Window opens, nothing to look at

FA Cup Third round day. Surely the Reds can't screw this up. A simple away tie at Reading. Anyway there are no important matters at hand. The transfer window has barely been open and Liverpool have been linked with a selection of players ranging from the good to the good-god-please-don't-sign-him. IF reports are to be believed then IF Benitez can ship off the likes of Voronin, Degen and maybe even Babel he MAY have SOME money to spend. Possibly on loans. I hope to stand corrected but I doubt we can bring anyone decent into the club.

At the end of the last transfer window somehow we signed Greek defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos. A defender so slow that I've seen milk turn quicker. I would fancy my chances facing him. Even if these jokers are shipped out of the club I can't see any of the decent names linked with us joining the club. Just where is the money coming from? Would any signings signal fresh investment in the club from an outside source? Intriguing but as things stand the status quo remains. Clearly we are broke.

Torres: A hangover cure for a Liverpool fan in Korea

Yesterday I nursed one of the worst hangovers of my life. Bedridden for nearly the entire day it was left to my wife to 'get me back to some kind of normality'. She did a great job I can tell you. And the wonders of Korean medicine did the trick too (god bless the sweet liquid I took). I may have had the worst headache of my life but some six hours after waking up it was gone. The pain was over but the body still ached and only time, and pizza would fix this. However something else would make me feel as if I had never been sick - Fernando Torres, Liverpools number 9. Any game between Liverpool and Man Utd is bigger than big but this time Liverpool were coming off the back of four consecutive defeats. Staring the end of the season down the barrel, Liverpool duly obliged with the win courtesy of Fernando and co. Almost nothing can top a win over them. However bad the day was when I woke up it couldn't have got much better as the day came to a close. The season is alive again.

Must win scenario for LFC: Sotirios Kyrgiakos (and the lack of ambition)

Liverpool are already off the pace in the league and we've only played two games so far. Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and Man City have started strong and we can't afford to be playing catch up. Tonight's home game with Aston Villa is quite simply a must win for everyone concerned at Anfield. No mercy must be shown and we must go for the jugular with attacking play down the flanks. Benayoun must start and Voronin should not even be on the substitutes bench. A repeat of some of our pedestrian displays of last season cannot be tolerated. Our record against Villa in recent times has been excellent. More of the same is needed tonight.

Onto our recent addition. Our odious owners have stitched Rafa up by giving him relative peanuts to spend on transfers this Summer. One thing a lot of fans hadn't talked a lot about in pre-season was the exit of Hyypia and its implication. Quite frankly now the matter is serious as we look woefully stretched at the back. Of course the likes of Lescott and potentially Upson are ridiculously overpriced and overrated but, surely Hicks and Gillett could have given Benitez more than the reported £2million he was given last week. I'm hoping the new signing of Sotirios Kyrgiakos pays off but it would be a brave man to claim he's fit to replace Sammi Hyypia. A lack of ambition could end up costing much more than £2million. I'm reminded of a saying about peanuts and monkeys...

Kop that: Liverpool/Man Utd mind games begin early

Last year's Premier League was pretty exciting wasn't it? For the first time in a long time the rivals for the title were Manchester United and Liverpool as the season went down until the penultimate game. Although Utd won out in the end, it was uplifting to see Liverpool in with a chance for the first time in over a decade, but the long wait for title number 19 continues.

Optimism came and has kind of gone now with the imminent departure of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid and an unimpressive string of results and performances for LFC in pre-season. Financial worries continue to dog the club and a failure to bring in high profile signings (so far) do little to inspire confidence. There are some injury worries too before the season's opener away to Spurs. Key signings have not yet been forthcoming. Hyypia has not been replaced, no wingers have been brought in and horror upon horrors no striker has been signed and Voronin has returned to the club.

Pending a medical, Alonso should bring five years service to the club to an end with a £30million move to Madrid. Adios Xabi, you will be missed but if you want to go then goodbye but be careful what you wish for. Congratulations too to Rafa for sticking to his guns and squeezing every penny out of Madrid. Could it be that Benitez will be given all the money to sign the three players we need to challenge for the title? Will some much needed flair be added to the side? It looks like a replacement has already been lined up in Roma's Alberto Aquilani but should it have been the cheaper and more experienced Gareth Barry? Enjoy counting your money Mr. Barry.

Now Alex Ferguson has stoked up the fires with some pre-season mind games. Remember last season ans Rafa's supposed rant? It was nothing of the sort but it DID get up Fergie's red nose and he didn't like it. A sure sign that he knows Liverpool are a force to be reckoned with these days. Now he cannot shut up about Benitez and Liverpool Football Club. Questions remain to be answered about their post-season dealings too. Ronaldo has gone but who will score their goals now? For Utd there are more questions than answers.

So what has Fergie said now?

"Liverpool have just had probably their best season for 20 years, finished up with 86 points and still finished four adrift. It will be hard for them to match that, let alone improve. Other teams will read Liverpool better. It has to be Chelsea as the main threat. Ancelotti will change how they play."

The English press are making this out to be Fergie writing off LFC's title bid before a ball has been kicked so you can bet that this will get tasty at some stage. I look forward to Rafa wiping the smile off Fergies face come May. Chelsea remain strong but their players are hardly getting any younger. The mind games have begun early. Should be another interesting season.

Xabi Alonso fiasco

If todays reports are to be believed, Xabi Alonso's exit from Anfield could be just days away. The player has just come off the back of probably his best season in professional football and his value to the club is at its highest so this needs to be sorted out asap - one way or another. If Alonso is to stay he needs to say so and quickly. If he wants to go, he needs to spell it out crystal clear. Real Madrid have shelled out unprecedented fees this Summer but are trying to hold the club to ransom by not budging on their valuation and dragging this out for as long as they can. I can't see Rafa folding on his valuation so somethings got to give. Madrids whinging and moaning over the price tag is embarrassing and pathetic.

This ongoing transfer saga is as tedious as last Summers Gareth Barry story but for the first time since Michael Owen, a big name player looks like he will be leaving Liverpool. Alonso's importance to LFC is strong but not as strong as Gerrard, Torres or even Mascherano. He can be replaced but like Ronaldo leaving for Madrid, a like for like replacement will be tough to find. It could mean an alteration of tactics, maybe another striker coming in or perhaps a support striker being signed. One thing is for sure, Liverpool still won't have enough money to sign the players the fans really want. How much of the estimated £26-30million Rafa wants will he have to spend?

If all parties want to do a deal, then one can be done within hours (Arbeloa proves the two clubs are talking) and I expect one to be done by the end of this week. As I write this Alonso is still a Liverpool player but surely if he was going to stay he'd have come out and said so by now. Alonso out could mean David Silva and a few others coming in. Would this dilute the squad in terms of quality while adding quantity? Do the club still have time to sign the right players? He's a fans favourite and it will be interesting to hear how Rafa spins this one IF Alonso goes.

Yanks for nothing. LFC red alert

The football season is over but today's British press is focusing greatly on Liverpool Football Club. Despite the continued progress of the playing side the coverage today is of doom and gloom and rightly so. By all accounts the finances of the club are a mess. Even though the club recorded a record high turnover, Liverpool's latest accounts reveal that Liverpool paid £36.5 million in interest on their debts in the financial year ending July 31, 2008. If the current owners don't leave the club we will become paralysed by debt and the recent optimism will be gone. Today's read is indeed a depressing one for any Liverpool fan. The interest loans are potentially crippling.

The others in the so called big for of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea continue to remain in significant debt but probably less alarming than Liverpool. The long term future of the club is the most paramount thing but what have we had in the short term? Despite Man Utd being taken over by the Glazers they have just recorded their third straight Premier League title and got to the Champions League final again whilst signing a number of lucrative commercial deals. Chelsea continue to be funded by Ambramovich via soft loans and with the promise of more summer spending. Arsenal had a modest season by their standards but they have actual bricks and mortar to show for their debt which will bring in substantial funds in the future.

And Liverpool? Despite all the promises of the new stadium coming, so far nothing. Without the new stadium we continue to fall further behind financially week by week and also would appear to be a less attractive option for any potential new owners. We continue to miss out on transfer targets as evidenced by Gareth Barry's move to Manchester City this week. Will Benitez be given enough transfer cash to sign any top quality player?

There are more questions than answers for this regime and the sooner they are forced out the better. what will happen if the club cannot refinance their credit deals with the banks? The Americans have until July 24 to refinance their credit deals with Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia. Could this be another key day in the future of LFC? It would appear that Liverpool is a house build on sand, hopefully not quicksand. What would Bill Shankly think?

Passed to death

Last night's Champions League final was a showcase for possession football and what to do with it when it really matters. Although the scoreline was 2-0 the margin of victory in terms of class on the night was far larger. Manchester United fans would argue that if they had scored the first goal then it could of been different (based on the fist 10 minutes) but they didn't and Barcelona did. The side from Old Trafford have certainly had a good season and deserve plaudits but the midfield saw a massive gulf in class between the two teams and Guardiola certainly won the tactical battle. Messi rightly grabbed some headlines but watching Xavi and Iniesta was delightful. For Utd, Ronaldo was perhaps their best player but so many didn't really turn up. If Ferguson could have his way again, surely Park Ji Sung and Giggs wouldn't have started the game. Personally I think Carlos Puyel is a liability waiting to happen but somehow Utd didn't take him on and put him under pressure. On the night Barca showed up not the weakness of Utd's squad but the deficiencies of various parts of their team right now. It will be very interesting to see what affect this will have on both Utd and Ferguson. Will they splash the cash this Summer? Regardless, Bryan Robson's outrageous pre-match claim that if Utd went on to win the game then they'd be the best team EVER was blown out of the water.


Being a Liverpool fan for over twenty years I was in two minds whether or not to watch the game as I couldn't bear the sight of seeing Utd winning a fourth European Cup but I stayed up till 6am here in Korea and I'm glad I did. Usually I really miss the English language commentary on football games but was delighted not to here ITV's Clive Tyldesley waffle on about 1999 and "That night in Barcelona" as he has for the past ten years. The word Barcelona is now a memory of a different kind as well as carrying a different resonance. In the aftermath of the game I can't get it out of my mind at how overrated (though still very good) this Utd team has been this season. Surely based on the past three months evidence winning the English Premier League was something that my beloved Liverpool should have done. Perhaps we have blown our best chance for years to come - unless Benitez gets some serious spending money. Never mind, "This time next year we'll be millionaires"...

Not to be: Liverpool dream over for now

So that's it then for another season. One game left but the best we Liverpool can finish is in 2nd place. Despite setting a personal club record best points total in the Premier League, Man Utd's draw on Saturday gives them a record equalling eighteenth title, level with us. A feat that not even the most pessimistic fans could have seen coming back in 1990.

Is it never to be? A question most reds will surely be asking themselves right now. Sure there this season was good at times. High points being two league wins over Utd, but too often we flattered to deceive just when we needed to perform. Signs of progress? Definitely. Benitez can be pleased that we have lasted the course but the margin between success and (ultimately) failure is small, but we are lacking in some areas. Food for thought for the backroom staff then. What cannot be argued is that this Summer is a pivotal point in the future of the club.


Rick Parry's (welcome) ousting means we face an uncertain immediate future until a new Chief Executive is appointed. Rafa has what he wanted - careful what you wish for? The press reports suggest the owners loans will be restructured but the debacle of club ownership still rumbles on with no end in sight. And lastly, the matter of Summer club transfers. It is clear, as Rafa is inclined to say, that 'we' don't have much money to spend. I do not envisage us having a large transfer war chest. But we MUST buy and buy quality not quantity. Last season's transfers hindered us rather than helped. A repeat just cannot be allowed to happen.

The side is desperate for three significant signings. Players for the flanks and a striker. One thing is for certain, the other sides will spend and maybe heavily - especially Chelsea. Continued press reports suggest Alonso may be sacrificed to sign Gareth Barry. I doubt any Reds fan would like that as Alonso has inarguably had his best season at Anfield. What is certain is that players will have to leave. Voronin, Dossena, Itandje, Deggen and maybe Babbel and Riera won't be missed but will hardly bring in the money for super signings. Replacing Hyypia's professionalism and influence in the squad may prove difficult too. It all points to three massive months for Liverpool FC. Will we push on, stand still or fall back like we did under Houllier? It could still end on an even sourer note. There's the small matter of the Champions League final in Rome. Viva España!

#19 Dream

As we speak the English Premier League season is drawing to a close, just two games left for Liverpool, three for Utd. After what has been in some respects a good season for LFC, the title is almost certainly staying at Old Trafford. The long wait for number 19 continues. Progress has undeniably been made but have we blown our best chance in years? Will we have to wait much longer?

In Korea I am lucky enough to be able to watch many of the big games live on cable TV. I've seen enough of the so called 'Big 4' to know that Utd perhaps deserve to win this years title, but only just. The title was certainly there for the taking. Utd went to Japan for the World Club Cup perhaps expecting to be a few points behind the leaders but came back without any pressure being put on them.

Many people are citing Liverpool's home draws as the reason for costing us this year and there is a degree of truth in that. People will also look at the signing of Robbie Keane, then selling him without bringing in a replacement and there is no doubt our squad is light upfront. But a turning point this season for me was away to Spurs in November. We wiped the floor with then hitting the woodwork three times if my memory serves me rightly, yet still unfathomably, Spurs managed a last minute winner in a 2-1 defeat. This was the first game we had lost in the league and some momentum was lost. If we had won or perhaps even drawn that one then maybe those pesky home draws may not be costing us so much now. That's my theory for what it's worth. Next year may be different. It may be more difficult but like all Liverpool fans I'll keep on dreaming.