Oh, and with regards to Barry, i think Finnan was probably offered to them. Just occured to me. With Mellberg leaving they'll be after a right-back i'd suspect, so it'd make sense. Carson would've been another, with Riise perhaps completing the offer.

Crouch and Pennant are too expensive to be included in any "mish-mash" for Barry.

Alonso is now being linked with a move to Juventus.

(Haven't read back through the pages here ... ) But Lennon (Spurs) has been linked to Liverpool as well. Liverpool will apparently have competition from Newcastle as Keegan wants to swap Charles N’Zogbia for Lennon.

I'd throw up if we signed Lennon. Actually throw up my insides in disgust.

Ain't gonna happen. It has been rumoured before, but Benitez wouldn't waste the money quoted on him.

Swap ya Lennon for Alonso?

How about you throw in Berbatov and we throw in Voronin?

i would welcome that if we managed to sign Barry.

Me too. Although i'd prefer we offered him to Barcelona in an attempt to exchange him, someone like Abidal coming in our direction. He's well thought of in Spain and a possible player exchange with either Barca or Madrid could be exploited - it's one way of negotiating anyway.

How much is Alonso's head going for in the market at the moment?

I saw as little as £6million the other day. But then again Kenwyne Jones was effectively being touted as moving for £25million, so what do you believe?

I'd expect in the region of £12-£15million ... if he were English he'd be double that.

Personally i think Alonso will stay but we'll have to wait and find out.

ah, yeah I'd think about 12-15 million is about right...

Thing about Xabi is I don't think it will hurt us to keep him or lose him. He's a good enough player to help us in games if we keep him, and if we let him go, we'd probably get someone great in return, as you've stated, hopefully someone like Abidal.

Back to Barry:

To be honest i think if Alonso doesn't have an improved season next year, regardless of whether he's in Benitez's plans, we should get rid. He just ain't been up to the standard we need, not consistantly anyway.

I think he'll stay though, and Barry will be used to strengthen our squad and give us "options" - he can play as left-back, left-mid and centre-mid, so i think the versatility will appeal greatly to Rafa. Maybe then buying one more winger, so we have Babel, Benayoun and someone else as three proper wide players with Kuyt and Barry there to play the role if needed but cover other areas also. Barry would allow us to go to 4-4-2 much easier, operating on the left.

I just can't see Alonso leaving - it seems a mere media/fan manifestation to be honest. I don't mind what happens, but if he stays two things needs to happen: i) he needs to improve to the standard of past seasons, and ii) we need to buy a quality winger. It's no good us getting him to play partially on the wing and then spend £5-£8million on a so-so out-and-out winger to play their regularly. We need to have someone of a real quality that if possible can play comfortably on both the right and left, with an intelligent, footballing brain and an ability to finish. Getting the right player is crucial, else we could end up with another Babel... which, though will probably come good, isn't going to greatly help our immediate plans.

Some people are a bit worried by Rafa's "aspirations", from the Barry rumours, but i think the likes of Mascherano and Torres will show him the calibre of players we need. He knows. And he seems very relaxed and calm, confident about the summer and next season, so i'm optimistic about the players we'll bring in. And optimistic that we'll make them as soon as possible.

Extremely positive sounds that are emitting from Rafa lately. We're moving very early this year and if we can sign certain players up in May, ideally those involved in Euro 2008, then it will be incredibly benefitial to our following season. If we end up racing in August, as happened with Kuyt, then the players take much longer to settle and our squad is also disrupted.

In that sense it's a relief we're not in the Champions League final - else we'd of probably been forced to wait 'till the Euro's had finished and hence prices could rocket and competition the same.

Another rumour concerning Abidal...

This really would be a terrific signing and take us on so much. Other than the common vowel to introduce eithers name, there really is no comparison between Abidal and Aurelio.

My fear is that Barca may knock us back, or Abidal himself. Though he has spoken out indicating he could leave this summer, saying that "he will have to see what happens".

Just in:

there is so many people being linked with Liverpool i dont have a clue who were going to sign but judging we can recoup close to 25mil from selling players and the summer transfer budget my team would go something like this:


.........REINA........?

.......ARBELOA........ .......CARRAGHER........ ........AGGER......... .........EManUELSON...








..........GERRARD....... .......MASCHERANO........ .....ALONSO?BARRY.......





........BABEL?QUARESMA ........SILVA? CAPEL........



TORRES


With eManUelson / quaresma / silva and a new backup striker thats over 60 million but i can always dream

I would guess that it's either Quaresma or Silva not both.

The news regarding Abidal sounds very promising. We need a big name like him. Another world class addition to the team would be fantastic. Masch, Torres, and hopefully Abidal in a year would be fantastic. I'm not going to get too excited though, because it does seem a bit too good to be true.

As for Barry... I'm not liking the sound of that. If we sign him to play at left-midfield, i'll cry. I'd rather rotate him and Alonso in the middle. Alonso might pull his finger out then as well. I don't know what it is with him. For Real Sociedad and Liverpool in his first 2 seasons, he was stunning. Where's it all gone wrong?! Has injury ruined him for good?

I don't think so. I'm sure he can get it back, and i'd happily give him another season. Not so long ago he was the envy of every team in the league.

one can dream

With Barry i don't think we'll sign him primarily to play on the left, but will exploit his versatility on left-mid/left-back to give us more options. He'll surely be mainly a centre-midfielder... Rafa's done some things in his time here but i doubt he would move a holding midfielder into what is essentially a left-wing/left-sided-striker position. We know he has a love affair with central midfielders and playing 3 of them in the newly adopted system will mean we have only one player to cover, and he being a 21-year-old. The fact that Lucas isn't the most inspiring in the defensive role plus the fact that Alonso himself hasn't been overly inspiring in the past couple of seasons is enough to convince me that Barry is being bought for the position that he has made his reputation in.

As the summer is beginning to unfold, my early thinking is that our squad will look something like this come August/September:

Goalkeeper
- Reina
- Itandje (/Possible replacement if viable; Harper, Taylor?)
- Martin

Right-Back
- Arbeloa
- New Signing (Degen?)

Centre-Back
- Carragher
- Agger
- Skrtel
- Hyypia

Left-Back
- New Signing (Bridge, Abidal?)
- Aurelio

Defensive-Mid
- Mascherano
- Plessis

Centre-Mid
- Alonso
- New Signing (Barry?)

Right-Wing
- Babel
- Kuyt

Attacking-Mid
- Gerrard
- Lucas

Left-Wing
- New Signing (I won't tempt fate with speculating)
- Benayoun

Attack
- Torres
- New Signing (No idea)
- Voronin (Possible replacement)


The winger signed would depend on which side Benitez intends Babel to play on i would expect. If we can make a real top quality signing for the wing i'll be extremely happy, as it's where we're so poor and resultantly struggle against the better sides with better defences.

I'd expect 5 signings to come in, replacing Finnan, Riise, Pennant/Kewell, Crouch whilst adding depth in Barry. Other areas like Itandje will be done if we can bring someone in very cheaply, and obviously if a suitable move is possible, whilst i think Voronin will leave if he wants to. Rafa may keep him just to add a little cover to attack, rather than needing to bring someone else in - Babel and Kuyt would assumedly be above him, after Torres and Crouch's replacement too, so he shouldn't feature much at all you'd hope. I'd prefer we sold him, brough Mancini in for £4m and moved Kuyt to attack but i'm not sure Benitez will have it high on his priority list at all.

Anyway, that's just my thinking right now.

Don't you want Schweinsteiger for your left wing?
I'd pay the flight ticket.

You totally talked me out of it in the other thread.

Well don't get me wrong. He's without a doubt a very talented player, he just doesn't show it anymore.
He has/had a great shooting technique (http://youtube.com/watch?v=uxoIP-FnndU), his dribbling was great, also he used to play some great passes.
He reminds me of Santa Cruz, he really needs a change. Maybe Klinsmann will do him good, maybe he'll even leave after this season.
If you can get him at a low price, you might just take the risk.

Schweinsteiger has been linked with Villa. Although I'd have him at Liverpool if he's as good as he showed in the World Cup... I'm guessing now he's had a dip in form.

With the next Vieira in Sissoko, the next Messi in Bruno, the Argentine-Maradona in Baros and the next Zidane in Cheyrou, along with the next Giggs, we could've had a mighty side!

If Benitez is prepared to pay £3million for a 17-year-old then he must be very, very good - and playing 16 times for Cardiff at his young age would suggest he's a real prospect.

United are rumoured to be bidding £10m though... we couldn't compete with that. On the other hand he is said to be a Liverpool fan. But then so was Walcott wasn't he?...

Liverpool: Crouch wants Reds talks...