I was just thinking today about the possibility of Rafa making a move for Michael Owen this summer. Newcastle got relegated and will be playing in the Championship next season and I suspect quite a number of their players will want to leave and continue to play Premiership football. I went through the Newcastle squad to see if there are any players from there that we could sign. The only name I could think of was Owen.

Now we all know how Owen has never recaptured the form he had since he left Anfield and it is largely due to all his injuries. And with him being 29 years old, he may not have too many years of top football left in him. His next move from Newcastle will probably be his last big career move. I would not mind seeing Rafa take a gamble and bring Owen back to Liverpool. The question is, “Would Rafa really want him?” I am sure if Rafa really wanted Owen he would have secured him by now considering that he would not have to pay a cent for him as he is a free agent this summer with his contract at Newcastle having expired.

It is no secret that we need fire power upfront for next season. Owen may not be the answer to our goal scoring problems but he will give us cover upfront when Torres and Gerrard are not fit. I would much rather have Owen coming off the bench than Ngog or Babel. Owen is after all a home grown lad who had an amazing time at Liverpool. Maybe if he wears the famous red shirt again he may rediscover the form that led him to score 118 goals for us. Rafa gave Fowler a second chance, surely he can give Owen another chance?

What do you think? Do you think signing Owen would be a good idea?

The papers today are filled with news that Ryan Babel has been told that he can leave Liverpool this summer. I am not too surprised about this as I felt that Babel would be one of the players we would have to let go inorder to fund the purchasing on new players.

I am sure you all agree with me that Babel has not really set the stage alight during his time at Anfield. He came with high hopes from Ajax considering that we spent 11 million pounds to sign him but I have not seen much to make me happy with him. He has had a few glimpses of brilliance but they are few and far between. Would I be sad to see Babel leave? Not really, just as long as we get a good fee for him. If we get anything above 8 million pounds for him I will be happy. He is a young player with bags of talent and I am sure he could turn into a great player one day but I don’t see it being at Liverpool. We will keep an eye on this story and see how it pans out over the next couple of weeks. What do you make of all of this?

There is still a lot of talking making the rounds that we may be after Carlos Tevez. I guess we have to wait and see what happens after the Champions League finally. But Mascherano has come out and said that he would love to see Tevez join him at Liverpool.

A lot of odds seem to be stacked firmly in our favour regards to Tevez joining us in the summer. Tevez has apparently said he would like to join us and play for Liverpool. He can still stay in his current home in Cheshire if he joins Liverpool. He says his family is happy and settled in England and he would not want to move them. He would be getting Champions League football if he joins Liverpool and would surely be set to play a lot more games for us than he did at United. The fact that one of his best buddies, Mascherano, is at Liverpool is probably one of the biggest drivers to Tevez joining us. And wouldn’t Tevez just love to rub salt into Sir Alex’s wounds for all the times he left him on the bench by him joining us. We know how Sir Alex would never allow at United player to leave and join Liverpool.

I am sure once Mascherano gets to sit down with Tevez in a few days day when they away on International duty, Javier will have a little chat to Tevez and convince him to join Liverpool!

OurKop.com would like to say thank you to Sami Hyypia for a wonderful 10 years of service. I recall when we signed Sami 10 years ago for 2.6m pounds and none of us had ever heard of him. But he made an instant impression on all of us and became the rock in our defence for many seasons. It is sad that he has to leave us now but we will him all the best in Germany and hopefully Sami will return to Liverpool one day. Thank you Sami, You Will Never Walk Alone!

The season is now officially over! And what a good result to end it all off with. It is a pity we did not keep the clean sheet so that Pepe could have won another Golden Glove. But I think this game was all to do about the farewell to Sami. I was a bit surprised when I saw the starting lineups and saw Sami starting on the bench. I would have thought that Rafa would give him a start today together with the captains armband, but I guess it just goes to show that Rafa really wanted to go out and get the win today to end off the season.

We got off to a great start with Torres clinching his 50th goal for Liverpool with a header. That is some return, 50 goals in two seasons, I see him reaching 100 goals in no time at all. Alan Hutton then made it 2-0 for us in the second half after he deflected a Kuyt shot into his own goal. I think it was written in the script for Robbie Keane to score on his return to Anfield, and he did just that to make it 2-1. But Yossi wrapped up the points with a few minutes to go to make it 3-1 then it was time for Sami to get onto the field. It was a really emotional moment when Stevie came off for him and gave him the armband for the last time. It would have been the perfect ending if Sami had scored with his header from the corner. I don’t know how many times we have seen those headers fly into the net over the last 10 years.

The season is over now and we have to start looking forward to next season and seeing who is leaving the club and who is going to come in. Over the summer OurKop.com will be keeping you updated with all the transfer talk and we will also be looking back to this season that has gone by.

Reports doing the rounds this morning suggest that Xabi Alonso wants to quit Liverpool in the summer! I was shocked when I read this. For me personally, Alonso has been our best player this season. There has already been a lot of talk that we will sell him in the summer to Real Madrid so that we can finance the purchase of other players but now the news that he himself wants to quit has caught me off guard. I never saw this one coming, especially since Alonso has always said he wants to stay with the Reds.

They are saying the reason he wants to quit is because he is not happy at Liverpool and he wants to move to a club where he can enjoy his football. Some how I do not buy this story! We only have to wait and hear it come directly from Alonso’s lips that he wants to quit. There is going to be a lot of transfer stories made up this summer, it is all part and parcel of football. I hope this is all untrue and Alonso stays with us for next season.

What do you make of this story?

Just a few quick thoughts on priorities for the offseason.

1.  Yes, I think we can all agree that a suitable partner / replacement for Torres is a must.

As we’ve read and heard nearly everywhere lately the Mancs can toss in their offensive pairing of choice more often than not while we’re forced to push the likes of N’gog and El Zhar into the spotlight which is probably not the level they are at just yet.

I think this is the place to put the majority of our financial muscle.  We need folks that can put the ball in the net.  How many times can we watch poor first touches, scuffed shots and poor passes slow and thwart our attacks, especially from the wide places?   You get what you pay for most often when it comes to that special level of class so let’s not skimp.

2.  Can we also all agree that Gareth Barry is not the most important signing of the offseason?

His main quality as far as I can see is his habit of funneling the ball to Stevie when the two are together on the pitch.  Unfortunately for us, our captain is most often heavily marked and is forced to make moments out of what space he can.  This isn’t to say it’s not a good linkup for us, I think it would work wonders against lesser opposition, but let’s not put 3 more months and 18 million quid into this fella again.  There are more important matters at hand.

3.  It’s time to start thinking about it……Sami’s Exit and Carra’s impending retirement

As to the second point, I know it’s not imminent, but in another two seasons this will be smack in our face.  Agger and Skrtel are both able center halves and worthy of their places in the squad, but as we all know there is strength in depth, and that depth is exactly what we’ll need in our challenge to win on all fronts in the years to come.   Now with Big Sami making his farewells, it’s time to find his replacement and with his position being such an important one, I think it’s best to find a younger option who will grow and peak with this team as it’s being built to do.

This seems to be Rafa’s specialty, finding cheap young center backs primed to excel in English football.  Here’s hoping he can repeat that success again.

4.  It’s about damn time Rafa got control of his transfer policy.

If he is who we believe best to devise and execute both our selection and tactical decisions, then how could we believe any less when it comes to knowing how best to fill the positions he himself is creating for us?

This only makes sense, as he just like anyone must be allowed to sink or swim on his own merit.  At the very least it has streamlined our process of player acquisition such that we can be more fluid in our actions as situations dictate.  That can only be a good things going forward.

YNWA

There are continued reports today that Carlos Tevez would like to join us in the summer. When I saw Tevez being subbed off during their game against Arsenal on Saturday and he took his time to wave goodbye to the United fans, it was a clear sign that Carlos was saying goodbye to Manchester United and he would not be playing for them next season. United have come out and said they want to keep Tevez but are not willing to pay a lot of money for him.

I have no idea how much Tevez is being sold for, I doubt it is anything less that 20 million pounds. Tevez has apparently said he would not mind joining Liverpool as he would not have to relocate from his current home. If Tevez were to snub United and join Liverpool then I am sure Sir Alex is going to be pissed off!!

I would not mind seeing Tevez at Liverpool next season as he would provide that little bit of extra attacking power that we need. I guess for now this is all just speculation. Watch this space!

The league race may have been over as United clinched it by drawing with Arsenal yesterday, but we still had a job to do today against West Brom. To see that our lads were still up for this, you just have to look at the little incident between Carragher and Arbeloa when the two fought with each other over their defensive responsibilities. I am glad with the way the lads played today, they could have easily given up knowing that there is no way they can win the league anymore but they still put in a professional performance and easily took care of West Brom.

I expected a bit more from West Brom today, especially since they knew they had to win to avoid relegation. But the moment their defender made an error and gifted Stevie G the ball and Captain Fantastic scored the opening goal, it was game over for West Brom. They tried to fight back but we were just to good for them and they were just poor. When Kuyt made it 2-0 for us, I actually felt sorry for West Brom as they had no officially been relegated.

Not much else to say about this game as I am still feeling a bit low that we missed out on winning the title but we just have to walk on with hope in our heart!

YNWA

Yesterdays 3-0 win over West Ham at Upton Park was easy! Going into the game, I was a bit worried as I know West Ham have been playing some pretty good football this season. In seasons gone by we would have struggled in this fixture but we have come forward in leaps and bounds this season and we handled this game with ease. I guess it was all made easier due to the early goal we scored after 90 seconds. Yet again the Torres and Gerrard combination was at work. If only these two had played more games together for us this season, we may have wrapped up the title by now! But we can not live with “if only”!

At 1-0 up we were in charge then when it was 2-0 before half time we had already wrapped up the game. There was no doubt about the penalty we won. It was bit disappointing to see Stevie miss the spot kick but credit to him for the follow up.

In the second half it looked like we were disinterested in the game We were playing at such a relaxed pace. It looked like a typical end of season game of two teams playing who have nothing to fight for but we are still fighting for the league. It is up to Manchester City to do us a favour today and beat United.

Babel made it three in the end with what I think could be his last ever goal for Liverpool as I see him moving on in the summer.

I am glad we are still alive in the title race. I can not remember the last time we still had a chance of winning the league with 2 games to go! By now we would have been long out of the race and fighting to finish in the top four. No matter how the season end, we have progressed from last season. The experience has been great but we have to make sure we build on this for next season so we can go one better and get #19. Don’t get me wrong, we could still do it this season. We just have to walk on with hope in our heart!

YNWA