Koogan

Bellamy?

An extremely boring manc

Just checked the Finnish sources and there were no news about him signing any time soon. The 4-year offer is on the table but the lad could be willing to take the Litmanen route (finish school and military service first, play in Finland until he's 19 or 20 and then see what happens). Dalla Valle has a dual nationality (Finnish and Italian) and I'm not sure whether the military service bit applies to him. He could also be willing to wait for better offers from Italy. I'll keep an eye on the developments...

This content is not viewable to guests.

Well at that age, he will be a boyhood red if he signs. That is a Danish name, isn't it?

You can count the trophies or the goals scored/conceded or try to find some other figures with which to make that assessment, but as long as Sami does not have a League Championship medal his contribution to us over the years will always pale in comparison with the former CBs. A sad fact.

I think he was left footed but had two of them!

Rumours that Malmö are after him.

I happened to see this incident on TV5 and it didn't look much like anything out of the ordinary to me.

Yeah, I think what he really means is "Come and get me!" (This assumption is based on the fact that my wife comes from the same part of Finland as Sami and she seldom means what she says...)

Ahem, as the translator of his comments I took the liberty of using that rafaism on purpose. The original Finnish word used by Sami was 'vuorenvarmasti', which means 'quite definitely'.

I would also like to state that Arsenal were playing effective football under George Graham, I would say. Boring boring Arsenal...

The rumours about Sami leaving for Sweden were in the Swedish and Finnish papers some days ago. Sami has now commented in his weekly column for the Finnish Plaza Stadion website. Basically he laughed it off. Or he didn't exactly 'laugh', well, here's a quick translation of what he wrote in the column here: "Throughout my career here, Liverpool has tried to build a squad with at least one player as back-up for each position. This applies to centrebacks as well. About ten players have come and gone . Now the situation is as good as it can be: we have three centrebacks who play and are rotated. I'm extremely happy with my own situation ? I have stated numerous times that the number of games played last season are no longer possible. If you play 59 matches for Liverpool and internationals on top of them, it is mentally and physically impossible to recover properly. Now there are matches at more regular intervals as well as a decent amount of rest. This, by the way, applies to all of our players, starting from Steven Gerrard. So, I'm not leaving anywhere and I don't think the club would be willing to sell me either. I make this comment now and will not comment any speculation later this season. For sure, there will be shameless and irresponsible rumours about me and dozens of other players as the transfer window approaches. Some of the rumours will probably turn out to be true, after all persistent machine gun fire is bound to hit the target at some point. Since the speculations persist, I will blow the whistle right here right now and stop them. No move is in the horizon or has even been considered. Not by me or by Liverpool." In case you open the link and wonder what the funny looking column heading says, it's "Hyypiä: Silly season begins"

This content is not viewable to guests.

They are really annoying, IMHO. Maybe not so much for the players, but on telly they are really distracting. I remember reading somewhere that we were the last club (or one of the last clubs) to allow advertising inside the ground. I think the hoardings first appeared at Anfield sometime in the mid- seventies. Anyone know the exact date?

I was sure you'd bugger right off after that brief comment. I too enjoyed watching them today

He's a 'Finnish manc', whatever that is. Don't be too harsh on him.

I'd really like to see those statistics... A centre forward of his size in a strong team like ours will get a fair share of free headers BUT just how many times have you seen him fluff great chances... How many times has the ball 'landed' on his head and bounced every which way. I've lost count. Sometimes the ball does land in the net too... And I'm not only talking about scoring with headers, I'd like to see someone up there (like Tosh) who can control the ball and pass it (with so-called 'flick-ons') with his head as well as score. That kind of players are few and far between. Doesn't have to be a 7-footer, either. I think Crouchie is a better player on the ground, though, and I am not at all surprised at this Newcastle link, TBH. And I'm not saying he should be sold asap.

signed the other day when the number was still under 4000

He has scored a few with his head this season at least. Even more than Crouch? I wish we had someone like Toshack, someone who could use his aerial power intelligently.

We need someone up front who can actually head the ball.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Often the plan was for Cisse to stay on the last man and stretch the opposing defence to give us more space in midfield...

Facts play no role in their hubris beyond all proportions...

Being Finns, they must be smart. The thick ones invariably start playing icehockey...