crouchaholic

I dont agree Kurt, Skjelbred had a real set back in his development after his injury, but the last two seasons he has steadily improved.

 

This is a player I developed an interest in once he broke onto the scene so I have watched him closely when I have seen him both for Norway and Rosenborg.

 

I despise Rosenborg so I would never recommend Skjelbred if I had the slightest doubt he would succeed.

 

To compare him with Hæstad is ridiculous, Hæstad is a terrible player and they are completely different as well.

 

Skjelbred does not always stand out in games, but you can easily see the potential and he has also shown this potential both in the CL for Rosenborg and in games for Norway.

 

He has got what we call "steg" in Norway, not what word I should use in English to describe it, but you might help me out.

You shouldn't let personal feelings interfere with your recommendation of players.

"His head was turned". That's just so... strange. To me it is, at least. Are these people small children? Are they not able to reflect? It is very mysterious, this thing. I want to learn how to turn heads. Is Paul McKenna involved here?

I also got laughter ( mainly from Milan ) when I said we should go for Hangeland when he was at Copenhagen. The main difference is that Hangeland has taken step by step, improving all the time. Skjelbred has been poor for several seasons, and has stagnated.

 

At 18 he looked a real prospect, but after that horrible injury he has never been able to continue his development, and is nothing more than an average player in the norwegian league that is one of the poorer in Europe also proven by how norewgian teams compete in Europe.

 

Rosenborg eliminated by Quarabag ( the massive Azerbajanian side ) where Skjelbred failed to impress ( again )

Fredrikstad losing 1-6 at home against a polish side.

Vålerenga losing at home against PAOK

 

Skjelbred is simply not good enough. Not even remotely close to beeing good enough, and I would compare his standard to Hæstad who went to Wigan, only to play one match before being ditched back. He is nowhere near the quality of Lucas, a player you like to ridicule. He is nowhere near the level of Cattermole. He would be eaten alive in the premier league.

 

In my opinion.

Hangeland's next natural step is Villa/Everton/Spurs, I would say. I'm not confident he'll cut it at the very top. With us, he'll have to be able to step up against anyone!

I must admit that the Hæstad fiasco sprang to mind during the afternoon, yessir it did. However, Skjelbred MIGHT become a good PL player, but I don't think we should make it our priority at this moment in time to find out.

Hahaha £14M or €14M for Cattermole?

 

If he is worth that, then Alonso is worth £50M at least.

 

We can get Skjelbred for £4M-£5M, Cattermole is not even fit to tie his laces.

Rosenborg are selling Tettey and/or Sapara, they won't part with another one mid season.

Why make up your own opinion as long as you can adopt someone elses, I guess its a bit easier that way.

Read again and you'll find that his opinion is that Cattermole is a good little player who may be good enough for us. It shouldn't be so hard to grasp.

Take Van Der Vaart and Huntelaar

And sell them for lots and lots!(6)

Yakubu, of course. And Horsfield.

Barca v us would be amazing. I'd laugh hard if I ever saw that Perez type's face then.

FF in the summer, 364 pages of largely unadulterated fucking shit.

 

Xabi could shit onto his shirt from the roof of the Kop and there are some that would believe Rafa was using mind control techniques to make him do it. For the rest of us, the situation seems pretty clear - he wants to leave.

 

I couldn't give two fucks why to be honest.

 

If it's the wages, he's hardly on the breadline - if a man is earning £200 a week and has the chance to make it £400 he's obviously going to take it. If he's earning £50,000 a week and has the chance to double it, he has the luxury of making a choice based on something other than financial imperatives; he may well want the extra money but he doesn't need it. I'm sure one of out uber-capitalists will be along shortly to tell me that any man would move in those circumstances and I repeat what I've said before - I wouldn't move for the money alone if I was already on the kind of wedge that Xabi is. No chance.

 

If he's still upset about Rafa trying to sell him last season, he should man the fuck up - you know, just like Rafa should have done when he was supposedly still butthurt because Xabi missed a European game because his baby was due. The argument cuts both ways.

 

If it's because he wants to play for Real, if he's sick of Liverpool, if he's sick of Rafa, whatever, it matters not one jot to me - if he doesn't want to be here for any reason at all, he should go. That goes double if Rafa is the reason because I don't want any player at this club if they aren't willing to accept the manager's authority. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of Rafa, he's the manager and that's that - players either deal with it or fuck off.

 

As for what Xabi's advisers have said about the transfer request, why the fuck should I believe one word they say - if they'd have told Madrid flat out at the start of the transfer window that Xabi wasn't interested in a move anywhere, this sorry thread wouldn't exisit in the first place. Like all agents they will have been playing both sides and angling to get their man a big money move (and a healthy cut for themselves) all summer long - they are agents, that is their entire business. It's what they do. If I'd have told my agent that I wasn't interested in a move and then heard they were still trying to negotiate moves, I'd sack the cunts. The player calls the tune.

 

He's a very gifted player. If he wanted to stay, I'd be happy for him to do so. If he wants to go, he should pack his bags and clear off.

 

Either way, Real Madrid can fuck off for me, I'm fucking sick of their arrogant belief that they can ride roughshod over any other club when attempting to sign their players - if that shortarsed French cuntlip Platini had any balls at all, Real would yet again be looking at sanctions for their blatant pursuit of other clubs players but it will be a cold day in hell before the frizzy-haired twat finds the sack to take them on.

 

I can't wait until the season gets started again, not least because it will be the end of this shite until the transfer window. Summer is more of a pantomime every year, I've had a bellyfull of it.

100%.

Great post. I think Madrid have pretty much what we need except the 4th choice cb who can cover full back and i think Sneijder and Robben would see us tear the league apart especially with Gerrard and Torres fit, we were immense Madrid onwards and with those added i think we would win the title.

Arbeloa!!! Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Been away for a few days and have come back to see Xabi has handed in a request (not sure this is confirmed, but it looks solid enough).

 

IF this is the case then Xabi has done the fair thing by making his wishes known formally. He will forfeit some money but will more than make up for that if he negotiates better terms at Real Madrid.

 

There will probably still be a few twists and turns in this one yet as the key players will all be looking to save face.

 

My humble opinion is that the best way to save face for both sides is in player swaps. That way the value of the players involved can remain fluid so both can sides maintain that they got a good deal.

 

If I look at the market then I'm underwhelmed by the midfield choices that would appear to be out there. Cattermole? Could turn out to be a decent player but surely not yet at the standard we need. Aquilani? Not convinced by the injury record, and there's no telling whether he can make the step up. Any players who we would see as 'sure things' are probably out of reach (Fabregas, Xavi, Essien etc.)

 

So it boils down to this for me: do we take the cash and go to the market and take a chance on the likes of Cattermole (or whoever)?

 

OR

 

Does Real Madrid have any players who would be useful for us should Xabi go there?

 

The best option is surely the latter, and as I have already said, it is the likely face saving option for both sides that will end this saga.

 

Sneijder is a great option to try to secure. He is a better player than any of the midfielders I've seen linked to us. He is more attacking than Xabi (or at least the way Rafa has Xabi playing for us) and I would see that as a good thing (provided Mascher signs a new deal so we have a great player protecting that defence).

 

Besides the midfield replacement we also need a left winger. Robben would be ideal. He is a world class match winner. His injury problems are overstated as he does churn in a reasonable amount of performances each season. Besides, we also have Riera and the flexible Benayoun, so Robben would not have to play every game - but what a difference he could make to our side.

 

If we didn't want to go for Robben (or if they did not want him in any deal) then we also have need of a striker to be back up for Torres. Depending on how Rafa saw N'Gog, he could bring in, say, Nistelrooy for 1-2 years to offer the back up we need while N'Gog (and some of the other young strikers we have) matured a little more. Nistelrooy knows where the net is, and if he could give us 20 games a season he would get 10 useful goals from it. If Rafa wanted a younger back up striker then Negredo or Huntelaar could be perfect.

 

Without getting bogged down in the details, the bottom line for me is that player exchanges represent the best way forward for both parties at this point in time. Both sides save face and get something they need/want. For us, it should be Sneijder plus cash; or Sneijder plus another player (with minimal cash adjustment one way or the other, depending on who the second player is).

 

Let's get this done and move on.

Ignoring the misguided notion that LFC has any face saving to do, I think you have many very good points. :smile:

This thread is now officially sci-fi.

And when I tried to put Essian out there, I was wwidiculed!

It's no good if you don't spell his name exactly right. We'll get a 58 year old baseball player now, thanks to you.:P

Not judging anyone, just giving a heads up to those who are in that position, traveling from liverpool. I went last year, and since it's only a friendly I'm saving my money (most likely, still undecided).. Had it been a competitive match on the other hand...

I really hope to have the winner of the Stabæk-FC Copenhagen CL qualifier in our group.

Follow Akerselva downstream and you will end up at Kurt's favourite Oslo-pub, "Stargate". You will also have passed my workplace by then, so be sure to wave.

You're selling weed down by the river? Cool.

Samulleto'o

Stig Inge Bjørnebye (bjørn = bear)

Those may be the stats, but as the season progressed and we played important games Lucas was often preferred to Xabi.

 

As I said before. There's no comparison between Xabi on last season's form and Lucas, and I would like to think if Xabi goes then we will sign someone else. I was just trying to offer an opinion that was somewhere on the midrange of the spectrum.

I don't quite agree on that... However, I do agree that Lucas was very close to Alonso during that season (both had a mediocre season, in reality, perhaps?), but that there were no contest last year.

Dossman! That's ace. Forget the Bosman, do a Dossman.

Funny how they've managed to sign the least likable and the most likeable Arsenal player in one summer.

Hopefully they'll cancel each other out, and vanish into space.

Well he wasn't getting played that much, and when he was he wasn't playing well. Whereas Lucas had a few very good games (inter springs to mind) and was generally preferred.

 

Rafa played Alonso last season because last season he was a better player. The same logic could be applied as to why Lucas was picked the season before.

Funnily enough, Alonso played more league games and started more games in total than Lucas in 07-08. Alonso's season was not very good, but it was better than Lucas'.

lots of 4-3 games for them next season then

Sexy football!

Surely he wasn't actually talking to The S*n? :whoops:

Of course not, that's another blatant lie.

It's not like Benitez hasn't made it known he'd like Alonso to stay, what else is he supposed to do?

Oh no.. NO! NOOOO!!!!!!

This whole thing is so tedious. So he stays and gives us another year does anyone really expect him to perform as well as he did last season? I don't. I fucking hate Madrid.

I do. If he stays, it's because he wants to, not because he's forced.* On Xabi's character and ability alone, I expect him to perform as well as last season, not to mention the boost of being the boss in our midfield while going after the league title against a Cristiano-less Manc team. The World Cup squad/team issue comes in as an external motivation.

*He and Real have been given two days to sort things out by Rafa, does this not constitute a deadline?

Here are the photos of him at Xabi's wedding

Woohoo! Lil'Luis is coming back!

(I'll get me coat)