Anfield Banter: Babel babble begins, Xabi’s bro Bolton bound, Fergie annoyed, Amoo captured, A Valiant God?, Reds TV, Hammill’s no Bhoy, Gerrard excited yet cautious, & Houllier’s back?

By: Brian | July 11th, 2007

* Plenty of stuff to go over and none of it has to do with the Amy Winehouse & Pete Doherty tour of drunken terror. First off, the Babel talks have begun and I’m assuming it’s contract talks since the clubs have already agreed in principle to a transfer fee. This has me worried a wee bit as I thought we’d have him signed, sealed, and delivered by now. The more time we give his agent to answer his phone, the less likely an agreement will be met.

* Alonso’s older brother, Mikel, will be loaned out up the road to Bolton. I guess the 27-year-old midfielder wasn’t too pumped about playing in Segunda División next season. Hopefully he’ll be a good influence on Danny Guthrie.

* I don’t know who’s more annoyed, me or Sir Alex, about the recent talks involving a possible transfer of Gabriel Heinze to Liverpool. I know Man U’s back line is a bit thin, but the 29-year-old was not all too impressive last year.

* We’ve signed another highly-touted youngster in 17-year-old Millwall striker, David Amoo. Apparently other ‘big clubs’ were also interested. I couldn’t tell you Amoo from a neigh, but it also mentions in that article that we’ve inked GK Martin ‘the Hair’ Hansen and F Michael Collins to contracts as well. I guess Rafa saw the Pepe in ‘the Hair’ in last Saturday’s match with Wrexham, while I’m not a big fan of Michael Collins, nothing but a trouble-maker. His brother makes a crap drink too.

* Port Vale has joined the pursuit of God. Praise the Lord!

* If you have Setanta, you will now also get a new channel featuring all Liverpool Football Club, all the time. The best part is, unlike other clubs that try to squeeze every last penny and pence out of their fan’s hands *cough* Chelsea *cough* Man U, it’s free with the sports package. I have no idea what that means, but free always sounds good. The channel will show all the EPL matches for next season on a delayed basis, as well as reserves matches and six hours a day of original broadcast. Nice.

* It appears as if Adam Hammill will not be headed to Celtic due to lack of potential playing time there. Why should he go there when he can get plenty of reserves/pine time here? Looks like a Championship side for him.

* Gerrard is excited about the new season but cautions the club against a slow start. We’ll file the former under ‘Really? Old scowl face is excited?’, and the latter under ‘Yeah, that would probably be a good idea.’

* Finally, Gerrard Houllier is back in Liverpool. I was scared too until I found out it was just to open a theatre and get a health check-up. I was breaking out in a cold sweat and having Djimi Traore flashbacks there for a second. Thank Robbie Fowler.

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