any significant goal tally.
So he might … might… have made a difference, but you can’t say so with any kind of certainty.

Come to that you couldn’t with Crouchy or Bellen, but Bellend would probably be the better

Yeah he dident work out alright. Like Voronin, Dossena etc. Only they were given more than 5mths to ‘settle’ and ‘adapt’. And he dident work out like Crouch who dident score in his first 12 games. Why wasnt he discarded as ruthlessly as Keane the January after he signed? Sure Keane found it difficult to displace defoe on his return, but to dismiss his 16 goals in 4mths for Celtic as not a ‘significant goal tally’ is amusing at best and ignorant at worst. Might have made a difference? I’m gonna go with yup.

My keyboard actually crapped out on me and it took me a while to remember the fuckin thing is battery operated and I just needed to change them…

…but Fair Enough Digger… I had actually missed his cup hat-trick in March and the brace he scored a week later, so thought his tally was only 11 (and a couple of those were form the spot)… so while I agree its a decent goal return, I still think its easier to score in Scotland than in the Prem… but I’ll concede he did alright for himself at Celtic.

I even agree that a player should not be used as a pawn in a power struggle… but then again it happens in every walk of life and business… and regularly in sport… I’ve been victim of it myself… but I think that the complete disarray within the Liverpool hireachy might just have had something to do with the situation.
Not good for anyone, LFC, Rafa, and for certain Keane.

Given longer, he may very well have done for us what he did for Celtic… but I didn’t see any signs of it when he was in a red shirt to be honest. Maybe you did, but I didn’t.
He just looked like a player in the wrong place at the wrong time… and that’s sad for a lad who was a boyhood red.

However, bringing Dossena and Vorronin into the argument just clouds the issue and has fuck all to do with Keane’s effectiveness for LFC.
Each player is different. We are not privvy to their behavoir in practise, (as you pointed out in #56) their interactions with other players, their general effect in the dressing room, as well as on the pitch… but these things all go into a manager’s selection decision… and we often don’t consider it when baying for our “best 11″ to be fielded.

Vorronin couldn’t be sold. We tried 3 times before eventually offloading him. And he did reasonably well when out on loan in Germany (albeit not to Keane/Celtic standard, but it was why,combined largely with the lack of funds, he was given one last chance) whereas Keane recouped 20 mill immediately.
Given what we are learning about our finances… I’m inclined to think that he’d have been given more time had we been able to afford it, but we couldn’t… and THAT is even sadder for both Keane and Rafa, if it is the case.
I’ll grant you that includes some speculation on my part… but like I said, seeing what we are learning about the books of the time… its not wild specualtion.
Players in and players out have been largely determined by our finances… and NOT by the players merits (or Rafa’s preferences) which is really outrageous and should be the one thing at least that unites us all.

As for Dossena, well the less said about him the better really. I don’t think too many would argue he was certainly a failure.
As someone once said in here… who’d have thought an Italian International Defender, wouldn’t be able to defend?

Fair enough Aitch. Honest and evenhanded post. Thats what I’m searching and yearning for lately: the truth. The honest truth. Not sides, not spin, not pro vs anti, not agendas – the honest truth laid bare. I believe the truth of this issue is that given our lack of cover for Torres, selling a proven prem goalscorer, was a mistake. I think, i think, on some level you can see and agree with that. Thats it. Not hammering the guy. He made a mistake. His recent concession of such mistakes makes it easier to take

Is it possible that he might have rectified that “mistake” by buying another striker if he hadn’t had his transfer funds pulled without notice

Such a thing as mitigating circumstances

And I don’t know what you’re talking about with Dossena…

..all I can remember is him wheeling away finger circling after number four at old trafford!

Let’s cut to the chase here. Dossena was a donkey and one of Rafa’s worse buys for 7-8 million quid.

Davy Crocket was on a free and did not cost anything up front – a but like maxi-pad.

Keane was not a Rafa signing (Digger you heard it from the horses mouth) so he recuperated most of the initial outlay and then the yanks stole this money for interest payments.

Still don’t see how Rafa is the problem here!

Greeting Gerry and kopbog contributors,

I havn’t posted a comment in about 7/8 Months, but I have been keeping up to date with the blogs and comments.

It has been a truly depressing season, and the way we got knocked out of the Europa typified it.

what has really struck me this season in general is the way the soap opera element has really taken over. The constent demand to declare teams as the best/worst ever, the same with players, and this can completly reverse in a matter of weeks, barca when they beat the Arse, the chavs written off after loosing to Inter, now they are one of the best teams ever,Giggs getting player of year last season for playing well for 4 weeks etc etc.

Where did it all go wrong for us: I think the biggest problem has been at the back, even in the 04/05 season with a limited team, the back four was solid and that was with good aul D Taore playing. It has been the base on which Rafa deleloped the team over the last five seasons. I have lost count of the number of games where we took the lead but ended up drawing or loosing.

We have had numerious injuries as has been stated here, but I think Carra has not been at the same level this season, I think this is some thing Rafa did not/could not foresee.

I know we have had no transfer budget over the last number of seasons, but the Aqua signing, knowing he was not fit for the start of this was a gamble that backfired bigtime in the context of this season. And looking at the 3 players signed last season Dossena/Riera/Keane, whoever’s fault it is, they are all effectivly gone now.

On top of all that we have Gerrard’s poor form and Torres injuries to put the tin hat on all of that.

I would class myself as pro Rafa, but we have to acknowlage, even allowing for the financial mess we are in, our transfer dealings in the last two seasons have been below average.

The likes of the mancs can waste 30m and get away with it, we can’t afford to waste 5/10m.

Even allowing for all that, the ownership issue dwarfs everything that has gone wrong on the pitch this season, I studied last years finalnial statements, and I could see nothing positive in them (I was gone to post some of my analysis, but I didn’t was I was too depressed)
I think the whole PL is a house of cards, only the chavs and Chity seem to be exempt.

On keane with Celtic, he got voted player of the season by the supports after playing with them for TEN WEEKS!!, that tells you all need to know of the quality of Celtic and the SPL.

Lurg I think your missing my point here mucker. I’m not saying Rafas the problem. And yes I know Parry executed the pursuit and signing of Keane, right down to the financial documents. But what I am saying is that the sale of a proven prem striker who was on our books without adequate backup in place was an error. A ‘big’ one, as Rafa would say. As for mitigating circumstances, given Rafas drip drip funds campaign since May 07, I’m guessing he knew he’d never see a cent from the sale. As I said, big mistake

Digger,

I think Lurgan meant that Rafa thought he’d have the Keane money to buy new players, but the Yanks stole it away. So you can’t blame Rafa for this mistake.

I don’t think Rafa knew he’d not be getting a single cent from this deal even given the drip in funds since May 07. Remember him talking extensively to the 2 clowns before he signed his new contract? Remember Rafa’s shock that he couldn’t use any of the Alonso transfer fee to buy new players, that he had to dig deep for 2.5m Hercules?

They’re likely to have promise Rafa transfer funds from what he could wheel and deal, just like they had promised “a spade within 60 days’ for the when they first took over the club.

The big mistake is Rafa trusting the Yanks.

I missed the word “stadium” in the 2nd last paragraph from previous post. I didn’t realise that I had ‘deliberately’ left it missing

A big mistake only in retrospect and even then you have to consider mitigating circumstances.

Not such a big mistake at the time the decision was made taking into account the circumstances of the time.

That’s where we differ Digger.

You keep placing the tag “proven prem striker” in front of him… but he was less than stellar in a Spurs shirt prior to coming to LFC, poor in front of goal in a red shirt, and poor in a Spurs shirt after he left us.

Look I liked the signing when it happened… same for Bellamy… I thought they were 2 very good signings… but neither settled… for whatever reason.

I’d have loved Keane to come good at LFC, but he didn’t… and at the time, in my opinion, he didn’t look like he was going to.
And what Keane is now, is a “proven Scottish Prem striker” … that’s the “honest truth” as I see it… and they can fly or fail when deployed south of the border.

Yeah, thats a tag I tend to put in front of a player who sits 11th on the prem all time scorers list with 125 goals. Above premiership greats like Wright, Le Tissier and and Anelka. The players immediately above him are on 127 and 130 and are retired. Next yr Keane will be in the top ten with the Fowlers, Ferdinands, Henrys and Shearers. Not bad company for a lad who’s what? Less than stellar? Unproven? The truth Aitch, I think you’ll agree, is a rather different picture than the one you’ve painted.

Well Digger, Keane had a good record IN THE PAST.

His scoring form for us and then Spurs would suggest he’s about past his best days. Maybe selling him early is good piece of business from Rafa…

Yo can’t guarantee that a good striker would fit into any team. Look at Shevchenko for Chelsea, one of the best strikers in Europe but cannot fit into premiership.

Now you’re talking sense lad if we’d kept Anelka how different would our story have been?

Look I’m not arguing his career…. but Fernando Morientes had great stats too!
In a Liverpool shirt he (pick one)didn’t do the biz.
In fact he flapped in front of an open goal rather embarrassingly (perhaps even more so for thepicture you’re painting) on nearly a half-dozen occasions.

And he’ll only be in the top 10 if he leaves Celtic and comes back to the Prem… which is probable I’ll grant you, but not a garauntee yet.

Digger you’re making yourself look a dick. Just digging your heels in and moving the goalposts to suit your argument.

Keane has been a good premier striker. But you know what? He was poor for Liverpool, his finishing was awful. Who’s to know if he would have suceeded but the evidence based on his return to Spurs is he wouldn’t have.

This is what I heard about Keane from Rafa (obviously Rafa wasn’t talking to me personally so a rumour nothing more) that Keane wouldn’t or couldn’t play to Rafa’s instructions and that Rafa wanted him further forward and that he kept dropping deep.

Now what I will grant you is that I bet Rafa if he’d have known he wouldn’t be getting any of the proceeds of the sale would rather have kept Keane than let him go and have no one to replace him.

Oh and Digger don’t manipulate statistics to prove your argument. Le tissier did score less premier league goals but he started his career in 1986 six years before the premier league was introduced. Le tissier was also an attacking midfielder not a stiker.

Robbie Fowler is a proven premier league goalscorer so is Shearer and Les Ferdinand. For someone who says we shouldn’t be living in the past you certainly use it when it suits your argument.

hmmm we were top of the league when keane was in red no?? anyway its all ancient history now lads to matters at hand is it true we had to assure the premier league we could fulfill our fixtures next season?? hard to fathom that in the last five years we have played in two EC finals been ranked the top team in Europe for some time and we are now going down the road of leeds as fat scouser predicted at the start of this poxed season. id like to know what he thinks of the current state of affairs.
This £800 mil valuation is utter nonsense sure any investor interested in football could just buy Newcastle for £150 mil they already have the stadium and fanatical support just not the history or world wide fanbase but for how much longer will we have that if we go another decade without a major title.
MOORES AND PARRY YOU KNOBHEADS GIVE THE MONEY FROM THE SALE OF THE FAMILY SILVER TO A TRANSFER FUND TO SAVE THIS CLUB FROM OBLIVION.

Interesting points re the whole Keane issue. I remember at the time being fairly disgusted the way LFC/ Rafa handled the whole affair. Keane has publicly stated that he was never spoken to by Rafa about why he was sold – the whole thing seems shrouded in mystery and unprofessional behaviour on the part of Liverpool.

Keane may not be top drawer but I tell ya something, he’s a better striker than Babel, Kuyt, Ngog and Voronin – and only one of them has left the club!

Anyway the bigger mistake in my eyes (and I have mentioned this before) was the purchase of Aquilani. Now, I’m not saying he’s a bad player – in fact he looks decent enough.

The reason this purchase was a huge mistake and was one of the main reasons for our awful season is for the following reasons:

1) He was already injured when purchased with an awful track record. I know some in here will say “oh but Rafa was told he’d be fit sooner than he ended up being” – he still wouldn’t have been ready to play until AT LEAST OCTOBER and we all knew that he’d take time to settle in. I remember saying at the time when we bought him, that we realistically wouldn’t see him properly until the new year. This proved to be the case

2) We desperately needed a striker. Rafa knew Torres is injury prone (as is Stevie G) and that Voronin wasn’t good and Ngog was still too raw. Rafa also could have easily moved Gerrard back into midfield and used Benayoun or Babel behind the front striker. Essentially what I’m getting at here was Rafa should have weighed up the options in his squad and realised what was ACTUALLY NEEDED

Anyway, it’s all what if’s and maybe’s at this stage. Dark clouds are gathering over Anfield and I’m truly worried about the future of Torres and Gerrard… Losing Torres (let alone Gerrard) would be a hugely negative symbolic moment for LFC. Never in our history, have we lost our two best players at the same time – it would send shockwaves around the club – have no doubt about that!

It would essentially be a white flag to any lingering hopes of any short term success and we could face a tricky few years in the wilderness

How much would Bent cost?.24 prem goals is very impressive playing for the sunnies.www.independent.ie has a good piece by Vincent Hogan.Only 75 comments!.

Sorry lads. My apologies. I thought, given Rafas concession of his role in this mess, that discussing one of his ‘mistakes’, one of his ‘big mistakes’, would finally be possible without reproach. Clearly I’m mistaken and it was not an error to sell a striker with that kind of record on the last day of the window without adequate backup and knowing in all probability we’d never see a penny. Cuts, nose, face, politics…..mistake. Never. Sorry lads, thought the time was right. Carry on….

What a lot of ‘supporters’ and Rafa’s team don’t seem to understand, is that Premiership playing demands SPEED WITH THE BALL or accuracy with a pass.
A player may look good in Italy or Spain where the speed of play is slower but is not up to standard when he plays in the Premiership.
What I don’t understand is why the Reds play so beautifully at times and so terribly at others.
I know that the tactics or style of play-’parking the bus,for instance’-of the opposition can make a difference, but……?!
I will say this and shut up, I am looking forward to the World Cup games and a relief from all the glomm and doom.
TTFN………….Jack.

Digger,

Unlike what you’ve said, I’m sure Rafa did not know he couldn’t use the Keane money to get new players. That’s where we differ.

Just say we don’t agree on this and not what you’ve insinuated in your previous post.

Good that you’ve apologised. I accept it

Arthur,

Agreed that the Aquilani gamble didn’t pay off, but for (2), could Rafa have predicted that Benayoun would get injured for so long? As for Babel, I’m not sure he would be better as the striker to backup Torres.

And by the way, Aquilani could also play behind the striker, but he couldn’t recover quickly enough and that was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

Anyway, agree with you we’re in a very difficult and crucial period. We’ll have to support the club together.

ok lets have it your way Digger. Keeping Keane would have salvaged the whole season. We would have won the league and the European Champion’s league as well.

And the F.A cup Ken. Cos thats what I said right? That we’d win everything if we kept him right? Riiiight. Careful Ken, perilously close to looking like a dick…

Keane didn`t fit into the system we were playng.Rafa could have handed the whole siuation a bit better.Parry shoudn`t have stuck his nose into the signing either.I like Robbie and i was going mad it didn`t work out for him but Rafa probably thought that the £12m we got back for him was going straight into the summer coffers.
That 12m along with the 30m from alonso and the other 9m from the other sales plus the standard 20m from the board should have seen Rafa with a 60m warchest last summer.
Ok,Rafa is not stupid he knew some of that would go missing but i don`t think he anticipated what went missing in the end.
He bought johnson minus the crouch money for 10m.Everybody as far as i can remember thought at the time it was a good signing.Two goals early on in the season versus stoke at anfield and bolton at the reebok had us all creaming ourselves.Then he gets injured and has since struggled to regain that form.I still think he`ll prove to be a good signing for us.
Arthor the Aqualini situation is a sticky one.Good signing/bad signing?
Well it really depends what way you look at it.Just on the impact of this season alone yes it might have been a mistake signing a player who couldn`t play until october/november but nobody could have predicted the injury cloud that hung over the cub in the first half of the season.If you look at the bigger picture i think you`ll agree that towards the end as he got a run in the side he seems to be getting into good form.He gives us a different dimension going forward.He still makes the odd mistake in possesion but all in all i`m looking forward to seeing him next season and as i said in here before i think when he gets a full pre-season under his belt he be the dogs bolllox for us.
Also Arthor Rafa did want to buy a back-up striker for Nando but the plug was pulled on his spending half way through the summer so he was snookered there.
I`m not buying the notion that Rafa shouldn`t have bought either one of Johnson or Aqualini so he could have got a striker.

The fault lies at the door of Tom and George.They have,as owners of the club,stood still while the like of spurs,villa and city have passed us out by consistantly outspending us (net) in the last two years.
You reep what you sow here,the name of LFC alone dosen`t gauentee you a place at Europes top table.We could see this coming a whie back.If they continued to play the scrooge it was only a matter of time before we dropped out of the top four.Now its happened H&G are upping sticks and selling up.

Typical behaviour from the two who have made our club fall on very stoney ground.

THEY,are the problem at LFC not Rafa he`s working to the bone to try and keep us above water.

I wish some would appreciate that.

I appreciate him Timmy!
Regarding the Keano issue: I was ‘over the moon’ when we signed him. Lifelong Reds fan, ‘proven’ PL player etc. However, it was almost if he was trying too hard ala Crouch. Maybe it was the weight of expectation from our fans? I mean, the misses from Keane were horrendous. If he had sunk his chances, maybe we could have gone on to win the league.
At the end of the day, we hear that he wasn’t Rafa’s ‘buy’, and he wouldn’t (or couldn’t) play in Rafa’s formation or adapt his play to Rafa’s tactics. Wether you agree with his tactics is neither here nor there in this discussion. The fact remains that Rafa didn’t like him, and as the manager, it is his ‘cock on the block’. The buck stops with him. If we play shite (like this season), Rafa gets bolloxed. So whilst Keane was at LFC, Rafa did not fancy him in his starting 11 and so be it. Who knows, maybe if Rafa wasn’t ‘forced’ to start Keano in the odd game, the player who would have played in his place could possibly have scored when gifted the below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UXMR1ftOTA

I know you do Rafalution pal your username says it all!

Lads just want to take a moment to mention that today is the 25th anniversary of the Bradford City fire where 56 people lost their lives when they went to watch a football match much like our 96 brothers and sisters.

R.I.P.

Timmy, I think people do appreciate that the owners are a HUGE factor in what’s happening at the club at present. However, Rafa too has to take some portion of blame for our worst ever PL season (considering how far we’ve plummeted since 2008/09)

Yes, he didn’t have as much money as would have liked – and yes there were injury problems but like I’ve been banging on for months and months now – even (on the rare occasion) we had our full 11 out on the field – we were still playing some awful clueless, negative stuff. The sheer stubborness in continuing to play the Lucas & Macsch partnership in midfield when he could have easily put Gerrard in that role, coupled with my aforementioned extremely risky trasnfer policy in the summmer – gives me ample reasons to question Rafa’s capability to get the best out this squad of players. And I don’t think I’m on my own in thinking this

Interesting listen here lads,Rafa`s last press conference.

Having a right go at the press.Well in Rafa.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p007p483/Merseyside_Sport_10_05_2010/

Digger,

My understanding of it is that Rafa would have thought he’d see some of the money we got for the Keane sale and it would have gone towards the transfer funds of the following summer transfer window. It didn’t really have an adverse effect on last season. Not with Gerrard scoring over 20 goals playing off the striker and Torres scoring a shit load as well. We hit our best form in years with Keane out of the squad. I think Rafa would have thought he can go 6 months without back up for Keane and then get a replacement in the summer.

It seemed half way through the transfer window the transfer budget was slashed. In this situation mistakes are inevitable. Transfer plans go out of the window and Rafa had to make compromises such as bringing Voronin back from loan, bringing in a midfield player with a £5m down payment and bringing in a right back.

The big mistake in my opinion was signing a player who was injured with a poor injury record. It’s not as if Aquliani had the one bad injury in his career. His career has been littered with injuries. So this was a gamble that back fired big time.

Other than that I can’t really blame Rafa in the transfer market because the circumstances he has been working under was and is utterly ridiculous. It’s doing nothing except badly affect his reputation. I can’t for the life of me understand why he is still at the club. I am sure all other top managers would walk.

Rafa has to take responsibility for our performances though. The level of performance at times has been disgraceful. Even accounting for the injuries. We’ve been very very poor in a lot of matches. We’ve lost 19 games in all competitions. This is not Acceptable.

The players have been extremely poor – with the exception of Reina and Torres when he’s been fit. Everyone else has been shite. I include Masch in that because before xmas he was a disgrace. Since then he’s been alright but on the whole still below average in my opinion. Lucas has been one of our most consistent performers but that doesn’t say much when everyone else has been shite. A lot of the players that played above themselves last season were poor this season. Rafa has to take ultimate responsibility for that and to be fair he has. It’s him that has been getting slaughtered in the media all season long. It’s him who has to face the questions after every game and every press conference. He has admitted to mistakes and is the one who looks stressed out as fuck with a face like a slapped arse on the sideline. In my opinion he is the only one at the football club taking any responsibility.

Arthur,again,Rafa`s “risky transfer policy” depends on what coinage the twats let him spendWhich was nil.Believe me Rafa wants to buy better quality but his hands are tied in that regard.

Lucas,Masch partnership was an aternative to aqualini being injured.Stevie could haved played there on occasions i`ll agree but lets be honest he was injured a lot during the first half of the season and with our bad run Rafa felt he needed to keep things tight in there as the team tried to build back its confidence.

I`m not saying Rafa dosen`t make mistakes Arthur but its not as simple as it looks.Players this season for us have been rocked by injury bad form,low confidence.Its all connected.We all thought it couldn`t go on for the season and the reds would regain form but they didn`t.I`m never seen a team fall so spectacularly before but i`m hoping its a blip.There`s too much quality players there and the break can only be good for them.
Rafa has to take a portion of the blame for the demise.He is the manager.The players need to take a long look in the mirror over the summer also.I won`t even start on the board but its a collective thing when we fall like that,so spectacularly,it has to be more than just the managers fault.

Arthur, I do believe that Stevie prefers the forward role i.e. behind the striker. Maybe what Stevie wants, Stevie gets? I know that Rafa is the Gaffer & therefore picks the team, but Gerrard was superb in the ‘forward’ role last season. Why should it be any different this season? But alas, it was…
I’ve mentioned previously that I also would have liked to see Gerrard alongside Masch – despite me being an admirer of Lucas – but in all honesty, with the season Gerrard has just had, he probably would have been shite (to his high standards) anywhere on the park.
If you are having a slow day at the office (like me), go to http://footylounge.com/films/index.php
Good one on JonJo Shelvey AND Lucas Leiva

Good post LB, fair points all. I still cant help but feel the sale of Keane was unessassary, especially in its expedience, and hurt us long term given the fact Torres is incapable of remaining fit for more than half a season. I mean we couldent have held off 4mths on his sale? What was the rush? It was a last day sale so the funds couldent be re-used. Was he THAT bad that he had to be exorcised immediately? I mean, given some of Rafas transfers, this, THIS was the one that had to be sold like, yesterday?!

Great part in that radio blog, Timmy, where the caller, a Liverpool fan, says, “would you trust Rafa to spend £40 million on the likes of Degen, Lucas and Aurelio?!!!”

You couldn’t make it up.

Nobody bothered to tell the caller that Degen and Aurelio were free…

I missed that McrRED turned it off after the press conference.

Dig,if Rafa hadn`t off loaded Keane then they wouldn`t have got 7 million for him in the summer.

In hindsight its irrelevant now because the money got zapped somewhere but its fair to say keeping him most probably wouldn`t have improved us because we put that run together with him gone.

How do you know that Tim? Really? How do you know that we wouldent have gotten 7mil for a 28 yr old proven prem striker with 125 prem goals to his name? Seriously? The answer is you dont. Its your opinion. An opinion that dove-tails conveniently with your belief that the hastily expedited departure of Keane was not wrong on any level? Well? Am I hot or cold? Getting warmer? And it is relevant. Very much so when casting even a cursory glance over last season. What would you say we were lacking last term?

Yes dig,it is my opinion and his performance when he went back to Spurs tells me if he`d stayed at Anfield it would have been much the same IM MY OPINION.

I said myself dig i was sorry it didn`t work out but how was selling keane not wrong?
Because its a matter of FACT digger that we had a quite successfull second part of the season after Robbie left.

To answer your question what cost us ultimately last year in my opinion was the injuries in particular to Torres and to a lesser extent Gerrard.I think had Torres been fit more regular then we`d have sneaked it.

Last years performance was an overachievement when you take everything into consideration.

Digger,

I think Keane is past it as a top level performer – it’s just a hunch of mine. I was amazed how poor he was in a red shirt. I think Harry Redknapp bought him and gave him the captains armband with the intention of playing him every week. However Robbie went from a starter at Spurs to sitting on the bench to being surplus to requirements. Harry sent him on loan and brought in Eider Gudjonsen. To me this indicates Harry thinking he isn’t quite good enough anymore. I could be wrong, I can’t state that as fact but it is my feeling on the matter.

I do indeed think Keane is a better option upfront than Ngog and Voronin. But I do not think Rafa can be blamed for not predicting that 6 months after the Keane sale he’d not have any money available for a striker. I think Rafa was entitled to assume and take for granted that he’d be able to bring in a striker last summer.

I was very surprised Rafa got rid of Keane so sharpish during that transfer window. A combination of things lead to the hasty decision. The power struggle with Rick Parry and the very decent money Spurs offered.

Big picture wise – I doubt Keane would have made a massive difference to our chances this season. We were poor all over the park. We didn’t create loads of chances game after game where you could say an experienced finisher would have made a massive difference. We missed Torres because he is outstanding, he scored many goals he had no right to. We’d play shite and win because of him. Keane isn’t good enough to turn a shite Liverpool performance into 3 points. Not in my opinion.

Fair enough Tim, LB, Aitch et al. Cheers for ye’re thoughts, guess once again I’ve a different view than most on here! It it is what it is as they say. Cant believe this all stemmed from Burgerman suggesting Maxi and Aquilani should be sold! But there you go….Btw LB, I’ll wager a slice of humble pie with you Keane aint done at the top level yet, if your up for it? Might not be spurs, or even the prem but Keane will be back in top European league nxt season and scoring goals. 15+ says this observer.

Well said LB, said more diplomatically the ultimate point I was trying to argue.

It funny coz we often get drawn into the minutia of an argument and lose the big picture.
Was Keane a great striker? Of course.
Was he in a red shirt? Not so much.
Was he at Spurs? Even less so.
Is he at Celtic? Well yes… but its Scotland!

Was his transfer mishandled from in to out? Yes.
Was that all down to Rafa? I think not.

Its all well and good to look at the Keane debaucle as a stand-alone incident too… but it isn’t and wasn’t.
We are getting more and more information as weeks tick by, regarding the financial situation at the club.

I think, even without inside information, that it is safe to say, given our “sell to buy and balance the books” operation for the past 2 years, that the decision to bounce Keane so quickly, was not made solely at a football level alone.

I’d guess… based on what we are now learning… and yes it is just a guess… that the decision was made to insure funds were available in the following window. Bit disingenuous to be wagging the finger at Rafa, if thats the case.
(And believe me, if and when the Autobiographies get written and it emerges that I’m wrong and Rafa didn’t give him a fair shake, and fucked him off simplpy coz he didn’t like him… then if that’s teh case, I’ll change my tune… but in the meantime, it appears there’s more to the situation… to me anyway.)

Now then, Arthur me lad… let’s talk Aquilani!

I do understand the points you make… and on the face of it, you make a sound argument… BUT… sorry I gotta go there … its gonna seem like I’m picking you apart, and I honestly don’t mean it as a personal attack on what you said… but I’m gonna quote and dissect, coz I think that while you make a good argument… some judgements are in retrospect and not looking at the moment… and also not taking all things into consideration… and I want to extrapolate, or elaborate on your points.
Here’s what I mean…

You said…
“The reason this purchase was a huge mistake and was one of the main reasons for our awful season is for the following reasons:”

One of the main reasons? It was a contributing factor Arthur, but one of the main reasons?
I think utilizing 12 different players in 18 defensive formations, often with 3rd string defenders, and even a midfielder, not out of choice, but out of necessity was not just “one of the main reasons”, but THE main reason for our poor season.

You said…
“1) He was already injured when purchased with an awful track record. I know some in here will say “oh but Rafa was told he’d be fit sooner than he ended up being” – he still wouldn’t have been ready to play until AT LEAST OCTOBER and we all knew that he’d take time to settle in. I remember saying at the time when we bought him, that we realistically wouldn’t see him properly until the new year. This proved to be the case.”

You’re not entirely wrong… certainly in retrospect… but at the time of the signing, we had Masch, SG, and Lucas all fit and experienced… coming off a successful season, where they’d all played well (and I know Lucas is not everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s not as bad as some would suggest either) and I would have expected Aqua to be eased in over the latter half of the season anyway… so it wasn’t as big a gamble as it would seem now.

Masch went on to start the season horribly, and SG was either injured or unfit to perform in the middle for most of it, which left us with Lucas, who frankly outplayed bothof them for large parts of the season. When given cameos, Spearing and Plessis failed miserably, and Aqua took longer than expert physicians forsaw… so yes, from where we sit now, it seems a spectacular gamble that failed… but at the time, it was a better than even money punt, to grab a 20 mill midfielder for 5 and hope he comes good next season… so the jury is still out.
(As above, if he’s crap next season, I’ll revise my position.. but until then…)

You said…
“2) We desperately needed a striker. Rafa knew Torres is injury prone (as is Stevie G) and that Voronin wasn’t good and Ngog was still too raw. Rafa also could have easily moved Gerrard back into midfield and used Benayoun or Babel behind the front striker. Essentially what I’m getting at here was Rafa should have weighed up the options in his squad and realised what was ACTUALLY NEEDED.”

Hmmm… again… this seems like a fair point in retrospect.
But again, we have to look at the time the decision was made.
Is Torres injury prone? Is SG?
I mean yes, they’ve both struggled with injury for 2 season now, but neither of them is exactly Darren Anderton… Not yet anyway.
Nobody foresaw FT and SG being out for as long as they were this seaosn… or being as ineffective in as many games as they were (harsh for players who single-handedly change a game in a heartbeat, but still true, that they both played games where their sum-total contribution to the cause was to occupy space for 90 minutes.)

Yes Vorronin and Ngog are nobodies choice to carry you for a season. I doubt they are Rafa’s, but when he spent 10 million for Johnson, and 5 for Aqua… and that is what he spent in the summer… I think its safe to say He and We thought a striker was soon to follow?

Our priorities in May, were our priorities in June and July… they had changed by mid-August… at which time Rafa had Zero to spend… on a 2nd striker since Torres was fit… and negotiations for Arda Turan turned from cash to an exchange for Babel, who refused the move. So its not like Rafa settled for relying on Ngog and Vorronin and Babel… it ended up that way, but that was not the purposeful thinking of the time.

As to the future…
“Anyway, it’s all what if’s and maybe’s at this stage. Dark clouds are gathering over Anfield and I’m truly worried about the future of Torres and Gerrard… Losing Torres (let alone Gerrard) would be a hugely negative symbolic moment for LFC. Never in our history, have we lost our two best players at the same time – it would send shockwaves around the club – have no doubt about that!”

I mostly agree with that… but I wouldn’t be panicking just yet. Most of this is exit talk is media bollocks, driven by the players’ reluctance to make a statement… but neither will until they know what’s happening at management level and at ownership level.

Torres has no reason to leave LFC, other than not playing in the chanpions league. If rafa stays, I think he’d stay. If Rafa goes, he’s going to want assurances of the new manager’s plans before making a decision.
SG is a different story though. He is getting long in the tooth and has fewer years to achieve the success (PL medal) he so craves.
Its hard to say what he’ll do really. I think its more likely that he would stay if Rafa stayed… seems to me that would offer more stability… but would he give a New Manager the time to reshuffle the pack… who knows?
It might seem like an easy decision but I don’t think it is.

Anyway,

Anyway…? [waits, baited breath]

Aitch,excellent post as usual.

Got this from another site.

Some grim reading.

The State of Liverpool FC – An Idiots Guide

While “senior sources” at the club (Christan Purslow) try to facilitate a smear campaign against the manager, pretend everything is rosy at the club and briefs the press to headline the Rick Parry pay off on the day the club’s financials are tactically released on election results day; here’s what’s really going on at Liverpool Football Club:

The figures released on Friday 8th May 2010 indicate that Liverpool FC is in net debt to the tune of £351m; an increase of £52m from last year’s figure.

A total of £233.996m is owed to RBS, in addition to an inter-company loan of £144.441m owed to “Kop Cayman”; a company owned by Gillett and Hicks based in the Cayman Island for tax reasons; a company that have loaned Liverpool FC £144.441m at an interest rate of 10%. This is the “own money” that Gillett and Hicks claim to have put into the club. In reality, they’re just charging the club 10% interest for lending that money through an offshore limited liability company that they aren’t even personally liable for – Liverpool FC are.

Liverpool FC are not paying the interest off on that £144.4m however. It is being charged as a “compound interest”, meaning the interest isn’t paid, but is instead “rolled up” to the grand total. For example, this year (if I’ve got this right):

£144.4m @ 10% interest = £14.44m payable this year.

Instead of paying that £14.44m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman £158.88m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

£158.88m @ 10% interest = £15.88m payable next year.

Instead of paying that £15.88m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman £174.76m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

£174.76m @ 10% interest = £17.76m payable next year.

Instead of paying that £17.76m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman £192.52m etc etc etc…

The debt soon spirals out of control, as you can see; and don’t forget, this only concerns the £144.4m owed to Gillett and Hick’s Cayman Islands company – it doesn’t concern the huge £234m owed to RBS.

The financial figures released last week are for the 2008/09 season.

Those figures declare the club made a loss of around £52m for that year, due to the interest repayments on the loans and another £22m spent on the new ground; on what that was spent on we have no idea. There’s nothing to show for it anyway – and the total spend on the new ground now exceeds £50m. To put that into perspective – Sunderland managed to build the 48,000 seat Stadium of Light for a lot less than that. We have a few fences up at the back of the Anfield Road End!

Anyway – we made a loss of £52m that year despite finishing 2nd in the league and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. The accounts also declared a profit made on player transfers (despite Purslow telling us we don’t need to sell players to balance the books and service debt, and Rafa being accused of wasting millions on players – the accounts prove otherwise).

What are next year’s figures (which will reflect the financial state we’re in today) going to look like with a 7th place league finish and an early elimination from the Champions League? We will also have an increased debt to service as explained above.

Then what about the figures for the next financial year when there’s no Champions League money at all coming in?

While the current owners are in place, we are going to continue to fall further and further into debt. We cannot meet the repayments on the loan as it stands now, and with our revenue due to fall with the lack of Champions League football, we’re on the brink of going into administration.

Anyone with hopes of making any signings in the summer or any future transfer windows needs a reality check. We are going to be very lucky to be hold onto the players we’ve got, never mind being able to bring anybody else in.

Gerrard and Torres don’t want to leave because they don’t like the manager (Purslow is feeding this story to the media to whip up the “Rafa Out campaign”); they want to leave as they know there is zero chance of any new players of any quality arriving at the club in its current state. They also know there’s zero chance of any top class manager coming to the club if Benitez decides to walk or is pushed; no manager worth his salt would come to work at the club under these conditions. They know the club is only going one way.

Until Gillett and Hicks are removed from the club, we’re only going to decline. It really is as simple as that. Nothing else matters.

And remember – these debts haven’t been accumulated through overspending in trying to buy success and compete like was the case at Portsmouth, Leeds and various other clubs – they are entirely generated through debt loaded onto the club just so Gillett and Hicks can own us and bleed us dry with expense claims, management fees, arrangement fees for every refinance deal and wasting over £50m of the club’s money on a non-existent new stadium.

This isn’t the result of bad individual club management as Richard Scudamore of The Premier League claims; it is the result of a leveraged buyout that has loaded the cost of buying the club onto the club to repay. Something The Premier League, The FA, UEFA and FIFA should be doing everything in their power to prevent ever happening again.

2007: £44m debt (£3m per year to service)
2008: £350m debt (£36.5m per year to service)
2009: £378m debt (£40m per year to service)
2010: ???

Those are the levels of debt on the club, with it being only £44m before Gillett and Hicks bought the club. Therefore the club’s profits were able to be invested back into the squad, allowing us to compete on the pitch. We’re now crippled by debts we cannot service, when that £40m leaving the club each year in interest repayments should be being spent on new players.

£76.5m has left the club in interest repayments alone in the past 2 years – and in that time – the manager has not spent a single penny on new players. It’s been a sell to buy policy, with profits being made on transfers in the past few transfer windows as the books needed to be balanced; all while the clubs around us are spending to strengthen. How can we be expected to compete under those conditions?

The debt is growing with every passing day. As a result of the lack of investment in the squad (as well as bad luck with injuries / poor decisions / players out of form etc), we’re paying the price on the field with declining performances which will therefore reduce the club’s revenue even further – giving us even less money to service increasing debts. A vicious circle. It’s unsustainable.

Liverpool FC is paying £110,000 every single day in interest repayments to service a debt we should never have in the first place. That’s £110,000 a day of the club’s money that me and you generate, that we should be seeing spent on new players or developing the club; instead – we are standing back and watching the club being raped in front of our very eyes.

Yanks out!

I tell you what Aitch, Torres is turning into a Darren Anderton.

BTW, have any of you fuckers downloaded the annual report that I posted as a link in one of previous posts in this blog?

This is FACT and any LFC ‘supporter’ should be trailing through every page looking for the truth. We can all spout shite, like the yanks, but this report tells us what is really going on at LFC.

The Oracle that is FS detailed the problems that we would encounter with these two business men at the helm and he has not been too far from the mark.

On the flip side, it would be great if Digger could put his point-of-view forward without everyone jumping on him.

IMHO, he is a true Red and deserves to have his say. It’s good, necessary, to have a bit of perspective so we don’t always agree on how great we are, even though we finished 7th.

BTW, I still don’t agree with you Digger on the Keane thing. Pot, kettle, black?

The first line should have been.

BTW, have any of you fuckers downloaded the annual report that I posted as a link in a previous post (#22) in this blog?

Lurgan, the LFC annual report is far too depressing for me to go through in a detailed manner.

Also Lurgan Digger comes in here and tries to act the comedian talking all sarcy and that trying to make anyone who differs with him look like a fool,so if i differ with him on a topic then i`ll say it.Its not because its digger it could be anyone.
He is intitled to his opinion and i respect that but what i don`t respect is the manner he puts across his posts.
Most guys in here a big boys but a bit of respect wouldn`t go a miss.
Also Lurgan i didn`t download that report but i do understand where we are right now.We are falling and falling fast and we need someone somewhere to save us!

All this depression is getting me…well depressed.

On a lighter note Pepe was voted player of the year.Top man and a top player,loves the club and i hope he stays forever.

In fairness to him he said in recieving the award that he hoped he never has to recieve it again as he would rather see a midfielder or forward get it.

Well done anyway Pepe.

Lol! Cheers Lurgan! To be fair the lads just view it differently to me and given some of the rumbles that go down in here it was almost……boring! Kenny stepped up with a nice left though heh heh!

LB, ignoring the problem will not mean that it will go away.

I like the whole facts/details stuff so maybe that’s why I am an admirer of Rafa.

This is my part of my professional life – so for the CBC group (where are they now?), yes I do work from time-to-time.

Nonetheless this report shows how the Sherman tanks are bleeding us/LFC dry.

My advice to you is to down a nice bottle of Bandol wine (one to look out for Digger), other wines are available, and then take a butchers at the figures in there.

Depressing? Yes!

Condemning? Without doubt!

timmy, where di you get #99?

the reason I ask is because the financials are supposed to be figures representing the club’s finances as of Summer 09.
But didn’t the “G&H pay down” only occur in January? Or am I not remembering that right?

So the 350 to 270 reduction, no matter how it was achieved…. (and what was described, while sickening, is almost exactly what I proposed had happened … at the time we were told they’d payed it down “with their own money”) … wouldn’t factor into the figures in the 09 report and hence shouldn’t be part of the calculations made in that article?

Am I wrong here? Have I lost time?
Admittedly it is hard to keep track of this little financial shell game we’ve endured!
Imagine for a moment how Rafa must feel!

And eye-opening Lurgan.

this isn’t aimed at LB… or anyone in particular…
…but if you don’t take the time to read these things and at least try to understand the situation we are in, and all the forces acting upon the club we all love…
…then frankly… come time to discuss successes and failures, in the transfer market, or on the pitch… then you should probably shut the fuck up and keep your ill-informed opinions to yourself!

… and as I said, that’s not a “fuck off” to anyone inparticular, so don’t get your backs up…

I should probably have shut the fuck up and kept my ill-informed opinion re: Keane to myself, when initially taking up the point with Digger… since, not being an avid watcher of Scottish footy, nor follower of Keane, I wasn’t fully armed with all the info regarding his goalscoring stats in Scotland, that I should have had when making the obviously inaccurate statment that he hadn’t netted enough since leaving us.

…But he’s still a gobbo regardless.

Aitch, this is no longer about football as we know it.

If we do not get rid of the septics short term, we will be a long way behind the elite (i.e. someone with money) in no time.

Woe, woe and thrice woe.

Aitch i seen it whislt having a browse around RAWK.

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=257942.0

Digger, I hope that I did not come across as too patronising in post (room) 101 – creepy or what?

I just thought that KDLL was a bit harsh in his initial post and IMHO you are definitely not part of the CBC.

Anyway, arse-licking over – go and fuck yourself you BIFFO

BTW, what team finished with a goal difference of +86 but still came second to the eventual champions who had a goal difference of 40.

who?

Without question the owners need to disappear, and the sooner the better. Unfortunately, they do not strike me as reasonable men, and I fear this fiasco will continue into next season.

As for Rafa, my problem with him is what appears to be a lack of adaptability, not in the transfer market, but on the pitch.

This summer will be one of anxiety for me. Every morning I’ll check the news, afraid to see who we’ve sold (or kept).

Lurgan #101,

About Digger:

He wants everyone to talk facts but he says in #77 “knowing in all probability we’d never see a penny” without any backup of his “facts”.

Well, all he says is truth and what others say are conjectures & speculations. Not to mention his sarcastic remarks about apologising to everyone.

Maybe that’s why everyone is jumping on him.

About Carra’s decision to join England for the World Cup:

“The World Cup and Champions League are the highest levels of football.

“I’m not getting any younger, we have no Champions League football next season and I am keen to work under Fabio Capello.”

Any views?

I personally don’t like it as he may be injured during the World Cup, but then again, Capello may never play him or use him at left back, right back but not in centre defence

He’s getting a lot of criticism already ax.

There are those4 that think he should prioritize England.

But look at it from his point of view.
He was fully justified in walking when he did… since he was at the top of his game and still not being selected in preference to (at the time) less able players.

granted he hasn’t had his best season this year, so you could, I suppose, argue against his inclusion (but then again Rio is not only going he’s the fuckin Captain and he’s been shite on a stick this season! … and Owen Hargreaves? for fucks sake???)
… but if England select you to go to the WC Finals… no matter what you’re feelings are, you’re gonna go!

Best of luck to him i say, though I suspect he’s shooting himself in the foot (as far as public opinion goes)… as he’s likely to be one of the 7 cut for the final squad, unless there’s injuries at the back, or he excells in training.

Just watched the 2nd half of Blackpool vs Notts Forest… what a fuckin crackin game that was!

If you haven’t seen it, there’s a very good “20 questions with Clair” interview with Martin Broughton on the official liverpoolfc.tv site

He certainly says all the right things… and comes off as believeable.

(But what the fuck did Clair do to her hair? For fucks sake girl, I know we’ve got Cowboys, but since when did we have Injuns knockin’ about in Liverpool?)

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkGoQhp41lY

No wonder the fella was injured all the time.

TT, it was Ajax, who finished behind the wally with the brolly’s team.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/livetables?league=ned.1&cc=5739

Won there last 15 or so games to boot.

Carra is 32 years young and this is his last chance to play in a WC. What professional footballer would not grab that dangled carrot?

I think that he has a great chance to make the final 23, since the rest of the England CBs are crocks.

What’s the odds he will miss the pen who put’s England out of the WC?

Left hand digger? hehe I’m a lover not a fighter hehe that’s what I like to think anyway.

In all honesty Digger at the time I thought Keane was a good buy for us. A bit like the Glen Johnson transfer inflated price as they’re prem players but essentially a good bit of business.

The Yanks? The financial world gets away with stealing it’s as simple as. Legal robbery and that’s what is happening at LFC.

Jamie Carragher? Good luck to him.

Great blog Gerry , a good end to a shite season.

I for one think Rafa should stay and finish what he started and basically agree with everything you said in the blog so I wont repeat it.

I wont get into the Keane debate only to say that I was sad it didn’t work out! I love having a paddy in my beloved team.

I saw loads of comments from fans saying they dont care about anything only wanting to see Liverpool play beautiful football.
I am not one of them! sure I want to see that but we have bigger fish to fry right now and I see Rafa as the only one to man the griddle!

Saw reports saying that Juve want to buy Aquaman for 10 mill. !st of all I don’t believe it but say it was true does that mean we’d still have to pay Roma the rest of the installments seen as we’ve only paid about 5 mill for him so far?

You fine fellas know anything about that?

One thing I did enjoy this season was (as usual) the fine banter here in Kopblog I think its been 6 or 7 seasons I’ve been in here now so keep up the good work lads and Ill look forward to more with or without champ lge footy.

Well done to Mal O’Brien for winning the Kopblog Fantasy league! you win nothing but well done anyway whoever you are

over and out

anyone seen this? at least it’s some sign of light at the end of the tunnel.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/chinese-tycoon-in-talks-to-buy-liverpool-2174929.html

Sambo,not to piss on your cornflakes or anything but we`re bound to see these type of articles quite frequently in the next couple of months or so.Therefore i wouldn`t see it as light at the end of the tunnel just yet pal.

Donal i just checked the KOPBLOG league there to see where i finished but i cant see my team.

Either i`m gone starkers bloody bind or i`ve gone into administration and been wound up!

I haven`t been active in it for a while so that may explain it.

Sambo, also seen that on a couple of different sites/publications – but nothing on the broadsheets. Mind you, they all speak or report shite these days anyway. Until someone ‘official’ at Anfield (or the Chairman) comes out & says it’s true, then I’ll keep on shutting myslef out to these rumours.
And well done to Lurgan for winning the Kopblog ‘head to head’ (I think he won?). At least I beat you on one of the gameweeks

Forlan would of been a decent affordable signing last summer.Take him or Aguero to score tonight and stick the Chavs to beat Pompey with Inter and Barca to win their leagues and CL.Easy come.

Aitch,

Good response – and no, I’m not so thick skinned that I think you’re picking on me anyway I take your point that perhaps signing Aquilani wasn’t the MAIN reason for our shite season – but it was certainly in the top 3 reasons!

As for Rafa knowing that Torres and Stevie G are injury prone – since 2008/09 they ARE INJURY PRONE – no argument. We’d have won the league last year if El Nino had stayed as fit as say Ronaldo during the years he won the leagues seemingly on his own at Utd. This season was even worse for Torres – he’s played too much football since 2008 (Euros, PL, Confederation Cup, Pl) and soon he’ll be playing half fit in the World Cup. That doesn’t bode well for him short/medium term fitness for LFC

My whole argument is this. Ok, Rafa had been lied to about how much money he could spend last summer. He was able to buy Johnson (a good signing in my eyes) but now he faced the problem of losing Alonso. So, he gets €30m for Xabi – but is told he will not be able to spend that. So Rafa knew before he bought Aquilani that he realistically wouldn’t be able to splash out big on a replacment for Alonso AND a striker. He had to make a decision – what was more urgent? What did he already have to work with in his squad?

Lads, this is a no brainer – he chose to buy an injured player that wouldn’t be fit until Christmas (at least) ahead of bringing in a striker for in or around the €20M mark ( similar to the Aquilani fee)

This wasn’t just a gamble that unluckily didn’t come off. This was NEVER going to work. It left us desperately short up front – left us praying that Torres would stay fit and that he and Stevie would continue where they left off in 2009. In reality, by the time we were playing Spurs and Villa, at the start of the season, it had seemed most teams had copped on to our attacking style of play (imho).

This wasn’t a gamble – it was folly

thick skinned should read “think skinned”

Edit button – where art thou??

ah jaysus – thin skinned – not thick or think….argghhh

Have another pint Arthur!
Just been browsing around on the TIA Forums. Feck me, there are a lot of Rafa-out posters! Makes me want to cry in despair. Or is that you & your siblings posting the whole time Arf?
RAWK & OTK seem to be 70% pro-Rafa, whilst it is the opposite on TIA. Thanks fuck I only stick to Gerry’s blogs & you guys, otherwise I would go insane.

Aitch, I have a pretty good idea what the financial reports will reveal. Obviously I don’t know all of the details but I do understand the general notion. Financially we are up shit creek without a paddle.

Yes LB, I said that statement wasn’t aimed at you.
But a lot of less knowledgeable posters adopt the same philosophy, which was the reason for my post.

How many posts do we still read saying “I didn’t know that” about something that has been discussed ad-infinitum in here alone, let alone out there in the “print any made up shite NOW” media!

Arthur, I still disagree but at least you’re opinion isn’t out in left field with no supportive construct.

As for the Chinese consortium or whatever… if you go watch the Broughton interview I suggested earlier, he categorically states “you can ignore it all” in reference to media specualtion about prospective buyers.
He goes on to state that any prospective buyer would want biz conducted behind closed doors to maximize their bargaining position and that you should not believe anything until you hear it from him.

Ok, it seems most people think Keane wasn’t good enough for LFC, so therefore he had to go. Digger brought up the idea that keeping a proven premiership striker may have been a great idea, considering Nando’s injury problems.
.
Alas though he appears to have been slaughter by all. Though lets expand this notion of a player being not good enough, so therefore sellable, or worse dispenced with. I am a firm believer that if a player has been granted a reasonable time to settle in, or has had issues with the manager, then he should be sent packing.
.
So should anyone at the club who’s being paid to perform. Some facts from this season, I think are important belong to our wee neighbours.
.
They had the worse start to a season in living memory.
.
They were touted by all to be relegation bound.
.
At one stage they couldn’t field a striker.
.
There manager is an arsehole.
.
Yet they finished the season 2 points shy or our glorious total.
.
Now before we all jump on the injuries, twats, selling and buying bandwagon, ponder this. How many of there players would make our first team, how many of there players would sell for 30 million, how many players valued at 20 million would they have bought last season.
.
So once again I go back to my previous post, Rafa it’s your job to turn the previously 2nd best team in the land to the first, Gerrard and Co get of your arses, twats fuck of

Arteta would waltz, waltz into our starting 11 Gaz. Baines would usurp Emilio with ease. After that its a matter of opinion. Personally I feel Carras been slipping for a while now but nothing cudda prepared me for some of his showings this yr so if pushed I’d take Jagielka. I’d take the Yak as backup over Ngog everyday and twice on Sunday. Rodwell would be a lock for me too. This kid is a beast. Tempted to put Cahill on our bench but….. he’s just too much of a Douche! Good player though….

Arthur #131

Almost all of Rafa’s purchase has been done via player sales, wholly or partly, with the rest funded from Champions League money (which has now dried up). Statler and Waldorf have contributed NOTHING.

“Ok, Rafa had been lied to about how much money he could spend last summer. He was able to buy Johnson (a good signing in my eyes) but now he faced the problem of losing Alonso. So, he gets €30m for Xabi – but is told he will not be able to spend that. So Rafa knew before he bought Aquilani that he realistically wouldn’t be able to splash out big on a replacment for Alonso AND a striker. He had to make a decision – what was more urgent? What did he already have to work with in his squad? ”

A major misconception in this paragraph.

First, Johnson’s 17m pound purchase was funded by 4.5m via the sale of Arbeloa, and 7m via collateral money Portsmouth still owes us after we sold Crouch to them for that amount. So Johnson actually only costs 5.5m.

Second, the Aquilani buy was also funded by player sales, namely from the 30m Alonso one. After paying 20m, he’s supposed to still have 10m left, it’s only then that he found out G+H had swindled those funds away. So Rafa only found out the funds were gone AFTER he bought Aquilani, not the other way round as you seem to believe.

Third, the Aquilani deal is to be PAID IN INSTALLMENTS, NOT IN ONE GO. So Rafa probably only paid Roma ~5m upfront, with the other 15m to be paid every 6 months for the following 18 months. (To date, Roma should have received 10m by now. ) And then depending on Aqua’s performance and CL appearance, Roma get to make extra. So instead of swindling 10m from the 30m Alonso fund, G+H may actually have stolen up to 25m, leaving Rafa with peanuts.

“This wasn’t a gamble – it was folly”

Tell me, since when have we bought players only for one season only? I think Rafa knew Aqua’s potential in the future 3-5 years was worth him being injured in his first year and a bad season.

Can we stop saying that we have spent 20m (which is in euros and not pounds) on aquaman.

The transfer fee is broken up into the following:

- 4 cash instalments of
- – 5 million EURO upfront
- – 3 million EURO by 4th January 2010
- – 7 million EURO by June 30th 2010
- – 5 million EURO by June 30th 2011.

Further add-ons include:

- 300,000 EURO for every year Liverpool qualify for the Champions League from 2010/11 to 2014/15

- 250,000 EURO everytime the player reaches 35 appearancs, 70 appearances, 105 appeances and then 140 appearances.

- 1 million EURO the first time Liverpool either wins the Premier League or Champions League by 30 June 2014.

- 5% of any future transfer fee will be paid to Roma.

Details can be found here (for those fluent in Italian) – http://www.asroma.it/UserFiles/988.pdf

So our transfer activity last summer was £5.5m for Johnson, 5m euro Aqua and £2 for paddy the Greek.

In Jan we paid the second installment of 3m euro for Aqua and got Maxi on a free.

Well said Lurgankop, Reading we have spent £30 million was doing my head in.

For the last time those of you who think we have spent a significant ammount over the last 3 transfers windows we have a net spend of -£1.5 million. Now for those of you who say it doesn’t matter if we sell to buy the point is we’ve spent the money, go back to school and brush up on your maths. The mancs flog their best player last year and the result? 2nd place.

Gaz it’s a nonsense to think Moyes hasn’t spent any money. He has, not a fortune but he doesn’t have to sell to buy. In fact his transfer fund is probably bigger than Rafa’s. How much was Yakubu? How much was Baines? I’m not saying he hasn’t done a good job he has but they haven’t won anything, zip, nada, zilch. He’s not expected to win anything either just keep the bitters in mid table and for them that’s a decent season.

Arthur. Which top class midfielder or striker was Rafa supposed to buy with a £5 million down payment that would have made all the difference?

Argh – we’re going around in cirlces again. Ok – yes I know the Aquilani deal was done in installments – lots of deals are done this way in football these days..

My argument is this – we shouldn’t have signed a sicknote Italian midfielder when it was glaringly obvious to all and sundry that we needed a striker.

the fact that he barely used Aquilani when he was fit, confirms again that Rafa made a big misake on this one.

Kinny – “Tell me, since when have we bought players only for one season only? I think Rafa knew Aqua’s potential in the future 3-5 years was worth him being injured in his first year and a bad season.”

Wow you’re putting a lot of faith in Rafa on this one. I have to say, I do not share the sentiment

Arthur, we needed another decent striker AND a midfielder, as Alsonso had just departed. I know we needed someone for this season just passed, but I reckon Aqua looked the part – when he played. He can only get better as he adapts to the EPL, and let’s judge him (& Rafa) next season? You might say it’s too late, but as Kinny said: he bought him for 3 or 4 seasons, not one. Maybe (& very likely), there weren’t any decent forwards that Rafa could have bought on the same deal (i.e. 5mill downpayment etc)? The jury is still out on Aqua, but again, I’ve certainly seen enough to believe that he’ll be good for us next season. If he stays.

As far as 2009/10 is concerned Rafa fucked up with Aquilani. You don’t buy injured players.

“Wow you’re putting a lot of faith in Rafa on this one. I have to say, I do not share the sentiment”

Very strange for you to say that. I always thought it’s common sense that you don’t judge players by their first season alone and you don’t buy them for one season alone. I would reserve judgment for even Degen for his first season.

If Rafa stays and Aqua is still around by September, that means he’s still of value to us.

Using Lurgan’s figures, EUR5m on August 2009 when we acquired Aqua would be around GBP4.3m.

ttp://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

So last summer, Rafa has only spent around GBP11.8m in total. Pretty much the average net spend for the past 5-6 summers. (Even Torres was funded by the sale of Bellamy, in case someone tries to be a smart ass. )

If you put 2 and 2 together, you’ll figure out that those annual GBP10-11m comes from Champions League prize money. Now with only Europa League football, there’ll probably be only a fraction of that.

So I won’t be looking forward to any big signings this summer, just the new young players like Shelvey and Jovanovich, plus the return of loan players like Nemeth to bolster the squad if no one is sold.

Well as LB says – you don’t buy injured players. Come on lads – would you know of any other manager that would have taken such a “gamble” on such an expensive player?

Any chance of Forlan giving Kuyt some coaching over the summer?.Nice to see Riera didn’t make the Spanish squad.

144 “You don’t buy injured players.”

Maybe not for the season immediately. But if you can fix him, then he’ll be value for money in the seasons to come.

Perhaps this is why Rafa has specifically hired the services of sports medical specialist Peter Brukner. With resources so limited, keeping players fit for as long as possible becomes paramount. Time will tell if this appointment will do the team’s fitness wonders.

#145: ‘I always thought its common sense that you dont judge players by their first season alone and you dont buy them for one season alone. I would reserve judgement for even Degen for his first season’. Well said sir. Words of common sense spoken by a true Rafaphile. Incidentally, it is at the time Kinny posted these sentiments that the Keane sale debate was laid to rest with the above words inscribed on its headstone.

Houllier and Parry have been appointed as advisors to the Saudi Football Federation.Where is the justice?.Degen has been @ Anfield for 2 seasons.2 FULL BACKS ARE A PRIORITY ALONG WITH A STRIKER FOR NEXT SEASON.

How much did Fergie spend on Owen Hargreaves? How many games has he played? I feel Rafa bought Aqua knowing he was injured but also knowing that his injury was something that once healed could hold up. Besides, this was a season for him to ease himself into the team anyway. The rest of our midfield should have been able to cope but with more injuries than expected to Gerrard, Benny etc it got tough. I don’t think Aqua was a factor in our having a shit season. Poor defence (again due to injuries) was a big reason for us losing many games we normally would have won and also poor goals scoring (due to injuries again to our midfield and striker) were factors. I think Aqua is going to be amazing next season and show us all why Rafa bought him.

Alright lads,this Aquilani debate is going around in circles.

First of all as far as the 09/10 season goes was it a mistake ?
Yes,in hindsight it was.

But…we weren`t to know that our season would fall apart at the seems so early on.We weren`t to know that we would have the injury list we had,missing our two main players quite a bit in the first half of the season ant Torres for a big chunk of the whole season.
If we`d had a decent start to the season and had still been hanging around the top then him coming in late would have been easier to take.

Arthur i agree we needed a stiker.I`m sure Rafa would agree with this too.After he bought Aqualini he turned around to the board and said ok i`ve a striker in mind “Taispean dom D`airgead” (show me the money in Irish).

Que an eeary silence.

What was Rafa menat to do?Turn around and hand Aquilani back to Roma?

The jurys still out on weather Aquilani was actually a good or bad signing yet.
If he has a stormer next season then,we`ll all be happy.2009/10 will be forgotten as far as the Aqua saga goes.
If it dosen`t work out then i for one will hold my hands up and say Rafa did a boo boo and ye can give yourselves a pat on the back.

I agree, Aqualini seems to be looking like he’ll play an important role in our team next year… Remains to be seen if he’ll work well with Gerrard and Torres (presuming that they’ll be fit).

Hopefully the world cup is good to LFC as far as injuries go, we surely can’t afford losing Torres and/or Gerrard out injured for a long spell next season as well…

I will admit that I’d like to see what Rafa’s team would look like (which seems impossible with the Yanks onboard and no new stadium) given a similar transfer budget that Chelsea or ManU get year on year… He has many vital components to a great team, shame that LFC cannot afford to complete the squad…

Arthur #146,

About ‘would you know of any other manager that would have taken such a “gamble” on such an expensive player?’

I can recall (1) Ferguson spending a lot of money on Ruud Van Nielstroy who had a bad injury history. His gamble paid off, (2) Wenger also “gambled” on Kanu whose heart condition could even trigger death on the field. I think it paid off, considering he didn’t die on the pitch and gave some good performances.

We still can’t yet judge whether Aquaman’s signing is good IMHO.

I see your point about Rafa risking on an injured player but remember he’s only 25, and I believe Rafa has long term plans for him.

Remember also that good strikers are very costly. At that time, we certainly couldn’t afford Villa who costs even more than Alonso. We couldn’t even afford Tevez then.

Maybe some ‘old’ striker like Forlan would do. But that’s also a risk to bring back a Premier League flop. Maybe Heskey, Carew or someone like that.

I don’t remember Rafa having to buy someone nearing 30 into the first team during his years (except his first season with Morientes (then 28) and Pellegrino (>30). Even Fowler was not considered first team when we bought him then. But we’re seeing it this season, with Hercules (>30), Maxi (29), and Jovanovic, who will be 29 when he joins us, AFTER we got Johnson & Aquaman. We’re sadly in this league now.

So I think it’s fair to suggest that Rafa didn’t know the Yanks would even cheat him on his transfer funds returns aka Alonso’s + Keane’s. judging that all his subsequent first team buys are in the near 30 and free transfer zone.

That may explain why he refused to sell Babel subsequently, this time knowing that the money ma yet be filtered for interest payments.

You don’t buy injured players. Otherwise why have a medical?

Why only offer Aurellio a pay as you play deal when you’ve signed a player who is injured?

Bringing in a sports medical specialist is to deal with your players when they become injured or to prevent your players from getting injured. It’s not an excuse to go out and sign injured players at a discount believing you can fix him. There is no benefit of hindsight with Aquilani, when Rafa signed him he was already injured and had already missed large parts of several previous seasons due to injury. This is a gamble that back fired. You’d have to be deluded to think otherwise.

Ferguson buying Van Nistelroy was a different story. He got injured during his medical (his first major injury). Man Utd didn’t sign him. They sent him back to PSV. Van Nistelroy however recovered and proved his fitness by playing in the last couple of months of the following season and scoring goals. It was a gamble in itself but one the mancs took because (a) they could afford to do so financially and (b) the player had not had a career plagued with injury and was now fit! Aquilani was injured when we signed him.

It is arrogant to think that we can get a player while Roma couldn’t. What made Rafa believe our medical staff was superior to Roma’s?

I cant get the main page of TIA, I can get into the forums but the main page has been showing a database error for days now.

Am I the only one or is everybody having this problem

Same here 5year, but their main page has been shite lately to be honest. And they need to stop using that awful photo of Rafa.

I just jump straight in here 5year i don`t spend much time on the main site anymore.

LB,

I agree with your assessment of the Aquaman gamble situation, but I still think there’s some sense to the ‘madness’, considering his young age.

So do you think selling Torres at 60m is a steal considering you’re comparing him now to Darren Anderton? Remember Torres is also about the same age as Aquaman.

I’d say we gamble and keep Torres for seasons to come, just as we should gamble and keep Aquaman at least for the next season.

Aquilani stats: games started. All competitions.

2004/05 – 18
2005/06 – 26
2006/07 – 15
2007/08 – 16
2008/09 – 8
2009/10 – 12

Over the last 4 years he averages 13 starts per season in all competitions. Compare that to that of the following:

Harry Kewell – 14 starts per season average over last 4 years
Fabio Aurellio – 18
Phillip Degen – 11
Frank Lampard – 50

Well Torres was fit when we signed him without being plagued with injury in his career. There was no gamble signing him. Of course you can sign a player and once you have him he then keeps getting injured. It’s impossible to foresee this.

In any case Torres hasn’t quite turned into Darren Anderton… yet.

Last 4 years games started all competitions – Torres:

2006/07 – 38
2007/08 – 40
2008/09 – 30
2009/10 – 26

Average = 34 – almost 3 times that of Aquilani.

Also not Torres has started 27 games for Spain over the last 2 seasons!

note rather than not

Digger @149, I had a feeling you were gonna use the Keane straw-man example.

You merely quoted the first part of my post but conveniently neglected the sentence following that:

“If Rafa stays and Aqua is still around by September, that means he’s still of value to us.”

AKA If Rafa HASN’T sold him yet. As long as Aqua is NOT sold, I continue to maintain my stance.

As long as you guys keep up with these cherry-picking to suit your argument, then I’m proud to be called a Rafa cocksucker if that’s what it takes.

Hence the Keane sale DOES NOT LAY THIS TO REST. Common sense still dictates, so please try again, my good gentlemen.

LB @155, if it was a gamble for just this season, then yes, it didn’t work out.

The fact that Rafa is still sticking around with him means he genuinely believes that 20m Euro includes the 3-4 seasons he will play with us.

If by next May Aqua turns out to be a constant disappointment and does a Kewell/Degen in terms of fitness, then I will gladly declare him a flop before you could even say the word. Fair enough, no?

But for now, I will wait.

Well Kinny if you cant (wont?) see the double standard, the delicious irony, then I say to you my friend; Sing it loud and sing it proud!…..

thanks LB just wanted to confirm it was the site and not a problem my end, and yes I have to agree it has been poor as of late, I have been incensed by some of the recent articles, tabloid gossip printed as fact.

Again the problem when authoritative voices make unfounded statements others follow blindly to parrot them and H & G get willing help with their agenda

righ, coz double standards and delicious irony don’t exist in your posts Dig?

As for “you don’t buy injured players” …well managers/clubs actually do it all the time.
Off the top of my head, without even researching it…
Darren Anderton didn’t retire from Spurs.
Hull bought Jimmy Bullard injured.
Wasn’t Jonathan Woodgate injured when he went to real Madrid? He was injured when he came back to England.
You could go so far as to say the same for Owen at Scum. Okay he wasn’t injured at the time of sale… but it was a pretty good bet he wasn’t playing too many games before hitting his fave treatment table!

Of course its not what you’d prefer, but often buying a player with an injury, knocks millions off the price.
Yes installment deals are common, but I’d be willing to bet the installments would have been larger, had Aqua been fit when we bought him.

Within the confines of this past season you could certainly make the argument that buying Aqua was a mistake… but ONLY within the context of all the injuries and failure to recover form of ALL the other players.
And how much iompact he has for us next season and the following, remains to be seen.

Aqua not playing much is hardly why we finished 7th.
Torres not playing much probably was.

The 11 players taking the field, not doing the basics is why we finished 7th…
FT being out and only half-fit when rarely in.
SG being out, and then having his worst season in a red shirt.
The defense being alternately at sea and then at odds, for most of the season.
Those are the reasons we finished 7th.

This isn’t about being pro-Rafa or anti-Rafa, its about looking at the season for what it was and taking into account everything that happened in the previous transfer windows, (and ALL the forces acting upon those decisions) as well as activities on the field.

And one more thing… I don’t recall the exact details (wish FS were here coz he posted a detailed account at the time) of this, but…
We had a striker lined up last summer.
We conducted negotiations for him.
This happened prior to the Aqua deal.
He wanted to come to us and as I recall a reasonable deal was struck…
…but then the funds were pulled.
His name is Arda Turan.
We even made a 2nd attempt to arrange a swap with Babel, but he refused to go.
AND
…we were also in talks with Valencia for David Silva… but dropped the pursuit for lack of money.

Would the Alonso 30 million have been enough to secure those deals?

Dont tell me you cant see it too Aitch?! What a shocker! Hang on Kinny, you’ll have a full blown chorus line workin yet!

I see things pretty clearly Dig.

@LB

#155 : Interesting point. I also wanted to ask this question but somehow i always missed it. I actually have a doubt on our medical staff. Remember Kewell’s agent blaming the LFC medical staff?

Are we overlooking the incompetence if any of our medical staff? I am not referring to the Aquilani issue. In general, Torres,Johnson,Skrtel,Yossi have being injured for far too long.

Would like to know what you all think.

Digger

You wonder why people descend on you

Look at post #168, see the sarcasm, the wounded persecution complex

That’s why people descend on you, if you don’t get everyone to agree with you, you just start with the lone voice in the wilderness crap.

You move the goalposts to suit you and if that doesn’t work you act as if everyone is an idiot but you, and if you don’t think thats true then just reread that post, the sarcasm drips from it.

How about #165 more sarcasm,

Its the last refuge of a bad argument.

I dont wonder anything 5year. I look at 168 and I see a joke. Lone voice? Wilderness? What the?! I dont want anyone to agree with me that dosent agree with me. I mean I’m not a catholic or something! And goalposts? What posts have I moved? My point on Keane has remained resolutely steadfast. The goalpost have been moved alright, by the people I’m debating with as I illustrated by quoting Kinnys post. He unknowingly crystalized my point perfectly. I look at 171 and see someone who disagrees perhaps?

Just checked on Kewell’s stats for Galatasaray this season and he has started 23 league games, came on as a sub in another 3, bagged 8 goals, whilst picking up a yellow card along the way. Taking the previous season into account he has 43 appearances, scoring 17 goals.

In his last two seasons with us, he had a total of 12 league appearances (2+10), scoring 1 goal (1+0).

I read somewhere (will try to find it) that it was an Aussie rules sports physician that found the root cause of his problem, allowing HK to be relatively injury free in the last few seasons.

I am not saying that this means that the physios/physicians are shite but it does make you think, especially as Rafa has appointed a certain Peter Brukner.

LOL, I’ve just checked and Kewell is currently injured (groin) and is a doubt for the world cup. No more research for me!

disagree with you,probably, but then again I usually do.
My complaint was and is the way you respond to people.

No worries 5yr, if Aitch or Kinny have a problem with my posts they’ll let me know – they usually do! Btw, shouldent you amend your moniker to 7yearplan?! (its a joke! a joke! relax!)

Lurgan those stats make for a good argument… but again… Kewell got a nice long rest while at Liverpool… and you simply cannot factor for the natural repair a long rest provides.

…when my ankles finally gave up on me, I was told, not just that I’d never play footy again, but that I’d never be able to run, that the way I walked would be affected, and that I was very likely to be looking up at the world from a wheelchair, in my future.
But after years of rest…In the last 18 months, I’ve run 12 5ks with my sister (and I only tried doing that, coz she got into doing 5ks after surviving cancer and drags me along coz she doesn’t drive freeway and can’t get to most of them without a ride )

My ankles are still pretty fucked mind you, and I won’t be playing 90 minutes anytime soon, even in an aul-fellas league… but time did heal… and they can keep there fuckin wheelchair (for now anyway!)

My point is this… Gala benefitted from Kewell spending a lot of time in our sick bay… healing… he’s playing coz of that, not coz they had a miracle cure. (though there are the Turkish baths to consider I suppose?)

Sometimes shit just happens, this season it happened to us.
I mean seriously… fuckin horse-placenta treatments?!?!?

Keep in mind also, that teams often go through a spate of injuries if/when they change their training methods.

If you’ve been around a while, you’ll remember a string of devastating injuries when Soueness took over, coz he drastically changed the players’ training routines.

We’ve had 3 changed of method in Rafa’s time. One when he arrived, one when Pako left, and we supposedly changed things up last summer…
…remember the discussions about how we always started slowly and finished strong, and the calls for a change in pre-season methods?
…well we got what we wanted, and pre-season was a disaster… and then look what happened.

LB #161,

Actually I wasn’t questioning Torres signing like what the press may have implied. I have never questioned the signing of Torres and have always maintained he’s one of Rafa’s best buys.

I was asking for your opinion about selling Torres while his price is good, since you’ve implied he’s turning into a Darren Anderton.

Anyway, thanks for the stats there. Very informative. I didn’t realise Torres has still played a decent number of games for us

NIce posts #167 and #176 Aitch, I can’t say that I’ll disagree with any of those points.

I can’t seem to dismiss the obvious that if our squad is too light, then players will eventually burn out, especially the likes of Torres and Gerrard, who also have internationals to play as well. Insua being an obvious case in point.

Fair point lancey… except to say that even with a stronger squad… it ain’t Torres and SG that’ll be left out… its others.

Granted you’ve got cover for when they are injured… but no world class striker is gonna come to LFC to be 2nd fiddle to Torres.

…this is sort of the left-out-of-the-argument part of the whole Robbie Keane debate…
Was he willing to stay at LFC and be a bit-part player?
He wasn’t going to start upfront unless Torres got injured (and at the time he was fit).
He wasn’t going to displace SG in the hole (and at the time he was fit)
So was he going to ride the bench in the hopes he’d play more regularly?
And let’s face it, he wasn’t happy on the bench, and it showed on the field, which had to play some part (speculation, but hardly fringe opinion) in the decision to send him back to Spurs.

I’d say look to Sami Hyppia for that answer.
If SH had stayed he’d have played far more games than Kyrgiakos did, coz Hyppia was settled and you knew what you were gonna get, whereas SK took time to settle.
But Sami had no way of knowing that when he opted for more playing time in Germany.

Keane knew he was 2nd or even 3rd choice (coz Kuyt was actually scoring goals that half-season)
…and he wasn’t happy… and it showed.

Aitch

I had a feeling that one of the reasons that Keane was sold was that he was disrupting the rest of the squad with his histrionics, I think the main reason he was sold was because he couldn’t play in Rafa’s set up but I believe Rafa may have persevered with him, but the general press about him being on the bench and his hissy fits may have been what made his exit so sudden.

Its just an opinion

http://www.TomkinsTimes.com has added an excellent piece.

…also an interesting piece by solicitor, Daniel Geey, looking at how the forthcoming uefa regs mean that even if we got a sugar-daddy with deeeep pockets we might still be fucked:

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/05/the-liverpool-investment-conundrum/

don’t know if you meant this one, burger, but the second half is interesting/informative regarding the youth setup:

“The problem appeared to be that Benítez wanted the youth system overhauled, but Heighway was a firm ally of Rick Parry, and that pair kept him at bay; Parry’s son just happened to work with Heighway.”

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/05/the-hyppia-effect-why-investment-is-necessary/

ps: as ever, with Tomkins, reading glasses and a cup of optrex required…

Lads – interesting to note that we played rubbish on many occasions with both Torres AND Gerrard BOTH fit and playing:

Spurs 1-2
Villa 1-3
Portsmouth 0-2
Fiorentina 0-2

Something went badly wrong before the season even started – the injuries, bad luck, lack of funds compounded it

Don’t know if this has been mentioned in here before, but David Prentice has today published an interesting article in The Liverpool Echo regarding Rafa and his relations to the media and Liverpool “senior sources”.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/05/14/are-senior-sources-undermining-rafael-benitez-at-anfield-100252-26443197/2/

Thats a brilliant article by Tomkins. His best yet IMO. So good that I will paste it in here.

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/05/malignant-cancers-and-sticking-plasters/

Thanks LB for putting it up. Good read indeed!

Players transferred in and out? Expenses? Speculation! What we need are facts, or the best representation we can get in football, statistics.

In this past season our record was
18 wins 9 draws 11 losses.

With Mascherano AND Lucas in the starting team our record was 8 wins 7 draws 10 losses. We scored 29 goals and conceded 28.

With Mascherano OR Lucas in the starting team our record was 10 wins 2 draws 1 loss. We scored 31 goals and conceded 5.

Statistics can be manipulated to say anything. So, I will suggest these prove absolutely nothing. Consider the following though:

1. several of the wins in which both lucas and masch played, masch was playing right back, which meant they weren’t both clogging up midfield.

2. many of the games in which only one played was due to injury, travel, red card, etc… things beyond the managers control. what would have happened if they had played in the same midfield even more?

3. on the other hand, in the games against the top teams, tougher games, both played. Which will skew the statistics.

Draw your own conclusions as to what this means in relation the the players and the managers decision making.

Yes but Jammyaus, here’s the problem with those stats.

People will draw the WRONG conclusions.

Some will jump laciviously on those stats to make their case that we need to drop Lucas… but
some of those 7 draws and 10 losses came early in the season, when …
Masch was crap/off form because of the whole Argentina struggling to qualify for the World Cup (he was the Arg Capt, so more pressure on the lad)
During this time, Lucas was actually one of the few players actually playing well and delivering the goods for 90 minutes.

When Masch finally found his feet and they were both playing quite well together in the middle, others were continually losing the ball those 2 had passed to them (somewhat notably, SG, but many others.)

It was not Masch and Lucas starting together that fucked us this seaosn… it was all the others around them forgetting how to play basic, simple football!

Loved the last paragraphs of Tomkins article…

The most damning financial statement is that Liverpool are currently paying £110,000 A DAY in interest on bank loans used NOT to improve the club, but simply for a leveraged buyout.

That is roughly the weekly wage of a world-class player (a top-class one, at least) every single day. That means that every single week, Liverpool could be paying David Villa, David Silva and five others, rather than interest on loans that have done nothing to improve the club.

Of course, not that there’s the transfer kitty to sign such talents.

Liverpool’s current squad costs approximately £143m. The club’s debt is more than twice (arguably three times) that amount. Whatever Benítez’s mistakes, the overriding fact is that he’s trying to build a bastion on quicksand, with two Yanks having made off with his foundations.

Fuckin ‘ell… the sky really IS falling!

and not to be a bloghog but two things…

1. Arthur… #185… you’re not actually… finally… seeing the light are you mate?

2. sachem (and others) in re: #186…
The assumption in every article written about the cancelled meetings leak, has been that the “senior source” was Chirstian Purslow.
Now I don’t know if it was, or if it wasn’t CP, but it is an ASSUMPTION that it was… otherwise someone would have “broken” the story that it categorically WAS!

… but that assumption is being made because of the “senior sources” tag.

but “senior sources” to Benitez are as follows… (in ascending order of power)

Operationally…
Christian Purslow, Managing Director
and
Martin Broughton, as interim CEO/CFO

…and this is why speculation points to Purslow… but… there are 6 Board Members who hold a position of seniority in terms of “power” over Benitez and as such are also “senior sources”

Back in Moores day, when we had shareholders as well as an owner, there were quite a few board members and we didn’t know who they all were…

Now, the identity of the SIX board members is clear…

George Gillete
George Jnr
Tom Hicks
Ian Ayre, Marketing Director, who replaced Tom Jnr, after his bought of email turrets syndrome.
Christian Purslow, who took Parry’s spot on the board
…and I’ve just forgot the 6th fellas name! SHIT… he’s one of the operational cronies that G&H appointed about the same time as Ayre, and took Moores board seat)

Anyway, my point is, maybe it was Purslow, maybe not… but there are at least 3 fellas on the board who have more to gain form discrediting Benitez than the other 3… who just work for them.

And one more thing… £43-47 million quid spent on “stadium design expenses” with most of it going to an Architectural firm in Dallas….
I’ll give you one guess who is on the board of that Architectural firm?
… ah fuck it, why be coy… I’ll give you the answer… Tom Jnr.

and 5year… re#180 and related posts…that was sort of my point.

Its always easy to point to one thing and say “that’s why” or “its his fault” but as much as everything happens for “A” reason, more often than not, they happen for a collective number of reasons.

Keane not being a Benitez choice in the first place.
The power struggle between Parry and Benitez.
Keane’s form in front of goal.
Benitez’ cold approach.
Them just not “getting on”.
Keane’s attitude in training.
Keane’s positional sense/awareness on the field.
Keane’s clear dissatisfaction on the bench (and visible reactions when subbed off)
His valuation ensuring immediate recovery of funds.
…and probably some stuff we have yet to learn.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xny5z_john-lennon-imagine_music

we may need a bit of this!

…or maybe, Lurg… a bit of this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iad3gV-9C1U

The article by Tomkins is detailed and reveals a lot of things.

I think its time for media to understand the problem and put a full stop to this campaign of maligning Rafa. I dont wish to comment whether Hiddink/Mourinho are better but what Rafa has achieved at Liverpool is no mean stuff. He made us believe that we can win the title. He is the reason why this season even the media tipped us to be favourite the win the title.

Give him the players he wants.Give him his first choice transfer target, he will give LFC the title. The writing is on the wall.

The biggest thing for me is the change in the academy. That guy Rodolfo will help big time. We are already watching some of his young finds at Barca and Arsenal. In my mind, Rafa wants to stay for years at LFC. He has a great dream in mind. One bad season does not give anybody the right to sack him and spoil his dream.

I am prepared to wait for him to deliver because i know when he delivers he will win us trophies galore.

En Rafa nosotros nos fiamos de

I think that I had too many beers last night Aitch; then started to look at some old Fowler clips and put meself on a downer. What a mess this is!

And the fun has only started:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/05/15/agent-sparks-questions-over-yossi-benayoun-s-liverpool-fc-future-100252-26450106/

For once I can say – thank fuck there is a world cup this summer to take some heat off LFC/Rafa.

BTW, did that dick really tried to chip the pen? Deserves a good booting if it’s the case.

When you think about it, what a set of nuts this guy had.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSjpO308j88&feature=related

Where did my post go?

Gerry, do you know if there is a limit on the number of links you can have in a post?

Can’t be arse re-writing it.

Aitch, the 6th board member would be Philip Nash I think.

The Tomkins article was very revealing – especially the bit about the state of our academy. 100 or so amateur scouts some of whom in their 80s!? When Rafa brought in the new guy he couldn’t believe how much of a mess the academy was in.

What makes me shake my head is that some fans criticise Rafa for the lack of players coming through our academy – when he’s only been calling the shots for a year. What also makes me shake my head is when fans read about all the issues the club faces and more and more is revealed – the fans comments still revert back to the fact Rafa shouldn’t be playing 2 holding midfielders.

It really is incredible how fucking short sighted and ignorant some football fans are.

Found a post from another blog well worth reading for those who haven’t already; it’s a couple of days old.

http://robbohuyton.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-im-sick-of-being-liverpool-fc-fan.html

Sums up pretty well what I’ve been thinking a feeling lately. It really is time for every Liverpool supporter out there to lay the manager debate aside and focus entirely on our financial predicament. Just to contemplate it is depressing in itself, but nothing will get better by burying ours heads in the sands and continue with the pro versus anti-Rafa debates.

And the alarming thing is… there are 3 articles on the Echo/Daily Post site today where once again the debt is stated as £270 million… which we now KNOW for FACT… for sure and for certain… is NOT the accurate amount!

I mean… the articles revealing the actual debt only just came out this week and they still write an article with that inaccurate and totally misleading figure in it?

Also there’s a story linking BennyOnion with Roma…
yet in the very article his agent states that Roma have NOT contacted them.
He states that he has NOT contacted Roma.
Just 2 weeks ago Benny himself stated he wants to stay in Liverpool.
Roma have stated that they have not contacted Benny or his agent.
All of which should quell the notion of writing such an article, yet they still publish it as
Benny “could be tempted by Roma offer”.

It is followed by a half-dozen comments by people slagging Rafa for thinking about selling him… coz he’s one of our few “football players”… and a half-dozen then claiming, he blows hot and cold, so take the money. (ignoring that we still owe Roma approx £7-10 million for Aqua, so such a move would net us fuck-all!)

Come on people THINK!
Journalism is DEAD and LFC fans are Brain-Dead!

This is what we will have to deal with for the entire summer.

Yes, the reports that Yossi “could be tempted by Roma” are made up of pure speculation. One might as well say “David Silva could be tempted by Liverpool”, which might be true but you can’t draw any conclusions out of that. Certain “journalists” make their living by overlooking things like this.

If Roma actually would try to sign Benny I wouldn’t necessarily be against such accepting that bid provided it was a sufficient amount in order to pick up a replacement that is at least as good. The best Liverpool could possibly get out of such a deal would be to let Benny be part of a switch deal plus cash in order to sign Mirko Vu?ini? who is a truly magnificent player. A striker who can also play on the flanks if need be. I doubt we could afford the in-between cost though, since he’s arguably been Roma’s top performer this season.

Sorry, that last post didn’t really work out the way I thought it would. What I meant to say was that it might not be a bad idea to sell Benny to Roma if they enough money to the table. Vucinic (not sure why the correct spelling didn’t work) would be the ideal replacement.

I do think Roma have a financial predicament of their own, though not nearly as bad as ours. They’ve been forced to sell some of their best players in recent years to balance the books. There have been several American businessmen interested in buying the club the past couple of years. Maybe they have been wise not the accept any offer. I’d take the half decent economy of Roma over our huge debt any day of the week.

Oh. Bad news.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/reds-mourn-idrizaj

My heart goes out to him & his family

What people aren’t getting at all is availability of funds isn’t a panacea for the shit we currently find ourselves in as a club. I will freely add change of manager there.

We DO need change and badly at that. Change of ownership, change of financial situation, change of recent history, beginning with the betrayal by Moores and Parry.

Do we still need Rafa! Hell yeah! If its in winter that we can tell which trees are truly green, then hasn’t Rafa’s loyalty to the club and its fans been proved? Think about that very carefully.

No funding for his squad; regression in squad strength (courtesy of the loss of Alonso, Arby and Hyypia), lack of boardroom stability; repeatedly unfair attacks by the media, and much more painfully, from insiders (Collymore, Lawro et al), and yet he plods on.

Do we need such a strong character? What conditions did Shankly inherit at LFC? We weren’t even a top club, we weren’t Division I regulars, our playing ground was shit, our training methods outdated, etc. If that doesn’t sound like a modern parralel I don’t know what is!

Rafa has brought in the likes of Masche, Torres and Reina; reinvented the play of Gerrard; won us more trophies than people acknowledge – UEFA CL, another CL final, several quarters and semi appearances, an FA Cup, a Charity Shield, a UEFA Super Cup, a Europa semi app first time of trying and (bar two seasons now) regular top four finishes. It DOES matter for the record!

This is a man who lives and breathes Liverpool and who has far outdone the new coaching benchmark, SAF’s earlier tenure, minus boardroom support and funding! Rafa has earned respect, period!

These are just a few reasons why Rafa MUST stay.

Sam, I don’t fall into the he has re-invented SG bullshit, SG was a wonderful player long before Rafa arrived. In fact it was Houllier who found SG and MO.
.
Secondly Rafa is a well paid member of this team and as such should get on with his job, afterall he signed a new contract.
.
If this available team put itself out week in week out it would have finished at least 7th.
.
As for Torres, Rafa offered him a chance to play in England, Torres is a loyal type player who loved playing for his AM team, he was unsellable in Spain, as he wouldn’t go anywhere else. Ps he was a star long before Rafa came along.
.
Should Rafa have to endure the media spotlight, endless lies, made up crap, the answer is no but when you become a member of the Anfield Fish Bowl, that’s what happens.
.
Rafa needs to stop responding to the media, taking swipes at non listening owner, etc and worry only about his team. If he stops talking to the media which he does when it suits him, things may get better.
.
If he continues as he is he will be gone, as the witch hunt will intensify.
.
Ps after recently being in Liverpool why are we not attempting to take over the ground on the Albert Dock, that would make a wonderful ground in a nice part of the city. Good transport links, wide open easy access area and a stadium easier to convert than build.

@Gaz

I agree. Rafa must stop responding to the media. That will atleast make it a bit harder for the papers to write nonsense.

So what your saying so Gaz is Rafa hasn`t improved SG and FT.

First of all SG was found by roy evans.It was evans who gave SG and also mo their first team debuts.

Stevie was an excellent midfielder when Rafa came.He was already an established English international.He had played mostly in central midfield in the previous two years to Rafa coming with the two years prior to that again he played all over the midfield including the left and right wings in which himself and danny murphy regarded as the “graveyard shift”.

Rafa also played stevie out wide particularly in 05/06 when he got his highest goal tally to date,23 goals.
Since then SG has been a regular 20 goal a season (or there abouts) man bar the season just passed.

Did Rafa make him better?Maybe but there could be an argument for saying he`d have reached that level anyway.

He has improved under Rafa Gaz,and it isn`t fair to say he was a star before Rafa got him.His goal tally rose considerably in Rafa`s tenure so the manager has to take some credit for that.

As for FT again he was a star at Athletico but crucially Gaz he only averaged around 15 goals a season there.Maybe the burden of carrying a whole club on his young shoulders was starting to tell on the lad.This less than briliant goal average turned some managers off trying to sign him.One of note was the tramp when he said he was a good player but could never handle the physicality of the EPL.
Rafa trusted he could do a job and took him on board.He is now a 30 goal a season man (injury permitting of course) and has himself been quoted as stating Rafa as the main reason for taking his game to a new level.
The media will not mention that too much because it dosen`t fit their agaenda.

The treatment Gaz,that Rafa has got from the british media is as FS used to say boardering character assasination.I can understand where your coming from but i think Rafa has sat and took the shite off them for long enough and i don`t blame him for taking a swipe at them.

They`ve it in for him because he didn`t play the game with them from day one.He won`t change them now,their teeth are firmly sunk into Rafa and they won`t let go until he says Adios.

And if our manager wants to have a swipe at the owners then he has my100% backing on that too.He will never take his eye off the ball regarding the team.So these swipes at the media and owners are hardly having an effect on the team.

The teams shite season has been debated and discussed to death in here but we all know Gaz,it all stems from the top.Our main priority now is to get that sorted.

and so the Javier Mascherano end game begins:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/05/17/fc-barcelona-transfer-talk-hurt-my-form-liverpool-fc-s-javier-mascherano-100252-26459483/

I hate these type of articles – the whole “my wife can’t settle and/or speak a word of English” bullshit. I mean it might be true, but fucking hell – could she not have taken English lessons??

Anyway it’s all part of the game that Masch is gonna play to get his move to Barca once the WC is over. The only way we’ll be able to keep him now is if the club is sold and we have some cash to splash – both scenarios which appear unlikely

This is going to be the most gosspip filled, tabloid wet dream of a pre-season in the history of Liverpool Football Club

To be fair Arthur i can understand his wife not being able to settle in England.

It isn`t esy to settle into another culture.Its not because they don`t want to its just they can`t.Learning English will not gaurentee she`ll be happy.It helps but she`ll still be far away from her family and friens and also her culture.It isn`t easy being away from home.Footballers an the other hand are better prepared,they know they might be in diffrerent cultures when they start out.

Let him go. Its all bullshit. And as George Carlin said ‘its bad for ya’. This ‘the wife cant settle’ shit is football speak for ‘I want out’. He knows we’re capitulating and that he’d have a la liga medal now if he’d left last yr. The seasons barely over a wk and he’s out with the wife shite already. She’s what? Argentinian? Yeah, all her friends and family are in Barcelona right? Do me a favour Javier…. You want out, be a man about it and just say it and spare us the bullshit. I’d respect you more.

What are you hiding behind Digger?

Why don`t you just say what you mean

Some figures on the goals scored by SG and FT in their careers.

Steven Gerrard
==============
Season Total
1998-1999 0
1999-2000 1
2000-2001 10
2001-2002 4
2002-2003 7
2003-2004 6
2004-2005 13
2005-2006 23
2006-2007 11
2007-2008 21
2008-2009 24
2009-2010 12

Fernando Torres
===============
Season Total
2000–2001 1
2001–2002 7
2002–2003 14
2003–2004 21
2004–2005 20
2005–2006 13
2006–2007 15
2007–2008 33
2008–2009 17
2009–2010 22

I will let the fellow Kopblog readers decide if Rafa has had a hand in improving SG and FT as players but for me the evidence is pretty compelling.

If Masch wants to go, then sell him to the highest bidder. This is, of course, if Rafa gets the money and the yanks do not put their sticky fingers in the money jar again.

So far a total of £50m quid has been ‘spent’ on the new stadium. This is fucking daylight robbery. At least Dick Turpin wore a fucking mask!

Sell Mascherano. Shouldn’t even hesitate. Just flog him as soon as possible for £35m and hopefully that money can go into the transfer kity. We musn’t do what we did with Alonso which was sell him last minute and then have very little time to bring in a replacement and have him settle into pre season games etc.

Give Masch a deadline to find another club. Tell any buying club what the terms are and set a deadline.

If Man City want Torres and he would like to leave I’d ask for Ireland + Wright-Phillips + Robinho + Adebayor + £20m and set a deadline.

If Real Madrid want Gerrard I’d ask for Lasana Diarra + £20m.

Sell Riera, Babel and Benayoun for about £25m in total.

We’d have sold 6 players, brought in 5 good players + £100m to go shopping for 6 or 7 additional good quality players.

Thoughts?

Generally agree with you LB, except for Torres. I believe he’s had a good relationship with the fans and would stay on.

Yeah but we are skint, we badly need squad strengthening and he’s worth £80m. Plus after the world cup we all know he’ll be crocked.

Just read the article posted by AGP. How in the name of blue fuck can Masch’s wife not have a sinlge word of English after all this time. Is she actually living in Liverpool? I smell bullshit in the air.

I agree with the master plan LB but I don’t see how the deals will get done early considering the world cup. All clubs, like us, will try and drive up the value of their players during the tournament. Let’s hope Babel has a good’un

I have a feeling that the Onion fella maybe off in the summmer as well but this is based on gut-feel, nothing else.

What about Beckford from Leeds? Shouldn’t cost that much and we could (maybe) afford his heightened wages demand since he is out of contract. Wouldn’t be a bad backup for FT, IMHO.

LB: Also agree with Ax…keep Torres & buy Ireland. The rest of what you said is ‘ok by me’
Plus, we cannot afford Adebayor’s wages anyway (they are the highest in the EPL, ffs!).

Lurgan – it’s pure bullshit – he’s jumping ship and hiding behind his chicken-shit story.

what I want to know is: – what happened in the most recent meeting between Rafa and Broughton – is Rafa happy with what he heard – i.e. will we have any fucking money to spend?

Interesting theory LB and some of those players you mentioned would defintely bolster our squad – however I wouldn’t go near Adebayor – the phrase “mercenary cunt” was invented just for him

Not a word of English? What, has she been locked inside the house all day unable to even pick up even the most basic words or phrases? I can understand if the wife and kids are struggling to settle in Liverpool, but surely this can’t be entirely true.

The article makes it pretty clear Masch will leave for Barcelona in the summer however and I’m all for it if we’ll get a good replacement. Perhaps we would swap him for Yaya Touré and get a certain amount of money on the side. Touré is very similar to Masch and a quality player as well. Not as great as the Argentinean can be of course, but considering how Mascherano underperformed early in the season, which was one of the main reasons the whole team struggled in my opinion, I think it would be a good deal. Otherwise, Barca would have to cough up a lot of money for him and then we’d have to find a decent replacement elsewhere.

Well LB #217 & #215,

Maybe you’re right that we should sell Torres ASAP if the price is right to strengthen our team as the Alonso business left us with little time for reinforcements.

You can call me a sentimental freak, I’d only say goodbye to players I hold dearly (including Alonso) if they’ve expressed a desire to leave. If they want to fight on, I’d support them and not let them go whatever the money.

If Masch had really said what has been mentioned in the press lately, then I wish him all the best and hope we get as much $$ from his transfer as possible. And if Torres expresses he wants to go too, then let’s start imagining….

LB: I think thats the right sort of idea, I dont agree with adebayor and maybe not robinho but I like the creativity. Just look at what mourinho was able to do last summer in turning his team around with some clever wheeling and dealing of some of his best players. What about diarra and van der vaart instead of the £20 million which is just as likely to go into G&H’s back pocket as it is into the transfer kitty

It would seem Juventus have now decided to give up their hunt for Rafa and bring in Luigi Del Neri as their new manager instead. Apparently both Inter and AC Milan would consider a move for Benítez if he were to leave Liverpool. Mourinho will probably be leaving Inter Milan for Real Madrid in the summer, so speculation will continue until Rafa himself or perhaps Martin Broughton will announce if Rafa’s staying or going.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/05/17/italian-giants-juventus-cool-interest-in-liverpool-fc-boss-rafa-benitez-100252-26459659/2/

Looking at that Masch rumour again: he says ‘I wanted to leave for Barcelona’. Unless one of the tabloids/websites have changed it around a bit? Anyway, the reason the missus doesn’t like the UK must be down to the food. I spent 7 years in London, and the only decent meat I could find for my BBQ’s was pork sausages! I m3ean, compare the deep fried crap you get there compared to those 600g beef steaks in Argy!
On a serious note, more rumours abound that the Chave are going to offer 40mill plus 4 players for Torres. I suppose we’ll have to get used to this shit over the next 3 months. They will even offer him double his current wages…but the flipside is, who would want to play for those horrible, ‘historyless’ blue cnuts anyway? And you would have to keep your missus locked up when you away on footy duty.

How do we know any money from a sale of masch or any player for that matter will go to the transfer fund?

So this is what it comes down to…
…not selling fringe players to ADD to the “core” or “spine” of a team that could be good enough to win the Prem with the right additions….
…but rather, selling off “key members” of that core or spine… and replacing them.

I think it would be sad if Masch left. I also think it creates a problem for us defensively… I would be even more surprised of Torres left…
…and I would be as flabbergasted as timmy, if any of this supposed “£100 million” we’d get for them went back into player purchases.

…Like I said… its gonna be a long summer….

Chelsea ready to make their move for Torres
By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent

May 17, 2010
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Fernando Torres will be the subject of a world record bid from Chelsea within days.

GettyImages

Fernando Torres wants Champions League football

The total package of transfer fee and salary will make Torres a staggering £130 million investment. And Soccernet has been informed that owner Roman Abramovich is personally taking control of the project to bring the Liverpool striker to Chelsea.

Torres has been linked with Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid for a some time but the Blues will be first to make a concrete offer.

Abramovich is ready to release the cash following a Premier League and FA Cup double this season, but he is also acutely aware he could cut an alternative deal with Liverpool in need of new players.

Chelsea are willing to offer three players in part exchange, as an option to smooth through the Torres transfer.

Abramovich is also prepared to match City’s expected offer to Torres of £200,000-a-week, which is being mooted via the middle men now authorised to try and clinch the deal.

An insider told Soccernet: “Torres is the best, and Roman wants the best. He has identified Torres as the player who can help him bring the Champions League to Stamford Bridge.

“Torres can go to City for just as much money perhaps even more, but it’s clear that Chelsea offer far more in terms of a crack at the Champions League whereas City aren’t even in it.”

Chelsea are drawing up a list of players to offer to Liverpool in part exchange for Torres that could take the overall transfer value above the £80 million world record Real Madrid paid for Cristiano Ronaldo.

The deal could be structured like this; pick any three players from a specified list plus £40 million cash up front for Torres. That offer, according to Soccernet sources, will be made well ahead of the World Cup finals in South Africa, and most likely early next week.

With the three players averaging around £15 million each, the total valuation of the Torres offer would be in excess of the Ronaldo fee.

Abramovich is personally spearheading the quest to land Torres, and his manager Carlo Ancelotti will consider which players to use as bait to tempt Liverpool: Jose Bosingwa, Nicolas Anelka, Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, Salomon Kalou and Paulo Ferreira.

Anelka is the one player the Italian coach might be reluctant to offer up and, of course, the Frenchman might not wish to return to Anfield – although he has expressed regret at failing to win a permanent move to the club after spending a loan spell on Merseyside.

Manchester City are also in a position to offer Liverpool a shopping list of swap players, as well as a cash payment in excess of Chelsea’s, but the prospect of joining the Double winners and a club intent on landing the Champions League would be far more appealing.

Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are battling with losses of £54.9 million, a net debt of £351 million, no Champions League football and with new chairman Martin Broughton an appointee of the club’s bank RBS, a £40 million cash-plus-players bid for their star asset will clearly be accepted.

Ironically, Broughton is a Chelsea season ticket holder, and any decision to sell would inevitably make him unpopular at Anfield.

Such is the ground work being prpeared at the Bridge for the Torres bid, that star striker Didier Drogba is already ready to welcome him to the club.

“Of course I would welcome Torres,” Drogba said last week. “Every time a new player comes here, it makes the club bigger and gives us a lot of strength. If there is a chance for him to come here, he will be welcome, because any help is welcome.”

If 40 million + 3 players from the list below… who would you choose (if decided that those monkeys sell Torres to Chelsea)

Jose Bosingwa, Nicolas Anelka, Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, Salomon Kalou and Paulo Ferreira

I would take Anelka + Deco + Bosingwa

Sorry Skeat but I stopped at ‘An insider told Soccernet. This means they know feck all about feck all.

I am not sure that we need to rip the team apart again. This is basically the same squad that came with a few points of winning the league 12 months ago. If we do go this way then we will have the same bedding in problems that we have experienced beforehand.

Let’s face it, if the Reds struggle next season like they did this, then Rafa will be out the door quicker than you could eat a tapas.

We need to keep a steady ship, keep the core players (if they want to stay that is) and try to make a few decent purchases with the proceeds from non-core players. After that, we have to hope sweet Jaysus that we don’t experience the same run of injuries again next season.

If Mascherano has indeed said all tht, i am 90% certain that he will leave. Unless Rafa brings 2-3 Argentinians to help Masch socialize,there is no way. He and Insua looks at each other from their respective windows. Cant they spend time on the playstation? If he goes, bring Parker. Idle replacement.

Torres one is still hard to believe. All depends on what happens with LFC. I dont think Torres is tht hungry for Champions league football tht he will leave LFC even if there is considerable investment in new players. Lets see. Anxious summer to follow

Of course no one really would like to sell a core player like Mascherano. He’s one of my personal favorites of our current squad, but I think in this case, unless those quotes from him are completely untrue, I can’t see us keeping him for another summer. Maybe Rafa should invite Masch’s family over to his place for some paella, no?

There are, however, a few things that makes me doubt Mascherano will be sold. For one thing, Barcelona seem like the only viable option; it’s probably the only club that could afford him and where he would also like to go. Now that might complicate things, because if I’m not mistaken, Barca will put up a huge bid for Cesc Fabregas during the summer. As I understand it they have already finalized a deal with Valencia for David Villa. Can’t really see them splashing more cash after that.

Besides, their top class holding midfielder Yaya Touré have found himself on the bench for most of the season. It’s said less gifted player Sergio Busquets have been used in favor of Touré because he’s one of their Catalan players. Why on earth would they sign Mascherano only to put him on the bench?

I don’t trust the report about Torres heading to Chelsea. For one thing, Martin Broughton has assured us in interviews it’s not going to happen. I just don’t think Broughton is stupid enough to sanction a sale to his own favorite club after those statements. Besides, the article by Harry Harris states Torres has previously been linked with the likes of Real Madrid, when in fact Torres would probably rather die than put on the Real Madrid shirt. Also I don’t think we could use any of the players linked as part of a swap deal. All of them are either past their best or simply not good enough as they are.

Sachem, how many assurances have we’ve been given by the LFC board, past and present. Yet we get smacked in the gob every single time. It’s time to wake-up and smell ‘le Cafe’

If you want, I have a great second-hand car to sell to you. Only one previous owner, who was a pensioner, and low milage – a bit like Bridge’s wife.

FYI, Broughton has just turned down a meeting with SOS. Why would he want to do that?

BLUE IS THE COLOUR – LOL.

Is it only me or am I going insane here?

Clearly you’re going insane Lurg…

Bridge’s wife = low mileage?
What fuckin crack are you smokin, she’s a town fuckin bike for chrissake!

…as for the list of Chelsea cast-offs… if and when they want to get serious and offer us Anelka, Cole (Joe, not the other douchebag) Essien, plus £60 million cash upfront, then and only then, we’ll consider discussing it without laughing… until then, they can fuck off!

As for Broughton refusing a meeting with SOS… why wouldn’t he… he’s got serious business to conduct finding us a new owner… SOON…
…taking time away from that task, to meet with SOS, would just be a distraction at this point.

That’s not a criticism of SOS.
They have done and continue to do much needed work…
…but Broughton (particularly as a short-term, interim Captain) can’t give them the assurances they’ll want, or even the answers to the questions they want answered… so there would really be no point in meeting with them.

The media will make hay of it though, coz its an easy gas soaked log to throw on our fire!

… sort of like the completely Bullshit Chav player exchange story!

Well then…. a small sliver of hope that not every pro-footy player is a self centered mercenarious cunt…

BBC.com
It’s not about the money – AC Milan star to play for free

Hearing millionaire footballers insist that they would play for nothing has become difficult to swallow for many fans.

But for one player – AC Milan and United States defender Oguchi Onyewu – at least, it’s been more than empty rhetoric.

The 28-year-old offered to play for the Italian giants for free after spending almost the whole season sidelined with injury since joining from Standard Liege in the summer.

Onyewu, who had a loan spell at Newcastle in 2007, made only one appearance for Milan before rupturing the patellar tendon in his left knee during a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica.

Having effectively been unable to play for a year of his three-year deal, which was due to end in 2012, Onyewu negotiated a one-year contract extension and told the club he did not want a salary during his final year.

The American, who has recovered from his injury and is part of his country’s World Cup squad, will now remain at the San Siro until the end of June 2013.

A club statement read: “Onyewu – who has been out for virtually the whole season due to injury, but who at this time is getting ready to face the World Cup adventure in South Africa with his national team – has become a star today with a significant gesture from a personal and professional standpoint.

“Onyewu has requested and obtained a contract extension from June 30, 2012 until June 30, 2013.

“With respect to that year, as was his wish, which has been appreciated by the club, Onyewu has asked not to receive any type of wages.

“This is an exemplary gesture that deserves our sincere congratulations.”

…errr… so then…
Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres… over to you????

Sachem, Barca have £250 to spend this summer because they realise they rely too much on Messi. So don’t be overly confident they wont stump up big money to put Masch on their bench. Also Toure has been injured for a lot of the season hence Busquets getting more action.

If Barca get David Villa I am going straight to the bookies to put money on them winning the double.

The Torres to Chelsea reports are a load of balls.

Aitch, how is Onyewu gonna put food on his table?

I’m assuming that’s a tongue, very firmly in cheek, question LB?

There isn’t a top level footballer that makes less in ONE week than I do in an eniter year… and I manage to put food on the table just fine.

I personally think ALL footy contracts should go to a pay-as-you-play deal.

Complete passes, make tackles, win corners and free kicks, and pens, set-up and score goals, run yer bollocks off for 90 minutes and get paid handsomely!

Give the ball away, watch your teammates run, hoof it aimlessely upfield, kneecap the first defender when taking free-kicks or corners, take throw-ins inline with the opposition 6 yard box and 2 touches later Pepe Reina has it, and EVERYONE gets their paycheck docked!

Looks like Juve has appointed a new manager. Which makes Rafa more likely to stay!

Sorry, more rumours: Just heard on the radio (in SA) on the way to work that Liverpool have rejected an offer from the Arse, for Pepe Reina. I think I heard correctly when they said 15 mill (surely 50 mill for Pepe)? But fuck that, Pepe isn’t going anywhere & I’m sure Torres will give us at least another season. Broughton’s house would be firebombed if he did go to the Chavs.
Oh, and the newsreader also mentioned that ‘it looks like Fabregas will be on his way to Barca, involving a swop deal with Yaya Toure’. That sounds more likely to me, but I do wonder where therse guys get their info from as there is absolutely fuck-all on the net yet.

Ah good to see the Summer Rumour Mill kicking off nicely.

I think / hope the Cheleas piece is pure fiction – but as Aitch said I’d only be interested in Anelka, Essien and Joe Cole. Otherwise thanks but no thanks Chavs – that’ll be £100M up front cash please

But it’s all so tireseome isn’t it? We’ve been given no assurances about our manager’s/ best player’s futures and whether we’ll have a transfer kitty or not. Perhaps I’m just being impatient, but isn’t the silence from Anfield deafening??

Arthur the club have no news to reassure us with. There is no money, no sign of a buy out, and as a result Rafa is probably having a long hard think about his future.

Hopefully he is on the beach relaxing & drinking coupious amounts of sangria. I’ve been expecting a statement from the club on the last round of meetings between Rafa & Broughton. As you say Arthur, the silence is deafening. Makes for a rather boring week, which maybe is not all bad hey?

Arthur we’ll know more Saturday after Mourinho tosses his winners medal into the crowd and tells the world where he’s going. With Juve having tired of Rafas procrastination Inter will be his only likely out. Of course this all depends on the outcome of Rafas meetings with Broughton. If the assurances Rafa needs arent met he’ll be off and who could blame him. But as you say, they’ve had what, 2 meetings now? And one cant help but feel the silence is worrying. Although Broughtan did insist on a gag order.

Digger, AC Milan are also looking for a new manager. Leonardo was fired.

Yeah, cant see Rafa landing there though LB. Berlusconi is a notoriously ‘involved’ president. We all know how much Rafa loves his control! Just dont think it’d be a good fit for Rafa, or at least not his desired destination. Then again, if all breaks down here, Manager of AC Milan, not the worst gig in the world!

It’s true that Berlusconi probably is more interfering than most other club presidents in Italy, but generally, as I believe I have mentioned in here before, the manager has a lot less influence in within Italian football clubs than english ones for instance. Rafa wouldn’t be able to negotiate his way to anywhere near the kind of influence he has in Liverpool with his current contract, no matter what Italian club is interested in his services. But of course, money might well be the key issue and the lack of it certainly restricts him with us at the moment. If Mourinho could accept the conditions at Inter Milan then I suppose Rafa could. Oh, well, maybe it’s pointless to continue with these speculations. Hard to resist though.

Seems there might be credence to these ‘rumours’. Balague is no mug & generally knows what is happening with Rafa & the Spanish players. Rafa is fluent in Italian as well which does not help matters.
http://www.guillembalague.com/rumore…Benitez&id=279

What is says in the Balague link Rafalution just posted:

Initial contact between Inter Milan and Rafa Benitez has taken place. Inter technical director Marco Branca has been in touch with the Liverpool manager him to ask him if he would like to take over at the Serie A club.

Rafa will need to decide soon. He is still waiting for signs of a good reason to stay at Liverpool – or a major offer to convince him to leave. Inter Milan would be enticing, but Rafa`s first choice is to remain at Anfield. The problem is, nobody at Liverpool is willing to guarantee him that any money he can raise through selling players will be reinvested in the team – nor is there any evidence that funds available from the board will be sufficient for the squad rebuilding that is urgently required.

Should Benitez move to Serie A, he would inherit an ageing Inter squad with many senior players mirroring a brand of football in Jose Mourinho`s image and with just two genuinely creative midfielders in Sneijder and Cambiasso. Benitez would need money to spend and an injection of new blood should he decide to make the switch.

AC Milan have also made contact with Rafa`s agent on two occasions now, and an offer from Inter`s rivals may hold greater appeal than following in Mourinho`s footsteps after a season in which they could have won everything possible.

Lads , things will hot up once the CL Final is over – with Mourinho leaving whatever the result.

Like I said – the lack of public announcements from Anfield is very telling.

My bet is – we’ve no money, we can’t guarantee Rafa money from selling will actually be available. Result: Rafa walks, Torres & Mach leave – with maybe Stevie G going as well

End Game: a huge struggle next year before our club is finally sold to some Chinese businessman/ human rights abuser

Arthur, alternatively….

Rafa stays such is his determination to succeed at Liverpool. Masch leaves, Torres comes back from World Cup injured, the club make no signings.

As a result we struggle next season – fans moan that Rafa plays 2 holding midfield players, media say he’s been at the club 7 years and therefore should have a squad capable of winning the league by now, Digger says it’s a disgrace we can’t beat Wolves at Anfield and the manager has a lot to answer for, Burgerman says it took Taggart 7 years to win the league so therefore Rafa should be sacked. AFC Liverpool increase their fanbase by 1000%.

I`ve always dreamed of playing footy at Anfield.

I think i`ll do a Michael Knighton on it and put a bogus £700 million offer in for the club and go out and kick a ball in front od the KOP and get all the adulation from the crowd before me cheque bounces!

I`m bored…

Marcus Babbel has got the Hertha Berlin job,good luck to him. gone
Rules him out for the Liverpool gig.

Oh wait….hasn`t Rafa gone yet? I`m sorry my bad….

gone???

Did anyone hear reports about Riera thumping Pacheco in training just prior to him spouting shite on Spanish radio about Rafa?

Ya,then the greek panned him out !!

If Masch leaves hows he gonna play 2 holding midfielders LB?! And I’d be right on both counts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck5F5FoGPJ8

Felt nostalgic. I wish Torres stays. I will be heart broken if he goes.

Here is another one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQ9A5Rklj0&feature=related

Fernando…You are adored here. Listen to your heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J0QgEi8AQg&NR=1

Anyone heard of a Graham Hunter of talk sports, apparently he’s claiming Jose the Moaning One has stated somewhere that he is far from managing Real Madrid, and has been asked by the prospective owners or a top ranking football club who have just missed out on CL football, to manage the club. He also claimed the club had two owners and they were being bought out.
.
Anyone heard anything about this. Well at least if it’s us none of us will ever have to worry about the press creating shit for our manager. He’ll be way in front of them, with the egotistical shit he creates himself.
.
At the very least we’ll piss ourselves with his responses to constant questions about absolute shite.

Been busy as hell and have time only to catch up on the comments. Guys 99.99% of all the printed shit on the internet is pure bullshit. The Masch rumors for example come from Masch saying at the beginning of the season he was flattered by the Barca interest and that it did affect his game.

At this stage of the season they have nothing better to write about so are dredging up old stories and trying to create something out of nothing to fill space.

The more worrying thing for me is the interest from AC not Inter. For the life of me I cannot understand how the board cannot assure Rafa that all monies raised will be spent on the team. For me that has to be the minimum if they won’t to keep him. I also think if they are serious about us staying in touch and keeping the squad together they have to do everything in their power to ensure he stays.

We have a great first team with decent squad players, thin yes, but we can challenge if we do not pick up too many injuries. Supporters and board members a like have to realize it was an anomaly of a season and anything that could go wrong did from all aspects, top to bottom.

We have the foundation of a dynasty if only we could get rid of those parasites at the top. Our youth set-up is good and we should start to see evidence of the youngsters coming through more and more. This will go some way to negate our spending or lack of in the short term until the stadium is built.

What people should also bear in mind is that with teams like City and Spurs outspending us by a considerable margin a guaranteed 4th spot will be harder for everyone. If Arsenal cannot convince the Fab one to stay they could be in the shit next year as they fell off dramatically towards the end because of their thin squad. They are in a similar position to us, great first team but little quality back-up if players get injured.

After all this Liverpool team is the same team that ran United close the year before, while coping with injuries to Torres and Gerrard. Selling the fringe players and adding three more decent ones and we could have a decent squad to challenge if we can get a break injury wise. The addition of the Serb striker on a free, Joncovic (hope that is near enough) with Pacheco, Nemeth, Ngog, El Zhar, Babel (still not convinced but might have no option unless we can bring in Turan for him.) Kuyt, Maxi, Benny and a fit Torres should give us enough attacking options across the board. Especially if you throw in Gerrard, Aquillani and Lucas in the attacking sense with Masch as the defensive midfielder with Lucas covering in that role as well

However for me it is the left and right back positions that are more of a worry. At the right back Johnson has added a lot, had a bad patch when he came back from injury but that was to be expected. I liked Kelly and he will give us decent cover with Darby at a push (Degen to go). Left is the most vulnerable position, Fabio will go and Insua needs a quality player as back up and to challenge for the spot. This should be a priority. Centre back we are fine with a fit Skertal as Kelly and Ayala (impressed with him) can cover there as well and the Jolly Greek Giant had a good debut season. Carra could not possibly have as bad a season as he did and maybe the Agger, Skertal combination will start to bear fruit if Carra is reaching the end.

Aqualani and Maxi will be like new signings with a preseason under their belts and we could see the best of them next year, although Maxi settled well and I like what I saw of Aquillani.

The other option is to maybe cash in on a few fringe players, Degen, Fabio, Reira are a given but Babel, Benny, El Zhar could be traded to bring in a fresh attacking option or Babel or Benny traded to bring in a Turan type player.

I think however that if Gerrard and Torres reproduce their form of the season before and stay relatively fit, add to that a fit Aquillani, settled Maxi and a few youngsters progressing there is no reason to be pessimistic for next season, despite the lack of funds. New owners would be my number one priority as stability and direction from the top is paramount to success and progression. We are generating enough income if we where not saddled with so much debt from their leveraged buyout. Moors and Parry should hang their heads in shame.

Gaz – that’s hilarious

Looks like Fabregas is off to Barca. With them maybe getting Mascherano and David Villa looking very likely to arrive – Barca will be fairly formidable next season

Would be a hammer blow for the Gunners though

Actually – just thinking – if Barca do get Fabregas – will they actually be able to afford Mascherano as well?

Looks as if Digger has come out in support of Rafa

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/05/19/rafael-benitez-must-stay-as-liverpool-fc-manager-says-john-barnes-100252-26474176/

Good on ya, Digger (the real one, not ‘No.10′ from Kopblog).
Pedro, Busquets, Iniesta, Cesc, Xavi, Toure…how are they going to fit Masch into that midfield? I know, sell Toure for Masch, but there are still too many quality players there to keep happy (i.e. not sit on the bench). Toure has already come out & complained about note enough game time.
Mind you, I would rather have Pep’s problem with the midfield, than Rafa’s.
As much as I like Masch, I would welcome a swop for Yaya Toure…PLUS 10 million or so. The current Liverpool side lacks height & Toure is a good couple of feet taller than Monster.

Arthur if Barca use Yaya Toure as make weight in the Fabregas deal then they might come in for Masch. But then again they might come in for him anyway as they have a big warchest to spend this summer. The prize money they have received for winning the CL, World club championship, la liga 2 years on the spin, TV revenue and all the sponsorship money will be going straight into the kitty for Pep to spend. If they sign David Villa I’ll going straight to the bookies for them to win the lot because his finishing coupled with their build up play is a frightening prospect.

I wish I was as optimistic as Keith. I think several of our players are not good enough for us to be able to compete. A number of them over performed in 2008-09 and since then Man City and Spurs have both improved a great deal and will improve further while we stand still. Apart from Gerrard and Torres we don’t have a better squad than City or Spurs never mind the teams that finished in the top 3.

I read that Spurs are offering Dos Santos and £7m to get Turan. Dos Santos is already at Galatasaray on loan. Turan has been valued at £11m by Galatasary and we don’t have the funds.

Lack of pace was a big big problem for the Reds last season.Cisse scored 29 times for Panathinaikos last season in 45 games, a vastly superior player to Mr Magoo ( Kuyt).Selling him was a huge mistake, he could of pushed the Reds to fifth.Time for a new blog.

29 goals in the greek league is some feat alright

keane got how many in scotland in a few months?

sorry for the smart arsed comment but had to be said

over and out

Cisse is still vastly superior to Babel and the rest of the strikers @ the club, apart from FT.Cisse scores for fun and did ok @ Anfield.The Greek league is a higher standard than the Jocks.

Can someone look up how many Cisse scored for the Reds, in all his starts? I struggle to remember many goals from him (I know his leg was broken, but his goals per games ratio surely was crap?).

Cisse: 22 goals in 49 appearances (43 starts)

Crap? No.

Nemeth scored 3 goals in 7 appearances for AEK last season.The future?.

Cisse never really got a chance – but to honest, although he is certainly a better striker than Kuyt, Babel and NGog – I don’t think he’s all that great – all pace no brain – sure he’s not in the French squad. Crouch and Bellamy were better

But in saying that he did score in the penalty shoot-out in Istanbul so he’ll always have a place in my heart

Ok LB, better than I thought. But I’d agree with Arthur in that Bellamy & Crouch are/were better.
So I suppose Burger does have a point.
All we can hope for is: Torres staying, Gerrard staying (& finding his form again), Babel adapting (& changing his attitude, and Jovanovic being a sensation?
No point in longing for Cisse, Crouch et al.

I think Cisse, Crouch and Bellamy are all pretty much on a similar level.

That Djibril Cissé is a “vastly superior” player to Dirk Kuyt is possibly the most ridiculous statement I’ve ever read in here. Sorry BM, but I think Cissé offered less to the team performances than Babel during his time at Liverpool. No footballing brain what so ever and his finishing was as far from that of Torres as the earth is to the sun. He has undeniably scored a lot of goals in his career, but as I still doubt he’s good enough for the Premier League.

I’d rather have Cisse as a striker than Kuyt to be honest.

Rafa is clearly getting pissed off with the English press & ‘fans’. Love the fact that he still refuses to call old Purple Nose ‘Sir’!
RAFAEL Benitez has declared his intention to stay on as Liverpool manager for another four years, adding that he has “no evidence” that Fernando Torres is seeking a move away from Anfield.

Benitez’s future has been in serious doubt for several weeks as his agent has held talks with Juventus, leading Liverpool’s board to consider a change of manager. Some tensions remain between Benitez and the Merseyside club’s hierarchy, but, having seen Juventus appoint Luigi Del Neri, the Spaniard believes he will be staying at Anfield.

“My future is with Liverpool,” Benitez told reporters in Madrid. “I have four more years of contract and I want to succeed. I have no offer [from another club]. I hope to make a competitive team.

“My critics in London say that I am not a good manager and experts with an English accent here [in Madrid] say the same. But Liverpool has had an average of 69 points in the last 12 seasons. The club made a huge mistake, which was to start winning four trophies [under his management]. Then people will ask for more. [Sir Alex] Ferguson took seven years to win the Premier League.
Benitez played down suggestions that Torres wants to join a new club following Liverpool’s failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The Spain forward has been strongly linked with a move to Chelsea, but Benitez said: “I have no evidence that Torres wants to go. Right now he is focused on recovering from his injury, winning the World Cup and then he can think about his future. He has multiplied the image of Liverpool in Asia because he makes women crazy there.”
The Spaniard also defended his style of management after Albert Riera, the Liverpool and Spain winger, claimed that he did not talk to his players. “It is a lie that I don’t talk to the players,” he said. “He [Riera] made a mistake in an interview and I have witnesses and video of something that I will not count. ”

Me too. Dont forget about his fantastic equalizer in the FA cup final Arthur! What a pass that was from Stevie, Cisse still had a bit to do though, superbly dispatched. Not a Rafa signing so was never gonna survive the inevitable cull. Apparently we need another 5 new players this Summer? Anyone heard this?!

Cisse is a far better striker than Dirk – but in reality (up until last season) you can’t argue with who you’d rather see in a red shirt – Kuyt’s 2008/09 was superb. The less said about 2009/10 the better – but he wouldn’t exactly be on his own there would he.

Anyway the flip side of all the doom and gloom could be that we keep the three lads (Stevie, El Nino and Masch) – the new striker lad is an instant hit and we’re able to somehow buy a left back and right/left winger – oh look!!…. a squadron of flying pigs…….

LB being optimistic is all we have left. The comment was in the context of not having any money to spend. We don’t have a bad starting eleven, yes we are thin if we pick up more than our fair share of injuries but it is still the same team that finished second with the most goals.

I agree Spur and City will improve and have better and deeper squads but not necessarily a better starting eleven, though City will probably spend heavily and if they gel it could spell trouble, ditto for Manu strength wise, Chelsea is another problem because they have quality and depth all over the squad.

I said we would be more competitive than most gloom mongers want to accept I did not say we were a shoe in for the title. If we can start well and get some confidence than I expect us to challenge for the top four and that means a credible challenge. Yes we need investment but it isn’t going to happen in this window. So let’s hope our youngsters and freebies step up and make a difference.

Its no use throwing the towel in just yet.

Well said Keith!

Well said KeitSA – however a lot of that optimism will evaporate if we lose some of our star players – but here’s hoping that doesnt happen

Fair point Keith. I still have the deflated feeling though and I think that will remain until I see some tangible good news about the club.

@BM

Cisse is better than Kuyt when it comes to goal scoring.

So Barcelona finally gets David Villa. With that atleast Torres going to Barca rumour will end. Toure for Mascherano is interesting. I think Scott Parker for Mascherano will be better. Hope he stays though.

Would like to knw all ur opinions about Banega,Mata,Wilson,Carlton Cole,Scott Parker?

Mata = wicked! Not sure about the rest.

David Villa signed for Barca – I’ll be going bookies. They will be scary next season. If they buy Fabregas – “forget about it”.

Anyone watching the Copa del rey final,its a craker.

Seville one up at half time but Athletico have dominated with loads of chances.

The game is being played at the Nou Camp and 80,000 tickets went to the clubs.It makes for a fantastic atmosphere.

P.S. Deadly dirk over cisse any day of the week.

Sachem, how in hells name can we sit here and bitch about Cisse scoring 20 plus goals, for christ sake what do you want scoreless draws.
.
And as for Babel, Cisse was head and shoulders above him. Babel still hasn’t scored that many goals. Cisse gave a shit about this club everytime he went out. Babel doesn’t.
.
Also lad take into account his horrific broken leg.

Been busy so no comments or a while. Looking at LB 216 and the transfer activity proposed.

Assuming Rafa can keep any money generated
Steve, Nando, Mascher, Benny O, Babel, Riera out? Brave rafa !
Adebayor, SWP, Robinho no thanks, no way at all. Steven Ireland maybe, uncomplicated by international football.
Lassana Diarra .. maybe. Seems a bit full of himself (as is Ireland).

Problem I see is making a team tick with a host of new faces. I can’t see that happening.

Nope, the more likely situation is what Keith points to. A nip here and a tuck there with a prayer that we don’t have injuries to crucial players (basically ‘Nando).

As a hurler on the ditch (armchair supporter) I would look to shift on some fringe players and bring in new blood. El Zhar, Nameth, Babel (for whom we might get a few bob), Deegan, Darby, Skyrtl and Riera, who I’d say will go, tho’ he, like Babel, has ability and a brain (unlike Babel). Maybe 20 – 25 ml all told ?

I’d be happy that Mascher-Lucas-Aqua (fit)-Stevie (fit and interested)-Benny O can take care of the middle and point.

Jovanovic, Maxi, Benny, Kuyt on the flanks would worry me simply because I don’t see pace on the wing. I do appreciate Glenda could contribute there.

Left full back and experienced back-up striker = problems.
Agger was quite competent at the end of the season but I’d prefer him in the centre. It’s where we need an experienced player (another Maxi ?).

So that leaves us with some money, a bunch of players off the wage bill so the option of fringing in 2 frees at high wages and 1/2 bigger signings (~10 million). It can be done and we still hang on to our biggest assets.

Finally it opens up space for Ayala and Pachego as well as Ngog and Insua to continue their development.

The big question for me is Stevie and his attitude, interest and captaincy. Rafa needs to be clear and ruthless here if necessary, We cannot afford to carry him again this year. There is too much riding on him as he sets the tone for the team. Rafa has to get his right for me.

dougle,

I’d keep Skrtel. He just recovered from injuries, and is the natural replacement for Carra.

And yes, we need to get Stevie interested, else I suggest we sell him for some real money!!!!

Yeah I definitely wouldn’t sell Skrtel at this point our biggest problem apart from all the injuries and in particular the loss of Torres and Gerrard out of sorts was the defense. The year before we did not play particularly well in the beginning but we kept clean sheet and nicked points most of the time. Confidence grew and we saw champagne football towards the end of the season as we gelled and clicked into a rhythm.

This year, due in part to injuries and having to change defensive combinations on a regular basis we shipped so many second half goals it became one of my nightmares going into the last ten minutes of a game 1-0 up waiting to see us concede.

We missed Aurelio badly as Insua was not quite ready to carry the burden for the entire season. Agger was out for large parts of the season, ditto Skrtel, Kelly, Johnson and Cara did not have the best of season by his high standard. That can happen to players when your defense is always changing. Stability and familiarity is key in defense. Hence if we can get everyone fit we are nowhere near as bad as this season has made us out to be.

Left back has to be a priority as Aurelio will go. Jancovic will help in the striking department and I would also give Nemeth a chance his strike rate is impressive and he is also left footed for variation. For me, we need to keep this team together, continuity so we can gel and get into a rhythm quickly. Too many changes will affect that and it will take that much longer to get out of the starting blocks. I would however like to see more pace out wide and if that means sacrificing a Benny or a Babel to bring in a decent winger then so be it. I would not do too much else on the limited budget that we will have. Left Back, Striker (done) and wide man and hope we cope better with injuries next time around.

I see we sold San Jose for a 2 mill profit not a bad piece of business.

Yep, I would defo keep Scary. I read elsewhere that Rafa has said that his confidence had dropped to virtually zero during the first-half of the campaign and he was starting to get back to something like himself before injury struck again.

Honestly I do not see any reason to keep Babel now. How many chances does the guy need? He may become a great player but it will not be in the EPL and it will not be with LFC. Let’s hope he has a good WC.

I have a sneaky feeling that the onion fella might go as well.

Read an article in the Mirror by David Maddock saying Barca have targeted Torres for £70m.

Barca would be the only team for me, that could tempt Nando away from Anfield. Great city, home country, great team, chance to partner his int’l strike colleague, and an opportunity to get serviced by Messi, Xavi etc. Fecking hell. 70 mill sterling is a lot of dough, but the problem is – Rafa won’t see any of it.
Please God, let Nando stay for at least another season.

I’m not so sure Barca have the cash to buy Villa, Torres, Fabregas and Mascherano – something has to give

My feeling is Barca wont go for Torres

Arthur, their president says they have £250m net to spend this summer.

Villa £34m wrapped up.

That leaves £216m more to get Torres (£70m) Fab (£40m) Masch (£30m) and still have change.

Be worried.

where did you see that figure LB???

If true, then obviously yes – I should be worried

I don’t Torres will want to go rather than the buffons wanting to sell.

The big problem is as we all know, Rafa won’t see the money. He might be given some money certainly not all the money to replace but he won’t be given money to add to the squad/team.

A side point. Does anyone know what Scouser called the North Koreans in the 1966 World Cup?

Lads this tune was posted on RAWK by “the crimson pirate” an anti gillete & hicks anthem :

“We are the sons of anfield”

heres the tune and his words below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHn5As1SPCY

We are the Sons of Anfield
A proud and gallant band
You’ll see no white flag flying
Within our red command.

We are the Sons of Anfield
We have just one demand:
To see the Yankees running
Back home to Uncle Sam.

We are the Sons of Anfield
A proud and gallant band
You’ll see no white flag flying
Within our red command.

YNWA

Ax and Keith – about Skertyl I don’t know anymore than what I’ve seen but he did go backwards last season. Fair enough if Rafa can re-hab his confidence but it needs to happen. I hope so as he seems a straightforward honest type of player who does not bitch and moan and neither does he cheat.

Dougle, that’s where Rafa’s well renowned man-management skills will come in handy

dougle… would you “go forward” if your central defensive partner headbutted you in the first 15 minutes of the first game of the season, breaking your jaw and giving you a concussion?

As for Torres leaving… its only going to happen if he wants to go.
Who was the last STAR player at the top of his game that got sold against his wishes?
Star Players have almost ALL the power these days.

FT loves it at LFC… LFC fans adhore him.
Rafa is a big fan and supporter, so Torres can reject any deal that comes our way… what are the owners going to do?
Bench him?

Not gonna happen with Rafa at the helm, and they can’t/won’t fire him… purely for financial reasons… and they won’t be here themselves after December at the very, very latest. (Christ, how scary is that worst case scenario?)

Clam down lads… its all bullshit.

As for ANY news article claiming ANY club has “TARGETED” one of our players… well fuck them!
They can “target” who they want…

I’ve “targeted” Halle Berry as my next sexual conquest… after that, I’m “targeting” Pene Cruz and Salma Hayek for a 3-some… and I might just “target” a quick knob of Millie Klode…
…but none of them are EVER gonna “accept my bid”!

Nice one Aitch, If it were me I would get every red cent I could get my hands on and go straight for Millie……….. Man, she is gorgeous!

But she ain’t ever gonna accept my offer either.

It’s silly season, and we are going to hear rumour after rumour about who going here, there or any fucking where!

LFC have to get new owners with very deep pockets as their number one priority, keep their best players and get said owners to stump up 100m quid for new players………. Easy eh?

Thanks Aitch, I can’t stop thinking about Millie now. I’m at work with a newspaper over my lap!!

Well steve since the newspaper probably has a big smiling Cameron photo on it… that could be Particularly Embarrasing!

Your co-workers happen by… spots the tenting in your kecks… with a newspaper featuring a phjot of the Coalition PM’s Mug smiling back at them.

Good luck selling the “no, no… wait, total misunderstanding… see I was on Kopblog and some lad mentioned that SkySports bird, Millie Klode…”

As they walk away, giving you that “sicko” glance back over the shoulder…
…only now the situation is threatening to spiral out of control, coz you’ve stood up to pursue them, trying to explain, see…
…and in doing so, the newspaper has of course begun to slip off your lap.
You’ve still got raging knob for Millie, of course (and honestly who doesn’t) and are still super tenting your pants (and I’m talking summer concert series temporary stadium tent,) so you’ve instinctively reached down, grabbed the paper, and pressed it in place.

So now, due to the awkward bulge in your pants and the slightly bent over stance caused by having to hold the newspaper in place, you’re sort of limping after them, down the hallway, pressing a picture of the new Tory Prime Minister firmly against a raging hard on, yelling “honest, honest, its not what you think. I can explain!”

…and all because I had to bring up Millie Klode!

I duly apologize Steve…

… mind you, that new Charlotte bird is also a bit tastey!

LIVERPOOL ECHO EXCLUSIVE – RAFA GIVES FANS WHAT THEY WANT!

Fans of Liverpool Football Club have faced some twists and turns this season. Ownerships Issues and Injuries have led to one of the worst seasons in living memory at Anfield, but that might all be about to change.

In a remarkably bold move… Out are Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard… Out too, is Jamie Carragher… and Out are the rest of the first team squad.

In there place, a summer of sweeping change has seen Rafa bring in Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Alejandra Ambrosio, Jennifer Ellison, Millie Klode, Georgie Thompson, Charlotte Jackson, Olga Kurylenko, Eva Mendes, Ana Beatriz Barros, Rebecca Romeijn, Abi Clancy, Scarlett Johanson, Zoe Saldana, and Miranda Kerr.

“The fans are demanding pretty football.” said Rafa, explaining his decision. “People did not like my guarantee of a 4th place finish last season. They do not understand that I was trying to instill confidence in my team. Maybe in retrospect it was ill-advised, but this season I feel confident in saying that no one will provide prettier football than Liverpool FC.”

However, fans hoping for a more adventurous approach with their pretty football may be disappointed. The only player to survive the cull was Lucas Leiva, and with the signing of Jenna Jameson and Brianna Banks, it appears Rafa will persist with 2 holding midfielders… and as Jenna commented at the press conference, “we’ve gotten pretty good at holding balls up.”

In addition to the above mentioned players, a host of Victoria’s Secret girls have been brought in to liven up the Academy.

In related news… tens of thousands of fans swarmed Anfield when it was announced on Radio Merseyside that the new singings would be “unveiled” and “revealed to the public”.
A spokesman for the local radio station suggested that the announcer had “perhaps not chosen his words wisely.”

Merseyside Police released a press statement saying there were no serious injuries.

Aitch, the difference is Torres might want to play for Barca. Thats a realistic possibility. I’m not sure if its realistic that Salma Hayek would want to be your chick though.

…so that’s how its gonna be, eh LB?
NICE!

You might be right about Salma… but check this out…
Long before she was famous, I did actually meet Halle Berry, and asked her out. She said no, but did thank me for asking her and said she’d have said yes, if she didn’t already have a boyfriend.
She was probably just letting me down easy, but I’m clinging to it!
So how about that… Gorgeous and NICE!

(of course, now they’re both famous, so yeah, probably ….snowball… hell!)

I still think FT/Barca is a big “might” though.
Torres has not shown himself to be the Robinho type. He stayed loyal to Atletico, when he could have moved on.

But there are no assurances on offer for anyone asasociated with LFC right now… so you could hardly blame the lad for not just shooting these things down and “committing” publicly.

This sort of nonsense, linking our players with Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, will persist through June 12… then die off a bit as the WC takes headline space… then plume back up in July.

The hope… the HOPE… is that some sort of buy-out will happen by then (preferrably before then) so that we can then get things sorted in July/Aug.

All this bollocks about “Rafa seeks assurances in a meeting with Broughton” is just that… bollocks.
… there are no assurances to be had.

Broughton is an interim CEO. His mandate is NOT to make long term plans or decisions… outside of finding “the right buyer”. That’s it.
The day-to-day ops are still being primarily conducted by Ayre and Purslow.

All Rafa can get from any of them are statements that G&H can go back on whenever they see fit…. until such times as a deal is struck with a buyer.
He just needs those statements in his back pocket to deflect the media shitstorm that will be coming our way over the summer!

How all of that plays out, will largely determine how much Torres “might want” to play anywhere else.

Guys the media hysteria is just that complete hysteria trying to get headlines. I used to read all the transfer rumors bit know there only a few sites I even bother to look at because the rest are just pure fabrication and speculation. The old adage you throw enough shit against the wall one might stick.

The lasted stick is Gerrard is fed up with Rafa, if anything the fans are fed up with Gerrards abysmal form this season and glass house, stones springs to mind. They take innocuous comments twist it and there you have a world exclusive of Halle Barry pregnant with Atich’s love spawn.

The players and Managers are so sick of the intrusive repetitive questions looking for the next scope that any throw away line or sarcastic comment or even no comment is twisted to make up the headlines.

Raf refused to answer speculation that he refused to go down on Gerrard in the changing rooms, thus leading to a major falling out. This could lead to either Rafa or Gerrard leaving in the off season.

We will see very little transfer activity this time around because we have fuck all to spend. Rafa will have money from the few odd sales, Gerrard and Torres are going nowhere unless the Yanks really take the piss and why would they as it would devalue the sale. Hopefully with the sale of San Jose, Reira, Degan, Aurelio and maybe one or two other fringe youngsters that wont make it we can pick up a really good attacking left back. Then, if we do sell Babel or Benny, another attacking, quick wide man. That along with Joncovic is all we will see and to be honest I think that could be enough to put in a credible challenge next year if everyone remains relatively fit and we can gel quickly. I think continuity and stability is the best we can offer without the alternative of a 20 mill plus player coming in and lighting up the stage.

Gerry,
can we have a new blog please, before Aitch and LB toss themselve’s off into a coma.

Nice one Aitch, you get credit for asking Halle Berry out – even if she did turn you down… politely. Same thing happened with my mate and Cheryl Cole. We were in a club in Liverpool, I forgot the name. Anyway my friend goes into mack daddy mode chatting up this chick that I’m thinking looks familiar but can’t quite work out who she was. She was all smiles and politely turned my friend down saying she had a boyfriend (Cashley). Oh well.

Keith, I think most of us are aware (if not we should be) that 99% of the transfer speculation is a load of balls. However we are in a bit of a mess, and I wouldn’t blame the likes of Torres to start thinking about his future. He left his homeland to play for a big club and be successful. I don’t think he came here to play in a side battling for a Europa League place. Why would he see out the best years of his career in a mediocre side? So while the club is in a mess and the likes of Barca come sniffing around – although the majority of the reports are bullshit – I remain a tad concerned.

Here, here Redman!

Why would Torres want to play for Barca? Is there any evidence for this? Judging from what Torres has said in the past I just can’t imagine him ever playing for any other Spanish club than Atlético de Madrid. There’s no way they’d be able to afford him at the moment, but just because Barca has the money doesn’t mean they’d even try to sign Torres. I agree with those who say that if Fernando is sold it will be because he wants to leave, and I don’t think he wants to do that unless Atlético have the opportunity to get him back.

It does of course appear likely that Chelsea will sign Kun Agüero during the summer. From what I’ve heard that deal is more or less completed already and Kun won’t be cheap. I still think the idea of Torres leaving this summer is far-fetched. What worries me the most is that several of our more able players like Benayoun and Aquilani will be shipped off without Rafa being able to reinvest that money in new players. The best we can hope for at the moment is that Broughton finds new wealthy and reliable owners sooner rather than later.

Well Aitch, it didn’t quite happen like that. In fact I stayed rooted in my seat until all thoughts of the stunning Millie eventually subsisded………. which did take some time.

Your version of how things could have gone did make me chuckle though.

Now, where did I put that picture of Natalie Sawyer?

Here’s what the French population get to look at every evening reading the news.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/12/17855772_b68aebd1c3_o.jpg

It’s the only thing that I watch and it’s very informative

Aitch, I hear that Halle Berry has an awful personality. So you probably better off the way you are!

Tell you what though Lurgan, I bet Aitch wouldn’t of minded finding out what Halle was like on a bad day!

Like I said lads, it was a long, long time ago, and fame can certainly change people.
All I can tell you is, (aside from the fact that she is the only woman I’ve ever met that was beautiful enough to physically take my breath away on first sight) the meeting was not in a pick-up joint, it was in a business setting and I got to chat to her for 30 minutes and she was just gracious and interesting.
And like I said, she coulda just said NO… plenty have through the years… but she rolled out the old, boyfriend chestnut, so I’ll be defending her honour against those accusations Lurg!

As for French newscasters… well none of us really watch Millie, Georgie and Charlotte coz of their insightful take on the days sporting happenings. Sure we’ll tell our birds that, but we all know the truth of the matter!

LB, as for Torres, I don’t think we’re miles apart on this issue.
We’re sort of talking about the same thing, but just drawing a slightly different conclusion.

LFC is in such a state of flux right now, that any number of scenarious could play out…. many of them very scary!

Was it Thunderbirds that used to start with the tag line… “anything could happen in the next half hour”?

Well that’s LFC right now.

There’s plenty that can happen that would make our current situation much, much worse.
There’s plenty that could leave us wallowing in mid-table mediocrity for a long time to come.
And there are things that can right the ship and get us back into the top 4 game.

Torres and Gerrard’s situations are just as unstable as Deggen and Aurellio’s at the moment.

In fact, we don’t know what will happen with…
The Ownership
The Board
The Company’s Mangerial
The Manager
The Senior Players
The Squadies
The Fringe players

The only thing we do know for sure, is that Albert Riera will be sold… and we have no idea for how much, given his outbursts (which, be under no illusions, were deliberate to get his price down, thereby giving HIM more options!)

ECHO EXCLUSIVE – Local jeweler blames Rafa for having to shut his doors

Town Centre jeweler Mike Landis has been forced to close the doors to his jewelry shop for the last time. “Clock This” has been a family run business since his grandfather, a German war refugee, opened it back in 1945.

“The economy just isn’t what it was.” Said Mike, looking sad and disillusioned. “People aren’t spending money on lavish gifts anymore.”

But in spite of the economic downturn, Landis points to one crucial factor as the defining reason why his business went under.

“I blame Rafa.” Mike said pointedly, “We used to be able to count on that expensive gold watch he’d buy for Montse. It was a big, big ticket item and would keep us afloat for months on end, but he hasn’t bought one for a couple of years now, and that’s made the difference.”

Landis was referring to Liverpool Manager Rafael Benitez’s routine practice of buying his wife Montse a gold watch each time one of his teams won something.
With Liverpool finishing 7th this year and losing out to yet another late goal in the Europa semi-final, Benitez and his team yet again finished the season without silverware.

“That’s three years running now, that we’ve lost that big purchase on our books.” Mike complained. “Lucas still has a job, Insua still has a job. That bloody Ngog kid still has a job. Me… I’m out of work. It’s almost like he doesn’t care what happens to the people of Liverpool. Maybe its like people say… its all about Rafa, and he’s probably laughing all the way to the bank.”

When asked for comment about the jewelry store closing, Benitez seemed genuinely surprised by the news.

“My thoughts go out to Mr. Landis.” Benitez admitted, “He and his family are good people and have provided a valuable service to the people of Liverpool. I’ve bought Montse’s last 4 watches from the Landis family, so its sad that the store has had to close. It just goes to show the long term and wider reaching effects that a lack of proper investment can have.”

Benitez does admit however, that there has been a slight personal benefit to any lack in the club’s recent fortunes.

“Its getting ridiculous” Rafa said, “I come home sometimes and feel like Marty McFly walking into the Doc’s house… bloody clocks everywhere, ticking, ticking, ticking. I can’t sleep sometimes. It’s enough to drive a man to drink too much sangria.”

“She’s on here 5th jewelry box.” Rafa continued, in an accent that so strangely melds his Spanish with Scouse, that it seems to grow more bizarre by the day. “The things get bigger and bigger… pretty soon we’ll need to build one of those hermetically sealed rooms that Steven Gerrard built to house his medal collection.”

“People have said my time is running out at Liverpool,” he joked, “but that’s the one thing I have lots of… the time!”

… just trying to keep things ticking along while Gerry scratches his head searching for a new blog topic!

Haha Aitch, I hope no journalist (especially the lazy ones) comes in here, reads that, and twists it for his newspaper!

Was just taking the piss Aitch. In my own mind, any woman that turned me down was either a stinker, had personality problems, or both

Kept me sane anyway.

The nice woman I gave a link to yesterday (with a personality problem ) is called Mélissa Theuriau.

http://img332.imageshack.us/i/melissa9rl4.jpg/

New blog Gerry please. My suggested topic would be ‘How Rafa is the root cause of Taxation’ or ’09-10: A Season Review’.

Any other ideas lads for a blog, just in case Gerry is stuck, which I very much doubt.

A good read from TTT:

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/05/houllier-vs-benitez-spend-analysis/

fair enough from tompkins but its starting to read like the financial times everywhere you turn. its to get away from money worries an all that other crap that fottie is for no. just getting so sick of it.

net spend, gross spend, leverages, buy outs, buy ins, share deals, finical assets, personnel assets capital assets, franchise, merchandise, global brand, market share, JAYSUS will those money hungry yanks please just fuck off all i want is to watch a game of ball and enjoy it for 90 minutes once or twice a week is that too much to ask.

I hear ya guinness but the truth is that we are being fucked over by two yank bitches and the outcome of this ‘war’ could/will determine where we end-off, challenging for major titles-wise, for the foreseeable future.

For example, you lend your own money to the club and ask for a 10% interest rate. These two scumbags can just sit there and reap the profits until somewhere meets their ridiculous asking price.

OTOH we could talk about buying Messi. It’s great and all that but it does not represent the reality.

Not having a go at you but football is not the biggest problem at LFC for now. Sigh!

http://www.charlottehawkinsfans.com is a (slightly)better looking newsreader.When does pre-season training start?.Strachan has the Boro boys back already!.

Not sure about that BM. Each to his own I suppose.

I’ve read that Babel has pulled a hammy during training. Why should the injuries to LFC players stop now, even though it’s the WC and not the EPL.

On top of this we will have 3 new recruits, at the start of June.
- Jovanovic – Free (future Rafa stick-beater if he does not start like Messi)
- Jonjo O’Neill – £1.5m (ex-champion jockey)
- Danny Wilson – £2m (Author of Mary’s Prayer)

Who will have to be sold to foot the massive (by LFC standards) bill?

http://www.guillembalague.com/blog has added a new piece.LK, check out the Canadian actresses Cobie Smulders and Sarah Chalke!.Wouldn’t mind seeing Kuyt depart for £7 mill.

Alright lads,not much happening,can`t blame Gerry for not throwing up a blog just yet.

There`s feck all to talk about.Usually summers are spent talking about potential signings even if most of them are beyond reality but this time we all realise that as things stand we`ll be lucky to grab a few freebees.

As we`re on the subject Charolette Jackson does it for me,what a bird..

http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/2009/images/02/23/charlotte-jackson.jpg

Hi ya guys, been a long time since my last comment, don’t think there will be any major signings this summer, unless of course H&G decide to sell of to Bill Gates or Buffet, don’t think thats going to happen anytime soon, but nevertheless keeping my fingers crossed.:)

To be quite honest, I wouldn’t mind if Rafa gives our youth team players a chance, I think it’s never been a better time for our youngsters to show what their made of. There is a silver lining at every dark cloud. Imagine Pacheho, Spearing, Ayala and Nemeth lining up against Manure and Arseanal in a PL match, and coming out on top.

Well thats my opinion, chin up guys, can’t get any worse than last season, i hope.

Wouldn’t even mind it if H&G decide to end their miserable life, again keeping fingers crossed.

Burger you’re crazy! You’d let Kuyt go for 7 million?

Anyway just settling down to watch Liverpool in a major final. Hope we can beat Cardiff…

Come on the Reds!!! Oh…

Well the Pool won a final (worth £90m – should be able to pay a couple of days’ interest payments)…

McrRed, Kuyt is 30 in July. £7m would be the upper-end of the valuation for him, IMHO.

who will ya be throwing a few bob on for the world cup lads. cant look past spain really but i think im gonna go with holland as an outside bet and maybe robinio or teves as top scorer although milito is on fire.

http://www.Tomkinstimes.com has added a good piece comparing Ged with Rafa.

I just watched highlights of Brazil vs Italy 1982 world cup on the bbc website. I’m still gutted for Brazil.

They were some team LB the greatest never to win the world cup no doubt about that.

They were unreal alright Tim but the Holland 74 team might dispute the ‘greatest not to have won it’ tag mate. They were on another level compared to every other team on the planet then. The side that invented total football and changed soccer forever. Johnny Rep said after the final ‘we were just taking the mick out of the Germans, knocking it round them having a laugh. But we forgot to score the second goal’. Wtf?! My Dad never stops going on about that Dutch side and Cryuff….its drummed into me now!

I second that Digger. The likes of Pelé, Puskás, di Stéfano, Maradona, Platini, Dalglish and Zidane were all among the best football players the world has ever seen. But in my opinion Cruijff was the greatest of all. Both his understanding of the game and technical ability were out of this world. Holland of 1974 were unbelievable and so were Ajax before Cruijff went to Barcelona.

My Dad bought be a video called “Boys from Brazil” in 1988. It covers them from the period 1930-1986. Man, some of the football played coupled with the old skool BBC commentary – it gives you chills. Same feeling I get when watching Aldo, Barnes, Beardsley with the John Motson or Barry Davis or Brian Moore commentary.

I bought “Boy’s from Brazil” on DVD last week.

Deffo..think Spain has the players to win it.I will be cheering them on..
England will fall at the Quarters.No cohesion in the Team, just a bunch of individuals looking for their own glory…
Argentina could be a team to watch.

Redscouse, I have also an inkling for Argentina. If Maradonna doesn’t mess about with them too much they have as good as chance as anyone. Brasil, of course, will be there and thereabouts.

As for Spain, they have the best team but to win the WC after the European Championships is a tough ask, even for them.

England, out in the quarters on pens, as per usual. Mexico was the better team last night, although they could not handle England’s set pieces and Crouch. Any team with a decent defense will have a 50-50 chance against them. BTW, Baines had a mare.

I wonder if Fabio Capello will be savaged by the press for playing Stevie G out on the left and James Milner inside in the center?

Baines, LEADly King and Ferdinand were terrible, awful. Ripped apart. I fear what Torres, Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo etc will do to them. Baines was especially shocking.

When Gerrard reverted to his center mid role he and Rooney n Crouch played some lovely stuff. Thought the goalie’s did well.

The defence was better organised when Cara came on.

Still some of England’s ball retention and ball watching was shocking.

World Cup winners? I can’t see past Spain. They keep the ball and they have game winners all over the pitch.

Nice goal from Glen Johnson last night. He scored a similar one for us against Sunderland in our 3-0 win at Anfield. Good left foot for a right back.

As for this summers World cup winners – Agree that it won’t be England, but would not rule out the Germans or the Italians to have a decent shout. Those two always seem to pull it out of their arses at the big tournaments. If only England could do that!

Argentina were hugely unimpressive on their way to scraping through qualifcation, but you never know what you will get with them, apart from cheating and trying to play football with their hands of course.

Spain or Brazil to win it? I think neither will and we will see a suprise this summer – England winning would be more than just a suprise but I don’t think it will be them.

Don’t rule out an African nation.

Can’t see England standing a chance when they face the more able sides. Just imagine what the strikers of Spain and Argentina would do to that defence. I do however think Argentina could also run into trouble since they don’t have a top class goalkeeper (or a single fullback). Spain are strong as hell on every single position as I see it.

I think we will see Brazil and Spain in the final of the tournament with Spain finally coming out as the winner because of their superior midfield. Del Bosque and Dunga are probably more or less equal in terms of coaching. There could of course be injuries that puts either of these teams into trouble, but Spain seems to have great cover on most positions. Just imagine that Pepe isn’t the first choice goalkeeper. The mind boggles.

Talking about Argentina: Maradona has demanded that all the toilets in their WC accomadation be replaced with luxury ones that he has personally approved. The one going into his room has a built-in bidet & seat warmer. He also wants a braai (BBQ) every 3 days, which won’t be a problem as that is customary in SA anyway. Ffs, most teams are just demanding plasma TV’s, high-speed ADSL, Brazilian or Italian coffee & food – but to demand that (top quality anyway) toilets are replaced? You’re having a laugh, aren’t you!
You can feel the vibe & excitement building up here – can’t fecking wait!
Anyway, good to see that Nando’s agent has come out & said that he’ll definetly be at Anfield next season.

i think brazil and spain are due to meet before the final giving england, france, germany and argentina a good run at getting to the final. i think england are good enough and well coached enough to get there but i think the other side of the draw has the winners in it.

guinness:

If Brazil and Spain are to meet before the final one of them will have to end up in second place in their respective group, which I suppose you know. Ivory Coast looks like a strong team, Portugal doesn’t. I think Brazil will most likely grab the top spot in group G. Spain could probably do the same with their reserves in group H.

I think the winners will come from either Spain, Brazil, Holland or Argentina. France don’t have a good team this year. The Germans will probably get as far as the semi finals but I can’t see them winning it. Can’t see Italy retaining it. England – quarter finals probably and then out.

I’m really looking forward to the tournament.

didn’t know that sachem i taught groups a-d and e-h couldn’t meet until the final. i better get one of them posters before i start gambling my peanuts away!
That would be a VERY tasty semi-final line up LB. cant wait myself gonna enjoy football for the first time this year dont mind who wins as long as we see some quality along the way.

It has just been reported on sky sports news that Fabio Aurelio is to be allowed to leave in the summer as he cant agree on a new contract ?.

Brazil is a very lazy choice for a tip. Oh it’s Brazil they’ll win. I don’t think they will at all. The argies should be one of the fave’s as they have a great team but unfortunately they have a nutter as a coach. The dutch? They always fall out with themselves not sure they are that great a team. Looking at the teams I just can’t see past Spain. They’ve shedded their bottles tag by winning the euro’s. They have quality in every position, Fabregas and Xabi Alonso can’t even get in their team for pig’s sake and they are still a young team.

Right you lazy lot, there’s naff all to do, I asked a question earlier and I’ve had no answers, replies or anything.

What did the Scousers nickname the North Koreans in the 1966 world cup? Cmon first place in a quiz is at stake here!!

Kenny, we can’t really get too creative when picking the winners of the world cup. Only 5 teams have won the trophy in the last 40 years.

No idea about the Korean’s nickname.

Digger #343

I stand corrected th dutch in `74 have to be the best team not to win it.Brazil `82 run them close though.I`ll put it down to being in the middle of night shifts.

My winners come from spain,brazil and maybe outsiders are holland and England.

I`m not picking Brazil because its “brazil” from what i`ve seen of them lately Dunga has them a lot more defensively sound.He has gelled a team together with them and even thought they won`t be the best footballing side brazil ever produced,they`ll still be there or thereabouts.

Spain stand out for me though and are as expected tournament favourites.They have world class players all over the pitch.And i`m not using that term lightly.
Any team who has the likes of Xavi,Iniesta,Alonso,fabregas,silva,Villa,Torres, pedro etc etc etc has to be taken very seriously.

I didn`t see England last night but i think by the time the tournament starts Capello will have them ready and with a bit of luck (hopefully not) they might go far.You can`t underestimate a manager of Capello`s quality.

Holland will have a say too and the usual suspects France Germany and champions Italy must be given respect.

Argentina have probably the best forward line on paper but as a team,from what i`ve seen they won`t do it for me.Maradonna dropped Cambiasso and Zannetti from the squad and its a decision that will ultimately cost them.Experience is invaluable in these tournaments and these two have it in abundance.Also if anybody doubts their quality let it be known that they just won the Champions league with inter milan.

Yeah the Argies are my pick Tim. 8/1 is fantastic value for a team containing Messi, Milito, Tevez and Mascherano. I’m backing Holland as my dark horse and I’m doing 2 eachway bets on Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Surely an African Nation will reach the semis?! How the fuck did South Korea reach that stage in 02?! I’m seriously tempted to take Torres for top scorer – 14/1 is great value even if he misses the first game as they’ll surely go far?

Has Gerry packed his bags?

David Villa will get more goals than Torres I think. Nando’s record at international level isn’t great.

Lads I dont know how much or if this affects us but on page 2 of the New York Daily News today its reported that the ‘texas rangers filed for chapter 11 (bankruptcy) yesterday and listed assets and debt between 100million and 500million dollars. Hicks said he dident wanna put the team in jeapordy(!) He is finalizing a deal to sell the club for 575mil. He bought the club for 250mil in 1998. Forbes estimated its worth at 405mil last yr. Sorry to break the upbeat WC posts but…a chilling look at our future?

Could well be Digger, looks like every sports club those guys turns to shit. Corinthians, Texas Rangers, didn’t Gillett sell off his franchises as well? I think we’ll be for another frustrating 12 months or so before LFC changes ownership.

World Cup will be a relief from the LFC gloom.

Moores finally speaks.

http://www.clickliverpool.com/sport/liverpool-fc/129236-rbs-lose-patience-with-gillett-and-hicks-as-david-moores-breaks-liverpool-fc-silence.html

Imagine if we had sold to Thaksin then. We are the moneybags now and not Man City!

I was at the North Korea v Portugal game at Goodison in 1966..but I have no idea what their nickname was.

Does a word of truth ever pass by Hick’s lips?

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday in hopes of spurring completion of the stalled $575 million sale of the team – and maybe clear the decks for the new owners to make pennant-chasing decisions this summer.

The bankruptcy filing comes four months after Tom Hicks announced an agreement to sell the team to a group led by Hall of Fame pitcher and team president Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg.

“I did not want to put the baseball future of the Texas Rangers in jeopardy or uncertainty for an extended period of time,” Hicks said. “This action is all about creating an end to the impasse in allowing this team sale to go forward.”

Under the plan to be presented at a court hearing Tuesday, the Rangers would pay the $75 million of the club’s debt tied up in Hicks’ financially strapped ownership group. That would remove the team from the additional claims by creditors against Hicks Sports Group that have held up the sale.

“We feel like this is the correct thing to do,” Ryan said. “We have some deadlines coming up that are obviously important to us as a ballclub, and feel like by bringing this to finality that we will then be able to do the things we feel like we need to do and push forward with the winning ways of the ballclub.”

In order for the AL West-leading Rangers to have financial flexibility at the non-waiver trading deadline July 31, the sale of the team will need to be completed. There is also the amateur draft next month.

A 21-page filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth included the top 30 unsecured creditors, a list headed by Alex Rodriguez, who is owed $24.9 million in deferred compensation six years after he was traded. The next five are also current or former players: Kevin Millwood ($12.9 million), Michael Young ($3.9 million), Vicente Padilla ($1.7 million), Mickey Tettleton ($1.4 million) and Mark McLemore ($970,000).

Even if the court approves the Rangers’ bankruptcy petition, the sale would take several more weeks to complete.

“I know it will be faster than the other alternative would have been,” said Hicks, who bought the team in 1998 from a group that included former president George W. Bush.

-o-
Oh and don’t worry about France, Domenech is a complete idiot and one of the most despised/ridiculed figures in France. He didn’t even include Benzema or Nasri in the final squad.

Digger; south Korea got to the semi’s through lets just say some dodgy refereeing decisions. Proper dodgy. I think there was about 4 goals clearly onside given offside against them in their matches against Spain and I think Italy.

Domenech is mental. half the french team aren’t french anyway. Zinedine Zidane a classic french name that was. Nasri?

LB; Torres plays a different role for Spain than he does for Liverpool. He tends to play more wide or drop a bit deeper, Villa plays the spearhead role. So I agree I think Villa will get more goals.

Timmy don’t stand on the fence mate – my winner comes from spain, brazil , holland or england?

I can’t see Brazil winning, I just can’t. England will have to seriously improve defensively to have a chance. The ball retention is shocking and that’s always been the problem with england. the dutch? again they always implode. Italy and Germany always always find a way to win even with poor teams so i think they will do their usual sneak their way through to the semi’s. England will go out in a blaze of glory, a hard luck story probably plucky England show the bulldog spirit as they go out on peno’s after surviving the 2nd half and extra time with only ten men.

Brazil, Holland, Italy and Germany remind me of the manure in that they are nowhere near as good as the were but teams play the name and bottle it.

Here’s a link to the full letter from Moores.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article7136761.ece

It’s a pretty long read. Basically, he says it was not his fault and calls for the yanks to step aside.

Yeah I remember that game Ken. It was Jaquin I think who had a legit goal in the net and the ref waved it off. At the end the Spanish players were laughing at the ref, they knew they’d been done. As for Domenech what about Dunga? Leaves Ronaldinho and Pato behind?! As Kenny says, cant see em winning. Anyone seen the Nike WC ad? They certainly werent banking on Ronaldinho watching at home! The bit with Homers great – Ronal-DOH! And Rooney playing a gypsy? Hardly a stretch!

That ad is wicked digger. Rooney does live that he’s not ating in that part.

Hello all,

Ah the world cup – the eye of the storm

My choice will be Holland – I think Spain will crash out early – with the usual suspects there or there abouts Germany, Brazil, Italy

I would back USA to beat England in the first game,

I would have picked Argentina but Maradonna is too eratic for my liking – might revise after the first game or two

They were showing the Brazil / Italy game from the 1970 world cup over here – Brazil in the second half were toying with them also has the Carlos Alberto goal – one of the best in world cup football
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_3nRplehGk&feature=related

Spain will crash out early? group stages? quarters? Spain the favourites? The Euro winners? I’m just popping out to put a £1,000 on that prediction because you must have insider info.

Dont think much of that letter to be honest Lurgan. Kinda reminds me of me in the principals office as a kid denying all knowledge of whatever misdemeanour I’d just committed in full view of ten witnesses, 2 of whom were probably teachers! ‘No sir it wasnt me, and anyway, Murphy put me up to it sir!’ Sorry Dave, no get out of jail free cards round here mucker….

My thoughts exactly Digger. The ‘it’s not my fault’ just doesn’t wash with me at all. First of all the man comes across as a bit of an idiot saying he’s never used a computer in his life and doesn’t know what Google is.

Since Parry left the guys that have replaced him have transformed the commercial aspect of the club – almost overnight. Parry and Moores were just unable to tap into the commercial potential of the football club. Instead they built up an £80m debt. Moores refuses to take any responsibility for not having the insight to generate funds for the club. He refuses to take responsibility for not employing the right people to enable the club to compete financially. What always baffled me was how long it took us to figure out that we actually need a new stadium. Clubs like Sunderland built a new stadium in the 90s. Man Utd, Newcastle, Rangers and Celtic rebuild their stadiums to well over 50,000 capacities while Moores and Parry twiddle their thumbs. Apparently only realising in 2003 that they couldn’t take it any further, we needed a new stadium and investment.

He says he gave DIC a month (1st Deb 2006-31 Dec 2006) to buy the club so that Rafa could get money for transfers in the Jan 2007 transfer window. Terms were to have money available for transfers and money in place for the stadium build in order for it to built for the 2009/10 season. (Seemed a bit ambitious that). Further terms were that DIC had to hand over £12m for steel in order to build the stadium. Jan 2007 comes and no £12m for the steel, plus the fact DIC had a 7 year exit strategy plus the fact DIC were to put a £300m debt against the club. This put Moores and Parry off.

Imagine we just had a new 60,000 stadium opened, big squad full of quality players but £300m debt. At least the new stadium revenue would help service the debt. An Arsenal type situation. As it stands we have about £450m debt and no stadium and paper thin squad. There is nothing wrong with a 7 year exit strategy if the strategy itself is sound.

I wonder if the terms Moores put to Hicks and Gillett were as stringent as they were to DIC. I doubt it as they trusted Gillett – enough to know nothing at all about Hicks and yet sell to him anyway.

Seems to me Moores is not a savvy business man and was just born into money. He was at the helm during a period where football changed forever and he just didn’t have the foresight to lead us into the new football world. As a result he panic sold the club down the river. He should spare us the “it wasn’t my fault” crap.

Kenny – well if we assume that Spain win their group, which they should its a pretty easy group – their 5 round game will be against either Brazil or Portugal and after that probably Italy – plus they have alot of pressure on them, so yes I will still go for spain to be knocked out around the 5th/quaters.

As for that muppet Morres – how could you do due dillengence on only one of the prospective owners but take his word that his partner is ok and then only google him

I feel a bit sorry for David Moores. He must have a terrible time coming to terms with the fact that he is at least partly responsible for the demise of his beloved LFC in recent years. In the long run I think it would be a lot better for him if he just admitted he made a huge mistake by selling to the fucking yanks. For fucks sake, we know you didn’t realize what was going to happen, David. Just accept the facts and get on with it.

Can’t for the life of me understand his kind words about Rick Parry though. What a complete and utter disgrace that man is. He just wasn’t nearly competent enough for the job he used to have at Liverpool. He certainly has more to answer for than Moores. Not least of all for saying this after the sale was completed 3 years ago:

“This is great for Liverpool, our supporters and the shareholders – it is the beginning of a new era for the Club. The partnership created by George and Tom is very special. They are bringing to the table tremendous and relevant experience, a passion for sport, real resources and a strong commitment to the traditions of Liverpool. Their approach represents exactly the sort of genuine partnership that Liverpool has been seeking over recent times. We know that George and Tom want a long-term relationship with Liverpool and that they also understand the importance of investing in our success both on and off the field. They have made clear their intention to move as quickly as practicable on the financing and construction of our proposed new stadium at Stanley Park and also to support investment in the playing squad. This has been an important time for the Club. We now have the right partners for the future. I am absolutely certain we have now ended up in the right place, with owners who will help the Club succeed and prosper.”

Shocking.

Looking back, that Parry statement is absolutely incredible.

Look, I’m not about to put myself in the position of defending these two dipshits… but we are making judgement with the luxury of hindsight.
As LB said “looking back” these statements are hideously embarrassing and sickening.

Granted, not doing due diligence on Hicks is laughable… and inexcusable…
But if we actually stop for a minute, and think about it…

…they did actually both have sports experience… the problem with that though… is that it shouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out that successful sports ownership in the US is a completely different animal than even mid-table ownership in the Prem.
It’s like having successfully bred domestic cats and then claiming you know how to raise a pride of wild lion cubs!

American Sports just DO NOT work the same way.
They have a completely different structure and the fan base follows them differently than in the Prem. (You think camera clicking tourists are bad? Wait till you see half a stadium rise from their seats in the middle of an inning, to go stand in line for a hot dog, nachos and beer… then pay no fuckin discernable attention to the following 2 innings while they stuff their faces, and that of their children.) …But I digress…

DIC’s plan to borrow against the club to finance a stadium, being a big reason why they were not selected, IS the irony of ironies… though only because of where we ended up with the Yanks.
We all wanted DIC… (that’s just wrong for a bunch of guys to be saying, though innit?) …and even when it was revealed that going in, DIC had an exit strategy (hmmm… hard [no pun intended] to escape the double entendre with them innit?) with their 7 year plan, many still preferred their deal.

Its easy to say we’d have been a lot better off, 350 mill in debt with DIC in charge… and though I’d tend to agree with that… then again, we can only make that statement positively coz we don’t know what else they might have fucked up in their tenure?

But we all… all of us… wanted Moores to sell. We clamoured for it! And we got what we wanted… (a lesson perhaps for the Rafa outs?)
Moores was an owner for a different time. He is right when he says that once the Prem became the gravy train, and the likes of Abramavich and consortiums came a knocking, he had to move on… at least he knew it.

Parry too was the wrong man at the wrong time… A guy still trying to conduct business in “the Liverpool Way” of the 60s and 70s, …when that too, as much as the Club itself, needed to be revamped for a new millenium.

In an aside… I think that could make for a good blog Gerry. The Liverpool Way. What was it really? What was it in the 60s, 70s, 80s? What did it become in the 90s? What does that statement “The Liverpool Way” really mean? Myth vs. Fact …coz I suspect it means different things to different people when you get right down to it. The Liverpool Way drove us to success, but then it held us back as well. It needed modernizing… but they sorta fucked that up too, didn’t they?

On the one hand… if I set my anger aside… I almost agree with sachem’s sentiment of feeling sorry for Moores… but then again, he’s got plenty of dosh and doesn’t have to concern himself with coming up with the dosh every month to insure satellite coverage of games… (and that’s without getting into the previous discussions re: the quality of those games?) … so fuck him…
… but having said that, unlike the Yanks, who answer to no one in their decision to sell or not to sell (for another 6 months anyway) he only owned 51% of the club, not 100% like the Yanks do, so he was answerable to the other shareholders…
… and as much as Moores and Parry get blamed and vilified for accepting the higher offer… those other shareholders do seem to get off scott-free when this is being discussed.

Recently someone on Kopblog even suggested we’d have been better off if Moores had sold to Morgan… ignoring that Morgan was one of the other shareholders who cleared off with a shedload of money from his sale of shares… which he then bought Wolves with!
So he’s not “blameless” in all this either!

Argh! Its all a big fuckin mess and the only ones who truly suffer are people like us who, sad fuckers that we might be, spend all our days trawling internet boards gossiping like the Battersey Ladies Auxilliary about anything and everything Liverpool Football Club.

Don’t feel any sorrow for Moores, read the first lines of his letter. As he has said, if he felt he had anything to apologise for, he would have already done it. He’s a disgrace.
.
It sounds to me like he’s boasting about doing us a favour.

If Moores had a time machine i’m sure he would go back and change things but thats not going to happen.
Think of it this way we had the King of Gondor ( Moores ) then we had Wormtongue ( Parry ) and we ended up with the evil forces of Mordor running the kingdom into the ground ( G&H ).
Then again Hicks says he never lied to us and that he’s spent twice as much on transfers as Moores did, so everythings alright isn’t it .
YNWA

From RAWK

The great ship SS Liverpool, the finest ship ever built, ploughs through the ocean and people are dancing on deck while the orchestra is playing “Sack Rafa”, followed by the ol’ fave ” Where did our form go”.

A looming iceberg is seen in the distance, closing fast, with all the dark certainty of a bankruptcy, a mountain of debt below the surface. A group of people who have seen the iceberg coming, run through the ship shouting SOS to anyone who will listen, but their cries cannot be heard above the orchestra and the revelry.

They run to the bridge to find Captain Benitez vainly trying to steer the ship with his hands tied behind his back, spinning the ships wheel hopelessly from right to left and back again. Unfortunately, the owners of the ship, H&G lines, had sold the rudder to repay the money they borrowed to buy the ship. They thought it wouldn’t matter, believing, correctly, that if the ship went in a straight line it would be cheaper anyway, something the bankers all thought was brilliant at the time.

From the bridge Captain Benitez tries to speak through the ships Com to warn the passengers, but the Sun in the Sky catches a Mirror and interferes with the Telegraph and all the passengers hear is something about a Spanish waiter. Mail would clearly only waste everyone’s time. The dancing continues to the tune of “fuck off, la”, while passengers discuss in earnest the inability of the violin player on the top right to be able to maintain possession of the tune.

The people on the bridge run to send the alarm, still screaming SOS, pointing at the iceberg and at the people who are seen climbing into a lifeboat……but they are dismissed as mad loonies who are spoiling the fun, and the passengers lock them in the “Cassandra Room” so they wouldn’t have to listen to their ‘bullshit’ anymore.

Through the porthole, they see that the owners have launched and are already safe in their lifeboat, Lords Parry and Moores tucked in the boat alongside them. The son of the owner shouts a farewell “Fuck You” and resumes sipping his champagne from a safe distance in his lifeboat across the ocean.

The good ship Liverpool groans as it hits the iceberg. There are no other lifeboats; H&G lines sold them off in advance to cover the interest on the loans they took to buy the ship in the first place.

Once the passengers realise they are doomed, they lynch Captain Benitez for having spent so much on the orchestra players, and who had summarily failed to stop the iceberg with their violins and cellos.

The owners in their lifeboat sit back to enjoy the movie, sipping champagne from their SS Liverpool mugs, which will now be worth a fortune on ebay.

A few months later, the owners of H&G lines, having collected the insurance, gather to reminisce on their great adventure:

“A good days hunting George.”
“Yes Tom, a good days hunting.”

What “reasons” are there left to not join SOS?

Join, or we all go down with the club.

This man knows no shame. If you read the two links in a row you will see what he releases for the US press and the UK press are “slightly” different. I also wonder how “substantial” the transfer budget will be, going by his statements.

ttp://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=790569&sec=england&cc=4716

ttp://www.590klbj.com/TexasFrontPageNews/Story.aspx?id=1234026

As for more positive news, hopefully this man can prevent injuries to our star players if they are still around next season. I have spoken to many Aussies and he is the real deal! If we can keep our main squad and get funds to sign some more quality in depth particularly at left back now that Aurelio is off and also a striker up front to supplement Jovanovic all will not be doom and gloom.
ttp://live4liverpool.com/view-from-the-kop/could-this-be-our-best-signing-of-the-summer

The homegrown rule only applying to English and Welsh and not Scottish and Irish is a joke and will mean we may not sign Danny Wilson from Rangers. This may even get Fergie into a spot of trouble with Evans, O’Shea and Fletcher no longer counting has homegrown.

I’m sure there was a talented writer named Gerry who used to write blogs once upon a time….. What ever happened to him?

Gerry ? …. “having a Bud”

Going underground for the close-season ?
I feel a bit out of gas at the moment. It’s been a big fat balloon of a season, All air , noise.

My partner is going to have herself a baby in a few weeks time so I’m gearing up for different kinds of noise now. Gonna put a big spoke in the wheels of the World Cup tho’.

I gotta feeling we should all cut and paste for the season to come. More of the same methinks.

Enjoy the rest lads!

Moores obviously regrets to this day what he done.Some say he`s had an extra 88 millon to soften the blow.Yes he did well out of it but he is a true red and if he could turn back time……

Aitch is right we all have the answers in hindsight.

Some of the things though that he said din`t go down well with me.Firstly refusing to apologise.He admitted it was a huge mistake.So he should be sorry for his part in the whole debacle.

He refused to sell to DIC because their would be 300 million debt put on the club but there would have been a stadium built to service that debt.And if they were to leave after seven years but with that leaving the club in a decnt financial state then what was wrong weith that?

Isn`t that the way these investment groups work?
Buy something,have a seven to ten year plan and sell it on again?

It looks like he dosen`t recognise Coco`s part in it all.
Well that dosen`t surprise me.They were busim buddies for a few years and worked together side by side at the club.
So i didn`t expect him to come out with the whole “it was him not me i didn`t realise” thing.

Moore`s didn`t want owners who would buy all the best players.Buy success.It wasn`t the Liverpool way.
Well David it was all grand and well back in the seventies when Bob paisley was able to spot players from the lower divisions and turn them into the best n Europe.
These days you need money to succeed on a consistant basis and i`m afraid Moores and parry sat on their hands for too long.
Arsene Wenger realised back in 1998 that in order for Arsenal to move forward they needed to move to a new stadium.The got the job done.Even sunderland as LB stated built a 50,00 seater stadium.
How did we lag behind?If a club as small as sunderland could build a brand new ground why couldn`t we??
The mind boggles.

Just to be clear, I wasn’t, as I stated right up front, excusing Moores or Parry’s part in facilitating the events that have led to our current predicament.

MUCH of what he said also doesn’t go down well with me either.

I just think when people want to go charging off with a rope, they are hanging the one guy who has stuck his head over the parapet and yelling “its his fault” coz he’s the one they can see.

Sorta like… its all Rafa’s fault for last season… as though myriad other things didn’t contribute to our situation.

Moores ultimately made the decision to sell to H&G… that is his personal cross to bare…
… but be under no illusions that he was pressured, by the other shareholders who owned 49% of the club, (some of whom now criticize him in the press) to accept the higher offer!

As for apologizing… how many people do you know who really stand up and take responsibility for their actions?

In other news though…
Wasn’t it supposed to be a 6-month extension the Yanks got to sell the club?

Now Sky is reporting that the extension was for 12 months…
…and Hicks is saying the club won’t be sold for 18 months to find “a suitable buyer” (as though he’d know what “a suitable buyer” looked like, if it fuckin gobbed him one!)

Aitch, are you single?
I love it when you talk finance…

Seriously lads read my links in post 384. We won’t be able to sell the club for a long while with him trying to make enough profit to pay off his Texas Rangers debt. He says it himself in link 2. There is a huge gulf between what the prospective buyers are willing to pay: around the 350-400 mark and what Hicks is trying to sell it for which is around double. Anyway Aldridge and even Reina has come out to try and get it sorted quick because I believe several of our players are waiting to see what happens before committing to new deals.

Lads, just came in here after my sabbatical to state that I will be relocating to NY from July…. which means I will be having the privilege of a face-to-face argument with Digger-but-I-do-love-robbie-keane-as-well LoL! Seriously, though, digger, where do you lads meet up in the Big Apple to watch the games on Saturday morning?

On the day when David Moores talked of his mistake in selling Liverpool FC to Tom Hicks and George Gillett, along comes Tom Hicks, a few hours later, to tell us how wonderful George Gillett and he have been for our Club.

The old saying “You couldn’t make it up” perfectly sums up Tom’s words.

Except in his case, yet again, he has done just that, he’s made it all up.

Here is what he said and side by side is the actual truth:

“So much misinformation about transfer spending, it has more than doubled under the ownership of George and myself in the past three years, and we will make a significant investment this summer”, “Since Moores’ ownership, in the past 3 years including what we will spend this summer, we will have more than doubled both the gross and net spend on players.”

Doubled Tom? Are you sure? Have a look at these:

2006/07 (before you took charge) – Gross Spend: £27.216m. Net Spend: £17.066m
2007/08 (the season you took charge) – Gross Spend: £70.33m. Net Spend: £39.83m
2008/09 (the one in the middle) – Gross Spend: £39m. Net Spend: -£2.5m (Yes, that’s right, profit)
2009/10 (the season just gone) – Gross Spend: £38.46m. Net Spend: – £6.29m (Profit again)
(figures from http://www.lfchistory.net).

Whichever way you look at it Tom, it’s gone backwards. Based on your words, this summer we will either have a Gross Spend of £54.432m and a Net Spend of £34.132m (if it is double what we spent in the last season under Moores) or a Gross Spend of £140.66m, and a Net Spend of £79.66m (If it is double what we spent in the first season under you and George. Can’t wait Tom, honest…..

A significant investment this summer as well? Here is what Christian Purslow said when we met him in January about your claims then on a “big” summer – “I can’t speak for Tom Hicks, but he has no involvement in transfers, I do. We will only have what we make and generate. The budget will only change if we get a sugar daddy.” Based on this Tom, we would welcome your definition of ‘significant’.

“We have a substantial transfer budget in place”

Oh really? That’ll be because we’ve been saving up for the last three transfer windows then, as we have had a net profit in the past two seasons from our transfer activity and since then our financial position has spiralled further and further into the red whilst the Club’s auditors have publicly humiliated the Club and its supporters by qualifying the accounts for the last two years saying that there is “a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the Group’s and parent company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.

“We will sell the club, we’re not gonna sell it to the wrong group, we’re not gonna sell it for the wrong price, we’re gonna take our time and do it in a very thoughtful way and try to find the right steward to own Liverpool
Football Club. We hope it gets done by the end of the calendar year, we don’t anticipate it will necessarily be done before the beginning of the next season”

You’re not going to sell it to the wrong people for the wrong price, but to the right people for the right price? Excuse us if we don’t believe you Tom, you’re hardly one to talk about the right people. You and the Club are
so financially distressed the risk is that you’ll sell to anyone for what you consider the right price without consideration of the suitability for our Club.

“I have said £600-800 million is not an unrealistic value range, but the markets will see. We’re more concerned with finding the right next owner, somebody that can make the investment in the club, get the stadium built and to let Liverpool Football Club be the best possible football club in the world”

It is unrealistic Tom. You paid a third of that, and it’s damaged goods after your reign. We have no reason to trust you as your promises have consistently been found out, like these bare faced lies will be too.

“New stadium is fully designed now, global financing markets are back, so I think with the change of ownership coming we will be able to have the new stadium built for Liverpool”

So George Gillett promises to start work on the stadium in “60 days”, you don’t stick to it and all we have is a few pretty pictures that to date have cost £45.5m. I suppose we can finally say at least you’re now admitting
your own failure at our Club.

“There has been so much misinformation put out by people who have their own agendas and it’s unfortunate, but that’s just the way it is”…..”Our debt is £237 million”

What misinformation? About the mounting debts (£351m), interest repayments (over £70m in 2 years), £54.9m losses made by the group?

You’ve been caught in a lie. Look at the accounts (Page 26, Section 17 if you’re struggling to find it). We owe the banks £237m, and we owe other loans of £144.4m. You remember these? The ones you loaded on the Club with the 10% interest rate that we don’t pay but which just gets added and rolled over year after year, after year. Remember?

“The truth is the club is much better off than it was 3 years ago”

A famous person once said “Facts”.

Fact :2007 – £44 million pound in debt. Champions League Final. Qualification for the Champions League. No losses. Profits used to sign players.

Fact: 2008/09 – A £16.1m loss by the club in a season we finished second in the Premier League and made the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Fact : 2010 – £351 million pound in debt. No Champions League Football. A £54.9m loss. Profit pays off debt.

Much better that…..

“A certain group of fans has been very focused on trying to bring negative attention to George and to me, and that’s unfortunate”

You mean Spirit of Shankly? We didn’t have to try very hard Tom – you brought it all on yourselves. “It won’t be like a Glazer style takeover”, “60 days”. We will take that as a compliment anyway. We have worked hard for the past two years to ensure you and George are held to account, so people know what you are really doing to our football club.

And by the way it isn’t “unfortunate” – it has been absolutely essential.

“Our interest bill is only £21 million”

You might be right there Tom – we only pay £21 million, it’s all we can afford. The other interest is just added to the debt, making it grow and grow and grow….

“I’m disappointed on a personal level that our efforts have not been received as well as I wish they had of been”

Which efforts would these be Tom? The lies, broken promises, contempt for fans or this latest nonsense? Or the effort you went to in travelling to Anfield now and again on all expenses paid trips, with this and other
expenses costing us over £2m to date?

“I think there has been a fringe group which have been very unfair and I wish they hadn’t but I can’t change that. They should trust people’s intent, my intent is to do what’s right for Liverpool Football Club and I will do what’s right, George will do what’s right, Martin Broughton will do what’s right, Christian Purslow will do what’s right and they just need to relax and let us have a chance to do what’s right”

That “fringe group” will be the Spirit of Shankly again, we assume? Yes, we’ve been unfair if unfair is highlighting your lies, your broken promises, your failings, your shortcomings. Unfair if stopping you from dragging our Club further down in your quest for a quick buck is unfair. Yes, very unfair of us that. Do what’s right for once Tom – sell the Club, sell it quickly, sell it for its real value not for your inflated value, and do it before it’s too late, before we have no Club left and you have no cash cow left to milk.

“I’ve come to admire the passion of the fans, they have unbelievable passion, the supporters of Liverpool are the best in the world”

You are right there, we are. And we deserve better!

“In the end it will be what it is”

We can assure you the end won’t be “what it is” because the supporters will not allow it. We have hounded you out and now we will force you to sell for a realistic price to owners who will not repeat your mistakes. It will be remembered as a dark period in the history of our ownership, a time that has angered and upset supporters everywhere.

And Tom, do us all a favour, keep quiet in the future, you’re an embarrassment to the Club and yourself with the transparent nonsense you spout, we’ve all long given up believing a word you say.

And by the way, Tom and George are still “Not Welcome Here”.

Bolton, Derby, Boro,Saints built decent sized stadia as well.Pete Robinson fell asleep in the nineties b4 passing the candle to Coco Parry.

Good post LB, its clear SOS are getting under their skin, fair fucks to them. Their efforts deserve much credit. Hyde, the 11th St bar in Manhattan is the official Liverpool Supporters club. Its a rockin wee bar on game day and I’ll certainly analyse a few games and a few Stellas there with ya! The supporters club website is LFCNY.org. They’ll have all the details for games and upcoming events and matches on there. My email address is [email protected].