On another note, Pennant reportedly priced himself out of a move to Real Madrid. Pity though. He was quite a promising youngster back then. All things said, I’d prefer seeing Aaron Lennon on our wing. What do you think?

* Steve McClown refuses to give up on trying to lure Carra back to the England squad and visited the Liverpool camp earlier this week to speak with him. I for one am hoping Carra stays adamant about retiring from international play, especially since he’ll probably only be used for the August 22nd Germany friendly anyhow. Sol Campbell wants to play and there’s always Wes Brown (ha ha ha), so McClown can go piss off.

* Rafa has warned agents not to interfere with his squad by telling their players that going elsewhere would benefit them more. If you want to read an interesting article about how much rubbish the reaction to Rafa’s rotation policy actually is, Paul Tomkins wrote an interesting article about it on the official site. He compares the rotating and tinkering of Benitez with Sir Alex and Mourinho and comes up with some surprising conclusions. Turns out, they do it just as much, but for some reason don’t get the same negative feedback from the press, pundits, and fans. I’m personally am no longer going to bash it especially since I enjoy seeing the variety of talent and ability that we have on our squad.

* Well, in what I was hoping to be his comeback season, Harry Kewell has been bitten by the injury bug again. This time he apparently suffered a slight thigh/groin tear while in training and is expected to be out for at least ten days. Hopefully, his road to recovery will see him back on the pitch for us by the end of the month.

* The injuries keep mounting for Chelsea, but at least it was somewhat good news for the Blues that Michael Essien won’t be out for as long as first feared. The enigmatic midfielder hurt his knee after scoring against Birmingham on Sunday and will miss at least his team’s next two matches, including the one this Sunday at Anfield.

* Jermaine Pennant was left out of the squad that will face Toulouse tomorrow. Not really that surprising, he isn’t suffering from injury and the way he tore up Ashley Cole and Chelsea last year at Anfield, his exclusion is welcome if he can repeat that performance on Sunday. Javier Mascherano, Peter Crouch, and Yossi Benayoun are expected to make their season debuts tomorrow.

* Though there were some rumblings about Crouch being unhappy about his exclusion on Saturday, Benitez has put that to rest saying that he and Crouch have met and have come to an understanding. Meanwhile, the lanky striker has become somewhat inspired by his boss’ new facial hair, that he’s challenged the rest of the squad to a facial hair growing contest. Funny how Arbeloa was excluded.

* Finally, it looks like Gareth Barry is still crying about the free kick awarded to Gerrard on Saturday. Whatever, your squad was the lesser side and you didn’t deserve to even draw. Cheers.

In a not-so-big surprise, we’ve sent Scott Carson out on loan to Aston Villa for somewhere around £2m apparently with an option for them to buy him at the end of next season for an additional £10.5m. Rafa has stated on numerous occasions that Carson is not for sale and at a total of around £13m, I doubt Villa will be looking to keep him.

To replace our resident super model and future England numero uno, we’ve plucked Charles Itandje from Lens of Ligue 1. All I know about him is that he has funky little dance for penalties. If I can find a video I’ll post it, but my searches have come up futile to this point. I’m still not sure we needed him, but it’s always nice to have five or six decent keeps around. Expect him to get a start as early as next week in the first leg of our Champions’ League qualifying ties with Toulouse.

Finally, Sebastian Leto is now an official member of the club, though has yet to gain international clearance and therefore will be ineligible to play in any official matches until then. I personally think he’s a very promising prospect and our future left winger. The fact that this deal has been officially completed and that he’s been given a number, 33, makes me believe that it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s approved. Cheers.

* Speaking of keeps, our part-time super model/goaltender, none other than Scott Carson, threw such a hissy fit about playing second fiddle to the world’s greatest keep, a.k.a. Pepe Reina, that Rafa has decided to send him elsewhere. It looks as though he might be headed out on loan to Villa, but just in case Sven was wondering, he’s for sale at £12M. That sounds about right, especially if you consider former Hearts gk Craig Gordon is apparently worth £9M. I still can’t get over Roy Boy buying a keep for £9M!!! He’s lost his frickin’ mind… for the umpteenth time. Anyhow, I’m sure everybody’s favorite human rights activist, Thaksin Shinawatra, won’t mind getting out the checkbook for England’s finest.

* Finally, if you’re wondering who to bet on for first LFC player to be sent off in a match, look no further than Xabi Alonso, who’s a 9/1 favorite. Some of the other odds are Alvaro Arbeloa and Momo Sissoko both at 12/1, Daniel Agger at 14/1, Jamie Carragher is 16/1, and finally the skipper is 20/1. Personally, my money would be on Javier Mascherano and/or Harry Kewell, who are at 20/1 and 40/1 respectively. Javi tends to be a bit reckless at times and Harry’s got a well-needed attitude so far this year.