Surprise signing of Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Hands up if any of you really thought we would sign Sotirios Kyrgiakos to shore up our defense. Nah, I didn't think so. None of us saw it coming.

Mixed emotions about Alberto Aquilani

LFC has been given permission by Roma to discuss personal terms with Aquilani. Even though he's an extremely talented player, the physical nature of the Premiership could prove problematic for him.

Undisclosed to save face for LFC or Real

Thankfully the whole Alonso saga is now over, so I won't ramble any further on the topic. But one thing which did catch my eye about LFC's announcment, is that the terms of the deal will remain undisclosed.

Bigger players have left us before

Of course it comes as no surprise to anyone, but Alonso has officially handed in his transfer request today. Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, it's going to be very exciting to see how Rafa responds to this.

Distin or the kids to cover LFC at the back

Arbeloa's £3.5m transfer to Real Madrid is almost complete, and the agent for Dossena has also claimed that LFC has accepted a £4.3m bid from Napoli. Consider the first team defenders we'll be left with after that (Johnson, Insua, Aurelio, Degen, Carragher, Agger, and Skrtel).

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.

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.

Jesus Fernandez Saez has signed for Liverpool

First we had God at LFC, now it looks like we might have Jesus also (not to imply he's the son of Fowler). Liverpool have beaten Real Madrid & Barcelona to the signing of another highly talented kid.

Finnan left a void which Johnson might fill

Ever since Steve Finnan left LFC, right back has become one of our weaker areas. Arbeloa has been a very good (not great) right back for us, and Degen is injured more often than not. Although Carragher can do a job when asked, much like Arbeloa he lacks a certain attacking nous.

By now you've probably all heard that Portsmouth have accepted LFC's reputed £17m bid for Glen Johnson (plus he wants to join us). It's a lot of money for a right back, but Johnson could prove to be the kind of attacking right back we need to help break stubborn teams down.

Whether the versatile Arbeloa leaves LFC remains to be seen, but the signing of Johnson should strengthen one of the few weak areas left in our squad.

Hobbs loan move has been made permanent

Breaking into the first team on a consistent basis was always going to be difficult for Jack Hobbs considering the quality of competition for places. But he did get to make several appearances for LFCs first team, and also played a part in the famed Youth Cup success in 2006.

He has just had a pretty decent season on loan with Leicester City, helping them get promoted to the Championship. Having earned himself a permanent transfer to Leicester City, it should allow him to develop his potential, but not necessarily to the kind of standard required by LFC.

Rumours of Tevez coming to Liverpool

Seems like quite a few newspapers are claiming that Tevez is likely a £22m transfer target for us this summer. Unlike the last time we tried to prise a player (Heinze) away from Old Traffford, this time there's nothing ManUtd can do about it, as he's only on loan with them.

Our preferred partnership of Torres & Gerrard, is something which I doubt most Liverpool fans would want to mess with, which would make Tevez an overpriced backup striker. If we're going to be spending that kind of money (and we should) on an attacker, then I hope Rafa chooses to go with a dedicated winger in the mould of Ribery or Silva.

Agger could do with an Alonso style pledge

Looks like we won't be having a repeat of last summers transfer fiasco, thanks to Rafa saying that there's no way he'll consider letting Alonso leave. After going through an extended run of poor form, Alonso has really turned it around with his undoubted quality shining through this season, to the extent that we wouldn't be in the title race without him.

Sadly though, there continues to be persistent rumours concerning a potential exit of Agger. Last October Rafa was happy to say he wanted to keep the lad, but since then there has been absolutely no progress made on a contract extension. Rumours abound of some sort of falling out, time will tell if we end up losing the genuine world class talent of Agger.

No more f**king Keano thanks to politics

The ongoing power struggles at LFC have really become such a bore with it now culminating in Robbie Keane being prematurely sold at a huge loss. Rafa has been trying to throw his weight around LFC for some time now, and was the driving force behind getting rid of Keane. It was highly irresponsible of Rafa to sell him like that without getting any replacement in.

Rafa has purchased many flops over the years and given them much more of an opportunity to prove themselves than he did with Keane. What's worse is that when it looked like he was finding the kind of form we signed him for, he ended up being frozen out. Not very smart Rafa.

Yes Liverpool is probably better in a 4-2-3-1 formation, but only when Torres & Gerrard are both fit, there's not much of a backup plan if one of them isn't. Our club has now been left weakened by Keanes departure and we're now relying a sizeable dose of luck if we want to win the Premier League this season.

Pennant promised much but failed to deliver

Pennant has undoubted talent and proved that with plenty of impressive displays in his first 2 seasons for Liverpool. Yet his talent was let down by a lack of consistency to really make it as a regular Liverpool starter. Despite this he could have made for a useful squad player, although for whatever reasons he fell out of favour with Rafa this season.

So it was hardly surprising that LFC tried to sell him before his contract ran out this summer. Numerous clubs tried to lure him in the January transfer window, but Pennant opted to go on loan for the remainder of the season with Portsmouth instead. It's a shame he never got to fulfill his potential with us, and it sucks that we don't get to recoup some of his transfer fee either.

Is there too many world class defenders at LFC ?

What's with LFC ? Why won't they commit Agger to a new contract already ? Is he not a truly world class defender ? Are we inundated with too many world class defenders, that letting one leave is no big deal ?

The rumours that he might leave, surfaced a few months ago with Real Madrid expressing their desire to sign him, but both Agger & Rafa refuted that possibility. Negotiations were rumoured to have commenced on a new contract and it's rather doubtful that Agger was asking for too much money, yet nothing seemed to come of those negotiations.

The latest suitor is AC Milan, the problem being that Aggers agent met with their sporting director yesterday, to discuss whatever it is that agents and sporting directors do ! Agger has only 18 months left on his contract (which he could easily buy out). We need to be retaining our best players, not losing them.

Victor Palsson is set to sign for Liverpool

With the January transfer window opening, I'm sure we were all hoping to see a high profile signing or two take place, but for now we'll have to content ourselves with the signing of another midfielder to strengthen our youth ranks.

Victor Palsson, who turned 18 today, is reputedly a strong midfielder who had a successful trial with us back in October. He's from Iceland, but plays first team football for Danish side AGF. His signing is subject to the successful completion of a medical.

I appreciate there's only a couple hundred people from Iceland and Denmark who visit this blog each week, but if by any chance any of you know anything more about this midfield starlet feel free to enlighten the rest of us.

I think we've just lost our best right back

The writing had been on the wall for quite a while now, as Finnan had clearly been out of favour with Rafa. I'd hoped beyond hope that he would stay with us, but alas that's not to be. The really surprising thing though, is that he is signing for Espanyol. I'd figured another Premiership club would win his signature instead.

He has been a fantastic servant to our club over the last few years, very underrated despite being one of our most consistent performers. It's sad that he goes without having had the chance to say goodbye at Anfield. I can't help but feel we're losing one of our best players and I hope we don't end up regretting it.

Early promise but also an early exit for Voronin

I remember thinking Voronin would make quite an astute free signing for us and was also even impressed with his early displays for us (link). Unfortunately he never really built on that early promise and faded into obscurity. Most people will probably remember him for his lacklustre displays, or worse by his criticising Liverpool (link) which ended up being blown out of all proportion by the media.

Shame really, but hopefully we can recoup the money we spent on his wages by selling him next season. This season he returns (on loan) to the Bundesliga with Hertha Berlin. A good season for him, means some nice funds for us next summer ;-)

Braziliant - Vitor Flora signs for Liverpool

Our Brazilian contingent at Anfield continues to grow with the free signing of 18 year old striker Vitor Flora from Botafogo FC. He's a skillful, clever and left footed striker, but Youtube clip (link) aside, I don't know much about him. With the sheer attacking quality we have at youth level, I'm not sure where Flora is going to fit in.

He'll have a real fight on his hands to try and outshine the likes of Pacheco, Bruna, Amoo etc. But if the paperwork goes through quickly enough, we just might get our first glimpse of him in tomorrow nights reserve game which is live on LFC TV.

The final piece of the jigsaw puzzle is coming....

....well maybe not just yet, but the nerves which had been building over the weekend with the transfer window rapidly closing have now subsided. Terms have been agreed with Espanyol for the highly talented left winger Albert Riera.

He possesses a vast array of skills on the ball and is quite an exciting player to watch (at times). His prior Premiership experience should count him in good stead when it comes to adapting to life with Liverpool.

Given that he has been stating for a while now that he would only consider signing for Liverpool, I think his agreeing personal terms is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Fingers crossed his medical is also a matter of mere formality, that way he'll be our player within a few days.