Today's Banter: Owners 'rift' rubbished, A return to England for Cissé?, Riise to stay, & Rush praises Rafa's tactics

Club Chief Executive Rick Parry has stated that the rift between Tom Hicks and George Gillett is totally fabricated. The 52-year-old revealed that he has recently spent time with both owners and drew no such conclusions of a breach in their partnership. Even if there was, I sincerely doubt the papers would know about it before something major occurred. Parry added that Gillett and Hicks are still on the same page concerning the future of the club and are working on a refinancing package to be completed in the next 30 days.

Former LFC striker Djibril Cissé may be on his way back to the Premiership. The 26-year-old French international has fallen out of favor with his current club, Marseille, and is looking to go elsewhere. It is no surprise that 'Money Bags' Shinawatra at Man City and Eggert 'Big Paper' Magnússon of West Ham are the two being linked to him. Cissé is married to an English woman and still owns a home in Cheshire.

John Arne Riise has rubbished claims that he'll be joining fellow Norwegian John Carew at Aston Villa in January. The recently turned 27-year-old seems very pragmatic about his current dip in form and is looking to improve. Riise has had glimpses of brilliance, but they've been far and few between. He was simply dazzling in the preseason, but at the very least, wholly inconsistent since. Maybe he can get some pointers from Hyypia about how to find his top self once again. I'd rather he stick around, but if he's going to continue to be a detriment, I can't see any reason to keep him aboard.

Finally, Ian Rush has praised Rafa for the tactics he employed in the Fulham match, especially bringing on Torres at just the right time. One of the things that he states in that article that I agree with is that he doesn't believe Rafa wanted to keep the same line-up as the Besitkas match. I really think Rafa did so as a message to his players that he doesn't always rotate on the basis of who's fresh or for tactical reasons. I think he wanted to let them know if they perform well, they'll get more playing chances, a notion some don't think Rafa believes in. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Masche ♥ LFC, Benayoun benched for 3 weeks, Sissoko frustrated, & Owners tussle?

Javier Mascherano is apparently loving Liverpool life and has no desire to go elsewhere. So much so that he has stated that if he doesn't sign with our club, he won't play for any other English side. That's good to hear, but I hope we do whatever we have to secure his services because I'd rather not face a side in Europe with him on it either.

Yossi Benayoun won't be the savior of England's Euro hopes if Israel happens to beat Russia next Saturday. The Israeli captain slightly tore his adductor muscle in yesterday's match. He is expected to miss at least three weeks. Hopefully that'll mean more playing time for Harry Kewell, well, if he can avoid injury playing for Australia next weekend.

Momo Sissoko has once again voiced his frustration about Rafa's rotation policy. I find it a bit odd that he isn't paired in the middle more often with Mascherano and Gerrard placed on the right myself. It's looking more and more likely that he'll be sold in the January transfer window, which in my opinion, would be a bad idea. I know he's slowly dropped out of favor with the fans, but he's still young and a huge talent. I would hate to see him develop elsewhere, especially if he leaves with a chip on his shoulder. Knowing how reckless he can be, that would be a bit scary if we ever had to face him.

Finally, there appears to be a rift between our owners. As reported by News of the World, the same rag that fabricated the Bellamy/Riise golf club incident, Hicks and Gillett don't see eye-to-eye about the stadium plans. If you want a laugh, you can read the article here. It sounds a bit childish towards the end when the it states the two parties are concerned about who the face of the club is. First, Steven Gerrard is the face of the club, so are they both jealous of him? Second, seriously? Two multi-millionaires really give a rat's ass which one is the face of the club? That doesn't make much sense, if I were that rich, anonymity would seem to be one of my priorities. Cheers.