Liverpool have signed Denmark international Christian Poulsen on a three-year contract from Italian club Juventus for an initial fee of £4.5m.

The defensive midfielder, 30, has been earmarked by manager Roy Hodgson as a potential replacement for Javier Mascherano, who wants to leave Anfield.

Poulsen joins new signings Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic, Jonjo Shelvey and Danny Wilson at the club this summer.

He knows Hodgson, having joined FC Copenhagen when he was boss in 2000.

Poulsen, who has also played for Schalke and Sevilla, has 77 Denmark caps.

What do you think - will he be able to replace Masher in midfield. We know how easy-going the midfield is in Italy compared to the premiership.

The search for a new manager may finally be over with Roy Hodgson having reportedly flown back to the UK from South Africa in order to complete the deal. Hodgson was working at the World Cup as a pundit for the BBC and he was stalling on the Liverpool deal as he was waiting to see if England would not make it to the knock out rounds of the World Cup in which case he had hoped to be name the new England manager.

Now that England are through to play Germany in the knock out stages, it does not look like Capello will leave his England job. So Roy will be back in the UK and looking to take over the reigns at Anfield.

Personally, I still belive that Dalglish should be named the new manager but I guess we just have to see what Roy can do. How will the Kop respond to his appointment? Will we quickly come up with a new song for him or will it take a while for him to find a place in our hearts?

The first thing Hodgson will have to do if he does get the job is to keep our best players. Will he be able to convince the likes of Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano and Johnson that the future is bright under him at Anfield? It will not be easy for him. If our star players do decide to leave then hopefully Roy will be given all the money from their sales and he can use it to bring in new players.
The quicker we get a new manager in the better, as the best players are going to be scooped up quickly in the market as they start to get knocked out of the World Cup.

Watch this space over the next 48 hours as we will break the news to you if Roy Hodgson does indeed sign for Liverpool in the next 48 hours.

I was doing my daily morning rounds across the various websites on the Internet this morning and a lot of reports are emerging that ex Real Madrid boss, Manuel Pellegrini has emerged as a surprise candidate to take over the vacant managers job at Anfield.

This news has caught me by surprise as I had not even thought of Pellegrini being our manager until this morning. On first thoughts. I would not want him to be our next boss. I think I still have a heavy bias towards Kenny Dalglish coming back. I can not see anyone else in my opinion being the next boss besides King Kenny.

But as a fan I have to look at all possibilities and consider Pellegrini as a potential candidate. Fair enough, Pellegrini did a decent job last season managing Real Madrid but he came up short against Barcelona in the race for the league title but he ran them very close. Credit to him. He sucked in the Champions League so that does not bode well. He had some world class talent at his disposal and still failed to win the league and at Liverpool he could potentially be arriving at a team without as many individual world class stars as he had at Real Madrid. So I ask myself the question, “Is he good enough to manage a team with out the stars he had at Real Madrid?”

What are your thoughts of Pellegrini taking over?

If you are to believe the reports in the papers today, it sounds as if Rafa is on his way out! apparently Rafa has been having talks with the Liverpool chiefs as they try to reach an agreement on how much they will pay Rafa to leave. Note that Rafa recently signed a new long term contract with us which would mean we would have had to pay him in the region of 16m pounds if we sack him but apparently the two parties will agree on a fee of 3m pounds for Rafa to leave.

Now what has been bugging me all morning after reading these reports is, who will replace Rafa if he does leave? There is no one my heart is calling for to come and take over. Emotionally I would want King Kenny to come back but then again I am not sure he is the right man for this current scenario we find ourselves in. Kenny may be ideal for the short term whilst we wait for someone with a higher pedigree to be available.

I am hearing names such as Martin O’Neill, Roy Hodgson, Laurent Blanc and Alex McLeish. None of those names are jumping out to me! Who seriously is available and would want to come to a team with very little cash for transfers and uncertainty about the clubs ownership? The only bargaining chip we have to lure a great manager right now is simply the name Liverpool.

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I want to win. I want to be the champions. Of England. Of Europe. Of the World. I want them all to fear us. I want a New Anfield. I want the New Kop to be a thing of which others speak in whispers out of reverence for our might and unwavering support for the greatest football club there has ever been. I want our stadiums of the future to be, not buildings, but monuments that illustrate the scale of our success and our ambition. I want our chants on the New Kop to be a chorus sounding to raise us up that we may be saviours of the beautiful game in our cathedral on Anfield. Saving football in showing that this beautiful game is both an art and a craft. The intricacy and flamboyant beauty reinforced by an unflinching and immovable force. The way we were. I want to leave a defeat disappointed not dejected, knowing that adversity will only drive us further forward not hold us back. I want the sign at our new stadium in front of the players as they prepare to go down the tunnel to read “THIS IS STILL ANFIELD”. I want the opposition captain to see the sign and feel the fear of the inevitable. I want “Away to Liverpool” to be a no win game. I want to be hated by most football supporters because we beat everyone. I want Liverpool FC back.

I want Liverpool FC to build a dynasty that will dominate for a generation fed by the profits of our successes on and off the field and founded solidly enough to navigate the changes in the game that will come in time. We need to build a machine that is invincible against even unforeseen foes! So magnificent in its design and function that all will try to copy it yet fail to live up to the standard we set. So methodical in its excellence that it will spawn natural successors in all facets of the club. New managers will be educated in the Liverpool Way, the elite among them retained for our bootroom while the rest populate our imitators in the hopes of making the grade. Our player development will create players of new types of ability. Players who change not just football games but the game of football itself. Who’s posters will hang on the walls of future footballing legends yet born. Our manner of business will reach levels untested by others. Not setting records in fields already populated by our opponents’ previous successes but creating new categories and measures of success against which no other team can be measured merely because they do not yet know how to do that kind of business. I want our fans to be feared and respected across the globe. I want Liverpool FC back.

I want all this for my team.

I want greatness…I want us to be great.

I want Liverpool FC back.

YNWA

MoKo

My initial reaction following last nights loss to Reading was that we must get rid of Rafa as soon as possible and that Liverpool needs a total ‘reboot’, something similar to CTRL+ALT+DEL. “Get him out now” was my thought. But again I look at the work that’s gone into reshaping the football side of Liverpool and I think we are on the right track. The academy is better, the scouting is better, the first team is better (on paper), the value of the club is better. That is a solid foundation for a long term dynasty of Liverpool success. It’s a lot more like the Liverpool of old that had the best structure in the league and the best young players in the league, the best run business in the league. Those are the things that got lost since Dalglish was manager and only now are they coming back. That project is what will make us a force again.

Man Utd. allowed Fergie to do the same when he came in during the 80’s. They built the best ground in the league, the best academy, the best training facility, the best business model. During that time they avoided relegation on the last day of the season on one occasion. But all that effort in setting themselves up properly has really paid off big time. They rode out the tough times and came out the better for it. One thing they did which we haven’t set about doing is buying great players. Man Utd. spent huge during those days. They broke transfer records at will.

I can’t remember the last time Liverpool actually had an all encompassing plan for the football Organization (not just the game plan). Under Souness the plan was “We’ll win coz we are Liverpool”. Under Evans it was “We’ll win coz I’m from the bootroom”. Under Houllier it was “We’ll win if we sign a lot of French guys”. There was no mention of managing the brand. No mention of maximising sponsorship earnings. No mention or physical plans for a truly world class stadium. These are the ingredients Man Utd. put together to end up where they are today. But we were stuck in the past thinking we are football royalty.

Only now are we actually thinking about Liverpool as an organization and not just a football club. This is not a social footy squad that just lands on match day to play!

I think we need to persist with the plan we have started. It looks good to me. I think the owners must support the plan with big money so that we can be competitive. We need to shake our season awake. A major world class signing would be the perfect boost for the whole team. Confidence is the only thing missing right now. The potential is definitely there.

We must hold our nerve people, ride out the storm. We’ll come out better for it on the other side.

YNWA

Reports have been surfacing since last week that Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud is set to purchase a 50% stake in Liverpool for between 200 to 350million pounds. Now there has been no official news yet from Liverpool about this deal but apparently the Prince has told Saudi newspapers that the deal is almost complete. The only thing we can be sure of is that the Prince was at Anfield on Saturday to watch our 6-1 win over Hull.

Now, let’s say that this deal is true and it does happen, the Prince will own 50% of the club and Hicks will own 25% and Gillett 25%. So we will have THREE people ‘running’ the club. Having just Hicks and Gillett was bad enough but now who knows what the Saudi Prince will want to do to the club? I just hope that the Prince will come in with a lot of cash to take us out of the financial problems we are facing. It would be nice to be able to purchase one or two top class players with the cash.

What I do hope for is that the Prince gets his 50% stake and then has a plan to take total control of the club in the next couple of months. I would rather have one owner than three. I can just imagine the board room fights that could happen with three owners!

I was over the moon this morning when I read reports that Liverpool have finally agreed a shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered which starts at the end of the current season. It will be strange seeing a new name in front of our shirts as we had gotten so used to Carlsberg for so many years.

But I really do not mind what name is on the front of our shirts, just as long as we are being paid well. And we are going to get paid really well by Standard Chartered! It is thought that the deal is worth £80m over 4 years. Now I do not quite know how this cash will be used but I am sure Rafa is going to get a large chunk of it so he can go into the transfer market. It would be nice if Rafa were to be given £20m a year from this money from Standard Chartered. That would mean that Rafa would be able to purchase a £20m player every year for the next four years which would be great!

We have seen in the past that Man Utd. have gotten very good shirt deals and have used that money well to go and buy £20m players. So hopefully we will now be in a position to do the same.

I do not know much about our new CEO, Christian Purslow, but I already like him! I believe he must have been a major driving force behind clinching this deal. Rick Parry would probably have resigned a deal with Carlsberg for a lesser amount! I am so glad Parry has gone now and we can not look forward to a new era with Purslow which will hopefully up the commercial appeal of Liverpool.

I’ve just spent the entire morning on an email thread with Ron and the boys. This is only one of three such “Liverpool email threads” I am on.

Damn it’s hard to pull myself away when everyone’s bashing me because I don’t see why we need to buy a new 20-goal-a-season striker when we are “obviously” well equipped in that position (watch out for a future post on this topic).

I’ve been on this thread since 9am and it’s now 12 noon and that’s the moment when I get that feeling I get before every season. That’s when I realize…

“I LOVE LIVERPOOL FC, I LOVE FOOTBALL. THIS REALLY MEANS A LOT TO ME!”

Liverpool Football Club means…

…the first game of football I ever watched…ever!
…delirious happiness at every victory.
…agony and heartache whenever we lose/draw/conceded a dodgy goal/concede any kind of goal.
…that tingling feeling when the boys are lined up in the tunnel ready for action.
…surging excitement as me and the Kop belt out “You Never Walk Alone” over the Champions League anthem.
…rescheduling my weekend because we have an afternoon kickoff on Saturday.
…in the park trying to relive Fowler vs Newcastle
…Istanbul (need I say more)!
…Getting thrown out of a pub in Cape Town for jumping on tables (I blame Jerzy Dudek and that save from Sheva for that incident).
…putting on my Liverpool shirt for the game even when I’ll be watching at home on my own.

Liverpool Football Club means all of this to me and so much more.

What does it mean to you?

It is to my understanding that Carlsberg may no longer be sponsoring our shirts at the end of this coming season after 17 years. I just can not picture us wearing a new kit with a different sponsor on the front. We have been one of the very few clubs in the Premiership to retain our shirt sponsor for so long. But I guess in this day and age when it is all about money, we need someone willing to pay more to have their name splashed out across our famous red shirt.

Reports suggest that Standard Chartered are set to take over from Carlsberg in 2010 as Carlsberg can not meet the amount we are demanding from them. It is said that Standard Chartered are willing to pay £15million a year for the sponsorship which is double what Carlsberg were paying. Yet again, I think the new management of the club has to be commended for this as it will give us more cash and hopefully that cash can go into strengthening the squad.

Looking back at our sponsors in the past, we had Hitachi then Crown Paints, then Candy which I will never forget as my first ever Liverpool shirt was the red Candy home strip. After Candy is was then Carlsberg. We have not won the league wearing Carlsberg and if this is their last season to sponsor us then surely we should win the title for Carlsberg!