Guz

Rome 2009 if an English (or even Italian) club gets to the final?

I dont understand these links with Gabriel Milito? Are people expecting us to break the Carra/Agger partnership as I cant see Milito coming to sit on the bench? Maybe his brother is a more likely target?

It's difficult. The majority of liverpool supporters were well behaved and the majority (almost all?) will and have condemned what the idiots in Athens created. We've taken some of the blame but want uefa to take their share too. When those fat cats don't and shift the whole blame onto us it creates a sort of seige mentality and we become more and more angered towards UEFA, who continue to blame Liverpool supporters and the whole thing keeps getting worse and the acknowledgement of some of our fans' behaviour is forgotten. I dont want the club to get into a public slanging match saying "Club X has done this, club Y did this etc." but would love to see a well thought out statement that talks about some of the acknowledgements of our well behaved support (including one from this uefa d****ead prior to the final!) and then making public some of the things they mentioned in their document to uefa outlining the concerns they had with the stadium and some of our own supporters which went unheeded.

Would prefer Parry as our manager to be honest. We'd have an opportunity to sack him every week

Graeme Souness and Neil Warnock both available. Stuart Pearce too.

The same (and more) quotes were given to reuters

Yup, Tim Vickery was saying on friday night how Brazilian press were certain he would be denied a work permit and have to stay in Porto for another season

I always thought that he was developing a very promising partnership with Finnan down that right hand side. It was the first actualy partnership on the right we'd probably had for a good few years.

But if that means we end up with a couple more quality midfielders/wingers then that's not a bad thing at all. Lets not forget Luis will be back next season too, Kewell aswell maybe

Because the same people you mentioned as being misled would query why we plumped for the americans over DIC, in that case. When did Rafa say he had 2 targets lined up and the club had to act this (last) week? I've seen it referred to a few times but can't find the specific quote

Cage match between Gillet/Hicks, Parry and Rafa. Gonna be great. Ballot applications available from the ticket office

I agree the owners have a responsibility to be in touch with every aspect of the club and transfers pay a large role in that but reviewing the stadium is different to reviewing transfers. How can they or a 3rd party of accountants review the effectiveness of a player? They know f*** all and there are so many variables it's an impossible task. They should just go into Rafa's office and ask him one-by-one. Unless I'm mis interpreting what this review is and that it's geared towards looking at the structure of deals, wages, negotiations etc. i.e. the financial side of how each deal has been structured rather than an inquest into whether Rafa knows how to distinguish between a good footballer and an average one. I would suspect this be the case. Agree with that though

I do remember Gerrard was pretty good away to Spurs that same season also, but not at the level I remember him at Brum. We won 3-2 I think and Danny Murphy put in one of his better performances also.

If it's true, I don't see the benefit of conducting a 3rd part "review" of our spending over the last 3 years once the season has finished. What's it going to achieve, why wasn't it done earlier and is it being conducted as some sort of way of G+H retaliation "whoa there Rawfa, hang on a sec chuck. Lets see what you've spent your dough on so far before giving you anything more" Not sure it's something that can be dismissed immediately but I'm usually highly skeptcal of newspapers giving inside information on the relationships of members in a football club, especially in this case the four most important at our club.

For me, Gerrard vs Birmingham 03/04 I think it was, away at St Andrews. Heskey pretty much secured his move to Brum for the season after with a good performance and if I remember correctly Nicky Allt (?) got on the pitch with his book in hand to give Stevie a pat on the back before being escorted off But gerrard was everywhere, he did everything, he won everything, he was running round the pitch like a machine even at 3-0, as if he owned every blade of grass. Made himself look about 10ft tall and as strong as a brick wall

If he didn't over cook things we would not have got to 2 finals in 3 years. Let's see how he does when he has players he trusts to play a more expansive game or be clinical enough to carry on with the way we play

The difference between United & Chelsea and other teams in the league is that Ferguson and Mourinho can goto their boards and tell them to go and get a player and to do it whatever the cost, within reason of course. Doesnt always happen - Gerrard for Chelsea, Robben and Ronaldinho for the mancs for example. But, Ferguson wanted Carrick, he got him. He wanted Hargreaves, he's gonna get him. Rafa wanted Alves, but has to settle for someone almost HALF the price (Pennant) because our financial restriction is far greater while having a far bigger job to do. Looking at the prices these clubs have spent on Drogba, Essien, Wright Phillips, Carvalho, Robben, Ronaldo, ROoney, Ferdinand etc. there's no way Arsenl and Liverpool can compete without stepping their spending up to another level. It'd be like Aston Villa (pre takeover) trying to pip us to 4th place, it's incredibly difficult and would take some awful league form from us (bit like 05 I guess).

We only created one, maybe two excellent chances in the game. Just like we did against Arsenal in the cup and at the emirates, just like we did at Bolton, just like we did against the mancs. It's about time we started converting domination into chances. Goals will come but if we're relying on taking one of two chances against top sides (with the current squad) we're putting a huge amount of pressure on our defence to be impeccable for 90 minutes. I think when it comes to head to head battles between the top teams in the country there have been few occasions in the last two years where we haven't punched and jabbed at the opposition for most of the game (mancs away this year is one definite exception). We just have huge difficulty in delivering that final blow, or atleast giving ourselves the opportunity to do so. That comes with quality though, and quality at the top level costs money.

There were a couple of points about the move that was odd. Firstly I remember Rafa saying Mascherano "couldn't play" for West Ham and so denying him a move would be a legal matter. He then also said that if we got him it'd be an 18month loan deal minimum but I think also went on to say that if FIFA didn't give clearance we could tear up (Buy out?) his contract and just sign him as a free agent. The Premier League statement then cleared him to play and said that the agreement between the player and club had no 3rd party involvement. Presumably MSI or whoever manufactured his move to the Hammers, but maybe also indicated that he was actually our player? Maybe that's wishful thinking. The .tv profile (not great source I know) also refers to his move in January as a transfer and makes no mention of a loan deal. Maybe we signed him from MSI and not technically West Ham? Or had to wait till West Ham actually bought him before either buying or loaning from them? Maybe he is actually on loan for 18 months though. I dunno. I just hope he stays a Red for a long time.

I'm not doubting where they get their money from (or where we don't) but just trying to highlight the sort of stuff Rafa is up against. Dismantling a squad, adding to the first team, building a new squad and still challenging for honours in that time period (3yrs) sure as hell isn't as easy as people make out, given our budget compared to the teams we're catching. The fact that we've done more in those 3 years in Europe than most clubs have in their history is just testament to the quality of manager we have IMO.

So their last 4 signings (probably) Carrick £18m Hargreaves £15m? Nani and Anderson £34m ! Then add that to £25m+ for Rooney, £30m for Ferdinand, £12m Saha and £12m on Ronaldo when he was still a kid. Evra, Heinze and Vidic were around hte £8m mark too weren't they? And there we were 12 months ago unable to find a few million extra for Alves and the chairman having to under-write the cost for Kuyt. Crazy stuff

Anyone know how much the mancs are spending on Nani and Anderson? Someone told me about £25-30m for the pair of them. IF true, then add that onto whatever they're spending on Hargreaves (£15m?) and the £18m they spent on Carrick last season, it kind of highlights the financial gulf that Rafa has had to deal with and why he may have lost his rag last week

We didn't have the money to attract the real big names after Istanbul, whoever they may be. Not sure we do now either but we'll see.

Would be great if the stands are as close to the pitch as on that picture

Maybe because the financial situation at the club was far worse than most people anticipiated