It’s hard to believe another new season is upon us but here we are once again. Under normal circumstances, I would be feeling about as excited as Harry Redknapp in a brown envelope factory at this stage but these are not normal times at Anfield, in fact normal left the building a long time ago and I’m just not sure what to expect anymore.
From the start of this year, somewhere between our many dreadful performances, the disappointing finish to the last campaign, the departure of the manager and all of the usual off the field stuff, for the first time in my life I just completely lost my appetite for the game.
But things changed over the summer when, as a complete neutral, I was able to sit back and enjoy the football at the World Cup without any of the baggage and then Roy Hodgson was appointed as our new manager and for better or worse, at the very least he represents a fresh start. So while I can’t say that I’m as excited as I used to be, from the football side of things I am at least interested again and curious about what’s in store for us in the weeks and months ahead.
The club is currently going through the darkest chapter in its history and one way or another you get the feeling that this will be the pivotal season and by the end of it we will either be taking our first few steps on the road to recovery or be forever lost in the abyss. In the campaign ahead we face a battle on two fronts, on and most particularly off the pitch, and I believe we must win both of them.
Obviously the situation off the pitch is the big one because it’s for the very existence of the club and it must be resolved as quickly as possible but as far as I can see, nothing has changed. Despite new appointments and new faces arriving in our boardroom tasked specifically with resolving the situation it doesn’t appear that any real progress has been made. The American parasites are still here, the massive debts are still here and we still don’t have a pot to piss in, in the transfer market.
I’m not sure some people fully appreciate how dire our current situation is and if the fact that we had to recently meet with officials from the league to convince them we would be able to complete our fixtures this season isn’t enough to set the alarm bells ringing, then I don’t know what is!
But a lot’s been said about that on this blog already and I’m not going to rehash it all again except to say that it’s become pretty clear to me in recent months that among Liverpool supporters there are some people who see everything but understand nothing!
Anyway, I’m just quite literally praying that there is something to these latest reports about a possible takeover of the club by Chinese businessman Kenny Huang. I don’t know the first thing about the guy but anyone taking over from the Americans is bound to be an improvement and if it’s true that they would make no profit from the deal it would be doubly delightful.
There has been talk of this deal being pushed through before the end of the transfer window which would be fantastic but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen as I’m sure the greed of our current owners would see them placing as many road blocks as they can in its way. But even if it does drag on, just knowing there is a deal in the works that will finally rid us of these two parasites will be a boost to everyone at a time when it is badly needed.
The battle for the future of the club is obviously massively important and quite rightly overshadows everything else and Leo (aka Fat Scouser) and some of the other lads have been doing a great job keeping everyone here up to speed on the latest goings on and I hope they continue to do so. But the battle for the future of the team is also important in its own right and it’s in this area that I’m going to mainly focus my efforts in the blogs ahead. I know there are bigger issues and I can understand why some people may not have the appetite for it right now, but I miss talking and blogging about football and I believe there’s room for us to discuss both.
That said, no matter what may be happening behind the scenes at the club, I believe that this is a very important season for us on the pitch. We can argue all day about the rights and wrongs of Rafa’s departure. I believe he should have been given at least another season to turn things around but I would accept that there is also a genuine, not media driven, argument that maybe it was time for a change.
I know some people might get bent out of shape because of that last comment but there are pro’s and con’s to everything and at the end of the day, he’s gone now and it’s time for us to stop bickering about it and row in behind the new manager. It may seem callous to say the king is dead, long live the king but that is the nature of the game these days and we’ve just got to get over it and “walk on”.
In my opinion, I believe that in the fullness of time Rafa will be remembered as one of the great Liverpool managers. Sure he had his flaws as every manager does but to his great credit and despite everything that’s happened over the past several years, he still left us the nucleus of a great side and an impressive collection of very promising youngsters at Melwood and the Academy.
So I think we’ve got a strong foundation in place and plenty for Roy Hodgson (Rodge) to build on. This is why I believe it’s so important for us to have a successful season because if we don’t it might well all fall apart so badly that even Humpty Dumpty and all the kings men would struggle to put us together again.
If we fail to make a significant improvement on last season then you can be pretty damn sure that the likes of Fernando Torres and Captain Invisible among others will be gone from Anfield quicker than you can say multi-million pound signing-on fee! I believe that this would be the most likely scenario regardless of who the new owner is and the departure of some of our big name players would likely have a knock-on effect that could bring the whole playing side of the club tumbling down like a house of cards and set us back years.
In such a scenario and assuming we had an owner with deep enough pockets, we would likely end in a Man City situation throwing money at the team in the hope that we could buy some short term success but without any long term sustainability. However, if we manage to have a reasonably successful season and keep everybody together and our foundation in place, then I think we can continue to build on what we have and hopefully any new owner can supply the manager with a transfer budget to enable him to bring in the right players, not necessarily the most expensive ones, to help take us to another level.
So that and the fact that the longer we remain out of the top four, the harder it’s going to be for us to get back in means there’s a lot at stake for us on the pitch this season. In the absence of Rafa we need a strong manager who can handle the pressure and help us turn things around and I believe we’ve got one in Roy Hodgson. I’ve been impressed with him so far and while he may not have been everybody’s idea of our Mr Right, I think he might well prove to be our Mr Right Now. Because he is a respected figure with bags of experience, can handle the players, the media and knows the English game inside out and right now that’s exactly what we need.
I’m sure he’s frantically working at bringing in a few more new faces because we definitely need to get a few more bodies in and even under Rafa I felt our squad was too small. We’ve had a few departures and while I regret that Benny Onion has moved on, I’m not too bothered about the others and I hope Mascherano joins them. The guy sulked his way through the early part of last season because he didn’t get his move to Barca and he’ll do the same again this season if he doesn’t get his move to Inter or wherever he’s looking to go. Don’t get me wrong, the guy is one of the best defensive midfielders in the game when he’s in the mood but he is replaceable and provided we get a decent fee for him, we could do without someone like him in the dressing room at the moment.
On the incoming front we’ve brought in Joke Hole, Jocky Wilson and Milli Vanilli which is a good start but more is required. It was a great boost signing Cole. We know all about him at this club, basically if you can get the ball to him he will make things happen and I’m sure Torres will enjoy playing with him and Gerrard might even occasionally pass him the ball! I saw Wilson playing for Rangers a few times last season and he’s a terrific young player with a calm head that belies his tender years. I’m not sure about Milli, he hasn’t pulled up any trees in pre-season so far and every time I look at him I keep thinking Voronin but its early days yet.
We’ve also re-signed Fabulous Aurelio which I think is a good move, I know the guy always seems to pick up injuries but unlike some players I could mention, he’s never let us down on the pitch when he has been available. He’s never going to be world class but he gives it his best and he’s also got that sweet left foot, so if we can 25 or 30 games out of him I think it’s worth having him in the squad.
We still need to get a few more in, by my reckoning a good quality left back, central midfielder and striker would round off the squad nicely, anything else would be a bonus. Maybe Bridge, Parker and Crouch if reports are to be believed, although personally I’d prefer Figeroa, De Four and Ruiz but in any case we would probably be looking at a £25-£30 million spend and hopefully a decent transfer fee for Mascherano would cover a large chunk of that, assuming we re-invested the money in the squad which is of course about as likely as a Jamie Carragher hat-trick under the current regime.
In other matters, we’ve got the second leg of our Europa League qualifier at Anfield on Thursday. The two away goals scored by Eggnog in the first leg should be enough to see us through comfortably and hopefully we’ll get another chance to see Cole, Gerrard and one or two of our other big guns in the team because this is the last game we have before we kick-off our league campaign against Arsenal.
Obviously the Europa League isn’t one of our main priorities this season but I will be delighted if we go all the way in the competition because this year’s final will be held at the Aviva Stadium which is the newly refurbished home of the Irish football team and only a 20 minute journey from where I live, so your all invited to stay over at my place if we get there!
I don’t think the likes of Torres, Gerrard, Cole, Reina and the rest of our big guns should be allowed anywhere near our Europa League games unless we reach the latter stages. But I still think the competition could be useful to us if we use it to bring on some of the youngsters. I would like to see us playing with a team of three or four senior pro’s and the rest made up of young Reds. The likes of Wilson playing alongside maybe Paddy the Greek, Spearing and Shelvey in the centre of midfield with maybe Pacheco and Eggnog upfront and a couple of senior pro’s on the bench if we need them.
Anyway, that’s enough from me for now and apologies if this blog drifted all over the place but I’ve been away too long and once I started writing this I just kept going. A new season brings new hope and I’m feeling a little more optimistic about our prospects recently.
In the news today I heard Torres “committing” himself to Liverpool and while he certainly took his time about it, it was still great to hear. And there’s also a lot of talk in the media about us making a decision on a preferred bidder and maybe having everything sorted out before the end of the transfer window, which would be fantastic. It’s hard to believe that we might yet reach the golden cloud at the end of this perfect storm we’ve had to endure, but as ever we have hope in our hearts.
Keep the Faith