genghis

exactly - it's not rocket surgery. In fact it's incredibly easy to see why Rafa is going for him - it's winger who knows how to defend & tackle. You'll notice that (Moro aside ) pretty much every player Rafa has signed is aggressive with a high workrate - from front to back in the team. It's just what he did at Valencia, and fits in with his "winning machine" strategy - no passengers, no lightweights.

Kuyt is moving I hope those quotes in the press are setting the stage for his move, in a 'I'm not allowed to name LFC just yet, but I'm deffo going there" kind of way. If they are instead a "I'll go wherever there's the most money" code then he's not coming. In fact I have a nasty feeling (rumour) that the second interpretation is right, and Rafa will blow him out. Never good when a player says "I'll talk to my agent" rather than "I'll talk to my family". Implies he wants to know who's got the fattest wallet.

what he said. The lowest. Oh and as an aside, the press and all the other teams really needed another excuse to stick the "thieving scallies" tag on us again. F**kers.

Nope, he's one of those players who falls over if the wind blows too hard from the side, or someone looks at him funny.

Alright mate - I reckon it's why we went out of Yerp last season - we failed to watch either leg of Benfica pissed somewhere together! I moved across London is why I've not been hanging out in the delights of W5, but I'm sure we can sort summat out...even if it's just another fr*gging Walkabout Yeah, actually I guess that's more accurate than what I said - but I don't want to count chickens etc. Especially not ones that are merely smoking. This summer I'm only counting actual chickens that are on fire. That's where Rafa is heading: burning poultry (tries to find emoticon of a chicken on fire...fails...)

good to be back, yer old fart Don't tell anyone but I've landed a gig as a football journo for the summer (World Cuppage), so might get some interesting tidbits from decent sources. I will of course reveal almost nothing, and smatter ;)s everywhere. Wouldn't want to break the habit of a lifetime

:D LMFAO!

no idea what happened there mate! Just added a simple bit of italics and suddenly it's READING GLASSES PRINT EVERYWHERE

true But since the Raffa turned up, I find it very hard to feel worried about things. The man is a f'ckin' genius, and having shown it on the pitch for 2 seasons, this summer he's going to show it off the pitch too.

There seems to be a lot of smoke this year, and hopefully a big handful of fires making it. In the fantasy world where most of the signings come off, we might be looking at adding Bellamy, Kuyt, Alves and Aurelio/Areola (the left-back who sounds like a breast, replacing Djimi who just often plays like a t*t). With one of the meanest young S.American defenders already snagged, and hopefully Snr Gonzalez clearing his arrival too, we will have signed a whole host of hard-working, tough-nut, skilful and/or fast players all over the pitch. I'm not going to totally start the mockers, but if we get five of those six, then next season may produce something very special indeed. A something that we've been waiting a decade and a half for. F'ck me, this is a great time to be a Liverpool supporter - even when there's nothing happening at all, we're still dead exciting to follow

sorry mate, can't agree with that. saviola has 'will make Smicer look like Souness' written all over him, whereas Aimar actually is a tough little b*stard. I think Javier is destined to look good in a less physical league. File under "Riquelme".

Sorry Knox it was only an idle thought that crossed my mind - that last summer I'd come round to the idea of buying AJ for pretty much CB's price now...and much though I like Johnson, I think Bellamy is much more of a player. As many have said here, nobody seems to like playing against him much, he's a 90 minute problem for oppo defenders. Of course if he gets in front of the Raffa and acts the t*** / manages to scupper the deal than he's just a twunt of the highest order and not fit for our club

a question for the Bellamy nay-sayers - who would you rather have Andy Johnson for £8.5m or Bellamy for £6m? THAT is a no-brainer for me, not just on price (duh) but also that Bellamy has been doing it at this level for longer, and is clearly technically more skilful. But yes, he is a Kuynt

Not really related to the docu' but near the end, love seeing one of my fave banners "Shankly laid the foundations, paisley built the house now Rafa's doing the garden"

Aye, a bad drug. That's free, but painful to try and get hold of. With no proper high. And unsatisfying. And leaves you immediately looking for the next hit. Side effects: makes every bell-end think they are a better judge of players than the Rafatollah. Makes people actually believe what they read in tabloids. Makes otherwise sensible posters write utter bollecks on here.

Shearer circa '96. Buy. Now. Some comments: unlike Djibs highlight reel 90% of DK's goals aren't sprinting through onto through/long balls. Quite a few of them involved beating a defender's challenge with strength and aggression. Like it. And he deffo know how to head, which we need. He could still be a Kezman, but I don't think so - the thing that reminds me of shearer is that DK t***s the ball extremely hard and accurately (it seems). Especially like one of the finished in there that's pure Van Basten (!!!!) - lobbed ball over the top, shrugs defender off him, then volleys it hard from a tight angle on the right into the top left corner. Yum.

that may be true of the goal-scoring wonder-midget, but sadly this isn't.

What they said.

Apart from hating them with a passion, does anyone *really* care how rich Chelsea are? Do you think Chavski's fans feel better about their two plastic league titles than we did about Istanbul? No, because with virtually infinite wealth you are expected to win everything, whereas we are being run like a normal football club, which means we *hope* to win everything, but start from about the same point as all the other clubs in the league, bar the Russian's. Where is the *achievement* in what the Chavs win? We have been in two of the best finals ever since Chelsea got their sugar-daddy, moreso because of the adversity we've faced in reaching them, and during them. Sure, we'd like to have more cash to buy some of 'missing pieces' for our squad, but it's overcoming a challenge that makes football enjoyable. Chelsea have no challenge, only expectation. They are the sad kid who gets cheat codes for their video games. They are competitive dad, acting out victories against his kids. They are pathetic.

Defoe - might become good enough Bent - one-season wonder I suspect. Michael Ricketts anyone? Bellamy - good enough for us now, but dunno if he's good enough for where we want to be. Crespo, Henry, Shevchenko (?), RvN, Bellamy. Spot the odd one out. Kuyt may well be good enough, but I know next to nothing about him. A tougher RvN would be great, but a slower Kezman less so As in all things, I suspect Rafa will have planned carefully for pretty much all eventualities (and budgets) and most likely it will work out well. If we finish this season 20 points better off than last, and then do the same again next season we'll be making 19-5 flags this time next year.

LMFAO

Not harsh enough. If only there was a way for him to be dead twice.

Burn Anny Road as a witch! Burn Gilps as an even scarier witch! Calamity Maud shall escape the burnings for calling the score the wrong way round! Instead they will be drowned!

Ahthankyou.

I don't think Luton will last 20 more mins. They have run their knackers off.