Rafa rules out move for Villa but opens door for Keane

Today Rafa came out and told us a bit more about what is on his mind and he gives us some idea on where things stand. Firstly, Rafa had admitted that David Villa was on his wish list but today Rafa said, “I said the other day that he is one of the names we had on our list, but I can say at this moment that it is not an option for us. We know Villa is a very good player, we know the price and we know the players we have, so when you consider everything we decided he was one of the names, but at this moment, not our target.”

That should calm down a bit of the speculation about Villa coming to Liverpool. When Rafa said, “We know the price” this goes to show that Villa is not within our budget so we can not get him. When Rafa then said, “and we know the players we have”, I think he thought about how Villa would fit into the team and he reached the conclusion that he may have to change a lot in order to accommodate Villa and maybe he was not ready to change our tactics to suite Villa’s arrival. So I think let us put the dream of seeing Villa at Anfield to bed.

But then Rafa went on to say, “Keane is one of the other names and okay we are still working with other names. We were in contact and we will see now.” This is the first clear sign we have had that Rafa is seriously after Robbie Keane. I am sure with the cash from the Crouch sale, Rafa will have some cash to spend on Keane. So now we face the prospect of Keane – Torres upfront, not a bad combination at all.