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>we are co-equal in the number of top flight crowns with 18

I am not "having a go at Liverpool". I have always liked Liverpool and like many football fans have great admiration for the club.

But you cant always live on past glories.

I support Villa and we have won the "league" 7 times, but 5 of those were in the 1890s, another in 1910, so we can hardly gloat "we have won the league 7 times" when only one was in the last 100 years.

I am more having a go at Benitez, who I think has been a poor manager for most of his time there.

His transfer dealings have been VERY suspect, and many players have come and gone with alarming speed without ever making an impact.

I am still staggered he paid 7m for Pennant when only a short time earlier he had gone to Birmingham on loan for free (and had just come out of prison). Even at the time I knew it was a bad signing. That is just one example of many.

As I said above, to leave yourself exposed with one quality striker (Torres) when you are splashing out 17 million for Johnson is daft. Villa signed right back Luke Young for 5 million about the same time, and Benitez could have used the rest to put towards a second striker (I know Portmouth owed money to Liverpool which is why he probably overpaid for Johnson).

Ferguson seems to get the best out of players (look at yesterdays Man U midfield that beat Milan - Park, Nani, Scholes, Fletcher, Valencia - hardly a "world class" midfield) whereas Benitez seems to struggle to get the best out of players.

Monday's display against Wigan was poor and when the "body language" of players looks bad it shows the manager has lost the dressing room and players are not playing for him. I have never seen Man U players under Ferguson fail to give 100%, they would not dare.

I feel Benitez has had his time there, and will probably go at the end of the season (Real Madrid?)

Lille 1-0 Liverpool.

At the end of the storm, there's a golden sky........!laugh!

Don't Forget

Forest have won 2 European Cups

Not bad for a so called small team
Also No London team has ever won it.

He's an embarrasment to the club. Any manager of liverpool would have expected to win what he has in the time he's been given and particularly with the money he's spent. However, they are stuck with him until he gets a better offer (probably from real madrid at the end of the season) as they can't afford to sack him and pay him off. Liverpool will not get fourth place and if they do Villa, spurs and man city should be ashamed of themselves for not being able to crack the top four given the chance they've had. Until Ferguson dragged him into the mind games he was ok but he seriously lost the plot there and then.

"(I know Portmouth owed money to Liverpool which is why he probably overpaid for Johnson)."

Could you explain this seemingly odd statement?

>"(I know Portmouth owed money to Liverpool which is why he probably overpaid for Johnson)."
>Could you explain this seemingly odd statement?

Portsmouth owed money to Liverpool (for Crouch).

Liverpool probably knew they had little chance of getting it back early (if at all given Portsmouth's current financial situation).

Benitez wanted Glen Johnson so may have been prepared to pay lets say 12 million for him (off the top of my head) - although Man C and Chelsea were also bidding.

Portsmouth may have said give us say 10 million cash (for example), and let us off what we owe you.

So the 10 million Liverpool paid in cash, plus what Portsmouth owed them, came to 17 million.

I doubt Liverpool would have paid 17 million up front in cash (Johnson is not worth it to be honest) but were prepared to pay SOME cash, plus the money Portsmouth owed them, which made it look like a 17 million transfer.

It almost says as much here:

"I doubt Liverpool would have paid 17 million up front in cash (Johnson is not worth it to be honest) but were prepared to pay SOME cash, plus the money Portsmouth owed them, which made it look like a 17 million transfer."

Writing off ?7m owed plus paying ?10m cash doesn't just look like a ?17m transfer, IT IS a ?17m transfer.

It's difficult to see how Liverpool could not have received the money owed, unless Portsmouth was actually wound up, and even then football debts take precedence over everything else, so Liverpool would probably still have been paid from the disposal of Portsmouth's assets.

Other clubs which were owed money by Portsmouth have been paid by the Premier League out of Portsmouth's TV revenue for this season.

>IT IS a ?17m transfer.

If it IS a ?17 million transfer for a right back then Benitez is a fool (or perhaps we know that).

He should have put the money towards another quality striker or midfield player (knowing he would probably lose Alonso.)

Of course he did pay ?20 million for Aquilani, but he seems happy for him to sit on the subs bench.

Liverpool 3 Lille 0

(Liverpool win 3-1 on aggregate) !footie!

Walk On...

apparently phil thompson and terry venables are being tipped to take over as joint managers and we all know what thompson and venables do to scousers!