MILNER, VILLA, ABIDAL ET AL

From my sightings of Milner on Sky and Match of the Day, he's always seemed like a decent player to me.
Positive, fairly direct, capable of scoring goals.
However, the ECHO editor, a Magpies fan, informs me that Milner is not what the Reds need.
Apparently, he's not of the quality that Liverpool demand. Limited pace and trickery. Good attitude and a trier, but short on real class and not a week-in week-out match winner.
Fair enough.
I can't help thinking, however, that he'd be an improvement on Pennant who seems more interested in appearing alongside his belle in Hollyoaks.
The Telegraph reckon £7m AND Danny Guthrie will see the Toon part with Milner.
Even if there's a truth in this story, that's a ridiculous valuation even in today's crazy world of inflated transfer values.
From what I'vs seen of Guthrie, the lad's got a future as a centre-mid. Bolton love him where he's been on loan and he'd probably fetch £3m, so Newcastle reckon Milner is worth £10m if my maths are correct?
Settle down Kevin.

Bentley is the bloke we need. Genuine class, two good feet, very good crosser. Scores lots of goals. To quote many an internet forum warrior, 'he would do a job for us - FACT' (you've got to use the word 'FACT'. That's what makes opinions gospel, apparently)
But the Blackburn man would no doubt cost £15+ and the growing and worrying suspicion is that the credit crunch, coupled with Huck's and Rafa's current mistrust of each other means the piggy bank is gloomily low.

The Villa/Torres partnership coming to Anfield is the stuff dreams are made of. They've been slick at the Euros.
Many would sacrifice all other buys just to get him and I can sympathise with that sentiment, they would rip defences apart every weekend.
An astute businessman would raise £50m from the combined sales of Alonso, Riise, Kewell, Pennant, Crouch, Carson and Voronin to blow it all on the Valencia front man.
But that would mean an astute businessman being in place at Anfield.
But it's doubtful if Villa will make it to Anfield, even if he is best mates with Pepe Reina and he likes hugging Torres.
If nothing else, Stevie would become jealous.

Let's dispense with the Barry idea. It was a decent suggestion while figures of £8m were talked about, but £15m is ridiculous.
We've got Gerrard, Masherano, Lucas (big question marks over him), a promising young Plessis and Guthrie if we want him back.
And Yossi definitely prefers playing in the centre where he is much more effective.

I mentioned Abidal in the title as we were strongly linked with him a while ago and he came to the fore in all the wrong ways last night.
I'm glad those rumours died a death, I never did like him.
Obviously he was red carded against the Italians last night, but that sums him up doesn't it? All-round oafishness and clumsiness.
He was exactly the same when Barca played Man Utd in the Champions League semi. No touch, no finesse, a bit of a clogger...worth £10m, we were told us. Next please.
Let's get the shipping in and shipping out moving. Give Riise to Roma for £4m. And let Harry Redknapp have Crouchy for £10m rather than clinging on for another £5m were not going to get.
It's all about doing these deals so we are in a position to move for the best players when they come available.

Finnan too. It became apparent at the end of last season that those legs that have served us well in recent years are on the wane and he's not the Mr Dependable he used to be. Those great crosses have dried up too.
With our two new full backs of Degen and Dossena, and Arbeloa and Aurelio not going anywhere, keeping him would man a pointless £50,000-ish grand being shelled out every week.
A Premiership side would still be interested in him and he'd fetch around £4m.

It's simple when you write it down, but all this wheeling and dealing requires energy behind the scenes at Anfield.
And the indicators are that the determination to make things happen isn't there, almost certainly brought on by the damaging rift between manager, chief executive and owner which has resulted in an immovable deadlock in the Anfield corridors.
All the charm offensives and positive PR in the world can't hide that.
At a time when Rafa, Parry and Hicks should be on the phone to each other a few times every day, they've probably not even received a text from each other in months.
I was surprised to see the Texan come out and tell Chelsea Torres was staying at Anfield the other day. All very commendable Tom, but let's hear instead what we ARE doing.
For the sake of Reds everywhere - open the lines of communication and represent the millions of Liverpool fans who realise that these two months could be the most important of the season.