David Hodgson

He's ours. It's been obvious since Bascombe started playing his part in the negotiating process. I predict a fee finally agreed of £9.75m.

Face - bovered ? Yes, very f*cking bovered.

This is just Agger-neee

I like the cut of your gib.

um bongo

Here.s a radical thought....no stay with me...what if we considered getting in a different investor to Kraft .

I've only seen him a handful of times and he looked Duff/Robben level to me, which is good enough. The kind of money talked about him commanding suggests that he's a top player, whatever our personal opinions on him may be. Still, as you say, he's bound to choose Newcastle ahead of us.

I think you're right, and that's why I feel that the next midfield signing ( a wide man presumably) has to be of a top, low risk, nature. I've no problem with Rafa spending 3m or less on a prospect, a risk signing, or a 'job' player, but I feel that we'll need to spend serious dough on one new wide midfielder to really progress. In theory the player I've seen Joaquin be is the type of 'world class' performer that you could slot into our midfield and he'd the extra dimension that could compensate for the loss of, say, Gerard or Alonso.

They all seemed to be fighting with each other at the Park End. That was one big gloat-fest last night. How we laughed, all night long. Even heard an ironic chant from our lot of '2-0 to the murderers'.

You can only beat what's in front of you, and Newcastle were running into a modicum of form. I don't think may teams would have lived with us in the first half on boxing day.

I have. And she's a he, FWIW.

Really ? Can I have a go ? Just one one walk over...

I'm taking my 7 year old tonight. Am I mad ?

Agreed. No accident that our results and the quality of our football has improved as Kewell's returned. He's still only 70% of what he can be, but anyone with any experience of watching the game can see what he contributes. For those who doubt him, ask yourselves why Rafa has Kewell as virtually the first name on his team sheet, even when he's barely fit.

Burn him ! Burn him !

The only thing I feel that can derail us is injuries. Our first 11 (or 13) is the best in the country, but I fear we've been as lucky with injuries this term as we were unlucky last season. I've always believed the midfield quartet is the key to success, and in Kewell, Alsonso, Sissoko and Gerrard I think we have as good a foursome as there is anywhere in the world. My fear is that if we lost 2 of them to injury we'd lose a lot. An additional wide man who is at the level of those four could make a big difference. I think if you added a Joaquin to a pool of the four above, plus Garcia and Hamann, then most eventualities would be covered. The only other clear weakness is the risk of injury to one of our centre halves.

...er yeah...tell us more...

If this has to be repeated, then so be it. I am getting more amazed by the week at the quality of the current side. No Liverpool team since '88 has had me regularly gasping with admiration at their football, but I'm finding myself more awestruck by the week. It's not just that we systematically took Newcastle apart yesterday, it's the stylish and relentless way we went about it. The years are well and truly being rolled back. All the things you want to see are back. The triangles, the link-up play, the tricks..it's all part of our game at the moment. It helps having the best midfield in the country. In great midfields does greatness lie.

And your'e an offensive little tw*t who needs to keep his nose out if he doesn't have anything constructive to add. Fowler was a fool who couldn't control himself and destroyed his own career. I suggest you read his laughable book, for all the 'insights' required.

I'd play our best 11 and just blow them away. They simply won't be able to live with us. They don't even have those 'dogs of war' types anymore to turm it into a contest.

Testify brother.....

No, it was just funny.

Looked that way to me. I've seen it from about 5 different angles, and there is no apparent contact with Given. If it touched him it would be by the length of a loose fibre on his shirt and could not have made any impact whatsoever on the movement of the ball. Far more easily Crouch's goal than the Wigan effort. Posts merged: Exactly. I think the rules should always hugely favour the striker being credited. Who does it help and what cause does it further to rack up countless 'own goal' statistics. I don't care how ludicrous the deflection if the striker was the last contact with a ball, from his team, before it hits the net, it's his goal.

I think you're right that it was very 'un-Liverpool' to boo a returning idol. I think the Beardsley chant was clearly light-hearted but there was real menace in the 'where were you..' aimed at Owen yesterday. I just don't hold with any of this resentment to Owen. He did not 'f*ck us over' in any sense. He was with the club for years and scored many great goals and gave tremendous service. It was not unreasonable for him to want to test himself in a foreign land and with the world's most famous club, to boot. Why should we resent a man for wanting to try a new and exciting experience ? The fee we got reflected the fact that we held onto him for a seaosn too long because we were desperate. It's not Owen's fault. If he'd really wanted to make money at our expense he could have sat tight at Anfield for another 6 to 12 months. Let's not forget our crowd were never that loyal to Owen and only grudgingly sung his name despite the substance of his exploits. I was amazed he stayed as long as he did. Let's also bear in mind that we could still do with a pacey goal machine up front, and he'd be the no.1 rational choice, come next summer. How do those booing yesterday think they were helping LFC, in the long run, with that shabby show of disrespect to a great player who may well yet return ? Posts merged: Stevie G's tuppence, and I think he's summed it up perfectly : Gerrard unhappy at Owen reception Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has criticised some Reds fans for the reception they gave former striker Michael Owen on his return to Anfield. Newcastle's Owen was mildly booed when his name was announced before a game the home side convincingly won 2-0. "I am disappointed," said Gerrard. "He should be a legend here for all the goals he has scored for us in the past. "He got a mixed reception. I do not think they were booing him much but he deserves a standing ovation."

Isolated my ars*. There was plenty of booing early on, and a spiteful chorus of 'where were you in Istanbul'. Not very proud of the Kop today. Owen didn't deserve that.