Reds start glory hunting at Villa Park

The EPL fixtures for 2007/08 has been released two days ago. It's about 54 days from today to kick off the new season. Put aside the frustration in the transfer market, here's something for all the Reds supporters to keep tab on. Liverpool will visit Villa Park on 11th August to kick off the Barclays Premier League campaign and hoping to collect all the three points this time as last season we only managed to drew 1-1 at Sheffield United. Since then all our away games were sucks!

In August, Reds will play four games and our first home game was scheduled against West Ham United on 15th August but was subject to be change (TBC) due to Reds involvement in the Champions League's qualification. The first team that most likely to visit Anfield in the new season is Chelsea. This time we have the opportunity to show the 2007 runner-up that we want the Premier League crown and draw first blood. To close the 20 points gaps, we need to win games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The Merseyside derby falls on 20th October at Goodison Park and the blue half of Liverpool visit us on 29th March 2008. Liverpool entertain Gunners at home on 27th October, while Manchester United travel to Anfield on 15th December. On Boxing Day, the Reds will face newly promoted Derby County at Pride Park. Then, Wigan comes to Anfield on New Year's Day. Well, here goes the rest of Liverpool fixtures;

• Sat Aug 11 Aston Villa (away)
• Wed Aug 15 West Ham United (home)
• Sat Aug 18 Chelsea (home)
• Sat Aug 25 Sunderland (away)

• Sat Sep 1 Derby County (home)
• Sat Sep 15 Portsmouth (away)
• Sat Sep 22 Birmingham City (home)
• Sat Sep 29 Wigan Athletic (away)

• Sat Oct 6 Tottenham Hotspur (home)
• Sat Oct 20 Everton (away)
• Sat Oct 27 Arsenal (home)

• Sat Nov 3 Blackburn Rovers (away)
• Sat Nov 10 Fulham (home)
• Sat Nov 24 Newcastle United (away)

• Sat Dec 1 Bolton Wanderers (home)
• Sat Dec 8 Reading (away)
• Sat Dec 15 Manchester United (home)
• Sat Dec 22 Portsmouth (home)
• Wed Dec 26 Derby County (away)
• Sat Dec 29 Manchester City (away)

• Tue Jan 1 Wigan Athletic (home)
• Sat Jan 12 Middlesbrough (away)
• Sat Jan 19 Aston Villa (home)
• Tue Jan 29 West Ham United (away)

• Sat Feb 2 Sunderland (home)
• Sat Feb 9 Chelsea (away)
• Sat Feb 23 Middlesbrough (home)

• Sat Mar 1 Bolton Wanderers (away)
• Sat Mar 8 Newcastle United (home)
• Sat Mar 15 Reading (home)
• Sat Mar 22 Manchester United (away)
• Sat Mar 29 Everton (home)

• Sat Apr 5 Arsenal (away)
• Sat Apr 12 Blackburn Rovers (home)
• Sat Apr 19 Fulham (away)
• Sat Apr 26 Birmingham City (away)

• Sat May 3 Manchester City (home)
• Sun May 11 Tottenham Hotspur (away)

Will this new season marks the end of our long awaited 19th league champions? Can Rafa deliver us the cup that we've been missing since 1990?

YNWA,
Red's Fury™

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No money, no talk

Now I'm very pissed! It's already been three weeks since the talk on signing at least one top class player for Liverpool and none of them has show up yet. The question of 'how much we have for transfer budget this summer?' still hasn't been answered by the American owners. Rafa failed to launch a bid on the likes of Samuel Eto'o (£35million), David Villa, Carlos Tevez (£30million), Fernando Torres (£15million), Simao Sabrosa (£11million), Florent Malouda (£17million) and Darrent Bent (£16million) was not due to his inconsistency in the transfer market. It was the owners who has not given the full funding to Rafa for the players he want to bring onboard. Show us the damn money!

We've already missed out on a few targets to rival clubs in the continent such as Daniel Alves to Real Madrid and Gabriel Milito to Juventus. Samuel Eto'o too was out of our range with a hefty price tag. Now David Villa wants to stay with Valencia cos he is under contract until June 2013 and has a buy-out-clause of £100million. £100million! That's insane! While for Carlos Tevez, his desire to leave the Premiership outfit has prompted Inter Milan to offer £34million to West Ham and knocked us and a bunch of premier league suitors out of the race for his signature.

The list of transfer targets are getting shorter. Lyon won't release Malouda unless we met the revised transfer fee from £8million to £17million. This is ridiculous, £17million for a left-winger. Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas has immensely raised the transfer fee just because Chelsea has shown interest on Malouda and want to have a bite on Abramovich's pie. Now Rafa was forced to look for other option elsewhere and long-term target, Simao Sabrosa was his next move. However, Benfica's club president Luis Filipe Vieira will only consider an “incredible offer” as they don’t wish to sell him. There goes our left and right wingers. No money, no talk as my header suggest was rightfully justify our summer transfer transactions.

A report from Charlton said that West Ham has prepare to offer an £18million deal for Darren Bent. But Bent wasn't the actual target we need. We need a strong and big striker and Atletico Madrid's Fernando Torres was up for sales in the summer. Atletico failed to qualify for UEFA Cup means they are expecting to lose Torres and the Premier League big guns will keep an eye on him. Can we compete with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United? This is our last chance to sign a new striker. The Red Devils has splashed around £50million on new players, Chelsea was successful in signing a player on free transfer, while Gunners signed a young goalkeeper and we only have Andriy Voronin, Lucas Leiva and two Hungarian youngsters. Where are the star players that Gillett and Hicks has promised to buy?

The players named in my poll (Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o, David Villa, Darren Bent and Michael Owen) are disappearing one by one except Michael Owen. While, Thierry Henry are unlikely to join us (but we are really love to have him onboard!). Are little MO our only last resorts for a new striker? But Rafa is not very keen on Owen swoop just yet. We are not only losing summer transfer targets, if this situation prolong, Rafael Benitez will says "Adios amigos".



YNWA,
Red's Fury™

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Lets snub Eto'o for Henry

Forget about Samuel Eto'o, he's not coming to Anfield. We don't know how much the American owners are willing to splash their cash in the transfer market and Rafa has stressed that he can't bid for a world class player when he don't know how much he could spend? Milan is officially launch their bid for the Cameroonian international. So, end of the story.

But the good news is Thierry Henry still hasn't given Arsenal the assurance that he'll stay with the Gunners next season. The rifts in the Arsenal's board has caused Henry to re-think his future and the departure of his close friend, vice-chairman David Dein also hinted that the relationship between him and the club has came to a standstill. This rumour spread rapidly in Liverpool recently and we would very much appreciate it if Henry do switch to the red of Merseyside. Even the betting giant William Hill has reduced the odds for Henry to leave Arsenal in the summer from 10/1 to 3/1. Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe said;

'Thierry keeps saying he is happy where he is but we have been offering odds against him staying at Arsenal for some time now - and there are very few takers.'

My poll "Who would you sign?" shown that Thierry Henry is the favorite and second by Michael Owen. Rumours suggested that Djibril Cisse will be use as a bargaining chip to lure Henry to Anfield. I think it's a good deal for us and Arsenal although the odds are staked against us. We all know what Henry can do in the Premiership and he is a world's top class striker.

Come to Anfield, Thierry and we will worship you as we worshiped Robbie 'GOD' Fowler. What do you think?

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Milan add Eto'o into their shopping cart

Milan, the current European champions confirmed that they'll bid for Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o this summer. Rumours circulating in England on Eto'o linked to the Premiership big guns has prompted the Rossoneri chief, Adriano Galliani make a bid on him when Spanish season is over on 17th June.

"He's a player that appeals to both myself and our coach Carlo Ancelotti."

Milan fails to land Andriy Shevchenko after the player insisted on staying at Stamford Bridge next season. This leaving Milan to look else where for a striker to boost their aging squad. Milan are looking to beef up their attack with Samuel Eto'o and to partner Brazilian ace Ronaldo.

This rings bad news for Liverpool, if the rumours are true that Eto'o was on Rafa Benitez's top transfer target then Rafa will need to face competitions from Milan. But the player has dismissed that he was wanted by Liverpool and he wants to stay with the Catalans giant.

Now we have to wait and see who's coming in next week as Rafa is busy getting his current squad sorted out with new contracts being awarded to Stevie G (MBE), Carragher, Pepe Reina and Alonso which all the players had pledged their future to the club. Momo Sissoko will be the next player to be offer with an extension.


YNWA,
Red's Fury™

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UEFA still playing the blame game

Few days ago, UEFA brands Liverpool have the worst fans in Europe and now Michel Platini said the stadium security at fault, Greece turn to take the blames. A meeting between UEFA president Michel Platini and England sports minister Richard Caborn in Brussels, Belgium to establish a working party to look into ways of tightening security and crowd control ahead of next year's final.

UEFA spokesman, William Gaillard has revealed;

"The incidents involving Liverpool fans have been well known to us before the trouble at the Champions League final which involved Liverpool fans. That was just the latest example. What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children?"

And this is the same spokesman who praised our supporters for the well behaviour after the Istanbul final in 2005 and the semi-final victory against Chelsea last month. The war of words begun, Rick Parry countered with this statement;

"But at the end of the day Uefa can't hide from the fact that the match was played at a stadium not fit for football - no system checking numbers, no turnstiles, and the security was a joke."

Liverpool's co-owner, Tom Hicks said yesterday;

"Uefa did not handle this right at all. To give 17,000 tickets to the two teams, particularly knowing Liverpool are going to bring 40,000 fans, is insane. It's a classic case of a bureaucrat trying to take the pressure off himself. They didn't have proper ticketing procedures and unfortunately there were counterfeit tickets. There were fans who paid their hard-earned money to get their tickets and they get to the stadium and are told there is no more room. Are they (the fans) mad? Sure they're mad."

A Liverpool fan, Paul Gregory already issued a formal complaint to UEFA for reimbursement of his flights, accomodation and tickets by UEFA or risk facing legal action. Will UEFA reimburse Paul Gregory? He was one of the 5000 genuine tickets holder, if UEFA pay for the damages, 4999 will follow suits. Either way, the customer always right!

Back to the topic, the meeting held in Brussels was to receive the UEFA's report on their claims over the Athens final incidents. But the so-called report was 'confidential' according to William Gaillard. What the fu*k? What is he trying to cover up? If he dares to make such a statement, then why is he so afraid to show it to us?

Richard Caborn said;

“I told Uefa that there was no point in playing the blame game. We have to move on. I wanted assurances that Athens would not be repeated and that never again would any fans be put in this position. I got that assurance.”

William Gaillard's statement has infuriated many people and the Merseyside MPs called for his 'head on the gallows'. One of the MPs said;

“Gaillard knew exactly what he was saying. The bottom line is that the organisation was a shambles and it’s by the grace of God it didn’t turn out much worse. I don’t think he should resign – I think he should be sacked. For him to resign would be a way out with honour.”

"We, Liverpool's supporters NOT hooligans!"

YNWA,
Red's Fury™

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