Guz

I do hate this angelic nostalgia of Rafa's Valencia side. They were excellent, obviously being Spanish champions 2 years out of 3 but they were dirty, cynical and full of c****. We were beaten to a pulp in the 2nd half by Barca in that 3-1 defeat at home (the one with the Overmars goal after about 200 Barca touches) and I felt no resentment towards the Barca team and if I remember rightly they were clapped off by the Kop. Valencia left a very sour taste in my mouth. Obviously their ball control and retention were superb but I hope we don't end up with the other side of the game that the likes of Aimar had. I suppose looking at the players we have in the squad at the moment we probably won't and there's a case to be made that we need more cynical c**** in the side. Don't agree with the vilification of the Kewell signing either. We signed possibly the best right back in the league at the time (Finnan) and the two french "gems" turned up aswell iirc. And a slight change in transfer philosophy wasn't totally unexected given the down turn we made the previous season after spending so heavily on Diouf, Diao, Cheyrou whereas the previous season we progressed into 2nd place after making Riise and Dudek our only major signings. I dont think we play like we did under Houllier either though. Although I feel the football from 2000-2002 was under rated and sometimes unfairly criticised. We had a good bunch of lads in Sami, Riise, Carra, Murphy, Didi, Gerrard, Babbel (pre illness), Macca, Owen, Murphy and Heskey playing some decent stuff, scoring some excellent goals and getting some excellent results also. We were no where near as tactically flexible though which has been one of the hallmarks in our recent European success

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For me, Xabi's best season came 05/06 when he played with Momo (and Gerrard/Kewell on the wings). He may not have created as many youtube videos with hollywood balls like he did in his first season against Norwich and the like, but he looked sharper, stronger and much more at ease with the pace of the game.

They have no case about Rafa's comment, it was meaningless. If Levy is saying we spoke to keane and/or his agent to convince him to come to us then he's probably correct. Thats what tapping up is and we almost certainly did it in some capacity (whether enough to get a slap on the wrist for is another matter, probably not) and that helps us get the player without constantly getting knocked back by the selling club or paying a hugely inflated price. Probably happens all the time though

The statement says "we have not accepted any offer" not that we havent put an offer in or that it hasn't been verbally agreed. The move is obviously pretty close and almost certainly nailed on to happen but it would hardly be a surprise if details of the fee are still being negotiated and/or Spurs are waiting to sign a replacement, or atleast get close to one.

Tapping up is probably true....to an extent and I'm sure there's been communication between the club and Keane's agent and maybe the player himself. Probably happens up and down the country in a huge percentage of transfers. Big thing is that Levy has admitted Keane wants to sign for us so only a matter of time.

There's no way both clubs could control the whole of the national media like that though. Most of the papers this morning mentioned us ready to put in a proper bid, it's very strange for big high profile transfers like this to get to a stage of fee and personal terms agreed without the press knowing about it. There's always an air of inevitibility as clubs close in on big transfers. The papers have all been running virtually the same story about this for about 2 weeks. That's assuming we have actually done a good job at keeping it under wraps and not that we're finally ready to put in a bid, keane wants to come to us but spurs have yet to agree. I'd be made up if we signed keane though, very good player

How exactly would putting a transfer request in going to reduce Villa's asking price? They know he wants to leave anyway and have done so for over 2 months. Can talk about the loyalty bonus all day long but I dont see how much a transfer request is going to help except further brun bridges with a club he may eventually stay with (and has been with for 10 years) No one is gonna boo Barry (except maybe the brummies), why the f*** would the rest of the country care?

And forget about a player we've publically wanted for the last 2 months and are willing to sell on of our regular first teamers to buy? f***ing hell It's obvious Rafa is f***ing desperate for the player yet people want us to just walk away from the deal to piss off Villa and/or Barry. Just beggars belief the lack of faith in the manager

Had no idea they tought Scouse in German schools

Too many rigid formations here. We'll play some combination of 4231/433/442 as all top teams do. Off the ball it's compact and tight as all Rafa teams are but on the ball we need to be fluid and dynamic. The mancs last year played without a proper striker upfront for most of the game. But Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, Scholes etc. are intelligent footballers and their movement and work rate makes their attacking football work while still being defensively solid. Keane, Barry, Gerrard and Torres are all clever and hard working players able (apart from Torres) to play in more than one position and who naturally like to roam in the attacking third. Add to that Babel who will hopefuly go up a gear from last year, Kuyt and maybe one more 'wide forward' and we'll have a group of very hard working but intelligent footballers up the field. Combine that with new found width from our full backs alongside Carragher/Agger/Skrtel and Mascherano ahead of them - it's fitting together nicely IMO. That said though - still ages to go before the start of the season, let's see who else we sign.

Cant wait to see this guy play. A quality full back can add a lot to a team's attacking play and there have been a fair few positive reports about Dossena.

I can't wait to see Dossena and Degen play. Don't think the latter will go straight into the team but an excellent full back is capable of adding so much to attacking play.

To be fair PTS gives you a 1 in 2 chance of getting 17 league home tickets before they go on sale to the general public. You get an advantage and a bigger chance of getting tickets. Can't blame people for not wanting to pay for a situation they're already in. Thats if that ever comes into place. At the moment this £29 a year gets you a place on the seasie waiting list (which a lot of people have anyway, for free, unless the list is just a sham and a load of s**** which it probably is), chance to get tickets for which seasies don't want (how well this will work is debatable considering most of the time it gets handed off to mates/family) and a load of crap like DVDs and pens. I'm guessing after christmas or so the club are going to announce a scrapping of all fancards from the next (09/10) season and that the £29 membership card is the new access to tickets like a few clubs do at the moment.

Neither player has really kicked up a fuss till now (Barry's comments the other day). We dont know if the Keane transfer request is genuine and I don't think either play would want to end their time with their clubs on a bad note either.

Yup. One week Richard Dunne sees him out wide on the right of the penalty box but Torres squeezes a shot into the net. Week later he's on the other side of the penalty box and leaves the defender for dead. He's f***ing ace

Balague is full of s*** a lot of the time though. Ronaldo pretty much said he was staying after the CL final. I'm expecting him to make an announcment in the next 2-3 days about him staying and he'll look the hero

Everyone went insane this time last year when the Echo was reporting Forlan and, to a lesser extent, Milito as our main target last year along with Darren Bent. Then we signed Torres and had money left over to spend £10m+ on an u21. We've never been prepared to spend (goto the banks for) that sort of money before so let's wait and see I reckon. My biggest concern is who is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Don't think there's any doubt Rafa is the one targetting players but who is he going to get these deals done or to see if they're a possibility. Parry, Gillet and Hicks are at war with eachother and I can see that being a bigger issue than an actual lack of money

I too can confirm Barry is signing. Parry is sorting it right now.

Yeah but you'd still expect atleast one person to complain - none of em said anything and even out of the neutrals, the only people who gave a s*** were mancs/bitters. The ITV commentators just brushed it off almost as if "yeah he was off his line - so f***ing what?" Just adds to highlight the surreal nature of the night I think. Just the mere fact that the tie had got that far seemed to be a shellshock to the Milan players. Kaka and Tommason were the only ones who looked like they had any life in them. Everything had been sucked from the Milan team by that point. Agree about the red kit actually. Dunno if it were the lights, the cameras - whatever - it just seems to radiate red. Stevie was set to the take the 5th pen and let's not forget Xabi actually missed (great save) his earlier in the game! Two other things stood out for me with the pens . a) Didi took his pen with a broken foot. Obviously not so bad that he couldn't carry on but he still played 15mins with a dodgy foot and took a pen. He runs towards Dudek after the Shevchenko pen like an old man b) Rafa's first reaction apart from congratulating the people around him (pako etc.) on the bench was to go straight over to Ancelloti and the Milan camp to shake their hands. Class. Obviously all the reds in the stadium + players were going mental but Rafa just had this swagger as if to say "We'll see you again soon".

Barry may not be quick but he has the ability to drive from midfield that Alonso doesn't, with or without the ball. At the moment the only players we have who can do that are Gerrard and Babel. Maybe Yossi but he's hardly going to be a regular starter for us. The way we have utilised our wide midfielders and full backs in the 4 years Rafa has been here suggests to me someone who can break from midfield is more important than someone who can take the ball of the central defenders and dictate play from there. Dont really want to see Xabi sold but as others have said if we make a profit on the Xabi/Barry deal (assuming Barry is coming to play mainly in the middle) and that money allows us to sign another decent player then it's the sort of activity we have to do in the transfer market to keep improving.

He (or whoever plays that position) is vital because it can dictate our tempo and how high up the pitch we are. If we're keeping possesion higher up then our wingers are more likely to isolate their full back, Gerrard can drift into space and not play with his back to goal and we're more likely to keep it short instead of hoofing it long from the back.

Intense rivalry? I don't think so. I find them nothing more than a nuisance and don't understand why so many people get wound up by the c****. Obviously they are rivals in that we both compete for the same prizes but the likes of the Mancs, everton, even arsenal ; i'd prefer chelsea to win it over them. Dont think the club but they're just like an annoying fly that you can't get rid of.

No contest really. Come on chelsea

But up until last summer, the price range we've been operating in we're more likely to make mistakes. It's true, the mancs have made two excellent signings in Evra and Vidic for not a huge amount but they won the last season and spent f*** knows how much money on Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves. You can say all you like about Arsenal's "kids" but since Wenger broke up his last title winning side they have had about as much success as us and the two richest clubs in the country have been head and shoulders above everyone else. We need to improve on <£12m signings but have made some excellent ones like Agger, Reina and hopefully Skrtel. It's good but our circumstances determine that he may just have to do better in that department if we're to take the next step