Updates on the Owen saga, Djibril Cisse and Warnock

Its always good when a player from your club is picked for the England side. Not only is it a recognition of their talents, but it does help the individuals themselves as they get to learn from some of the best players England has to offer, while doing wonders for their confidence.

I'm happy Warnock got picked. Eversince I watched him play in his first game I really thought he was someone for the future. He's always impressed me, but then again so did Josemi in his first game, who apparently will feature a lot more in Rafa's plans this season.

"Josemi can be an important player for us. He is a good player, an aggressive player, and he is getting more used to English football now." says Rafa.

Michel Owen saga continues with no clear end in sight. He's in England as we speak which means he's definately on the way back. Whether its to the Geordies or to his beloved Anfield, is still unlcear.

Owen was at St. James' Park today, to hold talks over a move to Newcastle, who are desperate to beat rivals Liverpool to his signature.

Reports suggest Real have already in principle accepted their offer of £16 million, while Liverpool are not prepared to pay more than the £8 million they sold him for last season, and quite rightly so.

From my understanding, Rafa's trying to keep the pressure on Real as they realise they will have to offload him within the next 2 days. Newcastle's offer doesn't really make much of a difference right now as Owen has clearly said he doesn't fancy the toon. If Owen hadn't objected to this, the deal would've been done and dusted but as we've already seen in Baros' case, where Liverpool were offered £8.5 million by Lyon but sold to Villa for 2 million less just cuz Baros' doesn't fancy Houllier too much, Owen's statement comes at a crucial time.

Ofcourse 16 million sounds more tempting, but if it can't be done than you'll take the next best offer as long as you aint looking like a pratt.

Now, here's the worst part. Liverpool are owed 8 million by Real over Owen's transfer last year... Which means they will only have to fork out 4 million. And even out of that, they can put down 1 million now and pay the rest over 3-4 years. Rumors suggest that to fund this deal (and the possibe purchases of a defender and a winger), Liverpool are preparing to sell Cisse.

I'm not sure if I'm entirely in favour of this, specially after Cisse's matchwinning performance on Friday. He's someone who WANTS to play for Liverpool. He's married a local girl and bought a big-fuck-off mansion to settle in and got married in a RED suit for gods sakes. The guy aint short of passion and the way he's been this season for us aint too bad for someone who nearly had his leg amputated last year.

In my season's predictions earlier this month, I said I expected him to score 20+ this season and I hope to God it aint for someone else.

Owen's excellent, but we've proved last year we can do without him. I'd love to see him play for us but at the expense of Cisse? Not too sure.

However, I do believe that the man who got us the holy grail of European club football with probably the weakest Liverpool team in past years, will make the right decisions for us.

In Rafa We Trust.

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