First Serious Signing

I have always admired Glen Johnson but never the teams he had played with. He has great skills and his ability to defend well and at the same time join in the attack to worry the opposing defence is surely an asset to LFC.

But most importantly, he is English and with the new ruling of the quota for home-grown players in a team competing in Europe looming in the horizon, Rafa's decision to sign Johnson can surely be considered as a smart move. With him in the team, Rafa would not have to sacrifice other key players to adhere to this ruling when it is in effect.

LFC is actually spending £10M for Johnson because of the £7M owed by Portsmouth for the acquiring of Crouch. But apparently his wages is high and this has made players like Mascherano unhappy. It is reported that Mascherano is paid only £30K per week whilst it only makes sense that he is paid as much as the other great players in LFC, at a figure close to £100K per week.

With the purchase of Johnson, it is inevitable that some of the current players in the squad will be sold off. Players like Dossenna, Voronin, Arbeloa (after that on-field spat with Carragher) et al are expected to leave. What is worrisome is that key players such as Alonso and Mascherano (even Messi has joined in the talks) are being courted by likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Just hope that these players that make up the spine of the team do not leave us because then all the building up work done in the past few seasons would have all gone to waste.

(pic taken from: http://www.insidefutbol.com)

Back to reality

Just got back home last night after spending ten days in a hotel for the 17CCEM. The whole thing was wonderful but tiring because of the tight schedule. I was always on the move and got to go to bed only at around two everyday.

I had the privilege to be assigned with the delegates from the Kingdom of Lesotho. I met many new friends from around the world and also friends I have not met for many many years. I even met a classmate from my school days whom I have not seen for 25 years! Imagine that...

Really enjoyed being chauffeured around for the duration of the conference..hehe, and of course being in the motorcade with the outrider who helped to clear the roads for us. It was never easy when there were more than 40 ministers and delegates from more than 40 countries being escorted around. I have the utmost respect for the outriders now that I know how difficult the job is and also for the bravery that they displayed. Although one rider had to take care of 'only' 3 cars, I could see it took great skills on his part to smoothen the ride for us.

I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise to the drivers in Kuala Lumpur who had to endure the massive traffic jam that we created the whole of this week. For those whose vehicle was dented in the process and who panicked and froze in the middle of the roads when asked to move aside, please ask your friends about the actions to take. Better still, ask a driving school about it. And for those hard-headed ones, serve you right la...

In a nutshell, it was a very educating experience and I liked it a lot. But nothing beats being at home with the family. And I have got to update myself with what is happening at LFC...

What a nice arrangement!

This is something that I read on lfcglobe.com. Sickening is the right word to use if I may:

According to the Guardian, George Gillett and Tom Hicks are using money Liverpool have generated for their own personal expenses.

The club are being made to pay almost £2m to cover the travel and legal expenses of the American owners.

The owners’ holding company Kop Football’s accounts show that Hicks charged £192,000 for ‘third party consulting, travel and other expenses’, while co-owner Gillett charged £129,000 for ‘reimbursable travel, legal, personnel and other expenses’.

The total charged to Kop in expenses, for the owners and their affiliated companies, since their takeover in 2007 to the accounts’ end date of 31 July 2008, was £1.85million.

James McKenna, spokesman for the Spirit of Shankly, said: “Hicks and Gillett were the multimillionaires who promised not to do a Glazer and that work would start on the new stadium within 60 days.

“Yet now we find, as fans, not only are we paying for their takeover, but we are also paying for their costs of having done it, and, for coming over to visit the football club.

“They were supposed to bring investment to take the club forward, but it turns out we’re even paying their travel costs.”

Dark Days Ahead?

Read that LFC is in trouble as its parent company aka The Americans, suffered a £42.6m loss last year due to interest payments. It really does look bleak, doesn't it?

Looks like also we will never see good players like this one donning our jersey...

The End to the Barry Saga.

Good riddance, I say. So glad that he signed for City today. Never did rate him that much, really.

I personally feel that last season when Rafa was chasing him, it was more about Gerrard wanting Barry, his England team 'mate'. The excuse was Parry was slow in making the decision but we could speculate that Rafa did not really want him at Anfield. 

Gerrard again suggested how he would love to have Barry at LFC before Barry 'snubbed' us for the so-called assurance of first team football in a 12M deal (not for the money, of course, allegedly to be at 90K a week, and as if he did not play in every game at his old club, and was also the captain for goodness sake, and could have been be playing in Europe next season). With Parry gone and with Rafa in control of transfers of which he said he needed the power because quick decisions must be made in the transfer market, one could ask why he did not act 'quickly' to secure Barry first thing if he was really chasing him.

What is worrisome now would be whether Alonso, who was the supposedly lamb to be slaughtered for the money to secure Barry, would stay with us. He could be so pissed off with the whole idea that he might really snub us for a better respect for his talents in a greener pasture. He definitely completes the backbone of the team and his vision and accuracy in the game would surely be missed if he were to leave.

Hopefully this end to the Barry saga doesn't trigger an Alonso Saga.