Looks like we are going to have to replace two if not three key players this summer!

Alonso will now join the Madrid globetrotters who only need Ribery to magically appear now and they will have a full set of the galactico’s that Perez set out for when he became President. Rafa wanted £30m + for Alonso but now will only get around £27.5m ish if you believe the papers…….or is that the amount that we would have got anyway? Look at it this way, once Alonso handed in his written transfer request that removes his loyalty bonus from the transfer, this equates to around £1m. Also the transfer will presumably go through in August 2009, it is now over the five year period since he arrived at Liverpool and we will not have to pay Real Sociedad 10% of the selling on fee, Say £3m.

In total that’s £4m, meaning that by my accounts we are up £1.25m – shrewd business by Rafa, but we would all rather have Alonso on the team sheet!

But now the big question, who to replace Alonso? It is easier to replace a water carrier than a lock pick, that’s why they are a rare and expensive commodity. There will be fans out there that will say that we need to give Lucas a chance to prove his worth. There is no doubt that he has the ability, just look at his record at Brazil under 20’s and also for Gremio. Lucas even became the youngest player to ever to receive Placar magazine’s Bola de Ouro (Golden Ball), given to the best player in the Campeonato Brasileiro — an honour previously won by the likes of Zico, Falcão, Careca, Alex, Romario, Kaká and Tevez. But do we risk our season on this? Ron previously posted in a letter to Lucas to prove he is all that he can be and I think Rafa will maybe give him 20+ starts over all the games of the season.

If I was in Rafa’s shoes I would want to bring in someone and that person would be Christian Poulsen of Juventus and Denmark.

Poulsen signed on a Bosman last year from Seville and has had a terrible time in Italy and this summer has been linked with various mid premiership clubs, Fulham being in the public but could not match his wage demands. Poulsen is in the same Alonso mould and it was that same role that he played successfully for Seville during the Ramos era were they successfully won the UEFA cup back to back along with the Super cup and the Spanish version of the FA cup, so he has more than enough big game experience. Settling in won’t be a problem as Danish team mate Agger is already here and he speaks English competently. Juventus want to sell as they have just signed the Brazilian Melio for that role and if Fulham have bidded and it has been accepted as they discussed terms, then the fee must be in the region of £3m - £7m max, and wages wouldn’t be an issue as Alonso’s previous pay packet would cover that!

So what’s the catch I hear you say, discipline! – He has a reputation for losing his cool, see the link to his Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Poulsen . The last time he lost his cool he punched Swedish Striker Marcus Rosenberg in the Stomach!

So Poulsen for Alonso, who’s next to replace………..Sami Hyypia?

Sami left after 10 wonderful years at Liverpool, but so far this summer there has not been much talk about replacing him until today. If you believe them then Rafa is trying to bring in more English players, Mike Turner of Hull being one of them. Maybe a surprise target for some of you but personally he is Hulls version of a certain Jamie Carragher, and we would all love a team of Carragher’s!

Turner would make a solid squad addition to the team and under Carragher’s stewardship would make a fine centre half for many years to come. He is certainly in the mould of Carragher, loyal and committed having played for Hull at every level of the league and did not look out of place last year in the premiership – I feel that this would be a strong signing for Rafa as it would be in the region of £5-7m

And what of the one that hasn’t got away yet – Mascherano! Soon to be leaving on a Jet plan to Barcelona.

The press again today has linked us with Lee Cattermole of Wigan. Cattermole had a steady season last year and had a good under 21’s and his value has sky rocketed from the £3.5m that Steve Bruce paid for him to the figure of around £12m. But is he the English Mascherano and is he worth £12m? Maybe/Maybe not, but he is English and as we have found out with the purchase of Glen Johnson – English means add on a bit extra!

What does his game entail and what do we want him to do –
1. Reads the game,
2. Strong in the tackle,
3. Breaks up play and
4. Makes the simple pass, thus
5. Controlling possession, and
6. Protects the back four!

Ticks all those boxes then.

He does a job that never gets any attention and gets little reward of the glamour and fame.

Was the signing of Cattermole the making of Wigan last year a coincidence? Wigan finished comfortably in 14th, and before the January window were challenging for Europa league spot. Compare this to the previous season when they had to be rescued by Steve Bruce from relegation in January! I think that this is no coincidence and would be a solid replacement for Mascherano.

I think Rafa can work with these aggressive rough Diamond’s like he did with Mascherano as if you remember that time at Old Trafford, he did have a wee bit of a temper!

So with my reckoning, we should receive around the £50m mark for Alonso and Mascherano – not bad business when the two of them cost in the region of £29m (£10.25 for Alonso and approx £18m for Mascherano). And if we can get Cattermole, Poulsen and Turner for £25m who knows, Rafa could blow the other £25m on Ashley Young and that would solve the left sided lottery as well!

I had hoped that it would not go this far but reports this morning say that Xabi Alonso has handed in a written transfer request to Liverpool as he seeks to move to Real Madrid. This is it I guess! Rafa now has no choice but to sell Alonso as clearly the player does not want to play for us anymore. The question now is, “How much are we going to get for Alonso?”

We had wanted £30m for Alonso but Real have refused to pay that. So now that Alonso has handed in his request, the ball is firmly in Madrid’s court as whatever they offer us we may be forced to accept as we just have to get rid of Alonso. There is suggestion that Real have agreed to pay us £27.5m which I would take without thinking twice now.

Alonso himself had hoped that this saga would not go this far as he had hoped the two teams would agree on a fee without him having to publicly come out and hand in a transfer request. I personally do not know what to make of this. I did not want Alonso to go but the fact that he wants to leave makes me feel gutted. We are going to loose a great player but hopefully we can sign someone else similar to him with the cash we get. Let us not jump to conclusions just yet until this deal is signed, sealed and delivered.

The one transfer we were all pretty sure was going to take place finally happened today. Arbeloa has completed his move to Real Madrid after we agreed a fee with them and the player passed a medical. The moment we signed Glen Johnson, I knew that Arbeloa’s time was up as he would not be our regular first choice right back. It is understood that we sold Arbeloa for 3.5 million pounds which is a one million pound profit from when we bought him from Deportivo. I would have hoped we had gotten more for him but I guess we have to make do with it rather than loosing him for free at the end of next season when his contract was expiring.

Thank you for the service Alvaro, we wish you all the best in Madrid.

Reports today say that Xabi Alonso flew into Madrid last night as he seeks to complete his move to Real Madrid. It is said that Liverpool have given Madrid 48 hours to come up with the cash to complete the deal. “How much do we really want for Alonso?” no one seems to know. Madrid do not seem to want to pay much for Alonso. The Spanish giants’ president Florentino Perez said: ‘Some people obviously thought that because we said we wanted more Spanish players, they could ask for fees which don’t correspond to reality.’

It is funny how the price of English players in England is astronomical! Just look at how much we spent on Glen Johnson. So now Spanish teams do not want to break the bank for Spanish players? That does not make sense. Madrid should pay a high price for Alonso thus I agree with Rafa for sticking to his guns and saying he does not want anything less than £30million for Alonso.

But now that Alonso is in Spain, I will not be surprised if we hear any second now that he has completed his move to Real and they have accepted to give us the cash. Watch this space as we will keep you updated on the latest news with regards to Alonso. Hopefully in the next 48 hours we will know what is happening.

Hello everyone,

Do any of you find yourselves at this time of the year nearly as concerned as you are down the stretch in April and May?  So much of what is to come can be done or undone in this window where we actually never even get on the pitch.

Strangely enough, even with the year we had there are far more reports these days of players heading out of Anfield as opposed to in.  I think this is a good sign though, as it’s proof that Rafa’s new transfer policy is winning out at least for the time being.  For now, it seems as though we’re back to the old Liverpool way of business on the transfer front, and that is the same way you’d like to see the team going after it on the pitch. Namely, with your head down and your head on straight until the whistle blows.   Why let everyone in on what we’re doing, when it benefits everyone but us?  It says a lot that Rafa is willing to publicly bow out on players, even perhaps some we may have been interested in previously.  He is smart enough to keep fees down as we’re not going to outspend anyone for the most part.

This is just a mind game, as he put it in December.  Take a look at what the Manure have been saying these past few days.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/23/manchester-united-glazers-transfer-business

Just as we want to keep it quiet, here they are blabbing it up about how much cash they have to spend to make it more expensive for everyone else when it really means they are mostly finished, with maybe another signing to come later on in the summer once the market settles.

Read the rest of this entry »

All the people of Bangkok, it seemed, woke up on Wednesday, threw on their Liverpool jerseys, picked out their Liverpool scarves, and headed with a single-minded determination to the Rajamangala Stadium hours before Liverpool’s match with the Thai national team. I’m pretty sure if I had ventured out while the match was on, the city that always appeared to be on the move would have featured deserted streets, empty cars, restaurants with no business going, and pin-drop silence everywhere except in the immediate vicinity of Carra, Nando, Rafa and Javi. Swine flu may be the latest disease to cause paranoia in Bangkok, but for the moment, it was football fever running rampant. Hand sanitizers and face masks were shoved on by the security personnel at the entrance, and once you dodged that, it was time to find a way to get inside. Even at 4, four hours before kick-off, fans were crowded outside, trying to get in, and many hundreds had already taken their seats and begun the wait. The Kop stand filled up the quickest, with a sea of red with an asssortment of flags, banners and many exhortations requesting Xabi Alonso to continue his career at Anfield. They probably weren’t encouraged by his absence from the teamlist and the bench, but Rafa tried to put an end to the speculation by saying he and Benyoun were injured. It probably didn’t work, and I’m certain the rumours have got another piece of evidence.

I also had a long wait to get past, but looking around me at all the Liverpool love was great. The only thing that I could’ve done without were the two very enthusiastic Thai DJs spinning some terrible electro-techno-hiphop-mishmash excuse for music, over and over again. But those too were forgotten, as a professional opera-like rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone was followed by a few Beatles numbers. Quite a nice backdrop to the warm-up going on on the field below.

The match itself, well, you know it by now 1-1, and two completely different Liverpool teams played both halves (with the exception of Babel, who played a bit of the second half). Babel scored early and threatened a couple more times, but it was the Torres effect that was fascinating to watch. He had just ten minutes to get Liverpool a winner, and man he tried. With his first touch, he tore open the defence and raced away to goal, but missed. He was in the mix again a few more times, and the liveliest on the pitch by far, compared to all who had been on the pitch since the opening whiste. If only he can stay relatively injury-free this season, Torres can easily get another bagful of goals. Babel could do with a bit more consistency, Carra was his usual rock-solid self, and even had a hand in the first of Liverpool’s pre-season goals, the other kids had their sloppy moments, but Insua wasn’t bad. Hopefully Skrtel and El Zhar will pick themselves up soon.

Now all we can do is wait for the real games to begin.

The last time Glen Johnson got a taste of exactly the kind of fanaticism that awaits travelling football players in Bangkok, he was wearing distinctly different colours. The blue of Chelsea, to be precise.

At Tuesday’s press conference in the ballroom of the Grand Erawan hotel, the Englishman was all smiles, all ready to answer questions, and as Rafa put it, all ready to play. And he looked just right in the red of Liverpool FC. “It’s been fantastic. Everybody’s been great to me, helped me settle in. It’s brilliant here in Bangkok, all those fans in the Liverpool shirts, it’s a great sight to see,” he said, and added a hope that he could come up with the kind of consistent display he had last season with Portsmouth.

Today was a busy day for the squad, with the division of duties all too evident to anyone who happened to be out on a cloudy day in the Thai capital. When I was returning home, a cavalcade of policemen on bikes furiously signalled for our car to stop so a string of minivans could pass by, and yes, they contained Liverpool FC”s finest, eager for a bit of sightseeing. A few went to the Grand Palace, while others were packed off to do their various promotional commitments and football clinics. They probably did squeeze in a few hours rest before the nearly two-hour long training session that was to take place at the Rajamangala Stadum in the evening, passes to which were very kindly handed out to me by Steve McMahon, who is very nice to talk to, even if you are tongue-tied and star-struck.

At the beginning of the evening’s practice, the players confined themselves to two small circles in the centre of the field, but the stadium had been taken over by roaring, screaming, flag-waving supporters who were well-versed in all the Liverpool anthems. ‘We all dream of a team of Carraghers’ was repeated again and again as the man himself knocked a few balls around, along with emphatic cries of ‘Xabi don’t go’, ‘Mascherano don’t leave for Barca’, and requests to Fernando Torres to convey the same message to his countrymate: ‘Tell Xabi no go to Real, tell Xabi to stay, Fernando!’

Torres, meanwhile, contented himself with running laps around the athletics track at the stadium, checking his watch every now and then, and was soon joined by Yossi Benayoun, Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso. They deigned to raise their hands to the crowd now and then, every time bringing up a fresh wave of cheers. In the kickabout that followed, the following were moments worthy of some noise: Johnson’s excellent backheel flick of a pass in the middle, Pepe’s quick recovery for a save that was nearly a lost cause, Carra getting stuck into the opposition, and so what if it happened to be his own clubmate, he was on a different team for the moment.

Torres and Alonso went off early back to the locker room to thunderous applause, and it’s pretty certain that the Spanish contingent will play a role only in the end credits of Wednesday’s match. Johnson is likely to be in the first XI, and after less than impressive results in their last two friendlies, Liverpool will look to get in a win on their pre-season tour of Asia. But regardless of the result, their visit here will be referred to time and again amongst the hordes of fanatics who have been thronging the hotel and stadium the last two days for a glimpse of a world they only see on television between August and May each season. They lined the path inside and outside the stadium gates once it was time for the players to leave the stadium after their practice on Tuesday night, and waited excitedly in the hope of getting another chance to get close to their heroes. There was no sign of that happening anytime soon, but they were happy to bide time discussing all things Liverpool, and it’ll stay in their minds as a happy memory forever.

I know I’ll never forget it.

Remember the crazy Rafa who listed out all of Ferguson’s shortcomings in that little tirade which began Liverpool’s decline last season, the one where we let the Premiership get away? Well, watching him in person at Liverpool’s first press conference in Bangkok today got me thinking, in between trying to stifle my laughter so the other journalists wouldn’t stare at me, that he really is quite a funny guy. And the art of dodging questions with well-appreciated witticisms has been mastered pretty damn well too. Move over Mourinho!

Oh yes, it is pre-season, all relaxed, travelling to countries where each step induces a million people scream to out your name in obsessive adulation, spreading the Reds name to faraway lands, and well, you get my drift. When the real business begins, in around a month, that’s when the claws’ll come out, we can be rest assured. The only thing I wish for is that Rafa keeps his marbles, and uses them to flick over our esteemed rivals in England.

On Monday, the talk was all Xabi Alonso and David Villa and when The Title would return to Anfield, all of which the Spaniard dodged with as much skill as is contained in the feet of our silken Basque midfielder. “Of course we’ll talk,” he said, talking about Alonso’s possible move to the sunny shores of Spainish. “We’ll talk about strategy, the match coming up, and all that,” he concluded with a wicked grin. That’s it then, all the information he would volunteer.

The subject of David Villa was dealt with quickly, too, and he won’t be putting on the shirt with the Liverbird anytime soon.

There was Ryan Babel and the heart of LFC, Jamie Carragher, sitting on either side of him at the press conference table, but the questions were all falling into Benitez’s net and he probably felt a bit bad that his players were being ignored. “No questions for the players? They are the ones who will be playing,” he smirked, and laughed, along with everyone in the room.

Carragher spoke in for Stevie, who is in England at his bar brawl hearing, and made all the usual noises about how he would’ve loved to be in Thailand, etc etc, and Babel was thrown a question about the swine flu that’s doing the rounds, and boy, did that faze him. I mean, what’s he supposed to say, should’ve just laughed it off, he needs to learn from Rafa. But maybe he was all happy with the praise the gaffer had just dealt him. “He’ll be more settled now, he is a much stronger player now than he was before.”

All the talk done, questions dealt with, photo-ops done, the players got up to leave. There was this girl who stood behind all the cameramen and stealthily moved to where the players would leave from. She positioned herself just right so Carra would just HAVE to pass by and then thrust her book and pen and said what would probably be the most important words of her life: Can I have your autograph? He didn’t look like the happiest person in the world, but whatever, signed it and moved on. It made her day. Yes, that was me.

Riera, Benayoun, Babel, Dossena, Aurelio, Leto and even Kuyt in the last year have played left side of midfield/forward but no one has made the place their own. In the past we have tried Kewell, Mark Gonzales, Riise and even Gerrard before we found his calling as a second striker but no-one has truly fitted Rafa’s job description for the left side.

Depending on the opposition Benitez has opted for Riera and Benayoun - against strong, in the air defenders he uses Benayoun and plays the essence of pass and move to unlock the door; against average defenders or keepers that are poor on crosses he prefers Riera drill balls into Torres or Kuyt coming in from the right hand side. So is this enough or does Rafa have someone up his sleeve………. or is it play it again Sam?

Earlier in the month we were linked with Ribery, who lets face, who would find a place for in any team but Rafa would never have signed him as he is too much an enigma/free spirit. We have also been linked with David Silva who would have no problem settling into the Spanish Foreign Legion but what we need is that x-factor but with English characteristics of commitment and work rate for the team – I give you Ashley Young.

You put Ashley Young on our team sheet and all of a sudden the opposition have more to think about than Gerrard and Alonso. He is comfortable with both feet, lightning fast and not afraid to beat a man and go for goal, something that we are missing in our squad. Now the next question is can we afford him with the overall current financial situation?

Personally, I feel that the same reasons that we paid over the odds for Glen Johnson apply here – he’s 23 years of age, breaking into the English senior side who will want to be playing the highest level with it being a world cup year, he is nearly the finished article and also as he is English, it will bring our squad nationality quota back into line with the future UEFA requirements. So do we gamble and put all our eggs in one basket on Ashley young or try and wheel and deal and bring in 3-4 players who might make the grade? I think this season its all about finding the missing pieces of the jigsaw.

We all know someone, friend family or foe who has hurt their back/damaged their spine and never been the same since. Well now we have that problem. If Gerrard is the heart of our team then Alonso and Mascherano are the spine that without BOTH of them we will surrender the middle of the pitch to everyone!

Now hear me out, I feel that we are 1 maybe 2 signings away from winning the league and I truly mean that. At last Benitez has 8 world class players that should always be on the starting line up: Reina, Johnson, Agger Carragher, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres and 5 quality first team players of Kuyt, Skrtel, Benayoun, Reira, Insua (who should be left back next season), then the class of “could do better” of Lucas, Babel and Voronin. If all stay fit and Benitez doesn’t play spin the bottle on the team sheet then we will win it………………..IF we can hold onto Alonso and Mascherano.

Alonso is courted by Madrid, Mascherano by Barca and you can understand why they would both be interested but we need to offer them something that they can’t, a place in history.
We heard Benitez in the press conference last week about both having good contracts and they should honour their contracts as Liverpool took the chance and developed their careers. Not the best pep talk in the world after the Alonso/Barry fiasco last year and also considering the tax in Spain is 30% and not the 50% for them in the UK, but this season we must stop the Manc’s from the 19th title.

You take away one you might as well break the team up and start again because they are the spine that allows our team to pass and move. So how do your cure a bad back when you can’t offer the pain relief (wage’s), you offer them something that no-one else can – belief!

If they stay for one season and we win the league then they will believe, believe that they are part of something, the next generation of Liverpool FC!

So Rafa, if you are reading this, show them belief and keep them for one year, hell do the Ronaldo deal of agreeing a ridiculous fee with Alonso/Real for the 1st of July 2010 because if we keep them and they win, then they will never want to leave!