mercury

Gald to see some reason restalled in the thread. Alonso should only be let go if he himself desires. He is an important part of our spine and rightly so.

in the last few games he played he's getting into position to score more, and willing to shoot more. he'll get his goals.

aye, at work now but all day can only look at the web for any scrap of news on the match....

I love Igor. An important member of our road to Istanbul.

Great news!

That exactly is what Momo is at the moment. He is still very raw and cannot compare to Gerrard, Alonso and Mascher's all round contribution on the pitch. But he still has time, let him work on his game.

Liverpool is coming to Hong Kong this summer.

I am though. With the class he has displayed, Mask is one of the first names on the team sheet.

Injuries and the state of the team in his first year did not help but even then had said he should be given at last anoethr year to prove himself. Glad it turned out right. One of the best in his position.

do think we played well. they never threatened much even when they had that spell of possession while we looked dangerous everytime we attack.

That's a great save. You know he can get a tip / hand to the ball - that's how confident i'm in him. however, Dudek in 1st season could have done it too - shame he's nevers the same the blunder vs the Mancs.

he is great but still prone to a dangerous moment every game. imagine a couple of years when he eliminates that with a couple more goals!

isn't the rumour price at 10-12m? that is not a bad price, really not bad at all!

great words that from the new owners! hope the planners will see sense!

And they are still looking to replace Capello when they are sooooo confident of the title Nice to hear the war chest gonna be there for Rafa. Agreed with him though real success for the takeover for us is not only success on the pitch but to become a really competitive, eh, business on all fronts. Initial signs are good that G & T seem good enough businessmen to take us there.

beat me to it Despite the continuing interest from Madrid, where Benitez played as a youth and reserve team player, and also cut his coaching teeth, the former Valencia manager, when asked if he would be at Liverpool next season, responded bluntly, "Yes, I will." This is the right quote! This is great!

You must admit it suits them Good. I like Gillett's style. Well, to be a cynic, how convenient that this message can be read by all interested parties! More or less the same thing were said at the end of the 2004 season, only the Club concerned was different then..... However, I think Leo's right and hope Rafa would see the same.

I'll rather take everyone's words at face value atm, Rafa included as he has an interest in forcing the hand a bit, so to speak. But yes, some commitment and decisive actions from the new owners to take over the situation would be in call. There is no use reminiscing over DIC though. We'd never know how much they are prepared to throw into OUR pot and it is as likely we are a comemrcial venture to them. One thing we do know is that we are not Godolphin, the Shiehk's pet project.

He would have said those things, wouldn't he? He probably is happy here but that does not mean he'll not do what is best for him. Same for players, same for us. To dismiss all these stories, which have been as persistent as it can be on the net and in the media, as merely speculative is too optimistic if not naive. Often we project too much of ourselves - what we would have done or said - with our managers and players and more often than not it is not what they are.

Such an offer has been on the cards for a while now. Rafa will get more from any other coach from Real. Mmmm, "failure to speak" is being listed as a reason of unhappiness...when in February the takeover was far from complete. Is the ego of these football people so fragile or is this an excuse? The whole episode is fast becoming tiresome and dis-stabilising. And there's the speculation on Alonso also. Other Clubs are taking advantage of this period of ownership transition. We need T & G to show up and show their commitment and with over 90% of the shares already secured, time for them to speed up that meeting and get a firm commitment from Rafa. However, it would not be unwise to put in some contingency plans, which hopefully will not be called into use.

Agreed with you here. I am looking forward to a Mascherano - Alonso pairing in place of Momo - Alonso and certainly at villa, or even Gerrard + Mascherano or Alonso in the centre. However, other posts which write off Momo at 22 is stupid. He has improved and the Villa game is not his worse. Only that he is still very inconsistent. Let's hope he will become a true gem for us in a few years.

Yeah very boring. It was obvious other than a fluke we're not gonna score and I wish Rafa made his substitutions earlier . Our league performance have regressed from last season and we are missing Kewell and Garcia, our two most creative forces.

i thought the capacity is specified in the planning permission and that a main consideration is logistic and safety with regards to people / traffic flows on match days? 61,000 to 70,000 seats is big alteration, can't see we can change just like that without jumping through some big if not all the hoops again.

I have the same sentiment, but, well.....