Extraordinary Swindle

Didn't Juventus fiddle Chelsea out of a compensation fee by getting Mutu to sign for another Italian club (Livorno?) and then signing him from that club. I seem to recall reading a snippet about it during the 2006 scandal.

Is it because they are a one man team?

One of the tabloids has a story this morning that Barry has told Villa he wants to join Liverpool.

Never said they didn't. My point was he only started 15 league games.

Barry can go: Villa to cave in and take £14m Liverpool offer - DailyMail

For feck sake - If he had the mobility of Essien, the tackling ability of Mascherano, the goal return of Torres and the big game moments of inspiration of Luis Garcia he wouldn't be a squad player. He started 15 league games last season. He scored 4 league goals and had 7 assists.

Xabi is mobile - he covered more ground in the CL games against Arsenal and Chelsea than any other player. Not domestic league games I know, but they were against two of the top teams from the league. I think his failing is that he isn't as effective in the final third of the pitch, his best work is building the play from within our own half and i presume that our style of play is going to undergo a massive change next season. Attacking full backs will provide width when they go forward. Mascherano/Plessis can marshal the area in front of the centre backs and if Barry is signed we will then have a choice of three runners for two positions in central midfield in Barry, Gerrard and Lucas. All three of them can find the back of the net. My main concern is that the current Liverpool team can't string two passes together when Xabi isn't playing. It's something that Toshack also said about him and the Sociedad team.

According to Xabi's agent, the decision to sell is Liverpool's.

Rafa Benitez:

This content is not viewable to guests.

You are Tom Hicks and I claim my £5.

But a supposed great team has yet to win it.

If there was a relegation release clause of £1M in his contract and Torres could guarantee scoring 100 OGs in each league game then I might be willing to see him go to Chelsea/Man Utd for £200M.

He spout some sh!!!t about Wenger building his third great team, I'm merely correcting his mistake. By his reasoning Rafa is building his second great team at Liverpool which simply isn't true, we're still waiting to see the first one.

Seaman started 31 games in 97/98 league season. Manninger started 5 games while Seaman was injured. He was only a backup keeper and when Seaman was fit he was immediately displaced and only returned to the starting line-up after Arsenal had won the league title. Manninger was so good that he was replaced by Richard Wright. Anelka started 16 games, was substituted in 13 of them and appeared 10 times from the bench. He contributed 6 goals. Wreh started 7 games, was substituted in all 7 and made 9 appearances from the bench. He contributed 3 goals. Which eight games were you talking about? Here are the results of the league games January-May 1998. 2-1 vs Leeds : Overmars (2) 2-2 vs Coventry : Bergkamp, Anelka 3-0 vs Southampton : Adams, Bergkamp, Anelka 2-0 vs Chelsea : Hughes (2) 1-0 vs Crystal Palace : Grimandi 0-0 vs West Ham 1-0 vs Wimbledon : Wreh 1-0 vs Man Utd : Overmars 1-0 vs Sheff Wed : Bergkamp 1-0 vs Bolton : Wreh 3-1 vs Newcastle : Vieira, Anelka (2) 4-1 vs Blackburn : Parlour (2), Anelka, Bergkamp 5-0 vs Wimbledon : Adams, Bergkamp, Overmars, Petit, Wreh 2-0 vs Barnsley : Bergkamp, Overmars 1-0 vs Derby : Petit 4-0 vs Everton : Overmars (2), Adams, Watson o.g. 0-4 vs Liverpool 0-1 vs Aston Villa Anelka and Wreh contributed 8 of 33 league goals in that period.

You said Wenger "is well on his way to building his third great team". He didn't build the 97/98 team, he completed it with the addition of Vieira, Petit and Overmars. Anelka was a bit part player in 97/98 mostly appearing as a substitute for Ian Wright and contributed a massive 5/6 league goals. If Chelsea had won the Champions League last week, Grant would have won it not Mourinho. Much like Benitez won it in 2005 and not Houllier. Being the incumbent manager at the club has something to do with it I think. However Grant did not build the Chelsea 2007-08 team nor did Benitez build the 2005-06 team. Similarly Arsene Wenger did not not build the Arsenal team of the 1997-98 season.

Are you suggesting that Wenger built the 1997-98 Arsenal team? He added Vieira, Petit and Overmars to Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Adams, Bould, Winterburn, Parlour, Wright and Bergkamp.

The other two being Monaco and Grampus Eight I presume.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Are you suggesting that Keane is a possibility or is it wishful thinking on your part? Personally I wouldn't want that little a$$hole anywhere near our club.

Tony Stephens? Is he not also the agent of one Steven Gerrard?

If we sign Inler and Barry then Alonso has to leaving the club.

It was in the Irish papers at the weekend.