Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

sweetie

missingtime wrote:

There is a lot to be said for getting a player who has played a bit in the premiership previously.
Jermaine Defoe,Darren Bent et al.

After the last couple of seasons, i'd take robbie keane ahead of defoe. He scores as many goals and is more creative to boot. Anyone else think Doyle or hunt could do a job for the pool aswell?

missingtime

Ah.. Robbie Keane buggs the sh!t out of me. I was thinking of Hunt aswell the other day, but he needs another season at Reading.

Mr Alan

sweetie wrote:

After the last couple of seasons, i'd take robbie keane ahead of defoe. He scores as many goals and is more creative to boot. Anyone else think Doyle or hunt could do a job for the pool aswell?

No, i don't. Don't think either are of the standard that would be needed. They are decent premiership players, but not near good enough to play for Liverpool, not yet anyway

PHB

(without paying over the odds though)

This is it though, when was the last time United bought a player for a proper price? When was the last time Chelsea bought a player for their proper price?

Big clubs pay more for top players, it's just the way it is, especially with Chelsea and Real Madrid around. This is the cost of being a big club, you have to pay over the odds.

If Rafa can't suck it up, and accept the fact that he might have to pay an extra 5 million for the player he wants, Liverpool will go nowhere.
Do you think Carrick was worth 18 million? Not a chance in hell, and Fergie doesn't think it either. If Newcastle had bought him it woulda been 10. But there is a big club tax, especially in England, and if Rafa doesn't accept that, it'll mean he won't get his first choice players.

~Rebel~

in the past i dont think its just been an issue of principal, i think its more been that he had a budget and if the price rose too much to fit into his budget he walked away, eg, he wanted Kuyt and Alves but when alves's price kept rising seemingly with every passing day, he had to settle for Pennant. As was mentioned, we could only afford Kuyt thanks to Moores generosity. Rafa hasnt had the budgets that Houllier had, so while pool had a big clubs name, they didnt have the big clubs wallet under rafa, until now.

PHB

Maybe, I got the impression from him talking that it was a matter of principle.

Furthermore, I'm not convinced there is going to be loads of new money pumped into Liverpool, we'll have to wait and see.

~Rebel~

i do think principal was involved (who likes paying over the odds?) but i would say primarily it was to fit his budget.

I agree i dont think it'll be a free for all spending spree. But i think he can now afford to spend the extra 5mill on a player that will bring in someone exceptional rather then average, again for example alves or simao or quaresma over pennant. I dont expect to see Kaka or Ronaldinho lining up for us next year!

raven136

PHB your point about carrick not being worth 10 milll but fergie had to pay it to get him,rafa got xabi alonso a far superior player for that price.Fergie had the money to go higher so didnt carewhereas David Moores had to loan liverpool 10 mill of his own personal money last year to buy Kuyt.

The alves deal kept getting higher because sevilla knew that barca also wanted him and simao was club captain of benfica and they raised the price to make him stay and price liverpool out of the deal

Rafa wouldnt be staying if the board and new owners were'nt backing him financially.There isnt a snowball chance in hell of us signing eto or his like rafa may go for another striker of the same quality but the same price....a milito type player

Mr Alan

crap, i expected Kaka AND Ronaldinho to be with us next year! maybe i got carried away with the new owners!

PiE

He's hardly gonna come out and say "nah we didn't get him 'cos we just couldn't afford him...". Of course he'll take the decision on his own shoulders and say he's unwilling to pay that price. Saying the former would cast the club in a bad light.

There was a article on Skysports about Simao. Parry saying something along the lines of "we haven't forgotten him... we may look at him again in the summer". Wouldn't say no.

kaimera

I do like the idea of Tevez playing for us.

He can't be as bad as he has been right what with him having a season under his belt

Villa > Torres but an article in todays paper said that Chelsea are prepared to offer €60+ mill for Villa to stop us getting him.

Mr Alan

Chelsea - Wat a beautiful club

make me sick

sweetie

kaimera wrote:

Villa > Torres but an article in todays paper said that Chelsea are prepared to offer €60+ mill for Villa to stop us getting him.

..maybe we should feign interest in re-signing Traore then!

mickith

dunno bout torres. i no hes young and has tucked away a few goals in the last few seasons but think he is a bit over rated and would probably be paying too much for him if we were to go for him anyway. same with all the top players in spain, vill, e2 etc.
think tevez would be a great signing. and id imagine he would be on his way out of upton park by the end of the season.
there could be no strikers comin in the summer. after all we have vornin on the way, that would be five strikers already. unless rafa has plans to offload one or two he mite be happy with what he has and try and strengthen other positions

Guy:Incognito

Was just leafing through the City - Liverpool programme from the weekend and came across a table of the top 4's results against each other since Rafa took over.

Not good reading.This is a situation that needs changing from the first game against one of the other 3 next season. We will never come close to winning the league with stast like these. I honestly didnt think it was this bad till I saw it in black and white.

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kaimera

Is that in all comps Ste?

Guy:Incognito

No, just the league. With Chelsea still to play Arsenal & Utd that will bring it to 18 games each.

Stky10

Another international signing

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?HLID=462985&CPID=8&title=Liverpool+set+to+sign+starlet&lid=&channel=Football_Home&f=rss&clid=14

Plus an interesting article on the approach by Real Madrid, and changes to be made for next season

http://www.anfieldroad.com/news/latest/2007104/a33223766b.html

I have to say I've wondered what the hell has been going on with Parry, and why massive changes weren't made to the marketing and sales department (especially ticket sales)

Stky10

And Adam Hamill wins the penalty that sends Dunfermline through to the Scottish Cup Final. He might save us a few million...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/scot_cups/6584541.stm

Chardee MacDennis

we were in for Vidic? I didnt even know that! I wonder how many other players we have missed out on, thankfully Rio was one!!

Dub13

Our fans are all meeting/taken over Trafalgar Square today,you can keep an eye on it from this web cam.

http://www.camvista.com/england/london/trafsq.php3

mike65

See the fights live!

Mike.

PiE

Traffic looks terrible.

Nephew

mike65 wrote:

See the fights live!

Mike.

Screw that! Can you imagine the amount of trouble after the game in Athens if it were a Utd - Liverpool final.

Dub13

A bit of a crowed building up now.

zing

Dub13 wrote:

A bit of a crowed building up now.

Wonder if the Rafatola made the trip. Would be hilarious to see that being paraded around London

Nephew

The Rafatola http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/rafatola.jpg

Dub13

I love the the flag with...'Remember Us' thats top notch stuff.

zing

Nephew wrote:

The Rafatola http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/rafatola.jpg

That looks like the orig from Cardiff. It got redisgned and they had a procession with it through Liverpool city center on the day of the Barca match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU6E-twT5F8

Stimpyone

Liverpool line-up as follows:

Reina

Arbeloa
Carragher
Agger
Riise

Gerrard
Mascherano
Alonso
Zenden

Bellamy
Kuyt

Subs:

Dudek
Hyypia
Gonzalez
Crouch
Pennant
Sissoko
Paletta

Cyrus

zenden

FFS:mad:

Zapp Brannigan

Yeah thats what I thought Cyrus, but I suppose Zenden won't get forward as much as Gonzalez so that means we can double up on Joe Cole, who'll be a major threat.

Im hoping for a 1-0 win but a score draw would be great aswell!

Cmon the 'Pool!!

bullrunner

They mentioned during the match last nite that Alonso is heavily linked to a Barca move during the summer....anybody know anything more on this??

Cyrus

old news, darragh maloney hasnt a clue, nor has houghton

i was right about zenden, laughably bad, bellamy on the left would have been a better bet

Malice

Cyrus wrote:

i was right about zenden, laughably bad, bellamy on the left would have been a better bet

I thought Bellamy was anonymous. Maybe his pace would have worked well on the wing but if Rafa was going for pace on the wing I'd have expected Gonzalez to play. Bellamy seemed to offer nothing except the usual narked expression each time he was flagged offside. Zenden on the other hand did attack Ferreira. Maybe not as much as he should have and definitely his final ball wasn't the best but for what it's worth that was as well as I've seen him play in a Liverpool jersey.

I thought Alonso and Mascherano were very poor. If they weren't trying 30-40 yard killer passes when an easier option was available they were getting caught in possession by allowing the Chelsea players to close them down.

Agger showed his inexperience by letting Drogba turn inside him for the goal and I may be biased but I'm sure Finnan would have done better than Arbeloa in tracking Cole's run into the box.

I think the key for the second leg will be width. That means going with Gonzalez and Pennant out wide and Crouch up front. The downside to that is the fact that if Chelsea score we will need three!

Cyrus

ive seen a few people now say zenden played ok, i just didnt see it, he got loads of the ball and rarely got a cross in, he lost the ball about half the time he got it aswell.

we missed finnan badly, arbeloa looked reluctant to get forward. i actually thought alonso was our mom. i know he missplaced some passes but he was the only one who got on the ball and tried to get us moving.

agree on mascherano, id like to see sissoko restored next week

Tusky

I think Arbeloa, Agger, Alonso, Mascherano & Bellamy were terrible. Certainly Mascherano, Agger and Arbeloas worst games in Liverpool shirts. Zenden wasnt great but I didnt expect much of him. Riise was pretty bad, Kuyt looked about as dangerous as a damp newspaper but he didnt get much support so hes hardly to blame. Gerrard & Reina were good but Gerrard did leave alot of space on the right at times.

I thought the performance, specially in the first half, was very poor. We didnt close them down quick enough, gave the ball away far far too often. Whenever we did get forward there was barely anyone in the box. Time & time again Alonso & Mascherano were caught in possession in the middle. On the other hand I thought Chelsea were fantastic and im actually really happy with the result, it could have been much worse. Im sure Rafa wanted to start Finnan at right back, Arbeloa at left back and have Riise on the left wing but couldnt due to Finnans injury. I would rather he had put Gerrard on the left and Pennant on the right or even Bellamy on the right as Zenden has no place in a Champions league semi final.

As for the people suggesting that Gonzalez should have started on the left...have any of you seen him play this season ? He has been TERRIBLE. Absolutely awful.

el rabitos

Cyrus wrote:

agree on mascherano, id like to see sissoko restored next week

and then when sissoko loses the ball a handfull of times people will be calling for macherano to be restored.

the loss of finnan was the trigger to the reshuffling of the left hand side.

benitez identified chelsea's right flank, ie fereirra as their weak link and so decided he needed a left winger to spear head liverpools attact down the left, the options being zenden or gonzalez, riise was tied into playing left back because theres no arbeloa or aurellio to play there.

so clearly rafa has no faith in gonzalez as zenden got the nod. and it was probably the right decision, zenden was obviously terrible, but if gonzalez had started, he'd have spent most of the match on his ass and people would have been calling for rafa to have played zenden.

the lack of quality dept in the squad is what was exposed, we were lucky to escape at 1-0

~Rebel~

we went into the game with 1 form winger, and he was left on the bench from the start. Given the circumstances i would have much preferred to see pennant on the right and gerrard in the left attacking ferreira. This was probably too big a game for gonzalez, but zenden definately wasnt the answer.

Cyrus

el rabitos wrote:

and then when sissoko loses the ball a handfull of times people will be calling for macherano to be restored.

the loss of finnan was the trigger to the reshuffling of the left hand side.

benitez identified chelsea's right flank, ie fereirra as their weak link and so decided he needed a left winger to spear head liverpools attact down the left, the options being zenden or gonzalez, riise was tied into playing left back because theres no arbeloa or aurellio to play there.

so clearly rafa has no faith in gonzalez as zenden got the nod. and it was probably the right decision, zenden was obviously terrible, but if gonzalez had started, he'd have spent most of the match on his ass and people would have been calling for rafa to have played zenden.

the lack of quality dept in the squad is what was exposed, we were lucky to escape at 1-0

i expect sissoko to give the ball away, the rest of his game makes up for it, mascherano gave the ball away almost as much but didnt cover the ground

raven136

As i said previously i think Sissoko would put more of a tempo into the game.He always loses the ball but works so hard to close down and fights for everything.With Essien back,the extra physical presence of Momo might be needed

el rabitos

Cyrus wrote:

i expect sissoko to give the ball away, the rest of his game makes up for it, mascherano gave the ball away almost as much but didnt cover the ground

well if i'm picking a team and theres a player who i expect will give the ball away looking to get a game then i think my job would be made pretty easy.

there were all kinds of factors that together produced that performance last night. it wasnt any 1 players fault. at least 9 out of 11 liverpool player had a nightmare.

riise i felt showed himself for what he is (in the left back position anyway), simply not good enough for the level liverpool are trying to get to, he had no quality at all, showed very little intelligence with the ball. if i was to single out 1 poor performance among many last night, i'd pick his, i thought it was criminal.

ultimately the performance was rafa's fault. the lack of dept in his squad, and it is now his squad, be it from lack of money issues or whatever it is, he has not got the players there to do the job, its up to him to fix it or in the end it will cost him his job.

i hate to sound knee-jerkish (new word?) but it is what it is, theres a lack of quality in the first team, a lack of class. and theres a lack of quality in the back up. both need to be addressed in the summer, it'll be rafa's job to ballance bringing in what may amount to a good handfull of new arrivals with making sure liverpool start next season running and not stopping and starting and ruining a potential title bid by november.

Stky10

el rabitos wrote:

there were all kinds of factors that together produced that performance last night. it wasnt any 1 players fault. at least 9 out of 11 liverpool player had a nightmare.

riise i felt showed himself for what he is (in the left back position anyway), simply not good enough for the level liverpool are trying to get to, he had no quality at all, showed very little intelligence with the ball. if i was to single out 1 poor performance among many last night, i'd pick his, i thought it was criminal.

Bit harsh?. Plenty were way worse than Riise. I think the occasion got to too many of them. Arbeloa especially just looked lost and like a rabbit in the headlights. I've been impressed anytime I've seen him up till last night, so with a bit more experience, and more time to integrate with the team he should do ok. I'm not sure what the story was with Agger, but he allowed Drogba to dominate him physically, and by the end he seemed more interested in carrying on a niggle match than playing the game. As for Mascherano, I'm at a loss, it should have been a match set up for him really. They're all young and inexperienced though, so I'd give them all the benefit of the doubt.

The only reason Zenden played was they didn't trust Gonzalez and with Aurelio, Garcia, and Kewell out he was all that was left. I can't believe they haven't had him (Speedy) in the gym and got him to develop some upper body strength. If ever a lad needed a treatment of something like Creatine its him. Kuyt is a willing worker, but just not up to the standard required. He's like Dennis Bergkamp, but without 90% of the skill, and with about 50% less pace. Alonso needs to sort out whatever is going wrong with him. He has the skills necessary, but its like he's playing at half power a lot of the time.

el rabitos wrote:

i hate to sound knee-jerkish (new word?) but it is what it is, theres a lack of quality in the first team, a lack of class. and theres a lack of quality in the back up. both need to be addressed in the summer, it'll be rafa's job to ballance bringing in what may amount to a good handfull of new arrivals with making sure liverpool start next season running and not stopping and starting and ruining a potential title bid by november.

A lot of people seem very depressed after the game, its almost like being post Arsenal-6-3 again. Its nowhere near that bad a situation, the game is still wide open. We have issues that need to be resolved for next year, and I presume they will be dealt with. No point throwing the baby out with the bath water though. The semi-finals of the champions league is always going to be a very high standard, there are always going to be weaknesses that become apparent. During the summer I'd expect them to be resolved.

eirebhoy

Just watching the Youth cup final. The big holding midfielder looks a good player, Swedish I think.

mike65

Extra time! :eek:

Mike.

mike65

Its gone to penos!

Liverpool win teh (youth ) Cup!

Mike.

Guy:Incognito

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Liverpool win 4-3 on penos.

Never bad to win a trophy at Old Trafford.:)

copacetic

tough for kids to be booed like that..

Nephew

If Liverpool play like they did last night in the second leg, Chelsea will deserve to go through. I think we are missing Garcia. I know he can be pretty frustrating but its big games like the one next week that he usually comes in quite useful.

Vokes

Hes out injured till June unfortunately We've missed him badly.