beejay

The first task to me is to make sure we do the same things that last year took us to our record premiership points tally. We did this by having consistent runs of clean sheets and wins to the extent that not only did we expect to win but the opposition thought so too. Our main weaknesses last year were not scoring enough and failing to beat our closest rivals (1 win, 1 draw and 4 league defeats against chelsea, manu & arsenal). Rafa seems to me to be trying to introduce more pace into the team so we can finish teams off - we had to cling on to too many 1-0's last year when the chances we created should have seen us run out easy 2 or 3-0 winners. The bench will also be pretty strong this year with more options for tactical change. I would be well happy to hear the press giving us a hard time as being clinical & ruthless as we put a stranglehold on the opposition and grind out wins. Then once we come to the big games to play without fear and take our chances. We have a tough first month so we need a bit of luck to kick us off.

Start packing jimmy

Diao Traore Potter Warnock Dudek Le Tallec Pongolle Kromkamp are all dispensable IMO. The first 3 should definitely be sold or released and the others if the fee is right, to reduce the squad and allow Rafa to bring in his own signings.

... because we already have Kewell and Gonzalez for the left spot. And despite speculation I dont think we will sell Kewell, and we cant whilst he's injured.

How bout this then, they're both as bad as each other. Except Traore has a Champions League Winners Medal under his belt. Was Boumsong in the Euro 2000 for France in order for that point not to be completely obliterated.

This thread should be merged with the one about the 5 graduates to melwood. Hammill & Peltier have also been promoted to Melwood and the new U-17s in the Academy are very highly rated.

The lad who impressed me most was Charlie Barnett - is he younger than the rest? If not, I'm surprised he isn't moving up to the ressies. We have some seriously good kids on our books. Some of them will make it no question.

The Prentice article confirms we have made an offer, so we are interested. It also says Feyenoord will have to lower their price. And Kuyt has been allowed a few days off to consider his position. Reading between the lines, we are in negotiations but no deal has yet been agreed.

On the beeb now Kuyt ready to decide his future Kuyt has been linked with several Premiership clubs Feyenoord striker Dirk Kuyt is poised to finally decide his future after being linked with a move to Liverpool. Kuyt, 25, has asked for time off to make a final decision on whether to quit the club, and recently revealed Liverpool had made an approach. Holland's £10m-rated World Cup star has also been a target for Newcastle. He told Dutch sports paper AD Sportwereld: "I have an arrangement with coach Erwin Koeman that I can take some days to think about my future." Liverpool's move for Kuyt appears to depend on whether they can clinch a deal for Sevilla's Brazilian right-sided player Daniel Alves. Sevilla are demanding £12m, which would virtually exhaust manager Rafael Benitez's transfer budget. If he pulls out of a move and switches attention to Birmingham City's Jermaine Pennant, he could thenhave enough cash to fund a move for Kuyt. Kuyt said recently: "The Feyenoord president has informed me of a new approach from last year's European champions. "I am happy at Feyenoord but would like to play in the Premier League." He added: "Last year that was close to happening so for now I prefer to concentrate only on the World Cup because my hopes could be soured again." The Dutchman, who is under contract until 2009, has scored 71 goals in 101 games for Feyenoord but has consistently been priced out of a move by his club. He said: "It is out of my hands. I have several opportunities but it is now down to Feyenoord." The forward began his career at FC Utrecht in 1998 before moving to Feyenoord in 2003.

I'm surprised one of the promoted sides hasn't gone for Traore or Warnock - Premiership experience, still young and fairly cheap.

Looks like the price is coming down Bolton ready to make bid for TraoreJul 14 2006 By Nick Smith, Daily Post BOLTON Wanderers are lining up a bid for Djimi Traore. The out-of-favour left back has been told by manager Rafael Benitez that he can leave for the right price in a bid to generate more transfer funds. And after missing out on Didi Hamann when he decided to go to Manchester City yesterday, Bolton manager Sam Allardyce is ready to swoop on Anfield again, with a bid in the region of £1million.

He was another of the cult heroes - could bring the crowd to their feet with a stunning long-legged slide tackle to whip the ball away from the striker's feet just as he was about to shoot...then 5 mins later, the ball bounces off his knee to put the striker through on goal. That's Djimi for you. Whenever he played you feared a catastrophic error but he also produced some astonishing recovery tackles. We need more consistency than the likes of Biscan, Smicer & Traore (& Morientes, Cisse) could ever provide and as much as we can applaud their individual moments of excellence, we needed to move them on and Parry/Rafa are doing a good job so far.

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Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off

The presumption is that we are clearing the decks for a big summer spend but 2 of the main money-spinners are dependant on fitness & form in 6 months ie £10m or so from Cisse & Kirkland will only be available for sure by December. Could well mean that we will be cautious now with c. £10m for alves or bent and look to strengthen again in the January transfer window?

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I think the same aswell sabre, his touch was great, very good one on one and hi crossing was very accurate too, just didnt have any targets

Alves/Pennant deals are on hold for 2 reasons probably. 1. The Italian judicial inquiry - decision is Monday? If Juventus, Milan etc are relegated and players like Zambrotta become available cut-price then Rafa may want to dip into this market. 2. We still need to shift some of our dead wood. If we are £2-3m short on agreeing deals for alves/pennant, Rafa will want to know how much money is available after sales of Traore/Kirkland/Warnock/Dudek/Barragan etc and Cisse/Diao etc off the wages. It's Rafa/Parry who have stalled on the negotiations - it's not just brinkmanship it's getting all their ducks in line.

Loving Cisse's Pimp stick there lol

Maradona in the crowd again I see

Basically..... yeah How could he not get England into 3 major tournaments with the squad of players at his disposal At Lazio was given millions upon millions to win a single championship done anything else has he...

Or even Heskey or Anelka? Hmmmm

Is right. Rafa has the same problem Sven had in picking a balanced team to get the best out of key individuals. Difference is that Rafa is a f***in genius while Sven is an utter tw*t

That isnt an injury scare, its a heaven sent