Hyypia signs on till 2009

[NICKZS]

Greatly servant full great well legend thoroughly good deserved

I concur

[kop-al-74]

Superb footballer.Signed for pennies at a time when players like Ferdinand,Woodgate etc were moving for 10m plus.

He,imo, although maybe lacked the pace of other more pricey defenders,more than made up for it in his instincts ,positional sense and tackling ability.

Up there with the top 5 foreign players to play in the premiership.

[Red_Polo]

Greatly servant full great well legend thoroughly good deserved

FLMAO

[Johnny]

Good news

[Nicey]

Happy Days ... Liverpool Legend

[Rich]

Sensational news and on current form STILL one of the best defenders in the league - and he has been for 9 years

[Shaggy]

Sami Hyypia's joy at new Anfield deal

Apr 7 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
Sami Hyypia

SAMI HYYPIA today spoke of his delight at signing a new deal with Liverpool which will see him clock up a decade of service at Anfield.

The 34-year-old put pen to paper on a one year contract extension at the weekend despite interest from several other clubs in acquiring his services.

Hyypia has enjoyed another excellent season with Liverpool and with Reds boss Rafa Benitez keen to keep him at Anfield for another year, the Finnish centre back admits he would have found it difficult to leave the club he has served with such distinction since joining from Willem II for £2.5m in 1999.

“I’m delighted that everyone wants me to stay here,” he said. “I have a good relationship with everyone at the club, the fans and the players, so it would have been a big wrench for me to leave.

“But I wasn’t thinking about it too much. The most important thing for me was to concentrate on the games and if I played well then maybe the club would want me to stay.

“I would have had some options to go elsewhere but everything here has been great and I have enjoyed everything about my time here.

“It’s not so common for a foreign player in this country to spend ten years at one club so I am delighted to stay with this great club.

“We will see what next year brings. I will keep working hard and keep myself fit and whenever the manager needs me I will be there.”

As Hyypia confirms his Liverpool future, Peter Crouch has admitted he is pondering his.

Crouch scored in the 1-1 draw at Arsenal on Saturday but following his rare start the striker revealed he does not know if he will remain at Anfield after the current season.

He said: “I’d love to stay because this is a fantastic club and I love everything about it.

“But at this stage of my career I need to be playing and that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.

“I am frustrated, I’m not going to lie. But I will continue to work hard in training and in games if selected.”

Crouch has found it particularly hard to get into Benitez’s team since the manager switched to just one up front.

“Obviously the number of starts I have had has not been anything like what I would like,” he said.

“But when I do start I always feel like I will score goals.

“If the manager decides to start with one up front I am under no illusions about what that means for me.

“Fernando Torres is a fantastic player and he is going to start the majority of games. But if he starts with two I am in no doubt that I can play with Torres and cause teams problems.”