beejay

That ref Atkinson was f****awful for the arsenal league cup game. Gave them every decision going. I was hoping we wouldn't get him again let alone for a tough away game like this

Think that's come from an earlier Mihir Bose report. So it depends whether you think he is of the lazy journalist, no-nothing manc troublemaker camp or perhaps he has some actual information.

Having Kewell & Sissoko back will be like having 2 big signings. We have brought in several kids and it would be great if 1 or 2 of these (or Hammill, Anderson, Lingfield) is in 1st team contention by the start of next season. Mascherano, full back cover and a ball carrying midfielder would do us I reckon. Maybe another striker if Rafa decides Robbie can't go on for another season.

Kuyt is one of the first names on the team sheet. He's very consistent, a team player, works hard and an intelligent player in that he sees things early. A Rafa player for sure. He gives us the tactical advantage of a striker who can also drop into midfield to create as well as score goals and one who presses all over the pitch. When Alonso was off the field having stitches, it was Kuyt who went into midfield and almost did a man-to-man marking job on Lampard. Rafa has spoken of having his spine in place and Dirk is one of his go-to players like Reina, Finnan, Carra, Agger, Alonso, Gerrard, Sissoko and if he's fit, Kewell.

It does seem to be the case that this transfer window is all about plugging gaps in the squad rather than pushing the boat out for our top targets to take us onto a new level. A few promising kids and a couple of good players on loan with an option to buy or (as in Neil's case) a straight swap means no big money spent and just a bit of wheeler-dealing by Rafa to take us through to the end of the season. We can't get away from the fact that the DIC takeover will change everything - next summer's transfer window will be totally different if as & when the takeover goes through.

Ayala was still an awesome defender last year but has had his injuries since. He's also yet another Argentinian! BTW, anyone see Upson's performance last night? Tremendous display and all those who say he is not Premiership quality are talking out their a**

Neill won't sign for us now by the looks of it. Hey Kev, how concerned are you now?

All this stuff may allow Mourinho to circle the wagons around him and his team under the old siege mentality ploy. Very dangerous for us to imagine they will suddenly become a soft touch.

First manager to go on the p*ss with the fans before a big game

We all seem to agree that we are lacking 1 maybe 2 top class ball carrying forwards to add the fluidity to our play around the opposition box. But there are very few options and they come at one hell of a premium. Ribery, Navas/Alves, Quaresmo, SWP? Or Duff/Kewell and hope when 1 is injured the other is fit? Or is there any chance that Adam Hamill will develop into a McManaman? Pennant is doing OK at the moment but not convinced he has enough goal threat, strength or consistency to be the long term solution.

The Post this morning are saying there is a board meeting today to accept the offer and the deal will then go through next week - allegedly.

Exactly - ManU lost to f***in Southend, why is that less of an embarrassment?

It's noticeable that he is also playing with a smile on his face. Seems to be making a conscious effort to cast off the problem player image and to show his enjoyment more. He doesn't get involved in spats off the ball and although he still has a rant when given offside or for fouls, he is more likely now to put his arm round the ref and show some remorse for an outburst. In short, I think he has matured and is desperate for success with us.

BBC gossip page Spurs and Bolton will battle it out for Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse, who is on loan at Marseille. (News of the World) West Ham hope to lure Mark Viduka from Middlesbrough by offering under-fire skipper Nigel Reo-Coker in part exchange. (People) That deal is dead as the Australian does not want to swap life in Yorkshire for London - which has alerted Everton, Newcastle and Liverpool. (NotW) Liverpool will off-load midfielder Darren Potter to Wolves and defender Gabriel Paletta on loan to Gimnastic in Spain. (Daily Mail) Blackburn defender Lucas Neill will seal a move to Liverpool this week, with Stephen Warnock moving in the other direction. (The People) Manchester United have won the race to sign Southampton's Gareth Bale and will clinch an £8m summer deal. (Mirror) Gabriel Heinze admits his United career is over. Inter Milan, Juventus, PSG and Valencia are interested. (NotW) Aston Villa are set to offer £12m for Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy in an effort to stop their slump. (NotW)

After the Parry interview an Express reporter gave his "insights". Reckoned that Rafa turned down Madrid because he was given promises about funding ; most were surprised that we didn't then buy big and Benitez made some bad buys (Bellamy hasn't worked out, Pennant has been poor and before that Morientes was no good) ; the manager criticising the board & chief exec could only mean there were tensions because the money had not been forthcoming as promised ; and usually the only outcome is for the manager to go but the difference here is that the takeover will mean a new board so Benitez's comments are designed to appeal to the new people not to make the same mistakes as Moores & Parry.

Here also Takeover of Liverpool 'imminent' Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry says he expects the club's takeover by Dubai International Capital to be completed "relatively quickly". "A huge amount of work has been going on, we'll have something to say soon," he told BBC Five Live's Sportsweek. "Yes, the deal is looking positive and yes, I'm confident it will go through. This will take us to the next level. "But it's not a quick fix, a rich man's plaything. It's a long-term model for success, based around the new stadium." DIC, the investment arm of Dubai's government, has been in talks with the Anfield club for the past six weeks about a possible buy-out. We may sign players before the transfer window shuts. We are working hard on a few things Chief executive Rick Parry Parry says the time the group has spent at the club has been beneficial to both parties. "Over the past month or so they have had a team of people here, working around the clock," added Parry. "They have been on a real learning curve because football is slightly different to the other businesses they might be involved in. "It helps that most of the key people we've been dealing with are Liverpool supporters so they know what we're all about. "It's now a case of finalising the due diligence and pulling everything together, which we hope will be completed relatively quickly." Meanwhile, Parry says Liverpool are in talks about adding to their squad in the January transfer window after two humiliating cup defeats by Arsenal last week. "You have to have priorities and ours are to invest in the first team, which we have done with substantial sums in the past three years," said Parry. "We may sign players before the transfer widow shuts. "We are working hard on a few things at the moment and we will reveal everything once it is all sorted out." Parry also confirmed that manager Rafael Benitez turned down the chance to join Real Madrid last summer because of his commitment to the Reds. "In the summer Rafa rejected the chance to move to Real, which was a big, big temptation for him," revealed Parry. "It was all pretty serious. Real is his club, he was there as a player and as a coach too and it would always be an opportunity he would have to consider. "But he enjoys being at Liverpool and he believed in the direction we are taking and he is passionate about that too." Some interesting titbits there...

Somehow it seems to have escaped the media love-in of arsenal's wunderkids that we won the youth cup last year and are making a great job of defending our title. With all the activity in bringing in lads like Leto and the Swedish kid maybe we should be more optimistic about the next generation. Fantastic result for Steve Heighway and the boys, now let's do the same next Saturday

Can't believe some saying aurelio is gash, he had an excellent game and his passing from left back gives us a different dimension. Thought he played well against arsenal too. I really like the look of him and he gets stuck in as well.

That is sooo true

Well, OK but our load of sh*te put 3 past them, hit the underside of the bar, had 1 offside and 2 defo penalties refused. Our dodgy keeper also gifted them goals while theirs had a blinder. Oh and by the way, who won the Youth Cup last season with a record number of goals scored on the way? We made them look immense through our deficiencies in defence with a £15m striker taking full advantage.

Wholesale changes in defence always spells trouble but we may have got away with it were it not for the dodgy keeper. Jerzy produced the performance of his lifetime when it mattered most in Istanbul and will always deserve our respect but he should never play for us again. And the ref was one of the worst ever seen at Anfield

Load of bull most of this thread. We totally dominated the midfield, particularly in centre midfield where Alonso & Gerrard bossed the game. The possession stats must have been better than 60-40 in our favour in the one department Arsenal nearly always excel. If Reina had been in goal and Bennett hadn't ballsed up the blatant penalty at 0-0 we would have won that game. Obviously when we are chasing the game and they have such pace up front they are going to have breakaways but they were surprisingly few because we controlled the play so well and pegged them back in their own last third for most of the 2nd half. We failed to get the tackles in for the 1st 2 goals but it was clear the players had been told to stay on their feet and avoid giving away free kicks on the edge of the box - plus they probably thought we had someone in goal. All this about Momo being a defensive holding midfielder is guff as well - he does most of his closing down high up the pitch and never sits in front of the back 4. Our problem is not in centre midfield, certainly not when Gerrard & Alonso are together, but our left side has been desperately poor this season without Kewell and with Riise in such awful form and it is only in the last few weeks that Pennant has started to perform consistently on the right.

I thought the way round this rule was to take him on loan rather vthan having to appeal to fifa? There are plenty of cases of players going on loan to 2 or 3 clubs in a season including, if I recall correctly, Darren Potter last year - Liverpool, Hearts & Wolves.

Agree that Owen at his best was better than Bellamy as a goalscoring striker but Bellamy has always been a terrific foil for a goalscoring partner and one criticism of St Mikey was that he didn't contribute much to build-up play or linking with team-mates. In other words, Bellamy makes his partner look good (eg Shearer) while the opposite applied to Owen (eg Heskey). I also don't think we have learned how to use Bellamy effectively so far - he needs the ball played early into space whereas at the start of the season we had no tempo to our game and kept playing the ball to him with his back to goal surrounded by defenders. That seems to have changed in recent weeks and I'm sure Rafa has impressed on the team the need to move the ball quickly. That said, I think there is a strong chance that Rafa will want to bring in a new striker if he finds the money has been made available, either in January or the summer. The rumours about Crouch may have some basis in fact after all. I could see Rafa selling Crouch and bringing in Darren Bent who he was clearly chasing hard last summer but couldn't meet the asking price. That sounds more likely to me than off-loading Bellamy.