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Leave the shit words to me will you? :thumbup: I'm not even sure the eight draws is 100% accurate. It was sent to me in a text the other day by a mate of mine who was arguing with me because I was adamant that we were missing Alonso badly. I was doing that web chat thing and questions were coming at me left, right and centre and I didn't have a chance to check it, which I wish I had have done. It's all madness anyway. I wish he was still here. But then, I wish Kevin Keegan was still here!

Just to clarify, the question that produced that answer was "Are certain people within the media making too much of Xabi Alonso's departure from Liverpool?" The eight draws were mentioned simply because it proves that Liverpool have, in the past, dropped points with Alonso in the team. It wasn't some sort of revisionist attempt to underplay his importance to the team. That would be ridiculous in the extreme, or "feeble" as you might say. There is a discussion to be had about how much Alonso is being missed and it's being conducted on forums like this one. But there is also a knee jerk reaction, typical of some in the media, which means that as soon as Liverpool fail to win Alonso's absence will be the first thing mentioned just out of sheer convenience. Personally, I wish Alonso was still here. I wish he was still providing the balance to the team. And I wish football was so straightforward that the reasons why players leave clubs were transparent rather than clouded in rumour, conjecture, claim and counter-claim. Unfortunately, wishing and looking back will get us nowhere. We will win, lose and draw with the players we have. Alonso was, and still is, a fantastic footballer, and he contributed a hell of a lot to Liverpool but that doesn't mean the fixation with his absence in certain quarters is a diversion from the real reasons when results don't go our way.

You can't even begin to imagine how off-putting the title of this thread is!

The excellent work was all Dougie Do'ins. Absolutely magnificent stuff.

I understand your point totally. Sometimes it's better to let a liar run off at the mouth though. The truth will out.

The previous link to The Times website is to a column written by Matt Dickinson. There is another story on the website which states where the interview came from, you can see that at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6862370.ece I wouldn't have used it unless Mr Do'ins was credited for his magnificent work.

Haven't posted on here for ages but wanted to back up Goldmember's version of events. Alonso, Reina and Riera were on the late easyjet flight back from Barca and Goldmember did have a conversation with Alonso. The only confusion stems from the fact that the stuff in today's Echo has been subbed badly - if totally innocently - so that there official team flight back yesterday lunchtime has been muddled in with the Spanish players flight that arrived back on Merseyside in the early hours of today.

He went to Bolton with Sammy Lee. Obviously that didn't last long and when Lee was sacked his people went with him. He then given a job at Watford by Adrian Boothroyd but when he was sacked and a new man was brought in it was obvious that McParland would go as well. It's hardly a record of failure. He didn't have enough time to fail at either of these clubs.

It's not a question of not believing the club website, more one of reading the wrong thing into what it says. It says Silva will not be signing and is not a target. It doesn't say he never was.

Na, trust me, he'd be shite. Just like his parents.

It's been changed now Mr Richards. Well spotted.

It's defo six points. Never be surprised at mistakes in his copy;)

If you live in the Wirral you'll be seeing all the North West editions. They lead on Liverpool and not Chelsea cos more people in this area are likely to be interested in Liverpool.

No drinking while you type from now on;)

Your entire argument is compromised by the fact that you call Liverpool's greatest ever manager "Shankey" and you can't even use the typo exuse cos the letter l is nowhere near the letter e on the keyboard.

It's not so much what is said, it's who is saying it and how it's said. I think we all have concerns about Rafa's priorities (especially after he rested Gerrard and Torres for an important Premiership game so they will be fresh for tonight's Champions League game). But Allardyce is breaking the managerial code by having a pop at a fellow manager. And the points he makes are washed away in the wave of bitterness, vitriol and bile he has hit us with. And anyway, the man is a cunt.

What a cunt that man is. http://www.tonybarrett.merseyblogs.co.uk/2007/09/big_sams_big_fat_head.html

We haven't played for two weeks but the manager has only had the players since last night and the team travelled to Portsmouth today. That's virtually nil preparation time.

You are kidding aren't you? Taking one game at a time isn't just a catchy slogan you know. The manager wants to be able to work with his players in the days leading up to the match, is that to much to ask. Do you really think it'd make any sense to work on set plays and tactics for a game two weeks in advance, then wave them off to go away with their national team for ten days, wait and see which ones come back fit and then say "Come on lads, those things that we were working on on September 3, would you mind running through them again"?!!!

He got in touch with the Prmeir League last season and had no joy. This season's even worse so it was inevitable (and entirely justifiable) that he'd have a pop at them in public.

It's not about making excuses tho. It's about demanding the level playing field which we are being denied.

It's bollocks Brownie. Take this weekend. Rafa won't even have seen most of his players until last night and then today they'll have to travel to Portsmouth (as big a journey as we can do) for a game which kicks off at lunchtime tomorrow. Preparation goes straight out the window. If this happens once and everyone else is suffering similarly then fair enough. But England have four midweek internationals before Christmas and after each one Liverpool have an early kick off away from home. No other team is is anything like a similar position. And as for your argument about TV money, there is some truth in this. The club does benefit financially from being on the box and I'm sure Rick Parry is aware of this. But would we not benefit more from being champions? I'm not saying that if we kicked off at 3 every week we'd definitely win the league but sport at the top level is often decided by the most minute details and the way the fixtures are going this season we are undoubtedly at a disadvantage.

Quote: "losing loved ones at Hillsborough doesn't give you a free pass to spout bullshit." Could you not have phrased that with a touch more sensitivity? Close your eyes and picture Kelvin MacKenzie saying them. It sounds exactly like something that cunt would say.

I've got to admit what he says about the News of the World and the Sun being separate has been nagging away at me for days. In 1989 both were funded by the same paymaster (Murdoch) but had totally distinct and separate editorial teams and staff. When MacKenzie went against the thoughts of some of his senior staff at the Sun, no-one at the NOTW did the same. They both covered the Hillsborough tragedy in different ways with the NOTW being a great deal more sympathetic than say the Star. So, as a newspaper the NOTW was guilty of nothing in 89, save being the sister of a shithouse rag. It was not burned on the streets of Liverpool like the Sun and since those days it has continued to sell very well on Merseyside. Maybe it's because I work in the industry and I'm aware of what some people might describe as "trade secrets" but I have always seen the two papers as being distinct from one another, apart from the fact that they come under the same commercial umbrella. I've seen at first hand the rivalry that exists between reporters from the Sun and the NOTW. Honestly, they are like sworn enemies and there have even been accusations of each bugging the other's newsrooms. The commercial link is inescapable though. The two publications do cross promote. But does not Sky also promote the Sun? And, despite rumours to the contrary, the two papers do not share staff. If someone leaves one paper to go to the other they are automatically frowned upon by the coleagues they've left behind. So it's my opinion, nothing more and nothing less, that the two are different and should be treated as such. For those of you who refuse to touch any Murdoch products then obviously your feelings towards the NOTW are not going to change and neither should they. But for those of you who believe the Sun and the NOTW are the same maybe you should think again. The NOTW will never be my newspaper of choice but I think it is important that we don't let it's relationship with a certain rag to distract us from the real reasons for the boycott - the lies told by the Sun in April 1989. My boycott continues in the way it has always been conducted. It is up to others to decide how they conduct theirs. Sorry to go on but it just occurs to me that if I was held responsible for something that was published by the Daily Post (which is a genuine sister paper, sharing far more than the same owner) I'd go nuts. Each newspaper stands and falls by the decisions made by its own editor. Kelvin MacKenzie wasn't the editor of the NOTW in 89, he was the editor of the Sun. God knows who was editor of the NOTW and none of us can name him simply because he didn't commit the same crimes as MacKenzie did. That makes them different (again, in my eyes).

Miss Fay at SFX......a hero to thousands of teenage boys:thumbup: