A New Dawn... yes, another one for #LFC.

In 7 days time, I'll be walking 54 miles in 24 hours for World Child Cancer.. This is my just giving link


In the 'odd' summer months, (It is apparently summer although for some reason the thermostat outside appears to be stuck on October) When we don't have the distraction of the World Cup or Euro's then the new season takes on more significance earlier on.

It does seem to be helping Liverpool as we do seem to be getting our business in hand earlier than usual this year. We have the usual Suarez rumblings, although we will see where we are with that when Suarez comes back from South America.

I suspect that making vague statements in press conferences thousands of miles away is easier than sitting down and being reminded that he has a contract for a good few years yet, and if you do want to leave than there are ways of going about it.

It is good that we do appear to be getting on with it regardless though.

In so far we have Kolo Toure, Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas and Simon Mignolet.

Not sure what's going on here.

I'm not going to pretend I know too much about Luis Alberto and Iago Aspas, beyond having a nosey on-line once we'd signed them, but they seem reasonable enough. And I would hope cleverer men than me have been a bit more rigorous in their research. But what their signings do give us is options.

Brendan Rodgers has in his head what he wants his team to look like.. and whilst he does seem to like teeny, tiny footballers that's not too much of a problem if you keep the balance right, or if you don't let the other side have the ball.

Seriously though... Why?

Options in attack will be vital next season. One thing that would be fatal to our season would be if Daniel Sturridge is unchallenged for his place. It seems to me that when he is comfortable then he seems to switch off in games. An angry Daniel Sturridge, fighting for his place is a significantly better player than when he isn't. You just have to see his impact off the bench against Chelsea, just before Suarez got a bit bitey.

Suarez may still be around, but not for a while and when he does come back you can imagine he'll be sulking which won't help.

The signing of Simon Mignolet means that Pepe Reina will be out of the door soon I think. Personally if I was Reina I wouldn't mind the chance of playing for Barcelona. Frankly I could play in goal for Barcelona and get away with it. One of the easier jobs in world football.

I cannot imagine the Simon Mignolet has not been briefed on his chances of playing regularly next season. In a World Cup season he needs to playing regularly. He is fighting with Thibaut Courtois for Belgium.. a very handy keeper on loan at Atletico Madrid from Chelsea.

Although dislodging Pepe Reina at Liverpool would look quite good on his CV.

Kolo Toure is probably a shrewd move as well. With the man, the legend, Jamie Carragher retiring to do battle once again, with Gary Neville, we needed experienced back-up and that's what we have in Toure. Although if he get his brother along next time, well that would be just peachy.

And we could steal the Yaya / Kolo song off City, although this does seem a distant prospect.

One thing to our advantage next season is whoever we sign, they will have Phillipe Coutinho stood next to them, so it's all gravy from here.

Luis Suarez.. Should he stay or should he go? (Part 2)

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The never ending transfer saga surrounding Luis Suarez is rumbling on.. well, I say never-ending, you suspect that it will come to an end at some point with a transfer to Real Madrid if Suarez has his way.

It would be a shame, particularly given the support he has received from the club following his various transgressions since signing from Ajax (while he was serving his first ban for biting an opponent). You can't imagine there will be too many players where you have to specify which ban for biting people you are actually talking about.

The latest rumour mill is following the usual pattern... (see my previous blog). Off to Uruguay, press conference, back-tracking / denial / more fucking nonsense.

It's pretty clear that he wants out... you tend to pick these things up when a player is constantly on about it. Although it does seem strange that Real Madrid (for once) seem relatively quiet about the prospect. When they're after player they usually let you know about it.

There are a few issues muddying the waters at the moment.

£85m... seriously?

They haven't got a manager now the self-proclaimed special one has fucked off back to Chelsea.

They are also sniffing round the Spurs Super Chimp for some kind of crazy money.. I read £85m but that
seems insane, even for Madrid.

With the financial fair play rules dribbling in, and now the Spanish government is skint Real Madrid will most likely have to find another "revenue stream". Probably  by selling some of their squad or just Tinkerbell, possibly back to Man Utd, hopefully off to Russia somewhere.

You suspect that there are quite a lot of machinations before any potential Suarez deal is done. Which could cause Liverpool all kinds of problems.. the last thing we need is £40 odd million in the bank and a closed transfer window.

Actually - scratch that- the last thing we need is to panic like last time and buy Papiss Cisse off Newcastle for £45m.

If we can get that kind of money, then we need to spend it quickly and wisely. And hopefully not £20m plus each on players from the North East.

Peter Beardsley

It's not the end of the world if Suarez leaves.. but you do wonder how effective a mardy Suarez will be next season if he hasn't managed to engineer his move.
I keep thinking back to when my world collapsed in 1987 when we sold Ian Rush to Juventus and with the money we bought John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and John Aldridge (and then got Rush back for less the next season). The modern-day equivalents (if they even exist) would do very nicely.