I'm not trolling. As Rafa would say, I'm just stating facts (along with the prediction that Chelsea will progress further than Liverpool in the CL, which I admit is built upon nothing more than faith and hope because they draw isn't even known yet.)

Stating facts?

Who said we love those 'meaningless' titles? The whole 'hardest working team' was a debate from the last thread, where I actually said United worked harder than us with the ball, and in my comment earlier in this thread, I said 'I'm not trying to gloat'. It was a debate I found interesting, yet you seem to think I was 'loving a meaningless title', something which was only my opinion.

Again, Torres being the top scorer in his debut season, or whatever it was, I don't quite understand who goes around gloating about things like that

, it may be true but I don't know any Liverpool fan who goes around saying things like that, as an excuse for us not winning it would be quite strange if they did, they may use it as an argument for him being a top player, which is only fair, no? And the only time I ever really remember that being brought up was when he broke the record or whatever, since then I've not really heard it mentioned, so how exactly do we 'love' the meaningless title?

Nobody says they mean anything, you've just come to that 'fact' yourself, it wasn't even a Liverpool fan who brought up the whole 'Europe's number 1 side' thing, again, it's just us being at the top of the Uefa rankings, nothing more, nothing less, yet you have somehow come to the conclusion that we thing it means loads. Strange.

It is Benitez himself who makes the most of the UEFA ranking. I've read about him talking about it at least three times, and I don't in any way go out of my way to read the words of the Fat Spanish Waiter.

So Keith, after your win at OT and Rafa signing, are you going to win the title, are you good enough?

I think you need to try and sign just one quality signing a season instead of 3 or 4 average ones, by doing that you will become a major force on all fronts which you almost are anyway.

Unlike Lord God Jose Mourinho, I can't see into the future, so I don't know if we will win the League.

The win at OT made it possible, but still unlikely. We are still 4 points behind, potentially 7, and with 9 games to go that still makes it a very hard task. What I will say is, after the win at OT, we are still in with a chance coming to the end of March, and it may put Man U under a bit more pressure, which is what any level headed Liverpool fan (Ande, take note) was saying is what they wanted at the start of the season. Any chance of winning the league has tended to cease well before now in previous seasons, so we are progressing, no matter what anyone says. The fact that we have been consistently good in Europe also shows we are on the right path.

Problem is, there are some, because of our history, and these tend to be of the younger generation, Championship Manager generation, note I said some, think we have a god given right to win the League, and would change the manager year in year out until we do, or suggest someone like Martin O'Neil, who couldn't hold a candle to the likes of Rafa. Of all these people who have criticised Rafa's new contract, I've yet to see one offer an alternative that would be better.

They just don't realise the scale of the job Rafa faced when he got here and whilst he's been here. They don't even understand why he's had to buy the players he has in the previous 4 years, but as I said, they are pretty clueless to be honest. They can't see what's in front of their eyes. I mean the bloke hasn't had much say what goes on at the Academy FFS, how can that be?

I don't think Rafa signing the contract will have any bearing on how we play just like I don't think it had any bearing on how we played whilst he was negotiating.



Well, if we don't win it, then obviously not.

At the moment we have shown on any given day we can beat anyone. We seem to have done a complete turn around from previous seasons where we have struggled against the top 3 and beat the "easy pickings" in the main. This year, for some reason we have struggled to beat the lesser sides, especially at Anfield, yet up to now, just dropped 2 points away at Arsenal against the top 3, beatin both Man U and Chelsea home and away.

We are at the stage now where we don't need to bring quantity in to the club to refresh the squad, the problem we have had for the first 3 seasons under Rafa, now we can concentrate on hopefully bringing in 1 or 2 top class players in to enhance the squad in the areas that's needed. Rafa thought that Keane could be a good addition to the squad, but it didn't work out that way, so he's gone, and I'm sure he'll try to bring in another top striker to replace him.

But there again, with the sale of the club up in the air, will the G&H splash the cash or will they sell. I think it's July they have to payback the finance, which is bang in the middle of when Rafa would hope to be signing players, so that could bring it's own problems.

So you would reject the idea of Roberto Mancini comign to Liverpool to manage? Is he good enough for you Keith?

We're apparently set to announce a link with Almeria apparently, something that will give us first choice on their players. Sounds like an alright idea, they have young Piatti who's progressing nicely and could be a 'big club player' in a few years, they also have Negredo who I feel could be a more than adequate back up for Torres.

I'm not too familiar with this whole linking up business, what happens? Do we just pay them a certain amount every year in return for having first refusal, like?

He's a decent manager but I'd still rather Rafa over him.

Yes and no. That was easy wasn't it.

What's he up to these days, after being sacked just after Rafa Benitez's side dicked them in the Champions League?

Are you going to tell me that bringing in Mancini would bring us the Championship, if so, what's that based on exactly?

Now, if you were to apply...

I reckon he's still drinking from saturday oh an your a clueless whopper.

Are you implying he didn't want Keane? Who's decision was it to sign him?

Most definitely - Rafa's track record in Europe is far superior to Mancini's.

Mancini won league titles at Inter but his Inter teams lacked bottle, in a truly big game they would crumble. Mourinho has rectified that to an extent but IMO Mancini, who is always linked to top jobs, isn't in the top echelon of managers for that reason.

I think what he's saying is, and what I believe the situation was, that Benitez told Parry who he wanted and in the main, it was left to Parry to try and get said player dealing with all the financial implications that went with it.

What Benitez asked for in his negotiations, was to have a transfer budget and to be able to use that budget how he saw fit as he is the best person to decide what is needed in the squad, which is fairly obvious and cut out the middle so to speak, which would be Parry.

Take the Barry saga last summer, clearly Rafa wanted him, but the powers that be, whether it be Parry or the owners decided that Barry wasn't worth the money Villa was asking. Benitez says, how do these people know how much a player is worth to the squad, more than him, and if he wants a player, and he's in his budget, he should be able to purchase them.

We lost Alves and Simao in previous seasons due to the exact same circumstances.

Josemi Rey
Antonio Nunez
Luis Garcia
Xabi Alonso
Mauricio Pellegrino
Fernando Morientes
Scott Carson
Antonio Barragan
Boudewijn Zenden
Jose Reina
Mohamed Sissoko
Peter Crouch
Godwin Antwi
Miki Roque
Jack Hobbs
Besian Idrizaj
Mark Gonzalez
Paul Anderson
Jan Kromkamp
Daniel Agger
David Martin
Robbie Fowler
Craig Bellamy
Gabriel Paletta
Fábio Aurélio
Jermaine Pennant
Dirk Kuyt
Nabil El Zhar
Jordy Brouwer
Francisco Durán
Ronald Huth
Álvaro Arbeloa
Lucas Leiva
Mikel San José Domínguez
Sebastian Leto
Fernando Torres
Andriy Voronin
Yossi Benayoun
Ryan Babel
Charles Itandje
Emiliano Insúa
Martin Skrtel
Javier Mascherano
Philipp Degen
Andrea Dossena
Diego Cavalieri
David Ngog
Robbie Keane
Albert Riera



So are you saying Benitez didnt want ANY of these players? Because thats a hell of a lot of players Liverpool have signed and still havent been anywhere near winning a premiership title.

I dont suppose he can help it though if some of them are just plain not everyone can be the next Torres or Gerrard but you have got to take a chance just happens he takes loadsa bad uns

After your rant at me when Liverpool let Keane go for a loss during the transfer window surely you mean.....

Rick Parry thought that Keane could be a good addition to the squad

Delighted with the Rafa deal. David Silva next please.

I'd prefer David Villa

I vaguley remember Hicks saying something about Barry and value for money. So I would assume he was the architect of that going belly up, though Parry may have given him the bullets.

Where does the dislikle of Parry come from?

If I had half an inkling of what you are on about, maybe I could respond to your statement.