MFletcher

Well, I won't be able to form my own opinion anyway.

Someone needs to put this up on YouTube. It wouldn't surprise me if Jamie knew what was going on given his connections with the club and it's players. Maybe there is something to it... I won't be able to tell until someone puts the thing up on the internet though.

Of course I'd lament a lack of progress with Alonso's contract talks. I think he's an excellent player and it would be a blow to lose him.

Which is why I said "seem to". Did I say "there HAS been"? No. I didn't.

Provided they use £8.1M of that to pay for Cisse, then it's a great deal for us as well.

You have to say, there does seem to have been a complete lack of progress in Alonso's contract talks. I'd be gutted to lose him, but bringing Eto'o in as P/E would certainly soften it. However, I suspect we'd then buy yet another holding midfielder. Rafa identified Xabi as the only holding midfielder at the club whenever Masch arrived...

That could be quite difficult considering he plays for Cameroon.

Pizarro is co-owned by Roma and Inter - so Inter are willing to give up their half of his registration as part of the Chivu deal. Anyway, the reason why I'm concerned at a lack of progress is because of Rafa's interview the day after the CL final. He said that there were two ?20M targets that he could sign immediately. Ten days later and we've still only got vague rumours to go on and we don't seem to have made a concrete bid for anyone. In the meantime, the Mancs have paid a fortune for two youngsters. Other clubs will look at that, consider that the going rate and ask for more than they might previously have done. Of course, I'm not overly concerned. The Spanish season doesn't finish for another couple of weeks and I've no doubt that we'll make a couple of signings from there. The new contracts for Stevie and Carra are encouraging though. And we all seem to be forgetting the £6.2M we spent on Lucas Leiva. It's not like that money appeared from nowhere.

Chivu is Inter bound I read - with Walter Samuel, David Pizzaro and 3M going their way.

Because Real Madrid have no concept of giving managers time. They expect a new man to come in and make the team play the best football in the world whilst winning every game. And £12M for Bellamy would be excellent.

As far as I'm aware, Mancini doesn't get on too well with Totti - who is treated like a God there. If we're bringing in three players, I'd assume it'll be two wide men and one up front. I really hope we buy someone like Silva though, because it would be a real option to have someone capable of playing "in the hole" properly.

I should also have included Finnan in my "spine".

We have the spine of our team here. Reina, Carragher, Agger, Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Kuyt and Crouch. All we need is more quality in the wide areas and up front. It's not the complete gutting of the squad people seem to think we need, but there is a clear lack of goal-scoring threat from us at times - even though we control the game and are defensively solid.

He was brilliant at times, but the way he started to balloon shots over in his last eighteen months or so here was quite shocking.

Heskey was far too inconsistent in front of my goal for my liking. I always liked the way he did the donkey work and made chances for Owen, but if Owen was injured or on one of his long barren scoreless runs then Emile simply couldn't step up to the plate and contribute the goals. One of the most frustrating players I've watched. The talent is there, it just refuses to show itself consistently.

As I've already said, Houllier made some great buys. Unfortunately, when he spent big money, they were usually dreadful. No-one can tell me that Heskey (11M), Cisse (14M), Diouf (10M), Diao (5M), Cheyrou (5M) were good buys. Heskey was a solid player, but for 11M? Look at what we sold those players for - the net loss is staggering. Cisse is lazy and has a tendency to hit the ball as hard as possible. The less said about the summer of Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou the better. A lot of his buys contributed to our success in 2001 and 2005, but I will always maintain that Houllier did more bad than good in the transfer market. For every gem (Hyypia, McAllister) there was an expensive waste of space who didn't deserve to pull the shirt on.

I'm pretty sure we bought Diarra from Bayern for about 2M? I could be mistaken though.

I'm surprised that no club has challenged the window has being a "restriction of trade".

I'm hardly saying that all of his transfers were bad. But when Rafa brings in a player you can identify a role for them. Players such as Diomede and Diarra cost us good money and never played for the club. Certainly players such as Hyypia and Finnan have been integral to our success in recent years, but you have to say that Houllier's record - in general - was pretty poor. Certainly the replacing of "God" with Heskey (net spend anyway) and the £14M he was allowed to lavish on Cisse - who we'll struggle to give away for half that. There were an awful lot of expensive misses and bizarre dealings.

Compared to Benitez bringing in: Reina, Agger, Alonso, Mascherano, Kuyt, Crouch You have to say, Houllier really did make some appalling transfers.

We'll be in a much better position to judge Gillett and Hicks at the start of September.

We could have signed Alves for a lot less last summer, but his value has rocketed. I recall an article that Barca wanted to buy him, but Sevilla were demanding a ludicrous fee for him. I can't see how we'd get him for less, if we did indeed want him.

Maybe they'll look at who he's bought, what they're worth now or what they were sold on for to determine a "net" spend. I can't see the point of it myself. If I was Rafa, I'd consider it a questioning of my judgement from people who don't know as much about the players as me. Tomorrow is what I'd classify as "the end of the week". Rafa wanted a signing in by now - at least that's what he said in an interview towards the middle of the last week. I do get the feeling something isn't quite right.

Momo is a good player - potentially a great player. Unfortunately he has a number of issues with his game: 1) No positional discipline - Momo tears around the pitch, chasing after the ball. Unfortunately he has no real concept of holding a position. When you compare him to Mascherano, Javier barely moves from in front of the back four whereas Momo is tearing around after their centre back. 2) Rash challenges - In comparison to Javier, Momo's challenges can be reckless. I've seen Mascherano make calculated challenges to earn yellow cards. For example in PSV, he lost the ball and the PSV guy was moving towards our goal and there were gaps opening. He hacked him down, took the yellow card, got on with the game. Momo has a dreadful tendency to lunge in when the player in question is going nowhere and he has no real chance of winning the ball. I remember in his first season in a match in the GA Cup where he was on a yellow card and he was flying after someone and I was completely convinced he was going to crash into him and get sent off. He still hasn't eradicated that from his game. 3) No passing ability - It's quite clear that Momo will never be a passer in the form of Alonso, but I would still expect him to make basic passes to a Liverpool player. More often than I care to remember he has won the ball and then given it straight back to the other team. However, he obviously has excellent qualities: 1) Breaks up play higher up the pitch 2) Always harries the other team and doesn't give them an inch 3) Excellent stamina 4) Is a pivotal player when we're under the cosh And there is one of Momo's real problems. He was fantastic against Barcelona whenever we were starved of possession. It suits his game perfectly and allows him to stand out. However, we're a club who have progressed and we're now in a possession where we're controlling games. I daresay we controlled the semi-final second leg against Chelsea without any real threats on our goal and we had Milan completely under control until the 'fluke' goal. As most teams will defend against us, it makes Momo's qualities pretty much useless. Consider that he's had two long-term injuries in two years and hasn't quite been the same since he nearly had his eye taken out and I think we have to take this deal. He's our fourth choice central midfielder (perhaps fifth if Lucas impresses) and to keep him whenever he won't play isn't fair on him. It also doesn't make great business sense either. Rafa has clearly preferred Mascherano/Alonso/Gerrard in central midfield and Momo's games have been limited. Keeping him for another season and then not playing him regularly will cause his price to drop. As we're currently over-loaded in central midfield, I see no reason to keep him whenever such a good (rumoured) price is on the table. That money can be put towards a top striker with no noticeable difference to the first team. We should definitely sell him if the price is right.

To be fair, I think most people just want to see us sign someone. Whether it be Malouda, Simao etc. Once the ball is rolling the panic will stop.