WELCOME BACK FABIO

Nice to see the return of Fabio Aurelio to Liverpool.

The injury-prone full-back is once again reunited with his Anfield team-mates as Roy Hodgson took a sensible decision to re-instate him in the Liverpool squad for the new season.

The Brazilian has been without a club since Rafa released him in May.

Despite Aurelio being without a club since then, he has continued to train and keep himself fit and he passed his medical at Melwood with flying colours, thus earning himself a new two year deal with Liverpool.

Who can forget his great free-kick against Man Utd in our famous victory against them last year.

Or his equally brilliant shot against Portsmouth in the 3-2 come-back at Fratton park in Feb 2009.

Yes, you are injury-prone Fabio, but I gladly welcome you back to Anfield, stay injury-free as often as you can mate. 

ROY SPEAKS AFTER 2-O WIN

Roy Hodgon expressed his delight at his team's victory in Macedonia tonight.
Two goals by David Ngog gave Liverpool a crucial 2-0 away win to take back to Anfield.
"I am delighted at the win tonight, the young boys played well and Ngog took his goals well. I am disapointed that we gave the ball away so often, but we will work on theses things in training."
When asked about the England players who did not feature, Roy said he was never going to bring the England players to play in this game, but he stressed "steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Joe Cole will all play some part in our game against Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday."
So a good start to our new season and plenty of cause for optimism under the new manager

LUKE YOUNG DISCUSSING TERMS WITH LIVERPOOL

Aston Villa's Luke Young is close to completing a move to Liverpool.

His agent, Andy Evans said the two clubs had agreed a fee, believed to be around £2.5 million and are now discussing terms for the 31 year old full-back.
Young has travelled with Martin O' Neill's side on their pre-season tour of Portugal, but his agent is in close contact with Liverpool officials in order to complete his move to the Reds.

LIVERPOOL AGREE TO MASCHERANO DEPARTURE

Liverpool have this evening allowed Xavier Mascherano to leave the club.
The combative midfielder arrived back at Anfield today as expected and immediately began talks about his exit from the club with Roy Hodgson and the Liverpool board.
"The talks were extremely amicable. It was all done in a very nice way. Javier made it clear that he wanted to leave a year ago when he and the chance to go to Barcelona." according to his agent...

"He was asked to stay on for one more year, he agreed, so now it is time for him to go. It was all very pleasant and it is now a question of the two clubs who are interested in him making an acceptable offer to Liverpool."
Well, no point in keeping a player who doesn't want to play for the club anymore.
It is expected that he will rejoin his former boss Rafa Benitez at Inter Milan.

SHOULD ROY RISK WORLD CUP PLAYERS IN EUROPA LEAGUE MATCH?

Roy Hodgson faces an enormous selection dilemna this week.
As we begin our Europa League campaign on Thursday in Macedonia, he must decide whether to persevere with the Academy and reserve team players who did well enough but were clearly second best in yesterday's defeat to Kaiserslautern.
"The sports science people are keen we don't throw the World Cup people into action, but to throw this team into the Europa League might be a bridge too far for them" said new boss Hodgson after the defeat and very limited performance by the youngsters.
With Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole and Daniel Agger already back at Melwood, the burning question is, should he go against Head of sports science, Peter Brukner, and play some of our first teamers against Rabotniki.
While I, like everyone else, wants desperately for us to win the Premiership, there is always a need for a club like Liverpool to be playing matches in Europe.
We need those magical European nights to inspire the fans and the club itself.
Lets face it, if Benitez had won the Europa League last season, he might still be the boss.
So what should Hodson do, play the likes of Stevie G and Carra, or stick with the kids?
Hobson's choice, he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't play some of our regular first teamers.
I hope he plays our star players, for one half at least.
What do you guys think, should Hodgson play his best players for this game or face going out of the Europa League at this early stage?

LIVERPOOLS YOUNG REDS LOSE IN GERMANY

Liverpool lost 1-0 to German side buy one goal to nil this evening thanks to a cool finish by Micanski after 32 minutes.
Kaiserslataurn ran out easy winners\against a second-string Liverpool team filled with youngsters like Ayala, Darby, Eccelestone and Amoo, and, in truth, they stuggled against an experienced German team.
Looks like the massed defence and then the long ball forward by Roy Hodgson so far, different manager, different approach.

RIERA RAT TO DESERT SINKING SHIP

It appears that all is going well with Hodgson's removal plans as Albert Riera is set to join Olympiakos in a £4.2 million deal.
The player who denigrated our club last season with remarks such as 'Liverpool are a sinking ship' etc, might have been somewhat correct at the time after our dour last season under Benitez, has also found himself surplus to requirements under new boss Roy Hodgson.
The Spanish International will be in Greece today to undergo a medical and complete a move away from Anfield.
Hopefully, the money raised will help bring in a good striker to complement Torres this season.
Bye, bye Albert. 

PURSLOW LOCKED IN TALKS WITH TORRES

Following this evening's draw with Grasshoppers of Zurich, Roy Hodgson was quizzed about the future of key Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.
Hodson revealed that:
"Christian Purslow has been talking to Fernando Torres for the last two days so I think there has probably been lots of words from Fernando Torres but I haven't actually spoken to him,"
Its obvious to the Word and his wife that Torres is seriously concerned about his future at Liverpool,
he saw the club have its worst season in several years last season.
The fact that we have a new manager should encourage him, as should the signing of Joe Cole from Chelsea and the commitment to his future at Liverpool by talisman Steven Gerrard.
It is alarming that these talks between our MD Christian Purslow are dragging on into a third day.
Either you want to play for Liverpool or you don't.
I can understand Torres wishing for proper investment in players for the club, I also understand that while he spend years playing for a mid-table club in Athletico Madrid with little success, he is desperate for silverware and titles at club level.
However, I hope when he draped the Liverpool flag over his shoulders when recieving the World Cup that his commitment to the Liverpool cause was, and is genuine.

PURSLOW MUST BUY REMY TO SIGNAL LIVERPOOL'S INTENT

Great news with the signing of Joe Cole on a free from Chelsea on a four deal with Liverpool, but it must be backed up with some hard csh-spending on strikers aswell.
The man in the news is Loric Remy, a talent from Nice in France.
He is a dynamic forward who gets around the pitch with ease and has publicly his interest in moving to Liverpool, despite the intests of West Ham, Spurs and Arsenal.
I would suggest their inintial offer of £10 million to £12 million, after all we are not a championship side with a small budget and Mr. Purslow, we need a credible alternative to an injury-prone Fernando Torres.
Also with West Ham upping their bid to £13 million, we need to act fast if we want to get hold of this striker.

ROY SAYS PURSLOW IN CHARGE OF TRANSFERS

In an extraordinary insight into the current runnings of Liverpool Fc, Roy Hodgson tonight revealed that he has no say into who is bought and who is sold by the club.

Instead, amazingly, it is temporary MD Christian Purslow who is solely in charge of all transfer dealings at the club,
"If you want to know about transfer targets, and how things are progressing, you'll have to ask (managing director) Christian Purslow because he's the man looking after those discussions, not me."

So we do indeed have "a safe pair of  hands" at our club.

Pity the new manager, his hands are tied already before the season even starts, what chance does he have to make a success of the job if he cannot himself choose the players he wants to bring into the club?

The quickfire sale of Insua tonight is an obvious example of Purslow's ever growing influence at Liverpool as he was sold, despite Hodgson earlier this week saying "I like him as a person and a player".

You have got a tough enough job Roy, but now its just got even tougher. 

LIVERPOOL FRIENDLY CALLED OFF

Sadly, Liverpool's friendly against Al Hilal has been called off due to torrential rain in Austria.

The game would have given exciting youngsters like Laure Dalla Velle and David Amoo ther debuts in the Liverpool first team, alas a freak downpour ended all that 

So its back to the teams Swiss training camp for the squad and manager.
Next game is against Grasshoppers of Zurich on Wednesday.

HODSON MEETS TORRES & HE IS NOT FOR SALE

Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson today met with Fernando Torres to discuss the players future and he emerged happy with the meeting.
"I have met with Fernando. I found him to be a very pleasant man and we had a nice conversation," Hodgson told reporters in Bad Ragaz.

"As far as we are concerned he is a Liverpool player and we want him to remain a Liverpool player. He is not for sale and we don't welcome any offers for him.
"We want to keep him. My conversation with him was only short because I had to leave to come to the training camp in Switzerland. We spoke about football, the World Cup, his injury, and I told him how much I am looking forward to working with him."
Let us hope that El Nino was suitably impressed with the new boss and his plans for Liverpool and that he finally decides to stay with our club.

YOSSI HAS ANOTHER DIG AT RAFA

Yossi Benayoun has had another go at former manager Rafa Benitez

 Benayoun says the training at Chelsea is different to at Liverpool – in that they use a ball.

Benayoun has started training with his new club following his £6million summer move from Anfield.

Chelsea coach Ray (BUTCH?) Wilkins said: “Yossi is doing well.

"He has said the pre-season training here is so different to what they did at Liverpool where they didn’t use a ball.

“They ran and they ran and they ran.

"But here we use the ball all the time and we feel we get the best out of the guys by using the ball day-in, day-out.

I don't think that the finances are so bad at Anfield that we couldn't even afford a few footballs Yossi?

Keep your mouth shut or I will lose all the respect I had for you.

TORRES DOES HIS HAMSTRING AS SPAIN WIN THE WORLD CUP

Spain are World Cup Champions for 2010 thanks to an Iniesta goal in extra time to give Spain their first ever World Cup Trophy.
The Dutch played a cynical, physical approach from the outset in a bid to put the Spaniards of there passing and moving game.
It worked for 90 or so minutes until Andreas Iniesta scored Spain's winning goal in the second half of extra-time.
One goal was enough to see off the dogged Dutch in a match littered with fouls, yellow cards and a Dutch sending off late in the game.
So Spain are World Cup Champions and deservedly so.
The only concern for Liverpool Fans is that Fernando Torres pulled his hamstring after coming on as a sub for David Villla making him a doubt for Liverpool's opening games of the season, if he is staying with us that is.

WILL DAMIEN DUFF REPLACE YOSSI AT ANFIELD?

After Yossi Benayoun's exit from Anfield, would Fulham's Damien Duff be the ideal replacement on the left wing for Liverpool?
The likely departure of Spanish misfit Albert Riera will hasten the manager's move for the Irish winger.
He has played for Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Newcastle United before joining Fulham
The Irish International was a Hodgson signing from relegated Newcastle two years ago and he repaid Roy's faith in him with some scintilating display for Fulham last season.
He helped Fulham reach The Europa Cup final last season and his crossing ability and goals would be a valuable asset to Liverpool in the season ahead.
It is believed that he would be available for around £5 million and I am sure the Irish winger would jump at a chance to join his former manager at his favourite boyhood club at last.

YOSSI JOINS CHELSEA

After weeks of speculation, Liverpool's Yossi Benayoun has joined rivals Chelsea in a reported £5 million fee.
A Liverpool spokesman said: "Yossi's departure was agreed between the player and Rafael Benitez a number of weeks ago. Everybody at Liverpool FC wishes him well for the future."

LIVERPOOL UP FOR AUCTION SAYS BROUGHTON

On the day Roy Hodgson was appointed new Liverpool manager, Chairman Martin Broughton revealed that there has been no formal bids have been made for the club as yet.
He revealed that;"The sale process is going pretty well according to plan. Just to remind you, I'm overseeing the sale process and Barclays Capital are running the sale process.
We've now sent out information memorandums to a number of interested parties. They haven't come back to us yet. In the programme, we wouldn't have expected them to have come back to us yet.
Liverpool does not a set price, it is up for auction and not to the highest bidder, but the best bidder "
He hasn't revealed who those prospective buyers are, but one interested investor, Sheikh Khalifa of The UAE is one of them.
The wealthy billionaire is reported to be putting together a bid, as we speak.
It feels strange having a new manager at the club, lets hope he does as well with the team as he did in the press conference today.
As a Liverpool fan, I can only wish his the best of luck and hope he is a success in the job.