Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

Carra: I’ll be back in two weeks
Posted on August 27th, 2007 by Jim Boardman
Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has played down his cracked rib and pneumothorax to declare that he’ll not be out for more than two weeks. Carra was injured during a collision with goalkeeper Pepe Reina in Saturday’s defeat of Sunderland. His cracked rib was discovered on Saturday but on Sunday he started to have problems with his breathing and went for more checks at hospital. That’s when the pneumothorax was discovered - a condition that sees air forced into a cavity between the lung and the chest and causes the lung to collapse. He was kept in hospital overnight but hopes to be allowed home today, test results permitting.

He spoke from hospital to local journalist Chris Bascombe of the Liverpool Echo, saying, “Because of the international break, I’m hoping to only miss the next two matches.” He’ll miss the game tomorrow against Toulouse and Saturday’s visit of Derby County, but then Liverpool get two weeks off, not playing again until they visit Portsmouth on September 15th.  Assuming they are successful tomorrow against Toulouse the Reds will be commencing their Champions League group stages on the Tuesday or Wednesday after.

Despite the 1-0 lead and away goal from the first leg, Liverpool are not presuming they are through the qualifier just yet. Rafa wants to field a strong team tomorrow and will be heartened by the news that Sami Hyypia is fit despite the broken nose. It does show how flimsy Liverpool’s cover is at centre-back. A fully-fit Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger would be hard to displace, and losing two centre-backs in one game is unusual, but Rafa will be trying hard to get cover before the end of the week.

Gabriel Heinz was seen as a versatile player who’d have been signed to play as a full-back or as cover for centre-back, but that possibility came to an end when the player decided to move to Real Madrid for £5.5m rather than take a chance on getting a Premier League panel that was actually impartial. Liverpool still wait to hear the results of the enquiry that David Gill is supposed to be making into Liverpool’s conduct in that case. How Liverpool can be considered to have “tapped-up” Heinze after being approached by the player’s agent - the agent who had what he thought was permission to offer the player to any club - remains to be seen. No doubt Gill will use United’s conduct in the Carlos Tevez and Jaap Stam transfers as references, as well as answering the rumours that Michael Owen was approached by United over the course of this summer. Manager Alex Ferguson still won’t talk to the BBC after they asked some serious questions about the knighted Scot and his son.

Rafa told journalists at the weekend that he already had some players in mind as potential new signings. After the worries of Saturday he might even be able to persuade the new owners to stump up more than the near-£7m they’d promised for Heinze. Boca Juniors are now the owners of Gabriel Paletta as confirmed by the club yesterday. Part of that deal saw youngster Emiliano Insua’s loan deal, which had an option to buy tagged onto it, turned into a permanent one with immediate effect.

The international break has probably come too soon for Jermaine Pennant to prove himself to sleeping Steve McLaren, but after another impressive performance against Sunderland Rafa Benítez feels it’s only a matter of time before he breaks into the international fold: “He will have an opportunity to play for England this year if he keeps progressing as he has been doing. I’m sure of that. He is gaining more experience at a high level all the time. Now I think he has shown he is good enough to be considered for the national team.”

Rafa would be pleased for the player if he did achieve that ambition, but from a selfish point of view would prefer it if his players weren’t away from Melwood at all during the season: “The only concern I have is, from the club’s point of view, it’s always better to keep as many players as possible to work with them during the week, but I know and understand how important it is for players to play for their country.”

With both the captain and the vice-captain out tomorrow Rafa will almost certainly hand the captain’s armband to Sami Hyypia, and may give Javier Mascherano a run-out in midfield.

[Ciggy]

Parry and Benitez flew out from JLA this afternoon to somewhere in Europe so it looks like it will be someone from abroad.

[red37]

Abridged version in the Carragher thread saint. 

[account deleted by request]

Abridged version in the Carragher thread saint. 

I only posted it to mention Mascherano   

[red37]

Stick him in at CB eh?

[The_Rock]

That Samba fella who plays for Blackburn would be worth a tap up dirty big yard dog grock that kept Andy Johnson in his back pocket for 90 mins, got pace, and can score goals.,

Yeah Samba only cost 400k and he looks  premiership class ..... So there are good players in the lower leagues if you are willing to find them. They also won't be too picky if they are not in the 1st team every week. This should be good for short-term.

But if we are going long-term...we should sign curtis davis. (if no-one else has signed him up yet)...This lad has a huge future ahead of him.

BTW, Hughes is a very shrewd manager....He signs cheap players who turn up good. Chris samba is one of them (can't believe only 400k). Ryan Neilsen isn't bad too. Not to mention Benny mac and santa cruz.

[LFC2007]

Yeah Samba only cost 400k and he looks  premiership class ..... So there are good players in the lower leagues if you are willing to find them.

Samba didn't play in the lower leagues, he came from Hertha Berlin.

[Raoul]

Anyone know anything about Mikel San Jose?  Is he an option?  Apparently not, as Rafa hasn't mentioned him, or is the Gaffa just trying to mess with my Fantasy Rafa scores by witholding information?

[The_Rock]

Yeah Samba only cost 400k and he looks  premiership class ..... So there are good players in the lower leagues if you are willing to find them.

Samba didn't play in the lower leagues, he came from Hertha Berlin.

My bad....thought the commentator said he came from brentford or something...

[AB's Red Army]

The very fact that Heinze wanted to join us suggests he has balls, and suggests that he really wants to play football. His persistence suggests he has a great attitude. He's not to know that a move to us should not happen, it happens in Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

It suggests he has no loyalty.

He wasn't going to get a guaranteed spot here and would had been fighting for a position just like was in Manchester.

As much as football has changed through out the years and we've changed as a club through those times, some traditions should not be thrown away just like that. Especially for a player like Heinze who has been over evaluated,under performing and injury prone.

Edit-] I made a mistake, I misread your statement regarding the dealings between rival clubs in Europe. [Original post contained a list of players who have moved between rival clubs in Italy and in Spain]

As I said, I will say it again, the issue of his ability is not the issue we are discussing, we've had two threads devoted to that already. The issue is the matter of timing, assuming in Rafa's position and most people's opinions that he is a more than worthwhile signing.

The crux of your argument is that because heplayed for the mancs we should never even have considered signing him, news to you, many people are not of that opinion and I concur with them, ever heard of "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face"?

I could care less how many threads you've had regarding Heinze. I was not involved in any of those discussions nor was I present at the time to have read them. In general I could care less.

If you bothered reading my posts properly, you would had realized that being a United player is not the crux of my argument. It's one of the reasons we shouldn't had shown interest, and the other is the fact that he's no where as good as he once was.

Rafa is a great manager and I've defended him on various occasions, but that doesn't mean his judgment is spot on regarding every player.

I'm not one of the people who were for the signing of Heinze. There was a vast amount of people who were against the signing of a United captain-armband wearing player.

I hate to repeat myself, so you can re-read my posts once more if you need to.

If we end up with no new central defenders, it will be Rafa's fault and no one else's. He had enough time to bring 2 back ups let alone one.

It suggests he is a player devoted to playing football, he would have been fighting for his place here, just like he would have to do at any club in the world like any other player. Nobody is 'guaranteed' a spot.

The crux of your argument is that he was a United player and that he is not good enough, that is a dead end argument, and is not the original point which was about timing.

If you want to discuss his ability do it in a Heinze thread and don't try and turn this one into a Heinze bashing exercise.

I have read your posts and all they do is assassinate the player's character without justification and dismiss his ability as 'p!ss poor'. The ability I can accept we disagree, the character assassination is unacceptable and you are only deluding yourself in order to prove your point.

The point you make implying that I'm defending Rafa irrespective of the situation is utter sh!te, he does make mistakes and this scenario is not one where he has.

It's your opinion that Heinze is not good enough but it's taken up until now for you to fully diverge away from the original point which was about timing.

If you had said straight away that your underlying point was that you didn't feel he was good enough, then it would have saved the drivel about how sh!t you think he is and how disloyal he is. The fact is, the original point was about timing and you have now managed to turn it fully away from that and back to a debate about his ability.

Just like your point about Rooney and Ronaldo had no foundation, so do all your other subsequent posts.

I couldn't be arsed reading another one of your borish posts.

As I said go back and read over my posts, in every one of my posts I mentioned that Heinze is not as good as he once was. I gave you more than one reason to why we shouldn't have shown interest.

One of them being that he's a United player and the complicated situation between the two clubs, second reason being that he's been consistently injured and poor in the last two seasons. Third being that he was overpriced for his age and poor performances with one year remaining on his contract.

Any player who after three seasons can't realize the rivalry between Man Utd and Liverpool, is ignorant. Any player who plays for United and has his mind ''set on joining Liverpool'' shows a lack of loyalty and understanding of the rivalry between the two clubs.

To you it shows it balls, to me it suggest something else.

It's not that difficult to comprehend.

[SambaPrince]

If Liverpool are so well funded why not buy alves as chelsea have pulled out its a no brainer but well probaly get spaniard from lower table ligue club for 1mil well normally do

[Lando_Griffin]

If Liverpool are so well funded why not buy alves as chelsea have pulled out its a no brainer but well probaly get spaniard from lower table ligue club for 1mil well normally do

And signing a right-back would help our centre-back crisis how? 

[Ciggy]

If Liverpool are so well funded why not buy alves as chelsea have pulled out its a no brainer but well probaly get spaniard from lower table ligue club for 1mil well normally do

And signing a right-back would help our centre-back crisis how? 

Exactamundo

[Red Dotty]

John Terry could cover till JC gets back we should be able to get him as he would want a big club

Although When JC gets back he may find he spends time fighting for a position on the bench

Random post that mate. Don't want that spacehopper headed c*nt anywhere near our club.  How do you reckon "we should be able to get him" anyway 

Going to have to be someone else there.

He was being sarcastic.

i thought we could get him

still 

[Rafa D]

This threads littered with embrassment.