WHEELIN' AND DEALIN'

All the deals so far seems to make sense.
Guthrie for £2.5m seems about right. People we're getting a bit carried away with him, wanting £5m on the back of a few half decent displays for Bolton.
With our raft of centre mids he wouldn't have had a look in at Anfield.
I'm hoping Yossi gets a major look in this season. He's got the potential to be a big player for us. He just needs regular games, and he's far more effective in the middle.
The one bit of class in a drab friendly against Tranmere was his looping stunner into the top corner.
With Gerrard, Masch, Lucas, Yossi and Plessis, do we really need an £18m Barry and an ineffectual Alonso?
Nope. Axe them both would be the sensible shout.

Amid all the clamour regarding a centre mid, we seem to have forgotten that one of our most needy areas remains out wide.
Rumours abound that Pennant is on the verge of a move to Blackburn, so with Riise gone, Kewell gone, Yossi better in centre mid and Babel better up front, that leaves us with a grand total of zero wide players.
Apparently, both Degen and Dossena can double up there, but that's got to be a last option at best.
I'm pleased the Milner suggestions have died down. But we should be busting a gut to sniff out Silva at Valencia.
He's still young and £15m would be reasonable.
Carson to Stoke is the latest export, which again, is a realistic summation of a player who was highly regarded six months ago, but since chucking the ball into the net for England against Croatia, he's slid down in valuation.
That lost us £2-3m at least, I'd imagine. And as someone pointed out the other day, we only paid £750,000 for him and we got around £2m for the loan deal to Charlton.

With Pennant hopefully going for around the £5m mark, and Xabi going for £12m-ish, we might then have a decent pot to go for a quality winger and centre forward.
For me, Robbie Keane is top class, with a top class attitude.
Shame he's 27 as he's only got another four years before his legs go, but he'd be a fantastic addition to the squad.
Let's go all guns blazing for him. Chuck Voronin in as part of the swap.
Talking of swaps, it was a bit cheeky of Villa valuing Finnan at £1m as part of a cash plus player deal for the Barry bore saga, wasn't it?
I know he's past 30, but he's still worth £3m I reckon. Very dependable and a lot of assists.
And I'd agree with the general Barry consensus now. Let's go elsewhere. £18m for a 27-year-old, although admittedly very good midfielder, is too much.
I like him more than most people, but he's not worth that cash.
What is it with O'Neill? He seems to have come out of the Rafa slagging match with credit in some quarters. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2008/07/barry_saga_a_sorry_affair.html?page=19)
Just because O'Neill's a bit quirky and people are amused by his random views as a BBC pundit, he's flavour of the month.
Barry's stock has risen in the last 12 months, Liverpool want to sign him. O'Neill is pissed about that. He is miffed that our interest in him became public.
Well Martin, if it wasn't made public, I'd doubt you'd tell Gareth that Liverpool had come in for him and he'd be none the wiser.

His valuation of Gazza Bazza is a joke. And the egg will be on his face if Liverpool go elsewhere and he is stuck with his club captain and best player for a year who no longer wants to play for him as relations seems to have been shattered between the pair.
Anyway, that's enough on that particularly tiresome episode.
All in all, things starting to move nicely along now. But the two big buys - winger and centre forward - could be the difference between glory and yet nore frustration at Anfield this coming season.