By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 28 January 07.

After a weekend’s rest it’s now time for the Anfield derby this Saturday. On current form and looking at the two squads it seems like it should be almost a guaranteed three points for us, but as we all know from earlier in the season that is not the case at all. The derby is different from all of our other games and even (in a perfect world) if we were top of the league and Everton were bottom it would still be an extremely difficult game. Passions run high on and off the pitch and usually it’s the side that is most up for the battle that wins the day.

The first time I realised that having the more skilful and talented player’s means nothing in a derby was back in October, 1984. It was when Everton’s Graeme Sharp beat Bruce Grobbelaar from thirty yards to win the game at Anfield with a goal of the season effort. That defeat seemed even bigger to me at the time, possibly because we were the best team in the world and about to complete the treble of the league title, the European Cup and the League Cup (against Everton). The goal was shown on Bob Wilson’s Football Focus every Saturday for ages and that also made it seem like a really big deal. Now with hindsight we know that Everton did have a great side back then and were only one year away from the best season in their history, but at the time as a seven year old kid I was in major shock. I had spent my entire life, up to that point, hearing about Liverpool winning all of the time and although I wasn’t following every game I just took it for granted and assumed that they won every week. This was the moment that I realised that the Merseyside derby matches really were something to follow a bit more closely than the other matches. This example just goes to show that being the best does not always guarantee a victory in the derby.

So now we approach this season’s Anfield derby and the memory of what happened at Goodison Park last September is still strong. We had some woeful defeats earlier this season, the second half against Man Utd were we didn’t even try, particularly stands out. For me however, the worst defeat of all took place on September 9th, 2006 when Everton had their biggest derby victory for many, many years. Everton got so excited afterwards that they actually released the game on DVD not long afterwards. That in itself makes me laugh because we have consistently hammered them over the years and I don’t recall many of those games being deemed important enough to release on video, that just goes to show the difference in class over the years and adds further proof to the argument that the derby really is Everton’s ‘cup final’.

We were horrendous in that game, although to be fair, Jamie Carragher was just returning from injury and we happened to catch Andy Johnson in the midst of an amazing run of form at the time. This time should be a completely different story and we have a great chance of getting our revenge. We are currently in a run of incredible form in the league and Andy Johnson, Everton’s best player in the last meeting, will be missing through injury, although Tim Cahill should be playing and he is always a massive threat. We are also missing players including last season’s derby winners Harry Kewell and Luis Garcia amongst others, but overall I think we have a far better squad than the Bluenoses.

We seem to have eliminated the stupid defensive mistakes that cost us the game at Goodison Park and as Keith mentioned last week we have conceded less goals than any other team so far this season. We have only conceded sixteen league goals all season which is incredible, especially when you consider that the next best team in this area is Man Utd who have conceded eighteen league goals despite being eleven points ahead of us.

I think this will be an incredible game and hopefully it will have the same result as last year too. Everton are currently fighting with Bolton and Portsmouth for a top six finish and so they will be fighting hard to get three points from this game and we need to keep up our winning streak to keep putting the pressure on Chelsea and Man Utd. My friends and family in Merseyside have been telling me that there hasn’t been an atmosphere of anticipation this strong for a derby game in a really long time and I for one cannot wait for it.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 31 January 07.

The news broke at around 4pm UK time today that the investment bid from the Dubai International Capital group has been withdrawn. The American sports tycoon, and owner of the Montreal Canadians, George Gillett has made a bid that supposedly increases the amount of cash to shareholders significantly.

It is being said in various media reports that Chairman David Moores is set to pocket eight million pounds more than he would have received from D.I.C’s bid. I don’t for one second think that Moores himself has anything other than Liverpool F.C’s best interests in mind, but I do wonder whether the other shareholders are putting pressure on him to further investigate the bid from Gillett.

I’m wondering tonight whether George Gillett is better for the club than the boys from Dubai would have been, until today I hadn’t really taken his bid too seriously. Previously I was concerned at the rumour of a ground share that came with him but now that he has confirmed there is definitely no plans to share the stadium with Everton that makes me feel a lot better. He also says he will personally underwrite the two hundred million pounds required for the new stadium as well as guaranteeing cash for Rafa to spend on new signings in the summer.

All of this sounds extremely promising but there is one thing about this deal that does bother me. D.I.C is very vocal in the fact that high ranking members are Liverpool supporters and as a group they are big football fans. Gillett is known to not be a football fan and I am concerned that he does not have the knowledge of the history of the club and its traditions. The statement released today by D.I.C made me feel a bit sad because I feel that we might have made a mistake letting genuine heartfelt supporters go. There was one part of the statement in particular that tugged at my heart strings. “Liverpool is the most successful football club in English football history. It exists to win things for its supporters. It deserves to be in the hands of people who support it, who understand its history and legend and who share the enthusiasm and passion of its fans”.

There is definitely a lot more to his story than has been revealed so far. There must have been something about D.I.C that made Moores hesitate. The fact it took them a month to complete diligence was a concern, and then when Gillett’s guy’s completed diligence in three days that must have made Moores and the other shareholders sit up and realise that this guy really knows what he’s doing and means business.

So now the question I’m sure a lot of Red’s are asking today is Gillett the right man for Liverpool F.C. Only time will tell and I’m sure there will plenty of announcements and developments over the next few days.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

Markus Babbel to call it a day - Shankly Gates

Ex-red Markus Babbel has announced that he'll call time on his career as a footballer in May, but has already expressed his hunger to stay in the game and will train as a coach. Babbel is currently with VFB Stuttgart but recurring knee injuries look to have forced him out the game.

More here.

Saturday’s protest at the lies made by Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie served not only to galvanize support for the Justice campaign, but it also brought the issue, once again, slap bang into the public eye.

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A song taking the mickey out of Graham Poll for showing three yellow cards to the same player in the World Cup has been chosen as your chant of the year.

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REDS boss Rafa Benitez has joined Rick Parry in questioning Lucas Neill’s version of events during transfer talks.

More here.

ECHO tribute epitomises spirit of great man.

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Liverpool under-18s took another step towards retaining the Youth Cup with a 1-0 victory over Reading at Anfield on Friday night.

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Steve Heighway believes Liverpool could have a real prospect on their hands in 16-year-old Swede Astrit Ajdarevic.

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Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso intends to stay at Anfield, according to his agent.

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LIVERPOOL'S longest serving stalwart is celebrating 10 years as a first team regular at Anfield this year.

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Supporters at Anfield on Friday night for the Youth Cup tie against Reading could have been forgiven for mistaking Liverpool's new young Swede Astrit Ajdarevic for a youthful Patrik Berger.

More here.

Roberto Ayala believes that he will be on his way out of Valencia this summer when his contract expires, as talks over a new deal have yet to materialise.

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No Liverpudlian will ever forget the Champions League semi-final 2nd leg at Anfield in 2005. But for those with short memories, here's a song that was penned to commemorate that memorable night.

More here.

We round up Rafa Benitez’s January transfer dealings, with mostly youngsters and cover coming in for defence and midfield.

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On his first day at Melwood, new signing from Deportivo La Coruna Alvaro Arbeloa sits down for an exclusive chat with Liverpoolfc.tv.

More here.

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Liverpool chief Rick Parry has revealed the club felt "bullied" into accepting a takeover proposal from the Dubai International Capital group.

More here.

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry has attempt to reassure supporters by insisting that both he and chairman David Moores have acted in the best interests of the the club after Dubai International Capital pulled out of their proposed takeover.

More here.

YNWA/JFT 96,
Andy Neumann

Standings as of 1 February 07.

Rank	Member	Points
1	Lance	23
2	Kevin	22
3	Ste	21
4	Dennis	20
4	Mark Aston	20
6	Andy	17
7	Keith	12
8	Glenn Whyte	10
8	Dave Curtis	10
10	Quentin	5
11	Glenn Whitt.	3
12	Chris Cole	1

To enter the members contest see the rules below.

RULES:

• Only open to paid LFC Vancouver Members.
• You list the names of the players you think will start the next LFC match.
• You must submit your list to lfcvancouver [at] gmail.com at least 12 hours before kick-off.
• This contest will include every match that LFC plays this season. Starting with Blackburn.
• The member(s) that correctly guess the starting XI will be awarded 5 points.
• At the end of the season the player with the most points will win the prize.
• What is the prize? It is a surprise!
• The standings will be included in each week’s newsletter.

Scoring System:

• 11 Correct picks = 5 points.
• 10 Correct picks = 3 points.
• 9 Correct picks = 1 point.
• 0-8 Correct picks = 0 points.

YNWA/JFT 96,

Andy Neumann