We wuz robbed

Where do I start? I had to leave it a few days until I had calmed down before I wrote about the Chelsea match. As you know by now, Rob Syles ruined the match by giving Chelsea a non existent penalty and failing to send off Essien despite showing him two yellows. He's since been demoted. There were numerous other decisions that he messed up on but I'm trying to build a bridge and get over it. The ref robbed us of what would have been a great win over one of our title rivals. The difference between this match and previous season's matches against the top four is that this time we didn't let them back into the match after taking the lead, the ref did.

But before all of that, Torres did this. An awesome goal which had me jumping out of my seat. I thought that he was tidy if unspectacular over the rest of the game but when given the opportunity, he did what we pay him to do. Gerrard found him with a great ball and he took it up to Ben Haim. Nando showed him the ball to draw him in but then turned on the pace to leave him in his wake. Cech advanced but El Nino placed ball inch perfectly inside the far post. Some people have been drawing comparisons with Henry. He has some way to go before he is at that level but the way in which he toyed with Ben Haim and made the finish look easy, does remind me of him to some degree. What a home debut? I don't think that Torres is 100% yet after his ankle injury. This was a great start and I'm hoping that he can build on it against Sunderland.

There were other positives to take from the game. Pennant, again, caused Cole lots of problems on the right wing. His cross to Riise should have resulted in a goal if Riise's touch had of been better. The midfield as a whole played well and Gerrard was superb. They along with the defence closed Chelsea down well and they had no shots on target, bar the peno. Arbeloa had another decent match. I still have some reservations about a right footed left back.

After the boring International friendlies, we will be traveling to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland on Saturday morning. This is going to be a tough away match as we've seen from Sunderland's game's so far. Any team managed by Keane is going to fight for every ball. I wouldn't be surprised to see Crouch start this one.

It looks like Heinze won't be arriving at Anfield. He would have been useful as cover but I for centre half and might have competed for a starting berth at left back but I'm not that disappointed that this isn't happening. The fact that it's pissed Fergie off makes it a worthwhile exercise. I wonder if we'll now go for Chiellini or someone else for that spot? I'd be happy enough to go with who we have and to give Insua a few games at left back.

Check out the look on Slurs face in this clip from MOTD. He can't believe that Tevez missed with a header from a yard out. I really like Tevez but I don't know how the hell he missed that one. Almost as bad as this classic from Forlan. Here's hoping that Spurs can turn them over on Sunday to drop them into the relegation zone.

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.

"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.