Carry on bitching....

Jusrt to echo the last couple of posts the gesture by Rafa was a great gesture and anyone who tries to dress it up otherwise is being ridiculous.

The £20m for Vidic rumours are back again.

I'm not trying to "dress it up". I'm simply saying how the issue appears to me.

Benitez could have been simply making a gesture of support and solidarity with a club and support he loves.

But he could just as easily have done this to score points over the owners after his sacking. He could've done it to repaint his image to Liverpool supporters because he isn't happy with the way he'll be remembered after the last few seasons and did this to earn himself a better [iapproval rating[/i.

I don't know Benitez. You don't know Benitez. We don't know what thoughts and discussions occurred that made this donation happen. So it's ridiculous for you to claim it was a grand gesture without any negative aspects simply because it's what you want.

It's a bit of an expensive gesture to increase an approval rating from a set of fans he's not going to have any link to jobwise in the future.

He'll be a manager remembered as winning us a CL, getting us to another final and getting us closer to winning a title than we've been for decades, more importantly, one who was shafted by a couple of owners that didn't back him (how much of that is true is debatable, but it will be how he is remembered).

He didn't need to give money to the campaign to repaint any image.

It certainly seems a fantastic gesture to me.

Real Sociedad and Levante both secured promotion back to La Liga today, there's still a week of the season left though and either Hercules or Real Betis will join them.

An expensive gesture? He's just been paid off with £6m FFS. He's probably earning something like £8m for his 2 year deal with Inter.



I agree that he will be remembered for all that. But the immediate response from some scousers was that it was further proof what a great guy he was and how maybe he shouldn't have been sacked after all.



You just listed how Benitez will be remembered. You didn't list the fact he finished 7th in his final season. You didn't list the fact that the season before that he should have won the league but screwed up and ended up blowing it. Seeing as these were the most recent seasons, how come these don't get remembered at all?

Choosing to donate the figure of £96,000. Doesn't that come across at all to you as something that's tailor-made for a press release? The timing. There's no mention at all of Benitez ever donating money to the campaign in the 6 years he's been LFC manager, he just suddenly decided that right after he's been fired by Liverpool that now he suddenly has to make a donation?

How much money he has relative to the donation is irrelevant, £96k is still a lot of money for a gesture that wasn't needed.



The people saying that would have been saying he shouldn't have been sacked had he done it or not, the ones that agreed with him going did so for footballing reasons, a donation like this would not change that view point at all.



Because those seasons will come under the 'wasn't backed by the board' memories I discussed, it's pretty simple really.



The timing of a few weeks of him leaving and getting a pay off? When would he have been better doing it? In a year? 6 months? Never?

Just because there is no mention of him donating anything doesn't mean he didn't do it. Perhaps he donated time instead of money and because he won't be able to do that any more gave money instead? Of course had that been reported at the time, no doubt you'd have been whinging about 'self pity city' and how he was doing it to ingratiate himself with the fans.

Anyone heard anything about Benayoun to Chelsea?

Chiellieni (sp) rumoured to be replacing him today.

Yep done deal according to many of the Liverpool related websites. I have to say I find it strange that Chelsea would show the door to both Ballack and Cole yet sign Benayoun!!

would be a good signing for chelsea if the reports are true

Although there were reports that Cole had signed a deal with Arsenal. United are linked with both Cole and Ballack.

If any other team would like to release a couple of players so we can sign them without having to spend too much it would be greatly appreciated.

TIA.

A done deal. Its a very strange one, has Ben Haim signing writing all over it. We still need another winger to go along with Malouda.

Ballack is the type of midfielder you need imo. A big 6ft who goes in to the tackle 100%. Dont think you need J.Cole, especially with his wage demands.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, Ballack is a class player. I wanted us to sign him before he joined you. I'm not sure if it's the right move now though. But there again, I'm hoping Hargreaves is going to be fit all season.

LOL.

Of the two I would take Cole, Ballack has been a disappointment at Chelsea and Cole might fit in well. Could even play in the hole behind Rooney.

I can't see either player improving the Man Utd squad a great deal, Ballack isn't the player he was and Cole has always flattered to deceive for the most part.

I'm sure they'll both do a job, but they cry out as cheap signings of biggish names hoping most of the fans won't notice.

Not too keen on Cole to be honest. Especially after hearing an interview with him the other week saying how 'a player like me should be playing 90 mins every week.'

Massive celebrations in Donostia. Celebrations in Valencia.

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/06/15/SOCCER_Man_Utd.htmlManchester United have let Zoran Tosic leave for CSKA Moscow.[/url

SSN strongly linking Riquelme with a move to West Ham. Always a player I admired in his prime. Not sure he will be up to much these days though.

Last season he played a massive part of Chelseas success. I still wish we had him for another season.

Looks like theres an auction on at Liverpool...