Today's Banter: Bolton wish to keep Guthrie, Carson to Villa deal on hold, Gerrard wins style awards - thanks Carra & more

Danny Guthrie has impressed Bolton to the point that they are interested in keeping him on permanently, but according to manager Gary Megson, they have yet to speak to the 20-year-old about his intentions nor have they initiated talks with LFC. Due to the central midfield clutter, it is understood that Guthrie is available at the right price. If I had to take guess at his valuation, considering his age and the fact that he is not only already a regular starter in a Premiership side, but an obvious contributor to their better form, I'd say £5-7m. What do you think?

It appears that our club is waiting for a better run of form from Scott Carson to continue talks with Martin O'Neill about a transfer fee. Certainly Villa wanted to get it done shortly following his fiasco in the net for England so they could play off the negative press and low-ball us, but his first match back with the Birmingham club, he was phenomenal at Ewood, shutting down Blackburn, and he wasn't half-bad versus Arsenal last weekend. I hope we don't budge on the £10m asking price, there are a few other clubs interested in him including the aforementioned Gunners.

Steven Gerrard added two more awards to his ever growing list of accolades, but I get the feeling these are more likely to be used as paperweights instead of making their way into the trophy case. Our skipper won 'gongs' for Most Stylish Sporting Star and Icon from the inaugural 107.6 Juice FM Liverpool Style Awards at Sefton Park Palm House. In his acceptance speech, he had a go at Jamie Carragher and the awards themselves: “I would like to thank Jamie Carragher for this award.... If it wasn’t for him badgering me about my dress sense and hair cut then I wouldn’t be standing before you today. So ‘thank you Jamie’.”

Finally, two articles worth reading is one by Tony Barrett in the Liverpool Echo about Lucas and another at the FIFA site on Fernando Torres. The former tells how the Brazilian is learning from Gerrard and talks about his progression and role in the side in general while the latter brings up some interesting points about our world class Spanish striker. It talks of how his move to Liverpool has 'freed' him from the pressure of 'his iconic status with the Atletico fans' that also prevented him 'from leading anything resembling a normal life in Madrid.' Also, it brings up the fact that, at the age of 23, he already has 45 caps for Spain. That's just ridiculous and gives him a realistic chance at breaking records in that regard as well as total carreer goals (he has 15 now, Raúl scored the most at 44).

Kids watch and some other tidbits in the works. Cheers.

Today's Banter: The kids crush Bolton, Carson gone, God may need surgery, & Agger almost back

It's a match day so I'm not going to indulge as much as usual. First off, the Academy hailed brimstone and fire on the young Wanderers of Bolton to secure a 5-2 victory. Nathan Eccleston and David Amoo notched a brace apiece with Marvin Pourie adding the fifth. You know, I've heard of the latter two kids, but this Eccleston seems to be the business. Hopefully he'll continue to develop and progress so if he ever gets to the first team, we can stick it to the Mancs about stealing one of their own right out from under them. They can have their Cofie and biscuits and shove them you know where. Anyhow, youth coach Hugh McAuley was pleased with the scoring output, but disappointed that the clean sheet wasn't kept.

Well, it's looking more and more like a done deal that our keeper/super-model extraordinairre, Scott Carson, may be making his loan to Aston Villa permanent. Apparently we've agreed to terms with Martin O'Neill's side. I have mixed feelings about this as I think Carson is as good if not better than Reina, but the Spaniard is always going to get the nod with Rafa calling the shots. Hopefully we're getting a respectable chunk of change for him and can use that money to sign Masche permanently. In any case, I'm gonna dread when we have to face the Villans from now on, just another keeper with more cause to shut us down.

Word out of Cardiff is that Robbie Fowler is having hip issues. So much so that he may need surgery to fix the problem. Details are far and few between, but God is traveling to Germany sometime next week to see a specialist. He's the same guy that treated Michael Owen and Ronaldo, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Hopefully it's not as bad as thought and he'll be back to fitness in no time.

Speaking of getting back to fitness, the return of Danny Agger after the international break looks highly likely. The Dane has returned to training and as soon as he gets to fine fettle, he'll be back on the pitch for us. Maybe he'll feature for the Reserves on Tuesday, who knows, but we need him back ASAP. Cheers.

Should we sell Scott Carson?

Pepe Reina is only 25 years old. Barring major injury, the two-time defending EPL Gold Glove award winner has at least five to seven years of quality play left in him. He has alluded at times of returning to Spain though, more specifically Atlético Madrid where his father became a legend, but I can't see him going anywhere in the near future. He is our number one for now.

Before yesterday, I wasn't all that impressed with Charles Itandje, but now I see why Manchester United and other big clubs have been after him in the past. The 24-year-old Frenchman may have over-played some balls, was rightly beat once, but also made some stunning saves. I'm not sure how long he'll be around, but for now, I think if he ever had to step in for Reina, he'd do fine.

Following Itandje in the pecking in order is David Martin, the Reserves number one. The 21-year-old son of former West Ham player, Alvin Martin, saw action with the first team on three different occasions in the preseason. In my best judgment, he seemed to have the qualities to make a solid Premiership keeper, though signs of his youth and inexperience showed at moments.

Though he probably won't play for us for a few years, if ever, next we have 17-year-old Danish prospect Martin Hansen, who's been at the Academy since the beginning of last year. And just for good measure there's out-on-loan Nikolay Mihaylov and Australia wonder kid goalie, Dean Bouzanis, who is the current top keep at the Academy .

In other words, we're loaded at that spot for years to come without Carson. Rafa seemingly likes to collect keepers like the old woman in the shoe likes to collect kids. In all we have seven keepers if you count the Academy and nine if you include Carson and Mihaylov. That's just ridiculous. Is Benitez collecting and cultivating keepers as part of some master plan to keep loaning them out to other Premiership sides, so they'll be without their top goalie when they face us? If so, it's brilliant, but highly doubtful.

Carson is quite the talent though. Just this past summer numerous clubs including Arsenal inquired about his services. I have no problem saying he would be our starter if we didn't have Pepe. The thing is, we do, and there's only one keeper in the world I would even consider starting in front of Reina and that's Peter Cech. In other words, if Carson wants to be the regular starter, he's going to have to be perpetually loaned or sold and though I'm for either of those options, the latter looks to be the most realistic.

Price might become an issue though. If Craig Gordon is worth £9m, Carson can't be too far off. If I were Rafa I wouldn't accept anything less than £8m. If a club doesn't want to pay that much so be it, we got £2m for him from Aston Villa for his one-year loan there and we can just continue to lease him until someone feels like taking out a mortgage. The only thing is, if we can sell him this summer, than we can turn around and use that money to strengthen our squad.

Today's Banter: Aurelio returns, What about Harry?, Rafa laughs off Reina offer, & more

- Fabio Aurelio made an unexpected early return to action today as the Reserves beat a Crewe Alexandra Reserves side, 2-1, behind goals by Xabi Alonso and Ray Putterill. The 27-year-old Left Back played an impressive 45 minutes. This is great news, if he's able to play this Saturday against Portsmouth, it allows Arbeloa to play on the right if Finnan isn't fit or even in the middle with Carra if Agger or Hyypia are fatigued.

- Despite reports that he was also set to make his return against today, apparently Harry Kewell did not line-up against the Crewe Reserves side. Hopefully there will be a mention of his status when the full match report is published on the official site. The only good news is that Kewell was included on our 23-man Champions League roster, so obviously Rafa is expecting him to return to action sometime in the near future.

- Rafa has dismissed any talk of Pepe leaving to go to Atletico Madrid or anywhere else for that matter. I kind of figured it was a load of donkey dung, but again, £10m for a keeper is not an amount to scoff at especially when you have the likes of Scott Carson available to replace him.

- A FIFA source has revealed that Peter Crouch was not singled-out by referees at the World Cup, but an incident where Crouchy pulled at the hair of a Trinidad and Tobago defender as he headed in a goal was brought to the attention of match officials. There's a picture of the incident to accompany the article and honestly, I don't see how the striker can be giving himself an advantage by being anchored down by someone's hair as he jumps. Call me crazy, but wouldn't that prevent him from jumping higher, it looks like accidental contact if you ask me.

- The U18s won on Saturday versus Nottingham Forrest, 3-1, behind a brace from German Marvin Pourie and a goal by Scot Gary MacKay Steven. 16-year-old English striker David Amoo was apparently quite impressive himself. Just taking a peek at the U18/Academy roster, we have quite the international mix with players from seven different countries, though a large majority, 13, are English.

- Finally, here's a nice piece from Liverpool Legend Ian Rush on Rafa's recent decision not to replace his number two, Pako Ayesteran. It's interesting to read what role such a person plays on a club and why it's not a good idea to replace them in haste. Cheers everyone.

Today's Banter: Carra training, Atletico want Reina, Crouch stalls contract, Cheryl Cole praises fans, & Kewell returns!!!

- Reports are that Carra returned to training today and will be ready for action on Saturday when we travel to Portsmouth. Great news considering how many players we have out on international duty including Hyypia and Agger. Hopefully everyone will return fit and rested, Pompey at Fratton Park will be no easy test.

- Apparently Atletico Madrid are keen on Pepe Reina and are putting together a bid for him in the realm of £10m to offer LFC in the January transfer window. Whether this is true or not, I wonder if Rafa would consider selling Pepe. £10m is a respectable offer and we do have Scott Carson on the books yet on loan to Aston Villa. I doubt he'd sell him in January though unless he could recall Carson.

- Peter Crouch, who's current contract expires at the end of next season, has apparently been offered a three year extension from the club. Supposedly though, he's withholding his signature to see what kind of playing time he's going to get this season. What an ass, he knows what kind of playing time he's going to get, so he needs to commit his future or gotten rid of. I've been for the latter for the past year or so anyhow.

- Cheryl Cole has praised Liverpool fans for their unconditional love of their club and players and thinks England fans should be the same way. The problem is fans of Liverpool know that the people who run their club, love LFC, while those who run England, the FA, do things that say otherwise. For starters, they would have gotten a class coach at what ever cost.

- Harry Kewell returns to action tomorrow night for the Reserves versus Crewe Alexandra Reserves. Well, that's promising. I'm hoping he'll be able to play this Saturday so we can give Babel and Yossi a little rest from International duty. Despite the rise of the new signings, we need Kewell as a key contributor this season if we want to go after all the silverware. Cheers.