Liverpool FC Forum

by **red37** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:00 pm

ok todays echo is running an interview/piece on rafa and his immediate plans.. (edited) full link below:

Benitezs transfer plans will be discussed at a routine, end of season board meeting this Thursday, as more high profile ins and outs are expected this summer.

Mark Gonzalez, Gabriel Paletta and Fabio Aurelio are the first new faces Benitez hopes to parade before pre-season, with two of those deals officially confirmed and the other awaiting formalities.

Two strikers and a right midfielder are also top of the agenda, with the list in the Spaniards possession prompting a daily guessing game.

"We have a saying in Spain if you shoot enough bullets at all the targets, you might get lucky and hit the right one eventually," is Benitez response to the various players hes been linked with to date.

The likes of Craig Bellamy, Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe have been discussed, but Benitez sees pros and cons in each of them and knows he can buy cheaper, more technically gifted strikers abroad.

Hes also weighing up how much hel have to spend, with some of those names requiring more wheeling and dealing to bring to the club than others.

The suggestion hed pay as much as £12m for Bent, for example, can be dismissed out of hand.

Similarly, despite claims Shaun Wright-Phillips could leave Chelsea for Liverpool, the Reds see no prospect of Jose Mourinho agreeing such a transfer. Wright-Phillips is not top of Benitezs wanted list for the right side of midfield anyway. His main target for this position plays in Europe.

Benitez may also need a back-up keeper if Jerzy Dudek or Scott Carson move on.

"I will be going to the Champions League Final and then enjoying a holiday with my family," said Benitez on his immediate plans.

"Id prefer to bring in new players before the World Cup, but its not always possible. We may have to wait, but my staff are working hard.

"Weve been thinking about the future throughout the season and now we will do so even more because the season is over.

"Its clear to everyone weundefinedve made a lot of progress, and now the idea is to take the next step."

The summer departures are often as eye-catching as the arrivals.

Benitezs intention to sell Djibril Cisse is an open secret, with the main issue being wholl buy the striker and how much of their £14m the Reds can get back.

Fernando Morientes surprise omission from the Spanish World Cup squad wont help his or Liverpools cause in attracting buyers.

Benitez will listen to offers for the forward who has clearly failed to settle in England.

The Spaniard was already back at his desk yesterday morning, paving the way for a busy closed season, but also reflecting on a weekend which underlined to him how his fans crave more success as much as him.

Benitez is glowing in his praise for the supporters who turned out in their thousands on Sunday to welcome the players home.

He said: "It would have been a lot easier for the fans if the parade was taking place on a nice day, but considering the bad weather it was even more amazing to see so many of our supporters come to see us.

"There was one youngster who must have ran alongside the bus for 15 minutes singing Rafa Benitez. When you see this, you realise what it means to our supporters.

"When I joined Liverpool from Valencia, I knew how special our fans were, but since Ive been here Ive realised it even more.

"The last time I saw fans like this was in Tenerife when we won promotion, and everyone was so happy.

"I told one of my friends from Tenerife this was exactly the same only on a bigger scale. Now we want to win a lot more for them, for the club and for ourselves."

link: http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/142724565?-11194
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a couple of interesting notes there then concerning possible transfers..

by **tubby** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:10 pm

Good post. Im quite aorried actually about Morientes becasue before the word was that we coudld use him to lure Joaquin or whoever and that he was still highly rated in Spain but if hes not even being picked for the national squad then can we even flog him in the first place.

by **red37** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:17 pm

let seville take him, we'll have daniel alves...

by **Sabre** » Tue May 16, 2006 3:34 pm

"We have a saying in Spain if you shoot enough bullets at all the targets, you might get lucky and hit the right one eventually," is Benitez response to the various players hes been linked with to date.

Yes we have. And we apply that when we think that the ones shooting has no clue about where they're aiming at

meaning that if they eventually make one hit, it's fluke, not good criteria.

by **HacksawJimDuggin** » Tue May 16, 2006 4:51 pm

Sabre wrote:
"We have a saying in Spain if you shoot enough bullets at all the targets, you might get lucky and hit the right one eventually," is Benitez response to the various players hes been linked with to date.

Yes we have. And we apply that when we think that the ones shooting has no clue about where they're aiming at meaning that if they eventually make one hit, it's fluke, not good criteria.

I am confident Rafa is doing the shooting and has every clue what direction he is shooting in!

I look forward to hearing the rumours after Thursday. No doubt someone on this forum will have wired the board room and will have heard everything that was said.

Can't wait for Thursday/Friday updates!

by **The Ace1983** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:04 pm

Well give him a mini-gun and hold the bullet chains for him!

Wouldn't Rafa make the best Bond villain? He never gives away his secrets, he always avoids direct answers and he has some crazy schemes cooking away all the time. I'm glad he's on our side.

by **HacksawJimDuggin** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:09 pm

The Ace1983 wrote:Well give him a mini-gun and hold the bullet chains for him!

Wouldn't Rafa make the best Bond villain? He never gives away his secrets, he always avoids direct answers and he has some crazy schemes cooking away all the time. I'm glad he's on our side.

LOL

by **Cool Hand Luke** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:27 pm

So it looks like 3 in and 3 more to come in?

Mark Gonzalez, Gabriel Paletta and Fabio Aurelio will go straight into the first team squad I would think. There is space for a right sided midfielder without having to sell, the 2 strikers will probably depend on selling Cisse and Morientes.

I personally am pleased that rumours linking us with Craig Bellamy, Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe seem to be untrue. None are what we need for various reasons.

The Shaun Wright-Phillips deal always seemed a bit unrealistic, I would only consider him for a fee less than £10 mil, but that isn’t going to happen.

I really hope we keep Dudek, we need a back up keeper with experience and he is perfect, it is just a matter if he is willing to stay, Carson needs to go out on loan. Hopefully keepers next season will be: Reina, Dudek and Martin. If Dudek leaves then we will need an experienced back up for Reina.

Djibril Cisse and Fernando Morientes are the two exits that are key to our incoming transfers this summer, they should generate about 10Mil, and free up a lot wages, not much can be done unless we get them out.

by **Cool Hand Luke** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:30 pm

Sabre wrote:
"We have a saying in Spain if you shoot enough bullets at all the targets, you might get lucky and hit the right one eventually," is Benitez response to the various players hes been linked with to date.

Yes we have. And we apply that when we think that the ones shooting has no clue about where they're aiming at meaning that if they eventually make one hit, it's fluke, not good criteria.

In England we have 2 sayings, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and “I’ve got my fingers in a number of pies”, it would be foolish just to have one or two targets. Its important to have more than one option in the transfer market. Its not a case of going for loads of players and hoping one comes off, it more a case of contingency plans.

by **A.B.** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:05 pm

Important bits that you need to know:

Mark Gonzalez, Gabriel Paletta and Fabio Aurelio are the first new faces Benitez hopes to parade before pre-season, with two of those deals officially confirmed and the other awaiting formalities.

The awaiting formalities one is Aurelio

The likes of Craig Bellamy, Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe have been discussed, but Benitez sees pros and cons in each of them and knows he can buy cheaper, more technically gifted strikers abroad.

Thank god.

The suggestion he'd pay as much as £12m for Bent, for example, can be dismissed out of hand.

Hallelujah

Benitez's intention to sell Djibril Cisse is an open secret, with the main issue being who'll buy the striker and how much of their £14m the Reds can get back.

Fernando Morientes' surprise omission from the Spanish World Cup squad won't help his or Liverpool's cause in attracting buyers.

Benitez will listen to offers for the forward who has clearly failed to settle in England.

Not surprised.

Wright-Phillips is NOT top of Benitez's wanted list for the right side of midfield anyway. His main target for this position plays in Europe.

Joaquin,Simao,Alves?

Interesting.

by **Sabre** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:14 pm

In England we have 2 sayings, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and “I’ve got my fingers in a number of pies”, it would be foolish just to have one or two targets. Its important to have more than one option in the transfer market. Its not a case of going for loads of players and hoping one comes off, it more a case of contingency plans.

Yes that's a good idea, specially when you're looking for girlfriend, it's always better not to have one target, as if it fails, you get depressed. :laugh:

But actually I think Rafa said that talking about the press. We say that here, when the press starts to give names (Pennant, Joaquin, DeFoe) and Rafa's saying would say something like "You journalist say a lot of names, and you eventually will guess one of the correct signings, but most of the rumours you write are bóllocks". That's what I think he says (I'd bet my neck on that).

by **A.B.** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:16 pm

Sabre wrote:
In England we have 2 sayings, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and “I’ve got my fingers in a number of pies”, it would be foolish just to have one or two targets. Its important to have more than one option in the transfer market. Its not a case of going for loads of players and hoping one comes off, it more a case of contingency plans.

Yes that's a good idea, specially when you're looking for girlfriend, it's always better not to have one target, as if it fails, you get depressed.

But actually I think Rafa said that talking about the press. We say that here, when the press starts to give names (Pennant, Joaquin, DeFoe) and Rafa's saying would say something like "You journalist say a lot of names, and you eventually will guess one of the correct signings, but most of the rumours you write are bóllocks". That's what I think he says (I'd bet my neck on that).

If you were giving your neck for free, nobody would want it. It reminds them of Steve Bruce, why would they want that kind of neck

by **L-type** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:28 am

red37 wrote:Similarly, despite claims Shaun Wright-Phillips could leave Chelsea for Liverpool, the Reds see no prospect of Jose Mourinho agreeing such a transfer. Wright-Phillips is not top of Benitezs wanted list for the right side of midfield anyway. His main target for this position plays in Europe.

"I will be going to the Champions League Final and then enjoying a holiday with my family," said Benitez on his immediate plans.

For those of you wondering, who our main right wing prospect would be. I feel this quote offers some clue. There is the fact that we want simao, but chelsea also want him, so it's a lost cause. But....

The two hints:
Plays In Europe
Benitez is going to the CL Final
_

My speculation: Giuly
We were linked to him in the past and he is apparently unsettled, so he could be an option. But then again, maybe Benitez just likes to watch Football played at the highest level between two sides very capable of playing beautiful free flowing football.

by **Lando_Griffin** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:57 am

L-type wrote:
red37 wrote:Similarly, despite claims Shaun Wright-Phillips could leave Chelsea for Liverpool, the Reds see no prospect of Jose Mourinho agreeing such a transfer. Wright-Phillips is not top of Benitezs wanted list for the right side of midfield anyway. His main target for this position plays in Europe.

"I will be going to the Champions League Final and then enjoying a holiday with my family," said Benitez on his immediate plans.

For those of you wondering, who our main right wing prospect would be. I feel this quote offers some clue. There is the fact that we want simao, but chelsea also want him, so it's a lost cause. But....

The two hints:
Plays In Europe
Benitez is going to the CL Final
_

My speculation: Giuly
We were linked to him in the past and he is apparently unsettled, so he could be an option. But then again, maybe Benitez just likes to watch Football played at the highest level between two sides very capable of playing beautiful free flowing football.

I doubt we'll go for Guily mate.

He's what, 29? And I honestly don't think he's got the game for the Premiership.
I could be wrong, but I think Beni is just going to the CL final to see how to beat the two teams playing next season.

by **dawson99** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:14 pm

Sabre wrote:
"We have a saying in Spain if you shoot enough bullets at all the targets, you might get lucky and hit the right one eventually," is Benitez response to the various players hes been linked with to date.

Yes we have. And we apply that when we think that the ones shooting has no clue about where they're aiming at meaning that if they eventually make one hit, it's fluke, not good criteria.

i thought this meant rafa was saying that the journos are shooting, sayine we are after weveryone, but with enough shots they will pick a player we are really going for

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