GWistooshort

My wife has contact with someone very close to Arshavin through her (non-football related) work & they said we didn't make any move for him after she asked them following the Mirror story claiming we did

Article saying it's us in the Daily Post this morning http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverp...92534-24630850/

brunettes?

2018 is being referred to because there was an event last week launching Liverpool's bid to be a host city in the 2018 World Cup & Purslow spoke at it - our new stadium being a key part of the bid (as is Everton's) - which is where Purslow's quotes about the stadium this week came from

You're right - I saw his name & wondered whether the others would outweigh him, but given his billing as "football finance expert" I think on reflection they would likely defer to his opinion

I had completely forgotten about him.... LIVERPOOL DROP PHILIPP DEGAN Right-back left out of Champions League squad By Chris Bascombe, 05/09/2009 KOP flop Philipp Degen has been dumped from Liverpool's Champions League campaign. The injury-prone right-back is not in the provisional 28-man squad submitted to UEFA in midweek. The Swiss international has so far, in his 157-minute first-team career, cost the Reds £15,000 per minute. Degen, 26, signed a four-year £37,000-a- week deal and also got a £400,000 signing on fee when he joined in 2008 on a Bosmanfrom Borussia Dortmund. Since then Degen has broken ribs and a foot and made just two Carling Cup appearances. Boss Rafa Benitez was unable to sell him over the summer. Benitez has named emerging Academy youngsters Nathan Eccleston, David Amoo and Martin Kelly in his list, ensuring Liverpool fulfil UEFA quotas for home-grown talent. http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/4889...pool-squad.html

An opportunity to get some air time for the issues discussed in this thread? Liverpool Daily Post The business of football - your chance to ask the experts Sep 4 2009 Football in 2009 is, whether fans like it or not, more than just a sport. It is big, big business. Everton and Liverpool have to compete in the Premier League against teams funded by some of the wealthiest people in the World, and that means matching them in multi-million pound transfer deals and eye-watering salaries for players. Our clubs have great traditions on the football field, but in the future their skills in the world of high finance are going to be tested just as strenuously if they are to stay at the pinnacle of the game. Join us on Wednesday as we throw the business of football under the spotlight in a live television debate. Robert Elstone, chief executive of Everton Football Club, will be joining us in our TV studio to answer your questions on the business of football, alongside football finance expert Professor Tom Cannon, and LDP Head of Sport John Thompson. Business Editor Bill Gleeson will be chairing the discussion and putting your questions to our panel. You can send your questions now to bill.gleeson@liverpool.com Log in to www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk from 10am on Wednesday to discuss the issues and put your questions, and to watch the live TV discussion which begins at noon. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverp...92534-24608781/

From the Echo today........... Blood Red: The day Liverpool FC cash register was slammed shut Sep 5 2009 by James Pearce, Liverpool Echo SEPTEMBER 1 2009 should be a date all Liverpool fans remember. Transfer deadline day was the time when it became abundantly clear that cash really is in short supply at Anfield. Rafa Benitez had of course hinted as much in recent weeks as he played down the chances of making any more acquisitions before the window slammed shut. However, there was always the hope that the American owners would relent and loosen their grip on the Anfield purse strings. After all, the opening weeks of the season have highlighted concerns about the lack of depth in Benitez’s squad, but any call for extra funds clearly fell on deaf ears. Even the speculation about possible new recruits this time lacked any sense of credibility. The Sky Sports News crew got very excited about a possible loan switch for Spurs’ David Bentley on deadline day but that was never on the cards. Some optimistic fans clung to the belief that a deal had been done with Valencia for David Villa and that was why the number seven shirt had been left vacant all summer. The stories linking Benitez with a swoop for Real Madrid’s Arjen Robben could swiftly be consigned to the bin as soon as it became known he had a £20million tag. Striker David Trezeguet was another ‘on the verge’ of making the move to Anfield after nine years with Juventus. He was apparently available for ‘just’ £5million. It wasn’t difficult separating the fact from the fiction because Benitez had nothing to spend. He was told there was £1.5million left in his pot after Alberto Aquilani was snapped up and all that went on signing Greek defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Keen to avoid another bust-up with Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the Spaniard has opted to keep his thoughts about his transfer kitty to himself. But one look at his summer dealings makes a mockery of claims that Benitez is operating on a level playing field to his rivals. The Liverpool manager has traditionally been given £20million each year to spend on new recruits plus whatever he could raise from moving players on. However, this summer he has had to balance the books. The sale of Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Sebastian Leto and youngsters Adam Hammill, Jack Hobbs and Paul Anderson generated around £38million. Aquilani and Glen Johnson were brought in at a cost of around £36million with centre-back Kyrgiakos following after the price of Ryan Shawcross and Michael Turner forced the manager to look at cheaper options. Of course, strictly speaking Benitez has returned a profit as the amount the Reds actually had to hand over for Johnson was greatly reduced because Portsmouth still owed most of the £10million they agreed to pay for Peter Crouch. And although the Aquilani deal could rise to £20million, only £4.3million was paid up front with further payments to follow in January and next June. Benitez has been told that a big chunk of available funds was taken up by the new contracts given to the likes of Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger and Dirk Kuyt. There are also fears that cash has been redirected to fund the owners’ recent refinancing deal and crippling interest payments. Only time will tell if the lack of financial backing will wreck hopes of going one better than last season. If it does a great opportunity will have been missed. The result is that Benitez must battle on with what he’s got and hope those on the fringes finally rise to the challenge. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-f...00252-24609690/

It's not the original article I'm afraid, but here's the piece on it from today's Daily Post........... Albert Riera denies any rift with Rafael Benitez Sep 5 2009 by James Pearce, ALBERT RIERA has admitted to a flare-up with Reds boss Rafa Benitez – but insists he has got nothing but respect and admiration for the Anfield manager. Riera has so far failed to command a regular starting place this season and admits the lack of first team action in the early weeks of the season has left him feeling angry and frustrated. Riera, signed for £8m by Benitez from Espanyol last year, is currently on international duty with European Champions Spain ahead of their Group 5 World Cup qualifier against Belgium tonight. He told the Spanish press: “I didn’t play the first game because I started training late after the Confederations Cup, like Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres. I was angry and had a flare-up at Benitez, but the day I don’t get angry for being a substitute I will retire.” Riera, who has played 40 games for Liverpool after making his debut in the first of Liverpool’s two emphatic league wins over Manchester United last season, said he did not believe the exchange would lead to any damage, and heaped praise on his Anfield boss in a week when Ryan Babel criticised his manager of allegeldy breaking promises made to him. Riera, looking to win his 14th Spanish cap tonight, said: “Benitez is a special coach who defends his own. I know he is with me, because he said so.” http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverp...92534-24613923/

This what Moores said about a deadline................ "there were a few things that just weren't quite right with DIC. The longer it went on the more concerns I had. I just asked if I could have two or three days to clear my mind and think over a few points I wasn't sure about and, unfortunately, we were only given six hours" http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs...070206-1259.htm

You're right, they won't & I don't think our squad needs to be that big, but we are limited IMO by our lack of locally trained options & the calibre of players we can name in our B List & to me the comparison with Arsenal & Man Utd highlights both of these issues It's something that's been around for a while now & has the potential to become a bigger problem for us if not addressed, although Insua's & Ngog's qualification as a locally trained player & on the B List respectively over the next year will help

Man Utd have at least 12 locally trained players in their 25-man List A & have been able to name a further 10 players in their List B, including Anderson, Evans & Welbeck, while Arsenal have a 45-man squad in total, & are able to name Walcott, Denilson, Bendtner & Gibbs in their List B While I think Arsenal's squad is over the top, this is definitely an area where we need some more options IMO

Only 23 players instead of a max number of 25 on our List A because we only named 6 locally trained players instead of 8 No Ayala which is slightly strange given he seems to be eligible for List B this season, as were Dean Bouzanis & Martin Hansen who have also missed out Steven Irwin has also been left out despite being named in our List A last season as one of our locally trained players

Here's our squad Goalkeepers No. Name 1 Diego Cavalieri 25 Pepe Reina 44 David Martin Defenders No. Name 2 Glen Johnson 5 Daniel Agger 12 Fábio Aurélio 16 Sotiris Kyrgiakos 22 Emiliano Insua Zapata * 23 Jamie Carragher 32 Stephen Darby * 34 Martin Kelly 37 Martin Škrtel 38 Andrea Dossena Midfielders No. Name 4 Alberto Aquilani 8 Steven Gerrard 15 Yossi Benayoun 20 Javier Mascherano 21 Lucas 26 Jay Spearing 28 Damien Plessis * 39 Nathan Eccleston * Forwards No. Name 9 Fernando Torres 10 Andriy Voronin 11 Albert Riera 18 Dirk Kuyt 19 Ryan Babel 24 David N'Gog 46 David Amoo * Key: * Player list B http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/club=78...on=1/index.html

This is the sort of article we need to start being written about us......... The Guardian 3 September Man Utd haven't spent the Ronaldo money on players, so where has it gone? Sir Alex Ferguson has not replaced Ronaldo, so perhaps United fans should expect the Old Trafford toilets to get a makeover By David Conn Manchester United fans not wholly convinced by their team's performances, balance and strength in depth so far this season can take comfort from the explanations provided throughout the summer, that Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to spend little of the £80m received for Cristiano Ronaldo has nothing to do with the massive debts loaded on the club. As the transfer window closed, Sir Alex Ferguson stayed true to his resolution, that he is happy with his squad, the market is overpriced and, perhaps most oddly, that in the whole of world football, the players are simply not there with the skill and psychological equipment worthy of a Manchester United squad number. In a summer of perpetual rumour, the only player United confirmed Ferguson genuinely did want was Karim Benzema, and after the French striker was swept up in Real Madrid's trolley dash round the Pannini sticker album, Ferguson did not look for another. So United head for the heart of the season having replaced Ronaldo, who scored 25 goals last year in all competitions, and Carlos Tevez, who scored 15 while regularly being held in reserve, with Michael Owen, signed on a free after stumbling through 10 goals in a wretched flail against Newcastle's impending relegation. Ferguson is clearly confident that £17m spent on Luis Antonio Valencia (three goals for Wigan last year) will prove a prudent investment while Gabriel Obertan, the 20 year old French striker who played just eight league matches for champions Bordeaux and went on loan to mid-table Lorient, has been tracked as one for the future. Throughout the summer, while Ferguson was emphasising his disdain for a market in which Real, with borrowed euros, and Manchester City, with Abu Dhabi oil riches, were the most substantial spenders, United's owners wanted it to be known that they had not banked the Ronaldo money to help deal with the debt. The accounts for the thicket of Manchester United companies, which begin with a football club based in Stretford and ultimately lodge the Glazer family's ownership in the low tax, Las Vegas, roulette wheel US State of Nevada, were most recently filed for the year to June 2008. They showed the club £699m in debt to banks and hedge funds, three years after the Glazers borrowed £525m to finance their 2005 takeover. The interest payable in just three years after that, by a club always previously debt-free, has been a barely believable £263m. That is money from fans, TV and other commercial income which could have been put to all manner of better uses. Yet even with the massive interest paid out, the debt the Glazers originally loaded on to United has continued to climb, because the most expensive borrowing, from hedge funds at 14.25% interest a year, has not actually been paid, but "rolls up" and is added to the total amount owed. In Seoul on the United's pre-season tour, the Glazer family's spokesman stressed to the accompanying media that United, Ferguson included, did, despite all that, have £60m to spend. Even though United lost £44.8m last year, because of the £69m interest payable, the spokesman pointed to the club's booming turnover, and operating profit, to say the money was there if Ferguson chose to spend it. "The manager has a significant amount of money to invest if he wants to," the spokesman, Tehsin Nayani, said. "The delay [in signing anybody] is because the manager has not been able to locate the players that he believes fit the Manchester United mindset. "We are talking about a net amount of about £60m, and that is cash that can be reinvested in the squad, doing up the toilets or new carpets." The transfer market may, as Ferguson complains, be inflated, although City have seen it as a buyer's summer, with some players available at fair enough prices because many clubs are in a financial squeeze. At Old Trafford, though, the argument has held: Ferguson has simply not wanted any more players for his squad even though all that money was available to him, and the Glazers have not insisted on banking it to fend off the vast debts with which they loaded the club. Protesting United fans have been told from the beginning that they are being financially naïve and illiterate to think that hundreds of millions of pounds of debt, to pay for a takeover none of them wanted, will have any actual effect on their club. The Glazers have been able to point to three Premier League titles won since they arrived, and the 2008 European Champions League trophy, as strong evidence for the argument that nobody should worry about the debt. Now, with Ronaldo and Tevez departed, and the blessed Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs scampering towards their sunsets, we can only keep taking the owners at their word, because there is no way of seeing where the £80m Ronaldo money has actually gone. As the transfer window has closed without much of the spare £60m reinvested in the squad, United fans know what to look excitedly out for: a wondrous new experience in the Old Trafford toilets, or some of the plushest carpets in world football. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn...r-alex-ferguson

Kuyt says it must be a mistranslation cos he's sure Babel wouldn't say Rafa's a liar & Babel's happy at Liverpool & just wants to play games http://link.brightcove.com/services/player...tid=36918902001

Debreceni at Home are on sale to season ticket holders http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/tickets/ticket_i...9h_20090916.htm

I think Ayala & Plessis & Dean Bouzanis & Martin Hansen are all eligible for List B this season as well as Insua Ngog & Gulacsi should be eligible for the B list from next season The Guardian today reckons Man Utd have 10 players on their B List, including Anderson & Johnny Evans, giving them a total squad of 35 players for the Champions League

From today's Guardian............. Record spending turns to record profit for Premier League's top four As the transfer window shut with a whimper rather than a bang, it emerged that England's four Champions League representatives had made their biggest ever net profit on summer transfer dealings. English football's new financial realities, at least outside the City of Manchester Stadium, were illustrated by figures showing that the Big Four closed the book on their summer dealings £75.3m in the black, according to accountants KPMG, as compared to a net outlay of £45.2m a year ago. Even if the world record £80m paid by Real Madrid to Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo is subtracted from the total, the four traditionally biggest spenders were left only marginally in the red as all pulled in their belts for a variety of reasons. Despite the outlay of Manchester City, who topped the spending table with a net figure of £98m as the Abu Dhabi owners attempt to break into the top four, the net spending of Premier League clubs was down to £81m from £210m a year ago. Overall, clubs in the top three tiers of English football recorded a net outlay of just more than £6.5m, down from £167.5m in the 2008 summer transfer window. The proposed new 50% top rate of income tax and the weakness of the pound against the euro have been cited as reasons for the lack of big signings from overseas this summer, while others have blamed the impact of Real Madrid's spending spree. Last month, Deloitte Sports Business Group calculated that the true cost of an overseas player to English clubs was up to 70% higher than to their Spanish counterparts. "I don't buy into the idea that it's the credit crunch that is curtailing the spending of the Big Four, but the fact they are no longer able to attract the top European stars for some reason," said Geoff Mesher, head of the forensic sports industry team at KPMG. "The tax rate and the euro-pound exchange rate may well have had an effect. European players are less attracted if they are going to be paid in pounds." Despite widespread speculation that Roman Abramovich, their owner, had vowed to make a "marquee signing", Chelsea's biggest deal of the summer remained the £18m paid to CSKA Moscow for Yuri Zhirkov. That still made the Stamford Bridge club the only one of last season's top four to appear in the top half of a spending table compiled by KPMG, with Manchester United and Arsenal recording a profit and Liverpool a deficit of only £2.7m. Doubts have been cast over Liverpool's spending power since their American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, agreed a refinancing package last month that involves repaying £60m of £290m debt over the next 12 months. Manchester City aside, those spending the most during the current window were clubs such as Sunderland, Birmingham and Wolves, gambling in order to retain or consolidate their Premier League status. Sunderland and Birmingham have the next highest net outlays, of £19.2m and £18.6m, respectively. "This level of investment in the current economic climate reflects the financial pressure on clubs to avoid relegation and their willingness to speculate to achieve this goal," Mesher said. "Whilst relegated clubs will receive substantial parachute payments this is no match for the lucrative television and prize money on offer in the Premier League." KPMG's figures reveal a decrease in transfer fees paid to overseas clubs, giving further credence to the theory that English clubs are finding it harder to attract talent from overseas. Of the total Premier League spend, 35% was paid to non-English teams, down from 47% in the 2008 summer window. Of the £156m investment in players from non-English teams, 5% went to the Spanish league compared with 35% of the £222m sent overseas in 2008. Conversely, around 85% of transfer funds received by Premier League clubs from overseas came from La Liga, and in particular from Real Madrid. Separate figures from Deloitte , also published tonight, showed that overall spend by Premier League clubs had declined by 10% compared to the same period in 2008. Yet the relatively strong spending power of clubs throughout the top division, chiefly thanks to the way TV money is distributed, meant that the spending by Premier League clubs, £460.4m, again exceeded that in other European leagues, albeit not by as much as in previous seasons. Spending by Real Madrid and Barcelona boosted summer 2009 transfer spending by clubs in Spain's top division to around £400m, while Italy's Serie A clubs spent around £350m. Clubs in the top divisions of each of France and Germany spent around £200m. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/20...league-big-four

Sam Wallace in the Independent today says that Johnson's on £120,000/week & says "that deal was agreed because of Liverpool's desperation to make sure Johnson did not sign for Chelsea this summer, although their interest was not that strong". http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/footbal...rk-1780717.html

You can watch a clip from the interview HERE

A good read if others haven't seen it http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...090902-0700.htm

looks like you're right well spotted

UEFA's rules say you have to have 8 locally trained players in your 25-man squad irrespective of age & that a player has to be registered with his club for a period of 3 entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 & 21 to qualify as locally trained Insua joined in Jan 2007 so will qualify in Jan next year http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Downlo...77_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Official site says Rafa "is hoping his Brazilian full-back will have made a complete recovery by the time Burnley come to Anfield on September 12" http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...090901-0805.htm