Reo-Coker, Stokes, and preview of Scouse blokes
113 comments January 6th, 2007
You may have noticed the theme of today’s post. The theme is the letters “oke”. Acctually, it’s more the sound than the sequence of letters. Not the best theme, you may think, but then it is the early hours of the morning. You’ll have to forgive me. Plus it’s all a jOKE anyway. Oh dear…
Liverpool today, and Julio Baptista has returned to the squad. However, he’s not guaranteed to start, as despite the matchday programme for the Charlton game claiming he was suspended, Robin van Persie is available to play. Cesc Fabregas, however, is banned. I hope you put out a strong line-up, as if we attack them and get the ball into RvP and Henry, we can cause serious problems. After a trophyless season last year, the FA Cup should be a real priority.
One player who isn’t travelling with the squad is Anthony Stokes, who looks set to move on. Arsene says:
“It was a difficult decision but we have a congestion of strikers. We have Lupoli, Bendtner, Vela, we have Aliadiere, we have Baptista, Van Persie, Adebayor and Henry. At some stage it is unfair to stop somebody because there is too much congestion in front of him.”
It’s a fair point, and if, as suggested, we’re getting in the region of two-and-a-half million pounds for a player who is as yet unproven in the Premiership, you can understand the club’s position. If Arsene doesn’t believe he’ll make it long-term, he might aswell sell him now while he’s still regarded as a hot property. If I was him, however, I’d go back to Falkirk or maybe Celtic and try and finish off the Scottish season in style. By doing that he will only increase Premiership competition for his signature and put himself in a more powerful position. Still, the lure of the top English division might prove too strong.
The other piece of transfer news is this. Now, this is not meant as a dig at Myles Palmer, as in the past he has been right about the odd bit of gossip. However, I genuinely believe that there is absolutely no truth in this rumour whatsoever. None. At all. Still, I’ll accept it if I’m proved wrong.
One link I would keep an eye on though is the one with this player. Although the letters are no adjacent, he does have an “O”, a “K”, and an “E” in his name, and I have it on good authority that we’ve watched him several times in the past year or so. In fact, if it wasn’t for those pesky work-permits he’d be here already…
Still, it’s all hugely unlikely. As Arsene says:
“With the transfer window I am like somebody who is watching the rain outside from inside the window. They all hurry up out there and I am sitting here watching it with pleasure.”
Lovely.
