Lolo

Apart from giving me the biggest grin on my face for a long, long time, the result, and the way we achieved it, will give other teams the confidence to go at them, cause them problems, and realise that they are not invincible. The team most likely to benefit from this (as regards winning the league) is actually Chelsea. They are now equal on goal difference with ManU, and I think that everyone here would rather see Chelsea come out on top if we are unable to. .....I just wish we could've beaten them 2:1 and kept the other 2 goals for Stoke and West Ham........

They (G&H) are the victims of their own greed. If we are to believe the figures, they bought the club for £174M and took on club debts of £45M (a total of £219M) in 2007 which then (at an exchange rate of $1.92 / £) was equivalent of $422M. Around the time when the $-£ exchange rate was 2.00 they apparantly had an offer of £500M+ which even after taking off all the £350M debts which they had piled onto us, would have seen them walking away with a tidy profit of £75M each (or $150M each). It is alleged that Gillet wanted out and accepted but Hicks blocked him! They valued the club (probably assuming the new stadium would be at least started) at much more. Now with the $-£ excahnge rate at 1.40 the £500M (even if they could find someone to pay this much) would only be worth $700M. Take off the £350M debt and it would give them only $105M each..a drop of $45M from the previously refused offer. In fact they would need an offer of £565M to break even with the previous rejected bid. As it is now potential bidders will obviously wait it out until RBS lay down the law to them in July. I cannot see any logic in G&H playing a waiting game...but then, this is probably why I'm a skint engineer and not a rich businessman.

The annoying thing is that the technology is available which can drastically reduce the frequency of these incidents. I am a big believer in the benefits of applying new technology into football. If anybody wants a demonstration of it's benefits, just watch a big rugby union game. The ref (apart from playing a sensible 'advantage' rule) has the benefit of a video ref. Desite what everybody says it DOESN'T lead to unnecessary delays, everybody accepts the verdict, and justice is done. However it is the REFEREE who decides it's use, not crowds of angry players surrounding him (but that's an entirely different topic).

After a night out with my expat friends yesterday during which I explained to them why we should all boycott Carlsberg beer (which we did all night), to wake up this morning to this news is excellent. I also received the email reply from Carlsberg so it's good to know that my 4 or 5 emails to them helped. Well done to everybody who helped in this. p.s. I'm not in UK so don't know.....but......just to really p**s off the S*n, has this story got out to any other newspapers? I can just imagine the Mail or someone else enjoying this one!

As a result of my email I have received the following personal reply from Carlsberg............ Thank you for your email which we received via the Carlsberg website. Carlsberg is pleased to be able to offer consumers one of the largest free pint promotions ever this August Bank Holiday. By working with The Sun, the UK's largest selling paper, Carlsberg has been able to ensure that approximately 3 million people across the UK will be able to enjoy a free pint at their local this Bank Holiday Sunday. Carlsberg is sensitive to the fact that Liverpool fans feel very strongly about The Sun, and is very proud of its long association with and support of Liverpool Football Club over the past 16 years, and apologises if any offence is felt as a result of the upcoming free pint promotion. Kind regards The Lagers Team to which I have replied........ The mere fact that you have chosen to work with the S*n proves that you are NOT in any way whatsoever sensitive to the feelings of the people of Liverpool. The S*n has been effectively ‘banned’ in the Liverpool area since it chose to publish lies about the Hillsborough disaster which have been proven beyond any doubt to be lies, and for which this ‘newspaper’ has never seen fit to publicly apologise for. Because of this ‘ban’ I’m very glad to say that your promotion will not be noticed throughout the Liverpool area, and in effect your product may very well also be boycotted. Quite frankly, I do not believe you have the slightest concept of the depth of feeling of this issue.

....and reading between the lines of MON's statement, it basically says, 'and if you think that I'm dropping my price just because he (Barry) has played and is now cup tied , you're wrong. It's still 18M.'

1 - Reina 2 - ....... 3 -........ that's the best I can do.

I've sent the following email to Carlsberg...... Sir, I am absolutely amazed and disgusted at the news that Carlsberg has chosen to partner with the S*N newspaper (I refuse to even type the name of that comic) to promote both of your products. It is a blatant act of disrespect to the memories of the 96 who died in the Hillsborough disaster and only endorses the lies that followed in the S*N. Carlsberg as major sponsors of Liverpool Football Club should be ashamed of themselves. Carlsberg is the ONLY draught beer that I as an English expat living and working in China am able to purchase in my area, but until I see a statement of support for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster from Carlsberg, I will never again be drinking it! I would sooner go without! I will also be lobbying my team, Liverpool Football Club, to sever all links with Carlsberg. Absolute disgrace! Yours,......... I have also posted a similar comment on the publican website in response to their article.

After the Lazio game, Rafa gave a very subtle hint in his reply to journalists who were pushing him for a statement on Barry's transfer when he said......... “Riise and Kewell have gone, Aurelio is injured, Leto does not have a work permit and Babel is at the Olympic Games and could come back injured so we can improve in that area.” It was pointed out to Benitez that Barry can also play down the left, and the Reds boss added: “He can play in three different positions, which is a positive thing, but I am talking about one player – I don’t say the name.” Asked if that player would be Barry, he smiled and said: “We can improve, so we will try to improve.” Asked further whether he would be given the money for Barry, he went on: “I think it is not a question of money. “He is English and you need four local players and four English. He can play in three different positions but I’m not talking about him because we are talking about a player who can play on the left." This was a hint that Rafa believes the answer to our left side is NOT Barry, and this statement was also made before the club's official announcement about the Barry transfer saga.

After my initial disbelief following the club's statement regarding Gareth Barry's valuation, I can't help thinking that this is nothing more than a shrewd piece of business by our USA owners. Consider for a second the position that AV and MON now find themselves in...they were so sure that Barry was going that they have omitted him from their pre-season games, and they have even started spending his transfer fee!

Final positions... Gordon Banks 0.3% Bobby Moore 1.1% Ian Rush 16.4% George Best 29.7% Kenny Dalglish 52.6%

56.9% for Kenny v 35.6% for Best now.

Amen to that....I remember it well, which in effect means I'm an old bugger now.

I think all 3 parties (us, MON and Barry) need to compromise here. As it stands (if we are to believe the figures being reported) MON wants 18M but he has to give 4M to Barry - nett 14M. Barry gets 4M loyalty bonus whatever the transfer figure (probably). We have offered 15M. Let's suggest that Barry agrees to accept only 1/2 of his loyalty bonus (2M) with an agreement for extra wages from us over his 4 year contract (2M over 4 years = 10k per week). We agree to pay 15M to MON so he gets a net figure of 13M. He loses 1M from his original demand. we pay 15M + 2M over 4 years We end up paying 17M BUT we keep Finnan.. Barry still gets his 4M but only 2M up front. both clubs agree to 'an undisclosed fee'.

Yep....he was that bad that his value has doubled in 2 years from the 12M that we wouldn't pay (because we WERE messing around trying to get him for 10.5M or something similar) to 24M+ today. Barry's case is different though. We (and nobody else it would appear) don't think he's worth 18M. Alves very definitely was (and another club paid up and look what they got for the money).