mooks

Let me get something straight Do you consider one of the best managers in Europe (or any Premier League manager) as one of your children?

That'll do me

Alright

Thank God. Alonso staying (and Barry staying at Villa) would be detrimental to both teams.

And how would we pay for this 18 million quid winger?

You know best Who said we were going to make a £5-10 million profit?

Carra will be our back-up CB next season and will play some games at right-back

Made me chuckle

If it's Rafa's decision I have no problem with it. The article suggested otherwise. Agreed

Yeah, right, that was exactly my point. Or perhaps my point is that it could go either way and it is a dire state if the manager of Liverpool FC is being told he can ONLY bring in players who are ready for the first team right away. We should at least have the option of getting the next Ronaldo.

And I recall the derisive hoots when Ferguson spent £12m on Ronaldo while we had got the two 'gems' for £5m. You never know what's going to happen.

The financial running of the club will be little different than under joint owners who are at war with each other? And at war with the CEO? Under joint owners who don't understand the game and who have been trying to meddle with the manager's transfer policy? Who still haven't even started work on the new stadiium? You certain about that?

He is right

Yes, you can read. But con u shut? BTW, I occasionally misread the small print. But never the bigger picture

The latter, of course. That is all we can realistically hope for while funding the new stadium. But I don't see how we're going to catch the Champions while they spend significantly more than us on player recruitment each season. Any comparison with Chelsea is meaningless based on one season given the squadrillions they have spent in the last five years. You also have to take into account the amount spent on wages. On that front Chelsea spend an obscene amount to add to their vast transfer advantage since they became a billionaire's vanity piece.

I don't mean to be rude - but do you know how to read? Those figures, for what they're worth, show United spent significantly more than Liverpool. Also, Tim's post greatly qualifies this £44 million figure by saying: "Note, 2007's Figures include the Dirk Kuyt transfer which took place in August 2006 and came to approx £10m."

I could be wrong but I don't think the protest was about our transfer budget primarily (that would be stupid) but about the fact the owners are not acting in the best interests of Liverpool Football Club.

Tip of the iceberg

I think you're a terrific poster, Fletch. But on this thread a few of us seem to be fiddling while Rome burns. It may come down to just how serious you see the threat posed by the Americans is. The only thing a lot of us were clinging on to was that this farce of a situation would be resolved by the end of May. If Bascombe is right (and what he writes is consistent with the evidence so far) we are on the verge of losing our manager, the stadium won't get built, our best players will leave ... and YNWA forumites will remember this summer for debating whether Yossi Benayoun is a good enough squad player.

Superb. We need to keep up the pressure.

From where I sit it would be a good piece of business ... but then I've been wrong on a couple of occasions in the past

Well said yourself. Of course, if there are fans who think G&H are great then by all means criticise SOS. Or if you believe for any other reason SOS is harming the club then oppose them with all your might. But to say they're not doing enough or to criticise them for tactical choices is a bit rich if you're not actively doing something to effect a change of ownership yourself.

Ernie, you can read the article as well as I can Apparently Rafa has decided he will only part with Crouch for £15 million but the club are about to sell him to Portsmouth for £10 million. So yes - the owners are forcing a sale.

Which is precisely the point Rafa needs to raise as much money as he can through sales - not have absentee owners or Krusty the Clown CEOs determining what we will get for our players

As others have alluded to, the point is not that Crouch's valuation is set in stone but rather that the owners should not be deciding what players to sell and what their value is.