Barcleys Asia Trophy

Comical Alex reckons that "Tevez is our player". Then he decided to cricise Liverpool for going on as if Heinze is our player. The mind boggles. The leagal eagles have been called in in the Heinze affair. I was bored with this a long ime ago but I reckon it's going to run and run.

Since my last post we've played two matches in the Barcleys Asia Trophy. First of all, we beat South China 3-1 with goals from Riise, Alonso and Agger. That put us through to the final where we lost to Portsmouth on penalties. What a disaster, or not as the case may be.

The big news of the week was the unveiling of the plans for the new stadium. It looks incredible. The official webiste has a new section for the stadium. Opening for business in 2010 with a capacity of 78000 if all goes according to plan.

Next up is a friendly against Shanghai Shenhua on Friday evening followed by Feyenoord on Sunday evening. I expect that as we get nearer the premier league kick off we might see something approaching a first team in advance of the Villa match.

Bremen and Auxerre

Since my last post, we've gone to the Switzerland and won two friendlies. As a wise man once said, in Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. He mustn't have heard about Milka chocolate.

First up was a 3-2 victory over Werder Bremen. Veronin had an impressive match and scored two goals. He looks like a strong runner who has good vision and will link the play well. Even though he is likely to be fourth choice, he's already a fans favourite and will probably develop into an impact sub. Riise added the other goal from a rocket of a free. Torres got a few minutes at the end of the match.

Auxerre were beaten 2-0 on Fri afternoon. Gerrard scored his first of the season and Dagger got the second when a free was floated into the far post. I only saw highlights of this match but it doesn't sound like it was anything to write home about.


Steve Finnan signed a new deal this week. Great news for him and for us as it means that well have our "Mr. Dependable" for the rest of his career.

There's a good Torres post on this blog. Well worth a read.

The BBC have an article on the Heinze situation. I hope that it gets sorted one way or another shortly. There's little point in dragging it to the courts if it's not going to be resolved before the transfer window closes.

If you're feeling nostalgic and of a certain age then you might enjoy a look at this Dalglish and Rush compilation. It was featured in the guardian during the week. Some amazing goals there from arguably the greatest partnership in English football.

Here's more of the same. Peter 'The Great' Beardsley was my favourite player when I was a young fella. I had Peter Beardsly shin guards. Unfortunately, they didn't make me play like him and I was still crap.

Some of the online rumour mongers reckon that we have our eye on Samir Nasri at Marseille. There is some specualtion that we have secured an option on him for next summer as part of the Cisse deal. I don't have a clue whether there's anything in this or not but it's worth bearing in mind for a years time.

South China FC are our lunchtime opponents tomorrow. I can't tell you anything about them. Our far eastern tour has begun in earnest. I always wonder about the value to the team of these tours but I suppose it's about raising the profile, expanding into new markets and blah blah blah. As you can see, I didn't apply for the job of commercial director.

Crewe cut

Appologies for the terrible pun. I'm tired after a few too many beers last night and I need a coffee to wake me up for tonight.



So we put Crewe away 3-0 with goals from Lee Peltier, Peter Crouch and Ray Puterill. Like as Wrexham last week, Rafa played a different team in each half. Andre "The raven/crow" Veronin was probably the best performer of the first half players. In the second half Xabi Alonso showed that his radar is in perfect working order as his passes were delivered with pinpoint accuracy. It's good to see the youngsters geting a run out alongside the senior players and making a contribution.

Guillem Ballague has a great interview with El Nino in the times. The more I read about this kid, the more I like him.

Here's a bit of advice. Don't ever call Jamie Carragher a bottler. Adrian Durham on Talksport radio found this out the hard way. It's a terrible station full of bulshitters so I'm not going to waste anymore time talking about them.

Hansen and Collins have signed professional contracts with Liverpool. Hansen is a goalie while Collins is 17, Irish and a striker which sounds promising. Call him up now Stan.

LFC TV was launched this week. The good news is that it'll be free if you already get Setanta sports. I don't, but I'm hoping that the content will be available on the official website through the e-season ticket.

Benayoun and Babel have now come aboard the good ship LFC. I think that Benayoun will replace Garcia in the squad but Babel is one to ge excited about. The Babel fee is an initial £8m which could rise to £11m depending on appearences and trophies. I would imagine that he'll play on the left wing or as the left striker if we play a 4-3-3. Van Basten says that he can become the new Henry if he continues to improve. Let's hope he's right.

David Amoo, a 17 year old striker has signed from Millwall. Apparently he is exceptionaly fast and used to run the 100m for London schools.

Gabriel Mitio, a one time target, has gone to Barca so we can take him off the list. Hicks said that we will sign one more player. The consensus appears to be that it'll be Heinze but the only way I can see that happening is if he buys himself out of his contract.

Werder Bremen are the next team to be crushed under the might of the unstoppable red machine in a match on Tuesday night. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of a structure to the team this time, with less than 22 players getting a run out.

I'm going for a power nap.

So long, farewell

Cisse and Bellamy have left the building for a combined fee of over £16m according to Chris Bascombe in the Liverpool echo. Not bad business as far as I'm concerned. When you add in the money from Gonzalez, Garcia, Pongolle, Rafa has some change left over after the Torres deal.



Where will he spend it? Well he said that that a winger was the next priority and he wants two players in total. News of Ryan Babel came to light online on Sat and has hit the main media today. Sky have confirmed that we've lodged a bid with Ajax. I must admit that I've only seen highlights of this lad bar the u-21 final last month which I watched in full. Ryan really impressed me that night with his pace, strength and intelligence. He scored one but could have had a hat trick and well deserved his man of the match award. I think that he could do a good job for us on the left wing where we're lacking options since the departures of Zenden, Gonzalez and Garcia. Arsenal have been after him for a long time so I wouldn't expect them to give up on him without a fight.

The pre season kicked off for Liverpool on Saturday with a 3-2 win over Wrexham. It was mainly two teams of youngsters over each half, with a few exceptions like Momo, Finnan and Pennant. Jermaine had a superb first half and set up three goals for Bes Idrizaj. Pennant looks like he's going to continue the good form that he showed after Christmas last year. I hope to see him float a few crosses onto Fernando's head over the next few months. Idrizaj is a player who's been at the club for a few years but hasn't had much first team exposure. He took his goals well on Sat and looks a game sort. He's only 19 and has time on his side but I would imagine that he'll go on loan again this season, maybe back to Luton where he spent 3 months last year. Adam Hammill also got a run out and looks a lively winger. He's been talked up for the past few years and did well on loan in Scotland last year. But he's still young and learning and I expect that he, like Idrizaj, will go on loan rather than spend the year in the reserves.

Crewe are up next on Saturday and we may see some of the senior stars getting a run out, including the soon to be ex-England player, Jamie Carragher. Good lad Carra.

Auf wiedersehen, adieu.

"El Nino" stays in the picture

It's official. There's a new kid in town and his name is Fernando. Rafa has sent out the call and "Towers" has answered. I haven't posted a blog entry in a while as I was awaiting some concrete news. It's arrived with a bang, not disimilar to the sound of castanets being snapped.

I'm very excited about our new number 9. Fergie has been chasing him for years so I'd imagine he's pissed off that he spunked £53m of his summer budget already. Jose and Chelsea held talks with his agent last summer. Both Ballague and Hunter have reported the fee as being £20m rather than the £26.5m being quoted in the press. The Echo also quotes the fee at £20m and says he took a pay cut which is a good sign.

Luis Garcia is heading in the other direction for a fee of around £4.5m. I'm sorry to see little Luis go but he wanted to return home and he's only got a year left on his contract. He's off to Spain to drink Sangria, as the song says. Here's my favourite of his many goals which came against Juve. Watch out for the mad music on that clip.

Cisse appears to have gone to Marseille on a permanent deal. This isn't much of a surprise but we still haven't got any confirmation of the price. I'm sure it won't be what we would have hoped had he not broken his leg twice.

Momo has signed a new deal at Anfield. I thought that there was a chance that he'd leave given the signing of Lucas from Gremio. Does this mean that Stevie is going to be playing mainly on the right this year?

The youth recruitment drive shows no sign of letting up and time soon. The latest Spanish (could be Basque) starlet on his way to L4 is Mikel San Jose. He's 18, a centre back and has signed from Atletico Bilbao.

Dani Pacheco is also on his way out of Iberia. Barcelona have lost quite a few young players to the premiership over the years. Now we've poached one for ourselves. Pacheco is a 16 year old striker who is nicknamed the killer. He is half Czech and half Catalan, a Czechalan if you will.

Bulgarian midfielder Mihail Alexandrov will be winging his way here from CSKA Sofia in the near future. I can't say that I know too much about him but he's 18 and another "one for the future".

There is considerable talk that Gabriel Heinze is going to leave Utd for Liverpool. I thought he was a superb player until his injury but hasn't been the same since. He would be more reliable than Riise at left back but I don't think he'd offer us the same going forward. Either way, I can't see Slur Alex letting this happen unless Heinze buys himself out of his contract.

Mañana.