The King, the little Prince and the swordsman

Pre season training is nearly over. Any rustiness or sloppiness was swept clean, like this sloppy fecker. It started with a training camp in Switzerland and two friendlies. St Gallen drew 0-0 with Liverpool and then we were defeated 1-0 by Rapid Vienna. Then the asian leg of the tour started with a 1-1 draw against Thailand. Then things started to click into gear against Singapore with a 5-0 win. Kuyt and Nemeth were particularly strong performers. Then came an embaressing 3-0 loss to Espanol and a 2-0 win over Lyn Oslo featuring a goal from Babel. The final pre season game was a 2-1 loss against Atletico Madrid today, a big game for El Nino who hit the post and contrived not to score against his old team. Lucas was the scorer for us.

The second XI also played a few friendlies including a visit to Dunmanway in west Cork. I drove through the village last weekend and they were painting it red in anticipation of the red invasion. One of the worlds biggest teams playing one of the smallest. The match itself featured a free kick from young Danny Pacheco. This Monday will see the reserve squad play against Bohemians in Dalymount Park, Reds in Dublin. Not a 15 min walk from my own house here in the city centre.

The biggest news of the summer is that £30m+add ons Xabi Alonso will be replaced by £16m Alberto Aqulani who passed his medical on Friday. This is huge news. I really like Xabi, and he was probably my favourite red. A gentleman and a midfielder of such poise and technique that he lit up any game he played. He always made it look like he had much more time than everyone else. But now he's gone. He'll be missed but he gave us five great years and he wanted to move back to spain with his family, which is fair enough. He got a sword when he left Atletico, maybe he'll get a pan of scouse when he leaves merseyside? Good luck Xabi, unless you're playing against us.

While the Xabi saga rumbled on Bob Arbeloa was on his way to the bernabeu after a much quicker deal was agreed a fee of £3.5m + clauses for his transfer. I'm sad to see him go but he's only a year left onhis contract and clearly wants to return to Real Madrid. It means there will be opportunities for Degen and young Martin Kelly at right back. So out with the old and in with the new. Bertie Aqulani is setting up shop in L4 and let's hope he brings his girlfriend with him. There is no doubting the talent that this lad possesses. But what is doubtful, is his injury record. He has struggled a bit in recent times and is out at the moment with an ankle problem. But Roma fans seem to think that this is more to do with their training methods and medical staff. I'm hoping that we can get him fit and firing. His playing stats can be a little misleading because Spaletti often preferred Pizzaro to Bertie in recent years.5 Hungarian kids are coming over on trial and could end up joining their compatriots Gulasci Nemeth, Simon etc. Another young recruit is Danish midfield teen Kohlert who'll go into the reserves.

Hicks and Gillett have secured their refinancing deal which will require them to pay off some of their initial loan. While this sounds good on paper, I'm sure that they'll find a way to bill the club for the expense. They're a pair of leeches, sucking the life out of our club.

There is a certain purity and blind optimism to the first game of the season, you can legitimately expect all of the old problems to have sorted themselves out over the summer. It's a clean slate for all and the new recruits will make the difference. This time we'll go the extra yards. This year is our year. Number 19 is coming home.Celebrity red Samuel L Jackson is well up for the season. I'm sure he backs us to go far, maybe even the whole way to ending our 19 year league drought. The guardian season preview thinks we'll do it. I've been fairly cautious over the past few years and never said we'd do it. I correctly predicted second last season but this time I'm going to stick my neck out and say we'll reach the promised land of the league trophy. You can argue that we're weaker with the loss of Xabi and Arbeloa but the addition of Johnson and Aquilani doesn't leave us far off and might make us more attacking and capable of breaking down a packed defence, in time. There will be a bedding in period, for Alberto especially who hasn't had pre season with the team. If we can keep him fit alongside Torres and Gerrard, then we can do it. I know that's a big if but our inability to field our best XI cost us last year. I think we were the best team but Utd won the league as they had a best squad. I think the loss of Lady Ronaldo will be a problem for them as he destroyed teams and pulled goals out of nowhere so often. We we're very close last year, only four points off and I think that his loss will affect them more than our loss of Xabi. Of course, it will need the Americans to keep their noses out of Rafa's business and let him get on with training and coaching his team. Chelsea will be in there too but they'll need adaptation time to Carlo's methods and tactics. Sure we'll find out over the next 9 months, starting with Spurs on Sunday. The league is like a pregnancy. There are many bumps and kicks along the way but you have to wait until the end to find out the result. Here's hoping that it's the second coming of our league domination.

Return of the King

Long live King Kenny! He's coming home to as joyous a reception and will take up a role with the academy and as a global Ambassador on the commercial side, similar to Bobby Charlton at Utd. Good news all round.Paul Anderson is off to Forest for £250000 according to sky sports. Leto is heading off to Greece to join Panathinaikos, rather than Olympiakos. He never really built on his early promise in my so called life and requiem for a dream.

Glen Johnson has signed a 4 year deal. The kids keep coming. The latest signed include Jesus Suso Fernandez. No doubt he'll be the second coming. Another young spaniard en route to L4 is Luis Alberto of Seville, if this is to be believed. If you can read Danish you might learn that we're signing 16 year old Nicolaj Køhlert of Esbjerg. N'Gog has be joined at Anfield by his erstwhile PSG team-mate, defenderChris Mavinga. He also suggests that Alonso will be staying unless he hands in a transfer request or Madrid make us an offer too good to refuse. Messi wants Masch but Rafa says you're not getting him.

I'm not even going to bother giving the Ribery story a mention, just a bookie trying to generate business. If you're expecting discussion about Owen I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I was completely nonplussed by his move to Utd. The interesting aspect was how quickly the press went from branding him a has been and a laughing stock with his brochure, to it being a master stroke by Slur Alex. Pretty funny. Fergie must have been won over by the glossy paper.

Here's a new book from an Irish author who lives in Liverpool and works for the club. I heard him interviewed on Today FM and I was impressed with his research. Did you know that our first ever manager John McKenna, was Irish? Could be a good christmas present for a fellow Red in Ireland.

That's all for now. If we make a big signing I'll post a comment but otherwise, I'll be back in August with a season preview ahead of the Spurs match. Enjoy the sunshine, or rain if you're in Ireland.

Done four?

3 defensive lapses cost us against Arsenal on Tuesday. May have even cost us the title, admittedly it was a long shot to begin with. 4-4 may have been good to watch but the result was sickening. We had it in our hands at 2-1 up but we threw it away and had to chase the game when 3-2 and 4-3 down. In the end we paid the price for our poor defending and got one point where three were required and would have been deserved.

We dominated Arsenal for much of the match but we gifted them goals that they didn't deserve. Mascherano, Aurelio and Arbeloa all made bad mistakes which led to Arshavin goals. Fairplay to the lad who took his chances but other than that had a poor enough game if such a thing is possible.

Dirk set up our first two goals for Torres and then Yossi. El Nino scored another and Yossi got the equaliser in injury time. This was the Israeli's best ever performance for the Reds. He revelled in the number 10 role usually occupied by Gerrard. I fear his absence much less with Yossi in this form. He showed great courage to throw his head into the mix for his first goal. A brave player who gives everything.Well done to the Everton fans who showed some merseyside solidarity with the 96 at the FA cup semi final against Utd on Sunday. I was happy to see them win and will be cheering them against Chelsea in the final. Let's hope that these kind of gestures will thaw the atmosphere in the Merseyside derbies which had become poisonous in recent years.

Gerrard is unlikely to be fit for the Hull City match on Saturday according to Rafa. His abductor muscle is still problematic. Yossi will deputise. I think we should be able to win this one despite what motivational miracles Phil Brown might try to pull. Utd don't play until Sunday but Spurs are safe now so I can't see them presenting too many problems for Slur and company.

The guardian are reporting that we could See a King Kenny comeback this summer slotting into a youth development role. Great news if it happens. Sammy Lee is in favour as is Alan Hansen. The King himself is desperate to help the club he loves in anyway he can.

It's great to see that the kids have one foot in the FA youth cup final after a 3-0 first leg win against Birmingham. Della Valle grabbed two goals and David Amoo got the other from right midfield. I expect we'll see quite a few of this team make first team appearances over the next few years.

Rafa's comments should be reassuring to Xabi and ensure that there isn't any repeat of last summers shenanigans. I'd be gutted if Xabi left. We know that Tores will leave us one day. I hope that day is far far away and I had assumed it would be to return to Atletico. But El Nino says he would like to try Serie A before Spain. Not what I expected but let's hope it's the distant future.

Alvaro Negredo of Almeria is being linked to Anfield by Setanta. The 23 year old striker has had a great season and has scored 17 goals. Sky sports reckon that we could be in for Mauro Zarate as Lazio only have 2 weeks left to take up their option on him. His agent says that there's been interest from two English clubs. He's a quality player who did well at Birmingham on loan but he'd cost a lot and I'm not sure where he'd fit into the team. If we bought him it could be the Robbie Keane scenario again where he's too good for the bench but no clear place in the team. The Daily Mirror reckon we're going to bid for Roque Santa Cruz of Blackburn this summer. He wants to leave but I can't see us competing with city in an auction for him as it would be too expensive.

Glasgow agog as Gers gubbed

Chain chasing at melwood this week.

I've two friendlies and four goals to report on this sunny bank holiday Monday in Dublin.

The Villareal match was pretty boring. It was arranged as part of the Riena deal a few years back. It had the look of a friendly about it, which is what it was. The only noteworthy incidents were seeing Keane wearing the shirt for the first time and seeing the reception that our Spanish heroes got from the home crowd. That Torres chap seems to be quite popular.

Then we paid a visit to Ibrox to put Rangers back in their box. I have no interest in Scottish football myself, especially the sectarian bullshit that goes on between the old firm. I think it's particularly brainless when you see somebody like Robbie Keane get booed by Rangers fans because he's Irish. Similarly, Celtic fans booed David Healy when playing for Fulham in recent weeks. That's not far off the bad old days when black players would get booed in my book.

Given all that, it was especially satisfying to see us wallop Rangers 4-0. Torres, Yossi, Ngog and Xabi managed to get on the score sheet. It's a pity that Robbie didn't join them. The Echo give N'Gog a glowing report. The young Frenchman scored the goal of the game when he beat a defender or two before firing past the keeper from distance. He could be the surprise package of this season. I would expect that he'll be used like Babel was last year, mainly from the bench to run at tired defenses in the last half hour of games. The Mail tips him as one of ten Prem teens to look out for this season.

Kevin McCarra suggests that King Kenny was the greatest British footballer from the last 50 years. Who am I to argue?

Despite hearing this on Wednesday, we heard this later in the week from O'Neil. Rafa says that he doesn't want to or need to unload Xabi. We'll see about that. If we do sign Barry, which is looking likely, then I think we'll have too many midfielders and one of them will have to be let go. Xabi is the obvious one to be sold in that scenario. Reports today say that Arsenal will sign him when we sign Barry. The Guardian reckon they've made an opening bid in the region of £10m but we want something nearer £18m.

Sky suggest Roma are interested in Yossi. How about De Rossi coming the other way if the Barry deal falls through?

One player we won't be seeing this season is Leto. He's been refused a work permit and is off on loan to Olympiakos for the season. I hope he makes a go of it there.

We drew Standard Liège in the champions league third round qualifiers. That's a handy enough draw and we really shouldn't have any problems over two legs. It would have been much worse if we drew Atletico Madrid, although El Nino would have been happy to go home for a visit. It would be nice if we drew them in the group stages.

I'm off to enjoy the sun while it lasts. I doubt it will be for long.

Torres terrorises Toon

Another 3 points and another 3 goals. Ever since the Barnsley result, we've been flying in the league. That's 16 points out of a possible 18 in our last six matches which makes us the most in form team in the league. We're now just 2 points behind Chelsea, having played two games more. I would be very surprised to see us catch them for third unless they colapse, but it would be good to see us close the gap and finish a good bit ahead of Everton or Villa.

The opening half hour of the match was poor enough with both teams struggling to impose themselves on the game. We got a very lucky break for Pennants opener. He hasn't scored many for us, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I don't know if he fits into this 4-2-3-1 system very well. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised or disappointed to see him leave in the summer. He's not a bad player but we can do better. Time to trade up and get a top quality right sided player. Kuyt does a good job there but we need somebody who will be as dangerous on the right as Babel is on the left.

Gerrard and Torres combined wonderfully for our next two goals. First Gerrard played a wonderfully weighted through ball for El Nino to run onto. He dummied Harper and went around him to slot into an empty net despite the efforts on the Toon defence. His 19th league goal of the season. Then Torres returned the favour by setting Stevie free. He lobed a delicate chip over the on rushing Harper to claim his tenth league goal. Great stuff. These two look to have developed a superb understanding with Gerrard pushing on from midfield to support Torres. Coupled with the threat from Babel on the left and supplied by some crossing from Kuyt on the right, our attacking play has come on hugely in the past month. I hope that we can keep this from up for the remainder of the season.

The captain gives us his thoughts from the uefa site ahead of the Inter match this Tue. Mascherano is in the squad that travelled so I'm hoping he's fit enough to start. We'll need him at his best. Inter are going to put on the pressure and we'll need to withstand it. I can see us trying to hit them on the break with the pace of Torres, Gerrard and Babel. It's vital that we don't make it harder for ourselves by conceding an early goal.

Somebody has gone and given our squad the simpsons treatment. Want some more? Well then check out this great interview with Torres from Spanish tv. Michael Robinson, the host, played for Liverpool back in the day. He got Torres, Reina an Arbeloa to have dinner with Sammy Lee, King Kenny and Souness. Great viewing.

Kenny and the Kid

Kop idols.

Well we don't like going it the easy way, do we? 1 point after 3 matches to leave us looking at expulsion from the champions league, or a fate worse than expulsion - the UEFA cup. But we invoked The Spirit of Istanbul™, and we pulled 3 wins out of the bag with our backs to the wall. Second in the group with 10 points after Porto. It'll be a tough draw against one of the winners on Friday but it's a hell of a lot better than facing the refuse in the UEFA cup. El Nino wants Madrid. He'd be fired up for that one alright.

4-0. Only 4-0? Sack Rafa. That should have been 20-0, at least. According to the pundits, Marseille were a good team, much improved under the new manager, until we beat them. Just like our other champions league opponents. Funny, that. I know that I shouldn't rise to the bait of idiots spouting crap for a living but I can't resist sometimes. All of the rotation comments get very tiresome very quickly especially when the evidence shows that Fergie and Jose rotate as much as Rafa. The zonal marking debate is also a red herring. We have the second best defence in the league, had the second best last season and we concede less goals from set pieces than other teams do. But don't let the facts get in the way of a media lynching. Tim Sherwood, the twat on Setanta, said that Liverpool's season would be over if we lost to Marseille. Apparently we're out of the title race because we've lost one match this season to Reading. Are Arsenal out of it as they lost to Boro? Are Utd out of it as they've lost twice to City and Bolton? I don't know how fools like Sherwood get paid to talk crap on tv. Surely knowledge and intelligence are not job requirements. Rant over.

But back to the match itself. It was a great result but not the best match that we've played this season. Rafa paid a pretty attaching line up with Monster Masch the only defensive player outside of the back four. The team worked really hard and pressurised Marseille who had most of the possession. They couldn't do anything with it and we made our chances count. Gerrard got an early peno to take the pressure off after a few mins. Then Torres displayed his genius with a goal of amazing beauty. It was phenomenal. I don't think that I'm exagerating when I say that he's looking like the best striker in the premiership. I wouldn't swap him for any of the other ones. Some people said that he was over rated when he signed him but £20m is looking like the steal of the century now. The ease at which he went around the Marseille defenders was magical. The kid is a genius.

Dirk Kuyt scored with a nice finish in the second half. Harry did well to pick him out with a great ball and he escaped the offside trap with some good timing. He showed a good strikers finish to wait until the keeper commited himself. Babel came on and did his usual thing of tormenting a tired defense. Again it paid off and he helped himself to the final goal. Nice one my son. In winning we became the first English team to win in Marseille.

Cara reckons a victory over Utd will be worth more than 3 points. Technicly he's wrong. We will only get three points. But I get what he's saying, we haven't beaten them in the league in a few years and it'll be a huge result if we can do them. The last few games at Anfield have seen us dominate but lose to flukey goals by pricks like Ferdinand and O'Shea. That's a bit unfair as O'Shea isn't a prick but he does play for Utd so he's guilty by association. I will be sick if one of them scores an undeserved winner on Sunday. I predict a score draw. No doubt Tim Sherwood and Andy Grey will be saying sack Rafa if we lose. Tools.



The Times had a great article this week where they got Kenny and the kid together. Brilliant idea. Two reds, one a legend, the other well on his way, in one room. Congrats to Messrs Ballague and Marcotti.

Who's going to be pissed off on Sunday evening? I think that both teams will as a draw isn't great for either team. I hope that I'm wrong, we win and Fergie's face goes purple.