The Spaniard, A Wanderer and The Death of a Club

Poor old Rafa Benitez is under so much pressure at Liverpool these days that his eyesight is starting to fail him, this disease is more commonly known as Arsene Wenger disorder.

Rafa defended Steven Gerrard following allegations the midfielder made a V-sign gesture towards the referee Andre Marriner during Liverpool's defeat to Wigan on Monday.

"Sometimes you move your fingers. It was nothing. We are not considering it, it was nothing," said Benítez.

Ahem

Other news this week, concerns "The Wandering Man" of International football Guus Hiddink. Still contracted to the Russian National side until May,Dutch National broadcaster NOS says that Guus Hiddink has agreed to coach Ivory Coast in this year's World Cup from 15 May to 15 July before then taking over as the head coach of Turkey in August! Does this guy ever take a break.

On a sad day for English football, Chester City F.C was wound up by a British court on Wednesday.

The club, based in northwest England, owed a total of 26,125 pounds to the British tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs.

Chester failed to field a team for their last two fixtures in the Blue Square Premier, English football's fifth-tier, and last month were booted out of the league.

Notable former players include Liverpool legend Ian Rush, ex-Arsenal defender Lee Dixon and one-time England striker Cyrille Regis.

Spokesman David Evans said: "125 years of history have been extinguished today but that's just the body of the club - its soul lives on.

R.I.P Chester City Football Club  

Arite Arite Arite

Torres and Gerrard wanted at city

I dismissed this story as papertalk but it is looking more and more likely that this may actually happen!

A backpage lead is the rather eye-catching claim that Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook is intent on signing Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.

According to some papers, 'There are those at Anfield only too aware of the threat from City, not least to Liverpool's two biggest stars. After the false dawn of Thakskin Shinawatra, the pledges of owner Sheikh Mansour are proving to be no mirage.

'That sends out a compelling message to both Torres and Gerrard - that they may have to re-evaluate their futures in the summer.'

Hmm. But it's the next couple of lines that really stands out:

'It's not even a secret within the City corridors of power that the hierarchy are plotting a £140million double swoop for both Torres and Gerrard this summer.
'City officials are already planning how they can pull off what would be one of the most audacious transfer coups of all time.'

£140m? Could Liverpool to afford to turn that down?