Season review - 86 reasons to be happy

At the start of the season I predicted a second place finish. How right I was. 86 points, 77 league goals, only 2 defeats and the best goal difference in the table. A record points total of 86 for a second place team in the premiership. This in itself is a reason to be happy. Unfortunately it wasn't enough Utd finished 4 points ahead with 90. The post mortem will say that we drew too many and there is some truth to that. 11 draws in unacceptable and I'm sure we'll improve on that next year. We can point to the refereeing errors like the stoke draw where a legitimate goal was ruled out and bad luck with the amount of times we hit the wood work. But a combination of inaccurate finishing, sloppy defending and injuries to key players cost us at times. If we had've converted three draws into wins or our two defeats to Spurs and Boro into wins then we would've reclaimed the title. If. Too many if's. We didn't do it despite playing some great football and we came up just short. 14 points out of 18 against the top four showed we could take on and beat our competition. Utd won the league despite performing poorly against the top 4. They won it because they were the best flat track bully's. We need to improve our ability to unlock a packed defence. If we do that more constantly then maybe we can go one step higher next year.It's hard to look beyond Gerrard when selecting a player of the season. He scored many amazing goals and was named football writers player of the season. John Giles on Newstalk agreed with the selection of Stevie and said that playing in the hole has brought the best out of him. Torres was good when played but missed too much of the season to be considered. Xabi had a great year, his best with us. The Kop love him and want him to stay here for many years yet. I would have him in second place for the year with Kuyt close behind him taking the bronze medal. I'm a huge fan of the Dutchman but will I had my doubts about him last year. But this season he's proved all of us wrong with his 12 league goals from open play and 8 assists, better than Rooney's return. From a right hand attacking spot that is a superb return and he fully justifies his selection. We can improve on Riera on the left but deadly Dirk will continue to be one of the first names in the team.

El Nino has signed a contract extension. There's been a big shake up with coaching staff. Gary Ablett has been released as have Hughie McAuley and Dave Shannon. Rafa is remoulding the academy and youth structure now that he has more control over the club structure with his new contract.

While there has been bad news off the pitch this week in relation to the accounts with soaring debts and no buyers interested, the guardian today suggest that it won't affect Rafa's budget and he'll still have £20m plus sales. But already he's s seen targets like Barry go to City which he won't be happy with. If it means Xabi is staying then I'm quite satisfied. Other targets could be missed out on like Pranjic who looks destined for Munich, Silva who's talking to Real Madrid and Glen Johnson who Chelsea want to buy, again.

Hertha Berlin didn't manage to secure Champions League football and won't be taking up their offer on Voronin. Javier has denied reports that he's off to FCB. Javi Martinez says he's up for a move to L4, but Atletico Bilbao say we haven't made an approach. Despite what Rafa is saying, the Alonso to Madrid rumours won't go away. If he does leave then maybe his fellow Basque will replace him. Babel has been told he can leave. I don't think it's a great surprise given how he's performed and the amount of time he's received this year. The South American press reckon that we've been everybody to the signing of Brazil u-17 star Zezinho. With a name like that, he's got to be good. Lavezzi is being linked by Setanta with Dossena going the other way. Juventus are also interested in the left back and it seems Rafa is willing to let him leave.

Sami's last minutes a red can be seen here. He'll be missed especially for his towering performance when we mashed the mans 4-1 in old toilet.

Red in Dublin is off on holidays for a few weeks to enjoy the Irish rain. I'll return if and when there's some decent transfer moves to report. In the meantime you can follow my updates on twitter. Keep it red.

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.

KC KO

A 3-1 win away from home was a case of job done. But it wasn't done very cleverly in a bad day at the office for most of the team. We were poor in a poor first half. Hull did well to close us down really quickly. Time and again we were caught in possession or had passes blocked by Hull players. Arbeloa and Mascherano were disappointing for the second game running. The whole team looked a bit rattled by the pressure exerted by Caleb Folan et al. But just before half time Javier broke down field and got a free kick when he fell over. It was really harsh on Hull but got worse when Xabi put it away. His initial effort hit the wall but he cracked the rebound into the bottom corner on the volley. Lovely strike, his fourth league goal of the season. I don't really understand how his passing is so sublime but his delivery from frees and corners is often askew. Strange.

The second half started much better than the first. Once Folen lost the plot and got sent off for a kick on Skrtel, things got easier. Dirk got a touch on a Skrtel shot to make it 2-0. Giovani pulled one back for them to make a little more tense. But Kuyt scored again in the 90th minute to put the result beyond doubt. Game over. Dirk now has 10 league goals which is superb given his position and reputation. He might even improve on that over the next few games.

Insua lost his man for the Hull goal but was much better than our other full back Arbeloa who had a really poor game. It's a pity that the spaniard has lost his form in recent games as he's had a good season to date.We can look forward to the Toon army visiting Anfield next Sunday. Shearer and co will be well up for a fight but are short on confidence. It's one that we really should win and we'll need to if we're going to push Utd all the way.

Could Rafa be interested in signing Man Utd loanee Carlos Tevez? Rafa refused to comment on him when asked in Fridays press conference. Fergie reckons he wants him to stay but we'll see. I think he'll leave Utd but I don't see us signing him, Madrid would be more likely. He'd be a nice addition to our team but we need somebody to compete for the Riera and Kuyt spots, not Gerrard and Torres positions. O'Neil seems to be preparing to let Barry leave this summer. Expect a cut price bid from Rafa given the fact his contract is up in 2010.

Lauri Della Valle scored 2 more goals as the junior reds beat Birmingham 3-1 second leg to seal a place in the FA youth cup final. Alex Kacaniklic scored the other to give an aggregate score of 6-1. They'll face Arsenal to win it.

Jack Hobbs who was part of the 2006 FA youth cup winning team, has sealed a permanent deal with Leicester. The young defender has helped them gain promotion from League one to the championship. I hope he does well in the future.

A bridge too four

The pride of the Liverpool was evident last night. 4-4, an epic European contest. They said that there was no way we could go to London and score three. We went one better and scored four. We led 2-0 at half time but inevitable we left gaps at the back and Chelsea punished us. At 2-0 and 4-3 up, we were one goal from being ahead on aggregate but it wasn't to be. Despite it all, even deep into injury time, we never gave up. The spirit and desire of this team and this club is unmatched.

If we had Mascherano in the first leg and Gerrard in the second would the tie have turned out differently? Possibly but we'll never know. Stevie wasn't risked and watched from the stands. In his absence, Lucas did a decent job at the apex of the midfield where the captain normally plays. He put in a good shift and scored a goal thanks to an Essien deflection but Xabi stepped up as the main man on the night. He was awesome. I'm a huge fan of the basque schemer and this was up there as one of his best displays ever. I hope that Rafa never again considers selling him. Dirk was full of heart and running as we expect in European games. He took his goal well and has a habit of scoring important goals in this competition. Aurelio was another who recovered well from the first leg and his free kick goal was superb.

Drogba caused more problems as he did in the first leg. His diving and rolling around was as distasteful as ever. Anelka caused problems down the right and helped set Drogba up when he got a lucky touch off Pepe's glove. I wouldn't fault the keeper on it, it was just a freak deflection after the Ivorian had done very well.So now we can "concentrate on the league". Scant consolation but maybe the need to rotate will be lessened and we'll see our first choice team every match from now until May. Next Tuesday will be a vital league showdown with Arsenal at Anfield. The gunners will have a big say in the eventual destination of the title as they have to play us, Chelsea and Utd before the end of the season. They're in decent form at the moment but have a few defensive problems with Gallas, Clichy and Almunia injured. I fancy us to win it especially if the captain returns from injury.

Tony Evans in the TImes has a moving piece on going back to Hillsbourgh on the 20th anniversary. As I've said before on here, Evans is one of the few hacks that I respect when it comes to writing about LFC. You can hear him most weeks on the Game podcast from the Times.

The guardian rumour mill is linking us with another move for Javi Martinez at Bilbao. Could that mean that Lucas or Xabi are on their way this summer? Maybe he's being lined up as an alternative if moves for Gaz Baz fail again. I think the Englishman is a much likelier signing, mainly due to his nationality and his price. Another player linked is Wesley Sneijder who Real Madrid are willing to sell and David Silva who Valencia have to sell. Guillem Ballague reckons that we're interested in both of them but Real want Alonso and are using Sneijder as bait. I'd like to see us sign the Dutchman but not at Xabi's expense.

Babel says that he's not happy with sitting on the bench. Fair enough, but when he's played this year he's been fairly average. He's a prime candidate to be sold this summer from what I can see. We should be able to get a decent price for him as he's a young and talented player but I don't see him realising his potential with us.

Rafa rotates his way to the top

The knives were out with Rafa's team selection on Saturday where he made 6 changes due to injuries, suspensions and the fact that we'd just come through a grueling 120 mins derby midweek. When we went 2-1 down the knives were poised at the managers back. But two of Rafa's striking subs made decisive contributions against a tired defence. Kuyt and Torres scored to send us back to the top of the table which sent a giant "fuck you" to the begrudges.

A 3-2 victory over Portsmouth had the knockers declaring us lucky. Bullshit. I watched the match in it's entirety and we were way better than them. To read the match reports we were abject until Torres came off the bench. Au contraire, we were really good in the first half, without Torres, Xabi and Dirk, who were on the bench, Lucas who was suspended and Gerrard who was injured. Why are we lucky when we score late goals but it's the mark of champions when Utd do it or Morinho's Chelsea did it?

Yossi was central in this period. He took centre stage as the playmaker and was central to our passing, movement and invention. He was unlucky to hit the side netting in this period. Towards halftime he danced past two defender, leaving them for dead. He was the one who crossed for Torres' header at the death. He's been in good form recently but this was probably his best ever game for us. Playing in the middle definitely enables him to have more of an influence. I thought he was just a squad player but if he keeps up this form then surely he deserves a start ahead of Riera or Kuyt?

Another player who performed well on the day was Aurelio. He lined up alongside the superb Javier and Yossi in central midfield of our 3-4-3. A lot of journalists seemed to think that Rafa choose this set up for the laugh, rather than injuries and suspensions. What dopes. The brain trust on Setanta were "baffled". Poor Tim Sherwood was nearly in tears when we won. They clearly hadn't researched Fabio as he's played central midfield for Rafa before at Valencia. He is a superb passer and slotted into the Xabi role seamlessly. He hit the post with a free in the first half and scored from an indirect free in the second. Free kick Fabio is happy with his goal and the result. He should be put on set piece duty from now on.

Agger excelled as the libero of the three central defenders. He frequently ran forward with the ball at his feet and hit some superb balls. He is a star and it'll be a disgrace if we let him slip through our fingers. Parry needs to get him signed up NOW! Dossena and Arbeloa ran the flanks with aggression. Dossena had another good game but both wing backs were let down by their crossing.

Rafa sprung Torres and Dirk from the bench towards the end and both scored. If Fergie did something similar he gets named a genius as in the Champions league final 99. Neither Babel or N'Gog had done a huge amount and Ryan missed a sitter after Dirk crossed from an acute angle. Moments later, Dirk scored from a similar angle when he beat James at his near post. Then El Nino hit the winner to send reds into rapture. Stunning.

We had been lucky to see Nugent score when he should have been flagged offside. Dirk had a legitimate goal ruled offside which was a pity as it would have made the finish less frantic. Pepe didn't cover himself in glory when conceding a free header from Hreidarsson.Now we're looking at an international break and it's the usual case of fingers crossed in hope that we don't lose anymore players to injuries. Then we're looking at the mercurial Man City visiting Anfield. They are starting to get a bit more solid and Given was superb at the weekend. Lucas will be back from suspension then and Torres should be fit to start. Insua should be back from captaining Argentina in the the South American u20 championship too.

Could the Barry pursuit be reopened this summer? O'Neil says he won't stand in his way if they miss out on the champions league. I like Barry but if it means Xabi being sold then I'm dead against it.

No place is safe

Megson was tipping us for the league before the match. After that win we've moved inches closer, but we're still miles away. We're jumping all of the hurdles being put in front of us but there's much of the race yet to be won.

A 2-0 away win sounds routine, and it was. We created a whole host of chances and could have won 6-2. Gerrard, Lucas, Torres and Keane all missed glaring chances to put a gloss on the victory. Thankfully, deadly Dirk struck again and Gerrard headed a fine goal after a sublime cross from substitute Torres. Dirk had another superb game to continue his fine form this season. He took his goal fantastically well, a header from a great Aurelio cross, and saw a venomous shot crash back off the bar. Nicely done Dirk.

Rafa wants the squad to know that nobody is guarenteed a place. That includes Fernando Torres. The battle for a starting spot is really heating up. Nando will have to fight for a place when he returns from International duty. Let's hope he doesn't get injured this time. Gerrard won't be joining up with England as he's injured.

Once the tedium of a midweek international friendly is over, Fulham will be making their way to Anfield. We've a decent record over them in recent years and they tend not to do as well on the road. After that it's Marseille in L4. I'm really looking forward to the game as I'm making my first pilgrimage of the season and it'll be my first european game at the old ground. Can't wait.

Rafa has begun contract talks which is great news. Pennant looks to be on his way out of the club in January. To Bolton perhaps? A former target, Gareth Barry, is being linked with a move to Spurs now. Given the way Xabi has been playing, I hope we don't revive our interest.

Paul Tomkins on the official site has an interesting article on transfers and how long it can take for players to settle and deliver. He has a great list of players who were labeled flops but went on to be huge successes. It should be required reading for those who are writing off Robbie Keane already. A mate of mine told me that "it will all end in tears". I hope and predict that he'll be wrong.

Man Utd fan and former shareholders united member Keith Harris is predicting financial doom for us and advises a ground share with Everton.

Another Man Utd fan, the incredibly nerdy and boring Bill Edgar in the Times, says that we won't sustain a title challenge as we don't have the strength in depth. Has anybody else noticed how much better the Game podcast is this season now that he's been fired from it? Boring fool.

Ian Doyle in the post focuses on the academy and the rift between it and Melwood. This has been discussed by others like Dave Usher on the Liverpool way. It is a bit worrying and would be great if it gets sorted.

Liverpool beat second biggest team from Manchester

We've had to wait six seasons for this. Does that make it sweeter? What a result? We outplayed them by their manager's own admission. What was even more impressive about the victory was the fact that it was achieved without our two best players. That Rafa doesn't have a clue.

I only got to see the first half of the match live as I was in the airport about to get on a plane. I then had to sweat on the result for an hour and twenty minutes while the plane was in the air. I don't have to tell you that I was overjoyed when I turned on my phone after we landed. The only downside is that I'm not at home to discuss it and slag a few people. I'll have to make do with a beautiful beech in southern France. Tough break for me.

This is the team that I would have played but I didn't think that Rafa would start without Kuyt.
As it happened, Dirk did start, up front with Keane, and had a great match. True he should have scored, definitely once, and maybe twice, but his movement and link up play were very good. He did really well to get his head up and pick out Babel for the winner. Despite the fact that he can do a job on the right, he should be played up front. If he isn't going to get a game there then he should be on the bench and used as an impact sub.

I do feel slightly churlish talking about individuals in what was a superb team performance, but I have to mention monster Masch. He was awesome. He could have done better for the Tevez goal but after that he bossed the midfield alongside Alonso. Once Carrick went off it got even easier for them. Scholes and Anderson were fairly poor as was the Utd passing in general. Vididc getting sent off was the icing on the cake rather than being a direct cause for victory as we had the game won anyway at that stage.

Ryan Babel made a huge impact when he came on. His nutmeg on Wes Brown was quality. Poor Browny looked like a mug. Liverpool were in control when Babel came off the the bench but he really put the book in and put them to the sword. I hope he does continue to deliver like this against the big teams and make the step to deliver on the vast talent he possesses.

What about young Albert? Riera made a stunning debut. His dribbling skills were sublime. He was a joy to watch and got the Kop going. If he can do this consistently then £5.5m will look like an absolute steal.

Jocky Hansen assess our tactical approach and our potential title challenge for the BBC. "After the international break you don't usually get a match like that, the quality and entertainment was just so high compared to other matches we've seen between the top four." He also says that Rafa's "tactics won at the end of the day." Never let a cliche opportunity pass.

The champions league is upon us once again. Just like last year we're playing Marseille. They stunned us in the first game at Anfield last time out but I hope that we've learned from this and we can put them away in the Velodrome tomorrow night. Losing Nasri and Cisse must have hurt them even though they did buy Ben Arfa.

The Liverpool Daily post suggest that we could be back in for Gaz Baz in Jan.

Soccerlens have a review of the Liverpool youth and reserve team, focusing on those players who are likely to make an impact in the coming seasons. They do manage to leave out Bruna and Pacheco which is a glaring omission on their part. Another Hungarian teen is on the way to the reserves. Poloskei, a 17 year old midfielder, will join on a season long loan from MTK in Budapest.

Pepe reveals that when he returns to Spain in the future he would like to play for Atletico. Thankfully, that won't happen any time soon. He also says that he recommended the Villareal winger Cazorla to the staff. Xabi's agent has hinted that he could move on in January. Does that mean that we'll make another effort to sign Barry?

Ins, outs and goal droughts

Despite the media hype before hand, there weren't any fireworks on the pitch or off the pitch at Villa Park on Sunday. Rafa and O'Neil, the mortal enemies since their Gareth Barry tug of love, managed to shake hands without stabbing or head butting each other. The game itself was without major incident too. Both defences were on top and once Torres came off we looked a lot more toothless. On the plus side, our full backs Dossena and Arbleoa did well in keeping the pacy Villa attackers Young and Agbonlahor quiet. Keane did well enough and linked well with N'Gog and the team. He could and should have done better when he was put through on Friedal. He waited slightly too long before taking his shot which gave Reo Coker time to get back and tackle him. On another day he would have gotten a peno for it. I think that his confidence is lacking somewhat and once he gets a goal or two he'll be putting chances like that away again without thinking too much about it.

This is really bad news. Given Torres hamstring and Gerrard's groin, I think we're going to struggle badly against Utd at Anfield. I would be very surprised if either of them are fit in time for the game.
The Mirror provide some trial by youtube evidence on Albert Riera. He flew to Merseyside on Friday for a medical and it was tied up today before the transfer window deadline for an initial £5.5m. Given that Parry is in charge of negotiations, I was a bit worried that there might be a last minute hitch. Ballague gives a rundown of Riera's abilities on his blog. A lightly less high profile is 18 year old brazilian striker Vitor Flora who has signed from Botafogo. Cue many margarine puns. I wouldn't stoop that low (low) on red in Dublin.

As expected while there were arivals, there were also departures. High fiving Riera and Flora in John Lennon airport were Steve Finan and Andre Voronin. Finnan leaves for the sunny catalan climes of Barcelona as he's signed a 2 year deal with Espanyol. I hope he enjoys a beautiful city and does well for it's second club. I really like Finnan and he gave us great service over the past few years. But he fell down the pecking order towards the end of last season and was told he could leave this summer. Most reds will be happy to hear that Voronin is off to Hertha Berlin on a season long loan. Despite a few stunning goals in pre season this year and last, he wasn't of the level required for LFC. One player who won't be leaving is Xabi, despite a late £14m bid from Arsenal. We would be mad to sell him considering that we didn't get Barry. It looks like Pennant will be staying too as he didn't fancy a £5m move to Stoke. Maybe a loan deal will be agreed at some point.

The stadium news was as disappointing as it was predictable. If the banks won't give these fools anymore money then surely their game is up? If they can't borrow to build the stadium, and don't have the cash to fund it either, then their project is dead in the water. They have no chance of getting the £1billion Hicks wants without a complete stadium. I hope this all hastens their departure and the arrival of DIC and the Sheikh.

Sub standard

0-0 last night and a terrible game. We were shit. Pepe was one of the few to take any credit out of the match by saving a peno. We looked slow, sloppy and nervy. We can and will have to play much much better than that against Sunderland and in the second leg against Liege.

This is Anfield continue their excellent Kop Star series with a feature on Gerardo Bruna. The new Messi? Read it to find out but I'll give you a hint: probably not.

Reports in Germany suggest that we're after Dortmunds Polish right winger Jakub Blaszczykowski and we're going to bid €8m for him. I can't say that I know much about him.

Xabi played last night which surely means that he's staying now. Only a team outside the champions league would be interested in him now and there aren't too many of those who could afford him. Looks like Barry deal is dead too. He played for Villa in the Uefa cup tonight so I can't see him signing for us anytime before next summer. I reckon our business for the summer could be done as a result of this.

The BBC give a run down of our new signings here. Will there be one more before the end of the window? There's been rumours of a Joe Cole bid this week. While I think he'd be a good addition, I can't see a scenario where Chelsea would let him join us. As with most transfer stories in the summer, it's probably bullshit.

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.

A sign of things to come?

I must admit that I only saw highlights of the friendlies seeing as I don't have channel 5. The first of our two matches this week was a 2-1 victory over FC Lucerne with goals from Lucas and Voronin. Lucas was happy with his goal and reckons that we can expect more of them from him this year as he plays more of an attacking role this year. It was a great pass by Pacheco to set up Lucas. I know he's only 17 and has a bright future but can we expect Pacheco to make an impact at senior level this season? I think we might see him in the carling cup and maybe in the FA cup if we get another handy draw.

The second match was a 1-1 draw with Wisla Krakow and we'll face Hertha Berlin next. Gerrad has a strain so he didn't take part and went back to Melwood for treatment but Dossena made his debut in the red shirt. Voronin got the only goal. We've surrendered our 100% record for the season.

All is lost and woe is us now our 100% pre season record has gone up in smoke. We'll be lucky to make the inter toto cup. Very lucky considering it's being scrapped. Fingers crossed that we can avoid relegation and finish 17th ahead of Stoke, Hull and West Brom.

Scott Carson has competed a move to West Brom rather than the anticipated move to Stoke or Boro. I hope it goes well for the lad but it has to be said that Parry and Rafa did a great job making a massive profit on him. All goes back into the transfer fund, hopefully. The more cynical among us might suggest it goes on dividends to our directors.

Despite his flurry of goals pre season, it looks like Voronin could be on his way out of Anfield. I don't think that he's of the standard required so I would be happy enough to see us make a few million profit from him, considering that he was signed for free last summer. Hamburg and Olympiacos are the clubs being linked with him at the moment.

Rafa was impressed with Dossena on his debut against Wisla. Dirk is impressed with the impact of Pacheco and the other youngsters this pre season. Another youngster, Adam Hammill has gone to Blackpool on loan. With the skills like these displayed by him in Scotland, I can see him being a success for the Seasiders in the championship. Given the fact that he's signed a new 3 year deal, it's clear to se he's a bright future with the club.

Some reports in France and the UK are linking us with David Ngog. He's refused to sign a new deal at PSG and is supposed to be available for around £1.5m. Can't say that I know much about him, beyond the fact he's a 19 year old forward at PSG. Here he is in action. If this deal goes ahead, as looks likely now, maybe we'll see a triple unveiling at Rafa's press conference later this week. Barry, Keane and Ngog would be a healthy boost heading into August. I think that everybody concerned is sick of the Barry deal and wants it over. The Robbie Keane one seems much more straight forward and should be done this week by all accounts. Being Irish, I'm happy to see one of our top players switch to Anfield. If the fee is a speculated £15m + a possible £5m if we win the league then it's good business for a proven premiership player. I can see him doing well with El Nino.

Until next time.

Home finale

I'm very late with my post this week. The weather in Dublin has been great and I got a bit distracted by the sunshine and sights of the city. Maybe my passion for football was drained somewhat by the champions league exit. This is the first time that our season has been effectively over by the end of April under Rafa. Hopefully it won't happen again.
The city match was our last game at Anfield this season. As is the case on these days, the players take their families with them on a lap of the pitch. The funniest part of the day was seeing the two young Carraghers chase each other from end to end. With that kind of work rate and courage, I say stick them in the first team next season, alongside their Dad. The team of Carraghers that we all dream of may not be that far away.

The game itself was nothing spectacular. We played some nice football in the second half and could have scored a couple more. Kuyt was unlucky to hit the bar. Babel could have helped himself to a few. Hart made a great save from a Gerrard strike. When it did come it was courtesy of Torres. He latched onto Dirks flick and beat the defender before slipping it between the keepers legs. Another Fernando classic. That makes it 23 in the league now. Not bad for a player who was said to be unprolific. It was good to see Insua get his chance at left back.

It's Spurs at White Heart Lane this Sunday. Niether team have anything much to play for so I expect it to be fairly drab, as the city game was. We may get to see some more of the youngsters which might make it worth watching. It would be great to see Nemeth get a few mins after the class he's shown with the reserves this season.

Gary Ablett's reserve side won the league final 3-0 against Villa. It's a great result for them and is even more pleasing given the fact that they are such a young team. We've seen Insua, Lucas and Plessis make first team appearances this year and maybe we'll see Nemeth

We've launched a £10m bid for Gareth Barry according to to the liverpool post, but we're facing competition from Arsenal who're trying to replace Flamini. Crouch may go the other way but wages are an issue. Does Barry mean that Xabi is on his way back to eSpain, or maybe Italy? One website has him linked with a move to Juve. But Rafa says that Xabi's going nowhere. Rafa's going to have to add to the back room staff as Alex Miller is off to Japan. Sammy Lee is the front runner at the moment.

We are being linked with a move for Aaron Ramsey of Cardiff. Steve Claridge is a fan but he's an idiot so I wouldn't take much notice of that. Spurs and Utd are after him too apparently. We tried to sign him for £1m last summer but no dice. A young Polish defender called Lukasz Kominiak has been on trial with the club for the last few days. Rafa does love to sign a few 18 year old centre halves every summer.

This is a fairly shameful story, but it's hardly surprising at this stage. I always liked Pongolle and I think that he could have been a good squad player and impact sub for us. But he wanted to play every week and has done really well for Recreativo Huelva over the past two years and is linked to a move to Valencia and Atletico. On this evidence, I doubt he'll be choosing Atletico.

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.