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?

Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has signed a two-year contract extension with the Premier League club. The Slovakia international still had two years remaining on his deal but has now committed his future to Liverpool until 2014. Skrtel, 25, arrived at Anfield from Russian side Zenit St Petersburg in January 2008 for £6m.

He told the club’s website: “A club like Liverpool deserves to win trophies and I will help them do that.” Skrtel has played 82 games during his time with the Merseyside outfit and was a first-team regular as Liverpool finished seventh in the Premier League last season.

Skrtel added: “The spirit is very good and we showed that against Arsenal with a great performance. We can build on that and carry it on. “We have quality in the dressing room and I know we will do better this year. “Everyone plays football to win trophies. Playing for Liverpool is a big motivation for everyone and we will do everything we can to win the Premier League. We have the highest targets - to win everything.” A broken metatarsal ruled Skrtel out for the final three months of last season but he returned from injury to play in every game for Slovakia at the World Cup before their exit at the hands of the Netherlands in the last 16.

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.

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 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.

Besides, “Who will be the next Liverpool mananger?” the questions regarding the future of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard have been making the rounds over the last couple of weeks. many of us are caught in two minds, whether to allow Steven Gerrard to leave Liverpool this summer or should we hang onto him for the sake of the future of the club.

I will look at this in two part: Firstly let’s see what will happen if we decide to sell Gerrard. We will be loosing one of the greatest players to ever wear the red shirt. We will be loosing our captain fantastic. Yes, Gerrard had a terrible season by his high standards last season. There are too many variables to consider when we look at why Gerrard had such a poor campaign last term. One can blame it on the behind the scenes problems at Anfield regarding the owners, the alleged fall out between Gerrard and Rafa, the injuries to key players, the list goes on and on.

Has Steven Gerrard lost the heart and desire to wear the red jersey and play for Liverpool? I do not think so. Gerrard is a Red through and through and that will never change for as long as he is alive. I think he is just frustrated that his beloved club is not living up to his ambitions. He like all of us wants nothing better for Liverpool and he wants to win the Premier League with them. But age is not on his side. He is 30 now and probably has about five more seasons of good footy left in him. And for a player of his class, he deserves to have a league winners medal in his cabinet before he retires. He would love nothing more than to have one that he won with Liverpool but the horizon is not looking too good for us right now and honestly, it will not be easy for us to win the league within the next five seasons unless we get some serious cash injection.

If we do decide to sell Gerrard, I hope he goes to Spain and joins Real Madrid or Barcelona. I just want him far away from the Premiership so he does not come back to haunt us. I can not see Gerrard joining another Premier League team at this stage. Madrid looks like the most likely destination for him although reports suggest that Liverpool want £30m for Gerrard whilst Real are only offering £20m.

Now if we were to keep Gerrard what would this mean? Well, we would still have our captain and hopefully he will have a better season than the last. I think a lot of it will depend on who the next manager is and what kind of relationship he has with Gerrard. Thus I still feel we need Kenny Dalglish to be the next manager as I can see Gerrard giving 110% for King Kenny.

We really need another 20+ goals next season from Gerrard if he does stay. Coupled with Gerrard staying, it would be great if Torres also decides to stay. If these two stay and can be fit enough to play 90% of the games, we will definitely make it back into the Top 4 next season.

 Loading ...

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.

 Loading ...

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

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