Dalglish

My guess: Thierry Henry Great CV? Check Might be past his best? Check

IMHO the best draw possible: Schalke - Liverpool Roma - Fenerbahce ManU - Chelsea Arsenal - Barcelona Keeping my fingers crossed there

Possible replacement with high risk/big reward-factor: Marco Van Basten...

Worst case scenario: a.) Rafa has lost faith in Gerrard and vice versa and decides to sell him. b.) Parry & owners are undecided on whether to back Rafa or Gerrard. A split in the dressing room is the last thing we need right now..

As it stands right now, we will be 15 points behind leaders Arsenal in the table after barely half of the season played. Makes you wonder, how deep we've fallen over the last two months...

Jürgen was voted Kaiserslautern's best player last season. Before the start of this season however he has been demoted to the bench and left Germany for AEK Athen yesterday.

And still no right foot

One Hardcastle... There's only one Hardcastle...

Yes. He said the same about Liverpool. It won't matter to him as long it is one of the "big" clubs.

He wants to come to us or ManU in the near future - that's his goal. He has no feelings towards any club and likes to be "the renegade". I wouldn't mind him playing for Austria again. There's just too many things blocking the path for a return. You don't have to be friends with everyone on the team. But acknowledging that thing to assemble a good squad is the hardest part for every manager.

We can breathe easier now: Wigan-midfielder Paul Scharner told the media in Austria that he will be at Wigan for another year to prepare for "the next step" in his career. He rejected the chance to join Everton, who made an offer for him. Appearantly Liverpool did not put a bid in. Link (german): Interview

Haukur's debut Reserves forward Haukur Ingi Gudnason made his senior international debut nine years ago today, as Iceland drew 1-1 with South Africa in a friendly in Germany. Haven't heard that name for a long time. What happened to him?

Short interview with an Austrian newspaper. The small article has not been published on the web.

He refused to play that position for Austria and was kicked out of the squad. If he is bought, he will certainly not play centreback for LFC.

According to quotes of himself Wigan-midfielder Paul Scharner has opened talks with Liverpool today. Liverpool moved quickly after Everton started negotiations. LFC scouted Scharner 19 times - the fee is around 6 mio pounds and would have been much lower if Wigan had been relegated due to a clause in his contract. ------------------------------ Let me give you some info as a countryman of Scharner: He came to England to play for one of the big clubs someday. In his eyes Wigan was nothing but a small chapter in a bigger plan. He has his own mental coach and improved big time since being kicked out of Vienna (he played for Austria Wien) when he refused to play out of position as a substitute. Scharner went to Norway and from there to Wigan. Currently he is left out of the Austrian squad because of personal problems with the coach. As things stand he will not represent the team next year in EURO 2008.

You're right - it makes no sense. Maybe Agger is only a smokescreen for Riise...

According to German reports Bayern München is interested in buying Daniel Agger. Other possible targets include Arjen Robben as well as Luca Toni, who has already signed (fee: 11 Mio ?)

I didn't look at all the other 29 pages so forgive me if it it already had been put up: Juventus want Momo Sissoko. Badly. Ressources are available. Source: Italian media.

It has gone very quiet in the investment saga recently. So to keep things going here is an interesting article about the Kraft family. Liverpool is not being mentioned though. If you want to read the whole story, click here (CBS Sportsline). Camp tour: Patriots' about-face crafted by owner Aug. 25, 2006 By Mike Freeman CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- If you are not from the New England area and have no idea of how far the Patriots have come, then please sit down for a moment, and let me tell you an incredible story. Before owner Robert Kraft, perhaps one of the best owners in the history of sports, purchased the team, and transformed it into a model of grace and efficiency, the Patriots were a dysfunctional, disgusting mess. The games never sold out. Not one sellout in the decades before Kraft. The games were rarely on television because of blackouts. No one cared. People heard Patriots and released a gigantic yawn. Twenty-one thousand season ticket holders at one point. That's it. That's all. More people attended Harvard-Yale crew. The Patriots games, and that old clunker stadium they used to play in, were also not exactly a family friendly place. Some fans had the manners of a Mexican drug lord. There were constant rumbles in the stands, all-out, knock-down brawls between too many drunken goons. A small group of fans used to take thick, D-cell size batteries, wrap them in fat, pregnant snowballs, put the snowballs in the freezer the night before games to get them concrete hard, and then throw them at the players as they came out or entered the tunnel. At the Patriots players. [...] While standing on the sideline once, I got hit in the back with one of those snowballs thrown by a turd that had better aim than Wade Boggs. "Hey n-----," yelled the drunken culprit, "go back to Africa." A security guard was nearby and saw the whole episode. He did nothing, knowing that if he did, he might get his butt kicked, since the paltry security force at the time was outmanned and maybe even outgunned. And so it went for those Patriots. They lost, they lost again, and then they lost some more. There was that one bright pre-Kraft moment, when the team went to a Super Bowl, but that game turned into a disastrous blowout at the hands of the dancing and rapping Chicago Bears. [...] Then came Kraft. Then came four Super Bowls in 12 years, three Super Bowl victories, and a sense of pride instilled not seen before. Then came the sellouts, and the good hires, and the evictions of the drunks and punks from the stands. In 1994, Kraft's first year, the season ticket sales surpassed 40,000 for the first time in the history of the franchise. Soon, every game was sold out, something that had not occurred in the team's 34-year history to that point. [...] Few franchises have ever been so consistently low and then turned around so amazingly fast. "It was not a good situation when we took over," Kraft said. "The main thing I wanted to do was associate myself with good people and that meant players that had high character and employees that worked for the greater good." [...] Considering everything Kraft has accomplished in the salary cap era of professional football, and how he rescued the franchise from the toilet and moved it into the penthouse, Kraft must be considered the current best owner in all of sports and right near the top of the list when you rank every owner in sports history. [...] And Kraft keeps winning. Who would have thought it considering where this team once was? Who would think we'd be saying: "New England Patriots. A winning organization."

Agger Finnan Kuyt

After losing Van Buyten to Bayern, Hamburg is selling its second centreback. But it's good deal for them. They signed him in 2004 for 1.5 mio Euros. Now Chelsea has to pay a sum with double digits. Bouhlarouz is eligible for the Champions League and will give them depth. I can't see him starting many matches.

In an ideal world (or FM 2006) this is where the youngsters come in. I don't think that Carson will leave after having signed a new contract. With Agger and Paletta trying to replace Hyypiä, and Hobbs, Roque, Antwi trying to find their feet, there will be enough competition at CB. Right now the squad looks almost perfect. Now Rafa can build on it.

Peltier has played at RB in many pre-season games. But I don't think that he would be the answer.

I can see us having a mediocre start to the season with lots of draws while our new players become familiar with Rafa's tactics. I can also see us being way behind the league leaders after the first month. A lot of moaning is to expected. But we will crawl up the standings quickly and eventually finish in the top 3. I'm hoping for the title, I expect a top 4-finish. Finishing outside the CL-places would be a failure.

Seems logical. But as I'm wearing my Alonso-shirt right now for the first time this year I will not let that happen