beejay

A well-sourced article lol. Spurs are signing Luis Garcia from Espanol - the Real Zaragoza player is Sergio Garcia who IMO is a much better player.

This probably needs a thread of its own but it is starting to look as though the deal with Juventus is off and Xabi will stay next season. I'm pretty sure that Rafa wants Barry anyway but losing £15m from his budget is bound to affect his other plans - unless we are not as skint as people are claiming

Looks alright to me!

http://www.ynwa.tv/forum/index.php?showtop...t&p=2102687 Koogan was the 1st to clock the Crespo CV link - closely followed by me

Brummie paper http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/07/02/l...oved-barry-bid/

Shares an agent = Stevie knows there is something in the story

Dave Usher seems to think there is something in the Keane story. Reckons Rafa likes him and the plan would be to have Barry on the left side of a midfield 3 with Gerrard & Mascherano & Keane in a front 3 with Torres & Babel/Kuyt.

I like Downing as well but would much prefer Silva for our left side. If we did buy Downing, it would surely be as a conventional wide player in a 4-4-2 rather than the way we ended last season at 4-3-3. Silva on the other hand is more suited to a fluid role rather than hugging the touchline.

TLW were running a thread yesterday with various posters claiming that we were in for Jimmy Bullard so to hear that Silva might be a target is a massive, massive relief.

We can expect Milner to arrive but he is right-sided not a replacement for Kewell. I can't see us going for Bentley & Milner when we still have Kuyt to play on the right. Riera or Downing are the main left-sided links.

Too late, they've invaded us instead

This morning's papers having us selling Crouch & buying Barry in the next 48 hours (Mirror) and being favourites to land Villa if our owners will stump up the £25m (Times)

Eh? The point is that if all these deals go through we will have spent the sum total of f*** all. Rafa is shuffling his pack. He thinks Barry is a better bet than Alonso; Dossena better than Riise; Milner better than Pennant; next up will be someone who fits in better than Crouch with about £10m as part-payment.

It's called a budget. Don't think £20m is too bad either to be honest. As Rafa says, we have the spine of the team in place but have been lacking in wide positions. With Agger back we are very strong in centre defence, Barry will be a good foil for Gerrard & Mascherano with Lucas in support, Torres is Torres and we can hope for better seasons for both Kuyt & Babel for different reasons. At the end of last season we needed a cover goalie, 2 new full backs, 2 wide players and a striker if Crouch goes. Rafa's wheeler-dealing so far means it looks like we can afford 3 new signings in the £10-15m bracket as well as filling the gaps in the squad. It may still not be enough and it depends on how well the new guys fit in, injuries etc but I think Rafa may feel by the end of the summer he will have put together his best squad with no obvious weaknesses.

Word from the Villa camp is the deal is done for Barry - Crouch + £9m.

Update from the Post as well http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverp...64375-21025972/

At least he's consistent. Did exactly the same to undermine Rafa. Unbelievable really, this is the Liverpool Way copyright T Hicks.

Huh? Are you Ukrainian? Or have I missed something

It's likely that we will have Nos 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 & maybe 10 all available. I would like to see these go to genuine 1st teamers not squad players eg 1 Reina 2 Degen 3 Dossena (if he signs) 6 Barry (ditto) 7 New winger 10 Mascherano

You missed a bit. Itanje, Carson, Alonso, Riise, Finnan, Guthrie, Hobbs, Le Tallec, Kewell also leaving. Sergio Garcia, Milner, David Villa, Rahme arriving. Treble next year

Rafa's list is starting to pan out as : GK : Itanje & Carson out (+£7m) ; Maik Taylor the main target (free). David Martin signed new contract. RB : Philipp Degen main target (free) LB : Riise out (+£5m) ; Andrea Dossena in (-£8m) RW : Pennant out (+£6m) ; James Milner main target (-£7m) CM : Alonso to go (+£15m) ; Gareth Barry in (£-14m). Maybe Michael Johnson as well (-£10m) LM : Kewell gone (free) ; Albert Riera in (-£8m) Strikers : Crouch out (+£10m), Voronin hopefully to follow (+£1m) ; Replacement - ES's "left field" signing with great CV? If so, presumably a veteran so cost minimal. That's very little net expenditure even if we buy Johnson. Rafa must have someone in mind he is saving his big bucks for.

I'm delighted we are linked with Bentley again. Thought we might be ending up with Milner who is much more of a plodder. Bentley is an intelligent player, very good on the ball and versatile. He's also a dead ball specialist which is one aspect of our game that seriously needs improving. If we get Barry & Bentley that's ace as far as I'm concerned. David Villa to replace Crouch and we're laughing

We'll have the best left side in the world... We got Albert Riera, Andrea Dossena, Insua & Aurelioooo

False alarm - the guy's denied it now

TLW poster reckons "a reliable source" tells him Michael Johnson is signing for £9m rising to £12m. Probably b****x but Rafa has been tracking him for ages