Anfield Fox

He was at Everton at the time. Despite our rivalry, most of them understand the sensitivity of it and also boycott the paper too.

A few years ago when Rooney gave a big exclusive interview with them there was an outcry and they printed an apology after 15 years. A few people accepted it but they were drowned out by the majority who rejected it out of hand. Reading the "apology" the first half was good saying that all the people who worked at the paper then have left, etc. Then it went on to insinuate that we were to blame without explicitly saying so. That only fueled the fire. It will be a very very long time before anything like that happens.

I bet this deal was made by people who are not involved with the Sponsorship of football, probably by people who know little about football or our history with The Sun. It's a huge PR disaster and im sure heads will role and they will issue and apology soon and if possible cancel the arrangement and make a donation to the HJC. At least i hope that's what happens.

Looks like there is a good chance for Pennant and Voronin to still leave or else Rafa wouldn't have played El Zhar. They were probably insurance on the bench but the fact that they were there suggests that no deal is imminent.

It's all kicking off on RAWK

Ouch. Dossena was dire.

We paid Socieadad another 2 million euro's on top of the original £10.7m fee when Xabi played his 50th game for us.

Conveniently forgets to mention one was signed when he just turned 25, the other at 26.

smoke screen

Just quickly browsed a city forum and they are supporting him

I hate it when people say EPL. It's the league, Premiership, Premier league, PS, PL, the one we won 18 times, etc. Just not EPL, please!

wow. what a slow news day

Of course. I forgot about that and you are right. Barry is 27 1/2 now. Utd signed Carrick 3 days after his 25th birthday for less. "On 31 July 2006, Carrick moved to Manchester United. An initial bid of £10 million by United was rejected, though a later bid with a £14 million basic fee, potentially rising to £18.6 million depending on club and player success, was accepted." Hargreaves is a month older than Barry but they signed him last year when he was 26 1/2, again for less. "On 31 May 2007, it was announced that Hargreaves would join Manchester United on July 1, 2007, after almost a year of negotiations between Bayern Munich and United for a fee of around £17 million." I'm sure we have gone over this with Villa. If they would have agreed a package similar to the Carrick one then Barry would be a red right now. Likewise if he was 3 or 4 years younger.

Exactly. His value was supposed to have been in the £10m bracket for months and it was common knowledge until Villa slapped £18m on his head. They got that number because we paid that much for Masch, conveniently forgetting that he is 4 years younger.

03.07.2008 Philipp Degen Dortmund Free 04.07.2008 Andrea Dossena Udinese £7,000,000 11.07.2008 Diego Cavalieri Palmeiras £3,500,000 24.07.2008 David Ngog Paris St Germain £1,500,000 28.07.2008 Robbie Keane Tottenham £19,000,000-20,300,000 Out Date Player To Amount 01.07.2008 John Arne Riise AS Roma £4,000,000 01.07.2008 Harry Kewell Free Transfer Free 02.07.2008 Anthony Le Tallec Le Mans Undisclosed 11.07.2008 Peter Crouch Portsmouth £8,7500-11,000,000* 14.07.2008 Danny Guthrie Newcastle £2,250,000 18.07.2008 Scott Carson WBA £3,25,000-4,000,000 *25% of the Crouch fee goes to Southampton

I see what your saying but i can't say i believe it myself. Even if we were successful in lowering the price, by how much? £1m? £2m?? Unlike many i do believe £2m is a lot of money and not to be taken lightly in the context of Premiership football. However given that this has dragged on all summer, with the season just days away and with 3 midfielders in Beijing, another injured and Alonso risking being cup tied it isn't a scenario we would piss about, have Barry miss preseason with us and the time to settle in and gamble with the CL qualifier that could wreck our season if we fall at the first hurdle. Too much at stake here to mess about. Obviously we should always haggle but if the other side don't play ball you either pay up or walk away.

His wiki page also says 2 years. I know it's not always accurate but i have seen the 2 years in other articles earlier in the summer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_barry It also says he has played as a central defender, left back, left midfield and now central midfield.

2 years i believe. Next summer he will be worth nowhere near £18m and he will be 28 in February.

What time do you call this!

Benitez drops strong Barry hint Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has indicated that Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry remains a serious target. Benitez refused to name the England midfielder but would not say that the long-running transfer saga was over. Villa boss Martin O'Neill conceded last week that his captain might leave but reports have suggested that a proposed fee of £18m was the sticking point. "The situation is not a question of money," said Benitez after Liverpool beat Lazio 1-0 in a friendly on Friday. "He is English and can play three different positions, but I am talking about someone who can play on the left." Barry, 27, can play central midfield, on the left and left-back. Xabi Alonso had long been expected to make way for the Englishman but he now looks set to stay at Anfield. "We have a good player (Alonso) and we have another good player coming in soon. "We can improve the squad, so we will try to do that. We will bring in one more player if we can. "I do not know when but clearly we have problems on the left, Kewell has gone, Aurelio is injured and Leto cannot get a work permit. "Babel is away in the Olympic Games. Maybe he can come back and fill that role, but I know we can improve in this area. "Who comes in? It could be another left-sided player rather than a central midfielder. "Maybe he can play in three different positions, that is a positive thing. I am talking about one player, but I won't say the name." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...lla/7550766.stm

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If Voro is still here next year we should tell him the season has been delayed. Preseason starts mid August. At least we'll have a world class striker for 6 weeks.

Pre season friendly super sub!!

To clarify: Yesterday one of the papers said that Hamburg wanted Kuyt but were put off by our £16m asking price. Today one said that we rejected a £16m bid, the other said it was a £10m bid. Given all that i'm guessing that the bid was £10m and our asking price £16m. Either way it doesn't really matter given Rafa's comments.

I think the papers just get these figures out of thin air.