A few weeks ago I heard on the radio about a reality TV show in Holland called The Big Donor Show, featuring “a a terminally-ill woman who selects one of three patients to receive her kidneys when she dies.”

I was shocked by it all, but it turns out I needn’t have been as it was all a hoax. I’m not sure that makes it any better really. No matter what they say about highlighting problems, at the end of the day they used a very serious illness to create publicity and profit for themselves. That’s just wrong!

The Galway Film Fleadh have announced their Masterclasses and are taking applications until 5pm on the 29th of June. Among them is an Actor’s Masterclass with Jeremy Irons and a Screenwriters Masterclass with Terry George, writer of In The Name of the Father and Hotel Rwanda, amongst others.

The programme of films will be announced soon.

Well, I’m off on another adventure. I got up at 6.20am last Thursday morning to get a lift to the train station to get a train to Dublin, to get a bus to the airport to get a plane to Biarritz to get a taxi to the train station to get a train to Bordeaux to jump in a car and get whisked off to a gig I knew nothing about in the ‘Rock School Barbey‘.

The line up was three French female artists, opening with Oshen. The crowd were getting impatient by the time we rushed in late, munching our tasty tortilla chips for dinner, but they must have been waiting for us to arrive, because shortly after we found a good vantage point the gig got underway.

Oshen arrived on with a guitar, a drummer,a lead guitar player and a keyboard player, and launched into a fairly bog standard singer songwriter number. At least i assume it was - I don’t speak a word of French but it sounded like one. Hey, maybe the lyrics were amazing, but they’d have had to be to save this mediocre melody. You could tell she had a good voice, and you could tell she wasn’t using it.

I began to steel myself for a long night standing after a long days travelling.

But Oshen’s opening was obviously a clever prank, designed to highlight the brilliance that followed as over the next couple of songs she transformed into an incredible performer, who knew well how to use those vocal chords to full effect.

I became increasingly engaged as Oshen’s show went from standard fare to unique cabaret - bear my lack of French in mind and marvel at her ability to give me a good idea of the theme of each song with her full characterisations of the characters in her songs.

She was humourous in her approach, and if you spoke French, she was hilarious in the preambles to her songs judging by the audience. Oshen’s set went from strength to strength, maintaining a wonderful balance between humour and soul, cabaret and cool.

Some interesting interludes in the set included, as one of her encores, a great cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith and (as only a French performer could get away with) a When-Harry-Met-Sallyesque glimpse into an intimate encounter more humourous than the one Sally gave, and without being at all cringeful.

You don’t need French to enjoy this wonderful performer, someone should get her over to ireland to play. She’d go down a bomb at Electric Picnic I’d say.

Right now,amazon.co.uk only has her old album , but maybe they’ll get her new one soon.

With the soap opera in full swing I thought I would take a look at what areas we can expect Benitez to look to strengthen this summer. Considering it was a lack of goals that cost Liverpool so dearly last season I thought I’d start with the attack.

To say the lack of goals is the fault of the strikers is true, but a little unfair. Crouch’s 18 goals, Kuyt’s 14, Bellamy’s 9 and Fowler’s 7 are a healthy enough return. If the rest of the team had chipped in with their fair share of goals it might have even gone unnoticed that none of the four strikers at the club had passed the 20 goal mark.

The midfield needs to look at itself as while Lampard and Ronaldo scored bucket loads for Chelsea and Man Utd respectively, Liverpool’s highest scoring midfielder was Steven Gerrard on 11 with the next being Luis Garcia on 6. The supply to the strikers must also be a concern for Benitez this summer, but the fact remains that of the four strikers on the clubs books last season none of them could be relied on to score the big goals regularly.

Since Michael Owen’s departure in the summer of 2004 Liverpool have lacked a number one striker. Someone who stands up and takes the responsibility to score the important goals. It is vital that Benitez finds this kind of striker this summer.

Fowler has already been released and replaced by Andriy Voronin, and Bellamy is waiting, with his golf clubs packed, for someone to match Liverpool’s £12m valuation. Kuyt and Crouch are sticking around, but their involvement will depend on the type of striker that is brought in, and indeed on how many.

So what are Benitez’s options? If the media are to believed it’ll be someone from David Villa, Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres, Michael Owen, Darren Bent, Diego Millito, Jermaine Defoe.

The Villa deal seems a non starter as he has a very high buy out clause and neither the club nor the player have expressed any desire to part company as of yet. Eto’o looks ready to leave Barcelona but there are sure to be plenty of takers even if the price goes as high as £35m. Just how much money Liverpool have to spend on a striker is unclear so I have my doubts that they can compete at that price. Of course if the likes of Chelsea don’t get involved it might be a more reasonable £25m. Still, it might be out of Liverpool’s price range.

Fernando Torres on the other hand looks very likely. He’s been linked with a move away from Athletico Madrid for the last few years now and their failure to qualify for the UEFA Cup should be the final straw for player and club. His price should be the right side of £20m and therefore has to be within range. Having “You’ll Never Walk Alone” writen on the inside of his captain’s armband and accidently letting it be seen earlier in the season is as clear a “come and get me” as you will ever see. I think that he is up for the move if Benitez decides to take him.

It’s hardly a secret that Michael Owen and Darren Bent would like to move to Liverpool. Owen’s return would, I believe, be a good thing for Liverpool. I don’t go along with the “he screwed the club” way of thinking or the “injury prone” nonsense. Michael Owen has always scored goals and is proven in the Premiership. Liverpool know what they would be getting with Owen and at £9m only a fool wouldn’t be interested. Bent is younger than Owen but isn’t proven at the highest level. I doubt he is Benitez’s no.1 target, but he is certainly under consideration. £17m is a ridiculous price for a player who has struggled to score against the big teams and who is unproven at the highest level. Rumour has it that Liverpool bid £10m for him (and that is why he rejected West Ham) and are willing to go to £12m. The fact that Bent was willing to reject £75,000 a week for a chance to play for Liverpool is a sign he has the type of character we like at Liverpool, but Owen still seems a better option.

Millito is the one I know least about. Those who have seen him play tell me he has a good eye for goal, is good in the air and while he isn’t the quickest is not slow either. He has a good goal scoring record in La Liga, but I find what passes for defending over there to be most amusing! A story emerged on the net yesterday that Liverpool have offered £13m for him so he looks to have done something to impress Benitez. The name of Jermaine Defoe keeps cropping up whenever the transfer window opens. I would be surprised if he was signed. He looks a decent player, but he has done so for a few years now without much improvement.

Goal scoring ability has to be what decides the striker Liverpool buy this summer. With Bellamy leaving they have a front line that isn’t exactly blessed with speed so some pace would also be a nice addition. Whether that means signing two strikers or whether they can land a man who has both in his locker remains to be seen.

For me it would be Eto’o and Owen. Eto’o is big and fast and knows how to use those attributes. His goal scoring record is one of the best in the World so in short he is just what Liverpool need. There is the danger that it could take him a while to adapt to the Premiership and he is off to the African Nation’s Cup in January/February so I would also sign Owen to take the pressure off him and cover for him during the Cup. The signing of Eto’o is unrealistic but Torres would do fine. I’d still sign Owen as well to give Torres time to adapt.

There is one other striker who has been linked to Liverpool this summer and that is Thierry Henry. Obviously this would be a dream signing. I don’t care that he is nearly 30 or that he was injured for large parts of last season. Thierry Henry is one of the best strikers the Premiership has ever seen and he would link the midfield and the attack beautifully at Liverpool. It’s one of those transfers you should not let yourself even consider. If the price was right though, you just never know in football…

As I mentioned before the transfer window is now open for signing players in preparation for the 2007/08 season. Every time the transfer window opens we get enough twists and turns to rival any soap opera. Already this one has not disappointed.

As Liverpool fans we are used to going from the ecstasy of Zidane to sign rumours to the reality of Luis Garcia. This summer we were supposed to get to sit back and enjoy Benitez bringing in the big names with a War Chest to rival Chelsea’s transfer budget, but as yet it has not happened. The problem with this expectation is that even if Benitez had the kind of transfer budget that Chelsea have had since Roman Abramovich changed the face of the Premiership, he wouldn’t pay the kind of prices Chelsea have been paying for players. As the doom and gloom sets in on many a Liverpool supporter’s summer it is time to take a more realistic look at what’s been going on.

On the 24th of May, Benitez ended the Honeymoon period of the new owners when he went public about his frustrations with the pace of Liverpool’s plans for signing new players. Since then only Andriy Voronin, 20 year old Brazilian Lucas Leiva, and two Hungarian stars for the future, Krisztián Németh and András Simon have been officially signed. There has been talk of more signings including Sebastián Leto £2.5million from Club Atlético Lanús, Gary Mackay Steven from Ross County, Alexander Kacaniklic £75,000 from Helsingborgs IF. As is usual with players who are not bought to go straight into the first team squad the news is slower to come through but I expect most, if not all, of these players to be on Liverpool’s books by the 1st of September. While this list may not excite most fans there is enough in there to make me question the current tirade of dooms day stories coming from the media.

Included in the Németh and Simon transfer is an agreement with their former club, MTK Hungária FC, to become a feeder club for Liverpool. Not something that costs that much money but a sign none the less that the club are looking towards the future as well as the present. Lucas Leiva cost anything between £6m and £8m depending on which story you read which is a very significant figure to pay for a 20 year old and a significant indicator of Liverpool having money to spend. If the other deals do come off it is reported that Leto, another 20 year old - but this time for the left-wing, will cost a further £2.5m. This means Liverpool have spent anything from £6m to £10.5m on 20 year old players at a time when the media would have you believe that they only have £10m to spend on a new striker.

Another indicator of all being well at Liverpool is the fact that their biggest names have all signed contract extensions. Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher led the way and were soon followed by Jose Reina and Xabi Alonso. Steve Finnan and Momo Sissoko are reported to have signed their contract also and I expect that news to become official when the players return to training in July.

If the new owners were not forthcoming with funds, why would Benitez spend so much money on youth players? Why would he give nice big contract extensions to his big stars? Why would the big stars sign these contracts if they didn’t have assurances about the future of the club? And why would Benitez not cash in on one of his much sought after central midfielders to raise more funds for new payers?

I believe that there is money there to sign who Benitez wants. Not necessarily to sign the biggest players in the World, but to sign the players Benitez has identified as his number one targets for the positions he thinks need strengthening. Who those players are remains to be seen, but I believe that they will be signed in time to start pre-season training with Liverpool FC.

The Spanish league finishes today. Things will get a lot more interesting in Liverpool’s transfer market very soon…