Legend leaves for Leverkusen

Auf wiedesein Sami. In our defensive foursome, he was absolutely awesome. One Scandinavian defender signs as another leaves. The circle of life is complete. I'm sad to see Sami leave but I understand that he wants a last hurrah. It would have been hard to see him play against us for another premiership team so I wish him all the best in Germany. On the upside, it's great to see Dagger sign up for years. I was convinced that he was leaving in the summer so well done to Rafa and the staff for convincing him his future is here. Between him and Skrtel we're sorted at centre half for many a year. I expect one of San Jose or Martin Kelly will be promoted next season to cover as the fourth choice centre back.

Did this result put Newcastle down? 3-0 could have been 6-0 as we hit the woodwork three times. Xabi struck the crossbar twice with two fierce shots and Gerrard hit it once. Could have been a landslide. Yossi bagged the first with his knee after a cross from Dirk. It may have been marginally offside but any sense of injustice the Toon army had was soon wiped out when Dirk powered in a diving header from a Gerrard corner. Goals from corners always give me a special feeling, rare as they are. Our dominance continued in the second half but we had to wait until late on the for the third goal. Alonso was taken off after Joey Barton was red carded for a bad challenge on the Basque. Lucas came on and scored his first league goal with a close range header from a free kick from the right hand touch line. I'm happy for the Brazilian as he looked thrilled but it now looks like he could leave for £6m this summer according to the red tops.
We're off to Upton Park next weekend. It should be routine with or without Torres who didn't play yesterday. West Ham are quite safe now so don't have much to play for. I hope that we win all of our games to push Utd the whole way. I don't see Utd dropping the requisite points to make it interesting enough but I want to finish a close second with a small gap to the top. This experience of being in a title challenge to the end will do our players the world of good for next season.

The news that Rafa will have to sell to increase his transfer kitty is not unexpected. The BBC reckon Silva, Villa and Glen Johnson are targets. Javier Saviola is being linked with a free transfer in the summer. Gareth Barry has spoken about a summer move. I think he's quite likely to arrive for less than £10m. Given his performance's this year, I hope that it doesn't mean a Xabi departure. Sources in Italy suggest Juve might be back in for him this summer. Rafa says that Javier is going nowhere. What about Pandev of Lazio? He'd be a cheap option for a summer signing. His teammate Zarate has signed a permanent deal with Lazio so we won't be getting him. AZs Moroccan striker Mounir El Hamdaoui is being linked with us and Arsenal. Negredo of Almeria is a target. Rafa says that Yossi will get a new contract offer. If anybody deserves it then he does as he's been amazing in the last 6 months.

All over bar the shouting

The fat lady is warming up and going through her vocal exercise. I would suggest "No distance left to run" by Blur. It's over. We gave it a decent shot but we're out of it now. It would require a Utd collapse and us to win every game for us to win the league. I really can't see that happening. Before the start of the season I predicted a second place finish and a title challenge. I'll take little joy in being proved right if we finish second, but the thought remains that Utd deserve and it and we don't have sufficient quality and depth.

Rafa hasn't conceded defeat, and I wouldn't expect him to while it's mathematically possible. But we needed to win this one and we didn't. Again we played well but couldn't turn possession and chances into goals. There was a goalmouth scramble in the first half where we should have scored. In fairness city were decent in the second half and caused us problems. Dirk did well with his goal to pounce on a chance which fell to him in the box after a Nando mishit. While we got a bit of luck there, it was made up for the fact that Bellamy's shot was going wide only for an Arbeloa deflection. We had Lucas and Javier in the middle and they didn't give the kind of service to Torres that he needs. With Alonso and Gerrard unavailable, we lack the experienced players to come in. Our bench isn't loaded with superb impact subs and the likes of Lucas are only ok. We're not replacing like with like when the squad is tested. Real isn't going to be easy as they've put some great form together recently. They won 6-1 at the weekend. Stevie should be fit for the bench at least which is a huge boost. We'll need him. I'd expect us to get at least a score draw.

Javier doesn't do goal celebrations by half. Here he is at the end of the Chelsea match.
Andrea Dossena has said that he's more settled in Liverpool now. There were rumours earlier in the season that he was having problems off the pitch. But his performances have improved greatly in recent months. If Rafa can coach him how to defend in a 4231 formation then he may have a future with us but I suspect that he may return to Italy in the summer with Insua and Aurelio as the two left backs next year.

Agger isn't happy. He has a back injury which forced him to miss the City game and he hasn't traveled to Madrid. Pepe is happy and doesn't want to go to Atletico despite what his Dad claims.

101 great goals has an article on FCB kid Deulofeu, who's been linked with us recently. No doubt he'll blow us off and go to Arsenal. Kerrison's agent is saying that we've been in touch but he doesn't want to move for the next year. He's a player that we tried to sign before so there could be something in this. The Palmeras president says it's all press talk without foundation. The guardian is linking LFC with a move for Espanyol's teenage midfielder Oscar Sielva. Apparently we can pick him up for around £2m as part of the Riera deal. Another player that Rafa has tried to sign in the past, David Villa, has indicated that he wants to stay in Spain if he leaves Valencia. I doubt we will have the cash to bid for him anyway.

Paul Tomkins on the official site attacks the myth that we are over reliant on Gerrard and Torres. He analysis the stats and shows that Utd are more reliant on their top two, Rooney and Ronaldo, than we are.

Tony Evens in the Times has put together a list of the 50 greatest reds of all time. I'm sure we can all dispute the numbers and order but sure it's an interesting read all the same.

My mate Clive Owen was in town this week and I attended an interview he did at the Dublin Academy. He regaled us with tales of watching the Istanbul Champions League final with Mickey Rourke. He has some quality quotes about the Reds in this Esquire interview. "That's a pure thing, that club. Not really explainable, really. My family endures. They don't understand it." We were a pure club but I feel that the taint of Hicks and Gillett is corrupting us. Save us Clive! Here he is hitting the bottle after the City game.

Finally, some news to report.

Just like the renegade master, I'm back once again.

Andrea Dossena is thrilled to be signing for us. He declares that we're a great team and who am I to argue. I think that he'll do well this year. Capello rates him highly apparently. Riise is thrilled to be signing for Roma. While he should be remembered for this and this and this, he'll probably be remembered for this.

While one player has arrived, it looks like another is rapidly nearing the exit door. Xabi will be taking his raking passes and Mark Walburg looks to Turin by the looks and sounds of it. It seems more and more likely that we'll be exchanging basque pintxos for birmingham curry in the near future. I'll be sad to see Xabi leave and will moments like this and this. I think that Barry is a bit overpriced at over £15m, but that's the english player tax striking again. He does seem to link up well with Gerrard as we've seen for England. I'm hoping that what we lose in Xabi's long range passing, we'll gain in increased physicality, pace, set pieces and goal threat from Barry. I would expect that he'll play a little higher up the pitch than Xabi did, somewhere between Javier and Stevie, rather than sitting beside Javier. Charles Itandje looks to be on his way out with 26 year old Brazilian keeper Cavalieri replacing him.

Some media reports have linked us with a big purchase like Quaresma, Ribery, Silva and Villa. It sounds like they will all be on the move this summer, with the possible exception of Ribery. To be honest, I can't see Rafa having the cash to compete for a signature of this magnitude. Any of them would be superb and would improve our attacking play enormously. Ballague suggests that we haven't made contact with Valencia for Villa and that he'll probably end up at Real, Chelsea or FCB. He goes onto say that Rafa isn't interested in a striker while we still have Crouch, but for how long will that remain the case? Reports today suggest that Crouch will be on his way to Portsmouth on Monday for £10-11m. Given that he's only got a year left on his contract, I think that it's a good price for him. I'll miss him but he wants to play every week and he's not going to get that here with El Nino ahead of him. Thanks for the memories rampaging super spider. How about Crespo on a free to replace him? Ballague also has a great interview with El Nino which you can read here. Check out this footage of the artist as a young Nino.



This is Anfield have a great article on Nemeth. It'd be great to see him get a chance from the bench this season. He looks quality.

Speaking of the youngsters, it seems that we've signed a few more. Vincent Weijl is a 17 year old dutch striker who's arrived from AZ Alkmaar and Nikola Saric, 17 from Denmark, was signed ahead of Barcelona and Spurs apparently. A german kid called Buchtmann has signed from dortmund. He plays left back or left midfield according to setanta.

Rafa's also been adding to the backroom staff. Mauricio Pellegrino will be joining us from valencia where he was doing some coaching. He played a minor role for us in 05 on the road to Istanbul. While his performances were mediocre at best, it did enable Sami to get a rest and make sure that he was able to perform heroics alongside JC. This appointment coupled with the addition of Sammy Lee recently should help to fill the Pako sized hole that we had this year.

Hicks says that a shared stadium isn't back on the table. I am inclined to believe him in this regard even though he has a history of half truths and broken promises since he stepped through the Shankly gates.

Updates will continue to be sparse but if there are major moves, i.e. Barry, then I might put a post together. Otherwise it's the skeleton crew until the friendlies get underway.

Mad Masch

If you're feeling down after the Utd defeat then have a look at this. It tells the real story of what happened at Old Trafford. I wasn't too confident going into this unlike previous years, and thought that a draw was the best that we might have gotten. I thought that we looked nervous and a lot of our big players didn't perform. We probably would have been beaten anyway as Utd were the better team on the day but once we had 10 men it was a question of by how many.

My feelings on the sending off are that Bennett was a disgrace all match and was as blatant a homer as you're likely to see. That said, Javier should have stayed away from him after he had received the first booking and not risked getting a second. I can understand his fury as Torres booking was a disgrace given the kicking he was receiving. But Mascherano should have been mature, calm and professional enough to know that by getting involved and getting a second yellow he let the team down. Whatever slim chance we had went at that point. Rafa says that Masch knows he made a mistake. By not leaving the field he faces the prospect of an extended ban. But I think that if it had been Rooney, Terry, Neville or Ferdinand in the same situation they wouldn't have been sent off. How often have we seen them crowd and abuse the ref? Terry even stopped the ref from taking out his yellow card this season. Ferdinand was trying to talk the ref into booking our players on Sunday. Rooney berates refs every match he plays. How come they don't get sent off? There is an an awful lot of leverage allowed for England players. Gerrard can be guilty of it too, especially at Anfield but by and large I don't think that we crowd and abuse the ref en mass like some of our rivals. Maybe we should as it didn't seem to do Keane at Utd any harm.

David Pleat makes the point that it was long balls over the top which caused us problems. Rooney targeted Carragher knowing that he had the beating of him with pace and trickery. Carragher was poor and could have given away a peno for a challenge on Rooney. The ease at which the defence was being torn apart had a knock on effect on Pepe who missed some punches which was costly. His distribution, which is normally superb was poor on Sunday too. But I can't remember the last time he's had a poor game for us and he did make some super saves which prevented us from losing 5 or 6 nil.

According to Sky Sports Torres is unlikely to play for Spain tomorrow which is great news. Unfortunately, it means that he's a doubt for the derby. We're definitely going to need him against a very up for it Everton. They are in poor enough form having taken 1 point from 6 but they always raise their game for the derby. Given we've a superior goal difference and 2 more points, a draw mightn't be too bad a result. But if Torres is fit and the fact that they're missing a few players, we really should be able to win at home.

The BBC gossip page yesterday said that we will bid £12m for David Bentley in the summer. I think that it's a position that we have to look at in the summer as Dirk is only a stop gap there. Bentley is decent but I think that we can do better for a £12-15m winger. He'd give us a lot in terms of set pieces, crossing and goals but he doesn't have the pace that we need out wide. Another player linked to us on the forums is Gareth Barry of Aston Villa. I think that he's another good player but again we can do better. If we're buying him for left back then I think that he'd be an improvement. I hope that he's not being bought because Xabi wants to go back to Spain. It looks like David Villa wants to leave Valencia in the summer and we're one of the clubs being linked with him. I know that Rafa tried to sign him when he was still at Zaragosa and he is a top quality player. But I don't know if he would fit into our current 4-2-3-1 system. I think that we could spend the large amount of money that he would cost, on more pressing needs.

Everyone's favourite saga continues to rumble on and on and on. This article suggests Hicks is in financial trouble and DIC could reap the rewards. Let's hope it's accurate.

Fernando Towers

Just what the doctor ordered. 4-1 at home to Portsmouth and we were coasting for most of the game. Yossi opened the scoring in the first half with a stunning volley hit with the outside of his right boot after a great cross from Harry on the left. Yossi is very good and drifting inside and linking up the play. He is also capable of delivering goals as he showed here, but it would be good to see a bit more of this from him. Maybe I'm being over critical as he's already scored 6 this season. Good to see Kewell getting involved by setting it up.

The second goal was a bit of a comedy of errors. Torres advanced into the box and was faced with Distin and Campbell. Campbell swiped at the ball which rebounded off Distin's leg to beat James at the far post. Portsmouth did get one back but even then, we had the match under control to a large degree.



Enter El Niño. The kid is unstoppable. He scored two today and could have had more. As we've seen, he causes panic in defenses. It paid off here as he took full advantage. He's now scored 8 in the league and 14 in all comps from 18 starts. I thought that it would take him some time to adapt but I was wrong. He's taken to the league like a duck to water despite what the doubters were sceptical beforehand. His first was a crisp strike from the edge of the area after Babel had run at the pompey defense. His second was even better. Carra hit a lovely ball which found Gerrard on the left edge of the area. His header back into the middle dropped to El Niño who hit a great volley which left James with no chance. The kid goes from strength to strength.

Babel came on and did his usual trick of causing havoc to a tired and stretched defense. He didn't manage to score this time but his L4 education is coming along nicely. Rafa is doing the right thing with him and I fancy him to be making regular starts by the end of this season or the start of the next one. There is still some debate over his best position, whether it's on the wing or up front.

The champions league last 16 draw was made on Friday and we drew Internazionale of Milan. This is a tough draw but it was never going to be easy given that we finished second in our group. Inter are a great side, full of talent. Mancini is a clever manager who's managed to get his own way with minimal interference from Moratti. Zlatan is one of the best forwards in the game and will cause us problems. This match and Arsenal's with AC Milan are the ties of the round and very hard to call. I can't wait for February.

There are rumours doing the rounds online that we're going to sell a few players and put in a bid for Villa at Valencia. I think that this is pure speculation. It does sound like he's not happy there while Koeman rocks the boat but I can't see Rafa paying the required £20m plus for him, especially as he'd be cup tied in the champions league. I think that we'll only do small business in Jan. We may sell a few and sign a defender but I can't see us splashing the cash for big deals.

The Irish Independent had an interview with James McCarthy today. He's been heavily linked with us in the past but has yet to make a decision about his club future but he's declared for Ireland which is a bonus.

Enjoy your Christmas dinner and let's hope that we're in a festive mood after the Derby game on Wednesday.