Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

Chardee MacDennis

surely Rafa would bring him in as a right winger?

Spud83

I cant see him going to Liverpool. Wenger wants him to go to a club where he will be pretty much guarenteed first choice football, playing through the centre not out wide. Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, or Man City would be my guesses.

zing

The latest 'new' stadium.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N158580080125-1030.htm

Mr Alan

Still looks pretty amazing tbh. If they can get that built that'll leave only 999,999 things to do to make up for the last couple of months.

Tusky

If the reports are true that the owners will show a big sign of support for Rafa by signing Mascherano and giving a large kitty in the summer, it would go a long way to restoring peoples faith in them. After all, the main reason people are angry is because they haven't supported Rafa fully.

New stadium looks very similar to the last one.

Chardee MacDennis

are they corporate boxes in the middle of the L and F of the Kop? :eek: How well will that go down? Besides that I like the look of it.

Boggles

Call_me_al wrote: »

so anyone know where we can watch the match on saturday?

Not one channel in Europe is showing it.

_blank_

Tusky wrote: »

After all, the main reason people are angry is because they haven't supported Rafa fully.

Is it.

Is not the fact that they are planning on plunging the club into debt?

is that not more important than who the manager is?

Managers come and go, there is only one club.

zing

Signing Masch would be a show of support for Rafa allright but just a pr thing really. They may also promise the money for the summer but who knows if Rafa will still be there for the first game of next season. Masch is a safe bed as few managers wouldn't want him.

Can't see much (any) diff between old & new stadium designs which is good as I really do like the design. Costs were soaring on previous one due to steel prices primarily afaik - it used a huge amount of bend steel. Wonder what they've done differently this time to keep the costs down.

Chardee MacDennis

Boggles wrote: »

Not one channel in Europe is showing it.

that's crazy?!? surely it would get more viewers then the chelsea game or the boro game?

Boggles

Call_me_al wrote: »

that's crazy?!? surely it would get more viewers then the chelsea game or the boro game?

Those 2 games have an early afternoon and late evening kick off.

Liverpool match is on at 3 and is up against, Arsenal v Newcastle and Villa v Blackburn.

Mr Alan

DesF wrote: »

Is it.

Is not the fact that they are planning on plunging the club into debt?

is that not more important than who the manager is?

Managers come and go, there is only one club.

Kind of.

Now i havent really had time over the last while to read up on this fully (plan to this weekend though), basically they purchased the club and said that it was debt free, ie-the debt was not to be put on the club. There was then reports that they were planning on putting all the debt onto the club, which would have meant they told blatant lies when gaining control, kept the club debt free for a year and then transfered all their debt onto the club.

This is why people (incl Parry and Moores on the board) were up in arms. Then on top of that they publically undermined the most popular manager since Dalglish and seemed to be paving the way for sacking him, or trying to make him quit.

So people were pissed off big time. But now with wat they've actually done, they have tranfered the debt onto the club that is going to be used to build/start building the stadium (?)-this was always going to happen, same would've happened with DIC or anyone i'd imagine. They've kept the debt they accumulated when purchasing the club on themselves, and put in £60 odd million of their own money into the mix (note that this is the first pennies they've had to part with since buying liverpool).

Again, not sure how accurate wat i'm saying there is, but thats the understanding i've gathered from reading a few things over the last few days.

Mascherano, the impressive new stadium, and money for Rafa in the summer and they may start to undo some of the damage to their names on merseyside.

Chardee MacDennis

Mr Alan wrote: »

But now with wat they've actually done, they have tranfered the debt onto the club that is going to be used to build/start building the stadium

and an additional 45m working capital for new players

Mr Alan

to fund the Rafalution stage 4

Tusky

DesF wrote: »

Is it.

Is not the fact that they are planning on plunging the club into debt?

is that not more important than who the manager is?

Managers come and go, there is only one club.

But they arent putting the club under the amount of debt that was originally speculated. They have had to put up alot of the money towards the loan they took out to buy the club themselves.

prendy

the stadium looks better than i expected...i dunno what i was expecting after all the talk of no money etc.

today has been the best news day for us in a while...quite a few positives(from the outside anyway):D

Stky10

Tusky wrote: »

If the reports are true that the owners will show a big sign of support for Rafa by signing Mascherano and giving a large kitty in the summer, it would go a long way to restoring peoples faith in them.

Doubt it. Don't think there'll be a large kitty in the summer either. Probably just our bog standard net 20m again, and we'll probably again be outspent by the types of Sunderland. Did Everton even outspend us last summer as well?.

Mr Alan

Net spend-yep they did.

Unearthly

Can't see much money being spent at all if Mascherano gets signed for 17 million.

missingtime

If Benitez gets rid of the dross we should get another 20million. If we cannot get the right players then I think we should start dipping into the reserves. We are going to have to do it sooner or later.

zing

Delay in financing possibly down to the banks not having received the $$$ from Gillet ?

Barrett also quick to notice the lack of Gillet's name on todays press releases about the stadium.

And lastly Hicks has told Rafa they will proceed with securing Masch.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=is-this-anfield%26method=full%26objectid=20394489%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

yom 1

Have peoples views on the naming rights changed now in light of what has happened recently. I was against the idea of selling out. Liverpool and Anfield go hand in hand. I love the whole history of the "THIS IS ANFIELD" sign. But if it means that a considerable chunk of the stadium is financed by selling the naming rights and that cuts a chunk off the debt on the club then I'm all for it.

prendy

ya whats the story with that...it's like as if hicks is trying to distance himself from gillett???
you'd imagine as 50-50 partners they'd both want to be noted in the stadium plans.

Stky10

missingtime wrote: »

If Benitez gets rid of the dross we should get another 20million. If we cannot get the right players then I think we should start dipping into the reserves. We are going to have to do it sooner or later.

+1

Even if some of them turn out to be not good enough, I'd prefer it to some "superstar" we bought that turned out to be not good enough. And yeah... Kuyt... I'm looking at you.

machiavellianme

Stky10 wrote: »

+1

And yeah... Kuyt... I'm looking at you.

Why would anyone want to look at Kuyt? I look away when he gets the ball to avoid the utter disappointment.
He has 3 moves: Clap himself for ballooning another tap in 3 miles wide, give the thumbs up for failing entirely to connect to a ball played to his feet or smile innocently for driving high into row Z when he was mere inches from goal. He even made Cisse look good.

zing

Naming rights were always going to be sold regardless of whether it was Moores, Waldorf & Statler or DIC building the stadium. It won't be 'Anfield' and I'm not sure if there's really any point in trying to pretend it is by still referring to it as Anfield.

If we make a 3.5m profit on Momo as is being predicted how are the figures looking in relation to the players Rafa has bought and subsequently sold on ? Still slightly in the red or close or breaking even ? Just curious..

Zapp Brannigan

So what do we thing about tomorrow?

A seriously depleted team? I'd like to see alot of youngsters given a run out. Insua at left back, Lucas and Alonso in the middle, Nemeth up front. I think it'd be a good test for them and we could always throw Gerrard & Torres on the bench to come on and save the day if things go wrong.

prendy

ah now we shouldnt need them for this game surely???

missingtime

I'm affraid that Benitez, knowing that the league is gone, wont mess about here and send out a strong enough squad.

Melion

I can see a full strength XI tomorrow unfortunately, personally id go for this:

Reina

Spearing
Insua
Sami
Skrtel

El Zhar
Leto
Lucas
Alonso

Nemeth
Crouch

yom 1

missingtime wrote: »

I'm affraid that Benitez, knowing that the league is gone, wont mess about here and send out a strong enough squad.

And he'd be right to. If he did send out a weakened squad and an upset happened he'd be absolutely slated. Its our best hope of a trophy this year, so no messing suits me fine.

missingtime

I think El Zhar is off in the African Nations Cup.

A nice mix of reserves and first teamers would do me. Say we get up by 3 or 4 goals, with 30 minutes to go he should bring on some younger guys.

Saying that - Lucas should play 90mins.

Stky10

Melion wrote: »

Nemeth

Reckon they might go with Kuyt so that he might actually score for once, and maybe get some confidence back.

But yeah.. Nemeth to come on as a sub would be a popular choice. He's turned 19 and played about 30 games in the top division in Hungary, lets see what he can do.

Jazzy

leto is on loan for river plate.

id like

Reina

Finnan
Aurelio
Skrtel
Hyypia

Pennant
Babel
Alonso
Lucas

Crouch
Kuyt

Stky10

Its official now

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N158586080125-1442.htm

zing

missingtime wrote: »

I think El Zhar is off in the African Nations Cup.

Just did a quick search and he's not listed in the Moroccon squad according to this page anyway.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/african-cup-of-nations/african-cup-of-nations-preview-morocco.html

Unless maybe there's an u-21's tournament going on at the same time ?

mike65

In response to questions recently raised about owner support of Rafa Benitez as Manager, Tom Hicks today commented: "Since the meeting with Rafa on December 16th, at which some widely reported communications issues were discussed, Rafa has been assured that he has continuing and enthusiastic support as the Club's Manager.

"Reflecting that support, Kop recently approved his transfer payment request to sign Martin Skrtel for £6.5 million and is in discussions with Rafa and Club management regarding additional player signings this summer.

"Rafa is under contract for two more seasons following this season. I am solidly behind Rafa and am confident of the team's competitive prospects under his continuing leadership."

So then owners back manager, stadium announced, finance sorted...hang on did'nt this all happen nearly a year ago! :eek:

Mike.

whatawaster

Stky10 wrote: »

Its official now

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N158586080125-1442.htm

Interesting reading. Is that a show of support for Rafa? Or a dreaded vote of confidence?

zing

mike65 wrote: »

So then owners back manager, stadium announced, finance sorted...hang on did'nt this all happen nearly a year ago! :eek:

Mike.

Expect it to happen again in a year to 18 months when they need to go begging for more money for the stadium. This is just a stop gap

Zapp Brannigan

Jazzy wrote: »

leto is on loan for river plate.

Where'd you hear that?

Chardee MacDennis

I would like to see a mixed bag tomorrow:

Reina
Finnan-Skrtle-Hyypia-Insua
Pennant-Lucas-Masch-Babel
Crouch-Torres

Or something like that

Hicks has given Rafa his support in the statement announcing the loan

"Since the meeting with Rafa on December 16th, at which some widely reported communications issues were discussed, Rafa has been assured that he has continuing and enthusiastic support as the Club's Manager.

"Reflecting that support, Kop recently approved his transfer payment request to sign Martin Skrtel for £6.5 million and is in discussions with Rafa and Club management regarding additional player signings this summer.

"Rafa is under contract for two more seasons following this season. I am solidly behind Rafa and am confident of the team's competitive prospects under his continuing leadership."

mike65

They won't do it again, if it looks like going pear-shaped someone else will take advantage and buy them out.

Mike.

whatawaster

Tomorrow I'd like to see:

---

Itandje

---

Finnan

---

Carragher

---

Skrtel

---

Insua

---

Lucas

---

Alonso

---

Pennant

---

Babel

---

Crouch

---

Nemeth

---

But I expect:

---

Itandje

---

Finnan

---

Carragher

---

Skrtel

---

Riise

Benayoun

---

Mascherano

---

Alonso

---

Babel

---

Crouch

---

Kuyt

---

zing

Is Aurelio fit this weekend ? If so he'll prob feature ahead of Risse. Defo think Lucas needs to play.

As for

I am solidly behind Rafa and am confident of the team's competitive prospects under his continuing leadership.

Only way people will believe this Tom is if you put your money where your mouth is and offer to extend his contract. But there's no chance of that happening before the summer and in fairness - that's probably the best time to think about it.

Stky10

mike65 wrote: »

So then owners back manager, stadium announced, finance sorted...hang on did'nt this all happen nearly a year ago! :eek:

Not only that... they were going to start construction within 60 days of taking over the club..

This time there's no mention of start dates at all... whats the betting the next Duke Nukem will be released before construction starts?

missingtime

Stky10 wrote: »

whats the betting the next Duke Nukem will be released before construction starts?

There will be a sign stuck in the mud at the construction site saying:

"When its done"

Nunu

Stky10 wrote: »

Can't see it. City don't need the money, and the player must know the number of games he'd play at Liverpool will be a lot less than he'll play for City. And he used to be with Everton before he joined City, so chances are he's a blue.

So what! Almost every single scouser that has played for Liverpool was a bluenose as a kid:D

Tusky

Wouldn't try to guess the team for tomorrow but I would say the following players should play.

Itandje
Skrtle
Babel
Lucas
Alonso
Crouch

missingtime

I wouldn't mind seeing babel on as an out & out striker.

Jazzy

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Where'd you hear that?

hmm, all i can find is speculation. i remember reading it earlier in the week and thought it was a done deal... looks like im wrong