Got everything crossed for Thursday! Aquaman should definitely start.

FUCKIN OUTSTANDING BLOG OF THE SEASON!

Excellent blog!!!! “….we’ve got a European game to focus on this week so I’ll get back to you on Friday.” That’s classic!

Great stuff Gerry, you summed it up well. Finggers crossed for Thursday.
YNWA.

The blog’s a lot better than the quality of the first 4 comments hahah.

There’s no reason why shouldn’t beat Athletico. they are a decent team but no more than that. There strikers are useful though. I fancy a 2-0 win and I think a certain Stevie G will get both.

Great blog Gerry

Havent commented in a while but as always have been an avid reader

Some comments from Rafa suggesting an important role for Aquaman for the rest of the season

Seems our bleak season is setting up a certain young twittering Ryan to make a big impact in the next few games. With all his competition in hospital lets hope Ryan “why not just kick it through the keeper?” Babel steps up the the plate he has been craving for since he got here.

I think he can

also Gerrard due a few hat-tricks to boot

as always Gerry the faith is kept

Over and out

Pretty much premature for the Scum press to label Aqua failure of the season. I never realized, so are new players only to be used and assessed for one season and then discarded?

Fucking short sighted pricks, the whole lot of them.

As Gerry has said brilliantly, unlike those lot, we’ve got a Euro game to focus on.

So let’s go all out against Atletico with whatever players we got left, 200% effort.

Then we worry about the dilemma on Sunday, which will require a highly unlikely scenario in Saturday of: City vs Villa drawing and Spurs drawing Bolton.

Regardless, I’m sure Rafa will ask his players to give whatever strength they have left (after Atletico) against the Chavs. If we lose, then so be it, but at least they will show the fans they have given their best for the last home game.

And rather than a dilemma, I’d like to see this as a “win-win” scenario for us, where we either boost our slim chances for 4th, or the Scum will be denied their no.19.

Getting a ticket to Hamburg on Thursday night will definitely soften that blow some bit.

Guys,

Let’s take it one game at a time first. It’s better for the heart anyway.

Here’s to another great performance to whip Athletico! Gerrard looks to be in some form finally

Everything to play for against Athletico a Europa final beckons and our 12th European trophy and a successful end to the season.
As for the Chavs lets win it for G.Nipple who hates scousers or that horrible bullying c*nt Taggart who apparently has never heard their fans mocking the dead of Hillsborough or Heysel ,they dont really mean it when they sing “you scouse b***ards” at every home game.
As for professional pride and all that,well where was it at Portsmouth.
YNWA

Fuck professional pride. I hope Rafa sends out the ressies against the chavs. In fact my mate just sent me this text:

Liverpool have just announced their side to face Chelsea for this weekends vital premier league clash: 1 Ken Dodd, 2 Cilla Black, 3 Bob Carolgees, 4 Michael Sheilds, 5 Jimmy Corkhill, 6 Derek Hatton, 7 Mimi Maguire, 8 Holly Johnson, 9 Sinbad the window cleaner, 10 Spit the Dog, and of course 11 Lucas.

I truly hope the chav’s beat us on sunday, i would love to see as LB gently puts it, the ressies against them, then when the final whistle goes i hope everyone in the ground stand’s up and starts chanting “champions”, the mancs fuckin hate us so lets give them something to hate us for.
Cracking blog Gerry.

Fuck, could you imagine Taggart’s face if we put out the ressies against the chavs?

I know that I can and it would more than soften the blow of not being in the CL.

Thanks for the blog Gerry.

#10 What? LB, how dare you not include Gerry or FS in the squad list!? In fact, I should be central midfielder besides Lucas, since everyone will be blaming Lucas anyway, so I don’t mind partnering him.

For all our luck this season, Gerry might just bag a hat trick with the help of some beach balls and Taggart will be wanking in Cloud Nine.

Anyway, let alone the ressies, I’m sure even the main 11 would be too knackered after the Atletico game to even put up a fight against the Chavs, who have no Euro game.

Now I’ve been completely fucked up in this fucked up season, I’m actually taking joy in expecting us to lose.

Another good one on Rafa’s spending from PT:

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/04/transfer-tosh/

Outragrageous disallowed winner in the 90th minute for Barca.
No fuckin way was that handball! The lad had his arm pressed into his chest and never moved it as the Inter defender kicked it into him!

Interesting for people to keep in mind though… that even the invincible, majestic football of Messi and Barca… has trouble breaking down a team who parks the bus for 90 minutes!

Watchin it with the wife and it felt like games we’ve been watching all season…

i felt for Barca…

What a fuckin tragedy for football watching that shite qualify for the final, i thought i’d seen it all with Italian gamesmanship but tonight Inter took it to another level.
To be honest i think that the two biggest cloggers in the C/L that are in the final is a travesty, i thought this season could’nt get any lower for me personally but tonight put the lid on it, oh well time for bed said zeppity.

Gerry, just how many Rolf Harris records have you got?

Great blog as usual.

Q. What do you call a woman with two cunts?

A. Mrs Neville!

LB, is it really you’re considered opinion that Lucas should get a place in that starting line-up ahead of Lilly Savage?

Personally I thought it was brilliant coaching from Mourinho in both legs. Last week Inter completely destroyed Barca with their physical game. Looks like Mourinho has created another Chelsea from their title-winning years. It’s not always pretty to look at, but it certainly is effective to break down even the most skilled teams in terms of passing and movement.

There’s no doubt Barca have the quality amongst their players to defeat any team, but I don’t think Guardiola is on the same level as Mourinho yet in terms of tactical knowledge. You could see Barca had no plan b at all tonight. All they did was pass the ball around and around and around. To slow and easy to defend against for a team like Inter. The italians (in fact, there were no italians on the pitch tonight) also had to play with ten men for most of the game.

I think Inter deserve their place in the final and it’s also nice to see some new teams there. It would be dull to see Barca there every year, not so mention the one-man team from Manchester.
The only one I felt sorry for tonight was Ibrahimovic, a magnificent player who got absolutely nothing to work with against Inter. Sometimes I wonder why they bought him, because the way Barca play certainly isn’t to his strengths.

More importantly, however, I’m looking forward to some real football tomorrow evening with the Kop scaring the hell out of Atletico Madrid. Our defence will have one hell of a job to keep the sheet clean, but I do fancy our chances to grab a couple of goals. Let’s go for Hamburg!

Loved your blog Gerry.
Up to yesterday, I was in the ‘fuck whoever wins the EPL, we must still try & win all our games’ camp. I mean, it is the Chavs & I love beating them almost as much as sticking it to the Mancs. However, as you guys mention, the thought of that gum-chewing purple-nose twat (trying to) jump up & down, pumping his fist & celebrating the title is too much to bear. As for Nipple? Well, fuck me. Horrible fucking twat, & ugly as fuck as well. Pity the Manc game is played after ours – it would have been nice to see them lose & then us beat Chel$ki – and Anfield joining in with the Chav fans singing ‘Champions’. It hurts me typing/saying this, by the way.
Not happy reading the below article. Fuck sakes Mr. Charmain (& Purslow), get your act together!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article7111103.ece

Mourinho will get credit for tactics etc from last night’s game. And Aitch you are right it is difficult even for a great team to break down a bus parker. Especially when the bus parkers are full of international class players. However saying all of that I don’t think Barca played to their level. I have seen them play against bus parkers and still come out winning 3-0. Their passing was too slow which is something I criticise us for. You need quick passing and a few players that can dribble past defenders to take one or 2 men out of the game. That’s where they missed Iniesta, and Messi wasn’t at his best. But they still should have won and were robbed imo. I was gutted coz I badly wanted Mourinho to get beat! What about Pique’s finish eh?

Its our turn tonight. I’ll be watching from behind my sofa.

How ironic that Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder, both deemed surplus to requirements by Real as they go about splashing the GDP equivalent of entire 2nd and 3rd World countries in order to strengthen their squad, will now both return to the Bernabeu for their respective sides for the final on May 22nd.

Though if I were a Real fan, I’d rather see discarded ex-players return than having to stomach the sickening possibility of bitter rivals Barca winning in my own home ground. Real fans have to owe it to the “Special Needs One” for the avoidance of this potential embarrassment.

Bayern currently have won the European Cup 4 times. Good luck to Bayern on winning one more time and getting to keep the trophy for themselves for good, just like us in 2005.

Good luk to TimmyT and the gang going over to see the Reds tonight. I reckon this is a pivotal (another) game for us and Rafa.
I’m not confident either but then again I was the same way for the Benfica game. The one BIG difference is Torres out for us.
They are gonna be better tonight with kun Aguero back … if we let them.
I still think if, (and it’s a big bloody if, as gerry said, he’s given up on seeing a great performance), if we play to (near) our potential we can win this one and progress. But it’s gonna take Stevie putting his big game goggles on, babel focussing, Benny getting involved, Glenda making big confident moves and dare I say it something unexpected like another Lucas goal or something from a set piece … Special K ?

Also Forlan’s jammy goal karma against us has gotta be used up at this stage eh !

Poetry over, kid has pulled over a catcus plant on herself …. later !

Barca did my head in last night. They are a terrific side most of the time but clearly they don’t believe in the value of having a plan B!
Don’t get me wrong, they woz wobbed and should have had a penalty in the first half and had a perfectly good goal disallowed in the second but it was clear from early on that there game plan wasn’t working out as planned and needed to be adjusted.
Their passing and build up play was extremely slow and Inter Melon even with only ten men had all the time in the world to get themselves in good positions before the ball got anywhere near their box.
The two things that annoyed me most about Barca was the fact that they were playing against ten men for most of the game and the best way to take advantage of that situation is to get the ball wide and get behind them but they just weren’t doing that effectively.
If only they had a really world class wide man someone like ..eh, let’s say that Argentina guy Messi for example, oh hang on a sec! Jaysus what was Guardiola thinking? Messi was obviously having little impact in the centre so why the hell didn’t he move him out to his favoured position on the right where he could have really got at the inter defence and might have even got them a penalty or two. Un-fucking-believable!
The other thing that really annoyed me was that complete tit Dani Alves, does he even understand what it means to be in an offside position? What a fucking idiot! To think we almost signed that moron, I’d have our Glenda ahead of him any day of the week.

Gerry, Great blog, as always.

Sachem. Thanks for the PT Article. Great write-up. Am asking my son to place an order for three of his books.

Rafalution: The articles about Rafa not being asked to commit his future to Anfield is all over the English Press: Guardian, Independent, Times and yes, even The S*n. Pity the new Chairman and MD has not nailed down that report linking Rafa to Juve.

Jimmy Tarbuck, Les Dennis, Tom O’Connor and John Prescott have been called up for Sunday!.The nightmare scenario is to lose V Atletico and beat the Chavs.Would of loved to have seen Porto and Valencia play each other over 2 legs in ’04.Who would have won?.
No away goal could prove costly for the Reds.

Donal: I shall be at the Cobra club at 3am tonight. John and Norman will be there as usual as will at least 70 other fans.
BTW I am planning for a holiday in Ireland, 6-7 days. Any ideas where to go? I have a supplier located in Cork. Is that a place to go to?
Please e-mail directly to me: [email protected]. Say hi to T.Thanks, mate!

Frankly, given the fact we have to win our next two games, I don’t give a toss who wins the PL. Mind you , between Cheski and Manure, I prefer Chelsji to win. Manure is, well, just shitty.You know what I mean.
We need to win our two games and hope to heavens that Man Shitty and Spurs and Villa slips up. Everything is possible. Walk on, with hope in your heart..

Gerry I dont think I’ve seen Alvez play as bad as that. Would still love him in our side!

Bang on as regards Alves Ger. I called it after the confederations cup last year. I was stunned and still am at how over-rated he is. He cant cross his legs, his passing and decision making are shocking and he’s wanker to boot – never shuts his fucken mouth. Man did we dodge a bullet there. One I’ll always thank Rick for. Nervous about tonight. Outside Stevie its hard to see where our goals will come from. In the name of all thats logical Aquilani must start?

Couldn’t disagree with you more Digger. I think Alves is a wicked player!

I just looked it up and found out Alves has 14 assists this season. Not bad for a player whose decision making is poor and couldn’t cross his legs. Lol.

Xavi has 14 assists as well and Messi has 10 assists this season. You guys are sounding like the Sky Sports panel!

I’d take Glen over Alvez, dont think he’s as good going forward but offers a lot more in defence.
I’d hate for us to be the cause of united winning the league! But if city beat villa on saturday fourth is gone so i’ll wait til that game before i make a call in if i want us to beat chelsea or not!!
As for tonight, i agree with digger, just cant see where the goals will come from, if they score one, really cant see us getting 3. Extra time and penalties is my prediction, with pepe to save 3, cos again, dont know who would take ours!! Actually, who would you have taking our 5 pens tonight if it came to it? Mine are
Gerrard
Masch
Agger
Glen
Aqua

LB, did u see the stats for Johnson for this season in the PT article, awesome!

All competitions: Cristiano Ronaldo has 7 assists, Kaka 7 assists. Frank Ribery has 6 assists, Arjen Robben 7 assists.

Assists:
Antonio Valencia 8
Rooney 6
Gerrard 9
Lampard 14
Malouda 12
Fabregas 16

Looks like Alves (one of my favourite players hence the rant) has done alright in the crossing and decision making. I’ll leave it alone now.

Actually I won’t leave it alone. Alves has 99 assists in his 370 game club career. That’s an assists every 3.7 games. For a right back this is incredible. He consistently dribbles past defenders and can scored from set pieces hence his 26 goals in his club career and 3 goals for Brazil. Glenda has 20 assists in his 220 game club career. That’s an assist every 11 games.

If we had Alves last season we’d have won the league title. He was Rafa’s best spot in my opinion and I curse Rick Parry for fucking it up.

Glenda hasn’t really done anything in his career yet. He has great potential but has achieved fuck all really.

Those are good stats for Alvez, LB. I haven’t seen too much of him but he was shit last night for sure.

Which was the last team to beat Barca on their turf in Champions League??

I’m delighted with the signing of Jonjo Shelvey. I mean the guy has bags of experience for an 18 year old and he obviously has great leadership ability being a former captain of the Starship Enterprise. Beam me up Rafa!

Harsh Gerry! Isn’t he in the Ingerland u/20 side? And I think the PL sides are under pressure to sign ‘local’ lads. Don’t know much about Jonjo (where the fuck do these mothers get these names from?) but the Arse & Chelsea were after him as well. Just hope he performs for Rafa’s sake, otherwise another stick (signing) to beat him with
Also heard Maureen saying “I’ll definetly be with Inter next season” – so those ‘fans’ wanting the prima donna showboating prick to be the manager next season – sorry for you!

Guys,

Check this one out.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/7647090/Ryan-Babel-blames-outside-influences-for-his-mistakes-at-Liverpool.html

I’m glad Babel now knows how to ignore the press.

I see on the main site there is a pic of the lads training at Melwood today. Deadly Dirk is running with the lads, so maybe he is fit to play?
No idea what the line-up will be tonight, but like Digger, I’d like to see Aqua start and maybe even Babel up front. Atleti aren’t ‘supposed’ to be good defensively & hopefully won’t see them parking the bus, but I defo think a bit of pace is required through the middle – which Ngog & Dirk can’t really offer.

Great blog as always Gerry,an oasis in the desert of madness that is the forums surrounding Liverpool at the moment,

Quitley confident about tomights game as I feel with the crowd behind the team its going to be another special european night for us,

Unsure what to do about sundays game – I suppose if we are out of it come Sat – I’d hope for us to field alot of younsters,

Not being in the CL next year might be a blessing in disguise for us – we could go on a serious shot at the league – didn’t we mostly play poorly after a CL game

Yep Gerry, last night he was shite no doubt.

Not sure Kuyt will be fit. He trained but didn’t take part in all sessions. I saw a clip on sly sports news and he didn’t look comfortable to me.

Reina
Johnson, Carra, Kyg, Agger
El Zahr, Gerrard, Mascherano, Benayoun
Aquilani
Babel

Could be a huge/great night for Babel – I know, I know, it probably wont happen. Anyway I think we’ll score but I’d seriously worry if they got an away goal

On the whole Alves debate – I’d rather have Maicon in my team any day

Maicon keeps Alves on the Brazil bench mostly. I reckon pound for pound Maicon is the best right back in the world.

My Team …

Reina

Jhonson
Carra
Agger
Masch

Gerrard
Lucas
Aquaman
Benny

Babel
Kuyt

————————-
Remember, you saw this team here first

looking forward to another special night hopefully we can score early to get the place rocking and build from there. come on reds give us all something to smile about for a couple of weeks this season. YNWA

knight-#25 Cork is a great place to go to anywhere in the west of Ireland is smashing. Galway, Kerry, Clare, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal all beautiful and great craic.
who knows if we dont get 4th you could be all coming over next may with the Europa league final Dublin!
My rates are very reasonable by the way (rooms that is)

Kuyt, Dagger, and Aqua all in the starting line-up with wash’n'go on the bench. Whether they are all 100%, we will see very soon.

Probably the strongest starting 11 that we had. Here’s both lineups in full.

Liverpool: Reina, Mascherano, Carragher, Agger, Johnson, Gerrard, Lucas, Benayoun, Aquilani, Babel, Kuyt.
Subs: Cavalieri, Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Degen, El Zhar, Ayala, Pacheco.

Atletico Madrid: De Gea, Valera, Dominguez, Perea, Antonio Lopez, Reyes, Paulo Assuncao, Raul Garcia, Simao, Aguero, Forlan.
Subs: Sergio Asenjo, Camacho, Jurado, Salvio, Juanito, Ujfalusi, Cabrera.
Referee: Terje Hauge (Norway)

Spot on Dizzy! Or are you Rafa in disguise?

Top man Gerry post 41 is the funniest thing i’ve heard in ages

Aaaaaaaaargh!!!! So close for us! Good effort by the lads, unfortunately once we needed someone to change the game from the bench, all Rafa could call on were inexperienced youngsters.

With the benefit of hindsight, I just wish we had the will to resolve this tie before extra time, because obviously we had no legs to play on after 100 minutes of fighting.

A superb goal by Aquaman though! What a flop indeed.

AM deserved it IMHO. When the chips were down they put in the effort and looked the better team when it mattered.

Gutted!

I’m gutted to say the least, to lose in extra time, but such things happen. The stupid press will have things to say.

Time to get some ear plugs and impose some red biased censorship

I blame Johnson for that stupid error that allowed that Forlorn cunt to score. Sometimes the margin between winning and losing comes down to these.

That said, I cannot blame Johnson entirely, given the depleted squad we had, it was amazing we even managed to score 2 goals.

Once again I have no complaints about the ref today.

RAFA, JUST TREAT SUNDAY’S GAME LIKE A TRAINING MATCH WHERE THE RESULTS DON’T MATTER.

And I’m pretty sure Rafa will tell Juve to piss off, for he has a great team to in progress that seriously needs rebuilding. (With whatever cash he can get)

WE’LL BE BACK NEXT SEASON, ALL YOU MEDIA MUPPETS, JUST YOU WATCH. YNWA.

The ref did AM a favor when he did not red card their central defender for the punch at Kuyt. It would have made for an interesting final 20 minutes of extra time.

Good effort, we huffed and puffed but at the end of the day we lacked quality in the final third. Big fuck up from Johnson for their goal. Summed up our season.

Put simply we just have too many players who ain’t good enough. In the first half Aquilani looked really good but once he tired in the 2nd half we looked like an ordinary outfit.

Good luck to Fulham in the final.

agreed we huffed and puffed but weren’t good enough but fulham were good enough why? money? owners? players? manager?the coach made the most of what he had and improved them we could do alot worse.

Much sadness!

We started brightly … but once again spent much of the 2nd half, sort of searching around for the off button… and about 2 minutes after we scored our 2nd, we found it and switched off.

The 2st half was as good as I’ve seen us play this season. Some lovely interchanges… nice little rotating triangles and some creative runs…
but we are too static when it counts… not enough diagonal runs and such over the 90 mins.

Atleti didn’t exactly just sit back and defend their lead, so I reckon we have to hold our hands up and say they did just enough to deserve it over the 2 legs.

Fuckin gutted, but there you go.
Hope Fulham beat them. (not because Atleti beat us… would just like to see Fulham do it and Danny the Smurph get a medal!)

Wasnt a bad performance. Played some nice one touch football and could have had a few, especially that 5-6 one touch passes before masch put a cross in for kuyt.

I do think we are on the way up. Considering today we had another make shift defence (masch and glenda at LB).

Aqua looks quality, cant wait to see him in full flight.

LB you mean Masch. He was playing Right back and didnt track Forlan at the back post.

Clearly all us LFC fans broke mirrors, killed black cats or were just downright naughty boys and girls last summer because, fuck me!, we’ve had no luck this season!!

heartbreaking really – getting into the winning position only to throw it away. But I was worried from the start – had a feeling in my waters that we’d need to score three and it proved to be the case. In my opinion, this tie was lost over in Madrid – losing 1-0 away is such a dangerous scoreline and given our lack of quality from the bench this was always going to be a tough task.

Spurs beating Bolton on Saturday will mean we can cheer Chelsea on all the way

Not sure taking off Mascherano was such a hot idea – in my eyes Lucas was on his knees with exhaustion and he surely was the one that needed to come off. Anyway such are the risks of being a manager I guess

Akka: No he doesn’t he means Glenda for letting the player get the cross in, in the first place.

What winds me up is we did do enough to go through, we scored a perfectly good goal in the first leg that was incorrectly ruled offside.

I’m not a Rafa basher as you all know but I’m going to have a little moan now…Why o Why o Why did he bring Phillip Degan on? What did Rafa think Degan was going to do based on previous evidence? I’m furious. Seeing Degan brings out the same feelings as when I used to see Voronin anywhere near the stadium…sheer rage. I’d rather have Phil Neal or Stevie Nichol as the back up right back rather than Degan.

Glenda wasn’t solely to blame. There were only two strikers and 4 defenders in the box yet nobody was marking Forlan. Terrible defending.
AM on paper actually have a very very talented squad. Lots of creative attacking players and it suprises me they are struggling in the spanish league.
The boys on the whole did well and should be commended. Aqua scored a sweet goal and showed the things to come next season. Hopefully they can add some more quality and charge next season.
Fourth seems too distant so would not mind Chelsea taking the game on Sunday.

Kenny 64, my feelings exactly when I saw Deegan being warmed up, I thought “fu*k it Rafa you’ve lot the plot here” … Then again when he came on I thought … well maybe.
We needed a goal, Mascher, who I thought was brilliant, was not going to to create anything whereas that is really the only quality Deegan has. He is comfortable on the ball and has pace, loves going forward and will give things a go. So, in retrospect, I now think Rafa was right!

Unfortunately it didn’t work. They gave it a right go but had nothing left at the end. One error punished, that’s football eh ! Great game and really enjoyable to watch. I thought both teams could have won it but I did think they were technically better and more consistent. Still and all they really did not threaten us for the second half or extra time. One bad passage of play that’s all it took.
Bummer.

How is that gonna play in Rafa’s mind. This is as bad as it has ever been …

I was convinced we needed 3 goals. When I saw Pacheco taking off his tracksuit I was encouraged. But then Benny scored and I just knew Rafa would tell him to put his tracky back on again and sit his arse back on the bench. I said to my mate “I bet Atletico score and then Rafa sends Pacheco back on with 2 mins left or something”. Well Atletico did score but to my horror I saw Degan putting in his shin pads! I went into a histerical laughter. It wasn’t funny but it was all I could do to stop myself going into complete and utter despair!!

El Zhar coming on pissed me off as well. What on earth was he going to do? Exactly what he did do – fuck all. As far as I’m concerned Pacheco is supposed to be the hottest prospect in our reserve/youth set up yet the likes of fucking Degan and El Zhar get the nod before him.

Gerrard went into hiding – again. Is he past it? It looked to me like ‘lesser’ players wanted the ball more last night especially in the latter part of the 2nd half and extra time.

Like all of you, I’m gutted. Woke up this am with that terrible feeling of ‘something terrible has happened to me’, and then I remembered the game.
I enjoyed the game – at times – and it was reminiscent of the days of Barnes, Beardsley etc when we knocked the ball around before setting up Kuyt (who IMO had a crap game & should have stuck that one away). Talking about individuals, Lucas (yes, that topic again) is looking better & more composed with each game. That is 2 brilliant assists in 2 games, despite playing as a defensive midfielder. I didn’t realise it, but according to the commentator, he has the most successful pass ratio (I think that is what he said?) in the EPL this season? Fecking crap player eh? So what is most of those passes are sideways, the fact remains…!
And Rafa can’t win. There is a Prick here on Supersport who said after the game: ‘Why didn’t Benitez bring on Degen earlier? He is great going forward…blah blah blah’. This same ‘expert’ was saying earlier in the season that Degen was crap & an example of Rafa’s poor buying. Fuck me, our manager can’t get anything correct.
For the record KDLFCL, I was also dismayed when I saw him coming on, but then again, there weren’t too many options for Rafa to chose from.

LB post 67

couldn’t agree with you more. gerrard preformance was typical of the season he has had. i dont think hes past it but he looks like hes sulking in nearly every game now. the match really highlighted our limited squad depth

fair play to the team in general though they couldnt have given more. to me gerrard and babel were the most dissappointing on the night. dont want to be too harsh on johnson cause i thought he was solid despite his one mistake.

hope we play the under 12 side against chelsea. we’ll never hear the end of it if united get their 19th.

If The Reds win on Sunday, it will be curtains for Rafa.How much did that Atletico side cost?.Why does Forlan find it so easy to score V the Reds?.Atl are ninth in LA Liga, shows how far off the pace LFCM is.
Zamora forced himself to play for Fulham, Torres wants to be fit for the world cup.That is 4 games he has missed V his former club.If there is a £100 mill offer for him, grab it.He will be poleaxed after the WC.
Looks as if a lot of player holidays will have to be cancelled.When does pre-season start?.June 13?. Can’t keep a clean sheet, lack of fitness.Bring Pako A back, Rafa has yet to win a trophy without him.

Lads – I’m hearing a lot of tittle tattle about Stevie G, his missus and a 16 year old….

Is there any truth in this??? any scousers heard about this?

Sounds like bullshit – but by jesus if it’s true – the press will have a field day

I’m down like everyone here.I think this season should be forgotten and try to rebuild the squad for next season.A lot of changes needs to be made.The likes of Babel,Insua,Kuyt and dare I say it even Johnson should not be our automatic first choise.Honestly i’m not convinced at all by Glend.For me he is one of the many reasons of our downfall this season.
I’ve heard a lot of critics on this site and other as well about Lucas, but honestly for me he is one of the rare positive of the season.
On yesterday match i think Atl madrid deserve it.All the players gave 100%, bare Babel.No complain even toward Rafa.

Really I’m glad we didn’t make it, it would have been an away game, so we probably would have went there for a draw.
.
It has been a train wreck of a season, and one to forget, Rafa’s cautious nature combined with the American spending regime, was never destined to work.
.
There writing was on the wall in pre-season and has remained ever since. I said long ago 6th was our position, and althought I still hope I’m wrong, it’s looking close.
.
I feel for Rafa because he seems genuine but he’s not going to get any money and thats a realistic thought. Look at the type of player we’re looking at, young into the academy type players, that tells you we’re skint. Good luck to Jonjo.
.
Anyway we haven’t been good enough all season, it’s only heart that got us this far. Sadly though that LFC heart for which this club is famous seems to be a week to week proposition. What happened to that squad, that club, that passion, that pride, it was always there week in week out, even lads in the bad times, more so then that ever.
.
Stevie looked like a dead man walking to his hanging, somethings amiss. Anyway rant over, what do you lads think. Burgs it’s not an open invitation but give it what it deserves.

Super blog there Gerry.Tell the mancs shove it.

Just got back from match today.Still sick in the stomach.Te night begined so well.Got a ticket for 205 in the KOP bang smack in the middle and it was bouncing.The atmosphere was top notch and thats because of the AM bunch too,the added to it.

First half we were decent.Stevie wasinvolved a lot with Aqualini who took his goal very well.The back four were solid and particularly Mashcerano who was excellent.His tussell with Aguero throughout the match was brilliant.Also when he almost sent Forlan over the advertising boarding in the first few minutes.World class player.

Johnson`s mistake was eventually the one that cost us.We were solid other than that and had reduced them to shots from distance.We just got stung and at the time i was just saying to my mate we were sitting a bit deep after going two up and BANG!

The former manc sticks it in.

Author you mentioned breaking mirrors and killing black cats well last night only a few minutes into the game a feckin Magpie landed right in the 18 yard box in front of the KOP and stayed there for the entire game.Make of that what you will.

Can`t wait for this season to end now.Had my flights booked for hamburg and all but i got them on the cheap so its not that bad.

As for sunday,i don`t know what to think.One minute i`m saying fuck them mancs and send out the younguns,then i find myself saying have we reduced ourselves to this?Throwing games so they don`t win stuff?We call our neigbours the bitters are we the mancs bitters now?
I`m thinking,what would Shanks our Bob have made of this talk of throwing games?

Thoughts boys?

The simple fact is that hating the Mancs is a Fan thing… not a player thing.
Yes Jamie C and Gary Nipple fuckin hate each other’s guts… as they probably should…but beyond that… they share a glass at player functions.
I doubt Rafa cares for Fungus too much, due his media bullshit but there won’t be any “throwing games” because of it.

The 120 minutes means the lads will be shagged. Stevie, Kuyt, Masch, Aquilani and maybe even Johnson all looked completely shagged after the 90 minutes… let alone the 120… JC was bending down holding and rubbing his calfs in the final few minutes…and they’ve all only had 2 days rest whereas the Chavs had all week to prepare…
so it is gonna be interesting to see the line-up against the Chavs… and how much of a contribution those players make… or how much of a game we can make of it… so you’d have to fancy the Chavs even if we went for it really.

Rafa saying we need 5 players is quite telling, I think. (and I think he means 5 World Class players… not 5 wheeled and dealed, bargain basement buys!)
Compare that to last summer when he was talking 1 or 2.

Ya lastnight Aitch when we scored the second everone ofthe players went mental except Carra and me mate pointed out too me

“Look at Carra,hewasn`t celebrating,he`s around too long to know the games far from over”

so i replied “Na bud he`s shagged!”

And Aitch,Rafa knows we need considerable strenghthening of the squad,was it an ultimatum?

His “we`ve become a company in last 2 to 3 years” was his way saying “those two decieving bastards have fecked us from all angles the last 2 to 3 years”

Timmy
I thought 1 for sorrow when i saw the magpie,and thats how it turned out.
Overall Bennys away goal been disallowed is why we aint in the final and i think Barca was also a victim of the officials mistakes which is why they didnt make the CL final. But after this years ref performances ive come to expect it the League cup final been one example, its had it all from the Henry handball to a f*cking beachball.
For the last few months whenever we score i’ve expected the goal to be disallowed, its actually stopping me from immediately celebrating as the ball hits the net, which makes me look a right miserable c*nt.

PS While all the attention is on us and the Chavs i think the more obvious suspects are Sunderland and their cosy arrangements with the Mancs.
YNWA

PPS
Did Athletico deserve it ? well after last weeks diving,timewasting,gamesmanship or in other words CHEATING, and the fact Benny actually scored our away goal.
Did they f*ck deserve it.

Said it before and will say it again, go out and play our hearts out for our pride, supporters, honour, Rafa, our history. Go out and beat the Chavs. I don’t want to end this miserable mess of a season with 2 defeats at home.
I couldn’t give a flying fu*k about what Manure do or what Steve Bruce doesn’t do. It’s got nothing to do with us. We are Liverpool and we play to win.
The players and most particularly the captain owe the supporters. Where is their pride ???? Let’s see it now boys. Bin the excuses and mash the Chavs.

Ok – we did “beat” AM but it didn’t feel like it.

rome, I know exactly what you mean.
I still leap off the couch with my arms thrust skyward and yell “YES” in a manner that scares the cat into the other room (he’s very concerned with this recurring turrets-like seizure he witnesses) …BUT… the whole time, I’m looking at the screen to see if the players’ shoulders drop and the celebrations end.

But ce-la-vie.
You just knew going into this game…
1. we’d have a disallowed goal
2. Atleti would get an away goal, and
3. It would be Forlan that scored it.

I’m concerned we didn’t get through… and that our League position is what it is… but I’m alarmingly less concerned with that… than with what is to come for us over the next 3-4 months.

I’m not an insider, but what I’ve been able to gather from much media trawling is…

People are making hey out of the idea that Broughton hasn’t met with Rafa yet.
But what would be the point?
Broughton isn’t going to be his boss for long. As soon as he’s found a buyer, he’s gone… so what’s the point in him having talks about “the future” … when as far as Broughton is concerned the future is a sale… and one that best suits G&H at that!

And G&H aren’t likely to provide a dime in transfer funds if they’re looking to sell… so there’ll be no talks with them on “the future” (Rafa’s or the players’, or the club’s) which means that until the sale happens, Rafa has free-transfers and money made from player sales to deal with.
… and we need FIVE players????
NICE!

Seems to me, Rafa and the team (and the individual players) are in limbo until a buyer steps in. (which sort of puts Juve in a very nice negotiating place dunnit?)
He probably can’t even start blowing out the players he’s unhappy with… and I suspect he’s unhappy with quite a few.

“…The days are getting darker, the nights are getting long…”

So Spurs beat Bolton 1-0 and Man.City beat Aston Villa 3-1…… hmmmmm

That means we need to beat Chelsea tomorrow and Hull on the final day, while Man.City and Spurs draw on Wednesaday night and then both lose on the final day, yeah?

Only joking. Even I realise 4th place is gone now. Question is: Is Rafa going as well? The main site certainly isn’t dismissing the idea!

6th is were we will finish and thats where we deserve to be, its been on the cards for months but sure what would us “traitors” know?.fact is we’ve come to the end of the season and we are no further along then when roy evens left so where does the club go from here?

Well tell us Guiness, where does the club go from here ?

Guinnessdrinker
“where does the club go from here?” With G&H as our owners the same as the last two years, stood still. Only difference is our competition have moved forward.
YNWA

1 CL Win
1 CL Final
1 CL Semi-Finals
1 CL Quater Finals
1 Europa Semi Final
1 FA Cup
1 Carling Final

Now I admit I’m not an encyclopedia of football knowledge, but I’m pretty fuckin sure we didn’t do any of that under Roy Evans or his predecessor Graeme Souness!

I can’t imagine anyone in here would think this season hasn’t been an unmittigated series of disasters, from 10 minutes into the Spurs game, until Forlan banged in his goal on Thursday.
And I can’t imagine anyone is happy about where we finished this season… or the manner in which we got here… but suggesting a simple one faceted reason for it, ignores all the facts.

As for where we go from here… well that is to be determined (and unfortunately he has 6 months to make that determination) largely by Mr. Broughton, I should think!

Let me rephrase that… “didn’t do all of that”
Roy had a CC win and Souey had an FA win… and that was it.

Roy’s League finishes were respectable, but Souey’s were not.

I think comparison’s are fine… but you have to take all things into account… and make fair comparisons.

Here we go again,

http://www.imscouting.com/global-news-article/DIC-close-in-on-500m-takeover-of-Liverpool/7461/

could this be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, i wont hold my breath.

Aitch,

These people have already bought into the media propaganda. I’ve realised it’s no use trying to educate them. They’ll just say we’re using those 2 American idiots as excuses for the bad results this season. They won’t listen to other reason, except saying what the press has been drumming the entire season, that we’re going nowhere, we’ve regressed.

No one considers the achievements in the last 6 years. The “fans” are taking for granted that we’ll reach the top 4 every season with the team we’ve got, and it’s Rafa and Rafa alone that has screwed us up this season.

I’ve given up on them now.

The way that I look at this season is:-
we got a lot of bad luck and it’s all done in one season.
next season will be a good one with all the luck in the world.
Rafa is still with us and he will stay.
the Reds are still my team.

Liverpool: Reina, Mascherano, Agger, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Gerrard, Lucas, Aquilani, Maxi, Benayoun, Kuyt. Subs: Cavalieri, Babel, Pacheco, Ngog, El Zhar, Degen, Ayala.

Anyone know what happened to Johnson?

What logo have we got on our shirt!?

The logo is ‘Carlsberg’ in Chinese.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/notes_and_insights/_a/liverpool_and_carlsberg_set_sights_on_lucrative_chinese_market/

Gerrard’s season summed up there.

Jaysus
The least Hicks could do is provide some free weetabix to the lads
They look knackered

dont feel as bad as I normally do when Chelsea score against us

Would prefer to beat them though

over and out

Says how far we’ve fallen this season…I’ve never been so unbothered about a defeat before.

Commentary was doing my head in as usual – Lucas was lucky to stay on the field against that chelsea kid but Ivanovic was strong in the tackle against Aquilani. Then he said he should be full of glee seeing as he used to play for Everton…says it all really.

Off topic but I was actually pleased that umbrella man won the leaue with Twente…shameful, I know.

Grim

LB the entire LFC season summed up in that one lazy pass.
It was an even game until then.

Bloody typical of our entire seaosn…
SG makes a mistake that gifts them the goal.
Maxi gets injured…
Masch forgets how to play football…
Carra gets injured…

but as McrRed said… once they got the opener, I had a pretty blase attitude towards the whole game. I wanted us to get a goal back… but found myself not caring much if we didn’t.

Big fuckin KUDOS to Ayala though. Terrific display and showed great composure on the ball for such a young lad.

All you Chelski fans, you should certainly be thanking us for doing you a big favour.

Once we get our house back in order, which we eventually will, then we will certainly see to it that you repay us that favour, with interest attached.

I will give Gerrard the benefit of the doubt of that howler of a back pass, but overall this season, I came to the same conclusion as zaid has:

Steven Gerrard, you have been disappointingly SHITE this season. I only gave you some slack before because you’re eager not to miss the World Cup as you have in 2002, but to play so unenthusiastically for your club, it really hurts me to have to say this, FUCK YOU AND YOUR ENGLAND DREAM.

He’d better improve next season, at least show me some commitment and passion even if his aging body is no longer listening to him. For I have seen NOTHING from him for most games this season when it mattered.

Too pissed off to even care about Rafa’s future. If I were constantly undermined by my bosses and have to take shite from all quarters, I would choose to walk, so I can’t really blame him if he goes to Juve.

I couldn’t be bothered to write my thoughts about the captain again so I actually copied the above post I wrote in another forum in response to this chap called zaid who was as disappointed as I was.

damn i never thought seeing us lose to the chavs would be so easy to take. i havent posted here in a while, and when i have done it was only 1 or 2 sentances every few months, but here goes nothing! (sorry if its long and boring) first off i have too say thanks to gerry for the blogs, and to all you guys who regularly post in here, aitch, kinny, LB, timmy, rome77 FS(wheres he been?) and the rest (sorry if i have left you out) the blog and comments give me a good perspective on whats happening at the club, and some of the discussions have been great over the years. (though in recent months it has been a bit repetitive at times but hasnt stopped me coming here) i have never felt so indifferent to seeing us concede against chelski. considering some of the performances we have seen from the team this season, some of the football in the 1st half was pleasing to watch. aqua, stevie, maxi and benayoun a few times moved the ball really well against a well organised team. aqua had a shot that was so close to being a top corner screamer, and another time maxi found him with a delightful pass over the top but he couldnt get the shot off. i agree with aitch that ayala was very encouraging to watch. especially soon after he came on and he was near the touchline showed great composure.i noticed his position was quite good at times aswell. hope to see alot more from him and pacheco next season, and maybe nemeth getting a few games (whens he coming back from greece?) i know this season has been dissapointing to say the least (especially when you think of this time last year) but for me there are a few positives to draw on. the main one being the borrowers deciding to move on. the sooner the better! another would be to finally see a bit of the youth coming through. ideally it would have been bringing them on with games tied up, or when resting players, but insua ngog and lucas have all been played through necessity and not choice many times and i think credit where credit due. insua has been 1st choice left back for the most part, and while he can still learn, i say well done to the lad for stepping in and doing his best. the same goes for ngog. its never gonna be easy filling in for torres, but the guy has tried, and got a good goals per game ratio for a 21yr old. (i think its 8 in 17starts, but not 100% sure) lucas has been our most improved and while i agree with many of you in here that he shouldnt be 1st choice,(if masch aqua and gerrard fully fit and in form) but a squad player, i think he should be thanked by the fans for putting in shifts when called upon and when those around him have been under par. well that my two cents for a season worth forgetting, but heres to getting the wanks (oops yanks) out, and for benitez to get the backing and achieve number 19. YNWA

Didn`t see the game but i listened on the wireless in work.God i felt bad after that.Losing to chelsea like that made me feel a bit shitty.I know we stopped the mancs but i was hoping we would put up a better show after going a goal down.

Sums up our season really.Just can`t wait for it to finish now.I`m honestly worried whats happening with Rafa now.I wouldn`t be surprised at this stage if he called it a day because if he has to go through the same crap again this summer then i wouldn`t blame the man for moving on.

Or am i overeacting somewhat?

Well all the shit will start again now torres,Gerrad,leaving etc manager going here there and every where.but one thing for sure the club will keep om going no matter wha. When i first watched the pool we were in the old second division. When alomg came a man called shankly and the rest is history. We will rise again,we might have to suffer some more pain but we will keep going.
players come managers come and they go so do some fans, but the real fans will still be there thick or thin.ive seen bads days and ive been lucky to have seen the best days, ive seen every euro win five in all.So i hope to live a little bit longer to us win it again. and if Rafa stays and he is given the backing we will do it we may even win the prem. but with all the money cite have and with the emergence of spuds and villa we will need good soild backing, which will not happen until the wanks go. but even if that does not happen all the real fans will still be there.

come on Rafa stay and show um what you can do

I’m also beginning to feel anxious about what’s going to happen with Rafa, timmy. Of course the club and its history will always go on no matter what players and managers comes and goes, but I just feel it would be such a great waste to throw away six years of hard work and what Rafa has been building towards. Sure, we could end up with a new manager just as good as Rafa, but could also end up with a nobody and find ourselves nowhere near the top of the league or Europe for years to come.

The ownership issue clearly is what will determine the near future of LFC. A worst case scenario in the summer would be that the ownership issue isn’t sorted out, Rafa leaves for Juventus and Torres is sold off to Man City. I’m not sure what I’ll do if that’s where we are when the next season starts. It might of course turn out quite the opposite of the scenario mentioned above, probably somewhere in between, but I always try to prepare for the worst.

sachem,

‘but I just feel it would be such a great waste to throw away six years of hard work and what Rafa has been building towards’, my sentiments exactly.

But I won’t blame Rafa if he has decided to move on, given all the abuse he’s taken from the media and the ‘fans’ since day one. Just look at how much fatter and haggard he’s become since he took on the role of coach of LFC.

Yes, it’s true that the club will still move on no matter what, but if our fans still think we deserve to win every match no matter what the circumstances are (e.g. injuries, loss of form of key players), then I really see the similarities with Newcastle during their last few seasons in the top flight. And like what FS has said, we are still likely to end up like Leeds if our finances isn’t managed properly.

Here’s keeping our fingers crossed about the most important issue for the club today, the ownership, not the coach.

From Tony Barrett’s article:
“Under American ownership the mantra about Liverpool existing to win trophies is no longer applicable; they exist merely to pay down the gargantuan debts that the pair have piled on to the club.”

Not sure if you guys had Martin Tyler (I think it was him) as the commentator as well? Anyway, the camera pans to Rafa during the singing of YNWA, and Rafa’s mouth is moving slightly. Tyler pipes up “6 seasons at Anfield and he still doesn’t know the words!”. Fuck you Tyler, you prick. It is despicable how the British press & media keep on having a dig at Rafa. If I was Rafa, I would be very tempted to leave. I would want to go & manage in a country where respect is shown, and the press recognise class & family values etc.
I read an article in the SA Sunday Times, saying that LFC should not worry if they lsoe to Chelsea, as stopping the Mancs from winning their 19th title was far more important than a win for us. The writer goes on to say ‘who are Chelsea? Their fans would like to think they are rivals of Liverpool, but they are nowhere near that mark…’. Very wierd feeling watching the game, with no atmosphere & the Chelsea fans giving us stick. But fuck them, we are the Reds & the greatest club that has ever existed. Let’s just find that sugar daddy owner, keep our top players & most importantly – keep Rafa!

There’s something I wanted to get off my chest for quite a while and it has to do with Rafa and the way he’s been treated by Brithish media.

Let me first say that I am a huge Rafa fan and I hope he stays, gets plenty of money to spend in the summer, and shoves a title down the throats of all who have made fun of him. It may very well happen.

In here we moan a lot about British media and how they have an agenda against Rafa. But this is his own fault! The truth is the media do have an agenda and us fans are right to be angry. But Rafa is to blame because he mishandles the media. He starves them of stories and headlines and, like it or not, they are forced to make up stuff. A journo needs a big quote that looks good in print. He needs at least one every day. Mourinho realized that and fed them on every occasion. That is why he was the media darling. Rafa is another story – he treats the British media with disdain. They respond with every tool they’ve got – rumors, misquotes, ridicule.

It seems Rafa feels victimized and is waging a war on journalists. Right now he seems to be losing big time. He needs to lose his stubbornness, forget above his own feelings and start working with the media. If he wins them over it will be easier for us to win number 19. And that’s what it’s really all about.

Bulgar,

Interesting view above.

But I think the British press is not only against Rafa, but also against Liverpool.

Don’t think him treating them nicer would change their agenda against Liverpool or himself.

Guys,

I was actually having quite a chuckle listening to the commentators during the Chelski game.

The commentators were spewing nonsense like “Surely Rafa would want to play well against Chelsea to save his reputation”. To me, they were just angry that our players weren’t putting in enough effort to win them, so that their beloved Man Utd can win the title.

If the Juve rumour is true, they’d already have known Rafa’s qualities as a good coach. His track record speaks for itself.

Only the British media and a section of our influenced fans don’t think he’s good, preferring to harp his mistakes and his so called bad man management and tactics.

BTW with that game:

Their goals came from two (count ‘em) two mistakes.
The first, our esteemed captain forgets he didn’t sign for Cheslea and puts a beaut through ball for Drogba. Goal number one.

The second, Carragher is injured and instead of lying screaming on the floor and getting the refs attention he hobbles around creating a space for Lampard to run into and score. Remember the last time this happened at Old Trafford? Just sit down lad. I could see it coming and unfortunately so could Yossi but he couldn’t get there in time.

Not blaming our two boys but just saying the media have it that we lay down and rolled over. But for two unlucky breaks they wouldn’t have scored at all and we missed chances of our own.

Keep the faith, fellas.

Starting with Riera and Aqui, time for the clear out to start.Drogba to finish top scorer in the prem.Could teach Kuyt a thing or two.65 points will be the same total as Roy Evans had in his final season, 20 + points is a massive decline 1n the space of one season.As I predicted in December, the team would finish in a similar place as Soey managed, sixth and eighth.

Always gotta post articles that don’t slag off Rafa.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/05/benitez-has-struggled-but-hes-not-liverpools-biggest-problem-.html

Rafalution, Good post. We don’t get to read articles like this from Oliver-a very experienced Sprts writer- at The Times till now. Does it mean he only realises it just now?

I would like to know the true optinion of supporters at Anfield for the Chelsea game- did Stevie G make that silly backpass deliberatly or not?
This is a serious question folks,so I would like an honest assessment.

I don’t think he made that pass deliberately. He’s having a super lousy season.

But it’s just he seems to do stupid things against Chelski. Remember the superb header own goal that costed us the Carling Cup in Rafa’s first season?

Anyway guys. Forget the media propaganda that we mean to throw away this game.

1) We’ve got Johnson, Insua, Torres, Skrtel out for this game, plus half fit players like Ngog & Kuyt
2) Then we got Maxi and Carra out during the game, 2 very important players that even with a fully fit team is bound to affect our level of play.
3) We played 4 games from 22 April 2010 to 2 May 2010, which includes a physically draining road trip to Madrid, followed by a mentally, physically & morale sapping extra time game against Atletico.

When there’s nothing there to play for all of us fans here know, plus the uncertainty surrounding the blood sucking Yanks’ efforts to sell the cub, just tell me how anyone can motivate the players?

Like us, I think the players deserve a break from this dreadful season. It’s like a super long nightmare that will not end soon enough

I don’t think the back pass from Stevie was deliberate. He did a similar pass against the gunners a few years back leading to a Henry goal.But who knows, maybe he knew exactly what he was doing and if that’s the case then a big WELL DONE LAD!

Steven Gerrard didnt do that deliberately. No player would want to do such things. Lets put a stop to that thought.

I always felt that Stevie G was never the player we saw last season. He was plagued by injuries, he was dissapointed that instead of building an even powerful team, we ended up loosing crucial players. Those who are quick to abuse him must remember what he does when on song. He is still the best midfielder England has. Lets not target our captain.

The crucial talking point is now Rafa’s decision. I dont think the media abuse will decide what he will do. This thing was always there. Nobody in the british media apart from few wanted to make the right noise about Rafa. There has been a planned campaign to malign our manager. I dont think Rafa signed a 5 year contract to eventually run away from this pathetic media.

Where can he go if he decides to quit? 1)Juve 2)Real Madrid. The first option was all rumours which will be put to bed after their failure to qualify for CL. Real Madrid remains an option but those half mads will feel that it is an insult to hire a tactical manager who gives importance to defense. There is no word called DEFENSE in their dictionary. If we take Rafa’s old links with Real, i can bet on this that the links he has established with Anfield are far deeper. So i dont see Rafa going and taking up any other job.

If he goes, he will leave dissapointed,hurt and dejected. He will probably take a break from Football.

My word to him:

Continue and prove your critics wrong.

Well I was gutted after the loss and do not want to sink to the level of acceting losses as a fair result. SG was second rate and looked disinterested.
.
did anyone think Rafa’s goodbye walk looked like a thankyou and goodye to the crowd. I certainly got that feeling. Mind you I watched it in Prague where the commentators only spoke Czech, didn’t know what they were saying.
.
Anyway on to next season, see what it brings, thanks for the banter lads it’s been great.

Here’s a great article concerning saluting of Rafa despite all the shite he’s taken:

ttp://bleacherreport.com/articles/387382-the-spotlight-david-gore-if-this-is-goodbye-i-salute-you-rafa-benitez

Pretty much sums up my feelings on this situation and what the future might hold should he choose to hang on and tell the media muppets to fuck off.

Sorry mates, the previous link doesn’t work anymore.

Here’s a better link.

ttp://bleacherreport.com/articles/387363-if-this-is-goodbye-i-salute-you-rafa-benitez?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share

Guys,
Just wanted to say thank you for all of your comments this season. I have enjoyed the debates and have learnt a lot. I seem to have spent the last two months defending LFC against alleged fans. This task has been made easier thanks to the fine information which you share on this site. Thanks to Gerry for the site – I really can’t be doing with other sites.

I want Rafa to stay, just to prove those numpties in the media wrong. When he brings home the silverware for us I will break a personal rule of mine and phone TalkShite, R5Live etc and get them to eat their ill-informed words and hatred of Rafa. He has his faults which we are all aware of but he has invested too much into LFC to run away now (I hope). The secured contracts of key players seems to have been overlooked by the lazy media.
Anyway, as regular posters/readers will be aware, I don’t post much but I do read as often as I can. I just wanted to say thank you and “keep the the faith”. Get the Yanks out and YNWA

Can anyone tell me whats happened to fat scouser miss his coments talk a lot of sense, and made me chckle at times.

lets hope the two twats sell quickly and the new owners build us a new stadium thats what we need then we can compete.thats what should have been done. aresols did and they have good funding if he needed it its there.

thats what we need big ground more fans in generating funds.

whts your guys view

Was reading through the comments and i had to stop at #118

“But who knows, maybe he knew exactly what he was doing and if that’s the case then a big WELL DONE LAD!”

Redway,what are you on lad?Call yourself a red do ya?Its crap comments like this that make my blood boil.Dimwhits like you willing their team to lose so they can have a laugh off their manc mates.
They come in and complain when we lose on other ocassions and stick the knife into Rafa and the scapegoat of the week(insert name here).

Sure we all hate the mancs but i for one love LFC more.

And Jack to answer your question Stevie didn`t mean it and with all due respect sir i don`t think that was a fair question.After everything that man has done for us through the years i think he deserves more respect.

Hi gang,

Somnath – I tend to agree with you about Rafa and Real Madrid, however;
Juve appreciate a good defense. It’s the Italian way and Rafa’s way. Rafa does speak italian. Neither Pool nor Juve have Champions League next year and I would say that it will be esaier for Juve to get back into the Euro frame rather than Pool. Rafa would have support from the top down rather than the lying, blood sucking vampires that he has to deal with here. Liverpool exist to make money for those 2 scumbags. Juve have, i would imagine, some pretention towards getting back to the top and winning.

For me, Rafa can ride out the “Media, so-called” and the sheep following them. He has put a tremendous amount of work into this project including re-jigging the whole club structure. It would appear he really likes the club, the real supporters, Liverpool and his family are well and settled here. Can he bring things forward ? Can he see himself being able to accomplish what he’s set out to do ?

If he can he will stay (for me), he’s put too much in. If he can’t then Juve seem to tick quite a few of his boxes eh ?

Jack – no-way Stevie meant it. As someone above said it sums up his season, but not his career, with us.

Is it August yet?

120 Days… and counting Arthur!
And they are going to be hard to bare until definitive word of a sale is announced.

… on a different note… an interesting comment from BennyOnion in the Echo today…

YOSSI BENAYOUN today urged Liverpool’s board to “make the right decisions” as he lifted the lid on the uncertainty in the dressing room surrounding the club’s future.
Benayoun is not actively looking to leave Anfield, nor does have a desire to uproot his family, but he is unsure whether there will be wholesale changes this summer that mean he will have no choice to move.

“It is difficult to speak about next season, as we don’t know what changes there will be with the players and the staff – it is too early,” said Benayoun. “Personally I don’t know whether I will be here or if I won’t. A lot of things can happen. We will have to wait and see.”

“Rafa has done a great job and we are trying not to look at what has happened in the past (this season. We have tried to do our best but it hasn’t been good enough. Rafa has proven himself, he is a big manager.”

The media in general seem to be packing Rafa´s bags for him. Rafa hinted that there might be an agenda to force him out. I for one pray that he stays on and we get new owners that can back Rafa in the transfer market so he can cram his foot up their *sses. Because say what you want but to call Rafa a poor manager or even worse like he is potrayed in the media is just idiotic. He has held this club together while fighting the yanks. I think it would be unfair if we got new investors and Rafa left. New manager steps in with a fistful of money to spend after all that Rafa has down with no money and no backing. But if he leaves, which I would understand, and we are stuck with the yanks then god help us.

It has been a very poor season.
1.Lots of injuries (Aqualani, Torres, SG, Johnson, Insua, Agger, Skrtel, etc), so much so we could have fielded a first eleven from our inured players.
2.Bad luck eg Beach ball (Sunderland) Goals ruled offside (Atheletico Madrid first leg, etc
3. No funds available.
4. No backing for Rafa from the Boardroom nor Management

Hope we have new owners soon and that Rafa stays, otherwise it will be another 3-4 years before we see any improvements in our trophy room.

Jack, I don’t think SG’s backpass was deliberate. He was just careless and not being the perfect player like in previous years.

I have to agree with Somnath07 & Dougle here – maybe I want to agree more than anythng – that Rafa has put too much time & effort into LFC, the Academy, extending contracts of his NB players etc. Surely he would not want to walk away from his ‘baby’, his project, and a fantastic club to boot? This is Liverpool Football Club we are talking about after all?
He must be made of sterner stuff than me or you. I mean, reading comments from so-called fans on other sites & I just feel so depressed. These despicable ‘fans’ say stuff like ‘it’s time for the fat foreigner to piss off’ etc etc. How I would love to meet people like this in a dark alley. It makes my fecking blood boil!
Anyway, Rafa, please stay so that you can shove this shit down the ‘fans’ & (British) media’s mouths by having a successfu season in 10/11. Now where is that sugar daddy owner with loads of money…
Lastly, thanks to the regular posters here: LB, Aitch, Dougle, Rome77, Lurgan, Axchoice, TT, Kinny, Donal, Knight, Gerry (of course), hell, even Arthur & Digger . Being fairly new to this site I’ve enjoyed the banter & facts and figures that you guys churn out.
BTW, FS is around posting on anothers site.
YNWA

At timmytorres: In my post 118,i didn’t said that i was happy with the lost.I even said the backpass wasn’t deliberate.I’m upset with our season and with the current situation of the club, just like everyone here.

I hope Rafa stays…

But if for whatever reason hes not here next season…

1. If you could have anyone who would you want as manager?
2. Who do you really think we would end up with?

Gerry – I thought we were gonna get a new blog last Friday? Must have thought “ah fuck it” after the Atletico result.

@Dougle & Rafalution

I agree.

From last year’s 2 loss to 10 league defeats this year. Thats how the media has put it. I have one question to them. How many matches ManCity used to loose over a season before they were taken over by new owners? How many did Tottenham loose last year? I refuse to buy to this thought that we are going down to the Europa league standard once n for all.

Unlike ManCiteh,Tottenham we are not 11 players away from 4th spot. We are in fact 3-4 players away from winning the league. The media should also keep in mind that it took 10 league defeats and the poorest points tally under Rafa for Tottenham,Villa to catch us for the 4th spot. We had a miserable season and yet we were pushed out of 4th only after playing 36 leagues games.

Dont want to talk about Citeh and their financial power coz we got to accept it that if they manager to bring a few more players they would be serious competitors not just for us but for the other 3 big teams. So its not justified to term Liverpool as the only ‘victim’ of City’s riches. ManUtd,Arsenal,Chelsea are all vulnerable to them.

I read today how they r criticizing our beloved Spanish mngr that he has not been able to come up with good academy youngsters and yet we find that Lucas,Insua,Ngog are amongst the brightest under 22 players in the premier league. In Pacheco,Ayala we have some of the brightest young talent to come. The academy set up was changed and King Kenny is overlooking the development. Who brought him to LFC?

The person(I forgot his name) who identified Fabregas at Spain is nurturing the young players. Who brought him to LFC?

I have certain points where i would like Rafa to change a little bit but to say that Rafa is not the best man to take us forward is utter rubbish.

Good post and comments on http://www.guillembalague.com

Somnath @ 137, I think his name is Rodolfo (apologies for not doing justice to the spelling).

The link below is the Telegraph’s break down of Rafa’s spending.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/7675751/Rafael-Benitezs-transfer-dealings-during-his-six-year-reign-at-Liverpool.html

Rafalution: Thanks for the mention

This debate about whether Stevie did that pass back on purpose is fuckin nonsense. He’s had a shite season (his first ever) but he’s a pro

It’s gonna be a long 120 days Aitch. By that stage we’ll probably have been linked with 14 different managers, 2 oil sheiks, a war criminal, Torres will be playing for either Barcelona, Man City, Chelsea or Tranmere and Stevie G will have impregnated half the cast of Hollyoaks

If I was a betting man – I think Rafa will not get the answers he’s looking for in his meeting with Broughton this week and if Juventus and LFC can reach an agreement- we’ll lose Rafa.

Whether that is a good or bad thing in the long run…well we can’t really say at this stage. But if we don’t get a buyer we could be witnessing the beginning of a few dark few years in our history

Wanted to post the link to Telegraph but Bayo beatr me to it. Rafa’s spending over 6 years is only Stg 79.4K. Crucially we came in second position last year when he spent big in 2007-8. It took the team one year to gel. This season he sold and made a profit of STg4.25 million when Man hitty, Spurs and Villa spent big. His last three terms in spending:

2007/08:
IN: £5m Lucas; £270,000 Jose Dominguez; £1.8m Leto; £20.2m Torres; £5m Benayoun; £11.5m Babel; £1.3m Insua; £6.5m Skrtel; £18.6m Mascherano; Free Voronin; Undisclosed Nemeth, Itandje. Total: £70.7m.
OUT: £2.7m Sinama-Pongolle; £100,000 O’Donnell; £4m Luis Garcia; £6m Cisse; £7.5m Bellamy; £3.5m Gonzalez; £1.2m Palletta; £3.5m Kirkland; £8.2m Sissoko; Free Dudek, Fowler. Total: £36.7m.
NET SPEND: £34m.
PREMIER LEAGUE: 4th

—————————–

2008/09:
IN: £7m Dossena; £3.5m Cavalieri; £1.5m N’gog; £19m Keane; £8m Riera; Free Degen. Total: £39m.
OUT: £4m Riise; £11m Crouch; £2.25m Guthrie; £3.25m Carson; £16m Keane; Free Kewell; Undisclosed Le Tallec, Finnan, Hobbs. Total: £36.5m.
NET SPEND: £2.5m.
PREMIER LEAGUE: 2nd

—————————–

2009/10:
IN: £17.5m Johnson; £17.1m Aquilani; £2m Kyrgiakos; £160,000 Ayala; £1.5m Maxi Rodriguez. Total: £38.26m.
OUT: £250,000 Anderson; £3m Leto; £3.5m Arbeloa; £30m Alonso; £4.4m Dossena; £1.5m Voronin; Free Pennant, Miki Roque. Total: £42.65m.
NET SPEND: -£4.25m.

I’m sorry if I upset some people,I was just asking a question of supporters who actually saw it-the consensus seems to be that Stevie did not do the backpass to help screw ManUre.

Rafa’s Best and worst buys. One correction. Rabbie Keane was bought by Prick Parry, not Rafa, who wanted Gareth Barry ( remember this? I wanted a table, they gave me a lamp):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/7673913/Rafael-Benitezs-five-best-and-worst-transfers-at-Liverpool.html

@Bayo

Yeah correct. Nice article.

No worries Jack boy.

I think Rafa is playing one of 2 hands here.

Firstly he’s gone, he knows it and he’s just setting the final scene. He makes “demands” which will obviuosly not be met by the scumbags (WHO ARE IN CONTROL UNTIL THEY ARE GONE THERE ARE NO NEW OWNERS AT THIS STAGE, THERE IS NO SUGAR DADDY. IT’S THE SAME MUPPETS WITH DIFFERENT SPIN). There will obviously not be money for any new players let alone the “5″ widely quoted as being what “Rafa wants”.
So he goes … something is worked out with Juve / whoever …. it does not matter.

The second is more possibly where Rafa is really at IF he wants to stay.
He knows there is no money (cos there isn’t).
He knows there are no new owners (cos there aren’t).
So he wants the 100% gaurentee that he gets to spend any money he receives by selling players and HE GETS A FREE HAND IN WHOM HE SELLS. That’s the biggie.
If he gets it then how does he get money ? He sells.

And who does he sell ?

What do you think ?

I’ll tell you who I would sell. Right now (and I’ll get laughed off this site for saying it) Stevie and Nando. 100ml str thank you very much.

I personally don’t see Nando ever being 100% fit for a season again. He has too many consecutive miles and seasons under the belt for me. I also just get the feeling that he’s not into hanging around for the length of time it may take to get rid of the leeches because we won’t be a “contender” again while they are around, (cheers Rick and Dave). Also we are going to be forced to depend on our own production line soon, which, will eventually come good but not for a season or 2 yet. It may suit him to move on.

Stevie, well I just figure this year has been a huge dip but again maybe now would suit all parties if he also moved on ? I think it would suit Benitez who is not a great lover of big and/or needy ego’s. For exactly the same reason I think it would suit Stevie to find a new manager-friend. Either way I don’t think we are going to see the Stevie of our imaginations ever again.

Of course Benitez potentially “hangs” himself by doing this. He will be crucified if things don’t work out but on the other hand it gives hima shot at having the funds to bring in “his (5) new players” (and personally I don’t ever think Stevie has been one of those). Also it clears out the superstars and the undroppables and the must-be -acomodated. It clears the way for a new captain and a fresh attitude in the squad.

Obviously Riera is gone, I would get rid of Babel myself and you are probably near 115 ml to play with.

It would be a huge gamble for Benitez and (obviously I’m a sad little man sitting down here at home with nothing better to do than muse on this) it could easily backfire but I ask you all (laughing out there) what are the alternatives?

There has been something rotten in the camp this last year. What is going to change if we have the same players, same manager, same set-up next season?

What do ye think ?

Interesting ideas dougle.

I think there’s an aweful lot of unanswered questions for us to be speculating with too much accuracy.

but you aren’t wide of the mark… in that your above proposal is certainly one possible summer outcome.

Its a bloody 2-edged sword though innit?

Stevie is a big concundrum for LFC, in that he has been the driving heart of the team for a long time. I’m not forgetting any of the glory he contributed to when I say he’s been far from THAT Stevie G this season… and while I do believe that this has been a blip and he’ll more likely be back to his old self next season than not, he is one of our few big ticket sellable assets… and there’s the temparament issue.
A HUGE part of me would NOT want to see him sold, but then again….

For his sake…Stevie is getting on a bit now and I’m not sure he’ll have the stomach to give Rafa (or perhaps to a greater extent another manager) another year or two, as he watches Lumpy, Terry and Cashley pick up yet another Prem medal.

I don’t think Nando fits into the same category.
I can’t see him wanting to leave this summer if Rafa stays… even if SG leaves… but he might consider it if both leave.
The injuries have obviously been a concern, but I’d be more inclined to bring someone else in that can carry the bucket in the rough and tumble games, allowing us to use him sparingly and with kid gloves, than blow him out just yet.

Then we have the obvious outs…
Riera has to go, but he’s sort of devalued himself now, so if we get a significant amount of money from him will depend on Rafa’s (or whoever’s) negotiating skills.
Degen on the first plane out of Speke on Sunday please… but again… we’ll get nought for him.

which leaves who?
Babel… well he bucked up for sure, and it was a better Ryan than we’d seen earlier in the season, but he got the run in the side” folks have been baying for and frankly… in my opinion… he did fuck all with it.
There is no doubting the lads potential, but I don’t see him progressing and think he might want to think about a “slower” league, where he might fulfill it. If we could get 10-12 mill for him, I think we should do it and upgrade.

Ngog… I rate higher than a lot in here. I think the lad has some skills, but he’s suffered from having too much weight thrown on his shoulders and in an underperforming team. I can see 2 “Name” strikers being a priority this summer (we’ve supposedly already done the deal for one and then there’s the whole Arda Turan thing?) so he’d drop to 4th again if he stayed… but then again, I reckon we could get a few bob for him from a French or Spanish team, so…?

Benny The Onion… I’d hate to see Benny leave. I think he’s a crackin little player. I’d love to see him played in the hole instead of SG to be honest, and he made claims yesterday that he wants to stay… but again… is he one of our few sellable assets that we could get by without?
We could get a chunk of change for him… but could he be bettered for that amount? I’d doubt it and if not then we must keep him!

El Zhar… we haven’t seen much of him this season, and what we did wasn’t impressive. I liked the look of this kid in his first few outings, and would say keep him on the basis of that… but since his injury, not so much? It might be a harsh judgement on the lad, but he looked “promising” rather than “lit things up”, so he may be someone who could generate funds?

Plessis didn’t look like making the grade, and while I reckon we’d make a profit, we’d not get too much for him.
Likewise Spearing, unless he has done well on loan. Would bring in more cash, simply coz he’s English, but quotas alone could be a reason to keep him.
Same for Darby.

Outside of that lot, you have kids, so I don’t see how Rafa generates funds unless he sells a big name… and therein lies the worry.

Rafa had cancelled (postponed??) meetings planned with Brougham.
Hmmmm, what does that tell you?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/8660055.stm

Knight maybe this will help

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/05/rafael-benitez-liverpool-chairman

Hi Guys been too busy to post at the moment but have kept up on the comments. Gerry you have without doubt been the best thing about this season from an entertainment perspective. We started poorly at Spurs and have ended the same way.

If all that happens is the two parasites leave then I will say it has been a success, however not at the expense of Rafa leaving. If that happens it would be a real step backwards and a pity for Rafa after all the hard work, overhauling, and with the succession plans he has put in place.

This was the first game I have missed all season (mid flight) and by all accounts Gerrards back pass has summed up his season poor by anyone’s standards and piss poor by his.

The problems start and stop with the Nob heads at the top. Three successive transfer windows were we stagnated eventually took its toll on a horrendous season of injuries. I don’t care how good a manger you are it is impossible to cope with the circumstances that Rafa has found himself in. All these people blaming him, saying he has taken us as far as he can are so far wide of the mark its just not worth the energy debating anymore.

Half fit and returning players, players straining to regain form and match fitness and anything that could go wrong did. I have looked at this season and think that the leaving of Alonso had an effect that I did not see at first. Yes he was a first class midfield player, however his affect on Gerrard had compounded our poor form more than I could have imagined. In hind sight, yes that wonderful 20/20 vision tool our midfield failed to get Gerrard into the game, that coupled with a piss poor season from him.

The last few times with Aqua in the Gerrard role and Gerrard dropping back into the Alonso type role seems to work better for the team. Unfortunately with all the injuries to both of them it took the entire season to work out what works best sans Alonso.

With Gerrard in that role we seem to have a better and quicker rhythm about the team as he sprays the ball faster and quicker than most and the increase in tempo suits us better. There have been some sublime moments towards the back end of the season where you can see what we can play like once we have a fully fit squad as well as a settled one. I also like Aqua in that forward role and think he will have a big influence on next year. He is quick, intelligent and has an eye for goal.

As for all those people thinking that a new Manager will suddenly allow us to bring in a Villa or Silva or anybody else dream on. I hope against hope that if the selling issue drags on that the Cunts realize that they need to give Rafa some bucks to strengthen or else we will really slide. Yes fist prize is to get decent owners with the money to take us forward and I hope th Banks force them to accept the first decent and realistic offer even if it means them walking away with minimum gains.
As for the squad and the need for 4 or 5 players and getting rid of the ones that are not quiet up to what we need, I still am not convinced Babel, despite the massive improvement in attitude and commitment has he heart to become a great player for us.

Aurelleo will go and we need desperate cover there as Insua is too young to shoulder the entire burden and his speed is still an issue for me. We have the Serb coming in and hopefully that will give us a quality back up striker, by all accounts he looks a decent signing. I would like us to bring in an Arda Turan type player that has pace, skill and trickery to take on players and beat them, I think that is one of our greatest weaknesses. That could replace Reira

Bringing back Nemeth and with Ngog, Pacheco and El Zhar fully fit we might just have enough without spending too much which in all honesty I cannot see us having anything too spend.

About those meeting I don’t think there is anything sinister about it, he was busy trying to save our season.

Thanks RAFA. Thanks for the failures. Thanks for not reaching the next round in the UEFA Champions League, thanks for not reaching the final of Europa cup, thanks for not winning any of the local cups and thanks for not qualifying for the Champions League. You are a great manager. But GOD seem to answer our prayers in wanting the two get the two devils out of Liverpool. The consequence of Liverpool reaching CL, and any one of the above would have made them stay and try to squeeze the last drop of whatever they can squeeze from Liverpool. Then it will be the same old battle next year where we are there about and not winning the league. It will be the same old frustration of not having the players to clinch the title. Now it has forced the two idiots to sell and get lost. Let it be a new beginning for Liverpool. Let the new owners do the proper things to make the LIVERPOOL club great again. Look at the Manc. Their chairman has said they will give what ever money is needed to support their manager. Last year when we were 2nd, Rafa should have been given all the support to bring the title back to anfield. But what we got was two monkeys clowning around to say now we give and now we don’t. And throwing peanuts at the manager for purchase of players, so what we get, ?. @#$$%^&&***(((()*
Hopefully we will get some decent owners who will put the club first and their pocket last.

The media are making a lot out of these cancelled meetings as they usually do.If they were cancelled it was only,as Keith said,whislt Rafa was trying to save our season.

I don`t think the club will be sold in the summer.A six month extension form july has been given.Therefore H&G are under no pressure to sell straight away.They will hold out for as long as possible to squeez what they can before they run.They will leave the club in a crippled state from the one they bought and it will take someone else to pick up the pieces.
That said it will be as you are in the transfer market for LFC and i for one cannot see Rafa standing this much longer.I wouldn`t blame the man either,he has had his hands tied for long enough now.Its just a shame if he does pack his bags for Itlay or spain that he`d have never got a fair crack at the whip here.Never got a proper chance to fulfil his undoubted potential at LFC.

H&G,they hope to ride off into the sunset as we crash and burn.They can go on about their business never having to ever worry about anything to do with LFC again.I just hope to god that there is somebody out there who is willing to pick u the pieces but its hard to see how.

DIC have been mentioned again.Why would they now,over three years after having the door closed in their faces,come in and pay off the debt that the other two lumped on us and give them the magical golden handshake?
I just cant see it happening.

If you were bidding for a car with mrX.You bid £10,000.Price is verbally agreed but mrX comes in with a £10500 bid and a duece for the car salesman to sweeten the deal.mr gets the car.

Then three years later,mrX phones you up and tries to sell you said car whist in those three years,not even having the car sericed or cleaned and he`s looking for £20000 for it.

What would you do?

dougle, now that’s what I call an interesting discussion, compared to all the regurgitated drivel these so-called “fans” spew in other forums and media outlets like TalkShite and 606.

I think this article below shares your sentiments exactly.

ttp://www.anfieldroad.com/news/201005043608/is-it-too-much-to-ask.html/

Rafa isn’t stupid, he knows it’s gonna be fucking difficult and probably unrealistic for Broughton and co to quickly bring in a sugar daddy with the snap of a finger. So all he’s asking for is that the Yank muppets keep their hands off the proceeds from his player sales.

This article merely confirms what most of us have guessed, that a huge chunk of the 30m quid obtained from Alonso’s sell, which Rafa was supposed to be allowed to reinvest in, have vanished into thin air – Being siphoned off by Dumb and Dumber so they can continue their lavish lifestyles across the ponds while keeping the banks from their front gate.

This means that after buying Aquilani for 17m, he has to make do with Hercules for 2m (who fortunately is beginning to sound like a good bargain).

(Johnson’s acquisition was partly funded by money which Portsmouth still owes us. Of course, the Rafa-bashing media muppets could care less about that. )

Gerry, hope you don’t mind me posting this link on your blog, but I for one cannot sit back & just let Rafa go. Not sure if it’ll be of any help, but showing some sort of support for Rafa makes me feel a wee bit better.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120923867934817&v=wall&ref=mf

Sorry, they changed the link…
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36466537835&ref=ts

Gonna split my posts lest it becomes an unreadable wall of text. Part of it is my idea, the rest is copied off someone else’s more eloquent post and I couldn’t be arsed to edit.

Assuming there’s no sugar daddy this summer, which is probably very likely, the only way Rafa can get funds is to sell players. To remain competitive, we need to generate a lot of funds – That means the sale of one star player WITHOUT G+H siphoning the proceeds off.

If we do have to cash in on a big player to bring in three other players than I’d much rather sell Gerrard than Torres, Mascherano, Reina etc. As long as it was to a foreign club. Being the oldest of the above mentioned bunch (about to turn 30), Gerrard can still command a hefty transfer fee.

But if we do sell him we would definitely need a central midfielder to be back-up to Lucas and Mascherano, with Aquilani being the 2nd back-up at a pinch.

For me the top two priorities are winger, and target man.

If we can get Joe Cole for free I think that’s good business, and in that case I’d be inclined to sell Benayoun who is a similar player, getting on a bit and not home-grown.

If we had some money from the board for transfers in addition to player sales I would want us to buy an experienced left-back (and let Aurelio go because of his injury problems) and maybe change Kyrgiakos for Upson (cos of home-grown considerations). But if money is tight I don’t see how defenders are our priority.

I’d sell Riera, Plessis, El-zhar, Degen, Benayoun, Cavalieri and try to bring in Jovanovich, Joe Cole, Carlton Cole and as good a left-footed quick winger as I could.

If there was no money left from selling those players and buying Carlton Cole I’d consider selling Gerrard, buying someone like Cattermole and then using the rest of the money for the left winger.

http://www.guillembalague.com has put a new post up.

Read the above article. I am surprised how we are talking about selling Mascherano,Torres and Gerrard. Generating 100m from their sell is technically correct but what about the long term impact?

You sell the three mainstays of your team and you expect to buy 5 ‘Quality’ signings who can fill that void? I cant buy that thought.

What is more reasonable is to sell in such a manner which will enable us to generate 20m. Combined with the transfer money available(I believe the board will be flushing out 20-25m at the least)the net money avaiable for spending will stand somehwere around 40-45m which to me is good enough to bring 3 new quality players(I hope Rafa will get it right). So rather than loosing the SPINE and rebuilding, few important additions will take us where we want to.

I must add here that i dont see a chance of Rafa not getting any money to spend. Money will be made available.

Rafalution,

The facebook thing isn`t eveybodys cup of tea but if your into it then its not a bad idea,all the more we can do,the better.
On the flip-side some dumbass has started a “Rafa out-jose in” club on the same site.He even thanks Rafa for Istanbul but then says he can “fuck off back to spain”.
And he claims to be a red too.

well it begins whats with the torres to chavski links lads? one article even says nando and rafa barley speak anymore! do you think theres any truth in it?

interesting link from tony barrett here:

ttp://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/05/tom-hicks-and-george-gillett-are-the-real-problem-at-liverpool.html

gets his shots in on Rafa but the title says it all…

GuinessDrinker,

Behave will ya,typical tabloid driven shite.

hope your right TT.just got in and seen it on yahoo sport nearly puked me ring. i think i just needed some reassurance there.

In a word guinness… NO.
I can’t see a single solitary reason WHY there would be any truth in it at all.
You’re gonna read shedloads of this shite in the coming months…. as “supposed journalists” simply make up articles to fill space.

Summer is ALL about speculation… about all clubs, but this summer I reckon most of it will be about us, coz we’re the perfect target for them right now, because of the ownership debaucle.
Only insiders know what’s going on at the club, so unless there are direct and indisputable quotes from Rafa or Broughton (and even then, we need it verified from the horse’s mouth, since they’ll get horrendously misquoted to juice up a headline) just fuckin ignore most of it.

somnath… “Money will be made available.”
…errr… from where?

Exiting the CL dropped our revenues by 20-30% this year (depending on which articles you read)
Yes we made some of that back by our Europa run, but only about 10% from what I can gather.
That’s still a 10-20% loss in revenue.
A 7th place finish will also reduce revenues.

G&H have invested nothing for 2 years, and only invested borrowed money in the years preceeding that. They themselves have NOT invested a dime for payers in their entire tenure!
You think they are gonna do so now?
…Especially since they absconded with the money brought in from the sale of Alonso.

The terms of putting a club up for sale (that it is in part being directed by RBS and Barclays) should prevent G&H from removing any more liquid assets from the club… but I wouldn’t put it past those two to find a loophole!

So… There may be some residual monies that Rafa can get his hands on… but I’d doubt it would be much… and he’s been supposedly working on deals to bring Jovanovic and Turan, so that may already be eaten up and then some!
And remember … free transfers… aren’t exactly cost free!

We’re facing serious problems this summer. Its a major crossroads in my mind.
I think we navigate it better if Rafa stays and works his deals.
I think we navigate it worse if he exits and is replaced.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/05/tom-hicks-and-george-gillett-are-the-real-problem-at-liverpool.html

great article mcrRed (just re-posing the link because the one above has no h at the start)he’s spot on but we all know the two cunts are here to fuck us over. “£100,000 a day on interest” insane just insane.

Yes… and do the fuckin math lads.

£100,000 per day X 360 days = £36 million per year…

…you know… enough for one or maybe even two
David Silva, David Villa, Frank Ribery
or other such Fernando Torres type player.

Multiply that by three and you some serious cash to play with.God knows where we`d be now had DIC bought us.

…or even… if instead of selling… Moores had just replaced Parry and borrowed 80 mill to buy Torres and 3 others of like calibre???

Roads not travelled and fortunes turning on a single moment of decision.

Just watched Spurs beat Citeh and deserved it was too. That is one piece of very good news as far as I am concerned.
That knocks one wheel off the “Chavski 2″ project. Either way it screws them up for another year. keep Mancini, (whose side were defensive,unbalanced and dull tonight) for another year with an even more constipated squad ? Love it !
Sack him and of we go on the squad changing and buying etc … and there’s every chance they’ll blow it again next year.

Also where has Petrov gone? little diamond that guy. Steven Ireland not even in the squad tonight ? Could be a couple of handy players looking for an “out” there.

A word for ‘Arry… fair dues they played ball and made Citeh look like a bunch of cloggers. When the chips were down they did it and did it in style too. Can’t wait to say the same thing about us.

Somnath, we ain’t getting any money … as long as the vampires are there they are sucking not suckling.

Though both Spurs and City (and Villa) have outspent Liverpool (a travesty in itself) which contributed to their league form, they also have the luxury of not needing to play in Europe early on in the season. The congestion that came with FA Cup and League Cup progress came after they were fairly comfortable in their league positions.

Next season would show whether these insolent upstarts have what it takes to compete on two fronts right from the get go.

Had City got 4th, then they will simply break the market to ensure they get into and past the Group Stages at all costs. So perhaps it is a good thing that Spurs won last night. They may have outspent us, but I don’t think they’re that ridiculously rich should Rafa obtain the needed funds (from his player sales as I mentioned above), he’ll give Arry a run for his money in the market.

Arry will soon find the rigours of Champions League football difficult to adapt. They might even do a Blueshite and get knocked out of the qualifiers before they even get to the promised land of the Group Stages.

Being busy as fuck lately and did not have time to post, although I’ve been keeping up with the comments – some good stuff as usual.

Just a few quickies. That article from Tony Barrett should be force-feed to the so-called ‘fans’ screaming for Rafa’s head.

I will keep my own thoughts to myself until the season is over (or was it just a nightmre and I will wake up soon) but I guess most people know where my loyalties lie.

Great to see citeh come unstuck and the spuds nipping into 4th place ahead of them. I think it vastly improves our chances of getting back there next season. As Kinny says, if citeh would have made it they would have just bought all round them and it would have been very difficult to dislodge them. Let’s hope they continue with Mancini and then sack him half-way thru’ next season and continue the cycle.

As for Rafa getting money in the summer, I am sure of that becaue I have just sent him a post-dated cheque for a tenner

Oh and thank fuck it’s a WC summer. At least this should take some of the heat off Rafa and LFC – until it’s over that is and then all hell will break loose.

I know the site is suspect at best but I wouldn’t put it past that fat theiving pig to utter the words the site is quoting.

ttp://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2557/news/2010/05/06/1911142/tom-hicks-warns-it-could-take-two-years-to-sell-liverpool

I was dreaming of a Merry Summer Transfer period under our new owners but I think I will put those pleaseant thoughts on hold until a sale is confirmed.

If Liverpool go down I hope we can take those greedy sh*tes down with us and bankrupt the bastards!

Seriously though…if I see him in dark alley, my blood will reach boiling point and a lot of acriminous thoughts will cross my mind. I will be tempted to do a Dexter and become an anonymous hero or just simply do a public service!

@Aitch,Dougle

Even i dont know how the money will be provided. As mentioned by Aitch, the maths does give us a clear picture. I remember our owner Tom Hicks assuring that money will be made available. I dont know whether it is stupidity on my part to believe them but i hope he meant what he said.

I am not in favour of selling Torres,Gerrard,Mascherano,Babel and generating 120-130m and then rebuilding the team. It would be like taking too much risk for Rafa. I think if we have to quickly go back to where we belong, a few quality additions is desired.

Good that City lost out on 4th.

Assuming we get 25m from player sales(Babel,Riera,Aquilani) + 20m from the board(Thats what i am expecting)we have 45m to spend.

Dont you think with this amount we can bring 3 quality players? I certainly do. One left back,One striker,One winger.

On a different subject, I came accross this piece:
http://www.anfieldroad.com/news/201005063612/lfc-chairman-must-deal-with-damage.html/
The author(s) back up their ‘facts’ and if it’s true, what a disgrace! If only people realised what Rafa has to deal with hey?

Rafalution you beat me to it. I just read the article and now the plot does thicken. It does go with what Rafa mentioned earlelier about not getting any board backing while the media was talking about replacements.

I really thought Purslow did do a good job promoting the club but if all this is true he will have to go.

Rafa has said the only reason he has stayed was because of the fans. We are lucky to have such a dedicated manager. This is a lot worse than what he had to put up with At Valencia. Don’t blame him if he leaves. Of the linked managers only Hiddink is realistic. Hodgson is mates with Ferguson and Mourinho will not touch our mess with a barge pole.

Gotta say thats a brilliant insightful article, best I’ve read so far on the whole mess. Great find Rafalution, cheers lad.

No worries, got time on my hands. Also saw an article on the LFC South African site where the author mentions that Rafa is meeting with the Chairman today, but has specifically requested that Purslow does not attend this meeting. Not sure where he (author) gets his facts from, but very interesting if true!

It’s interesting reading the comments about how little money Rafa has had to spend (maybe fairly so,but…), I’m now seriously questioning what Rafa has been doing with our squad…

We spent a hell of alot of money on Johnson and yet (for what ever reason) we sold Arbeloa for next to nothing… For me we really could not afford to lose Arbeloa, now we have no quality cover at either RB or LB, without making a CB move out of position (ie Carra or DAgger)… Why give Arbeloa away if he could not replace him?

For whatever reason Alonso was sold, but why on earth was Rafa playing TWO DM’s for much of the season?
If Rafa is such a great tactition, why on earth did it take a whole season to figure out that playing two DM (or Aquilani almost as a defender…) absolutely kills teams in the Premier league… I do like the look of Aquilani, I can’t see why he’d get slated when he was being played as a DM, even though his playing style and size make you scracth your head and wonder what on earth Rafa is doing… I’m at least grateful that Rafa has put SG back into his rightful role of CM, but far too little, too late…

I really can’t understand how Rafa could be caught out with just the one true striker comming into this season… What on earth was Rafa thinking? Of course Voronin, Ngog and Kyut all play up front, but none are exactly top4 starting strikers… Crouch & Bellamy are plying their trade elsewhere, I wonder how helpfull either, if not BOTH would’ve been to our roster this year…

Johnson cost us 18mill+

how bout we have kept Crouch, Bellamy and Arbeloa and still have had change instead of Rafa splashing out on just Johnson?…

I just cannot see what makes Rafa such a great manager at the moment… How could you sell/giveaway Arbeloa knowing that you no longer have any (quality in)versatility in the back 4 (and NOT replace him?). How could you continue letting your midfield get bossed around by smaller clubs because of the extremely negative 4-2-3-1 formation? Is it wise buying a pintsized 20mill Italian Attacking Midfielder and playing him as a Defensive Midfeilder in the Premier League? How could you realistically expect Liverpool FC to compete by starting NGog for much of the season as the lone striker?????????
Why did it take so long to figure out that SG wasnt dominating games anymore because he wasn’t getting ANY quality supply? Why is money the only thing that people want to complain about when there are players such as Richard Dunne that would’ve jumped at playing for us for a fraction of Johnson’s price tag…

If Rafa stays I wouldn’t be unhappy as I’d definately love to see him follow through on his next “Garauntee”, if he does go, I’d give thanks him for the many sucesses he’s had while being our gaffer and hope to hell our next manager gives up this wretched 2 Defensive Midfeilders ploy and get on with attacking…

For me, our biggest failure this year was very, very poor tactics… We need to play to our strengths again and somehow Rafa has forgotten that, as have our boys…

Carra NEEDS to hold that high defensive line, again…
SG NEEDS to play in the MIDDLE of the pitch, again…
Rafa NEEDS to realise that Torres alone WILL NOT be enough to carry the striking burden…

If Darren Bent was picked up for 10mill this year, alongside of Richard Dunne’s relative “cheapness” just goes to show that there are definately players out there that do not cost a “table”, but indeed only a “Lampshade”. Working hard is not the only component to sucess, ask MoN and he’ll probably tell you that using your brains/nous is just as important… Rafa needs to step up in a big way as has Martin O’neil has been doing on next to no funds and a far smaller wage bill than Rafa’s…

YNWAlancey: I can try & answer a couple of your questions/theories, however, I’m sure a few of the more ‘researched’ lads who post in here regularly will answer you more directly.
As far as I’m aware, Arbeloa asked for a transfer i.e. he wanted to return to Spain. He has also publicly backed Rafa & thanked him for taking him to LFC in the first place.
Bellamy: Well, it’s a toss up between who you would rather want at Liverpool. Bellamy or Torres. I know who I would go for. Bellamy was sold purely to raise funds to purchase Torres – as has been the norm for Rafa…having to sell to buy.
Crouch: He also wanted to stay at LFC, and asked Rafa where he figured in his plans for the future. Rafa could not guarantee him regular game time – would you if you had Torres starting (in an ideal world) every game, and Stevie excelling in the attacking role behind him? Rafa’s formation didn’t allow for 2 strikers starting.
Stevie G: Well, I believe Stevie G favours the role behind the striker (Torres). He enjoyed himslef in that role last season, and Rafa kept him there (most of the time, and when fit) this season. Alas, he has not been the same player this season, for whateever reason. I repeat, Stevie apparently prefers this forward role, although I personally would have liked to have seen him in the role that Alonso occupied last season & Lucas being the bench man, with a few games to rest Masch.
Hopefully I got this right here re Gerrard. I know I read somewhere last season that Rafa wanted to let Stevie G play wherever he prefered i.e. keep him happy.

Spot on all around Rafalution. I might add that it was also Alonso’s choice to go (albeit at the end of a long story). As has been said before a significant portion of the money “paid” for Glenda was owed by Pompey and, given what has transpired, we would never have seen that money again.
I agree Richard Dunne would have been a grand buy but when push came to shove we could not afford him nor anyone beyond Special K. The reason this happened was because the 2 dildo’s running this club (into the ground) took the money that was leftover from the transfers and pocketed it themselves and left Rafa in the lurch.
It was not Rafa’s fault that Nando was injured or recovering from injury most of the season, indeed a lot of the credit there must go to Nando himself (playing needless meaningless matches with the Spanish national team). Also you may remember how the enlightened media and assorted “liverpool fans” castigated Rafa for rotating Nando in his first (and most successful ) season here, thus protecting him from injury. You can’t bloody win really !!!

The reason we can’t play a high line with Jamie and Special K is that both are too big and slow and are really vulnerable to pace. That is also one of the reasons Rafa plays the 2 DM’s i reckon.

However the 2 DNM’s is good debate as is questioning and debating tactics and for sure we have played a ton of Shit* this season. However there have been numerous fitness issues and on and on and on … just look back at any one of 50 KeithSA or Aitch posts over the season to see what issues were there. I think if you want to know you should have a look.

Cheers

YNWAlancey,

Rafalution has answered most of the questions regarding Crouch, Bellamy, Arbeloa.

BTW, I don’t recall Aquilani playing Defensive Midfield as you’ve mentioned this season. And you seem to think 4-2-3-1 is a purely defensive formation from your earlier post. Then can you explain why we can have such a good scoring record toward the end of last season using this exact formation that we even overtook Man U’s goal difference?

On Stevie G. I’ll repeat again that his main strength is that he can play well everywhere in midfield and also behind the striker. Have you forgotten that the Torres-Gerrard partnership was even compared to Rush-Daglish partnership?

Rafa played Gerrard in right midfield a few seasons back and people say he’s played him out of position, even though Gerrard scored 23 goals (I think). But Capello has played him at left midfield, which is even more out of position. What’s your take on this?

Torres is injured most of this season and we therefore can’t see the deadly Gerrard-Torres combination. And people now conveniently use the “Gerrard’s best position is in CM” stick to hit Rafa again.

I think almost everyone here agrees that Gerrard has had a very, very lousy season. So with Gerrard being lousy, Aquilani injured for longer than expected, Masch out of form during early season, only Lucas is consistently available in CM. So a Lucas-Masch combination doesn’t come much as a surprise.

At the end of the season when we have more players back fit, note that Lucas-Masch combination was not used as frequently, mainly because Rafa had got more choices in midfield then. It’s certainly not because this obstinate coach had finally realised that Gerrard’s best position is in CM.

And a word on Johnson. Please also note that he’s been injured this season as well. So you can’t simply judge him as a failure by observing one injury laden season from the man himself.

It’s so tiring countering the points regurgitated from the press by some of our fans….

Right lads I’m bored of all this non-news so:

Player of the (shitty disasterous) Season:

1) Reina
2) Mascherano
3) and I can’t believe I’m writing this – Lucas

Torres’s goal scoring record this season is phenomenal, considering how many games he missed but I didn’t consider him in my little poll because of his lack of games.

Who’d have thought I’d not be mentioning Gerrard at all in this list back in August!!

Reina has got to be the player of the season for me, followed by Lucas and then Mascherano, who IMO had played badly until Argentina qualified for World Cup.

Yes. Torres’s goal scoring is indeed phenomenal, which is why explains the concerted efforts of the press in suggesting Liverpool to sell him, due to his injury problems.

I don’t remember them telling Manure to sell captain clutches Bryan Robson, or Spurs to sell Tampon Darren Anderton (appears in 1 week and out for another 3 or more), and cry man Paul Gascoigne, our very own Judas, oops I mean Jamie Redknapp, and yes, Mr Jonathan Woodgate. Notice all the English men mentioned here?

For those who don’t even consider the effect of our lack of transfer funds, consider this:

Tevez was linked to us for 25m, Barry for 12m, and Silva for another 25m. With the Robbie Keane money recouped (say 10m) plus the money owed to us by Pompey (say we pay 11m nett for Johnson), we’d need to spend 25 + 12 + 25 + 11 – 10 – 30 = 32m nett, taking away the Alonso transfer fee.

32m isn’t much, it’s only Berbatov’s transfer fee by the way.

Would we be in better shape with crucially cover for Torres, and more options in midfield with Silva + Barry around? I certainly think so.

But like what many people have said, “If my aunt had a dick, she’d be my uncle”. I just want to say that we shouldn’t underestimate the effects of money in today’s game.

Good post on #174, Rafalution. I hope Purslow leaves Abfield soon, the snitch!

My heart bleed’s for this cunt,

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/news/tom-hicks-i-have-paid-a-terrible-price-at-liverpo-19761691.html

the poor fucker must be mortified.

The plot really does thicken now, Rafalution. Sinister forces are at work here from within and without the club, I’m beyond despairing, I’m just exasperated now.

#179 YNWAlancey
If you’d of read some of the comments over the last year or two maybe you wouldnt be so confused
Alternatively use that google search engine to find out whats been going on the last 2 years .

However this made me laugh “pintsized 20mill Italian Attacking Midfielder” he’s 6 ft.1

YNWA

Lots of interesting talking points being discussed today, but I do wish more of our “fans” would keep their eyes on the bouncing ball.

1. The Mystical “Anfield Board Members”
Who are these blurry faced, unidentifiable men in suits, skulking around a large oak table, making decisions that affect our collective destiny?

No fuckin mystery really. Back in the Moores era, when he only owned 51% of the club, Board was made up of a number of nameless/faceless people we didn’t know.

Under G&H, well its: George Gillette, his son George Jnr., Tom Hicks, Ian Ayre (who only recently replaced Tom jnr,) and Christian Purslow.

So maybe it was Purslow that has been the source of the falsified leaks to the press regarding “cancelled meetings… but its not like the other names on that list haven’t leaked bollocks to the press in the past.

This is all smoke and mirrors to keep our attentions diverted from where they should be. The imminent sale of the club and the parameters of any such deal!

2. Aquilani – Good Buy or Bad?
This is a tough one to definitively answer at this time, no matter which side of the fence you sit. But here’s a few things to consider.

Was it a mistake to sign him?
A – Well no one could have foreseen the circumstances that followed his signings. (1) Additional funds that were supposed to be available for a striker being pulled. (2) Recovery from injury taking longer than expected by 3… count them 3… top specialists. (3) Torres being injured for more than half the season. (4) SG spending a quarter of his season injured, half his season playing like a Salif Diao, and only a quarter of his season actually doing the biz.

B – Aqua has looked very good 50% of the time, but a long way off the pace in the other 50% of his appearances. This might point to “bad” for this season, but surely points to “good” for next?

C – His initial signing cost £5-7 million (depending on source) with an additional £5-7 million due recently) Now injuries aside… he’s rated at 20 million (and not just by us) so getting a player for £10-14 last summer, could be a very good piece of business if he comes gangbusters next season, when he could not only be a large contributor to our success. Given the seeming lack of funds this summer, if (and yes okay, its an “IF”) he can/does put in a season of stellar footy next season, not only will that contribute to our success, but it constitute the proverbial “like a free signing” and would also raise his value, (ala Alonso’s 08/09 performances) to the £30 mill mark. It’s speculative I know, but I’d put money on that scenario, making him a very “good” buy, rather than writing him off as “bad” as some are doing.

Clearly the jury is still out. I get why people suggest he was a gamble. But remember that’s in retrospect… when he was purchased, all and sundry were wetting themselves over youtube videos of the guy (you know, kind of like they did over the idea of “deep yank pockets” the day G&H took over.)
But how anyone can call him a failure is mind-boggling at best, short-sighted at the very least!

3. Johnson – Good Buy or Bad?
Again… you have to take into account the context and circumstances of the signing, at the time it was made.
A. Arbeloa asked to leave in 07/08… not because he didn’t like Rafa or LFC, but because he wanted to go home to Spain. Rafa convinced him to give LFC another year, which agreed to, leaving for his home in 08/09. So this idea that we should have “kept” Arbeloa doesn’t fly… unless you are a firm believer in Michel Platini’s new plan to institute periods of indentured servitude at all participating UEFA clubs (and actually that’s not such a bad idea, given their fuckin wages!)

B. The right back situation therefore included (1) Deggen, in the #2 slot, who we got on a free, so was worth a punt (given that we could NOT afford anyone else at the time,) but who was continually injured and of even less use when fit. (2) A young but promising Stephen Darby in the #3 spot, and (3) a young but promising Kelly in the #4 spot. (4) The option of playing the vastly experienced Jamie Carragher at RB should worse come to sores… (which it did so we had to try first Skrtel there, then Mascherano with mixed results!)

C. Which brings us to purchasing a “world class right back”… Johnson may well have cost £17 million, but as with the Aquilani deal, he didn’t exactly cost £17 million. Had we not gone for Johnson, we would almost certainly have lost out on the millions that Portsmouth owed us. And yes, that alone shouldn’t have governed our interest in him, but I don’t think it did. I’m of the opinion that it was good business. We got a player who is being touted for the England squad, who has contributed quite a bit in spite of spending part of the season out injured, and again… bodes well for the future.

D. Yes he was out injured quite a bit… and people have used that as a stick to suggest he was a poor signing… but there was no way to predict that when he signed. Martin Kelly leapfrogged Darby, who hasn’t lived up to expectations yet, and stepped into the RB position and bossed the spot for 2 games…prior to his meeting with the goalpost… which left us short… since Darby then also got injured, followed once again by Deggen (who finally showed a bit of footy skill for a game or two before limping back to his standing reservation for the treatment table.)

All-in-all I think Johnson was a good buy, who contributed, but also suffered through a poor patch. Next season? Who knows, but I’m leaning towards improved performance and consistency in a good season.

There’s more to discuss, but in my usual fashion, this is getting long now, so I’ll leave it there… except to include the following little gem…

2. Poor Man Management and no Youth emerging
I know those who’ve made up their minds about Rafa hate to hear this, but Jay Spearing said the following in the Echo today…

Damn You Jay Spearing… just when the “out brigade” were convincing everyone Rafa was a Cold, Aloof, Heartless, Spanish Bastard… you have to go and publicly say THAT about the man!

YNWAlancey,

Haven`t heard from you in here for a while but what a way to make a comeback.Spouting media myths that have been chewed up and spat out in here so many times in the past year i won`t even bother answering them.

We`ve a lot more pressing issues to sort out at the club that formations at the moment.Yes this is a footy forum but its off the field problems that effect the on field performance so i think we should prioritise that for now.

So with that said there is a campaign going ahead tomorrow at one o clock in the afternoon.

Its effectively a show of red strength in support of our manager Rafa Benitez.
Now before i go on i would like to ask anyone who is opposed to keeping our manager at the club to keep their opinions to themselves on this particular issue.
I`ll copy and paste what i want you to do,its from another site so apoligese in advance gerry for doing this but i think it simportant and i hope you don`t mind.If there`s anyone out there who can spare 10 minutes and wants Rafa to stay please take time to do this.

Here`s a post from Billy the kid on RAWK..

I posted a suggestion last night, and I’ve received numerous PM’s since from various posters, urging me to make a thread specifically for this idea. So here goes.

The idea is that we should all prepare our own individual statements which make it abundantly clear, that we (the fans) are 100% behind our manager, and that our support for him will remain totally resolute, regardless of what anyone in the printed or broadcast media say about him.

These statements don’t have to be too long. As long as the message is loud and clear then a few lines or a paragraph should be sufficient. My idea is for us all to e-mail these statements to numerous addresses at precisely 1 o’clock on Friday afternoon. If we can get enough people on board to participate in this, then surely we can make someone in the broadcast or printed media take notice.

If Sky News, The BBC, Setanta, Radio 5, The Times, The Liverpool Echo, Tony Barrett, Guillem Ballague, Christian Purslow, et al (all suggestions are welcome here) were all to receive thousands of e-mails in their inboxes within the space of a few seconds, then surely someone somewhere would have to notice that there is a collective show of solidarity among us, and that we want Rafa to stay.

I suggest that all of our e-mails contain the same subject, header, and footer. For example, something along the lines of this:

Subject: I want Rafa Benitez to stay

Header: Hello my name is (insert name here) and I am a life long supporter of Liverpool Football club.

Then insert your own statement that you wrote in your own words. Remember to make it absolutely clear, that we do not wish for Rafa to leave Liverpool

Footer: I trust you will also be hearing from my fellow supporters. Yours sincerely (insert name)

I’m open to tweaking the subject title, as well as the header and footer. If anyone has any suggestions then don’t hesitate to put them forth. But the important thing is, whatever we decide on, we should all use the same headers and footers to show that we are all together on backing our boss.

I also think that having the same subject title would also strike a chord. Imagine thousands of e-mails descending down your inbox, all with different names and addresses, but with the same subject. It would certainly make me sit up and notice if I was a journo or presenter. It would really show that we are united in this.

He came and carried us in our time of need in 2004, and gave us some of the greatest nights in LFC history. The time has come for us to repay the favour, and do whatever we can to carry him in his hour of need.

I’m going to go trawling the web for as many email addresses as I can find. I’ll post them in here as I go. Once we have a collection of these addresses, (the more the better) then we can copy and paste them into the “send to” pane of our emails. Then at 1pm on Friday we all click send together. We send our message together, and we show everyone and anyone willing to listen, that Rafa has our full support.

I hope you are all willing to get on board with this. It’s well worth the effort if you ask me. Bill Hick Appreciation society recently set up a facebook page demonstrating our support for Rafa, hopefully that might be a way to get even more people to take part in this. I’m also going to send a message to the administrator of the SOS facebook page to ask if they would be willing to post a link to this thread.

YNWA Rafa

Cheers,
(Insert name)

Journo`s

[email protected]

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The newspapers

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

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[email protected] (Aldo does a sunday column for this lot)

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Broadcasters

[email protected]

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Thanks lads take some time out to show your support for Rafa.

Sorry for long post.

YNWAlancey,

Haven`t heard from you in here for a while but what a way to make a comeback.Spouting media myths that have been chewed up and spat out in here so many times in the past year i won`t even bother answering them.

We`ve a lot more pressing issues to sort out at the club that formations at the moment.Yes this is a footy forum but its off the field problems that effect the on field performance so i think we should prioritise that for now.

So with that said there is a campaign going ahead tomorrow at one o clock in the afternoon.

Its effectively a show of red strength in support of our manager Rafa Benitez.
Now before i go on i would like to ask anyone who is opposed to keeping our manager at the club to keep their opinions to themselves on this particular issue.
I`ll copy and paste what i want you to do,its from another site so apoligese in advance gerry for doing this but i think it simportant and i hope you don`t mind.If there`s anyone out there who can spare 10 minutes and wants Rafa to stay please take time to do this.

Here`s a post from Billy the kid on RAWK..

I posted a suggestion last night, and I’ve received numerous PM’s since from various posters, urging me to make a thread specifically for this idea. So here goes.

The idea is that we should all prepare our own individual statements which make it abundantly clear, that we (the fans) are 100% behind our manager, and that our support for him will remain totally resolute, regardless of what anyone in the printed or broadcast media say about him.

These statements don’t have to be too long. As long as the message is loud and clear then a few lines or a paragraph should be sufficient. My idea is for us all to e-mail these statements to numerous addresses at precisely 1 o’clock on Friday afternoon. If we can get enough people on board to participate in this, then surely we can make someone in the broadcast or printed media take notice.

If Sky News, The BBC, Setanta, Radio 5, The Times, The Liverpool Echo, Tony Barrett, Guillem Ballague, Christian Purslow, et al (all suggestions are welcome here) were all to receive thousands of e-mails in their inboxes within the space of a few seconds, then surely someone somewhere would have to notice that there is a collective show of solidarity among us, and that we want Rafa to stay.

I suggest that all of our e-mails contain the same subject, header, and footer. For example, something along the lines of this:

Subject: I want Rafa Benitez to stay

Header: Hello my name is (insert name here) and I am a life long supporter of Liverpool Football club.

Then insert your own statement that you wrote in your own words. Remember to make it absolutely clear, that we do not wish for Rafa to leave Liverpool

Footer: I trust you will also be hearing from my fellow supporters. Yours sincerely (insert name)

I’m open to tweaking the subject title, as well as the header and footer. If anyone has any suggestions then don’t hesitate to put them forth. But the important thing is, whatever we decide on, we should all use the same headers and footers to show that we are all together on backing our boss.

I also think that having the same subject title would also strike a chord. Imagine thousands of e-mails descending down your inbox, all with different names and addresses, but with the same subject. It would certainly make me sit up and notice if I was a journo or presenter. It would really show that we are united in this.

He came and carried us in our time of need in 2004, and gave us some of the greatest nights in LFC history. The time has come for us to repay the favour, and do whatever we can to carry him in his hour of need.

I’m going to go trawling the web for as many email addresses as I can find. I’ll post them in here as I go. Once we have a collection of these addresses, (the more the better) then we can copy and paste them into the “send to” pane of our emails. Then at 1pm on Friday we all click send together. We send our message together, and we show everyone and anyone willing to listen, that Rafa has our full support.

I hope you are all willing to get on board with this. It’s well worth the effort if you ask me. Bill Hick Appreciation society recently set up a facebook page demonstrating our support for Rafa, hopefully that might be a way to get even more people to take part in this. I’m also going to send a message to the administrator of the SOS facebook page to ask if they would be willing to post a link to this thread.

YNWA Rafa

Cheers,
(Insert name)

I tried posting the email adresses but they keep getting zapped.

They`re on this page

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=257694.0

Excellent idea… thanks for posting this timmy.

Obviously Digger won’t be signing up for this on Saturday, but I hope the rest of you ot there will!

I quickly trawled through the first 2 pages of that thread and here are the two best quotes I cam across… one footy related, the other not…

“I remember reading a comment comparing the UEFA Cup to Danni Minogue – very nice to have in your arms, but you’d much rather be in her sister.”

…and…
“Oops, I seemed to have stumbled into a meeting of the paramilitary wing of the “Keep Rafa” brigade.”
Corrected by someone else to…
“Oops, I seemed to have stumbled into a meeting of the paramilitary wing of the “Support Our Manager – It’s The Liverpool Way” brigade. Now, you IN or you out??

Classic!

As far as i know Aitch its tomorrow,not saturday.

The more we can do,the better.I seen a few say “whats the point”

Well i remember some saying that at the start of the Cohen campaign also and we all know what happened there.

“Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.”

Shanks would be proud.

Way to go TT, Rafalution (sneaky stuff Mr Purslow), Aitch as ever, Ax, Rome & Riddle.

Knight, did you get my pm ?

Don’t write off Digger yet guys ! We’re all supporting the Reds and as the layers of subterfuge get lifted it may beome obvious even to those who dislike Rafa’s football & tactics on the field that supporting him now is the best for the club.

Ax,

Yes 4-2-3-1 is a defensive formation when Lucas and Mash are paired together, even more so when DAGGER and/or Carra are out on the flanks.

Holding a high defensive line wasn’t a problem when Hypia, Carra, Riise and Finnan were lining up to defend… So I don’t see how DAgger, Carra(older), Johnson and Insua would be slower…

Yes Gerrard is good with Torres, but you’ve also forgotten that Alonso was also a part of that equation. Now that there is NO Alonso, stevie does NOT get any real supply from his midfeild (ie. Lucas and Mash).

Yes, Aquilani was playing as a DM for the most part of this season, I won’t argue on that point. If StevieG was playing in the pocket, where then was Aquilani playing in the 4-2-3-1 formation?

Actually, I really like Glen Johnson, never said that I didn’t like him. However, for 18mill we could’ve brought Richard Dunne, Darren Bent and possibly brought Danny Murphy back! For 18mill we really could’ve spent the money alot better…

I’ll support any Liverpool FC Manager for the rest of my life. Doesn’t mean that I like watching our team walk onto the pitch looking disinterested… Doesn’t mean that I can understand why StevieG was shaking his head when the score is locked up at 1-1 against Birmingham and a fit(ish) Torres is subbed…

Rafa garaunteed US Champions league qualification. I’m sure there’s plenty of excuses, but Rafa made that Garauntee, not us…

Just thinking about Arbeloa, does anyone remember how good he was at shutting Messi down at Nou Camp in his first game for us in Europe?

Of course I know about the agreement between Arbeloa and Rafa, but it amazes me how such a player leaves for so little and is not replaced.

Yes I know Johnson,Deggen and Carra was to cover rb, aurelio, Dagger and Insua to cover lb, but none compared to Arbeloa defensively…

Has anyone read the latest article on the main site by Andy Harvey. Absolute garbage, and apparently he used to write this blog with Gerry.

There is and will be a lot of cack written about the club in the next few months. I’m ignoring the lot of it until I hear something concrete. Roll on the world cup!

You are joking aren’t you lancey?
12 players fielded in 18 different back 4 combinations.
And if you include the 2 holding midfielders… that would take it to something like 18 players used in 24 different formations (a back 4 plus, 1 or 2 holding midfielders, or a straight midfield 4)
The problem was not the formation, or the tactical approach… 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 gets used every week, by top teams… sometimes to good effect, sometimes not… the problem was the inability to implement it to good effect on the field… due to the players available and their particular form that week.

Stevie G has performed miserably this season… anyone who thinks he’d have suddenly started playing better if played in central midfield is deluding themselves.
Yes… He did so in the final dozen games… but that was only after he found a bit of form… and even then he gifted Chelsea a goal. How many of those might we have seen if he’d been played there all season… especially considering how much he gave the ball away in the hole throughout the first 2 thirds of the season.

We might well have been up shit creek without a paddle far sooner had he been played in central midfield earlier in the season… especially considering most people ignore the fact that Lucas, whether you rate him or hate him, was actually playing well in that position, and kept us ticking over while A-list players went missing.

As for spending the money on Johnson… Surely I don’t have to point out that Dunne, Bent and Murphy are not right backs?
Who do you propose we would have played there… Darby, Kelly, Deggen? Skrtel? Carra?? Mascherano??
(yes – all of whom played there this season)

Glenn Johnson got injured. Had he not done so the right back slot would have been sorted.
But if you are saying you thought that was a bad signing last August… you were in the extreme minority!

As for garaunteeing CL… what the fuck did you want him to say… “sorry fans, the lads are just shite this season. We’ll finish 7th.”

I’m simply amazed that this season is being pointed at Rafa.
I’m not saying the man never makes mistakes…
I’m not suggesting some responsibility should rest at his door…
…but World Class players played shite for large parts of the season…
…and I mean steaming piles of shite, where they give the ball away unchallenged…
… were unable to complete a simple 10 yard pass to an open teammate for 90 minutes…
… chose to hoof away, when there were options…
… picked the 3rd worst option when 2 better and easier options were on…
… or failed to show for the ball, or move into space when notin posession…
…and they’ve largely gotten off scott free.

…oh… and Torres looked anything but “fitish” when he was subbed at Birmingham. Yes he is the type of player that might grab you a goal out of nothing… but up to that point, all he’d done was taken up space and fallen over quite a lot… requiring the rest of the team to essentially play as 10 men.

No, I’ve already said that I like Johnson, but you’ve totally missed the point that: 18mill spent on Johnson would’ve easily brought 2-3 players that would’ve helped our squad’s depth emensely…

Yes Torres IS a player that could grab a goal out of nothing, even if he’s below par fitness wise…

Why Aitch are so many of our players so out of form? In my experience as a sports lover, the coach/ manager has a massive part/role in making sure that everyone’s mind is on the job… Most of your list is pointing at what the manager’s role is… I know this is Liverpool FC and critising our manager isn’t the norm, but this was a terrible season, surely now is the time to reflect and understand what on earth went wrong… As it stands, we will not be any better next season, unless some serious changes are made…

18 differnet back 4 combinations in itself makes you wonder what the hell the manager is bloody doing? yes there were injuries, hell we’re no different to any other team in that respect…

How much has MoN spent on assembling his back4? I’d hazard a guess that Johnson’s fee alone would probably cover that bill… For me there are too many excuses.

Rafa has had money, yes he hasn’t had enough as others, but 20 mill spent on Aquilani and 18mill spent on Johnson is a hell of alot more than the likes of MoN would dream of at AV, that’s for sure…

Who would I have played at RB this season? Arbeloa. Yes, I know the agreement, yes I know the home sickness, etc. But he had 1 season left on his contract, give him a bonus, a new car, whatever needed to be done should’ve been done to keep him. If not, why on earth wasn’t a like-4-like brought in? Again, I’ll point out that 38mill was spent on just two players…

Aitch mate, I respect your opinion and all, but Drogba seems to be taking up space and falling over quite alot as well…

Sure Stevie was below par this season. But, where were the mid fielders to supply him any decent balls? Why play Stevie so far up the pitch if he can’t get any supply?
Nice to just attack Stevie and all, but tactically we were inferrior to so many other teams this year. The results speak for themselves…

LB, just mark that piece of Harvey drivel as 1 star, as I see everybody seems to be doing so, resulting in a current score of 1.7, and rightly so.

In fact, I encourage most of us here on Kopblog to mark it as 1 star and show him our disapproval of his lack of intelligence.

Guys,

I’ve already composed the email and reminded myself to send it tonight (my local time) 8pm.

I replied to Harvey as best I could, incensed by the half truths and plain unfounded accusations I probably wasn’t as eloquent as I could have been.

This is where the damage really happens when people who are long time supporters allow their selves to be taken in by tabloid drivel and then repeat it as fact.

Our tag of most knowledgeable football fans has come under serious scrutiny this year

Ok, so apparently the tlaks went well, so that means either Rafa’s decided to stay and money is coming in, or the Juventus talks fell apart. My view is he wanted to stay and fight through this bleak time.
.
Although I can’t understand why he would bother because deep down I don’t think we really have a buyer just yet. What we do have is massive debt and two greedy fuckwits.
.
As fans we keep dreaming but it’s all it’s is, money is not coming and spending a 100 million pounds on players is not going to happen.
.
So talks or no talks it’s back to same in same out, so therefor the players need to get of their arses, and work like LFC team players.

gaz,

I share your views.

there’s a lot of debate going on about why Rafa let Arbeloa go. A lot among us were convinced that Arbie was not good enough for a title winning team standard. I can’t remember anyone being unhappy when he was replaced by Johnson. I think it’s a bit hypocritical to now blame Rafa for it.
Concerning Gerrard position on the field, I don’t think he is nor he was a great midfielder. He is not disciplined enough to play there. I remember Houlier always saying that Gerrard should learn when to keep pocession or when to play one touch football. Credit should go to Rafa who finally found a position and a partner in Torres to get the best of Gerrard.

Timmy, saw that on RAWK as well & emails composed & ready to send today (Friday);-)
As with the Facebook thingy, it just makes me feel better by doing something to support Rafa, however small & trivial it might seem. As I’m an OOT (OOCountry), I cannot go & stand outside of Anfield & protest and I do hope this email ‘campaign’ will get a message accross. Maybe P.Tomkins has Rafa’s email address, after their personal meeting at Melwood a few months back?
YNWA Rafa!

That email campaign sounds like a brilliant idea. Only 1.5 hours remaining till the required time to send your emails. I think I’ll sign in for this.

If you’re using free accounts like Gmail, here’s a good website for you to time your email to be sent at the exact time if you are unable to be in front of a computer at that time (like me, as I’ll be away for dinner with my folks local time):

http://www.lettermelater.com

However, beware of a sinister Scum plot to sabotage this:

***************** EMAIL CAMPAIGN UPDATE *****************

Subject: Manc Sabotage Plot (sad twats)
Dear Member,

If you intend to take part in the e-mail campaign to the media this may be of interest to you.

As you may be aware, there is talk of Man Utd fans hijacking the e-mail campaign in support of Rafa.

If the recipients of your e-mails recieve mails from them it will give them an opportunity to claim not all reds fans are behind their manager, despite the mails we are sending. That’s the way the media works as we all know.

In order to let the media know that there is an obvious scam going on it may be an idea to put a ‘disclaimer’ on your mail in order to force them to see that there is a difference. If they then use any negative mails it will be obvious that they do have an agenda.

The example for the disclaimer is below and copy and paste this in front of your personal message.

THIS E-MAIL IS BEING SENT BY A GENUINE LIVERPOOL SUPPORTER. ANY E-MAILS RECEIVED THAT DO NOT CONTAIN THIS DISCLAIMER ARE MOST CERTAINLY NOT.

Thanks for your co-operation

David

*****

So do remember to include the disclaimer.

Just to add, for LetterMeLater, it only allows you to send 10 emails at a time.

Simply copy and paste your message and send then 10 at a time.

I just sent the emails, out of which 5 bounced back.

Gotta say it’s fun!

Too bad I didn’t read your earlier post before I sent. But anyway, it’s done

Enjoyed that…

Will it make the news though?

So I sent my emails.
I used a template and adjusted it a bit.
Had a few bounce back undeliverable.

Here it is:

Subject : I want Rafa Benitez to stay?

I’d just like to say I want Rafa to stay

It would appear that the media campaign against Rafa Benitez shows no sign of abating. In fact even after 6 years it appears to be gaining momentum. As a lifelong Liverpool supporter I give the manager my wholehearted support in the face of this deliberate and continued attempt by the media in this country to discredit him at every opportunity. We are only too aware of the agenda being perpetrated as we have been watching with increased frustration and disbelief for a long time now. We can seperate The Truth from the lies and the opinion masquerading as facts regarding our club, as we live and breath them every day. We are supporters of Liverpool Football Club, and our history has taught us many things. There is very little we haven’t seen, heard or experienced. We have been fortunate to have had some of the greatest managers the football world has ever known. So I think we are suitably qualified to make a judgement on our current manager without the need for the media to attempt to influence and patronise us with their version of Rafa Benitez and his achievements at Liverpool. No amount of speculation and innuendo on the part of the media will change our level of support for Mr Benitez as we firmly believe he is the right man to be at the helm of our great club. In fact, the more the media attempts to skew the facts, the stronger our support will become. By all means report what you see, that is your right. However it’s well worth taking note that there are those of us out there that are intelligent enough to see through different eyes.

Tom & George:
Debt
Lies
Cowboys
Not Welcome Here

In Rafa We Trust

I trust you will also be hearing from my fellow supporters.

THIS E-MAIL IS BEING SENT BY A GENUINE LIVERPOOL SUPPORTER.
ANY E-MAILS RECEIVED THAT DO NOT CONTAIN THIS DISCLAIMER ARE MOST CERTAINLY NOT

I had an almost immediate response from StarSport saying:
“So do I,
Arsene Wenger”

Wankers!

I replied to them saying:
“I suppose we should have expected this kind of reaction from The Star.
Thanks for your professional response.
It just adds more weight to the perceived media bias.”

They replied saying:
“Love it”

Oh Well…What can you do?

Redragon,They`ve sent more like”sir alez ferguson,great manager,fact.”

Pricks.

Anyway lads well done to anyone who has sent them.We are getting some responses too.

One of the lads on another site i visit got an email from Dion Fanning who writes for the Irish independant.Dion is a decent journo and is fair in his articles.

Dear Frank,

I appreciate this campaign and its support of Rafael Benitez. Although you’ve clearly never read anything I’ve written if you think I don’t like him.

Regards

Dion Fanning

====

Hi Dion,

I’ve pretty much read everything you’ve written! And apologies – I didn’t realize this was your personal email address.

Mate – we have few friends in the media but I seriously consider you one, along with Brian Reade for example. My humblest apologies Dion, this was a campaign that was orchestrated through RAWK and I initiated the IrishKop side of things (my name is F@ces). While I sent each email individually I never copped this was a personal one.

Again, so I’m clear Dion – you are one of the few superb journalists around. And I’m not saying that as you are a Liverpool supporter. I’m saying that as you try to publish “the truth”.

YNWA mate,

Frank.

====

Frank,

There’s no need to apologise, I think the campaign is a great idea. Just became momentarily irritated by the load of emails even though I know it’s a circular.

Thanks for the kind words,

Good luck,

Dion.

Cock-sucking, leeching yank bastards..

Liverpool post £54.9m loss as debts continue to rise

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/8668320.stm

Lancey, its not my intention to start an argument, but what kind of crack are you smoking?

Look, I don’t have a problem with people having the opinion that Rafa is not the way forward… (I don’t agree, but there’s a case to be made… you’re just not making it.)
That argument has to be based on something real. (and no, not just “well we finished 7th so we’re going backwards.)

You claim we could have bought 2 top quality players for 18 million…
…but… we didn’t pay 18 million for Johnson. They owed us half of that, which got written off in the deal, so he only cost us 9 million in available funds…
… you don’t actually put forth 2 “realistic” optional names, just the idea that 18 mill would buy you two great players who would have made all the difference.
So what 2 players could we have got for 9 million… and remember, one of them MUST be a World Class Right Back, so no “bring back Danny Murphy”!

You claim Rafa should have done everything to keep Arbeloa coz he had 1 year left on his contract,but
A- he already did that the previous season, and
B- slavery and indentured servitude are not accepted practices in the Premier League.

Now I liked Arby and would have liked him to stay, but the lad wanted to go… not coz he didn’t like Rafa, or LFC, but because he wanted to go home and had a chance to play for Real Madrid. (a chance he may never have gotten if Rafa hadn’t brought him to the Prem in the first place… same goes for Alonso to some extent.)

If a player wants to leave, there’s little a club can do about it. The players have all the power in modern football (something worth remembering when people refer to how Shanks and Paisley did their thing.)

Also, had Rafa somehow found a way to blackmail Arbeloa into giving us one more season as you suggest, then he would then have walked on a Bozman this Sunday and we’d have got nothing for him?
Not very good business that!

You ask why we were so poor this season… yet you ignore pretty much every explanation people have given in here.

As someone who has played football, on 3 continents, over 30 years, many of them at a decent competitive level, (albeit far below Prem standard) and coached football, very successfully, as opposed to just being a sports lover, what I can tell you from my own experiences is…

There are times when things just go pear shaped.
Everything you do goes sideways.
Nothing you try comes off.
Goals you used to bang in with ease, suddenly start coming back off the post.
Passes that are your bread and butter, suddenly don’t make it or go astray.

I’ve been through such personal slumps in good teams and I’ve also been in a team where everyone went into this slump at the same time.
There’s no explaining it. And try as you might, there is no easy way out of it. You just have to play through it… and when you get to the other side and start playing well again… you are hard pressed to explain “what the fuck was that all about?”

You claim such a poor season is all down to the manager and his inability to motivate.
That “can be” a valid point.
I can tell you I’ve played for some knobheads that couldn’t coach their way out of a wet paper bag and I’ve played for good motivators who got average players punching way above their weight.

But you simply cannot avoid taking into account the massive injury list we dealt with this season, when trying to level that stick in Rafa’s direction. Some of the reason we finished 7th may well be laid at Rafa’s doorstep, but no one could have predicted the number of players who would suffer injury, or the time it would take them to recover form.
Fate played its hand.
But the players should be shouldering a large part of the burden for not doing the biz over the 90 minutes, time, and time, and time again!

You claim we will not be any better next season…
but this ignores the fact that we have a team that includes Reina, Carragher, Agger, Johsnon, Mascherano, SG, Bannayoun, Aquilani, Maxi Rodriguez, Torres… I’d personally include Lucas, and Insua, (almost all of whom play for their respective countries)
…and maybe we can even include Babel in that list, and the jury should still be a little out on Ngog.

These players were under par this season… for whatever reason… but you think next season “will not be any better”?
If that’s what you believe, then fine… I can’t see it myself. These lads are professional footballers… all evidence this season to the contrary …Like Arnold…they will be back!

“18 different back 4 combinations in itself makes you wonder what the hell the manager is bloody doing?”
Are you serious?? Are you fuckin serious??
I’m sorry, but you make a statement like that and pretty much everything you say from now on will be taken with a pinch of salt.

The man didn’t do that by choice. Carragher and Skrtel clashed heads in our first game. One receiving a broken fuckin jaw, the other played on with a concussion.
We’d already fielded 4 players in 2 different defensive formations before our first 90 minutes was up!

At right back, Johnson got injured, so we played Darby, who got injured, so we played Kelly, who got injured, so we played Deggen who had been inujured and got re-injured, so we played Skrtel, who didn’t work out, so we played Carra, but then we needed him inside, so we played Mascherano!
That’s just at right back.

NONE of those “choices” were elective on Rafa’s part… they were 3rd, 4rth, worst-case-scenario, and beyond-worse-case-scenario-last-ditch-options.

Insua played most of the season at left back NOT coz he was our first choice left back, but because he was thrust into that position when Aurelio broke his ankles of glass, playing with his kid in the summer. Lots don’t rate Dossena, but he was an Italian International, and he didn’t have the stomach to fight off an emerging kid.
And when Insua eventually buckled under the rigors of twice-weekly footy, we drafted first Agger into that spot and finally even Johnson… coz there were no other fuckin options!

What the manager was “bloody doing” …was making the best out of a fuckin bad situation.

You claim “yes there were injuries, hell we’re no different to any other team in that respect…” WHAT?

What other team even came close to having to do what I just described above to their back 4?
Or lets not just leave it there… Had to do what I just described above to their midfield?

This season Torres, SG, Riera, Aquilani, Aurellio, Skrtel, Johnson, Kelly, Darby, Deggen, and El Zhar were all out for large parts of the season with injury.
But add to that, Ngog, Babel, Agger, Carra, Insua, Masch, who were all out for short periods throughout the season with inury… and who was fit to chose from August to now?
Pepe and Lucas.

Yeah Fungus, Ancelloti, Mancini, Appy Arry, and Wenger had to deal with THAT!

And finally Steven Gerrard.
Look, for the umpteenth time, I’m not attacking Steven Gerrard.
There is no doubt that SG is one of the BEST midfielders in the world.
No one in their right mind would suggest otherwise…
… but he wasn’t this season.

SG did not play poorly this season because he got no supply. He played poorly this season. Period. By anyone’s standards.

That doesn’t make him the proverbial “good player turning bad overnight”. And that’s not an attack on him, just an objective assessment of his contribution from August till now.

Fortunately, he’ll go to South Africa this summer, get it out of his system and next season he’ll likely be back to his best.

But this season, he simply could not find his form back from injury… until the last dozen games.

Moving him back into midfield earlier in the season is something I was actually calling for… back in August, the moment we sold Xabs.
SG is one of those rare footballers that can play anywhere and look good doing it… But in my opinion, his best position is in center midfield, where he can stay involved, have an affect on the game and charge forward with the ball, rather than receiving it with his back to goal and defenders crawling all over him.

What’s funny is that when I made that argument at the beginning of the season, I was shouted down by those who thought he was “amazing in the hole” and that we couldn’t afford to break his “psychic partnership” with Torres.
Yet many of those same people are now screaming that he should be played in his “best position” and why can’t Rafa see that?

… The inescapable facts are…
Steven Gerrard did not have a good season.
He DID get service from midfield, only to mis-control or squander that service/possession.
That is not a dig at Stevie… it is just what did happen.
The chances of a repeat performance next season… I reckon slim to none.

Few would argue that next season our starting midfield ought to be SG alongside Masch, with Aqua in the hole… providing everyone is fit.

This season however, whether you like it or not, our best starting midfield WAS Lucas, and whoever was fit enough to play next to him.

Read that today Lurgan the parisites are bleeding us dry.

Parry pockets four million for fecking our club upside-down.

The mind truly does boggle.

Aitch,take a bow mate that was some post,i might print that off and staple it to my head cos i`m sick to the teeth of trying to explain to people that rafa didn`t actually fart out the swine flu or start the volcano in Iceland.

Aitch, a bit of control C and control V needed from now on otherwise you’ll be minus a wife as well as a job !!

Lurgan, I didn’t get beyong this sentance;

“There is also a charge of £22.3m for work done on the much-delayed new stadium project.”

You gotta be kidding ???

Aitch #216,

Thanks for saying that! You’re certainly more articulate than me!

Steady on there timmy… don’t speak too soon lad,
The Star is reporting that Rafa once owned a Budgie and a Lava Lamp!
So…

and dougle, maybe just a bit of “control” period.
My wife asked me this week, “so do I get you back on Monday?”
“For the summer.” I answered, “For the summer.”

(then again, there’s the ownership debaucle, the management situation, players possibly departing, players coming in… oh wait… what was I thinking. Players coming in? …how foolish of me! )

Aitch, send her to http://www.kopblog.com/widows

Been trying to find the source for a long (depressing) but good article by dion fanning…had to resist copying it in full, so here’s a link to the quote on the RAWK site:

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=257694.1360

But you may need razor blades by the end of it ;-(