Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2015 Mod Note in OP 9/4

mosstin

whatawaster wrote: »

4th isn't over until it's over.

I cannot see us winning 6 matches in a row the way we are playing, but stranger things have happened.

If we do, we finish on 75 points and then either
- United lose two (I'm looking at you Everton (a) and Arsenal (h)
- City lose on and draw one (Spurs and Southampton)


Clutching at straws to say the least. West Brom to put me out of my misery at the weekend.

Could easily see the arse fall out of the season even more in the last 6 games. Hope we don't just go through the motions.

Hollister11

Southampton have been rumoured to have targeted the following players for this summer. Who should we pinch this summer, so we don't sign them for double the transfer fee next summer.

• Jordy Clasie
• Tonny Wilhenna
• Kieran Trippier
• Gerard Deulofeu
• Andros Townsend
• Javier Hernandez
• Tim Krul

Knex*

How do we know who or what Southampton have targeted? :pac:

Hollister11

Knex. wrote: »

How do we know who or what Southampton have targeted? :pac:

Rumoured

rob316

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Every aspect has its part to play. If you believe some of those aspects can be upgraded my belief is that you should pull the trigger - even if other aspects remain less than acceptable.

Lloyd, take the we are Liverpool stuff out of it, is a 5th place finish in the league a fair reflection of where we deserve to finish given our squad quality, and our wage bill?

We had a dreadful start to the season, awful CL campaign, poor EL exit, SF in LC and SF in the FA Cup.

Rodgers did manage to take us on a run of 13 games that took us from 12th to 5th, I would consider this makes up for the start of the season. So on balance 5th is probably where we were going to finish.

If we sack Rodgers considering the very large financial gap can you see
another more experienced manager managing to finish in the Top 4? I really don't. Sure if you are looking for a better performance in European competition signing Rafa or Klopp would improve that but that isn't want FSG want, they want UCL qualification, Rodgers with better players is a safer bet than starting from scratch again.

My hope for next season is the new players will be further settled in and accustomed to the tactics of the manager coupled with a few international established players that we can put a title challenge together from the get go.

MR NINE

Naingollan would be a great signing

googled eyes

Appearing on twitter, Tony Evans is claiming all last summers buys were Rodgers and the committee was bypassed.

https://twitter.com/DanKennett/status/591268402724896768

The knives are out ?

noodler

RasTa wrote: »

Jan 2015
Quote:
“The reality was, with so many changes, we were not going to win the league this season. I believe we will be ready to challenge for the title next year,” said Rodgers.

I'm sure he meant challenge for 5th.

Harry Palmr

googled eyes wrote: »

Appearing on twitter, Tony Evans is claiming all last summers buys were Rodgers and the committee was bypassed.

https://twitter.com/DanKennett/status/591268402724896768

The knives are out ?

Tony Evans is a dick who appears to have fallen out with the club over something in the past. Its simply impossible that Rodgers would have been able to usurp the TC wholesale, more likely to have been the other way round,

brevity

googled eyes wrote: »

Appearing on twitter, Tony Evans is claiming all last summers buys were Rodgers and the committee was bypassed.

https://twitter.com/DanKennett/status/591268402724896768

The knives are out ?

Rodgers did say he was in charge of transfers earlier in the season, not sure if many believed him at the time though.

A 90million war chest for us in the summer.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-transfer-rumours-reds-9098790

Knex*

Hollister11 wrote: »

Rumoured

Clasie and Wilhenna would be decent additions, imo.

Best scenario from that list, we get Clyne, and Southampton get Trippier.

Knex*

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Tony Evans is a dick who appears to have fallen out with the club over something in the past. Its simply impossible that Rodgers would have been able to usurp the TC wholesale, more likely to have been the other way round,

100%.

He's been well out of the loop for a bit now.

mosstin

googled eyes wrote: »

Appearing on twitter, Tony Evans is claiming all last summers buys were Rodgers and the committee was bypassed.

https://twitter.com/DanKennett/status/591268402724896768

The knives are out ?

Tony Evans. Bellend of the highest order. Often think people confuse him and Tony Barrett, a far more reliable source and certainly far less bitter.

googled eyes

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Tony Evans is a dick who appears to have fallen out with the club over something in the past. Its simply impossible that Rodgers would have been able to usurp the TC wholesale, more likely to have been the other way round,

Yeah, I think he fell out over the sacking of Kenny and has never been a fan a Rodgers.


By the knives are out I ment people are agreeing with him on twitter now.

rob316

Evans has a crusade against Rodgers that much is true so I'd take that tweet with a pinch of salt.

If Rodgers was able to bypass the TC that is worrying and is not good for his prospects of keeping his job. For the record I don't think any manager should have control over recruitment, and I don't have a problem with the TC for the most part, its FSG policy my issue is with.

Knex*

mosstin wrote: »

Tony Evans. Bellend of the highest order. Often think people confuse him and Tony Barrett, a far more reliable source and certainly far less bitter.

Tony Barrett has been out of the loop since Rodgers came in, thinking about it. He still not bad from an article, or discussion, point of view though. But he used to almost have inside information in the Club. Often had bits of information before the main press had it, which is seldom the case now.

mosstin

Knex. wrote: »

Tony Barrett has been out of the loop since Rodgers came in, thinking about it. He still not bad from an article, or discussion, point of view though. But he used to almost have inside information in the Club. Often had bits of information before the main press had it, which is seldom the case now.

Maybe so, but he's a level-headed individual who generally writes well of the club. On any given day Evans is a more bellicose type. His Twitter timeline is a long line of him trading insults with half of his followers and RTing his sycophants.

Harry Palmr

brevity wrote: »

Rodgers did say he was in charge of transfers earlier in the season, not sure if many believed him at the time though.

A 90million war chest for us in the summer.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-transfer-rumours-reds-9098790

That's only the rumour mill nonsense though - adding up three £30 million players.

I see Lucas is declared unfit for WBA along with Sakho and Strurridge. So Gerrrad will start presumably with Allen and Henderson and if that doesn't give Tony Pulis some joy I'll be amazed.

sabat

On the bright side, finishing 5th still leaves Liverpool with about the same chance of winning next season's champions league as City, Man U and Arsenal.

Agent Coulson

brevity wrote: »

Rodgers did say he was in charge of transfers earlier in the season, not sure if many believed him at the time though.

A 90million war chest for us in the summer.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-transfer-rumours-reds-9098790

That would take Rodgers spending to over £300m and FSG's to over £400m and really nothing at all to show for it in the current squad.

kevohmsford

Agent Coulson wrote: »

That would take Rodgers spending to over £300m and FSG's to over £400m and really nothing at all to show for it in the current squad.

We need to add at least 2 quality first team players in the summer. A striker and midfield player.

Agent Coulson

kevohmsford wrote: »

We need to add at least 2 quality first team players in the summer. A striker and midfield player.

Add a right back, goalkeeper, another striker & DM to that as well.

Shanotheslayer

sabat wrote: »

On the bright side, finishing 5th still leaves Liverpool with about the same chance of winning next season's champions league as City, Man U and Arsenal.

False

City/United and Arsenal would all have a higher chance due to actually being in the competition.

Don't be silly.

Sir Gallagher

mosstin wrote: »

Maybe so, but he's a level-headed individual who generally writes well of the club. On any given day Evans is a more bellicose type. His Twitter timeline is a long line of him trading insults with half of his followers and RTing his sycophants.

"Bellicose"..... Nice...

SlickRic

we are living in an extreme time in Premier League history.

City have billions, Chelsea have money plus José, Arsenal are the best run club in England (financially at least), and Utd are a commercial juggernaut, who can basically pay what they want for whoever.

i believe its more difficult than ever to get into that top 4, but, and this is a massive but, we did it last year. people use the Suarez excuse, and yes, I agree. he was an enormous reason why we ended up where we did in the league. but it should've given the owners a clue. he had to be paid almost £200,000 a week to stay last season. you know why? because that's what world class, game changing, season making players cost. if you don't have them, others will get them, and it'll be so difficult to break into the top 4 again.

i've said it a thousand times; FSG are gambling on Rodgers being a better coach than those above him, or at least one of those above him.

I'm delighted to see Jordan Henderson sign a new contract. Fantastic news. However, he is not a game changer. He is an easy one to get signed really. He's not going to Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, and though there were rumours of City, I don't buy it.

There needs to be a sprinkle of big signings, there really does, or else the club won't keep the superstars they do make, and we'll being stuck in mediocrity will forever be the norm.

Sappy404

Evans was criticising the purchase of Can recently, based on the fact he was bought for midfield and is yet to make that position his own.

20yo Emre Can. One of our players of the season.

The man has a serious bug bear about FSG since Dalglish was sacked. Anyone who wants to know how low his opinion is held needs only to look back to recent threads, or among the more respected LFC twitter heads.

tritium

Did we overachieve last season: yes

Is our current level of achievement about par without Saurez: arguably no, but equally not by much

Are there other extenuating factors: yes, Sturridges unavailability most of the season and a few disastrous signings (Ballotelli)

Rodgers coming out with this stuff is worrying however. It smacks of a man under pressure to keep his job. Whether that's actually fair is a moot point. TBH my biggest worry with Liverpool at the moment is they identify pretty much all the right players but haven't a clue in many cases how to get them. That's a tricky one to fix though, especially if you can't guarantee CL

Turtyturd

The fact the Balotelli is at the club undermines any idea that 'The Rodgers' is solely in charge of transfers.

Gbear

SlickRic wrote: »

i believe its more difficult than ever to get into that top 4, but, and this is a massive but, we did it last year. people use the Suarez excuse, and yes, I agree. he was an enormous reason why we ended up where we did in the league.

Consistency is the true struggle. Clubs have ups and downs and there's no reason why, even if we're only performing on par for each season, that we can't capitalise on one of the top 4 having a bad year.

Jose never sticks around forever. How long until he or Abramovic get bored? Will Wenger continue on for another 5 years? How smooth will their transition be? How long term is Van Gaal? How well will City be able to juggle FFP given that they need a complete demolition job on the squad and have already run afoul of UEFA?

Suarez (and Sturridge) turned a worse squad than the current one into title challengers.
We don't need a success of that magnitude to just scrape into 4th one year.

SlickRic wrote: »

but it should've given the owners a clue. he had to be paid almost £200,000 a week to stay last season. you know why? because that's what world class, game changing, season making players cost. if you don't have them, others will get them, and it'll be so difficult to break into the top 4 again.

The clue isn't doling out a 200k contract - it's signing the £25m 23 year old superstar in the making.

It's one thing to reward a player who's improved to the point where they're the best striker in the world. It's quite another to bring one in ready made.

We already had Suarez, so were "guaranteed" a certain amount of commitment. We also took far less of a risk signing him because he only started on 60 odd or something mental like that and if he's already proven himself to be worth 200k by performing like a 200k player for your club in your league with your squad then it's easy to justify the cost.

On the other hand, if our superstar mirrored Cavani's switch to PSG in cost and productivity then we're taking an enormous gamble. That's how you get into debt. That's how you kill a club.

Maybe every now and again if the stars align and there's a player that has some sort of mitigating factor - lack of interest elsewhere drives the price and/or wages down, you can afford to pay a bit over the odds.

You can't just draft someone in on double of what everyone else is on though. That should set alarm bells ringing.
If you're the sort of club that generally has players taking in 100k at most it's a bit suspicious if you can all of a sudden bring in someone on a totally different level. The only times we've seen that have been at clubs taken over by billionaires. Everyone else has to make do with steady progress.

Gbear

Turtyturd wrote: »

The fact the Balotelli is at the club undermines any idea that 'The Rodgers' is solely in charge of transfers.

I think there's an element of both the club and Rodgers talking out of both sides of their mouths.

It might be technically true that Rodgers had a veto and, as such, was "in charge" but if the only striker they're offering is Balotelli, then in practice you can hardly say he has a free reign.

We just don't know.

8-10

Hollister11 wrote: »

Southampton have been rumoured to have targeted the following players for this summer. Who should we pinch this summer, so we don't sign them for double the transfer fee next summer.

• Jordy Clasie
• Tonny Wilhenna
• Kieran Trippier
• Gerard Deulofeu
• Andros Townsend
• Javier Hernandez
• Tim Krul

Won't they also be in for Toby Alderweireld? Would love us to try and hijack that deal if they bid, quality defender good in possession and eye for goal

Buford T. Justice XIX

Hollister11 wrote: »

Southampton have been rumoured to have targeted the following players for this summer. Who should we pinch this summer, so we don't sign them for double the transfer fee next summer.

• Jordy Clasie
• Tonny Wilhenna
• Kieran Trippier
• Gerard Deulofeu
• Andros Townsend
• Javier Hernandez
• Tim Krul

Clasie and Trippier would be the only ones that would interest me. Never heard of Wilhenna tbh and Deulofeu, Townsend and Hernandez wouldn't interest me in the least unless free. Krul as a backup keeper would interest me a bit but not as competition for Mig. I would hope for a better class of keeper if we are buying competition for Mig.

brevity wrote: »

Rodgers did say he was in charge of transfers earlier in the season, not sure if many believed him at the time though.

A 90million war chest for us in the summer.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-transfer-rumours-reds-9098790

That's £30 million a year from the Standard Chartered sponsorship going to transfers each year not £90 million lump sum.

Though we will probably buy some lumps with it...:(

mosstin

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

"Bellicose"..... Nice...

It's not mine. Feel free to help yourself.

K-9

5th would be our best finish in a few years, barring last year obviously.

Some people got so fcuking carried away last season they can't handle the truth!

DVDM93

K-9 wrote: »

5th would be our best finish in a few years, barring last year obviously.

Some people got so fcuking carried away last season they can't handle the truth!

Brendan Nicholson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Talisman

googled eyes wrote: »

Appearing on twitter, Tony Evans is claiming all last summers buys were Rodgers and the committee was bypassed.

https://twitter.com/DanKennett/status/591268402724896768

The knives are out ?

Certainly not true. Ian McGarry would have made it known last summer. He kept talking about Rodgers wanting di Maria - the only offers Real Madrid received were from PSG and Man Utd.

Guy:Incognito

brevity wrote: »

Rodgers did say he was in charge of transfers earlier in the season, not sure if many believed him at the time though.

A 90million war chest for us in the summer.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-transfer-rumours-reds-9098790

We should be able to pick up 57 promising 17-21 years olds with that. Sorted for the future after the one we got the last lot for.

Guy:Incognito

K-9 wrote: »

5th would be our best finish in a few years, barring last year obviously.

Some people got so fcuking carried away last season they can't handle the truth!

The idea is to work your way up the table and stay there, not to have one fluke season and settle back to mediocrity.

Iused2likebusts

Hollister11 wrote: »

Southampton have been rumoured to have targeted the following players for this summer. Who should we pinch this summer, so we don't sign them for double the transfer fee next summer.

• Jordy Clasie
• Tonny Wilhenna
• Kieran Trippier
• Gerard Deulofeu
• Andros Townsend
• Javier Hernandez
• Tim Krul

I mentioned trippier as a good signing last season when burnley were in the championship he hasn't looked out of place so far this season. Very good going forward.

SlickRic

Also, just to point out, I'm not sure who Rodgers thinks called him a tactical genius 3 months ago.

Agent Coulson

SlickRic wrote: »

Also, just to point out, I'm not sure who Rodgers thinks called him a tactical genius 3 months ago.

Listening to Second Captains podcast today it was himself

Agent Coulson

Joao Teixeira named Brighton young player of the year.

Agent Coulson

Liverpool are English football’s top side, according to the Ultimate League table compiled by Sky Sports.

Positions have been calculated from teams’ average season-ending positions over the last 50 years



http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9817599/liverpool-lead-manchester-united-arsenal-everton-and-tottenham-in-ultimate-league

brevity

SlickRic wrote: »

Also, just to point out, I'm not sure who Rodgers thinks called him a tactical genius 3 months ago.

Probably himself.

EDIT: Gah, just saw Coulsens post.

K-9

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

The idea is to work your way up the table and stay there, not to have one fluke season and settle back to mediocrity.

Didn't realise that!

The point is he did so well last season, what would have been a good season under Kenny, is now poor.

So, the big fear of many when Rodgers took over, that we'd drop to mid table mediocrity has been proven false. Those exact same people see 5/6th and 2 cup semis as bad exactly because Rodgers has done so well, proving how irrational his detractors are.

Kirby

Why 50 years? Why not 10, or 25 or 100 years? Seems a bit of an arbitrary number. I mean, if you are going to include the pre premier league era, surely you should include all of it.

LuckyLloyd

rob316 wrote: »

Lloyd, take the we are Liverpool stuff out of it, is a 5th place finish in the league a fair reflection of where we deserve to finish given our squad quality, and our wage bill?

We had a dreadful start to the season, awful CL campaign, poor EL exit, SF in LC and SF in the FA Cup.

Rodgers did manage to take us on a run of 13 games that took us from 12th to 5th, I would consider this makes up for the start of the season. So on balance 5th is probably where we were going to finish.

If we sack Rodgers considering the very large financial gap can you see
another more experienced manager managing to finish in the Top 4? I really don't. Sure if you are looking for a better performance in European competition signing Rafa or Klopp would improve that but that isn't want FSG want, they want UCL qualification, Rodgers with better players is a safer bet than starting from scratch again.

My hope for next season is the new players will be further settled in and accustomed to the tactics of the manager coupled with a few international established players that we can put a title challenge together from the get go.

I think that given the platform we had to work off last year and the investment we had available in terms of purchases we had the opportunity to do better.

I also think Benitez or Klopp would get us into the top four with the current squad.

Hence I think Rodgers could not complain if he was moved aside for a manager of that ilk.

I understand that people will not agree with those conclusions.

Guy:Incognito

K-9 wrote: »

So, the big fear of many when Rodgers took over, that we'd drop to mid table mediocrity has been proven false. Those exact same people see 5/6th and 2 cup semis as bad exactly because Rodgers has done so well, proving how irrational his detractors are.

We haven't finished 5th yet, It could easily be 7th. We're spending top club money and making little progress. Generally 5th,6th,7th spots are close enough so are interchangeable. I wouldn't see finishing in 5th, 2 or 3 points ahead of 7th as really any better a season than finishing 7th tbh. We were supposed to be moving onward and upward after a period of finishing around 7th and realistically we aren't. Is one 2nd place finish really going to be looked on a "doing so well" sandwiched in a a pile of 5th-7th place finishes a few years down the line?

LuckyLloyd

K-9 wrote: »

Didn't realise that!

The point is he did so well last season, what would have been a good season under Kenny, is now poor.

So, the big fear of many when Rodgers took over, that we'd drop to mid table mediocrity has been proven false. Those exact same people see 5/6th and 2 cup semis as bad exactly because Rodgers has done so well, proving how irrational his detractors are.

Kenny was tasked with finishing in the top four too in 2011 / 12 and we were happy so long as we in touch for that. The season tailed off at the end and we were disappointed. His job would have been up for discussion if he had finished 5th, make no mistake about that, but the fact of an actual trophy and close run final might have been enough to sway it in his favour.

Also we don't have 5th locked up yet folks, the assumption that it is is arrogant imo.

Knex*

SlickRic wrote: »

Also, just to point out, I'm not sure who Rodgers thinks called him a tactical genius 3 months ago.

When he brought in the 352 again this year, they were all banging on about it. Neville and Carra had a piece on MNF too, I believe.