Today's Banter: Cappello to replace Rafa?, City in for Masche, Beşiktaş rout fixed?, & more

Apparently, Fabio Capello was contacted by the club before the Porto match to see if he would be interested in replacing Rafa, had the position opened. No word on what his response was, but it's looking more and more likely that Benitez is here to stay. I personally wouldn't mind the former AC Milan/Real Madrid/AC Milan/AS Roma/Juventus/Real Madrid manager taking over, as he has shown in the past that he's capable of taking a squad full of players that were there before he arrived and making them champions, but in the end, Rafa staying on board is best for the club.

In the rubbish transfer rumor of the day, Sven allegedly fancies Mascherano and is looking to place a bid of £17m for the defensive midfielder in the January transfer. Apparently Masche's 'owners', MSI, want to have him under contract to a club for next year by the end of the month. Seriously, I don't think Rafa is going anywhere, but if the owners don't think signing the Argentine to a permanent is our top objective come January, I wouldn't blame Benitez for handing in his notice. Anyhow, if Javier does leave, I doubt he'll stay in England when he can go to Juventus or Barcelona.

UEFA and Platini once again are making donkeys of themselves. "The European governing body has received information that 26 games in the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Intertoto Cup may have been fixed since 2005 with Liverpool's 8-0 drubbing of the Turkish club at Anfield - the highest score in Europe's premier competition - among those allegedly involved." Apparently a lot of higher winning margin bets were placed on LFC just before kick off and a few Beşiktaş players might have been paid off not to give their all. Platini should know what a fixed match looks-like and it's not 8-0, it's usually 2-1 with an allowed handball goal or maybe 1-1 with a questionable penalty. Anyhow, it won't matter in the end, it appears nobody at the club were involved and another scandal to distract Marseilles may be just what the doctor ordered.

Finally, due to the fact that Jamie Carragher is playing with fire, Jack Hobbs may get the start at Reading to prevent the Bootle icon and our side from getting burnt. Carra did have to leave the Bolton match early due to sore ribs, but that's not why he may start from the bench on Saturday. He also has four yellow cards, a fifth will earn him a one-game suspension and force him out of the Man U match on the 16th. If Hobbs can maintain the composure he showed in the second half against the Trotters, I don't see why he can't do the same at the Madejski this weekend. Maybe the 19-year-old centre back can take confidence that he made his Liverpool debut at the Reading stadium just two-and-a-half months back.

I'll be back later with a Kids Watch recap from all of yesterday's action including our Reserves thumping Everton, 3-0. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Birmingham fears Pennant, Carra calls an end to penalties, Anderson may start, & more

- Birmingham boss Steve Bruce has singled out Jermaine Pennant as the player his side is worried most about come Saturday. Pennant though, who played two seasons for the Blues, isn't sure he'll even get to play after being sent off in the Porto match. I'm not sure he'll start, but would be a bit surprised if he didn't get to play at all. Rafa may save him for our Carling Cup match at Reading next week.

- Jamie Carragher has vowed to stop the giving away of penalties. Well, Carra, if you can somehow manage to get the league to hire better quality referees, you might have a shot at doing so, but don't hold your breathe. What sucks is that Pepe has yet to concede a goal from play this season.

- Paul Anderson may get his first league start for Swansea when they face League One side Leeds tomorrow, who has won all six of it's previous matches yet stand bottom to last on the table because of a 15 point penalty deduction for failure to comply with rules on insolvency. The 19-year-old on-loan winger already has two goals for his temporary club, one in Leaugue play and the other in League Cup.

- UEFA spokesman William Gaillard is running his mouth again. This time he accused our new owners of having ulterior motives when they took over the club. He claims they are in it for the 'quick buck'. Rick Parry has responded, calling the obligations 'absurd'. I'm not even going to bother to address this, if Platini and UEFA are so stupid that they don't see the true negative influences in the sport, than maybe they are collecting a few bucks on the side from that influence.

- Rafa is worried about the effect the loss of Agger is going to have on the squad. I think it was made worse with Xabi going down as well since the Spaniard showed he was capable of playing centre back if needed, but it's far too soon to panic. We have ample coverage at the moment and I truly believe that Mascherano is fully capable of covering there if needed. Hell, Gerrard could too. One of the pluses is that Carra has just come off a vacation, so as long as he can remain healthy, we'll be fine. The thing that I'm worried about is bringing up Jack Hobbs from the Reserves as a needs be basis. I say give him the start against Reading and if he does well, go from there. The couple of times I've seen the lad play I've been wholly unimpressed, but am more than willing to give him another shot.

- Finally, Michael Shields is set to spend his 21st birthday in prison. He was convicted of attacking a Bulgarian barman just after the 2005 Champions League final. If you want to read more about his situation, go here.

Man U and Chelsea have worst fans

I remember back during and after the Champions League final, when UEFA's William Gaillard came out with a statement saying that Liverpool had the worst fans and that the European football policing organization had proof of that statement. Well, set aside that the reason they came out with such a statement was to cover up their half-assed security job and planning for the final and the fact that they severely rigged the match with a English-hating German ref, and you still have they fact that they have yet to release the study or document to the general public that backs that statement. Where is it, guys? Did you lose it? Are is it that it's just a load of crap to divert attention to real issues like your incompetence?

Well, skip ahead to this past weekend when I read this here. Turns out that Man U and Chelsea have in fact the worst fans in English football according to Jane's Police Review. Not some organization trying to cover their ass for their mistakes, but an independent third party who has no monetary interest what so ever in the results of the study. And what were the grounds of this study? Fans who were "most likely to attack officers or be racially or sexually abusive." It's no secret that Chelsea has had a violent and racist past, but I was a bit surprised to see Man U there.

So next time some two-bit Chelsea loser slags on you for being a Liverpool fan, just laugh because they truly are the scum of the Earth. Who wants to bet that you won't be hearing about this study on World Soccer Daily? Ha ha ha.