Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 12/13

BenEadir

EchoO wrote: »

But what does living within it's means mean, apparently Liverpool generates the 9th highest revenue in world football.

It means running the club so that the operating costs are sufficiently less than revenue to generate a profit for the investors. Anyone who thinks there is something wrong with that and FSG should just pour money in to prop up unsustainable losses a la Leeds needs their head examined.

FSG are investors first and fans second. The therefore act as investors first and fans second. If people feel they shouldn't get a return on their investment they live in cloud cuckoo land. If that was the case FSG should just have taken their millions, invested them in a spread of shares across the S&P 500, taken their annual returns (from share price increases and payment of dividends) and bought themselves a nice corporate box in Anfield where they could be just fans.

We all need to be real here. LFC are on a downward cycle which is hard to break. The lower you finish in the league the less income you get and the less CL income you get. The knock on effect is less money to spend on buying players and wages which in turn weakens the squad and makes climbing the league harder.

Rodgers remit is to beak the cycle by employing a more effective style of play (more league points) and to maximise the performance of less than world class players (for the most part) so we start to reverse the decline and start climbing again. A lot of things have to happen for that to work and part of the process is cashing in some of your most valuable assets (Agger) so that we can purchase players to strengthen the weaker parts of the team and allow the up and coming Agger replacements (Coates and Kelly) to step up.

FSG stepped in and wiped out the clubs debt. For that alone we should be eternally grateful.

We now have to live within our means (shock horror :eek: ) and Rodgers has a financial and footballing balancing act to deliver which isn't easy and is going to take several years but I for one will give him 100% support.

What's easy is sitting on the sidelines criticising everything when none of us can ever know all the facts and making suggestions which simply aren't viable in the real world the rest of us live in :rolleyes:

Ben

Sappy404

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Ashley hasn't changed his ways -- actually you can draw significant parallels to how Ashley operates Newcastle and how Liverpool are looking to operate. Maximise revenues with minimum investment (hello SportsDirect@SaintJamesPark), cash in on highly-valued players and reinvest it based on decisions made as a group.

Like Ashley, FSG are now deeply unpopular because they're not spunking good money after bad. The truth of it is, if a club like Newcastle can challenge for 4th on a self-sustaining budget, there's no reason Liverpool -- with vastly superior revenues -- can't. To do that, it means offloading overpaid (if useful) players, and yes, it means selling players if an offer comes in that exceeds his value to the squad.

Ashley sold Barton and Nolan to clubs below them though. When he sold a player to a team who were above them, he got double the market value, arguably.

Selling Agger to Man City for ~£20m when we have aspirations of challenging for the title in the next 5 years is brainless. More so selling Carroll back to Newcastle, as they'll be considerably better off with him than without and they're a direct competitor for a CL spot next season.

Look at last season - would we have been better off keeping Meireles? Absolutely. Would Chelsea have had time to find somebody else on deadline day if we'd turned them down and kept him? Almost certainly not.

Cutting these deals with teams we're in competition with is either incredibly naive or totally brainless from a football perspective, even if it is good business short-term.

Leiva

Could the manager of our noisy neighbours be moving to be manager of someone else's noisy neighbours ??

Agger wont go then surely :P

Edit: or looking for Lescott back on loan if Agger arrives .

There is something going on at The Etihad. Not sure what but conf room out of bounds & David Moyes is here #mcfc #EFC http://pic.twitter.com/Mjv1DOIh

Sappy404

K-9 wrote: »

Or it could be agent talk to get a high contract.

If it was an agent suggesting Agger could be sold, and that a higher bid could land him, I'd agree.

Turtyturd

BenThere wrote: »

It means running the club so that the operating costs are sufficiently less than revenue to generate a profit for the investors. Anyone who thinks there is something wrong with that and FSG should just pour money in to prop up unsustainable losses a la Leeds needs their head examined.

FSG are investors first and fans second. The therefore act as investors first and fans second. If people feel they shouldn't get a return on their investment they live in cloud cuckoo land. If that was the case FSG should just have taken their millions, invested them in a spread of shares across the S&P 500, taken their annual returns (from share price increases and payment of dividends) and bought themselves a nice corporate box in Anfield where they could be just fans.

We all need to be real here. LFC are on a downward cycle which is hard to break. The lower you finish in the league the less income you get and the less CL income you get. The knock on effect is less money to spend on buying players and wages which in turn weakens the squad and makes climbing the league harder.

Rodgers remit is to beak the cycle by employing a more effective style of play (more league points) and to maximise the performance of less than world class players (for the most part) so we start to reverse the decline and start climbing again. A lot of things have to happen for that to work and part of the process is cashing in some of your most valuable assets (Agger) so that we can purchase players to strengthen the weaker parts of the team and allow the up and coming Agger replacements (Coates and Kelly) to step up.

FSG stepped in and wiped out the clubs debt. For that alone we should be eternally grateful.

We now have to live within our means (shock horror :eek: ) and Rodgers has a financial and footballing balancing act to deliver which isn't easy and is going to take several years but I for one will give him 100% support.

What's easy is sitting on the sidelines criticising everything when none of us can ever know all the facts and making suggestions which simply aren't viable in the real world the rest of us live in :rolleyes:

Ben

I don't think anybody doubts that a profit is their main priority but they have told fans that they see the club and success as a long term project, maybe they should wait long term to make their profits. Instead they appear to be stripping the club of their best assets and lining their pockets and all the words of how getting the club challenging again will take time come across as nothing more than brain washing fans into a state of acceptance.

Chucky the tree

Turtyturd wrote: »

But the majority of them are the definition of mediocre and would do well at a mediocre club which FSG seem intent on turning us into so they can make a profit. So it makes no sense to sell them.

Business men wanting to make a profit, I'm shocked by this disgusting and appalling behaviour.

FernandoTorres

Turtyturd wrote: »

I don't think anybody doubts that a profit is their main priority but they have told fans that they see the club and success as a long term project, maybe they should wait long term to make their profits. Instead they appear to be stripping the club of their best assets and lining their pockets and all the words of how getting the club challenging again will take time come across as nothing more than brain washing fans into a state of acceptance.

You are jumping to two conclusions here and blaming the owners for things that haven't happened yet! Firstly, Agger has not been sold and will not be sold unless someone meets the very high valuation.

Secondly, if he is sold I doubt it will be an asset stripping exercise. I would expect the full amount would be available to Rogers to spend. Basically we'd be selling Agger at above his value to reinvest elsewhere on the pitch. If I'm wrong and they are doing what you said I will be very angry, but there's no point getting worked up yet about things that haven't happened.

LuckyLloyd

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Business men wanting to make a profit, I'm shocked by this disgusting and appalling behaviour.

The Business men have chosen to throw out plenty of emotional language about winning and on pitch success being a priority before knuckling down to making a profit at the expense of results though, and that should be infuriating to fans who have been down this road before in recent memory.

Mr Alan

FernandoTorres wrote: »

Secondly, if he is sold I doubt it will be an asset stripping exercise. I would expect the full amount would be available to Rogers to spend. Basically we'd be selling Agger at above his value to reinvest elsewhere on the pitch. If I'm wrong and they are doing what you said I will be very angry, but there's no point getting worked up yet about things that haven't happened.

Around £20m is not over Aggers market value tbh, particularly being sold to another English club. He is one of the best defenders in the league.

I'm expecting this incredible flurry of transfer activity people seem to be expecting any day now, running out of time!

LuckyLloyd

We'll see how all this intense logic and rationality hold up if results are worse or on par with last season. It's easy to justify the weakening of a squad when there are no matches being played. My bet is that such arguments will be forgotten quickly, but we'll have to wait and see.

K-9

Bit more detail here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19179259

Seems Bellamy made his mind up before Rodgers arrived.

Leiva

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

We'll see how all this intense logic and rationality hold up if results are worse or on par with last season. It's easy to justify the weakening of a squad when there are no matches being played. My bet is that such arguments will be forgotten quickly, but we'll have to wait and see.

I don't need to say it but don't hold your breath .

FernandoTorres

Mr Alan wrote: »

Around £20m is not over Aggers market value tbh, particularly being sold to another English club. He is one of the best defenders in the league.

I'm expecting this incredible flurry of transfer activity people seem to be expecting any day now, running out of time!

I was more talking about value in the way they see it i.e he's injury prone, not getting any younger etc. How that money could be spent elsewhere.

All this said I don't want Agger sold but I can see where they're coming from.

LuckyLloyd

Also, loan deals don't solve long term problems. The squad is not good enough to achieve fourth right now. If the objective is long term restructure, loan deals just kick the can down the road. While some clubs around Europe have done well from such arrangements, it doesn't help with building a stable core that is good enough to achieve what you ultimately want to achieve.

Loan deals are a salve and, while bringing in some much needed quality would be a welcome development, it's a workaround for the disinvestment from the squad FSG are currenently engaged in.

Turtyturd

FernandoTorres wrote: »

You are jumping to two conclusions here and blaming the owners for things that haven't happened yet! Firstly, Agger has not been sold and will not be sold unless someone meets the very high valuation.

Secondly, if he is sold I doubt it will be an asset stripping exercise. I would expect the full amount would be available to Rogers to spend. Basically we'd be selling Agger at above his value to reinvest elsewhere on the pitch. If I'm wrong and they are doing what you said I will be very angry, but there's no point getting worked up yet about things that haven't happened.

Yeah I should have put in 'to me it seems that....' but to me FSG made all the right noises when they took over the club but have since changed their tune. Personally I think they are in the process of making their profit over the next year or two, and at the end of it we will still have Brandon in charge and a team which barely resembles the one we have now (maybe Carra and Gerrard will still be there), with no league improvement while people talk about how we are copying Newcastle.

Mr Alan

Brendan Rodgers wrote:

"I know I need to bring in a number of players, just to replace the ones that have left. But this is a club that people want to be at, so hopefully a number of those will come in over the next couple of weeks."

At least he realises there's a ****ing shedload of activity needed just to replace what we've already lost.

Chucky the tree

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The Business men have chosen to throw out plenty of emotional language about winning and on pitch success being a priority before knuckling down to making a profit at the expense of results though, and that should be infuriating to fans who have been down this road before in recent memory.

I don't remember them saying on success pitch was more important than profit tbh. Fair enough if they have.

missingtime

Here is a video of his interview:

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/video/press-conf/12174-brendan-s-pre-gomel-press-conf

Leiva

missingtime wrote: »

Here is a video of his interview:

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/video/press-conf/12174-brendan-s-pre-gomel-press-conf

And it's not behind a paywall.

Kess73

K-9 wrote: »

Bit more detail here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19179259

Seems Bellamy made his mind up before Rodgers arrived.

I am getting more and more curious about the PC as the day goes on.


Ben Smith and some other journos went with

'Every player has his price. Daniel is a top player, loves the club. But you can never say never

as a quote by Rodgers.

Which taken as it reads was pretty damning.


But the much longer versions read a lot differently and if true show the likes of Smith and co of cherry picking snippets to create their own version of what was said.

"Top centre-halves are at a premium," . "Take Thiago Silva, he left AC Milan to go to Paris St Germain for £40m. So it has to be a big valuation.

"Daniel is one of the leading players in European football at centre-half. Is he a player I want to lose? No he's not. But like any club, if an offer comes in that is in the best interests of the club, of course you have to look at it.

"From a football perspective, do I want to lose Daniel Agger? Not really. He can be a really pivotal player for me, he understands how I want to work. But I am a realist. And the reality is that if a club comes in with a massive bid then the club may have to look at it. You can never say never."

The longer one still contains bits that I think would have been better said behind closed doors, but it is possible that the question asked was a leading one.

But if the longer quotes turn out to be accurate and match what shows up in the actual video, then Ben Smith and co were just patching together their own dramatic and very abridged take on what was said. A journo taking bits of an actual quote and making it sound like they want it to. Imagine that.;)

SlickRic

i actually feel a bit sorry for Rodgers in all of this, in the sense that I really do think his hands are tied.

i would still prefer him to be much stronger in his quotes on Agger. it's a lot of money to be offered for him, but he's one of our genuinely top players, he should not be sold unless we get £30m+, and unless City or Barca are getting near that, then it shouldn't even be entertained.

but this is an FSG issue. they're in charge of the purse strings, and they did not like the £100m spend of Kenny. i would say that is unarguable at this stage. and the reason i feel for Rodgers, is that he now has to live within a regime that now has chosen to spend far more frugally because they feel they've been a bit burned.

my problem with FSG is, if they didn't trust Rodgers to spend money improving the team, then they shouldn't have hired him. the team needs investment. yes the fat needs cutting, and they're doing that where they can, but it HAS to be re-invested properly or else the evidence will strongly suggest that they're just trying to make us a well-run mid-table club.

FSG, and then Rodgers, need to step the fúck up and show us something for the rest of this window.

EchoO

Turtyturd wrote: »

I don't think anybody doubts that a profit is their main priority but they have told fans that they see the club and success as a long term project, maybe they should wait long term to make their profits. Instead they appear to be stripping the club of their best assets and lining their pockets and all the words of how getting the club challenging again will take time come across as nothing more than brain washing fans into a state of acceptance.

There's still nearly 3 weeks left in the transfer window. Any accusations of asset stripping are a bit premature, but we will get a much clearer view of FSG's intentions by transfer deadline day.

Kess73

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

We'll see how all this intense logic and rationality hold up if results are worse or on par with last season. It's easy to justify the weakening of a squad when there are no matches being played. My bet is that such arguments will be forgotten quickly, but we'll have to wait and see.

To be honest if a club has ambition beyond simply existing, then I could see no justification to intentionally weakening a first team. I can see the logic of weakening the overall squad if it meant a stronger match day 18 man squad, but no arguement could convince me that weakening the first team is a good idea.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

mike65

Just watched the Agger section and to be honest the worst than I can say is that Rodgers was just a bit too frank about the nature of the market. Certainly no suggestion of FSG looking to cash in or Rogers looking to sell him or Agger wanting to leave.

amiable

Peter Morrison the football agent just tweeted ''the sun is out in Liverpool''. A hint?

Mr Alan

SlickRic wrote: »

i actually feel a bit sorry for Rodgers in all of this, in the sense that I really do think his hands are tied.

i would still prefer him to be much stronger in his quotes on Agger. it's a lot of money to be offered for him, but he's one of our genuinely top players, he should not be sold unless we get £30m+, and unless City or Barca are getting near that, then it shouldn't even be entertained.

but this is an FSG issue. they're in charge of the purse strings, and they did not like the £100m spend of Kenny. i would say that is unarguable at this stage. and the reason i feel for Rodgers, is that he now has to live within a regime that now has chosen to spend far more frugally because they feel they've been a bit burned.

my problem with FSG is, if they didn't trust Rodgers to spend money improving the team, then they shouldn't have hired him. the team needs investment. yes the fat needs cutting, and they're doing that where they can, but it HAS to be re-invested properly or else the evidence will strongly suggest that they're just trying to make us a well-run mid-table club.

FSG, and then Rodgers, need to step the fúck up and show us something for the rest of this window.

I agree with you regarding Rodgers having his hands tied because I can't believe that he would be soft enough in the head to think that selling Agger is a good idea himself (despite some in this thread being of the required softness level).

However in saying that, his handling of it in the media (and with the Carroll thing too) has been very poor & means we're unlikely to get the offers we want meaning;

1) With Carroll, no one is going to offer £20m odd for a player who the entire world knows we no longer want. Mentioning the positives of loaning big players out in the same conference was a genuine :eek: moment. Lunacy meaning we're more than likely gonna be raped regarding Carroll before this window is out.

2) With Agger, City will be unlikely to meet our valuation. Agger isn't gonna tie himself to a new long term contract reducing potential wages/signing on fee for himself, therefore we're either gonna let him leave this summer for around £18m they're offering, or considerably less Jan/next summer.

Leiva

amiable wrote: »

Peter Morrison the football agent just tweeted ''the sun is out in Liverpool''. A hint?

throw me a friggin bone here ... agent for who ?

amiable

Leiva wrote: »

throw me a friggin bone here ... agent for who ?

Clint Dempsey. Though he is also the agent of Jack Rodwell and may just be visiting him but it was a pretty random tweet.

Mr Alan

Kess73 wrote: »

To be honest if a club has ambition beyond simply existing, then I could see no justification to intentionally weakening a first team. I can see the logic of weakening the overall squad if it meant a stronger match day 18 man squad, but no arguement could convince me that weakening the first team is a good idea.

Yet here we are.....

amiable

Leiva wrote: »

throw me a friggin bone here ... agent for who ?

http://www.jamesgrant.com/en/sports/clients:football-europe Peter Morrison works for this agency

BorneTobyWilde

Can you see Alex Ferguson saying
'every player has his price if Rooney was on Man Cities radar'
Its very silly comment, and a great insight to fact that Rodgers is a front man,
He has no control over who's sold or bought,

Kess73

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/video/press-conf/12174-brendan-s-pre-gomel-press-conf


5:58 on is the bit about Agger.




Well it really shows up Ben Smith and the other journos as knowing how create a lot of hand wringing out of very little. I think every LFC supporter needs to watch the entire interview and hear exactly what Rodgers actually said about Bellamy, Carroll, Agger etc., rather than get worked up over what certain journos tried to make it sound like.

willowthewisp

Seen a tweet earlier froma "journal" saying the knives are out for rogers already, well it's tweets like that which put the knives out.

mike65

Already said that!

machiavellianme

amiable wrote: »

Peter Morrison the football agent just tweeted ''the sun is out in Liverpool''. A hint?

The Sun isnt welcome in Liverpool

Chucky the tree

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Can you see Alex Ferguson saying
'every player has his price if Rooney was on Man Cities radar'
Its very silly comment, and a great insight to fact that Rodgers is a front man,
He has no control over who's sold or bought,

United are cities direct rivals, we are not. Time to come back to reality.

willowthewisp

At the end of the day these hacks just want to get good copy/quotes whatever to further their reputations.

Kess73

Mr Alan wrote: »

Yet here we are.....

Yes here we are with only some squad players gone. Two of whom were players that Kenny saw fit to freeze out to a degree and one being a player who has being playing for other clubs for the past two seasons.


Losing Kuyt, Aquilani, and Maxi is not weakening the first team imho and I think even if Kenny was still gaffer the same players would have been got rid off.

The only player that has had tales about him leaving that I would regard as a major loss is Agger. He is a genuine top class centre back, and his loss would be a genuine weakening of the first team.

I personally don't think Agger will be anywhere bar Liverpool come the 1st September, but if he is gone I will be gutted.

Mr Alan

Kess73 wrote: »

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/video/press-conf/12174-brendan-s-pre-gomel-press-conf


5:58 on is the bit about Agger.




Well it really shows up Ben Smith and the other journos as knowing how create a lot of hand wringing out of very little. I think every LFC supporter needs to watch the entire interview and hear exactly what Rodgers actually said about Bellamy, Carroll, Agger etc., rather than get worked up over what certain journos tried to make it sound like.

Are you actually messing? Genuinely?

Does what he has said not tie in exactly with what's been reported that if City meet our valuation, he is their's? Whereas people were trying to claim the story was total bollox.

He gets a chance today to say it's bollox as yous were trying to say & effectively says, he has a price & if it's met the club would sell. And you're still seemingly refusing to accept this is the case?

I'm a little in shock here.

PFL

Leiva wrote: »

throw me a friggin bone here ... agent for who ?

From Wiki.......players such as Jordan Rhodes, John O'Shea, Jack Rodwell, Ali Al Habsi, Clint Dempsey, Ryan Nelson, Ishmael Miller, Cameron Stewart, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Zak Whitbread and brothers Craig & Gary Gardner

Mr Alan

Kess73 wrote: »

Yes here we are with only some squad players gone. Two of whom were players that Kenny saw fit to freeze out to a degree and one being a player who has being playing for other clubs for the past two seasons.


Losing Kuyt, Aquilani, and Maxi is not weakening the first team imho and I think even if Kenny was still gaffer the same players would have been got rid off.

What was our best 11 last season. Are you saying you wouldn't have had Kuyt or Bellamy in it?

smileyj1987

Aquila wrote: »

Any good prospects emerging from Liverpool's academy?

Sterling
Morgan
Teixeira
Ryan Mc Laughlin
Suso

These five players alone really do look like they could have a great career in professional football if they are managed correctly . But we need to loan them out because the reserve league isn't that great at all .

Sappy404

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Also, loan deals don't solve long term problems. The squad is not good enough to achieve fourth right now. If the objective is long term restructure, loan deals just kick the can down the road. While some clubs around Europe have done well from such arrangements, it doesn't help with building a stable core that is good enough to achieve what you ultimately want to achieve.

Loan deals are a salve and, while bringing in some much needed quality would be a welcome development, it's a workaround for the disinvestment from the squad FSG are currenently engaged in.

'Right now' is the point. Loan deals make the squad more able to compete short term. If we brought in Sahin, Cuenca or Affelay and they helped us achieve 4th and qualify for the Champions League, the club would get much better bang for their buck long term when buying next summer and would be in the market for much better players. We'd also be in a better position to assess and sign the loaned player/players permanently.

I'd love FSG to front the cash and pay over the odds in fees and wages in order to compete with CL clubs, but realistically that could hurt us with regard to Uefa FFP and probably isn't a feasible option for them this summer.

noodler

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

People won't like to hear this obviously, but Rodgers has handled the Agger and Carroll situations poorly - like a manager a bit out of his depth tbh.

Lets stop with the double standards here.

Kenny disgraced the club with his Suarez antics and his appearances with the media. Was awful in the transfer market and seemed to send his teams out devoid of instruction in the second half of last season.

That would be a more applicable definition of "a bit out of his depth".

Lets not hang Rodgers out to dry simply because it looks like Agger wants out.

Kess73

Mr Alan wrote: »

Are you actually messing? Genuinely?

Does what he has said not tie in exactly with what's been reported that if City meet our valuation, he is their's? Whereas people were trying to claim the story was total bollox.

He gets a chance today to say it's bollox as yous were trying to say & effectively says, he has a price & if it's met the club would sell. And you're still seemingly refusing to accept this is the case?

I'm a little in shock here.

What I am refusing to do is accept that what Rodgers said is a clear cut case of him saying Agger is out.

What if it comes to light in a week or so that Agger had a contract offer sent to his agent yesterday or before that and was playing a bit of hardball with the club and the club did the same back? and it ends with some middle ground being met and Agger signing the new contract in less than two weeks from now?

Where does that scenario leave all the credible sources and the "Agger is defo gone" type comments that can be seen?


You have your best guess based on what and who you want to believe and it makes sense to you.


I have what I think based on my best guess and of course what I think is based on who or what I choose to believe.

Why is it such a big deal for you that I don't fall into line with your line of thinking? So much so that you can say things like

And you're still seemingly refusing to accept this is the case?

and then add

I'm a little in shock here

The simple fact is that we can have very differing opinions on the Agger thing and not buy into the other's pov. Nothing you can say will change my mind as the only thing that will convince me that you are right is if what you claim actually happens, and I am sure that the same applies with regards to you buying into my opinion.


There is no right or wrong in it, just an outcome that is of yet unknown to either of us.

_blank_

Al, for the second day running in this thread you are acting like a spoiled schoolgirl.

amiable

smileyj1987 wrote: »

Sterling
Morgan
Teixeira
Ryan Mc Laughlin
Suso
Jack Robinson

These five players alone really do look like they could have a great career in professional football if they are managed correctly . But we need to loan them out because the reserve league isn't that great at all .

Fixed that for you

dmigsy

The Guardian's PL preview for Liverpool is up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/aug/08/premier-league-previews-liverpool

Gbear

Kess73 wrote: »

Losing Kuyt, Aquilani, and Maxi is not weakening the first team imho and I think even if Kenny was still gaffer the same players would have been got rid off.

It's not as simple as "they weren't contributing much last season".

For starters, we were short in midfield last season, so whether the player was there or not, they effectively needed to be replaced. We're also changing formation so we'll need yet another midfielder. Just getting Allen and keeping everyone else left is fine until we get an injury to a player that isn't Gerrard, who'll miss some games regardless.

As for Kuyt and Maxi, whether they played enough last season or not, they still weren't providing enough when they were on the pitch - we didn't have enough goals in the team.

If the purpose of appointing Rodgers was to go nowhere and blame it on Kenny then yeah, you can argue that those players don't need to be replaced.

If the purpose was to get us moving in the right direction then we should be improving on last season. In order to do that we need a better team. We currently don't - it's broadly the same and it's entirely likely we'll be worse.
TBH, I think our team could take the hit of losing Agger if we had goals.
Goals mask an awful lot of rubbish.
If we take that 20m and go buy Welliton or something then no worries but that doesn't look likely.


Another point - I don't see this lack of funds as being much out of the ordinary. The bulk of what Kenny spent was generated by him in sales and getting players off the wage bill.
FSG spent something in the region of 20-40m. That's not trivial by any means but I can easily see how they'd be willing to spend a bit at the start to get us into the CL. I can't believe that they ever intended to be giving that sort of outlay year in year out, whether that 40m was spent wisely or not.