Back on topic Im baffled as to what will happen now if the Barry deal doesnt get rescued at the death.

Downing is an option but that will no doubt involve just as much of a wrangle with Boro over a player they clearly wanna keep.

Reira is MASSIVELY over valued, even more so than Barry. maybe a loan with a view to a perm move can be arranged I dont know.

Other than that I cant see much coming of the links with Joe Cole, that would be my ideal signing maybe just tipping the barry deal but in terms of the manager getting what he wants and a player fitting into what the manager is trying build Barry has to be the man.

Biggest let down would be Milner to arrive.

What you have to remember is that the names in the press aren't going to necessarily make Rafa's exhaustive "Wanted" list.

A few names may be looked at, i few will be fabrications that we've never contemplated. And likewise there will be more names in the pot if we're to sign someone.

Anyway, if we're going to play 4-4-2 we need a left-midfielder of some description (not a central player convert, mind). Riera will be outpriced i think. Downing will be a lot of hastle as you mentioned XA. We could do it in a matter of 9 days or whatever. If we sign someone i'd expect it to be no-one that has been mentioned all summer (Since, looking at it logically, we're only going in for a left midfielder, if we are, because the Barry move has fallen through. Yet these rumours have existed since the early months of the summer. That doesn't really make sense. We would never have bought Barry + a left midfielder, as Barry was seen as someone who could cover there. Any rumours must have been pure fabrication.).

Well at least Spurs have shown some ambition in the transfer market - £16m bent (last year) £10m or so on Berbatov, £16m on modric, £12m on Bale, £10m hutton, £8m gomes.... bids for capel, arshavin, pavlyuchenko etc

Im not saying that hutton is quite the class we need but at least he is better than degen and arbeloa, bale would have made a great lb for us.. modric would have been great in our midfield and we all know what berbatov can do... As for arshavin i would take him over riera or downing just based on euros and last years uefa cup alone!!!


compared to voronin (free) degen (free) dossena £8m, n'gog £1.5m, keane - £20m ( we got done by Spurs) cavallieri £3m ( only one i been impressed by so far) and then if i go back a year or more you can add to that list of semi ok players - kuyt, pennant, aurelio, arbeloa,benayoun, and some real dodgy buys b4 that!!!


What does this tell you?? Out of all benitez buys i can safely say that only torres, reina, agger, skrtel, babel, alonsom, mascherano and lucas are anywhere near the quality that we should be buying/have bought !!


Anyway its not who we want to see sign for us that matters or we would have a star studded team by now, its what rafa wants from a player that matters!!

Right then, iv decided to ignore the post above, even though I disagree with plenty of it and lets concentrate on rumours from today.

Rafael Benitez is ready to bid £14m for Stewart Downing to solve Liverpool's left-side problem. (News Of The World)

But Arsene Wenger has been told by Liverpool to stump up £16m if he wants Xabi Alonso. (Sunday Express)

Martin O'Neill will open talks with Gareth Barry over a £75k a week deal when the transfer window closes. (News Of The World)

So, £14 million for Downing ay? umm.
Anyways, the money as we know is available for a transfer of that size. Its unlikely in my opinion we would sell Alonso to Arsenal but you never know. But if we did that would free up the funds for Barry, however that deal looks pretty dead at the moment.

So, hyperthetically, would people be happy with -
IN - BARRY AND DOWNING
OUT - ALONSO
????

I think that would give us fantastic ballance and a nice core of English players which I believe is very important. I know plenty will not be happy with Downing coming in and Alonso leaving especailly to a rival team but I would be satisifed with the business of this summer if the above was too happen.

Bloody hell, we're gonna spend and excess of 32 million on Barry and Downing.

I thought the reason you are put off Barry is the price. So what is the 2million extra funds (from the sale of Alonso and the buy of Downing) going to achieve?

There is no doubt that you need wingers but 14million for Downing is too much. If both the Barry and the Downing deals go through your club could have wasted extra funds just because they are English. I personally don't see the point in this. Of course it is good to have English players but until there is a law i don't see the need to overspend on these kind of players. Especially when there are better players around.

I know, when you put it like that. But if you think about it alot of money we have spent has been recouped from out-going transfers. In actuality we havnt spent loads of the owners money on many of the transfers. They certianly have not lived up to their word regarding money, in funding for the stadium and players to make us one of the best teams around again. Rafa has had to generate alot of money himself. That has been the case throughout his reign as manager. People like to quote the huge amout of money he has spent but plenty of that has just been recycled on other players. Buys them in, they end up doing badly, he gets rid. We dont seem to lose out by that much on their re-sale value to be fair. There will obviously be exceptions but its not as bleak as people like to make out.

But for example, if we did buy Barry and Downing for a combination of £32 million then add on the £19 for Keane that would be £51 million on Robbie keane, Downing and Barry all together. On paper they may not stand out as world beaters, and the money spent would be huge but I think that would certainly be really good transfer activity for this summer, although all players would ahve been purchased for above their actualy value. But that is life.

Its a strange one as the money is available. Its to do with the whole panto behind the scenes at the club. Rick Parry, The Owners, Rafa. No communication. The money is available, and was in the Barry deal, but for some reason, as from what i recall Rick Parry was the one who [beep!] that up.

Yeah, 14 million for Downing is steep, but Espanyol want, what? 18 million for Riera? 18 million (about) for the Riera who flopped for Manchester City. If it was down to those two I'd go for Downing. He'll be a nifty little player than us, and would be a better option than having Gerrard or Kuyt sprinting to the left side when Benayoun decides to overlap with them. Tried and tested is what we need right now and if it were down to those two, I'd happily take Downing. Having him and Babel as options on the left side will be a significant boost for us.

That's all if we don't revert back to 4-2-3-1, though. If we go back to that, I'd keep our options open and wait till the winter to swoop for someone who'd be performing well over the first half over the season. With Mascherano back from the Olympics, we'd be able to revert back to that formation and we may actually see our signings' worth. Dossena will be able to dart forward and not end up lost in the crowd as Mascherano is holding down the fort at the back; we'll see the great form Arbeloa had last season; most importantly, I think that with the addition of Keane, we'll have even better options in that "3" slot. With Kuyt, he did well on the right side, but with Keane-Gerrard-Babel stretched along the field, they'll be able to have the freedom to overlap with each other as all of them have the ability to come forward on either side and put balls into Torres. Torres will now have 3 options to pass back to with proven goal scorers. I think the one flaw of Kuyt was that he didn't provide that lethal touch to keep defenses on their toes allowing them to double up on Torres, Gerrard, or Babel. With Keane in the mix, they'll have to mark everyone one on one, and I'm confident those 4 have the skill to beat their men and make something happen. Scariest thing about it is that it's all a waiting game and none of us have any clue what the hell is going on in Rafa's mind. It's early days, and I don't want our performances at Sunderland and against Boro as a gauge for the season. Mascherano is a huge part of our line-up and now we'll be able to see our team at full strength and really decide what we need.

I don't see much future in the 4-4-2 frankly, so like Mrtz said, keep the money that is supposedly available and make better use of it at a later date (where we can tell much better what is lacking). Downing would be a fine addition but very much suited to a 4-4-2, and if we were to insist on playing it i think Barry were he to arrive would cover fine.

Barry is a player i want us to sign before the window closes. He's better suited to 4-2-3-1, better suited to linking up with Gerrard, better suited at playing Torres in behind defences, better suited to the English league and ultimately better suited at a title challenge. He's a leader too and would solve our AWFUL set-pieces (A small matter as it may seem, but the amount of corner's and free-kicks (aside from the ones Gerrard shoots from) wasted is unbelievable. They could make a big difference.).

Alonso to Arsenal is something i would much rather not happen, and don't think it will. Although whether he is what they need i don't know. Still, he'd come back to haunt us.

I dont think Alonso is what Arsenal need. He is a fine player but they are lightwieght there. If they bought him I still think that teams are going to be able to go through the middle of them. There is no one in their midfield that can break up attacks.

Its looking more and more likely we're going to bring in Riera.

Cant see us paying £16m for him, more like £11m

Cant say im that excited but at least he's a winger and seems to really want to come to us, he has'nt shut up about us all summer!

Xabi, if we get Riera and sell Xabi, will you change your name to Albert Riera?

Ive been mulling that one over all summer with the specualtion over Xabi's future.

Probably keep the name to be fair.

Well it looks pretty certain that we are going to get Reira now.

I suppose that will solve a bit of a problem down one side. From what I know of him he is quick and direct. THink he could cause defences problems.

Was the reason he left City previously because they couldnt afford him or did he underperform? I cant really remember.

Dont think they could agree a price with his club at the time.

From what I hear he isnt that quick but has a decent left foot.

Im not overly excited but dont think we had many options considering the barry c0ck up and timing.

Downing would have been an option but that would have been too messy with Boro and would never have been sorted in time for the deadline.

At least he's a natural left winger, something we dont have at the moment. so he'll give us balance.

just hope he's a surprise package and does well now.

Been hearing rumours lately that Parry is due for the boot (about time!), and that Brian Barwick is being lined up to replace him, and thats why he's leaving his job at the FA.

Any heard anythign along these lines?

Strange one this. I think people are adding 1 and 1 together and getting 3 here. He was at the Liverpool game the other day next to Rick Parry but then i remembered he is a Liverpool fan. I mean there may well be truth in it, but I dont think there is. Why would the man who is in the firing line be all matey with a man possibly lined up to replace him?

To be fair, I would be happy with Barwick coming in as our new Chief Exec. I think Rick's sell by date has expired. Things seriously have to change at the hierarchy of the club otherwise there will be no progress. it is all very well and good people saying they have had 'clear the air' talks, but how many times does the air need to be cleaned? This has happened constantly for the last couple of seasons. Rafa needs some structure, continuity and support. The Glaziers and Learner are good examples of how to be seen and not heard as owners. both United and villa are blossoming under their new owners. The same can not be said for us.

Here is a question for Liverpool fans.

Its been reported that Espanyol have given Liverpool 72 hours to come up with the cash for Riera and the price i thought to be a little less than 10 million. Quite alot of money for him if you ask me and not the type of player you need if you want to compete for premier league honours.

Diego Capel is also a left winger and has a clause in his contract which is between 12-13 million, would you guys prefer to spend 3-4 million extra and get this younger player?

I think Capel is much better than Riera and isnt going to cost much more according to the clause in his contract.

Honestly haven't seen either enough to tell YoBBo. So i can't say.

But if Capel is available, he's hardly unheard of, so there must be a reason why Benitez has selected Riera over him to sign.

My concern with Riera is A) does this mean we are persisting with 4-4-2, and B) would he fit into a 4-2-3-1 set-up?

With Riera i would hope we would set up something like the following:

--------------------------- Reina ---------------------------

--- Arbeloa --- Carragher ----- Agger ---- Dossena ---

--- Gerrard ----- Alonso --- Mascherano --- Riera -----

------------------- Torres ------ Keane -------------------


Seriously, it's either Gerrard on the right or Pennant or El Zhar. And Gerrard is the best. It also accomodates Alonso in the centre, with him having a more attacking role too. I've never really been a fan of the Masche/Gerrard partnership in the centre so i hope we don't go down that route.

I'd rather we played 4-2-3-1 like.

--------------------------- Reina ---------------------------

--- Arbeloa --- Carragher ----- Agger ---- Dossena ---

------------------ Alonso ---- Mascherano ---------------

-------------------------- Gerrard -------------------------
---- Kuyt -------------------------------------- Keane ----
--------------------------- Torres --------------------------

Maybe Babel in there. Depends how he does.