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.

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!

It is looking more likely that Mascherano could be on his way out of Liverpool this summer as the reports suggest that his wife is not happy with life in England. I guess if your wife is not happy you have to think about your family first and then football comes second. I do not believe that Mascherano would want to leave Liverpool on his own free will but he may have to if his wife does not want to come back to England. This could mean that Mascherano could end up joining Barcelona this summer. Now how much would we sell him for?

Rafa had said that not even £50m would be enough to take Mascherano from Liverpool but I do not see Barcelona willing to pay that much for him. Mascherano is the best defensive midfielder in the world so he would have to command a fairly high price tag. I was reading a report this morning that suggests that Barcelona could offer us £20m plus Bojan Krkic.

Now when I saw this I thought that this could be good business for us. We could certainly do with the £20m cash and I believe that Bojan is a great prospect and would be the perfect substitute for Torres. That would mean we would no longer need to go shopping for another striker and we could use the £20m from the deal to try and get a replacement for Mascherano. I can not think of anyone right now who would be a straight like for like replacement for Mascherano, that is just how good the guy is. If it were up to me, I would be bold and say that Jay Spearing should replace Mascherano. That way we would not need to spend a cent to get a replacement and use the cash for other positions. Maybe the cash could be used to land David Silva and maybe another central defensive midfielder with a bit more experience than Spearing.

What do you think?

I hate these football agents!! It is reported that Mascherano’s agent spoke to Barcelona officials yesterday to hear them out about personal terms if Mascherano were to join Barcelona this summer. Now what is worrying me is that Mascherano’s agent could not just go and hold talks without getting the permission from Javier himself. So maybe Javier wants to leave and go to Barcelona. I will always be the first to say that if a player wants to leave and play for another team then let them go! There is no point having a player who does not want to play for you. Just ask Manchester United and Ronaldo about that!

I am sure there is not a single one of us who would want Mascherano to leave. Rafa certainly does not want to him to go as he came out and said that we would not sell Mascherano even if Barca offered us 50 million pounds. There are very few players, if any, who are better than Mascherano in the holding midfield position. In the reports, they are suggesting that Barcelona would give us Yaya Toure as part of the deal to take Mascherano to the Nou Camp. Yaya is not a bad player at all but he is not in the class of Mascherano.

What do you make of this Mascherano drama?

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!

I was just reading an article which suggests that Lazio are after Javier Mascherano and that they could want to sign him as early as January. I could not help but laugh as I read this. Do they honestly think Liverpool would want to sell one of the best, if not the best, holding midfielder in the world? Secondly, would Mascherano himself want to leave Liverpool and join a lesser team such as Lazio? I do not think so.
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According to reports this evening, Maradona has managed to convince Javier Mascherano to be the new captain of Argentina. Initially, Mascherano said he would not want to take up the Argentina armband but after Maradona visited the Liverpool star this past weekend he has managed to convince the player. “I convinced him. While I am in charge I need him as captain,” Maradona said.
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The new coach of Argentina, Diego Maradona wants our midfield ace, Javier Mascherano to be the new captain of the Argentina national team. Mascherano had come out and said he did not have the charisma to be captain of his country, but Maradona said: “I want Mascherano to be my captain because I believe he is the Argentinian player who is closest to the idea I have about the Argentinian shirt - sweat for it, sacrifice for it, being a professional, being close to the team-mate.”
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There was certainly no love lost last night in the semi-finals of the Olympics when Brazil took on Argentina. As a game, it was always going to be a show piece, is it not always when these two great South American nations go at it on the field? Now before the game, Rafa was happy that either Lucas or Mascherano were going to return to Anfield and one of them was going to play in the Final. Now what many did not expect was that Lucas was going to get sent off for a challenge on Liverpool team mate Javier Mascherano!

This incident just went to show how much passion there is between the two nations and any ‘love’ the players may have for each other at club level goes out the window. At first I was shocked when I saw Lucas put in such a tackle on Mascherano. I said, “That is your own team mate for crying out loud!” But then I realised that meant nothing on the international stage. Brazil were frustrated at loosing 3 - 0 and were now taking out their frustrations on the Argentines. I am sure if Rafa was watching that match he would have been fuming like I was because Lucas’ challenge on Mascherano could have resulted in a serious injury for the Argentine. And that was not the end of it; Brazil got another red card before the game was over and it was Mascherano again who was tackled! And yet again it was a tackle that could have injured Javier!

I am sure that there is no bad blood between Lucas and Mascherano (well at least I hope not) and that when both players return to Melwood, things will be okay between the two of them. They are two great players with a lot of fight in them and as the professionals they are they will now focus on success for Liverpool.

It appears our monster in the midfield will miss our first two EPL matches (Sunderland and MIddlesborough) as well as the first leg of our CL qualifier. It will be debatable whether he’ll return in time for the 2nd leg, much riding on Argentina’s success at the tournament.

Personally I hate to see him dragged away from us as our season starts, but if he wants to participate I can’t blame him for wanting to represent his country. Best of luck Javier.