I just hope if he does have full control of transfers et al, that he will use that control wisely and get the players that could take us to that elusive first Premier League title.

Don't need to, every time you type is enough for that.

When have Liverpool managed to finish in the top 2 in the last 5 years?

Precisley my point
keith take note.

You are a very poor troll.

I'm not trolling. As Rafa would say, I'm just stating facts (along with the prediction that Chelsea will progress further than Liverpool in the CL, which I admit is built upon nothing more than faith and hope because they draw isn't even known yet.)

Stating facts?

Who said we love those 'meaningless' titles? The whole 'hardest working team' was a debate from the last thread, where I actually said United worked harder than us with the ball, and in my comment earlier in this thread, I said 'I'm not trying to gloat'. It was a debate I found interesting, yet you seem to think I was 'loving a meaningless title', something which was only my opinion.

Again, Torres being the top scorer in his debut season, or whatever it was, I don't quite understand who goes around gloating about things like that , it may be true but I don't know any Liverpool fan who goes around saying things like that, as an excuse for us not winning it would be quite strange if they did, they may use it as an argument for him being a top player, which is only fair, no? And the only time I ever really remember that being brought up was when he broke the record or whatever, since then I've not really heard it mentioned, so how exactly do we 'love' the meaningless title?

Nobody says they mean anything, you've just come to that 'fact' yourself, it wasn't even a Liverpool fan who brought up the whole 'Europe's number 1 side' thing, again, it's just us being at the top of the Uefa rankings, nothing more, nothing less, yet you have somehow come to the conclusion that we thing it means loads. Strange.

It is Benitez himself who makes the most of the UEFA ranking. I've read about him talking about it at least three times, and I don't in any way go out of my way to read the words of the Fat Spanish Waiter.

So Keith, after your win at OT and Rafa signing, are you going to win the title, are you good enough?

I think you need to try and sign just one quality signing a season instead of 3 or 4 average ones, by doing that you will become a major force on all fronts which you almost are anyway.

Unlike Lord God Jose Mourinho, I can't see into the future, so I don't know if we will win the League.

The win at OT made it possible, but still unlikely. We are still 4 points behind, potentially 7, and with 9 games to go that still makes it a very hard task. What I will say is, after the win at OT, we are still in with a chance coming to the end of March, and it may put Man U under a bit more pressure, which is what any level headed Liverpool fan (Ande, take note) was saying is what they wanted at the start of the season. Any chance of winning the league has tended to cease well before now in previous seasons, so we are progressing, no matter what anyone says. The fact that we have been consistently good in Europe also shows we are on the right path.

Problem is, there are some, because of our history, and these tend to be of the younger generation, Championship Manager generation, note I said some, think we have a god given right to win the League, and would change the manager year in year out until we do, or suggest someone like Martin O'Neil, who couldn't hold a candle to the likes of Rafa. Of all these people who have criticised Rafa's new contract, I've yet to see one offer an alternative that would be better.

They just don't realise the scale of the job Rafa faced when he got here and whilst he's been here. They don't even understand why he's had to buy the players he has in the previous 4 years, but as I said, they are pretty clueless to be honest. They can't see what's in front of their eyes. I mean the bloke hasn't had much say what goes on at the Academy FFS, how can that be?

I don't think Rafa signing the contract will have any bearing on how we play just like I don't think it had any bearing on how we played whilst he was negotiating.



Well, if we don't win it, then obviously not.

At the moment we have shown on any given day we can beat anyone. We seem to have done a complete turn around from previous seasons where we have struggled against the top 3 and beat the "easy pickings" in the main. This year, for some reason we have struggled to beat the lesser sides, especially at Anfield, yet up to now, just dropped 2 points away at Arsenal against the top 3, beatin both Man U and Chelsea home and away.

We are at the stage now where we don't need to bring quantity in to the club to refresh the squad, the problem we have had for the first 3 seasons under Rafa, now we can concentrate on hopefully bringing in 1 or 2 top class players in to enhance the squad in the areas that's needed. Rafa thought that Keane could be a good addition to the squad, but it didn't work out that way, so he's gone, and I'm sure he'll try to bring in another top striker to replace him.

But there again, with the sale of the club up in the air, will the G&H splash the cash or will they sell. I think it's July they have to payback the finance, which is bang in the middle of when Rafa would hope to be signing players, so that could bring it's own problems.

So you would reject the idea of Roberto Mancini comign to Liverpool to manage? Is he good enough for you Keith?

We're apparently set to announce a link with Almeria apparently, something that will give us first choice on their players. Sounds like an alright idea, they have young Piatti who's progressing nicely and could be a 'big club player' in a few years, they also have Negredo who I feel could be a more than adequate back up for Torres.

I'm not too familiar with this whole linking up business, what happens? Do we just pay them a certain amount every year in return for having first refusal, like?