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This is taken from today's Mirror. Mirror_Rafa's plans in tatters Liverpool's transfer plans in tatters after Alonso deal collapses By David Anderson 16/07/2008 Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez Rafa Benitez must feel like jumping off the imposing Jungfrau mountain which towers over Liverpool's training camp at picturesque Interlaken. After months spent working out his summer transfer strategy to the last detail, the Reds boss woke this morning to find more holes in his plans than a piece of Swiss cheese. Juventus' decision to pull out of a £14million move for Xabi Alonso has wrecked his strategy, leaving it teetering on the brink of collapse. Because of the financial pressures at Anfield, Benitez has known all summer that who he could buy depended on who he could sell. And Alonso's switch to Turin was supposed to fund Gareth Barry's signing from Aston Villa. But Juve boss Claudio Ranieri's announcement yesterday that he had ended his interest in Alonso leaves Benitez seriously short of readies. He could do with finding a friendly Swiss banker in Interlaken because all he has rattling round in his piggy bank is £8m. And with Martin O'Neill adamant that Barry will not be leaving Villa Park for less than £18m, that leaves him £10m short in his attempts to land his No.1 summer transfer target. Liverpool have tried to get round their cash flow problems, but their offer to pay for Barry in three £5m instalments, plus a further £2m in add-ons, has been rejected out of hand by Villa. The Anfield boss has also been forced to sell Scott Carson for a knockdown £4m because Villa refused to take up the option to buy the England goalkeeper for £8m. Benitez did manage to squeeze £11m out of Portsmouth for Englland striker Peter Crouch and has generated another £6.5m by offloading John Arne Riise and Danny Guthrie. However most of this has been swallowed up by the £10.5m combined signings of Diego Cavalieri and Andrea Dossena. Benitez has been honest about the club's situation, saying: "We know the situation regarding what we can spend and we are trying to find solutions if we do not have enough money. "We are still trying to sign players who will make us better, but if you do not have too much money - and that is clear - we will have to have a little bit of imagination to progress in the market. "We know we will have to sell some players if we want some cash so we have to do that." Benitez is becoming increasingly frustrated by Barry's transfer saga, which is threatening to run for longer than the Mousetrap. He had hoped to have the England star on board for his Swiss training camp, but can only look on helplessly as the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months. The cash shortage has already forced Benitez to abandon plans to raid his old club Valencia for Spanish stars David Villa and David Silva because of a lack of funds. And his lack of financial muscle in the transfer market was painfully reinforced when he was priced out of moves for Newcastle's James Milner and Espanyol's Albert Riera. He might also have to give up hope of signing Robbie Keane - the second name on his list of targets - unless he can generate some cash fast. Tottenham dismissed Liverpool's first offer for Keane of Crouch and £5million and now the Reds don't even have the England striker to offer as part exchange. Spurs would sell for £18m, but this is way beyond what Benitez can scrape together. His big hope is that he can find a buyer for Alonso and Atletico Madrid have shown interest in the past, although the Spanish midfielder would prefer a move to either rivals Real Madrid or Barcelona. And claims in Spain that Alonso has attracted the attention of Arsenal have been flatly denied by the clubs and the player's agent. Benitez admits: "We have a fantastic group of young players and in the future they will save us money. "At the moment, we still have to buy big names and the only way to do that is to sell players. Everybody knows what our ideas are and what players we want. We are working hard with different names now. "The fans trust us. We are working hard this summer and we have a lot of different people in different countries working for us." All this angst for Benitez is in contrast to last summer when he was finally able to spend it like Chelsea as he splashed out over £42million on Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun. The problem now is that Liverpool's move across Anfield Road to their new home on Stanley Park has put a serious drain on their resources. The costs have spiralled since the plans were first unveiled and the latest figure prices the stadium at £400m. All this is bad news for Benitez and while Sir Alex Ferguson and Luiz Felipe Scolari have almost unlimited transfer funds at their disposal, he is left trailing in their wake even before a ball is kicked this season.

Great article that I can't disagree with; I wish most of em would just eff off with their turgid unimaginative drivel. Does the world need another indie band? - Features, Music - The Independent

... that perhaps Rafa's targets this summer in England are a show of Sammy Lee's influence in Rafa's quest to bring us a premiership trophy. Anyone else think that might be a possibility?

Just went out for lunch and on my travels I saw a little lad thumping his mum on the back, repeatidly. He was about 9 years old. She then moved away from him and said "Leave me alone I don't want to be near you". He replied "come here mum". You couldn't make this up... As she moved away he went for her again and started punching at her chest. He was a right butch little Geordie who looked fucking evil for a child. I think we should have child prisons, I seriously do.