welcome back gerry, our long lost scribe. we rejoice over your return.

tell us what happened to you.

Gerry, great to have you back online man, to cap it off, you have to make your way down to Cork for the Kopblog gathering. We will give you the same welcome as the Queen!!!

(Yeah … Gerry the Queen has a certain ring to it !) Great to have you back man. I totally agree with you about Barca. I watched the second half last night in a bar with many “Irish Mancs”. I was nervous just in case those jammy bastar*s managed to win another but not a chance. Beautiful football, delighted to see it. Mancs were bewildered and dispirited. I reckon that has finished them if they meet again next year.

Anyway, I am actually not so sure us being or not being in the Europa makes any difference to the type of player we are looking to bring in. Hopefully it’s the CL they are looking to play in not the mickey mouse mayhem that is the EL.

Invited to a buddys house for bbq last night, arrived and a room full of maanc fans watching the match. They could hardly speak during the game, as the game finished and it showed the trophy being inscribed, one of the lads says “they are quick off the mark there”. i piped up- ” no that’s a recording, that was done an hour ago” sweet!!!

Great to have ya back Gerry !

Great to have you back Gerry! Classic piece and worth the wait! Hope all is better with you…

Oh dear Lord…I am only up to page 46 in “An Epic Swindle 44 months with a pair of Cowboys” and its already shocking as to just how bad Moores and Parry were at running the club…how useless they were at everything…the bit on the sacking of Houllier is laughable!

Welcome back Gerry. I am happy to hear that health/work related things are going much better for you.

Away to read your blog now.

Welcome back Gerry. I for one have truly missed your humor.

This week’s gem(s): “…A bit of a health scare among other things has given my presence on Kopblog over the past few months an almost Joe Cole-like invisibility, in fact I’ve made even less appearances than Steven Gerrard!” – hope it’s nothing serious though.

Gandalf the Grey? Pricess. “… from an overall point of view you’ve got to say that since Kenny returned we’ve gotten more positives than Wayne Rooney at an STD clinic!”

“…As regards incoming players, I’ve read recent press reports linking us with the likes of Aguero, Mata, Coentrao, in fact just about every player whose surname ends in a vowel!”

We’re on the up, a fact I can’t help repeating to any who cares (or mostly don’t) to listen. There’s a genuine fear factor back in opponents when it comes to facing Liverpool. I can’t get enough as our song to Suarez says

About players to Anfield, I think like Kenny our name is gargantuan in world football. Those who WANT will come. I for one don’t want to see mercenaries and stepping stoners who want to use us for some personal milestones. Only the hungry, hardworking, fight-for-the-Red are welcome at Anfield, and I think we’ll see quite a few of such.

PS: MUFC has knocked us off our perch? Is 19 + 3 equal to 18 + 5? We still lead in League Cup wins, European cups and UEFA tournaments. Two CL wins by SAF in some 18 attempts will never come close to quiet Paisley’s achievements on the pitch. It’s taken United about 35 years to reach our sporting achievements, but the Reds still win that odd trophy every now and then.

It will take some doing to be Red, just like MUFC and Arsenal have learned about being Barcelona.

Heads high, big smiles through the storms, happiness galore. YNWA!

er..gerry

if i ever become a stand up comedian can you write me a few jokes please? gandalf the grey? i’ll be laughing at that one for the rest of the week. welcome back.

i must say however that i possess a twinge of sadness that the fabled 1000 comments mark fell at the last hurdle, but as aitch said, it was taking a monumental effort to get onto the site towards the end.

having said that, more blogs from you are needed as you’re a top wordsmith. but what is there to write about now the season’s over, i wonder?

i really enjoyed the CL final for many obvious reasons. but i was surprised at the lack of strategy employed by man u. they seemed to have one tactic and when that didn’t work, they stuck to it. odd really, considering sluralex is supposed to be a great manager. i hope liverpool learn some lessons watching barca play. dynasty’s rise and fall in football. their time is now. manshites time is over. our time will surely come.

Welcome back Gerry! Good to see the best Liverpool FC blog on the planet ‘up & running’ again!
Agree with you on Eggnog. I hate to see a player leave Liverpool, especially when he given his all, but now that we have funds & should be in the market for a top name striker, he would be surplus to requirements.
Nice to see Masch dedicating Barca’s win to all Liverpool fans, even though he was a chop in the way he keft us.

Come into the parlour Gerry,like many others I’m glad to see you back and in fine fettle.
Like you I will be gad to see certain players depart,especially Ngog.He sored some nice goals but who wouldn’t with all the chances he got-he just hadn’t got it.
Barca were very good but ManUre + Sir Alec were like rabbits caught in the headlights.”Sir” had no answer but recovered enough to berate a Press journalist who asked a very stupid question at the press conference. Even I cringed when he asked it and Old Red Face was not in a good mood to say the least.
Anyway,repating – glad to have you back Gerry, and so enough of my words.

Great to hear you again Gerry, glad things are working out…

I know we should concentrate on our own strengths and shouldn’t need to mention the opposition but:

Utd have unveiled a banner at old trafford saying “19″ to celebrate the number of touches they got on Saturday…

Ok guys – time for a bit of guessing here. I think there is a general view that we may need another up front striker. The line is that Ngog isn’t going to cut it for us now and we need some quality now.
I would agree by the way.
So we have Carroll and Dirk who have some similar characteristics and we have Suarez who has very different qualities. In my opinion we could do with another quick, smart, good finisher. We don’t need a “big man” and we don’t need another Dirk per say, at least not up front.
So who do we go for ?
I’ve seen mentioned Mata, Young, Downing, Aguero (no chance) (Gervinho, Hazard as well) .. but none of these guys is a pure striker. Guinness mentioned Shane Long …. but for me he is more the AC/Dirk mode.
What about a punt on Diego Forlan ?
He’s probably just past his peak age-wise, is the wrong side of 30 now, apparently fell out with Atletico. He is a superb footballer, Suarez team mate. He would come cheap albeit with highish wages. Give him a short contract. He has manure baggage of course but …. what’s he gonna win with Atletico and he ain’t going back to manure is he.

Dougle, i see age as a big issue re forlan for fsg. i see any player being signed being aged between 21-25. A team playing on Europe would offer big wages to get the likes of forlan. Sure robbie keane looks to be hitting form again, what do ye reckon:-)

If there are any players out there not convinced that LFC is the better destination… all Kenny has to do is show them 3 things.

The video of Man United’s Open Top bus tour that drew… and I quote from the BBC… “tens of thousands” (and seriously go look at the clip on the beeb site… its fuckin pathetic, half of those people were just out shopping and stood to watch it drive by.
Keep in mind… this is Number 19… all they’ve been able to talk about ALL fuckin season long… its a big, big deal to them, and they could barely muster 50,000 fans for the parade.

The video of Manchester City touring their FA Cup in an open top bus that drew a crowd estimated to be… and again I quote the BBC… 100,000 fans.
(now that’s a bit more like it but still, its their first trophy in how long?)

…and finally…
The video of LFC bringing #5 home… well over 250,000 fans lining a route from Lennon Airport to Anfield … a crowd so big, that it halted the bus numerous times… and had the lads stuck on the bus for so long, they were nipping off into neighborhood homes to use the facilities.

There’s much talk about what “we need”, or what “type” of player we need…
The players LFC need… will think, “yeah, I wanna be part of that” and will sign immediately!

…oh and yeah… welcome back sicknote!

… oh and someone just reminded me that we had 40,000 Reds still stuck in Istanbul waiting on flights… so 05 would have likely topped 300,000

… and we hadn’t “knocked anyone off their perch” so go figure?

Someon posted a crackin picture on a thread about this over on RAWK…

There’s the bus with the players on it… there’s some policemen walking alongside the bus… there’s a police car in front and one behind the bus… and other than that the streets look like something out of a Zombie Apocalypse movie… Desolate!
It was less “roar of the crowd” and more “tweet of the crickets”…
I kept expecting to see Will Smith drive by in a Red Mustang…

Good to have you back Gerry!

Is anyone expecting us to have sorted our transfers out early in the upcomming transfer window? Would be good to make 2-3 signings, clear out some un wanted players and to get a good pre-season trainning camp underway….

Will be interesting as we’ve been notoriously slow with our transfers in the past…

Welcome back Gerry. Not sure for how long we would have survived without your ingenious observations. In fact, I was probably about to go mental myself. Even the comments of bm started to make sense, it was terrifying!

Have a look at this clip lads, fucking quality comedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmcsx05qElU

Dougle, as Corkie says – Forlan’s age would be an issue with FSG for sure. However, imo, it would be a good buy. He & Suarez were the best strike partnership at the 2010 WC, and he was indeed player of the WC.
Aitch, I posted a clip several months back of the scum players warming up before a game against Liverpool. The game, incidently, where we beat them 1-4. The announcer on the tannoy was trying to get the Old Twatford crowd – and it was 2/3 full at that stage – to sing & create an atmosphere. To no avail! Well embarrasing it was – if you were a manc fan!
So yeah, in my biased opinion, CL footy or not, Liverpool & it’s supporters should (& does) hold a huge attraction for any pro footballer.

Welcome back Gerry, i was sorry to hear about your bout of ill health but am delighted your back on your feet now & hope all is well with you!!

Things got so bad in your absence a lot of the lads stayed away for large periods but i wouldn’t go as far as Sachem & say BM’s comments were starting to make sense, i don’t think it ever got that bad.

On a serious note, i hear today that Ged has left Villa by mutual consent, i really hope he takes his doc’s advice now and calls it a day. Best wishes for the future Ged whatever you decide to do!!

just been checking out the academy lads. there is a lot of good stuff being reported lately on the class of the youngsters coming through. i can’t help but think that 2011/12 will be a big year for kids like sterling, wisdom, coady and the like.

we’re forever asking FSG to dip their hands in their pockets for foreign players when i’d really like to see the nippers coming through.

am i the only one who thinks that sterling deserves his first team call up. i mean, we’re all getting carried away with the likes of ashley young (not me) and i’ve even heard stewart downing mentioned also (please no). from what i’ve seen of sterling he’s a match for either of those two. he reminds me somewhat of suarez. loves to run at defenders. even at reserve level the opposition are putting two or three players on him whenever he’s on the ball. real talent.

like to know what you all think and whether any of you clever scousers have any inside information about whose really being talked about in the LFC ranks. answers on a postcard plase.

BLUD RED

I am in agreement with you, ive been watching the young guns for some time and there is some talent in amongst them. We have had three show good promise in Kelly,Robinson and flanno. If Kenny had been in from the start of the season we may have had a few more. But podgeo either sold to buy the bags of shite Pulson and konch who lets face it are not LFC players by any stretch of the imagination. The acadamy is what Rafa left us so thanks for that Rafa. It was him who brought Kenny back to the club so he must have had some vision for the club. And now King Kenny will carry on in the Liverpool way and bring the club to the summit once more we used to do it buying the right type of player in to the club. we also reared our own and we are now doing it again.We will of course have some guys who wont make it at LFC. but they will because of the experience go on to be good for some other club, and by doing so earn us some corn to reinvest either in new players for the acadamy or quality players for the first team.
But lets give the young guns a fair crack at it, any way keeny will be fair to everyone and if any player deserves to be there then they will get there chance under him. Cant wait to see what happens next season but dont lets get too carried away, it may take a couple of seasons to be right a the top. but we will be there or there abouts next season. COME ON YOU RED MEN

Well Blud. Before Kenny took over I had barely heard of Flanagan, vaguely remembered Robinson, didn’t rate Spearing, was very dubious about Shelvey and really rated Pachego so it goes to show what I know !

Therefore I, in the best traditions of armchair internet opinions, will now give my opinion.
In the specific case of Sterling it may well be he starts to get bits of games, as well as more squad time. I think he’s a bit on the small side and is still very young, (at school ?). I think it would be prudent to dip him gently into the hacking fest that is your average EPL encounter.

I don’t think we all expect that FSG will forever be dipping their hands in their pockets. However money talks in EPL-world. FSG want success and we are not presently capable in my opinion of achieving it. We need to be competing for top 4 immediately and surely need to make the top 4 by end of 2 seasons time.

Given we are in direct competition with 2 monster money clubs who will buy their way into the top 4 as well as the most successful and biggest club in england over the last 20 years, manure, (make that the biggest club in the world commercially) it effectively (it would seem) means we are fighting Arsenal, who are the richest Club in London, with their 66,000 sold out stadium with the highest ticket prices in the world and a well developed system of mopping up young talent in the Francophile world. Stable, rich, with a coherent philosophy from top to bottom.
Then there is Spurs. Right now a far better squad then we have.
Then there is the rest, Everton who always punch above their weight, Villa, who are moving in the right direction. Sunderland are now a very strong and stable club albeit with a bit of a hit and miss manager right now. And on and on … and Rafa could well be the manager in one of these clubs soon.

Suffice to say that it is going to be an even tougher competition next year.

So I think while we do need to bring in new blood from the academy, it saves us money, it pleases the hard-core support too, it serves us very well in that these lads are already schooled in the style we wish to play. It gives everyone from the Ressies down the incentive to really try when one of their own makes it. It only solidifies kenny’s reputation even more as he guides these new players into the team and squad. It’s all good but …. are they good enough to get us where FSG, us, as well as all aspects of our support want us to be? They have to be Blud because we don’t have time for … 6 seasons more without a trophy (see Wenger). Would you take that ?

If we want to win then we do need to beef up this squad quality-wise. If we want to attract quality we need to win. This is why I think this off-season is very important. I think we need to go up a level. The Academy boys won’t do it for us on their own I think.

I think FSG will plough money into new players and I think they will chop out quite a few non-productive, expensive players that are not really contributing. They may well take a loss in these moves too but it will be a one-off. There will be loan out moves if we cannot sell these guys.

So, for me, we need both Blud, Academy and New Quality. Probably there will be 2/3 transfer seasons before we are at the level we want to be and then it will be just keeping us there, with plenty of home-grown talent, (well maybe just one good find per season would in itself be fantastic) I hope !

Great to have you back Gerry man!

Was worried about you there for a while

good comment there Dougle

Ill go and have a proper read before I have a crack

Over and out

…oh… not sure where the fuck my head was at there… it was actually 750,000 and not 250,000 for #5′s triumphant return to its spiritual home!

…which just compounds their embarrassment if you ask me!

I see the mancs have taken their first step in closing the gap on barca by re-signing M Owen!!

Koped49/Dougle

thanks for your posts. points taken.

but lets put it another way.

if we look at the feted Barca model, who have spawned many of their players from their own school, la maisa (the farm)including Guardiola, Sergi, De la Peña, Puyol, Xavi, Reina, Víctor Valdés, Gabri and Messi, in the short term they may well buy into players of impact like ronaldinho but in the long run their focus is their own academy. the players from la maisa are still (worryingly for the rest of europe) still coming through.

i have heard so many great things about our academy, and yes we do have rafa to thank for that, then is it not time to place equal empahasis on academy players.

personally, although we are being now heavily linked with stewert downing, after last seasons showing i am beginning to believe we already have lads of his quality in the club.

i am not a fan of downing and have seen little over the seasons i have watched him to change my mind. he seems below par.

why don’t we, for instance, save on the £15million being quoted for him, bring in youth to fill that gap and then use the saved finances to bring in a winger with better skills and a higher price tag, ala suarez.

apparently we have stated that we will not be bringing in players of lesser stature than the ones we have, but if suarez is anything to go by, downing falls way short of that mark, surely???

Gerry,good to have you back in the swing of things again.You were missed.

There`s a lot of work to be done on the squad no doubt about that at all should be an exciting summer to say the least but i won`t be getting carried away with my expectations of who we sign yet.Having no European footy dosen`t help but it isn`t the be all and end all either.I`m sure comolli will do a decent job selling LFC and its bright future,especially to foreign targets.

Word on the (internet)street is we`ve agreed a fee with Newcastle united to sign Joey Barton.Make of it what you will.

And Aitch,i heard once the open top bus dropped the mancs off at the Toilet the bus driver offered to take all the supporters home too for a whip around.

I read that timmy. Funny.
Did you see the photos though… it really was utterly tragic. There’s one photot and it literally is just the bus, the police cars and police/stewards walking alonside the bus… and that’s it… the sidewalks were empty!!!
I seriously just can’t stop laughing about it.

As for players…
I think for the most part we’d be in agreement of those that definitely need to go…
Poulsen, Konchesky, Jovanovic.
There’s a few others out on loan, like El Zhar, Deggen, Mavinga, Insua that will be released or sold for a few bob.
The big question on loan players is gonna be Aqualani, and while fans are split on him, I reckon if he stays its coz K&C have looked at him and think he can offer something, and if he goes its coz we got a decent enough offer to reinvest.

… I think there’s a case to be made for and against both Cole and Ngog…
…and Kenny & Comolli will make that call.
They’ll probably also be looking to the medics for an assessment of what value Aurellio (and maybe even Agger) can offer next season?

But yeah… when it comes to players like Downing or McCarthy… fuck that… I’d rather see Jay and Shelvey get that playing time.
Our sights need to be set higher than that.

I’m hoping that our kids fill the spots that would normally be filled by such purchases, then lets go get 3 or 4 real quality players

We were in for 20 million worth of additional players in January… so if that much is still available, we can add 10 or 15, and we can muster 30 from sales, then we can get 3 Suarez-Calibre players.

I’ll take that… with the youngsters getting a sniff.

Aitch … we can add 30 million from sales ? Who or what are we selling ? I’ll have what your having mate !!
We’ll have to pay to have Deegan, Cole maybe even Poulsen taken off our hands. Nothing coming for el Zhar, Insua. Jova and Ngog will bring in a few bob ok, Mavinga and Konch ehhh … again we’ll be lucky to shift the pair for revenue neutral. I reckon when you add all off the above together we might break even. Aquaman and Agger/Skrtl might bring us a few bob tho’.

Moving on Ngog, Deegan, Insua (? maybe not ?), El Zhar, Konch, Poulsen, Cole etc will not strip the first team of any great quality, will open space for the youngsters to aspire to and fill and will release wages for the 4/5 quality players I hope we buy. But I think FSG will still be spending (relatively) big this time.
The beauty is that

Great write up thanks Gerry.

I don’t think Europa would have helped sell LFC to any transfer targets – if anything it would have hindered us. I think we’ll still be able to get the right player. Man City got players through throwing bags of money at them as they had nothing else to offer. We have a reputation for our supporters and from our history that helps (an inspirational manager, a project in the making, and hopefully a fair bit of cash)

I too hope we don’t go for the likes of Joey Barton and Stewart Downing. Its hard to believe a word of the press as Gerry said – if they spout enough rubbish some of it is going to be true. So (although easier said then done) I think it best to completely ignore until someone signs on the dotted line.

By the way if we can muster 10mil from Sales I will be impressed… The interesting one will be Aquaman. Seems Juve don’t want him, and I don’t really think Kenny wants him (but obviously doesn’t want to say that as it would lower his price).

Ashley Young is an interesting one. He does have some quality, rarely gets injured and 15mil seems a fair price for him. I don’t think it will be a make or brake whether we get him or not.
I think there is a lot of posturing between Slur Alex and King Kenny – I think we are linked to players who we don’t want just to try to increase the asking price.
I think both Ashley Young and Adam will go along those lines. (I think Manure will end up with Adam to replace Scholes) so I don’t think it hurts for Kenny to put in a couple of rogue bids…

Do you guys think we’ll have to wait till August for a few of these signings?

I’m not completely convinced by Jose Enrique.
Just watched the champions league final and Dani Alves was immense – wish we got him back in the day…
Also both the wingers for seville would be great – Jesus Nevas and Diego Perotti.

First and foremost glad your on the mend Gerry,
had a bit of a bad time myself lately but now well on the way back to full health as i hope you will be, and if last saturday didn’t make you feel better, well you must be poorly.
I know this has been said before but just got to say it again, “there was a flood warning on saturday night on Merseyside at approx 10-00 clock as 250,000 Liverpool supporter’s pissed themselve’s laughing”.
Lad,s can any of you enlighten me on the coming fixture’s for 2011-12 season as i believe we alway’s seem have a couple of bastard games at the start of every season, while the Champion’s league LOSER’S alway’s have piss easy one’s, i think it was Aitch who bought it up last season or the season before.
Answer’s on a postcard please and no more laughing at the mancs.

I think the schedule comes out mid june.

after fergus-scum gives it the all clear….

Nice one Red,
should be interesting no.

I dunno dougle… I don’t see why we can’t muster some semi-serious dosh on sales?

I mean sure, valuations are pretty arbitrary and the sticky issue for us is going to be the fuckin stupid wages Christian Poulsen handed over to people, but basically a player is worth what someone will pay for him.

And granted we may be taking a loss on some of those players… but its not FSG’s loss…
Sure they are stuck with balancing books, but they are basically starting from scratch as far as player sales and purchases go.

Jovanovic cost us nothing… but as an under-contract player, there’s no reason we can’t sell him back to a Euro side for 4 or 5 million.

Cole was another free transfer… his wages are gonna be the sticking point, but if a bottom half team wanted him (or even a Euro team) they’ll pay at least 4 million to get him.

No reason we can’t get 2-4 million for Konchesky. He’s not LFC material. He’s not top 4 or top 6 calibre… but lower mid-table and newly promoted sides would pay that for him…. Maybe even a certain Wet Brom manager would pay more??

Same goes for Poulsen. Probably wouldn’t get much for him in the Prem, but I would think he could be offed to a mid-table Euro team for between 2 and 4 million fairly easy.

We had a 6 million offer for Ngog last summer from a French team (can’t remember which one right now) so again, no reason why we couldn’t get that for him now. And I think a move back to France would be the right move for him. He tasted regular first team action for a whole season, and was on the fringe of a France call-up, so he’s not gonna wanna go back to being 4th choice.

Yes… Insua and Degen will walk on Bosman’s, El Zhar too I think… but I’d think we could potentially add another 2-4 million for selling off youngsters or outer fringe players that haven’t made it… (shit we could get that alone for that Jones keeper fella.)

Like I said, maybe some of those valuations might be high, but someof them might be low too, so that’s at least 20 million on the conservative side right there.

Then if we sell Aqua instead of keeping him, (my preference would be to see him come back, but.,.) you’re looking at between 10 and 18 million.

We supposedly made 20 million in offers for other players in January… and that doesn’t include the Ashley Young bid (and I seriously hope we don’t go overboard for him… anything over 18 million and they can fuck off and we’ll look elsewhere) … so I reckon we’ve got that and a few other bob in the coffers.

But as I said… rather than lashing it all over the place on 8 or 9 players like some seem to want… I’d settle for the Luis Suarez of left backs fro 20 mill, the Luis Suarez of Left Wingers for 25 mill… maybe a decent 2nd left back for about 8 and a Ngog-replacement for about 10 or so, is what we should be looking for

I could be wrong… as I said these things are pretty arbitrary… but I’m trying to take an objective approach to valuations rather than the “he’s shit, we’ll have to pay them to take him” approach.
(that wasn’t a personal swipe at anyone by the way)

Aitch, i agree with Dougle, your valuations are very optimistic, id let Cole go on a free just to get him of the wage bill, who is going to offer 4m for some one who hasn’t played in 2 years effectively. Poulson is 30+, free to get off the wage bill. Konc is the same. 2M for ngog, 2m jova, 10m for aqua.

Hi Aitch,

Fair enough you came up with valuations ! I do agree that it’s supply and demand. If we have someone and some other team wants them then fair game for us. Funnily enough I could see some team looking at Joe Cole but … the problem (as you said) is the stupid wages that Purslow signed these guys up at. That’s why any fee we get for Poulsen, Konch and definitely Cole may have to go back to the player for the wage cut they’ll take at the new club.
Now I also don’t call and never have called these guys shit players. They are not. It’s just they don’t work for us, simple. Jova would be another example. I thought we had a possible player on our hands here but it just has not worked for him. Fortunately his name is good in Belgium and I think he’ll get a good club and we will make a few bob there.
Anyway I think we are all singing from the same hymn sheet here. I hope you are right Aitch and probably we won’t know in any case.

At a guess how much could we save in wages shifting on those guys ?

Jova + Cole + Poulsen + Konch + Ngog + Aqua + Jones + Soto ~ 350,000 / week ?
Well that’s the wages of 4 high quality players I reckon.

Sign them to long contracts and the spread will make us ok with FIFA financial regs too.

It makes space for Pachego, Shelvey, Spearing, Robinson, Flanagan, Kelly (at centre half), maybe Sterling-Suso-De Silva-Coady-Wisdom popping up in the squads as well….. and then you add 3/4 crackers too.

most of all, if you’re talking about players we might buy, i’d be interested in scouring europe for players of charlie adams characters, players who make their team tick. i call them captains on the pitch. they might play for lower league sides, but the lower league sides support know them and love them.

we need players who will come in that will make the supporters sing songs about them, the macherano’s of the world, the grafters, the day in day out diehards. jermaine beckford springs to mind, that type of player, so valuable to teams like leeds, now playing for the toffees and doing a job. what about scouring the planet for these type of guys. suarez is an extreme example of this. there will be others, if we can find them.

will the anfield crowd being singing songs about downing? i can’t see it myself.

but i’ve eaten my hat before on this blog. i don’t mind doing it again if they prove me wrong.

we need heroes next season, because we all know what we want. i know what kenny wants and without a shadow of a doubt the king wants to be number one and knock that flaming red nose off his perch.

lads there seems to be something to this jordan henderson story, to be honest i dont know to much about the lad, ive been looking through a few of the teams in spain to see if there was any stars in the making,there seems to be a few players on the rise so i’ll put up there names & see if any of ya have any knowledge on them,javi marquez plays centre midfield for espanyol , 25 yrs old, from what ive read the only reason he aint in the spain team is the obvious one,
borja valero, attacking midfielder for villarreal, by all accounts this lad is the complete package,
rondon a striker who plays for malaga, a 21 yr old venezuelan, seemingly terrific speed, a great right foot & brilliant technique, by all accounts this kid is one for the future, any of you lads watch spanish footy & know anything about these guys??

I remember a report of some German side bidding £6 million for Jovanovic in January. So if I take that as his value and add in my estimated value of Konchesky and Poulson, then getting rid of those three would by my reckoning generate a total of £6,000, 003.57p, a fun size Mars bar and a Chicken McNugget!
lmao well worth the wait Gerry.

its still “our fucking perch”

jordan henderson anyone???

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jun/01/liverpool-jordan-henderson-sunderland

does anyone know much about the lad??

Am I missing something about Downing? I’d be 50/50 on him myself but it seems some people really can’t stand him and I’m wondering is there any reasoning behind it or is it just the usual “he’s shit” argument?

Christ, not only a new blog, but a comment within it before it hit 48 posts…
…you’re spoiling us Ged, the kids will never be the same now!

The problem with Downing is not that he is shite. He’s a good player… but is he…
a) a “Luis Suarez” caliber signing??
…Or…
b) a Konchesky caliber signing??
…Or…
c) somewhere in between??
(the answer is c by the way )

For my money, I don’t see Downing as significantly “better than what we already have” since that was the gauntlet Kenny has thrown down in several interviews.
As Ged sed… I’m in the 50/50 camp on that signing… just don’t pay too much if it is on….
…but Personally I’d rather see Shelvey given that spot, and see if he develops, than spend a load of money on Downing.

I’ve been trying to find the article from early February that listed the 4 or 5 players we’d inquired about… and I mean serious inquiries, not rumored targets… it was an interview with Comolli and he named 4 players we’d tried to get in January for a total of around 20 million, but weren’t able to secure for various reasons.

None of the names I’m reading rumors about strike a bell from my recollection of that article, and I’m not sure why we shouldn’t still be interested in them… so hopefully all the rumors will be bollocks and we’ll get a hint of signings the day before they actually happen… which is frustrating for us, but is how it should be.

As for player valuations… thank fuck you’re not at the helm of LFC corky … no offense lad…
…but “letting Cole go on a free just to get him off the wage bill” is pissing away money we could get for him.
I just don’t get that thinking… Joe Cole may have had a poor season for us, but he is still a marquee name…
… and still a decent footballer, who if he did stay could actually recover form and contribute next season…
There are 3 teams coming up from the Championship and 3 teams that missed relegation on the last day… are you seriously telling me they wouldn’t pay us 4 million for Joe Cole?
Maybe you were looking at it from the point of view that dougle stated… that is… we’d have to subsidize such a move with that 4 million, to convince JC to take a pay cut from 10k to 75k or some-such?

I get that… but as much as he may want to sit on the bench collecting 100k a week…
… he’s also only got a season or two left in him…
… money is money… but as someone who can’t play anymore due to injury (and as many ex-pros have stated) “your playing career is short, you wanna play as much as you can before you can’t do it any more”.
…Sami Hyppia left for Germany to play every week rather than sit on the bench for us… and he “loved” it here at LFC…
… I could see if Joe Cole gets a chance to go somewhere and play every week he would do so, and take a pay cut to do it.
…and maybe not…
… but I certainly wouldn’t start the negotiations with, “you can have him for free and how much of our money each week do you want, to take him?”
No, I start with… “you can have him, but it’ll cost you 6 million. He’s Joe Cole, he’s an English International, behave!”

As for Ngog… 2million???
Seriously???
We had a 6 million offer on the table last summer and Birmingham offered us 5 million last summer and then around 4 million in January.
He’s young, he’s a France Under 21 International.
…and some of you criticize Rafa’s transfer policies????

Sure, United won’t want him. Chelsea won’t come knocking. Arsenal won’t be looking to add him to Arsene’s Kindergarten…
…but Sochaux might want him, or Marseille, or even Lyon… and they’d likely pay 5-8 million for the privilege.

Like I said… valuating players is pretty arbitrary (I mean seriously … 35 million for Andy Carroll?? Seriously???) but if I’m overvaluating players … then some of you are grossly, grossly undervaluating them.

… but I guess we won’t have to wait too long to see who lands closer.

Aitch, I think we tried to sign the following players in January:

Young
Adam
NZogbia

gerry,

no one’s down on stewert downing, particularly, because he’s a pretty anonymous dude really. over the years i’ve watched him i can’t remember ever thinking, now there’s a talented winger. can you?
he was elevated in england a few years back because he was left footed when england were crying out for a left sided player…but he never made that role his own either, in fact he was so good they preferred to go with joe cole.

also, i like to think the game has moved on somewhat and liverpool are moving on at the same pace. would you play downing against some of the talent in europe? against inter, barca or real? i’m not sure.

like i said earlier. if you want to challenge for the title, you want captains in every position on the pitch.

having said all that i’ve just googled the lad and villa rated him player of the year!! well, fair enough, i suppose their fans know what they’re talking about, but he’s a pretty anonymous player of the years.

of course you can prove me wrong

In my opinion, Downing has had an excellent season. Anonymous? Nothing could be further from the truth. Does that mean he’ll repeat it next season, presumably in a bigger could? Of course it doesn’t. He might do, but to be honest I never thought he’d be as consistently influential as he’s been over the last season.

In any case, I think there are better options out there. We do of course need a certain amount of home-grown players in the squad, but to get a real world class winger I think we need to look outside Britain. Players like Mata or Hazard would be brilliant, but too expensive. Comolli will probably have to unearth some young lad whose talent haven’t yet been fully monitored by other big clubs.

SAitch, i am an accountant, so thats why my figures are all so that conservative. its grand to say we had offers back in Jan or last summer for players, butm the most telling thing for me since kenny is all those players went way down the pecking order as soon as he arrived. That won’t go unnoticed I would love to be wrong, but time Will tell. A year ago Juve were were going to pay 14m, now they don’t want him, not saying he’s a bad player, but previous offers or agreements mean nothing.
Players coming in have to be better players than maxi, raul & kuyt. is downing such a player? not convinced myself. we have enough young players at the club so no need to be buying potential.

Aitch, excuse the spelling mistakes, bloody smart phone!

Fair enough point Corky… but WHY has Ngog slipped downt he pecking order?
Its not coz his game went to shit, its coz we bought Suarez and Carroll.

Ngog has never progressed to the point I thought he would.
I reckon there are a host of reasons for that… and the least of them is … “he’s crap”.
The lad was thrust into a starting position because Nanod got injured, and finances restricted buying other striking options… and he scored some important goals.
I had this discussion with someone earlier in the season… pre Kenny.
Ngog only scored 10 goals (I think) last season and 8 this season…
…not much of a return…
…BUT…
…almost every single goal rescued a point, or bagged us 3 points.
Compare that to someone like Babel who mostly scored #3 or 4, late in a 3-1 or 4-1 victory…
…and yet… people still rate Babel’s strike rate over Ngog’s.

“He had a helluva shot on him” I still read to this day in regards Babel.
Which is fine… if you define a helluva shot as “twatting the bloke in row Z in the face”.

LFC fans seem to devalue players they don’t like.
I recall people banging on about off-loading Vorronin for free… yet we actually sold him for cash money!
The one good thing about Fabio Aurellio being under a 2 year contract is that he can;t walk on a free this summer (unless we release him) and so realistically we “could” get a few bob in return for him.
I wouldn’t put it past a Euro team offering 2 million to take a chance on him?
Its the kind of thing we’d have done a year or so ago, under G&H.
Yes… a total loss in the grander scheme… but money in the coffers is money in the coffers…

Letting players walk for free is the kind of thing Parry and Purslow did… I hope Ayre and Comolli have a different outlook.

I’m not to convinced by the buy English talent talk, sadly England has been in the World football wilderness for decades. How many of Englands finest would make the Barca team, or RM for that fact.
.
English players have intensity so usually provide good defensive/tackling type players, but when it comes to outlandish flair type/game changing players,it grim. Nme me an English winger who could grace the big European stages, its difficult.
.
Look at the difference in touch and style between Saurez and Carrol, its dramatic, of the big teams which one would be jumped at first.
.
I’m still a firm believer we need to invest heavily, enough to re-build so our young stars of Suso, Pecheco, Sterling ect have chance to come through.
.
We desperately need two wingers, with style and flair. English players may keep you in a game but style and flair can win it.

“Aitch, I think we tried to sign the following players in January: Young, Adam, NZogbia”

Christ LB, give me a bit of credit will ya?
Those are the players EVRYONE and their dog new about.

I’ve just wasted a fuckin hour of my life scanning through news archives for February and March trying to find the article/interview with Comolli where he talked about the other players.
There were 4 players he named, that he said he had put initial bids in for, but the negotiations never progressed. None of this made it to the media in January… “all done behind closed doors… the Liverpool Way”
Anyway, like I said, I can’t remember the names now… they weren’t marquee players that you’d remember.

I remember one was a 21 year old Real Madrid midfielder… the proverbial “very highly rated” player in Europe, but hasn’t been able to break into their midfield (but given their midfield options, that’s no small task.)

It wouldn’t surprise me to see a few such players land on our doorstep, while the media are linking us with Uncle Tom Cobbly and Snoogy Doogy.
And frankly, I’d prefer that to Downing and such.

lads , been reading your comments on players out & there value,seen an article in the mirror & here’s there take on it, it also gives there view on who we are after,
aitch i’ll have a look on lfctv & see if i can get that interview with comolli to find out those 3/4 players you were talking abouthttp://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Liverpool-transfer-news-Jordan-Henderson-link-further-proof-Reds-owners-want-to-buy-young-and-buy-British-article743794.html

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Liverpool-transfer-news-Jordan-Henderson-link-further-proof-Reds-owners-want-to-buy-young-and-buy-British-article743794.html

Must agree with yo Aitch, a mate of mine was telling me that we’re in the lead for Ashley Young… I said to him that our last two transfers were almost completed before the media found out about them… Im really not expecting any of these rumours to be true unless theres a photo of the player with Comolli about to sign a contract….

How come theres always talk (in the media) about King Kenny signing this or that player? I thought Comolli does all the signing etc?

I think John Henry himself wrote one twitter a few months ago, pointing out to the fans we shouldn’t believe in the rumours concerning players coming. Just as Gerry says, if the media prove to be correct in any of the players mentioned, it’s only because the rest of the rumours were wrong.

The only reports I would put any real trust in is if people like Tony Barrett says he knows our scouts have been watching a player a lot. That’s what he wrote on twitter a few weeks before the Suárez signing was officially announced. Unfortunately I can’t seem to resist having a look at the rumours every now and then, even if I know it’s all most likely based on mere guesswork.

I wouldn;t believe a word in the Daily Mirror.

We’re after “young and British”?
One wonders how they’ve just gleaned this “exclusive” piece of information for such a stop-you-in-your-tracks-headline…
… when it is information that Henry, Werner, Ayre, Comolli, and Dalglish have ALL shared openly and publicly over the past 8/9 months.

I too read this stuff, for fun and coz its LFC related, but I don’t fuckin believe a word of any of it.
If they get it right, as Gerry said… its coz they’ve rumored us with EVERY possible signing, so one or two will eventually be right.

We seem to have been tracking this Snoogy Doogy fella for several years now,I think its time we put in a decent bid and sign the lad.

Welcome back Ger its good to have the captain of the ship back at the helm.
As for the transfers hopefully we have most of ours done before were sick to death of th 99% bollox thats just about everywhere. I do think we will buy mostly British & Irish these are the type of players that won Kenny all his league titles. I dont think he’s soft enough to not to want to buy the very best the continent has to offer maybe one or two stars each season but lads from these Islands are what we need to win this league, Europe is a different story though but lets cross that bridge when we come to it.
Get the squad full of good players who want to be here for the club and its history not for the money, get them playing as a unit and for the manager and lets see where that can take us.

I have a mate who is a villa fan, and he says there ruors are that Ashley Young was at the manure training ground yesterday having a medical. dont how true its but he is normally reliable/ anyway wont bother me as i am not convinced hes right for us anyway. And the lad Downing not bad but again dont think he is that much better than we have, and not as good a bet a young Sterling who is going to be a fab little player. One who Kenny rates quite highly. im with you Aitch. Give our guys a go.

YNWA

Impossible to say how much truth there is in it, but the last few days several sources have claimed Liverpool are trying to sign three English players, all 20 years old or younger. If true, Comolli and Kenny would seem to take the Arsenal approach, because these young lads would cost us a lot of dough.

The players are Jordan Henderson (Sunderland, born 1990), Phil Jones (Blackburn, born 1992) and Connor Wickham (Ipswich, born 1993). The first two would make sense, because we could well use those types of players. Connor Wickham, though a great talent, does seem like a typical target man, nearly identical to Andy Carroll.

Is there something wrong at my end or has nobody posted since Friday

Reports that Joe Cole heading to Spurs for 3m, that would be a great kick-start to the transfer window if it was to come off. Aitch, your up 1-0 if this one comes off!!

Poulsen stating on .tv today he really wants to remain at LFC. This is a bit worrying to me. Don’t mean to disrespect Christian as I’m sure he’s a good professional and also currently a Liverpool player, but honestly, he must find himself a new club.

This Joe Cole news sounds too good to be true?

Surely `Arry can`t be that thick can he?

As for Poulsen i think its time Kenny told him he hasn`t a future here and to look elsewhere for a club,same goes for Milan Jovanovic.Those three players alone are costing us nearly a million a month on wages alone!

Not sure what to think about the Joe Cole news. Reports suggesting ‘Arry is sure he can regain Joe’s form because he knows him since the West Ham days. This makes me suspicious, since that’s exactly the kind of fact usually added to that kind of story in order to make it seem more credible. Even so, I hope it’s fucking true!

jova’s on £120,000 a WEEK. Mental altogether. Hopefully a big clear out can be achieved but I cant see any clubs anywhere offering these lads even 25% of that, they could prove hard to shift.
Seeing as it fantasy football time I would love to see us playing with Gerrard McCarthy Henderson in midfield and Luis Andy and Khun Aguerro up top. aint gonna happen but would be a fairly dynamic line up.

The club need to get ruthless. Tell Cole, Poulsen and Jova they do not figure in our plans and therefore should either find another club ASAP. I wouldn’t give any of them a squad number for next season and they can train by themselves.

Also – tell Juventus to fuck off if they do not want to pay the asking price for Aquilani.

I hope the rumours about us being after Henderson and Nzogbia are true,two very good players who I think would definitely improve us also Wickham looks a good prospect as long as we don’t pay over the odds for him.

London – I’m sure these players know the score and it’s a bit of a phoney war at the moment. Just like Juve and Aquilani too. I’d bet my bottom dollar that Aquaman is finished here. He doesn’t want to be here. He’s just back in the national team. Juve are talking the cost down but they’d better be careful as some other Italian team will take Aquaman. I know nothing about Italian football politics but I know Roma have come into new ownership and he’s an ex-Roma idol who was sold to keep the club going. That’s my tip. Aquaman back to Roma ?
Same for Jova, Konch, Poulsen and Cole I reckon. It’s just spinning to get the best (financial) deal.
I can see J Cole and Jova both wanting to play to prove something. Poulsen is still a big player for the danish national team so he too has motivation to play regularly, something which he has failed to do and it would seem it’ll be even less likely next season at ‘Pool.
The Konch … well I don’t know. See other posts above.
As or Cole to Spurs I hope so for all the reasons we know but also maybe harry can get something out of Cole .. but he ain’t gonna get Modric out of him so go there by all means Joe. Agent Torres has done a good job at Chavski, agent Cole at the Lane ? Perfect !

Reading some report’s suggesting if Cole goes to the Spud’s, it will open the door for Modric to move to the manc’s, now why on earth would we help that lot, look what he did to Preston (old whiskey nose) when his lad got the boot the petty fucker, keep Cole and see if Kenny can get him to play the way we know he is capable of, i know his wage’s are a lot to be desired but we have gone this far with him i cant see another half season more doing any more damage and as i say he may just find his form again.

I wouldn’t put stock in any of this bullshit if I were you fellas.
For every player we’ve been rumored with… there is an open denial from their respective clubs… that we haven’t even been in contact, let alone tabled an opening bid.
And that’s how it should be.
I want us to be in the final throws of a deal before we find out about it.

As far as Poulsen’s statement… put yourself in his shoes… right now, he’s a Liverpool player… if we sell him, who’s he gonna be playing for?
Of course he wants to fuckin stay.
The same goes for anyone currently on the books who we are looking to sell. So I wouldn’t be spinning into a tizzy when you read such things.

In regards Aquaman, I’ve read all 112 pages of the Aqua thread on RAWK (not in one sitting, over a period of weeks obviously… urgh…) and among its many “experts” seemingly with inside information on the subject of Aqua’s situation…
…there is not one single quote attributable to Aquilani, where he has stated he does “not want to return to LFC”.
What he has said, is that he would “prefer to stay in Italy”.
That’s fine. The lad is Italian.
Towards the end of his time, he also got fairly fucked about by us, so I can see his point.
But that doesn’t mean if Kenny were to go have a chat with him, he wouldn’t be as willing to come back as Suarez was to come to us.

People also seem to be getting very hung up on things like player wages and transfer fees…

The idea that we rid ourselves of Joe Cole’s 100k per week is a bit disingenuous when what everyone wants is for us to sign a Mata or Aguerro… who won’t come to us for anything less than 100k per week. (especially when that translates to 75k per week in Europe due to taxes.)

If we are to offload the 8 or so players previously discussed… I’m willing to bet that even if we only replace them with 5 incoming players… our wage bill will not be significantly less.

In January we sold Torres and Babel… we signed Suarez and Carrol for a near net-Zero spend.
I don’t know the exact wages… but I’m willing to bet we didn’t save much if anything.

And yes, we’ve shelled out quite a bit of dosh for Aquilani… but the current owners haven’t.
Yes they’ve got to balance the books still… their purchase wasn’t a complete push of the reset button, and they’ll be balancing financial mistakes made prior to their takeover for some time to come…
But… another way to look at it is… in real money terms… the decision to bring Aquilani back costs us 4.4 million… (the final Roma installment due this month) …a fuckin snip for a player of his caliber.

Balance that against 8-12 million to get Charlie Adam … or even 8m as is rumored for this Henderson kid?

So the argument then immediately jumps to wages…
… untested kids (at the highest level) will sign for 40/50k-ish… but Adam won’t sign for 40/50k a week… especially if Arsenal or Scum are in the bidding mix… he’ll hold out for 75 to 80k-ish

Now Joe Cole…
According to Kenny… Joe hasn’t sat sulking on the bench, (and I should fuckin well think not for 100k per week, but…) … has kept his spirits up in spite of only getting 5 or 10 minute cameos, and has generally been a happy and positive influence within the squad and on younger players.
100k per week might be a bit stiff to pay for that influence… but that influence is exactly what we missed when we lost players like Didi Hamman and Sami Hyppia…
… and Joe Cole is …was… a class player.
He is as likely to rediscover form, as he is to fade into obscurity.
So Kenny will know if he wants to give him another 6-12 months and if he does, then in Kenny I trust.
If not… then I’ll trust K & DC to negotiate another million from Spurs if we are to sell him (4 mill will buy a promising kid or two or add to the warchest for a Suarez-type signing.)

Any of you lads see xabi’s interview on lfctv lastnite? Claire o rourke asked him would he play for the reds again & he gave it the thumbs up, now that would be a signing! Go get him !

general media bullshit and raise you Kenny’s intelligent handling of the press as well as my arguments in the previous posts.

I can’t see Joe getting back his form because (A) he’s not been fit and that’s unlikely to improve and (B) where he wants to play i.e in the hole (Mr Cole) we already have Miereles/Gerrard/Suarez/Shelvey/Pachego even Dirk at a push. He can’t cut it out wide and neither deep. At least that’s what I see of him. Also he’s getting on.
If he can get a deal where he keeps (one way or the other) his money and gets regular first team ball where he wishes to play then I reckon he’s gone. I do understand the need to have squad depth but really the wage package combined with the age, positional preference (and momentum) is not a good deal for us.
God knows but he might even think he can get back in the Ingurland international set-up at this stage. He needs playing time.
If you gave me Mata/Aguero/ even Dowling/Young and took Joe out in wage exchange I’d bite your hand off.

Ditto Poulsen, he is finished as an international player if he doesn’t get regular playing time.
Aquilani, well it’s all smoke and mirrors but I reckon he’ll go.
Now if you give me the choice of a fully fit and motivated Aquaman or Charlie Adam then .. for me, from what I’ve seen and given it’s the EPL we are talking about, it’s a toss-up. Good point on Aqua’s real cost being only 4.4 ml tho’.

As for the Torres-Babel/Suarez-Carroll swap. Pure genius for me. Maybe we have only broken even on wages (I’d say we may have slightly edged it anyway) but we got rid of a big moaning sulk (i’m sorry to say) as well as a goofy serial non-producer and got in well.. Suarez alone was worth the trade. AC is all credit for me, whatever we get out of him is a bonus. On top of that Chelsea have now to re-mould their team around a very dodgy longterm prospect i.e Torres. Pure genius.

Finally Aitch you are right in a way about Kenny. he doesn’t put a foot wrong with the media and the players. I we have J.Cole at the start of the season (the pints are on me) well Kenny has made him more than welcome. Likewise Aquilani. He gives no hostages to fortune does our Canny Scot.
I too have been scanning the transfer rumours and the best posts I have read have been from well-sourced ITK’s (in the knows) who have said they are getting nothing, nada, they have closed up shop at Anfield and about time too.
I want to hear it when I see it on LFC.tv. Done deal, press in the dark, and Lawro and Ronnie and Aldo as ignorant as the rest of us.

First line of last post got lost some where … Should have been

Aitch, I’ll see your Joe Cole positive influence, Aquilani’s polite clarification, Poulsen’s well feathered nest and general media bullshit and raise you …. etc etc

Fair enough double, I wouldn’t necessarily argue with much of that…

To what extent I rate Aquilani, or Cole, or Snoogy Doogie… is a separate issue from… to what extent Kenny might rate him… to what extent you might rate him.

I’m doing my best to be objective about these things… and that’s always hard.
Charlie Adam was on fire in first half of the season… but what had he done before that?
None of the clubs reportedly interested in him were giving him a first look, let alone a second look, let alone tabling massive bids, which is why he ended up playing for Blackpool in the Championship.

We went in for him based on that 6 month period of exceptional play… and that’s how I view that 6 months of play… as the exception, not the rule… with what I considered at the time to be an outrageously overpriced bid… and to some extent, I’d argue his subsequent performances bare this out… though I’ll give him credit for getting a bit of it back at the end, in the final few games.
My thing with Adam is… he is Blackpool’s Stevie G. All roads lead to him, all play goes through him… that wouldn’t be the case if he came to us…
…and I’m just not sure he could really raise his game… let alone maintain that first-6-month-level with us.

Although I will say this…
Tony Barrett wrote an interesting blog today about Kenny’s first stint in charge and his buying of players.
To some extent he compared Adam to our purchase of Steve McMahon…
…and I’ll be honest and hold up my hand and say I never thought of it that way…
… but TB has a real point there… and if Adam could come to us and be the “new McMahon” then fuck it… I’m on board big time! (but only for <9million quid.)

So I do see where you are coming from as far as the choice of Aqua or Adam (if that were our choice, and who knows?) being a wash. I guess it comes down to whether you think we need a grafter or a flair player, and to what extent you rate either.

But I find it interesting the way people waffle about the bit they know about the clubs finances.
A big argument for getting rid of “the dead wood” is to reduce the wage bill… but if we sign 2 or 3 top players… and again, “top player” is somewhat subjective, but for the sake of argument let’s just say “players other top teams both domestic and Euro, would want”… they won’t sign for 40/50k per week, they’ll sign for 80k plus

I agree to some extent on Joe Cole, dougle. I think I said as much.
I understand your position in re: he’s not likely to recover his form… and fair enough, I get where you’re coming from and accept the logic… but we’ve seen aging players do it, I’ve done it myself at amateur level after injury “supposedly ended my career” and I had a stellar season before getting injured again the following season. So, I’ll give Cole (based on Kenny making that determination) the benefit of the doubt should he stay, and admit you were right if he goes. How’s that?

No doubt 100k per week is a lot to pay for someone who has marginal impact on the field but is providing some good guidance backstage.
And for sure, how badly he wants to play regularly will be a big indicator to Kenny…
But I’ve long argued that we sold Didi Hamman a season too soon. His experience was sorely missed and is the type of thing that helps new boys “bed in”.
Sami Hyppia was allowed to leave… because we couldn’t guarantee him playing time… so I would caution those who have the opinion that Jamie Carragher should be arbitrarily dropped or sold.

I don’t think anyone can really argue that Joe Cole has been an abject failure of a signing.
But saying that does not equate to … he will continue to be so next season.
By that logic, we should be looking to offload Stevie G for whatever we can get for him, to get the 120k per week off the wage bill.
Madness.
Well, not madness… it is an argument to make…
… but only if you also recognize the argument that both players are well capable of getting fit and healthy over the summer and being “our Giggs and Scholes” next season.

2 seasons ago Giggs was all but written off as a crock who was past it. Then he puts in a stellar cameo season for which he (questionably) wins player of the season… followed by a season where he perhaps deserved it more than Parker.

I think Kenny & DC have their work cut out for them…
… but I’m largely unimpressed by the vast majority of names we’ve been linked with.

Oh and just to clarify my point… on the Torres/Babbel-Suarez/Carrol switch.
I was looking at that strictly from a “wage bill” perspective. LS and AC didn’t sign for pennies.
There is no doubt (is there?) that Suarez and Carrol have already given us a better first season, than Torres and Babbel’s least seasons.
Both new players seem happy to be here, whereas the other two clearly didn’t (recent revelations of serious regrets in one of them aside, you silly, silly boy!)
But the finances of the swap were pretty close to a wash. Incoming fees matched outgoing fees and incoming wages, pretty closely matched outgoing wages.

But many fans (in various forums, not so much in here, but it does happen) follow some flawed logic in talking wage bills and such.
Obviously I’m no more in the know of the actual figures than anyone else, but following a straight train of logic…
There seems to be this idea that selling Poulsen, Konchesky, Jovanovic, Ngog, Cole and Aqualani will relieve the wage bill by a significant amount.
And that’s true… but not if we replace them.

… if we do go out and replace those 6 players with 2 Luis Suarez caliber players and say 3 Henderson-grade players… then the wage bill going into next season is highly likely to be the same as this season. (and if we get lucky and snag 3 Suarez-class players… then we’d likely be looking at a higher wage bill.)

Aitch, the Joe Cole signing was appalling. Giving a 29 year old who has played well or remained consistently fit in 3 years. Criminal. His contract could potentially cost the club £21m. I would rather we bring back Aquilani. He at least potentially has his best years ahead of him and has played well in recent times. Joe Cole for me is finished. Similar to Michael Owen. There is a reason Chelsea let him go and why other clubs were not scrambling to sign him.

Where I agree with you is getting 3 players of Suarez quality. All these mediocre players like Downing etc leave me utterly underwhelmed.

Why not spend £20m on Juan Mata rather than £18.5m on Jordan Henderson? Buy British? Fuck that. Buy quality.

hmmm…

lots of talk about spending and wage bills and marquee signings and thats all fair enough i suppose.

but the reason i supported liverpool in the seventies (apart from the stunning all red kit) was the footballing philosophy engendered by bill shanks and rammed home by a succession of managers canny enough to see sense in the scotsmans ideology.

before you buy big or small players you must have a footballing methodology and the players you buy must fit into it like a silk glove.

fuck british buy quality, says LB. well mate i’d argue that if the players you buy fit into a system designed to grind the enemy into dust, your team becomes the very definition of quality, not a rabble of rudderless stars; great in the nightclubs and on the front page of the tabloids, yet a waste of space on the pitch.

not only do you have to buy well in the market place, you also have to work well, nay better, on the training field.

the most marked improvement towards the end of the season came from the youngsters coming off the bench. whoever is responsible for coaching the lads in the youth set up for the last few years is also responsible for some of the praise being heaped on king kenny.

i genuinely believe that teams are better if they are built from the bottom up, rather than the top down and it is the players coming through the system that are more important than the players that are bought into the system. without that system in place, liverpool and every other football team in the league are just a bunch of also rans.

thankfully i don’t believe that is the case. i have immense confidence in our squad now that i have witnessed the calibre of youth we are nurturing. when i saw flanno turn that rat faced racist lee bowyer inside out on the touch line, i realised that bowyers time was over and flanno’s had just begun. and that maybe, just maybe there were more kids like flanno waiting in the wings in the academy.

in fact i have seen glimpses of jonjo shelvey that have shocked me, to be honest, i’ve seen touches of the gerrard about him and i was not expecting that one bit. i have seen moments of genius from raheem sterling better than anything i have seen the premier league, that makes me so very grateful ashley young is on his way to the scum, because at this present time i don’t want anything getting in the way of sterling getting a first team pick.

getting the right players for the team is more than just looking at the price tag on their backs. it’s also about making sure they can play alongside existing talent like meireles and lucas and suarez, adding more talent to the idea of team work, rather than isolating fellow professionals because their style of play is opposite to everyone else on the pitch.

if jordan henderson can walk on the pitch and make suarez and carroll look better, and be made better by lucas and kuyt and gerrard, then you have the perfect storm.

then you add flavour to the mix and blood another hungry nipper from the bench, who comes on and plays so well, in a system to designed to maximise their potential, it gives the established players confidence in the squad that surrounds them. bingo.

in my opinion, if you want to build a great team you have to foster a great mentality and that cannot be bought in the transfer market. it has to exist in the fabric of the club. for this reason i believe liverpool are in better shape than most clubs in the premier league.

There is no doubt that Joe Cole’s contract was unforgivable!
The fact is though… Rafa had been inquiring about him for a season or two… but I don’t believe he’d have made the deal that Purslow made.

But that’s a done deal now… we have him on the books.
The question is simply, can he offer us anything in return for his gravy boat, or can he not.

Understand me… I have no great argument with those who say the answer to that is NO and we should offload him.
Where I perhaps differ is that I believe in the mantra “form is temporary, class is permanent” and the lad was class 2 or 3 seasons ago.
Can he recover it? Who knows.
I’m not suggesting he will. My argument is that Kenny has stated he has been a good influence in training and on the bench… and if he deems keeping him is worth it, then that’s good enough for me.
If Kenny decides… 4 million and a run for the door, I’m fine with that too.

I absolutely agree with the Mata/Henderson question.
If 20 mill is the price for Henderson, they can fucking keep him and we’ll play one of the young lads we already have.
If we can get Mata for 20m and say, Henderson for 8m… then roll on… and we can all rub our hands at yet another tastey piece of biz brought to you by the New LFC!

I think you’ll find that I’m mostly in agreement with you Blud, and not to speak for him, but from previous posts, I reckon LB is too.

look… Suarez isn’t a local lad… he’s basically a “big money foreign singing” but he slotted right in, seems to have the right attitude and certianly the right skills.
When I talk about a big money signing… THAT is the type of player I want to see us sign.
If we can get a few young Brit lads into to stregnthen the cause, then great, but not for 20 million… that’s utterly ludicrous for a youngster.

I’ve spent the last 3 seasons baying at the moon, in response to those who have suggested the LFC squad “just isn’t good enough”…
… so I’m certainly not about to change my tune now.
I look forward to seeing Flanno, Shelvey, and Spearing get more game time.
If Ayala comes back, and even Pacheco, then I wouldn’t mind seeing them occasionally too.
As good as Sterling and Suso are… I believe its a seaosn or two too soon for both… but then again a little now-Manc twat started at 17 and never looked back, so you never know…
…againg, if Kenny trusts them to start games, then fuckin ACE!

…but “no one wins the Prem with a bunch of kids” do they?
And as much as I want to see more of them, my biggest concern with relying on kids when we don’t have to, is the fucking lighting quick speed with which a certain section of our fanbase will turn on them the minute they struggle… and they will…
… just look at the game vs Aston Villa… Flanno got away with very little criticism after that game… in spite of getting beaten more times and easier than Insua at his worst.
It was one game and the kid will learn form it… he barely put a foot wrong prior to that, so don;t take what I’m saying the wrong way… but that’s what you get with young players.
And we do have a section of fanbase that were fine seeing the kids while Kenny was charging up the league from relegation territory…
… but if any of them have poor games in opening matches, particularly if we drop points in those matches… the tide will turn on them.

So we need to get the balance right…
…its all about that balance of youth and experience… quality local and quality foreign…
…and I’m semi-confident that’s what the men in charge now will be looking to do…
…they’ve talked the talk so far… this summer will give us a good look at their walk.

Very glad to have you back, Gerry, and a true liverpudlian that you are, you seem to have battled your misfortunes with a great sense of humour. Well done.

As for our transfers, I will try to refrain from commenting too much right now in conformity with the old wisdom of ignoring the silly season.

However, the truth is, I am still pissed off with losing out on dani alves and David silva, because these 2 signings are the ones that are still haunting us.

Therefore, I only hope that if there is anything to the stories of our being linked to players like young, downing or henderson (or god forbid, cattermole), it is all because of the homegrown players quota rule. I am still not fully familiar with this rule yet and don’t know when it really kicks in, but if that is not the reason why we do not end up the signing the likes of Alexis Sanchez or Neymar after spending 40 million or whatever, then, well, we wiil have to have one big discussion once our signings become definitive.

Amazing to see tha Wesley Sneiderbn is wanting 175,000 pounds per week!!!!!!! Crazy!

“Why not spend £20m on Juan Mata rather than £18.5m on Jordan Henderson? Buy British? Fuck that. Buy quality.”
Fully agree with LB & Aitch here. Unless Henderson performs like a young Stevie G within 2 seasons, then that is too much to pay for an English youngster. We already have Shelvey (really like the look of him), Spearing, Flanno, Kelly etc. Pleanty of English youngsters coming through, not to mention Sterling! But obviously Kenny has seen something in the lad, judging by the way they are pursuing him.
Mata is not just a fancy foreigner, like Shiteh & Chelski seem to go after. He has his head screwed on, captains Valencia, speaks well etc. And a quality player. Given the choice, I would buy Mata every day over an average English player with potential. I know you have the ‘Fair Play’ ruling coming into it, but as I mentioned, we have plenty of ‘locals’ coming through. Adding a bit of Spanish or Argentinian flair to the side would add something to the squad, not hinder it! The English players all seem overpriced – it’s fine building for the future, but if you can get a similar (or better quality) foreign player for half the price, then fuck that, it’s not rocket science.
I would, however, like to see Jones or Cahill joining Liverpool – big, strong, skillfull-enough English CB who is used to the EPL already. Unless Lucio was for sale & wanted to come to Liverpool

It’s all about buying quality. I couldn’t give a shit where they are from. We have some very promising English youngsters at the club already do I will be rather confused if we spend say £50m on the likes of Downing, Henderson, Mcarthy, Jones, Cattermol etc. We already paid way over the odds for Andy Carroll. Players like Mata and Eden Hazard are young and already full internationals and similarly priced. Bloody hell we could have bought Aguero for the money we paid for Carroll.

I’m a bit concerned that’s all.

So, not do! This fucking iPhone. You need thin pencil fingers to type properly.

Whether the signing of Carroll was a good one is yet to be determined. So far, I haven’t been overly impressed by his performances, and judging by them, he’s nowhere near worth the money we paid. There’s no doubt he will be given loads of time and all the support he needs, but Kenny and Steve Clarke need to figure out how to use him properly. As yet, I don’t think they have, even though his injury troubles really came in the way.

I mention this because I think it will have an influence on which players we go after at the moment. It’s not just about the partnership of Carroll and Suárez (or another striker when Luis isn’t available), it’s about the overall tactics and player types supplying balls to big Andy upfront. A winger possessing the quality of Juan Mata could be the solution to a lot of our problems in this regard. From what I’ve seen of him at Valencia, he’s absolutely phenomenal at creating goalscoring opportunities for others. Whether it’s crosses or through balls, his passes are clinical.

In honesty though, I think it will be too difficult to acquire Mata’s services. I would say Inter Milan is the most likely destination for him, now that Alexis Sánchez seem to be on his way to Barcelona (Inter reportedly tried to sign him previously).

If we miss out on Mata, we need to go for someone with similar qualities and near the same level. No British player I know of fit into that description.

ok

will some bright spark tell me what the new rules are for involving english players in the cl league, because i’m not up on the details. thanks.
answers on a postcard please.

I am with LB on this one. I think we are too much bothered about buying English..Mata should be our target. LB, your point about buying Aguero is bang on.

Or even Pato…

But now we have Carroll and it’s important to get the best out of him. I’d therefore expect us to try to sign top quality in wide areas rather than spending £20m in a young centre mid who migh not even start and then signing a wide Player for £6m who is of the quality of a Pennant or Riera. I’m a bit fed up seeing the club sign mediocre wide players over the last 20 years.

I like the Charlie Adam link though. He is fantastic at taking corners and freekicks, something we are a bit shit at. There would be a point to us winning a corner. I’d love to see stats on our corners to goals ratio. It’s surely amangst the worst on the league?

Home grown players rule

• From 2008/09, clubs in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League required a minimum of eight homegrown players in a squad limited to 25. These rules are also in force in several national leagues across Europe.

• UEFA introduced the rule in three phases:
Season 2006/07: minimum of four homegrown players in 25-man squad
Season 2007/08: minimum of six homegrown players in 25-man squad
Season 2008/09: minimum of eight homegrown players in 25-man squad

• Clubs have no obligation to put a certain number of homegrown players on the field of play, or on the matchsheet. They are entirely free in their team and matchday squad selection.

• UEFA defines locally-trained or ‘homegrown’ players as those who, regardless of their nationality, have been trained by their club or by another club in the same national association for at least three years between the age of 15 and 21. Up to half of the locally-trained players must be from the club itself, with the others being either from the club itself or from other clubs in the same association.

• The UEFA rule contains no nationality conditions whatsoever because within the EU such conditions are illegal (following the Bosman ruling). The European Commission stated that the UEFA rule was legal in a statement in May 2008, and that a review would take place in 2012.

thanks LB

thats not as severe a ruling as i thought it was.

Our current “home grown” first team squad players including those out on loan:

Gerrard
Carragher
Johnson
Carroll
Spearing
Kelly
Shelvey
Flanagan
Cole
Insua
Konchesky

Sachem – the Andy Carroll deal with Newcastle was actually a Chelsea and Newcastle deal effectively. We said to Chelsea you have Torres for the cost of Carroll plus 15 million. So the price tag, supposedly 35 million, doesn’t really matter.
We were not going to be able to buy Aguero at that hour in the transfer market either. For me talk of Aguero/Hazard/Mata(?) coming to us is a bit fanciful. We are not in the CL nor even in the Europa. We may have the name but we are not in the top rank of England let alone Europe.
Mind you I’d love to see Mata at Anfield.
Good posts Aitch/Rafa/Blud .. gotta go to work now tho’ !Talk later.

Latest tweet from Rory Smith (Liverpool fan I think) of the Telegraph:

“So, Henderson for £20m (or so), Jones for £16m, maybe Wickham for £10m. Damien Comolli: he spots the cheap unknowns, doesn’t he?”

We managed to sign Suarez didn’t we?

LB
There are a few others in the official 40-ish man squad. Young Robinson for instance and also Danny Ayala qualifies as a home-grown player.

but then again, if we buy foreign, its harder for include them int he 25 and they move into the 26-40 rank of the squad and therefore don’t meet the quota.

Christ I hope Roryt was simply tweeting about rumors and those prices do not reflect actual bids.
There’s a thing in the Echo that suggest the club has stated we have not approached Sunderland at all for Henderson.
That could however be the obligatory denial before the announcement.

Its a case of bying players who fit kennys ideas and methods of play. Can any one remember Steve Highway and Brian Hall joining the club, They did not cost a fortune. also we bought players from Oxford a certain Mr Aldridge and Ray Houghton and look what they did for us. we have always had players who wre not fashionable or well know, but became well known after they joined us. thats also the liverpool way. And KK has done it before for us and i trust him to do it again, with the help of all his staff. In Kenny we must trust. its nice to see big names associated with LFC but not essential to are cause, we do have good talent in these youngsters within the club.It may take a couple of seasons but it will happen, We have waited a long time to see it, we can wiat a couple of more to get it right. Long live the king

YNWA

realistically as dougle says were not gonna be signing massive stars when we have no European football to offer we might get one maybe two. Its pretty obvious the rest are gonna be young, british & expensive. But if ya cant trust Kennys judgement you cant trust anyones.

LB – Suarez, so we did. But it could be argued that he was playing for a top second tier European team in a league that no-one really cares about anymore.
So to some degree he was under the radar. Uruguayan not BNeymar, Ganco, Lucas (#7), Hazard, Aguero, Sanchez, Sneider etc … (Mata is a little like Suarez for me slightly less high profile playing with ? Valencia ? There may be some chance there). As for the others, I really doubt we’ll land as big a fish this time.
However by spending (if that is what we do) we not only buy, hopefully quality, but also signal our intent.

Anyway, it’s as Blud said, a matter of buying quality where we need it too. I’m gonna wait to see who we buy before figuring out how he fits in.

can i suggest that even though these players may not suit everyones ideal of what a liverpool red should be, remember dalglish signed barnes from watford and aldo from, what oxford??

also, from what i know about FSG, i still reckon they are about to spend big, much bigger than this and that these guys maybe the tip of the iceberg.

if they are signed that is…..??!!

also, there is a new fresh breeze blowing through LFC at the moment. i believe there is more to life for your modern footballer than playing in the champs league. there is also the draw of playing for a manager who players can relate to, for big money (you can’t ignore the financial backing FSG are giving to comolli) and for a team that has the most wonderful supporters in a city that is iconic to say the least. not to mention the history of the club. not to mention the famous red kit…come on, what’s not to like?

Spurs managed to sign players such as Berbatov and Modric without European football. We signed Suarez while we were in midtable and playing shite with no CL football anywhere near the horizon. I don’t think it is unrealistic to get a player like Juan Mata or Hazard. It’s not like I’m saying we should put in a bid for Messi or Ronaldo. Another point some of you are making is that we’ve signed players in the past that don’t seem fashionable but have gone on to become legends. That’s fair enough but we didn’t pay the equivalent of £20m to get those players. It seems we are likely to be spending premium rates to get players who have not yet proven to be top quality.

I thought the idea of bringing in Comolli was so we could find real gems on the cheap. Not unproven British youngsters at club record fees. Maybe I’m one of the few that is a bit confused by all this.

Blud – we bought Aldo on the cheap and Barnes was very reasonably priced and already an England regular. Watford were a good side as well at the time.

Dougle – Hazard plays in a 2nd tier league. Or maybe I’m doing the French league a disservice?

From my armchair perspective – I’d test the waters with an undisclosed fee bid of £25m bid for Hazard and a €22m bid for Mata. If they say “no thanks” then we can move on to other targets.

Fall I know the club could already have put in bids on the quiet but I need to feel the need to get this off my chest.

Supposed to say… For all I know…..

for example, i checked out wickham on you tube and though it’s not the most dazzling display i’ve ever seen, there’s something about him that reminds me of a certain spaniard who shall remain nameless.

if he signed, if he did, might make a nice fourth choice striker. liverpool need strength in depth and it appears (if you believe the hype) that dalglish may well be looking to improve the quality of a squad that is improving in quality day by day.

ok. mark moi words. you heard it hear first, but i reckon LFC will spend big this summer and i mean big. several decent squad players and when i mean decent i mean capable tough championship hardened pro’s and one or even TWO top name signings. this is my prediction because of what i have heard from kenny in his interviews.

he talks like a man who has utter confidence in the process he is about to undertake.
but then, he is the king, isn’t he.

I give up trying to write coherent English with this iPhone.

Blud – when you say spend big, give me a ball park figure. Chris Bascombe reckons £75m. Other journos say £50m + sales. I doubt anyone knows because the club hasn’t and won’t make that information public. I’m in the believe it when I see it camp.

fair play LB, point taken.

now tell me, back then in 86, was £900,000 a lot of money to pay for barnes or a snip? did the fans rate him in connection to his price tag? were we even so caught up in the finances back then?

if you want to buy a championship player of quality these days, then how much do you expect to play for, say a striker that is comparable to what was paid back then for aldo.

in fact what did we pay for aldo? how much did it cost to prise a player of his class and strike rate from oxford? and if he came cheap why did they let him go for so little?

LB

in answer to your question…how much do you think is big??

cast your mind back to january, just after we were stunned by the torres/carroll/suarez deal.

remember we had no idea that LFC were about to buy that big. it properly shocked everyone here.

then, we started to hear kenny mention it would have been even better had they got all the players they were after. that knocked me backwards, that they had intention to spend more.

these fsg guys have surprised us all and between them and kenny, well i wouldn’t like to play poker with them because they keep a straight face, then slam down the aces.
i think they want to signal their intent. in kenny i believe they have entrusted him with the collateral to WIN the premier league, not to compete for a top four spot.
remember kenny said in an interview, when told he had done well to achieve 5th (at the time we were ahead of spuds) and the dude turned round and said:
‘i’d rather be 1st’

that’s fighting talk that is.
so how big is big?

well LB, how much do you need to spend to take the PL by storm? i’m not putting a figure on it, but i think these guys want to do what’s necesary to put LFC on top spot. whether that’s the dukes of hazard or mata hari, it does not deter them. mark moi words.

mostly we have been led to believe that we have some nice sweet owners from across the pond with a penchant for ivy league and hot dogs and mom’s apple pie. i think we should see through their poker hand and that they are as hungry for success as the owner of chelski. it might not suit our ideal of them, but under the surface that might be just who we have in charge of the club.

I’m not sure what 900k in 86 equates to in today’s money but Beardsley was the bigger signing at the time. He was the more established player certainly at international level. Barnes had impressed consistenly for Watford and had been in the England squad for a few years before we signed him. In contrast I hadn’t heard of Henderson, Phil jones or Mcarthy a month or so ago.

We’ll have to see about the spending. I don’t think it will be as big as you suggest.

Beardsley cost a then record 1.9m
Barnes was .9m
Aldo was around .8m

Rush was sold for 3.2m the same summer

Aitch,i too want Cole sold on.And yes,one of the reasons is about getting him and 95k a week off the wage bill.Thats not me being being disingenuous as you suggested.

Let me explain..

Joe cole (on the pitch) has been a disaster.The signing was one of Cecils last acts as the fantsy football manager.His wages were wayt over the top.Yes he has been a quality player through his career,but as LB said earlier he`s finished and has been for a couple of years now.He`s clogging up the wagew bill along with others.

Thing is Aitch as you know yourself,its about value for money.I`m not saying get rid because he`s on “95k” for the sake of it.I know we will put one of our new signings in that bracket,but Cole isn`t worth that money any more.That 95k could be used to pay the contract of (insert name here) when he signs for us this summer.

He offers very little on the field and although the King see`s him as a good influence with the young lads off the field,95k is one hell of a wage for just being little more than a good influence off it.

I my humble opinion,i reckon John Henry is privately fuming with the size of Joe Coles contract.This kind of contract goes against everything they are trying to build.A 30 year old,who is clearly past it,on almost 5 million a year.

What a cunt Christian Purslow is.

LB, no offense mate, but how can you not have heard of those players? They’ve all been hyped for quite a while now. That kid of yours sure must have kept you busy…

On the wages issue, the key is not to cut the wages, but make sure there is value for money / productivity for what we are spending. Cole and jova wages alone would cover the wages of two excellent players (who Will get a game).
Another factor next season is we could be playing as few as 40 games next season, max 52? so repeating what’s being said already, quality not quantity

LB – in my opinion the French League is a more relevant league than the Dutch league both of itself and because of the players that have come from there and are being touted here. But maybe I’m splitting hairs to be honest.
I have no problem personally with FSG spending and spending big. I also don’t mind, at this stage, who they buy or where they come from as long as they know what they are doing and the result is we can compete and win the EPL and get back into Europe.
So once again, for me, it comes down to where we are vulnerable, left back, a quality centre half, a shadow for Lucas, 1/2 widemen with pace and intelligence and a capable quick and technical goalscorer. That’s all I want Santa !!

It has just struck me, isn’t it great we are all back discussing football matters, it beats keeping up to date with online court updates.
All we need now is fatty to make a return!

Yeah, let’s create a petition for the return of Fat Scouser! Kopblog can still return to its former glory.

Sweet! They’re not wasting any time are they!!

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2011/06/liverpool-agree-henderson-deal/

Well by all reports buying British has happened and sending out French has continued. I just don’t seen what this does to the chances of Spearing, Conor, Shelvey ect. He must be one hell of a player, or Kenny see’s something special in the kid. If it’s truely happened then welcome aboard Henderson, hope you enjoy the ride with the worlds greatest club.
.
We desperately need some serious wide skillful pace, so head to that next, Mr Commoli. And also snap up Wickham as a long term project, that kid looks like a younger version Nando.

LB, I can think of a couple of missed chances that AC could’ve taken last season, to be honest I also think that Raul is a pretty handy corner taker as well…

Im not buying into the current argument that we’re better to spend the $$$ on this or that international player… Buying Brittish is a good strategy IF that’s what FSG, King Kenny and Comolli believe the player is upto taking us to Champion League qualification and hopefully domestic silverware…

To be honest I’ve no idea about Jordan Henderson, BUT, he will be learning from some pretty good seasoned pros in the form of StevieG, Kuyt, Carra, etc (not to mention some very good coaching staff)… I’m more than happy with Liverpool FINALLY buying their targets early in the transfer season and hopefully getting a good pre-season underway…

Loving the fact that the media is pretty clueless about or targets!

…err… so basically we got 5/6million for Ngog.

Does that make me 2-0??
…or is it 2-1 since we bought Henderson

Hendo ain’t worth £ 15 mill.3 goals last season, Sneidjer is avbailable for £ 30 mill ! Same for Downing, buying English players for crazy money will bleed the club dry, Carroll being a good eg.Portuguese sides have caused the Reds big problems for the Reds in recent years, where are our Iberian/south American/Asian scouts ? No more comment until July 1.

Reports suggest 13m and Ngog (7m) Aitch.Not bad business by the club,infact its fabulous business.We made 5.5m profit on Ngog,not bad at all.

Welcome to LFC Jordon Henderson.

Well, Cole is still with us.

Do we know the breakdown in the Henderson/ngog transfer? Aitch your doing your 3 card trick with the figures again!!

As above i believe Corky.

Ipswich have put a bid in for Michael Chopra,hopefully opening the door for us to sign Conor Whickam.Good young striker him,could be direct replacement for Ngog.

Hey lads
interesting summer ahead indeed I reckon
have a feeling this will be the price they accept for Aquaman between 10 – 13 mill
replacing aquaman with hendo and wickam with ngog
overall outlay of around 10 mill while upgrading the squad with younger potential
lets not forget Aquamans injury problems too
although I dont know much about henderson I have been reading up on him today and watching a few clips
all i can say to him is welcome to LFC and soak up everything on the training ground
Over

Welcome to lfc Jordan Henderson, lads YouTube wickam/ torres & watch this video, it’s scary how similar this kid is with el’cunto, we gota sign this kid,

jordan henderson – centre right midfielder….interesting.

if we are going for young conor wickham too, well that would put the cat among the pidgeons.

i agree with those who say he bears resemblance to a certain spaniard, but the difference is, he is 18 years old. nice.

Looks like Phil Jones is having a medical at United
Its a fucking frenzy lads!!
He’s a good defender too and I’d a liked to see him with us
ah well lets see who’s next
My money is on Adam

Over

My money`s on Conor Whickam Donal

Rory Smith thinks Downing is our number 1 target for a winger and it’s likely we will only be in for Mata if Aston Villa refuse to sell Downing…… I’m in despair here. Someone cheer me up and remind me in Kenny we trust?

Well if we offload Torres, Babel, Ngog, Aqua, Jova, Cole, Poulson and Konch.
And we Sign Luis, Carroll, Henderson, Adam, Whickam, Dann and either Downing or Mata…..
Now I might not be the most insightful of fans but I know which group of players gives you a better chance of finishing in the top four. It may not be a championship winning side but it sure looks like a team that will be able to scrap for wins against the sides below us and we know we can beat all the teams above us so lets keep em coming and going.

Kenny knows how to build teams to win this league he is after all the only man in the league to have done it with two clubs and he hit the transfer market many times while doing it. Exciting stuff. Look at what was going on last year Lads this is heaven in comparison. Were all along for the ride lets enjoy it while we can.
(7 mil for Ngog. Lovely Gubbly.)
YNWA

LB – I reckon (IF that is true) then they want Downing because stats-wise he’s a really good chance maker, he’s Villa’s player of the season, he’s a seasoned EPL pro who knows how to do a job up an down the line. So maybe it’s a case of going with what they know. However he ain’t no Johnny Barnes !! More Lucas than Suarez if you get the comparison.
I’m not gonna comment much on Mata as i know sweet fu*k all about him beyond the obligatory Youtube. Mind you I liked that !

You are right of course!! I need have some perspective. This time last year was real despair! Rafa future uncertain followed by the sack, Hodgson appointment. Hicks and Gillett still in ownership. Cecil and Broughtman in control. Joe Cole, Konchesky. Fucking hell.

During the H&G era and even well before it, we were never in the market for the top emerging local talent
(Walcott, Bale, Dawson, Adam Johnson, Ashley Young (from Watford)etc). Up to now we have been in the bargain basement, and with very little success over all. Even the news that Wilson could be going back to Rangers on loan, when we are in the market for a centre-back proves that.

Uefa are going to have some laugh at the leagues spending by the end of the transfer window its shaping up to be out of this world. If the scum sign their keeper, jones and young thats 50mil and they still need a creative midfielder so whack 30-40 on top of that.
We look like were going to top 50mil. Arse need a good few players too. Then Chavski and Shitty are going to start waving their mickeys around at anything that can kick a ball!!!
Lets get ours done fast before the real madness begins eh.

Well i hope this cheer’s you up LB, wayne rooney has used coleens pubic hair for his hair transplant,
apparently the success rate is much higher if transplanted from one cunt to another.

Just watched John Guidetti (who’s been at Man City for three years) talking about young English players. According to him, Connor Wickham’s talent is terribly overrated. Personally I can only judge by what I’ve seen at youtube in this, and we all know that’s not the greatest way to determine the quality of players.
If we sign him, I sure hope it will be worth it, because he won’t come cheap.

Guidetti is a big fan of Henderson’s though. A magnificent prospect, according to him.

LB- Your comment on your iPhone made me laugh a lot !!

So we are done with Henderson. I think more than Downing, i would like to bring Nzogbia( My first choice is Mata though). If we can add Charlie Adam then our midfield looks in good shape atleast for next season. In defense, we would need a CB. Dont know who that will be though. Coming to the the replacement of Ngog..I dont know how good is Wickham but i would prefer to use the Joe Cole wage ( Which might be available assuming he leaves) and bring in another quality centre forward. Someone who is proven,young and a top class finisher. Goals will win us matches and give us 3 points and to me spending some bucks and getting another striker will be an ideal thing to do.

good joke redman.

Welcome back Gerry.

Henderson seems like a good prospect.

It know it’s early days and you can’t believe all the rumours but a lot of players being linked with us are in areas where we are strong or realtively strong.
My priority would be
Left back and left winger
2 centre halfs

Maybe we’re going to buy 7 or 8 players but they won’t all be top quality.

A little concerned at spending 35m on carroll and now 20m on Henderson when they are both so young.

What do you guys think of Scott Dann,haven’t really seen enough of him myself to judge,but apparently we are looking at him,is he any good?.

Is Henderson worth 20 million? I am not so sure? We just got Suarez, a proven international talent, for the same amount.

The last time there was a drive for a minimum number of national players guff, we went down the same route and then got burned when the regulations were changed again – was against EU working rules or something like that- could be talking tripe there though.

Anyway, I am a bit worried about this young british buy policy, like LB. FFS, what the fuck have they won since ’66? Feck all.

Good that we have a bit of cash to splash around the place but I would prefer if it was done in a prudent manner. More than happy to eat humble pie here.

See that Ngog donkey that Rafa bought will be probably moving on for a 5.5 million quid profit. Old habits die hard!

Btw I think imho Kenny may have seen a bit of Terry Mcdermott in Henderson.

LB #136

Rory smith is talking through his hole.Nobody knows for sure who out targets are and who`s priority over who.All the journo`s are linking us with everything with a pulse in the hope of getting one right.Since Kennys come in things are being kept more hush hush and in house.

I`m confident we`ll make a move for Mata,weather we pull it off is another thing.I hope so,we need at least one top notch signing,along with decent other signings, to take us on to the next level.

Looks like Rafa knocked back Villa.Good,their fans are knobheads who don`t deserve him.

Based on the players we have now, a possible starting 11.
pepe
Kelly carra agger glenda
Lucas stevie
hendo raul suarez
Carroll

subs, flano skrtel jay dirk shelvey.

So two quality signing plus the young players coming through, job oxo! !

Nice one Redman !
Guinness that was an interesting view of where we could go with the in’s and out’s. Like just about everyone here I am hoping we get someone on the left with a bit of zing in him. We could do with some pace and threat out there.
I’ll throw this one out again. Ngog is gone, we have 2 roughly similar style players in Kuyt and AC with one rapier in Suarez. We could do with another. Wickham is young and goes to the back of the queue.
Diego Forlan, cheap buy, high wage, (Joe Cole standard) 2 year contract and we are sorted up front for now.

Most Aston Villa fans I’ve come across are morons. Rafa did well staying clear.

I hope Rory is talking out of his arse. Downing over Mata? There must be some good weed being smoked at Anfield.

now correct me if i’m wrong but i saw a video of hendo on the clubs website being led round anfield in full reds training kit today, yet the first we knew of his signing was today also. this means that the deal was done a couple of days ago and we and the press are lagging on time difference. that means, if we signed say mata today, we wouldn’t actually find out till saturday. not exactly hush hush behind closed doors but that seems to be the lead time.
also means that if the press seem to speculate loudly enough, then they may well be onto something.
so who are the press speculating loudest about now?
they don’t appear to be talking about anyone, maybe a bit of adam, a bit of wickham, but no flurry of excitement just yet. we may have to keep calm and carry on for a while before the next signing.
one thing seems clear…man shite know our intent and have bought jones and ashley young.
for my money they can have ashley young. not a big fan of his, all smoke and mirrors. and as for stewert downing…please not in a liverpool shirt.
london red
my bro is a birmingham fan. i asked him a about scott dann the other day and he rates him highly. says he is very smooth in defence.
corklfc…you’re missing the point aren’t you?
based on todays signing liverpools first team are

reina
kelly (pips flanno, just)
glenda
carra
skyrtl

gerrard (i know he hasn’t played but you wouldn’t leave him out)
lucas
miereles

suarez
kuyt (definitely would not choose carroll over the dutchman, YET)
maxi (won his spurs)

bench : carroll (not ready yet), hendo (not proven yet), spearing (loses out to SG), flanno (loses out to kelly), shelvey (his time will come), dagger (inconsistent through injuries)

sorry corklfc, but i’m going for on form players. and just because we bought hendo, doesn’t mean he’s a shoe-in. dagger would sit on the subs bench because i think skyrtl plays more often than the injury prone defender.

now i’m going to add sterling, robbo and pacheco to that mix. handy squad but needs reinforcing.

the bench looks stronger already because of the good work done by the likes of flanno and shelvey but it still lacks flair and bite. we need a fourth choice striker and wickham looks tasty and we need a tricky winger too so mata would again fit the bill. throw in scott dann and suddenly the bench is filled with quality.

Blud,

The things, the form you’re picking your team from is last season’s form guide…

I wouldn’t be too sure at all about next seasons line up as we’ve still got to finalise any other new signings, not to mention have or pre-season build up…

The form and injuries in March/April will have no bearing in August, I was just trying to hi-light there is a decent tea there as is, before we get really stuck in to the transfer window.

Burger, Sjneider wants 175k a week!

Rafa – so do I.

With the Henderson signing & Aquaman possibly coming back,Meireles/Lucas/Spearing/Shelvey & Gerrard in situ and the possible signing of Adams it could get a little crowded in the centre of our midfield next season.

Hendderson hasn’t actually signed yet… The Echo reporting it should happen tomorrow though…
…but…
looks like Ngog won’t be part of the deal…
…now reporting a 13 million straight cash deal… with performance add-ons.

Aitch, I’m sure I saw Henderson in the Liverpool training kit.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/comolli-jordan-strategy-ngog?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

ok
so it’s blatently obvious from that comolli interview that LFC have a strategy for acquiring their players this summer. comolli said he is targeting several players, not just one or two. so what is this strategy.

they know where the weakness is, so they line up a 1st and 2nd choice. seeing as they didn’t get phil jones it is likely they’ll go full steam for their other centre back option. who that is only DC and KK knows.

i don’t just think they want british, but they definitely want young and talented and wants to play for liverpool so rule out jones and ashley young. they want to know who wants to wear the shirt above any other club.
comolli is the key man here. in any other profession he would be in acquisitions or sales and marketing. what is encouraging about him is the way he speaks about KK. he has respect and sounds like he is working in tandem, not in isolation, which is great for the club. comolli may not be a red at heart, but he seems to be fully committed to his role for the club. read bewteen the lines for yourselves, but this is what i’m hearing.

the midfield is pretty packed now which must mean that with the addition of another winger suarez, maxi kuyt and a.n.other will interchange on the wings. i still think LFC have the option of playing glenda on the wing too. we also have fabio who plays left midfield when he’s fit. suddenly we have options. adding a fourth choice striker like wickham would be a massive difference if we are really serious about him, but i also see the possibility of bringing in a big name striker of suarez’s calibre too. of course they have to move on Ngog as well.
henderson looked like he was signed for £13 million with caveats rather than the £20 million that has been suggested. if so, would this not be a nifty piece of business?
i like this new proactive liverpool. its not so much about splashing the cash. it seems they have a plan and they were willing to implement it at the right time.
kenny most definitely has a style of play he wants to enforce and he is in the market to find the players that can help him achieve that. look to see a new barnes, a new aldo and a new houghton signed in the next few months.
or do you think i’m dreaming?

Echo suggest it’ll be announced today after Henderson passed his medical and agreed personal terms
… for about 16 million
better than 20… and with Ngog still a sellable asset to recoup some of that.
not exactly an “edge of the seat” signing, but most seem to rate him.

Aitch, he’s signed mate.

No the edge of the seat signing I agree. I’ll try to sit tight until August.

welcome back gerry!! didn’t even realise the new blog was up cos the main site still says “Little Shoots of Recovery” which i’m a bit sick of!

i think you lads are being a bit harsh on Downing. yeah, i know he’s not the glamour signing we all want, but the fact is glamour signings won’t be coming til we’re back in the CL.

we need quality youngsters to build for the future, and proven quality to get us straight back into the top 4. like the rest of you, i’ve been praying for the likes of Hazard and Coentrao, but they ain’t coming until we get back in the top 4, so what do you expect? i like the youth policy, but i also want to see a couple of signings that will instantly and significantly influence the width of our play.

Downing is a good player. not a great player, but a player who is a natural wide-man with a great cross, a decent eye for goal, and a proven premier league record. he’s also relatively young, an england international, and keen to play for us (i think).

don’t get me wrong, the same things could’ve been said about Konch, and he was one of the most sickening signings ever to come to the club. but Downing ain’t Konch. he’s got a bit of quality to him, and i think he’s a bit underrated.

genuine wide-men are rare, but i reckon our best chance for getting back in the top 4 next season is to sign a PROVEN winger. i know this isn’t exactly a revelation because we’ve all been saying that for years, but with AC in the middle, we need the crosses pinging across the box as often as we can, while balancing that with a tight passing game through the middle. my first choice would’ve been ashley young, but i’d take Downing as the best available option. i don’t claim to know what kenny and comolli are thinking, but it seems pretty obvious they’re looking at stats for dribbles and crosses.

when we signed Peanut it was based on the fact that he’d delivered the most successful crosses the year before, so i’m not saying i necessarily agree with the policy of stats-based buying, but i do agree we need that kind of player.

all i’m saying is that if i was Kenny, i’d be looking at mainly youngsters and a couple of quick-fixes. time is against us. we need the top 4 next season. Downing can help us there. after that, maybe he’ll fade out when new faces come in… maybe he’ll become an anfield legend…. but yeah.. i’d prefer Adam Johnson or even Shaun Wright-Phillips…. but i’d take Downing over an unproven foreign youngster. he’s a good player.

pepe

glenda, skytel, ‘newman’, ‘newman’

lucas, henderson

suarez, gerrard, downing

carroll

for me (depending on the ‘newmen’)that looks better than city and spurs. and even without the newmen, carra, agger, flanno, and aurellio make that team look pretty strong. downing would do a good job there… for a season at least. spearing would defo be pushing for a place as well.

not exactly edge of the seat signing, no?

but then who do you you expect? kaka?

and didn’t we already sign two of the most exciting prospects in carroll an suarez just a few months back?

what if i suggested that liverpool are intent to sign players of henderson’s class rather than galactico’s like figo and beckham?

we already have a capable side aitch, as you have said many a time. what they need is capable players able to fill the void if injuries claim the likes of gerrard and lucas and miereles, players who are able to step in, who don’t have legendary status attributed to them yet.

manshite are busy playing catch up with liverpool and not the other way round because they saw how suarez walked into the team and carved them a new arsehole. so they add ashley young in the hope he can do the same to us (but he won’t because his talents are already well documented and i believe our improving defence can handle the likes of him). we need to invest in emerging talents, those whose futures are uncertain, who bring a touch of mystery to the team.

thats why i’m not enamoured of downing. over the seasons i’ve never seen much of him that has made me wet my pants in fear.

we need to look for chaps like gareth bale was (read conor wickham) who have untapped potential rather than those who are so established that they become predictable rather than exciting. don’t get me wrong, young is a good player and will do well, but i believe he has already reached the peak of his game, henderson i’m convinced will improve significantly under the current management and who knows what kind of player he will be in two or three years.

don’t forget we still have andy carroll as a third choice striker thus far. man shitty must have dropped a log when they saw how he ripped them apart.

andy carroll is fantastic with his head but i believe his biggest challenge will be adapting to the fast footwork that liverpool want to employ on the deck.

what liverpool need right now is strength in depth. i think we lost impetus when miereles picked up an injury. we desperately need a bench full of capables to replace players like him, so we buy hendo. we need others, for me that is a capable defender (say Scott dann, 24) a fourth choice striker of calibre (wickham, 19, loves the reds) and an attacking left back (any suggestions).

also i would like to go on record to suggest the whole winger strategy is a bit 20th century, heighway on the wing and all that. most top teams seem to play through the middle and use the width to create channels rather than employing an a single-purpose winger who hugs the touchline and dinks balls in for the big centre half. that strategy is misleading and i’m sure football is not played that way anymore.

after all, on two occasions i can remember we scored from the wing, one was miereles crossing from the left midfield on his right boot for AC to score with his head against citeh. the other was glenda overlapping on the right who crossed the ball for maxi to slide home against fulham. neither players qualify as wingers but would be what you might term multi-functional. in the modern game a player who can only fulfil one purpose is as much use as a chocolate teapot.

perhaps thats why there is so much speculation about bringing more midfielders into the side. i can see the logic might well be to create a phalanx of attacking potential that has no particular allegiance to a specific role but can adapt to several. henderson plays centre or right mid. adam plays left or centre mid. spearing was a holding midfielder immediately encouraged to play attacking mid. suarez plays mostly off the left wing to centre and sometimes right, kuyt drifts from wide right to centre and maxi is all over the shop. gerrard, left right, holding, attacking mid.

this is a much more attractive proposition for me. it makes your attacking options organic rather than set in stone.

and i’ve said this hundreds of times before but we still have sterling and thank god he’s sitting on our bench. i am aware he’s about nine years old, but with the right coaching (to stop him becoming the next theo walcott or aaron lennon, and propel him towards being the next john barnes) he could be such a talent. and for the purists, he’s a bloody winger too.

Glad to see you back Gerry. Excellent blog as always.
Anyway, I am glad to see us doing business with signing Jordan Henderson.

I know that some may thought that it was bit overpriced. As quoted in the media in the region of 16-20M. But, as Comolli said himself in the official website, the prices quoted in the media, none are correct.

But the way it was done, is very encouraging. Minimal fuss, and quick.

So far from what I read in some of trustworthy journos in twitter, we’re making moves for Wickham (N’gog replacement – he goes to Sunderland), a cheeky bid for Gael Clichy (He’s on last year in Arsenal. Or it could be leaked to open talks with Newcastle over Enrique), Charlie Adam (Another Central Midfield), Scott Dann (Central Defender). And Downing for winger position. Not sure about the Juan Mata deals though. All been quiet regarding the Valencia’s winger.

I haven’t heard anything regarding our Daniel Ayala though. What do you reckon lads? With his past glowing reviews, do you think he still got a chance in LFC?

I watched king kennys 10 top moments on lfc.tv tonight, one word – inspiring! every new signing should be made watch it.

well that’s that then. if Comolli’s statements are to be believed then the price is either below 16M or above 20M. My guess is that it is below 16M, in which case, I won’t complain too much. Let’s just hope that Kenny can get the best out of the lad. We might see him on the right as some have suggested.

As for a centre-back I actually think we already have the best player in the world– Gerrard. If his legs and lungs start to let go, I think he would make a fantastic ball-playing central defender that we all want, if he is resigned to playing in that position. And if he is, I think it will prolong his career at our club for an extra 2 to 3 years.

Thank god ashley young chose united– there are better and cheaper players out there. I thought he was fantastic in his debut season for villa but since then he has gone downhill. A typical lost potential type who is just a relatively good player.

At least 3 more players please.

@bludred, I agree to an extent on your “archaic winger doctrine” claim. But I also disagree to an extent.

True, modern day football is not just about touchline hoggers or huggers. That is why I cannot fathom people when they say that playing Kuyt on the right is a square peg in a round hole. His intelligence and quality of movement (not just his workrate) makes him an ideal right side midfielder, one of the best in the world.

But those types of players do not work against teams that park the bus. What we also need is someone who can get past players on his own to break down the defense. The only player who can do that in our current side is Suarez. Gerrard arguably was able to do that when he was in his prime, but we can’t expect that looking into the future. One craic player is not good enough for a team looking to win the league.
The only team that is of any excellent level that arguably does not have any wingers is barcelona, but they just happen to have incredibly gifted players all over the pitch. There is no way we can emulate that right now. Besides, if rumours are true, it looks as if Alexis Sanchez is going to sign for them, so they also understand the need for “dribblers.”

We are not looking for touchline hoggers, we are looking for players who can penetrate on his own. That’s what we all mean when we say we are looking for wingers. And such type of players still do exist.

Nice to see you back Hyde. One point I’d take you up on in Stevie at Centre Half. You need to have 100% concentration there and I think one of the best descriptions of Stevie (was it Aitch) was that he’s like a hand-grenade, best kept close to the opposition goal and far away from ours.
He’s got the talent but would he have the discipline and concentration ?

Cheers, Dougle– finally am feeling better enough to start commenting properly. Was absolutely heartbroken when we lost rafa (and still am) and ever since then I just couldn’t get myself to comment much here. Life with Kenny is good though, it reminds me of my schoolboy days. At least now, the press will tone down the bullying.

Anyway, yes, I agree with you on the mental side of Steven, which is why I included the caveat “if he is resigned to the idea.” I am hoping that as he starts to grow old, his temperament will mature enough to accept that he should leave the bombarding to younger players. If anyone can convince and persuade him to accept that role, Kenny can. I can’t see him respecting other gaffers wel enough to listen to the notion.

thanks hyde and some good points.

by your own admission barcelona is the only team not to use wingers, but they have exceptionally good players.

i don’t deny their ability, but it is the coaching at barca that is exceptional. it is the coaching that provides the framework for those players to thrive, including messi.

barca believe the movement of their players around the movement of the ball is important and they use a system called tiki taka, similar to total football where players and positions are interchangeable.

asking for a winger is asking for a player to remain stationary for 90 minutes and probably an anathema to modern football.

better to search for talented players who can use the entire width of the pitch rather than patrol one section.

and if teams park the bus, as you mention, it is logical to assume they are afraid of you and this is generally regarded as good news. the more they park the bus they less able they are to attack your goal. the less able a team is to attack,the more players you can throw into attack, the more they have to defend and the more they are likely to concede.

been reading reports that the reds put in a bid for jones today(saturday) & could hijack him from that old whiskey face fucker,

I agree with Hyde, i think sg would make a great center back, any time sg played at full back earlier in his career he was unbeatable. playing ay the back is alot more straight forward than center mid as you are facing the play the wholetime. i reckon he Will play there in his last season or two.

CORKLFC
What if we buy a couple of class CDs do you think you would still move stevie into the a centre back role. I think he is such a good player he could basically play any where in the side, dont know aout in the nets though.But would be very interesting if he wanted to do it in a year or twos time. It would lengthen his carrer by a few years. and it would help with the young guns coming through.
May be after Carra starts to take a bit more of a back seat in the team.
Think Carra will start to move into coaching in a couple of years time, hope it is with LFC as he would be a good role modle for the guys.

The story around Phil Jones is getting interesting. Apparently it’s far from certain he’ll end up with whiskey nose, because Blackburn’s Indian owners won’t budge and only sell to the highest bidder. They would prefer to keep the player, considering him a future captain, but would allow him to leave if a good enough offer comes in.

This might well turn into a bidding war between Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and us. While I would love to see whiskey nose miss out on one of his main targets, I don’t think we should pay crazy money for this lad. Whatever happens, we need to sign quality in other positions, and could probably find cheaper options among young, gifted defenders. Paying more than £20m for a 19 year old CB doesn’t seem like a wise move, considering the financial fair play rules kicking in.

It must be mentioned as well that the story I read came from Daily Fail and was published on a Sunday, so it might of course be sensationalism and complete fabrication. In any case, I hope Comolli and Kenny won’t be drawn into these bidding wars. Don’t think it would be worth it.

I suppose that’s the point with SG, he can play from full back to Striker and be very effective, the same would go for center back if the need was there.
With no European football and with Carra/Scary/Agger as first choice, Kelly as a real option for cover, SG could be 5th choice if needed.
I rather see the money spent on a wide attacking option than a center back that going to act as cover.

there are two interesting speculations going on in the press that are difficult to ignore. apparently, a spokesman said, rumour has it we are in the running for oxlade-chamberlain (chose a name for pities sake) or conor wickham. quite frankly i’d like to see both at anfield but i’m coming to believe one will move to liverpool as a fourth choice striker. wickham bizarrely reminds me of nando and chamberlain plays footie like a certain luis suarez.

Well i guess it is down to the owners how much we spend, and KK and DC whom we buy. A different situation than the one we had under two cowboys.
All we knew under them was any money that came in would go in their back pockets or on the loan interest.So we are in a far better place than last summer. it will be interesting who goes out the back door.Has there must be a least eight players who could go. Ngog,konch,cole,pulson,milan,ayala,pachico,aquaman,etc etc.
getting interesting very interesting,and everyone will have a player that they think should be brought in, great times ahead. Long live kenny.
Its funny that kelly and ayala were the centre back partnership in the acadamy and reserves until ayala was shipped out on loan by podgeson.But then we have young Wisdom coming through the ranks, and he is a big strong lad who seem to do the business. and home grown bought in but is still an home grown player.
As i said great times, very exciting to say the least.

Gerrard playing at centre half are you guys smoking drugs if he does not have the self discipline to play as a holding midfield player how the fuck can he play in defence good grief!!!!!!.

I think Kenny needs to build a first team without Gerrard and then use him sparingly like Man Utd did with Giggs and Scholes it will probably extend his career and we might get more (Napoli in the second half) performances out of him.

He won’t like it but I think It’s what the Americans call tough love.Also the only positions he should be playing are wide right or behind the main striker,It would be interesting to see him link up with Carroll.

ny of you boy’s come across this,

http://www.blackpool.vitalfootball.co.uk/sitepage.asp?a=523599

i know it’s deemed “paper talk” but it read’s pretty encouraging.

Forgot the A.

We have now been linked with about every player who the papers can throw a name too. Like i said intereting times indeed.
No one knows other than the club whats going on, Love the way KK and his team keep them all guessing its great. Love the fact that if its true we have upset whiskey nose and if true, and he still goes for the boy Jones. I hope it costs him dearly. We now really have men at the club who dont give a fuck about the red nosed arseol.

We have now been linked with about every player who the papers can throw a name too. Like i said intereting times indeed.
No one knows other than the club whats going on, Love the way KK and his team keep them all guessing its great. Love the fact that if its true we have upset whiskey nose and if true, and he still goes for the boy Jones. I hope it costs him dearly. We now really have men at the club who dont give a fuck about the red nosed arseol.

I think we’re all falling into the agent V media paper talk, Ferguson couldn’t give a flying fuck about price, he has been allowed to pay big money for players, we haven’t. Unfortunately he can compliment his team with several astute buys, we need a fucking pile of players. We need to get back in the top 4 before we start spruiking about Ferguson looking over his shoulder. I despise the man but he’s not my main concern, we are so should concentrate on that. We haven’t won a league in 20 years and sadly of late, we have been sitting in the wilderness. Time to concentrate all our efforts on winning games when the heats on, not folding under pressure when we need to win 1 game to get into Europe.
.
We had a great run under Kenny towards the end but still folded under pressure, as we have for the last few years. Thats the part of the team I want to see improved, I guess Kenny would be scrolling over those tough individuals, seeing who he can get. I really don’t think he be spending any time on pissing Ferguson off, why bother.

Gaz,although we`re not the direct competition to the drunken bastard down the road,he`ll always rejoice in our downfall and he wants to see us fail.We got too close for comfort under Rafa and the man nearly lost his mind,he even drafted in his boys (big sam et al) to help him have a go at Rafa,along with his buddies in the press of course.
What i`m getting at Gaz is the man,like the Yernited support is obbsessed with LFC.Remember when we played AC Milan in the european cup final he was saying things like he`ll share a bottle of wine with Ancelotti if he beats us.

And more recently,when we were down the bottom half of the table just as Kenny took over he couldn`t help but stick his big red whisky nose in our business when he said..”Adams corners are worht ten million alone”.This at a time when we were negotiating a deal for less than that amount.

You see Gaz,we are behind them,by a long way at the moment.Thats where the bar is,we have to reach it.If upsetting them along the way is what we have to do,then fine,i`m all up for that.Don`t act like your afraid to wake up the sleeping giant,lets kick the fuckers and let them know we`re coming up the hill!!

John Henry is famous in the states for bidding for his rivals targets just to whack the price up for them to pay,but also known for seeing deals through if they`re the right deals for the club.

Friday,Yernited thought they`d jones sealed up for 16.5m.

Saturday,LFC make 22m bid.

Monday Yernited have to cough up an extra 4 million to seal the deal.

The thing is Gaz… Kenny doesn’t need to DO anything specifically to irritate Fungus… simply because by his very existence, he does irritate Fungus.
The best thing that ever happened to Fungus as a manger was the day Kenny quit LFC… it opened the door for his subbsequent success.
That’s not to take anything away from him.
As good a manager as Shanks, Paisley, Fagan were, they were as successful as they were because they were in the right place, at the right time, with the right team, in the right circumstances.
And so too Fungus. No one could have predicted that that group of kids would all to a man, be that good, for that long. In fact, exactly the oppposite as evidenced by Alan Hansen’s now infamous “nobody wins anything with a bunch of kids” statement.

No my friends… Kenny doesn;t need to do anything but just be Kenny… and Fungus will grow ever more irritated by the day. (if along the waay, Comolli can bbid on players they want and up the price they have to pay, then that’s ust gravy! Their financial might is based on the same house of cards ours recently was, so if we can cause them to overpay for players, then we should do that… they’ve certainly done it to us in the past.)

The thing to remember about Fungus is that he wanted the success he has achieved… He wanted it bad. So bad he could taste it. So bad he announced it to the world.
And fair enough he achieved it…
… but what he is all about now is his legacy…
… and he may well have “knocked us off our perch”
… but then again… it’s still “our” fuckin perch innit?
Even with 19… they still refer to it as our perch…
… with one more than us… isn;t it now their perch???
Weird that one…
… but therein lies the rub gents, ladies and those yet undecided…
…don’t be distracted by the fact that we haven’t won one in ages, that we finished 6th last year and 7th the year before…
… its grimm reading for sure… but it doesn’t tell the whole story and was all about circumstances…
… don’t be dismayed by certain shortcomings at the final hurdle…
…circumstances contributed to an inability to “go that last extra mile”…
… and the easy conclusion to draw is that we “are/were just not good enough”
… but that isn’t necessarily the correct conclusion…
… perhaps we just lacked that “little bit extra”
… the kind of extra that a fit Stevie G could have provided… (center-half indeed? I’ll have some of what you’re smoking! )

We’ve got some good kids coming through… we always have had, but we’ve always seemed to fall a bit short there too… but there is something about this crop of lads, and the one’s waiting in the wings.
Personally, i like what I’m seeing from most of them…
… not just good performances now…
… but real potential to improve on that…
… complement that with a few top signings here and there, and we are on our way.

Everyone starts from zero in August…
Personally….. I fancy a treble!

Good post ditch

Sorry , fuckin iPhone, good post Aitch

yeah good post ditch

someone in the press suggested we were going to buy some midfield spark and use shelvey as makeweight in the other direction. and i thought…get fucked, that lads not going out on loan, he’s just improving, he’s going nowhere.

like ditch, thats because i see real potential there not just in him but several others.

dalglish is a thorn in fergies side and that’s one great big fat reason why i love the man and one gigantic reason i did not like itchy and scratchy who did not seem to appreciate you were not supposed to be in love with your main rival.

make no mistake, liverpool will have to do their talking on the pitch, but when it comes to off the pitch shenanigans KK is a master in his own right.

Was hoping for a Suarez like quality signing in this window.

Doesn’t look like we’ll be shopping at Harrods this summer.Tesco it is then.

London red,i didn`t realise the transfer window has closed.Have a bit of patience man,its very early days.Player are on holidays,at the u-21`s and the european window isn`t open to the premier league until july 1st.Just think back to where we were 12 months ago,in the market for Puolsen,Konchesky etc.Have some perspective here.

Sanchez and Hazard are looking to go to clubs in the champions league.That is a stumbling block,but we`ll have a much stronger squad come the start of business in August,i`m sure of that.Rome wasn`t built in a day.

As for shelvey,Blud,i don`t mind him going out on loan,once its to another premier league club,he can progress playing week in week out in the PL.Going to a championship team on loan will stall his progress imo.

Blud, easy on big guy with the ditch:-) , I hear the Charlie Adam deal is to be complete this week , the bookies have stopped all betting, there’s also increasing speculation that Adams arrival could mean the end of rauls time at anfield, the rumour is fsg are concerned about his age & his injurys

They have stopped taking bets on downing also, seemingly inter are interested in Raul

Hey Donal – when are you gonna be around these parts ? We must set up the Kopblog meet?

Ya Donal, the lord major is waiting to be given the go ahead on the civic reception!

Here’s an appraisal of Charlie Adam from a Blackpool supporter: http://t.co/jTRBPUb

Clearly written by an intelligent fella.

It looks like we’re gonna have a lot a central midfielders in the squad. What do you guys think should be done in this area (assuming Adam deal will be done this week, as it seems)?

Those reports about FSG being concerned about the age and fitness of Meireles seem fabricated to me. That’s mere speculation I wouldn’t believe unless it came from reliable sources. People like Tony Barrett usually don’t reveal information of this nature, that is what people within the club think of this or that player. It’s an entirely different story when it comes to what players being scouted, which can be presented as a fact, but doesn’t necessarily mean the player in question will be signed.

In any case, I suspect some of the young lads will be sent out on loan. Jonjo Shelvey for instance might well spend a season elsewhere. Aquilani will most likely remain in Italy, while Poulsen most certainly be shipped off to which ever club are willing to acquire his services.

This would still leave us with no less than six players in the squad usually thought of as central midfielders; Gerrard, Lucas, Henderson, Meireles, Spearing and Adam. We can also add young Coady, who might of course be sent out on loan.

This would make sense if Gerrard and Meireles are thought of as players to deploy in the hole behind the striker. Then we would have at least four players as options in CM. Lucas/Adam could form an interesting partnership there, and are likely to feature more often than Henderson and Spearing providing the Adam transfer goes through.

Roger that lads Alright corky and dougle
I’m in Thailand until the 4th July and in Eire
From then till aug 17
Any time between then is good
Obviously I have family stuff planned in-between
I’ll drop ye a line when I get back and we’ll hit the murphys

Looking good on my Adam prediction Timmy ?

Over

Ye are right about this I phone malarkey lads
Took ma about 15 mins to type this and i can’t even
Read what I’ve written before I post

all these central players are exactly the reason i’m (reletively) happy to see Downing come to the club.

like i said before, he’s not necessarily my player of choice, but he’s an out and out wideman with bags of experience and a skill-set that isn’t as shabby as many believe. personally, i’d rather have him out wide than Deadly because he’s more likely to take the fullback on.

what’s wrong with him exactly? he can beat players, cross accurately, and score goals. i know he’s got a boring face, a boring name, and he’s come from 2 boring clubs, but he generally terrorises opposing fullbacks and gets the ball into the middle. i bet AC is hoping he comes.

all i’m saying is, assuming the likes of Mata, Sanchez, Hazard and Coentrao will only move to CL clubs, Downing might just be the best available option to compliment the central players, but more importantly, compliment the youngsters with his experience and PL savvy.

what worries me is that we might start the new season without a proven impact player, and just a whole load of unproven future potential.

Nice one Sambo
I tend to agree that alot of it has to do with his boring hair and clubs etc.
In fairness he’s only 26 and not exactly in the rolando nani mould
he wont be unlocking defences with his trickery but we have luis for that
what he will do though is widen the pitch
take the ball out wide beat his man and deliver a good (usually great) ball into the box
In fairness with adam next to him we’d be looking at a lot of dangerous balls from that side of the pitch
and still have Luis Dirk Stevie doing their thing too
he would definitely add a dimention we havent had for a while

That said if we dont sign him and sign Mata (insert foreign name) I wont be too pissed off either

One thing I have learned is that Comolli and kenny know shit loads about it than I do

I’d rather they picked the players with the mentality and drive to succeed for LFC than some fancy pants that I saw playing a few times!

Over

Donal Isn’t Rolando that bloke who used to be in Grange Hill back in the day,never saw him play footie but I would assume Downings a better player.

Dunno mate
I was too busy watching the A-Team to get into Grange Hill!!
Over

Just looked up a few vids of mata
He looks special
Actually he looks like Rooney with hair
Plays like him too
If we can get him for 20 mill it would be a snip
An accacking 3 of mata big Andy and Suarez would be sick
Anyways here’s to hoping

Over

Here’s the thing Sambo.
I wouldn’t say Downing was a bad player. I doubt most who are positing against his acquisition would really say that.
but you sort of have to look at any incoming player with the same eye as some look at some of the current players in the squad.
I largely disagree with the mantra “wouldn’t get into the Man Utd side” simply because, as I’ve suggested before… would carrick, Hargreaves, O’Shae and a host of others, walk into the Reds team… and would any of us really want to see that?
Its called perspective.

The thing about players of the calibre of Downing, or even Henderson and such, is not that they are crap…
…it is simply that, as additions to the squad…
…they represent an approach that is “slow and steady wins the race”
… and that’s fine… its a good approah to establish long term success (and I use a loose definition of success there… simply to stay in the top 4, stay in contention… coz that’s the platform from which you build to win anything.)

…but while I’m utterly on board with our current (so far) transfer approach, coz like I said, we need that approach to stay competitive over the long haul…
… it is my belief that we stand at a crossroads in the Premier League…
… that is to say…
…each summer, we hope for/look for chinks in Scum’s armour… and they have been there, its just that we haven’t been able to exploit them… only Arsenal and mroe recently the Chavs have… and thye too have chinks of their own…
But this summer, they have more chinks in their armour than ever before… they can repair them obviously… they’ve got the cash/credit/reputation to do so…
… but the Scum, the Chavs, the Arse, they are weaker this summer than they have been for a decade.
And a “slow and steady wins the race” approach to squad rebuilding will not immediately sieze on that opportunity…

…but I’d say at this point… fear not good friends… this is merely round one of the transfer window…
Henderson might not be “inspirational signing”, Charlie Adam neither…
… but they are good cogs, and if… if… we add that “inspirational” quality later in the window, then it puts a different spin on things…

…so keep yer powder dry for now lads, and let’s see where we land.

for my part, I remain reasonably confident that we are adding quality to the squad, that we will offload the players we need to, and that we will sign at least one or possibly two of those “very exciting” additions. (and remain hopefull that the others will not repair all their chinks.)

Downing is 27 next month and apparently Aston Villa want up to £20m for him. This doesn’t seem to fit into the FSG transfer policy. If we shell out that sort of dough for Downing, only for him to have no resell value in a couple of years, I think we live to regret it.

Some of you might baulk at the £20m figure but consider this. Villa will lose Ashley Young, do you think they will lose their nest best player for what we consider to be a reasonable price? We have already seen how they play hard ball during the Gareth Barry saga. I think they will look to keep Downing for another season unless they get an offer they can’t refuse (£20m).

Downing is not a bad player. But he doesn’t really excite. I have always considered him an ordinary player. Never shone for England at all. Had the odd good game for Boro but nothing special. Had a very good season last season but is that a flash in the pan? In my opinion he isn’t any better than Riera or Benayoun and I didn’t wet myself in anticipation when we signed those either.

Our team still lacks pace in my opinion and we only have one player who can dribble past an opponent. This needs addressing and in my opinion Downing is not the answer.

Rolando didnt he used to run smack with Carlito Brigante?

Well with Adam, Henderson and Downing I think its safe to say our Midfield is sorted all of them bring something better to the squad.
If we also get a very good left back and Maybe a center half and we can ship out a few (we all know who they are) before were even into July Id bet anything we’ll get one even two major signings closer to the end of the window.
It looks to me like Kenny wants to get the squad beefed up with better players then we have and then he’ll see whos available that is in the top top bracket, there will be excess players at Real, Barca, City and Chelsea who are top class but are surplus to there squads. Look at Van der Vart last year. Very happy with how things are rolling along.

I don’t think the Downing transfer will be a quick straight forward affair. A saga running deep into August is what I expect.

well we should just go for nzogbia then looks like he’s available for 10-12 mil. I really cant see FSG paying 20mil for a 27 year old. 15 is a bit steep but 20 no way.

LB
I hope they do holdout because if we get downing quick it might mean no mata
I reckon fsg comolli and the king won’t be pissed around too much
Downing is probably 2nd choice signing anyways
Over and out

Rory Smith reckons Downing is our number one target. I hope he is talking cack. We’re spending all this money and Stewart fucking Downing is our number one target? Surely not.

The way i understand it is we will end up with most of our targets who are ok without champions league football. Assuming Mata is our 1st option and if he chooses not to come because of lack of european football, then we are left with NZogbia or Downing. I would prefer Nzogbia any day.

I wouldn’t mind what (most) journo’s write. They have to produce copy every day. Does he talk to Kenny and does Kenny tell him who our main target is ? No. They just make it up (like us).

If FSG/Kenny/Comolli decide Downing is who they want and he’s worth whatever is paid for him, so be it.
If “our” spend comes to 50 million for 60 million or 80 million this summer then great.
We have to assume they know what they are doing. This, now, is where the Kenny era is stamped.

I was in relative dread this time last year. I was pissed off at Hodge, Purslow, H&G (and a few of the better known players). I was really dreading what was going to happen to the squad etc etc.

Now it all feels completely unreal to be honest. I’m not worried. As was said by Aitch above it’s step building, creating a potent squad. And despite the fact we are in vicious competition with Arse and Spurs for the 4th CL spot (in reality), you know there is a chance next season that we could go all the way. Manure, The Plastics, Abu Dhabbi and Arse they are all in re-modelling mode as well. It’s gonna be interesting to see who gets it right.
We fell 2 seasons ago, we near enough went down down down (see H&G staying there). I have a sneaky that it could be someone else’s turn next season.

And we may not get it right this time and we are coming from a (big) deficit so it’s a long shot for next year but who knows .. gonna be interesting to see exactly who is in the squad come Sept.

One final thought about the “buys”. It’s been a while since the close season has been a good buying time for us. For various reasons both Hodge and Rafa ended up with … with whom ? When was the last real successful signing (pre-Kenny) ? Miereles I suppose. Soto ? Before him ?
For me Suarez has been ace. Andy C ? We’ll see but I reckon he’ll contribute (which is v important). Henderson I know little about but he could be at least an upgrade on Spearing and an option for the right mid-field. The important thing is he does contribute. Too many forced, second hand, unfit and badly judged buys have loaded our squad with non-productive players and even if we can reverse that, (get rid of said non-producers), have a competitive productive squad (withor without more “stars”) then we will have gone a long way towards where we want to be.

As has been alluded to we have a bunch of youngsters coming through and a coherent philosophy being formed right throughout the club.
“Stars”, great if they work.

One more thing … this idea that Jamie C moves directly into the coaching staff and (by extension) that he’s groomed to be a future manager/coach well not for me. He does not have the qualities that I would like as a future manager and tactically he makes John Terry look like Franz Beckenbaur on the pitch so … It’s all very well having passion and guts and determination but be a motivator (not a bully) and a tactician not a sheep.
Not saying he can’t develop but imho he’s got quite a way to go.
Just thought I’d stick that one out there !!

I tend to agree with LB here,
i know we need a bigger squad all-round, but to me Downing could be another Penant (one of the few Rafa got wrong), like has been said on here he is not that consistent so i dont see the sense in forking out a possible £20mil out for him as i understand that’s how much Villa seem to have priced him.
Quite correct Dougle with sticking with KD’s decision’s, but all in all myself personally i dont think Downing is worth half of the Villa asking price not when you compare him to Suarez and look at what we paid.

Downing wouldn’t be my first, second or even tenth choice as a winger for us if I could pick freely, but Kenny and Comolli are the ones who build the team. If they think Downing can provide enough quality to the team, than that’s enough for me. Then they might be proven wrong of course, but that’s a debate for later.

Concerning the price, I reckon Comolli value Downing quite a lot lower than Aston Villa does, and £20m is not a reasonable price for a 27 year old with those qualities. But neither was £35m for Andy Carroll. I’d that price was even more inflated.

Maybe the idea is to sign players who have premier league experience so it gives us the best chance to get into the top 4. We have no European football so maybe they don’t want to risk £25m on say a Mata who might take a while to settle. Once we are in the CL then we might look at marquee signings from abroad? It’s a theory. But then to counteract that City bought a lot of English players and foreign players already at PL clubs but didn’t get into the top 4. It’s when they signed Toure and Silva they went to the next level and finished 3rd.

According to Tony Evans the new third kits are awful, looking like Man City kits. Will be unveiled tomorrow.

To be honest I don’t care all that much since we’ll only be using them in a few games, but on the other hand it is a bit disturbing when our second and third kits have nothing to do with our traditional red. There has to be some connection there.

I suppose we’d have the same color on all our kits every season, only changing the design slightly, but then there would be less income for the club.

Personally I wouldn’t buy any of these kits, not even the first one. To me it’s all about the feeling I get when I see us play, and the fact that Shankly once came up with the brilliant idea of an all-red kit.

Your not far of the mark there LB i’d say. I have said before we could be playing as few as 40 games next season, we got used of playing 55-60 game under Rafa because we were getting to the latter stages of European comps every season.
70 p0ints will get a top 4 finish next season i’d say. we were 10 points short this season and thats including how bad things were under Roy (not to mind H&G). with the current squad i’d fancy us to be very close to reaching that.
With Rafa signing the likes of Pennent, he was a 2nd choice option like so many others over the last 4 years, the key for Kenny is that he gets as may of this first choice options as possible. if that includes Downing that will do for me right now.

On City, how many players have not worked out for them of the past 3 years. Robino, Adebayor, Santa Cruz alone were 70m, not to mind the crazy wages they are paying.
If Kenny had City squad to work with, he’d walk the league.

I agree with LB we need another player or two that can beat his opponent for pace and skill.

I’ve watched Downing over the years and I have to say at no point have I thought I wish he played for us.

Having said that I think we are looking at him for his crossing ability so we can get the best out of Carroll.

But personally I would prefer to get someone who can rip a fullback a new one.We need a player who can put the fear of God into the smaller teams and breakdown the bus parkers and Stewart Downing Aint that man.

Who is London? This years “biggest and brightest” Neymar, Lucas Moura, Hazard, Gervinho, Sanchez, Mata, Aguero, whom amongst that lot is going to come to play for us as we are right now ?
Hopefully one will but I doubt it. It’s like the lads said. Horses for courses now. Get into the CL and next year buy to compete there.
We are dining at the second table now and we’re only there because of Rafa (and Ged to an extent) who gave weight to our name.

i’m not sure what the third kit is used for officially or even why it’s white/light blue/black but luis suarez looks damn good in it, so…er…what do you guys think? it appears to be a departure from adidas’s usual style.

The third kit is a disgrace, but I’d much rather have us hate that than the people in charge of the club – which was largely the case one year ago.

the new third kit is meant to resemble the clubs first home kit, what the fuck do we need a third kit for anyway? it’s fuckin horrible! come on the red’s/blues! fuck sake!

I’m hoping we’re only in for Adam because we want Man U to out bid us and therefore bait into their own budget. I really don’t see where he adds anything more than what we already have. As Kenny said, we will be buying players who are better than the ones we have. So Downing is marginally better than Maxi, using the marginally loosely. Maxi out scored him late in the season, maybe all season.
.
Henderson well he’s young, lets see how he goes.
.
Aitch slow and steady, 20 years is snail pace but that might be just about to change.
.
I’m with LB, pace and skill, been screaming for it for years. Alas though the international window hasn’t opened so maybe just maybe all these rumoured buys are simple smoke screen feed the shit to the pidgeons stuff.
.
Maybe we can get Rory Delap for say 20 million, surely his throw ins could feed AC. PL ready, consistant performer.

Dougle,

I thought the point of having a director of football with a scouting network all over Europe was so that we could find the next star before he’d actually become a star. We signed Suarez when we were 12th in the league with a caretaker manager at the helm. Spurs signed Berbatov and Modric while Comolli was there. There were not world beaters at the time. It’s that kind of signing I am looking for. Someone who is very talented, that can go past fullbacks, has pace and good game intelligence but is still a bit under the radar.

Signing Stewart Downing for £20m is ridiculous no matter how you slice it.

Gazz, it may well have been a 20year plod through the wilderness for us… but it hasn’t been for FSG… they just got here.
(but to be honest, I get where you’re coming from in terms of not winning the Prem, but I don’t think we can honestly say we’ve had a 20year plod, since we’ve actually won big things in that 20 years and at least challenged a couple of times… City winning the FA Cup was their first taste of anything in 35 years… now that’s a plod!)

…for sure Kenny understands the 20 years thing… but he hasn’t taken over a stable club that just finished 2nd… he taken over a club…
…with new owners…
… that needed complete restructuring both as a footy team, and as a business…
… that had fallen into the wilderness…
… that has endured 2 years of injuries to senior players, their replacements, and in some positions, their replacements…

Downing might not make set heart a flutter… but we don’t currently have a left winger.
Maxi played there but he’s primarily right footed as was almost everyone else played there since Riera… and he always cut in on a right foot he couldn’t use…
…so he might not be a “top” target, but he a decent left winger which is something we don’t have.
Get him this year, and maybe get a better addition next. Sounds reasonable?

I agree 20 million seems a bit high… but he’s English, so that’s about 5 million just for the fuckin birth certificate… that’s just the crazy way of things these days…

Though it is still largely reported that we paid 20 million for Henderson and from what I’ve been reading, the fee has not yet been disclosed, and that was something calculated by the papers when Ngog was part of the deal…. and it wasn’t actually anything close to that.

Sourced from some ITK’s that are largely trustworthy. what I’ve read is actually 16 million… but that’s the “rising to with add-ons” total, and the actual transfer fee was closer to 13 million.
So maybe the Downing deal will flesh out closer to something like that???

As stated by others above, SD wouldn’t necessarily be someone I’d put in my first 5 choices as a target, but if we got him for 15million, I’d be reasonably pleased with that and would venture far enough to say, he’ll be far more productive than Albert fuckin Riera was.

Charlie Adam isn’t someone I was a big fan of either.
Not that I didn’t rate him… he obviously, clearly, had a good season for Blackpool.
But he’d moved from Scotland to Blackpool when they were in the Champ and hadn’t turned down offers from us the Chavs or Scum to do so… why… coz no one rated him that highly at that time.
One, maybe two great seasons for Blackpool, where he was their go-to-guy, and all roads led through him in the way they do/did through SG at LFC, does not a 15-25 million bidding war between us and the Scum make. (…or it shouldn’t anyway) …especially at his age!

But after reading an article by Tony Barrett, where he compared him to Steve McMahon, I thought about it and drew the conclusion that if Adam can stay hungry after securing a move from Blackpool to LFC on a higher wage… if he doesn’t tke his foot off the gas and continues in his recent vein of form… then Adam for <10million would be a good bit of bizz and strengthen us.

Looking at this past season, we didn’t need World beaters to knock off Scum and the Chavs… what we were lacking was grinders to grab 3 points at West Brom on a cold Wednesday night…
…and surely Adam fits that bill?
…Downing too, no?

So looking at it that way, we would seem to be on track…
…and come July 1st (again going off what some ITKs are suggesting, though they admit Anfield has slammed a cone of silence down on all leaks) when the Euro window opens, if we can add one or two Suarez like names (say Mata and Turan for instance, but you’ll all have your individual preferences, so suffice to say similar quality players) then we’d be well armed to compete for the title. (depending on how the “others” strengthen of course.)

I’m far less bothered by who we’ve been rumored to be signing, or the rumored price, than I am by the lack of anyone having already left.

So far we’ve got Maxi leaving for Newell’s Old Boys (not confirmed yet, but looking highly likely)… but there are at least 5/6 names that should have been stood at the Taxi stand with packed bags before him!!!

Editor’s Note:
My laptop keyboard has gone wonky on me, and sometime types double lettters, or misses letters…
…oh, and I can spell, but my pc is just set to American spell-check, since that’s mostly who I do biz with and so its more important that words… like color and theater are in actual fact spelled correctly for them, rather than spelled colour and theatre… for the likes of you lot!
… and anyway, if any of youz actually did have a problem with that, fuck off!

Hopefully after July 4th the Taxi rank will be well populated with the likes of Cole, Konchesky, Poulsen, ElZhar etc etc… They need to be fucked off big time.

Stweart Fucking Downing. I tell you what. If we buy him for £20m and the mancs get Modric for say £25m I’ll be foaming at the mouth with fury.

One thing’s for sure: Stewart Downing would be a significant upgrade on Joe fucking “Messi” Cole.

I agree, that so few players are on their way out is a bit worrying, but I think it’s safe to say there’s going to be a lot of movement in and out of the club around July 1st.

I agree with you guys about Downing. Personally I think the talk of £20 million is way over the odds for a player of Downings’ quality and ability.

However, to sign him for his crossing ability alone so as to get the best from AC then I don’t know about that. I mean £35 mil for AC + £20 mil for Downing, who will be bought not for his own merits but to make AC look good.

Very much undecided but hey, if he helps us win #19 then so be it.

And £20 mil for Henderson?

Rafa must be thinking God Damn! I was fighting with prick parry to bring in top players like Alves and Simao for around the £10 mil mark and was constantly getting rebuffed and all this after proving myself by taking them to 2 CL finals in 3 seasons and winning one and they wouldn’t give me £10 mil. Fuckers!

What is the world coming to?

Redman I think Pennant is a better player than Downing but his problem was that he didn’t/couldn’t cope with his defensive duties too well and had an attitude problem.

For me we are putting far too much emphasis on up and coming youth that still need a lot of development, which could take some time.

Having said that there are quite a few very good youngsters around but most of them are NOT English/British.

Take a look at this FIFA site…

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1363573.html

I don’t know who compiled the list but it makes interesting reading if nothing else.

Jasus LB, you really have it in for poor Stewart!!

I’d wouldn’t like to knock on your door to tell you I have just crashed into your parked car!!

Oh and meant to add that the new 3rd kit has the same blue of our sponsors standard chartered. The SC logo also has green but thankfully its changed to grey on the new shirt.

Don’t like it much but if you make a deal with the devil then you’re going to pay the price somehow.

Just got an email from the LFConline Store inviting me to pre-order the new 3rd away kit”

I sent them a reply that said “errr… no thanks. Its got blue on it.”

Fuckin eejits!
I can understand Addidas not knowing any better, or even trying to give us the big fuck you for going with Warrior…
…but Ian Ayre or someone had to authorize that before it went into production, and that’s inexcusable.

And they can keep all that bollocks about how we originally wore blue back before Columbus discovered the New World nonsense.

Once we became the Mighty Reds, there was no turning back and with Blue being our cross-town rivals’ color, it is something that in any shade variation, should Never Ever be considered for an LFC kit.

It is my sincerest hope that ALL LFC fans boycott the fucker and don’t buy any, that way they’ll learn that we didn’t expend all our energy on H&G and can be fucked about because of it.

Some lad did a mock-up of the shirt, simply replacing the blue stripe with red… it looks sound, and they’d have sold shedloads.

They are going to make a massive loss on these kits. I thought our commercial department was greatly improved these days, but apparently there are still issues there.

First of all, it must be said that these kits went into production way before FSG took over, so they can’t be blamed. Secondly, the colors are Standard Chartered colors, as mentioned, so it’s not entirely unexpected. Thirdly, there are many horrendous second and third kits among big clubs in Europe. Just look at they ones Barcelona have been wearing over the last decade.

Still, I think it’s fucking awful and I hope no one will buy this kit. I’m sure there are loads of ignorant people out there who will though.

I couldn’t give a toss about the 3rd kit. Buy the first one, simple.
In praise of grinders Aitch. I’m with you on that one. As you say there is nothing official, no Kenny says this or that. Let’s see where we stand come Sept 1st.
LB I actually do believe we will look to bring in what you want.
elbmw that 35ml deal for Andy Carroll is a bit of an illusion. Effectively Plastic Chavski PLC paid Newcs for us. It had pretty much nothing to do with Carroll or Liverpool. Our deal was “The price of Carroll plus 15ml”. So the barcodes and the plastics negotiated through us. So let’s leave the 35ml price tag out of it. It’s not relevant.
I also don’t see Kenny putting all his eggs in the “buy a winger to whack the ball to 35ml Carroll”, that can’t be the limit of his vision. It may be a tactic but if we bring in intelligence (plus a bit of pace) on the wing and another finisher with above qualities then we will see a squad with options. Also Carroll has good touch, he links well for a big man too. Chillax (as my daughter says to me).
Even if we end up paying 20ml (and we did not pay 20ml for Henderson) for Downing so what ? This is FSG time. Who the hell knows what our budget is and how they have planned it all.
I will be very happy if we get players that fit what we want to do now. We are not in Europe this year the focus is clear and it’s local, not European.
I will eat my hat if we end up again with the mess we’ve become used to through the recent transfer windows.

On taxi for Poulsen etc … there will be deals I reckon for some if not all. We’ve had many versions of how much we’ll gain or lose with Jova, J Cole, Poulsen, Konch, Aquaman ?Soto ?, Maxi ?, Agger ? Aurelio ? but I think FSG/Comolli will move (some of ~6) of them on regardless.

Sachem, I read loads of comments on forums today from people saying it was quite stylish and they’d buy it.
I honestly don’t know what’s happened to a large section of our fanbase in recent years… it seems we’ve gone from being the most knowledgeable fans in the world to being half populated with numpties, in less than a decade.

I reckon if you see someone wearing one of these things, you’ve just seen someone who thinks all our problems were Rafa’s fault.

This nonsense about it being a “nod to the original kit” makes for a nice soundbyte, but you don’t see a collar on it or buttons down the middle do you?
Bollocks, this was bending over and taking it up the Arse for a few bob from Standard Chartered… yet another parting gift from Christian Purslow perhaps?
They should have been told when they bid to sponsor us… “er right, so about this blue thing you chaps have going in your logo. That’s not gonna work for us. Can we show you something in a nice shade of red?”

“Excuse moi” for my delboy speak but “Au Contre” dougle. £35M is very significant whether it was paid by FSG or H&G – yeah right! Its still the clubs money and should be invested correctly as it directly impacts on all the stakeholders, including us! In fact, ultimately we (the supporters) are the ones who are paying for him.

Don’t get me wrong. I think AC will and up being a solid player in the years to come but I cant help thinking what else could be bought with £35M. And the other problem is that AC is one of those players who doesn’t carve out chances for himself “a la Suarez” but needs someone to supply him with quality crosses to get the best out of him.

The point I tried to make was that AC will cost us £55M (AC £35M + SD £20M) and more importantly 2 positions. One AC and another to cross the ball to him.

However, these are merely concerns of mine (until I see otherwise) and like I said I’m not rubbishing the lad. After all its not his fault we paid so much for him. I just hope it works out.

And… as for the chavs effectively deciding Carrols price I don’t think thats correct. We could have said £50M to the chavs without any complications and they would have paid it as they wanted him and could afford him.

Still only time will tell. Cant wait for the new season.

aitch, i also got the email from lfc online, i responded quite bluntly, im curious to see if the club will respond to those of us who are unhappy with this fuck up, i think not but hope im wrong, i was checking out the comment on lfc’s facebook page earlier & there seems to be alot of disgruntled fans that share our view!

There’s been blue in our away kits before and much more recently than the 1890s.

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Liverpool/Liverpool-change-kits.html

Guys I think some of us are underestimating Carrolls abilities he came to us injured weighed down by a monumental price tag and I think because of the immediate impact of Suarez he has been unjustly compared to him.

Personally I think he will be immense for us next season and gives us a dimension we have not had for a while.

When he’s fully fit playing in a team creating chances he will get 20 + a season imo.

Personally and I’m putting my neck on the line I think he could be better than Shearer,I don’t think Kenny would have just spunked £35 million on anyone he obviously sees something in Carroll and I back Kennys Judgement of a Quality striker over anyone.

Some of you have said that we could maybe buy Downing now then upgrade next season,I wasn’t aware we had that sort of money I thought we needed to make every transfer count.

I really do hope we set our sights much higher than Downing,if we do buy him he’s not worth more than 8 or 9 million at the most.

Also this is becoming a Trinny and Susannah blog with all this talk about the 3rd kit FFS who cares.

well reading some of your comments re the new third kit it seems the management have made a right royal fuck up of trying to make us look like man shitty.

i like the design personally, but can’t get over the colours and i can’t imagine many of these replicas will get sold which will be the defining factor in the debate. after all, if it is an exercise in taking it up the arse for standard charter, the best answer we as supporters can give is not buying the damn thing. it would send out a clear message to the marketing department to check their ideas with a focus group made up of people who actually support the club.

one viral campaign and the whole thing will be done and dusted.

anyone can make mistakes. even my beloved football club.

All i can say isn`t it good that,12 months on,were talking about kits and transfers etc,as opposed to the crap we had to go through last year

Here here Timmy!

We’ll always find something to talk about and discuss about LFC. It shows that by and large were a passionate lot.

Can you imagine the… well you don’t have to… just look at the glory hunting manc supporters with their limp excuse of a campaign to oust their owners.

But yeah its refreshing and it didn’t come soon enough.

According to Rory Smith, Sylvain Marveaux had his medical today. The transfer will probably be announced July 1.

I think this deal has been done for quite a while, it’s just been a matter of formalities to finalize it. Don’t know much of anything about this player, other than that he recently played at Rennes as an attacking midfielder (central, but can also play as a left winger).

He is 25 years old. I think he comes on a free transfer, but not sure. Maybe this is the type of player LB was looking for. A excellent talent, but below the radar of most big clubs? Let’s hope so! It would be a major accomplishment for Comolli if Marveaux proves to be a bargain, as I suppose this is “his” acquisition more than Kenny’s.

If anyone’s interested, Rory Smith (Merseyside football reporter on the Daily Telegraph, for those who don’t know) also says he thinks (let’s underline that) we will sign the following players this summer:

Downing, Wickham, Marveaux, Adam, a left back (probably Clichy), a centre back, a sub goalkeeper and a right winger.

Here’s a piece on Sylvain Marveaux:

http://ketilstensrud.com/2011/03/20/under-the-loop-sylvain-marveaux/

So we had blue in our kit in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. I don’t remember anyone kicking up a fuss then. Even though those kits were horrendous. Correct me if I’m wrong lads? It’s the 3rd kit – I think people are making a big deal over a load of bollacks. Everton’s away kit is pink for fuck sake.

Anyway having said that, I think our away kits should be white top and black shorts with red trim. All yellow with red trim. All grey with red trim. All black with red trim. Just rotate those colours from season to season. Simple.

Bloody hell Aitch – youre having a bit of a whinge over some blue…yes – Everton play in Blue – but its not the same blue as Evertons anyway – and it really is a minor matter…far more important is your total and complete disregard of your duty to EDUCATE Yanks to the CORRECT spelling of ENGLISH words…really – what a dereliction of duty…you should be up on charge for that!

I agree with LB – isnt it absolutely fantastic to be whinging over which player we are going to sign and whether the 3rd away kit is kosher or not…it is an absolute Joy that these are now the issues with LFC…we are a real football club again…

I think all our signings and intended targets are great…they may not all be world class…but for how many years have we been complaining about our lack of strength in depth…a squad that is full of players capable of playing in the EPL…a squad that allows the manager some options…

At least this year we arent going to have a net spend less than we brought in…

So Marveaux passed a medical at Anfield, well what do you have to do to actually fail one here. I’m led to believe that Mr M only played about 10 games in the last two years due to injuries.
.
Maybe the thing with medicals at Anfield is you must actually have a problem or you can’t sign, our doctors need to see one. Anyway good luck to the guy but hes been a sick note at Rennes.

Sunderland at anfield for the opening day
Followed by arse away and Bolton at home

Not too bad

Over

So its only “a bit of blue, and not the same blue as Everton” at that?
“At least its not pink”
“We’ve had blue in our kits before.”

Really? This is logic.
Hey let’s go out and sign a load of injured players… after all we’ve done that before.

You know what, times are tough economically. No point John Henry shelling out loads of his and NESV’s hard earned dosh on transfers, just take out a loan and leverage the club to the hilt… after all, we’ve done that before and survived it.

Hey… you know what… fuck this Kenny Dalglish lark, Gerrard \houllier is out of a job, let’s go get him back in the drivers seat… or fuck it, I don’t see Graham Sounness managing anyon, let’s put him back in charge, after all, we’ve been that route before too.

Ultimately if it sells it sells, if it doesn’t it doesn’t… but we as ardent fans should never just be accepting of this nonsense.
Coz if we are… then the next step is “You know what, we always give you a red shirt. But we thought we’d give you a slightly different shade of red this season. A nice shade of salmon for all home games. Honestly its not pink, it’s not, its salmon and a nod to the favorite tie our first Director used to love to wear.”

If we are to call ourselves the Mighty Reds, (particularly because our cross-town rivals are the Blues) then we should simply never have blue in our kit… we should have done when we did, we shouldn’t do now!

I’ve even seen people justifying this by saying that the Mancs have worn blue kits… as though its entirely logical we should follow hee-toe to anything the fuckin Mans do.
You know what, fuck all this singing for a lark, its so much less tiring to just wave a plastic flag.

This blue was not “a nod to the original kit”.
If you believe that, then let me just reiterate that Mr. Hicks was in fact the victim of an epic swindle.

This is all about the blue in the Standard Chartered logo.
Christ sake, even Everton made One2One take the red out of their logo for fucks sake… but we should just be accepting of it?

John Henry said he was going to form a supporters group with whom he’d meet to gather opinions from time to time… if he’d presented this mockup to such a group prior to manufacture do you think we’d be…
a) arguing about this
or
b) discussing the design of a kit with red stripes and how the formerly blue Standard Chartered logo looks quite good in red?

As for trying to educate Yanks on correct spelling… shit they’ve just give us a blue kit… and you think I could talk them into spelling certain words correctly… give me a break

fuckin keyboard…
obviously meant “we shouldN’T have done when we did and shouldn’t now”

elbmw and dougle are both right really.
The 35 mill for Carroll was crazy money to spend…
but it was the Chavs money
but granted if it had only been 25 mill, we’d have had 10 mill to spend elsewhere

Andy Carrol was an odd singing… it was January, it was late in the window, he was english, the Chavs were waving suitcases of rubles…
… to my mind, there was absolutely an element of PR involved in making sure we landed some big-press-statement-signing to alleviate any potential backlash from selling Fredo… and by that, I don’t mean him so much, but the idea of selling a “world class” striker to one of our chief rivals for success.

I wanted us to buy Andy Carrol a few years ago when Newcy went down… we could have snipped him for 2 million… some of the same people who now rate him at 35 million, actually shot me down and questioned my sanity back then.

His transfer was a strange “one-off” of sorts.
I don’t know if we’ll ever get 35 million’s worth out of him… but as stated, I agree he has teh potential to be better than shearer.

Its also a bit disingenuous and a bit short sighted really to be talking about needing a winger to land crosses on his head… its the same argument that was used for Peter Crouch yet he too scores far more with hsi feet than with his head.

Most of Andy’s best goals (that I can remember) were with his feet… turn, move, shoot… like his goal against City, and that fuckin corker of a goal he scored against us.

I think Aitch is worried that the 3rd kit colour will clash with his eye-shadow,
ffs lad it’s a colour what it has to do with signing injured player,s or getting Houllier back i dont know.
Like a lot of the lad’s i couldnt give a fuck if they run on the pitch dressed like Liberace as long as they perform this coming season.

Theredman, your right its only a colour and ours is RED. Haven’t seen the new strip but anything in Red will do.

Bloody Hell Aitch…we’re not stupid…we know its blue because thats Standard Chartered colors…

And by the way we don’t like the shirt – it looks crap…but really…to equate that with the rest of what you are implying is taking a longer leap than the smelly greasy spotty virgin nerds that play Football Manager and think that it is in anyway realistic…

A what is wrong with stating facts…it is only a bit of blue…it isnt everton blue…and we have had blue kits before…its called taking things in perspective…

All some of us are doing is pointing out its a bit of a minor thing to be getting worked up over – especially as we have had other 3rd kits with MORE EVERTON blue on them than this gaudy thing…

If you really want to get pissed off at something read Brian Reades 44 Months with a pair of Cowboy’s…Parry, Purslow et al will make you see red…

But looking forward I am far more interested who we are signing and how we are going to go next season rather than whether we are wearing some sponsors colours…especially as that sponsor has paid us a PL record for a shirt sponsorship…because lets be brutally honest here…money talks…without it we cannot compete…if some idiot sponsor wants a 3rd kit to be fluro green and is willing to pay for that – who gives a shit…they arent changing our HOME kit – they arent changing our OFFICIAL colours…

In an ideal world we wouldnt have it…but since that only exists in the minds of the truly deranged how about we live in the real world and do the best we can to make sure we are actually competitive…and stop majoring on minors…

Lads, just had a look at our seasons fixture list & it dosent seem so bad, the first two game seem tough but over all it’s pretty spread out, apart from the toffee & scum fixtures together both times we don’t seem to have a run of big games, I think we’ve done alright! Last home game against the chav’s! Sweet!

Someone’s taken the jam out of Aitch’s doughnut again. Fucking hell. Didn’t we have multi coloured seating in Anfield. I seem to remember a whole section of blue seats in the Anfield Rd end. I’m sure Rafa wore a blue tie once or was it a blue suit? I wonder if any of our players over the years have worn blue boots? Or blue underpants? Oh the disgrace.

Our identity is the home strip – which is red! The away kit has been grey, green, yellow, white, black… I’m not sure if our away kit has ever represented our identity. Or maybe I have it totally wrong?

yep fixtures look ok we get a big away game out of the way early. last two games could be very interesting. cant wait. think i’ll download football manager in the meantime.

Alright… so where do you draw the line.

Look I’m not stupid, I get its all about commercialism, but I don’t get why people are so, so quick to accept whatever’s thrown at them.

These sorts of things set precedent.

The argument for not getting perturbed about blue in our kit this time around is that we’ve had blue in our kit before… or that it is an away kit and therefore not representative of our identity…. But it shouldn’t go to the other end of the spectrum either and be representative of a rival’s (and particularly our home-town rival’s) identity.

So they got away with that, they get away with this…
… then maybe in a few years, in the desperation for money to achieve success, Warrior comes out with an all blue kit, and they move us from Anfield to the new American Airlines Arena, where you get to pay 100 pounds of your hard earned money to sit in nose-bleed seats, high above the 3 tier corporate skybox enclosures.

I know it seems like such a little thing… for any other club, I’d perhaps agree that it is… but for us, I just think it’s a big thing too.

You mention “44 months” so okay…

We all clamored for Moores to sell.
He did… we were overjoyed… a new dawn beckoned.
Traditions would be respected, we were told…. they would be “custodians” we were told… money would be made available for Snoogy Doogy, and Spades would be digging with much rapidity, we were told.
A few voices suggested caution… but largely they were told to shut up and stop moaning, coz a new day dawned.

If only more of us had raged against the machine then?

Fast forward…
The initial purchase of 270 million… assured to have not been placed on the club, was in fact revealed to have been entirely placed on the club… was refinanced to the tune of 350… but we got Babel and Torres in the deal, so it was party time.
“Warning” shouted some…
“shut the fuck up, we’re coming up the hill you miserable tits”, was the reply.

Now I can already hear the argument… that’s totally different, we’re just talking about a bit of blue on a shirt here…
Sure… I get that they don’t have the same significance… but its still acceptance or not, of what you’re given.

Then comes the infamous “I’m concentrating on coaching my team” press conference.
“Warning” shouted certain fans… “have any of you read this stuff about Corinthians, its really scary reading?”
“Oh fuck off, stop asking me to read. Rafa’s clearly lost it” was the reply.

More research is done… more information revealed… yet still we got…
“We finished 2nd, stop moaning. We’re gonna win the Prem next year coz every team that has ever won it, finished 2nd the year before they won it.”

When do we wake up… where do we draw the line??

LFC fires Rick Parry and hires Christian Purslow.
Right lads, we’re putting this young chap Adolph Hitler in charge … thank fuck we’ve finally got rid of that Genghis Khan bloke, he was a terror.

I remember stating quite categorically to a friend, when Rafa was fired, it was a big mistake, and when Hodgson was hired it compounded that mistake. He was overjoyed by the Joe Cole signing, and when I questioned it (and I wasn’t particularly against his signing) I was told to stop being a whinging gag-on-Rafa’s-tackle dickhead and I should stop rainging on his parade and just look forward to how Cole was gonna help Roy take us back into the top 4 and challenge.

I often read people commenting that, “no one could have predicted how poorly Roy would do.”
…but people did… FS got slaughtered for it, and left this forum.

At what point do we say… “hang on a minute”?

When someone nicks their first car for a joyride…. or after they’ve established themselves as the leader of the biggest stolen car ring in Europe.
When a lad is caught downloading teen-snuff porn and burying dead cats in the backyard, or after he’s grown up and been caught after killing 16 women and burying them on the moors???

Where do you draw the line in the sand???
While Liverpool still has something of a soul…
… or when we are just a bunch of plastic flag waving tossers who’ve meaninglessly bought the Prem.

If you want to be in the latter group, then I’ll never be able to make my case to you… and good luck to you.
But personally I want to be in the former, even if that means never ever winning anything, ever again.

How much more time would John Henry have given Roy Hodgson if the majority of the fanbase had simply accepted “a dodgy patch of results”, rather than vocally railing against him?

The Mighty Reds… should never wear blue.
When we did “once before” it was a mistake and an aberration… not a precedent to do so again!
If we accept even the slightest hint of blue in our kits, 3rd or otherwise… what will they give us next???
Maybe the answer is nothing… it’s a one-off… but maybe we should just be having a word to make sure of that, eh?

If we’d have accepted Hodgson, we’d have been bidding on the likes of Robert Huth and Benny McCarthy this summer.
Compare what happened at Anfield in January to what has just happened at Aston Villa… those poor bastards should boycott every home game and have them playing to an empty arena, but I bet they won’t kick up half the fuss we did over Hodg.

Some of you will say its completely different… that such things don’t compare to a bit of color on a kit.
But “being from the Red half of Merseyside” has meaning.
It does.
Identifying yourself as “a Mighty Red” …
…has significantly more meaning than…
… identifying yourself as a “Red Devil”… they’d wear green and gold as long as they get prawn sandwiches at half-time and a Premier League title in May.
Being a Reds fan means more than that… or at least it should.

But by all means, buy it if you fancy it.
But do remember that when the dam breaks… and you’re swimming in the refuse laden flood, gulping for air… there were always a couple of holes squirting leaks that went ignored.

Maybe its just me… I’m a Red coz my Dad was… (I was fortunate… my Mum’s family are Blues …poor bastards) and being a Red is part of my identity… if it wasn’t why waste so much of my life in here discussing this shite with you lot.
As a result…
I would never own a blue car.
I used to collect guitars when I was younger. I’ve owned about 45 of them… and I’ve never owned a blue one.
I would never wear a blue suit, a blue shirt… or a blue tie.
The only blue t-shirt I have, bears the logo of a band my nephew was in.
I wear jeans, and I guess you could argue that negates everything I just said, but as they only come in blue or black I don’t count that. (of course, jeans do come in both red and white… but I’m not gay. )

I guess if you want to be more liberal and accepting then fine…
Personally, I think the line should be drawn here.

I am with aicth it anit RED but then it is only a third strip, but then it is still blue, yes money does make the world go round it also fuck it up ask all debt ridden countries that are now in the world. Even the great USA are in the shit over debt so it is not wise to buy now pay later attitude as we have just been through taht. It all starts with well its only, just keep your perspective guys. the chavs sold their souls to the devil look at them sad gits. sit in the stands waving thieir little plastic flags.

Any way we are reds first and i hope we never have to ghallenge any one who owns us over our identity, just we have shown them over the last year how strong we can be if needed.

Any way just to show that when a red you never walk alone i am over in a place called Miramar next to Miami. I went out for a meal and the guy who served me was RED from kirby had great craic with him and will kept in touch he was a great lad.
So now matter what we feel or are oppinions and we have the right to differ, but hay we are all the same family THE MIGHTY REDS.

YNWA

Interesting reports saying Marvaux has failed his medical test and will not be playing for Liverpool next season. The reason is claimed to be a severe groin injury he got last year, which is apparently still a major problem.

Some people might wonder how this can be the case, when players like Aquilani and Carroll both passed the medical. I think Comolli mentioned in an interview recently the importance of nog signing injury-prone players. It’s just too expensive and inefficient to have players on huge wages who are in and out of the team.

It makes you wonder why they wasted time on this player in the first place. Surely they must have been aware of his injury record?

where did you read/see that report sachem

Read it on some French site, here translated via google:

http://tinyurl.com/6fhg6cm

Also been confirmed by several journos on twitter. It isn’t however entirely certain the transfer will not go through anyway, but looks unlikely at the moment. Apparently it’s been ages since the last player failed a medical for us. Can’t remember it myself.

It’s also been reported today that Colombian centre back Cristián Zapata has claimed he is very close of signing for us. A really good player in my opinion, but not sure whether too believe this. Seems like he doesn’t want to finalize the deal until after the Copa América, and it’s also uncertain whether he would get a work permit.

its like this boys

when i was a lad, not hailing from liverpool, but moved around the country by my folks, i had a choice of teams to support. i was seven, so my reasoning was simplistic. i loved simple kits. i loved leeds united who wore all white like real madrid. i adored ajax with their iconic white stripe. but more than anything i loved this team that played in an all red strip.

now lets get one thing straight. the football they played was one thing. the manager was another. the players i took to my heart. but i connected with the red in a way only a seven year old child can.

now i’m older i thank the lord for shank’s genius. what a fantastic decision. make the kit all red. and do you know what…thousands of fans flocked to that flag because of him. its a simple statement.

and this gave rise to one of my favourite sayings: no good can ever come of any team that wears blue. blue was opposite to the way i thought about football, blue seemed so negative a strip to don for ninety minutes. i disliked any team in blue as much as i loved my team who played in all red.

so when i see a blue third fourth or fifth kit i feel that somehow that spirit of shankly has been forgotten, however momentarily.

after all, the owners want to buy into that special liverpool culture…well fine, but respect the traditions of the last fifty years of effort by some of our greatest of heroes and get rid of it.

aitch, wise words. red is the colour of passion. football is 100% just that. don’t accept mediocrity. don’t dilute the message. never accept second best. say it loud: i’m a red and i’m proud! YNWA

sachem, idunno about this lad zapata coming out in the press with this statement as kenny has been saying we are returning to the liverpool way & keeping our shit in house, if the club were in talks with this lad im sure they would have made sure he didnt gab off about it, as kenny says if theres something to tell ya you’ll here it from us first, what ya think??? as for the player. i read the report ya put up lastnite & he seems just like a babel to me,
good post blud

I’m going into bat for Aitch, anyway I love a good old banter session. Its great to be discussing issues which don’t relate to debt, H&G, Rafa, Purslime, Houlier, or anything else in our recent turbulent and traumatic existence.
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We’re actually talking about a shirt, in fact the colour of a shirt. Just any shirt really except its OUR shirt, a fucking Red shirt with Red trimmings and Red sleeves, Red on the outside, Red in the middle, Red underneath. In fact Red all over.
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Not just a shirt, its our club, our traditions, our supporters, and our players who we support who have been put in that shirt. If we let our traditions drop in the most minute details then we will away the very things that make us special.
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If we will away our shirt, why not change our name, what about sharing a stadium, what about blue seats again. Over the years we have lowered our expectations, let the club fall into disaray, generally been apathetic until recent event stunned us back into reality. Recently we came within a whisker of not having a Red shirt, so like Aitch, I’ll have any colour shirt thats Red all over.
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If our sponsor want a change they should be doing the changing, not us, lets not roll over and take it up the Arse.

Did everyone read what Modiric said? Chelsea is the best club in the world. These players have got no loyalty towards their club. We experienced it first hand from Torres and now this from Modiric. The present Tottenham team is not that bad to challenge for top 4 again but the way he creates a gulf between Chelsea and Spurs is so much insulting to his present club. I think this is one big issue.

Marveraux has signed for the bar codes,
Pardew has said they have been monitoring him for some time so it’s a good coop.

that the way i feel gazmaninaus.

on sylvain marcel marceau. i read that link about his profile. he sounded interesting but did not really float my boat.

Not too pissed off about not signing Maveraux.Apparently he`s made of glass so much he makes Agger and Aurelio look like the rock of Cashel and the Blarney stone!

As for the kit,i shall not be buying it.For obvious reasons.This shits on our traditions,and i agree wholeheartedly with you guys.Quite frankly,i`m surprised with Ian Ayre,the man was born and bred up around the Anfield road area so he should know the score.No blue,or Cyan or whatever.It looks like a standard chartered thing here,but if thats the case then why not use the green in their logo if they wanted a colour from the logo.Problem solved.

Valencia have announced on their website,a friendly with Liverpool at Anfield on august 6th.

Nothing to do with Mata though lads

::)

Looks as if N’zogbia has signed.
http://www.twitter.com/thekopmagazine.

BMs last comment looks like its broken the blog again LOL!

Since its gone a bit quiet in here I’ll talk about the paradox of the Liverpool Way and commercialism.

Seems that Alan Kennedy is the latest ex player to make a public statement hinting that Liverpool is going to win the league in the next couple of seasons and praising KK.

This has been the norm in recent years, whenever we seem to be on the brink, there also appears to be a heavy weight of expectation thats stoked up by ex players and other dignitaries, not to mention our own fans who jump on the bandwagon and place a very heavy burden on the current players.

But with all this hype beginning to surround us again its very much NOT the liverpool way of going about our business quietly and effectively.

And I do realise that times have changed whereby creating public interest and hype improves the commercial aspect of the club but I dunno, I just get the feeling were being setup to fail every time I hear statements like that.

I wish people would stop doing that but even more so I wish lfc.tv would stop publishing it as it implies an official approval of those statements.

What do you guys think.

We seem to have gone from rumours of us signing everyone and their uncle to nothing.I do hope we sign Nzogbia though,all the Journos have gone a bit quiet it was only last week they where saying we would be unveiling Charlie Adam last Friday.Lets hope no news is good news YNWA.

Elbmw, I understand where your coming from, but there’s also a part of me that thinks this year more than any other players & ex players have been in the press more & I think maybe part of it is to highlight the club to the players that we want to sign,

Interesting take on it kopcolly. I haven’t a clue as to how “deals really get done”. I’d suspect the “hype” created by ex-players and journo’s and fans is all a kind of mutual masturbation really. They all have to earn money, fill column inches and feel like their opinion counts for something. It’s interesting to just stay off the forums for a couple of days and then have a quick flick back over who’s written and tweeted and said what. Guess what ? It amounts to nothing.

I have no idea (again) what Alan Kennedy said and what LFC tv are broadcasting but it’s an inane question to ask really. Can we win the League ? Yes we can. So can Wigan. What the difference ? Given the ex-player/Journo in question has any ability to analyse and see the big picture then a few of the following factors might be taken into consideration;
Analysis of club history and goals, tactics, squads, individual players, fitness and injuries, financial considerations, relevant competitions etc etc etc. Now show me the editor of a newspaper or a tv show who makes up a headline involving all o the above !

Given that I do think we have a very outside chance of winning the league, right now maybe 10%. Let’s see where we all are come September and we’ll all have a prediction.

Lads I’ve re-read the story on the .tv site and the story leads with “Alan Kennedy believes the Reds will challenge for the title next season”

But in fact they quote him as saying “If everyone pulls their weight then I think we’ve got a good chance of challenging for the league.”

Not quite the same but I’m a bit surprised with the official site sensationalising what an ex player said.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/ak-kenny-s-great-he-sold-me

wot ya think of this?
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Aston-Villa-star-Stewart-Downing-appears-to-pose-with-Liverpool-scarf-but-club-say-picture-is-a-fake-article750438.html

photos a fake, count the hands

Lads not sure about our expectations, once there was a time you didn’t come here unless you wanted to win the league, alas lets blame our fans for putting to much pressure on our players, lets drop our expectations to being a top 4 team instead of a league challenging team.
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No thanks, I want my team to be challenging for the number 1 spot every year, and if our players don’t feel that way or are just here to take their pay packet, then fuck off.
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Its the same with the RED shirt, if your lucky enough to be offered a run in it, then you should run through brick walls.
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I believe Wayne Bennett’s mentality when he took over at the Bronco’s was if your happy with second place, then don’t bother turning up here, we want players, fans, owner to think number 1 or nothing. He instilled a feeling of invisibility into the Brisbane Bronco’s which he now has with the St George Dragons, thats what we need, not the hopefully we’ll make the top 4.
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Before we critise former players who want us challenging for the top, lets think about who is actually allowing expectation in this club to decay.

It’s inevitable that we are linked with every man & his dog, but there are ‘strong’ rumours about Nolan Roux (who?), a Frenchman. I say strong because PT has even mentioned him a few times on his twitter page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REsRtQec9ww&feature=youtu.be
The constant speculation is doing my head in – I just want the season to start, albeit with a quality (preferable foreign) winger in place, and maybe a CB and LB. I say foreign, because I certainly can’t see any decent English or British wingers around, not since, well, our own Johny Barnes! The best there is, is the Shiteh youngster, Adam Johnson, and I don’t think he is for sale.
And of course, you pay over the odds for an English player these days. We have enough coming through the Academy anyway, so let’s look abroad is what I say!
Mind you, I would be too dissapointed if we signed N’Zogbia.

Just read on twitter.
mudhutter?: Charles N’Zogbia spotted going for a dump at Keele Services. Tony Pulis in next cubicle. IS CHARLIE OFF TO STOKE I hear you say #wafc

Gaz – who is allowing the expectations to drop ? Look at interviews form Rafa’s time and from Roy’s time. As Aitch said, time and time again, the effects of the 2 gobshites and their legacy could take years to overcome.
We had hauled ourselves to near the top of the EPL and the number one ranked team in Europe then came the fall.
Remember Torres.
I was looking at a Sunday newspaper this morning and Gervinho (whom we were linked to) “is” going to the Arsenal. Modric “is” going to Mancs / Plastics “a great club”. Nasri is off to “winners”. Sandro wants CL football. Neymar is off to Real, Sanchez is off to Mancs/Sheiks/Barca …. Enrique is off to Arsenal. The list goes on.
These guys are modern footballers with little or no loyalty to the club they play for. To think differently is delusional. Or it is the exception to the rule (Dirk Kuyt).
So we are fishing in a different pool to the “Big Clubs” right now.
However there are certain advantages to this. You are buying players who want to prove something, to win for us now would be (will be) a massive achievement. You also have the motivation of younger players coming up through the ranks. And maybe, just maybe, you have a guy like Suarez who bought the dream (from Comolli).
Ultimately you are right. It is unacceptable to play for Liverpool and not aim to win. It’s our history and their (the players and management) responsibility to honour it. However we are not in a great place or phase right now. Actually we have not been so now i believe we are on the way back.
I’m with you, aim high but we have to be real about where we are in the pecking order right now.

i once went to gillingham to play a game of footy against the youngsters there. i was a bit passed it by then and i wanted to assess whether all that talk of modern footballers wanting fast cars and fame was true. in the changing room i asked a bunch of these kids whether they wanted the bling lifestyle that goes with the territory.

their answer, unanimously was yes.

now what to think of this? i was a bit shocked at the time, but now i look back i was a bit naive to believe the answer would be any different. most 16 or 17 year olds would answer in the affirmative having been asked such a narrowly defined question. that’s what kids that age want. that’s broadly speaking what i wanted. i was one of many kids who grew up with a picture of a ferrari dino on his bedroom wall.

of course, there is always a higher path of personal development over personal riches and there will be a few players who have healthy opinions about the pursuit of life in the fast lane and will constantly endeavour to keep their feet on the ground. yet for most, hot-house schooled in football since the age of seven, training 3 or 4 who will see that lifestyle as a reward for all the hardwork they have put into their career. kids who play for any top flight club have usually had to overcome enormous challenges and made sacrifices to their personal lives just to get a shot at the reserves bench.

so i always feel a bit awkward when people suggest that modern footballers are just journeymen who traverse the globe looking for a pay packet. i think their are a few idiots who take the mick, just like any other profession, but the majority who have made it to the top have done so through hard endeavour. whether you believe £150,000 a week wage is acceptable or not, i’m not sure it should taint you into thinking that all players are the same in the modern game.

i have noted that jordan henderson doesn’t party, doesn’t drink and has one focus and that is football. yet when people defame him for costing £20 or £16 mill its somehow like they are grouping him together with a brotherhood of footballers who aren’t worthy to tie the laces of heroes of the past.

asking me whether i care if suarex gets paid £90,000 a week is a bit like asking me how i feel about the estimated end of the universe in approximately 13.9 billion years. its too intangible a figure so i don’t waste my time worrying about it.
or is anndy carroll worth £35million. my answer would be i don’t really have an opinion about the precise figure but i do really care that liverpool had the balls to buy the player who destroyed them when they last played newcastle.

i suppose i coming round in a rather long winded way to the debate about whether top flight footballers believe liverpool is top flight enough for them to consider signing for, because …er..we don’t have CL football this year and therefore they won’t have the platform on which to show off their skills and buy themselves another ferrari.??

well, perhaps if liverpool did not have ambitious owners like FSG and a brilliant managerial structure with Kenny Dalglish. perhaps if they were not the most decorated club in english history, or certainly one of the best supported teams in the world, i might think twice. but they are all of these things. so, really, come on, what is not to like?

of course there are always those certain types of players i have spoken about before, the few who really do think more of their pay packet than their football, who believe in the cold cash of teams like chelsea or man city rather than the historic credentials of liverpool.

but i firmly believe there are others, quieter types who have struggled to get where they are, who will fight for the club they play for, rather than fight the club that pays for them.

have a little more faith in the modern system. not every footballer is the same, otherwise the game wouldn’t be worth watching. but it is.

and what position do you lot lot really think we are challenging for this season?
do i hear some of you say we should get real, and settle for 4th.
yer crazy.
KK said it himself “I’d rather be first”.
its not a question of getting real, in my opinion. its more like fine tuning your attitude to accept that no.1 spot is a viable option.
surely anything else is not acceptable. surely?

Great post blud. I think most people just feel they have a right to expect loyalty from people who are paid so well and live in a dreamworld but to those kids who do make it, its their reality and they are not really going to care what any of us think. How many of us would if we were in their shoes. If your biggest struggle in life is weather you change football teams well you haven’t struggled at all EVER. When they leave football now thats another story.

As regards our position in English football since we last won the league we have finished outside the top four seven times for a club that completely failed to capitilise on the new money that came into the game over those years its not a bad return not up to the standards we require but not too bad.

Now it looks like we have finally got owners who will seek to make as much as they can from the game (for good or bad) it looks like they will spend big money on players the manager wants and it looks like they will sort out the stadium situation. We are not in the top bracket of club this transfer window but if all of the above actually happens it wont be long before we are once again and then well who fecking knows…..

It amazes me how we demand loyalty from the players we want to keep hold of.But never mention it when we are trying to offload a player who wants to stay.

Managers and players get loyalty from the clubs until they have served there usefulness then they are discarded ruthlessly.

We cannot have it both ways you can’t demand loyalty from our players and then go to other teams and put in offers for there best players who are under contract and turn their heads.

We talk about loyalty but in fairness we only apply to our best players the rest can sod off.

Good post Blud. I like your posts including all the ones i disagree with ! The one thing I’d point out is that we are not in CL this year, nor were we last year and for the majority of players, the best ones that is, it’s not just money and souless clubs but trophies too. Whatever you might think about Torres he left (so he said) to win. It hurts but there you go. He looked at his time as a player and reckoned he hadn’t the time left to wait (added to all the other bs that went on – G&H time).
Now the only thing about being sick rich, arrogant, see Plastics, Sheiks, real Madrid etc … is that at the end of the day you can only play 11 – 14 players per game, no matter how many you buy.
I know it’s a bit boring reading this again but look what Barca have done with a stable of home grown players, schooled in a style, augmented by a few well chosen buys. Real for all their bullshit and bluster and arrogance have won next to nothing now for years.
That’s the way I’d like us to go, it may well be that we are on the way too.

Cracker of a point London.

dougle

yeah and look at torres. good player for a. madrid, bit of a starlet. he signed for us and we made him an international megastar. sold for fifty big ones.

now tell me what rising player world wide would not look at that and think ‘i’d like some of that’??

with the greatest of respect to the geezer, but luis suarez?? luis who? signs for liverpool, now he’s bigger than liam gallaghers ego.

if any player doubts we can accomplish great things for them, particularly strikers, think again.

gazmaninaus. modern footballers make massive sacrifices like every other top flight athlete on the planet. your point when you said the biggest decision they ever had to make was whether to change clubs…er tell sol campbell that, cos it nearly cost him his sanity. tell justin fashanu he didn’t make sacrifices. tell david beckham he didn’t make sacrifices when people start burning effigies of you and sixthy thousand of your own fans calling your missus a whore. tell kenny dalglish he didn’t make sacrifices as a player and a manager. or lucas leiva, the amount of sacrifices that bloke had to make because of gobshites like me claiming he wasn’t brazillian. come on. if i had to walk out in front of forty thousand fans i’d probably shit myself.

i’m not saying for one moment i think players deserve to be able to buy a new gaff in kensington every week, but i’m of the mind that by the time they reach the top tier of football, they just might, might have bigger balls than me.

we’ll get the players we want, in time and a few will surprise us all i reckon. i don’t underestimate fsg at all.

more activity on the stewert downing story. leads me to believe there might be some truth to this particular rumour. i cannot imagine that he or bent will want to stay long in a villa side that just lost young to the mancs. cue exodus.

if this story is true, and from what people have said in this blog, downing is nobody’s first choice winger, it is still interesting to note that downing was villa’s player of the year, not ashley young.

if this story is true, then we are about to enter a new phase in dalglish’s managerial reign, the one where the gloves are off and he becomes open to criticism just like any other premiership manager.

personally speaking, he has my backing 100% but i am interested to see what his philosophy is now that he will take the reins for a full season.

good luck KK ynwa

also,

there’s more rumour about conor wickham being brought to the club for the ten million mark. money aside for one second, i like the look of this lad. anyone got mates from ipswich who can shed more light on his potential? difficult to gauge from youtube which is fast turning into a marketeers shop window.

Hey everyone.

Havent commented for around 3-4 months now, work has been crazy. Good to hear Gerry is kicking on.

Been reading and keeping up to date with things in here and as always some great comments.

Heading to Liverpool for the first week of the season. Hoping I can snatch some tickets, thinking I may just do one of those ThomasCookSport tours, at least I am gauranteed a ticket. cant risk going all that way and missing out on a seat.

Does anyone else use any other service with success?

The mancs just signed Ashley Young for about £17m according to BBC Sport.

Young for 17m, sure Donodowning is def worth the 19m in that case!!

Good article http://tomkinstimes.com/2011/06/why-i-fear-for-jordan-henderson/

I’ve been having a bit of a football holiday lately but the addiction is starting to kick in again and we still have ages to wait.
Valencia should be a good game and i cant wait to see any new players we get and hopefully the back of a few like Cole,Jova,Poulsen,Konch and maybe the return of a couple of players out on loan.

Stewart Downing for 19 mill!!! WTF

YNWA

Good work Blud, very entertaining…

Winning the league?
I agree it’s all about expectations. Should we expect too much? No, of course not. Should we say we’re gonna do it, now you’re gonna believe us, we’re gonna win the league? Well, that’s a more qualified “Yes”.

Look at the table. Are there any sides there we can’t beat? Are there any sides we haven’t beaten recently?

The only side that troubles us is Arsenal and they’ve been lucky to get a draw a couple of times in the last few seasons.

So, if we have belief…but above all, if we have CONSISTENCY, we are going to win the league.

Bet you’re all happy about that, eh!

But, being realistic, we have to look at the things that affect consistency. Previous seasons have had us fighting on several fronts with an injury ravaged squad.
This year no europe.
Plenty of preparation time between matches (apart from *@~#ing International Friendlies).
And hopefully some additions to strengthen the squad. The consistency should be high. If that’s the case then we’ll do well.

We have beaten every team in the league home and away in recent seasons…

It’s going to be a season to remember. Believe!

As our Squad/team stands at present we will not win the league that is obvious.We need to walk before we can run,our head to head matches against the top teams is one thing,but until we steamroller the minnows like we did against Fulham at the end of last season on a regular basis we will struggle to even break the top 5.

We should reserve judgement on what we will do next season to when we have captured our transfer targets and then wait to see if the team gels.

We are so far from the title at the moment we would need the Hubble telescope to see it.

I know if I started saying to manc supporters I know here, that I expect LFC to challenge for the title next season, I would get laughed out of Cork, we have only had two decent attempts in the last 20 years (96-97 & 08-09).
One of the first things you have to do before you can move forward is have an honest assessment of where you are.
So it’s not lightly were are going to go from 6th to 1st in one season especially when at least 3 of the clubs above us are going to spend as much are we are.
In my view we need to improve our points total by 12-15 to qualify for CL. The question then is, will Downing be a good enough addition to help us get and extra 4-5 wins that we need, and this is against the bottom half sides that we tend to drop so many points too.
My answer is for that purpose he would be a good addition.

Blud ….. just ask the people of Ghana who Luis Suarez was before he joined us! He was just about the most talked about footballer in the world for a while in 2010. I remember him very well indeed from the WC, he was outstanding as was Forlan (a guy I think we should take a sneaky punt on).
The reason he was somewhat below the radar was that he was playing in Holland which is no-where as far as your average Sky soccer fan (not you mind you) is concerned.

We got lucky with him, great work by DC. Who knows, maybe he got lucky with us too because he is the perfect FSG proposition. If he continues as he has been playing then I wouldn’t bet against FSG moving him on in 2/3 seasons time for that big fee. At least that might be the plan. Things allover might be a lot different in 2/3 years time.

Cork, I guess the question for next season is not CAN we beat every team set against us but WILL we beat them.

It’s easy to say against last year’s top four teams yeah, we’ll win at home and if we’re lucky get a draw away…. but those other teams – the minnows – why can’t we beat them convincingly given enough preparation and a reasonably fit squad?

Last season was the worst in living memory (until King Kenny got back behind the wheel). But still, even with this rubbbish squad of players-not-fit-to-wear-the-Red-jersey we could beat all the strong teams in contention for the PL title.

To beat any team in a one-off match is an odds-on proposal for LFC.

Sooo, if you know – going into any match – that you can beat the opposition, why would you say that actually beating them is being presumptuous or hasty or too cocky? Why is pretending that we can’t beat any team set against us more honest?

If we can predict a win (despite the odds against us) for any single match, why can’t we do that for a whole season in advance?

As long as we can be consistent, the title is ours!!!*

*Would never say that outside this blog and wothout a huge slice of devils-advocatism

Lads, this might sound overly simplistic but I think to finish in the top 4 we are going to have to have better players than 16 teams in the division. Or at least our players will need to perform better than that of 16 teams in the division. During the Rafa reign I believe we always had a better squad than at least 16 other teams. In 08/09 when we challenged for the title we had I’d say 6 world class players in the first XI. We’re no where near that at the moment. And as I don’t believe we have a top 4 squad at the moment I’m not confident of a top 4 finish.

Over a 9 month season it’s the quality you have compared to your competitors that ultimately determines where you finish. As our squad was asset stripped and others strengthened we slipped down the pecking order. So much so that the likes of Downing has us believing he is the best we can hope for.

I am finding it difficult to accept that we can’t attract the likes Hazard, Mata, Young when they are not even amongst the elite. I’ve gotten used to the fact we can’t get the absolute cream of the crop like Messi and Ronaldo but now we seem to be looking for 3rd tier players if you will. Players that the likes of City, Mancs and Chavski are not interested in.

Perhaps I was naive in believing Comolli when he said our lack of European football will not have an affect on whether or not we can attract players. Apparently player’s agents were still indicating that their players would want to join us.

Hopefully when the window opens proper on July 1st we can go about adding some real quality to our squad and my concerns are proved to be premature!

I agree with LB and share his concerns,and I have noticed that our some of the main rivals for our “rumoured” targets seem to be Newcastle/Villa and Sunderland,but I will also wait until July when the euro market opens before I allow my bottom lip to wobble.

No Jimmy Carter’s/David Speedie’s or Ronny Rosenthal’s please Kenny

LB, i do think that’s a bit over-simplistic in all honesty.

yeah, we’re the famous Liverpool, and yeah, we’ve got the fans who’ll sing ya name. but we don’t have champions league football, and it seems to me that there’s been quite a dramatic shift towards prioritising that in all the great, good, and even average player’s minds.

for me, the best thing that happened to LFC last season was Spurs finishing 5th behind City. don’t get me wrong, i like spurs, and find the way city are carrying on pretty repulsive. but with spurs offering champions league football, that automatically made them a bigger club than liverpool (despite all the history and everything else) in the eyes of prospective signings. at least now we’re clearly 5th on the pulling-power list.

this is now the nature of the league. first you qualify for the CL, then you attract the big names. i don’t think there’s 2 ways about it. if we want to win the league, first we either buy Downing and his ilk, or we rely on good scouting and unproven (undervalued) talent to get us into the top 4, then we look to entice the elite players to the club.

i know you lot already know this, so i’m not trying to sound clever, i’m just saying that the players we sign this season are there to give us a chance at winning the golden ticket. once we’re into Willy Wonker’s magic factory, it’s up to them to prove they’re good enough to keep us there. if they’re not, they move on to Sunderland (Cadbury) or Newcastle (Nestle).

not forgetting of course that we’re aiming to buy young talent as well. young talent alone won’t get us into the top 4 though, so 1 or 2 proven performers need to be bought, and the market looks pretty fuckin busy this summer!

also, i don’t know what your theory of ‘better players than 16 teams’ means. Hernandez was a nobody last season and look at him now. surely the chemistry of the team and the unexpected emergence of talent counts for something. it obviously did for the scum because their mid-field was a bunch of journeymen and they still won the league.

i’ve got some faith that at least 2 of Carroll, Lucas, Henderson, Spearing, Kelly, and Flanno will develop into great (maybe world-class) players. Add them to Reina, Gerrard, Suarez and we’ve got 5 A-list players right there. we could do with a new CB though. Skrtle is looking better and Agger has shown signs of class, but I’d love to see a world class player with them in front of Pepe. it’d make all the difference. swap carra for vidic and we’d win the league!

Doing business with Villa for Downing would be crazy.How did they get £ 16 mill for a player with 1 yr left on his contract , the Reds only got £ 7 mill for Owen and Kewell cost a similar sum.Need a versatile left back and striker as well.Time to ditch the dross.

LB, we only have to close the gap on Spurs and the arse to get CL football at the end of next season. Bearing in mind we had 25points after 20 games under roy, we now have carroll and Suarez in the squad and Kenny in charge, I beleive we can close the gap on them with any new signings.

Fingers crossed. http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/06/24/2545774/valencia-winger-juan-mata-interested-to-hear-from-liverpool

Read this within a blog thread this morning, regarding Powerball an analytic methods in sport, then couldn’t find it again… but just found the actual article.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9471db52-97bb-11e0-9c37-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1PhipgDZn

Its a terrific read about the whole analytics model that FSG like to use… where it came from, how it took hold in the game, how its used and misused… but more importantly, how Comolli was a student and now big proponent of it and how it works.

Seems to me a good manager can spot these things without actually quantifying it…
….a good manager can watch a player and see what he does right, wrong, and what potential he has to get better or not…. he can just see it… and grade that player as getting 80% right, 10 % wrong, and 10% neither in particular, but with an 8 in 10 chance of improving his game by at least 20%

These analytical guys, take opta stats and crunch the numbers and can extrapolate that a player is getting 80% right, 10 % wrong, and 10% neither in particular, but with a 8 in 10 chance of improving his game in certain areas by at least 20%

If Kenny is the first and Comolli is the latter, seems to me we’re on a winner???

I have often heard John Giles say, 70% of management is getting the right players into the club.
This is one area where Kenny has excelled.

dougle

ok, so you say that suarez was well known before he came to lfc? well thats a fair point, but it goes some way to prove my other point.

if he was so well known and highly regarded, then how come he signed for a team with no CL football.

surely this means that other top flight players still find LFC an attractive proposition.

my point is, if suarez signed so readily and carroll did too, then others will follow, undoubtedly.

fingers, legs and bollocks crossed that mata story is true because if that geezer signed for the reds there would be a stunned silence in this blog.

perhaps then people would truly believe we are challenging for the title and not begging at the table for a place in the champs league.

but, we will see. patience is a virtue.

Aitch thanks for that link. A very interesting read.

I did a Management Information Systems module as part of my degree (as a mature student) and tbh it blew me away at what analysis could be made from raw data. One of the biggest problems that one could see was the accuracy of the raw data. As an example; is it being captured automatically by a machine or was it manually entered by humans? -who we all know are prone to errors. The natural follow up question there was how to try and mitigate those errors.

And again, if it was by machine then is the data been captured accurately? What checks are there to verify the data. How often is the machine checked for accuracy? Who calibrates the machine? Can that be verified? OK I’ll stop here.

So OK. You have done whatever is possible to ensure that the data is correct and verified (where possible) so then you have to analyse the data and form conclusions. And thats where the biggest difficulty lies. Analysis is only as good as the person performing it, her take on what’s important and relevant.

I did always wonder since then to what extent LFC uses information systems and analytics to formulate their plans and tbh I was a little surprised to hear that we hadn’t had anything of note till DC came onboard.

elbmw

no mate, your not boring anyone. carry on. i think your points are worth listening to.

maybe the answer to your question of whether the collation and analysis of data is a fail safe approach to modern management is similar to the debate about internet shopping for groceries.

yes, you can order your weekly food over the net with some success, but at the end of the day several humanising factors determine whether the system still works. meaning, a calculator may only give you statistics that reinforce views you already had.

for example, if i as a manager did not like a certain player, yet my director of football pointed to the stats and said he would be a good buy, i would stick by my instincts and withhold the cash.

but if my director of football showed me the stats that stated player X was worth buying, and, i also thought player x was worth buying, then its a done deal.

also, this system sounds similar to fantasy football, where you pick players with the best stats that you can afford. you try to balance the team with performers in every position tallied with value for money.

are we ultimately suggesting, that if a super computer, with access to accurate information could pick a world beating side?

not sure i haven’t tied myself up in knots, but a good debate nonetheless.

oh and by the way

regardless of stats or whatever, i hope these rumours are untrue because miereles is not for sale as far as i’m concerned. nada . end of story. bring in charlie adam if you want but meireles has got to stay. he made us tick last season.

It looks like Aquilani is coming back so the club is like to cash in on Raul. With 45 central midfield players it’s unlikely Raul will be first choice and probably will not be happy playing a bit part role. Reports suggest if we get a £13m bid for him we’ll sell.

I like Raul a lot, his only weakness though is he routinely bottles 50/50 tackles. I don’t think Kenny trusts him in deep midfield. Which is why he has tended to play him behind the striker or out wide.

With Aquilani back and Gerrard fit, then if we buy a couple of wide players, where does Raul fit in?

Not entirely sure what the argument is here?

Last season we had Meireles and didn’t know where to play him. We played him on the right, in the hole, next to Lucas, even on the left once ro twice.
Regardless of any supposed limitations “in the tackle”, he played pretty consistently, and played very well far more often than not.
He scored some important goals and had a hand in creating others.

Surely it’s better to have Raul and “not know where the fuck to play him” than to NOT have Raul as an option.

Anyway, its just as likely this whole “raul is available” is a smoke screen to mask other movements… and frankly I’m not sure how anyone knows “Raul is available” since the club has dropped a Berlin Wall Cone of Silence around transfer activity.
….

In so far as the stats go… like I said, for my money, it seemed a bit of nonsense. I got how it could be used in static games like baseball… made sense, that sport (uses the term loosely ) is all about set plays.
…same for American Football… essentially set plays from a standing start.

But I always had my reservations about how useful it would be in a fluid game like “our” footy.

Its like the argumetn re: Lucas.
Stats show a high percentage of completed passes.
People fire back, yeah but they are short and sideways and back.
But what a further analysis of his passes reveals is what I’ve always known from observing the lad during games… his passes are effective and keep things ticking over. In other words a successful “sideways” pass keeps possession, and therefore is more useful and effective than a forward pass that results in a loss of possession.

There was a great comment re Maldini… whose stats showed that he didn’t make many tackles … in fact his tackles stat was the worst for any defender in Italy… but a further analysis showed that heis positional sense meant that he didn’t need to make glory-last-ditch tackles, or even big block tackles… he simply put himself in the way, causing the breakdown of an attack.
(interestingly something Lucas often does without credit from many)

The statistics in and of themselves don’t tell the whole story… and fortunately Comolli understood this and was among the group of people who took the Powerball idea and worked to adapt it as a model that would help to tell more of that story.
And that is his strength.

I’ve seen anumber of comments (elsewhere) regarding DC’s relationship with martin Jol at Spurs… a situation where Jol didn’t rate the stats stuff, so of course it was not going to be successful.

FSG rate the idea of using stats. DC does too, it is supposedly specifically why they hired him.
I don’t know if Kenny does, but I would imagine if he’s seen it explained the way that article helped me understand it, he’d be all for it.
There’s an element of “tells me what I could see with my own eyes” for sure…
… but also an element of, helps bring to light someone who you maybe hadn’t noticed… the unsung lad who keeps things ticking… that every team needs to complement your SG, Suarez and the like… a lad like Henderson maybe?

Anyway… gaining a better understanding of how the stats thing is supposed to work, and how FSG have seemingly sought to implement it with Comolli in the DoF position, has given me a lot more confidence in how having a DoF alongside Kenny as manager will work for us moving forward.

I guess we’ll have to see what develops over the next couple of weeks to judge?

But personally, In Kenny and DC I trust… but from an informed position and not rose tinted glasses.

(and would everyone STOP saying henderson cost 20 million please. He didn’t. We don’t know the exact figure but it wasn’t 20 million. It was closer to 16… with some reports suggesting it was actually 13 with add ons. A much better deal at that price, especially when we do eventually recoup 3-5 million when Ngog makes his eventual move to Sunderland.)

Here goes-I have just received an email from #1 son Roger.Both he,and my grandson are coming over from Canada specifically to see the game,24th September re-Wolves.I know, from past experience, that you can buy Anfield Road ticketes at the window BUT they would like KOP tickets.I have trained them well,however I can’t guarantee KOP tickets,and there lies the rub,as Shakespeare would say. If any of you know of,or if you know anyone,who is not going to that game and can get 2 KOP tickets (not even side by side) – let me know,on this site or my e-mail address of:-

I know it is early,but the word is out now,so here’s hoping.
BTW – Roger is 56 now and so is no spring chicken.

Aitch,

I’m not sure about this wall of silence. We all knew we were after Suarez. The Henderson link was there for a couple of weeks before we signed him. Then there is the Adam and Downing reports. Strong links too. Nobody will be surprised if we sign these players.

The rumour that Meireles is available makes sense to me and just to add more to what I said in my previous post. We could have Lucas, Spearing, Gerrard, Adam, Aquilani, Maxi, Kuyt, Downing, another winger, another defensive midfielder as well as Meireles. If the club took £13m and let him go I’d understand the logic.

Then again if the club refused to sell Meireles because they rate him as a key player in the squad I’d understand that logic also.

I can’t see Aquaman coming back permanently I’m guessing we are just playing hardball to get a fair price for him.

As far as Meireles is concerned personally I would be happy to see him leave if he is not going to play as a central midfielder because I don’t think he offers us anything out wide or behind the main striker.

He’s probably better suited to the other euro leagues where the tackles don’t fly around in the middle as much.

Tricky one London viz a viz Miereles. He does seem to not like the tackle, fair point. Personally speaking him stuck out on the right doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. But then again he playing on the right with a good attacking right back i.e Glenda is a completely different proposition, as Raul would be more an inside right player with a degree of licence to roam which really suits him.
Playing behind the striker does tho’. He’s a smart cookie, faster than he appears and with a good brain, good football intelligence and an eye for a goal. I actually see a lot of similarities with Aquaman in that position. Pound for pound right now I’d take Raul.

Upon mature reflection….. there is Raul’s age to consider.
Anyway (there is a rumour that) Adam has signed now.

Guys I agree that Meireles looks as if he’s afraid to tackle but don’t forget that was his first season and I may be wrong here but didn’t he join the squad late in pre-season, following his participation in the WC, which hampered his preparation?

I think with a full pre-season and some summer rest added with the benefit of having already played a season in the PL we should see an even better Meireles.

Would be a shame to lose him now. Give him another year, sign or nurture a better replacement and then decide if he should be sold.

On Meireles V Aquaman I think the former is more mobile and the latter a better passer, perhaps even a better play-maker.

Wouldn’t be surprised if Meireles was being transfer listed to add to the impression that we’re keeping AA thus keeping his price as high as possible…

It’s what I’d do, regardless of whether I wanted to sell RM…

LB, Luis and Andy were very much pre-Cone of Silence.

Pretty much anyone who claims to have any contacts at the club is saying the same thing… as of a couple of weeks ago, they were cut off. The word came down to their contacts that no information was to be leaked.

The Henderson leaks came from Sunderland’s end of the deal, something LFC has less control of.

Adam is hardly a secret, since we went in for him in January so the press have assumed will do so again now, and have kept that story alive… but even “knowing” that deal is in the works, we are getting very little information beyond speculation.

Adam supposedly had a medical, yet no one can verify this (with cameramen camped out at Melwood?)
And Commoli was supposedly in talks with Oysten this weekend to finalize the deal… yet not a single leaks with even a scrap of information about said talks has been leaked.
We might know…. but we don’t know… if you know what I mean?

As for Raul… from a footballing perspective, I think it makes no sense at all to sell him… get back into the CL and he is exactly the type of player we will then be looking to bring into the squad next summer…
I get that often other considerations come into play… we’ve been dealing with that shite for years now… but I wouldn’t sell the lad meself…
… especially when there are at least 6 other players we really could do without.

The word on the street is we have signed Adam and he will probably be unveiled tomorrow

london red

the word on the street is…??

who do you think you are, Huggy Bear??

What street?
Certainly not the eStreet named http://www.liverpoolfc.tv

Sky reporters were just standing on a street outside Anfield, and in “breaking news” they reported nobody had been signed.

Like I said… we may all “know” we are signing Adam, but nobody “knows” what the fuck is going on.

Its funny, but for so long we have been crying out for a return to The Liverpool Way. Well, now we’ve got it…

And it is good!

I love the fact that, outside of a set of parameters – youth, value for money, resale value, proven contribution according to data sets – nobody knows what the fuck is happening. $ky News report that Liverpool haven’t signed anyone else yet. You couldn’t fucken make it up!

I can’t wait for a return to the times where everything is done behind closed doors (or Twitter accounts – seen what happened to King Kenny’s account once he became manager? Dead as a dodo!)

I loved it best in the times when everyone knew that “we can’t win the league again; we’re simply not strong enough.” Only for another title to head our way come the Darling Buds of May.

May those times return soon…

definitely don’t want us to sell miereles. as aitch said, he is the sort of player you will eventually miss, a bit like the alonso scenario.

miereles is an intelligent player whose runs from midfield always drew attention away from players like maxi and suarez. i also remember the way he crossed the ball for carroll to score his second against citeh.

plus, the existing players are only just beginning to form an understanding of his talents. he is bedded into the LFC way. he may be slightly older than you would like, but the man’s got style, panache.

wedded to that opinion is the way lucas has flourished with miereles buzzing around him. it occurred to me that maybe raul encourages lucas to play much further up the pitch.

ok, he’s not the hard tackler some would like, but the way the game is going only suits players of his quality. of course there are tough tacklers, but modern football demands players know how to steal the ball, pickpocket players in possession rather than up-ending them into row Z. i believe that its around players like miereles that the next great liverpool squad will emerge.

that’s a good comparison blud.

I remember very well when we were touting Alonso to Juve while chasing Barry… mostly coz I was a big Xabi fan and even coming off a weak season and Barry coming off arguably his best to date, the two just didn’t compare.

I don’t recall their being a huge outcry at the time… in fact while some saw the danger, many were very much in favor of the switch.

A year later and the whole thing in hindsight was madness and everyone knew it but Rafa.
BOLLOCKS!

I also remember making the statement “If we keep Alonso we could win the Prem next season. If we sell him we won’t.” (Keep in mind, I’m quoting that out of the context of the larger summer transfer discussion within which I made it).
I was near burned in effigy at such a suggestion.
but one year later, loads of people held the opinion that it was selling Alonso that was all the difference, and if we’d kept him we’d have challenged.

The situation mirrors what we are seeing regarding our chase for Adam and the suggestion that Meireles will depart to accomodate him, or coz of his age, or resale value, or whatever…

How come no one ever suggests “if it were Man Utd or chelsea they’d buy Adam AND keep Meireles.”

We may well end up with 45 midfielders, (though I think its only 35 ) but Raul isn’t one of the ones you want to cull and stay competitive.
I don’t know how the fuck Kenny is gonna accomodate all these playes… but I’m confident his ideas in that regard, will be largely better than most of those sugested in here.

And no one ever suggests that united have too many players and have to sell Rooney to accomodate.
The complaint always seems to be that our squad isn’t big enough.
Now it is getting there, we should not be looking to sell one of its best performers last season.

How do you accommodate 45 (or 35, Aitch) midfielders?

one word…Rotation.

Thanks to Sly most people think that it was that horrible foreigner Rafa who invented that nasty and un-British Rotation system… remember when Rafa first came here he stated many times that the aim was to have at least 2 international players for each position, which he hoped would add competition and that for a team like Liverpool who usually challenge in many competitions and play around 65+ games a season he would need a big squad to be able to make the challenge.

And remember in KKs first stint (circa. 1987-1988) where he had an abundance of quality central midfielders; McMahon, Whelan, Wark, Molby, Spackman, MacDonald. He would only play 2 of those at a time but managed to keep them all happy and competitive.

Oh and he won a few trophies for us along the way!

Usually it’s resources or lack of as to why we usually have to sell a player when the squad looks like it’s getting a bit top heavy in a particular position. Mancs and chavs seem to accomodate players because they aren’t under pressure to generate funds to strengthen.

You don’t usually here reports suggesting Chelsea or United need to get players off the wage bill and need/want to flog player x,y,z. Whereas with us all we here is that we need to sell play x because he is a burden to the wage bill.

Whether these ‘reports’ are true or not I don’t know but that is the perception. LFC needs to do x,y,z to generate funds while Chelsea and United can just add to their squad without too much worry.

for me, it’d be hard to drop Lucas or Gerrard if they’re fit, in any kind of form, and it’s an important game (nearly all of them).

Lucas ironed out his game superbly over the course of last season, and he fully deserved player of the year. Gerrard will hopefully come back in the mood for it after a strange couples of years of injuries and personal problems. those 2 should ‘expect’ to play.

so it’s out of Kuyt, Raul, Downing (just supposing), Adam (not yet i know), Spearing, Henderson, Aquilani, Cole, Shelvey and Maxi for the other 2 slots (assuming that Carroll and Luis play)

Cole obviously has a lot to do to get a start so he’s on the bench. Aqua is up in the air so forget him.

it’s tough on current form to drop any of the others though. dirk looked good with Luis, linking well and feeding off the other’s enthusiasm. Spearing put in some sensational performances during our winning run, and i’m actually quite excited about this lad. Raul added definite quality, and he was sorely missed when he got injured. Downing… if we buy him, i don’t see any point in making him a bit-part player at that price, so it’s either sign ‘im and play ‘im, or don’t bother at all. Adam and Henderson would have to battle it out with Spearing in training to win the right to play alongside Lucas – and may the best man win (hope it’s Jay). maxi would probably play a role from the bench despite his goal-glut at the end. Jonjo is supposedly off on loan to Blackpool (if you believe what you read) so if Adam’s coming in i’ll assume he’s going out.

like elbmw said, it’s going to be about clever rotation of these players, but a couple have to go (even if it’s just Aqua and Jonjo or Cole).

the rotation thing does scare me a bit. for me, managers should grab opportunities to give peripheral players valuable time on the pitch, not just bung them on in the 88th minute. as some of you might remember, i wasn’t that impressed with Rafa’s handling of Crouch and Yossi (at specific points in his tenure), and i’m not all that impressed with Kenny’s handling of Cole. i’m just talking about giving them 25 minutes sometimes, not just 5… if the team was coasting to victory, or staring down the barrel….

i trust Kenny more than any other manager we’ve had since… er… Kenny. his interviews are incredible. i’d never proclaim to know better. i just hope he rotates these players in the best possible way for the good of the team and for the individual player’s moral.

i’d like to keep Raul too. but i do fancy Adam for some reason. maybe it’s just Kenny’s got me believing in anything tartan.

Looks like this Adam deal is getting a lot of hype on Twitter with Darby going the other way & also shelvey going on loan, they are saying the downing deal is edging closer,

Sambo, If Kenny gets you believing in Andy Murray (tartan!) winning Wimbledon (or any tournament), then he must be a miracle worker!
Downing for 19 million? No way, I just don’t get it. I would like to start seeing some sales as well. We all know the list of ‘deadwood’.
Apparently (rumour?) the Chavs approached Steve Clarke, but he turned them down. If it’s true, good on him.

Pity If true about Shelvey going on loan to the championship,would of preferred him going on loan to one of the smaller prem teams and starting regular and gaining valuable experience.

Nothing confirmed yet but if its the word on the street it mus be true.

Rafa, I also seen that on Clarke turning down the plastics to stay with us, thank fuck I say!

Just read we were linked With Jonathon Woodgate at the weekend,I think our medical team would go on strike if it happened.

His injury record would make even Agger and Aurelio blush

I think more the problem with our purchasing players is getting rid of the one’s we don’t need. Alas though it doesn’t look like anyone else wants them either.
.
We have gathered up some absolute shite, and may I say well paid shite. When you can’t get rid of a 1.5 million pound striker because he wont take a pay cut to 30,000 quid, then this club has been in a shambles.
.
Thank goodness we’ve been taken over, but its going to cost money just to move people on. Half our outgoings could be just to get them to leave.
.
Getting sick and tired of these Adam rumours, the club should just come out and tell Blackpool to fuck of and get back in league 1. They have a real oportunity to gain some quality players from LFC
over the next few years, but due to their Chairman being a total utter fuckwit, they’ll end up back in
league 1.
.
Anyway just my rant, by the way Downing was excellent for Villa last year and as such should stay there, he’s not good enough for us, afterall we want to move up the league, not stave off relegation.

On the “deadwood”

Aitch, I gave you a 1-0 lead with the proposed transfer of Ngog to Sunderland. I think I’ii have to disallow that goal. So it’s 0-0 and your playing against the wind!!

Hahaha London Red! Nice one!

“Look man. I lay it out for y’all to play it out”.

Interesting article http://www.footballfancast.com/2011/06/football-blogs/is-liverpools-transfer-policy-anything-other-than-reckless

Looks like Connor Wickham will be going to Sunderland http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13873800.stm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Deadwood, that’s a great television series!

Looks like we’ll be losing out on Wickham as well. If that means we’ve been wasting a load of time on a first choice, then it would feel like the same old story for us, but I really couldn’t tell how much of a setback it is in reality.

Let’s wait and see what squad we have on 1 September. I for one fucking expect the fucking deadwood to be fucking gone by then.

I wasn’t overly keen on Wicham, certainly not for £13m but if he was a key target for us and we lost out to fucking Sunderland then it doesn’t make for encouraging reading does it? I know one thing. If come Sept 1st our net spend is measly and the squad had not improved a great deal, the fans will turn on the FSG regime extremely quickly.

Reports of Sammy lee’s departure some are saying may end up at West ham with fat Sam

Sammy Lee is actually Trending on Twitter WTF

all the best sammy & thank you

Well although he is Liverpool through & through, I couldn’t really see his role at the club after Steve Smith arrived – besides translating Kenny’s brogue for the foreign lads.
Good luck Sammy, you’ll always be a Red.
I read an interesting article (won’t mention the author or the rag, coz they are both pricks), where similarities between the Spuds buying policy and ours, was highlighted! The common denomenator: Comolli.
The Spuds bought over 10 British players when he was there – Bentley, Jenas, Bale, Bent amongst others. Plus a couple of successful foreigners – Modric & Berbadoll.
Now it seems we are after not much else besides British? If rumours are to be believed?
Well, I suppsoe we have to wait & see what we have & don’t have (start selling!!) when the season starts.

Rafalution, who is Steve Smith ? Is Parry in charge of transfers, what happened to all the players going to be bought and sold? Why hasn’t Rafa B got a new job ? We could end up with Gerry Adams instead of Charlie Adam !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shoot, Cheeseburger, I meant Steve Clarke…had cricket on my mind for a minute.
And as we speak, Any Murray goes through to the semis. Heaven forbid – have to endure another couple of days of he & his mom, and the purple-rinse ladies with their Union Jack flags…

Personally I find BMs drive-by tweets amusing… in a “schadenfreude” sort of way!

BM just loves to have a go at everything he can get his head around, especially the wrong things. Anyone else recall him declaring his admiration for the marvellous deeds of Maggie Thatcher? Think I’ll let the late Mr Postlethwaite speak on my behalf on that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKx3MUqzCcQ

Rory Smith reckons we need to sell before we buy any more players. Hence the delay with Downing and Adam and losing out on Wickham. Oh dear.

LB Rory Smith may be correct but I would challenge that view purely on the principle that he doesn’t know anything and he’s just doing what the rest of us are doing at this point… speculating.

Could it not be possible that some of our targets are already in the bag and the Anfield hierarchy is keeping it quiet so as to not reveal their hand so early on and maybe they’re waiting to announce them later on in the transfer window? That would make sense as it would keep the opposition guessing as to how our rebuilding program is going and not induce the opposition into strengthening even more to keep ahead of us. I hope that makes sense.

LB
I see its definitely a case of “Once bitten,twice shy” with your trust for the new owners / stewards

Sachem I thought “Coco the scab” put it better myself, not as eloquently, but better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isM1aKgV0zM&feature=related
And just like the 80s we have a Tory government,Strikes,Unemployment and public spending cuts.
It seems “Once bitten twice shy” is a lesson not everyone bothered to learn.
YNWA

elbmw, I agree with your first paragraph. Don’t agree with the rest though.

Rome77, regarding the owners I will never be totally convinced until I see the evidence with my own eyes. They still haven’t told us fuck all regarding the stadium and our net spend to date isn’t anything to write home about. Early days I know.

“On the “deadwood”
Aitch, I gave you a 1-0 lead with the proposed transfer of Ngog to Sunderland. I think I’ll have to disallow that goal. So it’s 0-0 and your playing against the wind!!”

…surrounds Corky, instructing him to consult linesman, suggests he fucks off, questions his eyesight, manhood, heritage…
…comes to the sudden realization I’m acting like an utter twat (that is to say… Manc or Chav)…
…apologizes and slinks away in shame…

Shame about Sammy Lee really.
Though I wouldn’t mind a bit if his replacement turned out to be Gary Mac…
…all done under the radar with no one seeing it coming…
… you know… like Sammy’s departure.

elbmw, i 2 agree with the first part of your last post, we are all fucking clueless as 2 what will happen in this transfer window, but for me the suspense has got us on the edge of our seats waiting for something to happen, & hell yeah its fucking frustrating but john henry tweeted 2day that ” some things will happen early & somethings will happen late, but the important thing is that things happen” aitch im with ya on the gary mac replacing sammy, i think it would be brill, i thing mac is due a lot of credit in shaping stevie g into the player he is/was, something he could also pass onto lucas / henderson & co,
YNWA!

For those not happy with, or simply frustrated by summer developments so far, may I suggest the following…
1. Pop the cap on your favorite brew…
2. Grab your laptop
3. Find a reclined seating position
4. Take 1 full deep breath, exhale completely (remembering to then breath back in of course ) and relax
5. Read the following…
http://tomkinstimes.com/2011/06/holy-comolli-statman-liverpools-data-revolution/
6. Rejoice… safe in the knowledge that the right men are doing the right things on our behalf… and an open top bus (that more than 45 casual shoppers will watch drive by) is in our not-too-distant future!

Aitch, followed your instructions – except didn’t pop the cap of my favorite brew as it is 9.45am.
Superb read, and puts a lot into perspective, such as the ‘panic’ & ‘knee-jerking’ regarding our transfer policy thus far under FSG.
And his last comment about Stevie G & AC feeling like new signings in the new season is spot on. Just hope Gerrard can stay fit for a decent period of time.
I also read some stats on Lucas: He made 172 tackles last season. More than any other player in the top 4 leagues in Europe. Put that in your pipe & smoke it!!!

looking forward to reading that thompkins piece later. In the meantime looks like our wage bill is really getting on the owners tits I can see their point obviously too many uberfat contracts were handed out to mediocre players over the years but is’nt it also true that the team with the biggest wage bill usually wins the league?

We lose out on another target.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/gal-clichy-on-verge-of-7m-move-to-city-in-new-blow-to-wenger-2304664.html

2 seasons without CL football means a loss of £ 50 mill.Hence few new players.Kenny must of known what the transfer budget would be when he signed.New stadium, no chance unless it’s a groundshare, knew that a decade ago.New Labour did a great job, banjaxed everything like they did in the seventies and deservedly lost 4 elections in a row.It was labour who opened the flood gates to immigrants in the nineties and squeezed natives out of the job market.In the eighties, net migration was zero.Tony Benn, resident of Holland Park, the most exclusive address in europe.Vote UKIP, you know it makes sense! Overall, the transfer market is very quiet, looks as if the Mancs will walk to no 20.

Great piece by tomkins, thanks 4 the link aitch, I see John henry is aware of our fustration judging by some of his tweets, he follows 10 people on Twitter,the only lfc related follows are Tia & SOS . I guess we all need to CALM DOWN!

We’re very quick to get worried during transfer windows aren’t we? For good reason I think. How many transfer windows have we gone through where next to fuck all happens? We have hope in late May and the month of June only for it to slowly fade during July and come to despair in August. We talking about maybe competing for the title, then more realistically hope for a top 4 finish until the realisation sinks in that actually a top 6 place is a truer reflection of our chances.

I have read that Tomkins piece. It is very good. The trouble is it means absolutely nothing in real terms. As ever, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

kopcolly

And how many ignorant replies do you think have been sent to JH? Just have a look at the first paragraph of that Tomkins article Aitch linked to, and you’ll have some idea of the utter nonsense JH get sent to his Twitter timeline.

BM

So what’s your take on Shankly’s socialist values, found at the very core of the football club you (presumably) claim to support? It seems to me, with your views, being a Liverpool supporter is a bit like having Maggie Thatcher joining the trade union.

Sorry kopcolly, I meant third paragraph.

So if I’m understanding it right…
We should just throw in the towel now because United bought two young kids and a fella that looked goow without really excelling at Villa?

Yeah, if only we’d stopped the ferry service a century ago and stopped all them damn potato eaters coming over and ruining our city.
Should have built a wall while we were at it too, that’s what I say. Could have maybe named it after that Hadrian fella. I mean its not like anyone can understand what the fuckers are saying anyway, what with that bloody gaelic accent and all.
…and don’t even get me started on those fuckin opera singing Welsh.

Fuckin foreigners the lot of them, coming in taking all our jobs… ruined the city forever.
Probably could have forged a true and proper English port city, maybe one of the busiest and most successful, if it hadn’t been for that lot flooding in.

And just think of everything we’d have won if places at Liverpool had gone to proper Englishmen instead of the likes of Shankley, Dalglish, Yates, Souness, Rush, even Hougton, Aldridge…
…err…. never mind…

We now return you to our usual broadcasts.

You know what, I just looked at the league table and we’re in 8th without having even kicked a ball.
Not good enough.
Fire Kenny now before its too late.
Something must be done.
Time to mobilize the troops and get shut of these fuckin Yanks!
Immigrants!

Sometimes… Kopblog makes me sad

Honestly I don’t get some people sometimes.

Everyone starts from Zero in August.
Last season, teams who had “no right” to go to Old Trafford and take points away from it … did just that.
Same for Stamford Bridge.

Sure they’ve been dominant… but that doesn’t mean they automatically will continue to be so.

My opinion is that we will surprise a lot of people next season.

LB, you really are a hard man to please. There are 2 full Months left in this transfer window, we miss out on a player you did’t fancy anyway and you are calling things as “same old story”.
Since Kenny has come in we have signed Suarez, Carroll, Hendo. Aqua is returning by the looks of it, a fit Gerrard & Kelly (maybe even Agger) for pre-season. Of all those 7 players listed only Suarez was fit and available to Kenny while he was there.

We DO need to sign a more players, we DO need to get rid of players, but its still only the 30th of June

Who have Spurs City Chavs or Arse signed as of today?

Aitch,
The mancs only dropped 2 points at home to West Brom last season!

Corkie, Aitch will have the hitmen on you soon boyo.

Since announcing the Charlie Adam was coming (strong rumour) I have restrained myself from looking at the Rumour threads – for that is all they are. I am wiser in my silence !
It looks like we missed out on some of our rumoured targets…. so let’s make a new rumour. As ever it’s Deigo Forlan for me … watch this space.
Conor Wickham would have been behind AC, DK, LS and probably even Ngog so it’s not such a big deal right now is it.
Gael Clichy, he was very good but ..I’d take their reserve actually (can’t think of his name).
And as yet we haven’t signed Lucas/Neymar/Gervinho/Hazard/Dann/Adam/Mata/Downing/Aguero whoever else … !!! I mean ….!

We also have not moved on the excess.
I reckon we will move on Konch and Poulsen and Joe Cole and a few of the loaned (including Aquaman). It will all happen and probably it will be a few late deals for loans and sells out. I reckon the in’s will be quicker.

As ever, left fullback, Center Half (if Agger cannot be vouched or by the medics), cover for Lucas (doesn’t have to be a big buy, Left side x 2 and a sharp operator up front.
I don’t believe we have to sell to buy. But i we buy then maybe we’ll sell (Maxi and Miereles).
It will be better than now which is better than January and we will have Stevie, Kelly, Andy Carroll, Hendo and Agger to add to the squad from the second half of last season as Corkie has said. I’ll hold fire.

Regarding the ongoing sell-to-buy-debate, I think LB might have misinterpreted what Rory Smith “reckons”. These are from his twitter:

“As for transfers, neither #LFC nor #EFC fans need be in L4 in case Sky need people to Speak Their Brains. Suspect both need sales first.”

“That does not mean #LFC have to sell to buy, you crazed conspiracy theorists and paranoiacs. Just need to avoid an even more bloated squad.”

But of course, neither he nor any other journalist can supply us with anything else than more or less informed speculations. Only a few people within the club have some idea of what’s going on. Nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen.

Had a cheeky look at the Villas-Boas press conference. I was really impressed by the young manager. Won’t escape Mourinho-comparisons, but he doesn’t seem to have any of the arrogance. Well-spoken, courteous and sharp-witted. Amongst a load of other things he took time to give credit to Kenny for his work in bringing us back on track last season.

Makes a change from Hodgson, Ferguson, Fat Sam, Steve Bruce & that lot eh Sachem?
Funny how it’s normally the foreign fellas (+ King Kenny) who have any manners, class, dignity & grace.

Apologies to posters here, I can spell, it’s just my kid has flipped the “c” and “f” keys off the keyboard … amongst others !

sorry aitch, not picking on you, your just making your self an easy target !

the club just made a statement on sammys departure

There are indeed 2 full months left in the transfer window so I’m not making any judgements yet. I just like to get things off my chest and at the moment I’m a bit concerned the club is losing out on players who are seemingly genuine targets. I also think I’ve been conditioned to fear the worst when it comes to LFC. I give immense credit to those who still continue to see the glass half full after the last couple of years we’ve had.

I thought you were expressing an oddly off-kilter opinion than your usual self there LB.

The thing is… that’s just it isn’t it… “after the last two seasons…”

Coz the last two seasons didn’t exactly see a stable team running out at Anfield did it?

09/10 Was a bizarre aberration where-in a) years of sell-to-buy finally had its impact, b) we experienced an injury list that not only included a large number of senior players, but also a large number of injuries to their 2nd string understudies, which was then compounded by injuries in several positions to their 3rd string understudies c) the undermining of the manager continued at ownership level, but was compounded by a new CEO who went about undermining him even further and, d) poor results releasing the flood-gates of bad press that increasingly turned the opinions of fans who should have known better.

10/11 While each season is an island unto itself… after 5 years of board-room mismanagement… this one really wasn’t. a) The firing of Rafa. b) The power that handed to Purslow c) The post-start-of-season sale of the club. d) The hiring of Hodgson. e) An incredibly poor summer of transfer decisions. …I’d even go so far as to suggest f) an incredibly unlucky start vs Arsenal, that set the “oh here we go again” tone for the season. and finally g) The delayed decision to rectify all that was Hodgson.

So okay YES… we finished 7th and 6th … and that is disturbing… but is it really a true reflection of who LFC is?
I get why some people think so.
There is a heck of a lot more noise out there suggesting that, than suggesting that it isn’t… but it really isn’t.

Sky had us all believing that Rafa left Anfield in a shambles…
… and I’ll grant you 6th and 7th appeared to give some credence to that.
Our “very own” (urgh) manager Hodgson confirmed this for them.
Ex-players and “Greats” toed the party line.
But it was bollocks.
It was as much bollocks as anything that ever came out of G&H’s mouths, or Purslow’s mouth, or Hodgson’s mouth, or Lawrenson’s mouth/keyboard.

What we saw when FSG had had a few months to stabilize the back room (and make no mistake, that needs to be read “start stabilizing”… coz the work has only just begun and will continue for another season or two) was that we weren’t as bad on the field as previously reported… shit… even Maxi scored a fuckin hattrick for fucks sake?

We actually have a pretty decent squad as it stands.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to see movement… but even a player like Joe Cole, who has made zero contribution outside of a late “cherry on top” hopeful punt of a goal courtesy of a goalkeeping error, is someone who could, with a decent pre-season, get back to form and be a very useful player for us.
(do I really have to caveat that statement to counter all the arguments I am fully aware of for selling him?)

Even Aqualani and Insua after full seasons away, could come back into this squad and be useful, contributive members… and how fuckin great would it be if Fabio Aurellio could give us a full season uninjured at left back?

As I prefaced… before the arguments come flying back…
… those are all risks… coz we wouldn’t want to be “counting on” any of those things transpiring…
…but those players hardly fall into the same category as “for god’s sake, please sell Konchesky, Poulsen, and Jovanovic.”

If we sell Poulsen and Jovanovic and we’ve already bought Henderson and really are a loan player away from Charlie Adam… that in and of itself is a massive improvement.
Those two changes alone could be 6 to 12 points in terms of goals scored or created. (I believe you hinted at a similar idea LB in #324)

As for the teams we will compete with…
United certainly seem to have strengthened in signing DeGea, but Young has already prompted Nani to have a moan to the press about not being worried that his position is under threat. And I utterly fail to understand the baseless statements regarding their signing of a young uncapped defender, versus our singing of a young U21 International who’s had his club team somewhat depend on him and actually scored goals???

Chelsea’s signing of Villas-Boas was just about the worst thing that could have happened… for everyone else. He’s a terrific coach… but… can those fuckin egomaniacs take direction from someone the same age? And how will shelling out almost 20 million for a manager, plus severances for his predecessor and staff affect them inre: Financial Fair Pay?

Spurs had a great season (by their standards) but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will repeat that next season. While Freidel in my opinion is a big improvement on their previous keeper and could save them the 6 Gomez-gift points alone, they’ve got issues elsewhere on the pitch.

Arsenal are Arsenal. Until they get some steel in the middle of midfield and defense, they’ll always win games playing great footy, and they’ll always drop points to teams they shouldn’t.

Citeh… well who knows? One game they beat someone 5-1, the next they get utterly played off the park and lose 3-0. They are the big concern in terms of us “getting back into the top 4”

Liverpool, well like the Arse, they are Liverpool aren’t they?
… but we’ve shaken off something of a mortal coil in the last two seasons… how far we can “rise from the ashes” is as yet to be determined, but I see us as perfectly positioned to do so.
We’ve got the right owners and board.
We’ve got the right Management team.
We’ve got some Great players, and some very good players, and some pretty decent workhorses, and some very promising emerging talent. We will add to that (and have we really “missed out” on anyone that could be regarded as a Suarez-type singing yet?)

…and just to address corky… you’re right, I misspoke.
… what I was getting at was the way in which Scum won some of those points at the Toilet (and away even.)

There are those for whom scoreboard is the only thing that matters… and ultimately points are what determines champions… I get that…
…but it doesn’t tell the whole story and they really did only just barely scrape a helluva lot of points last season.
They’ve been doing it for a decade now, but at some point their luck WILL run out.

I know we wish and hope for it every season only to be disappointed by their resilience.
But last season, a lot of teams who have previously rolled over for United and let them tickle their bellies, actually put up a fight and went for it…. And I just wonder if it has finally sunk in that their dominance is to some extent based on their projection of that dominance.
In other words, their success is a self-fulfilling prophecy. (much as it was for us in the mid-80s … when teams came to Anfield hoping to keep the scoreline respectable, rather than hoping for a point… but once you lose that gloss, it changes everything.)
Wolves, West Brom, Blackburn, Blackpool, all went to Old Trafford and gave them a scare… if the rest of the league learns from that, we could finally see their demise, or if not their fall, at least their slip from grace.

wait for this, I agree with aitch!!! that our squad is better than people think, we badly need a few players in a few positions alright, but I don’t think we need 6 or 7 players, 3 of the right ones would be enough.
I was thinking of the mancs starting 11 in the CL final – how many would go straight in to our team.
I would only pick out Vidic, Evra, Valencia Rooney.
Reina Agger Glenda Stevie Lucas Raul Suarez are better the other 7 they started.
The mancs have spent 50m, but they have lost a world class keeper, signed a defender who is going to be 3/4 choice in the short term and if young goes in the team it’s Nani or Hernandes on the bench, I can’t see how they are stronger, especially as they are utter shit in midfield. The Arse also look to be falling apart, and remember as shit as we were last season, we were only 3 wins from finishing ahead of them, and now their better players are doing a runner.

In the previous 2 seasons with H&G/Purslow/Roy what chance did we have?
At least with FSG, they seem to had a vision (like at the Red Sox), and as I have said, our squad is not the worst since before Shanks (lawro etc) like some were saying last season.

Good post Aitch but I’d venture that the boardroom mismanagement actually started in 1991, perhaps coinciding with Moores’ ownership. I think it’s fair to say though that it was the case especially in the last 5 years!

yeah but elbmw, there is mismanagement and there is mismanagement.
Some would suggest Obama is mismanaging the U.S. economy, and maybe he is, but compared to Bush?
Some would suggest Cameron is mismanaging the U.K. economy, and maybe he is, but compared to Maggie?

No doubt there are a litany of mistakes from the LFC heirarchy from 91 to 2005…
…but the errors made from 05 to last summer not only eclipsed those mistakes, but actually made them look like a textbook in how to properly manage a club!

Mistakes made from 91 to 05 prevented us from winning the league…
… whereas deliberate mismanagement from 05 onward set us oncourse for a barely avoided disaster.

There are times when people forget where we were last summer… just exactly where we were…
…just read some of the comments on RAWK for fucks sake… FSG are being compared to G&H because they’ve “missed out” on Young and two unproven teenagers, and not signed Aguera, Mata, Sanchez and Messi before July 1st.
Utter madness.