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| Go fish. |
This transfer window, and trying to sort out posts while half expecting breaking news to come barreling along at any minute, has officially got me all turned around. Yesterday's morning offering was originally going to be yesterday's morning and mid-day offerings, but fearing breaking news it all got welded into one big entry with a tacked on and vaguely, tangentially relevant video even if it really wasn't a news and notes link sharing type post that would normally get that sort of treatment as a matter of course. And then no news broke, but at least no news breaking leant itself to a poll (and have you voted yet?). Which in a meandering way brings us to today...
* So, remember that part where Babel was sold to Hoffenheim only then it was just that they had permission to talk to him, and that seemed a really odd thing for the club to have made a big deal of? And then it was whispered that it might have just been an attempt to set his price as part of the ongoing discussions with Ajax? And then nothing at all happened for a few days until yesterday Kenny Dalglish said that Ryan Babel wouldn't be leaving after all?
Well, now he's going to Hoffenheim again, having apparently agreed to terms. Though perhaps it's dangerous to assume he'll pass the physical, or that his helicopter won't land somewhere in the Swiss Alps by accident. Depending on who you ask this could either mean that the Suarez deal is, A) dead because they clearly don't want Babel; or, B) that the Suarez deal is definitely happening because the Babel money will be diverted mid-flow to the Netherlands. But Babel will definitely be plying his trade in the Bundesliga. With Hoffenheim. Unless something else happens.
* Meanwhile, friend of the blog Nate over at OYB got it into his head to compare the passing statistics from the Blackpool, Everton, and Wolverhampton matches this season under Dalglish and Hodgson, and the results might surprise you. It appears as though under Hodgson, Liverpool had both more attempts and more completions in all the fixtures under our former manager than they have had in the return legs under Dalglish. Which I never would have expected given that Liverpool to all appearances has looked much better under Dalglish and my gut expectation would have been that that would go hand in hand with more robust passing performances--you know, the Liverpool Groove and 31-pass moves and all that. He's got some interesting charts and graphs, and does a good job picking apart just what it all means, so go, read.
* Elsewhere, also friend of the blog steven. from Paisley Gates wonders if Joe Cole might be the solution to Liverpool's needs in the transfer market, which would be conveient seeing as the club wouldn't have to come to an agreement with any other side to have him start playing for LFC. They might have to sort out his injury problems, lack of match fitness, and that he hasn't had a real run in close to three seasons now, leaving some to wonder if the player some think of as "Joe Cole" still exists in any way, shape, or form. But hey, every transfer is a risk, and if we're already paying the guy £90k a week I suppose we might as well try to get some use out of him.
In the meantime, while we ponder the fact that nobody actually has the slightest bloody clue what's going on...