Liverpool Echo - Another Red Letter Day

FRIENDLY THOUGHTS

2008-07-18T13:22:37Z

I managed to watch about two thirds of our game against Lucerne the other night.
Although, the game was reduced to something of a training session at times, and a lot of our players are clearly only half-fit, there were still some interesting pointers.

]]> The first thing to hit me was Leto.
Leto!
I'd forgotten about this bloke. Getting rid of Riise and Kewell, I thought Pennant was our only winger left.
I'd forgotten about Leto, but then I guess that's easy to do.
Surprisngly, he was probably our best player in the first 30 minutes, consistently beating the full back with nutmegs and bursts of pace and trickery.
This was Lucerne though, after all.
But, it was more than he ever did during last season. Remember that absolute shocker he had last season, I think it was the Marseille game at home?
He barely looked an athlete, let alone a footballer.
It's this discernible lack of wingers that I think I'm going to change tack and say we should keep hold of Pennant.
Not that I particularly want to, but I just feel we can't go through the season with our only recognisable winger being Leto.

With the Keane transfer now looking more likely, and the Barry deal probably still going through after everyone has got their sensible hats on again, I can't see us having a great deal of cash over £30 to play with to secure a decent wide man.
So, it makes sense to give Pennant another year. There were times when he looked dangerous. It's just his attitude and general indifference that often stinks.

Back to the Lucerne game, our most consistent performer was probably Voronin. Ah yes, the enigma that is Voronin.
His second half to the season invoked the ire of most Liverpool fans and it would have been difficult to find a Red keen to keep hold of the Ukranian tank.
But it seems Rafa's determined to keep hold of him, as there's been absolutely no speculation about him leaving.
Then again, there's probably not a lot of clubs who'd want to bid for him.
It was a beauty of a finish on Wednesday, let's be honest -

And I guess Rafa's thinking is that he got him on a free, so there's no desperation to get rid and recoup spent cash.
From my point of view, I thought he did some decent things in the first half of the last campaign, it was only post January that let him down.
There was that thumper against Toulouse, a sealing goal away at Sunderland and he did show that his general link up play could be fairly decent.
So while remaining unconvinced, I'd accept him staying at Anfield for one more year.
His touches, vision, and ability to drop deep agaist the Swiss was quite impressive the other night.

There were some impressive things from the youngster Pacheco too, playing up front with The Tank. Although I can't see him featuring much this coming season.
Nice little ball for Lucas' first goal, but he fluffed a lot of presentable one-on-one chances.
The lad's only 17 though, and looks a definite one for the future. Let's not get too excited at the moment.

We also got a run out of new boy Degen. Early days, but some worrying signs for me. Twice got done by long diagonal balls and his defensive talents appear to be suspect.
Decent touch on him, but he didn't ever seem to make progress, just turned back on himself and tapped it to a teammate.
Plessis has a fairly quiet game, but it was good to see Lucas gettig forward and slotting. We need a pretty big season from the Brazilian now to justify the hype.

In other news, it seems the Keane deal is perhaps moving closer. Please God, make it happen.
He's apparently 28 now, more reason to only pay £15m for him.
£20m for a player who has perhaps only three more years at his best would be crazy talk.

Comments welcomed as always lads and ladies. (just make up an email address if you want...and copy comment in case the annoying catchpa thing messes up...)

WHEELIN' AND DEALIN'

2008-07-15T13:23:13Z

PLENTY of activity on the transfer front in recent weeks.
I'm liking this activity. It seems we've cottoned onto the fact that with the Yanks not opening their wallets we need to lighten the load on the playing staff so we have some reddies to play with.
Anyone else really missing the lack of footy around at the moment? Since the end of the Euros, what's there to do other than playing fantasy transfers with the Reds?

]]> All the deals so far seems to make sense.
Guthrie for £2.5m seems about right. People we're getting a bit carried away with him, wanting £5m on the back of a few half decent displays for Bolton.
With our raft of centre mids he wouldn't have had a look in at Anfield.
I'm hoping Yossi gets a major look in this season. He's got the potential to be a big player for us. He just needs regular games, and he's far more effective in the middle.
The one bit of class in a drab friendly against Tranmere was his looping stunner into the top corner.
With Gerrard, Masch, Lucas, Yossi and Plessis, do we really need an £18m Barry and an ineffectual Alonso?
Nope. Axe them both would be the sensible shout.

Amid all the clamour regarding a centre mid, we seem to have forgotten that one of our most needy areas remains out wide.
Rumours abound that Pennant is on the verge of a move to Blackburn, so with Riise gone, Kewell gone, Yossi better in centre mid and Babel better up front, that leaves us with a grand total of zero wide players.
Apparently, both Degen and Dossena can double up there, but that's got to be a last option at best.
I'm pleased the Milner suggestions have died down. But we should be busting a gut to sniff out Silva at Valencia.
He's still young and £15m would be reasonable.
Carson to Stoke is the latest export, which again, is a realistic summation of a player who was highly regarded six months ago, but since chucking the ball into the net for England against Croatia, he's slid down in valuation.
That lost us £2-3m at least, I'd imagine. And as someone pointed out the other day, we only paid £750,000 for him and we got around £2m for the loan deal to Charlton.

With Pennant hopefully going for around the £5m mark, and Xabi going for £12m-ish, we might then have a decent pot to go for a quality winger and centre forward.
For me, Robbie Keane is top class, with a top class attitude.
Shame he's 27 as he's only got another four years before his legs go, but he'd be a fantastic addition to the squad.
Let's go all guns blazing for him. Chuck Voronin in as part of the swap.
Talking of swaps, it was a bit cheeky of Villa valuing Finnan at £1m as part of a cash plus player deal for the Barry bore saga, wasn't it?
I know he's past 30, but he's still worth £3m I reckon. Very dependable and a lot of assists.
And I'd agree with the general Barry consensus now. Let's go elsewhere. £18m for a 27-year-old, although admittedly very good midfielder, is too much.
I like him more than most people, but he's not worth that cash.
What is it with O'Neill? He seems to have come out of the Rafa slagging match with credit in some quarters. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2008/07/barry_saga_a_sorry_affair.html?page=19)
Just because O'Neill's a bit quirky and people are amused by his random views as a BBC pundit, he's flavour of the month.
Barry's stock has risen in the last 12 months, Liverpool want to sign him. O'Neill is pissed about that. He is miffed that our interest in him became public.
Well Martin, if it wasn't made public, I'd doubt you'd tell Gareth that Liverpool had come in for him and he'd be none the wiser.

His valuation of Gazza Bazza is a joke. And the egg will be on his face if Liverpool go elsewhere and he is stuck with his club captain and best player for a year who no longer wants to play for him as relations seems to have been shattered between the pair.
Anyway, that's enough on that particularly tiresome episode.
All in all, things starting to move nicely along now. But the two big buys - winger and centre forward - could be the difference between glory and yet nore frustration at Anfield this coming season.

HIS FEET STICK OUT THE BED...

2008-07-09T14:30:44Z

IT seems all I'm ever writing is farewell pieces these days.
The next to pass through the saloon doors at Anfield is Peter Crouch who is off to pastures new at Portsmouth.
Nobody split opinion quite like the 6ft 7ins beanpole. He was either one expensive mistake, or a player who had never been given a fair crack of the whip by Benitez.

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I remember when I first heard the news Crouchy was on his way to Anfield.
I was massively against it.
As far as I was concerned I couldn't see how this gangly, if fairly prolific giant, would make the grade playing against the best defenders and meanest back fours in the Champions League.
At a time when we wanted to be attracting the best centre forwards in Europe, it seemed like a sideways step.
It seems those fears, expressed by many a Red, have been realised.
Not that we didn't take Crouchy to our hearts.
He got off to a pretty dire start and couldn't hit a barn door from five yards. But when he bagged his first against Wigan at Anfield it started a run where he couldn't stop scoring.
There were a fair number of high points in his three year Anfield career. Remember those flying scissor kicks against Galatasary and Bolton?
And the goal that knocked Man Utd out the FA Cup on our way to glory in Cardiff in 2006 was pure gold dust.

But his career was always punctuated by feelings that he perhaps wasn't genuine world class. And it was a view shared by Rafa Benitez.
It was a poor show from the Spaniard in the last year of Crouchy's Liverpool career. He languished for games on the bench, often getting no more than a 15 minute run out to try and rescue a struggling side.
What must have made it harder to digest for him was that nobody else, bar Torres, had a justifiable reason to take his place.
For all the big love in surrounding Kuyt, and his fantastic attitude and work rate, he should not have been playing instead of Crouch.
At least the big man carried some sort of threat and knew where the goal was. His goal return, 22 goals in 85 appearances was pretty decent for someone who was often not in the starting line up.
It was a frustrating business watching him. One game you wrote him off, the next he was scoring a sublime hat-trick against Arsenal, making a mug of an accomplished operator like Toure.
Remember that one? Left foot, right foot, header. Brilliant centre forward play.
Great, we thought. This guy's going to score goals for us for years. But then it was back to an anonymous and ineffectual display.

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I'm quite pleased he's going as I just don't think he's got enough to take us to the next level. Worryingly, his presence did tend to turn us into something of a long ball team.
It's like the Duncan Ferguson effect. Stick a giant up top and the temptation to float in a ball to his ear lobes is strong.
Sometimes it paid dividends, particularly when we had to go for the jugular and throw the kitchen sink at the opposition in the last half hour.
There's no doubt that chucking Crouchy on for the climatic moments versus Inter at Anfield upset the Italians and paved the way for first Kuyt's, then Gerrard's strikes.
But ultimately, the beanpole lacked the one thing that every top striker needs - pace.
I thought he was always a good banker at Anfield, when defences tend to sit back, meaning a pacy striker never has any space to run in behind.
For me, that's why Bellamy never did nowt at home.
With the back four often retreating onto their 12 yard line, the high ball became almost an essential tactic.
Away from home, however, Crouchy's flaws were highlighted.
Being on the back foot for longer periods away from Anfield, strikers with pace usually rub their hands at the wide open spaces in front of them.
Crouch was slower than a snail, so any through ball that gave him a couple of yards on the centre half invariably meant he could be easily caught on the 15 yard dash to goal.
That lack of pace was the nail in his coffin.

One thing that did surprise us all when we saw him for the first few times, was that exemplary control and touch.
There was a fair bit of finesse amidst all those limbs.
Bizarrely though, for such a tall man, he was pretty crap in the air. Where were the neck muscles Crouchy? There was just no power in those headers and he fluffed a fair few sitters in the air.
One thing I must commend him for is his attitude. At a time when lesser men would have sounded off at being consistently ignored by his manager during troubled times, Crouchy always kept stum.
He must have been fuming to see people like Vornonin and Kuyt and even the ineffectual Babel given the nod over him.
Yet he took it like a professional and never went crowing off to the press. For that we should give him great credit.

I'm glad he's got the move he wants and I hope he scores lots of goals for Pompey. £11m seems a fair valuation for him, so everyone's happy.
He deserved to wear the red shirt, but just wan't quite good enough. Still, there's still plenty remaining at the club who fall into that latter category.
Now, the only question that remains is whether Abi will follow him down to the south coast and keep the unlikliest romance in modern football alive?
Thanks for your efforts Peter.

BYE BYE HARRY

2008-07-07T08:15:24Z

So sicknote finally departs for Galatasary.
Reports of prolonged whooping sounds coming from Melwood are, as yet, unconfirmed.
Let's have an in-depth analysis over the Anfield career of the winger who made Darren Anderton look like a 14 marathons in a fortnight man.

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It could have been so great.
When we were crying out for a winger with pace, skill and the ability to score goals, it seemed like Harry and the Reds were a match made in heaven.
It never quite worked out though did it?
His first season was pretty impressive - 49 games played and 11 goals, in all competitions.
It's going back five years, but I remember plenty of gliding past defenders, some impressive strikes, and that penetrating wing play that was so devastating for Leeds.
But it all went quickly downhill, a mixture of bad luck with injuries and a bad attitude for me.
The Istanbul season was frustrating for Kewell and Liverpool fans, which climaxed in events at the Champions League final.
A combination of getting wasted by Milan in the first half and Harry limping off with a torn abductor muscle prompted ire from a lot of fans.
It wasn't that we thought he was faking it, but it just confirmed a growing suspicion that when the going got tough, Harry got off.

But the thing about Kewell was that he was a flirt. After making our blood boil with some typical apathy, it was soon followed by glimpses of the genuine talent he had in his locker.
The 2005-06 season was one of his best, the notable highlights a great performance and third goal in the derby at Anfield, after Gerrard got sent off.
Then there was match winning display in the FA Cup semi final against Chelsea. He tied Geremi in knots that day at Old Trafford.
Predictably though, his cup final appearance at Cardiff was cut short with another sudden injury. A theme was developing here. Knee deep in the brown, with West Ham taking a shock lead and Harry limps off. Our patience was wearing thin.
Since then, there's been nothing really of note. Just the odd game, usually towards the end of a season with a showpiece final looming large.
It was a withering testimont to our lack of quality out wide, that when Harry scored a inconsequential goal in one of our final league games just before Athens, yet more calls were made to promote this enigma to the starting 11, despite nothing contributed for months previously.
Over the last two years, Reds fans it seems have massively lost all faith in him, and it's time to move on with something new out wide.
Even though we didn't get a fee for him, we'll be saving a huge amount of money by not paying his huge wages every week.
I don't know what he was on, but I'd venture a guess of around £70,000.
The final straw for many was a revelation in the ECHO last season about how Kewell and another player were seen chuckling deep in the bowels of Upton Park moments after perhaps our most woeful performance of the season, away at West Ham.
At a time when Liverpool players should have been hurting, the Aussie clearly wasn't.
Anyway, I'd wish him the best of luck, but the Galatasary move seems a strange one. It won't be no picnic there.
The Turks want you to die for the shirt, they won't accept any wishy washy drifting through games. Yet, players are big hits in the strangest of places sometimes.
And word is that a lot of Leeds fans are up in arms with his move following the two stabbing deaths of fans in Istanbul in 2000.

We never did get to sing the Daddy Cool song too much did we? A mate of mine spoke to a few Leeds fans at the time of his departure from Elland Road, and they mentioned how they felt they were getting rid of a Kewell on the wane.
That's proved to be spot on.
Kewell has recently said of his move: "I wanted to move on and this is the best way. I can't wait to get started, it's just what I'm looking forward to, a new challenge."
He's got to come out with the platitudes obviously, but do you reckon he really can't wait to get started? Dubious over in my camp.
What's everyone's thoughts on Hazza?

WE HAVE A STARLET!

2008-06-27T07:58:18Z

LIVERPOOL have signed up a Danish starlet to their ranks.
Apparently, we've beaten a host of top European clubs to the signature of 17-year-old striker Nikola Saric.
Early indications show he's got a big box of tricks.

]]> A trawl of the usual channels like YouTube reveal a couple of clips of the teenager in action.
He looks a handful. In the first bit of action, he performs more step overs than Ronaldo, before skinning the full back and shooting which the goalkeeper parries.
Tap in for the unrushing centre forward.
The second is, admittedly, hugely impressive.
The starlet picks up the ball on the edge of the box, bizarrely runs sideways, away from the goal, slaloming round four defenders before straightening, and pinging a left footer into the bottom corner.
Scorcher.

Here's the evidence.

We'll have to see how strong he is, and if he's ready for the odd run-out off the bench this season.
I hope it's not another case of sending him out on a two-season loan to Barnsley. Surely the top European clubs were chasing him for a reason.
Arsene Wenger has shown with his nurturing of Walcott the way to bring young talent into the first team, slowly but surely.
It was a disappointment to read recently that centre forward Nemeth was on the verge of a loan move to Leeds.
There was plenty of talk of the Hungarian joining the big boys this season after plundering goals in the ressies.
With Crouch seemingly on his way out, and fingers crossed The Tank Voronin, he would have offered something fresh and different as our fourth striker.
If you're good enough you're old enough, surely.
What does everyone think? Give these youngsters more of an opportunity or squirrel them away for a couple of seasons?
Chuck them in the deep end I say, see if they sink or swim.
Rooney only became the world-beater he is today because somebody gave him a chance to show what he could do at the tender age of 17.
Well done Moyesy. Shame Wayne couldn't reward him with a few more years service.

In other news, we've rejected Harry Redknapp's £9m bid for Crouchie. I hope Rafa is not too gung-ho over this.
He's defo got to go, and we desperately need the cash to buy new players, but we don't want Pompey to get frustrated and start looking elsewhere.
I'd hold out for no more than £10m, then do the deal. No point playing a game of cat and mouse for the sake of an extra £2m.
And let's put this Barry saga to the end. I hope we say anything over £12m for a 27-year-old is too much, but I fear Rafa has his heart set on him.

What does everyone think of David Silva? He would be a great addition for us, but at the right price.
£20m seems way, way too much.
He has got a lot of talent though, a beautiful left foot, he glides past players and he can score goals by popping up in the box more often than not. Last night against the Russians was a case in point.
A worrying tendency to feign injury and roll around on the turf after being blown on though.

Finally, the difference between Cesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso was abundantly clear last night.
Ok, Xabi only got on for 25 minutes or so, and the Arsenal man got an hour. But there's a chasm between the pair in terms of ability.
Fabregas grabs a game by the scruff of the neck, dominates it, runs it, dictates the whole thing.
Xabi ushers the ball to the left and right, happy for someone else to make a decisive move. We need do-ers in centre-midfield and Xabi's not one of them.

BEST OF BRITISH

2008-06-23T14:57:56Z

I was giving some thought to this six-plus-five foreigner restriction proposal put forward by UEFA a few weeks back.
Thank God's it's fallen by the wayside. Just how would Liverpool fare if that scenario was introduced?
How would we have lined up? And what impact would it have on the English game?

]]> If the ruling was brought in tomorrow with only five foreigners allowed, Liverpool would struggle to put out a competitive team.
Let's presume UK players could count within the six (ie Wales, Scotland and Ireland allowed), we'd probably line up something like this:
Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Pennant, Gerrard, Guthrie, Kuyt, Torres, Crouch.

Nothing to speak of on the bench is there? Hobbs and the reserve keeper Martin. I've never seen him play. Hope he's not another Charlie The Tang.
It's a sad state of affairs in reality as I'm sure The Kop would love nothing more than to roar on a Woolton winger, Fazakerley centre forward or show their approval towards a Norris Green centre half.
The nurturing of young British talent has been woefully neglected over the last 15 years in England.
It must grate for some of the Liverpool kids who dream every night about playing at Anfield and signing professional terms, only to see some foreign unheard of walking into Melwood.
Mediocre overseas recruits too - I can't see how Ferri, Cheyrou, Diao, Josemi, Nunez, Meijer, Itandje, Sissoko, Gonzalez, Kvarme and countless others had something over and above some of our local Scouse youngsters, given time.
We would have saved millions in transfer fees and wages into the bargain.

How about the example of Pongolle and Le Tallec. Two French kids coveted by a welter of Europe's top clubs.
Liverpool's persistance prevailed, Alex Ferguson even made a point of congratulating Houllier on his double Gallic coup.
What was all the fuss about? Le Tallec has delievred pretty much nothing - is he a striker or a midfielder? Nobody can tell.
Pongolle is a half decent player who'll do well at a middling side. I've got a soft spot for his energy and the way he dragged us out the mire in that epic FA Cup tie at Luton a couple of years ago.
But he's not the world beater we were led to believe who would terrorise the Premiership in a few years time.
Again, hyped up foreign players at the expense of Liverpool homegrown talent who'd no doubt turn out for the club for £100 a week if it came down to it.
Let's hope Nemeth, currently looking very impressive banging goals in for the reserves is a different kettle of fish.
A look at Liverpool's reserves is interesting. The usual line up consists of Dean Bouzanis, Péter Gulácsi, Mikel San José, Emiliano Insua, Daniel Ayala, Miki Roque, Godwin Antwi and Sebastián Leto.
The reserve side used to be the natural breeding ground from where local talent was sprung. There's barely a Scouse accent there.
There's some talent, but I can't imagine many of those progressing as first team regulars.
Against that argument, you could probably say that Liverpool's reserve side WAS predominantly English around five years ago.
That famous Carling Cup win at Spurs was achieved with the likes of Raven, Partridge and the others. They had their chance to line up alongisde Gerrard and Co, but it seemed they couldn't quite make the grade.
But then our youth policy, from the scouting through to the training and development, doesn't seem to have been the same since the halcyon days of Fowler, Owen Carragher and Gerrard.

This state of affairs impacts massively on the British game and the performance of the national side.
Not that every or many Liverpool fans cares. The Reds faithful are well known for their indifference to the success of England at major championships.
Of course, there's a reason why managers have turned to unheard of foreigners to flood our game.
Money.
Or the inflated value placed on English players by greedy managers. Martin O'Neill anyone?
Gary Cahill for £4m? Crouch worth £15m? Milner being touted around at £10m. They are worth around half that in my book.
If you're lucky and you've got an astute manager in the transfer market like Arsene Wenger and you can spot Euro gems for peanuts (Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Clichy etc) then you probably don't give two hoots if they're screaming Moroccan and Malian on the pitch.
But as much as we turn people like Sami, Riise, Kuyt and Hysen into honorary Scousers, it would be refreshing to hear a screaming defender (other than Carra) imploring his colleagues: "Let's have a red 'ead on this eh?!'
Some foreign stars are great and their influence can enrich our game. Zola and Vialli for Chelsea suddenly made the Premiership sexy.
A Danish Molby was the best passer we'd seen at Anfield for years, perhaps Anfield's greatest passer.
And the technique of Alonso and Garcia and the discipline of Hyppia and Henchoz taught our kids a lot.
But it's gone too far.
Can anyone honestly say what we've learnt from the lovable El Hadji Diouf other than how to grock in someone's eye?

STOP! BABEL TIME!

2008-06-21T14:22:27Z

CH, ch, ch, check this out!
It's Ryan Babel in some sort of rap/hip hop music video, rapping himself too.
First Degen and his catalogue modelling, now Ryan on the decks. It's all a bit of a concern.

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Ryan comes in about halfway, to complement Darryl, Ali B, Soumia & Rio.
The boys.
Not sure how I feel about this. I suppose it's all good to have other interests outside football, but when you're being paid £60,000 a week I want my Liverpool player to be concentrating solely on their performance on the pitch and nothing else.
Maybe that's why he has such a dozy faraway look on his face half the time, he's composing lyrics to his next little ditty.
There seems to be more expression on his face here than when he's trotting about at Anfield. Maybe it's the music that really makes him come alive.
Eeyeeyo - catchy title. Reckon the Kop will adopt it for next season?

You've got to win the affections of the Liverpool fans before they'll be happy about a player being into anything extra-curricular.
Barnsey was delivering for us week in week out when he guested on the Anfield Rap, and World In Motion, so we forgave him.
And Babel's effort is hardly 'I come from Jamaica, my name is John Barn-es, when I do my playing the crowd go bananas!' either is it?
Pure class, one of the first records I bought. Special place in my heart. ;-)

For old time's sake:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcy3gwwxat4

FAREWELL RIISE

2008-06-19T21:54:55Z

So, the Norwegian is on his way to Roma.
He's taken some stick of late, but looking at seven years in total at Liverpool, he's been a bloody good servant.
Let's have a think over his Reds career.

]]> It's a real shame the Chelsa oggy happened for John. It seems to have clouded a long time of good service for us with some people with short memories.
I've been one of his biggest critics in the last three years, but there's no denying he was one of the best left backs in the Prem for a good few years.
From 2001-2004/5ish, he was a consistent performer. Solid at the back, good in the air, got forward a lot and weighed in with his fare share of goals.
And when they came they were humdingers. Man Utd when he ripped the net out. Chelsea semi final at Old Trafford. Charity Shield against Chelsea. Chelsea in the Carling Cup Final. Tottenham at home. There were others I've forgotten.

And at his best, he was a good, solid defender. The unit of him, Hyppia and Henchoz and whichever right back played, Babel for a time, was the best in the Premiership.
He regulalry did interviews, always spoke good of the club, and the Bellamy incident aside, was never a headache for the manager.
I can say without hesitation that he had a lot of genuine affection for Liverpool and Merseyside.
Away at Arsenal! Two thirds the length of the field and ramming it in the bottom corner. There's another. Keep 'em coming.
He was tenacious, pretty tough and he gave both the right sided midfielder and the right full back plenty to worry about.
In the last few years, he's dropped off. The goals dried up, I lost count of the number of free kicks hit the bottom of the wall and he started to get caught out of position defensively.
One of the things that frustrated me about Riise was that he was SO left footed. Most players have some semblance of a second foot, but he could barely stand on his right. (hence the oggy, he didn't want to use his right so headed it)
It seemed he could only really run in one direction and changing direction quickly as you need to do regularly in modern football just wasn't going to happen. That hampered him big time.

But, these were just deficiencies in his ability, not a reflection on his attitude and commitment. That was never in doubt with John.
For that, he's been a loyal servant and a player we should always take our hats off to and applaud loudly if Roma ever come to Anfield again for their now presumed English Euro beating.
Some of the stick he took after THAT own goal was nothing short of disgraceful.
The stuff I read from supposed fans isn't worth repeating. People have short memories. He didn't oggy on purpose. Yes, he was clumsy and a great bloody oaf, and we really paid for it, but I'll never put the boot in like some did.
He barely spoke to his teammates after it happened, that's how mortified he was. Yet, we still read 'Judas Riise' threads banging on about him swapping shirts with Rooney at the end of the Man Utd. How precious people can get.
Who gives a toss whose shirt he gets?
As it stands, we've got £4m for him and Roma will get a half decent, but limited player. I think they'll be a little surprised that he's not exactly what they think he is.
It always surprised me when I talked to other Premiership fans who waxed lyrical about Riise. Nah mate, you're just remembering a packaged highlight of goals from Match of the Days over the last five years.
Let's end with a famous Riise image. Was this after the Mancs goal? He always seemed a bit too skinny to be baring his chest like this.

I wish him well, and I'm sure thousands will so the same. Thanks for all that you've done for the Reds John.
You're attitude was always spot on and you were professional to the last.

Let's hear some of your thoughts/memories of Riise over the years.

NB - Here's some thoughts from Roma fans on their latest signing:

http://roma.theoffside.com/team-news/ladies-gents-your-new-left-back.html

Read another Icliverpool blogger's view of the Riise exit, Dan Kay's verdict at:

A DEGEN VERDICT

2008-06-19T16:09:37Z

Trawling the web the other day, I found this rather worrying assessment of the Swiss full back from a Dortmund fan.
Entitled Thank you Liverpool, they're hardly crying to see him go.
Doesn't bode well.....Another Josemi you reckon?

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http://dortmund.theoffside.com/team-news/thank-you-liverpool.html (I'll paste it here for you too....)

"In his most brilliant transfer move yet, Rafa Benitez has taken Philip Degen off of our hands. It's all part of his "rebuild the team so we can finish higher than fourth place" strategy, and apparently he thinks Degen is capable of providing an "attacking spark" down the flank. I'm a little disappointed that we couldn't get a transfer fee for Degen, but having someone actually pay something for this guy would be pushing it. I'm just glad he's gone."

That's the view of someone called Steven anyway. Prepared to give the lad a chance and all that, so reserving my judgement.

Here's the comments from the blog and after that another pic that seems to fit in with his Spice Boy image. Seems likea taking the piss thing, Teammate with hair dryer in his hand, probably winding him up on his coiffeured routine and some of the catalogue poses.

"Now that he is moving to Liverpool, will his stats on Football Manager 2009 be doubled? Looks like Benitez did not learn his lesson on free transfers from the Voronin move."

Posted from United States

Carsten | May 21st, 2008 at 4:20 am

"We'll miss Philipp, it's a shame it did not work out for him here but he is talented, I guess injuries and bad management stopped him becoming the player he could be. Good luck in Liverpool Philipp."

Posted from United Kingdom

Ahmad Bilal Khalid | May 24th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

"Well i for one would like to say, put your hands off our degan, now as he has joined the liverpool fc (greatest club ever) we would not let nobody say bad about our players and in this upcoming season all dagen haters will have egg on their faces......"

philpp dagen YNWA

Posted from United Kingdom

Phillip Deegen | May 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

"Hey folks,
Liverpool Fan here!
Can anyone on here enlighten me as to how good Philip is?
What i do know is that he is pretty fast and goes forward well, it's also been said that his defensive qualities can be lacking at times! So what else is there? Did he fall out of favour with your boss? Doe she have a good temperment? Come on give us the gossip?"

Posted from United Kingdom

MILNER, VILLA, ABIDAL ET AL

2008-06-17T20:46:12Z

THE Newcastle winger James Milner is the latest potential signing to be linked to Liverpool.
If you've believe what you read in The Telegraph(!!), the deal is nearing completion.
Is this the kind of positive news we wanted to hear?

]]> From my sightings of Milner on Sky and Match of the Day, he's always seemed like a decent player to me.
Positive, fairly direct, capable of scoring goals.
However, the ECHO editor, a Magpies fan, informs me that Milner is not what the Reds need.
Apparently, he's not of the quality that Liverpool demand. Limited pace and trickery. Good attitude and a trier, but short on real class and not a week-in week-out match winner.
Fair enough.
I can't help thinking, however, that he'd be an improvement on Pennant who seems more interested in appearing alongside his belle in Hollyoaks.
The Telegraph reckon £7m AND Danny Guthrie will see the Toon part with Milner.
Even if there's a truth in this story, that's a ridiculous valuation even in today's crazy world of inflated transfer values.
From what I'vs seen of Guthrie, the lad's got a future as a centre-mid. Bolton love him where he's been on loan and he'd probably fetch £3m, so Newcastle reckon Milner is worth £10m if my maths are correct?
Settle down Kevin.

Bentley is the bloke we need. Genuine class, two good feet, very good crosser. Scores lots of goals. To quote many an internet forum warrior, 'he would do a job for us - FACT' (you've got to use the word 'FACT'. That's what makes opinions gospel, apparently)
But the Blackburn man would no doubt cost £15+ and the growing and worrying suspicion is that the credit crunch, coupled with Huck's and Rafa's current mistrust of each other means the piggy bank is gloomily low.

The Villa/Torres partnership coming to Anfield is the stuff dreams are made of. They've been slick at the Euros.
Many would sacrifice all other buys just to get him and I can sympathise with that sentiment, they would rip defences apart every weekend.
An astute businessman would raise £50m from the combined sales of Alonso, Riise, Kewell, Pennant, Crouch, Carson and Voronin to blow it all on the Valencia front man.
But that would mean an astute businessman being in place at Anfield.
But it's doubtful if Villa will make it to Anfield, even if he is best mates with Pepe Reina and he likes hugging Torres.
If nothing else, Stevie would become jealous.

Let's dispense with the Barry idea. It was a decent suggestion while figures of £8m were talked about, but £15m is ridiculous.
We've got Gerrard, Masherano, Lucas (big question marks over him), a promising young Plessis and Guthrie if we want him back.
And Yossi definitely prefers playing in the centre where he is much more effective.

I mentioned Abidal in the title as we were strongly linked with him a while ago and he came to the fore in all the wrong ways last night.
I'm glad those rumours died a death, I never did like him.
Obviously he was red carded against the Italians last night, but that sums him up doesn't it? All-round oafishness and clumsiness.
He was exactly the same when Barca played Man Utd in the Champions League semi. No touch, no finesse, a bit of a clogger...worth £10m, we were told us. Next please.
Let's get the shipping in and shipping out moving. Give Riise to Roma for £4m. And let Harry Redknapp have Crouchy for £10m rather than clinging on for another £5m were not going to get.
It's all about doing these deals so we are in a position to move for the best players when they come available.

Finnan too. It became apparent at the end of last season that those legs that have served us well in recent years are on the wane and he's not the Mr Dependable he used to be. Those great crosses have dried up too.
With our two new full backs of Degen and Dossena, and Arbeloa and Aurelio not going anywhere, keeping him would man a pointless £50,000-ish grand being shelled out every week.
A Premiership side would still be interested in him and he'd fetch around £4m.

It's simple when you write it down, but all this wheeling and dealing requires energy behind the scenes at Anfield.
And the indicators are that the determination to make things happen isn't there, almost certainly brought on by the damaging rift between manager, chief executive and owner which has resulted in an immovable deadlock in the Anfield corridors.
All the charm offensives and positive PR in the world can't hide that.
At a time when Rafa, Parry and Hicks should be on the phone to each other a few times every day, they've probably not even received a text from each other in months.
I was surprised to see the Texan come out and tell Chelsea Torres was staying at Anfield the other day. All very commendable Tom, but let's hear instead what we ARE doing.
For the sake of Reds everywhere - open the lines of communication and represent the millions of Liverpool fans who realise that these two months could be the most important of the season.

EUROS - AM I BOVVERED?

2008-06-11T17:50:50Z

SO, what do you reckon about Euro 2008 so far?
With England's non-participation, there's not a great deal to do other than support Spain and see how Liverpool players are faring in the tournament.
And weigh up the candidacy of prospective buys to the club - if we have more than a couple of sovs to rub together this summer, that is.

]]>

Dirk continued to surprise us by turning in the kind of performance that won him a lot of fans at Anfield in the second half of the season.
It was typical Kuyt. He wasn't the star of the show, but he had a vital hand in two of the three goals.
The third Dutch goal was definitely typical Kuyt. He fluffed a gilt-edged chance most strikers would have snaffled, but still had the presence of mind to collect the ball and deliver a pinpoint cross for Van Bronkhorst to head home.
Similarly, his knock down for Sneijder for the Holland second shows there perhaps is something to be said about the tactic of playing a centre forward in an inside right position.
It gives an extra option, some menace at the back post, both in the air and on the ground, as the striker's natural instinct is to get in the box.
For Spain, all our boys were on the bench, with only Alonso getting a run out on 77 minutes. It seems the Spaniard's disinterest with football has been cottoned on to by his national boss too.

Xabi should take a leaf out of Fabregas' book and the way the diminutive centre mid always demands to be part of the action. I couldn't have imagined Xabi busting a gut to bury that diving header for their fourth. Sorry Xabi.
Regards Philipp Degen for Switzerland, I find it a bit worrying that he can't even get in a very mediocre Swiss side, not even on the bench apparently....
Reckon he's out modelling some sportswear?
There doesn't appear to be a great deal of talent in the shop window at the Euros. Granted, I wouldn't mind Podolski at Anfield, or Benzema for that matter.
But I'm sure we'd be paying £15m, and probably more, for each of them. It's silly money these days. We paid £7M for Dossena and he can't get near the Italian team. Is he even in their squad?
Watching Torres and Villa together for Spain against the Dutch left us all dreaming of the two of them playing together at Anfield.
As good as this might be, I can't see this happening in a month of Sundays.
Especially after that hatrick, Villa's value will surely have gone up to round the £20m mark.

All of his goal's were fairly routine, but his movement, coolness in front of goal, and link play with Torres was impressive.
By the way, was it just me, or did Torres look very tall on the TV screen? He looked pretty gangly, almost Crouch like. Must be something about the Spanish kit.
The thing that's struck me about Euro 2008 is how the hell England didn't get there.#
Ok, so this is an LFC blog, and many don't give a stuff about England, but Gerrard would have made hay with some of these inept sides.

Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Austrian, Poland, Romania.....I reckon Momo Sissoko would have dribbled round half of these teams and Voronin would be filling his boots.

LFC PROTEST

2008-06-09T18:37:13Z

News of another protest against the club's American owners on Sunday.
It seems that the Hicks ownership debate has gone off the agenda for the last few weeks, hence the reason behind SOS's public showing over the weekend.
Decent turn out with around 250 at the Shankly Gates. Lots of beer and sun afterwards made it a good day for all concerned....

]]> HUNDREDS of Liverpool fans united to protest at Anfield against the club's American owners.

They gathered on Walton Breck Road outside the Kop yesterday in another message of opposition to Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Banners saying Yanks OUT and Repossessed were pinned on railings around the ground.

A padlock was fastened to the gates outside the Kop in a symbolic gesture to signify their unhappiness with the current regime.

The SOS fans group also planned to lobby supporters visiting the club shop about the protest.

Alan Kayll, from Spirit of Shankly, said: "When David Moores sold the club, he did so to allow the club to compete for the very best players and simultaneously build the stadium.

"The stadium finances are nowhere near being secured and we cannot compete for top quality now or have any great prospects for the future.

"Selling the family silver to Hicks and Gillett has proven to be a massive mistake, and every Liverpool supporter has to act and campaign against what is happening to our club."

Red Francis Stanton added: "Our repossession is about the rightful owners of the club claiming it back from the "tenants".

"Why can the club not afford to bid for 17-year-old prospects even when the manager wants them? We have paid the rent for our custodians long enough. It's time for an eviction."

The ownership of Liverpool remains in the balance with American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett at loggerheads.

The Dubai-based consortium DIC has shown interest buying the club, but Hicks has repeatedly stated his intention of keeping hold of his 50% share.

IN THE STUDIO

2008-06-02T17:52:01Z

IT'S often been a gripe among some of our rival fans that the majority of TV pundits or co-commentators are ex-Reds.
For me, all it shows is that when it comes to understanding the whys and wherefores of the beautiful game,
there's nobody better to turn to than a bunch of highly decorated former Liverpool players.
Still, not every Kopite takes too kindly to past players taking their comfy seat in the studio, especially when they have occasion to debate their old employers.
Everyone's got a favourite, one they loath, so here's a rundown of some past Reds now on our screens and their pros and cons.

]]> 1. ALAN HANSEN

The daddy of all TV pundits. Alan has expert analysis down to a fine art. Never flustered, he speaks with authority and nobody dares interrupt him.
It always amused me when the Lineker/Shearer/Wright axis ran out of things to say, Hansen came steaming in with some chat to fill that arkward silence. No wonder he was never interested in taking up the manager's job at Anfield.
And his favourite phrase? 'Power and pace.' You watch, every bit of action, every shot, every goal, every tackle, it's all got 'power and pace.'
As far as his bond to Liverpool, it's 100% for Big Al. His celebrations in the studio during that mad-cap Alves Euro final dwarfed Lawrenson's.
He loves the bones of Liverpool. On Match of the Day, when the Reds have been beaten, he'll still give us five minutes of where Liverpool have gone wrong, rather than acknowledging the dazzling attacking of the other side.
Mark 9

2. MARK LAWRENSON

Another big Red, but perhaps not as big as Hansen. Lawro does know his stuff, but I get the impression he's lost a little of his love for the Reds over the years.
Still keen to talk about us though.
Lawro has almost become a bit of a caricature with the attempted gags ("A tell ya, Motty...."), little asides, winding up of Manish on Footie Focus, and the casual elbow draped on the top of the sofa.
That pose seems to be saying, 'I'm comfortable, I'm relaxed, I'm a chilled out entertainer....'.
He's eyeing up the David Brent role in The Office, my sources tell me.
Mark: 7

3. JAMIE REDKNAPP

Newcomer on the scene. Sky kept faith with Jamie this season as one of their regular pundits. And it seems he's warming to the task.
For me, he talks common sense. He's not long retired from the game so he knows more about modern football than some of the old cronies on the leather sofas.
He took a bit of stick from Reds for his viewpoint on the Mascherano affair at Old Trafford. His ding dong with Andy Gray was surprising in that it was old enemy Gray who sided with the Argie.
While I didn't agree with everything that Redknapp said, his points were well-argued. And he's not afraid to be critical of Liverpool when its warranted.
Mark: 8

4. BARRY VENISON

Bazza was a surprise choice as TV pundit who first turned up on Sky before hitting our screens fairly regularly with ITV.
It was a strange one to go for an unheralded right back (the striking blonde hair probably screamed Celeb), but truth be told, he did it very well.
He gave us no-nonsense sensible chat, didn't duck the big talking points and more often than not, got them right.
He did look like an owl in those glasses, though. Professor Venison. Probably got ditched as he wasn't sexy enough for ITV., or Gabby didn't fancy him.
Mark: 8

5. KENNY DALGLISH

King Kenny can never do any wrong in the eyes of most Liverpool fans.
He's not a regular guest on TV, but Sky do sometimes draft him in for one of their bumper 'five men round a table' specials.
He's not a natural, and you always got the feeling he doesn't exactly love being beamed live to millions of screens, but he still does it with his quiet authority.
When we are crap, Kenny calls it, but does it in a way that makes it sound like he isn't crucifying the manager. He knows himself how the pressures can get to you.
He probably didn't relish the TV job, and his lack of animation and voice volume probably ruled him out of being an automatic choice.
Mark: 7

6. JIM BEGLIN

Always been one of my favourites has Jim. More of a co-commentator than studio pundit.
He was a faithful friend on Granada Soccernight when the Reds were playing in the cup.
The Irishman was great at picking up on every quirk, every idiosincracy, and every kind of analysis of why a player had just done what he had done.
He viewed the game like a fan, that soft Irish accent was always easy on the ear and he was never a showboat, trying to outmuscle the commentator.
Jim knew he was there to add thoughts, not to hear the sound of his own voice.
Mark: 9

7.STEVE MCMANAMAN

A new boy on the scene, Macca has been recruited by Setanta over the past season.
A bit rough round the edges, and overly flash in the suits, Shaggy is another from the 'say what you see' school.
He upset a lot of Reds during one spot of analysis when he criticized Liverpool fans protesting at Anfield against the American owners at one game this season.
His harangue even prompted the Echo LFC writer to give Macca a broadside in his Blood Red column.
The wispy winger responded and produced a fairly passionate and well-argued response which was also printed in the paper. Right to reply and all that.
What's good about Macca is that when Liverpool were poor this season, and there were quite a few occaions to choose from, he wasn't afraid to put the boot in.
As long as it's commonsense, then we can't bury our head in the sands. If we want bland 'expert' opinion, we might as well book Bryan Robson or Gary Pallister and get on with it.
Mark: 7

8. JOHN BARNES

Started his telly career with ITV and it initally seemed he had transferred his silky skills from pitch to studio. A great undertsanding of the game and he talked with real authority.
Sadly for John, he decided to up the ante and become an anchor man. But presenting just wasn't John's thing, and some of the early days on Channel 5 were pretty shocking.
I guess they put John Barnes' Football Night on so late because they couldn't risk prime time viewers seeing such a catalogue of gaffes and it was cruel to see Digger look so flustered.
He got better though, but he'll never be a Des Lynam. Now, Channel 5 have turned to wisecracking Radio One DJ Colin Murray to front their European nights, which speaks volumes for what TV bosses thought about Barnsey's efforts.
Mark: 5

NB - With this relatively new blog design, you now have to put an email address in and type out the code at the bottom, to leave a comment.
Just leave xxx@hotmail.com if you don't want to leave your actual address. And copy and paste what you've typed just in case it messes up - shouldn't do though.
Ta.

A SUMMER OF INACTION

2008-05-29T12:37:13Z

ANYONE else getting worried about the deafening silence emanating out of Anfield in recent weeks?
This summer, perhaps more than any before it, we all called for a time of frantic wheeling and dealing to hone the Anfield squad.
We've got a brilliant spine, but a flaking outer skin, remember?
Rooting out the bad eggs, bringing in the star quality for a genuine title push in 2008-2009. It's the clarion call.
Yet, three weeks after the end of the season, and just over two months before we kick off again, we've seen precious little to show us that positive moves are afoot.

]]>

A couple of of weeks ago, it seemed Juve wanted to buy most of the players we were keen to ship out.
They'd taken Sissoko, they were coveting Alonso, they were eyeing up Riise as well (!!)
The rumour mill was telling us that Crouch was having a medical with Portsmouth, and Kewell and Pennant were free for offers.
On the importing side, we've learnt that we might buy a centre-mid cum left back, who maybe has three years left at the top, for £10.
And we're potentially close to securing the services of a 26-year-old Italian full back who I've never heard of for £8m.
Hardly inspiring stuff. We can only hope that there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to sign up the big guns.
A good Red in our office rightly bemoans the way the Reds management traditionally leave transfers until late in the summer - sometimes when the season's already begun.
Consequently, those new recruits don't have the benefit of pre-season friendlies and seeing how the team plays, and as a result, they feel their way into Premiership games that leads to us tripping up.
It seems the age of £6m punts for unheard of foreign players is gone, unless you're called Arsene Wenger.

Now, it's all about buying big, and snapping up players that you KNOW are going to be the business.
£26m got us the best striker in the Premiership. End of story.
Of course, you need to have the financial backing for that, and in the current Anfield climate, that could be a long way off.
But if Hicks is lodging his feet firmly under the table, its time to start backing Rafa in bucks.
At the time of Benitez's infamous press conference ('focusing on coaching and training') Hicks suggested that the manager had more than enough quality with his current squad.
But I reckon after his initiation in English football, I reckon even the Texan can see that Leto, Pennant and Kewell aren't on a par with Old Trafford reserves like Nani, Anderson and Giggs.
Surely Hicks realises that with a bit of genuine quality for Torres, Gerrard, Skrtel and Co we could launch a really serious title bid.
If Hicks is committed to being in charge at Liverpool, and its still a very big 'if', there would be no better way than showing that committment than giving us some clout to go after the Berbatov's and the David Villa's of this world.
That's pretty much how Glazer's Man Utd reign has reluctantly passed from indignation to grudging acceptance.
They can't stand his involvement with the club, yet when you fund Hargreaves, Tevez, Anderson and Nani for £50-£70 then it does cause even the most sceptical fans' eyebrows to rise.
I don't think many of us could put up with another summer of unconvincing foreign buys, which is curently headed by a Swiss right back who likes to model casual jeans and sweatshirts.

- In other news, anyone see Kuyt's barnstorming header for Dutch the other night? About 15 yards out, on an angle, and it crashed into the top corner.
It was like watching those YouTube vids of Dirk when his signing was announced, when we licked our lips at the prospect of getting that swashbuckling centre forward we'd craved for.
On the subject of forwards, Tony Barrett was showing me clips of young reserve hopeful Krisztián Nemeth in action for the Hungarian Under 19s.
He looks a real prospect with a great touch, skill, movement and a coolness in front of goal. Could be set for quite a few appearances this coming season.

SHARE LFC

2008-05-27T07:45:04Z

HOW many new Liverpool fan groups are on the go at the moment?
It's difficult to keep up sometimes - if it's not Spirit of Shankly, it's AFC Liverpool. And if it's not them, it's Share LFC.
Anyhow, here's the latest from the latter, Rogan Taylor's shindig.

]]> by Luke Traynor

A BID by Liverpool FC fans to launch a daring £500m buy-out of the club is set for a worldwide tour.
The team behind Share Liverpool FC is preparing to visit Reds 'hotspot' countries around the globe to win support for the scheme.
Trips to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa and India are being outlined by the group.
Its aim is to tap into traditional heartlands of Liverpool FC support around the world to raise the money needed to displace the club's controversial American owners.
On Friday, the first visit will be made to Ireland where pleas will be made to Reds supporters to back the scheme.
Three prominent ex Liverpool players, and new supporters of the bid, will be unveiled to front the initiative and former chief executive of the Irish Football Association Bernard O'Byrne has joined the Share Liverpool FC project.
Rogan Taylor, director of the Football Industry Group at Liverpool university, and who is heading the scheme, said: "We are set to go further afield.
"So far, 60 per cent of interest is from the UK and Ireland so we want to get our message out to the wider world.
"We will be appointing coordinators for different territories."
The latest figures show that 40,000 people have registered their interest in the scheme that was launched in January.
Fifteen thousand of them have pledged the required £5,000, while the remaining 25,000 people are either interested investing £5,000 jointly with friends, or have requested more information about the ambitious scheme.
The idea requires 100,000 fans to each invest £5,000.
The Financial Services Authority is expected to soon approve the group's provident society constitution which details a member's voting rights.
Reds to have already backed the plan are Anfield greats like Phil Thompson, John Aldridge and John Barnes.
The boardroom crisis has seen American co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks still locked in a bitter civil war with each other, while the government of Dubai waits in the wings hoping to buy the club.
To find out more about the scheme, or to pledge cash, visit www.shareliverpoolfc.co.uk

What's the general consensus about the plan? Let's hear from you.