That I agree with.

Let's hope this doesn't turn into another Heinze saga...

Aston Villa: Barry undervalued, says O'Neill



I now think its going to be a bit complicated for Barry's move the Anfield...

Benitez: Crouch will cost £15million



So where is Crouch going to??? Do you guys know any clubs other than Portsmouth linked with him and will they pay the Money that Benitez wants???

Can't see anyone actually paying that. Probably just propganda to raise the price of him to say £10m

I think Rafa would accept 8 million maybe a bit less for him. Hes only saying high so he can get as much as he can for Crouch.

That he is. Although he probably feels £15m is fair after the likes of Bent, but with his contract down to its final year he'll know if he gets half of two-thirds of that then we're getting a very good deal and should take it.

It's a shame Sven's leaving Man City as that could have prompted him to move to Manchester, hence a bigger fee would've probably been involved. Portsmouth aren't exactly the big-spenders of some of the teams around them. There's always Newcastle mind.

£8m-£10m is a good deal for us. But yes Benitez will want as much as is possible. He won't refuse to sell this summer else Crouch would depart next year on a free, which would be a further financial disaster at the club.

In other news, Benitez has confirmed that Harry Kewell will leave at the end of the season. Apparently we tried to do a deal wherein he would have to settle for lower wages... obviously Kewell, fearful of whether he could survive on what could be half the income, was forced to decline.

Can't say i'm not glad! Although he is when fit an excellent player, and showed it on a fair few occassions where he managed to stumble onto the pitch (normally Champions League finals...), but simply was a disaster when it came to avoiding injury as we all know. There's no place for that at Liverpool to be honest - i know it ain't his fault but it's just a huge disadvantage having someone like that.

Hopefully we can replace him with someone able to stay fit, or - better still - replace Kewell and Pennant with one really top class winger.

That was almost a year ago though, it runs until 2011, but contracts can always be bought out....

Some intersting stories there Ben, especially about Joaquin and Aguero. Joaquin would be a much more realistic target the Aguero though, we've already taken Atletico's star player once, i doubt they'd let us do it again.

Yeh the Aguero one was more someone just clutching at straws i think, clinging onto the fact he mentioned Liverpool. Perhaps in the future if he were to come to England it could be on, but there's no chance of him moving this summer i don't think.

Joaquin is more realistic as you say. If we were going to spend £15m on a winger though i'd prefer it to be David Silva... if we're to spend quite a lot on a player then i always prefer them to be young, like Masche and Torres were.

I'd be happy with any quality winger added to the squad though. We need to make that happen in the summer.


On another note, the "he's not English but speaks good English" Bosman signing - Maik Taylor? He's Northern Irish, so fits the bill, and we've been linked with him to replace Itandje. Seems appropriate. Would be good too, 'cause i'm not sure an out-field player on a free is wise after Voronin (i know there are exceptions, like Flamini, but most aren't inspiring).

I have no objection to signing outfield players on a free. Chelsea's most inspirational player of late was signed on a free - Michael Ballack.

As for Joaquin, obviously he would be a good signing, he would improve our wing massively, but i would prefer Silva. Imagine if we signed both! It would be like the Spanish armada in attack, with Torres, Silva and Joaquin.

I doubt Crouch will stick around at Liverpool...I personally think Benetiz has made a big mistake on keeping him on the bench for the majority of the season...

As for Schweinsteiger, we talking about my dreams coming true...he's a fantastic player and I'd love to see him at Liverpool with the #7.

Oh, and mildly encouraging team news:



AGGER HAS RETURNED TO TRAINING!

Yes! Great news that Agger is back!

Any more clues as to who the 'signed first teamer who can speak English but isn't English' is?

That's like narrowing it down to roughly 5000 candidates

oh my god!!!! i've been waiting for this for too long!!!!

I've been thinking about the Crouch situation, and how his contract is up in a year hence we'll only get a fraction of his real valuation. He should stay - unless we get full whack for him.

What's the point in letting him go if we're only going to receive £8million (or even less)? We'd probably have to spend more than that to find someone who could cover Torres and lead the attack in his absence, hence stretching our budget this year when it could obviously be spent in other areas.

Then, if we did settle for under-spending in order to replace Crouch, you end up with what has happened time and time again, where we buy players who just aren't quite good enough and have to sell them on again in a year or so's time.

If Crouch stays our strikers are adequate. Then we can prioritise our long-running problems on the wings and full-backs, spending the budget mostly on that.

Next season when Crouch leaves, we'll ideally have solved a couple of positions in the first team and have less need to spend, hence we can afford to buy a much better replacement for Crouch and one that will serve us well for a much longer period.

Perhaps this is what Benitez is thinking when he slapped a £15m price-tag on him... he'll know if someone offers there or there abouts we'll have funds to replace him without settling for second best, but if they don't we can keep him and deal with it next year when we have another budget.

I know losing money isn't good, but if we sold him and tried to replace in the same window, we'll be settling for second best and end up losing money in the long-run when we realise they're not good enough anyway.

Just a thought.

What do you lot think of the Inter bid? I never thought in a million years Gerrard would go to Chelsea a few seasons back, but it came very close. And after another tropyless season do you think this move could tempt him?