http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7094313.ece

The highlights:

Barclays refinances and consolidates our debt by replacing our current lenders.

Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, is appointed Chairman. Essentially he will add a third voice to resolve the 1-1 deadlock between our owners. He was appointed at the behest of the bank to keep us moving forward until a buy can be found.

Barclays Capital has been brought on to find that buyer.

Transfer funds will be made available to maintain the playing staff until a sale is made.

Sources at the bank value Liverpool at approximately 500 million pounds, but it seems they have been impressed with the work of Purslow increasing our turnover. Apparently they believe our value could rocket up as we continue improving the commercial side of the club.

The summary:

All in all, this seems a good deal to me. Basically we’ve put all our debt in one basket with a more reasonable interest situation that severely reducing the risk of us “pulling a Leeds”. It promotes the inevitability of our owners getting out, which is something we’d all like to see. It also gives Rafa some much needed financial support. It seems Barclays is confident that we can boost our financial profile to that of a Manchester United. No, not a debt ridden monster, rather a cash-generating one. Regardless of Manure’s current situation, no one can deny that they are incredibly wealthy for a football club.

Today perhaps we finally start heading in the right direction again.

YNWA

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.

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Our now difficult quest for the league title continues tomorrow with a trip to The Boro with a win the only acceptable result. We all know that we must win tomorrow and beat Sunderland at home before we make the trip to Old Trafford in search of a win that could blow the title wide open again. I don’t like to say it but ManU are cruising at the minute and we can only hope they hit a rough patch on the run and drop a few more points.

Tomorrows game is more difficult with the news that Torres will be missing so a lot rests on the shoulders of Kuyt, Riera, Benayoun and probably Babel to get the goals. Hopefully the return to league action of Gerrard and Alonso will prove to much for our hosts. Boro have struggled in the EPL this season but come into the game after a good win against West Ham in the FA Cup mid-week. Liverpool visit on the back of a 15 match unbeaten record which can only be matched by ManU.

You may not realise but Liverpool are looking for three Premier League points on Teesside for the first time since a 1-2 victory on 16 March 2002, when Emile Heskey and John Arne Riise scored for the Reds, and Gareth Southgate replied for ‘Boro. I hope it not a bad omen but The Reds have drawn their last three game at The Riverside. Hitting the back of the net has always been the issue on our visits to this ground. We have scored only one league goal in our last six league visits to Teesside, that being Fernando Torres’ equaliser in last season’s corresponding fixture and we have failed to score in seven of our last nine visits. We all remember the home fixture this season when it took a 90min strike from Gerrard to virtually steal the three points.

One factor which could affect the performance is the continuing boardroom headlines which seem to pop up every 10mins at Anfield. As well as the ongoing contract wrangles involving our manger we now, as I have previously posted, have to contend with the new that Rick Parry is to stand down at the end of the season although this may serve to end the contract problems faced by Rafa as it seems their relationship lately has been far from good.

Player Quote Of the Week

I’ve never wanted to leave. I’m here for the rest of my life, and hopefully after that as well.

A fine loyalty speech from Alan Shearer. Lets just hope that the St James Park grounds people can get the pitch repaired after Alan is put in the hole at half-time….even at the at stage he might show more life than some of the current crop of Toon players.

Saturday evening and Liverpool make the trip to the south coast to face Portsmouth in search of a victory that will take them back to the top of the EPL as ManU play at West Ham on Sunday. This victory as you know by now will have to  be completed without the services of our inspirational captain. Many believe that this will now bring Liverpool’s title challenge to a grinding halt. All The Kop faithfull can hope for is the team remembering that we beat some great teams including ManU at the start of the season without him and in fact without Torres as well. it will not be easy but they must have faith in their own and eachothers abilities.

A much needed victory is also required to cancel out the memory of Wednesdays defeat in the FA Cup by Everton but a return to the top of the EPL with a win down south will go along way in washing away the hurt many are feeling. Portsmouth were in 7th place when Redknapp left for Spurs. Since then they have managed to win only 2 of 15 EPL games under Tony ‘the donkey’ Adams.

This current run of form has Adam’s facing the chop with apparantly only three games to prove he is up to the job. This may mean that Liverpool face a tougher game as the Pompey players rally around their under threat gaffer. It does not look good as they have not kept a clean sheet in 10 league outings, and managed just one in 15, courtesy of a goalless draw away to West Ham on 15 November. Their only points in eight outings have come from 1-1 draws, away to West Brom on 7 December and to Tottenham on 18 January and have lost their last three homes games against Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa

Liverpool have not a bad record at Fratton Park as Portsmouth have only managed two Premier League victories in 11 attempts over us; 1-0 in their first meeting on 18 October 2003, and 2-1 on 28 April 2007. Once again the “tale of the tape” points to a comfortable win for The Reds but once again it’s a matter of putting in the right performance and being clinical in front of the goal when the chance’s arrive. There has been no comments regarding Torres since Wednesday night when many people seemed to think that he was not 100% fit and carrying an injury therefore i think we can expect him to start up front on his own. Who plays behind him is up to Rafa but the obvious selection would be Yossi who has looked good the last few games.

Tomorrows game will see, if selected three ex-Liverpool players on the opposition in the form of David James (277 apps for LFC), Peter Crouch (134 apps with 42 goals) and Djimi Traore (141 apps with 1 goal). There is also that fact that Jermaine Pennant is on loan to Pompey from Liverpool but is ineligible to play. David James is also playing his 650th league start (Watford, Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham, Manchester City and Portsmouth). For Liverpool, if selected, Mascherano will be making his 50th EPL start and I am glad to say Leiva Lucas has a one match suspension.

This season at Anfield we had to wait for a 76th minute penalty from Gerrard for the win and last years corresponding fixture at Fratton Park was a terrible 0-0 draw. We cannot afford a repeat of that scoreline if we intend to keep the pressure on ManU and maintain our push for our first EPL and 19th league title.

Commentators Corner - A tribute to David Coleman.

1. He’s 31 this year, last year he was 30…

2. The Italians are hoping for an Italian victory..

3. Peru score their third and it’s 3-1 to Scotland..

4. If that had gone in it would have been a goal..

and last but not least

5. Forest have now lost six matches without winning..

How did this man manage to keep his job for so long…

I know this has nothing to do with Liverpool but it has been making the footballing headlines the whole week and if Kaka does move to Manchester City for £100m then in a way it is going to affect Liverpool. In the sense that, the whole transfer market of football players could potential ‘blow up’ with teams starting to demand crazy fees to sell their players. And it is reported that Kaka could earn in the region of £250 000 a week if he joins Manchester City. What would this mean for other players? Surely they would also start demanding crazy salaries.

I am not too concerned about the success Kaka may bring to Manchester City. I do not see Manchester City breaking into the top 4 within the next two seasons as Kaka is demanding. I can see where Kaka is coming from with his demands that Manchester City have to be playing in the Champions League in the next two seasons or else he will leave. Kaka deserves to be playing in the Champions League but going to City, he will not achieve this. No matter how many world class players City bring in, I feel Mark Hughes is not the right man to mold them into a world class team. Kaka is also demanding that Robhino not be sold, so I take it that Robhino is playing a critical part in Kaka potentially coming to City. Kaka is also demanding that the current owners of City remain in place during his time there. These demands are another thing worrying me; now we are going to see players think they are bigger than the team.
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Liverpool are top of the Premier League! I just had to say that to give me some joy as last nights result was rather disappointing but on the bright side we are now top of the league. It may only be by one point but we are top. Yet again I was left largely frustrated after the game as we failed to score for an entire 90 minutes and this is all happening at Anfield. I think we actually play much better when we are away from home as teams tend to just come to Anfield and defend with all they have. This was the case last night.
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Another match, another win, three more points.  That simple, isn’t it?

Well maybe not quite…

Again we found ourselves in a hole from an absolutely shocking piece of work from Daniel Agger at the back.  Here I just sang his praises not so long ago, and he’s gifting the opposition goals before attempting to blame Pepe for the miscue.  Now it’s a given that it is perhaps boneheaded play of the season so far, but I think this all stems back to the original issue with Agger this season, which is the fact that he was rather unjustly frozen out of the starting XI.  He is trying to do too much, when he needs to be confident in the fact that we are all aware of his class.

Fast-forward a bit and Dirk Kuyt, goal-scorer, came to a surprising rescue with another dribbler that somehow managed to find its way into the back of the net.  His knack for producing these moments though has gotten to be beyond coincidence for me, and until further notice I am going to lay of Mr. Kuyt.  MOTM for me.  At this point with the score levelled at 1-1 I thought we were surely on our way to three points as we were fairly bossing the match, keeping possession and looking good on the offensive side of things.  Sadly it’s our back line that was having the difficulties for a change.  Hopefully this is something we can clear up right quick, as the last thing we need are woes coming from behind.

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Ok in just a second we’re going to let our title expectations run wild.  Are you all ready?  1…2…3…

Ahhhh, that feels good.  But before I revel a bit too much and perhaps celebrate with a puff and a pint, let’s get down to what happened in today’s cracker of a match.

Overpriced Brazilian talent?  check  New owners drowning in the cash we’re hemorrhaging at the gas pumps?  check again  3 points and a ticket to the top 4?  Not so fast….

The opening minutes of the match found us more than on the front foot.  I would go so far as to say we had both feet pedaling out the bottom of the car like Fred Flinstone in the opening credits of the cartoon going by the same name.  We really couldn’t have pushed them any harder, and it all culminated in an utterly wasted sitter of a chance that fell, regrettably, to Dirk Kuyt.  Regardless of all his hard work, grit, and determination I still find myself cursing loudly our lack of anyone with anything even resembling a first touch out on that right hand flank.

Following this opening surge, we allowed Man City to push further up the pitch and establish what would be their finest moments on the day.  They had several shots on goal and were looking quite lively when a fairly harmless ball to the byline led to an opener.  Rolled back across the front of goal Arbeloa should have done better in clearing the ball from a prostrate Robinho but it fell to Ireland who put past Reina with ease and the Reds found themselves one down.

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Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I was unable to see the match today.

What I gather is that we dominated and yet failed to make our chances count, as is the story for us so many times over the past few seasons.  To be quite honest, it’s not acceptable with the level of talent we now have in our squad and on the pitch.

Gerrard’s freekick asided, we should be winning these matches 3-0 at least.

Comments?

Captain ‘Fantastic’, Steven Gerrard has also won an accolade off the field. The England midfielder, 26, received an honorary fellowship to mark his contribution to sport from the Liverpool John Moores University during a ceremony at the city’s Anglican cathedral. Very few can question Gerrard’s contribution to sport, especially in Liverpool. Being a local born player, it was only fitting for him to be recongnised in this capacity.

Liverpool have had many great players in the past and Gerrard ranks right up there with the best of them. Gerrard has not only shown how great a player he is but how great a leader he is. Being captain of such a famous football team is not easy but Stevie seems to be handling it well.

I wish to see him at Liverpool for many more years and seeing him lift more trophies. I think all he and we really want is to see him lift the Premiership trophy and add that winners medal next to his honorary fellowship award.