Florist Cinema Pond Goal

He's been paraded around in an A.Madrid shirt signing autographs, there's no chance of it falling through. I can only think they're waiting to announce the Torres and Garcia signings simultaneously.

Did Rafa not describe Zenden as the 'glue' that held the squad together owing to his multilingual talents and to him generally being a good lad? Good luck to him, sure the dressing room will miss him, if not our left wing.

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West Ham will be a lot higher than 17th especially as if he suggests they keep Tevez.

Mascherano - he will get more game time.

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More than Cisse? Bloody hell.

Token Ginge

A month or so ago, Cottee on SSN when asked if he knew anything said the word round the West Ham camp was that Tevez would be joining his mate. Don't know how much credence we can give to that nomark's ramblings however.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...0/sfnliv130.xml Torres' £27m Liverpool deal By Charles Carrick Last Updated: 12:26am BST 30/06/2007 Liverpool were close last night to breaking their transfer record by signing Atletico Madrid captain Fernando Torres in a deal worth £27 million. And manager Rafael Benitez is believed to be on the brink of securing at least one more major signing. Benitez was cautious yesterday on the belief that Liverpool and Atletico Madrid had struck a deal in principle to bring striker Torres to Merseyside and take Luis Garcia to Atletico. advertisementBut it is believed that only personal terms with the 23-year-old Spanish international now need to be concluded when he returns from holiday next week. The Madrid club have officially played down talk of their captain moving. A spokesman insisted no deal had been agreed "but things might change", and privately they have accepted Torres wants to leave. Benitez did not deny a deal is close but said: "All I can say is that Fernando Torres is one of the players we have looked at." He added: "You must always be excited at the start of a new season. You must also have confidence in your team and hopefully we will soon bring in the new players that we want to make the squad better. "We are working on new signings all the time. As I've already said, the spine of the team is in place and now we just need to add to that." However, it is expected that Torres will have to say he wants to leave to allow Atletico to escape the wrath of their fans, who idolise the player they have called 'the kid' since his debut as a 16-year-old. Djibril Cisse, who became Liverpool's record signing when he joined for £14 million from Barcelona in 2004, refused to be a makeweight in the deal, but Liverpool are now expected to move on Garcia, rated at £4million, to Atletico. Benitez is reluctant to lose the Spanish midfielder, but with Mohamed Sissoko signing a new four year-contract on Thursday and Javier Mascherano also competing for a midfield slot alongside Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso, Garcia's chances of regular football have diminished. Benitez is delighted with the new Sissoko deal, and said: "It's good that we will be able to see the energy of Momo all around the pitch for a few more years. It's a major positive for us. "The best is yet to come from him. He enjoyed a really good first season but last campaign he suffered some injuries. We have a lot of confidence in him though, and I'm sure we'll see the real Momo again now that he's free from injury. "He's a player with a lot of energy. For his fellow midfielders and the rest of the team he's really important." Liverpool will also have young Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva - a £5million capture from Gremio - fighting for a place in an increasingly congested midfield department. The arrival of Torres along with Ukrainian striker Andriy Voronin, could mean that Craig Bellamy will also be sold to raise the cash for Torres' capture. The sales of Bellamy, Cisse and Garcia could raise £16million, which will make the record-breaking Torres fee easier on Benitez's finances. And while Benitez seems to at last be getting the top European talent he wants, his end-of-season desire for more youthful recruits is taking shape. He has signed 18-year-old Athletic Bilbao defender Mikel San Jose, Bulgaria Under-21 goalkeeper Nikolay Mikhailov, 19, plus Hungarian youngsters Krisztian Nemeth, 18, and Andras Simon, 17, from MTK Budapest. And Liverpool have also confirmed two more 16-year-olds will be joining the academy from abroad. The Anfield club have signed striker Marvin Pourie from Borussia Dortmund and Alex Kacaniklic from Swedish club Helsingborgs.

It was all derived from impeccable service. Pennant, Kewell, Finnan and Aurelio can all deliver a good ball, but if 2 are unavailable as Kewell and Aurelio have often been who else can we rely on? Another top quality crosser of the ball in the squad and we may see more of those performances from Crouch.

I really wanted to like Cisse, he arrived at a time when I for one felt aggreived about the whole Owen to Real saga and was ready to idolise a brand new star striker. The Chelsea semi at OT was what confirmed it, he simply wasn't a Rafa player. He possessed pace and power and it ensured he scored a fair few goals, but his team ethic wasn't sufficient for Benitez. "It’s difficult for a striker to go from being the star at one club to go to another club where there are four or five players who are at the same level or even better. If you want to win trophies, you need star players who can work for the team." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...ticle593156.ece Thanks for the Istanbul pen, the FA Cup final goal and all the others Djibs.

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Too right, that big fat bull heart is ours.

Was my initial impression too. After shaking Momo's hand he slapped him round the face and called him a 't***', such is the nature of Evil Rafa.

Best YNWA ever. (Or should that be YNWS).

He claimed he scored more goals on the right but does he actually believe that is his best position? I suspect the argument was constructed as so to get the journos off his back. With the squad we have, Gerrard has to play right sometimes, there's no escaping it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle1996697.ece Deco for Lampard swap?

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He had to give a lot of virtual head to get that one.

The 'El Hadji Diouf c***-o-meter'. In stores now.

The fourth against Ukraine has always stuck in my mind. Strength when receiving the first pass from Puyol, lightning pace over 10 yards to receive the second and a fantastic controlled volley. Brilliant stuff.