IN RAFA WE STILL TRUST

Liverpool fans were brought back to earth by Man Utd`s victory at Anfield, but many fans, myself included were expecting too much too early from a team still being rebuilt after nearly two decades of neglect.
Much has been said recently about Rafa Benitez`s future at Liverpool, but let me lay my cards on the table now, i believe if we let the canny Spaniard leave Anfield for any reason it will set us back another two decades in our hunt for that ever elusive Premiership title.
I have not agreed with a lot of his decisions, i believe he over-rotates our players ,and as good as Dirk Kuyt is and we always hear how hard working he is, most of his hard work is defensive although we have the most formidable central midfield in not just England but in Europe so why does one of our strikers spend so much time and energy following players all the way to our penalty box and then leaving Torres all alone up front when the break does come, please have a little more faith in our defence. Torres works hard and defends from the front but he knows that his main job is to score goals and anything else is just a bonus for the team but defending from the front seems to be Kuyt`s main occupation, Crouch has his problems but he realises that his first priority is goals and he really should be playing more.Rafa does need to be more adventurous because our defence is good and we will score more goals than we concede.
Some of Rafa`s signings have been questionable, but he has always showed his ruthless side and quickly got rid of his mistake signatures at the first opportunity.
But what Rafa does give us is a clear plan. He has swelled the youth ranks from the finest that could be found from all over Europe and beyond, building up the most enviable list of young talent that can be found in England, which also signals that, given his choice he is in this for the long haul.

Despite the recent loss to the fiercest enemy of all Man Utd, Liverpool under Benitez are heading in the right direction and are improving all the time under his stewardship and will only get better and better when the new players signed in the summer get more settled. Football changed the day Roman injected his Rubles into the game, now there are no quick fixes to winning the Premiership, Liverpool are basically outgunned by the financial muscle of Chelsea and Man Utd so we have to follow Arsenals`s blueprint for success in buying young players and letting them come through the ranks and then spending our money on top quality to get a blend of players that makes us true competitors once again.
For a team to win the Prem for a consistent period of time a winning mentality is built up in that squad and as players get older that mentality is passed on to the younger players so at the beginning of the season they actually believe that they will win the league and only by some mishap they wont. Man utd have that mentality, Liverpool were their fore bearers, but when Graham Souness sold the spine of the Liverpool team, he also sold that winning mentality and we have never been able to recover it.

Given time Rafa will accomplish that `WE WILL WIN´thinking into the Liverpool camp but he needs time, he is at an disadvantage because of the other clubs financial clout, but he has not held up his hands and said that its too much of an uphill battle, instead he has staked his reputation on transforming every level at the club, starting with the youth to provide a decent chance of producing our own gems and maybe just maybe by buying a few of the best and mixing them with our own prospects we may just get that winning mentality back again, and once again bring the league back home but it will not be easy and patience is needed, but without patience we may just lose the one man that can go against all the odds and money that the other clubs have and lose the chance to once again put Liverpool Football Club at the pinnacle of English football.

EVERTON 1 LIVERPOOL 2

The Merseyside Derby has as normal with a little help from man in black created enough controversy, to keep the banter going between the red and blue of the city until their next meeting and ensures that the fierce rivalry between these two old clubs will continue.

As always with football and even more so in tight derby battles luck has a part to play and both teams had the good and bad type today. Liverpool probably deserved to get the result as they created more chances and were handed a bombshell of bad luck when the usually so reliable Sami Hyypia skewed the ball into his own net, but Everton will feel let down by some very dubious decisions by the referee, Mark Clattenburg.
When Hibbert was sent off for fouling Gerrard for the first penalty it was clear that the referee was about to show the yellow card, even though i believe it deserved to be a red it was not good to see that a quick word from Gerrard could change the ref`s mind so easily and award a red, it had too much resemblance of the old days when it was a weekly event to see Roy Keane and his snarling Manchester United teammates bullying referee`s into submitting to their demands.
The Kuyt tackle could easily have been a red card and the Carragher pull down on Lescott in the dying moments would normally have resulted in a penalty. Everton fans will complain about the injustice like Liverpool did after the Chelsea debacle earlier in the season and both claims are valid but as everyone know`s luck has a major part to play in all sport and especially in the world of football, that lags behind the rest of sport by not introducing video technology that would solve nearly all of the injustices that happen every week in all the top leagues in Europe, so maybe we should not be blaming the refs, but instead ask why the overpaid people that run football do not actually do their jobs and bring technology into top flight football.

Benitez took one of the gambles of his Liverpool career by taking off Gerrard with 20 minutes to go, it paid off when Lucas took the decisive shot that Phil Neville saved with an outstretched arm with reactions that any goalkeeper in the world would be happy with, but if Liverpool had not won yesterdays game serious questions would once again be asked of Benitez`s team selection and substitutions. Yesterday Benitez started with Sissoko and Masherano in the middle and Gerrard on the wing and it was only when Gerrard in the second half started to play a more central role did he look anywhere near his best, and he actually for the first time in a long time was starting to have a major influence on the game even though his final ball and finishing were still miles away from what Liverpool fans have come to expect from their talisman.

The gamble paid off and maybe just maybe it may have the desired effect on Gerrard and as he said himself in his autobiography, he hates being taken off during a game and see`s it as a personal attack on himself, and this being the Merseyside Derby the feeling will have been ten-fold. Maybe this may shake him out of his current bad form because nothing else seems to be working, and despite all Liverpools big money big name signings, Liverpool still need an in-form Steven Gerrard to truly compete for that ever elusive Premiership crown.
Fair play to Benitez after the game he could easily have said that he took Gerrard off to rest him for the midweek game, but his honest answer was directed as much at Gerrard as it was to the media, he said "In this game, sometimes you need to play with the brain and we were playing with heart. We needed to keep the ball and pass the ball." which he was in no doubt referring to Gerrard, and now we must just wait and see how the Liverpool captain reacts to this new pressure from his manager.

As for the Liverpool display as a whole it is still nowhere near the standards that are needed to bring the title back to Merseyside, but as in all Derbies, it is not a normal game and it is hard to judge a teams form on a derby performance because both sides are fired up, but the important thing for Liverpool is that they take this confidence from the win, build on it and pray that their captain is returning to form and that their manager has realised that there is such a thing as over-rotation and Liverpool should be playing their best team and let the weaker teams adjust to Liverpool`s style of play instead of vice-versa and then maybe just maybe we will start to see the best of this exciting bunch of players that Benitez has assembled.

BENITEZ GAMBLE DOES NOT PAY OFF

If what Rafa Benitez says is true and the Premiership is the main focus this year for Liverpool Fc, then the team he sent out to face Portsmouth on Saturday was very poor judgement by the Liverpool boss.

This was the first real test of Benitez`s resolution of where his priority`s really lie, the league or the Champions league, and he seems to have been willing to risk the Premiership points in order to have a fresh team for the Champions league game against Porto.
I understand that in nowadays game, due to the amount of games the top teams will play in a season, rotation is a must to save players from burnout later in the season, but Benitez went totally over the top in last Saturdays game at Fratton Park. Too many first choice players were not started, Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt, Fernando Torres and John Arne Riise are probably at the moment first choice starters in midfield and attack and having four of your six normal starters in midfield and attack being rested at the same time is just to big of a change in the team and weaken`s the team too much, and especially if you think about the opposition, Harry Redknapp`s team`s are always well organised and this Portsmouth team is one of his best, and i believe Benitez did not recognise what a threat Portsmouth actually are and thought that sending out a second string team would be enough to see them off. How very wrong he was, believe me Liverpool were incredibly lucky to leave Fratton park with a point. Pepe Reina saved a penalty and how Portsmouth missed two gaping goal chances must have given Harry Redknapp nightmares.

I hope Rafa has learned something from this, that with the new influx of huge tv money all established Premiership teams have strenghtened and now there are very few easy games in the Premiership , and as good as the Liverpool squad is now, Liverpool will lose a lot of points this season if we see more of this overkill on rotation.

All Liverpool fans agree that the Premiership has to be the priority this season and i believe if Gerrard and Torres had started this game then we would still be on the top of the table right now as when they came on we suddenly became the best team on the pitch, but instead we have been overtaken by Arsenal, and are on the same points as Manchester United and Chelsea.
I know most of you will say not to worry as its so early in the season, but this truly is an opportunity lost to consolidate our place at the top of the table but instead we find ourselves in the familiar position of looking up at some other team at the peak of the table.
Some may say that i am being over critical of Rafa Benitez, but i firmly believe that three premiership points are more important than beating Porto in the Champions league, and i just wished that Rafa Benitez felt the same, because if he had we would surely be still at the pinnacle of the League today.

I have been pretty critical of Benitez in this article because i think he has lost Liverpool two points with his team selection, but i still believe he is the best chance of Liverpool once again reclaiming that very elusive league title, as long as he realises if he has to gamble in future, please play the best possible team for the Premiership game, and take that gamble to Europe.

RUTHLESS REDS SHOW THEY MEAN BUSINESS

Rafa Benitez may be trying to pour cold water on Liverpools title ambitions but try telling that to any Kopites that witnessed Saturday`s 6-0 mauling of Derby, which was just one of the great performances that have got Liverpool of to that ever elusive flying start.

Make no mistake Saturdays destruction of Derby is a sign of things to come, despite the Ram`s being a very poor team, Liverpool teams of the past would have won but probably struggled to do so but this new look, hungry squad of players that Benitez has assembled is capable of not just putting Derby to the sword but any team that plays below par, and this result added with how Liverpool have played in all their opening games must send a shudder of fear through all Premiership teams, and those unlucky enough to meet the Merseysiders in Europe. Simply put, a message of intent has been sent out by Rafa Benitez and his men.

And even more impressive, Saturdays result was achieved without the two stalwarts of Liverpool Fc, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, how they must have looked down on the Anfield pitch and wished they were involved, but more importantly they got a birds eye view of the all new Liverpool, a team that can demolish teams in the fashion that they did, and now for the first time in a long time, the two scousers that are the heartbeat of the team know that their new teammates are up to their standards and are very capable of thrusting Liverpool to the pinnacle of English football once again.

Of the new faces that Benitez has imported Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Andriy Voronin and Yossi Benayoun, are the players for me that will have a big impact this season, he has signed many more but i think those are for the future. Babel is a superstar just waiting to happen, his goal against Derby had all the hallmarks of a master and in every game he has shown glimpses of what he can become.......a true worldwide superstar. Voronin looks like he was born to play in the Premiership, and seems to score at every opportunity no matter how small his cameo appearance may be.
Benayoun is that bit of creativity that we have been missing for years and over time it will be hard for Benitez to leave him out of the team, but fitting him in will not be easy either.

But Torres is the main man, in his previous games he has shown that he is good, but with every game he plays it becomes more obvious why the Athletico Madrid faithful idolised him, and his clinical finishing against Derby shows that he will in all likely hood be idolized in the same way at Anfield...the boy is just pure class.
<
The players that were with Liverpool last year, two players have improved vastly, Jermaine Pennant and Momo Sissoko. Over the last year i have been one of Sissoko`s biggest critics his inability to complete a pass has had me pulling my hair out but in the last few games he seems to have totally solved the problem and when he plays like that is one of the best central midfielders in Europe, if only he can keep that standard of passing and tackling up he will become a main contender to start alongside Gerrard.
Pennant is finally starting to show the potential he had as a youngster, Benitez`s faith that he showed and the added pressure on his place in the team from the new signing`s really is bringing out the best of Pennant and he must be by now pushing for a starting place for England if like Momo he can keep this new level of talent up.

Rafa Benitez is right in saying that it is so early in the season that it is premature to dream about winning the Premiership, but if Liverpool keep playing the way they are right now then they are going to be very hard to beat, and we must remember that with so many new players, when they finally gel they are going to be an even better team than we have seen over the opening weeks.

Benitez has every managers dream of a headache in team selection, every week he has to disappoint some players but it does not seem to matter who he puts out, competition is so fierce that all players know they have to give it their all just to have a chance of starting the next game.......great problem to have.

Liverpool fans have endured more false dawns over the years than any other team, but believe me this is no false dawn, this new look, ruthless, hungry Liverpool is the real deal and will take some serious stopping in their quest to bring the league back home where it belongs after a long long barren spell.

LUCKY CHELSEA SALVAGE A POINT AGAINST LIVERPOOL.

Make no mistake, Chelsea have one more point today because of a shocking bad refereeing decision and nothing more. Liverpool proved what a new force they are by controlling Abromoviches millions and were so so unlucky not to walk away with all three points.

Fernando Torres got of the mark in great style, scoring a great goal on his Anfield debut, against the team that looks most likely the team that must be overcome this season if Liverpool Fc are to win the Premiership. He picked up an injury just before half time that seemed to affect his second half performance but what we seen in the first half shows why Benitez shelled out the big bucks for him. His goal came from a Steven Gerrard pass, but it was the way that he rounded the defender and clinically beat Peter Cech, one of the best keepers in the world, was magical and can only give the player confidence for the future, because if he can make the Chelsea defence look so ordinary then he should have no problem with the rest of the Prem.

The game itself was a little bad tempered but i think fans from both sides would agree that it did not warrant eight yellow cards and a penalty that clearly never was, but this is football and as unjust as Rob Styles decision was against Liverpool you have to take the good with the bad, but it really was very bad judgement and cost the team that played far better on the day victory, and more important the full three points.

From both managers points of view, Rafa Benitez will be the happier man because he knows that only a poor referee decision cost him the full three points and he still has players to come into the team, as he is slowly integrating his new signings into the team. Ryan Babel looks like a mouth watering proposition, in his few cameo appearances he really has looked the real deal and when Benitez feels that he is accustomed enough to his new club and begins to actually start games it will really increase Liverpools attack, and there are others, Yossi Benayoun has not really featured yet but his creativity will be a huge improvement on the current attack. Rafa has others like Kewell, Leto, Lucas and Andriy Voronin to unleash on the Premiership. I expect the preferred starting line-up in the big games to be similar to today with maybe Mascherano included, but when the new players establish themselves look out for Babel and Benayoun, i really think these two players are the ones to take us to the next level.

It was disappointing that we did not beat Chelsea, but what we can take away from it is the confidence that we are the better team, we can only control how we play not the way a bad ref thinks, and also we must think how Chelsea and their self pro-claimed special one feels after this game, that their manager or the players are not so special anymore because at Anfield they were shown to be the second best team on the day.

If Benitez can instill in his players the belief that they really are the best team in the Premiership and that they fear no team and can produce displays like they did against Chelsea, then no amount of silly refereeing will stop them from winning the Premiership crown.

ARE SPURS THE NEXT LEEDS?

All summer i have read how Spurs are the up an coming team, how they will force Arsenal down to fifth place, and up until two weeks ago i swallowed the whole thing, but then i did my fantasy football team, and i was shocked with what i saw.

As i was picking my team i was running out of money so i started to look down the different squads to try and find a bargain or two, but when i clicked on Spurs i got more than i bargained for, it amazed me that this team that had been so hyped up was so top heavy, make no mistake Spurs have the best front line selection in the country, Berbatov, Keane, Bent and Defoe is a strike force nearly all top teams would envy, but as i tried to find a good value midfielder and defender, they just were not there,and as i studied it more not only could i not find value , but i could not see any true Premiership class players, Tottenham simply have nothing behind the front line. They bought all these expensive strikers but never really thought about how to give them the ball and create chances. The whole thing has to be the work of an idiot........step forward Martin Jol and the board that blindly backed you, you just may have sent Tottenhan Hotspur on the road down the leagues of no return.


Spurs are so similar to Leeds a couple of years ago its a little bit scary, Leeds invested everything that they did not have on a manager that had no real pedigree but gave his youngsters in the team a chance and they did ok, so Leeds then threw money at David O Leary like it was going out of fashion, but we all know how that story finished up.
Spurs are much the same they have spent nearly 100 million over the last couple of seasons seasons with only Berbatov being good value for money. Now i know its early in the season and i would not usually comment like this, but Spurs under Martin Jol are so shocking underachievers that it has to be said they are the most likely to become the next Leeds.

Its early in the season but the Spurs team is so top heavy with strikers that they have to buy midfielders and defenders again before the deadline, and if Jol does what he has consistently done and buys the wrong players, then relegation is a real threat because his team has been so poor so far and has already been beaten by two of its relegation competitors.

I would be sad to see Spurs go the same way as Leeds as they have always played good entertaining football, but they really need big changes to survive, and the biggest change they need, is finding someone that can buy players that give the team a balance, as good a defence and midfield to go with an attack that a team like Spurs can afford, not the all out attack house of cards that Jol has built, so maybe if Spurs act now and get a manager who understands that a team is built from defence, midfield and attack they may just salvage something from this season.

ASTON VILLA 1 LIVERPOOL 2

Liverpool FC won this encounter but it was more about luck than skill, and if the team selection by Rafa Benitez is a sign of things to come then it is going to be another disappointing season for Liverpool.

What amazed and then shocked me by the team selection when i first seen it that even though we had spent nearly 50 million in the summer on players, mainly attacking players the only new player on show was Torres, the player from the new bunch that cost the most, but has also shown in pre-season that not only does he need time to gel with his new teammates, but also adjust to the pace and physical aspect of the Premiership, where was Yossi Benayoun, he looked like our biggest improvement during our pre-season and looked like a player that might finally solve some of our creativity problems and he knows the Premiership, but instead of his creativity Benitez opted for basically the same team that failed so badly and finished so many points away from the top two last season.

I have never really questioned Rafa Benitez`s managerial skills as he came with a great reputation and lead us to win the Champions league and FA cup. But one has to wonder about his latest team selection, he has gone on all summer about how important a good start to the season is, and then he ignores most of the signings we made this Summer in our first game, and believe me Liverpool were lucky to win against Aston Villa, only for Gerrard once again saving us it was two points lost, this is not how teams with title aspirations work, relying on one man to save them in every game.

I really hope that this team he deployed today was some sort of tactical ploy because if he thinks that to solve our problems he can play last years team and add in a striker with a good reputation then we have bigger problems.
His defense selection was good but i would have put Riise as a the left back and used a more natural left winger and as i said before Benayoun should have started on the right. Up front he made the right decision, but if Liverpool are to truely take a step forward this year we are going to have to employ a more attacking style of football and Benitez seems to have realised this, but at the first hurdle against Villa he seems to have backed away and a gone for the same old system of defence first which has caused so many disappointing seasons for the Anfield faithful.

If Liverpool Football Club really have aspirations of winning the league then they need to start to play a lot braver football, and not let the other teams dictate their team selection or way of playing, because as sure as shit when Man Utd and Chelsea arrive at Villa park their team selection will have nothing to do with Villa, they just pick the team and let Villa try and deal with it.

A SELFISH GREEDY TORRES IS WHAT LIVERPOOL NEED!

Fernando Torres has arrived at Anfield with the burden of a huge price tag around his neck but even bigger expectations from the Liverpool faithful. Despite what Anfield says there is immense pressure on Torres to score the goals that can catapult Liverpool into genuine title contenders.

Torres has scored on average 15 goals a season for the last five seasons at Atlético Madrid, while Liverpool will expect more it has to be remembered that he was the best player at Madrid and spent a lot of time playing deeper trying to create chances. But at Liverpool he will have a different role, his job will be goals, goals and more goals. His most likely strike partner, Dirk Kuyt found himself in a similar position last year playing deeper and trying to create chances, he too i hope will be asked to concentrate more on scoring and give the midfield more of a responsibility to link and create chances.

Liverpool's midfield is where the biggest changes will come, no longer will we see Gerrard wasting his talents on the right wing, the central position his most natural and where he can influence a game most and that is where he will play this year, who his partner in the centre will be is anyones guess, Alonso and Mascherano are the leading contenders and although Mascherano was the better of the two at the end of last season an on form Alonso would be very hard to ignore.
On the right of midfield Yossi Benayoun and Jermaine Pennant will fight it out, and as much as Pennant has and still is improving, Benayoun seems a class act and although he is more used to playing behind the front two, he seems to have adjusted very well to the wing and showed how creative he is when setting up Torre`s goal with a sublime pass in the game against Feyenoord. On the left wing its a way more complicated, the options are Babel, Kewell, Leto, Riise and maybe even Vorornin or El Zhar. I think because of Kewells experience he may start the season there, but because of Babel`physical presence and some glimpses he has shown in pre-season of what he is capable off he may adjust to life in the Premiership sooner than a lot of people think. But this left position we may see Rafa doing a lot of changes to try and find his best option.

In defence it should be the same as last year with Finnan and Arbeloa fighting it out for the right back position, or if media reports are correct and Liverpool are after the Brazilian, Cicinho then perhaps Arbeloa may put pressure on Riise for the left back position which would hopefully end the Gabriel Heinze saga, 6.8 million just seems too much for a 29 year old who does not seem to be the same player that he was before his injury.

Liverpool should be playing a more attacking brand of football this year and this will inevitably mean that we will be taking more chances at the back and may concede more goals, but it is what has to be done to make us genuine title contenders, now im not saying that we are heading for the crazy Kevin Keegan Newcastle days, when their motto seemed to be `don't worry if they score three, there is a good chance we will score four´, but we have to give the defence more responsibility and have more faith in them. And that added pressure on the defence is nothing compared to what is expected from new boy Torres, but if Torres can live up to the dreams and expectations of his newly acquired Kop following , he will be revered as much or even more at Anfield than he was at his previous home Atlético, its a lot to ask of 'El Niño' but if he can get those goals we have been sorely missing then the holy grail that is the Premiership could finally be finding its way home to Anfield.

THE NEW MAN UTD

I think its love at first sight, guess who gets to wear the skirt. Yes your right its the ladyboy.

HEINZE MEANZ TROUBLE

Rafa Benitez and supporters of Liverpool have enjoyed the unrest that has been caused to Manchester United since Benitez launched his audacious bid to bring Gabriel Heinze to Anfield, but Heinze is most definitely not what is needed at Anfield.

Benitez has always claimed that he wants to sign players who really want to play for the club, and Heinze most certainly fills that criteria because of his eagerness to make the short nightmare of a trip down the East Lancs Road, because of the hatred that would be shown to the player from the Manchester United faithful, but do we really want a man that has shown how low on his list of attributes loyalty is.

Heinze won the fan`s Player of the Year award in his first year at Old Trafford, so he has had the backing of the fans, and he is not a young immature player and has been at Old Trafford long enough to know the rivalry between these clubs and the trouble a move like this would cause. They backed him when he missed nearly a full season through injury, and was even made captain of the team for the final two games of the 2006/07 season, so this show`s that United have not treated him badly and have shown faith in him.

With his yearnings to pull on the famous red Jersey of Liverpool he has to know the hurt it causes the Old Trafford faithful and as a Liverpool supporter i would normally have no problem with that, but it has to be in the back of your mind when is he going to shaft the Liverpool faithful such is his low standards of loyalty to any cause.

Benitez has worked hard at building a squad which has respect and loyalty for the club and that he can trust and i would be shocked if he really did go through with this deal and brought in someone that could show such disloyalty, even if it was to our fiercest enemies. And it has to be remembered we are not Chelski, we are not so flush with money that we can waste it to annoy or stop other teams from getting those players.

I think all Liverpool supporters have had a little fun over this saga including myself, but the question is, is Heinze the best value for money we can get, 6.8 million for a 29 year old seems quiet a lot and if you add in the fact that he seems to be not the same player he was before his injury it seems too much money. There are other options out there, Leighton Baines seems a much better option despite being a life long Everton supporter, but that has never got in the way before.

At the beginning i think Rafa put the bid in as a distraction for Man Utd, but now its achieved what was intended, its time to move on and spend the money where it will bring back the most returns, and i really don't think Heinze is where that is. Juventus have shown they are willing to sign the player and if the player has brains he should grab that opportunity with both hands but somehow i think Heinze really is out to annoy Sir Alex at all costs after been told by the club who he could or could not sign for after having some sort of an agreement.

It all seems like another case of a pampered spoilt footballer not getting his own way, and do we really want that kind of attitude at Anfield.

LIVERPOOL OUTWIT MAN UTD

Rafa Benitez`s decision to try and sign Gabriel Heinze is a masterstroke from the canny Spaniard, it is a total win-win situation for Liverpool Fc and has left Alex Ferguson with one more off-field distraction to deal with.

Benitez normally does not get involved with the off-field mind games that is all too common in today's world of football between opposing managers, but in Liverpool and Chelsea`s Champions league encounter last season, Benitez showed that he is more than capable of competing in this arena of battle with the very best and this was the first sign that he was willing to enter these war of words. But this attempt to sign Heinz from Liverpool's arch enemies Man Utd has all the hallmarks of a true chess grandmaster. In one simple move he has backed Sir Alex into a corner with his audacious and some may say cheeky bid which would make Heinz the first man since Phil Chisnall who made the same move in 1964.

I have no doubt that Benitez would really like to sign Heinz but i also believe that when he first made his move for the Argentinian that he thought that it would have very little chance of success and was just trying to stir up a little trouble in the Utd camp, but because of Man Utd`s amateurish handling of the situation they have actually made the move which would be a nightmare for the club and their fans become a real possibility.
Sir Alex telling the media that under no circumstances would Heinz play for Liverpool was a mistake. Heinz was on holiday after playing in the Copa America and they had told the player months earlier that if a club came in with a bid of £6.8m he would be free to move there. I'm sure if Sir Alex had not panicked when the Liverpool bid came in and actually explained the problems that this transfer would cause that Heinz would wait for something else, but Heinz like all Premiership player's lead a pampered life and are not used to being told no, so it must have really riled Heinz that he was being told who or who not he could sign for after the earlier agreement between club and player.

Man Utd have backed themselves into a corner in this situation and may find themselves in court twice this summer with the drawn out Tevez affair and these are all distractions that a team just does not need.

One indication of how much Benitez is enjoying this little battle was with his latest little tongue in cheek statement that "I don't know what the problem is." Somehow i think he knows how it would hurt all Manchester fans around the globe if Gabriel Heinze moved to Liverpool and even worse if he became a success at Anfield.

THE TOP FOUR, IN AND OUTS

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd have all delved into the transfer market this summer but some clubs have had a lot more success than others, this is a look at the teams on the move and those been left behind.

Of the four teams its obvious that Man Utd and Liverpool are the teams with the deepest pockets this year but will that improvement on the financial investment side translate into better fortunes on the pitch. A run down of the top fours transfers in and out may give an indication of who will improve next year but as always money does not always return league points....just ask any Newcastle fan.
First of is Arsenal, who finished a disappointing fourth last year by there standards and thier closed season activity so far has given very little optimism that they can improve on that.

Arsenal
In: Bakari Sagna Eduardo da Silva and Lukasz Fabianski

Out: Matthew Connolly, Arturo Lupoli, Thierry Henry,
Jeremie Aliadiere and Mart Poom.
Now this team is probably the biggest talking point of the close season, their lack of funds in the transfer season makes it clear that the cost of the new stadium will take a long time to absorb, but in having Wenger as the manager makes this possible as he is the master at picking up young bargains and turning them into either Arsenal legends or making a decent profit on them but his choices this year seem a little bit out of character, Da Silva is no spring chicken so if he does turn into a superstar it would be one of his better coups but its unlikely.
Unless something major happens at Arsenal between now and the start of the season Arsenal will be a much lesser team and could be actually overtaken by their free spending neighbours Spurs.

Chelsea
In: Florent Malouda Steve Sidwell Tal Ben Haim and Claudio Pizarro
Out; Khalid Boulahrouz, Geremi and Yves Ma Kalambay
The Blues are by far the biggest free spending club in the history of football but surprisingly quite this year...could Roman be finally be becoming bored of his play thing, Florent Malouda is the major signing but is only a replacement for Robben and the only other notable addition is Claudio Pizarro who arrived on a free transfer. Chelsea seem more like a team in sleep mode, surly if Roman was still interested this is the one year that he would have invested heavily to bring the title back to Stamford but instead it seems he is happy to let it all coast along till he becomes interested again or perhaps the manager he really wants is not available yet.

Man United
In; Anderson,Owen Hargreaves and Luis Nani
Out; Phil Marsh, Floribert Ngalula,and Daniel Rose
The biggest spenders and the money seems like a lot of it has been spent wisely, Anderson and Nani are investments in the future there to replace Scholes and Giggs,this is not an improvement its maintenance to replace their aging stars, Hargreaves and Carrick will compete to replace Keane but they will have a hard job, these two players are good but not good enough to give Utd that all important controlling midfield and when they play the top teams like Liverpool this year expect the other teams to be able to convert their dominance into points, but if Man Utd can complete the transfer of Teves then Man Utd can make up for this loss in midfield and would be an improved team by being able to take their chances, they may not have the best defense but if Teves joins their ranks then they will score more goals than most teams in Europe and must be favourites to at least clinch the Premiership title once again and if they get lucky and that dodgy defence holds up could improve on their European record, but they really need to sign Tevez to improve on last years team.

Liverpool
In;Ryan Babel,Yossi Benayoun, Ryan Crowther, Andrei Voronin, Fernando Torres, Krisztian Nemeth and Andras Simon.
Out; Jerzy Dudek , Craig Bellamy, Luis García and Boudewijn Zenden.
I have left this to last because this is the team with the biggest changes and the biggest challenges in most likely hood the most improved team of the top four, they have always had the best defence but this year its been an all out assault on attacking options, of course its easy to improve when you are so far behind compared to Man Utd and Chelsea but Liverpool have definitely spent the money where it was needed most and that is in in attack. Liverpool have always had a great defence but putting the ball away has been the problem for the last two managers which is why Rafa Benitez has gone all out this year by buying all attacking players. Liverpool have strenghtened all attacking options but for Liverpool to become a true threat to Man utd then a couple of positions still have to to be filled, first of all we still need a right winger or else Gerrard may waste his talents there again for another season, and with all our great new attacking options it mean our defence is going to be more busy than ever now that we are not playing defensive football and that means we must plug up our one Achilles heel, the left back position, Riise is a great player going forward but in defence he leaves a lot to be desired.
So this is how i see the season unfolding, Arsenal will be lucky to be in the top four, Chelsea will always compete for the title with Roman`s millions, Man Utd will be very hard to overcome if they do sign Tevez which is very likely and Liverpool are a very unknown prospect just because so much rebuilding has gone on, but if Rafa can
get his team to gel quickly in the season and still be in contention by Christmas then i think it is more than likely that Liverpool will add to their massive league title haul.

LIVERPOOL, BACK WITH THE BIG BOYS

For years Liverpool Fc have had to spend their money miserly, often on players that were second rate that may have a chance of improving, but those days are gone. Now its all about getting the very best to end our league title drought.

Fernando Torres signaled Liverpools intention by shattering the clubs old record transfer fee and this has been just followed up by paying 11.5 million for Ryan Babel the 20 year old prospect from Holland, it shows the confidence that the new owners have in Rafa Benitez and that they believe that he is truly the man to end the clubs recent barren spell of league titles.

With the recent arrivals of Yossi Benayoun and Andrei Voronin Liverpool fans may be left scratching their heads at Benitez`s selection, because the players he has signed are so versatile. Torres is an out and out striker but Voronin can play up front or on the wing, Benayoun can play anywhere behind the front two while Babel can play up front or on either wing, so this season its going to be even more of a guessing game of who starts and where, this versatility is a great advantage that Benitez will use to great effect, its so so long since Liverpool had the option of putting out a purely attacking team, one that can kill off the lesser teams and gain us the three points, the same points that we get if its Man Utd or Reading, now Rafa has the ammunition he needs to deal with teams putting 11 men behind the ball, something that has caused us nightmares in previous seasons simply because we did not have enough attacking flair to break down these defences......but that is the past

Many people may say that Man utd are miles ahead with their early purchase of Nani and Anderson, but people must remember these are young players to replace the aging Scoles and Giggs so its not improvement its maintenance, and Hargreaves is another attempt to replicate Keane but as most people know the closest you can get to Keane in today's world football, plays for their arch rivals and is a better player than Keane could ever hope to be.
So the next season should be very interesting Rafa has shocked us in the past with his team selections but with the choices he now has your more likely to win Lotto than pick his starting 11 in their positions.

It has been a long long time coming but at last we have the players and manager to mount a serious title challenge so roll on the new season.

KUYT AND CROUCH WATCH OUT, VORONIN IS THE REAL DEAL!

As the media fanfare made its way from Anfield after seeing Torres arrive, it was almost like Andriy Voronin sneaked in the back door such was the difference in the media coverage of both events, but Voronin is here to do more than merely make up the numbers and he could be the surprise package in this years Premiership.
This is a must see clip of our new striker in action.


Now i know a lot of people will say that You Tube videos should not be taken very seriously as it it is not too hard to manage to make a players career to fit into three minutes and make him look good, but there really are some impressive goals there and what makes them impressive is some of these bullet shot goals of his are taken by his right and left foot, and also just by his physical presence he looks like he really is suited to the Premiership.
A lot of his play is very similar to the role Dirk Kuyt played at Anfield last year, he can score goals but is better known for his hard work and setting up his strike partner and is a strong player, so he seems like the perfect cover for Kuyt, if Kuyt ever does become tired, but i think Vorinon will not be happy waiting for Kuyt to become tired to play, this guy is here to win his place alongside Liverpools record signing Fernando Torres and if his style of play is any indication, a little old thing like Kuyt standing in his way will only be a short lived obstacle.
Now i don't believe that Kuyt will be displaced so easy, but if this Ukrainian can succeed where his fellow country men have so spectacularly failed in the past great strikers such as Rebrov and Shevchencko that after arriving in the Premiership with great reputations soon relies that reputations are worth nothing in the toughest league in the world, but i just have this feeling that Andriy Voronin is different and he has found the league that suits his style of play, so Crouch and Kuyt watch out he really is here to play first team football so take nothing for granted.

HENRY WHO ?

Allowing Thierry Henry`s departure to Barcelona could prove to be one of Arsene Wengers best managerial decisions, as Henry seems to have gone stale at Arsenal and this move could benefit all parties involved.

Henry will be a success in Spain but Arsenal are doing a great bit of buisness by getting 16 million pounds for a player that will be 30 in less than two months time, a large part of his game is reliant on speed and that i think has already started to wane, but he probably has one or two more seasons at the top, but at Barca he will have to fight for his place from day one.
Wenger is a true master in the transfer market and as hard as it is to replace Henry, who would bet against Wenger using the 16 million to bring in a new young striker that may have us saying in a few years, Henry who?

Media reports suggest that Arsenal may actually be after 2 strikers one young and one experienced. Many names have cropped up as Henry`s replacement but Anelkas is by far the most interesting, could it be possible that Wenger has the confidence that he could turn around the career of the incredible sulk. Remember the potential that Anelka once had when he was under Wenger`s stewardship before, he had the talent to become as good or even better than Henry but bad advice and a shocking attitude have meant that his talent has been wasted and although we have seen glimpses of what could have been, he is in reality a mediocre striker now, but Wenger may feel that Anelka may have matured and if Wenger was to take him on again Anelka will know that this his his last chance to become the player he should already be. At the moment this is all media speculation, but Wenger has the potential to surprise all and i think there is little doubt that Anelka would jump at the chance to let Wenger rekindle his career.

There is also talk of Wenger leaving Arsenal but i cant see that happening, some say that Henry leaving may be a sign that Wenger may join him in Spain, but the simple fact is Wenger has always cashed in on his major stars when the time was right, think back to Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Viera and now you can add Thierry Henry to that list of players that Wenger thinks have offered all that can be offered to the club. I believe Wenger is looking to the future by selling Henry, with the cash he can improve his squad, he already has a squad of young talent that if supplemented with a bit of experience in midfield and attack we could see a very different Arsenal next year that does not only want to play pretty football but also wants to win games even if its that means that results become more important than playing the game beautifully.
This is going to be one of the most interesting transfer seasons at Arsenal for years, it is a out with the old and in with the new, but the big question is can Wenger pull off another transfer miracle and will the new be as good as the old that has served the Arsenal faithful so well.

IS HE WORTH 27 MILLION?

Fernando Torres seems the most likely to join our ranks , he is not my first choice but he is young and Rafa can improve him and improve his goal per game ratio which is the all important key for the new Liverpol striker, we already have Kuyt and Crouch to set up the chances all we need now is someone to put it in back of the net and that's where we need to spend big, but i am really not sure that Torres is the answer to our goalscoring problems, but here he is anyway...............you decide is he the answer to our problems.

LIVERPOOL CRISIS?

A lot of promises have been made by the new owners of Liverpool football club, but so far we have seen little in the way of results, is it now time to start to worry?

Rafa Benitez has already voiced his concerns over the inaction of the clubs new owners Tom Hicks and George Gillet, and to be honest a week ago i already wanted to write this story but i thought for sure we would see some new big name arrivals at Anfield this week, but it now seems even with new owners very little seems to have changed in the way Liverpool Football Club conducts its transfer dealings, we still seem to drag our heels at every given opportunity.

It is no secret that our two major priorities this close season are a striker and two wingers of a higher caliber than we have had in the past. Eto`o and Tevez are names that keep cropping up for the striker role, but because of our time wasting other teams have now joined the hunt for these players with Inter Milan now willing to pay 40 million for Eto`o effectively pricing us out of the race for his signature and now Man Utd seems to be interested in Tevez, but Tevez could still be bought his friendship with Mascherano is a major plus and we also have Bellamy as bait, but this can also show us how much the new owners are willing to invest in Liverpool. There is one more option to solve our striker problem and it is a lot cheaper, If media reports can be believed Newcastle are interested in Bellamy and are very unsure whether Michael Owen wants to stay at St James, so the scenario for Owen to return to Anfield seems to be opening up, it would be close to a straight swap deal with maybe a little money going Newcastles way. But it is not a good deal for Liverpool, Owen is undoubtedly a better player than Bellamy but he is no good to us if he is on the treatment table half the time, we need a striker that will score for us week in week out and because of Owens injury plagued past, we just cant rely on him, but it will be interesting to see if the Americans go for the cheap option.

Trying to sign the wingers has really shown where our go slow approach is just not good enough in the world of todays football, Daniel Alves is now one of the most sought out right sided players in Europe today but he could and should have been at Anfield a long time ago but the most glaring mistake so far in this close seasons dealings has been the handling of the Florent Malouda transfer, this is a player that could have easily been signed within a few days of the start of close season with his media statements which were nearly as good as saying come and get me, but no we waited and waited until Chelsea sorted themselves out and now it has opened up into a two horse race, so now because of our snail`s pace we will have to compete with the Chelsea`s billions.

This transfer season was supposed to be all about catapulting Liverpool into serious title contenders, Man Utd won the League last year so they are the benchmark, now not only do we have to improve to beat the standards they set last season but we now have to contend with the signings that they made in the first few days of the close season, Nani, Anderson and Hargreavs will improve their team and if we are to overcome them we have to sign top class players soon.

Now i know some will say that it is early days and a lot of time is left to sign players, and we have resigned our major players on extended contracts but as time goes on other clubs will become interested in the players that Benitez really wants to sign and we must remember Rafa Benitez is one of the most sought after managers in world football today, so if the new owners don't deliver the big names that he needs to do his job maybe we will lose a lot more than big name signings.

THE DISGRACE THAT IS UEFA

Uefa`s shameful handling of the Champions League final in Athens this year and then its cowardly attempt to blame the Liverpool supporters for the fiasco shows that major changes are needed to make Uefa accountable for its actions.

Athens was a complete shambles, but Uefa`s shame was in the fact that they had been warned well before the final of exactly what would happen, but because they know best they totally ignored all advice and instead pretended that it would be all right on the night.
As with all clubs there is a tiny percentage of fans that are looking for trouble and the bigger the club the bigger the fan base is, those numbers go up, but there would have been no trouble in Athens if Uefa had listened to the advice and warnings that they were given. The problems started when Uefa gave only a paltry 17,000 tickets to each club in a stadium that holds 63,000. Uefa gave 20,000 of the tickets to the 'Uefa family' and a further 9,000 via a ballot. So Uefa actually gave nearly half the tickets to non fans of either club, this is madness and it highlights how this organisation has no regard for the clubs or their fans that it is supposed to represent.
They were also pre-warned that there was forgeries on the open market but decided that the best course of action to take was no action at all and this is what caused the biggest problems. Fans with forged tickets entered the ground, many who thought their tickets were legitimate and left many standing outside with real tickets only to be told that the stadium was full.
The whole affair was a complete mess and as i said before it could have been totally avoided if Uefa had not thought that they know best.

But the claims made by Uefa spokesman William Gaillard that `Liverpool supporters are the worst behaved in Europe´ beggars belief, this is the very same man that just before the final said that Liverpool supporters 'have a tradition of good behaviour'.
So which version from the same man only a couple of weeks apart do we believe. The first version or the second one that was made after the Athens debacle, the debacle that Mr Gaillard and his partner in stupidity Mr Platini caused because they believe that they always know best and never let the facts interfere with there beliefs.

English football has had its problems in the past and was without doubt the worst villain in Europe in the 80`s, but if we look at the 3 top leagues in Europe now The Premiership comes out head and shoulders against the rest. It is a league where Racism has for the most part been removed unlike in Spain and Italy where the ignorant masses are rampant and can still give shout their monkey chants and other racist remarks at certain players and face little or no consequences whatsoever. In Rome, Man Utd were warned beforehand of the deadly hooligan Roma fans, but like Spurs in Spain no one warned them of the hooligan type police, that battered all before them. In Italy you could see why police would be wary of fans because in the horrible old days of English hooliganism fans wanted to beat up opposing fans but in Italy they have taken it to a whole new level by throwing explosives at police trying to kill them and have been successful. But despite this, idiots at Uefa have decided that to cover-up their own mistakes Liverpool Football Club must carry the banner of the worst fans in Europe.

This all reminds me of Will Carlings famous description of the Rugby Football Union Committee as "57 old farts". Now i don't know how many old farts there are in Uefa but this latest Uefa show of `We answer to no one´ really should open up the debate would football be better served if the G14 had more influence and i really hope the G14 is expanded to nearly all clubs not just the rich, to show that there really is an alternative to this out of date, dying dinosaur of an organisation led by people who seem to value there own importance above the people that makes the very existence of their very precious organisation possible, the players and the fans of the clubs that they seem to have little or no respect for.

EMPIRE OF YOUTH

The major story at Liverpool Football Club this summer are which big name stars will or will not arrive, but as this is going on, Rafa Benitez has been slowly and surely adding the best youth talent from every corner of the globe, to the Anfield ranks.

We all talk about Eto`o, Teves and co but we often forget that Rafa has been building this youth empire for the past two seasons, this week he added three more players to the fold by signing the two Hungarians, Krisztian Nemeth, Andras Simon and Swedish teenager Alexander Kacaniklic. This is really a sign of how badly The Liverpool Academy has performed just by the fact that we seem to have to replace most of the youth players with players that Rafa thinks might actually make it to the first team and he cannot be blamed, no player that started at the Academy has become a regular or will be in Liverpool's first team next season. Steven Gerrard spent the last few months of his tutorial there, but he can hardly be labeled a product of the Academy. The target when The Academy was set up was to have one player introduced to the first team each season, so far we have had zero, all we have done is produced players for the Championship and lower divisions.
Whether its down to the present day football youth climate or the miss management of the Academy we may never know, but i think it is in large part to Steve Heighways intolerance to having any interference from the past two managers of Liverpool, men who are more talented than himself in nurturing young talent.
Benitez`s global network of scouts have been as active in searching out the stars of tomorrow as they have been finding the stars that the first team needs today, this is a sign of Rafa`s plans for his and Liverpool's future, It mean we can discard any talk of him leaving Liverpool in the near future because he is here to build a footballing empire in the mould of the past Liverpool teams. He has broken down the old system of the first team manager not interfering in youth team development and we can hardly blame him as the top players in the youth team are players that he has bought.

Already his endeavours into the youth system should pay off, next year i expect to see Paul Anderson been given a go as he has earned rave reviews since his arrival, other players that have a very good chance of breaking through are Besian Idrizaj Jack Hobbs, Godwin Antwi and Astrit Ajdarevic. These are all players that he had to pay to get them to the Academy and these and the others that Rafa bought are in reality the only ones with a real chance to make it into the Liverpool first team.

When the spine of a team is built at the youth level the results can be astounding, Man Utd and the Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, and the ugly brother Nevilles early era is the perfect example, I believe that if that team had come about as the same time as the Chelsea millions, the Man Utd team that had grown together as players would still win the league just because they had already spent so many years playing and knowing each others game so well.
This is what Rafa is trying to achieve, but as always with youth players it is very unpredictable, players that seem great when they are fifteen might fizzle out and by the time there eighteen and may be no better than the Nevilles, so therefore not good enough for Liverpool.

The future`s bright the future`s red, and with Rafa handling the youth team we can expect the spine of the Liverpool teams of tomorrow, to be very much influenced by Rafa`s youth policy of today.

WHAT LIVERPOOL NEED TO DO TO BRING THE TITLE HOME

Our shortcomings have become obvious over the past season, but now Rafa Benitez has at last the warchest to make Liverpool Football Club a serious contender for the league title, and this is what he needs to do in the transfer season to make it happen.

In goal Reina will once again reign supreme with Daniele Padelli as his cover and we may see Scott Carson off loaded.
In defence Carragher is the only guaranteed player to start a game if fit, Agger his partner for this year may seem his obvious partner but as seen in the way he was totally outdone by Drogba and the fact that Mourhinho singled him out as the weak link in the first leg of the Champions League means there could be some substance that Liverpool want to sign Gabriel Milito. The left back position seems to be between John Arne Riise and Fabio Aurelio, although both are great going forward there will always be question marks about their ability to defend, but both should be safe next season. On the right back it is a lot more complicated, it is no secret we want Daniel Alves but what position would he play, Finnan does a great job at right back, but as Alves can also play right back or midfield,so where would Rafa want him to play, i would be a bit wary us trying to play someone on the wing that is naturally defensive like the case of Riise on the other wing.


In midfield is where things are most complicated and a lot revolves on one current Anfield player, Alonso may or may not be on is on his way out, but i think we have already bought his replacement, Lucas the 20 year old Brazilian. Next year i expect to see Gerrard occupy his favoured central midfield role and have Mascherano playing alongside him and Lucas and Sissoko being backup.
In the wide positions is where Liverpool need major improvements and i think as good as Pennant has improved over the final months of the season another top class right winger is needed but on the left we could actually be looking for two, Zendon is on his way i hope, and Kewell also, so that just leaves us with Gonzalez who has been unimpressive since his much highlighted move, but this is his first season so maybe Rafa will give him another chance to prove his worth, as for the wingers we could sign for these positions the media list is endless, but one name that keeps cropping up is Simao Sabrosa ,Joaquín Sánchez has also been mentioned along with just about every decent winger playing in the Iberian Peninsula today so for wing positions it really is any ones guess who Rafa will opt for.

But the big name signing this summer is going to be the Striker, we all know we need a top class one but we cant seem to agree on who that should be. The two names that seem to be top of the list are Tevez and Eto`o.
Tevez has already proved that he can handle the premiership while Eto`o has shown what a loose cannon he can be, but I have posted stories before that have hinted that my preference would be Eto`o above the merits of Villa, Tevez and co.
Some people may say he would not suit the rotation policy that Rafa employs, but remember this, Rafa only rotates the players that are not playing good enough as Carra, Gerrard and Kuyt proved from last season. Tevez would be good and probably not that hard to get because of his friendship with Mascherano and using Bellamy as bait but still i think Eto`o is the man that can bring us to the next level, and Rafa proved with Bellamy he is not afraid to take on a troubled player if it can help the team, and even though most of Europe wants to sign Eto`o i believe that the wheels are already in motion to use Alonso as a serious bargaining chip to make sure that Eto`o will be playing for Liverpool next year.