nashman

Original Poster: Royal Family of TLW "Here's a story courtesy of the Spanish journalist Miguel Angel Vara, which was related to me earlier - in case people start demanding sources. Madrid sent some representatives to negotiate over Alonso and Arbeloa at the end of last week. They offered a straight deal including some of the Dutch contingent (Van der Vaart and Sneijder), then they offered Gago, and then they offered Negredo. Each time, Rafa asked what values Madrid were placing on these players and finally burst into incredulous laughter. "Remind me - who beat whom by five goals to nil in the Champions League? he tells the now flustered Madrid negotiators. "Only it must be us who lost, because my players, whom you are wanting to take away, are worth nothing, whereas yours, whom you are trying to discard, each seem to have higher values". And the negotiations ended there and then! Priceless. That's the kind of story that makes me realise just how lucky we are with the manager we have. I do feel that familiarity has bred contempt over the last few years for many of the regulars on here, but I hope at least some of them can still appreciate tales like this! By the way, Vara thinks that the Alonso deal may not happen - firstly because Rafa wants 40million euros, and not a penny less, but also because of his poor relations with Valdano who seems to be in charge of Madrid's transfers - these go back to when they were both on the Madrid coaching staff in the 90s, although of course not helped by Valdano describing Liverpool's style of play as "sh*t on a stick" - Rafa has not forgotten, and certainly not forgiven, that..." :lol:

CARNAGE

Rafa would walk before Moores in that case. If anything Rafa has ten times more backbone

I havent watched much of Silva or Turan but from whatever little I have seen, I actually would prefer Turan over Silva. He really can operate in tight spaces and is a decent dribbler. Has decent pace and tracks back. Might be an easier fit into our team than Silva. Also he seems to have that fighter quality and I feel is more likely to handle the premiership.

More like I don't want to piss off a future potential manager.

I can imagine El Nino looking really cool promoting this

There is a decent following of football mate in India compared to other countries. It is not a market like the US. People are knowledgeable about the game. During world cup time, almost everyone I know watches the important games. PL and CL are growing in importance in India. You will be amazed at the coverage of the game in India. IMO, I repeat IMO, muct better than the coverage in the United States. PL more than the CL because of the timing. For CL we have to wake up till 3 AM to finish watching the game. But PL is on Saturday and Sunday from 5 PM to 12 PM. Cricket will always be the #1 draw in India. But the fight for #2 sports draw is still open. I would say it is going to be a close fight between F1 and the PL. And there is a very high chance that the PL will win. In general, outside of cricket India does not have a good sports team. So the sports aficionados have always watched followed sports from other countries and even participated in the rivalry from afar. All through my high school and college I remember having fierce discussion with my mates about various important sporting events: tennis ( wimbledon, french open, and all grand slams), football( world cup, euros, and from around 1996 the PL and CL), F1( from around 1998).

I am from India and lived there for 21 years before I moved to US for higher studies. The money in India is not going to come from replica shirts. The money in India is going to come from TV sponsorships and other advertising opportunities. If we establish a sizeable fan base in India, there will be companies who will want to use LFC brand to advertise their products - Hero honda, Reliance, Tata, Sahara etc.

Cheers. We havent had a saga similar to "Barry signing" or "Gerrard leaving" this summer and it is already nearing 300 pages. This summer is going to be epic

It is just beginning mate. House hunting superstars Baggage handlers in John Lennon Guess whom I ran into in Burger King in JLA Michael Owen Thierry Henry Badly translated Spanish/Dutch/German/Italian articles Come out and get me pleas Daily Mail: Rafa has 100 million to spend Bascombe: Rafa is selling Montse's wedding gown on ebay to bid for Downing Random unheard starlets who are the next "Messi/Ronaldo/Ronaldinho" Experts on analyzing facial expressions/ body postures during interviews to identify what the person actually wants to convey And to add to this circus: Return of Florentino Perez All coming to a computer near you.

I think you may hit upon a very good point. Deep inside most neutrals want us to win the league. Ferguson is feeling that vibe and wants to sling more mud on us.

Maybe Rafa should do this when he responds to the allegations

get the T shirts out

I am surprised people disagreed with that. Even mancs agree that this years title race would have been close with a fully fit torres.

Are you joking. Are you telling me that there are no wingers or wide attacking players available on the planet who can do a better than Dirk Kuyt other than Ronaldo, Messi and Ribery.

'arry can do whatever he wants and there wont be any uproar. In fact he can name players from other teams without any prodding from journos and still it is okie. Even though he names players in press like Bellamy he has no intention of unsettling them unlike the scheming Spaniard Rafa.

Definitely not in the later half of his reign mate. Remember in Rafa's first year when we won 4-2 against fulham with Igor scoring the fourth goal. That was the first time in like 2.5 years when we had come back from behind to win in the league. I dunno the exact period of time but it was something incredibly long.

Rafa is f***ing ruthless manager. There is a reason why we are making profit on almost every player we are selling. If you look at all great managers, they were never the type to get too friendly with the players. Rafa has one objective in his mind : success. And he is not afraid to ruffle a few feathers to achieve that. In a sense putting Alonso on the market sends out a signal to the squad, nobody is safe irrespective of how good your past reputation is.

Agreed. I dont understand the fuss about Schweinsteiger. He has scored 1 goal in 46 appearances last season. Jermaine Pennant is the only other attacking player with a similar record. Unless he is some kind of assist god, I dont think paying 12 million for him makes any sense.

I agree with both the bolded bits mate. I think the board gave the green signal to sell Barry for Alonso in the hope that Alonso will generate more money than what Barry will cost us. At the very least they expected a swap which was my expectation as well in the beginning of the summer. However, in the current situation it looks like that swap will end up costing us, money which could well be used towards a winger. I think in this situation the board is now encouraging Rafa to not to sell Barry and try to mobilize all available resources towards a winger, atleast according to Bascombe. And if this is true I have to agree with them. Ideally I would like one more attacking player who can play on the left or right in the 10-20 million bracket, given the money generated from sales. And I am hoping thats what we will see towards the end of the summer ( a Babel like signing).

If Parry managed to pull that off I think Rafa will die of shock induced cardiac arrest.

:cold:

Mate in this thread I have to support Kaiser. We need someone better than Kewell. I would give him time till the end of the season and see if he improves. We need pace in our attack in combination with guile. Let us see if Kewell recovers any of his pace back. I am not saying quaresma is the best option out there but dont form opinion of him based on how he performed against us. The minute quaresma got the ball we had three defenders pounce on him from all angles. Also Rafa, Montse and his two kids must have watched Quaresma tapes throughout their family vacation and fed all his tricks to our defenders. Using your logic Messi was s*** against us, So has been Cristiano Ronaldo in the last 2 years. So you would not want them here.

Fernando Torres invented Cuba just to piss of the USA

In the short term it does not. But it has been made very clear that they cannot play the PR game with Rafa. If promises are not kept, then Rafa screams and exposes them. It has been made very clear to them that they are dealing with a person who has gonads made of highest grade titanium. Maybe in the long term they want a person who does not make a fuss if they break their promises so that they can play the PR game and keep the fans on their side. If Rafa had not gone public, all of us would be thinking wow, how lucky we are to have G&H as our owners, Spanking new stadium. Great soundbites every month. I have no clue on why they think if Rafa was not willing to work under these constraints, then Mourinho or for that matter any top manager will be willing to come here.