Rafa Rocks!

Finally we have news of some signings. Checkout the announcement at the official LFC website here. 4 signed and 2 or 3 more to come before the end of this week! Now that's some announcement. Rafa rocks!

I was getting kinda nervous the past few weeks; while all the other clubs were buying & selling, there was no news from LFC buying players. The upcoming season is gonna be the longest season yet and we have sold or free-transferred a handful of players but no incoming players. Panic spider already lah...

The current squad strength and quality is not gonna cut it if we are gonna challenge domestically and continentally. We need more quality players and it seems that Rafa has delivered. List of players signed so far (checkout the players' stats from my pirated Football Manager 2005 game; just click the thumbnails):

1) Boudewijn Zenden - Urguably Boro's best player for season 04/05. Started his career playing on the wings but spent last season playing central midfield. Versatile & experienced squad player...


2) Jose Manuel Reina - Best goalkeeper in Spain? Reina and Diego "useless at Man Utd" Forlan were the reason behind Villarreal's qualifying for next season's Champion's League...


3) Mark Gonzales - Best player in Chile? He's a pacey winger and LFC needs wingers since that piece of shit named Harry Kewell keeps churning out crappy performances and getting injured all the time...


4) Antonio Barragan - Can't find him on Football Manager 2005. Probably becos he hasn't signed a professional contract with Sevilla. He's 18 yrs old. But I read that he's a pretty promising right back. Fingers crossed...

There's alot of news about Stevie G, is he staying or living? I sure hope he stays. Football365 thinks it's just a slow news rumor: checkout the article here.

Stevie G is a big player for Liverpool, no doubt about it. But I always felt that he is not ready to be CAPTAIN. Too young, too inexperienced, not consistent enuff and mentally not ready to lead the most successful English club in the history of mankind. Gerard Houllier should have never made him captain. It came at a time when Houllier was under pressure and Gerrard was blossoming into a key player for LFC. Comparisons with Roy Keane & Patrick Viera were made. Houllier, in one of his mindless "turn-the-corner" antics, took the captain's band from the ever consistent Sami Hyppia and gave it to young Stevie G. No doubt Gerrard was the star player (Owen was on a downslide, missing sitters etc) but being a star player doesn't automatically make you captain. Look at Man Utd (Giggs, Beckham, van Nistelroy weren't captain), Arsenal (Thierry Henry isn't captain), Chelsea (Lampard is not 1st choice captain - John Terry is...), Barcelona (Ronaldinho is not captain)....u get my drift...

Anyways, Gerrard took up the challenge with much gusto. With his prodigious talents and crazy enthusiastic 'box-to-box' running, he captained the side to some memorable victories. But young Stevie could never sustain the energy levels and consistency required, he is just not ready yet. Mentally, Gerrard collasped. The whole team looked to Gerrard for inspiration and as Gerrard started to put in sub-standard inconsistent performances, so did the whole team.

It's the same with last season. Stats have shown that Liverpool performed better when Gerrard was out injured or rested. There is still an over-dependence on Gerrard but we can see that Rafa is slowly putting an end to that. Can Gerrard ever be a Captain Marvel? Dunno, time will only tell but all I know is he was made captain too early...

Cheers to Rafa and let's await the news of the next 2 or 3 signings he promised.
Suddenly the week has turn RED and all for the better :)