Liverpool boss Rafael Benítez wished outgoing forward Peter Crouch all the best at his likely new club, and then admitted for the first time that Valencia striker David Villa is a name on a list of possible replacements.

Crouch’s Anfield days are now all but over, with his former club Portsmouth expected to officially announce his signature within the next 24 hours. He passed a medical on Monday, and with the two clubs having verbally agreed a fee, the wait now is to ensure the fine print matches that verbal agreement. The fee is believed to be £8m, rising to £11m on certain conditions, and these conditions have to fit in with the existing agreement between Liverpool and Portsmouth’s biggest rivals Southampton. When Liverpool paid £7m to the Saints there was also an agreement that a percentage of any future profit Liverpool made on the player would be payable to Southampton.  There are also elements to be agreed on the personal terms for Crouch.

Rafa was criticised for paying £7m for Crouch at the time, and that criticism increased as he began his Anfield career on a long run without scoring. Now, with one year left on his deal, the critics are attacking Rafa for not selling him a year earlier, when he would have potentially been worth more. The potential £4m profit, subject to those clauses, is seen by some as Liverpool being short-changed. That’s a sign of how much respect Crouch has earned in his time at Anfield, and the Liverpool boss is proud of that change: “I am proud of the progress he has made. When we brought him here people were talking - especially because he didn’t score for 14 games or something like that - but he showed his quality, showed he was a good player and a fantastic professional.” [Read more →]

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Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade brought out his new book on Friday, charting 43 years of his life as a supporter of Liverpool Football Club.

Reade is a passionate, Kop-season-ticket-holding, Red, and his book intends to show just what it is that has given him that passion.

He’s won awards for his columns, which are always witty and straight to the point, and so his book should be on the must-read list for any Liverpool fan.

He’s called it “43 years with the same bird” and you know which bird he’s talking about.

It’s the bird that has been on the shirt of the captain each time one of the 48 trophies was lifted during those 43 years. Reade talks about his memories of the FA Cup run in 1965, right at the start of the 43 years, and then on through the others, including five European Cups, 12 league titles, the years when Liverpool couldn’t stop winning the League Cup, the FA Cup wins, and of course the times when it didn’t all work out. [Read more →]

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Peter Crouch’s time at Anfield is now drawing to a close after he underwent a medical for Portsmouth, following an announcement from the Reds that he had been given permission to speak to Harry Redknapp’s side.

A spokesman was quoted on the official Liverpool FC website confirming the news: “We have reached a verbal agreement with Portsmouth and have given them permission to speak with Peter.”

Crouch joined the club from Southampton in 2005 for what many thought was an overpriced £7m. As that first season began those critics were enjoying his slow start, until he finally did find the net and put the 19-game dry spell behind him. In the end he scored 42 times for the club, in his 135 appearances and earned a lot of adulation from supporters. 22 of those goals came from his 85 league appearances.

If the move goes ahead it will be his second spell at Portsmouth. He had been linked with two of his other former clubs, Tottenham and Aston Villa, but it’s believed it was always Portsmouth he was most interested in moving to.

The player has a year left on his Liverpool contract, and so Rafa Benítez would not have seriously expected to achieve the £15m valuation he publicly put on the forward. The fee is, according to the Liverpool Echo, £11m - but only £8m of that would be paid up front. The rest is linked to various add-ons. The paper says he’s about to undergo a medical. [Read more →]

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Kewell’s move to Galatasaray is likely to be lucrative, with no fee being payable to Liverpool for his services, and the move has angered fans of his last club Leeds. Their instant thought when hearing the name of the Turkish side is of the deaths of two of their fans in 2000 on the eve of a UEFA Cup match. Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight were stabbed in Istanbul by Galatasaray fans.

The Australian international’s decision to sign for Galatasaray was announced on Friday, before his agent claimed it wasn’t actually finalised. The player was in Turkey on the Friday however, and the deal was officially announced the day after. It’s taken another 48 hours for his thoughts on what this move might mean to Leeds fans to be released.

Kewell left Leeds for a transfer fee of just £3m, with his representatives getting £2m, as the Yorkshire side were about to start on their slide down the divisions and a period of financial ruin. It was hardly Kewell’s fault that Leeds had taken big risks financially, but many Leeds fans still felt the player’s part in his cut-price transfer was a betrayal, showing a lack of respect and little concern for their club’s welfare. Speaking through Sky, Kewell says nothing has changed: “My love and respect for Leeds United and what the club has done for me will never change, no matter what anyone says about me and whatever their motives are.”

Kewell claims he was thinking of Leeds when he chose his shirt number for his new club: “I chose the number 19 shirt when I signed for Galatasaray as a sign of respect for Leeds because that was the number I got when I first became a regular member of the Leeds United FC starting XI.”

He went on: “I felt that it might be a way to demonstrate that I had not forgotten where it all started and I was hoping that in a small way it would help the healing process of the tragedy that occurred on the 5th of April 2000. My sense of sorrow and sympathy for the families and friends of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight will always be with me.”

The statement then leads up to his own justification for joining a club the Leeds fans have such distaste for: “For me, sport should first and foremost be about the love of your game. But equally important is the respect for not only your team-mates but all those who you compete against. For this reason I have always objected to any form of discrimination in any sport and football in particular, as that is the sport that is the most near and dear to me.”

And he is sure to enrage Leeds supporters with this comment: “To blame the Galatasaray club for the tragedy in Istanbul is simply wrong and discriminatory.” [Read more →]

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Swiss defender Philipp Degen is now Liverpool’s first official first-team signing of the summer, after he signed a four-year deal with the club.

He arrives on a Bosman deal, after his Borussia Dortmund contract expired at the end of June and is glad to be here: “It’s a great club with great fans and I am happy to be here. I know the club has a strong tradition and a rich history. I hope to play a big role in the future.”

Speaking to the official Liverpool FC website, he said he sees a comparison between the Premier League and the Bundesliga: “You probably know that I played in Germany with Borussia Dortmund - that was a strong league too. But now I’m looking forward to the challenge of England and the Premier League, which is probably the strongest league in the world right now.”

His name has appeared on an Anfield team-sheet already, in 2002 when Basel drew 1-1 at Anfield in the Champions League. He was an unused sub, but remembers the occasion well: “I have been to Anfield before, with Basel, although I did not play on that occasion. But it was a great experience and to see the fans singing the famous song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was something special.”

He describes himself as a “pacey player who likes to get forward. I have a good attacking mentality and like to get up and down the flank. I also have good technique.” He also has good words to say about manager Rafa Benítez, who he says was an important part of his decision to join: “He was very important. He is the manager here and one of the finest coaches in the world. He has a fantastic record with both LFC and Valencia. I’m looking forward to working with him.” [Read more →]

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Former Liverpool player Harry Kewell has found a new club, after becoming a free agent at the end of June when his five-year Liverpool contract ended. After being linked with a number of clubs, he has chosen to go to Turkish side Galatasaray on a three-year deal.

Or so it seemed.

The announcement was made on the Istanbul side’s official website, but now Kewell’s agent, Bernie Mandic, claims there is still some thinking to do. He told the Australian FourFourTwo that a decision should be announced tomorrow: “We have not finalised a deal for Harry and it’s down to two possibilities. People will be notified if and when Harry decides on one of the options which may be around noon on Saturday European time. We will not make any other comments until then.”

Kewell’s £60,000-a-week deal with Liverpool began when he moved from Leeds to Anfield in July 2003 in a deal brokered by Mandic. The transfer fee Liverpool paid was £5m, but the then-Leeds board were angered in that they had assumed they would be receiving that full £5m - instead they had to pay a £2m cut to Kewell’s “representatives”, according to their statement at the time. It was a controversial exit from a club he’d joined as a teenager, and as much as that angered Leeds fans his next choice of club - if it is Galatasaray - is also likely to cause some anger amongst Leeds fans. They remember their club’s last trip to Galatasaray for the wrong reasons.

In 2000 Leeds played Galatasaray in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup, but the game was marred by the murders of two Leeds supporters the night before. Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight were stabbed to death by Turkish supporters. The game went ahead despite the tragic events, Kewell playing in the 2-0 defeat.

His 2003 move to Anfield was announced in a statement by Leeds: “Leeds United confirms that it has accepted an offer from Liverpool Football Club for the transfer of Harry Kewell for £5m in cash. In order to effect the transfer, Leeds United has had to agree to pay a fee to representatives of Kewell in the sum of £2m.”

Various claims were made about how negotiations had been carried out, with Leeds hinting that they had expected £5m to be paid to them, with the £2m to be paid to Kewell’s representatives coming also from Anfield, costing Liverpool a total of £7m. However in a tight financial situation they had to accept that £3m was better than nothing, with Kewell a year away from becoming a free agent: “The board, having taken appropriate professional advice, felt that it had no option but to accept these terms given the context of Kewell’s current contract. Kewell currently has only one year remaining of his contract with Leeds United. As such he would be in a position to sign a pre-contract agreement with another club in January 2004 and leave Leeds United at the end of the 2003/4 season without any transfer fee being payable.” [Read more →]

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Liverpool striker Fernando Torres put his name in the history books last night when he scored the winning goal in the European Championships final. His goal, 12 minutes from half-time, gave Spain their first trophy in 44 years, when they last won this competition.

It wasn’t just Torres who won the trophy of course, the team spirit and unity was something that many observers have mentioned as being the difference between this squad and the talented underachievers of past tournaments. Included in that squad were of course some of the Liverpool striker’s club teammates, Xabi Alonso, Pepe Reina and Álvaro Arbeloa.

For the latter two their role was confined to a run-out in the final group game, when Spain had already qualified. Xabi Alonso also started that game, wearing the captain’s armband, and has had more of a role to play, including coming on last night as a 63^rd minute substitute to ensure Spain didn’t throw away what Torres had worked so hard to bring them.

[Read more →]

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For the first time this year, a joint statement has been issued by Liverpool co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, as they announced the commencement of work on the site of the proposed new stadium for the club.

When planning consent was granted by the council in May there was a waiting period before work of any kind could commence, and it seems that has now passed. The statement on the official club website says the council, “granted full planning permission on June 19 to Liverpool Football Club to build a 60,000 seater stadium and outline planning permission for a mixed use development on the existing Anfield stadium site.”

The 60,000 capacity was a throwback to the plans inherited by the current owners when they took the club over last year. Their decision to scrap those plans was made partly because of a desire for a unique look to the new ground, as opposed the generic-looking bowl appearance of the originals, but mainly because of the need for a larger capacity. The intention is to have the capacity as high as 73,000 by the time the stadium opens - it has room for that capacity - but to do this certain improvements must be made to the infrastructure to enable what is an otherwise residential area to handle an increase of 28,000 visitors to the area on match day. One element of the current plans is an underground car park holding around 1,000 cars, but those cars will have to arrive early and leave late as part of the planning conditions. Proposals to build a new railway station on an existing freight line have been looked at. [Read more →]

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The last time George Gillett gave an interview to Toronto’s sports-based radio station The Fan 590, the war for control of Liverpool FC went right back to the top of the headlines again; it signalled the beginning of one of the ugliest phases in the fiasco of the past six months. It was the first time one of the owners had admitted they had a problem with their partner since DIC’s hostile takeover bid began late last year. Gillett admitted his relationship with Tom Hicks had broken down some time before. The interview included allegations from Gillett suggesting he’d received death threats from fans. It also contained a vow from Gillett that he would not sell a single percent of his stake in the club to partner Tom Hicks.

What followed was a public war of words which involved Gillett, Hicks, Rick Parry and David Moores, with Dubai International Capital sitting back and enjoying the fireworks, hopeful that when the dust settled they’d find both Hicks and Gillett standing pens in hand waiting to sign the shares away.

That didn’t happen, in fact very little has changed at all in terms of the club’s future. The battle was potentially damaging, certainly to Liverpool’s reputation, although the team did play on as if nothing was going on off the field. All that heartache for fans,  yet the club is still jointly owned by Messrs Gillett and Hicks.

So when news filtered out that Gillett was about to do another interview with the same presenter on the same station, fans were understandably anxious about what was going to be said, and what the fallout might be. It was made more worrying in that it followed on from a statement two weeks ago by the Liverpool supporter’s union, Spirit of Shankly, implying the ball was now firmly in Gillett’s court: “Is George Gillett still looking for every last penny?” the statement asked. “Well, why is he still here? Gillett is happy enough to give the impression he wants to sell. Well, SOS has been told he can sell whenever he wants. The opportunity is there to get out of our club. Why hasn’t he?” The impression was this information had come from the Dubai representatives in contact with SOS. And Gillett was possibly looking to defend himself. [Read more →]

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John Arne Riise is no longer a Liverpool player after he left and joined AS Roma for just short of £4m, according to an announcement from the Italian side tonight.

The fee of €5m, which converts to £3.96m, is close to the £4.6m Liverpool paid for him seven years ago, when former boss Gerard Houllier signed him from Monaco. Riise has signed for four years, the Roma website says.

The Italian club’s statement simply read: “AS Roma announce they have reached an agreement with Liverpool Football Club for the acquisition of the sporting rights of the player John Arne Riise with effect from July 1 2008.”

However Liverpool FC’s remained more cautious about confirming the news. The deal has been as good as done, but they are waiting for the red tape before confirming the news. A statement on LFC.tv said: “Liverpool are awaiting completion of the necessary paperwork before officially announcing John Arne Riise’s transfer to AS Roma. Riise arrived in the Italian capital on Wednesday and held talks with the Serie A side, who have since announced he has signed on a four year deal.”

Riise had taken some time to come to terms with the idea he was surplus to requirements in the eyes of Rafa Benítez, but when he did accept the idea commented that the £5m demanded by Liverpool seemed high. The fee paid is good business for Liverpool considering the Norwegian star had just a year left on his deal.

Riise finalised talks on personal terms, already initiated by his agent, and passed a medical in the Italian capital. A statement earlier in the day from Roma said: “As part of ongoing negotiations with Liverpool football club regarding the signing of John Arne Riise, Roma have been authorised to deal with the agent of the player.” His agent, Jan Kvalheim, had also confirmed Riise’s presence in Italy: “I can confirm that John Arne Riise is in Rome for a medical and to finalise the negotiations. A few small details remain.” [Read more →]

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