I don’t know who of you was watching sky sports last evening. I waited and waited and waited but no striker arrived. We got a left back who should be able to cut it in the prem. But still we don’t have a backup striker. Babel went all the way to London by helicopter but no deal. West ham stuck to their guns and asked for the cash. Plus in any case they probably would have had to pay Babel more than they are paying Cole.

Gomes wanted big baller money. 125000 pounds per week is no joke! For a bench ouen!!!!!

I guess Torres came back to bite us. There is no player in worth buying who would be happy just being a bench ouen. I have more respect for a player who leaves a big club in search for more game time than one who moves to a big club for the money.

Just an aside. I read that Plessis has been sold to Panathainikos and another youngster has also gone that way. El Zhar has been sent to POAK on loan with an option to buy. Vincent Weijl has been been sold as well.
Looks like RH is culling the foreign youngsters in the reserves. I think this is the culmination of the new Prem laws. I hope though that it doesn’t symbolise a reversal of the youth policy we had just started. RH doesn’t have a track record of blooding youth players or of building clubs up. He is much more a coach than a manager. He looks at the 1st team as his job. The rest of the matters are for the club admin. This is a big shift from Rafa who was involved in almost every aspect of the club.

At this stage I don’t know whether this is a good or bad thing. I look at Fergie and he is involved in a lot of what happens at Man U. Then I look at Wenger and he likes to be involved in the playing aspects (the 1st team and the youth teams and transfers). In the rest of Europe you are only a coach and there is a director of football who looks after most of the rest, i.e. transfers, facilities, academies, sponsorships etc.

What are your thoughts on which is the best model for us?

p.s. an interesting thought just crossed my mind as I finished this. Imagine King Kenny as director of football at Liverpool…Like Johan Cruyff was at Barca!

When it rains it pours at Anfield? With the whole drama surrounding Mascherano wanting to leave Liverpool, now it is suggested that Dirk Kuyt also wants to leave and head to Inter Milan to rejoin Rafa!

Yet again, we do not know what to believe at this stage but what if Dirk really wants to leave? I say he should go if he wants to as long as we get decent money for him. The last thing we want is a player wishing to play for another team. But according to Hodgson, there is no suggestion that Dirk wants to leave and Roy clearly will not let Dirk leave!

“Dirk Kuyt has not told me that he wants to go,” said Hodgson. “I can only repeat that we have not received an offer from any club for Dirk Kuyt. We don’t welcome an offer. It is very unlikely we could receive any offer from any club now that we would entertain.

“This is obviously something going on behind the scenes, possibly to the manager of Inter. We haven’t received an offer and at this very late stage in the transfer window, it would be remarkably unusual for us to accept an offer for a player that we don’t want to leave for money we don’t need.

“I need the player, I don’t need the money. So I would suggest that, with due respect, if his agent has got serious plans to move him from the club, he should have been working during the last four to five weeks, not in the last three or four days.

“We have not received an offer. When he left the club (Rafa) Benitez signed an agreement that said he would not poach players and, if I am right, that still applies. This is the time of year when agents talk to the mass media.”

What are your thoughts about the potential departure of Dirk Kuyt?

Reports in the press this morning suggest that Ryan Babel could be on his way out of Liverpool and heading to Germany to join Wolfsburg for £9 million.

I would be the first to say that i would be happy if these deal does come through. Babel has just never lived up to his expectations ever since he joined Liverpool. He has flattered to deceive at times and if we can get rid of him now whilst he still has a bit of value then we should.

We have plenty of options now on the left where he was playing his trade as we now have Jovanovic, Cole can play down the left, so too Maxi and my own personal favourite Pacheco. There were times under Rafa that Rafa suggested that Babel could be a good out and out number 9 striker and he was given chances to play in that position be he never did cut it.

Liverpool signed Babel for a reported £11.5 million when he came in from Ajax so if we do get £9 million for him it will be a loss in the books but one I would be willing to live with as the £9 million from Babel could be used to get in more decent players.

What are your thoughts on the potential departure of Babel?

According to the scum at The Sun…don’t worry I didn’t buy the paper….Liverpool will have to cough up £20m for Carlton Cole. Do West Ham think we are Man City…a club who will pay well over the odds for an average player as was the case with Ya Ya Toure. If Cole is worth 20mill what is Torres, Rooney and Drogba worth????. Rumours also state that Hodgson is considering making a £14m offer for two Aston Villa players, with England defender Stephen Warnock, 28, and Bulgaria midfielder Stiliyan Petrov, 31, his targets. Now I would take Warnock back in a shot as he should never have been released in the first place but as for Papa Petrov no thanks….

The transfer window officially opened today and as expected, there is a lot of transfer talk already through out the whole league. As always, there will be stories just being made up to unsettle teams and players, whilst some stories will just be made up to sell the papers.

It is no secret that we need some additions to our squad this January but we also know that Rafa does not have a lot of money, if any, to spend on new players so he has to sell first before he can buy.

But this morning, reports or appearing from quite a lot of sources that Liverpool are on the verge, or have already completed a deal which will bring the Argentine Maxi Rodriguez from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool on loan until the end of the season.

We have been linked with Rodriguez in the past, notably during the 2008 summer window. Now when I first heard about this deal I was a bit surprised and thought that it was just another rumour but this deal does make some sense:
We would not have to pay a transfer fee for Rodriguez which bodes well for us as we do not have the cash to buy him outright. Secondly, Rodriguez is out of favour in Madrid and needs some regular first team football so that he can push for a place in the Argentina world cup squad. Thirdly, Rafa is an admirer of Maxi and the player is close friends with Torres and Mascherano so I can not see the player not wanting to come to Liverpool. Fourthly, we need a player of Maxi’s quality out wide. He would be perfect coming in on the right flank in place of Dirk. Once we have the lead and need to protect it, then maybe we could take Maxi off and replace him with the hard working Dirk to close out the game.

What do you think of the potential arrival of Maxi Rodriguez to Liverpool?

Liverpool have decided to splash 1.5 million pounds on Greek center back, Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Now I do not know much about this guy besides the fact that he played for Rangers and he is a Greek international. Kyrgiakos is 30 which means he has experience and that is just what we need as we currently have a centre back crisis. I see Kyrgiakos just coming in to fill the role Sami did i.e. play when need be and give some pointers to the young up and coming centre backs.

I am sure Kyrgiakos understands why he is being signed. He should not expect to the first name on Rafa’s team sheet but who knows, if the guy proves to be a hit them he will start. Kyrgiakos is arriving from AEK Athens and there was a lot of speculation about this deal earlier in the week but now the Official Liverpool Website has confirmed that we have agreed a deal to bring the Greek man to Anfield. I stand to be corrected but I think this is the first Greek player to play for Liverpool?

Kyrgiakos may not be the Shawcross or Turner we were after but I hope he is good enough to provide the cover when need be. If anyone knows anything more about Kyrgiakos please let us know or simply just let us know what you think about this signing.

You got to love Rafa! Only yesterday he confirmed that Alonso was leaving for Real Madrid and he has straight away lined up Roma’s Aquilani to replace Alonso. I am sure the Aquilani deal was in place some time ago and it is only being made public now. Rafa must have known that Alonso is going and he was only going to let Alonso leave once the Aquilani deal was tied up. Now that is how you work the transfer market. No wonder Rafa wanted full control of the transfers, he seems to know what is going on. I am so glad Rick Parry has left as we still would be trying to tie up the Aquilani deal at this stage.

The official Liverpool website tells us that we have agreed a fee with Roma for Aquilani and all that is left is for a medical to take place some time this week. I am sure it is going to be an intense medical as Aquilani has only just recovered from ankle surgery so we have to make sure he is fit to play. There is no indication on how much we are going to pay for him with some thinking its anything between £17 and £20 million. Either way we should still have change left over from the Alonso £30 million.

We should not expect Aquilani to come in a be the pass master that Alonso was. I do not think there are many players in the game today who can pass the ball as well as Alonso but Aquilani will offer us something a bit different in the middle of the field. What I like about Aquilani is that he has an eye for goal and hopefully he will chip in with a few more goals than Alonso did.

I recall when we signed Dossena last summer and I said that he could become a great player for us as Italy is well known for producing find left backs, but then I ate humble pie as he did not live up to my expectations. So I am not going to gamble and say that Italy have produced great midfielders therefore Aquilani is going to be a star for us. But deep down I really hope he does well.

The longest running transfer saga of the summer is finally over. Liverpool have agreed a fee, thought to be in the region of £30million with Real Madrid for Xabi Alonso. I am saddened today as we have lost a great player but bigger players have left Liverpool in the past so we should be okay. The moment Alonso decided he wanted to join Real Madrid, I knew that it was only a matter of time before he left.

What I am really impressed with with regards to this transfer is that Rafa seems to have stuck by his guns and did not back down or get bullied by Real Madrid. It seems Rafa was stuck on not letting Alonso go for less than his asking price of £30million. I can only imagine if Rick Parry was still at Liverpool and was tasked with handling this transfer, it would have been resolved a very long time ago but we probably would have only gotten £15million!

Now all that is left is for Alonso to have a medical in Madrid on Wednesday as he has not flown out with the rest of the team tonight to Norway. I am pretty sure the medical will go smoothly. We now have to wait and see who Rafa is going to buy to replace Alonso. With a possible £30million kitty, Rafa could get Roma’s Alberto Aquilani for £20million and still have £10million left over to strengthen in other areas. The next couple of days are going to be crucial as we need to sign someone rather soon as the season is about to kickoff.

I never wanted Xabi to leave but the moment he declared he he wants to join Real Madrid you could sense his heart was no longer with us and in cases like that, it is always best for the player to leave. We want players who want to where the Red shirt and not have their minds on other teams. But thank you for the good times Xabi. My letter to you will follow shortly.

I was going through the news this morning and I came across an article which suggested that Rafa may be ready to bid for David Villa using the money we plan to get from the sale of Alonso to Real Madrid. Now when I first heard this I laughed it off but then I sat down and really thought about it. If this is true, this could just be what we need to complete our Championship winning team.

Signing David Villa would be one of the biggest signings in the clubs history and I am sure he will cost much more than we paid for Torres thus making him the most expensive player in the clubs history. There is no doubting the quality of Villa and if he were to form a partnership with Torres upfront, we will no doubt have the best strike partnership in the world at our disposal.

My first worry would be, what would happen to Stevie G? Stevie and Torres formed a great partnership but it would have to mean that Stevie would drop back into central midfield to fill the hole left by Alonso thus allowing Torres and Villa to play upfront together. I am sure Stevie would not mind dropping back into midfield if its for the betterment of the team.

The prospect of signing Villa is mouth watering but I still believe this is one big rumour which is being spun around to sell papers and drive traffic to websites. I seem to recall Rafa being asked in the past if he has plans to sign David Villa and he said ‘No’. But I am sure if the opportunity arises, Rafa would snap Villa up in a second. I do not think it would be too hard to convince Villa to join Liverpool as Torres would convince him and to top it off, his favourite number 7 jersey would be waiting for him at Anfield.

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!