benno2

Yeah that's right, anyone could have filled in for Whelan for a whole season, made it look seamless and been part of one of the greatest teams of all time. Terry Mac doesn't, or shouldn't get anywhere near a thread like this. Way too good.

Even in a thread made for him, Nigel Spackman struggles to get a mention.

Beardsley to Everton

Big 'if' though.

£50m is plenty on top of the players we already have. City will have trouble assimilating all their new players into something workable, we've already got the basis for that.

Here's confirmation (of a sort) of that. http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Liverpool/Liverpool.htm

Hyypia should have had more games last season. Pretty much every time he played last season he was our best defender. Had Rafa bitten the bullet and picked him more, over Skrtel in particular, it's unlikely he'd have left. He gets plaudits galore in Germany now, which is no surprise and Leverkusen are top and unbeaten. In no small amount is this down to Sami.

I agree with some of that but take exception to you naming Paisley there. His transfer record was astonishingly good and was in my opinion, the key reason why we stepped out of the English pack from when he started to being undisputed no.1 both here and in Europe during his time as manager. He wasted not a single penny, even his one flop - Frank McGarvey - he made money on, if memory serves.

On the subject of scouting, it strikes me that Rafa's actual input is lower, or perhaps less efficient, than it ought to be. I can't remember ever seeing Rafa at any game other than one of our own. I've never seen him in the crowd at either any of our upcoming opponents nor at a game where he might have an interest in a player. I've always rationalised this that Rafa's view must be that the travel involved is an inefficient use of his time. But if you take the view that the buying of players is an integral factor to the success of a club / team (I do), then I don't think this view is correct. He may place too much trust in the views of his scouts, who are the only people to see a prospect live on more than one occasion. He must miss out on important cues for a player if all he ever does is watch them on video, because we all know (I hope) that being at the game gives you a better perspective than watching on tv. Perhaps this is also the reason why he seemingly bought relatively obscure players that played well against us in his early days (Crouch and Pennant spring to mind). Maybe he does go to watch other games and people may correct may on this misapprehension if it is one. If not, then I think this is a weakness that we pay for over and over.

Due in no small part to Alonso being too important now to be sold. That doesn't mean it won't happen, mind.

Last summer he wouldn't have moved, but things appear to be different now. He never stays anywhere for long, he's just shy of 26 and is already on his 7th club. If he's only got eyes for Utd and Barca, none of this benefits us mind. And then there's always the consideration of cost.

One of them would have been Dingle reject, WBA's name for Wolves fans. This version is also available in mp3 format incredibly.

Going by this, Sporting Life have it right.

If Bascombe's to be believed, the money is there for Silva, just not Barry.

We wouldn't be the first business that Hicks has run into the ground. His business history isn't all about 'savvy'.

I'd be very surprised if we'd agreed to a 5pm deadline on the day we've got a match in Spain.

Delaney retired through injury a year ago.

The dream signing in my book would be Franck Ribery. He could swap sides easily as he does already and has the pace, power and quality suited to the league. He's of the right age too. Shame Bayern got in a year ago because he'd be almost impossible to get now. I hope the January rumours about Aimar are true, there's our Gerrard alternative that negates the need for a back-up central mid. We'd get a slightly more measured style for defences to worry about too. If we get injuries to Masch, Xabi or Lucas, Gerrard can drop back occasionally. Aimar could also do the odd shift out wide as he occasionally does for Zaragoza and did at Valencia for Rafa. I can't believe that some people are being so dismissive about Henry. He's one of the very few players in the world that could play all of left, right or in Torres' spot as and when the need arises, to the level that we seek. The one country he's had true success in is England and his year of being a bit-part player might be all the motivation he needs to prove to the naysayers that he's not finished. Depending on what happens in this season's comp, we're one of the few options still open to him that gives him a reasonable chance of getting a CL winners medal. Those saying he wouldn't play second fiddle to Gerrard or Torres, obviously haven't given much thought to why he'd join a Barca side with Messi, Eto'o and Ronaldinho at their disposal, not to mention the local boys like Iniesta and Puyol. Imagine him getting some of the balls in the position that Kuyt got them on Tuesday. He might well like the idea of the challenge of trying three positions with more space than he gets at Barca. Babel could learn plenty from him at first hand too as he says he does watching Gerrard. There are issues about Henry's fitness, that much is true. So we'd have to know that they're not as bad as is being assumed. We'd also need to be satisfied that he'd be coming for the right reasons. So it's far from a cut and dried idea, but it has to be well worth considering. It's not inconceivable that he'd be available for £10m or possibly even less (doubtful with the way the exchange rate has gone). Two really good seasons from him would be worth the money and give us time to build and look out for a younger model. Not all the players have to be in the same age range. If we can find a younger player that offers the same then fine and good luck with that, but he's still a good deal younger than was Gary Mac. He has league-winning experience, as does Aimar, and this could come in very useful to a squad very low on this commodity. We can survive perfectly well without perfect attacking full-backs - for another season at least - especially with the vast majority of those mentioned (Maicon, Rafinha, Alves) being right-sided. Despite his first indifferent season since Rafa joined, Finnan still has plenty to offer whether we need him to attack or defend pre-dominantly. Arbeloa also offers attacking fluidity down the right, but is much more limited this way down the left, where he's much more defensive. The right's far from in crisis. If there's a Rafinha type out there for the left, then fine, ship Riise on. Watching him, Danny Alves might turn out to be too gung-ho anyway, and as is often mentioned, he's not that great defensively, although he's no novice either. Can he do both a la Finnan? Or do we just add more attacking threat but become more vulnerable? At the price that's being talked about for him, I'd much prefer that to be used further upfield. It would be very nice to build the perfect team, but adding to our class attacking options would prove much more beneficial. We could become a potent counter-attacking unit which we've rarely been under Rafa with the pace of an Henry or Ribery. This would give us a much better chance of winning at the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Utd. At the moment our one mode is controlling the game, but at a pace that allows good defences time to get in position. A welcome extra dimension could be provided with the right attacking players. The back six can stay solid and allow the front four to do their bit. Arsenal played very much this way when they beat us at Anfield in the cup last season.

Is right. TV didn't show either of the bookings for what they really were. I was still more shocked that the ref showed the second yellow than I would have been had he not, but it was the risk Matterazzi took whilst on a yellow and this time he didn't get away with it. Even if he had, it would only have been a matter of time before Torres exposed him again and he would have been sent off more convincingly eventually.

Except that if it is true, so will those other stories be.

I take it that it's the £460m price you're rubbishing not the chances of an impending takeover?

For those arguing that we don't need another central midfielder, bear in mind please that we could well lose Mascherano and Lucas for three weeks to the Olympics at the start of next season. If Alonso does go, we would be daft not to get one more in. There will be calls for the likes of Spearing to be given a chance, but in this scenario he/they would still at least make the bench.

Fans = 1 loan to buy stadium. G&H = 2 loans, one for stadium, one for the club = less debt from fan ownership.

They won the UEFA Cup that year too. Isn't that another front?

You make it sound like you're very happy to. But this does tie up why they were introduced at the halfway stage to keep HKS on their toes, but it makes even less sense now why G&H didn't ask them to tender in the first place. So, er, thanks.