Baggies burst

A 2-0 over the baggies marked their demise from the league and an end to our away campaign with just the spurs match to go. West Brom were clearly more "up for it" than we were and started the match at a ferocious pace. Not surprising given they were fighting for their lives. It took us a while to get up so speed but a gift from the home defence allowed Gerrard to pounce and score yet another league goal. It got easier after that. Dirk added the second after a fine pass from Stevie. Dirk has been in superb form this year and this was his 12th goal, equalling his best ever league haul. Even more impressive is the fact that they've all been from open play. Dirka dirka. Lucas put in a good shift in the middle with Xabi starting on the bench. When Javier came off injured the basque took his spot.

The fact that Utd had wrapped up the league yesterday did make this something of a damp squib. Arsenal took points from them but alas it was too late to matter. This did have the feel of a dead rubber but with Chelsea winning we had to make sure of second and the extra cash that we'll receive for it. Second place gets 30% of champions league revenue while third place only gets 15%. Big difference.

Carra explained that his bust up with Arbeloa was over trying to keep a clean sheet, with the aim of securing yet another golden gloves award for Pepe. Some people might be pissed off with it but it never bothers me seeing players have a go at each other. He shouldn't have raised his hands as he could've been sent off but I've no problem with keeping high standards through fear. Keane used to regularly bollock players at Utd, Gary Neville was on the end of one particularly savage tirade. It's been a great week for Steven Gerrard who was named Footballer of the year, the first Liverpool player to win the award since John Barnes in 1990. Here he is celebrating the 4-1 win at Old Toilet this season. He said in an interview today that he's matured in recent years and it's been obvious this year. He does appear less selfish now. His conversion to an attacking midfielder has helped to make the most of his qualities. John Giles said he was a worthy winner of the award. Much better choice than Giggs who won the PFA award despite barely playing or scoring. His 16 goals and 9 assists are a fantastic return. If only himself and Torres had been able to start a few more games. 13 starts together wasn't nearly enough.

Piet Hamburg is leaving the Academy this summer. This has been expected for a while as he seems to have been Rick Parrys man. He will be succeeded by Jose Segura who previously worked at the Barcelona academy. In other staff related news, Rafa has been praising Sammy lee saying he is close to perfect as a number 2. Is that because he no longer has ambition to be a boss after his failed attempt at Bolton?

Dossena is returning to Italy with Milan the likely venue according to channel 4. David Silva's agent says that there is interest from clubs and there are reports that we've offered £15m for the Valencia winger. Xabi's agent says he's going nowhere which must come as a great relief to us all. I still fear that he might be off if we receive a massive offer from Real Madrid or somebody else. Hope I'm wrong. Cadiz youngster Jesus "Suso" Fernandez is on his way to Anfield for talks according to the Mirror.

How would you feel about going to watch a match in the Carlsberg stadium on Stanley Park? While there might be emotional issues surrounding naming rights, the financial reality of our predicament means that we're going to have to sign up some partner for the stadium. Carlsberg have been decent over the years and wouldn't be a bad choice. Given the international money markets, it's a moot point at the moment.

Rafa's goose is cooked?

I wasn't in a very festive mood on Sunday after the match. Again it was a case of us playing quite well and having most of the possession. But Utd got the first goal and their defense did really well in the second half. They did have to clear off the line and Tores and Babel put the ball narrowly wide but overall, they coped with us quite well. While it was an exciting game, it wasn't amazing football and both teams made a lot of unforced errors.

The press seem to think that our title challenge is now over. I wouldn't concede defeat this early but it's not looking good. Taking two points from our three matches at home against the other contenders isn't good enough. I don't see us getting too many points in the reverse fixtures, with the possible exception of Chelsea at the bridge. While it's possible that we could go on a fantastic run for the rest of the season, I would be surprised if both Arsenal and Utd will drop sufficient points while we don't drop any more. I can see us closing the gap but not overtaking both teams. Having Agger and Alonso soon back will be a great boost as we've missed them all season.

Our thoughts now turn to Chelsea away in the cup tomorrow. Given that both teams suffered a defeat on Sunday, they'll want to win this but it is the Carling cup which is bottom of the priorities. I expect that it will be a case of half and half between first teamers and reserves. I can't say that I'm too excited either way. I'll be happy enough if we win but it's no disaster to lose this one.

It now looks like we will be getting a new stadium, but not the one that was unveiled during the summer. I think that this is quite an embarrassing climbdown. If we still get a 70000 stadium at a cheaper price then it won't be too bad but I reckon it's going to be an identikit bowl rather than the unique design that we were shown only a few months back. On the upside, Rafa had a meeting with the board on Sunday evening and it went well by all accounts. I know expect him to get a few quid for a defender in Jan.

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.

Go Liverpool Reds!

Well the takeover has finally happened. It's taken three years of false dawns and broken deals but we got there in the end. I am quite happy with the way it's turned out. I listened to the press conference given by Gillett, Hicks and Parry on Tuesday. It was very informative and I would reccommend listening to it, I think it's still available on the official site. The two men seem very passionate about sport and said all of the right things, bar "franchise" and "liverpool reds". I'm sure that some of this is spin but I am cautiously optimistic about the future. The Canadian and American fans of their teams seem quite happy with their ownership.

They said that they will respect our traditions and they've kept on Rick Parry in his current role and David Moores has been made honorary life Predident. I like both of them even though they have made mistakes over the past few years. One area that I expect to change is our commercial division. The marketing and merchandise sectors have huge room for improvement. We've been lagging behind Utd, Real and others in this regard for years.

The securing of the stadium is the most important aspect of the takeover in my view. It's essential that we move into a larger and more modern stadium. Otherwise we'll be left far behind the other big English clubs. The capacity will be around 61,000 but more imortantly it will have vast amounts of corporate boxes and facilities. Anfield has barely any of these facilities. Arsenal make as much money from corporate boxes at the emirates as they do from regular seets. Work should start on the new stadium within the next month or two. It sounds like the naming rights will be sold which is fine by me. Arsenal got a great deal for the Emirates and the Americans have experience of negotiating these kinds of deals.

I would imagine that there will be a fair ammount of money spent in the summer. The new owners kept away from saying we're going to spend £Xm this summer and rightly so. If they splash figures about a war chest over the media then we'll be ripped off left, right and centre. As to who will our targets be, I don't have a clue. If I were to make a wild guess I would say a top class left winger (Vicente, Ribery or Silva), maybe a right winger/right back like Dani Alves, a left back (Bale?) and a striker, maybe David Villa who Rafa tried to sign before he went to Valencia. Doubt that we'll get all of those but I would imagine that we'll make bids for some of them. Don't shoot me if none of these happen.