Cherry Ghost

No back up striker cost us so dear last year once Torres disappeared, crass decision. Only slightly better this year in that we have the odd midfielder that can score (Jovanovic, Cole, possibly Shelvey, Poulsen and Merelies only slightly more than Mascherano and Lucas) Pacheco now looks like an option, Ngog has proved it is possible that he can score other than three yards out and Hodgson has suggested that Babel might be played where he wants. Last year looked barren, this year just weak. A lot will depend on whether Hodgson can instill some belief into those younger players who he has inherited.

The only saving grace in this is if Babel is as good a central striker as he thinks (or in his case twitters) he is. Oh sorry, a saving grace is something that is possible. Unless uncle Roy can put a rocket up his arse in a way that no-one else has done we are no better than last year when the lack of a decent back up striker cost us dearly.

The blame needs to lie totally with the tumours, we are behaving like a cheapskate club because of them. They've made a net profit again but what they haven't realised is the real price of the club fell again today but probably not their valuation, partly because the prospects of CL look faint but also because the assets of the club (the players) has diminished once again. Just why would you buy it at the price they are asking, it would be cheaper to buy Newcastle and invest £300m in players.

How the hell do you get to be 1/6th basque. Now my maths is not brilliant but it's either 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 or something similiar (3/8). (Not that it makes much difference)

Just for memories sake Rafa's first 6 games in charge of LFC 3 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats, we did beat City 2-1 at home but they'd finished 16th the season before, we drew with Spurs who'd also been down there with City, we lost to Bolton, lost at home to Sturm Graz and scraped through into the CL by 1 goal. In the next 5 games we lost another 3 times. We'd finished 4th we and qualified for CL, we went on to finish 5th which would normally have meant UEFA cup, we lost to Burnley (remember Traore) in the FAC 3rd round. Bu, of course we went on to have the greatest set of games in the CL in our history. And we weren't downsizing the squad at the time either, Alonso, Garcia, Carson and Josemi had just been added to Houlliers squad with Morientes to come and Gerrard, Carragher, Hypia, Hamman, Riise, Kewell, Dudek, Finnan and Henchoz still there. Admittedly Owen had decided to seek glory (ha!) elsewhere and Rafa decreed Danny Murphy and Emile Heskey as of no further value. Let's give the man the time that we gave Rafa and supplemented with that fantastic CL win.

How about this for a scenario, you are two desperate greedy bastards who will stop at nothing to make a profit. Your meal ticket deal has gone sour and the people who lent you the money to buy it want it sold. You've had one bidder in the frame, they've withdrawn. What do you do when faced with 6 weeks before you have to give it up. I would, 1. Try desperately to borrow some more money 2. I'd hire some credible agent to give the impression that other bids were on the table so forcing people who were interested out of the shadows 3. I'd also Yank up the PR machine to discredit the withdrawn bidder as much as possible so that any new bids were looked on favourably by the other parties involved after seemingly rebuffing what had looked like an £800m injection including sale I've no evidence to suggest any of this is going on except suspicion and doubt for 2) above, which agent comes out and announces they 'may' make a bid between £400-£500m before actually making it, sort of gives the game away doesn't it What I am saying is do not believe anyone at this stage, there is a lot of money at stake and backhanders abound (on LFCs expense account) Gillett is one slimy lizard, don't trust anything you hear