Numero uno!!

Nice one Gerry
I think this is how its going to be with sigings now. Raffa will have to beg steal and borrow. dont know why he has not just walked, but how pleased he has not he is one of the best managers going to be able to do what he is doing and still make a bit of money,(but only for it to vanish into a black hole) and if these wankers were intersted in the club (which they are not)they would not charge the club stupid amouts in expenses claims.

Maxi Rodriguez would be a good move it would increase our options (any way at the price we anit goinig to get much more for the money you dont get many Internationals for 1.5m. another striker even if only on loan and we could scrap into four slot which i feel under the circumstances this session would be a half right result.(but it will be tough going what ever happens)

with Johno out for a while it will be interesting to see who we play there, like the look of kelly pity he is injured so it might be a blessing the suds game is off give him a chance to get fit (well heres hoping)

hope you warm up soon gerry, nice blog by the way

Rodrigues seems worth a gamble at 1.5m you never now as he knows a couple of the guys he might settle in alright.
anyway he will give us opptions and he can play on both sides i belive.
scrounge a loan ranger for up front for the rest of the session and lets go get em.

on the Raffa front who is one of the best managers in the world.(must love the club cus any other manager would have gone by now with fuck all to sign players with.) he also makes money for the black hole that keeps swallowing it up)and withthe two wankers charging the club expenses to come over here to do what ever they come and do(manly piss everyone off so save us some money and stay on you side of the pondyou pairof parsites)the real fans dont want or need you over here, sell the club to someone who would run the club correctly. Not just spending large amounts of money but puttting the club back on a solid footing. build a new stadium and see the club evolve into the club it should be.

I would prefer a big strong player to help hold the ball up and give us more of a threat on set pieces. Somebody like Carlton Cole or John Carew.

yes a new toshack

Super stuff Gerry.

Maybe pennamts oul fella is in business with JT`s oul man.Heard he`s into the colombian Talcon Powder too.

Anyway,we do really have to pick up our performances and although gutted the game is off it will give us the chance to get injured players fit for stoke next week.I`m not overlooking Reading wednesday but we should be taking care of them no question.

Lucas is no doubt the most underated player around.He`ll never move mountains on the pitch (yet) but he gets on with the job in hand.There`s a tag on him that will never be brushed off unless he starts scoring a few goals because lets be honest most of the people who watch footy think a players not worth fuck all if he dosen`t score.They are the same idiots who swallow every line of garbage the media spew.
If people actually studied a game of football they`d appreciate a player like Lucas.
His progress has been one of the very few pluses in our season so far.

As i write this Forrest have gone 3 up away to WBA.They are looking good to make a return to the top flight although there`s still a bit to go.Every time i hear or see Notts forrest it reminds me of a quote Shanks said about their fans after they won the European cup and they couldn`t fill their ground.

“The people of Nottingham don`t deserve football.It should be bloody taken of themmmmm”

Don`t turn on ESPN classic at 10.55.

It was officially the first day i felt physically sick after watching the reds.

1988 FAcup Final.Need i say any more.

I personally would like us to take a punt on Jermaine Beckford. The way he terrorised the Mancs last Sunday reminded me of a certain 4-1 last March when Torres ran their back four ragged. If the rumours are to be believed he has put in a transfer request and is available for about £2million and he knows where the goal is. He is able to play the Torres role allowing Nando to rest occasionally and if it doesn’t work out I am sure we it would only cost us wages as we would recoup our money in the summer.

Good post Gerry,
i heard that Dossena never nearly made it to Napoli as he was in John Lennon airport it was announced that all flights for italy on runway 4 had been cancelled for 3 day’s because of the snow on it any way 30,000 liverpool fans turned up and cleared it up.
YNWA.

Ha ha Red,He could probably run to Italy now pal the ocean is most probably frozen over.

Dosser £4.5

Voronin £1.5

Babel £10 ??

Possible 15 million coming in there.Rafa is nothing but a money making machine for those two twats.

Firstly thanks for the links last blog FS. I can just see you twisted in the main stant right now. Being stoned is grand but …. you know yourself. God it’s great to see a liverpool side playing with confidence, albeit 20 something years ago. I got so used to that style, focus and panache. We didn’t win everything always but you knew before the season started we’d have a big shout, we were the top dogs and it was bloody great.

One of the things with the club of old was constantly re-invigorating itself. New faces every season. I know FS and others have talked about this.
Just look at how the mighty have fallen. Selling players to pay the interest on the “club’s Debt”, which of course has been inflicted on us by the american bloodsucker-owners, (cheers Parry & Co).
In saying that I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing that these 4 guys go. It’s the energetics of a squad. None of them could be happy or actually contributing to any positive vibration. Voronin, Deegan, Dosser don’t get any game time and Babel is just a wuss as far as Liverpool is concerned. I’m tired of him. Go be a star baby, somewhere else. Give me one/two guys who are really up for it and up to it, shit, just one would do.
Now the black hole in rafa’s transfer kitty is something altogether else. Muppets.

Cheers for the blog Gerry,

are you sure about the snickers bar being added to the war chest? According to my source the two muppets will keep that for their travel expenses.

My New Year wish is whatever the result, Rafa will stay on. If he departs, our beloved Liverpool can only sink deeper and there will be a long period before, hopefully, we can be a team to be reckon with again

Buying players in the summer will be difficult because the world cup will hold up signings and player values go through the roof.Getting some business done now makes sense.

My New Year’s wish is that Rafa Benitez stays the duration of his new 5 year contract. If he is forced out, we’ll be truly fucked!!
Coming over to Liverpool on the 28th for the Bolton match, weather permitting, with four friends, their first time in Liverpool.
During my four days in the city, hope to bump into Mr Parry, so that we would give him a proper beating for bringing the club on its knees when he sold it to these fuckers.
The problem with you English, scousers, is that you are so cold blooded sometimes. If Mr Perry was in Malta or Italy, (us with our Latin temperament )he would be hanged along with Mr Hicks and Mr Gillette, three of them in the City Centre, for all the suffering he heaped on Liverpool supporters worldwide during his tenure as Chief Executive!!

I have just listened to the biggest tosser to be employed by sky, paul mearson the man is a fucking enigma ?, he has just said that at the begining of the season he thought Burnley would go down, then looked around at his contemporaries as if he was fuckin confusus, he has to be the 8th wonder of the world cos how he learned to play football (and he was good) with a brain like a fuckin dinosaur is beyond comprehension.
Burgerbrain we might buy a couple of cricketer’s then.
YNWA.

Parry was/is a genius at making money… As chief bean counter for the FA, he become the man most responsible for the game as it is right now. And he almost singlehandidly invented the Premiership and made it possible for the game to become the world wide entertainment industry that it is today.

So don’t think the lad is completely thick. But as a CEO he had his priorities completely back to front and was far more interested in making money than pursuing success on the pitch… a very stupid mistake. And it was his penny pinching that seen us fall behind by not taking full advantage of our “Brand name.”

He can also be blamed for the loss of atmosphere at the ground as his ticket “inicitives” brought in more and more tourists and kept locals away. And thank god, he didn’t get the go ahead with his ground plans, or we would have long moved into a souless carboard box of a stadium, of the cheapest kind.

What Scousers was supposed to do beyond forming Reclaim The Kop, forcing ticket allocations to locals, forcing the search for investment, and forcibly stopping the building of “The Parry Bowl” is beyond me. But if you think you can do something in hindsight Maltese Red, feel free to try.

No one hurts more at what is happening than the local people. But tell me what more are we supposed to do? We have got to the point now, of forcibly stopping the owners from entering the stadium that they legally own. And when you hear the people calling for Rafa’s head, it’s not Scouse voices you hear repeating the media driven shite on the phone ins.

The fact is, 99.99% of us are still firmly behind Rafa and know exactly how bad the situation is at the club. Good people in Liverpool are doing all they can to stop this pair of bastards from destroying our club, but it isn’t easy and it’s certainly not helped by people from all over the world attaching themselves to the club and then aiding our gutter press in their anti-LFC/Rafa agenda/witch hunt.

In fact, the few locals I know who now want Rafa out only think this because they think the man’s job of managing LFC has already been made impossible for Rafa because of this outside interference. And some would even welcome a return to the 2nd division just to clear out all the tourists that have taken over Anfield.

I don’t agree meself… I have no problem with out of town or out of country support. I know local support isn’t enough in these times to bring in the sort of revenue we need to compete. I know the game is now a global entertainment industry. I know there’s great LFC fans all over the world. I know how much the club means to a great many people in all corners of the world. But don’t dare tell me this is cold blooded…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNboU_PbZMY

I’m sick of posting that link, but that – as the BBC reporter says – is where and how it all started. And it’s not us who have run down the club.

And saying so, is certainly no Scouse xenophobia on my part. Who goes on the pro Spanish manager rallies? Who is it who has to fight to keep him in his job and shout down the knobheads who continually call for his head?

The facts are Rafa Benitez is loved and appreciated in Liverpool. We know what he has done on our behalf. People ask why he even stays under such circumstances when he could walk into practically any top job he wanted. Well, all I can go on is what the man has said himself…
He loves the club, he loves the fans, he loves the city.

We know, since arriving at Anfield, the man has restored us as one of the giants of European football. We are grateful for the success he has brought back to us, despite being hamstrung by the foriegn con men and their American style leveraged buy out. We know he has built a great squad/team on buttons. We know he has posted record profits each and every season he has been here. We know he has been given less and less to spend each season… absolutely nothing in the last two windows, and an average of 12 million 700,000 pounds each season since the Yanks took over.

If anything, the only real thing we can be accused of is being too bloody friendly and welcoming. We should have held up the sale to the Yanks by forcing them to be investigated under the right and responsible ownership rules. But, as you will see on your trip, you will be made quite welcome at Anfield. And I hope you and your friends have a great time. But if you want to do something to help the club and the people who are fighting it’s cause you can join SOS and put forward your suggestions as a paid up, overseas member.

But I’d advise you not to be blaming the locals for the current situation at the club. Some will be a lot more idignant than me.

PS… I’m gutted the match is postponed. And believe it or not, it’s one of the occasions BM is right…

Many more postponed games, or replays in cup competions, added to a possible run in the Europa League, will mean the season running on much longer than normal.

Which will in turn, mean there being very little gap between the end of the season and the World Cup.

The problems that will bring our players through fatigue and increased chance of injury will be woeful, but it won’t help Rafa in trying to spend that snickers bar as BM is right… prices will go through the roof as they always do.

Mind you, if we sell Babel to Birmingham now, the owners will add that, and any other sales now and in the summer, to the usual 20 odd million, like they did with the Keane and Alonso money, and…. opps.

Silly me.

Oh and after reading the blog, this is what I intended to say…
The game was called off on the request of Liverpool City Council and Merseyside Police. The club announced it as early as possible to stop people from paying for a wasted journey, i.e. GalwayRed, etc, paying for flights, ferrys, hotels, etc.

It was the first Premiership game to be called off, and the flak they recieved in the media for it, and are still getting for it, was/is quite disgusting – despite all but 2 prem games since being called off and some fans making wasted journeys that could have been avoided.

It has actually gone as far as accusing Rafa of doing this delibrately/cheating because he wants time for players to recover from injury – despite the fact that Johnson is the only senior pro that’s missing through injury now and Masch is banned. And that’s probably the fullest squad we’ve had all season.

Honestly lads, I know most of you do, but I wish all of you knew just how difficult these bastards are making it for Rafa to do his job.

Oh and Redman #17…
He’s got a new job and seems he’s finally found his level…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6946109/Binman-sidelined-for-picking-up-too-much-rubbish.html

FS do you know the bin man as the council has not fojjowed the correct protocol for handing a disciplinary meeting and would be deemed unfair at a tribunal.

fs that should be followed and not (fojjowed)sorry

That’s a gas that FS,
dont know if you saw Matt le tosser on the same programme but he was asked by Jeff Stelling “how come Rafa turned down £9mil for Ryan Babel” he replied “Dont know Jeff, he paid £11mil for him so he would be losing erm,erm oh yeah £2mil so thats probably the case”, i love the muppet show mate, Paul Jewell was the only one who made a bit of sense out of it all “He did’nt live up to his price tag on numerous occaisions just constantly running into blind alley’s and if you dont start well for your new club especially big clubs like manc utd,arse,chelsea and Liverpool its gonna get very hard for you.
Mearson and Le Tosser looked at him as though he was speaking ethiopian.
YNWA.

Red mate, I honestly just laugh at the dozey bastards most of the time. But the last few days have been bang out of order… I know it’s crap for lads like Galway who’ve put out money. But the fact is, the club was told to pull it off by the Council and the Police.

But the media have been bouncing all over us for it – nevermind that we done it early and tried to save people wasting time and money and other clubs left it to the last minute and cost their fans both.

That’s why I just got a cob on… the last couple of days, all I’ve heard on the radio is fellas phoning in saying things like… “I’m from Finland. We have no problem with a bit of snow. Why are Liverpool? It’s a disgrace”

Some German fella was on Talk Shite, saying how awful it was and how he would like his expenses back off the club…

It’s just so wrong on so many levels…
They decide to travel. That’s their choice. LFC don’t force them.

Liverpool isn’t fucking Finland or Norway. It’s not geared up for this sort of weather what we see about every 30 years. And neither should it be… the council are skint enough, and have bigger priorities than keeping it safe for Norwegians.

The club are skint… should proper fans be demanding travel expenses back from the club?

The club is leathered enough in the media. Why are proper “Supporters” helping them stick the knife in, especially when all the club has done is the right thing.

And I could go on but I’ll leave it at that because I’m going to watch Birmingham stuff the Mancs with a bit of luck… See that shite team the Mancs have got out?

Berbatov, couldn’t even get on the bench… Any stick for the Tramp. HA! Plonkies might fly.

ESPN has just held the usual Tramp’s arse kissing session. But squad depth… squad depth me arse. The one man team Rooney doesn’t perform or gets injured and they will be lucky to qualify for the Europa next season.

And see our small neighbours only dropped a point because of a last minute goal by the mighty Arse at the Emirates…

There’s a long way to go mate. Fucked if I’m throwing the towel in on anything just yet.

That fuckin Everton-Arse game was terrific, given the conditions.
What a pity they couldn’t hold on. Bit daft and naieve of them to go for a 3rd goal that late in the game, when half of them were completely knackered… but holding them to apoint was a decent result for us.

Now come on the Brums.
They are playing a deadly game of defending across the edge of their box, so I can’t see them holding out for the 90 to be honest, but Hart just kept them in it with a save and the pitch looks to be in shite condition, so maybe…

………………..

I loved one of the headline tags this morning…
misprinted the Vorronin sale price as “18 million” instead of 1.8 million…
I nearly wet meself!

Well sadly after 25 minutes, it’s the same auld shite…
Birmingham sitting back letting the Mancs come at them, letting an old age pensioner run the midfield, and despite the Mancs having a pretty crap defence and woeful goalie on the pitch, not having a single shot at goal.

Oh and the ref hasn’t given them a single decision, except when he had to cos the lines man waved for off side.

Sounds like sour grapes, and it is cos I’m fuckin sick of it happening week in week out – despite Rafa showing them all how to beat them…. have a fucking go, press them back, hit them hard and fast.

Fuck it. It’s about 20 below or something out there, but I’m taking me dog for a walk… it’s got to be more pleasurable than watching this fucking suicide.

theredman, (#24)
interesting how only one of those 3 fellas has actually coached sucessfully, innit?

FUCKING YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gerrin Birmingham. Now keep at them.

… though they’ll probably drop back again now.

Oooh, as I type, Evra gets a last minute tackle to prevent a breakaway… lucky fucker, as the tackle almost played jerome in.

… I can actually see a few Mancs losing their nut and getting cards though, which is all good.

Anybody notice that the free kick ManU got after 30 minutes Scholes jumped over the tackle from McFadden without a word being mentioned. Yet when Ngog jumped over a two footed lunch he was diving.

When are these managers going to learn… them bastards where there for the taking and McCleish just admitted it…
We gave them to much respect. The name Manchester United sometimes makes you do that.

Silly bastard. If they’d have pushed from the off, the porkie own goal wouldn’t have mattered. They’d have done them.

Mind you, I think the Tramp was rewarded for religious reasons… judging from the dreadlocks hanging out of he’s nose.

Response to #11

Dossena 4.5 million – 7million = -2.5
Voroning 1.5 – free = +1.5
Babel 10 million – 11.5 = -1.5

Rafa is still in the hole 2.5 million for these three. He’s losing the club money.

Jammyaus

This season is such a rollercoaster i`d rule out nothing yet.

Manc were there for the taking too.The Blushite nearly pulled it off too.

I`m tellin ya,if we can put a little run together we could get ourselves closer to the pack come March then,well lets see how the next six weeks go aand we`ll take it from there.

Good results all round today no doubt we would have taken those scorelines if offered beforehand.

Thank god we`ve reading wednesday (with gods help),i`d go mad if i`d to wait another week for a game.

What about dickhead Dunphy tonight FS?

“I love manchester united,i love the club & everything it stands for”

Nothing like good balanced analysis.

Oh while we`re on Manc ass kissing,

I stand corrected but did i just hear Mc Leish say..

“I glad we finally got something from the boss(tramp)”

What the fuck??

Oh ya,

Eh “Fletcher should never have been sent off,there should be some kind of sin bin system for him”

I`m sure the Premier Leagur will sort something out for ye.

This is boardering on Franco treatment.

Emerging News:

ANGRY Liverpool fans last night called for club director Tom Hicks Jnr to resign after the American allegedly called a supporter “f*** face”.

In a message to concerned fan Steve Horner, an email from the Hicks Holding Ltd account of Hicks Jnr, son of the Anfield club’s co-owner Tom Hicks, first called Horner an “idiot” after he had sent an article claiming cash from player sales was being used to pay off the club’s £250million debts.

But when Horner again emailed Hicks Jr’s address, a reply fumed: “Blow me f*** face. Go to hell. I’m sick of you.”

The emails, seen and verified as being from Hicks Holdings by the Sunday Sport, also copied in Ian Ayres, the club’s commercial director, and Philip Nash, Liverpool’s finance director.

Horner emailed Hicks Jnr, along with Hicks Snr and co-owner George Gillett, with an article featuring concerns over Liverpool’s mounting debts and ability to compete in the transfer market.

And the foul-mouthed response from the account of a senior member of Liverpool’s board has sparked outrage among the Kop faithful with many furious fans posting on popular internet messageboards.

Jon Jones from Liverpool, a Kop season ticket holder of 25 years, fumed: “This is no way to a treat a Liverpool fan. Fans have every right to be questioning the people in power at the club as they have not delivered on their promises over a new stadium. They have also dragged the club into £250million of debt and we don’t seem to be competing in the transfer market.

“Tom Hicks Jnr is in a privileged position at the club. If he has abused that power I for one want to see him step down.”

Hicks Jnr has clashed with Liverpool fans in the past. In February 2008 he made an ill-advised visit to an Anfield pub after a game and was confronted by supporters.

Fans have launched a campaign to oust owners Hicks Snr and Gillett from the club, led by supporters’ union Spirit of Shankly who have vowed to stop the Americans attending Anfield for future games.

Last night, nobody at Liverpool FC was available for comment.

Now here is a link to an article about this on the Well red site, which contains an actual screen capture of the actual email.
http://robbohuyton.blogspot.com/2010/01/fans-outrage-at-liverpool-fc-directors.html

And here is a link to the Telegraph article about the incident (which conveniently omits the “fuck face” reference from its “quote”.
MediaBias? nonsense!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/6958326/Liverpool-director-Tom-Hicks-Jnr-sends-fan-abusive-email.html

Gerry, as always your sense of humour finds me a way to keep going. Thanks a zillion. I watched the Arsenal and MUFC games and was struck at their defensive frailties and lack of creativity. Their performances totally mirrored ours throughout this season. It’s a really difficult season to play in the PL! No one is superior, don’t be fooled. Lucas IS NOT our scapegoat, just one of our finest this season. It seems that “only”. Rafa and his home country see the lad’s value. He recently (this week) won (what I think is) the player of the year award – or at least one of them. He, together with Carra, Reina and Torres consistently wear the red shirt with pride. Give him a break please. Lucas NEVER makes an excuse, NEVER puts his head down and ALWAYS plays where the gaffer assigns him. Isn’t that what being a Kopite is all about? [On transfers] Maxi Rodriguez is top class; the kind of player regular funding would have given us annually! Am not sad to see the Doss and Voro leave, but am eternally happy for those two memorable goals from the former. All in all, I still (unapologetically) believe. I believe in my coach, the strength of my beloved Reds, collective Kop belief, defeating the Spurs; and in New Year miracles, such as the OUSTER of Messrs G & H from “owning” my club! Siempre es posible! YN(Ever)WA(Ever)!

Typical!!!

Lighten up guys, whatever else we may lose let’s make sure we don’t lose our sense of humour. Outside of our football, it was another thing that we used to be famous for and I try to do my little bit in the blogs to keep it alive.
So here’s a little something that might help you on your way.
http://www.picshag.com/pics/122009/why-men-shouldnt-write-advice-columns.jpg

HA HA Gerry nice one.
regarding the blog i also fancy Eider Gudjohnson as a player…if he is for sale he would be a great addition, he is a great competiter with bags o skill and scores goals. I never got to see the reading game….no one mentioned aqilani when he came on? …i really enjoyed the potential i seen with him and lucas even tho hes a bit loose at the mo, you can see he can read the game very well.

Had to laugh at comment 40 Gerry. I’d only just stopped laughing at comment 32
YNWA

Oh dear…

It seems when the Beatles wrote:
“you have to admit it’s getting better, its getting better all the time. It couldn’t get much worse.”

…they were quite wide of the mark…

Headline in the Guardian…
Rafael Benítez admits Liverpool could have to sell Fernando Torres

Rafael Benítez has admitted that he cannot guarantee he will be able to keep Fernando Torres at Liverpool if the club fail to finish in the top four of the Premier League this season.

The Liverpool manager said earlier in the campaign that Torres was “not for sale at any price” but has now acknowledged that key players could leave if he does not secure qualification for the Champions League. “Finishing in the top four is the key to keeping everyone together,” Benítez said.

Asked whether Liverpool, who have significant debts, would be able to resist a £100m offer from Manchester City for Torres, he said: “At the moment we have to do the best for the club – and the best for the club is trying to improve the squad.”

But when pressed for a second time on the matter, he replied: “We would have conversations if we had to decide about this.”

That appeared to be a reference to talks with the co-owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who loaded on to the club the £174m they borrowed for their takeover. A failure to qualify for the Champions League would have a damaging impact on Liverpool’s finances.

Ah well we could always sell 1 European cup to Everton, afterall it may save them a billion pounds. It would most likely stop people stealing the most valuable item from their trophy room, THE CARPET.

Is right Gerry, I was actually laughing before I got to that very good car advice. I think that Fuck Face letter is hilarious… of course it will be denied. But it clearly shows the state of affairs and “I’m sick of you” is probably the most truth to ever come from any of them.

I just woke up, done me ablutions, sat down with me cup of tea in front of this gizzmo, turned it on Talk Shite and logged in here…
Today’s subject, and I qoute…
“With the Premiere being so open this season, will the challengers – United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Tottenham and Villa…. possibly even Liverpool – be kicking themselves for dropping so many points?”

Does the Pope shit in the woods. Is a bear a catholic. Are Liverpool shite. Is Benitez a fat Spanish waiter…. You could set your clock by it. It’s absolutely see through. And they don’t give a hoot how idiotic it is as long as it fits the agenda. But if you don’t let it get to you, it’s funnier than a Custodians email.

As for Torres, I wouldn’t worry about that, well not just yet, anyway. For now I think it’s just Rafa being naughty again.

Good morning folks, dear Fat Scouser, I have a lot of respect for you having been reading your posts for a long time now. In fact, this would be my sixth time coming to Liverpool and I would love to meet you FS, if possible.
Like my hero, Rafa Benitez, I love the City and its people, you are so warm and friendly. I work hard all year round to earn a little bit extra so that I could get my fix (at least once a year) – coming over to Liverpool.
I’m 43 years old, married with a daughter and settled in Malta but if I was younger and single, I would come over and live in Liverpool, honestly.
Maybe I was misunderstood in my earlier post, I didn’t mean to offend Scousers, in fact as my nickname says, I’m known as the Maltese scouser in Malta!!
But the news that came out today, one of the Hicks abusing a fan, confirms my anger and disgust at these people. Oh God, how I hate these Americans, and I hate much more those that brought this mess about.
So, if you happen to be in Liverpool from the 28th Jan to 2nd Feb, FS please let me know. It would be a pleasure meeting you.

Great Blog Gerry and I am really pissed off the Spurs game has been delayed. It might help us injury wise but I would have preferred us to have played the match to keep the momentum going, especially with other results going our way. Before this I was thinking to myself, two losses and two draws and we are right back in the race. I was thinking we will win our return fixtures and then the games against each other could make the other top three drop points than anything could happened against Spurs, City and Villa. Dropping points against Everton and B’Ham is just a bonus. Very interesting year this year. I see Pammyaus has joind the ranks of then CBC, lets just forget the 20 mill profit on Alonso then. The THicks Jnr comment is hysterical what a plonker a real chip of the old block.

Maltese Scouse, as I said in me next post, I am just sick and tired of hearing people from outside Liverpool aiding the media in their witch hunt on Rafa. Other than that, I don’t really want to go as I’ve explained me views on out of town/country support on many occasions. And I’m sure if you was to hear the constant whingeing against Rafa and the club on the phone ins, and even see/hear some people defending H&G you would feel the same.

If I was to move to Malta and suddenly start telling everybody how wrong they was running the place, I don’t think it would go down too well – and neither should it. But that’s just football today.

What really drives me mad, is if we hadn’t have invited the bloody yanks in – or any other foriegn investment – and just carried on the way we was, we’d be in a far better position.

Each year since arriving Rafa has earned record profits, add an extra bit of that to the 20 million we got each season under Moores and Rafa would have been able to add a few of his first targets instead of being reduced to rooting around the bargain bins of European football.

How maddening must it be for him to identify players and have to lose them when the club alerted other clubs to our interest and they just went in and outbid us…

There’s a few idiots on here who love to belittle Rafa by using Wenger as an example of a manager who doesn’t spend much money but brings success… well, the fact is, Walcott, Arshavin and Ramsey would have all been Liverpool players if our board, owners and CEO hadn’t ruined the deals Rafa had set up and allowed Wenger to steal the players for a few quid more.

Even at Man U and Chelsea there are players that would have been at LFC – Malouda, Vidic – if they had just went in and made reasonable offers immeadiately instead of treating the other clubs like complete fools and trying to haggle them down for a few quid.

It’s probably going to happen again… Wenger is already sniffing around Rafa’s two main targets now – Arda Turan and Maroune Chamakh, the Galatasary winger and the Bordeaux striker.

And even us mugs know we mainly need a winger and a second striker. Can you imagine how maddening it is for Rafa to keep finding these players only to lose them for what really amounts to nothing more than penny pinching in footballing terms.

It was enough to drive him out of Valencia, when they refused to pay 6 million euros for Drogba. And now we can’t even buy when selling players, and any money Rafa makes is used to pay off the debt they heaped upon the club – well, just the interest. And debt we wouldn’t have had if Moores had stayed, or even better… would have got past his childish fighting with Steve Morgan and brought another Scouser in as joint owner.

So as you can see this foriegn thing is a bit of a sore subject at the moment. Not with lads like yourself or anyone else in the blog. But, well put it this way…

For seasons now, I’ve been saying football is in danger of collapsing like a house of cards. Look at Pompey, and no one is immune from that situation… Man U are something like 740 million quid in debt and the interest on their loans is about 10% of that annually. And whether we like it or not… they are the biggest club in the world.

Have a look at what’s happening to them on the pitch…
Rooney has a bad game and they are bollacksed. Nevermind what the media say, if any team is a one man team it is them. They also have a manager who isn’t going to be able to keep it up much longer – and as much as I hate the horrible bastard, he is a great manager and will be irreplaceable. They also have Giggs, Scholes, Van Der Sar and Ferdinand who can’t go on much longer. (I didn’t even include Gary Neville as he’s finished). The younger players they brought in to replace them aren’t of the same standard and some of their better players, especially Vidic want away from the club.

In fact, I think the top 4 this season will be Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City and us… but not necessarily in that order. I think it’s Chelsea’s to lose, but still open.

And what is going to stop us from cashing in on all this… handing the bloody club over to two lying bastards who have only thing in mind… raping this club for every single penny they can.

And I understand that LFC can’t compete only on local resources. But at the end of the day mate, LFC is a Scouse thing, and at the moment we would have been better had we kept it that way.

The best thing for the club now, would be for Share Liverpool to come through and us fans to own it. But it’s never going to happen. And I know this is hindsight, but – for many many reasons – Morgan and Moores would have been ideal. And at least us fans – local and worldwide – would know that local ownership would not have had profit as their only aim.

And I’m not sorry if that has offended anyone, as in my book it’s not offensive and it’s certainly not intended to be – but LFC is a Liverpool/Scouse institution and would have been/would be better served remaining so. And if anyone can’t seeor understand what I’m saying well that’s not my fault.

In fact, I only wish we’d have been more cynical and unfriendly than them dour, miserable Mancs down the road and we might have never ended up in this mess.

Maltese Red, and anyone else who’s interested…
Here’s the email link to Tom Hick’s Jr….
[email protected].

To be honest, I’m sick to death of all this protests and campaigning. And I’m not stupid enough to think anything we can do will bother them in any way. But they won’t just go away and all we can do is keep annoying them and letting them know they are not wanted.

The email address comes from SOS, and they have asked people to email Hicks Jnr asking him to resign… but not to sink to his level and get obscene/abusive.

As I said earlier, I think it was funny that someone managed to get under the fat bastards skin. And I also think it’s about the only truth we’ve heard from anyone on their side. But I’m still going to email him asking him to resign… even if it’s only to block up his in tray and piss him off.

I’ve just cam across this little snippet.

http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/32367/Rafa_hints_at_duos_departure.aspx

now i may not be the the brighest light on the christmas tree, but can any of you lad’s tell me where and in which paragraph he hinted he would sell Gerrard and Torres, Like you say FS bend it to fit the agenda.
YNWA.

Thanks FS for the bastard’s email address, I’ve sent him an e-card as Forever Friends!!
I know what you mean about us foreigners and out of towners supporting Liverpool. But make no mistake about it… we do care and Liverpool FC is a large part of our lives, believe me.
Regards the SOS Supporters’ Union I am enrolling. I want to support these people who have the well being of Liverpool FC on top of their agenda.
As for January 28 to Feb 2, I still want to meet you if it’s not a problem for you FS.
God bless and keep healthy.

Redman, maybe Rafa is taking a jab at the owners with that interview, maybe they would release some dosh for this transfer window.
We all now know that Rafa is a very wise man and a chief negotiator… look how he managed to convince them to hand him a 5-year contract!

Lads, remember when Rafa pulled his repetitive “I’m just concentrating on coaching my team” stunt in the press conference?

Everyone, including all of us, asked “what the fuck was all that about?”

It was only later, that we all learned what was going on… with the Yanks having essentially told him to fuck off and be a good little boy… and even later discovering that they’d talked to Klinssman behind his back.

So maybe, just maybe these hints about our top players being sold shouldn’t be ignored and should be seen as indicative of a very large problem backstage!

…And not to get all conspiratorial, but if the players have got wind of such a thing, would it not go some way to explaining the body language of poor performance?

Sometimes we need to look beyond the obvious in these things… All might not be as it seems.

For some additional hinidsight context, here’s a little quote from Brian Reade’s 43 Years With The Same Bird… (page 284)

“Not only was he [Benitez] carrying off the Herculean task of coaxing life out of some of the men who had gone AWOL under Houllier, but it was clear from Day One that the odds had been stacked against him. As he would later confide to a journalist friend, had he known the mess he was walking into, he’d have thought twice about going through the door.”

“He was promised a fortune to bring in the 3 world-class players that would keep Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard happy, but never received it – mainly because the settlements with Houllier and his backroom staff had been vastly over-generous considering how long was left on their contracts (a figure bandied about was 11 million pounds, but a director later told me it was even higher than that)…”

Now, few people knew that at the time. He goes onto to talk about Owen’s agent hassling him into a big money move, the club having allowed his contract to slide into his final year with a Bosman looming, and with no new players Owen having “itchy feet” to “play on a bigger stage.”
All of which led to Owen wanting away.

These are all details we know NOW, but had only snippets of at the time…
…just like with the whole DIC/G&H fiasco of the club’s purchase (we still don’t know the whole truth about this)…
… and just like with the Klinsman affair!

So with that in mind, I suggest you watch Rafa closely in these press conferences, coz there’s often more to them than meets the eye.

Aitch,
something very strange is going on bordering on paranormal, i mean one thing i just could not get my head round was denying Rafa Gareth Barry and then they buy him Robbie Keane??, so it leaves me wondering if he has the power to say who he wants and when, and in the end we all know the outcome, we dont get Barry and Xabi fuck’s off cos we tried to (John Lennon quote, strange day’s indeed).
YNWA.

Red,I think Parry wanted Keane before Barry for commercial reasons.Shirt sales.Keane would sell more shirts than Barry would.

It was a total lack of respect to Rafa and ultimately sealed his fate.

Aitch,just thinking if there were bigger problems backstage then surely Rafa would know something?

One has to ask himself,or more importantly Rafa if the “Financial meltdown” is looming why would a manager of Rafa`s magnitude stick around and put up with that crap?

We all know he`s stubborn and is determined to succeed but the man has to get a fair crack at the whip when doing his job.

I don`t know what to make of Rafa`s comments i hope FS is right and he`s just playing with the media or is there more.And if there is does Rafa know.

I certainly don`t.

I don’t even think he was attempting to be sly, he has basically told it how it is, if all our club can afford is a 1.5 million loan, then things are grim.
.
Personally I think if we had of already passed that magical no relegation number of 40 points, the owners would have sold Nando the window.
.
However with his niggling injuries it has held up their selling plans. SG will get offers but I don’t think he’ll go anywhere.
.
They can basically sell who they want but selling SG is like selling our soul. I can’t really see any other way around fixing the debt, starting a stadium, buying new players, getting the owners a new Island, plane, limo, travel expenses, tax write offs, incidentals.
.
As long as they don’t sell the colour of our shirts.

Most perculiar Momma.

Aitch most people understand that Rafa uses the press to his own ends. I used to go mad when people condemned him for “Doing our laundry in public. It’s not the Liverpool way.”

Made me laugh that, Shankly used the press something rotten, throwing wobbler after wobbler and threatening to walk at least every other week if he didn’t get what he wanted.

And you know how much I bang on about people not taking enough notice of what’s going on behind the scenes. But read that interview again… Rafa doesn’t once say they can go. The paper as usual makes that leap. It went from goal.com, to a fans site, to the national press.

Now don’t get that wrong… the yanks would pull any stunt at all to make more money. Using money from the sale of Torres and Gerrard to bring down the debt and get a token spade in the ground, would mean they could sell at their over inflated value and walk with a minimum of debt to be paid from the sale price.

But that’s not going to happen… well, not just yet anway. But having said that, debt reduction will be their main concern and don’t expect Rafa to be getting any money no matter what he brings in.

MS, the next game I will be going to is probably Unirea away. Who knows, I might get to one or two before, and if I’m in Liverpool when you are there, I’d be more than happy to meet you and have a few pints before or after a match. But money’s a bit tight at the moment, like it is for most of us. So I doubt I’ll be doing anything more than the Bucharest trip for awhile.

OMG!!

http://i566.photobucket.com/albums/ss101/tiesto_3abooda1/Quoted_Pictures/shock.jpg

Well the story made the rounds, and you have to take into account the fact that all the games were postponed and the papers had fuck-all to write about…

I tend not to take too much notice of anything written int he Sat/Sun papers, as its almost always even more overhyped hype than during the week, but I found the timing of such a thing (supposedly bearing quotes from Rafa in some printings) rather interesting.

Why mention the possibility of selling stars in the summer… now?

One source (and I will say it was a dubious one) (and I can’t find the bloody link now, for you to see for yourselves) actually had rafa quoted as saying somethign to the effect of …
“if we are offered 100 million for Torres, the owners will be tempted given the financial situation”
(… not a direct quote, but as near as I can remember the words to that effect…)

So as far as Gaz’s faith int hem not selling SG because he is the “heart and soul” of the team… I hear you brother, but I wouldn’t put doing just that, past people who think, “Blow me f*** face. Go to hell. I’m sick of you.”

As for SG’s loyalty… given his flirtation with Chelsea, I reckon if he senses us slipping out of “the top 4″ he’ll be off to Inter or Barca or somewhere in a fuckin heartbeat.

And from the Owners point of view, 100 mill for Torres and 60-100 for SG would balance their books tomorrow. I’m not suggesting eithe rwould WANT to go, but their hands can be forced, and player loyalty only goes so far when they have to think about their own careers and “brand”.

I agree gaz that Rafa told it like it is and usually does, (and yet some fans are still suggesting he’s doing lousy business and should go buy players who’s prices are upwards of 8 million) but what I am suggesting is that there is much more to it.
There always is and always has been and its not until you read a book a few years later that you realize, “holy shit, I didn’t know that!”

…and here’s another little paragraph from 43 Years.. that follows the one I quoted above in #53…

“The promised new investment at Anfield looked nowhere near materializing and Benitez was told he couldn’t recruit any of his old Valencia players due to a contractual dispute with the club. This might have made some men blame a wife unable to shop in the Liverpool rain as an excuse to scuttle back to Spain, especially when many critics demanded to know why his revolution wasn’t complete by the end of August. Insted Benitez declared he was here for the long haul, took the stick and got on with the job.”

Remember THAT when Rafa is being doubted, or his head is being called for.

I reiterate… thing may be what they seem… but they are not as they appear!

Gerry that cap[tion should read:
“Come on you wimpy bastard, you fuck like Ferguson. Give it to me hard.”
…followed by…
“I’m next.”

javascript:;

fooked up there ha i`m trying to post an image of my own but i might as well explain it.

Its a manc shirt with the logo of “Bulmers Irish Cider” and the companys catchphrase underneath..”Nothing added but time”

Nicked this from a comment on the echo site, it could be set up a bit neater but the info is good:

“Players bought and sold since the YANKS took over. (from LFChistiory website)

Bought

Lucas Leiva
£5,000,000
Krisztián Németh
£800,000
Mikel San José Domínguez
£270,000
Sebastian Leto
£1,800,000
Fernando Torres
£20,200,000
Andriy Voronin
Free*
Yossi Benayoun
£5,000,000
Ryan Babel
£11,500,000
Charles Itandje
£1,500,000
Emiliano Insúa
£1,300,000*
Martin Skrtel
£6,500,000
Javier Mascherano
£18,600,000*
Philipp Degen
Free*
Andrea Dossena
£7,000,000
Diego Cavalieri
£3,500,000
David N’Gog
£1,500,000
Robbie Keane
£19,000,000
Albert Riera
£8,000,000
Glen Johnson
£17,500,000
Alberto Aquilani
£17,100,000*
Sotirios Kyrgiakos
£2,000,000
Daniel Ayala
£160,000

Total £ 148,230,000
Sold

Florent S.-Pongolle
£2,700,000
Danny O’ Donnell
£100,000
Boudewijn Zenden
Free*
Jerzy Dudek
Free*
Robbie Fowler
Free*
Luis Garcia
£4,000,000
Djibril Cissé
£6,000,000
Craig Bellamy
£7,500,000
Mark Gonzalez
£3,500,000
Gabriel Paletta
£1,200,000*
Chris Kirkland
£3,500,000*
James Smith
Free
Mohamed Sissoko
£8,200,000
Lee Peltier
Free*
John Arne Riise
£4,000,000
Harry Kewell
Free
Anthony Le Tallec
£1,200,000
Peter Crouch
£11,000,000*
Danny Guthrie
£2,250,000
Scott Carson
£3,250,000*
Steve Finnan
£1,000,000
Robbie Keane
£16,000,000*
Jack Hobbs
£800,000
Paul Anderson
£250,000
Astrit Ajdarevic
Free
Sebastian Leto
£3,000,000
Jermaine Pennant
Free*
Miki Roque
Free
Álvaro Arbeloa
£3,500,000
Xabi Alonso
£30,000,000
Andrea Dossena
£4,400,000

Voronin £1,800,000

Total £ 122, 650,000
So the yanks have given Rafa just £25,580,000. No where near enough to compete with the likes of Chelsea, arsenal, skum and city. YANKS OUT NOW”

Actually can we STOP the misinformation please?

The Yanks have not given Rafa any money at all.

Any money Rafa has had to deal with has come from The Royal Bank of Scotland… not the Yanks… they’ve merely been middle-men.

The Yanks have yet to invest a dime of their own money in LFC, and in fact have misappropriated large sums of money “unaccounted for” on the balance sheet since their arrival!

Does the plot thicken???

http://www.clickliverpool.com/sport/liverpool-fc/127547-ryan-babel-tells-liverpool-fc-owners,-we-need-money-for-this-club.html

Ryan Babel has lifted the lid on Liverpool’s need to strengthen in the January transfer window by publicly stating, “we need money”. The 23-year-old winger made the announcement during an impromptu Q&A session with Reds fans on social networking website Twitter late last night.
When asked by one supporter what his views were on owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, Babel replied: “We need money for the club!”

Now call me paranoid… but is there more to this than meets the eye (especially in light of Rafa’s supposed recent comments)???

Are the players getting their paychecks?

We’ve had the Hicks insult, which came in response to an email regarding finances for transfers. Then Rafa suggestnig our big-boys could be sold. Now Babel’s statement… all in the space of 48 hours.

I’m growing increasingly uneasy over the idea that there might very well be “something” going on that we are not aware of.

Well I was feeling a bit depressed about our current situation but I’ve just watched the movie The Road and suddenly I feel better again!
A great Oscar-worthy performance by Viggo Mortensen but Christ, what a dark and depressing movie.

nice one gerry!

i reckon gudjohnsen would be ideal and i’d certainly feel a lot more confident about our chances with him, or a striker with his experience and pedigree in the squad. another forward option please ya fat, greedy bastards!

i don’t know if the team looks like it lacks heart, i reckon its more that the team lacks confidence, composure, daring, audaciousness…. basically a complest loss of self-esteem. stevie g is playing like he’s self-aware and under pressure, whereas he used to look in a footballing world of his own. “the zone” i suppose its called. none of our players are in it. they’re all thinking “oh fuck oh fuck mustn’t make a mistake, mustn’t try anything risky, play the simple ball, play the simple ball”. resulting in a team with no invention and no penetration. except torres only yossi attacks defenders on a regular basis. its great when he comes on because the game changes and suddenly we’ve got something happening. the defense is hoofing the ball under no pressure, whereas we used to take time on the ball, move it around, link seamlessly around the pitch, dominating pretty much everyone. its not calm back there.

i’m basically saying that i reckon the team’s got heart, but no confidence. the solution – win 3 or 4 backs on the trot, get back in contention, get our tails up, attack with the confidence of a watertight defense… an’ that. we’ll be fine when that happens… in my opinion.

Aitch, I wouldn’t pay to much heed to Ryan Babel, no doubt it’s an orchestrated outburst to remind everyone he wants first team football somewhere else. He’s spent the best part of two seasons whining about not getting first team football, while still portraying his I done absolutely nothing and I’m fresh out of ideas persona.
.
Ryan is probably hoping the owner chuck a wammy and tell Purslow the throw him out of the club.
.
Lets face it lads without even spending a cent, we are still the team that finished 2nd last year, now if only Babel would get of his arse why would we need to spend money.
.
And before I get jumped, I am not supporting the owners, I telling Babel why spend money if he could actually make up a brand new player.
.
The main reason we are where we are this season is because of injuries. Babel get of your arse.

Whatever points the other teams are dropping mean fook all if we continue to put on half-hearted & uninspired displays fer all to see . . .

Thanks Gerry fer saying wot many of us are feeling. Fooking fed up with the spineless performances right now.

Maybe the only way to get the Yanks out is to give them a bit of what those Angolan rebels gave the Togo team?

The only way to get the Yanks out is to boycott the games, and that just isn’t going to happen, so we’re stuck with them for as they, “the long haul.”
.
So the only thing that’s going to make Red Men into superhuman footballers is our support of the team on game days.

Aitch, slow down there lad… your sounding like Miss Marples. There’s no conspiracy theory. There’s no one on the grassy knoll. It’s not anything new. It’s exactly the same as it was, and has been, since they took over.

The only difference is, there is no pretence anymore…. They have been told to stay away from Anfield. They have told us to fuck off.

There’s nothing new, the gloves are just off. And though the cards aren’t on the table, they never are with kunts like this, what’s happening is transparent.

There’s no need to think players are getting paid and so on. The yanks are a lot of things, but they aren’t stupid…. the Weetabix business plan that Tom Hicks let slip when he first took over is still the model…
Buy the company for fuck all. Heap the debt incrued onto the company. Let every fucker who pays for the product, buy the company for him.

And it’s still business as usual… “Success doesn’t necesarilly mean success on the playing field.”

He knows he’s got the brand loyalty from millions of us mugs. Like Gaz just said the only way to hit them is in the pocket through boycotts. The best one being, a match boycott. But it’s never going to happen. Tourists will come to Anfield no matter what, and they will also buy official merchandise no matter what.

I’ve been telling you for months about what is happening on the Kop… locals are being broke apart and tickets are being sold through tour package companies. This helps stop any real protests, and flags are now being inspected on the way in… anything against the owners are being confiscated and not given back to the owners even though this is illegal. And it will only get worse.

But at the moment, the situation is… they are going to use every possible penny to pay off the debt and in the meantime try to get it look as if work has started on the stadium.

That way they will maximise profits when they do fuck off. So, madly enough, it’s probably best that they succeed in the short term.

A truly woeful situation, but not the imminent collapse that is being hyped in some sections of the media.

PS… Blow me Fuck Face has resigned.

No sort of victory, but I suppose it looks good in the media. But it probably won’t even be from our side…
“Director Driven Out By Mob”
headlines will start soon enough.

I’ve already heard them saying he must have been tired of being bombarded and abused by the lad he who he sent the email too.

Can anyone help me out here…Monster has a 1-match ban still to serve. Does the replay against Reading count i.e. will he be elegible to play in our next PL game against Stoke?

A hollow victory FS but a victory nonetheless. Another muppet will come in in his place and status quo will be resumed.

I had a quick scan around the different forums today and you would be amazed (probably not though) how many LFC fans/people/supporters are saying, basically, ‘well I will to see what the owners do next (stadium, signings et al) before I make my mind up on them as custodians of LFC.’

What other evidence do these people need? The mind does boggle. As they say, if it looks like shite, smells like shite… well you know the rest.

Good photos from the TV website:

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/the-lfc-week-in-photos-6

The lads seem to be in good form.

Aitch,
i cant find any interview where Rafa has said the big boy’s could be sold, in the link i posted (50) he has said “we have to do what’s best for the club”, but he has never once in all his interviews since before christmas until present day that he could/would/might have to, sell Gerrard and Torres.
I’m with you mate that something is going on behind the scenes and indeed the plot does thicken and i think if we all knew what really was happening to our club, well it does’nt bare thinking about.
YNWA.

Redman of course there’s something going on mate… it’s been going on since them bastards walked through the door, draped in red and white, waving dollars over their heads, saying all the right things, and hiding the IOU’s down their socks.

Nothing’s changed mate. It always been this way. It’s just that it’s all out in the open now. Wrong way to put it with them lying bastards, but you know what I mean.

As for Tom Hicks jr, the fat bastard’s probably made up. Now he’ll have no pretence of doing any sort of work in his life, and mugs like us will keep playing for his cocaine, champagne and whoas.

But the fact is, we aren’t any more trouble than we was a week, a month, or a year ago. And you know what I’m like for banging on about the gravity of our situation. So, I’m not trying to say there’s no need to worry. There’s loads. But it isn’t something new.

Like Rafa said, the situation will be reviewed at the end of the season and then we’ll go from there.

PS… #74, as far as I know, the cup game won’t count towards the length of Masch’s ban. But I could be wrong. I’ll try to find out.

As far as I’m aware the F.A. Cup is included in bans – so I’d say Mascherano is out of wednesdays game

Oh yeah, and what I meant to say about Hicks jr…
It’s funny listening to Talk Shite and rooting through the papers.

One of the funniest things is, the amount of stupid Mancs who are using this to have a dig at LFC. If they had any sense, they’d realise they are in an even worse situation than us. And even though it gauls me to say it, the two sets of fans should be joining forces on this. It would be good to get Pompey fans involved too.

Stupid Mancs are laughing at us. The media are having a field day with it. All that’s really been said is how Hicks jr, was abused in the Sandon by Liverpool fans and that he obviously snapped at a lad who was constantly bombarding him with obscene emails.

It’s really quite ludicrous… all hands carrying on like school children while clubs are going to the wall, and the whole of the game is in danger from imploding.

I’ve been saying for a long time that the way in which football is run at the moment is unsustainable and that the whole thing could collapse like a house of cards….

I just heard Man U’s returns for last season on the radio. They reported a profit of 40 odd million (I think it was 49). But that will include the money from the sale of Ronaldo, and it won’t take in the 70 odd million they have to pay back to the banks as interest alone.

Well, I know nothing about business law, but surely there is some sort of way to attack both sets of owners legally. I don’t know about the other clubs, but H&G obviously lied when taking over the club. How many times did they assure us that it wouldn’t be a Glazier style takeover and there would be no debt put onto the club?

I suppose there’s no way to hold them to acount for lying verbally. But I’m sure they both signed papers with clauses and stipulations that they have thoroughly ignored and deliberately went against.

And I know if I buy something, say a car, on HP and don’t keep up the payments, it will get reclaimed from me and I will still owe any debt owed on it. Surely there’s something along the same lines concerning buying a business.

And yes. I know as long as they keep meeting the payments then the situation will just trundle along. But surely there’s some way of getting them legally.

FS,
they were right mate it was’nt a glazier style take-over, at least they gave the fuckin tramp money to spend, these cunt’s have given Rafa washer’s and shrapnel and there you go Rafa make sure you qualify for the C/L.
YNWA.

In saying that Red, it seems the cash has dried up in Castle Greyskull as well – 80 million for The Cunt but only Owen and Valencia in return. Also no sign of any January reinforcements, which they badly need

Redman, from what I’ve been told, Rodriguez is due to sign today. But they haven’t even gave Rafa the 1.5 million that will cost.

Apparently, the deal has been held up because they won’t pay, and Rafa he has been trying to get Rodriguez for nothing. And Atleti have been considering it because they are so skint they are just desperate to reduce the wage bill. And now it’s all down to Rodriguez recieving some sort of bonus (Loyalty clause, ha!) that’s written in his contract.

And, considering the situation, this is very small potatoes to moan about, but…
I bet you pound to a penny, if Rodriguez doesn’t become an instant success, hitting hat-tricks left right and center, the media will kick off about Rafa’s crap transfer deals, and our stupid fans will agree with them…

I’ve already seen a few reports about Rafa bringing in more Spaniards – even though Rodriguez is Argentinian. And I’ve heard fans agreeing with them on the radio, and saying that they want Silva and Villa!

Sadly none of this surprises me in the slightest nowadays.

FS,
i’m still waiting for snoogy fuckin do or whatever the fuck his name is, aparently he’s a melon farmer from Idaho.
Arthur,
they have bought some form of contingency plan to get them out the shit a Bond Scheme whatever the fuck that is, but fuck them, for them to be in the shit as well does’nt make us a better team.
YNWA.

FS, you certainly have more inside info than I do, but to suggest these things are transparent is crazy. They are far from it.

Just look at teh Maxi deal. 1.5 million.
I’ve read at least a half dozen different scenarios surrounding this transfer, from us paying 1.5 to Valencia, right through to the 1.5 actually being paid to Rodriguez wthout a penny going to Valencia.
You know full well such deals are never transparent, with down payments, later payments, playing clauses, bonus clauses, sell-on clauses.

We know the club is trying to do some deal to sell a stake in the club to a group of Arabs… but its been reported between 10% and 25% over the last few months and the figure between 100 and 120 million.

We know what they let us know. I’m not having a go at you mate, but things are far from transparent.

G&H were flying back and forth 1st class, hiring limos and staying in the best hotels, but we didn’t know LFC was paying for it all until they were forced to report it on thier financials after their first year.
As has been the case with lotsof other things we have discovered about the clubs goings on.

How long would it have taken for us to learn about Klinssman, had Rafa not done his little “dummy spitting” thing?

Hicks jnr may have resigned from the LFC board, and from the board of Kop Holdings, but he hasn’t resigned from the board of Hicks Lmtd, or whatever the fuck its called, which ultimately owns Kop Holdings, so ultimately his position of power hasn’t changed and he’s still pulling a paycheck from us… even if it may be through their circuitous, off-shore financial route.

It might not be a grassy knoll…
…ti might not be a smoking gun…
… but its an Indian Scout with his ear to the rail informing us, “8 horses come this way, 2 days ago, one walks with limp, four carry fat men.”

Aitch, I’m not having a go at you either. You’re missing what I’m saying…
1: Rodriguez, has nothing to do with Valencia. Again, not being a smart arse. It doesn’t matter. The point is… we’ve been told he’s ours for 1.5 million. The deal hasn’t gone through. The reason for this depends on whatever source you believe.

2: We are not in any imminnant danger of not meeting expenses such as players wages.

3: As I said, we’ll still be paying for fat arse Hicks jr to sniff cocaine and drink champagne with his whoas.

But at least the fat bastard won’t be doing it in the hospitality suites at Anfield anymore, or spewing up all over them, or trashing them, or abusing the working class Scouse girls that are paid a pittance to wait on the fat cunts.

H&G will not be making any more trips to Anfield in their private jets… they have been effectively barred from entering their own stadium. But of course they will still syphon money off in other ways.

And yes. They are still trying to sell a stake in the club. Nothing new there. If they do manage to do this, the money will be used to pay off the debts they put on the club and they will start work on the new stadium.

Why will they bother doing this? Because they can’t get the price they want for the club with the debt in the present stadium. So, appearing to have a stadium in construction and a club with no debt will ensure maximum profits when they do eventually sell.

And like I said, us Weetabix’s will be paying for all of that. And this is nothing new.

So when I say it’s transparent, I don’t mean all above board in an ethical way. I mean see through as a flim flam man. And it’s just business as usual.

And that’s why I say, unless there is some sort of legal miracle we can pull out of the hat, we would actually better off if they succeed in the short term… meaning, let them grab their filthy lucre and run.

Obviously there must be no way of ceasing the club back lawfully, or smarter people than both you and I would have already started proceedings. So, it’s now a case of how do we get shot of the bastards…
Well, like I’ve just said, that’s probably best done by actually succeeding in the short term, or enough to make the club actually attractive to decent owners – who will also want a profit on their investment.

It’s a terrible situation mate. I know that. Remember, you are talking to the fella who has warned of this since they first marched in and only packed it in because people would rather play fantasy football and didn’t want to hear the truth of the situation.

But the fact is, the situation hasn’t really changed. Maybe it’s just starting to sink in for some people. And I don’t mean you. In fact, you wouldn’t believe it, but like Lurgan said, there’s still some people that are sticking their head in the sand hoping it will go away, and, worse, some who are even backing the owners.

But at the end of the day, it’s no better or worse than it has been since they walked into Anfield… like I said, it’s just transparent now.
Even if there are some daft bastards who’d rather just blame it on rotation, zonal marking or bad man management.

Another thing about this whole fiasco Aitch… it has also made it transparently clear that English football can not go on in this manner. Something has to be done before the whole shebang collapses like the house of cards it is.

I’ve also been saying this for seasons, but the fact is, no one in here wanted to hear this. Well, it’s past that now.

We have the two biggest clubs in the country staring into the abyss, and another smaller one already tumbling down it.

Do you realise the Portsmouth “Owner” Shiek Somethingoranother, has never even been seen at Fratton Park… Yep. The mythical mystical Shiek has passed the right and proper persons inspection by the Premiership, bought the club, and has never been seen!

Unbelievable, eh. But very very true.

I’ve also banged on about clubs being run on money that doesn’t exist. The rules have to be changed… I hate to say it, but Plattinni is right. Clubs should not be allowed to run up these huge mountains of debt.

I don’t really know the solution, but there is already a blue print… The Bundes League.

Okay. Blueprint isn’t the right word. But we can learn lessons from the Germans… Clubs salary bills cannot go above 60% of the clubs earnings. Cheap tickets must be made available to local fans, but out of town/country fans can’t be gouged either. And away fans can’t be completely fucked up the arse the way we are… do you realise how much the other clubs charge us compared to the likes of Stoke, Sunderland etc?
Fulham and Chelsea being the worst culprits, doubling ticket prices when we play them.

Also transfers need to be changed, but not in a way that clubs like Chelsea and Man City can do absolutely anything they like in the market and so crushing others. The American draft system certainly isn’t the answer. But the smart arse bastards who earn fortunes for running the game have to come up with the answer not me… or there’ll eventually be no money for any of them.

Aitch, whats Valencia got to do with anything? I’m confused.

Alright LB. You’ve been keeping a low profile lately… can’t say I blame you though.

FFS, now even Peter Robinson is being dragged down to the Yanks level!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8450854.stm

Lurgie mate, when we get down to the level of politicians it’s time to throw the towe… oh hang on… we’re in bed with George Bush’s best mate!

I don’t think people realise what position we would be in now without rafa.Basically we have a manager who wants to compete in this league and is a winner by nature and who’s record for winning things is indisputable.The spine of our team is brilliant with Reina,Agger,Carragher,mascherano,Aqualini,gerrard,torres.The building blocks for success are there.I think if Benitez had been backed in the transfer market last summer we would be in the top three in the epl and would still be in the champions league.The way we finished last season was superb.I have been a liverpool fan for some time now and the end of last season was the first time.Since the late eighties that i have been 100% confident of beating whoever was put in front of us.If there was one year to throw the kitchen sink at the transfer budget it was was this year we definitely had a genuine chance of winnining the big one.But alas it reminds me of geoffrey howe’s resignation speech which brought down thatcher when i thick of the lack of support rafa has had from our scummy owners.Here’s the main part of the speech.”It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only for them to find, as the first balls are being bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain”.
Y.N.W.A

A little bird just told me Hicks is giving an interview tomorrow, and he’s promising…
1: No player sales to pay the debt.
2: A new stadium, with work about to start very very shortly.
3: A spending spree for Rafa in the summer.

I don’t believe him already, but it should be good for a laugh if nothing else.

Night. Night. And if the Tooth Fairy happens to visit watch out for the big fat Texan with his hand under your pillow.

PS… I wonder if he’s going to do it in front of the fire in his wooly pulley.

Well, I don’t know if this is it…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6984376.ece

It’s taken from an email Tom Hicks sent to a “Fan,” presumably Fuck Face, Steve Horden.

That may well be it though, as the article is by Tony Barrett. And a mate told me earlier that Hicks had given an interview to Barret. So maybe there’s more to come.

But who gives a fuck. He’s lying anyway. And if there was any truth in it, I can just imagine how happy Rafa is that Tom has alerted other clubs that he’s going to have some money in the summer for them to gouge him out of…
Well in Tom lad, you stupid fat bastard, you can’t even lie without fucking it up.

I know where you are coming from FS and I hear ya.
I just hate the idea of suggesting anything to do with these idiots is in any way transparent, coz there are those that will take that the wrong way.

One of the things that falls out form the Hicks jnr debaucle is that there were only 6 board members, but now there are 7.

Why does that matter?
Because there have been a number of things that either G or H have wanted to do, (firing Rafa for instance) that they weren’t able to because the vote ended 3-3…
…well now there’s a tie-breaker on the board.

Now that might be good, coz it would move things forward…
but it could be bad, coz in what direction?

As for Tom’s interview. It’ll be “blah-blah-blah…”
(blah, being the technical public relations word for bullshit!)

but I particularly liked the following statement from that Barrett article…
“January is a poor quality market. The summer window will be big.”

A. Like He would fuckin know the difference!
B. If he did know the difference, he’d recognize that while it has been generaly true in the past, one look at some of the names being bandied about as available in this window would tell you that, like the season itself, its a very unusual window, with some big names available for very low prices (comparatively.)
C. Its gonna be a World Cup Summer… so prices will be highly overinflated…
(El Hadji Diouf is a steal! ….OOOOPS?)

Right now, the 8 mill from Vorronin, Dossena and possibly Deggen, could buy us some real (and very unusual for January) quality prospects. (all of whichw oudl then be settled into the Prem come August!
It’s not Rocket Science.

RE: no88 – Bundesliga model

Agreed FS!

The English game is going the same way as the British motoring industry. All the big & glorious names being sold to overseas firms while yer left with what ? Vauxhall?

The Bundesliga has the HIGHEST average attendance with Dortmund getting the highest crowds in europe (yes, it isn’t the scum @ the old toilet or Real even).

Higest goal average & no silly money is splashed out!

But BEST OF ALL, all clubs (with the exception of Leverkusen) are owned by fans who hold 51% of shares!

Plus ye can even have a decent pint @ the match. Fooking footie nirvana or what?

ps: How’s the weather, lads? Is the Reading game going on as scheduled?

According to Terry Paine (on Supersport, SA), all the midweek games are called off. Can anyone confirm this? Suppose it will be on the main site soon?

Can you believe this guy? The amount of lies they come out with, just unbelievable…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6984376.ece

So another ex-player adding to the bandwagon.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Liverpool-s-under-fire-board-were-last-night-urged-to-sack-Rafa-Benitez-article284931.html

I have a lot of time for Aldo and I cannot find anywhere in the article were says that the board should sack Rafa but he should really know better.

By his rationale, Wenger should have got the boot last year as well.

Is it just that these guys do not understand the ‘modern’ game? Squad system, rotation, varying tactics depending on the opponent, impact substitutions…

I can’t believe that fuckin article by Alridge – talk about timing! I mean people in here may know I have my doubts about Rafa – but nothing good will come by removing him now mid season. So it should be all hands on the pumps to get fourth. Aldo spouting his childish nonsense about Owen and Crouch really wasn’t needed. I thought he knew better to be honest..

Lads, as Run DMC said, don’t believe the hype, very ironic Aldo has allegedly come out with this only moments after the H&G fuckup. Hicks PR machine taking the heat of the owners. Only last week Aldo was stating we’d be fucked without Rafa, if and that’s a big IF he said anything it would have been more like why the fuck is he putting up with this. Just may I say like myself and many others on here.
.
amazing this comes out the nearly the day a board member is forced to resign, fucking couldn’t back a winner with more luck.

Well Gaz – he HAD to have said something to Nuts/ Daily Mirror – both bastions of journalistic integrity that they are – because if they were making up stuff – Aldo could simply sue their asses…

It’s really wierd, as I know Aldo has been a supporter of Rafa. We’ll probably see s seperate press release from Also saying he was ‘misquoted’ or some other horseshit. I would love to see him refute this statement, as I have/did respect him.
Haven’t seen any news on wether the Wed game against Reading has been cancelled yet. What’s the weather like in Mersetside right now?

I stand correct Gaz :

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/aldo-denies-rafa-comments

jaysus though – what the fuck is with the British media???? (I’m Irish btw)

But hopefully it’s true cos as you said Aldo is a REAL Red so I was very disappointed to see that shite he was alleged to have said

alright lads,
so obviously didnt make it to the game! At least we found out it was cancelled before we made the trip over so fair play to the club / police for making the call early enough. We’ll get to go to the re-scheduled match whenever that is likely to be.
Can’t believe the crap coming from Hicks senior, what do his PR people take us fans for! My son made a twat of himself so i’ll make up some rubbish about spending big in the summer!! Obviously it’d be great if it was true but we all know the chances of them following through with another ‘promise’.
As for Gerrard and Torres potentially being sold, again it’s very unlikely unless one of them makes noises about it, but in a hypothetical situation of city offering Gerrard a ridiculous deal and he decides to leave, let him go and take Ireland and 40 million, wouldnt be the end of the world. No player or manager is bigger then the club and if someone doesnt want to be here good luck to them wherever they end up. LFC will keep going without them though obviously i’m sure everyone would like to keep our top players and top class manager.

You’ve hit it Arthur… the “interview” comes from Nuts magazine. Which is bad enough, but then the Mirror has got it’s mitts on it.

funnily enough, it disappeared from their website for awhile, and then reappeared a few hours later… Legal issues?

Who knows.

But I tell you what I do know about Aldo… he likes a wee drink our John. And I’m not making excuses for him – because he can be a right twat when he feels like – but I’m going to wait awhile before casting judgement.

But if I had to make a bet, I’d put me house on Aldo being bladdered, corned and set up by them.
But we’ll see.

Anyway, I only even mentioned it because I do want to say something about the media and at the moment their bollacks is of very little importance, but…

Funny this morning, they’ve decided to start screaming about the financial state of football and what money grubbing foriegn ownership is doing to the game and how it could eventually fall like a house of cards.

Why have they suddenly came up with this… because their dear Man U are in the shite.

Did this come from some deep look into the financial state of the game. Of course…. Of course it fucking didn’t.

Tevez scored an hatrick last night, and Man Utd couldn’t even afford to buy him. So of course, the game is now in a perilous state. One fella even said how wrong he has been and that the good people at United FC of Manchester have had it right all along and if only they’d have listened.

Of course SOS is still the Sons Of Satin as far as they are concerned because a few pissed up idiot kids sung the Munich song… although they conveineintly forgot to add that this happened at an SOS organised fund raising party and not a meeting of the Union.

On top of that it’s now being spun that an angry mob has driven a director of the club out of his position for nothing… apparently those whingeing victim minded Scousers, should just accept the contempt aswell as the theft.

Quite amazing in it’s double standard hypocrisy but nothing surprising. In fact, quite hilariously actually. But I wonder what the reaction would be if a company director of some other company, lets say like Weetabix or Man Utd, told a “paying customer” to “Blow Me Fuck Face.”
I don’t think it would be to tell the customer to behave themselves.

As for the proper important stuff… As I said it’s just business as usual.
Tom can’t even lie straight….
“Our debt is very manageable and we never use player sales for debt service.”

That right Tom. Well, where did the money from the sales of Robbie Keane and Xabi Alonso go?

And Puchong mate… sadly there will have to be some sort of catastrophe before the league will act. But yeah. The German model is an excellent starting point.

And I’m glad you mentioned Dortmund. This is sort of small potatoes in the great scheme of things but…
LFC have very close links with the Dortmund fans (and Moenchen Gladbach too going back to 77). But I just wish we could get our Kop back to something like the replica they have built there… Yep. The fans actually copied the Kop. Their anthem is YNWA. They sing it correctly, slowly from start to finish, with every verse and chorus in it’s right place, just like the battle hymn it should be – not some sort of race to the end. And I honestly get quite sad when I look at their stadium and think what has become of ours.

Dont know if you know this siteFS/Lads,

http://www.liverpool.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=184283

this pile of puke are always having a go at LFC, sometimes out in the open but most times like the snides they fuckin are general snipes at us, read the link ‘yes, now make comparisions, when Rafa had a go at the preferential treatment to the mancs and pointed out all the facts in a smiling mild mannered way “he was ranting” Hicks’s banjo playing offspring calls an lfc fan “fuck face and blow me” but that is only an outburst.
YNWA.

this just gets better and better, i think its time that all reds no matter what your opionion on our style of play, manager, current players standards ect. and i include meself in this need to bite their tounge about ALL of it until the final whistle blows on the last game of our season. support the players on the pitch the manager on the touch line and each other. sing, shout roar in the ground the pub at home wherever because this isnt about finishing fourth or first or moaning if were not playing well this is about saving the club from the lions den from becoming a bigger leeds that will be torn to shreds by the enemy which at the moment is everybody not in red. sounds corny but its true the fucking enemy is within the club now its in the media, its clubs with deep pockets ready to pounce its on our own board of fucking directors.im staying out of the manager debate til the seasons over i’ve weaverd big time over the last six weeks called it as i saw it from what was happening on the pitch but the more i hear about whats going on off it i feel i need to see the bigger picture support whoever has the liverbird upon their chest and get right behind the movement to rid the club of its cancer.

A good listen this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/d/derby_county/8453055.stm

Fair play to Lily and very appropriate considering the current shenanigans around our own LFC.

I hate to keep saying I told you so, but GD… thank fuck people are finally starting to see the big picture.

That’s not aimed at you or anyone else on this blog. It’s meant as people in general. Since the shit first hit the fan with these bastards, I’ve been banging on and on about how the effect these two tumors are having on the club.

Naysayers are still coming out with completely idiotic nonsense such as they aren’t on the pitch. It’s not them playing like shite.

But the fact is, they are the root cause of what we are seeing on the pitch… through lack of investment, theft of the transfer kitty, refusal to secure Rafa’s targets, and even buying players that he didn’t want… Keane.

And before anyone jumps on that, the cat is long out of the bag on that… The plan was to buy Barry to play on the left, but keep Alonso, play Gerrard alongside him, and play Keane as the link up man.

Barry was essential to that. But in their wisdom, they bought Keane first – even though no Barry meant Rafa didn’t want/need him – thinking he would bring in more in shirt sales and would have a better re-sale value.

But besides all that, of course their actions effect everything in the club – including performances. But having said that, I’m not excusing the players for some of their performances. But I’m not going to slag them off, as I think injury, playing with injuries, lack of form and confidence has been the main reason for the bad results/performances.

Anyway, I really hope some of you have been able to see the shit going on today’s media. If it wasn’t so laughable it would drive me mad. The hypocrisy and double standards are quite amazing.

The first back four pages of the Daily Mail are practically given over to the Man Utd supporters club. It’s practically a cut and paste job of the comments on Red Cafe. The Glaziers are being castigated as blood sucking leeches now that it has came out that if Ronaldo hadn’t have got sold, The Mancs would have been another 30 million in debt.

But if you dig back to the 5th page, you will find how them victim minded, whingeing Scousers have destroyed the career of one of it’s own directors for nothing.

The radio and television have been no different.

Redman: I’m convinced that site is actually a Man U site. The two fellas who write all the blogs and articles are members of Red Cafe, the Mancs main web site, and their anti-LFC/Rafa articles regularilly appear in there.

Yes. I know. But I can’t help it. I often look in there… the sad fuckers are obsessed with us. I’d say a quarter of all the threads on there are to just bash LFC, Scousers and Reds in general.

Whatever happened to just supporting your own team, eh.

He is technically correct and will use it to justify his statement if cornered. The money they used from player sales and income was not to service the debt but to bring it down so they could refinance the entire debt. Where do you think they got the money to bring the debt down to accommodate the banks? It is sole reason why we have had no transfer funds, despite the record profits and increase in revenue, they have had to pay of some 60 mill quip in order to get a new deal with the banks. It certainly did not come out of their pockets. Every time that man opens his mouth another lie pops out, he really thinks the LFC fans are as THick as his kids. The sad fact is that they will eventually make a huge profit or pay off the club without putting a cent in them selves thanks to the loyal support. A hit would be the cheapest and quickest solution. They really should use THicks and GG’s face as a birth control add. I wonder if I can send them tickets for AFCON.

the spurs game has been re-scheduled for wednesday week, the 20th, its being shown on Sky. Hopefully i’ll be there but could be a struggle getting time off work at such short notice.
The two twats will eventually walk away with a nice tidy profit from LFC as you say Keith, and they’ll stick it out until they do, all the abuse is water off a ducks back to them, its just a matter of time, and for all our sakes its sooner rather than later.

Here you go Lads…
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/01/12/reds-legend-john-aldridge-denies-calling-for-liverpool-fc-boss-rafa-benitez-to-be-sacked-100252-25581088/

Now sue the fucking life out of them Aldo lad.

Keith, cover it however they like, they have given Rafa fuck all now for the last 3 transefer windows. And all the surplus from sales has went somewhere. So I’m sure they could always come up with another excuse, but the fact is, they want to bring down the debt as fast as possible, start work on the stadium and then sell the club for as much as they possibly can.

And I know we have no disagreement over this anyway. But cover their arses however they like, we both know, if it quacks and waddles, it’s still a duck.

The really sad thing is… as much as it gauls me to say this, the best outcome at the moment for us, is them pair of bastards succeeding, taking the money and disappearing.

Infuriating to say the least.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/21/article-0-049471AD000005DC-406_468x338.jpg

Yeah. Honest. I said we wouldn’t use transfer money and player sales to fund the debt….
And you know what else?

What?

Then I said we was gonna spend big in the summer, and we was gonna build them a new stadium!

Here’s a cracker. To all people who think journalists actually write stories anymore and don’t just trawl the internet, cutting and pasting, and twisting fans opinions….

You have just been sent a personal message by ShanksLad on Red and White Kop Liverpool FC Forum.

The message they sent you was:

Hi there, I’m doing some research on Liverpool in Rome in 1977 and have borrowed my mates login for this forum. I hope you don’t mind me messaging you. I saw on an earlier forum that you wejhnt to Rome in 1977, what was that like? Do you remember much about the game or the atmosphere?

Thanks, Christian

Reply to this Personal Message here: http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;f=inbox;pmsg=597159;quote;u=27358

I answered tha lad, asking what he wanted as I had a million stories about it from leaving Liverpool to going to the Cup Final at Wembley, then the journey to Rome, and everything besides until getting home.

Here’s the reply…

Great thanks for replying! I’d be very interested in hearing some of those stories! I’m researching for ESPN Classic, looking for fans who have stories and memories of that game. Could I maybe get your email address? Would be great to hear more about it all!

Thanks again,

Christian

ZigZag Productions for ESPN Classic

I told him I don’t speak to the media, but in not so many, or as polite words, as that.

Here’s the reply…

No worries mate, thanks anyway. If you can think of anyone who would be interested that would be great!

All the best, Christian

Make of it what you will. I’m just happy to prove me point… instead of doing any actual work and research, these bone idle vultures trawl round these forums, collecting tit-bits and ideas and then spin them into alsorts of mischevious, trouble making hype.

I should have just told him a load of cack about a huge red and white horde invading like Barbarians looking for booze, sex and drugs and rock and roll. Oops hang on…

60 seconds on google will tell you that ZigZag is a legit company that does in fact do work for ESPN as well as other networks.
However, that same search will also reveal at least 2 blogs from people who got involved with them, who question their objectivity.

An integral part of my job FS, is to do just what Christian is requesting of you.
And I can tell you that its often (and becoming more so with every passing year) an uphill battle to conviince people that what I do is always agenda free and with objectivity at its most prime.

Its a sad state of affairs that objective reporting is the rare gem and not the norm.

Aitch, I can only talk personally… how can I moan about the media and their hypocrisy, and then talk to them?

Not that it happens very often. But it does from time to time.

Last time… The BBC approached me at the Man U game, in the supporters club before the H&G protest. I put them straight onto Knight. (where is our old friend?) Which was great… I think they expected something negative. Knight was righteous, as we all know he would be… supporting the troops and having a go at the owners.

Meself, I prefer to just politely tell them to FO. Something our players and ex-players should consider.

FS,
how can you and the rest of us not moan given the constant journalistic abuse and witch-hunt that is carried out against the man on a daily basis.
YNWA.

I know Red mate, but I’m not going to be a phoney, tell them tales of the good old days, help them write their stories and get paid for it. And fuck that…
I don’t think the statute of limitations has run out on 77 yet.

Being hawked around like a high class whore or savvy business move?

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/sports/49396-want-to-own-a-piece-of-man-united

Appreciate yer thoughts & comments, people.

Did anybody pick up the most salient point of that article? If Wanker was not sold they would have made a tax loss of over 40 mill. I wonder what their books will look like next year.

The books will not look very good at all Keith. The biggest takeaway for me is that ManUre ‘only’ made a profit of 10.1 million last year, taking out the Wanker deal, which is not even enough to service 1/4 of their yearly interest payments.

The funniest line though was Fergie’s quote.

“Concerns of the supporters are down to the fact that I haven’t moved in the transfer market. But that is nothing to do with the Glazers… It is simply because I am not going to pay £50 million for a striker who is not worth it.”

He would rather pay £30 million quid for a striker who is not worth it.

Lurgan & Keith, Do ye think they will be able to raise the funds needed from this roadshow though?

ps: And if they are, should our independent supporters takeover bid follow the same route?

3-0 to the Reds tonight with goals from Kuyt, Torres and Gerrard.

Has the freeze lifted lads? Is the game going ahead tonight?

Digger, the BBC are reporting that the club has stated that they are confident that the match will go-ahead this evening, unless there is significant snow. So who knows.

BTW, thanks for the link for Jan’s interview. Thoroughly enjoyed it and he seems to be a top man.

Puchong Red, I have no idea if the bonds issue will raise the necessary funds for manure and I don’t really care either way. Whether we should do it or not is irrelevant because we need to shift the current incumbents before any real progress can be made.

Did anyone pick up on it Keith… mate, you should have heard/seen it over here. You’d think the Glaziers had just shot Bambi. But fuck them.

As for the game tonight… it’s been given the go ahead because the club have brought in outside contractors to clear all the surrounding area. But it’s snowing there right now, and they’ve announced that if the weather does turn worse it might have to be pulled.

And this isn’t seen from my biased eye… the club done the right thing calling off the Spurs game as early as they did on the Friday. I know I wouldn’t have been to happy if I’d travelled on the Sunday only to find it called off… like hundreds of thousands of fans did last weekend when their games were called off last minute.

But obviously we can’t do good no matter what we do. We’ve been absolutely slated for it. Some daft bastards going as far as to say, we done it because we are scared of Spurs. Fuckinell, how petty and childish can they get.

They also harped on about the Anfield tour being open on the Sunday… FFS that gets about 50 to 100 people a day. That’s a bit different than 45,000 people being released from the stadium in one go, onto freezing cold, pitch black streets, with glass like ice hidden under bloody snowdrifts.

You know, as the figure head of our club, they might aswell just paint a big black mustache on Rafa, stick a top hat on him, wrap him in a cloak and make him the pantomine villian. It really is getting that ridiculous.

Interesting interview with Purslow in the echo.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/01/13/we-ll-bring-investment-into-anfield-and-won-t-sell-torres-or-gerrard-100252-25587765/

I think that one way or the other there will be some movement on the ownership/stadium in the 1st half of 2010.

No bother Lurgan, he deserved more than the sensationalist headlines he was getting and your right he most certainly is a top man. Hope the game goes ahead, we need a game to get going again and take everyones minds off the sideshow. 2-0 says this observer, usual suspects, Stevie and Nando. Btw LB, what about those Jets bro?! Who are the Pats playing next wk?!

The game is being shown live ont the box, so fuck 5-a-side tonight, I’ll be watching the Reds instead.

Today’s rumours include LFC signing Chamak on a pre-contract agreement from Bordeaux.

So it looks like we do have money to spend in the January window…..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/13/maxi-rodriguez-liverpool-atletico-madrid

Good article by the way Lurgan…but can we trust him…talks a good game anyway…

Oh and I don’t mean by the fact that it looks like Maxi is on his way – I’m talking the supposed 10Million that he can use..

Lads, I’m honestly not having a go at anyone here, but how do you think that pile of horse shit from Purslow makes and difference, or is in anyway good, is beyond me.

He might make all the right noises, but read between the lines….
“Money we generate by selling footballers goes straight into our player account to be used to replace those players in the transfer market

Oh fuck off Ian lad… where’s the money from Robbie Keane nevermind Xabi? Or did that get swallowed up by…
“In fact our key priority since the summer has been to secure our senior players on long term improved contracts.”

And why are Pepe and Masch still waiting for contract talks that should have been done in the summer?

Then there’s the Rafa can have the January sales money…
But fact is, Rafa has been bartering and haggling with Atleti over Rodriguez – who lets face it, isn’t some bright new world beating talent – and he hasn’t been able to tie up the deal he arranged for Chamakh and now Wenger is sniffing around that one.

Also all this “Everything is reliant upon the new ground.”

Well, it’s about the most open secret around Liverpool that the two parasites are desperate to get that going so as to maximise profit when they walk.

And I’m honestly dreading that happens… I’ll bet my bottom lip, the aul fella in in the porta-cabin in Stanley Park will finally unwrap his shovel, the Borrowers will charge some fucking Yank company millions for naming rights, grab the money and run – and we’ll be left with some cheap and nasty souless bowl of a lego gerrymandered monstrosty.

What was it the fucker’s said last time… “We are going to build a magnificent theatre of football, with the Kop as it’s main stage.”
Or some such shite.

Please yourself, but someone robs me, I don’t keep inviting them in.

As for this…
“Don’t forget, I’m a fan and I desperately want to help the club move to the next level as soon as possible.

“In fact that’s why I’m here – for no other reason.”

Oh please Ian lad, knock it on the head, eh. How much is he on?

And I could do that with the whole interview. But what’s the point. Once bit twice shy.

Unortunately FS a lot out there will swallow what Purslo has said.

Yes he has took us up a notch regarding the commercial side of things but he should really stop making satements that contradict himself.

Last summer he said Rafa had the usual 20 million available to him in the window.What he didn`t mention is that money was to be used in tying up contracts and wages.

I urge anyone not to get sucked into all this “bright future” crap that is coming out.We`ll never have any sort of future as long as they`re legal owners of our club.

The timing is consistant as usual.Just as the shit is beginning to hit the fan down the east lancs road,Purslo and THicks decide to come out with the “It`s not as bad as the mancs” approach.
“Our debt is totally managable”

NEWSFLASH! Your the one who stuck the debt on us in the first place !!

Oh yes Tom and George,lets all laugh together at them as our situation is much more managable,Har Har Har.Dimwhits.

Enough on them,lets talk some footy.

Still snowing here lad’s,
as it has been doing all day but it is very fine more like white powder, the out side contractor FS is paul mearson and his trusty nostril’s he’ll probably have it snorted clean by 5-30.
Cant go anymore by the way lads as i have problems with the old stomach, so my lad has gladly taken my season ticket for the rest of the season or until i get better.
YNWA.

Hopefully our friend Merson does the bizzo Redman and we`ll be ready to go.
Sorry to here your out of action get well soon pal.

I see Rafa putting a fairly strong eleven out tonight.I`m sure the lads are bursting for a game.

Surely we`ll have too much for Reading.They played well against us last day but we must not give them an inch tonight.Championship strugglers or not they still have to be beaten.I`m sure we`ll do it,there can`t be any excuses for not.

I`d go for..

Reina

Darby,carra,agger,insua

lucas,aquallini

kuyt,gerrard,benny

Torres.

I`d keep Darby in at right back even though i`m not sure he`s the long term solution.He can do a job tonight.

All out attack and take it to them from the first whistle.

Masch is suspended and he has one game left of that ban on saturday against Stoke.

That team should do it timmy.
I think the 4-4-2 was a mistake in the first leg… given the make-shift back 4 and SG being so off-form… we must play to our weaknesses as much as our strengths at the moment, I’m afraid.

I should probably just shut up as far as scoreline predictions go, but I can’t see us keeping a clean sheet, so I’m hoping for a 3-1.

The keys will be…
1. getting a goal inside the first 20 minutes, otherwise the anxiety will set in.
2. making sure Insua has a bit of help/cover against the pace of that McAnuff lad.
3. the weather keeping tourists away and hopefully making the crowd more partisan… get a bit of effin “Euro Night” atmosphere going to gee up the lads.

Well i nearly got it right.Who can second guess Rafa after all.

Degan comes in at right back and Reina is also rested so Cav is in.

Just broke there on LFCtv that the Maxi deal is officially done.

3rd sentence in Dempsey’s Setanta Introduction…
“spot the difference? The streets around Anfield are just as cold and slippery as at the weekend.”

Fuckin Twat!

First sighting of Maxi!
Introduced to the crowd.
He looks good in the red and white scarf.

98% of games were victim to the weather at the weekend but they make an issue of it when Liverpool call it off.Despite doing it two days in advance saving people the bother of traveling,they still get stick.

Only way to shut them up is by doing it on the pitch.

C`mon redmen.

I’m glad i don’t have any heart problems watching this

…err… did I miss who pushed the fuckin self destruct button?
coz the writing is on the fuckin wall in the last few minutes, if they don’t pull their fuckin thumbs out here.

oh dear… and now Torres has to leave the action.
COME ON REDS!

We need some width play is to condensed

Goalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

In off someone’s testicles?
That’ll do pig! That’ll do!

Yes,1 up at the break,don`t deserve to be though.

Need to up the performance big time.C`mon no prisoners.

Hope Nando’s injury is not to bad. Did you see that in the first 2 mins? If Torres was accosted like that in the Main St, that defender would have been arrested for assault! Bit of protection for the lad refs, pleeease! Shite show from the Reds so far, too narrow as well. Need a bit of width.

Sorry, Main St = Hight Street! Could do with Riera in this game I reckon, & Aquaman has been a bit average, but early days still. Pacman to come on later in the game & scores!

Babels getting changed for Gerrard.

Our 2 best players are a couple of crocks.

Flying ryan will sort them out

What the fuck is going on in our treatment room? Enough is enough…..beyond a joke at this stage….just have the fucken operations already….

Much better now.Aquaman is growing into the game.

Ya we might as well cut our losses and sell the pair of them for 100 million!

And we’re playing better without them lol

Digger, operation is not a magic wand.

OH MY GOD

EXTRA TIME WTF

On that performance we should be grateful we have extra time.Should have lost that game on chances alone.

Fuckin sleeves up lads c`mon!!

Is it just me or is that Jim Beglin a complete and utter twat?

We actually dominated the game… and they rely on counter attacks for their chances

I like what I see in Aquilani

Oh dear….

THIS CANT BE HAPPENING SURELY

We will be the center of media again….and the center of Burgerman’s attack..

I guess we will see the return of Sula, Somnath etc tomorrow..

come on lads

….and bennayoun missed a one on one…

thats it…

Kuyt was unmarked to his right as well. Time to show some balls!

Hmmmm… 3 goals in this game and we haven’t scored 1. Not good viewing.

Is larsson on the bench? Bring him on!!

Is Zeus throwing us about like a rag doll up there?

well..Reading’s counter attack strategy paid off. It will be their first victory under their new manager.

Absolute fucking disaster

not a pen for me but we didn’t do ourselves any favours, again.

Well the nutters will be back in force now, but if you want to be objective about it, we really didn’t deserve the win.

Atrocious performance.

There was one group of players that wanted to win that game… and they weren’t wearing red.

The only player… and I do mean the ONLY player who can hold his head up is Lucas… the rest were woeful. Not an idea amongst them, trotting around, half-heartedly instead of chasing things down.
We got what we deserved.

Losing Torres early was a blow, but I’m thinking Rafa used the “injury” as an excuse to sub SG coz he was fuckin aweful (run for the goal, which was only a half-hearted toe poke into nowhere anyway, before it deflected in, aside)

Am I the only one who thinks watching Babel is like watching a performance of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies?
(Birmingham have just revised their offer from 9 million pounds, to 9 pounds!)

The players let Rafa down today… BIGTIME!

Thats putting it very mildly Lurgan pal they were terrible tonight.Not good enough at all.

Reading wanted to win.
Ngog is hopeless.
Several so-called players,earning big money, missed sitters.
Aitch hit the nail on the head.
Got a headache – going fellas.

Didn’t think this season could get any worse. Well it found a new low tonight. How badly do we need to beat Stoke now?

Pretty Badly Idhawan… but guess what… Stoke will have the same game plan… and unless someone pulls their finger out their arse, we’ll be looking at more dropped points.

The thing is… these players are all capable of so much more… even Ngog… but we just aren’t getting it.

Well, that says it right there…
The players let Rafa down today… BIGTIME!

Only I’d go as far as to say, that shower of shite we watched tonight just didn’t give a toss and will end up getting Rafa the sack.

Night. Night.

Now this is not a blast at Jamie C but I have noticed lately that he is hoofing the ball up alot more. I used to hate that so much when they did that under Houllier and now he’s doing it again. Very very frustrating to watch. Not relating it to todays poor result but it had to be said. Overall, he and Agger had a crap day though. Reading could have scored a few in the first half thanks to dreadful defending and marking from the central boys. Insua was poor today, Degen was active down the right though. Benayoun was lively in the second half and should have put that chance away, but hey, it happens. Aqua showed some lovely touches but still is not up to the pace of football in England. Once he sorts that out, he will fly I’m sure.
Anyway, not feeling any lower than I have already this season, as the way things are going, nothing is surprising anymore.

no fight, no spirit, no passion, no heart.
very hard to stomach.

Idhawan…
“You can never cheat the people of Liverpool.”
Bill Shankly.

“If you’re lost in a fog you stick together. That way you don’t get lost. If there’s a secret to Liverpool FC that’s it.”
Bob Paisley.

That is what this club was built on. That is what made a club that had no right to be any bigger than the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, into a monster.

Well, I tell you what mate… you, me, the other millions of LFC fans around the world, including Rafa, were cheated tonight.

And that is what is making me low and that is what is surprising me. The couple of good things I did see, well, I can’t go into that now. But the gutless, witless, souless performance is inexcusable… lose by all means, but don’t go down like that and not even give a toss.

Rafa needs to drop Babel’s price to 8million and bite Birmingham’s hand off if they’re stupid enough to still want to do business.
Watching him is like watching the Special Olympics.

And then you’ve got Deggen, who makes Josemi and Kromkamp look like Ashley Cole.
There must seriously not be another right footed player anywhere in Switzerland for this fuckin guy to be a Swiss International.
We’d have been far better served giving Darby a run-out than playing a player who we are trying to sell to a german club (same goes for Pacheco over Babel, I’m so done with Ryan.)

Having those two on the field was like playing with 9 men, so is it any wonder we lost?

I understand why Rafa made those selections, but I bet he’s kicking himself now.

Time for him to get ruthless and start taking heads!

Well this is the first time I have been able to log into any Liverpool site since the game, the boards must have been going ballistic. Couldn’t get on anywhere.
.
Three players held their heads up today, Agger, Aquilani and Lucas. As for the rest it was a disgraceful display, not taking anything away from Reading. (Well done Reading).
.
I fear and have feared for sometime that the players are just not doing it for Rafa anymore. As sad as it is, the body language looks bleak. Benny’s dropped off dramatically, Babel just doesn’t seem to give a fuck, Kuyt is in a slump, and here we go, Carra is looking Championship at best.
.
The best the guy looked was when he went to right fullback. Jamie got waltzed around on numerous occasions. I know he has been a dedicated servant of the great club but his performances are becomming a liability.
.
I can’t even imagine the pressure, Mr B will be under this week, I hope and pray we turn it around on Saturday.
.
We lost today because we had no width and they did, the same as the game at Reading, we have had no width this year. The reason we did so well last year was we used our width. Benny and Kuyt do not offer width, Riera does (I know he’s injured), but for 5 years we have been searching for wide players.
.
I know we lost Nando and SG, but I thought we played better when SG went of.
.
Dark times for REDS, come on lads get of the canvass.

They’re saying the players don’t want to play for Rafa anymore but maybe they don’t want to play for the owners anymore. could this be a possibility? THey just might be sick of their shit and lack of support for the manager. We should be beating Reading with our reserves team (and I think we would’ve been better off playing the reserves as they would’ve shown some heart) so I just can’t understand such a bad performance. Losing at Anfield to a team near the bottom of the championship is unfathomable. And it’s not like they fluked it either, they full deserved to win and probably should’ve scored 4 goals.

Arman, they may well be jack of playing for the owners, but they have a responsibility to play for Rafa, because that poor bastard is in the same boat.
.
However regardless of who they do and don’t like they should never whimper out of a game, because supporters are their for them. Today they showed no heart, passion or dedication, and that’s something thats mandatory in a Red LFC Shirt.
.
To be honest Carra had the best shot of the 2nd half, however he’s starting to cut the margin of width down from corner post to six yard box.

gaz, I think the defensive problems arose from having Deggen at right back.
As I said, I sort of understand his selection, (probably an attempt to get his price up in the upcoming negotiations, and Rafa thinking, “how bad could he be”… but he got his answer.)

He made one or two good runs forward, but defensively he was all at sea!
It wasn’t just his poor performance, his positioning was atrocious, and JC spent almost the entire first half screaming at him, waving him into position… (as did Rafa throughout the 2nd half)… and Benny will get a bony finger pointed at him for the pen, but that ball ended up in the box coz Deggen went AWOL in the build up… as he had done repeatedly.

The problem was, we’d already used 2 subs, having to replace Torres early and SG at half-time. It’s just a guess, but I’d be willing to bet Deggen would have been replaced at half-time, if Rafa hadn’t had to replace SG.

JC spent far too much time trying to cover for, and 2nd guess Deggen.
..AND…
If that wasn’t bad enough, on the other side, since Insua was having such a torrid time with McAnuff, Agger was sort of doing the same thing on the left.

I’m a little less critical of Insua than some others. I thought he put some really good tackles in on McAnuff (and the other fella that crossed for the winner) and defended reasonably well, especially given how often he got forward to help the attack, but that’s the nature of going up against someone who’s quantum-faster than you… if you miss the tackle, they are away and you’re fucked and made to look foolish (like he was for the goal.) So, Agger was favoring out towards the line to cover if the player got past Insua. (and even he missed a fair few tackles doing that!)

If any of you get to watch it again (or are willing to put yourself through it) watch for what I’m talking about.
See how many times Agger ends up at left back and Lucas drops into Agger’s spot.
Or, how many times Carra is covering right back and Lucas is dropping into his spot.
If you get that stuff wrong, you’re gonna be under pressure and concede opportunities. (especially if it’s a game in which both Carra and Agger play below par, as they both did.)
(it was like watching a “perfect storm” of defensive cock-up!)

Now having said all that, we still could have banged a few in at the other end… but…

… going forward, we lost FT and Ngog had one of his porrer games…
We lost SG and Babel was a pedestrian replacement, (when he wasn’t pirouetting in audition for the leading roll in the Liverpool Playhouse production of Peter Pan)…
Benny kept trying to overcompensate for the loss of FT and SG by trying to be too clever when the simple stuff was on…
and we generally tried to put everything through the middle instead of getting wide and swinging things in…
And even when we did get wide, the player with the ball usually drove into the box, instead of getting a cross in.

…and as I pointed out in #142…
The keys will be…

1. getting a goal inside the first 20 minutes, otherwise the anxiety will set in.
We didn’t and it did, and got progressively worse, both on the field and in the stands, until some players lost all belief.

2. making sure Insua has a bit of help/cover against the pace of that McAnuff lad.
He didn’t get enough. And he showed his inexperience diving in.

3. the weather keeping tourists away and hopefully making the crowd more partisan… get a bit of effin “Euro Night” atmosphere going to gee up the lads.
Didn’t happen. Davey Fairclough must have said at least a dozen times during the Setanta broadcast, how flat the crowd was, and how there was no atmopsphere urging the players on…
…and it seemed to me on my TV that Reading outsung us for the bulk.
(this harks back to some things FS has been alerting us to about ticket allocations!)

Anyway… I’m disappointed, moderately disillusioned with some of the players, and frustrated… but hey, I’m still a Red and will be till I die…. And that’s better than being a Manc on their best day!

Look at this from ESPN…..

Reading loss must spell the end for Rafa
By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent
(Archive)
January 13, 2010

Time is up for Rafael Benitez – and in truth it’s been up for some time now.

The clock is ticking for Rafael Benitez

The FA Cup defeat at Anfield at the hands of Reading amplifies the call for the manager’s head. The headlines will be gruesome reading for Benitez on Thursday morning. That is hardly a surprise.

What is a surprise, though, is the intransigence of the club’s American owners to do anything about it because, apparently, it would cost too much to dispense with their manager and his large entourage of backroom staff and coaches.

Mark Hughes was dismissed by Manchester City with a far superior record this season. The Middle East owners want instant success, at least a top four finish, if not the title, and sacked Hughes after only half of the season. In came Roberto Mancini, which didn’t go down well with the media, but look at the outcome – resurgence at City. No one seems to be bemoaning the loss of Hughes right now.

The same might well happen at Anfield. Yes, it will be a shame for Rafa. He is suffering from constant injury problems to the two key players who could have carried him through this crisis, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. Benitez insists he has a good, sound squad that can cope without them. He is wrong. He is papering over the cracks.

He has been wonderful for the club in his time. Mostly the glory has come on the continent, while the fans crave the League title, which has been the private domain of Manchester United and Chelsea for the past five years.

Just as United have stated in their investment prospectus, there is a danger of problems if they cannot find the right man to one day replace Sir Alex Ferguson. It’s no good replacing Benitez if Liverpool don’t have the right man to take his place.

There can only be a handful of men who would turn Liverpool’s fortunes around, and if you want the best, you will have to pay the best. A pot of gold, though, is in short supply at Liverpool right now.

LaurenceGriffiths/GettyImages

Fernando Torres walks off past a concerned Rafael Benitez

In fact, the decision to stick with Rafa appears to be one about finance, rather than what is best for the team, what is best for the fans, what is best for Liverpool. That is an intolerable situation. Liverpool FC should be bigger than that.

With Rafa only a few months into a fresh five-year deal, everyone knows the team need new direction. How they must be regretting that deal right now.

This week the club’s managing director, Christian Purslow, announced that, despite Benitez’s remarks to the contrary, there will be no fire sale of top stars such as Torres, Gerrard and Javier Mascherano, if as looks likely the club fail to make it back into the lucrative land of the Champions League.

Top of the agenda is to sift through the multitude of interested clients wishing to invest in Liverpool. Sounds good, but the club has been for sale for some time, or new investors have been sought for a considerable time, and yet there has appeared to be a problem in finding the right formula with two diverse owners to unlock the path to investment.

Liverpool need a Jose Mourinho, or a Guus Hiddink, maybe even a Fabio Capello. None of these guys come cheap, if they will come to Anfield at all. Money speaks these days for the top coaches, and judging by the one free transfer Benitez has been allowed so far in the January window the club are impoverished compared to the high rollers at the summit of the Premier League.

The solution rests with a new owner, or powerful investor, who can shift the inertia that currently grips Anfield.

It’s hard to say “I told you so” as it does sound so conceited and egotistical. But here goes … “I told you so”.

Wind back to the start of the season. Expectations were fuelled by such a fabulous second half of last season when Liverpool came so close to taking the title. Many experts tipped Liverpool to win the Premier League.

However, as early as September I forecast that the title was well beyond them, then I suggested they would struggle to make the top four, and soon I was forecasting potential financial meltdown as I could see them slipping out of the Champions League and not getting back for next season.

Months ago I said Rafa’s time was up. It is now. It can only be a matter of when, not if.

Well, if we carry on playing like this, fewer day trippers who add nothing to the atmosphere will make their way to Anfield and with any luck more locals can get in to spur the team on. Of course the ticket prices are an issue and have been an issue since Sky and all the inflation of players’ wages and signings.

Let us hope that we will have a better day at the office starting at Stoke and our injured/suspended players: Johnson, Masch, Gerrard and Torres all return in time soon enough. We will definitely need them against Spurs after the Stoke game, not to mention the upcoming Europa games.

As for Babel, I understand how frustrating he could be but the lad has only just returned from injury and he didn’t look half bad in the City game where he went of injured. Anyway I am eagerly anticipating the return of Riera, the introduction of Maxi to give us an extra dimension we seem to be missing and the ongoing assimilation of Aquilani into the English game.

Heads up lads!! Top 4 is priority now!!

“I’m still a Red and will be till I die…. And that’s better than being a Manc on their best day!”

I second that….!!

Spurs game after Stoke.
This means Aaron Lennon will be back for the game?

What pisses me off is a bunch of so called supporters were nodding in agreement with this wanker Hairy Harris who can’t write an unbiased, original or meaningful article at the best of times. He should be working for the S*n.

I think Degen did alright yesterday. He was involved in alot of our attacking moves down the right and I definitely don’t think Carra and Agger were caught off guard because of Degen. They just didn’t defend well.
A equally big problem is the fact that we just cannot score goals! We didn’t even score our goal. What has happened? We were the team scoring more goals than anybody last season (end of anyway) yet now we can’t score to save our lives.
It can’t be simply the absence of Alonso so we need to stop using that as an excuse.

How low can we go? Only Lucas and to a slightly lesser extent Aquilani, can hold their heads up today. I know Aitch was saying that Carra and Agger were covering for the full backs too often – but those two guys were dreadful, diving in, leaden paced, poor decision making. Carragher’s time is up. Agger has seriously regressed. Insua needs a rest – he’s only 21 but every team we come against realise what a liablity he is and expolit it. Reading looked fitter, faster and hungrier than us – never thought I’d be writing that. Had we won 1 nil (thanks to a jammy o.g) it would have been a travesty of justice. They genuinely could and should have scored 3/4 goals. Bar Aquilani’s woeful header, I can’t remember a clear cut chance created by Liverpool in the 90 mins.

Whether or not a new manager is the answer – no change is going to take place until the end of the season so it’s gonna be a long hard slog until May. City, Spurs and Villa can all be caught but things will have to turn around sharpish

yeah i agree arthur. i feel like some voodoo curse has been put on the club by some narky jamaican scum fans. why has everyone become so shit? these players were the cream of europe last season, now they’re the dairylee of penzance. we’ve got a tactical genius for a manager but this year he can’t manufacture a decent performance against the bottom team in the league or a championship struggler.

i can’t explain it. either something needs fixing, or the voodoo dolls must be destroyed.

It pains me to say it, because I’m a fan of Rafa and want him to succeed, but…

…if he can’t motivate his players to win games like the one last night he simply needs to resign.

Arthur,
If you analyse it it is the same story yet again.

We have no pace either up front or at the back. Therefore we play a relatively slow passing game, through the middle (apart from Carra’a hoofing). Thus the opposition, and it could be from Birmingham right down to the bottom of the 4th division, (there isn’t really a huge difference in a one-off game), have their perfect game plan.

Pack the defense, kick the shit out of Nando, Bottle up (a soon to be disinterested SG) add this to no pace from either Kuyt or Benny who, everyone knows will both come inside anyway…. and wait. Sooner or later they will get a break and hit us with pace and/or set pieces. They will happily give us the ball for 70% of the game and wait. Reading had 3/4 good chances all from breaks I think.

On top of that there is the lack of confidence, focus and fitness (and desire in places ?) on the part of the players and (for me) a degree of over-elaboration on Rafa’s part.

Aquaman did well last night until he began to tire (it was he who sent a nothing pass to the middle, picked up my Mc anuff (?) who speared the defense and should have scored a wonderful goal).
Lucas played pretty well for me, it was he who set up Benny for the one-on-one and later for Ngog who fluffed his chance. He also closed down allover the shop, put in some very good tackles and still had the will to be at the end of the last cross of the evening, albeit my granny (long since gone) could head a goal attempt better than he.

However, Babel and Ngog were ineffective. Benny had one of his frustrating nights and should be kicking himself. Kuyt was also ineffective going forward and it became confusing when he moved into the middle (did he?) and himself, Aquaman and Lucas were getting in the way of each other.

I didn’t see the first 25 mins so I didn’t see Nando at all and I didn’t realise Stevie was even playing ’till the goal. (Tv turned down, as always, I recommend it for lack of stress – no commentators / analysts …we live and learn).

Oh Boy what a shambles, just when you thought things had to get better we got dumped out by Reading who actually deserved to win on the night. This against the strongest team we could have put out. Added to that both Torres and Gerrard are injured again.

I think we have to just write off this season and hope we can claw our way back into some sort of form that will get us into fourth spot. The players have to have a long hard look at themselves because they are not performing. Yes we have had injuries but this is unacceptable at the moment and unfortunately it is at the back where most of the problem lies. Carra is having a mare of a season and was lucky not to concede the first goal to Reading. He has become pedestrian, hesitant and unsure of what to do. Yes having Degen next to you does not help but it does not excuse his performance. Granted Torres and Gerrard where injured maybe that explained their performance, I also hear Benny is also injured because I had to look twice to see if he was on the field in the first half because he was completely anonymous and how he missed the one on one, it was not even close, I do not know. I just symptomatic of our season so far, a complete and utter fuck up on and off the field.

I actually do not know what to think and as somebody above stated only Lucas, Aquilani and Agger showed any fight or balls, well he is not far off and I am disgusted at the lack of stomach for the fight that the players are showing at the moment.

so you watch games in silence with no crowd noise? what about the atmosphere? its worth the mindless blitherings for the ROAR

TT, I didn’t want to go off on one but that was a total disaster of a ‘performance’ last night.

All I ask of anyone playing in a liverpool shirt is to give 100% and this is not the case at the moment.

Gutless performances like that could, or should I say will, lead to Rafa getting the boot.

Time for Rafa to get medieval on their asses.

Did Reading want to win more than us?

I can’t believe that for a minute. We started the second half well without really looking like scoring. Benayoun would have clipped his chance over the keeper two months ago. What the fuck has happened to our players?

I would have prferred for Mcanuff to have scored after his solo run, it would have been better to go out to a wonder goal like that instead of underlining to the watching world that we can’t deal with quality crosses into our box, as illustrated by Shane Long’s winning goal. Fuck, this is bad!

Normal service resumed, explains why the Reds took 1 point from 12 V Lyon and Cortina.Degen was good going forward and wasn’t the worst by any means.Babel was dreadful and as for Aquiliani-£18 million in return for what exactly?.A complete waste of time and money.Where was Aurelio and why the lack of width?.Evans and Houllier were sacked because they could only finish third and fourth in their final seasons!.Rafa continues his long tradition of never having won a trophy without Pako as his assistant.

you know when you’re so depressed, you almost feel like laughing – this from f365 –

Jamie Carragher has apologised to Liverpool fans after they crashed out of the FA Cup to Champo strugglers Reading. He admits the performance was “not acceptable” and describes Saturday’s game at Stoke as “massive” as they try to salvage something from a terrible season. Good job fourth is ‘guaranteed’

made me chuckle.
YNWA

A couple of points about the Reading replay-why didn’t Pacheco play and why was the goalkeeper like a rabbit caught in the headlights?.he never moved.

alright lads, popped in for a bit of sanity after being looking at comments on the other sites. I can understand peoples frustration, completely justified at the moment, but for the love of god, why do people keep saying we should sack rafa (again, understand why people are thinking this way) but following it by saying we should replace him with hiddink, the special one etc. It is just madness cos it will never happen. FS continuosly asks the question – sack rafa, who would you replace him with. I’ve seen some crazy names being bandied about the last few hours, but 99% of them wouldn’t touch LFC with a barge pole at the moment or for the very forseeable future – we have no money, we have no support from the owners, sell a player and you’ll be lucky to get 10% of it back.
The only name that i’ve seen that could potentially work if he was to be sacked was Roy Hodgson, the main reason being is that he is capable of managing a team on a tight budget and may be able to keep liverpool as a mid table team for a few years until the borrowers take a running jump and piss off.
My favourite replacement manager mentioned has to be Mark Hughes, i kid you not, someone mentioned him and there were a heap of people agreeing.

Anyway, FA cup over for another year, we move on, Stoke at the weekend, should be 3 points in the bag!!

Jack, to be fair to rafa, Pacheo probably would have got a run at some point if we weren’t forced in to 2 substitutions.

CAN IT GET ANY WORSE!!!!

Liverpool today revealed the extent of the injuries sustained by Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun against Reading last night.

A Club spokesman said: “Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both underwent scans earlier today after coming off in the FA Cup tie against Reading.

“Steven has a hamstring strain and will be out for a fortnight, while Fernando has torn a cartilage in his right knee. The injury will require surgery and he is expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

“Yossi Benayoun also suffered a fractured rib in the game and will be unavailable for between three and four weeks.”

Ha ha!! You’ve gotta laugh. Word of advice. Never tempt fate and ask if things can get any worse. They always can.

look at the bright side redrebel – all the injuries are happening while the transfer window is open. atleast we can buy messi, kaka, xavi, iniesta, eto and come back stronger in the second half of the season.

well and truly fucked. if the team can salvage anything from this season, it’ll be a miracle. and a fine one at that.

YNWA

That would be my agrument against Rafa – I’m not sure he’s capable of operating under a tight/small(ish) budget. I think people are right when they say it’s unlikely we’d be able to tempt Hiddink or Mourinho (not that I’m saying I’d want them)

But the question has to be asked – could a different manager get more out of the current team/squad than Rafa is able to now?? Having looked at not only last night but over the last 3 months – you’d have to say that they evidence clearly states that Rafa’s team no longer believe in him. And it really is a moot point when people bang on about last season – last season is history, over, kaput. Something has been wrong all season and no one is able to pin-point exactly what. But in the end of the day the buck stops with the manager

I mean whatever about our injuries (and yes they have been a factor) any team that we sent out against Reading (READING FOR GOD’S SAKE!!) should be good enough to easily win at Anfield. The fact that we were played off the field for significant chunks of the match is deeply worrying

I believe that as a Liverpool fan – one should be knowledgable and patient too. Never rush into hasty judgements. This is admirable – but lads, do we not think we’ve reached a Souness January 1994 or Houllier 2004 moment. Yes our owners are a pair of lying, thieving gangsters but they aren’t going away anytime soon. So we have to get on with them at the helm but I think we have to seriously consider that Rafa has gone as far as he can go..

Good and gentle jesus:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6988099.ece

Good point Arthur,
we were played off the park at times and we were lucky not to go in at half time 2 down, but for me the worrying thing is that, that team last was possibly our strongest and if they could’nt put reading to bed what hope have we got, i mean there is nobody else missing out of the side that could come back and light the team up again.
What the fuck is up with thier confidence not to mention the pride in wearing the red of LFC.
My mate who is a blue-nose phoned last night and asked what the fuck is going on at Anfield he said that was one of the poorest games he’s ever seen Liverpool play, i replied, mate i dont know i have’nt any answers and i cant see them getting any better in the near future.
YNWA.

confirmation torres, gerrard and yossi are out, games they will miss are

“The trio will miss this weekend’s match against Stoke and the subsequent Premier League encounters with Tottenham and Wolves but the Reds will hope to have Gerrard back in time to face Bolton on 30 January.

However, Torres’s injury means he is set to miss next month’s Merseyside derby against Everton and February’s league matches with third-placed Arsenal and fourth-placed Manchester City. ”

What a nightmare this season is turning in to. At least Masch is back for saturday.

I am in no way suggesting rafa should be freplaced!

But regarding names… we can’t even have a serious discussion about it really.
When Houllier was fired, it cost a reported 11 million (though reports suggest it was far, far more) in compensation, to remove him and his backroom staff.
Remember that all of Rafa’s backroom staff are on new or recent contracts. So in addition to the large sum reported to move Rafa, we may be looking at a huge chunk to move the rest of them.

Guus Hiddink is the only top manager available (with his Russia contract set to expire in the summer, but he’s essentially done since they didn’t qualify.)

Any other TOP name you can think of is at the beginning of their contracts at other clubs.

Which leaves you with the prospect of some unknown quantity from 3rd-7th placed Euro clubs… or the completely ridiculous… like Hughes/Allardyce and the like.

We are where we are… in the middle of a season that makes no sense… and we need to batten down the hatches and hold fast.
Or we just might find ourselves taking on more water than can be handled.

The problem with that Arthur is, what I’ve been saying all along… we get shut of Rafa and I will guarantee you one thing – it will only get worse.

Arthur you just shot yourself right in the foot by saying this…
“That would be my agrument against Rafa – I’m not sure he’s capable of operating under a tight/small(ish) budget.”

For one, let’s get it right…. IT’S ACTUALLY A NEGATIVE BUDGET.

Not even no budget but a negative one. Name me one manager in the world who could work with that and not only work with it, but be expected to win the Title and The Champion’s League with it.

Name me a top manager, that not only could but would be willing to work under them constraints.

Name me another manager who would constantly take all the flak for his players, never criticise them and keep soldering on through the mountan of shite that is heaped on him by the media and sadly our own so called fans… Sadly the BM type people are crawling out of the woodwork left right and centre.

And I could go on posing questions like that, but what’s the point… the answer will remain the same. In fact, the more questions you ask about our situation and who could be brought into solve these problems, the answer becomes more and more clear… THERE IS NO ONE!

And please don’t take that as a dig at you Arthur. It most certainly isn’t. It’s just that I’ve just read my way through all the posts since last nights game, and yours was the last I came to.

And you are certainly entitled to ask what the fuck is going on, has Rafa run his course, and would another manager be the answer.

You might still come to the same conclusion no matter how much you think about it, and you might even be right. But are you prepared to throw everything at that one roll of the dice?

Because, that’s basically what we would be doing.

Look at that article Skeat posted. I near choked on me cup of tea reading that… “I told you So!”

I tell you what that told me, the man, (Whoever he is, I’ve never heard of him) that wrote it is a complete and utter buffoon who is being paid under false pretences. His “expertise” shows one thing he hasn’t got a fukin clue on what he’s waffling on about. But the funny thing is… most of the media are saying the same thing.

Last night, as soon as the game finished the cut to Andy Townsend for his “Expert” opinion and the first thing out his lips. Yeah, of course it fucking was.

I was happy to see Steve Coppell sat next to him though, who immeadiately jumped in and stopped his idiotic kneejerk rant…. by more or less telling him he was cutting him off because he was about to go into an idiotic kneejerk rant.

Look at the BM fella, we haven’t seen him for days on end but he jumps out the woodwork as soon as there’s a chance to stick the knife in.

Sadly – like life itself – this is football today.
But if you know and understand the game, you know quite well changing our manager right now would be absolutely disastarous for the club… and that’s not taking in to account all the terrible situation we are in with owners and finances.

Look at that article by Hairy Arse or whatever the soft bastards name is… as proof positive that sacking Rafa would lead to immeadiate success for LFC he uses Man City, Mancini and Hughes.

Well,
1: We all know there’s a slight difference in the finances and the squad depths.
2: We have no idea what Mark Hughes would have achieved left alone. (I stick by what I said at the beginning of the season… City can win the title. I said it then. I still believe it now.) And we have no idea why he was sacked… a few draws in a row? Is that all it takes nowadays?
3: But it seems Hairy Arse thinks Mancini has turned things around… is that all it takes no. 3 fucking wins to be hailed a genius who turned round an ailing squad and team, and put a disasterous season back on track?

The sheer idea of it is completely ridiculous. It’s the sort of thing that should be held up to football “fans” to show them exactly how shite this so called expertise is.

But sadly this is the exact nonsense that a growing number of our “Supporters” will use as proof that Rafa should go.

Now, hopefully most of us in here are not that stupid and have followed the game to know what happens when clubs replace managers…
99.99% of the time there’s an immediate upswing in results like Mancini has seen in his few games at City.

But it doesn’t matter if it’s City replacing Hughes, Chelsea replacing Maureen or Newcastle replacing – insert numerous names here. The immeadiate effect is nearly always an upswing regardless of what the club is doing – struggling or succeeding but just wanting more.

Only after a couple of months does it start to differ….
If the club is a struggler, the results then drop back off and a most of the time tend to worsen.
If the club is like Chelsea/City succeeding but wanting more, it’s the same. The results then drop back to the level they was at before the new manager came in and it’s only investment that pushes the club on.

None of this is proveable fact, because it’s not an exact science but it is the trend and is born out by statistics… and you can do this yourself by just thinking about Avram Grant over the last few seasons – brought in by Chelsea, sacked for only finishing second in both the League and Champion’s League. Chelsea still haven’t won anything despite more and more investment and another 3 managers. Grant goes to Pompey, stops the bad results for a few games, slips back down after a month or so in charge.

And I know all of you who have watched football for any amount of time have seen this over and over again. It’s the way it goes. And it’s probably what will happen if Rafa is sacked, and that’s born out by not just what I know but also statistically.

But then you have to add our ownership/finance problems on top of that. And I’ve posted article after article on what the most likely scenario is for us should Rafa go. And I don’t mean my opinions, I mean the statistical pieces I have found and posted that have shown by facts and figures what the most likely outcome will be if Rafa is sacked.

So, as I say, are you really ready to roll the dice and throw everything on leaving the club to the mercies of H&G?

I’m not.

As for what’s happening on the pitch, I will leave that for another post as this is long enough. But it will all become academic anyway if them bastards don’t roll up their sleeves sharpish and start getting stuck in.

They should be ashamed of themselves. And you can’t blame Rafa for that.

so Aitch by that rationale, we’re stuck with a manager simply because we can’t afford to sack him? Doesn’t bode too well for LFC if that is the case..

I mean lets say Rafa has gone as far as he can take us (this can happen – Ron Atkinson at Utd, Ranieri at Chelsea, George Graham at Arsenal, Houllier at LFC), we just have to grin and bear it as we miss out on Champions League football and slip further and further down the ladder?

I know you’ll say that Rafa has been hamstrung by injuries and boardroom disharmony but those (albeit big) issues aside, his team should be in a far stronger situtaion then we currently are. It’s important to remember that we’ve lost alot of games (Chelsea, Fiorentina, Spurs – to name but a few) when we pretty much had our strongest side out.

yes our owners do Rafa no favours – but he’s had 6 seasons to shape and mould a squad that should be able to cope with injuries to Gerrard and Torres. I mean lets put it this way – when Rafa joined, he had Steve Finnan and John Arne Riise as his fullbacks. Fast forward 5 years and I’d argue with anyone who says that we’ve currently got full backs who are an improvment in any way. In fact – I’d take Finnan and Riise RIGHT NOW ahead of our current left and right backs. This is a damning assessment of Rafa’s tenure in my eyes.

Rafa as a manager of a top side cannot hide behind injuries and lack of funds when he’s had this long to shape his squad – just like any of his fellow Big Four managers. They would fare no differently if they were doing as poorly…

I see your point FS – but I disagree – whatever way you want to spin our budgetary restrictions (be it negative budget as you call it) – I know many managers would love to have the spending power of Rafa and LFC. Basically being Liverpool we’re still able to buy players like Reina, Torres, Mascherano, Glen Johnson, Ryan Babel and keep the likes of Gerrard and Carragher. That doesn’t strike me as a “negative budget”. Sure we can’t compete with City or Chelsea but our name and history is still a big attraction for players.

Hi all. It has been a long time since i got a chance to post. After the Villa game i thought probably we are back.
Yesterday i felt that the players let the club and manager down. We keep talking about Rafa and what he cant do but its high time we realize that its the players who have not played well at all. Torres,Gerrard,Benny injured again. Somehow i get this feeling that Rafa’s luck with injuries is not too good.
Fans in Liverpool will still say “In Rafa we trust” and i will go with them simply because the situation is more clear from there compared to on the internet.
This season is over for us. Lets hope we qualify for CL and even if we dont, i am least bothered coz to me every win we get from this point will be a bonus.

The season is most definitely not over. There is still a chance to qualify for the qualifiers for the CL. The idea that we can settle down now and cruise into 4th is very comforting but about a million miles from the truth.
It’s gonna be a huge battle for the squad, particularly as Torres will miss probably 6/7 league games and then he has to get match fit to boot. If I were a betting man I’d say the odds are against us making it now. So let’s see just what the players and supporters are made of.

Interesting so you think Finnen and JAR are better than Johnson and Aurelleo/Insua, arguably our first choice. Funny that JAR cannot get into the Fulham side and where is Finnen or is it the other way around? Guys you cannot equate a 12- 16 mill a year budget while overhauling the entire side as enough to be challenging for the title, yet that is what Rafa has achieved. That we started the year with 11 serious injuries that still wont go away, that our confidence is as low as shark shit in the ocean, that not once have we had a fully fit quad to pick from, that our owners continue keeping us in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, that the press have an agenda against Rafa (yes it does affect players) all these are not serious enough and Rafa has come to the end of his usefulness? Boy if then players and fans only showed as much fight, loyalty and support as Rafa has given Liverpool we could have climbed out of this hole already.

I almost wish, seeing that this season is almost a write off, that Rafa would walk (the mans deserves something much better than the crap that is Liverpool FC at the moment) and the wheels really come off spectacularly, because that is what will happen and yes the best we could get would be a Hodgsen (good solid manager) but even Fulham has more off a budget than us and why would he leave for this crap when he would be on a hiding to nothing with an impossible delivery target.

However I still hope that Rafa can turn it around, how the fuck he does it God Knows. Still we are only 5 points off fourth.

Arthur woud you take Riise and Finnan now? Riise struggles to get a game for Roma and Finnan just about gets into the Pompey side. If you’d swap Johnson for Finnan now you’d need your head testing. And Insua is playing better now than Riise did in his last 2 years for us. People have short memories. Finnan and Riise were good 5 years ago. They are shite now.

6 seasons to mold a squad. Actually its 5 and a half coz this season isn’t over yet. Lets judge this season when it finishes. But judging the last 5 completed seasons only 2 teams have done better than Rafa’s Liverpool. And that is Chelsea and Man Utd.

In 5 years Rafa turned a side that was hopeless in Europe into one of the Europe’s elite. He took a team that was nowhere near competing for the title to within a handful of points of winning the league. His average points tally would have won the title in years gone by.

You can’t build a squad capable of winning the title on £16m per year you just can’t. I don’t care how long you are at a club. We could have Hiddink at Anfield for 20 years. On our current budget we are not winning the title. Rafa cannot add to the squad he has to sell to buy. That is not how you build a squad capable of replacing Gerrard and Torres when they are injured.

Name me a manager in England that has had less money than Rafa that has been more successful – since Rafa arrived in 2004.

This season has been a right off. However even if we finish 6th you still can’t tell me that a manager has been more successful than Rafa having spent less money. Unless Arsenal win the league.

Lets judge Rafa in May. Right now I am judging the players and I must say they have been an utter disgrace.

FS is right. If Rafa resigned we’d get a manager in and probably perform better for a couple of months. We’d then level off into what we are getting now. Unless the new manager is able to add his own uality players to the squad. How likley is that last sentence?

Next season say Rafa has gone. We get Roy Hodgson. Spurs spend £40m in the summer. City spend £100m. Villa spend £30m. We spend fuck all. Who is confident we’ll challenge for anything?

Oh, what a bloody mess with the performance last night and then the injuries and all. The despair is closing in on me here.

No matter what I don’t think there’s any point in sacking Rafa now. Perhaps he will eventually give up himself, and I for one wouldn’t blame him if he did, but sacking him now can only lead to more trouble. Perhaps there is some better manager than Rafa out there, but in that case we need to make sure that someone would be willing to do the bloody impossible it is to manage Liverpool. I know Rafa gets paid well, but he would elsewhere too and still he’s putting up with it at Liverpool. That in itself is enough to earn him at least the rest of this season to prove himself.

Regarding the fullback debate I certainly wouldn’t prefer Riise and Finnan ahead of Insua/Aurelio and Glen Johnson. Aurelio is at least equal to Riise and at least has the ability of using his right foot. Insua finds it difficult at the moment, but that always happens with young defenders, no matter how talented they here. He will come good I’m sure.

It has to be said though Riise isn’t struggling to get a game at Roma. He’s loved by the fans there. But it is a different kind of football to the Premiership.

I also find it laughable how people say Rafa had 6 years to mould a squad. In those 6 years he has had to completely rebuild his team with little to no funds. Whenever he did have some funds he could either go for 1 or 2 quality or gamble on cheaper alternatives to build a bigger squad. How many players did he actually want yet did not have the funds to buy? How many of those players went on to greater things? We can see surely that most of the big names he did buy are major successes. Every manager gets some wrong on the odd occassion so you can’t hold that against him. Nobody saying a thing about how crap Berbatov has been and how much did he cost? Yet people critisize for Dossena. In my opinion, Rafa has overachieved with Liverpool considering the resources he has compared to Chelsea, ManU, Tottenham. Hell even Newcastle were spending more than Liverpool and look at them! Arsenal don’t spend but what are they winning? Man City now spend the most and Rafa is supposed to compete with them at 1/10th their budget? How is Liverpool supposed to stay a top four team when teams all around us are spending more and buying more quality players. Tottenham could afford to buy back Keane at still a high price and he isn’t playing regularly for them. Any comments from anybody on that? Oh no, only when Rafa buys and sells then the bullshit flows.
Lots of bullshit and lots of negative nonsense from people who should realize that Liverpool resource wise are not a top four club. We are a top two club history wise but that doesn’t buy players now does it?
Ah why do I even bother??
I’m all for Rafa staying this season and the next. If things don’t turn around in that time, I’m sure Rafa will walk away himself, probably to Real or some other giant and take them all the way to the top. Where we will be, who knows? Especially with these jokers still running the club.

LB we’ve crossed swords many times, but the one thing I’ve never accused you of is not knowing what you are talking about. And I would say, why other people don’t get it is beyond me, but I know exactly why they don’t.

Arthur mate, I’m spinning nothing. I’ll take it as you never said that as an insult. I know you better. But it is insulting…

As you know, I grew up practically under the floodlights of Anfield. I first went in the ground in 1965, and I still go as often as I can… even when I know it’s a waste of time. And at 53 years of age, I still sing the songs and support the team to the best of my ability. And I still waste/invest far too much of my time, money and emotion on the club.

Sometimes I actually feel quite silly for doing so. There’s far more important things in life, but that’s what us mugs love. It’s ingrained. But the only reason, I’m saying all that… some people think I’m a Rafatollah when I’m not. I’m an LFC Supporter – end of.

And if I thought the best thing for LFC was to get shut of Rafa then I’d be first in line calling for his head. But every single logical indicator, tells me on thing… sacking Rafa Benitez right now would be an absolute disaster for our club.

But I’ve been through it all a million times in here, and I just can’t be arsed doing it again.
But there is one thing I will say… you said it yourself actually but it just wasn’t meant from the same point of view. But ask yourself this… how has Rafa been able to build us a team/squad of such quality with so little resources?

It’s actually quite amazing when you stop to think what he’s achieved with what he’s had to work with and work against.

In fact, what I find quite baffling is how LFC fans can question the manager when a team of that quality puts on a performance like that.

There’s one way out of a slump. I’m sure most of us are old enough to have been through times when it feels like the world and it’s dog is against you. And when that happens, you have two choices…
You roll up your sleeves and fight, until you win or you crumble.

Sadly far too many of our spoilt over priveledged players seem to have taken the second option. And that’s what I find disgraceful… no matter who the manager, this club could always be counted on to do one thing – fight. And before now, no matter how crap we was, I have never seen an LFC side that accepted defeat like that last night.

An utter disgrace. And please don’t give me they aren’t playing for Rafa, that’s nonsense. They should. They should fight like for him, especially considering what he gets for defending them. But I’ve played for fellas I couldn’t stand, but you know what… you don’t play for him. You play for yourself. You play for your pride. You play for your team mates. You play for the club. But most of all, you play for the fans… and it was them that cheated you and let you down last night not Rafa.

And as a side note…
Did anybody hear today that Good Ol’ Appy Arry, has been nicked on 2 charges of tax evasion involving dodgy deals when he was manager of Pompey?

Probably not, because the vultures were to busy circling over a decent honest man who has given his everything for us and is being terribly let down by most.

I’m actually ashamed to be associated with some people that regard themselves as LFC nowadays.

Oh and PS, I don’t want to go rooting round the net to find the facts on Rafa’s transfer monies again… I thought once I’d posted the truth, that would be enough.

But the fact is… since the Yanks arrived Rafa has had a budget of 12, million and 700, 00 quid per season. But he’s actually had a negative spend in the last 3 transfer windows, spending less than he’d brought in.

Want to get pissed off with Rafa?

Fair enough, that’s your perogative, but lets not turn into Souness and Whelan eh.

Ok I was being cheeky about having Riise and Finnan now – but they have still been the best full backs that we’ve had during the Rafa years…and I’m sorry, as promising as Johnson looked in his first two months at Anfield, the jury is well and truly still out on him. He needs to be judged when he is fully fit – but he looks far from defensively solid in my eyes.

Like I said it is admirable that people are standing by Rafa but I genuinely think we’ve gone as far as we can with him. Why do people constantly blame our lack of finances and injuries and do not attribute any blame to the manager at all? Rafa has to take some responsibility for last night’s debacle.

Oh and lets say we just give up and say “Well Rafa isn’t given the resources to challenge for the title – we haven’t a hope of winning the league” – I’d at least like to be able to beat the likes of Portsmouth, Reading, Fulham et al and play with a bit more adventure. The football this season has been awful – lacking imagination and even a tiny bit of flair. This isn’t the Liverpool way – in fact we haven’t played attractive football since the Evans days.

Now before people jump down my throat two things:

1) I’m not longing for the return of the Evans days – where every corner kick against us was like conceding a penalty but no one can dispute that that team played some fantastic football and had Evans been a bit more tactically astute (i.e. sign a decent defensive central midfield player) we would certainly have won the league in 1997 and probably 1996 as well

2) We did play good football in the second half of last season – but this was the only time in the 5.5 years during the Rafa reign that we ever did so. And seeing how this year has gone, frankly it seems like some sort of dream now..

Another reason Rafa cannot be immune to criticism is the fact that a number of players he signed have either failed to develop to a high level (Babel being the number one issue here) or that a number of players now look like a shadow of their former selves ( Agger, Skrtel, Riera, Mascherano and even Gerrard).

Finally throw in the fact that he has complete control over the youth set up but we’re yet to see a single player with sufficient quality emerge (Insua & Ngog might make it – but my gut feeling is they will not be world beaters), it’s easy to see why people like myself feel that our manager has questions to answer. And he can’t hide behind budgets and injury lists

No insult intended FS – I merely feel that this team should be doing a hell of lot better with the team and squad that is at Rafa’s disposal. He has to be held at least partially responsible for it surely?

Of course Rafa will take responsibility for what is going on. That doesn’t mean he should be sacked.

Ive been staying out of the comments lately because FS usually covers my point of view (in a more informed and better fashion).

Kudos to you LB on that post earlier.

Arthur mate, are yoyu having a laugh?

The way we are playing isnt the liverpool way? Quiet frankly, the way you are supporting the club isnt the Liverpool way. The players have been cack, they should be taking the responsibility on this one.

FFS, last night was last night. Have United sacked Fergie for losing to Leeds? (who are a division below Reading)?

Your saying Agger, Skrtel, Riera have failed to live up to expectations. Forget Agger has had terrible back problems at the start of this season (starting well before last season). Forget Riera has been injured, and when he returned he pinged his hammy again. Forget Skrtel getting knocked out. Forget the fact that it took a fucking long time for us to have the same back 4 in consecutive games. but FUCK IT, they are all SHIT arent they?

Ohh and Gerrard, yeah he is shit too, he has only played a handfull of games this year fully fit, but Rafa has made him shit. In fact all those players you mentioned have been injured for most of the season, but who cares about that, they seem to be a shadow of there former selves after playing 2-3 games fit. Once again somehow Rafas fault.

This is what shits me. People basing opinions on players after 2-3 games, this in itslef is knee jerk. Like the commentators on Sly. One minute i hear “I think Carrra is past his best”, two minutes later “ohh look at JC, heart of the defence”, two minutes later again “Looks like JC will have to give it up soon”.

Finally, im sure you watch alot of ressie games to know about our youth setup. Ngog is a gem at that age, if you knew football youd know that he is quality. In fact i think he has netted more times than berbatov?

Insua is the argentine full back, but who cares about that. In fact, since we dont have 11 Messi’s we are shit and we should sack Rafa.

Akka – such hostility my good man A lot of worn out excuses there again – injuries and blaming knee jerk fans and the media. I’m far from knee jerk. Skrtel got knocked out in August, not in the last game not even last month…in August! How can you keep harping back to that one game.

As for Insua, if I was Argentinian I’d probably get a game for them under Maradona at the moment. Anybody who doesn’t see that Insua is floundering at the moment is blind – pure and simple. Ngog has done well – yes – but it’s far from evident that he’ll be of sufficient European class standard in the next few years

But hey – these are just my opinions and I’m not one for “I told you so’s” – all I know is, that I have the same feeling now as I did towards the meandering slow death of the Houllier era

But I state it time and time again – I dislike when someone who disagrees with the Pro Rafa consensus is called anti-Liverpool – it’s childish and unproductive. I’ve been supporting Liverpool for 21 years so I think my voice is as valid as anyone else here. It’s not like Rafa has just had a year to settle in – it’s going on 6 years..I think people are legitimately entitled to question him and his ways

Arthur – you can spin whatever way you like – but a fact is a fact…

1. The 6th most expensive squad and probably only the 8th highest wage bill = no better than 6th should be our finishing position
2. Injuries DO disrupt a side…and the more you have the more disruption
3. The more disruption you have the more likely you are to lose games to “lesser” teams
4. The more you lose the more your confidence is rocked…
5. The more your confidence is rocked the worse your performances become…
6. The worse your performances become…

If you cant follow that logic then you must be a bit thick…

You also – clearly – have never played any sort of team sport…because you seem to know fuck all about the dynamics of a team, the team game, and how all that has been mentioned affects a team…

Unlike FS – I aint giving you the benefit of the doubt – you are talking out your arse…

Quite frankly your latest posts prove you arent any smarter than Sula et al

Just one point – Arbeloa was better than Finnan – by a fucking country mile…

Learn something about the game and also about Rafas gameplan before spouting uninformed rot…

Fuck me – I am sick and tired of having to listen to brain dead morons…the fucking planet is fucking full of them…

Like I said Arthur, you are more than entitled to your opinion and to question what’s going on. And yes, you’re right the man at the helm has to take the flak for this.

And I’m sure you’ll agree… Rafa is getting far more than his share of that.

The football we are playing at the moment is ponderous and predictable. So predictable that I could give Stoke’s team talk right now…
Hit them really hard with the first few tackles (Especially Torres) but don’t draw a card, hold them out for ten minutes, get in their faces, fight for every ball, wait and hit them on the counter, then start to press, if you score they will folder faster than a deck chair.

And I know Torres won’t be fit for them, but you get my drift, because that’s exactly how every team has played us now for about 2 months and how they will continue to play us until the end of the season.

Same talk at half time… weather the first ten minutes, fight for every ball, hit them hard, don’t draw cards and then go at them.

It’s all got such a horrible inevebilaty about it at the moment. But there is only one way out of it… you do exactly the same to them. You fight for every single ball. They hit you, you hit them harder. You turn it into a dog fight if needs be, and you play shit on a stick football for as long as it takes. A few hard fought close called wins will bring the performances back.

But, and I think this is a bit unfair on you Arthur, because this all happened only because I read about 20 posts in one go and yours was the last before I commented and it was just easier to answer the lot by concentrating on yours…
But you can’t just discount the injuries, nor the bad luck, nor the bad decisions that went against us. They all contributed to the downward cycle that brought us to this.

What really is bothering me is the teams reluctance to fight us out of it. It’s ridiculous. We go out beat the likes of Man U, Everton and Villa away, then go to shit against the likes of Pompey. That’s worrying indeed. It shows something is very wron in the camp.

But to say Benitez has lost them is nonsense. It just doesn’t stand up to proper questioning.

And here’s where I think you’re wrong Arthur, and letting your heart rule your head… Every player in that team has improved under Rafa. Reina has become the top keeper in the league, and one of the best in the world. Mascherano couldn’t get a game for West Ham but has became one of the the best defence central mids in world football. Torres has went from a decent center forward, who the likes of Wenger and Ferguson thought would never be good enough, to probably the best striker in the world. Gerrard has gone from a great player who didn’t know his own best position, and played like, to one of the best attacking mid/second strikers in the world.

Even Carra who ended up playing all over the back four and central mid, became a top top center back who marshalls a defence better than anyone in the league.

And you could go on and on… Kuyt, Benayoun, Lucas, Riera. They all improved under Rafa. But I don’t have to go on. If you look at the players comments, they all credit Rafa for making them better players.

As for the full backs…
Insua is a kid. He’s going to get caught like this while he learns his trade – especially in a struggling defence – but he’s got it. Johnson is the bollacks. Get that lad fit and playing in a firing team, and he’s going to be a great boon to us. I’d go as far as to say, we’d have won the league with him in the side last season.

As for the kids, who had came out of the academy since Gerrard? Warnock, who it now seems was a mistake to sell. But other than him, no one. What have we got now…
Lucas, Insua, NGog, all came through and now are first team/squad players. Mark my words, Pacheco will be next and hopefully it will then become a conveyor belt… players for the squad team, or to make us a good profit to buy established first team players.

But all of this takes time. And every manager – all the greats, Shankly, Paisley, Clough, Revie, Stein, Wenger, Busby, even the tramp, yes every single one of them – has a bad season. But I don’t think any single one of them had to work, and be expected to perform miracles, under the circumstances Rafa is in.

The man is a top top manager. His record proves that, and that is unquestionable. But what we should all be asking is, why these players aren’t doing anything and everything it takes to right the ship?

I have my theory as to why, but I’ll just say… they all need to start putting in the hard work to earn the money that is ruinning them as people.

For once I think that Slur Alex put it best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc9px58Dtoo

I don’t believe it time for our club to sack Rafa but it’s time for the players to stand up for Rafa and show some spirit. If they are not showing any pride and spirit then Rafa needs to resign or show them the fucking door.
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One way or another Rafa needs to take charge and stamp his authority. If there is any comparisons to Geds last season, it was he appeared to have favourites and allowed the team to just bob along in the tide. At the moment that’s what it looks like to me. We’re just about bobbing along in the tide.
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Can it get any worse, well today’s headlines confirm it can. Now is the time for the team to get behind Rafa, or Mr B to stamp his authority on the lads.
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In regards to the atmosphere, I noticed numerous sites claiming the holiday makers have turned Anfield silent. What a load of shit, how many holiday makers would have been able to organise, tickets, travel and accommodation at such a short scheduled game. That partially filled stadium contained locals. Sadly the weather wasn’t kind but it’s getting hard to find an all singer/dancing Kopite in the crowd, likewise it’s getting as rare as a scouse footballer.
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If there every going to move ground, why don’t they move it to an area around the edge of the Mersey, closer to the city.

FS I had heard some rumours from fellow reds that ‘appy ‘arry was in a bit of trouble with the Tax man. Damn sure that you will not hear too much about that in the mainstream media.

It’s like Fergie’s rant at John Motson. Can’t find it anywhere on the net – seriously have a go. Put in a search for Rafa and you get nothing but crap – Rafa’s rant etc.

It really is getting to resemble Orwell’s 1984.

Anyway, as you say, we spend too much time on this and it’s time for beddie byes for me.

The BBC site claims he been charged with Tax Evasion, that’s about it. Apparently tottally caused by Rafa. Rafa’s rants, team selection, tactics, negative buying techniques, caused Harry to avoid tax. Also caused Fungus to Rant, Man City to sack Hughes, snow to fall and cancel most PL games.
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Watch the press twist this. Ps wasn’t the other Harry a fuckwit, Hughes getting sacked from Man City because of draws, well what about the 200 million spent in the last two years, anyone mentioned that. Obviously Rafa’s fault again, will this guy ever learn.

Great last posts FS and LB. Arthur, have a look, what do you think about players who have/have not improved under Rafa ? I will give you Babel but, ito significant players that’s about it. All others mentioned by FS I certainly agree with.

Gaz the Kop was far far better last night and it was full. What was empty was other parts of the ground, but the Kop was full as always and they sang practically the whole game through. I even heard the old songs I hadn’t heard in ages… Every Other Saturday, A Liver Bird Upon My Chest, and for once the songs weren’t sung as if it was a race. I heard Poor Scouser Tommy from start to finish, at the right speed without the stupid hand clapping that the Soccer AM/Sky fans always try to add.

And the Kop sang Rafa’s name even when we was down, and they drowned out booing that was coming from other parts of the ground at the final whistle.

As for Appy Arry it will be reported in the mainstream media. They will have to. But you know how it will go…. Naughty, naughty, loveable cockney rogue, Appy Arry the Spiv with a heart of gold, has got imself into a wee spot of bovver. But are we bovvered. Are we fuck. He’s a boy, a geezer, triffic, a little bit way, a little bit whoa. Good ol Arry!

Oh well, at least they can hang the Fat Spic, eh.

It boggles the mind, and I can only put it down to people letting their frustration get the better of them.

CL Win
Carling Cup Final
FA Cup
CL Final
CL Semi-Final (I’m including it coz its an acievement)
5th, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 2nd

THAT reminds you of Houllier????
If those PL standings had been reversed and Rafa’s finishes had been 2,4,3,3&5, then I could understand where some of the opinions are coming from… but that isn’t the case.

We’ve seen steady progression and we’ve had a fuckin bizarre season (one in which the league leaders are still only 12 points ahead of us??? christ on a stick, there’s been a 12 point gap between 1st and 2nd in previous seasons!)

So stop succumbing to the constant “white noise” that is media criticism of all things Rafa and LFC.

Maybe we win fuck all this season (and yes it would be rather nightmarish to finish outside the Top 4) but maybe, just maybe, we should chalk that up to some bad shellfish and shit-happens.

On the other hand.. buck up little buckaroos and give the man some space to do his job!
We’ve just bagged Maxi, we’ve still to see the best of Aquaman, and maybe a few more impressive names can be brought in before Jan 31… and we claw our way back into things.

And here’s a little nugget of optimism for you all.
We are currently tied with Juve, Inter and Valencia on 3 UEFA Cups each… so if we were to put a run in this season… we’d be the top holders of that trophy!
I can live with that as an achievement!

FS, mate I here you but you have to admit the whole crowd were very subdued, almost silent, it was the worst I can remember all season. However as I said, the weather wasn’t kind.
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Maxi will have to start on Saturday, now we have so many injuries (again). Lots of people giving Aqualani shit, he’s a talented, wonderful player.
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Now here is my junior football coaching take on him. I always explain to kids certain aspects of football/ers. Midfielders are a strange bunch, some are DM other AM. However their all broken up into subgroups from there.
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The names I’m using are one’s kids can understand, eg Burgs.
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1. Thrusters, those like Kake, SG etc, who charge at people, commit them and force them back.
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2. Shufflers, Mash and Lucas, sidewas passers who bring defenders foward, move opposition midfielders out of their normal position.
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3. Sprayers, Aqualani, Alonso, these little chaps are notorious for controlling the ball in the middle of the park, then spraying the ball WIDE. Their not five yard side passers, they change the course of games with the vision, control and passing. However if you don’t have natural wide players, then they appear out of sorts, loose passers and general tardy.
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However as seen by Alonso’s season last year, with the inclusion of Riera, we had width, got behind teams, and scored incessantly.
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Once we get the width sorted out, Aqualani will be a superstar. He played some majestic balls out wide to Benny only to see Benny coming in 15 yards instead of drift out to the by line.
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When Carra went to fullback and started running wide, Aqualani played some beutiful balls. He also has some other attributes, he likes to thrust into the box, he works up and back continually. So before we declare him a 20 million flop, let give him the tools he needs to do the job.
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The very least we should do is give him the time to recover from his major operation.

For fucks sake Arthur will you ‘learn something about the game’!….christ man what are you thinking?? Polarizing year? I wish…. But sure what the fuck would you know Arthur, ‘clearly you’ve never played any team sport’! Honestly….I couldent make it up…

gaz,
I’m slightly concerned about the number of times you used the word “thrusting” in that post.
bit disconcerting

Especially since it’s aimed at the kids, may have to look at my own stategy there.

Wow, this is not the season that I expected coming into it. However even in the preseason tour the team seemed distracted and not getting the results. The season has so far has been disaster flowed by crises and crises followed by disaster. Having said that I do believe the there is less of a difference in the premiership between the top 17 teams then there was last year, but I also believe the team has been lacking heart and desire. I for one can forgive a lack of skill, but I cannot forgive a lack of heart.

When I analyses our season so far here is how I see it.

The Good
LUCAS – The lad puts in yeoman’s work every game
Pepe – has impressed with his shot stopping ability more this season than any other
Ngog –tends to score goals when given the opportunity, does miss some sitters about also puts away half chances

The Bad
Stevie -he is half the player this year that he was last
The last row – as a unit they have been gotten around, over and under this season (I would venture to say Arbie was the biggest lost in the transfer market because none of our current RB/LB are as good defensively)
Mascha – has so many cards this year he should work for hallmark!

Holding Judgment on:
Aquilani – I’m not going to pass judgment to someone getting off the matt until they have a real chance to get their legs from under them.
Rafa – winning the CL in 2005 proved that he could win with inferior talent but the team doesn’t seem to have any ideas in attack

With the news that Johnson, Torres, Stevie and Yosie will be out for an extended period I would imagine that Rafa has no choice but to play the younger players regardless of the situation. We may very miss out on Europe next year, but at least most of our young players will be fully blooded. Even if we are forced to sell in the summer hopefully many of the secondary players will have been in the shopping glass window.

This might be our best 11 for the next couple weeks

————-Pepe—-
Kelly – Carra – Dagger- Insua
Maxi – Alberto – Lucas—Babel
——-Kuyt—Ngog——–

Also last year even in the matches we lost, we seem to create more clear cut chances then this season. Last year or finishing was often frustrating, this year we aren’t getting chances. To butcher the words of a man far wiser then I am “He may miss a lot, but at least he gets in positions to miss”

As for the future I believe that THicks and GG are in the middle of restricting their sports ownership arrangements. I know that GG has sold his stake in the hockey team (for I believe $300,000) and is still involved in stock car racing. Hicks is still involved with the baseball & hockey teams in dallas which has also put on the market. I believe most teams that the pair own loss money and are not marquee teams in the sports. So unfortunately I think they will hang on to their “prize asset” longer then we want. Hopefully they don’t take the penny wise pound foolish approach of selling players to cover losses.

Hey all – hungover and just catching up on some good posts since I was last on:

One post that wasn’t so great however was Kiwi_Mark’s rant #238 towards me. Here are some of the highlights:

1) I must be a “bit thick”

2) I have “clearly never played any sort of team sport…because I seem to know fuck all about the dynamics of a team”

3)I’m “talking out of my arse”

4)I need to “learn something about the game”

5) and finally I’m a “brain dead moron”

I disagreed with nearly everything Mark wrote but I’m not gonna go down the road of insulting him. I know my football, but I’m not here to prove anything to anyone. I’m aware that my view will clash with some here and I have no problem with enagaging with them in a coherent and mature manner. Mark has let down those who are defending Rafa and want him to stay. Just becauase I think Rafa’s time is up does not make me:

a) any less of a Liverpool fan

b) any less knowledgable about football

c) any less intelligent in general

I guess the questions to ask is this: What are we judging Rafa on? This season in isolation or his entire tenure? Because for me his first 5 years considering everything that’s been mentioned on here over and over – for me has been relatively successful. As I said before – from 2004-2009 only Mourinho and Ferguson have been more successful. With our resources I don’t believe any manager would have enabled us to win the league during this time.

This season in isolation has been very poor. The team have underachieved up to now. We are out of all the cups and lay 7th in the league 12 points behind the leaders and 5 points behind 4th place. Of course Rafa is responsible for this. Despite injuries to key players the team/squad is still underachieving. However as FS said, it’s not as if Rafa is not getting his fare share of criticism. He’s getting murdered in the media. While the players escape any kind of flak. Fans excuse the performances of some of these players while I think it’s a disgrace.
Anyway as bad our form is. Is it bad enough that we sack Rafa half way through the season?

Would another manager – a manager that we could realistically attract – get more out of this current squad of players? Not just for the remainder of this season but for the long term?

Live in the real world for the moment.

1) the club can’t afford to sack Rafa and his coaching staff.
2) the club can’t afford to pay compensation to a club to get a top manager away from them.
3) I think it highly unlikely that a top manager would want to operate at a club with no transfer funds and sky high expectations. The notion that top managers will be falling over themselves to manage Liverpool just because we are ‘Liverpool’ is romantic and delusional.

Realistically the type of manager we’d attract is the calibre of Alex Mcleish or Roy Hodgson or some guy from the continent we’ve never heard of. Would this type of manager do a better job at Liverpool than Rafa?

Nothing wrong with Roy Hodgson…

anyway regardless of what I or anyone thinks or wants- Rafa could face the chop if we lose the next two games

Arthur, points b and c could be argued!

Look, I’m not going to be drawn into some daft internet fight again here, but I’ll say this…
Kiwi went over the top, but you know what… when you’re in a dog fight you want lads next to you that are prepared to go over the top.

LFC was actually born out of fighting spirit and fighting spirit is what made it what it is. And fighting spirit is the only thing that is going to get us out of this slump.

It’s not going to be silky flowing football, and it never was even if we had all our ball players available. But because just about everyone of our more creative players is knackered, we need to stand up and fight for the cause even more so now.

Just stop for a minute and consider things with a cool head…
I’m honestly tired of this generation of spoilt gimme-gimme-gimme, I want it and I want it now people. FFS, even as LFC fans, we’ve been spoilt during Rafa’s reign… imagine any other club besides Chelsea and Man U having our recent record. They’d be over the fucking moon.

Sadly though, this generation of footballers are cut from the same cloth as the fans. In fact, with their cosseted luxurious lifstyles they are worse. Well, it’s time for the fuckers to earn their film star lifestyles, pull together, and fight for the people that pay for them and fight for them… and the first one of them they owe, is Rafa.

But as for us “Supporters,” fuck me…. what the fuck has become of us. Not only the whingeing and moaning, but the sheer idiocy of us.

We have a man in charge who’s record doesn’t need defending. He’s a top top man – end of. There is no argument against that. His record stands against anyone’s. But not only that, just look at the reality of what he has achieved at the club while being virtually hamstrung by the owners and continually shot at by the media, and the other managers and their little clique the LMA.

I am genuinely shocked at how such a good decent and succesful man can be treated in such a manner and that doesn’t just go for football. It goes for life itself… It’s not a pretty age we live in.

But that’s another discussion. As for our situation, as I said stop and think…
You really want to throw a League title, European Cup winning manager away, for what… Roy fucking Hodkinson! And Roy Hodkinson working under the direction of H&G!

A decent man Roy, who has done a decent job at mid table level. But manager of LFC, and expected to win the title and the European Cup on 10 bob a season….

Oh dear, the most knowledgable fans indeed.

PS… I said Hodkinson as he is the bookies favourite to get the job. And the name that is most being bandied about.

And Gaz, I wasn’t there the other night. Wish I had been. It’s easy to go to European Cup Finals, but I like to go when the lads most need me. And though it mightn’t have came over on your telly, I have spoken to friends who were there and they told me… it was the best the kop has been in ages. And it makes me think a little dip down the table wouldn’t be a bad thing… clear out the klingons and get the place rocking again.

Roy Hodkinson for Rafa… how the fuck do they say it with a straight face.

Oh dear.

HA! 253 and 254 was posted while I was writing so I never seen them …

Arthur get a grip mate… Roy Hodkinson for Rafa. You’re sounding daft now.

FS – we lost our sense of humour?

If I was looking for a replacement it would be Hiddink or O’Neill

Last word and I’m off…
Gaz you are bang about Aquilani. But you missed something… The way he ghosts into the box. I swear the last time I saw such a type of player in an LFC it was Terry McDermott.

When that lad settles he’s going to be the absolute dogs. The way he glides across the ground is lovely to watch. His movement and touch are fantastic. And for a fella with eyes planted so close together he could be a cyclops, he’s got some vision on him… That lad can pick a pass.

I’m sort of glad Stevie is injured for awhile. Please don’t take that wrong. I love Steven. But I don’t want to see him struggling round the pitch, half crocked – especially when there is a chance we might just see Pacheco in the hole with Aquilani and Masch behind him.

I don’t think Rafa will go with that, as it’s not really the time to be gambling. But we will hopefully see Masch destroying and freeing up Aquilani… I have a feeling that would be something special.

PS… a lot of the humped balls will be cut out as the defence will trust Aquilani to bring it out and build from the back.

Mark my words, this lad is going to be a gem.

You wouldn’t get Hiddink – who I don’t rate as highly as Rafa anyway. And O’Neil… oh dear Arthur, you might want to rethink that one.

Oh well, I’m off and out and about, but here’s the rub…
What reason is Rafa’s head being called for?

Because we are out of the champion’s league and FA Cup, and we are a few points adrift of a top four place…. and that is now expected of an LFC manager?

Well, please tell me the last time this was the expected mark of an LFC manager… oh yeah, that’s right – it’s since Rafa came and returned this club to something resembling it’s old glory days…. 20 fucking years ago!

Myself, I’d just like to thank Rafa for making this the sort of yardstick LFC is judged by again.

It had been a long time since this was expected of any Liverpool side, but how short some people’s memories are, eh.

apparently in todays press conference rafa came out with a sheet of paper and read from it and goes – its a fact that we havent been playing well…

happy to see him fooling arnd a bit – he needs that to not go totally insane.

YNWA