chiefy

the strong euro works in our favour when selling to euroland and against us when buying in euroland

you can just imagine Jamie and Stevie on at Rafa right now to step in on Owen. I think we need another stiker (assuming Voronin goes) so if we don't go for Owen I think it will be because Rafa already has someone lined up

Excellent post - Good to see a bit of balance on this

His background in mergers and acquisitions and private equity - pretty niche stuff and possibly suggests he is being brought in to handle a sale. Don't really get why they would bring him in now before a CEO - lots of cross over in roles adn a CEO may well want their own man. Also, how difficult is it to get a CEO - not much harder than an MD I would have thought.

no, sorry, one of the UAE families.

This might be completely spurious - but passing on honest info; was out with a mate of mine at the weekend is who v highly connected to one of the families (I don't want to be too specific). He was told a couple of weeks ago that they were buying us. Now the chap who told my mate knows he is a massive fan, so may be winding him up.

When Rafa got him in I really thought we didn't need to spend that sort of money on a keeper (Jerzy had just won the European and was going to be full of confidence). At that time we needed other signings. I take that all back and think it was a genius signing!

Pretty happy with Webb, think he is decent

nice one, thanks buddy

thanks mate. When do they normally release the new kit - wondering if it is worth hanging on. Spent the last hour looking through the sportsdirect website (having wasted another hour of my life at one of their stores earlier) - horrible place!

Mods, please move this if it shouldn't be here. I am trying to buy my 3 year old a replica home kit and can't find one on-line anywhere (having trawled shops too!). Nothing on the offal either. Any ideas? Cheers

I agree about the charging at officials - look at Ashley Cole on Sunday, he was filled with rage each time a decision went against him and was screadming and swearing at the ref - yet nothing was done. The older I get the more I am enjoying the code of conduct in rugby - it would be relatively simple to enforce a sea change in the way players treat officials - abuse a ref and you are off.

Riise gets loads of stick on here -i thought he was excellent yesterday and by and large I think he has been a great player for us for a long time now.

i was thinking just that watching the argies on tele the other night. I have a real feeling we will either get Aimar or Raul. Based on no evidence at all!!

I promise this isn't hindsight. I have never rated Morientes and always loved Raul and just thought he would be excellent for us. I think he would be a Dalglish type signing.

i recently had a dream that Robbie would come on just to take a pen in the champs league final and it would be his final ever kick for us. When he came on last night, I thought that was it - but obviously this is destined to happen in Athens!!

beauty goal - robbie threfall. get in!! do away goals count in this one

I think people are also forgetting that we have had a horrible fixture list and have been away to most of the horrible grounds we always seem to do badly at (I don't expect much from WHL). Before Blackburn, we went on a great run and suddenly got up to 3rd. People have forgotten about this since Blackburn.

Is that the Benfica player? If it is, I agree he is excellent and would be a great signing. Don't think Upson will improve us at all.

riise (i think!)

According to Sly looks like Sinama may well be off to Betis in Jan. Would be a shame as he has bags of promise...

Thinking about the Owen transfer and transfer funds in general, I think Rafa is playing a shrewd game by making out we are tight on the cash front. I just don't buy it, if we were so tight why would he have bought Sisokko when we don't need another centre mid (certainly not more than a right mid and CB) and why spend 6 million on a keeper (again, good as he may be, probably not a priority over a CB and RM, when we had 3 top keepers already on the books) This makes me think we have more money than we are letting on. If this turns out not to be the case, then I'll be confused as to why we spent 10m + on 2 positions not regarded as priority.