….any time now, Jova and Poulsen

We’re about to head into August and we’re about two weeks away from our first Premier League match against Sunderland.

Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen are still-STILL-on the squad. Certainly no Liverpool fan would have had it that way at the start of this summer.

Jova has had one foot out the door for the whole summer and it looks like his wages are a sticking point for teams interested in taking him on. His wages are currently £60k p/w and he needs to be honest with himself right now: There is nothing that he has done at Liverpool that makes him worth that. Nothing. I’ll give him credit for coming and giving a consistently high effort but all that effort was really without much quality. He’s just not a Liverpool player, plain and simple.

It’s harder to find Christian Poulsen’s wages but he’s probably getting paid something similar to Jovanovic. I can only hope it isn’t higher.

He was signed to be a replacement for Javier Mascherano and failed massively. He turned 31 last season and it seems as though the game has passed him by. We ended up doing Juventus a huge favor by taking his wages off of their hands and paying £4.5 million for him. We would have been better off keeping Damien Plessis in the long run, the man whose shirt Poulsen took.

Poulsen, too, has been linked with a few teams for a move away from Anfield. When his former club FC Copenhagen were interested in him, Poulsen’s agent Jorn Bonnesen said that there would be no move to Copenhagen and proclaimed that Poulsen’s future was at Liverpool.

No, it’s not. He’s not good enough. He could help at a team like Fulham but for a team that is pushing to get back into the Champions League in England, he just can’t bring anything to the table.

I would have thought that Paul Konchesky-one of Roy Hodgson’s worst deeds at Liverpool-leaving would have prompted the other two to switch. Konchesky realized that the payday was not worth rotting on the bench. If Jovanovic and Poulsen had the sense, and maybe an agent to give them a nudge, they’d realize the same thing.

Joe Cole and David N’Gog are different, at least to me. They can give us something. For Cole, it might be a little bit of neat passing and fresh legs as a sub, and he’s versatile enough to play a few spots. He’s not the star that we thought we signed but he could be a threat from the bench. David N’Gog has shown some promise as a 22-year old striker. Sometimes he looks the part, sometimes he doesn’t. His wages can’t be that expensive at this point and the position depth for less important games like early Carling Cup and FA Cup games would be beneficial for resting our starters. Adam Morgan might be another striker that we could use in this role but I would hate to see N’Gog go and finally realize his potential for another team.

VIDEO : Tribute to David N’Gog

With Jordan Henderson signing David N’Gog is headed to Sunderland. Good luck David thanks for the memories especially that goal against United was class.

The Daily Antoine: 28th May 2011 – Liverpool F.C. News update

We won it 5 times on a Wednesday

Souness believes that Barcelona are the best team ever more…
(But they don’t have Ali Dia?)

Phil Thompson recalls lifting big ears in Paris more…
(Ah that Barney goal)

John Flanagan is proud to receive the reserve player of the year award more…
(YNWA)

Carra & Lucas have praised Skrtel more…
(YNWA)

Borrell is proud to be following in the footsteps of some great Reds more…
(YNWA)

Sepp the Blatter will face an ethics probe more…
(Lock him up, throw away the key)

David Ngog’s price tag has been set at £8 million more…
(If Torres was worth £50 million then David should be worth £100 m)

According to Goal.com we are after James McCarthy more…
(Exclusive!)

And Metro claim that N’Zogbia is coy about us more…
(Hummm)

More talk on Diego Perotti more…
(Not too shabby)

Coentrao quashes all links to us more…
(We expected that)

However Gervinho is a possibility more…
(He might chose Arsenal however)

And Witsel more…
(So many Belgian players)

And the Reds have signed a sponsorship deal with Honda more…
(So the Honda rumour was true after all)

And Fanhouse throws Lee Cattlemole in the mix together with Stewart Downing more…
(Downing maybe)

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Sparta Prague – Liverpool (Thursday)

Following our stalemate with Wigan we fly to Prague to take on the Czech champions in the first game of the Europa league knock-out stage.

This will be Kenny Dalglish’s first ever European game as a manager and he has already shocked the pundits by taking youngster Raheem Sterling with the squad to the Czech capital. Luis Suarez will not feature as he is cup-tied however Joe Cole and Raul Meireles might feature. Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger, Andy Carroll, Jonjo Shelvey and Jay Spearing are all injured. I believe that Kenny will chose to put David N’Gog up front, after all David is Liverpool’s top scorer this season in Europe.

Predicted Starting XI:
Pepe Reina, Martin Kelly, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Sotirios Krygiakos, Martin Skrtel, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Maxi Rodriguez, Dirk Kuyt, David N’Gog

Kick off is at 8:05 PM GMT

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The Daily Antoine: 9th Feb 2011 – Liverpool F.C. News update

John W Henry featured an EOTK article on his Facebook page here…

The reserves beat Tranmere 4-0 yesterday more…
(Great stuff, nice to see N’Gog scoring)

Liverpool was the most Tweeted about EPL team in January more…
(3 times more than Arsenal who came in 2nd. Which is the bigger club?)

I love how Sky Sports claim that Reina left the door open for a move to United more…
(Where did he say that? They are ridiculous.)

And Andy Gray and Richard Keys are joining Talk Sh*te more…
(TalkSh*te will now be Super TalkSh*te, same flavour double the Sh*te)

Kuyt is impressed by Kenny more…
(Of course)

We are after Blackburn Rovers goalkeeping coach more…
(Interesting)

Martin Keown hails Kenny’s masterstroke more…
(That is why he is KING)

Aldo feels the same way about his old boss more…
(Kenny is a genius)

He (Aldo) has no regrets over criticism of Fernando Torres more…
(Neither do most of us, YNWA)

And he praises Carra more…
(YNWA)

Speaking of Torres, he has admitted that Liverpool are the bigger club more…
(I guess they showed him the CFC trophy cabinet)

Kenny’s long term appointment will be ‘Almost Certain’ more…
(Agree)

Tom Hicks (remember him) returns to court on Wednesday more…
(Oh here we go again, this however will not effect LFC)

David Villa hails Carroll & Suarez signings more…
(Since when is David Villa an expert of Liverpool FC?)

A Barca official claims that Chelsea paid too much for Torres more…
(I agree)

Gervinho is being linked with  a move to Newcastle now more…
(No one ever confirmed that he was a ‘Liverpool target’)|

Here is an interesting interview with Rafa more…
(YNWA Rafa)

And finally El Hajj Diouf is already causing trouble in Scotland more…
(Oh Brother!)

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Liverpool lineup vs Newcastle

Roy Hodgson keeps pretty much the same starting 11 that beat Aston Villa on Monday with the exception of Fernando Torres who replaces Ryan Babel.

Starting XI: Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Sotiris Kyrgiakos, Martin Skrtel, Paul Konchesky, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, David Ngog, Fernando Torres

Subs: Brad Jones, Martin Kelly, Fabio Aurelio, Christian Poulsen, Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic, Ryan Babel.

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