Liverpool FC

[Djibril Cisse]

Benitez to ring in the changes

I' d like to see Dudek stay..same with Hamann although the German is most likely on his way out.

I like to see Dudek stay aswell but half of the squad is not good enough as finishing 36 points behind Chelsea shows in the away from home we have bein terrible.According to the offical website Rafa is gonna get 25 millon to spend on the squad in the summer.

This is who i like to see leave

Out:
Diouf
Kirkland (injury prone)
Diao
Smicer
Pellegrino
Mellor
Le Tallec
Kewell
Baros

 

[Amika]

RAFA: NEVER CALL ME THE SPECIAL ONE

Rafael Benitez has pleaded with Liverpool fans never to label him as 'the special one!

Despite leading his players to European Cup glory at the end of his first season as Liverpool manager, Benitez insists it's his staff and players who deserve most credit for the remarkable ending to one of the greatest seasons in the club's illustrious history.

Benitez himself doesn't covet the limelight like certain other managers and doesn't boast about his undoubted managerial abilities. Indeed, he's already looking forward to next season and the possibility of bringing more silverware to Anfield.

He said: "As a manager you are important sometimes and you make mistakes, but the most important people are your staff and your players. Never call me the special one!

"I am one step closer to what the other managers achieved, that's all. I have to do a lot more before I am considered on the same level.

"Now it's important to build on this success. When you see the supporters and how the club works it is like a religion to them. We will try to do our best to bring more trophies back for them."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N148957050527-1022.htm

 

[Jimbob]

If Rafa never wins anything else, He will still always be a legend..

 

[Joe Star]

RAFA: NEVER CALL ME THE SPECIAL ONE Benitez himself doesn't covet the limelight like certain other managers and doesn't boast about his undoubted managerial abilities. I

Haha that was a nice 1 . Yup.....you can call the domestic campaign a disaster but this season has to go down as being the best for liverpool in the past few years

 

[Sprhr66]

I need the penalty shootout clip from the AC milan - Liverpool final.

 

[newbie original]

Baros Valencia bound?

He' s still not sure. I don' t think the final decision will be up to him though.

 

[Jimbob]

Baros is a strange one....On one hand i think he can be excellent....the next minute hes Sh1te...He can go as long as we get a good replacement.

 

[mihalll]

Jerzy Dudek tribute clip

http://s18.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3923W93G7H4TM3A4M8RFV6BSJU

 

[Sprhr66]

Thx milhalll for the clip.u made it?

 

[mihalll]

No, it was made by the Polish TV station. They showed it right after the end of the match.

 

[Sprhr66]

Do u people have the clip of both of the extra time . i need them.thx

 

[shadowofanubis6]

http://rapidshare.de/files/2039407/milanpool.avi.html

that's the highlights i made for the ac milan vs liverpool match... gets kinda wierd in the middle of the pk shootout but everythin else is fine. enjoy

 

[Sprhr66]

thx shadowofanubis6.

edit:I cant download it.It has too many people downloading it.Can u give me another link.

 

[Haukur Gudnason]

Tomorrows Guardian

Liverpool's chances of defending their Champions League title received a boost last night when senior figures at Uefa indicated a compromise could be reached to allow the Merseyside club into next season's competition.
A Uefa source said Liverpool would not be handed direct entry, but would probably have to play one qualifying round despite being champions. The sixteenth and final guaranteed place among the 32 teams who contest the group stage would go to Fenerbahçe as champions of Turkey, which as the tenth strongest country in Uefa is due one direct entrant.

'That would be the most reasonable solution, and would be unlikely to offend anybody,' said the official.
By the time Liverpool start their campaign in August they will have made several key changes to their playing squad. Rafael Benítez is resisting the temptation to rest on the laurels of Istanbul and is already preoccupied with the task of giving his European champions a new spine so they can mount a serious challenge next season to Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premiership. A goalkeeper, a central defender, one or two midfielders and at least one striker are his priorities, and some initial moves have been made to bring in the four, five or six players he wants.

Most intriguingly, Peter Crouch, the 6ft 7in Southampton striker who missed out on his England debut in Chicago last night because of an ankle injury, is on the list of top targets. Benítez is a keen admirer and sees Crouch as the type of forward who can get the better of Premiership defences - something Liverpool's present strikers managed too rarely last season. Benítez is undeterred that the 24-year-old has already played for six clubs and not yet established himself as a prolific marksman.

Sources close to Crouch last night indicated that the Macclesfield-born forward would relish a switch to Anfield. 'We're aware that Peter has caught Benítez's eye and that Liverpool and a number of other clubs are potentially interested in him, most in the Premiership but also some in Italy,' said one associ ate. 'If Liverpool made an offer I'm sure we could do a deal.'

Bolton, Manchester City, Blackburn and West Brom are among the other clubs keen on Crouch, who has just had his pay cut by 50 per cent after Southampton's relegation and is keen to move.

Liverpool are also keen on Feyenoord's free-scoring forward Dirk Kuyt to bolster a front line that will feature Djibril Cissé and Fernando Morientes, who will be free to play in Europe next season, having been ineligible after his £6.3 million move from Real Madrid in January. Dutchman Kuyt, 24, has scored 22 goals in 33 league games this season. Feyenoord's valuation of £10m may prove too much for Benítez, despite having a transfer kitty of some £25m.

Milan Baros is certain to leave Anfield, and the Czech Republic striker yesterday confirmed that Valencia were keen to sign him.

José Reina, the Villarreal goalkeeper, is likely to replace Jerzy Dudek, despite the Pole's match-winning performance last Wednesday. If Dudek returns to Feyenoord, his former club, as is rumoured, that could help facilitate Kuyt's arrival at Anfield.

Benítez may again raid the Spanish market he knows so well to give him greater competition for places in central defence beside Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia. Real Zaragoza's Argentine centre-half Gabriel Milito, valued at £6m, is his top target. Milito was due to join Real Madrid in 2003, but the move collapsed at the last minute because of a knee problem.

Midfield is Liverpool's most pressing area, though. Steven Gerrard has made the acquisition of at least one world-class midfielder a condition of committing his foreseeable future to Anfield.

Owen Hargreaves, who is keen to play in the Premiership to cement a place in the England squad for the 2006 World Cup, is likely to arrive from Bayern Munich. But he would not provide the width and penetration Benítez wants. That could pave the way for a move for Manchester City's Shaun Wright-Phillips.

 

[Haukur Gudnason]

From the Observer:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1494903,00.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So what if they didn't win the league? Hail champions with cheers, not jeers

A Champions League open to non-champions is vastly more difficult to win than old knockout cup - and critics should accept that, says Paul Wilson

Sunday May 29, 2005
The Observer

Purists and pedants alike are already busy revising the last few days of history. Liverpool might have thought they had just completed the greatest European Cup final comeback of all time, but even as the trophy goes into permanent residence at Anfield the achievement is being sniffed at because the new European Cup is not the old European Cup, the Champions League is no longer for champions and Rafael Benítez's players have yet to prove they are even the best team on Merseyside.

Some critics seem to want it both ways. The glaring fault of the old format was that although the competition was open only to champions, the champions of Spain, to pick an obvious example, would find it fairly straightforward to eliminate the champions of lesser leagues. To pine for that sort of elitism just because Liverpool could only reach fifth place in the Premiership this season seems ridiculous. In 1985, the last time Liverpool reached the final under the old system, they travelled to Brussels for their ill-fated meeting with Juventus by virtue of having disposed of Lech Poznan, Benfica, Austria Vienna and Panathinaikos. That was it. Four ties, eight legs, all against teams from lesser leagues, and Liverpool were in the final. No one carped at the time, yet now they are carping because Liverpool have managed to put out the champions of England and the top two teams in Serie A .
Nostalgia for the noble origins of the competition is permissible, just as memories of Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskás do not deserve to be dimmed just because television money and G14 greed have altered the original concept beyond all recognition. What needs to be acknowledged is that the European Cup as presently constructed is vastly more difficult to win than it used to be, precisely because it now contains all the leading teams from all the leading leagues in Europe. If you can stay the course and come out on top of that lot, especially if you happen to have turned round 3-0 down in the final, you ought to be greeted with cheers and not raspberries.

It is undeniable too, and this process has accelerated with the much-needed pruning of the second group stage within the last couple of years, that the competition has become more democratic. This is amazing considering the Champions League was specifically designed to preserve the status quo in Europe and to ensure the biggest clubs made the most money and enjoyed the best chance of success, but the trend established by Porto last season has now been followed by Liverpool in a competition that English clubs have played a major part in this season. Suddenly this is a competition any properly organised and ambitious team can win. With the greatest respect to Liverpool's history, this season they entered the contest as unfancied minnows, and finished it the most unlikely of giant-killers. This is the formula that makes the FA Cup so attractive, writ large across Europe.

In any sport, in any era, all a competitor can do is play by the the rules as they stand and beat the opponents presented. Liverpool did that, fair and square. In terms of determination, application and character their fifth European Cup is at least on a par with any of their previous four, and Benítez has proved an inspirational leader in a remarkably short time. End of story, except that by playing the rules as they presently stand Liverpool will find themselves excluded next season. Only an organisation as dim as Uefa could simultaneously invite non-champions into a Champions League while turning their back on real champions they have just travelled all the way to Istanbul to crown. Credibility has never been a Uefa strong point, but even by their standards it would be ludicrous to stand on ceremony now, just when their competition is more credible than ever.

 

[shadowofanubis6]

thx shadowofanubis6.

edit:I cant download it.It has too many people downloading it.Can u give me another link.

That's very strange.... it should work, it works for me now...

 

[Sprhr66]

Anubis this is what it wrote now.

You have requested the file milanpool.avi (28444672 Bytes). This file has been downloaded 1 times already.


IMPORTANT: Download-accelerators are only supported with a PREMIUM-Account!

You have requested 29710 KB in one hour. If you request a file and get a download-link, your download-counter is increased immediately.
This is neccessary in order to give you completely anonymous download-links without strong restrictions. We protect your privacy.
In order to finance this webspace, downloads are limited for free-users. This file exceeds your download-limit.
Please wait one hour. Or maybe you want to get a PREMIUM-Account, too? NO subscription! Instant access!

 

[Joe Star]

I'm downloading it right now, had no problems . Maybe you should disable your download accelarator if u have 1.

 

[newbie original]

I couldn' t give a damn what people say about not winning the Premier League......two years ago, Milan finished THIRD but won the CL and there was no such criticism. In fact, if they wana say this now then WHY NOT HAVE THE GUTS TO DO SO EVERYTIME IT HAPPENS? Jealous cowards........

It would be fine with me if they wanted to go back to a Champions ONLY Champions League but don' t tarnish a team' s acheivment simply because you cannot stand to see it finish lower in its league than you did in yours BUT STILL BEAT YOU in the head to head game.

We are the CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE NOT !!!!!!!!

 

[Rami]

We are the CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE NOT !!!!!!!!

it's been brilliant, I love just strolling down the street, wearing my Liverpool shirt, getting car horns, going up to chelsea shirt wearing people and yelling at them "UR SUPPORTING THE WRONG TEAM MATE!", it's lovely