Hafnia

£8m and yeah I'll take him.

The Liverpool f.c media have had a Jordan Henderson love in this year, and whilst he's gone some way to proving he's a valuable player with talented team mates he's not on the same level as McCarthy. In a way I'm happy, I'd just be more pissed off with "Mourinho sees McCarthy as his new makalele in a £20m swoop" headlines. Ah there that's better

I'm sure John oshea, Wes Brown, Kieran Richardson were thought of the same at United where they won medals. You can't keep 20 first team players happy. That's why we need a squad. McCarthy, Barkley and Barry will be first on the sheet, colback or diame provide "cheap" cover and will no doubt play in lower key euro games.

They will cost a lot less than they are worth, we need numbers, they will be solid squad players. Think of them as a smart designer t shirt you want to wear to the pub instead of your £100 shirt that you wear for big nights out.

If that were true then why would players have agents?

Miguel, you made a statement, it was wrong, stop digging. Tevez and mascherano were at relegation last day escapists West Ham.... Joe Cole was relegated with west ham and went on to win medals with Chelsea.... Kevin Prince boeteng??? Relegated, but good enough to win serie a, and be a german international. If your argument is sound then conversely you would have to say that at some stage only really ambitious would be looking to sign Luke Chadwick, Jeremy alliadiarre, Pascal cygan??? All league medal winners. We did actually sign a young league winner once, Stephen Hughes.... Won the league playing near half the games in a season fir arsenal. Was absolutely shite. We signed Phil Neville, who won nearly everything, not calling him shite but let's just say average and put the words "honest pro" for those who still kiss his arse. The common denominator is that in every wining or relegated side there are contributors and there are passengers... There are more contributors in a winning side, but to label all relegation battlers as not good enough is nonsense. If you heard Martinez rejected RVP, Rooney, bony, lallana etc etc because they played for teams that finished lower than us then would you be happy? If your logic was right then we should reject such players.

not sure how that affects his move to us...

Lets hope he turns into another Nigel Clough for them if thats the case.

You could also argue that Lukaku doesn't score goals he went 5 consecutive games without a goal... what stood out for me at the time was his contribution was pretty much bang average also. I seen suarez go a few games without a goal - he caused mayhem and sturridge got assists goalore off him. Valuing a player based on average goals is like booking a holiday based on average temperature - it doesn't tell you if it rains, cloudy or whatever. You need to look at more. Andy Johnson was less than 1 in 2 for Crystal Palace...

Rooney esque... All depends whats in the best interests for Stones, his old agent may have daft clauses, in short I just dont like agents. If he goes the world cup his new agents will likely push for £50k a week... I think RM needs to help the lad here. Get him on a 5 year deal though.

Or the player does what Suarez did last year... not a fan of that behaviour though, as they would do the same to us.

why whats happening with stones agent?

Phil Jones is just another Neil Ruddock "watch me put my head in a cement mixer". At International level he isn't canny enough. I'd take Stones regardless, he is quite clearly going to be an England captain - has got the lot. At international level you need someone with ability to read, composed and ability on the ball at the back, he's potentially the closest thing to Bobby Moore that we have had in that sense.

For me here's my alternative striker options and cost expectations:- 1. Bony £17m, beast of a man, 6ft and built like a tank, holds the ball up, explosive shot, great work rate, 25 years old, miss him due to ACN but he would get a bag full inb our team. 2. Remy - £8m at that price he will go champions league club. Liverpool would be soft not to try for him. 3. Batshuayi - £10m, loads of pace, scores goals, less financial risk. 4. Gomis - french international, free agent, big wages though...

We sold £40m worth of players and replaced with £23m leaving a £17m profit. Throw on top of that £8-10m that I would expect from a new year/TV revenues perspective and we will be close to the £30m kitty that I have seen touted. Will we see that much??? Who knows, but what is for certain is that we could afford Lukaku - however when you look at being at the expense of other key positions I'm not certain at all.

As a partnership imagine those two?

Yaya... Beast. What a goal. That's goal difference fucked for Liverpool if man city draw. 13 goals the better. Thing is, man city well found their groove, came through a tough test there. I seen a fair few kopites celebrating the "agueeerrrooo" clincher a couple of years ago.... Imagine west ham two nil up with man city levelling in last ten minutes... Now that would be funny.

Rooney has got to be the biggest let down for me, he was 17 and had the lot, potentially was going to be world class and England's best striker in years. For me he was what you call potentially amazing. Can't say that about lukaku, potentially very good in the way that "if" by any chance he did improve technically he could be a Christian vieri. That to me is 10-12m

Traffic problems.

Embarrassing, they have 10 men behind the ball. Looks like Villa got the "Liverpool must win the league memo"

What's got into villa??? Have Liverpool promised them a player for free if they do a job.

This is tough viewing this... Come on city.

The point being that if we are looking at someone who can just pop up and get a goal and offer very little in the ability to hold up the ball and play back to goal then why spend £20m on lukaku? Could get Hernandez for £8m... It's not a case of saying who is better, it's a case of bang for buck. The bottom line is that the money quoted for lukaku is serious solid all round striker. Agenda??? I had to have a chuckle, I was going to say that lukaku can learn off two of the best players ever seen in ronaldo and Gerrard.... I won't though. Look how much city miss aguero, he really is the complete striker

Ok, the point I will make is this, take Suarez, Giroud, bony at 20 years old and show me them having balls bounce off them, they don't. Ball control is a fundamental skill, like tackling but far more important... Does anyone think that scholes didn't try and work at his tackling? He did but just never had that knack. Show me a footballer with all the physical attributes and very little technical attributes and I'll show you a league one footballer.

basically he gets a dogs life off some, yet his professionalism is up there with Neville who was tolerated for just that attribute alone - except he gives more to the team.