Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

The Rooster

Liverpool v Kaiserslautern is on Eurosport on Saturday, in every country apart from UK, France and Ireland

Re the comparisons of the cost of Duff vs the cost of Pennant. Reportedly Duff is on £70k and Pennant is on £25k. That's a difference of £9 million over 4 years - so Pennant will work out as significantly cheaper.

emc2

Dub13 wrote:

If the game was off the official site would have it up by now,they are pretty fast with the news.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N153001060727-1015.htm


It's still on.

Thanx 4 The Fish

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N153001060727-1015.htm

Friendlies are still on, Pennant could get a run out. Hope he fits in, must admit I was on of those at anfield singing "you should be in Prison" but he was the oppo then

Most crosses for a winger last season, hopefully if he can stick em on the big lads head or in front of Bellamy the goals will pour in.

zing

Club claiming to have the cash for the new stadium
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_objectid=17459722%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26headline=cash%2dis%2din%2dplace%2dfor%2dnew%2danfield-name_page.html

Although the word resources is also used instead of cash in the article - maybe Rick got himself a new JCB and a few shovels and has been watching lots of DIY progs

swalsh

Diao fails medical at charlton and returns to liverpool, traore could be gone now

Bacchus

How in the hell did he fail a medical!! Jeez, can we not just get rid of him.

swalsh

Don't konw but its nearly certain traore is gone, even talks about him playing in the friendly at the weekend (valencia?)

zAbbo

Djimi going on a loan with a buy clause ?

swalsh

option to buy i believe

zing

swalsh wrote:

Diao fails medical at charlton and returns to liverpool, traore could be gone now

Bascombe just reports:

Diao returned to Liverpool after postponing a planned trial at The Valley.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_objectid=17459742%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26page=2%26headline=pennant%2ddeal%2da%2d%2dgamble%2d-name_page.html

Maybe that's a nice way of saying he failed a medical or a nice way of saying Charlton saw sense (but went for Djimi ?) or maybe the trial just got postponed for some reason.

IIRC he signed a 5 year deal in '02 so should only have 1 year left ? If so just cut our losses and release him..

swalsh

zing wrote:

Bascombe just reports:

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_objectid=17459742%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26page=2%26headline=pennant%2ddeal%2da%2d%2dgamble%2d-name_page.html

Maybe that's a nice way of saying he failed a medical or a nice way of saying Charlton saw sense (but went for Djimi ?) or maybe the trial just got postponed for some reason.

IIRC he signed a 5 year deal in '02 so should only have 1 year left ? If so just cut our losses and release him..

it was on sky sport news where i heard he failed the medical

mike65

Someone will have to take him out back and do the decent thing!

As for formations how about

---

Reina
Finnan---Carra---Hyypia---Riise

---

Alonso---Sissoko
Pennant

---

Kewell

---

Gerrard

---

Crouch

Or subbing Kewell with Gonz and Crouch with Bellamy (Belllemy picking up angled balls rather than crosses a la Crouch).

Mike.

Vokes

Fantastic lineup but will Kewell make it back in time for the new season, i expect Zenden to maybe fill in on the left intially.

Zapp Brannigan

mike65 wrote:

Someone will have to take him out back and do the decent thing!

As for formations how about

---

Reina
Finnan---Carra---Hyypia---Riise

---

Alonso---Sissoko
Pennant

---

Kewell

---

Gerrard

---

Crouch

Or subbing Kewell with Gonz and Crouch with Bellamy (Belllemy picking up angled balls rather than crosses a la Crouch).

Mike.

I can't see him employing that formation unless he gets adequate cover for midfield.

Tusky

Is pennant good enough to walk into the first team ? I think I might prefer this...

Finnan---Carragher---Hypia---Risse/Aurelio

Gerrard---Sissoko---Alonso---Kewell/Gonzalez

---

Bellamy---Crouch

el rabitos

Slurms wrote:

I can't see him employing that formation unless he gets adequate cover for midfield.

zenden and garcia can both cover the midfield, then theres adam hammil who might get a break this year

the team is better ballanced now with pennant, hopefully anderson can step up and provide competition on the right.

herbieflowers

yeah why wouldn't Bellamy start? As a non-Pool fan where's Gerrard's best position?

zing

mike65 wrote:

As for formations how about

---

Reina
Finnan---Carra---Hyypia---Riise

---

Alonso---Sissoko
Pennant

---

Kewell

---

Gerrard

---

Crouch

Yup - that's definitely a formation

Seriously though I just don't understand people posting what our formation might look like when we all know Rafa has yet to use the same starting XI two games on the trot. Taking injuries/suspensions/etc.. into account Rafa fields what he feels is the strongest XI to exploit the weaknesses in any given team and in theory go on to beat them.

Sometimes that starting XI doesn't always make much sense to many of us but I'll still leave it to Rafa to pick that XI..

/end of mini-rant

byte

The Rooster wrote:

Liverpool v Kaiserslautern is on Eurosport on Saturday, in every country apart from UK, France and Ireland

Hmm, I notice the game is not listed on British Eurosport on Sky, but according to LJ's Football site, it IS on British Eurosport!

http://www.knplogic.com/sport/DL_sat.html

mike65

zing, twas only a bit of fun!

Its not so much the players as the shape I was thinking of. I can see alot of "one-up-front" football this season, unless Rafa has had a change of heart.

He likes fast wide men and a target with central support which could be Gerrard though just as easily could be Garcia with Gerrard playing more central with Alonso.

The great thing about the way Liverpool is developing is that there are so many possibilites, under Houllier 'Pool became ever more predictable and one dimensional.

Mike.

The Rooster

byte wrote:

Hmm, I notice the game is not listed on British Eurosport on Sky, but according to LJ's Football site, it IS on British Eurosport!

http://www.knplogic.com/sport/DL_sat.html

If you go to that page, and click on "friendlies" (linky at the top of the page) you'll see a different list which indicates its not on British Eurosport. I too checked my Sky listings for Saturday and there's no sign of it. I suppose we should still check it out on Saturday, but I dont hold out any hope.

Grasshoppers v Liverpool is live on Channel Five on Tuesday.

seabee

Liverpool v Macabi Haifa

PiE

****ty draw for us, woulda preferred not to go to Israel.

Wonder if they'll have to play that match on neutral ground?

RE*AC*TOR

PiE wrote:

****ty draw for us, woulda preferred not to go to Israel.

Wonder if they'll have to play that match on neutral ground?

most likely will be played in Cyprus.

PHB

Due to the current situation I'll imagine it'll be played in Cyprus, but it's only a 5 hour flight away, it ain't that bad. That said, last time they played in Cyprus, didn't they get massive crowds?

Kimbot

Apparently Spurs want Kewell(Cos they didn't get duff) but his wage demands could scupper a deal!! (Not sure how true it is but was in one of this mornings papers)

missingtime

jonny24ie wrote:

Apparently Spurs want Kewell(Cos they didn't get duff) but his wage demands could scupper a deal!! (Not sure how true it is but was in one of this mornings papers)

If they took him for 7 or 8 million that would be a great deal i think. Get a nice striker for ourselves.
Only downside is spurs are developing quite a good team at the moment. If carrick does go to united spurs will have the cash to fork out for him.

seabee

The macabi haifa chairman and a uefa official were both interviewed on skysportsnews earlier and they mentioned that european games involving isreali teams are played in tel-aviv (in the south of the country) but that they were also working on a plan b.the game is due to be played on the 22/23 of august so they will monitor the situation and wait until closer the time.

uberwolf

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

most likely will be played in Cyprus.

too many lebanonese (sp) refugees in Cyprus - security risk.

seebee wrote:

The macabi haifa chairman and a uefa official were both interviewed on skysportsnews earlier and they mentioned that european games involving isreali teams are played in tel-aviv (in the south of the country) but that they were also working on a plan b.the game is due to be played on the 22/23 of august so they will monitor the situation and wait until closer the time.

Tel Aviv is also under rocket alert. (first time since 1st gulf war) so that's hardly a safe option - given it's classified as a war zone.

Play it in Goodison IMO.

event

missingtime wrote:

If they took him for 7 or 8 million that would be a great deal i think. Get a nice striker for ourselves.
Only downside is spurs are developing quite a good team at the moment. If carrick does go to united spurs will have the cash to fork out for him.

there is no way he is worth that money

missingtime

7 or 8 million euro. I'd say they'd get that for him. The only thing is he is very injury prone and doesnt perform well in cup/league finals.

el rabitos

missingtime wrote:

7 or 8 million euro. I'd say they'd get that for him. The only thing is he is very injury prone and doesnt perform well in cup/league finals.

thats because he only ever manages a few minutes of them before getting injured.

getting more than 5 million for kewell would be an achievement. he had a good season last year, a season this year without injury would be good, assuming he stays

Tusky

I think Kewell is well worth 7 or 8.

zAbbo

Tusky wrote:

I think Kewell is well worth 7 or 8.

Now that spurs have some money. Anything above 5mil is good with me.

byte

The Rooster wrote:

If you go to that page, and click on "friendlies" (linky at the top of the page) you'll see a different list which indicates its not on British Eurosport. I too checked my Sky listings for Saturday and there's no sign of it. I suppose we should still check it out on Saturday, but I dont hold out any hope.

Grasshoppers v Liverpool is live on Channel Five on Tuesday.

As mentioned on a seperate thread, the game is confirmed to be shown on British Eurosport!

el rabitos

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N153019060728-1744.htm

some pics of pennant training

Nalz

I think Pennant is a briiliant signing for Liverpool, he will produce quality crosses for Crouch and co. Rafa is doin well in Transfer market, without a doubt the best manager in the premiership since he arrived.

If you get 8m Kewell it will be also a brilliant deal by Liverpool. Enough to get a decent CB as cover for Carragher and Hyypia.

Could push Chelsea all the way this year (coming from Man Utd fan!)

el rabitos

Trilla wrote:

I think Pennant is a briiliant signing for Liverpool, he will produce quality crosses for Crouch and co. Rafa is doin well in Transfer market, without a doubt the best manager in the premiership since he arrived.

If you get 8m Kewell it will be also a brilliant deal by Liverpool. Enough to get a decent CB as cover for Carragher and Hyypia.

Could push Chelsea all the way this year (coming from Man Utd fan!)

i think rafa sees agger and palleta as the long term replacements and cover for carra and hyypia. but palleta doesnt speak english yet so i dont know how usefull he'll be anytime soon : /

Tusky

Trilla wrote:

I think Pennant is a briiliant signing for Liverpool, he will produce quality crosses for Crouch and co. Rafa is doin well in Transfer market, without a doubt the best manager in the premiership since he arrived.

If you get 8m Kewell it will be also a brilliant deal by Liverpool. Enough to get a decent CB as cover for Carragher and Hyypia.

Could push Chelsea all the way this year (coming from Man Utd fan!)

Liverpool certainly dont need any more CBs... I dont think Rafa has done that well in the transfer market this season but I understand the money isnt there so what can you do.

Nalz

Tusky wrote:

Liverpool certainly dont need any more CBs... I dont think Rafa has done that well in the transfer market this season but I understand the money isnt there so what can you do.

Wht? Bellamy was a fantastic signing in my opinion. qway better a signing then Trezeguet which 'pool were linked with. Pennant wasnt that bad either. Who exactly did you want at Liverpool?

el rabitos

personally i dont think the squad needed alot appart from the obvious.

1 or 2 strikers
1 or 2 right wingers
clear some of the dead wood

thats all i was expecting, so i'm happy, would have preferred jesus navas or dani alves as right wingers, but pennant should contribute well, bellamy too

redspider

The Penant signing was reasonable business, although the price was quite high, say in comparison to Bellamy who I rate to be better.

I have no problem off-loading Kewell, even though he did reasonable towards the latter half (wasn't it) of last season. There is no way Liverpool will get 7m for him though. I'd say 4m tops, and I cant see a bidding war for him.

Is Carrick going to Man U then with Ruud van N gone to Madrid and does that give Spurs some extra dough to invest in Kewell?

In terms of whether Liverpool have signed enough to challenge Chelsea, thats hard to know but my money would be on Chelsea. Regardless, Chelsea's key focus next season will be the CL, and they should, if they are smart, use the league as practice sessions to master their CL tactics and style. That may give some opportunity to Liverpool (and Man U, Arsenal, Spurs?). Liverpool could optimise for the league but the CL is so lucrative in terms of cash that everyone wants it, as a top-4 place in the league is enough (yes, really), unless you are sure of winning it.

Redspider

DaBreno

A british manager might de-prioritize the Champooins league, not a european manager. On top of that, Rafa is a born winner, he wont send out a team to under-perform or stay in second gear. He will look for the win in all comps and rightly so.

We need one more striker and thats it, the squad is polished. We could have been a contender last season if we hadnt started the premiership so badly. Lets hit the gound running this time : beat the Chavs in the Charity Shield, beat the Israelies and win all of our August league fixtures.

Lets have goals from Bellamy and Fowler, clean sheets at the back, a screamer from Stevie G and a new g/f for Crouchy.

Start as ya mean to go on!

el rabitos

DaBreno wrote:

A british manager might de-prioritize the Champooins league, not a european manager. On top of that, Rafa is a born winner, he wont send out a team to under-perform or stay in second gear. He will look for the win in all comps and rightly so.

We need one more striker and thats it, the squad is polished. We could have been a contender last season if we hadnt started the premiership so badly. Lets hit the gound running this time : beat the Chavs in the Charity Shield, beat the Israelies and win all of our August league fixtures.

Lets have goals from Bellamy and Fowler, clean sheets at the back, a screamer from Stevie G and a new g/f for Crouchy.

Start as ya mean to go on!

i agree with captain kirk, start as you mean to go on. seeing chelsea 5 points clear at the end of august would be soul destroying for any squad

seabee

It says in one of the papers this morning that chelsea are interested in buying Kuyt - looks like jose is getting scared or Rafas men

Vokes

Well, Chelsea have Drogba, Crespo, Shevchenko and Kalou. Unless of course Crespo is leaving and will need replacing.

PiE

They can have him.

redspider

DaBreno wrote:

On top of that, Rafa is a born winner, he wont send out a team to under-perform or stay in second gear. He will look for the win in all comps and rightly so.

Of course every manager looks for a win in all competitions, but circumstances and reality means that others have higher priority. Unless a manager has a world class 24-man squad which are injury free and match fit and sharp, he has to manage who he plays and rests given the amount of matches played, some 3 in a week, etc. Its all very well in theory saying that each match the best team is played, but in practice none of the top teams do that. Mental effort is also something which needs to be managed. Sure, play one game at a time but any manager that say has a home match against West Ham on a Sat and an away leg against Barcelona in the CL on Tue will clearly have an eye on the 2nd match. As will the players. They are human and limited in energy and capability!

redspider

mike65

Crespo is almost certainly off to Milan (its just a question of which one!) while Drogba will go if they get a half-decent offer so Kuyt might'nt be so mad.

Mike.

p.pete

Quick question, is Liverpool's friendly match today on tv anywhere? Cheers.

<edit>
found it, apparently on Eurosport. Thought it was but their site didn't seem to say so when I checked earlier (need more lucozade/sleep). Now just need a pub wit Eurosport