honourablegeorge

This the same Torres that took almost three months to get a league goal from open play this season? I don't think there's any justification for spending big on Spanish players - look at Morientes - Obvious class in Spain, worked hard here, couldn't cut it. Look at Forlan, top scorer there, mince here. And kanoute, crap here for YEARS, suddenly top of the charts over there. Any big money punt on a Spanish league striker if a massive risk. If we're gambling on the next big thing, Huntelaar might be our man, Dutch players have a better record of settling here, and generally have lower price tags and more willingness to move here. There's sod all home grown talent. £18M for Darren Bent? I thought he might be a decent signing at around half that.

Rumour is that Lampard is being a right pain about Barton being in the squad, won't talk to him, pass to him, all that stuff, and just got up to move to another table at breakfast when Barton sat at the same one. Apparently as soon as he stood up and moved, Barton called after him "Don't worry, I wasn't going to nick your breakfast, you fat prick" and Lampard threw a hissy fit and stormed out.

I'm pulling figures out of the air here, but there's huge potential there to reach a far, far wider audience than TV allows. And unlike the TV deals, there'll be no sharing it evenly with Charlton or whoever.

Fact is, the next wave of football money will be the ditching of TV deals, and clubs makign their games availble over the internet. One of G&T made reference to Liverpool having "28 million registered fans" across the world. Now, I dunno where you sign up to the list, but if you can flog a quarter of them the game via the 'net for a fiver a pop every week, football quickly becomes "big business".

Maybe it should, mate. I'd like to see a few more of us a bit more worried about these guys. They're here to make money.

Not meaning to be negative - but these two guys presumably expect to make money from their new acquisition. Didn't Gillett take out a massive loan secured on his hockey team, and pay himself a seventy-five million dollar dividend out of it? This was talked abotu when DIC came in, not mentioned much since. I wonder what guarantees we could possible have about this sort of thing? The takeover is debt free- but it has to be, by takeover rules. Glazer refinanced within six months, these guys could do the same.

Aye, until last week they didn't give a puck.

No, they came off very well. But it's just talk - DIC's soundbites sounded wonderful too. We're stepping into the unknown here, in a big way. I'm encouraged, more by the debt free nature of the takeover than the soundbites, but still wary. Winter's asked that they respect our traditions. Maybe it sounds little patronising, maybe a little anti-American. But you wouldn't have had to search this forum for long to find that same sentiment last week. Personally, I'm glad to see something like this in the press. I don't agree with the "I'm never going to Anfield again" phone-in idiots, but I think those concerns need to be publicised.

I think you're being pointlessly sensitive. The article highlights all the worries that most of us have, and should still have, regardless of a day of impresive soundbites. The sentence "If you understand the Liverpool way, that brashness is frowned upon, that the club are nothing without the fans, then you will never walk alone." - how spot on can you be, like?

Just checked - Tevez was an unused sub in the United game. They have two routes they can go, I guess - either allow it, and ditch the rule outright, or enforce it, which means cracking down on Portsdmouth and West Ham. I suspect you're probably right.

I heard that same rumour. And that our deal involves something similar. The PL have said something along the lines that they allowed it initially, but when they recieved all the documentation there saw something was amiss. Not that they did anythign about it then. And they've just given Fernandes the go-ahead to join Everton, mainly because Everton said if he wasn't allowed, they'd simply demand the points from when they playd Portsmouth earlier in the season and lost, as Fernandes would have been ineligible - something that all sorts of teams will start demanding from West Ham too(not that they have many, though they did get a result against United, which could be critical....). Bury and someone else that they knocked out of the FA cup are already makign noises. Basically, the PL have created a massive mess by not applying their own rules.

There's a bit more to it than that, though - FIFA have granted an exception to the two clubs per season rule. The delay is around the Premier League rules on joint ownership, and whether Mascherano and Tevez should ever have been allowed play for West Ham in the first place, never mind us lot.

I think i did read the number three, but it was used purely as an example.

Internet broadcast rights for live games.

Exterior is more or less finalised, interior is limited by safety regs, but I think they can change it within that framework, sort of thing. I'd say they'd be minimal enough changes, to be honest.

They said they'd start building within 60 days, so if they're changing it, they'll need f***in' rocket-powered architects.

He's a big man, is Hicks.

Aye, I had to go in January though, so timed the trip so I'd get to see Barca, rather than any great desire to see Betis. Wasn't the stadium originally named after the founder of the club? And yer man took over, promised to build a new one, never bothered, then renamed the old one after himself? Man, and people complain about Moores.... I've developed a serious Jamon Iberico addiction too. The good stuff, man, the fat on it is like nutty butter.

No assurances on ticket prices, mind.

OT - Estadio de Manuel ruiz Lopera is funny, you walk around this impressive concrete bowl, it looks good, and then, it just....stops. And there's steel rods hanging out the end of the concrete where they just gave up building. And all them houses with balconies looking over the old terrace. Handy that. Seville's a beautiful spot too.

It's been announced, apparently.

Definitely. We shouldn't rush him back befor ethe final.

Nonsense. Kewell will be fit soon. It'll be like having a new player. *tries to keep straight face*

Central midfield forces him to be more disciplined, somethign he hasn't always done in the past, but has done recently. It robs us of his attacking instincts though, and we do miss those.

Was in Seville a few days ago, and got to see the Betis-Barca game. Was really surprised with Barca, they lookd incredibly ineffective without Eto'o. Betis really got a them in the wide areas too, I think Gerrard could hurt them. And all their play seemed to come through the centre (where Saviola was totally ineffective) so I can see the sense of two holding players to block them - Betis doubled and tripled up on Ronaldinho every time he got the ball. I didn't see much for us to worry about. Of course, Eto'o is another matter altogether.