Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2008/2009

mayordenis

your making judgements on 2 games,

first of you shouldn't want barry based on 2 matches aginst ****e opossition, you should want him on 6/7 seasons of brilliant performances for villa in whatever position he has been asked to play.

And you also shouldn't bother mouthing your opinion of Bentley who can easily be among the best wingers in the world, i've been watching him since arsenal reserves and he has so much class and is exactly what we need - we have pace to burn with stevie, torres, babel, masch, agger and skertl even possible degen now - but it's not all about pace a great counter attack can fall apart with one bad touch - something he doesn't do - his crossing is the best in the league - we'd have someone who could deliver a corner and freekicks. /endrant

King John V

£8.5m would be a decent bit of business for Bentley. But this appeared in the past hour

Lennon would be seen as the ideal replacement for Bentley and if Spurs throw in midfield enforcer Ghaly and £7million as well then it could be too tempting for Rovers to turn down.

Liverpool and Chelsea are also in the hunt to sign Bentley, who Rovers hope will end all the rumours by signing a new deal at Ewood Park.

Either the rumours are being made up as they go along or Bentley really, really doesn't want to go to Spurs over Liverpool . Hopefully the latter.

If Riise does go for £5m good luck to him I say. The last season doesn't pay tribute to an otherwise very good contribution to the club.

mayordenis

I won't remember anything from last season about JAR i'll only remember the free kick against utd. BOOM!

IrishMike

mayordenis wrote: »

anyone who cant see the class that bentley has is blind simple as that.

Call_me_al wrote: »

While Barry in his last two performances for England has really made me rethink not wanting to sign him i think Bentleys performances have been pi$$ poor. i really dont think he will make the step up, if we sold Pennant for 5m and got him for 8.5m maybe but he isnt what we need, he isnt that much better than Pennant and he will never be a world class winger.

Gotta agree with Al here.
Think bentley will be the next pederson.
He is also extremely arrogant every time i have seen him interviewed
and that fiasco with the U20s means i wouldnt be all that excited if he signed
and i wouldnt be upset if he didnt sign.
He is a little step up from pennant but not much and pennant is a lot faster.
Overrated and if we spent anything over 10m for him i would see it as being
vastly overpriced.

Chardee MacDennis

mayordenis wrote: »

your making judgements on 2 games,

first of you shouldn't want barry based on 2 matches aginst ****e opossition, you should want him on 6/7 seasons of brilliant performances for villa in whatever position he has been asked to play.

And you also shouldn't bother mouthing your opinion of Bentley who can easily be among the best wingers in the world, i've been watching him since arsenal reserves and he has so much class and is exactly what we need - we have pace to burn with stevie, torres, babel, masch, agger and skertl even possible degen now - but it's not all about pace a great counter attack can fall apart with one bad touch - something he doesn't do - his crossing is the best in the league - we'd have someone who could deliver a corner and freekicks. /endrant

to be honest i have seen a lot of the two of them, i dont think Bentley is that good at Blackburn i thought when he gets his chance with the england team he might show what he can do surrounded by ten very good players. And that was nothing.

As for Gareth Barry I have been wary of wasting money on him but he and Gerrard have linked up very well when they have played together and i can see potential partnership there. imagine if we had Barry and Gerrard linking up like Nando and Gerrard. we could have no wingers anymore and we would score!

**** it if we want someone who can cross etc just get David Beckham - we dont we need pace and crossing and Bentley doesnt have that. we are a coutning attacking team and while Babel, Gerrard and Torres are doing thier thing in the oppostions half Bentley will be trying to catch up with them. It would be stupid to buy someone that doesnt have at least 90% of the pace that the slowest of those three have as they will be left behind on counter attacks.

if we sign him i hope i am wrong about him and he makes the step up to top 4 quality oh and as IrishMike said he comes across as being up his own arse.

IrishMike

mayordenis wrote: »

your making judgements on 2 games,

first of you shouldn't want barry based on 2 matches aginst ****e opossition, you should want him on 6/7 seasons of brilliant performances for villa in whatever position he has been asked to play.

And you also shouldn't bother mouthing your opinion of Bentley who can easily be among the best wingers in the world, i've been watching him since arsenal reserves and he has so much class and is exactly what we need - we have pace to burn with stevie, torres, babel, masch, agger and skertl even possible degen now - but it's not all about pace a great counter attack can fall apart with one bad touch - something he doesn't do - his crossing is the best in the league - we'd have someone who could deliver a corner and freekicks. /endrant

Best crosser in the league?
Are you having a laugh?
Lets have a quick look at his career so shall we....
102 games for blackburn and scored 13 goals including free kicks.
In that time he had 20 assists from open play which is an assist every 5 games.
This season he played 37 games, 6 goals and had 9 assists from open play.
Thats 1 every 4 games or so.
Not exactly world class to say the very least.

Ashley young had 13 assists and 10 goals from the same number of games last season
Kuyt had 11 assists from just 33 games which is 1 every 3 games.

Bentley is not now, nor will he ever be world class.
To say otherwise is a joke, he gets the exposure he gets because he is english.
Above average player who is not a good enough player to change liverpools
fortunes by himself in the premiership.
Because of that i would not want to see big money spent on him

He would be an addition but its not hugely better than pennant.
Plus he doesnt have pennants pace, think the speculation about his is a smokescreen to be honest.
Really cant see Rafa buying him

Dub13

Anybody here going to any of the pre season games...?I am thinking about heading to the Rangers one.

~Rebel~

ah fukin nightmare! Since Babel's missing the Euro's the dutch have said he'll definately be in their olympic team if fit. So thats another 1st teamer missing for the first month of the season..

Liverpool winger Ryan Babel is 'top of the list' in Holland's plans for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Babel has been ruled out of Euro 2008 after tearing ankle ligaments, but Holland's Olympic coach Ari Haan has revealed that, if fit, the 21-year-old will be selected for the Games in Beijing, which run from 8th-24th August.

"If Ryan is fit he will be at the top of our list for the competition," Haan said in the Daily Mirror.

"With his qualities, Ryan is a vital player for our plans."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_3640066,00.html

Chardee MacDennis

Dub13 wrote: »

Anybody here going to any of the pre season games...?I am thinking about heading to the Rangers one.

the site says nothing about friendlies except for Villareal. Does anyone know the complete list? Wouldnt mind going to one or two.

mike65

Michael Kightly now he would be worth buying.

Mike.

King John V

Would anyone know anything about the Galway supporters group?

gucci

mayordenis wrote: »

babel out of euro 08 - gutted for him

Nuts, tough luck on him! Hopefully he recovers well and we survive the rest of the tournament unscathed.

monkey9

IrishMike wrote: »

Best crosser in the league?
Are you having a laugh?
Lets have a quick look at his career so shall we....
102 games for blackburn and scored 13 goals including free kicks.
In that time he had 20 assists from open play which is an assist every 5 games.
This season he played 37 games, 6 goals and had 9 assists from open play.
Thats 1 every 4 games or so.
Not exactly world class to say the very least.

Ashley young had 13 assists and 10 goals from the same number of games last season
Kuyt had 11 assists from just 33 games which is 1 every 3 games.

Bentley is not now, nor will he ever be world class.
To say otherwise is a joke, he gets the exposure he gets because he is english.
Above average player who is not a good enough player to change liverpools
fortunes by himself in the premiership.
Because of that i would not want to see big money spent on him

He would be an addition but its not hugely better than pennant.
Plus he doesnt have pennants pace, think the speculation about his is a smokescreen to be honest.
Really cant see Rafa buying him

In fairness, you can quote stats an all, but if you're talking about assists.....maybe he is actually better. Maybe he has put in a lot more would be assists but they were never finished off by the attacking player. Maybe his assist rate would improve with the likes of Torres and Gerrard in the team to get on the end of.
But i agree, i wouldn't neccessarily place him on top as the best crosser. In fact, Pennent was widely acknowledged as the best crosser of the ball when we bought him.........look what happened there. He can hardly beat the first man at times

Chardee MacDennis

from BBC's Breaking Gossip:
Juventus will resume talks with Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso today over a possible move to Italy. The two clubs are yet to agree a fee for the Spaniard with Liverpool holding out for £18m. (Channel 4 Football Italia, 1019 BST)

gucci

~Rebel~ wrote: »

ah fukin nightmare! Since Babel's missing the Euro's the dutch have said he'll definately be in their olympic team if fit. So thats another 1st teamer missing for the first month of the season..


http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_3640066,00.html

There is always something..........

Malice

~Rebel~ wrote: »

ah fukin nightmare! Since Babel's missing the Euro's the dutch have said he'll definately be in their olympic team if fit. So thats another 1st teamer missing for the first month of the season..

That whole Olympics thing is a crock of shit to be honest. Football should be taken out of it or set so that only amateur players can enter and never mind that over 23 rubbish either! Are any other teams potentially getting as royally messed up as Liverpool? Any chance Argentina could take Tevez, Portugal take Ronaldo and Spain take Fabregas for example?

King John V wrote: »

Would anyone know anything about the Galway supporters group?

They used to meet in Foxes bar on Forster Street to watch matches but that was a few years ago, I've no idea if they still do. They may have moved to the Goalpost now that I think about it. I'll ask around to see if anyone knows and confirm for you.

King John V

Thanks Malice. Don't go to any trouble now or anything. There's a Galway group according to the official website and contact details. So, I might get in touch over the next few weeks. It'd be good craic to catch 1 or 2 live matches over the season and the rest in town. Thanks again .

The Recliner

I was in Galway a few weeks ago and Foxes had supporters club info in their window

Not sure if it is up to date or anything

~Rebel~

On a brighter note, we're gonna trial yet another massively talented kid soon. This one's Swedish and only 14years old. He's already played for his senior club team and scored 8 goals for them. Has 180 youth goals! He's also a Liverpool fan. (aren't they all?) Weird lookin' kid though..

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_3633464,00.html
http://www.nt.se/sport/artikel.aspx?articleid=3639338
http://www.folkbladet.se/sport/artikel.aspx?articleid=3723698


we're also in a bidding war with ManU it seems for Aaron Ramsey. Dont know anything about him, but juding from this;

Manchester United have upped their offer for Cardiff City teenager Aaron Ramsey to £10million to head off a late move by Liverpool.
Sir Alex Ferguson is bidding £5m up front for the midfielder, but insiders have revealed extra performance based payments could double that figure. (The Mirror)

he's obviously highly rated! Sounds like a ridiculous amount for us to be spending under the circumstances though..
http://www.caughtoffside.com/2008/06/01/liverpool-in-10m-bidding-war-can-rafa-beat-sir-alex/7122.html

mormank

regarding the talk of takin bentley for 8 over quaresma for 15...why not take both of them??? that would give us great options up front. as babbel could play up front alone with bentley and quaresma supproting. of course torres would start giveing us options of 3 players for 2 wing positions..

as far as bentley not being good enough. he is far better than pennant was at birmingham. pennant really was just potential. in fairness to bentley he has been doin for blackburn for two years now. he was also a revelation for norwich when he was on loan there from arsenal when they were in the premiership.

Dub13

Call_me_al wrote: »

the site says nothing about friendlies except for Villareal. Does anyone know the complete list? Wouldnt mind going to one or two.

Its not fully confirmed yet but trust me it will be,you have to get in early before the flights go up.The last time I checked you could get 20 euro for same day return for this one into Prestwick (special offer with ryanair).

Watch out for games with Inverness and Hamilton to be confirmed soon.

Dub13

End of the fancard


This is more bad news.

From May 31 2008 we will no longer issue new Fan Cards. If you are an existing Fan card holder your card will remain active. You will still be able to apply for tickets and have your attendance recorded.

From 1st July 2008 we will be launching a new membership scheme with a new card design and technology. This scheme will offer you a whole host of new benefits including exclusive access to match tickets.

Link

mike65

Latest on Babel is a 5 week lay-off, so not nearly as bad as it might have been.

Mike.

~Rebel~

mike65 wrote: »

Latest on Babel is a 5 week lay-off, so not nearly as bad as it might have been.

Mike.

tbh would nearly prefer it was a little longer so he couldn't take part in the olympics.

mike65

I'm sure Rafa could string it out a little, after all one does have to be so careful, esp with young players who are lanky.

Mike.

King John V

The Recliner wrote: »

I was in Galway a few weeks ago and Foxes had supporters club info in their window

Not sure if it is up to date or anything

Thanks for that. I'll check it out.

Good suggestion mike . If he did go it could raise his morale after missing out on Euro 2008 but yeah still better to rest him longer and have him fresh.

Dub13

King John V wrote: »

Would anyone know anything about the Galway supporters group?

Supporters clubs are things of the past IMO,you can do it all yourself if you know what you are at and have a few contacts.In saying that on Irishkop we host private forums for 5 or 6 supporters clubs so they are alive and well.

King John V

That's true. I was thinking of going over with a group once or twice next year. As most of my friends are united fans or not really into soccer heading over to Anfield wouldn't really suit them. So I'll ring the fella listed on the site and see what the story and post up for anyone else interested.

Dub13

King John V wrote: »

That's true. I was thinking of going over with a group once or twice next year. As most of my friends are united fans or not really into soccer heading over to Anfield wouldn't really suit them. So I'll ring the fella listed on the site and see what the story and post up for anyone else interested.

Are you aware that IrishKop run trips over throughout the year...?a few lads come on there own but you are never alone going to a game.

zing

mike65 wrote: »

Michael Kightly now he would be worth buying.

Mike.

We're signing The Hoff ? Oh wait - Michael Knightly

King John V

Dub13 wrote: »

Are you aware that IrishKop run trips over throughout the year...?a few lads come on there own but you are never alone going to a game.

Thanks for the encouragement. I have an active account on it under my real name so I check it out daily.

zing, the Hoff would be a good addition if he could bring one or two of his former baywatch co-workers with him!

Dub13

More info on the New Fancard.

Taken from another site...

I rang customer services about 10 minutes ago, and its a case of welcome to the Hicks and Gillets new revenue stream..........

this is how it will work , the main details

1) New fancard will cost 29 quid .,,,,,,,,,,,,, per season.... wtf
2) It will give the fan "better" access to match tickets via the secondary ticket exchange
3) PTS will still exist
4) End of next season all fancards will be phased out and everyone will be "invited" to join the new fancard scheme at £29 per season
she didnt say if the new card would be required to gain access to the ground....
as for the ticket exchange, its an illusion, .... how many fans will not have friends to sell their unwanted tickets to .... the number of tickets on this exchange will be minimal..... because we dont have compulsory auto cup scheme , there will not be a surplus of tickets for a ticket exchange unlike at the mancs....



oh and you get the usual cheap nasty pens and pencils and magazines chucked in for the £29 fee.........


so basically we are saying that , you pay £29 a season for the privelige(sp) of applying for tickets.............

zing

Dub13 - sounds like a right scam

Chardee MacDennis

Dub13 wrote: »

More info on the New Fancard.

Taken from another site...

thanks for the info. what a f**king disgrace of a system. So now before i even consider buying tickets for next season i have to spend £30...

Dub13

zing wrote: »

Dub13 - sounds like a right scam

Its is,in fairness most other big clubs have been doing this for a while this does still not make it right.

£29 per year for the chance to apply for a ticket.We could have a situation were lads could be wasting up to £200 a year on memberships,phone calls etc before a penny is spent on a ticket.

These are changing times we are living in folks.

King John V

Fancards? It's a bit mad paying for the privilege to apply for tickets. With the price of tickets going up faster than the rate of inflation they're getting more revenue now than they've ever got. Hardly encouraging for the grass roots level of the game with young families and (poor) students wanting to go. It's all this greed and corporate crap at the top end of things.

They'll probably say it's to cover the increasing cost of player wages. Increased television deals, the fairly new online viewing package, higher champion's league revenue and more globalised merchandise sales should cover that.

Down with that sort of thing.

zing

It's maybe not too bad for those who go to games regularly enough but are not ST holders. But for those who go to a couple of games a year ?

And how many tickets can you purchase per new card ? With the old system I'd buy tickets from time to time for a couple of friends or my brother who simply don't go to enough games to have been bothered applying for a fancard. Wonder will that still be possible ?

Drag00n79

There's another tour of Switzerland planned for mid-July I think too. Ibrox would do nothing for me tbh. I had plans to go over to the Villarreal match but I have Tom Waits tix for the following night, so it'll be tight. I definitely want to see one of the Champions League Qualifier legs. Any word on the Amsterdam Tournament? Can't find out who's in it.

zing

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article4052685.ece

Looks like Barry is facing up to making a decision. Clearly attracked by CL football and what it'll do for his England career but obvious that Villa means so much to him. That article claims he already told them a few weeks ago that he wants to leave - first time I've seen clear mention of that so am a bit dubious about that claim for now.

Bounty Hunter

Think Barrys stance atm is if Liverpool make a bid that is accepted he would go. doubt there is any validity to the bit about him saying a few weeks ago he wants to leave as that claim isnt backed up in the article and as you say wasnt mentioned anywhere else ever. Barry is a consumite pro and wont do anything that could affect Villa negatively even to the extent of them not getting the best transfer fee possible for him. Therefore, he wont come out and say he wants out cos then Villa's bargiing position would be gone. Infact Barry isnt going to say much at all and if those quotes are real (of course they most likely are) then good job the Times and they would be worth listening to i.e his love of Villa vs his desire to play CL football. Twist Villa's arm with a really good offer and Barry most likely will be yours at Anfield next season... but do Liverpool have the transfer funds to do so atm?

zing

iirc he was the first bid Rafa put in so he must have the funds available.

As you say - Barry isn't going to come out publicly now and say he wants to leave - villa clearly means too much to him to do that. When he's made his decision he'll let the parties involved know and if there is to be any more to it then they can trash it out. As I've said before - I hope he's left to make the decision now without any outside influence be it from the media or his mate Stevie or the postman or ...

Bounty Hunter

zing wrote: »

iirc he was the first bid Rafa put in so he must have the funds available.

yeah but that was for "a mish mash of nameless players" supposidly to the vaue of £10m and was immediatley turned down and considerd a laughable bid which simply angered MON. So do Liverpool have the money to as I said twist Villa's arm without compromising on other targets cos Barry isnt leaving Villa park for less than £15m and his Englnd performances have just backed up Villa's valuation which iirc was closer to the £18m mark.

Still think Liverpool would be better off spending that money on say Silva but Stevie G def wants his mate Gareth to join him at Anfield.

IrishMike

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

yeah but that was for "a mish mash of nameless players" supposidly to the vaue of £10m and was immediatley turned down and considerd a laughable bid which simply angered MON. So do Liverpool have the money to as I said twist Villa's arm without compromising on other targets cos Barry isnt leaving Villa park for less than £15m and his Englnd performances have just backed up Villa's valuation which iirc was closer to the £18m mark.

Still think Liverpool would be better off spending that money on say Silva but Stevie G def wants his mate Gareth to join him at Anfield.

Looks like Liverpool are holding out for £18m for Alonso which is more than
most people were expecting to be honest.
That £18m will all probably be spent on Barry which is really an offer too good
to refuse for Villa.

zing

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

yeah but that was for "a mish mash of nameless players" supposidly to the vaue of £10m and was immediatley turned down and considerd a laughable bid which simply angered MON. So do Liverpool have the money to as I said twist Villa's arm without compromising on other targets cos Barry isnt leaving Villa park for less than £15m and his Englnd performances have just backed up Villa's valuation which iirc was closer to the £18m mark.

Still think Liverpool would be better off spending that money on say Silva but Stevie G def wants his mate Gareth to join him at Anfield.

The "mish mash of nameless players" were believed to be part of a cash + player offer rather than take this whole bunch of useless players in exchange for Barry. Those players are said to have been Carson, Pennant & Riise who have a combined value of more than the 10m which the bid was reportedly for. Maybe MON was angered by it but I reckon he was spinning things to make it sound insulting - after all his own first choice keeper was one of those players.

Initially it was unknown what sort of money was available with most people fearing the worst but some recent signs suggest Rafa could have a few quid available after all. I doubt if Barry will go for 18 - in fact I'd say slightly under the 15 mark but that'd prob all depend a lot on how such a deal would be structured, etc.. Also if he declares (even privately) that he wants to leave then a certain amount of Villa's bargaining power goes out the window.

It'll probably all be played out within the next week - unless of course Rick has buggered off on his holiers again.

Mr Alan

zing wrote: »

after all his own first choice keeper was one of those players.

I did find it especially hilarious that MON accused Rafa of unsettling the Villa camp before a potential massive last game of the season by making the offer privately, but yet MON doesnt see how him making it public and calling his first choice goalie a nameless player could be detrimental to his teams sprit :rolleyes:

invincibleirish

Mr Alan wrote: »

I did find it especially hilarious that MON accused Rafa of unsettling the Villa camp before a potential massive last game of the season by making the offer privately, but yet MON doesnt see how him making it public and calling his first choice goalie a nameless player could be detrimental to his teams sprit :rolleyes:

Yeah that is hilarious:rolleyes:, whats really hilarious is that a so called 'big club' are struggling to come up with the filthy lucre to pay for Barry, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal seemingly wouldnt have that difficulty.

gucci

invincibleirish wrote: »

Yeah that is hilarious:rolleyes:, whats really hilarious is that a so called 'big club' are struggling to come up with the filthy lucre to pay for Barry, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal seemingly wouldnt have that difficulty.

that is all.

IrishMike

invincibleirish wrote: »

Yeah that is hilarious:rolleyes:, whats really hilarious is that a so called 'big club' are struggling to come up with the filthy lucre to pay for Barry, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal seemingly wouldnt have that difficulty.

What a well thought out and insightful post.
There are people here who would say you were trolling but not i :rolleyes:

Malice

invincibleirish wrote: »

Yeah that is hilarious:rolleyes:, whats really hilarious is that a so called 'big club' are struggling to come up with the filthy lucre to pay for Barry, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal seemingly wouldnt have that difficulty.

There's nothing so-called about Liverpool's status as a big club. As much as Sky would have you believe otherwise, they are still English football's most decorated club. What makes you think they are struggling to pay for the deal anyway? Have you not considered the possibilty that maybe they are trying to get the best deal they can?

mike65

Barrys own words.

It's obviously very flattering but until Liverpool's bid gets accepted, I can't even think about it."

I think he know what he wants, its now just a question of whether he gets it.

Mike.