spacemonkey

Have to agree that his record at Spurs and Chelsea didn't live up to his PSV days but Hamburg started a pretty serious savings drive immediately when he arrived. Net transfer profit of about 6.5m euros and a reduction of the wage bill by more than 20% in one transfer window. They're still losing money so it's being further reduced this summer. Interesting to see a club with an average attendance considerably higher than ours (and some of the most expensive tickets in the Bundesliga) struggling financially even with a wage bill that's maybe 40-45% of ours.

Did get 6 assists from wide midfield (mostly right side) in the first half of the season though (16 games played) - think that was the league's best at the time. Then missed a couple of months with injury and didn't find his form again after that. There's talent there, though not the hardest trainer and would need to adapt somewhat with regard to pressing. Hamburg seem to be continuing their approach of selling anyone who'll get them a bit of money in so he's bound to leave during the summer. Could be worth a punt at £4m. As an aside, it sounds like Arnesen could be getting frustrated with the total lack of funds in Hamburg (was quoted in connection with their main scouts, including his son, leaving for Man City recently - perhaps to replace the guys coming to us - saying that he couldn't blame them for leaving as they'd been finding good talent but the club wasn't in a financial position to act on their recommendations which was disappointing given what they'd been promised when they all moved from Chelsea last summer). Anyway, I remember someone close to Rodgers suggesting that if he'd been asked the DoF question about Arnesen, the response would have been very different. Maybe one to watch.

If he can improve his movement, he could potentially score 20. He's certainly a physical presence and is pretty good at getting shots on target when he gets himself in the position to shoot. He just doesn't manage to do that often enough for me.

Broughton stated clearly at the time that NESV weren't promising a new stadium didn't he? I think they were making the decision more on the basis of leverage (or lack thereof) and how confident they were that the prospective buyer would genuinely remove the debt burden. There too, I seem to recall Broughton saying there could be no absolute guarantee but it was felt that their track record was a strong indication that they would stick to their word. They have. Have to agree with NYR - who are these other owners that would have been so much better? Grass is always greener on the other side, but you still have to mow it.

A year ago, Charlie Adam had a virtually identical scoring rate in the Premiership to Sigurdsson now, albeit across a full season rather than just 6 months. Also a Man Utd fan, also playing in midfield for a newly promoted team. On that occasion, the rumoured interest by Man Utd and the resistance by Blackpool seemed to result in our fans reacting more positively when the transfer was finally completed than they might have otherwise. If Sigurdsson comes, great. If not, hopefully we find someone else who has more of an impact than an Adam.

Van der Vaart doesn't exactly seem to be discouraging interest from Hamburg and while it'd be a struggle for them to afford him, I wouldn't be surprised if neither Modric nor Van der Vaart were still at Spurs come the start of the season. Can certainly see why they'd be looking to add goals to their squad just like us.

With regard to stadium capacity having a dramatic impact on finances, there's talk in Germany now of removing the standing areas after the disruption surrounding the play-off game at Dusseldorf' (against Hertha Berlin). The general consensus is that it won't have much financial impact on the clubs if it happens as although the capacity of the current standing areas would be halved, the ticket prices for the seats would be double. There's maybe an emotional desire to provide as many fans as possible with the opportunity to watch the game, including those who can only afford to go currently because of the cheap cost of standing, but as over here it's ultimately just as important to look at how much the club makes off every ticket. Hopefully there's still a way to increase capacity at Anfield, if only to further increase the aura of playing for Liverpool. I reckon stadium capacity has played its part in attracting emerging talents to Newcastle who wouldn't have considered it otherwise. That and good scouting of course.

https://twitter.com/#!/davefallows

Yeah, wasn't Rodgers quoted saying that the agreement would apply unless the player is going to leave Swansea anyway (i.e. if another club has a bid accepted for a player then Rodgers could at that point step in and match it if he felt that way inclined).

Don't think either are good enough and being a bottler is also a charge you could level at Elia. Let's just hope that our new "technical board" can come up someone better.

Saw a fair bit of Elia when he was here in Hamburg. He started fairly well in his first season but defenders quickly got the hang of him and he didn't rise to the challenge at all and seemed very light-weight. Second season he spent a lot of time on the bench or being subbed on or off, only scoring two goals and contributing three assists. Strangely, though, his anonymous performances on the pitch didn't stop him being in the papers all the time bigging himself up and encouraging bids for his services. I was quite surprised that HSV managed to get 10 million euros for a player who had flattered to deceive and become a disruptive influence. Not surprised at how it's worked out for him at Juve and frankly hope he stays away from Liverpool. Babel Mk II is not far wrong both in terms of playing style and mentality and as bad as Downing's season last year was, I've no confidence at all that Elia would be any better. Would rather replace Downing with someone better than both of them and failing that I'd have more confidence that Downing could get back into some kind of groove in his second year at the club than that Elia could deliver the goods here in his first.

Judging by his twitter page, he seems to think he's still a Liverpool player.

There seems to be a widespread desire to get the suits out no matter who they are. Of all the guys who sought to buy the club 18 months ago, it's hard to see - even with the benefit of hindsight - that one of the other options wold have been preferable to FSG. Regardless of the H&G experience, the club has prided itself previously and since on conducting its business in private so it's not surprising or unusual for that to be the case with the search for a new manager or DoF. In terms of the timing, they split with Kenny as soon as reasonably possible after the end of the season and Ayre has said that the vacant positions should be filled within 2-3 weeks. It's not ideal to change the DoF and manager at the same time, certainly, but if you're going to do it - and based on the performances on the pitch and the success of last year's transfers you can see why they took that decision - then I don't see how the timing could have been much better. 2-3 weeks to sort the new manager seems reasonable enough to me, not least when the season hasn't yet finished for one or two managers to whom they may wish to try to sell their vision. The end of the summer seems a better time to pass judgment than right now, before the changes have even been finalised and announced. When that happens, I'm sure we'll see Werner, Henry, the new manager and the new DoF in front of the LFC TV cameras until we're bored of the sight of them.

I thought a major reason for having a DoF in the first place was to ensure some level of continuity regardless of the manager. Changing managers this summer may or may not be the right decision but entering a transfer window with both the DoF and manager being either new or non-existent would be unfortunate timing and would surely present an extra challenge to squad development in the short term. Any new manager is going to have to come in and review the squad, review all the planning that Kenny and Comolli had been working on and decide what to pursue and what not to pursue and what additional ideas of his own he wants to add. In the meantime, other clubs will presumably already be negotiating their transfers. Might not be so dramatic a bedding in period if they bring Rafa back but not sure how likely that is. If Kenny does go, whoever is hired as DoF and manager will have a busy summer.

Both used to play for St Pauli in the German second division and were reasonably solid at that level. Liverpool quality though? I guess they've both improved since we then, especially hoilett, but I'm skeptical that they have what it takes to push us on.

Failed to live up to expectations at Werder so they just took what they paid for him.

Missed a penalty tonight as well. He's as good as signed.

Enrique may have dropped off somewhat and we may not have seen an awful lot of Coates but of all the problems that we've had this season, I'd say it's somewhat unlikely that the defensive signings would be the ones to have cost Comolli his job. I expect both of those players have retained their value and Coates was never expected to have a central role this season. I also can't see the owners saying, "happy with the £70m that you spent on Carroll, Henderson and Downing but Adam for £7m looks a mistake, we're going to have to let you go". I'd imagine he's being judged on Carroll, Henderson, Downing and indeed Suarez who has undoubtedly impressed with his ability but perhaps less so in other respects. Overall though, inclined to think it's Carroll and Downing that are causing the most alarm and it's probably one of those that Comolli's talking about.

Even Kelly can play left back can't he? Seem to recall seeing him play there for the ressies and doing well. Not ideal, perhaps, but with Enrique, Robinson and Kelly at left back and Johnson, Kelly and Flanagan at right back, I don't really think those are priority areas to strengthen. Suspect there'll be a decision to make as to whether to persevere with Agger or not though as apart from him and Skrtel, we're short of experience at CB now that Carra is on the decline and we can pretty much rely on Agger being unavailable for a significant part of the season. I'd imagine the focus will be on a goalscorer and wide attacking player(s) to replace Dirk/Maxi and provide competition for Downing (i.e. allow us to "rest" him if his form next season doesn't improve). That and trying to get Cole and Aquilani off the wage bill.

Yes. Fabio's contract is up at the end of this season and Bellamy, Kuyt, Maxi and Carra all at the end of next. I think.

At least we didn't win any penalties tonight. Every cloud...

So are the players seemingly. Not arsed unless it's a big game. That just seemed utterly casual without the ball from the moment our second goal went in.

Yeah, would have thought so. Said the same in my comment under the Indy article.

Suarez has many qualities but not sure that good penalty taking is one of them. His unpredictability might be counting against him there in that even he doesn't seem to be able to make up his mind what he's about to do until an instant before he does it. Anyone have any idea of his full record for Ajax? Kuyt, Adam, Gerrard, Henderson and one of Suarez, Maxi or Carroll?

Regarding Degen, he appears to have said in a recent interview that he would be prepared to walk away from his Liverpool contract and "would play for 3,000 CHF" if it meant he could play 90 minutes regularly. Linky