Phil236849

you have to say that carra must be one of the soundest fellas to play for our wonderful club. and perhaps has the best chances of staying with our club for the longest time...?

all points noted, but i was alluding to the slightly hysterical hostility directed at other clubs regarding transfers. sometimes we are trying to nick one of the other team's best players, and seem to suggest that team should be grateful to receive the guy who's been our main scapegoat in the last year in exchange! here the swap, with a possible cash adjustment from us (bearing in mind the buying out of contract is not as easy as some would like) seems fair.

is it me or has the common perception of warnock risen from limited defender (bad positioning, unexceptional going forward, only chosen cause he's local) to top england prospect, or even international as the echo states, overnight?

might malbranque be the wide man that they have decided to sign? and harry can be added to the long list of stars they have nearly signed

i suspect he'll get paid off before the season ends. no point in having him hang round really. take another 52 weeks off big sal.

plus, if he's on, say 40k a week now, around 2m a year, what's he going to get on next contract. probably about 10k? so say 500k for next, say, 2-3 years (who's going to gamble on him when he hasnt played for 2 years and has failed a medical?). so it may be the money he would lose would take him the last few years of his prof.al life to recover, and there must be a doubt as to whether he'll get any more. if we're talking about moral obligations, the point is of course that lyon should come storming in with a 3m offer, a 30k a week 4 year deal, they get the next vieira, and we're all happy!

Times says we have offered a trial to an outstanding finnish 14 year old called lauri dalla valle who was previously at inter milan but failed to settle

they're not bargain basement but if you consider we are competing domestically with chelsea and man yoo and to a certain extent @rsenal, the price per player is often lower than what our rivals are shelling out. it's a pretty canny few months of activity. parry in!

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quote from stevie in today's echo suggests that account of his relationship with rafa is not far from the truth... : "I did not imagine I could score that many goals. As a midfielder your main target is to get into double figures each season. I hit that point very early in the season and Rafa told me he wanted 25. "I got a couple in the FA Cup final and finished just two short of his target for me. I hope he didn't think I was a failure.

david burrows. ok defensively, very poor on the ball. or worse - steve harkness

the thing that's annoying about andy gray's analysis, is that it is so sensationalistic, tabloidy and so shallow. once he'd got his headline material for liverpool won't be top 3, there's nothing to that piece. he could have analysed the challenges faced by arsenal, man yoo, chelsea. i think the irritating thing is most of us could do a thought-provoking, interesting column far better. put bluntly, he's a sunday sport journalist

viduka racing onto a through ball

A while ago I got a framed copy of a picture I have always loved called "storm over anfield", a black and white copy of a rain/windswept anfield on a european (i think) night. When we moved house, my missus cunningly said there was no wall space for my picture. I have just put it up in my office and it looks awesome. It was very pleasurable showing the resident chelsea fan - in life, we have to make the most of all our small petty moments of victory! Just had to share that with some like-minded folk

kids and reserves to the extent possible. how bout at a wild guess carson peltier/kromkamp paletta hobbs traore anderson zenden alonso/gerrard (half each) riise crouch (bellamy ht) fowler ps, before anyone beats me to it, you can ignore my predictions: "Benitez is expected to field a strong starting eleven, with Steven Gerrard, Peter Crouch and Jamie Carragher playing for at least an hour. Xabi Alonso is also in line to make his first appearance of the season after recovering from an ankle injury. Daniel Agger is also suffering with an ankle problem, which has kept him out the warm-up games, but may be involved. Fabio Aurelio has a calf strain, and Robbie Fowler is hoping to shake off a minor knee problem."

Heysel was an event of its time, wasn't it. "Trouble" followed football both domestically and internationally and the authorities did not know how to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, at best not controlling the problem, at worst exacerbating it. and you get a decision to hold the match in a relic of a stadium. yes, the club has to take its share of responsibility, but we struggle to see how that trouble was any worse than what was going on elsewhere. the deaths were primarily due to disaster rather than direct violence. heysel, hillsborough, bradford etc showed how sick and neglected the game had become, domestically how thatcher's approach failed, and how the game needed and warranted some sensible thinking about how to make it safer. it must be said, we have come a long way in a short space of time. the worst change in that period, even though it half-benefits us, is that the distribution of money has become too unequal, thus making competitions too predictable. when will we next see ipswich, aston villa, nottingham forest, norwich, everton etc all vying for top honours

it'll be the kids tomorrow i think

1. Do you agree that, in general terms, it is often the case that players are not at their peak form or fitness before the start of the competitive games, and that these factors normally improve as the competitive season progresses? 2. In this instance, other than what you've seen in pre-season friendlies, what other evidence do you rely on to judge fitness levels?

players are always rusty this time of the pre-season, that's why i always get nervy in these vital qualifiers particularly if the other team's any good. we've been lucky to draw some no-hopers in the past but i think the israelis will not be useless even if we remain clear favourites the traditional half-baked fitness level is exacerbated by the world cup. so make that quarter-baked for some. yes, we should still do it, yes, i am sure our management are alive to these problems, but am i sweaty? of course, because clearly however good our management are, the players will not be as fit as we'd like for an important match...

i'm not. i dreamt last night i had gone practically bald with a charlton comb-over. orrible it was

that our squad is a little half-baked in fitness going into the champions league qualifier? or are we all confident it'll be alright on the night...?

best colemanball was that muppet interviewing digger before the match who said after they'd been talking about the new south americans, that one of the most important signings is in fact an englishman. well, a welshman. well, a british player, ha ha ha. nob! for once, i suspect the english watching would not wish to take national credit for the player in question...! ps its bellers

any injuries please (not)

any more news on the reina injury?

and latest reports suggest ferguson is making an £8m swoop for Djimi Traore