TOO EARLY TO WRITE OFF LIVERPOOL FC - THE LESSON FROM '93

1993 - the Czech Republic is born, Bill Clinton becomes president of America, Oasis are signed to Creation Records and QVC is launched.

In other news, Manchester United win the league.

It was our rival's first 'Premier League' title - but what is more significant is how they started the season - losing two of the first four games and crashing to six defeats during the campaign.

Of course my point is that three games into a 38-game season is not the time to start writing off a team's chances of winning the league.

Not that it's stopped anyone.

Ironically, no team has ever won the Premier League after losing just two games - and don't we know it.

Turns out, a much more fashionable number of defeats is five. So that's alright then...

DEFEATS BY PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS - 1993-2009

1992-93 - Man Utd - Six defeats

1993-94 - Man Utd - Four defeats

1994-95 - Blackburn - Seven defeats

1995-96 - Man Utd - Six defeats

1996-97 - Man Utd - Five defeats

1997-98 - Arsenal - Six defeats

1998-99 - Man Utd - Three defeats

1999-00 - Man Utd - Three defeats

2000-01 - Man Utd - Six defeats

2001-02 - Arsenal - Three defeats

2002-03 - Man Utd - Five defeats

2003-04 - Arsenal - No defeats

2004-05 - Chelsea - One defeat

2005-06 - Chelsea - Five defeats

2006-07 - Man Utd - Five defeats

2007-08 - Man Utd - Five defeats

2008-09 -Man Utd - Four defeats

KNIVES OUT FOR RAFA - BUT WHO COULD DO BETTER?

THE knives were drawn for Rafa Benitez from the moment Liverpool lost to Spurs - and after the defeat to Villa at Anfield on Monday the Spaniard must be able to smell the steel of the blade.

The bookies, not content with stirring the shit with ANOTHER cock and bull story about betting being suspended on the Liverpool manager getting the axe, have now installed the Spaniard as favourite to be the next manager to get the chop in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, forums, blogs and newspaper reports are all beginning to circle Benitez, seemingly smelling blood.

And all this three, THREE, games into the season.

Yes, the first defeat at home in the league since December 2007 - and against a team aspiring to crack the top four - and that's it, time for a new manager.

Well I don't buy the culture of right now, or knee-jerk, as it is so often, and annoyingly, referred to as on the Internet.

It takes time, a shed-load of money and, more often than not, a string of nearly-but-not-quites to build a team capable of winning the league - just ask Alex Ferguson.

Once upon a time, before his every move was lauded as genius, plain old Alex was in a similar boat to Rafa - chasing the coat tails of a club that year after year was enjoying success and monopolising the league.

And like Rafa, the former Aberdeen boss had to cope with huge expectation, intensive media scrutiny and a support lacking patience.

It took Fergie SEVEN YEARS to land the league - and in that time he spent big money on a lot of players, and, like Benitez, not all of them were successful.

In the first three years under the Scot, United finished 11th, 2nd, 11th and come the 89-90 season, Fergie spent big again, smashing the British record to sign Gary Pallister for £2.3million (!).

But United went on to lose 5-1 to Man City before enduring an early season run of six defeats and two draws which led to a banner at Old Trafford saying: "Three years of excuses and it's still crap. Ta ra Fergie."

It's widely accepted that a Mark Robins goal in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest saved Fergie's bacon (face).

And from there on, well it's painful reading for any Red - you know what's happened since.

If Rafa is sacked now - or walks - Liverpool go back to square one, new manager, new ideas.

Instead, Benitez should be given time and money - and a little respect for his record so far, in trying circumstances, wouldn't go amiss.

Some might say he's had the time and money after five years in the job and £250million spent.

But that doesn't tell the whole story. Yes, he's spent big - but he's also clawed back a big chunk of that figure (approximately £134m).

So that's a net spend of £116m - or an average spend of £19.4m per season.

When you consider United have regularly forked out for £30m players - Veron, Rooney, Ferdinand, Berbatov, it's peanuts.

And of course, they started from a position of power when Benitez arrived - so while he had to overhaul the whole squad (of which just Gerrard and Carra remain), United strengthen when they need to - and almost always from the top end of the market.

On Monday, after returning from Anfield, and against my better judgement, I flicked open the lap top and began to read the reports, the blogs and the forums.

And there it was, the old chestnut: "Get Mourinho in".

Putting aside the fact that he is a attention-hungry media whore, the man is obviously a good manager.

But ask yourself this - given the constraints ANY manager of Liverpool will now have to work under thanks to Tom Hicks and George Gillett saddling the club with millions of pounds of debt, what difference would a change make?

There's no money to spend, Rafa is quite literally at the "haven't got to pot to piss in" stage.

We can't even get in a free or a loan to boost our attacking options (Eidur Gudjohnsen, anyone?) because there's nothing left to pay the additional wages.

Just think how useful that £40m blown on paying interest on loans the Yanks used to buy the club would be now.

But back to Mourinho.

Let's ignore the pay off to Inter Milan, the golden goodbye to Rafa for sacking him and the self-proclaimed Special One's wages, a reported £5.2million a year at Stamford Bridge.

Without the money to burn (he spent £70m on arrival at Chelsea to add to a team that was already in the higher reaches of the Premier League), what would the Portuguese motormouth do?

Don't get me wrong, I know Rafa makes mistakes - and his worse trait is being stubborn, almost shooting himself in the foot at times to prove his own point (not playing Crouch, and, at times Pennant, sticking with Lucas etc).

But I truly believe, given the right backing, and shown the faith, he will get it right.

Last season, we were close, so close. Record points total, top scorers in the league and blowing away the top teams.

This season, OK, so far it's a disappointment. But again, we're not helped by the Yanks - they're not football men, they're businessmen (along with many other things, that even in a blog, I don't think I can get away with...)

If they were football men, they could see we are crying out for reinforcements.

And no matter who you like to blame for that position, why aren't they finding the cash from somewhere to fund a couple more forays into the transfer market before the window closes?

As it is we're in the middle of a breakdown but Rafa's the man to get the engine purring again - and, don't forget, he'll soon have the AA to help him too...(sorry).

But seriously, keep the faith, lay off Rafa - oh, and stick this in your window...

* Spending figures from transferleague

REMEMBERING ISTANBUL: FAR FOREIGN LAND

IT might have been over four years ago, but I can still remember it like yesterday - Istanbul, the pinnacle of my time as a Liverpool FC fan.

The colour and songs of Taksim Square, John Aldridge laughing at a mate's broken down taxi, Veggard Heggem answering the call of nature on the mountainous route to the Ataturk Stadium, Stevie Gerrard lifting the Big One...

So much happened on that trip it's hard to know what to say (and what not to say).

And that's what initially attracted me to Tony Evans's books Far Foreign Land
because putting something so big into words is no easy task.

Take this extract, when that very subject - what it meant to win the European Cup that night in May 2005 - is being discussed:

"Shock brought incoherence. Tony attempted to quantify the magnitude of what we had just seen.

'It is like the best day of your life, only better,' he said. 'The way your wedding day is supposed to be, but isn't.'

'Well, your wedding didn't cause mass pain to thousands of Evertonians and Mancs,' Dave said.

This was an ingredient to be relished, the sweet dusting on the Turkish delight. Rivaly brings such pleasure - and pain."

Evans is the Football Editor at The Times, as well as a lifelong Red from Scotty Road.

The book is about ticketless Tony's five-day train journey from Liverpool to Istanbul to watch the Reds' biggest game for 21 years.

As you would expect it details the journey, and the match itself.

But Far Foreign Land is much more than that.

As Evans says early on, to truly tell the story of how he was feeling he had to refer to the past - and he does, warts an all.

While there are laugh out loud moments, there are also dark - often avoided subjects - like Liverpool fans' role in the Heysel disaster.

There's no attempt to glamourise or gloss over subjects, Evans just tells it how he saw it.

The book is also an insight into the changing face of the game - how money, greed and globalisation has made football unrecognisable from the working class game with an image problem of the 70s and 80s.

And that, as Evans details, has led to a new breed of fans - less concerned about loyalty and passion and more concerned about jester hats and face painting.

Overall, this is no ordinary football book. No hooligan-sensationalism, one-eyed bigotry or fawning over players - just what it really means to be a Liverpool fan.

As relevant now as four years ago - if not more so since the age of the Yanks - it's one of the best LFC books I have read.

Far Foreign Land is £8.99 (for each sale £1 is donated to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign). You can buy the book here.

AQUILANI v ALONSO

IF you haven't found time to go to YouTube and type in 'Alberto Aquilani' what have you been doing? Second thoughts don't answer that...

But in case you still don't know quite what to expect from our new midfield man when he pulls on a red shirt in October, watch the film above, expertly made by 'MilanKakaBaros' at FootyFilms. And if you're still drying your eyes after we ripped Madrid off for Xabi Alonso, well the film below is for you. Enjoy.

RAFA BENITEZ: HERO OR ZERO?

TONIGHT must have been too much to bear for some people.

First, they got their hopes up that Rafa Benitez was quitting Liverpool as yet again bookie-fuelled speculation made it into the public domain.

This latest nugget - that Rafa had stormed out the club and would not take charge of the Stoke game - was apparently fuelled by a rush of bets in the Bristol and Kent areas on Benitez to be the first Premier League manager to be sacked.

Come the game, and there he is - sat in the dug out.

That was disappointment number one for the doom-mongers and the anti-Rafa league.

And that was quickly followed by Stoke failing to put another spanner in the works after holding the Reds to two draws last season.

Meanwhile, thanks to Robbie Blake and Burnley, maybe the spotlight of the snipers in the press will turn to another team that plays in red from the North West...

I really don't understand the feeling against Rafa. I don't hail him as some kind of God - I know he's made mistakes and no doubt he will do again.

But on the whole - and in the circumstances (which have often been trying) - I feel he's done a great job.

Won us the European Cup and the FA Cup, took us as close as we've been since the last title win to number 19, another European final...

But judge for yourselves, here's a lengthy (sorry) but, I feel, entertaining debate about our manager between me, Robbo, and another Red - Ian L - a regular at Anfield, but clearly not such a big fan of Benitez...

So who's right...?

Ian L:

The Yanks get a lot of unfair stick, IMO.

Yes, the club is in debt - but so are you and me if you have a mortgage. It's not the level of debt but how you service it.

And I'm not too sure about this moving the goalposts. As fans, we need to question where these stories come from.

Rafa has proved time and time again he is very adept at using the press for his own means. Anyone remember the "I didn't buy Robbie Keane" nonsense?

Now you tell me which top 4 manager wouldn't know if his club had just bought a £20m forward? Yet the Rafa apologistas lapped it up, "oooh, Keane was forced on him, he never really wanted him in the first place."

It was clear that the whole Keane saga was a front for the power struggle between Rafa and Parry.

Come on. If stories start appearing in the press that Rafa suddenly has less money to spend - ask yourself where have they come from?

Which 'camp' has most to benefit from it?

And no-one has suggested that maybe Rafa knew he had a smaller pot to begin with - and decided to blow it all on a journeyman rightback and an Italian version of Matt Le Tissier....

This may sound like a massive anti-Rafa rant - and it's not. All I'm saying is we all need to open our eyes.

robbohuyton said...

If you don't believe the goalposts have been moved, you believe that Rafa knew he had £37 million to spend this summer and decided to spend it all on two players - I don't believe that for a second, Rafa would be shooting himself in the foot.

Love him or hate him, he obviously wants to win the league - and you're suggesting he'd be happy to kick off the season a centre back down and with no number 7?

Nah.

And if the stories are not true, why the silence from G&H? They could surely leak some information of their own?

As for unfair stick - like what?

No stadium, no 'any player Rafa wants...'

And yes it is about servicing the debt in these circumstances - and the Glazers seem to be doing just fine in terms of allowing their manager to spend.

Ian L:

I'm not saying the goalposts have or haven't been moved, I'm saying where has this information come from, who stands to gain by it being in the public domain, and why release it now?

The way it's being portrayed is that Rafa only has £1.5m to spend - he is painted as the victim while G&H are seen as the villians. It's like a panotmine.

The truth of the matter is that he has had a shedful of money at his disposal over the last couple of seasons and IF the £1.5m figure is correct, he only has himself to blame. He is fantastically average in the transfer market -at best he and the scouts get it right 50/50.

Before you all point to Torres, Reina, Mash - world-class signings, lets look at the last two seasons, where he spent almost £74m. Yes that's right, £74m.


08-09
£20m - Robbie Keane
£8m – Albert Riera
£7m - Andrea Dossena
£1.5m - David N’gog

09-10
£20m – Alberto Aquilani
£17m - Glen Johnson
£2m - that french defender

So you ask, did I think Rafa already knew he only had c£40m to spend? Only he knows that - however that figure, or thereabouts, is what he has had for the last couple of seasons, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

So the question should be: Why did we think Rafa had a load more dosh this season?

Because the papers said so...

robbohuyton said...

Ian - turning that around the other way then - you are suggesting that coming into this summer Rafa Benitez knew he had around £40m to spend.

And, despite obviously knowing we needed an attacker and a centre half, he went off and spent it all on Johnson and Aquilani - meanwhile hatching a plan to manipulate the press to get more money.

And now he is spent up, he is leaking to the press that the Yanks won't give him any more money - two weeks before the transfer window closes and already one game into the season?

Seems a little far fetched to say the least.

As for the 'shedful of money'. Well it's not though is it?

Yes, £74m in two seasons sounds a lot. But we are trying to out-muscle Manchester United and Chelsea - we have to spend.

And to be honest we have to spend a whole lot more than that.

But Rafa isn't being allowed to compete at the top end of the market so, in effect, has to gamble on mid-priced players that may, or may not, work out.

To put it into context, look at Spurs.

Not even mentioned as a team challenging for the league and yet in the last two seasons they have spent...wait for it: £151.4million - more than double Rafa's outlay.

But Spurs - and Harry Redknapp- are very much the media darlings so that's alright - there's no witch hunt for the wide boy when he leaves players on the bench and no media analysis of his every breath - and he's not even expected to challenge for honours!

So if we are talking about the papers, well i'd argue that many of them have an anti-Benitez agenda - and this rubs off on the fans.

Anyhow, those Spurs figures:

Under Harry Redknapp (from 25/10/08 to present)

£15m Defoe
£12m Keane
£10m Crouch
£12m Palacios
£1m Chimbonda
£10m Naughton & Walker
£8m Bassong
__________
£68million

Under Ramos (29/10/07 - 25-10-08)

Hutton £9m
Gomes £7.8m
Modric £16.6m
Corluka £8.5m
Bentley £15m
Pavlyuchencko £13.8m
Giovani £4.7m
Woodgate £8m

------------
£83.4m

TOTAL: £151.4million

Ian L:

No, I'm saying over the last few seasons, Rafa has had a c£40m budget to spend. And this one appears to be no different. Who he chooses to go and buy is a matter for him.

How about this for a proposal. He is happy with what's he bought, will use more of the kids next season (Spearing/Nemeth/Darby etc) and it's the press stirring up this £1.5m line.

We're not going to get a number 7 but in truth no other top striker is going to come to Anfield to sit on the bench as Rafa won't break up the formation he prefers at the moment.

As fans, we're all salivating that Villa might come but in reality, he won't leave Spain to play second fiddle to the Torres-Stevie love-in.

Unless Rafa changes the way we play - and I don't think he will.

It's also a complete myth that Rafa isn't allowed to compete at the top end of the market. One that is happily swallowed by lots of Reds, who think that he is being forced to do his job with one hand behind is back, while G&H starve the club of money.

For for the last few seasons, we have outspent Man Utd, apart from one season, where they spent about £50m or so and we spent £40m or so. I think it was the season we bought Torres. I will try and dig out the figures.

He isn't forced to buy anyone he doesn't want. He apparently wanted Simao but 'ended up' with Pennant. He didn't have to buy him. Would we have fared any different if he hadn't bought him.

Most Reds will agree his time at Anfield will have been considered a failure by our standards and by his promise of potential. Yes, he could float in a nice cross now and again but he was too inconsistent.

Yet he cost £7m and left this summer for nowt!

The point I am making here is that Rafa is given money to spend but doesn't do it wisely. On the whole, he prefers to buy quantity over quality (Torres, Mash and Reina excepted) because his philosophy is about having a squad so that he can rest players, ready for the last third of the season.

I agree with him on this point but why pay the wages of Voronin as a fourth striker, why blow £7m on Pennant, when you could use one of the kids? Use them on a wet Tuesday in the Carling Cup, even use them in the FA Cup so the first teamers can have a rest.

And all the Spurs figures prove is that they are as wasteful in the transfer market as Rafa.

robbohuyton said...

The Spurs figures prove that what Rafa has spent is peanuts in Premier League terms - look at Man City now, look at Chelsea when they paid top whack for a string of players.

We have never spent like that under the Yanks and never will. £40m a season is pissing in the wind – especially when he's actually recouped more than that this summer.

Comparing the spending per season to Man U proves nothing either. When Rafa arrived they were already a top team - and remain one - so obviously they don't need to go out and buy loads of players.

The point with the Mancs is when they do go out and buy they pay top whack and top wages - Rooney, Ferdinand, Berbatov etc - we don't.

And just how is it a myth that we don't compete at the top end of the market?

We've missed out on Vidic and Evra, we bid for Silva but didn't offer enough. There's countless examples.

It's not like we were in the hunt for Ribery is it? And yet our title rivals were - says it all.

So to quote Houllier, Benitez is left to search for the 'unpolished diamond' - the cast offs that United, Chelsea, Madrid and now City don't want.

And for that to change, the Yanks have give him some real cash.

Ian L:

You make it sound like we were Accrington Stanley and needed loads of new players. It wasn't that bad under Houllier - Didi, Sami, Henchoz, Carragher, Finnan, Gerrard, Riise (yes Riise) were all more than decent.

Granted, when Rafa arrived he had to do some clearing out (but still managed to win the CL with his Dirty Dozen rag-bag players) but five years after he came, he surely should be there with his players that can mount a sustained, serious title challenge and doesn't need to buy the likes of Voronin, Degen, Dossena.

The fact is that Rafa blew the league last season when we had the best chance in 19 years, thanks to his cautious approach and the draws which killed us.

The point with the Mancs is that when they buy, they tend to buy two big names. Why don't we do that? Instead of buying 6 or 7 players as we have done in the past.

The Yanks have given him real cash and when he gets it right, it gets it very right - Torres and Mash.

But when he gets it wrong, he screws up big time. £7m for Pennant wasn't a lot but with wages, say £50,000 a week, makes £7.8m over three years. So plus his transfer fee, Pennant could have cost the club around £16m and that's before you add bonuses.

That's money that could have been spent elsewhere. Repeat this a couple of times over and Rafa has expensive shopping habits.

Saying that we have missed out on so and so because we didn't bid enough is too simplistic. There are a whole host of reasons that players do or don't go to clubs, from the actual bid, to wages, to whether they will get first team football, the manager, where the club is (ie London) etc

robbohuyton said...

Well like Hicks and Gillet, I'm not buying it.

Liverpool competed directly with Man U for Evra and Vidic - and lost out both times, so it's obviously not a level playing field.

United are getting 35,000 fans more every other week coming through the turnstiles - that's a lot of cash.

So where's our new stadium? Well ask H&G aka 'spade in the ground within 60 days'.

In the meantime, interest payments are burning through the cash Rafa could be spending on top players and top wages.

The reason he bought the players you highlight has been covered - he has to gamble, we are NOT competing for top players.

And Riise? You're having a laugh. Couldn't defend, couldn't attack, no skill, no pace.

LFC SAY RAFA HASN'T QUIT

REPORTS on the internet are suggesting Rafa Benitez has quit and Sammy Lee will take charge for tonight's game with Stoke.

I have spoken to the LFC press office tonight and they say Rafa is at Anfield now and hasn't walked off.
So yet again a Rafa quit scenario has been stirred up by the bookies. Either someone's got a lot of cash to burn - or someone's telling porkies...

YANKS STINK OUT ANFIELD AGAIN

LIKE a fart in a sleeping bag - there's no getting away from the bad smell of Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

And just one game into the new season, there it is again.

Despite conflicting reports tonight suggesting Liverpool have now found their fourth-choice centre back in Greece defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos, it's clear the Reds are still going into battle this season without the right weapons.

It's been widely reported that Liverpool's unpopular American owners have moved the goalposts this summer regarding the budget for players, leaving Benitez mid-recruitment with nothing to spend.

And the signings of Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani back up this version of events.

Whatever you think of Benitez, it is nonsensical for him to blow his whole transfer budget on two players when a centre back - plus another attacker - are still badly needed.

That's why reports suggesting the money allocated for players has now gone into the kitty to help refinance the club seem to make sense.

What I don't understand about the Yanks is why they would jeopardise the team's success?

It's clear they don't give a flying about the fans and what the club means but credit crunch or no credit crunch, surely 'Liverpool FC - Champions' would be a better 'product' for them to sell?

Maybe they have now given Rafa the nod to sign former Rangers man Kyrgiakos.

But again our manager - who has been linked with Michael Turner, Fernando Amorebieta and Ryan Shawcross - is asking for a table and getting a lamp.

While the Spaniard kept schtum about money at the press conference previewing tonight's game with Stoke, don't expect that to continue if the Texans keep the coffers shut until the transfer window shuts.

TIME TO FILL LIVERPOOL'S NUMBER SEVEN SHIRT

LET'S hope the rumours are true.

Liverpool's vacant number seven shirt has sparked all kinds of rumours on Merseyside as to who will fill it - from Thierry Henry to David Villa.

And while signing either looks as likely as a happy Evertonian, it's clear we need something after hopes of picking up where we left off last season were smashed by Spurs.

Yesterday's performance was poor - even glass half full Liverpudlians will struggle to find positives from a match in which we barely troubled Heurelho Gomes, who's not the safest pair of hands in the Premier League.

Within 10 minutes it was clear things were not right.

During our devastating spell at the tail end of last season, we were steamrollering teams from the first whistle.

But this was more huff and puff than steamrollering.

Pre-season, Rafa made a clear attempt to instil some confidence in Ryan Babel, predicting this would be the year he finally justified his £11million price tag.

We're still waiting.

The Dutchman was given yet another chance to shine with Albert Riera (worryingly linked with a move to Barcelona today) surprisingly rested and Yossi Benayoun left twiddling his thumbs on the bench.

Babel had looked good for Holland against England but yesterday he did nothing - Benayoun produced more in 23 minutes than Babel had in 67.

Another man everyone was looking for more from was Lucas and while he did OK, and was far from the worst performer, it said it all that Steven Gerrard ended up dropping deep to try and pick up the ball and influence the game.

Gerrard's first-half daisycutter, a header from a sulky Fernando Torres which went wide and the penalty were the only significant efforts on goal.

And if it wasn't for Pepe Reina's brilliance allied to Robbie Keane's wastefulness, we could have been on the end of a hiding.

Benitez made much of the penalty shouts after the game but in truth neither was nailed on.

What was more worrying was the respective substitute benches yesterday:

David Bentley	Yossi Benayoun
Peter Crouch	Diego Cavalieri
Carlo Cudicini	Andrea Dossena
Alan Hutton	Martin Kelly
Kyle Naughton	Daniel Sanchez Ayala
Jamie O'Hara	Jay Spearing
Roman Pavlyuchenko	Andriy Voronin

I know which one I'd rather have.

Only Benayoun really could be relied on to influence the game - which he did. But it is clear we are crying out for more signings - even when Alberto Aquilani is fit.

It felt like it yesterday, but it's not all doom and gloom.

Johnson looked good in flashes and obviously won the penalty, Insua was solid and Reina was world class.

And at least White Hart Lane, traditionally a bogey ground, is out of the way now.

But there's more questions than answers after that performance.

Stoke are next up, a team we dropped four points to last season - enough to have won the league.

Benitez has promised a more attacking approach at home and that could benefit Johnson and Lucas but Babel can only hope for the bench at best.

Liverpool will surely play better - they would do well to play worse.

IT'S ALL OVER FOR LIVERPOOL - WITHOUT A BALL BEING KICKED...

THE new season is so close you can almost reach out and touch it.

It's the time of year when you should be dreaming up songs for new signings, dusting off your lucky boxer shorts and picking your fantasy footie team with a big smile on your face.

But if you believe the ex-pros and national newspaper columnists, you needn't bother this year.

Carry on shopping, cutting the grass and painting the fence - because without Xabi Alonso there's no hope of the title coming to Anfield in May.

Now it seems, Liverpool are no longer a two-man team, other Reds players are decent - now they've left, that is.

But if Xabi's suddenly so good he can single-handedly swing a title one way or another - where were the articles hailing him as the world's best?

Where was the praise for Benitez for plucking such a gem from the relative obscurity of Real Sociedad?

Well don't bother exercising your Google searchbar - they're not there.

Not just because it didn't suit certain journos' agendas to write that kind of piece. But also because Alonso had two ordinary seasons before peaking in the last campaign.

With the saga of his sale out the way, a sizeable sum of £30million banked, Rafa Benitez kissing his middle finger in the direction of Madrid and the quickfire signing of Alberto Aquilani, everything should be alright again though, right?

Wrong. He's a crock, we're told. Not in Xabi's class. Too lightweight for the Premier League. And on it goes.

Suddenly, everyone's an expert on Aquilani.

Well I'm not - and I'm not afraid to say it. I've read the background and watched the clips on Youtube. I've heard the Roma players and staff speak favourably about him, not least former Red John Arne Riise.

But I'll judge for myself when Aquilani runs out in red which, unfortunately by the looks of things, won't be until October.

Meanwhile, everyone continues to overstate the influence of Alonso.

How far can it go? It's like when Kevin Keegan left, Kenny Dalglish retired or Ian Rush headed for Italy?

Even better. How about that Liverpool's title challenge is over before a ball is kicked because of the sale of Alonso?

I'm exaggerating though, right? No-one could write off a club that finished four points shy of the title. A side that won home and away against the Champions and Chelsea. And all this despite not having the best striker in the world available for a large chunk of the season.

They could you know.

According to Daily Mail columnist Martin Samuel, by selling a player who was desperate to leave for an inflated fee and immediately replacing him with a highly-rated Italian, the Reds have: "put a stick of dynamite under their title aspirations again".

And once one 'expert' reels out this unsubstantiated drivel, they all follow suit. It's like a huge snowball - only this one is a browner shade of white.

I've been away on holiday for a week. And in the matter of hours since I've been back I've watched Ray Parlour and Andy Townsend write us off because Alonso's left.

Then I read a few season previews - everyone trotting out the same old line that Liverpool have been severely weakened by his departure and can't possibly push for the title.

It seems Rafa Benitez can't do anything right - while Alex Ferguson never does any wrong.
Glen Johnson is the England right back, Portsmouth's player of the year and could have gone back to Chelsea.

But he's too dear.

And there's no point in having a decent right back because there's no decent left wingers in the Premier League (according to Paul Merson).

On the other hand, it's a stroke of genius to sell arguably the world's best player in Cristiano Ronaldo (in his peak) and replace him with Michael Owen (definitely not in his).

Sometimes I despair, I really do.

But then I remember I've got some boxer shorts to dust.

Anyone got any Aqualani songs?!

Read my season preview at LFC Bet