madskilz

At the time I was hoping for Koeman, Hitzveld or Mourinho and was preying that neither O'Neil or Curbishley got the job. I did know of Rafa at the time because i use to (and still do) follow Valencia quite keenly, but it never crossed my mind Rafa would leave the Mestalla and join us.

That was GBH, he never even went for the ball. Thatcher should be banned for a couple of months but will get away with it as that idiot referee booked him.

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Looking through the reports in the papers, a number of them (including the Indy) claim Kuyt is likely to make his debut in the CL second leg game against Hafia - it's amazing how little these supposed football experts know.

Completely agree, can't believe some of the sh'te said on this thread, it's like people were just waiting for something to have a go at Gerrard with.

LOL - good old Robbie

that's a great read, particulary the stuff about Rafa - i'm defiantly getting it when it comes out

Independent - Capture of £10m Kuyt will complete Liverpool signings By Jason Burt Published: 27 July 2006 Liverpool were in talks last night to complete the £10m signing of the Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt. The player's agent, Rob Jansen, is understood to have travelled to meet the club's representatives after Rafael Benitez rekindled his interest in the Feyenoord captain. The move for Kuyt by the Liverpool manager followed the completion of Jermaine Pennant's transfer from Birmingham City yesterday. The 23-year-old right-winger agreed a four-year deal for a fee of £6.7m, with £300,000 dependent on appearances. There are also believed to be other clauses which would push the total fee closer to Birmingham's original £8m valuation - way above Liverpool's first offer of £3.5m. Twenty-five per cent of the fee is due to go to Arsenal who had a sell-on clause for the player. The former England Under-21 winger, who cost Birmingham £3m last year, is now expected to fly out to join Liverpool's Swiss training camp and make his debut on Saturday against Kaiserslautern in Liechtenstein. "If I'm needed, I'm fit to play," Pennant said. "I've dreamt about this since I was a little boy. My best will come at this club because I am playing alongside top-quality players who will only help me develop my game. "This is the best club in the country and the best club to be at so if I can't do it here then I won't be able to do it anywhere." The package, the structure of the deal and the fact that Liverpool will now drop their interest in Daniel Alves, who Seville wanted £12m for, means that Benitez has been given leeway in his attempts to secure long-term target Kuyt. His hand has also been strengthened by the 26-year-old's desire to leave Dutch football and move to England and, more significantly, because Feyenoord have failed to drum up any interest from other Champions' League clubs following Kuyt's disappointing displays in the World Cup. Feyenoord had hoped to create an auction for Kuyt, who was close to joining Tottenham Hotspur last year and has also interested Newcastle United as well as several Spanish clubs, in the hope of securing £14m. Benitez is also close to agreeing a deal to sell Djimi Traoré to Charlton Athletic for £1m, after the Addicks missed out on Middlesbrough's Franck Queudrue, with Salif Diao also on trial at The Valley. The arrival of Fabio Aurelio has hastened Traoré's departure and his agent, Willie McKay, confirmed yesterday that a deal should be completed this week. Benitez also intends to sell the goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek and the defender Jan Kromkamp although his attempts to interest Feyenoord in a players plus cash deal involving the pair has failed. Kromkamp is more likely to move to PSV Eindhoven. Liverpool would prefer not to pay as much as £10m for Kuyt and had hoped to do a deal for around £8m but his arrival will complete Benitez's acquisitions this summer following on from the signings of Craig Bellamy, Gabriel Paletta, Mark Gonzalez and Aurelio. After letting Fernando Morientes and Djibril Cissé move on, Benitez had flirted with the idea of trying to take Juventus's David Trezeguet, possibly on loan, but has decided to go back for Kuyt because he fits the bill of the kind of hard-working, powerful striker that he is seeking. Liverpool had previously inquired about Darren Bent but were put off by the asking price. The striker has since signed a new, improved deal at Charlton, who also announced yesterday that the goalkeeper Scott Carson and 18-year-old winger Paul Anderson, a star of the club's FA Youth Cup-winning side last season, had agreed new long-term deals. Liverpool were in talks last night to complete the £10m signing of the Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt. The player's agent, Rob Jansen, is understood to have travelled to meet the club's representatives after Rafael Benitez rekindled his interest in the Feyenoord captain. The move for Kuyt by the Liverpool manager followed the completion of Jermaine Pennant's transfer from Birmingham City yesterday. The 23-year-old right-winger agreed a four-year deal for a fee of £6.7m, with £300,000 dependent on appearances. There are also believed to be other clauses which would push the total fee closer to Birmingham's original £8m valuation - way above Liverpool's first offer of £3.5m. Twenty-five per cent of the fee is due to go to Arsenal who had a sell-on clause for the player. The former England Under-21 winger, who cost Birmingham £3m last year, is now expected to fly out to join Liverpool's Swiss training camp and make his debut on Saturday against Kaiserslautern in Liechtenstein. "If I'm needed, I'm fit to play," Pennant said. "I've dreamt about this since I was a little boy. My best will come at this club because I am playing alongside top-quality players who will only help me develop my game. "This is the best club in the country and the best club to be at so if I can't do it here then I won't be able to do it anywhere." The package, the structure of the deal and the fact that Liverpool will now drop their interest in Daniel Alves, who Seville wanted £12m for, means that Benitez has been given leeway in his attempts to secure long-term target Kuyt. His hand has also been strengthened by the 26-year-old's desire to leave Dutch football and move to England and, more significantly, because Feyenoord have failed to drum up any interest from other Champions' League clubs following Kuyt's disappointing displays in the World Cup. Feyenoord had hoped to create an auction for Kuyt, who was close to joining Tottenham Hotspur last year and has also interested Newcastle United as well as several Spanish clubs, in the hope of securing £14m. Benitez is also close to agreeing a deal to sell Djimi Traoré to Charlton Athletic for £1m, after the Addicks missed out on Middlesbrough's Franck Queudrue, with Salif Diao also on trial at The Valley. The arrival of Fabio Aurelio has hastened Traoré's departure and his agent, Willie McKay, confirmed yesterday that a deal should be completed this week. Benitez also intends to sell the goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek and the defender Jan Kromkamp although his attempts to interest Feyenoord in a players plus cash deal involving the pair has failed. Kromkamp is more likely to move to PSV Eindhoven. Liverpool would prefer not to pay as much as £10m for Kuyt and had hoped to do a deal for around £8m but his arrival will complete Benitez's acquisitions this summer following on from the signings of Craig Bellamy, Gabriel Paletta, Mark Gonzalez and Aurelio. After letting Fernando Morientes and Djibril Cissé move on, Benitez had flirted with the idea of trying to take Juventus's David Trezeguet, possibly on loan, but has decided to go back for Kuyt because he fits the bill of the kind of hard-working, powerful striker that he is seeking. Liverpool had previously inquired about Darren Bent but were put off by the asking price. The striker has since signed a new, improved deal at Charlton, who also announced yesterday that the goalkeeper Scott Carson and 18-year-old winger Paul Anderson, a star of the club's FA Youth Cup-winning side last season, had agreed new long-term deals.

What utter rubish, have you actually seen Pirlo play? He is nothing like Totti, he is the backbone of Milan side and along with Cannavro is one of the main reasons Italy won the World Cup. He'd walk into almost any team in the world.

Pirlo is a top quality midfielder, one of the best around.

Your favourite 3 Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Players: Didi, Owen, Henry Your favourite 3 Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Teams: None Your least favourite 3 Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Players: G Neville (c@nt), Drogba, Diouf Your least favourite 3 Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Teams: Man Utd, Everton, Chelsea Your favourite 3 Non-Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Players: Kaka, Ronaldinho, Messi Your favourite 3 Non-Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Teams: Barcelona, Lyon, Valencia Your least favourite 3 Non-Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Players: Mihajlovic, Beckham, Materazzi Your least favourite 3 Non-Domestic (Non-Liverpool) Teams: Real Madrid, Lazio, Bayern Munich

Doh! meant to say Boro

Theres something about a transfer "bungs" investiagtion into premiership clubs in one of the Sunday papers apparently

Riise is captain!

Can see the pitch now

My screen is just saying live coverage will begin at 14.30, kick off at 15.00 - but no actual coverage

1. Xabi 2. Carra 3. Gerrard 4. Momo 5. Reina

F@ck off Gartside. It's always the same with Bolton - whenever someone turns them down such as Dado Prso (sp), Benayoun and now Didi they accuse them of being greedy and say they only signed for club x because they offered more money. No, nothing to do with the fact that Bolton are a sh@tty little club that no half decent player would be mad enough to sign for them. Hope Didi scores a screamer next time he plays at the Reebok, or at least fires one of his wayward shots into the crowd, right into Allardyce's face.

For the record IMO Rooney got himself sent, what Ronaldo done was s***ty but it didn't affect the referees decision. As regards to his dives, a lot of players dive but the fact is Ronaldo is a serial diver, he goes down two or three times a match - its embrassing.

Lahm, Henry, Cannavaro, Messi, Kaka --------------------Reina--------------------- Finnan------Cara----Cannavaro------Lahm -------------------Sissoko--------------------- Gerrard----------Alonso----------------Messi --------------------Kaka----------------------- --------------------Henry----------------------

Sky have also picked up on the Joaquin story - link Reds back in for Joaquin By Mark Kendall - Created on 4 Jul 2006 Reports in Spain claim Liverpool have rekindled their interest in Real Betis star Joaquin. Reds boss Rafa Benitez is desperate to bring in a right-sided midfielder and has been chasing Sevilla's Daniel Alves. However, he appears to have been priced out of a move for the Brazilian having refused to meet the Primera outfit's asking price. It now seems he has retrained his sights on Joaquin whom he was linked with last season. The wide man has just returned from World Cup duty and has made it clear that he intends to depart Betis for a new challenge this summer. Los Verdiblancos are ready to grant him his wish with new president Pepe Leon admitting he will cash in if the right offer comes along. "Betis would be equally happy to keep Joaquin or to have their coffers full," Leon stated. "Him leaving would not ruin the dream (of taking over as president) for me. "There have always been a lot of teams after the player, but nobody has yet decided to make the final move." Liverpool could be about to change all that with Spanish sources suggesting they will offer ?16 million (£10 million) plus Antonio Barragan, Jerzy Dudek and Boudewijn Zenden to land their man. However, it now appears unlikely that Barragan will be used as a makeweight in the deal as he is close to agreeing a move to Deportivo La Coruna. Betis were interested in the young defender, but the chance to link up with former coach Joaquin Caparros - with whom he worked at Sevilla before joining Liverpool - seems to have swayed Barragan towards Depor. His agent has revealed a deal is close to being finalised, with Liverpool ready to sell the 19-year-old but with the insertion of a buy-back clause that would allow them to repurchase him should he impress. "I believe the transfer could be closed in the next few hours because the differences between Liverpool and Deportivo are not too great," stated the player's agent Fermin Gutierrez. "It will be a sale with the option for the English team to buy him back."

I reckon they may push Juve to Serie C just to help clear up the name of Italian football, but agree they won't relegate the others - they'll just give them a heavy fine and a points reduction

R.I.P - Y.N.W.A.