Everton and Liverpool discussion

[jockser]

what biy! and jockser - It won't be Anelka for two reasons. Firstly, they can't afford to blow £10m on one player, whose wages will be £60,000+ on top of that. It's not financially viable at the moment.
Secondly, Anelka and Djibril Cisse do not get along. This is one of the reasons that Anelka wasn't called back to the French squad pre Euro2004, even when Cisse was eventually ruled out due to suspension. Cisse actually criticised him heavily in the press at the time. I can't see Benitez signing a player on those wages who will not be able to play alongside one of his strike partners. He's too clever for that, and who needs disharm, something Anelka is an expert at creating. I'd love Anelka, but can't see it. Morientes will do though

Morientes to Liverpool...deal is done.......€10m yoyos

[4tothefloor]

Liverpool aren't prepared to pay more than £8m, there's no way they are going to pay £10m. They've also been linked with a Steffan Hoffman, central midfielder, £2m, from Rapid Vienna. Sounds dodgy! Also Scott Carson, Leeds reserve keeper, is said to be on his way also. I'd prefer Given, Van Der Sar or Kiely myself.

Anelka on loan could be a goer though

[4tothefloor]

Do you think Everton will get through to the CL Quarter-Finals Dillo? Oh sorry, I forgot, YER NOT EVEN IN IT

Silly Me

[JoeSemi]

What needs to change is our luck. Key players need to stop getting injured. David Moores needs to go asap, and let Morgan spend his cash before the january deadline is up. Give Benitez the quality he deserves to work with, and stop fannying about, cos as much as it pains me to say it, Conor74 could actually be right about sliding even further. Just a little tiny bit right though, not to give you a big head

Agree that funds are needed and is there a better time for Morgan to come in now? Although, there is a lot of secrecy regarding what he's ultimately after. I'd like to trust what Rick Parry goes with on all of this, but he definitely needs to quietly usher Moores out the back door soon so we can start afresh with whoever.

After the draw today I think Rafa needs to get his head screwed on quickly as regards who and what he's looking for. Its hard to see any justification in signing Josemi or Nunez at this stage. It looks as if Rafa looked at signing them in the context of the English game and thought the steel (they may have had in Spain?) would transfer itself over .Garcia will always do something different and Xabi is class. Confidence crisis creeping into the keeper department at the club. Might have to act sooner rather than later there.

IMO the speculation regarding Anelka is a positive signal that might ignite Benitez into signing him if we stump up the cash. There'll always be a for and against regarding Anelka, but the lad himself admitted he never felt as much at home at a club as he did in his short spell at Anfield. He bent over backwards to sign for the club but the former schoolteacher/manager put a stop to it unfortunately. 10m might be enough of a carrot for City too. If not Anelka, I wouldn't mind seeing Beattie bought. Lancashire lad and is hungry to move to a top club.

[mypost]

Liverpool aren't prepared to pay more than £8m, there's no way they are going to pay £10m.

Anelka on loan could be a goer though

Jockser actually said 10 million Euro which is about what the club can afford to pay for Morientes.

What I'd like to know is why would Morientes come to us instead of Monaco? He knows Monaco, the weather is great there, he'll get his game, and he might win a league title with them. What will we win? The League Cup? Also, he's no use to us in the Champions League this season which is another problem, for the revenge tie against Leverkusen. However, I don't want Anelka coming here again. He creates more problems in teams than he solves. Surely, we're not THAT desperate that we have to sign him!!

[Plastic Paddy]

Throw in the fact that Morientes' wages would be tax-free in the principality and the chances of him landing at Liverpool are even less. Essentially, choosing Monaco over Liverpool would provide him with an extra one-third net income on an equivalent salary. You'd have to think he'd be mad to pass that up, and that's before one even considers the relative merits of living in each place:

Monte Carlo - sunshine, beautiful women, yachts on the Med
Liverpool - pishing rain, pram-faced girls and rusty shopping trolleys in the Mersey

It's a no-brainer, surely?

PP

[JoeSemi]

There are people born winners PP whereby money doesn't become an issue. Thats the problem with some cynics who think all footballers are on a one track mind to a fat pay cheque. Morientes has won trophies at Real, a club with a prestigious history like Liverpool, and he obviously would like to see more medals in his home cabinet. Believe me PP, there are a lot of footballers(especially continentals) who are very intuitive and can see things being done properly. Benitez is doing things right at Liverpool and Morientes has seen this and wants a part of it. Gerrard is of a similar ilk, and hopefully a couple of signings to satisfy the fans and him as captain, will get LFC back where they belong contesting titles with Chelski and Arsenal.

[4tothefloor]

The only problem with the Morientes Monaco link is that Monaco can't afford him - transfer fee, or wages. According to Deschamps anyway. They are already committed to Saviola until the end of the season, with a view to buying, which they won't be able to afford either. Remember, when Morientes was at Monaco, he was only there on loan and Real Madrid were still paying half to two thirds of his wages. Thats why there was so much fuss over him knocking them out of the CL. There is no way that Monaco can offer him the wages he is on at Real, tax free or not. Morientes has realised this and that is why he is making noises about Liverpool lately. Who'd want to play in the French League anyway?

I can't make my mind up about Anelka. He was great for us before and seemed to be happy at Anfield. He'd be the perfect foil for Gerrard and Alonso's passing. We need another quality striker if we are to beat Leverkusen, Morientes is cup-tied. I'd sign Morientes, and sign Anelka on loan with a view to a permenant move in the summer. Being greedy now

[4tothefloor]

I'd rather Andrew Johnson if we were to sign an English striker. Wayne Routledge looks good too, and is on a bosman in the summer.

[mypost]

who are we up against on Sunday?? Souness -hardly a coincidence.

Prediction for today's game: 2-0.

We need to win our home games as our away form is awful. Only 1 win, and 6 points picked up on the road.

[joeSoap]

Prediction for today's game: 2-0.

Well, you got the winning margin right anyway.
I was only watching it in glimpses, but it looked like a good open game, with a fair few chances being spoiled by both sides (Garcia after 3 mins). Good win for the Pool though.

[joeSoap]

Liverpool FC Squad - 2004-05
1. Jerzy Dudek
2. Stephane Henchoz
3. Steve Finnan
4. Sami Hyypia
5. Milan Baros
6. John Arne Riise
7. Harry Kewell
8. Steven Gerrard
9. Djibril Cisse
10. Luis Garcia
11. Vladimir Smicer
14. Xabi Alonso
15. Salif Diao
16. Dietmar Hamann
17. Josemi Josemi
18. Antonio Nunez
19. El-Hadji Diouf
21. Djimi Traore
22. Chris Kirkland
23. Jamie Carragher
24. Florent Sinama Pongolle
25. Igor Biscan
26. Richie Partridge
28. Stephen Warnock
29. Patrice Luzi
31. David Raven
32. John Welsh
33. Neil Mellor
34. Darren Potter
36. Jon Otsemobor
37. Zak Whitbread
40. Paul Harrison
41. Mark Smyth
42. Robbie Foy
- Gregory Vignal
- Alou Diarra
- Anthony Le Tallec
- Carl Medjani
- Bruno Cheyrou

Of that squad, which I cut and Pasted from the official Liverpool site, only Hyppia, Baros, Gerrard and Xabi Alonso are true quality players. Out of numbers 1-25 in that squad, there are only 4 players from the UK and Ireland.There is an alarming lack of strength in depth in this squad and until they establish quality and start breeding more Owens, Gerrards etc locally then I feel they'll never challenge for major honours in the next decade. The gulf between them and Chelsea, Arsenal and United is too great. United are going through bad times but still recruit well and have a much better academy structure to pick from, and are still well ahead of Liverpool at this time.

Having said that, I do feel that Benitez is a good manager (probably Liverpools best since Joe Fagan) who might have the wisdom required to improve things.

[Karlos]

Just in relation to the youth set-up at the top clubs. I don't think Liverpool are producing any less good young players than Man Utd at the moment. Man Utd fans may be in a better position to judge this but from my re-collection, in the last 4 years or so after the huge impact of Beckham, Nevilles, Shcoles et all, the only players Utd have produced of note have been O'Shea and Fletcher - neither of which command a regular starting place. Utd's two most exciting young players, Rooney & Ronaldo were bought for a combined fee of over €30 million,

Likewise at Arsenal, Ashley Cole has been the only home grown produced youth player to go all the way to the top - we have had some very good young players who we have nurtured and bought on the cheap such as Toure, Fabregas, Clichy, Anelka etc but for every one of them that has been 20 Rohan Ricketts & Jermaine Pennents (jury still out there!) unable to cut the mustard at the VERY highest level.

The fact that Liverpool have produced two excellent players (Owen & Gerrard) in the same time frame is testiment to their youth development.

The problem Liverpool face with homegrown Youth Players is the same as Man Utd & Arsenal. Arsenal have chosen to buy foreign youth at knockdown prices, whereas Man Utd have chosen to invest heavily in youth.

I still find it diffiuclt to see 5 or 6 homegrown youth players at any of these clubs forcing their way into first teams. I do not belive that Man Utd's youth structure is significantly better at producing or spotting local players than Liverpool, if it was we would be seeing NEW young homegrown Man Utd players playing first team and international football on a regular basis and at the levels that Owen and Gerrard produce and command silmilar price tags as them.

No doubt Man Utd have a great youth structure but they face the exact same problems as evryone else in England when it comes to finding those little gems and unfotuntly for the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle etc, they don't have €30 million plus to spend on youth but may with Benitex now have the technical knowledge to invest in foreign talent.

The whole area of local youth development needs serious work at all 92 football league clubs in england.

[Karlos]

precisely because they cannot attract 'born winners'. That's not to say they haven't signed good players, like Alonso, or Hyppia a few years back, but hardly the creme de la creme of Europe.
.

I think that's a little harsh, other big clubs have failed to get the true creme de la creme, Utd,Chelsea & Real MAdrid all failed to attract Patrick Vieria, Chelsea failed to attract Henry, Utd failed to attract Ronaldinho, Barcelona couldn't attract Beckham. Utd and Chelsea failed to attract Veron, oh no wait a minute!!

The creme de la creme cost money (in fees and wages) and after that they then have to want to play for you. I think someone made a fair point about not ALL footballers being in it solely for the money, if they were they would all be at Chelsea. I think Liverpool like Arsenal, Newcastle and the rest of the league aren't in the Market to spend €28 million on the so-called creme de la creme. Man Utd and Chelsea are the only two who can realistically attract these players fiancially and even that has proved to not be enough in the cases of Vieira, Henry, Ronaldinho, et all.

[Dillo]

This poll is going to close on Wednesday for some reason so I'd encourage other foot.ie members who for whatever reason haven't voted to get crackin! Especially Evertonians! Having said that, 49 isn't a bad return at all. The results are quite satisfying too!

Another hard earned and well-deserved point from the blues at the weekend! We defended heroically against a tough Rovers side. On a separate note, it was nice too see Moyes make the trip to Fratton Park yesterday to study his fellow title challengers Arsenal!

[Plastic Paddy]

You need to beat the Blackburns of the Premiership if you're serious about winning a place in the Champions League qualifiers at the end of the season. Stout defending's only half the equation, I'm afraid.

On the other hand, your neighbours appear to be making an ominous return to form. Maybe you won't be so upbeat come May.

PP

[Plastic Paddy]

No, they were trounced 6-1 by Hull, having used three goalkeepers in the process. Both the first choice and sub 'keeper had to go off injured, leaving midfielder Theo Whitmore to go in goal for the last 35 minutes or so.

Anyway, I have two words for you, Conor. Jody Morris.

PP

[Dillo]

Blackburn are fighting for their lives and are very hard beaten. They were deprived victory over ManUre earlier in the season by an injury time Alan Smith equaliser. Newcastle are in dire straights at the minute... so much so that even Liverpool can beat them!
Everton according to many sources appeared tired on Saturday and let's be honest, this rich vein of form can only continue for so long. It's crucial that Moyes makes the correct sigings in January. I'm sure he will.

[4tothefloor]

Everton according to many sources appeared tired on Saturday and let's be honest, this rich vein of form can only continue for so long.

Making excuses already.....get used to it. The 3 points ye won against us has been eaten away already, now watch us eat the other 9

[mypost]

It was looking dodgy for a while on Sunday, until Santa headed the ball into his own net. Our favourite opposing defender helped us out again!

For those who need reminding, Titus "Shambles" Bramble has helped us out on more than one occasion. 2 and a half seasons ago when playing for Ipswich at Anfield, he let the ball bounce twice to let Michael Owen score our third goal on our way to a 5-0 win, and Ipswich's relegation. Still, Bobby Robson rescued him from the first division, but he didn't change his ways. Last season, he scored another own goal for Newcastle at Southampton, which put us into this season's CL. So it was appropriate that when we needed help on Sunday, he gave it to us!!

We seemed to play well on Sunday by all accounts, Mellor and Baros took their goals well, and another 3 home points were secured. Off to West Brom on Sunday, we should get something there for a change.