Full back conundrum for LFC

There was rumours last month that Aurelio twisted his knee while playing football with his kids. Sadly those rumours now appear to be far more factual in nature and he looks like being out for several months. [Edit: LFC have since announced its for a max. of 2 months]

This should be a great opportunity for Insua to cement his place in the first team. But Rafa is unlikely to chance several months without sufficient cover at full back. So what does this mean for Dossena & Arbeloa ?

Arbeloa has only got one year left on his contract and is unlikely to want sign an extension. Dossena did improve (no really!) towards the end of the season, so it might be an idea to give him another chance. Both of them were supposedly leaving LFC this summer but Aurelio's injury complicates things. It will be interesting to see what Rafa decides to do.

Chris Mavinga signs for Liverpool

Well what do you know, Liverpool has beaten Arsenal to the signing of a French youngster. Now that's something which you don't see every day.

The 18 year old defender (can play at full back and centre back) has signed from Paris Saint Germain for an undisclosed fee. As ever, he's being portrayed as one of those brightest ever prospect types (we'll soon see).

Considering that he's just turned 18 years old, I imagine he'll be going straight to Melwood. But I wonder if he will be fast tracked to the first team in similar fashion to Ngog. Hope we get an early glimpse of him in pre-season.

Reds starlets on display during pre-season

Pre-season is an exciting time for two reasons. First and foremost because the withdrawal symptoms from the season proper start to fade away. Secondly it provides an opportunity for Reds fans to catch a glimpse of the upcoming youth players who might get a shot at the big time.

The astonishingly talented Pacheco as well as Ayala, and San Jose are players which Rafa has singled out as having had conversations with regarding their immediate future (their destiny is in their own hands).

Nemeth, Gulasci and Kelly have also been training with the senior squad this week. This represents the biggest indicator of which youth players will be on display during the pre-season friendlies (click here for the fixture list).

LFC's worst kept secret this summer

There's a huge number of changes being made to the Youth Academy this summer. Rafa is making sure that new people with new ideas are being brought in to revamp absolutely everything.

It's a masterstroke on the part of Rafa, that he has managed to persuade our greatest ever player to return to LFC. King Kenny will now play a senior role in the development of our youth players, which should allow him to instill his passion for Liverpool into our youth setup.

Also on the side he'll act as an ambassador for LFC, whatever that position entails it's probably pretty open ended. But with his professionalism and intelligence, I'm sure he can make a go of it. Welcome home King Kenny.

Further transfer speculation to be expected

Well the transfer window is finally open, no doubt the media will treat us to even more rumours which have no basis in reality. But with Rafa now having more control over transfers, hopefully we won't have to wait too long to see who the real transfer targets are.

There's been quite a few departures from LFC already (Hyypia, Pennant, Hobbs, Anderson, Leto), with more to follow (possibly Dossena, Arbeloa, and Babel). We've already made one big signing (Johnson) and it'll be interesting to see who else Rafa has in mind.