Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2015/16 (*EVERYONE READ MOD POST in OP)

Knex*

Grayditch wrote: »

The real question today is Fifa or PES.

I've gone PES. Think its fantastic this year, in all honesty.

True test in when I play it with all the lads this weekend, as we've all been FIFA heads in recent times.

I wills say though, there does seem to be button lag when playing online, or rather input delay. That's where FIFA may win.

However, I've had more fun playing offline, and even playing MyClub and stuff online, than I have had in FIFA since about FIFA 13, so its worth it so far for me.

Knex*

Is the game on tv tonight, do ye know folks?

5starpool

Nothing to those Ancelotti rumours I'd imagine. It sounds like typical made up stuff like most transfer rumours.

5starpool

Knex. wrote: »

Is the game on tv tonight, do ye know folks?

Nope. Online scrounging will be needed.

Hangballlouie

5starpool wrote: »

Nothing to those Ancelotti rumours I'd imagine. It sounds like typical made up stuff like most transfer rumours.

I'd tend to agree but the journo who wrote it (Neil Ashton) is a pretty good one, who would have contacts at that level.

MD1990

FSG won't be selling with the stadium being redeveloped & the the huge tv money to come in the 16/17 season.

Tipsy McSwagger

Hangball Doughboy wrote: »

I'd tend to agree but the journo who wrote it (Neil Ashton) is a pretty good one, who would have contacts at that level.

Just had a look there, he retweeted it and didn't write it. Hopefully it's true though.

BMJD

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

If they didn't want to sell then they would take a lot more interest in what is going on on the pitch. What do any owners want? CL football. Especially owners who have put hundreds of millions into the club. Are we going to get CL football this season or anytime in the future with Rodgers in charge, no. FSG will make a massive profit when they do sell, even with what they have invested into the new stand they should make around £500 million.

if that were true, instead of spending over £60m on Benteke and Firmino, they would have instructed Brendan to make do with Balotelli and Markovic

Tipsy McSwagger

BMJD wrote: »

if that were true, instead of spending over £60m on Benteke and Firmino, they would have instructed Brendan to make do with Balotelli and Markovic

Sterling

BMJD

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Sterling

Dollars whatever

still £60+ million they could've pocketed

Hangballlouie

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Just had a look there, he retweeted it and didn't write it. Hopefully it's through though.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3245888/Liverpool-make-contact-Carlo-Ancelotti-pressure-mounts-Brendan-Rodgers.html

He did write it, look at the byline.

Tipsy McSwagger

Hangball Doughboy wrote: »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3245888/Liverpool-make-contact-Carlo-Ancelotti-pressure-mounts-Brendan-Rodgers.html

He did write it, look at the byline.

Sorry, I just looked at his twitter feed. If they make a move for Ancelotti then I could be wrong about them wanting to sell, it would be a massive statement.

Hangballlouie

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Sorry, I just looked at his twitter feed. If they make a move for Ancelotti then I could be wrong about them wanting to sell, it would be a massive statement.

It really is pinch of salt territory but with Ashton writing it, I'm convinced some sort of conversation has happened.

Over the two top managers available on the market, I'd lean towards Carlo, unlikely as it is to happen, cos I really don't see this crowd sacking BR.

Tipsy McSwagger

Hangball Doughboy wrote: »

It really is pinch of salt territory but with Ashton writing it, I'm convinced some sort of conversation has happened.

Over the two top managers available on the market, I'd lean towards Carlo, unlikely as it is to happen, cos I really don't see this crowd sacking BR.

The only issue is whether Ancelotti will come in with no money, a beaten looking squad and 6 games already gone. I can't see it happening to be honest, even though it would be a stunning move.

Harry Palmr

Beaten looking squad.....? Bit harsh on Danny Ings that!

Ancelotti is a chequebook manager, a good one but he has not worked with less than very big budget indeed.

brevity

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Tipsy McSwagger

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Beaten looking squad.....? Bit harsh on Danny Ings that!

I thought I was on your ignore list?

MD1990

bad news Barrett strikes again
https://twitter.com/TonyBarretTimes/status/646609525760520192

jaykay74

MD1990 wrote: »

FSG won't be selling with the stadium being redeveloped & the the huge tv money to come in the 16/17 season.

Surely that would just be factored into any price for the club. Not to say it will be sold but that future earnings wouldn't be a blocker for a current sale.

Grayditch

Ancelotti is probably a dream too far at this stage, unfortunately.

dogbert27

Been on holidays for two weeks, I take it we've bounced back from that blip against West Ham right?

Vicxas

MD1990 wrote: »

bad news Barrett strikes again
https://twitter.com/TonyBarretTimes/status/646609525760520192

Course they would, imagine how that would look if they did and Rodgers wasn't sacked....

flanzer

MD1990 wrote: »

bad news Barrett strikes again
https://twitter.com/TonyBarretTimes/status/646609525760520192

Ah, the dreaded backing of death!

Tipsy McSwagger

Grayditch

It'd be great to be good again.

dogbert27

Could they offer Ancelloti a director of football role?

Knex*

dogbert27 wrote: »

Could they offer Ancelloti a director of football role?

They could.

Doubt he'd accept it, though.

Knex*

Ancelotti blasting out an operatic tenor version of, "You Never Walk Alone", on the sidelines would be gas craic.

monkey9

MD1990 wrote: »

bad news Barrett strikes again
https://twitter.com/TonyBarretTimes/status/646609525760520192

Well they would in fairness.

Agent Coulson

The one thing about Ancelotti is he goes into a club and works with the players that are there and the players he is given so a transfer committee wouldn't bother him.

At Milan he worked under Berlusconi who controlled and brought players into the club on his whim.

At Chelsea he worked under Abramovich who bought players he wanted.

At FSG he worked under a DoF who brought in players.

At Madrid he worked with players brought in by the club president.

rob316

Ancelotti would be able to work fine with this squad, plenty of untapped quality and potential there. The aura around the squad and club immediately changes with a winner like that at the helm.

Boom_Bap

Knex. wrote: »

Ancelotti blasting out an operatic tenor version of, "You Never Walk Alone", on the sidelines would be gas craic.

It might raise a few eyebrow

BeepBeep67

Match on terrestrial / satellite tonight?

googled eyes

BeepBeep67 wrote:

Match on terrestrial / satellite tonight?

I think it's only available on my cable broadband service

Grayditch

Ya can't bate a good ol' quality stream.

brevity

Knex. wrote:

If Ings scores 20 goals for us in the league, I'll change my boards name to whatever is decided by the forum, even if its "I love LVG's Balls"

19 to go...

LuckyLloyd

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The one thing about Ancelotti is he goes into a club and works with the players that are there and the players he is given so a transfer committee wouldn't bother him.

At Milan he worked under Berlusconi who controlled and brought players into the club on his whim.

At Chelsea he worked under Abramovich who bought players he wanted.

At FSG he worked under a DoF who brought in players.

At Madrid he worked with players brought in by the club president.

He also doesn't have any firmly held beliefs in terms of systems or style of play. He seems to be pragmatic and willing to cut his cloth to fit the material available to him. No doubt this role would be a different challenge to what he's had at Milan, Chelsea, PSG and Real but his competitive record and experience would leave me very excited at having him on board. I'd certainly be happy to give an elite manager of his calibre the benefit of the doubt for an extended period of time anyway.

Mr.H

Knex. wrote: »

Ancelotti blasting out an operatic tenor version of, "You Never Walk Alone", on the sidelines would be gas craic.

So you want him to be the pre match entertainer??

Wouldn't you prefer him to be the manager?? :P

rob316

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Match on terrestrial / satellite tonight?

Only satellite channel showing it is BEIN 11, it will be next to impossible to find anything for it.

mormank

Knex. wrote: »

I've gone PES. Think its fantastic this year, in all honesty.

True test in when I play it with all the lads this weekend, as we've all been FIFA heads in recent times.

I wills say though, there does seem to be button lag when playing online, or rather input delay. That's where FIFA may win.

However, I've had more fun playing offline, and even playing MyClub and stuff online, than I have had in FIFA since about FIFA 13, so its worth it so far for me.

I will be eagerly awaiting further updates on this.

mormank

brevity wrote: »

19 to go...

Does his post clarify whether it is 20 goals in the league this season or just 20 goals in the league for us? If not this could get interesting...

Mr.H

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The one thing about Ancelotti is he goes into a club and works with the players that are there and the players he is given so a transfer committee wouldn't bother him.

At Milan he worked under Berlusconi who controlled and brought players into the club on his whim.

At Chelsea he worked under Abramovich who bought players he wanted.

At FSG he worked under a DoF who brought in players.

At Madrid he worked with players brought in by the club president.

He worked for FSG already??? I take it you mean PSG

I have to say I would be very very open to Ancelotti coming in. He is still in his mid 50's surprisingly. Young enough that he could have 10 years here setting up the team and getting it ready for someone like Carra to take over

monkey9

Ancelotti's only won three league titles which is not a good record considering the clubs he's managed over nearly a couple of decades. I wouldn't expect him to perform miracles at Liverpool.

In saying that, I'd love the appointment. We've actually a decent squad. Ancellotti at Liverpool would be an attraction for players looking on, he'd have us seriously competing for Champions League places and he'd certainly know how to deal with European games.

He may even win us a cup or two.

Luckycharms_74

http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2015/09/liverpool-managers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-right-one/

wrote:

by John Gibbons // 22 September 2015


BRENDAN RODGERS received some unlikely backing from commentator John Motson. Motty, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, revealed that he thinks there is a ‘conspiracy’ against the Liverpool manager and that some in the media have an ‘agenda’ against him.

I’m not sure that is quite true. I think if you have a load of bad results, then the pressure builds, whether ‘the media’ are talking about it or not. But it’s interesting that he went on to talk about how Liverpool nearly won the league under Rodgers, a title challenge built on 26 league wins — a figure never bettered in the 25 years since the Reds last won the league.

I think what Motty seems to be suggesting is that Brendan Rodgers is quite a good football manager. Which, of course, he is.

I find myself defending Brendan Rodgers a surprising amount in public, considering I spend so much time in my head moaning about the things he does as Liverpool manager. This isn’t just with people who would rather moan about teeth than tactics, or with people who hilariously want to give him a woman’s name (because you know, female = incompetence), it’s largely with people who don’t want to give him any credit, or praise, whatsoever. People who see it as black and white. When it comes to management, you’re either good or you’re ****e, right?

I don’t think he is a bad manager. Largely because I don’t think any of them are. In the same way I don’t think there are any bad footballers in the Premier League. You, of course, get players who fancy becoming managers who aren’t suitable for it. They generally get found out pretty quickly. Football clubs are unforgiving work places, football grounds even more so. All these group of Premier League managers have generally done well somewhere and then done well somewhere else and then got promoted to manage a Premier League club. They have proved that, in a specific set of circumstances at least, they know what they are doing.

I think it is really hard to compare the abilities of managers, like you do with footballers. They’re either mostly good or mostly good blaggers. I’m fine with either to be honest, as long as we can stop debating it. I don’t want to argue about whether Rodgers is any good any more, because it’s boring and irrelevant. The question shouldn’t be whether he is a good manager. The question should be whether, right now, he is the best manager for Liverpool Football Club.

If we can accept that they are all mostly good, with different strengths, weaknesses and suitability, then we can free our minds to discuss what exactly we want from a football manager — and who out there is the most likely to deliver it. Football fans rarely seem to think like this. For us there is a league table of football managers and you should go out and get the best one you can, regardless of the relevance of their achievements, or failures, in the game. Regardless of whether what you are trying do matches their experiences, good or bad.

As fans we get obsessed with what is deemed fair or deserved. We focus more on what someone has done in the past with what they are likely to do in the future. Football clubs themselves do occasionally buck this trend. In the summer Hull City were relegated, despite investing pretty heavily in a squad that looked pretty talented. Nine times out of ten this would lead to the manager being sacked, if he hadn’t been already. This sacking would be seen as ‘deserved’. The Hull chairman decided that a disappointing season didn’t necessarily mean that Steve Bruce wasn’t the best man to lead them back to the Premier League, and kept him on. They currently look a decent bet to return to the top flight.

Another was at Southampton. There was general uproar when they replaced Nigel Adkins with Mauricio Pochettino after the former had led them to back-to-back promotions to the Premier League. Southampton focused not on what was fair on a man who had achieved so much, but on who was the best manager to take them to where they wanted to be.

Aims and objectives at the football club changed, and a different manager was deemed more suitable. Southampton excelled under Pochettino, while Adkins is currently managing Sheffield United back in League One.

I’m always surprised that no one bats an eyelid when a football club replaces half the playing squad when they go up to the Premier League, yet it is seemingly unthinkable that they will replace their manager.

Some football managers, Neil Warnock for example, are particularly good at getting a club promoted, but not particularly good at keeping them there. Yet they will always be given an opportunity to do so. And yet this is possibly the best time to appoint a new manager — the stock of the club is high and a manager gets a full pre-season and a summer transfer window to impose their system and beliefs, yet clubs would rather wait until they are struggling in December to replace a manager at a worse time because of what is deemed fair and deserved.

Football clubs should constantly assess what they want to achieve, how they think they can achieve it, and whether the current manager of the football club is the most likely person to get them there. This should be informed by the relevant history of a manager, of course, but also what they are likely to do in the future. Their mindset, vision and beliefs. Otherwise, there would be no new managers. No Guardiola. No Dalglish.

I’ve been guilty of thinking in an opposite way myself. In 2010 I marched against the dismissal of Rafa Benitez. I thought it was a disgrace that the crooks running my football club thought they could sack a manager who had won The European Cup.

I thought it was sickening that a manager who had given everything to Liverpool, who had battled with owners and fought for the fans, could be cast aside after one indifferent season. I thought Rafa was the best manager we could get, and I still think I was right. But best in what context?

Was I thinking about who was best in terms of achievements or best to lead us into the 2010-11 season? They aren’t necessarily the same person.
Which leads us to now. I now longer care whether Brendan Rodgers was ready to manage Liverpool in 2012, I only care who is the most ready now. I don’t care if he nearly won the league in 2013-14, only if he is the most likely to win it in 2015-16. I don’t care if he got beat 6-1 at Stoke, only which manager is the most likely to ensure nothing like that happens again.
Is that man Brendan Rodgers? That’s the debate I hope they are having at FSG right now. Forget everything else. Regarding the manager, it’s the only debate that matters

Nerdlingr

monkey9 wrote: »

Ancelotti's only won three league titles which is not a good record considering the clubs he's managed over nearly a couple of decades. I wouldn't expect him to perform miracles at Liverpool.

In saying that, I'd love the appointment. We've actually a decent squad. Ancellotti at Liverpool would be an attraction for players looking on, he'd have us seriously competing for Champions League places and he'd certainly know how to deal with European games.

He may even win us a cup or two.

He's won 15 major titles as manager, including 3 leagues and 3 champions leagues. When's the last time Liverpool had anyone managing them even approaching that level of succes? We'd be lucky to get him.

monkey9

Nerdlingr wrote: »

He's won 15 major titles as manager, including 3 leagues and 3 champions leagues. When's the last time Liverpool had anyone managing them even approaching that level of succes? We'd be lucky to get him.

Ah here, I'm not knocking him. He's a world class manager and we'd be very lucky to get him, I agree. It's because he's so good that three league titles isn't that great. You would just assume he's more league titles.

Nerdlingr

monkey9 wrote: »

Ah here, I'm not knocking him. He's a world class manager and we'd be very lucky to get him, I agree. It's because he's so good that three league titles isn't that great. You would just assume he's more league titles.

Yeah possibly he could have had a few more leagues in 15 or so years as manager. Although if ya look at it another way, he's won a league or CL nearly every two years. He finished second to Juve twice in a row as well.
I'd be delighted if we got him. Moreso than Klopp.

Agent Coulson

MD1990 wrote: »

bad news Barrett strikes again
https://twitter.com/TonyBarretTimes/status/646609525760520192

Tony Barrett article from behind the paywall.

Liverpool may have dismissed speculation about his future but, with the likes of Carlo Ancelotti hovering in the background, the manager must start winning - and quickly
In hindsight, Rafael Benítez can identify the moment when he should have realised that he was about to be replaced as Liverpool manager. In the aftermath of a 1-0 away defeat to Lille in the Uefa Cup, Benitez boarded the team bus to the airport and Christian Purslow, the club’s then chief executive, sat down next to him. As conversation about the game and the forthcoming second leg subsided, Purslow asked him for his thoughts on another manager – Fulham’s Roy Hodgson.
Five months later, Hodgson was confirmed as Benítez’s successor and the Spaniard belatedly realised that he had effectively been asked to provide a reference for the man who took his job. It is an anecdote from the past but one which has resonance today as Brendan Rodgers deals with the reality that there are much more blatant signals that his job is under growing threat. Liverpool might have denied reports that they have approached Carlo Ancelotti but the fact that such speculation has emerged is the latest indication that Rodgers’s position is becoming increasingly precarious. Unfortunately for the Northern Irishman, in the cut-throat business that is top level football, the vultures are now circling. Agents looking for uncertainty to take advantage of, perhaps to get their client a better deal or to flush out interest from other clubs, will look at Liverpool as easy meat. Linking a manager with the Liverpool job has no downside. Not only is Rodgers’s position in question, to such an extent that he is the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Barclays Premier League manager to lose his job, but Liverpool also retains sufficient pulling power to be seen as the kind of club that someone with Ancelotti’s magnificent CV would at least consider.
All Rodgers can do is to carry on as if none of this is happening; believing that he can turn things around and hoping that his employers are not sounding out alternatives, even though his instinct, honed in an industry in which duplicity often comes as standard, will be telling him that it is unrealistic to expect owners of a major football club not to keep their options open. Liverpool have already denied the claims about Ancelotti, which originally emerged in Italy, but even if those reports are inaccurate now, Rodgers will know that should results not improve, it will only be a matter of time before a similar story emerges about another manager and it will be true.
This is the ground that Rodgers now occupies and it is why allowing him to continue as manager beyond the end of last season was always going to be a major gamble by Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool’s owners. The disappointing end to the previous campaign, where Liverpool lost an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa and suffered heavy league defeats to Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Stoke City, could have been sufficient for Rodgers to lose his job but FSG opted to give him one more chance, a display of loyalty the downsides of which they are now discovering.
It was always going to take just one further serious setback for Rodgers’s position to be placed in jeopardy again. That it came so early in the season, with West Ham United’s first win at Anfield since 1963, means that FSG are already wrestling with the idea of having to make a managerial change that they had passed up on only a matter of months earlier. The situation is further complicated by the backing that they afforded Rodgers during the summer, when seven players were recruited for a combined cost in the region of £80 million. Could they really dispense with the services of a manager in those circumstances?
The answer to that question is that Rodgers’ future will be dictated by forthcoming results. Ideally, FSG would like to persevere with the man they appointed as manager three years ago, primarily because they shared a philosophy, for at least the rest of this season. That limited ambition, though, has come under mounting strain in recent weeks and it has been telling that FSG made no attempt to remove uncertainty about Rodgers’s future following defeats to West Ham and Manchester United in stark contrast to last season, when losses to Crystal Palace and Stoke were greeted with strong assurances that the manager’s position was not in any doubt.
In the current atmosphere, one of high uncertainty and growing supporter disenchantment, Rodgers will have to get used to other managers being linked with his job. It may be unedifying and it may be contrary to the spirit of managerial solidarity, but Rodgers’s plight is going to be exploited by others, including those who have no interest in succeeding him because they realise the scale of the rebuilding job at Anfield.
The only way he can stop this from happening is by winning football matches, and enough of them to ensure that the kind of speculation he is experiencing shifts to another manager. If there is one consolation, it is that if anyone at Liverpool asks him for his opinion on Hodgson, previous events dictate that it could only possibly be an innocent enquiry.

Scale of rebuilding job!!

MD1990

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The one thing about Ancelotti is he goes into a club and works with the players that are there and the players he is given so a transfer committee wouldn't bother him.

At Milan he worked under Berlusconi who controlled and brought players into the club on his whim.

At Chelsea he worked under Abramovich who bought players he wanted.

At FSG he worked under a DoF who brought in players.

At Madrid he worked with players brought in by the club president.

never kew Ancelotti worked with FSG before:P

Knex*

brevity wrote: »

19 to go...

Bollocks :pac: