As Liverpool's owners stumble on, so Benitez's achievement in making Liverpool the second strongest team in the country becomes ever more the great conjuring act. Benitez can do some odd things: that rant at Sir Alex Ferguson last season or his Soviet-style purge of the club's long-serving academy staff. But somehow, amid the financial wreckage, he has also built a team that can beat Real Madrid and Manchester United.Yep, he's built a team that can beat Real and Man United, but not win any trophies. What a manager. Roll on next season though:
So Liverpool is a club its owners can barely afford to own, let alone run. It has a stadium badly in need of replacing, a financial structure that cannot move forward until it is and a manager is expected to make the best of it all. If Liverpool win the Premier League next season without any radical change to this status quo it will be an astonishing act of management by Benitez.Coming on the back of yesterday's comments from Liverpool, “We have more spare cash to spend than any club except Chelsea,” this anticipatory hymn of praise seems ill-timed at best.
The main stories today concern Wigan's Antonio Valencia. The Mail report that we won't be dragged into paying more than we think he's worth:
They also have quotes from his agent:Real made a £21.5m bid last month for the Ecuador international and that offer still stands despite their ongoing interest in Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery and United's Cristiano Ronaldo.
United, however, are confident in the knowledge that Valencia, 23, wants to join them and save himself from uprooting to move to Spain.
The one problem is that despite an agreement in principle being made between the clubs in December, United scouts have not been wholly impressed by Valencia's performances in the second half of the season, as revealed in Sportsmail, and they don't believe £16m represents value for money.
Valencia's agent Diego Herrera said: ‘I cannot confirm the news that Manchester and Madrid have made bids because I haven't spoken with Wigan yet. But I will be in touch with them at the start of the week, hopefully on Monday. Of course this is great news because it is the right moment for Antonio Valencia to join a bigger club and start a new challenge with a great team.
'He has proved himself in The Premier League with Wigan and is definitely good enough to make the step to something bigger. They are both great football clubs and making a decision is tough. At the end of the day, you have to consider both offers because they are massive clubs.'
In normal circumstances, the Black Cats couldn’t compete with the two biggest clubs in the world.The Daily Star also has some quotes from an interview with Rio Ferdinand on the "pranks" that the players get up to. I won't quote from it, I'm in humourless bastard mode today.
But Steve Bruce, who quit Wigan four days ago to become manager at the Stadium of Light, is Valencia’s mentor in England after bringing him to the Premier League.
Sunderland also have the money following the takeover of the club by Texan billionaire fi nancier Ellis Short.
Premier League champions United, however, remain favourites to sign him.
And it’s certain that Valencia’s advisors will want to point him in the direction of Manchester or Madrid.
There's some quotes from Guus Hiddink on the Champions League Final, most of which I'll ignore (because they slag us off), but I'll use this one as a counterweight to those who suggested this years final was amazing (James Lawton...):
“I had no joy watching the Champions League final, it was boring."
Finally, there's some quotes from Rooney on England and the World Cup:
"You love to play in a big tournament and the two I have played in so far have ended in a big disappointment for me and the team."Hopefully we can qualify and win something with this team but, for the moment, I'm delighted to score. Four goals makes it a good result in the end."
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