Today's Banter: Bellamy named Welsh FOY, BBC half-ass apologizes, Injury update, & more

Congratulations to Craig Bellamy who was named Footballer of the Year for Wales, beating out the likes of Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale. Anytime a Liverpool player, former or not, beats out a Man U player for something, the sun seems to shine a little brighter. It was the first time the 28-year-old striker has won the award. The always humble Bells was surprised to win, but thought he was more deserving in previous years. I sometimes wonder if he was still with our side, what kind of contribution he'd make. Outside of leading the club in offside calls that is.

The BBC just doesn't get it. In their apology for an Eastenders character making remarks about Heysel, Hillsborough, and hooliganism, they claim it was 'misinterpreted.' Any chance of such a notion should be avoided when referencing such a sensitive subject. The causes and the consequences of those events are much too complicated for a television show to handle in just a matter of a couple of lines. Stick to the lame-ass imaginary story lines and stop trying to mix in reality where real people were/are killed and other real people were/are traumatized because of it. Moving on...

There's a good chance that Daniel Agger will be back for the Newcastle match at St. James Park. The 22-year-old Dane is expected to return to full training next week. Since Hyypiä will probably play for Finland next Tuesday, the young centre back's return couldn't come at a better time. Yossi Benayoun could be back in action for the Tyneside tie as well, but Xabi Alonso will be at least an additional week if not more.

In transfer market news, Rafa is ready to sell Scott Carson to Villa if the club are prepared to meet his valuation. It is thought that Benitez wants at least £9m for him. I wonder if we waited until the summer, we could get a bit more for him, especially since Arsene Wenger is an admirer and is in need of a better goalie. Of course, if we could use that money to sign Masche on a permanent, there's no question we should sell.

Sticking to transfers, we are apparently interested in Juventus defender Jonathan Zebina. The 29-year-old Frenchman has apparently fallen out of favor with Claudio Reyna at the Old Lady and could be available in the January transfer window. He can play both right-back and central defense. I say if the price is right, why not? The more the merrier, as long as he doesn't mind not playing every match.

In the laughable news category, apparently Hamburg SV stole the next greatest striker in the world, Macauley Chrisantus, out from under us and every other big club in the world. Let's see here, a youth player has a great U17 World Cup, gets hyped up and apparently everyone wants him. Well, that always works out... *cough* Anthony LeTallec *cough* *cough* Florent Sinama-Pongolle *cough*... We've learned our lesson there.

Finally, in the pot -> kettle -> black category, Real Madrid youth coach Michel took a cheap shot at us for 'stealing' 16-year-old Argentine Gerardo Bruna after the young forward had spent the three previous seasons with the Spanish club. Michel goes on to say, “How many young players taken by Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have played for their first team? They sign the boy to a contract, make all sorts of promises and then put him in their reserves and never give him a competitive game.” Ha ha ha... is he kidding? Two words: Alvaro Arbeloa. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Nasri to miss CL clash, Carra closing in on 500, A battle of who could care less?, & more

- Marseille's Samir Nasri is set to miss his side's Champions League match next week with us due to meningitis-type flu. The 20-year-old attacking midfielder was hospitalized last weekend and has yet to be released. He is expected to require at least a two week convalescence period.

- Jamie Carragher is set to make his 476th appearance for Liverpool tonight against Reading. Impressive as that number is, the record is held by Ian Callaghan at 848. I sincerely doubt the 29-year-old Liverpool icon will be able to challenge that number.

- It seems like neither Coppell nor Rafa really care that much about winning their Carling Cup clash later today. Both seem to be using double-speak type antics to hide it, but it seems quite apparent with who they are looking at selection-wise. Coppell is looking to give Leroy Lita a test-run from injury as well as playing Bobby Convey as a means of practice time. The Reading boss is adamant though that he has no room for Reserves on his roster. Meanwhile Rafa is looking at giving time to some of his actual Reserves in Sebastian Leto and Lucas, though they would most definitely be regulars on a lot of Premiership sides.

- Finally, we have everyone and their mother giving their opinion on Rafa's rotating ways. Phil McNulty at BBC Sport wonders why Rafa went on such a tantrum about not having enough quality on his side after the Champions League final when he doesn't bother to play that quality as much as possible. Lawro thinks that Rafa should play his best players as much as possible now and rest them when needs be later. Finally, Ian Rush defends Rafa by saying that the Spaniard probably thought Kuyt and Voronin would have been able to beat Birmingham and that the movement of those two would open up the congested Blues side of the field.