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as usual, transfer season is dramas and bitchiness all round. liverpool have been doing a good job at staying in the thick of it with their deals involving garreth barry and peter crouch. barry is in the shithouse with villa, after criticising the club and then being fined and banned from the premesis. villa will sell barry, but now it’s a mudslugging mess with the only thing left to decide is the value of the inform midfielder. xabi alonso will probably depart the club to make way for barry, with juventus seeming the most likely suitor. barry and alonso will probably fetch about the same price, with will suit benitez.

peter crouch seems likely to depart soon with portsmouth reluctantly ponying up 10 million for the striker. not a bad return on a man who lived on liverpool’s bench, for whom we paid 6 million. pompey don’t want to pay that much, but poo are holding out and look likely to get their asking price.

riise, as reported, as left for as roma.

on the aussie front, kewell’s inevitable departure has been made official as he heads to the far east, joining turkish champions galatasaray. personally, i was surprised that he took the offer from the turkish club, thinking that he might want to stay closer to england, however it might prove to be a good decision … and it also means that i might get a chance to see harry play. interestingly, galatasaray have also said they’re interested in lucas neill. which would give them 2 aussie players.

poo have done a little bit of spending. defender philipp degan comes to anfield on a free transfer. the 25 year old swiss player was with borussia dortmund. the reds have also bought andrea dosenna, an italian left back who will replace riise. benitez has also got his eye on yet another keeper, brazilian dieg cavalieri.

it appears that liverpool were interested in tottenham’s robbie keane, but that rumour seems to have gone cold … which is a shame, cause he’s a good player with a proven record in the premier league.

finally, the two biggest players to be discussed this transfer season, christiano ronaldo and ronaldhino, are still in the air about who they’ll represent next season. ronaldo is desperate to join real madrid, while chelsea and manchester city have been left cold by ronaldhino’s courtship by ac milan. it would have been great to see ronaldhino play in england, but definitely not against liverpool. ronaldo, too, i hope goes to madrid … it’s heartbreaking to watch him tear up the premier league every week.

confidence was pompey’s downfall as they slumped to a 4-1 defeat at anfield tonight. redknapp was talking up portsmouth’s solid performances against liverpool over the past two seasons, and boasting about his away form, which is the best in the league.

however, their trip to anfield didn’t play out as expected and by the 15th minute, liverpool were two goals up, thanks to a benayoun shot from close range and a portsmouth own goal. after half time pompey played themselves back into the game with some good chances and a goal. however it was torres who destroyed portsmouth in the last 20 minutes, scoring two close range goals … giving him 8 premiership goals this season and 14 goals in all competitions.

portsmouth didn’t give up, and continued to attack, but they were unable to find another goal.

the result is a good rebound for liverpool, having lost two premiership games in a row to reading and manchester united, as well as the carling cup loss to chelsea. liverpool have three more games in the next ten days. the reds will face derby city on boxing day, followed by manchester city and wigan on either side of new years. liverpool will be looking to take advantage of their easy run of games through january, before facing chelsea again in february, then inter milan in champions league.