Royal Family

Well, it's lazy journalism to suggest he would look at Silva as a replacement for Alonso. I'm rather cynical about this as I feel it's a story planted by "friends" of Rafa to indicate a/ his unhappiness with his transfer budget (note the spin on it is about the owners) and b/to justify to the fans why we'll ultimately be more likely to see Milner or Downing at Anfield than Silva (i.e. once again Rafa using the "having to settle" argument.). It does smack rather of Everton-style summer stories to placate the fans. As i say, I'm cynical because I really don't think Silva is a Rafa-type player - noone can dispute that he is suspicious of flair players who don't fit neatly into a system. And also he doesn't need to buy someone like Milner- he's better off saving the cash, even if we can't afford the likes of Silva.

This has to be one of the most depressing links I can remember in all my time as a fan. And £9m!!?? Who SCOUTS these players?! If Milner was coming in on a Bosman, then maybe i can see a justification, but I'm afraid this fee is just risible. He's certainly a unique player - he looked good at 16 and actually looks WORSE with each passing year. If this truly happens - and the absence of a denial from either club suggests that it may - then our manager will simply have taken leave of his senses. And Rafa can no more appear in the press as saying he needs more money or we can't compete financially and have to be "cleverer" in the market. I'm sorry to be so negative, but James Milner at £9m (almost half our alleged transfer budget) is, if not quite a sackable offence in itself, then certainly a final warning!

I've had to vote 'neither' because I don't think there's a fair correlation: Barry will be c18m, Milner upwards of £7m, so you'd have to be talking about a £25m bid for Villa. That aside, the problem is that I don't see how buying Villa alone is going to improve SUPPLY to the strikers which is problem No 1 and has been for a number of years. Thus if we're talking about £25m on ONE player, I'd spend it on a creative midfielder. But my feeling is Rafa would rather buy three £7-8m players to give him "options": quantity over quality so that he can rotate in the first part of a season (by when of course history suggests we'll be out of the title race!). And I don't want James Milner, the working definition of mediocre, anywhere near a Liverpool shirt... :blah

But that's the point: we don't have cash to throw around and wasting £7m on Milner is absurb (12 months ago the noxious O'Neill almost signed him for about £3m) and this smacks of desperately poor judgement: again pursuing quantity over quality, or looking for multiple 'options'. What can he give us that Pennant and Benayoun don't? £7m is not cheap. What also annoys me about this is that we refused to bid up to £5m for Ramsay, a player with developmental potential but we are willing to waste more on Milner (who will also demand far higher wages): this is a player who has had 6 years in the Premiership and never looked anything other than a mediocre or at best "decent" player. The fact that Newcastle fans - as thick as most of them are:whistle: - seem utterly indifferent to his departure ought to at least set off the warning alarm. Spend that £7m elsewhere, rafa, or you lose all right to start whining about the lack of financial support. Remember that we might have been able to afford Daniel Alves the summer we spent £14m on signing Pennant and Bellamy - neither of whom will be with us by the start of the season. I'd rather £7m went towards Arshavin (reputedly available for £10m) or even Bentley and Downing rather than a player as mediocre as Milner. Or even keep it in the bank for the future. It's just a complete waste of money at a time when resources are incredibly finite.

Dirk - we've issued denials on occasion in the past when speculation continues. Even if through the friendly pages of the Echo, as we did with Bentley recently. Instead the Echo implied that we're after him, but that Newcastle won't take Jermaine. Mind-blowing.

It just makes no sense at all. If this is true - and where is the denial if it is not - then why would Rafa waste maybe *one third* of his transfer budget on this player who will bring nothing to the club? Surely Bellamy and Pennant show that there are reasons why certain players are in mediocre, mid-table sides: and why is Rafa not LEARNING from these past errors? Milner did look promising at 16, and has somehow managed to look less accomplished and talented with each passing year. Plus he'll be on big wages and will block the progression of talented youngsters - what, in all honesty, can he offer that Anderson can't? Baffling. Someone said that he can play either left or right side: indeed, he's equally inept on either side.... Rafa just cannot afford to waste money like this when he has a limited budget. I know people are debating Barry, or Downing, but - seriously - is there anyone who thinks Milner is good enough to walk into our first-team? If he's not, then we simply should not be buying him.

The Juve fan sites I have looked at are really not happy about the possibility of signing Alonso - the consensus seems to be that he is badly overpriced and rather one-dimensional. Interesting.

Most overrated player in Europe? A little off-topic, i appreciate, but I must have seen him in perhaps the best part of two dozen games over 3 or 4 years - maybe more- and I've never seen a player with all the technical skills yet so little end product or team ethic. Must be so frustrating to work with. How do players like this get such a reputation? Or am I being unduly harsh?

But by your logic we'd still have Robbie up front along with Eric Meijer, Jason McAteer at wingback and Danny Murphy in the middle. We can't pick a team on sentiment. Xabi has been good for the club, and he's a decent, intelligent guy. But i don't care if he wants to stay or not - it's about what the club and the manager want. I agree with Rafa on this - he's been ineffective for 2 or more seasons, and here's chance to recoup MORE than we paid for him. How many times can we honestly say that about a Liverpool player? Why can't we just thank him for his service and wish him well?

I'm sorry but why disgraceful? Rafa is making a decision for the good of the team and there's absolutely no space for sentiment in modern football. Xabi hasn't performed for us since the start of the 2005/2006 season. £14m is excellent business in the circumstances for a player who is, with or without Barry, surplus to requirements. I'll wish him well, and think he's a gentleman, but it's hardly disgraceful (especially when he's going to be paid off and get £3.5m per annum!). Perspective please.

I'm just waiting for the Paul Tomkins article on how Milner completed more stepovers - or tripped over his laces more times - than anyone else in the Premiership last season. I'm still chuckling over his attempt to justify the purchase of Pennant in 2006 through those stats showing he made 298 crosses in the course of a season (without explaining that a mere 2 found their target!) But Jermaine is better than Milner. No question. Finally, I don't think Rafa can ever again bleat about lack of money if he is wasting as much as £7m (plus wages and signing-on fees) on a player like James Milner. It smacks of the dying embers of the Houllier reign with desperate purchases of mediocrity whom we then couldn't shift. Unless it's a machiavellian and calculated ploy to run the club further into debt, precipitating Hicks's departure and the arrival of DIC?

Talk about childish hysterics on here. Rafa will ultimately be accountable for his decisions, but until then can we get behind him and get behind the club? Villa don't have to sell him and we have to pay top dollar to prise him away - and if we refused to do that, the exact same faces would be on here hysterically posting that we're bankrupt, smalltime, and have no ambition, etc.

Really hate to say it but, seeing that this Milner link just won't go away, I have to concur that it would be a total waste of money. Is there actually ANY point in wasting money - money we don't have and will simply go onto our debts - on someone we KNOW isn't good enough for a team with title ambitions? I felt the same when we signed Pennant (and Bellamy, and indeed when GH tried to sign Lee Bloody Bowyer(!)) - that it was a waste of money. And, to be fair, Pennant's actually been better for us than I thought we would be, even though he is not and never will be a top-drawer player. To top it all, Milner isn't even an improvement on Pennant. If we buy Milner, we'll be selling him for half that price in 2 seasons. Add the wages in, the big signing-on and departure fees, and you're talking about a large amount of money. And for what? Of course, with any signing from abroad, you never know whether they will settle, regardless of fee, but i do think that anyone who follows the Premiership will know that a player like Milner will not improve us. I cannot see any justification for a move. I can see what Downing would bring to the team, even though i don't overly rate him because of his inconsistency. But Milner? Just mediocrity.

To be fair, Rick Parry hates him with a vengeance and that's why he has never even featured on a Liverpool shortlist. Not often that our Rick gets things or decisions right...:yes:

Comes down to a basic human hypocrisy though, doesn't it? O'Neill insists that Barry has to see out his contract and will make life as difficult as possible for him. Yet, I don't remember O'Neill having the same regard for the sanctity of the contract when he walked out on Wycombe, and then - midseason - on Leicester City. Mark Hughes is the same - insisting David Bentley won't be sold and can, as he put it, "rot in the reserves" yet his agent is vocally encouraging Chelsea's interest in him and he would dump Blackburn in a heartbeat if offered that job or the United one.. So why do these managers not allow players to share their own ambition of bettering themselves? Both Barry and Bentley have given good service to their current clubs. By all means, dig in your heels, but O'Neill has escalated this to the extent that Barry will be seen as a huge, er, villain, and the atmosphere between our two clubs - which was pretty cordial historically - is now utterly poisonous.

There's a bit too much wailing and gnashing of teeth - and, worse, childish petulance - in replies on this topic for my liking. I feel that if we get good money for Xabi, it's an excellent deal for all concerned, just as with Sissoko. I can't think of a single performance by Xabi in the last two years that stands out - when i think of his great games (Arsenal, Everton, Norwich, Luton), they're all rather distant memories. I then think of his rather poor performances in big games like the West Ham cup final or the Milan final of 2007 (remember his clumsiness in facilitating the first goal?) or at Old Trafford this year, and it's clear that - at best - he's been inconsistent and I just don't think he's developed into the player we thought he was going to be, for whatever reason. I just don't think he's mentally or physically tough enough or has enough desire to really impose himself on games. I'm afraid we need more than that from him, and sentiment just cannot come into it. Where are the bids from the big Spanish teams now that Juve are progressing with theirs? Ask yourselves why they are seemingly not interested? And who knows what his role was behind the scenes this year - certainly too many of his performances have smacked of dissatisfaction and disinterest. I'll wish him well, but my liking for him as a decent and intelligent man can't disguise the fact that i just don't feel he is, or has been, what we need to progress. I also feel that if he stays, we'll be selling him next summer for far less - remember Sissoko again - we could easily have got £12m for him just one year before he moved for far less. It doesn't make us a selling club - United and Arsenal have always sold players for good money, often seemingly at their peak. Henry? Stam? VanNistelrooy? Petit, Overmars, Viera? Believe it or not, we're a long way off United and Chelsea over the course of a whole season, and things absolutely need to change. This is one area where the manager seems to have determined on a different approach: it may or may not work, but we do need to change things. It does amuse me that people on here demand fresh faces and then complain when Rafa seeks to move on a member of the existing squad when this existing squad is simply NOT good enough and has fallen consistently short! The manager will stand - or ultimately fall - by decisions like this, and if it doesn't work out, Rafa will pay the price. Until then, he's earned the right for us to support and trust him. First post, so be gentle - long-time lurker!