Armin_Tamzarian

It will definitely be linked with a sponsor. There's been sufficient preparing of the ground including the 'if stadium sponsorship can buy us a new player' line... My prediction is that there'll still be a 'This is Anfield' sign above the steps leading to the pitch but it will incorporate a logo or stadium sponsors name in some way. When I first see it a little bit of the love will die.

Although I was all for bringing Owen back from Madrid this rumour is slightly disturbing. Re-signing Owen would be great from a marketing/business point of view. He was one of our most popular, high profile players of recent years and his clean cut image went down very well in emerging football markets. The problem is that his media profile is far more attractive at present than his football potential. He's suffered a succession of injuries and there has to be a big question as to what effect they'll have on his effectiveness on the pitch. He'd still offer a lot but he'd draw big wages and the manager may be under pressure to play him when he has other ideas. It smacks of a business decision rather than a footballing one. I don't think this will happen. Nevertheless if Rafa truly wanted him I'd be happy to see him back in a red shirt. I just hope the money that would be available for Owen is also available should someone less glamorous, but possibly quicker, less injury prone and without the baggage catch Rafa's eye.

He's one of the best, football writers in the country. It's a fair enough observation, why else are there so many posts on here calling for the signing of a creative winger or attacking midfielder? Plus in Kewell and Garcia we've lost the two most creative players in the team.

I was half hoping that they'd fall short of the amount needed to take us completely private. I suppose they could still do what they wanted but at least an AGM every year would preserve some sort of transparency and accountability. So that if they decided to pay themselves a huge dividend or float the club on the exchange they'd at least have to justify it in public. Probably an unrealistic hope however. Allowing the shareholders to preserve their ticket privileges was an astute move.

We've progressed to the quarter final though. Which is nice.

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Perhaps its because he's one player they have no direct replacement for? Taking Motta off in the 1st leg effectively ceded control of midfield to Liverpool. I'd rest Bellamy against the Mancs for the same reason.

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KOP THAT! RAFA'S ROGUES IN PORTUOWNGOAL AS GLASS EXPLODES IN BAR BRAWL BARBARITY.

I think Roy Evans got the top job too late. If the board had turned to him after Kenny left things might've been different. Maybe he could've overhauled that squad without throwing the baby out with the bathwater a la Souey. As it was he'd been a number 2 for too long and I think that might've compromised his authority somewhat.

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He strikes me as a Littlejohn wannabe. Picking on an easy target (there won't be many scousers in his papers target market) and playing on ignorance and prejudice to score some cheap points. It's pretty low journalism and best ignored. However perhaps he should be taken at his word, when he asks: And what is this "justice" they demand anyway? A polite letter to the editor should offer Mike the chance to come up to Liverpool and meet some of the people from the HJC so they can explain what the campaign is all about. He'll run a mile obviously because to write the resulting article would require him to conduct an interview, do some research and get off his a***. Far easier to get stuck into asylum seekers or whoever else is next up for a scapegoating.

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The work of the very talented liverbanner designer Kitster. More here: http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=163763.0

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Paul Hayward is a decent journalist with a liking for Liverpool. He may write for one of the worst papers in the UK but in the pantheon of British football writers he's near the top. I do think this is one of the worst pieces of his I've read because he really struggles to make the link work between the takeover and the days of Hillsborough and Heysel but I can understand why he chose to approach it this way. The changes enforced by those tragedies have indirectly gone a long way to allowing the current finance obsessed culture to develop. For the club which underwent them to finally be sold is surely an event worth highlighting? It also serves as a small balance to some of the other coverage. After all there's a massive amount of revisionism media management going on with the bid and the sudden re-emergence of Gillet. Bose is a relentless self publicist and will seize on any opportunity to inflate his part in proceedings. Nevertheless it was interesting that the DIC offer document only became a problem once a 12.5% higher bid was on the table. I share Hayward's belief that the extra money was pivotal, although possibly moreso to the other shareholders than Moores.

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Football isn't big business but media provision is. The single biggest factor in News International/Sky's conquering of the lucrative UK television market has been it's use of football. Likewise Mediaset and Canal Plus on the continent. Football is also the only candidate for a 'global' sport. The Americans have realised that they're unlikely to break its monopoly on other markets around the world and they're moving to establish themselves as players. The next generation of media providers will need this content to push their networks worldwide. So whilst it may not be a big business in itself it's worldwide popularity will be of increasing use to big business. That's before the advertising / sponsorship marketing potential of a sport with global reach grows even further.

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Connie posts on rawk occasionally. I'll pass on the compliment.