meredithmathieson

A second to everything Armin said. With the addition that there was an immaculately observed one minute silence for Alan Roy, the 40 year old Irregular who passed away suddenly. And I mean immaculate. And Knox was very good. Although one of my mates said beforehand that 'He looks like an Evertonian!'. Ouch!!

And if you compare any of the CVs of possible alternatives to Rafa, they don't pass muster. Getting rid of Rafa now, look at the Reserves/Youth etc., would put Liverpool FC back years. The real problem is that we are now unmanageable as a club. Unless DIC come in with a big transfer fund and we do get some kind of level playing field financially (How many times have Chelsea and the Mancs beaten our transfer record?), then I think the expectations of some on here as to a realistic title challenge will always result in this explosion of simplistic finger-pointing. By and large, Rafa has had to cut his transfer cloth accordingly, hence we pay half the amount of money for a striker (Kuyt) as the Mancs do for holding midfielders. And it shows.

Oh yes. Hotel Monday night: 105 Euros; Hotel Tuesday night: 290 Euros. Same room in the same hotel! Go figure. But it'll be well worth it!

Indeed, Mottman. The first Irregular Funeral? Still can't believe it.

Taken from Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian: "Unemployment is a humbling experience, although Mourinho will be sustained through the dark days by Roman Abramovich's reported £20m pay-off and the certain knowledge that eventually there will be a club prepared to subsume its own identity to its manager's ego." Quite right, and also one of the many reasons why Mourinho shouldn't come within a country mile of L4.

They all laugh at us, They all mock at us, They all say you won't get the numbers, Born to be a Scouser, Victoriously, So when we sit in our new ground, And take a look around, It'll belong to you and me.

For any of those who knew Alan, he passed away suddenly on Monday, aged 40, leaving his wife and two small children. There are certainly those on here who will know his face, as he travelled EVERYWHERE with Liverpool for donkeys years. As mentioned above, he was one of the Vladikavkaz 38, when even travelling to a Foreign Office designated War Zone wasn't enough to stop him from going the match. ALAN ROY RIP.

Surely the next logical step for Share Liverpool is a tie-in to a major Financial Institution who will be prepared to lend the £5k to be repaid back over many years. Once people are looking at a low-cost monthly loan, albeit spread over years. it increases affordability, surely?

I've heard from two different people, who are unconnected but admittedly it might conceivably still emanate from the same original source, linking us heavily to Michael Johnson of City. I know we have been linked to Johnson in the press before, but I don't know what kind of midfield player he is. Is it feasible to buy both Mascherano & Johnson, from a strictly footballing point of view??

when the f*** did jounalists begin this habit of naming sources on a regular basis? kcik the crack son (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Prior to this article I had never heard Mascherano referred to as a 'non-impact player'? Had anyone else? Because that is what "we had been told", apparently. Lawton clearly implies that this has come from the Liverpool Board, but stays clear of anything more specific. Just more s***-stirring by the Press.

"One reason, we are told, for Benitez's long frustration in the Mascherano matter is that the Liverpool board considered the acquisition of the Argentine a "non-impact" signing." Told by whom? When? So, journalist writes a non-specific, non-attributable link to use as a stick with which to beat 'the Liverpool Board'? I expect better of Lawton.

BBC Website, posted 22:04 tonight: Liverpool duo complete £350m deal Gillett (left) and Hicks took over the club in March 2007 Liverpool's American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have finalised the £350m refinancing deal to secure their immediate future at Anfield. The financial package is expected to help the duo repay money borrowed for their £218.9m takeover in March 2007. It also means that the club can finally launch their long-awaited plan for a new stadium at Stanley Park. BBC sports editor Mihir Bose said £60m of the package will provide the start-up money for the new ground. The deal, which is expected to be announced on Friday, is seen as a reaffirmation of Hicks's determination to remain at Anfield along with co-owner Gillett, despite interest from Dubai International Capital (DIC). Hicks will also feel he will be in a stronger position should he decide to sell in the future, dealing a blow to DIC's hopes of mounting a swift bid to take control at Anfield. The American pair were the target of crowd demonstrations from Liverpool supporters unhappy with their regime during Monday's televised game against Aston Villa, with banners calling for DIC to mount a bid. But Hicks, in particular, remained defiant in the face of protests and insisted he had no intention of selling his 50% share in the club.

But a mate of mine who is neither: 1. A baggage handler; 2. A b*******ter phoned from Liverpool airport, where he is working today, to say that Roberto Mancini landed in a private jet at the Raven Air [?]Flying School bit of John Lennon about an hour ago. With an older, grey haired fellah. Straight into a 4x4 and off. Hardly earth shattering given who he is the manager of, but passed on nevertheless. It'll be interesting for him to hear the atmosphere tonight!

"scale of the transfer kitty, future of the manager, budget for the stadium, and the debt structure of the financing." Agree with everything there, David, apart from the size of the transfer kitty - no point in holding ourselves to ransom. Far better they prove that by unleashing Rafa. p.s. wasn't there a TV programme set in Texas where they realised one day that the whole last series had been a dream?

"Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland wants to become a fireman when he quits playing football" (Independent). Chris Kirkland and his balsa-wood body sliding down a fireman's pole?

Was thinking of a lot more than £350, to be honest: e.g. do you think that we could get 100,000 people to pay £5k each? Feasible or not?

I'm sick of all this Hicks/Gillett/DIC/anybody else who wants to come along and take over OUR club and do with it what they like, regardless of tradition, loyalty & The Liverpool Way. So, is copying the Barca model, where the club are owned by the fans, feasible in the UK? And, if push came to shove, how much would YOU pay to be a member/owner?

fao Maldini, Written by a journalist called Ezequiel Fernández Moores for a site called 'Play the Game'. The article is entitled 'The Magic in Brazil Soccer Corruption' . Article dated 13/11/02. Feel free to google. Can't speak to the veracity of the article, but it does have an eerily familiar ring (or rather smell) to it, don't you think??

Anybody else remember the two Davids "Spitting Image" puppets, the big David Owen and the tiny David Steel who used to stare up at Owen and have a squeaky voice? Kind of how I see Gillett and Hicks. ps And why did Hicks' failed football investments in Brazil not come under scrutiny from Rick Parry when he conducted his due diligence on whether or not these two were suitable suitors for our club?

Does any of this sound familiar? [Taken from an article by a Brazilian journalist] There are other examples: a contract between Bank of America and Vasco da Gama was intended to cover twenty five years but lasted only two. Worst of all, perhaps, is the case of the Hicks group. This group is a hedge fund based in Texas and linked to President George W. Bush. Hicks took over two teams, Corinthians and Cruzeiro, through contracts that should have run until the year two thousand and ten. These deals included promises of construction of new stadiums. Hicks also bought forty nine percent of the traffic television network and dreamed up its own ultimate soccer business: Hicks teams facing each other in matches broadcast, naturally, by Hicks. Hicks set up a cable channel in Latin America, PSN, acquired national basketball association rights, formula one races and soccer championships at overblown prices. Hicks invested about five hundred million dollars and in only two years filed for bankruptcy. Link:http://www.playthegame.org/Knowledge%20Bank/Articles/The%20Magic%20in%20Brazil%20Soccer%20Corruption.aspx

Consider it pay back for all those pies that we had to give away when they couldn't be arsed coming up for the Cup game.

Surely Mourinho is a PROVEN liar: he submitted an affadavit/written statement in the Frisk affair, and it was only after UEFA came back with plans showing the internal lay out of the Nou Camp and asked him to explain exactly how he saw what he claimed to have seeen that he then changed it to 'Well Steve Clarke saw it and I trust him, so it must have been true'. That is not tongue in cheek, that is malicious lying. And Frisk retired after the death threats.

Another interpretation would be that G&H have decided that Rafa is going, and therefore it makes no sense to commit to major expenditure on one individual player that an incoming manager may not rate as highly. Might also explain the alleged reluctance to release players too.

As our apparently financially-challenged American owners might say: 'Do the math'. Sack Rafa (£6m?); other backroom staff (remember the Houllier payout); employ new manager; new manager doesn't like players A,B,C and wants to buy D,E and F. Any change out of £20 million?

Personally, I don't think that the 'disciplined defensively' argument carries much weight when Gwerrard is sitting behind Mascherano and even Carragher in that deep right wing-half position that he seems to like. The idea that he will thread a ball past the Mancs/ any top quality opposition, from that deep is ludicrous.