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Hello folks,
looks like Rafa is after 2 more players before the window ends and the names that spring to mind are Barry and Keane. There's been so much speculation about our funding, do we have enough to buy quality without having to sell first? doesn't look likely, Rafa himself has admitted it is very difficult at the moment, it could however all be a smokecreen - again very unlikely.
I think Benitez has done really well considering the situation he's working in, the dead wood has been well and truly cleared thus far, Riise, Kewell, Crouch (although he isn't dead wood, he needed to go though and I wish him the best of luck) and has managed to bring in cover for Aurellio or vice versa with Dossena - I don't know a lot about the guy but for 8 mil lets hope he's decent. Degen has been criticised before even kicking a ball for Liverpool so maybe he is a poor player, I saw him against Tranmere and he did ok, he has pace which is good to see but you can't tell much from Pre-season, Voronin is an example of that.
I feel the defence is sorted for the coming season, the big plus is to have Agger fully fit again, what a difference he will make to the side, his pass to Pacheco illustrated this, he seemed a lot more vocal at the weekend as well, great to have him back with Skrtel, Carra and Hyypia all competing for places.
The big question is in the centre of midfield and will Alonso go? the papers seem to think Xabi will stay thus hindering our chances of signing Barry and/or Keane but I wouldn't read too much into that, I'm in two minds about Alonso, if he stayed and we were able to sign Silva/Bentley instead of Barry then I'd be very happy - having said that i'm a pretty big fan of Barry and I think he's one of the best for his position in the league, I think he'd work well with Gerrard and indeed the front men, 18 million is a bit much but in todays market it's expected, it's very much watch this space at the moment with regards to the Alonso/Barry saga although I expect a breakthrough this week if i'm honest.
Obviously the other big rumour this week is a replacement for Crouch in the form or Robbie Keane. I would be 100% in favour of this transfer. I think Keane is awesome, always been a fan, clearly he's a threat and a meance to defenders, he can score goals, he's a very clever player and if he could form a good understanding with Torres I don't think there'd be a better strike force in the league. Having said that I can't see Spurs selling cheap or indeed letting him go at all, particularly as it looks like they'll be losing Berbatov sometime in the next few weeks, if someone asked me would I pay 15-20 mil for Keane I would say yes though, people would pay that for Villa and it could be a risk to see if he could adapt to this league, we know Keane has the experience and we know he's proven so for 10 mil less than Villa I would definately sign him.
Obviously it's not an ideal summer, Hicks and Gillette aren't willing to give us another 20 mil or so to spend on one player so Rafa's got to make use of shrewd negotiation but I think we're going about it the right way and I think things will happen in the next week or so.
looks like Rafa is after 2 more players before the window ends and the names that spring to mind are Barry and Keane. There's been so much speculation about our funding, do we have enough to buy quality without having to sell first? doesn't look likely, Rafa himself has admitted it is very difficult at the moment, it could however all be a smokecreen - again very unlikely.
I think Benitez has done really well considering the situation he's working in, the dead wood has been well and truly cleared thus far, Riise, Kewell, Crouch (although he isn't dead wood, he needed to go though and I wish him the best of luck) and has managed to bring in cover for Aurellio or vice versa with Dossena - I don't know a lot about the guy but for 8 mil lets hope he's decent. Degen has been criticised before even kicking a ball for Liverpool so maybe he is a poor player, I saw him against Tranmere and he did ok, he has pace which is good to see but you can't tell much from Pre-season, Voronin is an example of that.
I feel the defence is sorted for the coming season, the big plus is to have Agger fully fit again, what a difference he will make to the side, his pass to Pacheco illustrated this, he seemed a lot more vocal at the weekend as well, great to have him back with Skrtel, Carra and Hyypia all competing for places.
The big question is in the centre of midfield and will Alonso go? the papers seem to think Xabi will stay thus hindering our chances of signing Barry and/or Keane but I wouldn't read too much into that, I'm in two minds about Alonso, if he stayed and we were able to sign Silva/Bentley instead of Barry then I'd be very happy - having said that i'm a pretty big fan of Barry and I think he's one of the best for his position in the league, I think he'd work well with Gerrard and indeed the front men, 18 million is a bit much but in todays market it's expected, it's very much watch this space at the moment with regards to the Alonso/Barry saga although I expect a breakthrough this week if i'm honest.
Obviously the other big rumour this week is a replacement for Crouch in the form or Robbie Keane. I would be 100% in favour of this transfer. I think Keane is awesome, always been a fan, clearly he's a threat and a meance to defenders, he can score goals, he's a very clever player and if he could form a good understanding with Torres I don't think there'd be a better strike force in the league. Having said that I can't see Spurs selling cheap or indeed letting him go at all, particularly as it looks like they'll be losing Berbatov sometime in the next few weeks, if someone asked me would I pay 15-20 mil for Keane I would say yes though, people would pay that for Villa and it could be a risk to see if he could adapt to this league, we know Keane has the experience and we know he's proven so for 10 mil less than Villa I would definately sign him.
Obviously it's not an ideal summer, Hicks and Gillette aren't willing to give us another 20 mil or so to spend on one player so Rafa's got to make use of shrewd negotiation but I think we're going about it the right way and I think things will happen in the next week or so.
our reserves (many looking fairly disinterested) manage to control the game easily.