Liverpool FC Forum

by **RUSHIE#9** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 2:47 pm

Rafa considering Forlan really does bother me. I'd have to question Rafa's judgement on that one as Forlan has been proven a failure in this leaugue. Just because he's now doing well in la liga doen't mean he'll bring that new found success with him. Rafa you just have to look at Morientes for proof. He was one of spain and europe's deadliest strikers but just didn't suit english football and it looks like the same can be said or Forlan. Don't waste yer money on him. :no

by **Elchris** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:32 pm

Sabre how do you rate diego forlan at villareal ...? we all know wat happen when he was at mancs

by **parchpea** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:18 pm

Just hope the Forlan thing is paper talk.

This player runs offside a lot and shoots on sight from any distance.

Thing is because we have been dissapointed with our summer recruits in recent seasons there was great hope this time round.

Its all been talked up and yet we still have no new players. We are all frantically picking the bones out of every rumour.

We only have to look at how well Pongolle has done in Spain to see its easier to grab goals there.

The games in La Liga seem very open and attack minded giving forwards plenty of chances to find the net.

by **redsince2001** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:22 pm

Turn the clock back – we’ve got to move on

Jun 9 2007

by Chris Bascombe, Liverpool Echo

NARCOTIC experts will be required to maintain a careful watch over Melwood and Anfield for the next two months.

It’s rumoured a consignment of chill pills are heading this way. How badly they’re needed. The tetchiness epidemic has spread since the end of the season.

While those charged with running our clubs talk about working tirelessly to make the signings to compete for the Premiership, the manager and supporters anxiously wait news of the delivery of promises.

Pre-season often feels like nothing more than a series of cut and paste jobs of interviews and stories which have been read many summers before.

Liverpool are undoubtedly at another crossroads.

Story continues

ADVERTISEMENT

If they don’t act to strengthen the squad with world class players, you can predict how the next 12 months will go.

The trend at this time of the year is to review how the last campaign has gone. Instead, how about a preview of what we can expect in the next few months if the proverbial fingers don’t come out?

June/ July: Liverpool continue to pursue several top-class targets, working tirelessly behind the scenes to make the deals happen, while manager Rafa Benitez’s mood switches from deeply frustrated to content depending on the levels of reassurance following phone calls from the owners. Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o are spotted touring the club museum. Harry Kewell picks up a niggling injury. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

August: Concerns are raised about why Liverpool have jetted to Hong Kong a week before a crucial Champions League qualifier. Meanwhile, as the transfer deadline approaches Benitez is still waiting for the arrival of a key player. He ends up working until midnight on August 31 trying to negotiate a deal, but it doesn’t happen.

Elsewhere, it goes unnoticed in the small print regarding Champions League ticket allocation that fans must have attended at least four reserve games at Wrexham’s Racecourse in order to qualify for a cup final seat should the Reds get that far. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

September: After a slow start to the Premiership campaign, the first in a series of articles appears complaining that the previous summer was a ‘missed opportunity’ as Liverpool already trail Manchester United and Chelsea by ten points. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

October: Rafa Benitez is condemned for playing an under-strength team in the Carling Cup. The Daily Mail describes the club’s performance as ‘the worst in 40 years’ and asks what Benitez has ever done other than win the Champions League and the FA Cup in his first two seasons. Two days later the Reds beat Real Madrid in the Bernabeu. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

November: Liverpool qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League with a game to spare prompting UEFA spokesman William Gaillard to describe this year’s competition as undoubtedly the worst ever, listing 25 incidents of poor ball control in the last three weeks. Gaillard is sacked by Michel Platini and replaced with someone who’ll be less insulting about Liverpool. Neville Neville says he’s deeply honoured to accept the job. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

December: Tom Hicks tells Liverpool fans they’ll be ‘very excited’ by the signings the club will be making when the January transfer window opens. Benitez signs an Eastern European on a pre-contract Bosman deal ahead of next season, but doesn’t make much fuss about it because he ain’t much good. Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o are spotted touring the club museum. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

January: Liverpool sign a full back for £2.5m. He’ll be sold in January, 2009 for the same price. Fans demanding new faces are urged to be more patient. Benitez works until midnight on January 31 trying to sign his prime target but negotiations stall. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

February: Real Madrid sack their manager and make an official approach for Benitez.

The Liverpool boss is known to be increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress and funds. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

March: The FA Cup and Champions League continues to offer hope Liverpool will win silverware this season. After another heroic European night at Anfield, the 12th man of The Kop is praised as being the difference. UEFA announces a generous 10,000 tickets each for this year’s finalists. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

April: Liverpool secure their top four place, qualifying for next season’s Champions League. Harry Kewell makes his return from injury. A team bonding session in La Manga ends in acrimony when a stray golfer hits John Arne Riise with a football. Executive box holders are assured they won’t be put into a ballot for cup final tickets because they’ve paid £40,000 more than season ticket holders for priority so are therefore proven to be more loyal.

May: Tom Hicks tells Liverpool fans they’ll be ‘very excited’ by the signings the club will be making in the summer. Benitez announces with deepest regret he’ll be joining Real Madrid. A Liverpool website asks the club whether it is possible to hoist aloft a Kop mosaic during the final home game, but instead of organising an emotional farewell to Benitez they choose to thank former director Terry Smith for his long service to the club. A key council meeting is held to discuss Liverpool’s new stadium plans.

June: Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o can’t even be bothered to visit the club museum. It emerges Liverpool’s new stadium plans are considered out of date and a fresh planning application will be made. It’s now scheduled to open in 2015. Liverpool fans are told to be patient as they yearn for new signings.

“There’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes,” says a club statement.

A nightmare prediction of the 2007/08 campaign? Or an abbreviation of sorts of the last 12 months?

Either way, we all need a holiday to let a season’s cynicism to drip out. See you in a few weeks.

by **Sabre** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 5:02 pm

I laughed a couple of times reading that because it has happened before, and he puts it in quite an amusing way.

Hopefully the new owners will put the promised money over the table, I'm not impatient as of yet. Rafa has shown to be pretty clear when he's not having what he wants, so let's see what he says.

by **RUSHIE#9** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 5:59 pm

The scary thing about the story 'redsince2001' posted is that as I was reading it in the paper myself I was thinking, this is tongue well and firmly lodged in cheek and then I thought, well there is every chance that something along those lines could actually happen.

This club is at a cross roads this summer, but this time we've gotta take the right road or the club is gonna be set back and at the same time made to look like a right bunch of chumps. It's way too early in the summer transfer window to be getting anxious about the lack of activity on Liverpool's behalf in the transfer market; but with Rafa's words still bouncing around the column inches of the press about acting quickly fuel is only being added to the pyre whilst no new signings are being unveiled. The last thing that pyre also needed was Tom Hicks adding another layer of fuel by saying that they we're hopeful of making an announcement by the end of the week about a very exciting signing and then nothing happening.

The one interesting rumour of the weekend that has slipped under the radar a bit is the link in saturday's echo about the possibility of Diego Milito being a target. The article in the Echo said that along with Forlan the scouts have also listed Milito as a possible target. His scoring record is quite impressive and I think I'd sooner see him signed ahead of Forlan. The one factor that may scupper any deal though is that the commentators on the la liga coverage on $ky mentioned that he's on loan to Real Zaragoza currently and they have first refusal on him. A fee was also mentioned to have been agreed for him by Zaragoza but whether or not there is anything that could be done to change that in our favour should Rafa want to make a move remains to be seen.

by **cpc4eva** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:07 pm

i gotta ask.....

are our scouts any good ? imho i think not....

what happened to the liverpool of old that made "good players, great players"

when will we see the likes of a 20+ goals in a season striker at our club again ?

when will we find and keep players at our club who can score like Van Nistelrooy who now has 25 league goals, and 33 in total, this season ?

what is it going to take to change the current culture of the club which seems one to be one of slow response to a highly competitive transfer market place ?

what are we going to do about bringing the best players in the world to the best club in the world ?

ive read recently that we made a 9million loss for the season so how are we going to be in the market to get the highest quality players without selling some of the assets (players) we already have like belamy, kewell, etc etc

"There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.
Gaelic Proverb"

by **Paul C** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:25 pm

cpc4eva wrote:i gotta ask.....

are our scouts any good ? imho i think not....

what happened to the liverpool of old that made "good players, great players"

when will we see the likes of a 20+ goals in a season striker at our club again ?

when will we find and keep players at our club who can score like Van Nistelrooy who now has 25 league goals, and 33 in total, this season ?

what is it going to take to change the current culture of the club which seems one to be one of slow response to a highly competitive transfer market place ?

what are we going to do about bringing the best players in the world to the best club in the world ?

ive read recently that we made a 9million loss for the season so how are we going to be in the market to get the highest quality players without selling some of the assets (players) we already have like belamy, kewell, etc etc

"There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.
Gaelic Proverb"

It might not be the scouting staff thats the problem, they might be recommending quality players but board might be losing out on them cos they either don't act quick enough or don't offer enough, Christiano Ronaldo is a prime eample cos under GH and Thomo we nearly bought him but got pipped at the line by Man U

by **The Specialist** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:04 am

RUSHIE#9 wrote:The scary thing about the story 'redsince2001' posted is that as I was reading it in the paper myself I was thinking, this is tongue well and firmly lodged in cheek and then I thought, well there is every chance that something along those lines could actually happen.

This club is at a cross roads this summer, but this time we've gotta take the right road or the club is gonna be set back and at the same time made to look like a right bunch of chumps. It's way too early in the summer transfer window to be getting anxious about the lack of activity on Liverpool's behalf in the transfer market; but with Rafa's words still bouncing around the column inches of the press about acting quickly fuel is only being added to the pyre whilst no new signings are being unveiled. The last thing that pyre also needed was Tom Hicks adding another layer of fuel by saying that they we're hopeful of making an announcement by the end of the week about a very exciting signing and then nothing happening.

The one interesting rumour of the weekend that has slipped under the radar a bit is the link in saturday's echo about the possibility of Diego Milito being a target. The article in the Echo said that along with Forlan the scouts have also listed Milito as a possible target. His scoring record is quite impressive and I think I'd sooner see him signed ahead of Forlan. The one factor that may scupper any deal though is that the commentators on the la liga coverage on $ky mentioned that he's on loan to Real Zaragoza currently and they have first refusal on him. A fee was also mentioned to have been agreed for him by Zaragoza but whether or not there is anything that could be done to change that in our favour should Rafa want to make a move remains to be seen.

I'm pretty sure Milito's transfer from Genoa is already permanent, and that he has a four year contract with Zaragoza.

I would provide links, but they're all in Spanish...

by **The Specialist** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:07 am

Paul C wrote:
cpc4eva wrote:i gotta ask.....

are our scouts any good ? imho i think not....

what happened to the liverpool of old that made "good players, great players"

when will we see the likes of a 20+ goals in a season striker at our club again ?

when will we find and keep players at our club who can score like Van Nistelrooy who now has 25 league goals, and 33 in total, this season ?

what is it going to take to change the current culture of the club which seems one to be one of slow response to a highly competitive transfer market place ?

what are we going to do about bringing the best players in the world to the best club in the world ?

ive read recently that we made a 9million loss for the season so how are we going to be in the market to get the highest quality players without selling some of the assets (players) we already have like belamy, kewell, etc etc

"There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.
Gaelic Proverb"

It might not be the scouting staff thats the problem, they might be recommending quality players but board might be losing out on them cos they either don't act quick enough or don't offer enough, Christiano Ronaldo is a prime eample cos under GH and Thomo we nearly bought him but got pipped at the line by Man U

The way I heard it is that Thommo said not to follow up on their initial interest in Ronaldo, so he got away..

Then again, I also heard that we were in to sign him - but Man Utd offered 5 million more.

by **account deleted by request** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:13 am

The Specialist wrote:
Paul C wrote:
cpc4eva wrote:i gotta ask.....

are our scouts any good ? imho i think not....

what happened to the liverpool of old that made "good players, great players"

when will we see the likes of a 20+ goals in a season striker at our club again ?

when will we find and keep players at our club who can score like Van Nistelrooy who now has 25 league goals, and 33 in total, this season ?

what is it going to take to change the current culture of the club which seems one to be one of slow response to a highly competitive transfer market place ?

what are we going to do about bringing the best players in the world to the best club in the world ?

ive read recently that we made a 9million loss for the season so how are we going to be in the market to get the highest quality players without selling some of the assets (players) we already have like belamy, kewell, etc etc

"There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.
Gaelic Proverb"

It might not be the scouting staff thats the problem, they might be recommending quality players but board might be losing out on them cos they either don't act quick enough or don't offer enough, Christiano Ronaldo is a prime eample cos under GH and Thomo we nearly bought him but got pipped at the line by Man U

The way I heard it is that Thommo said not to follow up on their initial interest in Ronaldo, so he got away..

Then again, I also heard that we were in to sign him - but Man Utd offered 5 million more.

Tommo saying Ronaldo "wasn't what we were looking for", was the way I heard it too mate. The Mancs were after Ronaldinho from PSV at the time, and only turned to Ronaldo when Ronaldinho went to Barca.

by **Ace Ventura** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:29 am

s@int wrote:
The Specialist wrote:
Paul C wrote:
cpc4eva wrote:i gotta ask.....

are our scouts any good ? imho i think not....

what happened to the liverpool of old that made "good players, great players"

when will we see the likes of a 20+ goals in a season striker at our club again ?

when will we find and keep players at our club who can score like Van Nistelrooy who now has 25 league goals, and 33 in total, this season ?

what is it going to take to change the current culture of the club which seems one to be one of slow response to a highly competitive transfer market place ?

what are we going to do about bringing the best players in the world to the best club in the world ?

ive read recently that we made a 9million loss for the season so how are we going to be in the market to get the highest quality players without selling some of the assets (players) we already have like belamy, kewell, etc etc

"There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.
Gaelic Proverb"

It might not be the scouting staff thats the problem, they might be recommending quality players but board might be losing out on them cos they either don't act quick enough or don't offer enough, Christiano Ronaldo is a prime eample cos under GH and Thomo we nearly bought him but got pipped at the line by Man U

The way I heard it is that Thommo said not to follow up on their initial interest in Ronaldo, so he got away..

Then again, I also heard that we were in to sign him - but Man Utd offered 5 million more.

Tommo saying Ronaldo "wasn't what we were looking for", was the way I heard it too mate. The Mancs were after Ronaldinho from PSV at the time, and only turned to Ronaldo when Ronaldinho went to Barca.

Dont you mean from PSG Saint ?

In Thompsons book he states that we were offered Ronaldo for about 5 million or something...maybe cheaper i cant remember now, as we already had Le-Tallec and Flo Po on the way they decided against it and United signed him for more than double a week later.

Thats not really being pipped at the post, more a case of poor judgement.

by **mistyred** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:43 am

Sods law is that we will all be saying its to early in the transfer window to worry about signings then all of a sudden a whole month comes and goes with a lot a transfers going through other clubs buying all the talent then....... Panic, "Why havent we signed anyone" pre season games are coming no new blood how will the new players settle in "Rafa, Parry and the Yanks should of pulled thier fingers out, sack someone".

This happens every year except know we have rich owners, well with more money than the previous supposedly

So if you don't mind between know and the August i think i will find myself in a blind panic

by **cpc4eva** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:28 pm

Manchester United have been told they will need to stump up £40m if they want to buy Carlos Tevez. (Daily Star)

But they are only willing to pay £12m, with Inter Milan prepared to splash out £34m on the Argentine. (Independent)

by **grayghost** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:25 pm

cpc4eva wrote:Manchester United have been told they will need to stump up £40m if they want to buy Carlos Tevez. (Daily Star)

But they are only willing to pay £12m, with Inter Milan prepared to splash out £34m on the Argentine. (Independent)

Tevez's owners are just trying to create a bidding war for the player who is worth 20 mil. How can he be worth 40 mil there is no way he is as good as Zidane when he whent to Real for around that price.

He will end up being sold for 20 -25mil no more no less. And i would pay that for him he is the player we need.

Liverpool FC Forum

Latest transfer rumor

Who is online