GWistooshort

He definitely was - see http://www.ynwa.tv/forum/index.php?s=&...t&p=2309720

That was my 1st thought when I saw the picture, but the FA statement says that while Mike Riley didn't see Boswinga's actions, the linesman said he himself did see it http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NewsFromTheFA/P...a_statement.htm

Man U - Keane & Kuyt Crewe - Babel & Ngog PSV - Keane & Ngog

Yeah saw that after I posted Didn't see it before cos it is in the General Footie forum rather than in here

Linesman has apparently been dropped from Premier League duty & relegated to a match in League Two because of the incident http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...gue-2-game.html A different view of the incident.......

Linesman has apparently been dropped from Premier League duty & relegated to a match in League Two because of the incident http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...gue-2-game.html A different view of the incident.......

From the Liverpool Daily Post yesterday......... Keirrison: Liverpool Fail to Replace Keane with Brazilian Strike Sensation It has emerged that Rafa Benitez missed out on a replacement for Robbie Keane on deadline day as he targeted young Brazilian striker Keirrison de Souza Carneiro, Keirrison for short. The 20-year-old starlet has a prolific record inBrazil’s Serie A with his club side Coritiba but recently joined Palmeiras on loan. Liverpool join a list of interested clubs which includes Olympiakos, Real Madrid,Barcelona and Valencia. Unfortunately a move to Anfield could not be completed due to his complicated contractual situation. The player’s contract is owned by Coritiba (20%) and Traffic Sports Marketing (80%) resulting in a deal that would involve a number of parties. Despite Keirrison’s age he has already shown just how prolific he can be in his homeland. Last season alone he has scored an impressive 20 goals in just 31 appearances - a remarkable feat considering this is only his 2nd League season. Keirrison broke into the Coritiba first team in 2007 helping the club to promotion from Serie B but it was his impressive arrival in the top division that has underlined his incredible potential. The 5 ft 11 forward is renowned for his pace and finishing ability and his 20 League goals left him 1 strike behind the League’s top scorer. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverp...64375-22855488/

Point taken I won't say anything more about it

According to the Telegraph this morning 17 players, including Keane, have played the 10 or more league games that qualify them for a medal, but the 21 medals given out are for the manager & staff as well as the players Doesn't say whether a team can ask for more medals if a high number of players qualify for one http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/...ners-medal.html Seems to be too few to me given the size of squads nowadays

I think Xabi is suspended for the Portsmouth match because he picked up a 5th yellow card against Chelski If Gerrard is out & Lucas' suspension kicks in straight away, that leaves us with Masch, Spearing & Plessis

Sock it to ‘em “Sock robbers, sock robbers, sock robbers,” the Liverpool fans sang at Goodison Park last night, bombarding the Bullens Road touchline with rolled-up balls of footwear. This was to taunt Evertonians about their proposed move to a stadium in Kirkby, which is outside Liverpool city limits. Scouse urban myth has it that, in the dark days of the 1960s and 1970s, not even odd socks were safe on a Kirkby washing line from local thieves. The legend has been taken up with a vengeance by the red side of the city. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5664435.ece

Sock it to ‘em “Sock robbers, sock robbers, sock robbers,” the Liverpool fans sang at Goodison Park last night, bombarding the Bullens Road touchline with rolled-up balls of footwear. This was to taunt Evertonians about their proposed move to a stadium in Kirkby, which is outside Liverpool city limits. Scouse urban myth has it that, in the dark days of the 1960s and 1970s, not even odd socks were safe on a Kirkby washing line from local thieves. The legend has been taken up with a vengeance by the red side of the city. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5664435.ece

Also, a couple of small snippets from the Guardian, including a comment from Keane.... "Keane has tried to draw a line under his 28-game Anfield pit-stop: "It was a difficult time for me at Liverpool but there's no point in dwelling on it." Benítez said he was prepared to keep Keane as late as Sunday, only for Jermain Defoe's 10-week absence with a fractured foot to prompt Spurs to return with a more tempting offer." http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/fe...ne-liverpool-fc

Some comments from Rafa I haven't seen on here yet.......... ‘When we signed him, I thought he could be a fantastic partner for Fernando Torres. And if Torres was injured, we could rely on Robbie. I thought he could guarantee goals, but that clearly wasn’t the case. ‘Sometimes, even with good players, they don’t settle in at a new club or they have problems with systems or developing an understanding with other players. ‘Another factor is that Liverpool are a different club from most. Expectations are really high, people are asking questions every week and the pressure is on all the time. Maybe that was why he found it so difficult. ‘Do I feel any responsibility for what happened? I supported him as much as I could and gave him plenty of opportunities to show his quality. He was not treated badly. There is some disappointment it didn’t work out, but we did all we could to improve things before having to accept that sometimes you cannot make the improvement you are looking for.’ Benitez dismissed reports that Liverpool faced an £8m shortfall on last summer’s £20m outlay and claimed they could break even, depending on Tottenham success. He claimed: ‘The difference between what we paid and what we are getting could be £3m-£4m, but it could be even less.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...-Liverpool.html

Apparently so, needs to have played in 10 games I read in one of the papers

Spot on. He didn't even bother to pretend that he was going for the ball. Just walked over to Yossi, studded him in the back & walked off again. Totally lost it.

Not sure about that - he's made a couple of statements in the last few that leave me quite confident that he wants to stay "Xabi Alonso, has distanced himself from a move away from Liverpool. The former Real Sociedad player admitted he almost signed for Real Madrid ahead of Liverpool in 2004 but committed his future to the Premier League club. Alonso said: "Are we saying that contracts are worth nothing? I have three more years here and some of the other players have even longer deals. I remember when Rafa arrived people said half of his old Valencia team would be accompanying him but in the end no one came. And [Jose] Mourinho has not taken half of Chelsea to Inter Milan. The whole thing is a matter between the club and Benitez. The players are not affected. "I spoke with Real Madrid but there was no agreement between the clubs. Then Liverpool came to the table and an agreement was reached quickly. They won me over with how serious they were and I soon came to realise what a fantastic club it is." http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/footbal...ix-1523015.html The was another one that I can't find at the moment, where he was more explicit about wanting to stay

I don't think it's actually the FA's fault, for once As I understand it the FA wanted to introduce retrospective decisions (both rescinding harsh decisions & handing out tougher punishment for too lenient decisions), but FIFA weren't keen, because they wanted to 'protect the integrity of the match officials' (the current situation does the opposite in my view & the Bosingwa/Benayoun incident is a prime example of this) FIFA agreed that red cards that the ref agrees in retrospect shouldn't have been awarded could be rescinded & disciplinary action could be taken where none of the match officials had seen the offence. In this case as the linesman said he saw the offence (Riley said he didn't see it himself) the FA are prevented by FIFA's Laws of the Game from taking any further action. The best that we can hope for is that the linesman gets pulled up for it as a result of the standard review of his performance in that game - he certainly deserves to It's a ridiculous situation & one that is doing the game a lot of harm IMO

Tony Barrett wrote an interesting article in the Echo a few weeks ago comparing Beardsley & Keane's starts "in the first months of his Anfield career, the England man struggled to live up to the exacting standards of his illustrious predecessors and by the turn of the year he had only scored four goals. In his own words, Beardsley felt as if he "could not hit a barn door", but any shortcomings in his own performance levels were masked by the superlative displays of a Liverpool team which was swatting opponents aside with almost contemptuous ease. A current tally of seven goals is a disappointing return for a player who cost £20m in the summer but, interestingly, Anfield legend Beardsley only had a single strike more to his name at the exact same stage of the 1987/88 season, having started half a dozen more games. By the end of that campaign, Beardsley had clocked up a more than adequate 18 goals, and he believes Keane is capable of doing the same. What's more, he has already taken the trouble to tell the Irishman so. "I spoke to Robbie when Liverpool came up to the north east to play Newcastle just after Christmas and I told him that he is doing a lot better than I managed in the first few months of my time at Anfield," he revealed. "I told him that I couldn't even hit a barn door most of the time and it was a difficult time for me personally, but that it was covered up because the team was doing so well at the time, and the media focus was nowhere near as strong as it is today." http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-f...00252-22711596/

I think the linesman did wave his flag back & forth for a foul, but then pointed it in Chelsea's direction

when!!???!??!?!?!?!?! you must be feeling optimistic today

out for 5-6 weeks with a metatarsal injury http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...090203-1331.htm

Taking the regulations at face value I agree it should be ok, just depends on UEFA's interpretation & as the regulations don't say there's always an element of doubt

There has been quite a high turnover of players with Rafa as manager, but I think this is at least in part due to the poor state of the squad when he took over (which needed to be almost completely overhauled) & the fact Rafa is willing to sign players who are not long-term solutions, but whom provide necessary cover/competition for a position &/or upgrade the squad & then sell them on when they can be replaced by something better. I think that when looked at as a whole Rafa's policy of an evolutionary upgrade of the squad has been a success, as our squad now is much much stonger than when he took over - we have a core of top class players with a strong mentality most of whom are young enough to form the spine of the team for a number of years: Reina, Carra, Agger (provided we offer him that damned contract), Skrtel, Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres. Of the players you mention, we sold Bellamy, Crouch & Momo for a profit; all 3 made a contribution to varying degrees (although we could have done without the golf club incident); Gracia's contribution was pretty significant & we sold him to enable the signing of Torres (a sacrifice worth making); Crouch wanted to leave to play more football; Bellamy was upgraded for Torres & Momo for Masch. I'd say Pennant is the only player in your list who can be counted as a failed transfer.

That's assuming that he starts qualifying from when he 1st joined which was initially an 18 month loan deal & not from when we made it permanent, which was last summer Hopefully it's the former, but the UEFA regulations that I posted the link to above don't mention loans so can't be sure