LFC to Play Friendly Against Old Champions League Rivals

Liverpool’s will play their first game of their Swizz training excursion tomorrow against Beyer Leverkusen in Austria.

Leverkusen is a team that LFC have become very familiar with in recent seasons while playing in the Champions League. LFC first met and went out to the German team in the 2001-02 season, who upset the odds and overturned at 1-0 anfield lead. The return leg was nothing less than spectauar for the then Bundesliga leaders who produced a 4-2 home win to go through to the semi-finals 4-3 on aggregate. In the process they robbed us the chance to go head to head with Man Scum and finally took our place in the final (which they lost to Madrid).

The rematch came earlier this year when LFC played against them in the last-16 round of the European Cup/Champions League and breezed past the seeded team with two 3-1 wins and 6-2 on aggregate. The rest of course is history, as Liverpool went on to upset the odds by beating Juventus, Chealsea and the AC Milan to win the trophy for the fifth time (and for keeps!)

This friendly certainly won't have the same feveour of previous encounters, but will prove a strong test to Liverpool (who probably won't meed them again this season as Leverkusen only qualified for the UEFA Cup this season.) After this the team will be preparing to fly back to England to play the return leg against TNS at Wrexham and then back over to Switzerland to continue their summer training camp.

It will be an evening kick-off at 7:30 pm, local time (6:30pm GMT; 1:30pm EST; & 10:30am PST).

Owen in Bid for Anfield Return

Michael Owen (writes Chris Bascombe from the Liverpool Echo) is desperate to make a sensational return to Liverpool. The former Reds striker wants to end his Real Madrid exile and Anfield officials have been alerted to Owen's fervent desire to rejoin the club he left last summer.

A dramatic swoop hasn't been ruled out.

However, Rafa Benitez has already made other arrangements in the transfer market and would need convincing to move for the 25-year-old striker.

The European Champions have not budgeted for a bid for Owen, who joined the club as a schoolboy but decided to leave for Spain in an £8m deal last year.

Although Benitez could be in the hunt for a proven goalscorer before the transfer window closes, that would depend on how much he could raise in player sales.

His first priority is a target man, with Southampton's Peter Crouch still top of his wish list.

Liverpool are interested in the possibility of arranging a year loan deal with Real Madrid for Owen, but that would require some skilful negotiation and appears to be an extremely optimistic option at this stage.

Owen left with the Real Madrid squad for a summer tour of America yesterday, but he's anxious to return to England before the start of the season - and Liverpool are currently the only club which interests him.

Model professional Owen has never publicly expressed any discontent about life in Madrid, but privately he's become increasingly disillusioned since leaving England.

On the pitch, Owen's goal record defies the accepted view he's failed to make an impact in Spain.

He scored 14 goals in 22 starts, but he's never completely settled and has found himself regularly on the bench, despite his impressive goal ratio.

Owen scored 158 goals in 298 appearances of an Anfield career which began in 1997 and is seventh on the list of the club's all time goalscorers.

Meanwhile, the Luis Figo saga should be resolved this weekend.

The only issue now is Figo's pay-off from Real Madrid.

The Spanish club are no longer demanding a fee for the Portuguese star.

The 32-year-old midfielder is in the United States but will leave the Madrid tour when he's decided between Liverpool and Inter Milan.

The Reds are now in Switzerland preparing for the clash with Bayer Leverkusen in Austria tomorrow night.

---

I'm not sure what to make of story by the Echo. For a while I've thought of Micky Owen as a little bit of a "Rush to Juventus" and that he could be coming back after just one season away. However, being a young lad I don't recall Rush messing us around and leaving on the cheap or even if he cost more to bring him back than we sold him for.

Having said that if we could land MO for the same kind of price as we seem hell bent on spending for Crouch (or even a smidge more) I'd be all for it. Whether he leaves or stays Owen will do well, but only if he gets the game time. It would be interesting if we took him on loan for the season, only to buy him for a much more reduced price next Summer.

They claim that he won't go anywhere other than LFC if he returns, although in truth I'm sure he would have a hard time turning down, say Chelsea if they made an offer. However, he should be aware that, if he moves back to Anfield, Rafa would no longer see him as the golden boy before he left last summer.

I still rate him as a player and a forward and if he came back it would be awesome: Morientes, Baros, Cisse, AND Owen! The best part though is that I don't believe that Rafa (unlike his predecessor) build a team around him, and instead make him part of a squad that is really going places.

The only question remains is how the fans will respond. For my money anyone who puts on a red shirt and plays their part gets my support. I fully understand why he left last year, and I'm sure that he regrets it, he surely must have known that with Cisse gone for most of the season, he would not only have been celebrating in Instanpool, but also Cardiff and would've helped us look respectable in the league (the bonus being that the Toffee's would be in the UEFA Cup and we'd have no qualifying games to go through).

It's all early doors right now, but with our other top target being Crouch, it's a lot more fun to get excited about.

Instanpool Poem

This poem has been floating around our place for a couple of day's, I don't know where it came from or who wrote it...

The 96 were watching as we walked out in Istanbul
And Shanks and Bob and Emlyn, they were looking down as well
It seemed to be all over when Milan scored their three goals
But someone else was watching and that man was a Pole.
So the folks up there in heaven were a little bit surprised
When Pope John Paul the second appeared right before their eyes
He smiled at Shanks and Bob and Em knelt down and said some prayers
Then turned back towards the lads and said "I just spoke to Him upstairs

He can't do much that's obvious, but he'll see what he can do
He thinks it might be better if you played a 3-5-2
He saw the team was struggling, and that Finnan needed a rest
But don't you worry lads 'cause now the 'keepers gloves are blessed
You see - the lad in nets is one of mine So I put in a request
"I know I lived in Italy, down in the Vatican
But I can't quite bring myself to be shouting for Milan
So the words gone down to Rafa, to do the best he can
He whispered very quietly he'd do better with Hamman
He's says you'll be alright from now The game it isn't dead
And things will soon get better if young Steve uses his head
It was Vladi's birthday yesterday and the man owes him some luck
He'll even do the decent thing and make Milan Baros duck
We owe Xavi a big favour because of the broken leg
But he'll need to chase the follow up and score with his left peg
And then just to make it interesting He's ordered extra time
And we'll see how good them gloves are when Dudek saves it off the line.


We've done everything we can to make sure the ball stays out.
But we cannot interfere with the penalty shoot-out.
So Shanks, Bob, Emlyn and good ol' Pope Johnny Paul
Watched the match in wonder and cheered on every goal
And full time went to extra time with the fans nervously sick
And they waited until the time came for Serginho's first spot kick
Serghino he missed the goal, and Pirlo's shot was saved
But Didi and Lord Frodsham proved their nerves were not so frayed
Then Thomason put one in, but Riise missed his shot
Then Kaka scored, and Smicer scored, the atmosphere was red hot
And then almost in slow motion it was time for Shevchenko's chance
But Dudek had different ideas and did a little dance
Then waited for a second as the ball came flying in
Dived to the right and parried it to save it for the win
And as they down on all the fans and scenes of wild abandon
Em turned to old Pope Johnny Paul and put his arm around him
And said "That was unbelievable, the best game without doubt -
But I thought you said you wouldn't help with the penalty shoot out?"
John Paul looked up and smiled and said "Look son, it wasn't me"
And I wouldn't doubt the word of God in truth and honesty
So Emlyn he was puzzled as the crowd was going wild
But in the corner, on their cloud,
Shanks and Paisley sat and smiled.
The moral of the story is that money can't buy success
And neither can a constant whinge to people in the press
And writing a team off when the clock reaches half time
Might just result in something coming out of the divine
Because Shanks and Paisley knew, as the cup was coming home
God wears the red of Liverpool and we'll NEVER WALK ALONE!!!

Hallelujah !

Woke up at 6am to see whether London had won their bid to host the Olymics in 2012 (which they did), and what did I see on the second line? STEVIE G. IN AMAZING U-TURN. WOW!

Just how many people saw that coming?

At least one...me (but I dared not have believed it).

When I heard SG was leaving I was a little upset, but pretty numb to the fact and probably didn't care anymore; LFC would be fine, "no player is bigger than the club", "bigger and better players have left and been replaced before" (not sure that second one's true - for an player at least).

By the end of the night when I'd got back from work and seen Sky Sports on Fox Soccer Channel, I was fully gutted. That was is Chelski were going to win the title - NO QUESTION - for about the next three years, and LFCs season would be another one of mixed fortuntes. Watching all the Chelski fans, barely manage to hide the smiles on their faces and even that one Sky (Chelski) reporter was having a hard time trying to look like he was neutral.

There were two things that happened yesterday, pulled my heart in two different directions then:

• Would he change his mind, not if he saw what Chelski's Sky Sports were focusing on, all of the fans that were interviewed were bitter and negative towards a player who, played (in truth) the biggest part in winning us Big Ears #5 (with his goals against AC & Olympiacos). The camera zooming in on one muppet burning a Gerrard shirt (there were probably only two or three watching but the camera never zoomed out so they could make it appear like there were many more disgruntled fans).
  
• And then there was what Parry said, when he was intereviewed by them and asked if that was it, that Stevie was going. It was the way he answered that just seemed to give me the incling that this might turn around and that SG would stay.
  But I didn't put any faith in the feeling, didn't want to get disappointed.

The last time I got that feeling was just after Rivaldo's goal at Anfield, when LFC played Olympiacos in the last game of the Champs League group stages. I just felt that not only could we win this game and qualify, but that we'd go on to win the whole thing! Don't get me wrong I was on the seats edge during the game like anyone else, but I just had this feeling you know.

The same thing happened when I walked into the Santa Monica pub 10 mins after the AC Milan game begun thinking that we'll win (say 4-1). I got in to find out that we were already down by one, that Kewell was playing (?) and that the twat was injured again. Still in the back of my mind I thought: "Nevermind, Kewell will be replaced by Didi soon and I guess we'll just have to score 4 goals without reply!" At half time a three goals down (although thoroughly gutted) I still thought we'd win, although in regulation time, and then I knew we'd win the pen shootout, as nervous as I still was.

So in any case now that SG looks like he's staying I'm going to reveal my gut feeling for this year: the newly crowned Euro Champs (and soon-to-be crowned Super Euro Cup and FIFA World Club Champs) will make history again, by winning it again from the very first qulifying round. Don't expect much from our League Cup performance this year, but there will be a better run in the FA Cup at least (quarters, maybe semis), and we'll be no further off the top than 7pts, probably in third (ahead of Man Scum :D)

More later...

Two sides of the story

• Parry: We Did Everything We Could

• Gerrard Anguish at Quitting Reds

So that's it then !

Gerrard's agent Struan Marshall contacted Reds chief executive Rick Parry at lunchtime on Tuesday to inform him the £100,000-a-week offer made to the England international on Monday night was not enough to persuade him to stay.

While it is not thought Gerrard has put in an official transfer request, Parry has taken the snub as a sign of his desire to leave Anfield, with Chelsea lining up a fresh bid after their initial British record £32million offer for the 25-year-old was rejected on Monday night.

LFC released an official club statement on their website: "The club has made it crystal clear we want to keep Steven at Anfield."

"Sadly, he has told us that he will not accept our offer of an improved and extended contract because he wants to leave Liverpool.

"We very much regret the decision that has been taken."

Parry reiterates Benitez line

Once again shocking conclusions have been drawn, that are based on actual quotes!

In response to newspaper trash Parry says there has never been any suggestions that Liverpool want to cash in on their captain, and said Rafael Benitez wants to build his new-look Liverpool team around Gerrard.

Quote: "Rafa wants Stevie to stay and couldn't have made it any clearer. We still hope this situation is repairable.

"We have wanted to keep Steven all along. There's never been any suggestion we wanted to sell him.

"Money is not an issue. There are no financial concerns regarding Steven's contract, so any suggestion to the contrary is wrong."

So to paraphrase - "Stevie's being shown the door!"

Stevie to stay for Life

After all the garbage that was going around yesterday by the media circus, some normalicy has returned as Rafa goes on the record to state that he want Stevie to say for life.

It's a little different from the media's assursion that Rafa wants him out, isn't it!? But I guess that's the difference between reporting rumours without facts and reporting facts with quotes!

Benitez SAID: "I can assure our fans that we want Steven Gerrard to stay with us for the rest of his career.

"I renew my deal with Liverpool in four or five years and when I do I would like Stevie to be my next coach, assistant manager and maybe even the next manager after me. He can even have the chief scout position if he wants it.

"I want him to stay with the club. We are trying to build a better team and a better squad and I want Stevie to be a major part of that.

"Last season I tried to get Stevie to sign a new deal three times. On each occasion he said wait, so we waited.

"This year we want to win more trophies and that is why we are improving our squad with new signings."

So, obviously, we can conclude that by this that SG's being forced out !!!

More crap !

So we're meant to believe that our captain is having a hissy fit 'cause a new deal wasn't sorted out in a couple of days or that he feels like he's being forced out of the club, boo hoo. Do the media really expect us to think our captain is that stupid? The man has just won the premier club tournament with the club he loves! Do they also expect LFC to be willing to let him go either!? Wouldn't they be pulling out all the stops to keep him? Well he's not, they won't and of course they will!

Look if the man wants more money than LFC can afford then sure he might think of moving, but all this crap that the media are throwing around is pathetic shite!

Let's face it if it's trophies he wants - he's already won several at club level, basically everything bar the World Cup Championship (which he has a chance of being part of the first english team to win) and the Premiership (big one admittedly). He already won the League Cup (twice), the FA cup in dramatic fashion, the UEFA in more dramatic fashion, as well as the Super Cup, oh and that little thing called the European Cup/Champions League! I don't see Henry/Viera/Terry/Lamps/Rooney with as many a variety as those!

And compare winning any of those with some bought team or with the team you grew up adoring and dreaming of playing for, lifting trophies on behalf of - com'on!

Look if Stevie does move on it won't be because of reported training ground bust ups, or the club taking too long to sort out a new contract - it will be because he wants more money (at least more than LFC can afford). All the media frenzy is doing though is making enough smoke for offers to come in and unsettle SG. $150k per week wages from Chelski reported - don't matter if it's a fact, just the mention of it will cause problems!

I for one don't care if SG leaves - I hope he stays, but if he does then so be it, we always find replacements sooner or later. I just hope he doesn't get sucked into going somewhere and have to watch LFC out do themselves again and leaving him regretting his move, like Micky Owen (who despite what he has said, knows he made a mistake leaving!)

Either way just get back to the facts and stop or this pathetic press coverage already!

TNS not Rush-ing return

Total Network Solutions (TNS) have confirmed (what was generally thought to be a long shot in the first place) that Liverpool legend, Ian Rush, will not be signing for them in the hope of playing at Anfield for the Champions League first round qualifier.

It had been rumoured that TNS chairman Mike Harris (a good friend of Rush, who himself was on the TNS board for a while) was going to make an attempt to sign Rush, who still keeps himself in pretty good shape, for the two Champions League games. TNS boss Ken McKenna confirmed, "We will not be signing any big name players just for the Liverpool ties."

McKenna says that he is also worried about his players swapping shirts at the end of the game with their Liverpool heroes, because they can't afford replacements!

I'm sure if instructed to do so by the manager not to swap shirts, the players will duly ignore the idiot. If they can't afford replacements, I'm sure they'd happilly pay for it out of their own pocket, not to mention the fact TNS should make a good packet on the LFC game gate reciepts! I guess it's always to draw on the differences as much as possible, before a thorough spanking at the hands of the new Euro Champs.

Shame that Chelski won't be able to use that excuse this season :D

On in! One out?

Liverpool FC today announced that they will capture their first summer signing: free-agent Boudewijn Zenden. The midfielder has already passed a medical and will be introduced as an LFC player at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

The Dutch midfielder, who was previously at Chelsea, played last year on loan at the Middlesbrough, and was originally thought to be signing on at the Riverside Stadium, only for Liverpool to make known their interest for the player. The 28-year-old will sign his contract in time to be eligible for the start of Liverpool's Champions League qualification campaign which begins when the European Champions host Welsh team TNS at Anfield on July 13.

Zenden will become Rafa Benitez's first (full) non-Spanish signing since coming to Anfield (with the Cisse deal done before his arrival and Argentinian Pelligrino was only brought in on loan.)


On the same day, there has been fresh doubt poured on Steven Gerrard's future at Anfield. Press reports claim that he was disappointed the club did not agree new terms straight after the Istanbul triumph. They claim that club officials now fear Gerrard could now see his future in Spain with Real, who are believed to be prepared to offer a staggering pay packet of £150,000 per week!

£20million plus central defender Walter Samuel in part exchange, is what Real Madrid are said to have offered, but Rafa Benitez has obviously slammed that deal as "unacceptable".

Carra ties the knot

Jamie Carragher has capped off a fantaistc year at LFC by getting married to Nicola Holt.

Jamie has had an absoute blinder of a season in Liverpool, being the most consistent player and thought by many to have been more influential than Stevie Gerrard.

Jamie and his childhood sweetheart were married in the Weston Park stately home in front of a guest list that included: Didi Hamann, Danny Murphy, Stevie Gerrard, Micky Owen and , of course, their two young children.

Congratulations Jamie!

Common sense prevails...at least in some small part

UEFA management have rejected Slavia Prague's appeal against the decision to seed Liverpool in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League.

Slavia (who qualified for this season's Champions League, by coming second in the Czech Republic League to city neighbours Sparta) had launched an official appeal to UEFA after losing their seeding in the third qualifying round.

For once UEFA used some common sense and dismissed the appeal. Already Liverpool have endured having to enter the competition at the first qualifying round, have no country protection (which means they can face Everton in the third round of qualifying), and are receiving the smallest pot of money of all the Premiership teams!

Yes it's a shame that other teams are being effected "punished", by UEFA giving LFC special dispensation to compete in this years competition, but LFC are (by far) not getting an easy ride of it. Don't forget if LFC had won just one more game last season, they would have finished fourth and would have gone straight into the group stages and Arsenal would have to qualify from the third round!

This whole balls-up it down to UEFA's arrogance/idiocy, bias of the Premier League, and the FA's greed (at wanting to have an unprecedented 5 teams entered into the premium club football competition).

- If UEFA hadn't been so arrogant to think that winning the tournament means more that anything else, or stupid enough to think that this might occur (at least in a country where a team doesn't run its FA - i.e. Madrid/Man Scum/AC).

From the start UEFA realised that four teams from one country was plenty, but I guess didn't want to stop other countries (Portugal/Holland/etc) increasing their presence should one of them win it and fail to qualify from their domestic league. The problem, however, was their arrogance that of course each country would want the European Champions represented over a fourth place team! After all that's what happened in Spain, right!? What they failed to recognise, however, was that the Spanish FA didn't give a toss about who was the champion, just so long as Real Madrid get in!

They also didn't count on the fact that in England the money/power is with the Premier League and as far as they are concerned if the if 10 teams were permitted into the champions league they'd still pick the team that came 10th rather than the Champions of Europe!

- As for the Premier League there was no sporting basis for backing the fourth based team, but they were more concerned about other things. It didn't involve their favourite teams (ManUSA, Chelski, and the Arse), so they placed more importance on their league, that the most prestigious club competition in the world! Of course the fact that the Premier League Committee that decided that fourth place deserved the final spot had two of the four members from interested parties on the board, i.e. Bolton (who were still in with a shout for 4th place) and Arsenal (who would have had to drop out of the group stages and into the qualifying round should the Champions be admitted.)

- The FA were feeble, as always, but drooled at the opportunity that there could be FIVE premiership teams in the Champions League - they didn't care who would be inconvenienced!

So here it is many teams have been affected:

- Hajduk Split (the Croatian champions) have also protested against LFC being seeded, which has cost them a seeding in the second preliminary round.
- Slavia Prague losing their seeding in the third round
- The European team with the 9th highest coefficient ranking (who would've ) in the group stages will now be the in the second seed pot (with a knock on to the teams from the 2nd pot to the 3rd, and the 3rd to the 4th)
- Everton and ManUSA will lose money (as will Chelski and the Arse – although to a much lesser extent) – So some good news at least!
- Liverpool who as Champions of Europe have to play ALL of the qualifying rounds, get the smallest amount of money from the TV pot, have no national protection (meaning they can play Everton in the 3rd round of qualifying, Chelski or Everton in the group stages, or any of them for the round of the last 16 or the quarter finals!)

So despite how many other teams get affected by all the hoopla caused by the various footballing bodies actions the least UEFA can do is give LFC its ranking that it has earned over the years. They will be ranked #1 in the group stages as Champions, but their coefficient puts them 3rd anyway – above all other Premiership teams – that means those that finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th !!!

Friendly v Wrexham

Liverpool’s first game will be at the Racecourse Ground in a friendly game to Wrexham, Saturday 9th July @ 3pm.

It is the same venue as the 2nd Leg of the 1st Round of Champions League qualifying against TNS…just 10 days later on the 19th (7:45pm kick-off).