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Alan Curbishley resigned today. I was expecting that. Now West Ham have some looking to do to find the right manager. The first man we brought in was Swiss international, Phillip Degen, who came from Borussia Dortmund on a free transfer. Degen did not play too well in the preseason, but nevertheless, he looks like a full back who has the gung-ho offensive mentality down pat. Defensively, he sucks. On a free, it's a good deal. He's better than Voronin. Do I think he'll matter much to this team? Nope. If Arbeloa goes down, Jamie Carragher will step in at right back and Degen will not become a regular. Second man in, was Andrea Dossena, who joined from Udinese for 7 million pounds. This is a lot of money for a left back. A lot. Fortunately, he's pretty good! Great going forward, not so great in defense, but good enough. Provides a really good ball, and is quite fast. I still have my doubts. Next up, joining from Palmeiras in Brazil for three million pounds, was goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri. We signed him so we could get rid of Charles Itandje. Unfortunately we could not get rid of Itandje. I've seen some good things out of Diego. Some bad. All in all he is a very unproven player and I shudder to think what would happen if Reina were out for an extended period. Our fourth, and quite possibly most astute pickup, was David N'Gog, who joined from Paris St. Germain for 1.5 million pounds. The kid has quality, but isn't very polished. It'll take a while to get him where we need him to be. What he is, is very quick...has great size, and a pretty good shot. Intrigued by this lad. He scored two nice goals in the preseason, one of them coming against Rangers. Four days later came what was no doubt the biggest signing, Robbie Keane joining from Tottenham Hotspur for an astounding 20.3 million pounds. To be fair, the money figure is a ridiculous number. Knowing what I've seen so far, this has a good chance to be a flop of epic proportions. We do not have the money (yet) to waste on flops. We've gotta get bang for our buck, and Keane hasn't brought it yet. The match on the 13th against United is the best time for Keane to make his mark. He had better do something soon, or support will turn on him. We've got Marseille a few days later, that's another chance. Keane must score in one of these games. You give the guy the #7 shirt at this club, he better perform. The final signing, coming on the last day for transfers, was Spaniard Albert Riera, who joined from Espanyol for what is as of yet an unknown fee. If he doesn't solve the left wing problem, this is just more money poured into a problem position that Rafa hasn't quite figured out how to solve. Honestly, I'm not a fan of this move at all. I don't care how much it cost. Riera provides a good ball from the left side. That's it. He's slow, does not finish well, and flopped at City. A fantastic signing. Well, if he only cost 1 million pounds. But he didn't. He'll be here for two years and get shipped back home. Tomorrow, international duty.

This entry is going to be about the transfer window. Today's for the players we sent out. This transfer window was somewhat light in the movement of star quality. With the money going in to Man City and soon enough us once Hicks and Gillett sell, next summer will certainly not be the same. Matter of fact, our owners are going back to the bargaining table with Dubai. It's gonna happen soon. Anyway, we'll go in order. I'll include a picture for each. Okay, that's a lie. Don't think I'll cover youth players. The first man headed out the door was John Arne Riise, to Roma for 4 million pounds. A fair sum of money for the Norway international, but to be honest, I'm quite surprised that Roma of all teams were the ones to want him. The phrase square peg in a round hole comes to mind. He doesn't fit their style of football at ALL. I read he played well in their match against Napoli this weekend. Shocking. He still has it in him to prove himself as a top left back, but he blew it against Chelsea last year in the Semis. He had to go. Hopefully he has a few great hits like the one against PSV away during the knockout round in 2007. Second up was Anthony Le Tallec, heading to Le Mans for about 1 million pounds. Thank fuck. The third man to join a new club was Harry Kewell, who joined Galatasaray on a free. Leeds supporters were pretty pissed that Kewell joined Galatasaray. After all, there was that big incident a few years back. They should be mad! We'd have kept Kewell if he could stay fit, but he can't, so that's it for him. He's already scored twice in Turkey. By the way. Peter Crouch headed to Portsmouth for 11 million pounds, which is, to be frank, insane. The move gave us a real nice influx of funds we desperately needed, so, I was glad. But like I said, 11 million pounds is insane. He came off the bench for us, surely Portsmouth could've held out and gave less. I was quite happy to see him head out, Chelsea supporter he and his pops are. See ya. Danny Guthrie moved to the northeast, Newcastle specifically, for 2.25 million pounds. He had to go too. It's for the best. Maybe at a later date he'll be able to come back, but right now, he can't fit into the side. Guthrie has been pretty good for Newcastle. Of all the players we sent out, Guthrie's the one with the brightest future ahead of him. We should've had a buyback clause put into the move. We may have, but I doubt it. Soon enough we'll find out. Scott Carson finally headed out on a permanent move, to West Bromwich Albion for 3.25 million pounds. Carson blew this one for us. Had he played well, that fee could've doubled. Fuck him, and his stupid blundering ass. Had to happen. And now we get to the moves which took place on the final day. Steve Finnan made his exit, heading to La Liga side Espanyol, for an undisclosed fee. Finnan's a loyal servant to the club, and truthfully, this is the only exit this summer that actually bothered me. If Xabi Alonso left I would've been really bothered, but Xabi didn't. I've got respect for any player from the Isles that makes his way to the continent. Doesn't happen very often, matter of fact, I think he and Tyrone Mears are the only ones to head out this window. I'm trying to recall any other players from the Isles that play on the continent currently, but I can't. I don't think there are any. Last, and definitely least, Andriy Voronin headed to Hertha Berlin on a one year loan deal. He tried to silence the Kop after scoring against Lazio. What a fucking moron. He's so shit we can't sell him, eventually we'll just stick him in the reserves after he disappoints in Germany. Let him rot. At least we got him on a free and only paid his wages, not a fee of any sort. Tomorrow I'll talk about the guys that came in. Then international duty on Thursday.

Not the best of performances today, but you take what you can get. I thought we played better today than we did against Sunderland or Boro. I'll start with player ratings. Pepe Reina: 6. Only had to make one or two saves, did it, and looked shaky otherwise. Played far better in mid-week against Standard Liege. Alvaro Arbeloa: 6. Got forward well, looked really strong and like a top right back, except for that whole passing thing. Failed to set up chances. Jamie Carragher: 8. Rock at the back, most consistent performer thus far. Legend. Martin Skrtel: 7. Got burned by Young and Agbonlahor a few times, but stayed steady and didn't allow them to provide the final ball. Happy with his performance. Andrea Dossena: 7. Wouldn't want to run into him after a night of drinking. Tough as fuck. Lucas: 5. Jetlagged, played out of position. Not good. Javier Mascherano: 7. Driving force. Hope to see this man in our shirt until he returns home and plays the rest of his days at River Plate. Xabi Alonso: 7. He's back on form. We don't need Gareth Barry as long as Xabi keeps this up. Sunderland, Standard, and Villa have been great games for him, better than all of last season. Dirk Kuyt: 6. Played alright. Robbie Keane: 5. Looks like a bad buy if I'm being honest. Fernando Torres: 6. Would've scored if not for the injury. Hope he misses international duty and nothing more. Subs David N'Gog: 5. Lazy, but had the best chance. Still a kid, will get better. Fabio Aurelio: 6. Also better than last season, if he had played like this, we would've got a left back on a free to back him up, and not bought Dossena. Yossi Benayoun: N/A. Wrong idea, didn't get a touch. Probably would've put Babel in as a front-man here. Rafa: 4. Made bad subs, and the formation was all out of whack. The lads looked lively at the beginning of the second half, but it didn't last. Villa's best player was Nigel Reo-Coker. The big story today is the Torres injury. How long is he going to be out? Hopefully not too long. We cannot afford to lose him for United at Anfield and Marseille away. Both United and Marseille are missing their top wingers (Ronaldo and Ben Arfa), so would this balance that out? Really, hell no, it wouldn't. We still haven't played a match with everyone available for selection. Now Riera's coming in too. He better perform, if he bottles it against United, safe to say the lad will never settle in. Hopefully Gerrard plays on the right so that both Alonso and Mascherano can stay in the lineup. If not, Alonso's the guy out. Now, for the other matches I watched today... AC Milan vs. Bologna I woke up real early, as the temptation got me. I had to see Ronaldinho play for Milan. I had to see Shevchenko make his return. Fortunately, Ronaldinho didn't disappoint. Massimo Ambrosini headed in a beautiful cross from Ronaldinho. Ronnie's back. Doesn't look fit though. Sheva missed two golden chances, but he'll score plenty of goals this season. He just hasn't had a consistent run of matches in a while. The talent is still there. Bologna won after a fantastic goal from Francesco Valiani. Still think Milan are going to win Serie A. Numancia vs. Barcelona Well, Barca put in a stunning performance. In the worst way possible. Lionel Messi looked like the only one who brought his boots. The rest of his teammates played terribly. Henry had a great chance but missed, Eto'o had another great chance, but hit the crossbar. That's about it. Hleb should've started in place of Yaya Toure. Deep down, I expected they'd have a rough time against the La Liga new boys, because they'd never won at Numancia. Numancia won 1-0, thanks to a great goal from Mario. Fiorentina vs. Juventus I wound up watching more of this match than I thought I would. Highly interesting. Pavel Nedved opened the scoring in the 39th minute after a nice cross from Zdenek Grygera. A Czech Republic Connection! Alessandro Del Piero played strong and created some great chances for new addition Amauri, but the former Palermo striker couldn't finish. Too bad, he looks quality. In the second half, Stevan Jovetic, a new 18 year old addition from Partizan Belgrade, came in and played a strong game. Not strong as in hard to knock off the ball, because he was actually quite easy to knock off the ball. He provided a spark and set up a few free-kick chances, which new left back Juan Manuel Vargas failed to capitalize on. New Fiorentina defensive midfielder Felipe Melo was sent off after a reckless challenge on new Juventus man Cristian Poulsen, and from there, the match really picked up. Alberto Gilardino blew quite a few chances this match, until scoring a brilliant, hard-work goal, leveling the match in the 89th minute. Here's the goal. The match would stay level, and end at a 1-1 draw. Fantastic match, great result for the Viola. Although Mario Santana had no factor in the goal, he played fantastic. Man of the Match in my opinion. Because I watched so much of this, I didn't watch so much of this... Deportivo La Coruna vs. Real Madrid Good, back and forth match, which ended 2-1 for Deportivo. Both of their goals were scored on headers from set pieces, and Ruud van Nistelrooy banged home a goal (in the box of course), after a defensive mistake. No doubt a disappointing result for the defending La Liga Champions, but they haven't won at Deportivo in 17 years. 18 years now. Mexican Andres Guardado was the best player for the winning outfit, but they suffered an injury, as substitute Riki tore his hamstring while bursting down the left side late. Too bad. Tomorrow I'll discuss our transfer dealings, as the window closes. Tuesday I'll talk about international duty for LFC players, and our World Cup Qualifying match against Cuba, in Havana.

Yeah, I'm turning this into a Liverpool Football Club blog. We'll see how long that lasts. I usually have a shitload to say about my favorite club and never quite get around to saying it. Now I will. After the Villa match tomorrow, I'll give player ratings...a rant on the new stadium and ownership...preview for international duty (for each player and the United States for that matter)...and lastly, a wrap-up of our transfer dealings this summer, and my opinions on the new acquisitions. I'll post about other leagues too, whenever something comes to mind. I probably won't get bored with this, unlike when I kept this as a wrestling blog. I usually have tons to say about football. Sometimes it'll be related to our Americans playing in Europe, like Jozy Altidore with Villarreal. I doubt many people will read this. Maybe that's a positive. Today I watched West Ham vs. Blackburn... Quality of football was dire outside of the goalscoring moments. Which were admittedly quite nice, especially Bellamy's volley. I wish he was able to stay healthy, we'd have kept him. Arsenal vs. Newcastle Newcastle were dire. Could've been a lot worse. Barton is a thug, but I found it funny how after his challenge on Nasri, he smiled. What a guy. Sampdoria vs. Inter Milan Maureen's introduction to Italian football was a rough one. I really like Antonio Cassano. Fantastic player. Ibrahimovic took his chance well, but Inter found themselves under seige late. Mourinho should be glad to have got the point. Valencia vs. Mallorca Silva + Villa = Champions League football. If both can stay fit and in form. This David Villa is far improved from his play last season, prior to Euro '08. He was really bad until the Euro. Afterward...wow. Tomorrow I'm going to watch Aston Villa vs. Liverpool Numancia vs. Barcelona Fiorentina vs. Juventus (some of this match, like during time between Barca match and the other, and during halftime of...) Deportivo La Coruna vs. Real Madrid. Of the three non-Pool matches, looking forward to the last one the most. No van der Vaart and no Ruud should leave Madrid with a very tough test. Both guys were sent off during the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup last week at the Bernabeu.