Red in Dublin

The new away kit was released today. I can't say that I'm overly impressed with it. The last white kit was much better.

Some interesting transfer rumours here. If these are to be believed then we're going to break the bank for Simao/Malouda, Tevez, Alves and Milito. I have to say that I can't see us spending that much money. I don't have any sort of inside info or source, just what I read on the net and that leads me to believe that we'll spend cash this summer but not £70m. Chris Bascombe in the Liverpool Echo today says that Sami is staying at the club. If Hyypia is staying then maybe that makes a move for Milito less likely. Bascombe is pretty reliable for getting the inside line from Anfield. He reckons that Tevez will be too expensive at £30m. I too doubt that Rafa would be willing to spend that much on one player.

The news that Rafa has been reassured after talks with the chairmen is satisfying. They seem quick off the mark to get in contact with Rafa when needed.

Our continued interest in young European talent shows no sign of finishing. This week we've signed Alexander Kacaniklic. He's a fifteen year old midfielder from Sweden and he impressed the staff after a twelve day trial in February.

Jerzey Dudek is set to leave the club shortly as he's out of contract. While it is definitely time for him to go, with Scott Carson waiting in the wings, he will be missed. He will be a legend for what he achieved in Istanbul, but has tarnished his reputation somewhat with a string of poor displays since then, notably the Carling and FA cup this season. But the character of the man can never be in doubt. Here he is at the end of the match in Athens, comforting a distraught Reina. I hope Jerzey goes on to do a good job elsewhere and has a happy twilight to his career.

The boardroom situation is reaching boiling point. By all accounts, Rafa has had enough of Rick Parry and his incompitence and indecisiveness. It now looks like he wants someone else to come in and do Parrys job with more authority to make quick decisions and sign off on players. Foster Gillett seems to be the man that will take the job but he is having work permit issues at the moment. Where this leaves Parry, I don't know. Rafa is on holidays this week and seems to think that it should be sorted out to some degree by the time he gets back. I hope he's right. He has said that we need to spend money now or else we'll only ever be contenders for third/fourth spot in the league. It seems that he has two deals lined up now that need signing off on to go through. These are rumoured to be Simao and Gabriel Milito. We've seen when Rafa was at Valencia that he walked when he didn't recieve the backing he needed. I fear that it might be the same situation here if he doesn't get what he wants. That would be an absolute disaster for the club.

In trasnfer news there's been a few bits and pieces. Bellamy wants his future sorted. I don't blame him but I do think he'll leave to go to one of Villa, Blackburn or West Ham. Marseille want to do a permenent deal on Cisse. I hope that we get a decent price for him. Momo isn't happy with his current status. As I've said before, I can see him being sold for the cash. Samuel Eto'o made some very positive comments about us over the weekend. If he does move, I can see us getting involved but I would imagine that he's more likely to stay at Barca and he'd be very expensive anyway. Finally, we've signed two Hungarian kids, called Krisztian Nemeth and Andras Simon from MTK Hungaria. Nemeth is highly rated and played well in teh uefa u-17 competition last year.

Possibly great news from Javier. Now is the time for Hicks and Gillett to put their money where their mouths are and buy Tevez. He would be awesome for us. Anyone who's seen him play for West Ham this year can see that he's a star in the making. The news that Xabi is going nowhere is a much needed boost after the low of Wed night. Does this mean that Momo is likely to be sold to Juve or Barca? We are really strong in midfield with Lucas coming in. If Rafa is to sell someone I assume it'll be Momo. The BBC thinks that Rafa has been offered cash for Owen. I'd be quite surprised if it happened given his injury history and wages.

I was hoping that I'd be writing about "the joy of six" today. Alas it's "seventh heaven" for AC Milan. But I don't feel devestated. We gave it everything we had but it wasn't enough and luck was against us. These things happen in football. We lost 2-1 having put on a really good display. It's not like we were spanked 3-0.

The first half was great and we played some good stuff. Pennant in particular pinned Jankulovski back on our right wing. Rafa wanted us to go at them from the off. We were in the ascendency and had a few chances. Unfortunately, as has been the case many times this season, we couldn't make it count and failed to put any of the chances away. But the Inzaghi goal was devestating. It was a bad position to give away a free but Pepe had it covered until it took a deflection off Inzaghi's arm. 1-0 down at half time after dominating the half. Sickening. Inzaghi scored again in the second half after recieving a pass from Kaka. Milan were much better after the break, they play well when they have the lead. Crouch came on and did alright but the ref penalised him for being tall. Kuyt scored at the death but it wasn't enough. The ref blew up early but it probably wouldn't have mattered. Milan took their chances, we didn't. At least we got a good match with some good football, unlike the FA Cup final last Saturday. John Giles described it as "enthralling from start to finish".

Javier Alejandro Mascherano was brilliant. Man of the match for me. Kaka had very little influence on the game until the chief was taken off. He might have stayed on and closed Kaka down for the second goal if he hadn't been booked.


The papers are full of players on the way out today. We know that Robbie, Jerzey and Bolo are on their way as they're all out of contract. It now looks like Mark Gonzalez is on his way to Real Betis. I feel a bit sorry for the lad but it didn't seem to be working for him here. He had a few decent games but by and large was underwhealming. I had high hopes for him coming into the season as he was incredible for Sociedad in Spain last year. Sometimes players don't fit in or adapt here and Mark could be a case in point. I hope we get a good fee for him, rumoured to be £5m+, and that he does well for Betis.

So where do we go from here? It's clear that we need more talent in attack. Left wing is a problem position. Kewell is injured too often, Garcia is great in europe but not as effective in the league and isn't a real winger anyway. Aurelio started to look really good before he got injured but he has a bad history of injuries too. Leto is coming in but I don't know if he'll be ready for first team football. I think we're ok on the right wing given that we've Pennant who had a great second half of the season. Gerrard can also play there and do a good job. It looks like Bellemy will be sold although this hasn't been confirmed. I'm hoping that we invest in a top striker. I'd love Tevez or Villa but I don't know if either is likely. I'm sure we'll have a summer full of speculation. I hope that Rafa doesn't sell us all a dummy and sign Darren Bent.

I won't be doing as many posts over the summer as there are no matches. I'll try to do a roundup of transfer news every so often and might do profiles of some players. Onwards and upwards.