Roy to play Hardball with Rafa!

This piece of news says that Roy is prepared to play hardball with Rafa after declaring that Dirk Kuyt is not for sale and that Mascherano won't be allowed to leave on the cheap!

RH also states that he is willing to let Mascherano to run down the final two years of his conract unless Liverpool's valuation of Mascherano is met!

Rafa had been repeatedly linked with a move to reubite with Mascherano who was told that he would be allowed to leave this summer should a suitable offer be met. However, no bids have yet been forthcoming from either Inter or Barca.

It is believed that Inter is biding their time so that they could seek to take advantage of Mascherano's desire to leave by making an offer way beylow the valuation of 25 million!

RH is adamant that Liverpool won't be bullied out of their hardline stance and is convinced that Mascherano would remain committed to the club should he be compelled to stay.

RH said, "We want an offer that meets what we think is his value, and Javier is perfectly happy with this, and he doesn't expect the club to just let him walk out of here."

RH added, "He is resigned to one of the two possibilities - either a club doesn't come along and offer us his valuation, in which case he stays, or we have an offer that meets his valuation in which he may go."

"I'm very happy he remains with us," RH said, "because in an ideal world, if it is simply a situation of would we be prepared to listen to offers for Mascherano, I would say no we aren't," he quipped!

Reports from Italy also suggested that Rafa will move for Kuyt after their attempts to sign Guissepe Sculli from Genoa stalled.

However, the serie A side received no encouragement from RH when he said, "He is not for sale".

That's the kind of manager that we need!