Defoe to sign this week

[brendan]

I put up with a lot of stick Brendan, I can take it when people say I talk ****e (particularly when they back down immediately when I reply to them ), I can take it when people call me a fat, an Irish cnut, a "barrack room lawyer" and lots of other things.

I won't tolerate being called the new Ritchi3 though, we all have our limits Brendan.

I'm not sure how I can make this up to you.

*looks for photos*

[Rosco]

I'm not sure how I can make this up to you.

*looks for photos*

Haha ....

You'll need them soon btw.

Anyway I'm outta here for tonight , talk to you later.

[Howard_lfc]

I find your "Rafa = Great, Board = Bad" attitude simplistic, boring and inaccurate.

Try adding some "complex shades of grey" to your binary, black & white world.

I find your Brendan = right, everyone else= wrong attitude quite crap actually.

Simplistic and boring? Thanx for pointing me in the right direction mate. If only all of my posts were as good as yours eh Brendan....... In future I'll ask you to QA all of my posts then.....

Regarding your complex shades of grey - why complicate the issue?
We're either good/big/wealthy enough - or we're not. I don't want excuses. If you;re happy that we appear to have missed out on our 2 major signings then great - console yourself with the excuses/reasons why we didn't get them. In the meantime - I'll stick to the bare facts or as you put it 'black and white world' if you don't mind.

H

[G_Man]

I think Defoe has the potential to develop into a very good player for LFC. His ball skills are good and his pace is good. Anything over 9 million would not be good business though as I feel he needs to work on his finishing and his positional play as well as his awareness. The 2 people I trust most to bring these qualities out of him are Rafa Benitez and Robbie Fowler.

Lets get him in, he'll thrive at our club

[Jan-Erik]

No no no no no. Having pace is *always* a bonus, but Defoe and Bellamy offer virtually the same thing, and that's useless as a partnership.

I reckon.

If you could have two Henry's in your side, dont you think that would be a deadly partnership?

[Howard_lfc]

I think Defoe has the potential to develop into a very good player for LFC. His ball skills are good and his pace is good. Anything over 9 million would not be good business though as I feel he needs to work on his finishing and his positional play as well as his awareness. The 2 people I trust most to bring these qualities out of him are Rafa Benitez and Robbie Fowler.

Lets get him in, he'll thrive at our club

Sounds like we haven't got £9m though at the moment so I don't think it'll be a problem G !!

[kurtangle01]

I find your "Rafa = Great, Board = Bad" attitude simplistic, boring and inaccurate.

Try adding some "complex shades of grey" to your binary, black & white world.

sorry to wade in here brendan, but why do you see it necessary to jump down people throats at every attempt? if you don't agree with their opinion state your reasons for it. don't just start having a go for the sake of it.

[Rosco]

I find your Brendan = right, everyone else= wrong attitude quite crap actually.

Simplistic and boring? Thanx for pointing me in the right direction mate. If only all of my posts were as good as yours eh Brendan....... In future I'll ask you to QA all of my posts then.....

Regarding your complex shades of grey - why complicate the issue?
We're either good/big/wealthy enough - or we're not. I don't want excuses. If you;re happy that we appear to have missed out on our 2 major signings then great - console yourself with the excuses/reasons why we didn't get them. In the meantime - I'll stick to the bare facts or as you put it 'black and white world' if you don't mind.

H

It's not really a simple issue though is it ?

When you look at the money that has been available to Benitez it's more than enough to have bought any target he wanted.

Instead he chose to sign a centre back for £6m who he didn't trust enough to put in the first team squad ahead of Djimi Traore (on the few occasions he was fit). He also chose to allocate funds to signing to left sided players when it wasn't really an area of concern. We already had Kewell, Warnock, Traore, Zenden and Garcia capable of filling positions on the left but Benitez signed Gonzalez and Aurelio before he actually filled a position he really needed filled.

Last season he spent £6m on a midfielder when we didn't really need one (although I'm delighted we got him). And £7m on two goalkeepers when we already had two.

So I think it's a very simplistic and quite frankly myopic to solely blame the board on the predicament we're in. Rafa has the choice to allocate funds as he chooses. If he chooses to sign players for positions that we already have adequate cover in, while neglecting our primary needs is it really the board's fault ? Or should some responsibility lie with Rafa ?

[Howard_lfc]

It's not really a simple issue though is it ?

When you look at the money that has been available to Benitez it's more than enough to have bought any target he wanted.

Instead he chose to sign a centre back for £6m who he didn't trust enough to put in the first team squad ahead of Djimi Traore (on the few occasions he was fit). He also chose to allocate funds to signing to left sided players when it wasn't really an area of concern. We already had Kewell, Warnock, Traore, Zenden and Garcia capable of filling positions on the left but Benitez signed Gonzalez and Aurelio before he actually filled a position he really needed filled.

Last season he spent £6m on a midfielder when we didn't really need one (although I'm delighted we got him). And £7m on two goalkeepers when we already had two.

So I think it's a very simplistic and quite frankly myopic to solely blame the board on the predicament we're in. Rafa has the choice to allocate funds as he chooses. If he chooses to sign players for positions that we already have adequate cover in, while neglecting our primary needs is it really the board's fault ? Or should some responsibility lie with Rafa ?

Goalkeepers. We needed 2 keepers - coz Dudek isn't good enough and we had no backup.

Left side. Kewell, Warnock and Traore have no long term future at the club IMO.

Momo - Rafa bought him and put him straight into the first XI so who are you to say we didn't need him?

It is a squad building excercise over the last couple of years - and now it needs the finishing touches. However, the players Rafa has identified are out of reach - even though we're not talking exorbitant amounts of money - relatively speaking. If we can't go and spend £10m on a player then there's something wrong somewhere. It wouldn't be so bad if we were building a new stadium - but even after all this time - that's still a pipedream....In the meantime we're getting by on buying players with cheap buy-out clauses, free transfers and backup-options. So who's fault is that? Rafa's or the boards?

[Tom]

Ha! true...

People who say "jog on" should be banned

[mark1975]

Momo - Rafa bought him and put him straight into the first XI so who are you to say we didn't need him?

Exactly, and this is the cusp of the arguement, people seem to think that the area's that they see as needing to be filled are the ones that should be. Rafa identified that we needed more pace and tenacity in the middle of the park, and we got that with Momo, we also desperately needed to replace the increasingly confidence shattered Dudek. These are two positions which helped us make up ground in the league, so who are we to argue? If we'd bought these two and not improved in anyway, then yeah, point the finger and suggest that the money would have been better spent elsewhere.

We had Gerrard for the right wing last season, I'd suggest that having him there and Momo, Alonso and Didi to cover the centre, was far more productive than having bought Simao/Pennant/whoever and NOT bought Momo. You only had to look at the spell where Momo was out with an eye injury to recognise how important he was to us.

Noone's suggesting Rafa doesnt make mistakes and we haven't suffered somewhat by eventually going for second best, but league wise, given Alonso is the only £10m+ player we've brought, I think we've boosted the squad with a fair amount of quality, and got rid of the majority of the deadwood over the two seasons/three summers. 'Rome wasn't built in a day' and all that.. We've now filled every position that needed filling, bar that fourth striker slot, which is looking like being sorted soon anyway.

If we'd have bought a right winger last season, we'd still be in the same position now, looking for a keeper and a central midfielder.

[Ryan]

Two short-arsed, diminutive, speedsters playing as a partnership?

Don't see it.

In contrast to last season's two lard-arsed, lanky, sloths playing as a partnership?

It's be HEAVEN Bren.

[brendan]

In contrast to last season's two lard-arsed, lanky, sloths playing as a partnership?

It's be HEAVEN Bren.

I'd take the ****ing Chuckle Brothers up front ahead of Spanish Erik and Rodders.

[Ryan]

I'd take the ****ing Chuckle Brothers up front ahead of Spanish Erik and Rodders.

I'm glad Moro's gone, obviously, and Crouch looks more and more like being relegated to a substitute's role this season, so things are on the up, but the mere mention of those two as a strikeforce once again just conjures up horrible mental images of that night at Anfield against Benfica.

It broke my heart watching that.

[MrMichael]

I'd take the ****ing Chuckle Brothers up front ahead of Spanish Erik and Rodders.

Yawn. With all due respect..... any chance of a record change guys?