Good thing I didn't opt for #4 on my new shirt.
I apologize for the lateness of this, I'm in the throws of moving and have been out all day. And I just saw this. Let's start with the bigger story, which is Raul Meireles handing in a written transfer request in oh so polite fashion with 90 minutes to go to the deadline. He was then summarily punted off to Chelsea, a path that's getting too well worn, for 12 million squid. My elementary math skills put that down as a 2 million profit on what he was bought for, which doesn't change how I feel about it. Which isn't good. If Meireles was going to be punted, why was Aquilani sold with such a nonchalance? Maybe Commoli and the rest of the board had no idea that Meireles wanted to go, and were caught cold. And the policy around Anfield, as it should be, is when a player wants out, he goes. Otherwise you get that puddle that currently resides at White Hart Lane. Still, now Liverpool have only one person to cover for when Gerrard is crocked, and that's Jordan Henderson. Maybe they'll be putting Carroll up top and Suarez deeper in the future. Maybe Suarez and Kuyt are the pairing up top going forward. Maybe Suarez and Bellamy (more on that in a bit). What I do know is that Liverpool are more limited than they were about two weeks ago, and i don't know how that's a good thing.
Second story of the day is the return of Craig Bellamy, which I am happy about. I still sort of think that it should have been Kuyt offloaded and Bellamy retained when Torres was brought it, as Bellamy could have given you everything attacking wise on the wing that Kuyt has with more pace, although with probably less defensive awareness and work rate. Oh, and the possibility of going absolutely bonkers and donkey punching someone in the stands. But that only endears him to me more. You'll recall two years ago when Man City were first coming on the scene, Bellamy was glorious on a left sided role with Tevez in the middle. That season shows a return of 11 goals in 31 appearances, and I don't think anyone would complain about that haul again. Where Bellamy fits in now is a good question. He's probably first call behind any of the four attacking positions, but everything being equal is probably not in the first 11. He might fit better in a 4-2-2-2 behind the two strikers. What we do know is that he'll keep things interesting.
In your offloaded deadwood department, Joe Cole fucked off to Lille, Christian Poulsen went to Evian (which is just so funny), and David Ngog is now a Bolton player. None of these will keep me up at night.
What a strange day, which makes the second straight apeshit deadline day we've had. Can you make sense of it all?
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