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John W Henry has said Dalglish's side should secure a top-four finish this season. Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport

The Departures Lounge: your daily lunchtime transfer round-up

Find out what clubs are interested in Joey Barton, which team Nani is being linked with and what Liverpool owner John Henry has said about the club’s prospects this season.

HARRY REDKNAPP HAS decided that the transfer market is officially insane, after learning that Giuseppe Rossi was valued at £30m.

The manager will, however, have to pay considerably less for Joey Barton though, who is now a free agent, but will have to compete with Arsenal and Man United for the task of child-minder.

Are Damien Duff’s Fulham days numbered? The club have launched a bid for Dutch winger Wesley Verhoek – Duff’s younger, fitter and undoubtedly better-looking equivalent.

Nani could be on his way to Bayern Munich having presumably infuriated Alex Ferguson one time too many with his inability to deliver a final ball.

Dimitar Berbatov has said he doesn’t want to leave Man United, however he may be dragged kicking and screaming (in a rare show of emotion) by Paris St Germain.

His recent goal undoubtedly caused Neymar’s already astronomical valuation to rise even further, hence the reason why spendaholics Real Madrid can’t tempt Santos with their latest excessive offer.

Chelsea could launch a fresh bid for Luka Modric, which Tottenham will undoubtedly turn down despite what Kevin Bond says, leading (as these transfer sagas always do) to some desperate negotiations in the dying minutes before the transfer window closes.

Right now though, the clubs are happy to sit back and relax.

Meanwhile, the poor man’s Modric, beloved by mid-table clubs – Zoltan Gera - has made the move from Fulham to West Brom, in what is possibly the most ‘meh’ transfer of the summer.

Finally, Liverpool owner John W Henry hasn’t provoked anyone for a while, so he’s decided to say what a disappointment it would be if the club finish outside of the top 4.

John, I hate to break this to you, but there are probably at least four teams in better stead than Liverpool are this season.

He does have some courage though, talking behind the back of a man with as fearsome a reputation as Kenny Dalglish.

Read: Joey Barton (still) speaking truth to power>

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    Mute Kevin
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    Aug 4th 2011, 2:28 PM

    About time.

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    Mute David Elkin
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    Aug 4th 2011, 3:33 PM

    @Phil: I think the management are trying to give the players a full pre season before giving them match time in these games. If you look at the team, only Fitzgerald and Sexton started the Magners League Final at the start of June. I think they will be re introducing the front line players over the course of the warm up games. Remember, there are 5 games in total. So, I would expect us to be playing our full team by the middle or the end of the series.

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    Mute Phil Mc Donald
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    Aug 4th 2011, 2:45 PM

    So much for the 1st’s gettin alot of gametime preWC, half these guys won’t be on the plane. We’ll be undercooked again

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    Mute Barry R.
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    Aug 4th 2011, 7:32 PM

    Phil, the concept of international rugby team management now is that there isn’t a ‘firsts’.
    There is a squad who are all ‘firsts’.

    Clearly Kidney will use this time to decide who will go and who won’t. If you think he is part of the Munster mafia then fair enough, I just don’t know where you draw your view from.

    Even at club level, we work to introduce the ‘squad’ concept right from underage. It eliminates the prima donna attitude of an ‘A team’

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    Mute Aideen Reilly
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    Aug 4th 2011, 4:06 PM

    will it be televised?

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    Mute Phil Mc Donald
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    Aug 4th 2011, 3:12 PM

    Correction: half these guys Shouldn’t be on the plane, but the Munster Mafia will have their way

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    Mute David Elkin
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    Aug 4th 2011, 4:27 PM

    Actually, just checked, it doesn’t appear to be on BBC 2 NI, which is the channel we get here, they are showing the Dublin v Tyrone game. I read that it was on BBC in The Sunday Times, they mustn’t have changed it for their Irish readers. So, after all this, I have no idea if it is being televised.

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    Mute Aideen Reilly
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    Aug 4th 2011, 6:40 PM

    I can get BBC London as well as BBC NI, thank God although I just checke my virgin listings and the GAA isnt til 7 and BBC2 NI is showing both

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    Mute David Elkin
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    Aug 4th 2011, 4:18 PM

    It’s on BBC2 for definite, don’t know about RTE’s coverage. There are issues surrounding RTE’s coverage of the whole warm up series.

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