New stadium update...

[Dhav]

I also think it's fair that Rafa should sell some players before he can spend again in the transfer market because we have a very big squad already and you can't add player after player without selling some of them.

We have some players that we can sell without having any effect on the team, like Sissoko, Carson, Kuyt and Guthrie.

Well, according to the Mail (not a great source admittedly), Rafa has been told that if he wants to spend in Jan then he will have to raise the cash himself through player sales, and the £17m for Mascher will only be available in the summer. If all this is true then the spending on transfers this year has broadly been in line with that of previous seasons.

[Kaip]

Fair dos mate. I do think it's in their best interests to make this work. The stadium stuff doesn't worry me at all, I think it is central to their interests to have a nice big cash cow with 70,000 people paying to visit it. I hope the stuff with Rafa will all blow over (and I think it will), and the debt stuff is a non-issue - always going to happen.
We're saddled with them now so best we support them and our manager, and try to not to make it an issue of one against the other.
I reckon we will all be a bit more chilled out about it in the next month or two.

Keep posting fella

[Cormack74]

Well, according to the Mail (not a great source admittedly), Rafa has been told that if he wants to spend in Jan then he will have to raise the cash himself through player sales, and the £17m for Mascher will only be available in the summer. If all this is true then the spending on transfers this year has broadly been in line with that of previous seasons.

Hmm Independent suggests it's worse than that:

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/premiership/article3260752.ece

Rafael Benitez's difficult relationship with Liverpool's American owners will be severely tested after it emerged that George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks will refuse to sanction even a free signing during the January transfer window. The Liverpool manager was made aware of the embargo long before Sunday's long-awaited peace summit at Anfield immediately after the defeat to Manchester United.

The Americans did not wait until they arrived last week to inform Benitez of the limitations imposed on him. It is understood Benitez has been told he will be not be able to sell, or buy at all during the transfer window and two free signings he had hoped to make would not be considered by the board either.

It came as a major blow to Benitez whose long-term future at the club has been under serious doubt ever since his first fall-outs with the Americans last month. Although Liverpool and Gillett have attempted to put a more positive spin on the events of the last two days it is not how Benitez sees events in private. He is disbelieving at the limitations placed on him by the board who will have seen first hand on Sunday the need to strengthen the Liverpool squad.

Whether the Americans' position changes in the next few weeks is not clear but Benitez certainly went into Sunday's meeting on the understanding no funds would be made available for transfers in January. Yesterday Gillett, who spoke at a meeting of former Liverpool players, was ambiguous about January signings saying only, in terms of the transfer window, "we might use the option that gives us, or we might not."

A statement released by the club on Sunday night claimed that the meeting between Hicks, Gillett, his son Foster, Benitez and chief executive Rick Parry had been "amicable". Gillett attempted to keep the mood upbeat once again when he said that after the fallout between the two parties the "focus has to be on finding a common platform to continue our co-operation."

He added: "Rafa is the one we want as a manager further on, and we have faith in him. I've been married over 40 years and have first hand knowledge about how to solve an argument. We concentrated on getting an overview over the situation, and I felt we accomplished that."

The dispute between Benitez and his bosses began with his criticism of them for lacking understanding of the workings of the transfer market last month and escalated with Hicks warning his manager "to quit talking about new players and coach the ones that we have." That message would appear to have been reinforced over the last few days.

Parry also warned that Liverpool have had to revise their ambitious plans for the new 70,000-capacity stadium planned for the 2011-2012 season. He said: "The new stadium will be a significant improvement on the original plans and a slightly downgraded version of the new ones."

[Darth Marty]

Why the bloody hell would they refuse to sanction free players??!

And surely if Rafa sells first then the proceeds can go towards whoever the hellhe wants?

Ah man.........one good thing though...the Transfer Gossip section here should be well under control!

[Cormack74]

Why the bloody hell would they refuse to sanction free players??!
And surely if Rafa sells first then the proceeds can go towards whoever the hellhe wants?

Ah man.........one good thing though...the Transfer Gossip section here should be well under control!

It definitely seems to smack of showing Rafa who's in charge.

[rushscored4]

I've not spoken to my mate again yet (hopefully this week) but I've just been on RAWK to see if I've had a grovelling apology yet (I haven't ) and found the picture below. Apparently when AFL were first approached to design a new stadium they gave Parry & Moores three versions:

1. a 55,000 seater bowl with no seats in the corners
2. the 60,000 "Parrybowl" we've all seen and had planning permission for
3. a 70,000 version that looks like a smaller Wembley with twin arches above

The last one sounds just like the way my contact at AFL has described the revised plans although he did specifically comment that there would be a bigger, curving Kop end. Perhaps, however, this pic might give us a hint of what the revised AFL plans could look like:



Hopefully, as I've already said, I'll try to find out more in the next few days...

[tomasjj]

I just refuse to believe that he won't be able to sell. Ridiculous.

Makes no sense what so ever from a business perspective either.

Riise and Crouch only have 18 months left on their contracts. Value decreasing with each month.

Momo is sought after, and can raise a fair deal.

Carson can be cashed in on, and it would not affect our squad at all as we have Charles and Martin.

[Kaip]

I've not spoken to my mate again yet (hopefully this week) but I've just been on RAWK to see if I've had a grovelling apology yet (I haven't ) and found the picture below. Apparently when AFL were first approached to design a new stadium they gave Parry & Moores three versions:

1. a 55,000 seater bowl with no seats in the corners
2. the 60,000 "Parrybowl" we've all seen and had planning permission for
3. a 70,000 version that looks like a smaller Wembley with twin arches above

The last one sounds just like the way my contact at AFL has described the revised plans although he did specifically comment that there would be a bigger, curving Kop end. Perhaps, however, this pic might give us a hint of what the revised AFL plans could look like:

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=164525.0;attach=104642;image

Hopefully, as I've already said, I'll try to find out more in the next few days...

If you could sir, sooner rather than later

[tomasjj]

Everyone would have expected us to go into debt on account of the stadium, but that's not a massive issue as the stadium will pay for itself. But the additional debt of the cost of them buying the club is for me a big issue. The way I see it, it puts us in a worse position than under Moores doesn't it ie in even more debt?

The crux of it.
Even more so as they said specifically that this was NOT something they would do when they bought us.

[Guest]

I just refuse to believe that he won't be able to sell. Ridiculous.

Makes no sense what so ever from a business perspective either.

Riise and Crouch only have 18 months left on their contracts. Value decreasing with each month.

Momo is sought after, and can raise a fair deal.

Carson can be cashed in on, and it would not affect our squad at all as we have Charles and Martin.

May this mean that he would be allowed to sell but could not use the money ? That's just me speculating.

[Tom]

Or.... won't let him buy because they are saving their money for the new manager in the summer.

[Imy]

or... are they just feckin stupid?

[Neil Young]

I agree fully with this, except to say that I will only live with the oval stadium if it is a vast improvement on the original design and it is unique, distinctive and specific to us.

Like you suggest though, this would not have been nearly as bad if they didn't dangle the carrot of those spectacular HKS designs in front of us and now seemingly snatch them away. Huge PR disaster IMO.

I look at clubs like Arsenal, who just get on with it, and built their new ground for huge expense without much funfair and I'm actually jealous. I hate them, but I accept that clearly they are very professionally run. Compare to us on the other hand. We're run by clowns, and having new owners has done nothing to change that.

It's good to hear we're getting a funfair with our new stadium.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster in recent weeks.



Apologies if this joke has been made on pages 10-17. I logged on to this thread this morning and it opened on Dhavlos' comment. I can't be bothered reading the rest.

[tomasjj]

Or.... won't let him buy because they are saving their money for the new manager in the summer.

The thought have crossed my mind.

Let's hope not.

[Cormack74]

Or.... won't let him buy because they are saving their money for the new manager in the summer.

Even if they're not planning on sacking Rafa, a bit more of this nonsense and he'll probably be thinking about his future anyway.