By Ollie Irish

Stevie G's snooker room. He also likes to play the drums, it seems

Steven Gerrard's Liverpool mansion is on the market, priced at a reasonable £3.3m.

This means one of two things:

1. Gerrard and family are moving house, but only to another massive mock mansion in the Liverpool area.

Gameweek 23 in the Premier League Fantasy game soons unfolds and it is time think which transfers will be the most profitable. For me there is one player in specific that will make a rise to my FPL-team: Louis Saha. This Everton-forward has been playing his best season in the English Premier League with 11 goals scored.

Continuing on with the theme of buying success, I was pointed in the right direction of an article in The Mirror which looked at every Premiership season's top spender. It is interesting to note that only on 5 occasions have the summer's biggest spenders gone on to win the title the following season.

News today that Newcastle United may be in a battle with Birmingham City to sign Shane Long from Reading. Shane Long - very impressive for Reading this season The news is in the News Of The World today, and it's that both Premiership clubs are willing to cough up £3M for the Ireland striker, and that [.

PPL power in Pennsylvania? Perhaps. Sports Business Journal's Tripp Mickle says a $20m, 10-year deal is on the table for naming rights to the Union's new stadium in under construction in Chester, PA. That's not a bad chunk of change for Philly to get chipped off with; hell, under the current salary cap of $2.

Sir Alex Ferguson wants to bring highly rated Serie A forward to Old Trafford.

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Sir Alex Ferguson will make a hefty summer bid to sign in form Roma striker Mirko Vucinic. The Old Trafford boss sees the Montenegrin international as an ideal foil to England international Wayne Rooney and is ready to make an offer of around £18m to sign the former Lecce player who cost Roma just £3m in 2006.

English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers recently signed a Wolves £3m kit deal‎ with Swiss sportswear manufacturer BURRDA. Wolves will launch their 2010/11 home kit by wearing it for their final Premier League game of the season against Sunderland at Molineux on May 9. In the meantime, they officially presented their BURRDA 2010/11 away kit [.

According to almost every 'official' source under the sun, Liverpool received £30m from Real Madrid for the services of Xabi Alonso. A more than fair fee if you ask me considering Alonso's quality, but is it really true?
That Liverpool received £30m for Alonso is pretty much accepted amongst Liverpool fans.

We noticed yesterday that The Telegraph had reported that Newcastle manager Chris Hughton was still strongly linked with Tottenham midfielder O'Hara. Jamie O'Hara playing for Portsmouth last season We had thought that O'Hara would have been a good possibility at Newcastle, but only if he was available for around £3M, which we think the [.

Yesterday's signing of Middlesbrough keeper Brad Jones for £2.3m, who counts as a homegrown player despite his Australian nationality, appears to spell the end of Diego Cavalieri's tenure at Anfield. All summer long we've seen English players, many mediocre at best, linked with Liverpool ostensibly because of the new homegrown rule.

The full extent of the financial horror at Portsmouth, then, is starting to become apparent. It is starting to feel as if every time the club's administrator, Andrew Andronikou, opens or moves anything, there is a red bill hiding underneath, behind or within it. The figures estimated in the media earlier in the season had put the club's debt at around the £70m mark, which had seemed insane enough for a club heading for relegation from the Premier League and with a 20,000 capacity stadium.

No, we won't be facing a successful North American conglomerate on Saturday, but rather a talented South American side. So why 3M? Well, it's because the key to victory involves mastery over Maradona, Messi, and most of all Mascherano.

Maradona's reputation as a player precedes him. His abilities as a coach [read more]

Morning,

despite the fact it still dominates the headlines and the fact that Ghostface McDivey has become the latest Barcelona player to speak out about how much they want to sign Cesc, I shall try and keep this blog relatively Cesc free.

Cesc's dad has played down the shirt 'prank', as has Cesc himself, which is probably the right thing to do.

There is no question that soccer in the United States has gained more credibility since the World Cup, both domestically and abroad.
Thierry Henry's move to Major League Soccer to play for the New York Red Bulls only enhances the potential growth for soccer in the United States. Tim Love of BBC Sport writes of the soccer revolution taking place in the United States.

Liverpool will have to cough up £20million for Carlton Cole.
West Ham are willing to sell but they want a top price as they would have little time before the new season kicks off to sign a replacement striker.
Kop boss Roy Hodgson was instructed earlier this week to pay £15m up front with a further £5m fixed to appearances.

Arsenal are set to offer an improved bid worth £3m for Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer this week.

Schwarzer has made it plain that does not see a future in Fulham and has been vocal about joining Arsenal.

If the negotiations go as planned - it seems as if Fulham are ready to give up on him and pursue Shay Given.

Roy Hodgson last night took a bitter parting swipe at Javier Mascherano, branding him "selfish" for going on strike.
The summer-long saga over Mascherano's future is finally over after Liverpool agreed a £20million deal with Barcelona yesterday.
But Hodgson is still seething over the midfielder's refusal to play at Manchester City as he forced through his move from Anfield.

Real Madrid decided to let go of another promising teenager as they sold Pablo Sarabia to Liga Zon Sagres runners-up SC Braga. The move will cost the Portuguese club €3m and will be completed in January during the transfer window. The Spaniard is the fourth high profile youngster to leave the Bernabeu and follows the footsteps of Alipio, Marcos Alonso and Rodrigo.

In his recent interview with Sky Sports, former Liverpool owner Tom Hicks made a series of statement relating to his tenure at the club. In this new series, I will examine the veracity of his claims, using documentary evidence where possible.
I have no allegiance to Hicks, Gillett, or indeed anyone at LFC.

Just like last season, I thought I would have a look at the top teenagers currently playing in the Premier League. These footballers are all destined to be top players and may even turn out to be World class if they continue to expand on their already flourishing reputations.

BREAKING NEWS
Southend's infamous York Road indoor market - which was closed back in October, due to health and safety reasons - could be demolished within weeks.
Longpier.com understands that council officers will recommend sending in the bulldozers as early as late January or early February.

ARGENTINA PRESEASON SOCCER TOURNAMENTS
SCHEDULE
TORNEO de MAR DEL PLATA
Jan. 9, 2010
Estudiantes 2 – 2 San Lorenzo
(EST-Diaz 3m; SL-Gomez 5m; EST-Salguiero 74m; SL-Bordogaray 84m)
Jan. 13, 2010
BOCA JUNIORS – San Lorenzo
Jan.

Deloitte's new Money League is up and Germany have added a club to the top 20.

1. Real Madrid €401.4m (1st last year)
2. Barcelona €365.9m (3rd)
3. Man Utd €327.0m (2nd)
4. Bayern Munich €289.5m (4th @ €295.3m)
5. Arsenal €263.

Hey, remember me?
Sunderland's Andy Reid was our Funny Feeling Friday way back on September 18 when he was less than 1% owned and priced at 5.3M.
He proceeded to provide assists in three straight fixtures after that, picked up 14 bonus points over the next two months, and saw his value rise to 6.

Fifa has promised a decision in the "near future" over St Etienne's claim for £160,000 relating to their training of Liverpool's Nabil El Zhar.
The Morocco international, now 23, joined Liverpool in October 2006 and signed a new deal in July 2009.
The French club argues it is entitled to a compensation payment as it helped develop El Zhar between 2004 and 2006.

Liverpool have stepped up their interest in signing Rangers' young defender, Danny Wilson.
The English Premier League side have followed up their initial enquiry, with the 18-year-old yet to sign the new contract on offer to him at Ibrox.
Tottenham Hotspur have a long-standing interest in the player, while both Manchester City and Aston Villa are keeping an eye on his situation.

The good old Reading days, when Dave Kitson actually could score
Dave Kitson is an interesting character in the Premier League. Certainly out of form (perhaps for the past year or two) the budget Stoke striker (4.3M) used to be a dangerous threat in the box but has floundered at Stoke.

A brand new - state of the art - £3m youth centre is being built in Shoebury.
Mayor of Southend, Councillor Brian Smith paid a ceremonial visit to explore the new facility in Delaware Road on Tuesday (27 April)
In October 2008, Connexions won a £2.9 million MYPLACE bid for a new youth facility to replace the dilapidated, well used centre.

Rafa set to bring highly rated teenager to Anfield.

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Liverpool are reportedly very close to completing a deal to bring highly rated teenage striker Jonjo Shelvey to Anfield. Rafa Benitez is said to be close to sealing a £3m move for the Charlton Athletic youngster who has also attracted great interest from London sides Chelsea and Tottenham.

By Ollie Irish

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Charlton midfielder Jonjo Shelvey, who turned down a move to Chelsea last season, is to sign for Liverpool after the two teams agreed a fee for a transfer.

Hammers ready to bring former White Hart Lane flop to Upton Park.

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West Ham are looking to capture Portsmouth midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng this summer as the south coast club looks set to lose many of their top earners this summer.

Elimination from the Champions League at the quarter-final stage is likely to cost Manchester United a drop in income of around £15 million compared to last year. UEFA distributes €4 million (£3.5m) to each semi-finalist of the Champions League and €5.2 million (£4.5m) to the beaten finalist (Manchester Utd's position last year).

According to the massively biased media and growing numbers of misinformed fans, Tom Hicks and George Gillett are the cause of all of Liverpool FC's financial problems. Is this really true though? As I will illustrate, the reality that the Pro-Benitez Cult refuse to accept is that Benitez has cost Liverpool FC significantly more money over the last year than the club's much-maligned owners.

Upton Park side show interest in Turf Moor talent.

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West Ham are reportedly keen on making a move for Burnley flair player Wade Elliot this summer. The Upton Park side, currently without a manager, are apparently interested in signing the 30 year old and hope that the chance to taste more of the Premier League football he experienced during his doomed top tier season at Turf Moor will tempt the former Bournemouth man into making a move.

I am not a big fan of the Glazers. I don't like all the debt that Man United is n0w loaded with and at some point that debt has to impact the ability of Fergie to attract new players to the club.

But it is also quite apparent that the Glazers are not in this to make a quick buck. They have had several opportunities to sell the club for hundreds of millions more than they paid for it, and to their credit they have turned these offers down.

Just what have we been doing for the last couple of weeks? I'll tell you shall I, we have all been slating Barca for their filthy tactics yes, but we have also been saying, if they want Cesc, let them pay what he is worth, not just make an offer that is an insult to both the player and his current club!

I've gotten used to flipping through LFC Live multiple times a day in some sort of jaded half-attentive phase. Given the most popular formula for recent Liverpool news (Name + Name Leaving + Owners = Apocalypse), I don't think I can be blamed.

And then there's this:

Just like that, it seems that we have an actual story in the works, and it's unfortunately not the one about Greece dropping a friendly to Paraguay Liverpool and its board have offered Rafa a compensation of £3 million if he leaves the club immediately.

This might be Rafa Benitez's last weekend at Anfield.

The Liverpool board were in a meeting till late today to finalize a severance package that would pay £3m for an immediate departure. Benitez was on holiday but his agent Manuel Garcia Quilon said that he would convey the board's decision to the Spaniard by Thursday.

Remember how Wenger stated he'd like to get his transfers sorted before the World Cup began?

He'll be lucky.

Most high-calibre players are content to wait until the tournament ends before thinking about what happens next – even if their agents are busy doing stuff in the background.

Inter have reacted to speculation that they had any role to play in Liverpool's decision to offer Rafael Benitez a severance package.
Last night it emerged that the Reds, perhaps mindful of not being able to keep the promises they made to Benitez, offered him £3m just to walk.
Inter have been linked with Benitez over the last week as they look for a high profile tactician capable of replacing Jose Mourinho who formally joined Real Madrid on Monday.