Hieronymus Bosch

The Bentley rumour has surfaced again.

From BBC Gossip page: Tottenham are also in talks with Barcelona to sign their Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o, sports daily Marca reporting. (AFP, 1236 BST)

Better left peg than Riise, better looks than Torres.

Seems like I'm one of the few who thought we played well today, particularly in the second half. The passing and movement was pretty good. We should have won by at least three.

Why don't Sky just come out and admit it - they think Rafa's bullsh**ting about Torres being injured

That's absolutely unbelievable!

Reina, Finnan, Insua, Carragher, Hyypia, Lucas, Mascherano, Babel, Kuyt, Gerrard, Torres. Subs: Itandje, Voronin, Benayoun, Alonso, Skrtel.

That's what's being said. We need more quality. The Mancs and Chelsea don't.

Correct. We punch above our weight in the Champions League because of the manager, the commitment of the players, the spirit of the fans etc. We're as good as our league position suggests - we simply haven't the quality the Mancs and Chelsea have. Benitez does as well, more often than not, as he can to compete given the lack of resources available.

I know he's approaching the last year of his contract, but surely we should be fetching at least £10m for Crouch. For all the (supposed) interest in him, I'd say £12m is a fair expectation.

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Us?

We need new owners, which will hopefully yield - a new contract for Rafa; a new coaching/scouting set-up; some cash for transfers (i.e. £40m plus outgoing sales); an improvement regarding the commercial/administrative aspects of the club; and some movement involving the new stadium.

Good late, works his tezzers off - but surely the bottom line has to be that he isn't good enough for us to improve.

Rafa's faith in Kuyt seems to know no bounds. OK, he's done well in recent weeks - but not enough to warrant this apparent immunity to getting subbed.

Alonso's a quality player, but he'll probably end up playing better somewhere else. Skill/ability-wise, players tend to stand still when they come to Liverpool - note the constant misplaced passes, spunked first tounches, etc. Look at the difference in quality in ball retention/usage between today's game and yesterday's - Man Utd and Barca were light years ahead. Our passion, commitment, preparation and discipline is second to none but can only take us so far. Benitez and his players have punched above their weight over the last few years; hopefully we'll get some responsible owners soon, and be able to restructure the club and be able to bring some quality footballers into the squad.

He had a poor one. As I'd imagine Traore in centre mid.

Silva would be the perfect man to play alongside Babel and Gerrard next season, IMO; I'd be made up if we signed him. Ideally, we'd also get a back-up striker in the summer (perhaps Moreno) and a couple of full-backs (I'd be happy with Bridge on the left and perhaps someone like Miguel on the right). In terms of replacing outgoing players, I guess Barry might come in for Alonso if he leaves and, if Carson's sold, I'd like Harper if Newcastle were willing to let him go on the cheap. I'm not asking too much, am I?

I don't think it's laughable to say Finnan's been worse than Pennant since Pennant arrived, far from it. As you say, Finnan's been cack this season; but Pennant, at worst, has been OK. Finnan was great for us beforehand, but only after a slow start following his move from Fulham (and he was older than Pennant). Perhaps Pennant deserves a similar chance. Maybe Pennant's attitude/mentality off the pitch is poor, but I think an apparent poor attitude/mentality on it has been greatly exaggerated.

Kuyt has certainly improved, but, on the whole, he's been very poor this season, yet still wins the praises of many fans (and, for his efforts, rightly so). Finnan has probably achieved a lower level of performance than Pennant (since Pennant joined), but many fans still regard him as one of the top right-backs around. Carra has probably had more poor games than Pennant (and, clearly, more good games), but is rarely criticised, not, I'd hazard, just because of his tremendous commitment and great record for us, but because people like Carra, and dislike Pennant.

He'll have to do a hell of a lot more than most to convince a large section of fans. He hasn't set Anfield alight since joining us, but I think his level of performance has been pretty decent (certainly better than what he's been given credit for, and superior to that of many fan favourites), and good enough to at least merit a place in the squad.

This is the problem. Some just can't bear to complement him even if he was excellent on Saturday and the MOTM by a mile. And I can't believe Pennant's being criticised for not scoring or only setting up one goal the other day. It just proves that many won't take to him, whatever he does.

Don't think he's had many extended runs in the team. Anyway, whether you think he's good enough or not, I'd argue that given that we've been crying out for a skilful winger for years - the sort who played against Birmingham yesterday - we should persevere with him.

A lot of those appearances were as sub. Even so, I'd say he has played well more often than not - which you can't say about some other players who have played more often under Rafa. If his mentality is such an issue ("lazy", "bottler", knob etc), well, maybe we should get rid. But, ability-wise, I don't think we should - yet. IMO, many people decided early on that they didn't him and have been quick to shoot him down since.

I don't think Pennant's been given as many chances as a player of his ability deserves. Generally, when we sell someone, we can be pretty sure we won't regret it sometime in the future. Rarely does a player improve after leaving Liverpool. I fear, however, if we do sell Pennant, we could end up wishing we gave him more of an opportunity.