Eurosport - Fri, 05 Dec 15:06:00 2008
It's nearly Christmas, Roque Santa Cruz is being linked with a move from Blackburn, and the headline writes itself.
For what says 'Christmas spirit' like, well, several litres of Christmas spirits, a 24-pack of Stella and granny's alarmingly sweet sherry?
Certainly not some red-suited bloke in a Dorset 'theme park' desperately trying to find the sellotape to re-attach the cotton wool to his chin.
Santa Cruz himself is a model professional, of course, which is just one of the reasons why Rafa Benitez wants to bring him to Anfield and send Jermaine Pennant in the opposite direction.
Benitez intends to return to the good old days of squad rotation to reduce the load on Fernando Torres's prima donna-ish hamstrings.
With Robbie Keane presently unable to finish his dinner and Dirk Kuyt thriving on the wing, Benitez wants an extra body up front.
Something in the region of £8m plus Pennant could persuade Paul Ince to do business as Rovers look to whack the loot on a decent defender or two.
It hardly needs saying but Gossip Shop will say it anyway - Liverpool face competition from Manchester City for Santa Cruz's signature.
It is probably fair to assume that Herita Ilunga won't make his loan move to West Ham permanent.
The Toulouse man has employed classic 'no disrespect, but...' tactics to diss the Hammers, saying: "Without being derogatory, West Ham are a second-rate club.
"Let's not kid ourselves - we are not an Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea.
"Once I have proved myself in a team such this, I can hope to make the step up to another club."
Without being derogatory, Ilunga is out of his mind if he thinks he can hold a candle to Gael Clichy, Patrice Evra or Cheryl Cole's WAG.
Wigan have slapped a £10m price tag on a 30-year-old striker who scores five goals a season and has six months left on his contract.
The reason? Steve Bruce reckons Emile Heskey could be the only thing standing between the Latics and the costly business that is releagation.
Freddy Adu has said it is "one of my dreams" to play for Tottenham. One of Gossip Shop's dreams is being chased through the streets of Bratislava by masked agents before waking up in a cold but strangely euphoric sweat. If a sweat can be euphoric.
Sulley Muntari strongly recommends that Michael Essien ditches Chelsea for Internazionale just as soon as he comes back from that knee injury.
Essien sleeps 14 hours a day, and they have very good mattresses in Italy.
Centre-back Alex is another man being lured away from Stamford Bridge by a Chelsea old boy.
This time it is Henk Ten Cate, who wants the Brazilian to move to Panathinaikos on loan.
Alex has fallen behind Branislav Ivanovic - who plays every match in an Albert Ferrer-themed wig - in Big Phil's defensive pecking order.
Finally, two stories that have little in common but are dull enough to merit lumping together.
Fulham will bid £6m to sign Kevin Doyle from Reading, while West Ham could flog Valon Behrami to Palermo as their money troubles continue. Have they not heard of Ocean Finance?
KAKA KORNER
Milan playmaker Kaka must have a sore, dimpled backside after the fence-sitting he has been doing lately.
Check this out from Friday morning's press conference: "I am happy at Milan. If one day I have to leave because my objectives are not the same as Milan, then I could go to the Premier League ... [Robinho] said Manchester City have a great project for the future."
Comment 15 - 34 of 54
bin dippers to win nish...again
you cant play kuyt upfront he dont score enough goals he has now proven he is better on the wing he is not quick enough or a good enough finisher to be a striker for liverpool, personally id rotate him with babel when we playing teams who just defend because he is different to anyone else at the club with the way he runs at players, and you cant watch many liverpool games if you think arbeloa @#$% he is getting better he a good defender and does venture forward and links up, but yes we need another left back maybe bale from relegation threatened spurs,lol, and thirdly we should still sign barry, yes alonso is a good player and passer but he dont hardly score and he dont really lay on that many goals yes he spreads the play 40 yards but there not the killer balls you need when say gerrards not on his game alonso needs alot of time on the ball and ive never seen anyone who seems scared to shoot when he around the box but when he in his own half he shoots for fun
i think liverpool should go and get owen back hes still a quality finisher he could help liverpool win the title
So its time for the bottom to fall out of liverpool's seasen then is it??? hahaha Go Raffa go haha what an idiot
Chelsea are just gana get Stronger while Liverpool go the other way as we get Essian back Torres is just gana get worse and worse he's not a robot. Who's gana get all the goals ? Robie Keane? Do me a favour I can't wait to watch Chelsea do somthing special this seasen
Let Rafa do his job he knows his players. Give him the benefit of a doubt. Go Rafa go. This is our season. It is now or never. It has been a long time coming.
WANT TO SELL KUYT?THEN THE RED DEVILS WILL SWOOP.
UGO-A UNITED FAN
if robbie keane stopped whinging to the refs; looking for frees and just went back to basics. id say he;d get his shooting boots back. get tough robbie
we need a great right-fullback...
"Fernando Torres's prima donna-ish hamstrings." - what sort of bull@#$% is that? if you cant talk sense go and write for the Sun
I'm so much concerned about Liverpool, we hv a problem of scoring, may be if cruz come in, there will be changes and i must confess that kean has not shown any impact in the team. Rafa Benitez should pls do someting and work on defenders, strikers, and wings. Up Liverpool
It's not Cruz we need at Liverpool, it's Zaki. So come Benitez, go get him
Purple hatstand talks a load of pants
as a united fan i find it hilarious some pool fans want to see Kuyt go. you wouldn't be where you are this season if it wasn't him. i agree with the guy below, you need proper full-backs. i say United 1st, Pool 2nd, Chelsea 3rd, Villa 4th
purple hatstand, why would you question rafa's tactics and most of the players when they have gotten you to the top of the league currently, and that's coming from a united fan. and kuyt is an extremely hard working player who many clubs would love to have. don't judge your players on such little imperfections when they have got you to the top of the premier league.
peace out.
i can't see santa cruz working lets just go get vagner love off cska moscow hes scored loads in russia and can't b as bad as a brazilian as lucas
Re Kaka & Robinho - Has anyone noticed how players don't play for clubs anymore?
They're just involved with 'projects' with them...
It's as though they can't lower themselves to admitting that they've got jobs.
Babel's best can't be seing on the bench; as for Cruz, it's a welcome idear.
"my objectives".. that's hilarious. I'm guessing they want to win and so do you. So what you really meant is "money"?
RSC is worth maybe 15-20 mil, so a trade for Pennant and 8mil would benefit Liverpool more than anything. I can't see Ince trading him for anything but hard cash to the highest bidder (won't be Liverpool).
hey aaron have u been livig on the moon peter crouch plays 4 pompey u clown!!!
rafa's in-game sub decisions, starting line-up rotation madness and transfer weirdnesses just keep on coming. kuyt is a striker and should be deployed as such, pennant is a right-winger who can take on full-backs round the outside and put crosses into the box (rafa currently deploys NO players on either flank to do this job), riera/babel should be encouraged to do the same on the left. wingers need to backed up by full-backs but rafa sold riise and finnan and the 3 replacements (aurelio,arbeloa & dossena) are all useless (check out bosingwa, cole, clichy, evra etc....). lucas is the worst brazilian in the world and mascherano, for all his amazing tackling abilities, is rubbish with the ball at his feet. there are already several strikers being rotated in and out of the first team who just can't get the ball off the rubbish players around them (keane had 5 touches in the 1st half of the west ham game and was sustituted soon into the 2nd - and he doesn't play up front on his own). gerard, carragher, alonso and torres are the only real players at the club, and if one of them is out, we struggle. i would be very surprised if santa cruz was able to add in an effective to what's already there.
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account