By LFC Vancouver member Paul Gill, 17 August 06.

The tale of our summer has been a good one. A sharp contrast to last season when we were all like "Rafa's signing PETER F*CKING CROUCH??!!???" but at this point Rafa could sign Beckham and we wouldn't get too harsh on him. Ok, we hate the poncy b*stard, but you know what I mean. As opposed to Beckham, though, Rafa's gone for some real ugly players. Some with ugly tales of goings-on off the pitch, some who seemingly don't have necks (Bellamy). Ugly, fast, skillful and hard as nails are all what we've got.

Dirk Kuyt, who looks excellent for anyone who's seen him at Feyenoord, is a great buy in my book. The guy's a workaholic and he scores tons of goals in Holland and for the national team as well. He's versatile and a typical Dutch player in that he can play in more than one position. Internationally, he plays on the right or left flanks as well as upfront. I'm of the opinion that he didn't look as good during the World Cup because that ball-hogging !@#$%^ Arjen Robben was trying to be a star and not finding Kuyt or other players in open positions, but at Liverpool he'll have the cross-happy Pennant helping with the supply.

Jermaine Pennant and Craig Bellamy are known quantities in the Premiership. Pennant is consistent in that whenever I've seen him with Birmingham he's always doing the basics well and capable of some flash. A few years ago he scored a great hat-trick for Arsenal against Southampton IIRC. Pennant has (statistically) the most crosses delivered and that's what our forwards need. Bellamy, to me, doesn't have many bad games either. He looked great with Shearer (and was better than Shearer a lot of the time) and if not for his injuries he's proven to be over last season I could see bigger clubs going in for him. Both of these guys have bad pasts by all accounts...I can't see a lot of the lads getting Pennant to DD them home from the pub!...but this is their "dream club" (excuse the cliche), and surely their last chance to have a reputation as a class player.

Our first Brazillian (Fabio Aurelio) and second Argie (Gabriel Paletta) look great in contrasting ways. Aurelio was touted by Rafa as "a better passer than Alonso" which I can't imagine as existing, but from the pre-season I've seen him have so far he does look to have a helluva left boot to him. I haven't seen much of him at left back either, strangely, so I'll have to see how his defending is (at Valencia Aurelio was a left back). Paletta is a typical Argentinian CB in that each tackle he makes is like his last. I saw him level some guy during the Crewe game in a fair manner, and would love to see him against the Chavchenkos and Rooneys of the world. Paletta's still developing and will likely not play as often but will spend the season learning the language, culture and maybe get a haircut while he's at it!

Others must seem like new signings like Agger and Zenden, who had great games against the evil Russian empire, and of course Gonzalez (Mark, or Speedy to his friends) is finally here as well. Gonzalez and Pennant blaze down our flanks now and we really look a quality side. Rafa seems happy in interviews and I think the side's complete (though I hear of us getting a backup for Finnan at the expense of Kromkamp...). Of course, Fowler's return and a new deeper role is also exciting, and we literally have so much class that I wouldn't panic if Stevie G went down for a month or two. Or even Carragher.

Other news is our change of sponsorship from Reebok to Adidas. You've likely seen the kits by now. I'm not sure of the look of some of them, but I know I have about 20-odd Reebok kits and most of them have pilled or worn out pretty quick. The stripes take some getting used to too, they remind me of the 80's. And when it comes to Liverpool that's not a bad thing in a way, though I'm feeling optimistic about the team in the present.

We've gotten rid of some as well, either by sale or on loan. Morientes, who's clearly a class act but didn't work out for one reason or another, is at Valencia now. Djibril Cisse is off to France with Marseilles where he'll hopefully be sold once he's recovered. Champions League medalist Djimi Traore is at Charlton, where he'll hopefully do well...Djimi always tried his best and never slated the club, and was a true professional, and maybe I'll kind of miss bricking it whenever he had the ball under pressure! I'll miss Didi Hamann who's now at Man City, a true Reds legend who we owe Istanbul to (partially) as he snuffed out Kaka in that game, and is one of the best in the world at what he does. More look to be on the way out, as Rafa gets down to business for the new season.

I think right now we have a near-perfect combination of developing talent (Sissoko, Reina), established players at their peak (Finnan, Carragher) and tactical genius (Rafa) as well as some great conditioning and fitness (Pako Ayesteran), and a smattering of talented vets (Hyypia, God) for a real push for the title. It's nice to be one of the best teams in Europe again as well, and we're looking to be a real entertaining side to watch as well. And not just for casual fans to look at Crouch and go "Whoah, that dude's tall" (which gets annoying after a while, as Crouch is a hell of a footballer), but for pass-and-move football that will take the game to our rivals.