Monday’s Back Pages

It was another disappointing weekend of football for Liverpool. But what is Liverpool’s grief is the newspaper journalist’s joy and none more so this morning than Michael Walker of The Independent:

What does it reveal of the state of Liverpool and the status of Newcastle United that a man of Sami Hyypia’s experience, a 34-year-old into his ninth season at Anfield, could say the following after this latest strange performance from Rafael Benitez’s side? “The players hope, if there are some arguments, that they can be sorted out. We seem to be becoming like Newcastle. Every time we pick up a paper, there seems to be something new.”

Reporting on Liverpool’s disappointing lacklustre 1-1 draw at Middlesborough on Saturday afternoon, Walker describes the Reds’ performance.

In itself, this 70 minutes of vague football followed by 20 minutes of frantic and incoherent attack, was not enough to provoke such an opinion. It is the accumulation of factors.

The Liverpool Daily Post says a move for midfielder Momo Sissoko to Italian giants Juventus now looks unlikely with the Turin club saying they expect no signings to be made in January.

Juventus’ interest in Liverpool midfielder Mohamed Sissoko appears to have cooled after the club revealed they were unlikely to make any January signings.

Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli said: “Juventus will not make any acquisitions in the January transfer market.”

The Daily Post also react to the weekend’s reports that former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is planning to oust under pressure Benitez from the Anfield hot seat.

Mourinho has been linked with several high-profile positions since leaving Chelsea in September but Eladio Parames insists the media speculation is not of Mourinho’s own making.

Parames said in a statement: ‘œThese are aberrant and heinous ideas.

‘œSome media have consistently linked Jose Mourinho’s name with various clubs without, as they are ethically bound to do, trying to determine the truth of these reports.’