Hiddink looks as though he is going to Juventus, Blanc isn’t a bad shout doing very well with Bordeaux…
leave a club where he has money to spend to join a club who are potless? Your having a giraffe…
Question marks over O’Neill’s ability to manage a big club.
No Top manager will touch the Liverpool job unless there is a guarantee of at least 80-100M to rebuild the team. Most Top manager have massive, massive egos and there is too much potential at Liverpool for reputations to be damaged at the moment.
I remember having it out with a few poor misguided Liverpool fans earlier in the season about the quality of their squad, in particular the quality of their “wingers” and whether they were of the standard required to win the league or indeed even mount a significant challange this year having really overachieved last season. its great to be proved right.
Liverpool could do worse than offer to take a few of the Arsenal fringe players on loan to strengthen the squad for their quest to clinch a Europa League place, wouldn’t mind seeing Jack Wilshere go there for a few months to get some experience.
Rafa doesn’t fancy this game. Already complaining about the pitch before kick off.
If I was a Stoke player I’d be rubbing my hands together.
Reina seems intent on punching any long throws. Dangerous tactic.
It is strongly rumoured that Liverpool are about to take Kenwyne Jones on loan until the end of the season.
Rafael Benitez has apparently been attempting to negotiate a swap deal, offloading Ryan Babel in favour of Sunderland’s Trinidad & Tobago international, although Steve Bruce has been trying to hold onto his frontman.
“The one thing I am trying to do is build the squad and build the squad to improve,” he said. "The last thing I want to be doing is trade or anything like that…
Desperate or clever?
Desperate, he had Peter Crouch who is similiar to Jones but a better player and let him go.
Crouch and Jones are different players but you’re right that it was criminal to let Crouch go. When you look at the squad Rafa could have (based on players he has let go) versus what he actually has, you gotta wonder. He’s on another planet at times and the sooner he goes the better. Would really like to get Hiddink but time will tell.
Benitez actualy said when he sold Crouch that he wanted to keep him but couldn’t confirm to him that he would get much first team action. Torres was first choice with Gerrard off him and rightly so. There was nothing he could do. I know very little about Jones to be honest but Liverpool badly need a striker.
Alberto Aquilani’s agent has laughed off claims the Liverpool midfielder could return to Seria A with Juventus this January.
The Italian arrived as a 20million replacement for Xabi Alonso, who left for Real Madrid, from Roma last summer but has failed to live up to expectations at Anfield.
Aquilani has made just six Premier League appearances after struggling for fitness and form, and was singled out for criticism after the Reds’ shock FA Cup exit to Reading this month.
Last January, manager Rafa Benitez sold Robbie Keane back to Tottenham at a heavy loss after just half a season at the club, prompting many to suggest he is ready to give Aquilani the same treatment.
However, the player’s agent Franco Zavaglia is baffled by the speculation, despite reported interest from the Turin giants.
“There aren’t possibilities that Aquilani will go back to Italy in January,” Zavaglia told laroma24.it.
“The boy has started playing with some continuity only in recent weeks. So that hypothesis is really far from reality.”
The 25-year-old has his work cut out if he is to make Marcello Lippi’s Italy World Cup squad should he fail to up his game at Liverpool, fuelling further speculation of a possible loan deal back to Serie A.
Zavaglia again dismissed such claims: “On loan? This is fantasy football. Aquilani is happy at Liverpool and the adventure has not the slightest possibility of changing.”
Jones is a watered down lazier version of Adebayor with an average scoring record.
Thats poor management by Benitez, every “big” club will have player vying for places in virtually every position. You have to persuade players they have a chance to get in the first team if they impress you enough. Realistically Crouch would have played loads in the past two seasons if he had stayed. He went to Spurs(via Portsmouth) and he isn’t first choice there.
Firstly i think he needed the money from the sale. Also Benitez made a decent profit and if anything improved Crouch a good bit.
With someone like Torres up front he will always be first choice. Crouch would have had to accept that he was only back up and as an England international he probably needed more games too. Gerrard and Torres was the ideal partnership as Torres prefers a deep lying striker playing along side him not a big man.
Its hard to find a good sub like Solksjaer was. Someone who is content to come in and out when required but also be of sufficent quality which Ngog patently isnt. Van Nistelrooy wouldnt be a bad shout as with his injuries he couldnt play week in week out anyway.
[quote=“KIB man”]Firstly i think he needed the money from the sale. Also Benitez made a decent profit and if anything improved Crouch a good bit.
With someone like Torres up front he will always be first choice. Crouch would have had to accept that he was only back up and as an England international he probably needed more games too. Gerrard and Torres was the ideal partnership as Torres prefers a deep lying striker playing along side him not a big man.
Its hard to find a good sub like Solksjaer was. Someone who is content to come in and out when required but also be of sufficent quality which Ngog patently isnt. Van Nistelrooy wouldnt be a bad shout as with his injuries he couldnt play week in week out anyway.[/QUOTE]
Obviously Torres and Gerrard would be first choice…when fit, but how often is that? What did Benitez do with the money from the sale of Crouch? Buy Robbie Keane! Or had him foisted upon him. My main point is that all teams need decent back up and Liverpool lack that, one of the reason IMO is Benitez’s por man-management skills. Crouch spend as much time sitting on the bench at Spurs as he did at Liverpool yet seems content. Why? Even Robbie Keane had something to offer if managed correctly but it came down to benitez showing everyone that Robbie was not his mistake and where has that left Liverpool?
Robbie got a raw deal by any standards.
Van Nistelrooy wants to get into the Dutch squad for the World Cup and I believe one of his prerequisites for signing a short term deal until the end of this season is that it’ll be written into his contract that he’ll be selected for every game. I know he’s not really linked with Liverpool but this would probably rule him out in any case.
Cant see him getting picked for Spurs every game either.
Id say a lot of the money Liverpool were owed from Crouch was never received until Johnson came in. Similarily Liverpool didnt lose as much money on Keane as people realise. Just the first installment and then offered him back to Spurs as they couldnt afford him and Spurs were fighting relegation. In spite of huge financial problems last season Benitez took Liverpool to the verge of the title. Which is why I think Liverpool fans should cut him a bit of slack this season. His CV is as good if not better than any of the supposed managers to be.
Keane was a puzzling signing. At his best playing off a target man he was criminally unsuited to the style of play Benitez was employing at the time. He was hopeless at Liverpool in reality not all his fault but he isnt a title winning striker in any case or either is Crouch. At Spurs Crouch and Defoe is the partnership. The dropped points at home to Hull and Wolves which may prove very costly was when 'arry paired Defoe and Keane together. I could see Keane working well with Crouch actually given time but never with Defoe.