Wednesday, December 19, 2012

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“The Demands of the Job”

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 07:38 PM PST

When Rafa Benitez was forced out of the club, there was a name at the top of many people’s lists and it wasn't Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish, or Brendan Rodgers.
It was Owen Coyle.

He’d gotten promoted with a Burnley side playing decent footy.
He’d kept playing decent footy in the Prem and kept them up.
Then he left them to go to Bolton, and took a side that basically played Stoke/Allardyce type footy and got them playing like… well, like Burnley, (who were almost immediately relegated.)

Coyle took a bruising up-n-under Bolton side, got them playing decent footy, in a very comfortably upper mid-table bracket, and even took them to an FA Cup semi-final.
Coyle’s name was being lauded throughout England. He even won a few manager-of-the-month awards.
His style and his personality were praised, and in hushed (and not so hushed) tones he was being linked with managerial posts at the top clubs in England.
This included a significant enough number of our own fans wanting Owen Coyle to replace Rafa Benitez.

Then it all went pear shaped.
Bolton went down.
..and languished at the bottom of the Championship… whereupon… Owen Coyle was fired by Bolton.
Now the odd thing is… the clamor from Premiership clubs for his services disappeared. And I'm not talking about Arsenal, United, Chelsea or Liverpool… I'm talking about teams that regularly change their manager (oops… I actually am talking about Chelsea and Liverpool, but I think you know what I meant.)

Now please understand…. This IS NOT an anti-Brendan blog. It isn't.
I stand behind him. I continue to support him as Liverpool Manager. And I think calling for his head right now is Bang Out of Order.

And I’m not comparing Brendan Rodgers to Owen Coyle directly… but really, prior to coming to LFC, Rodgers achievements last season were no greater than were Owen Coyle’s 4 or 5 years ago.
The big argument (from most) for giving Brendan the job was not what he had done at Swansea, but what he could perhaps do with "His Swansea system"… at a bigger club with more resources and a better group of players.
… the important part of that being “more resources and better group of players”.

but simply put… it was a big gamble …coz he doesn’t really have either.
Sure it could be argued that he’s got half a dozen players that are "better than Swansea" players… but the rest of the squad is nothing but inexperienced potential and faded glory at this point… exactly the kind of squad "you'd expect to see at a Swansea".
(caveat: we "could" be better than that description, but right now, we just aren't.)

In a lot of ways I feel sorry for Brendan. He was offered a poisoned chalice.
But this is the crux of the problem now…
Imagine for just a moment if Rafa, after having battled on all fronts for 5 years, had just stuck it out for a few more months?
Not coz he was the bee-all-end-all of football management… but because he KNEW football, so did all the people in the various coaching positions throughout the club, his assistants, the Reserves, the recently restructured academy.
The 3 guys that didn't know footy… John Henry, Tom Werner, and Christian Fuckin Purslow. (Ian Ayre knows footy, but he's not a "footy man", he's just a businessman who knows a bit about the game.)

The result of that decision was some very serious short-term damage… but even at that, it could have been reversed.
But it wasn't reversed. FSG didn't know enough about football to know that they had just bought a football club that wasn't being run by football professionals.
They didn't know enough to realize the guy that got fired was the guy that should have stayed… the guy whose advice they so sorely needed…
… and that the guys remaining… the guys advising them about all matters football… actually knew fuck all about football (and as has certainly been proven… what makes a good football player.)

Instead of an organization with a solid structure of footballing knowledge base…
… they got an organization run by two guys with game controllers in their hands and competent scores on Fifa pro.
… and Roy Hodgson…

In all honesty… I felt sorry for FSG for about 6 months… but I think they've had ample opportunity to learn the realities of the Premiership and football in general, and even more specifically what LFC is (or should be) all about… and simply put…
… they haven't… they just haven't.
They've been like a small, silver metal ball-bearing, lumbering from bumper to bumper in a pinball game… scoring a hit on the 1000 bumper once or twice, but mostly hitting the 100 bumper, and slipping between the flippers.
And so… instead of correcting mistakes… they've continued to make them… compounding the initial damage while adding damage all of their own doing.

If they want on-field success then they need to get their shit sorted and right quick.
If however, they just need a solid, upper-mid-table asset with a decent financial turnover, then it's us fans that need to get our shit sorted and come to terms with top earners leaving the club, to be replaced by promising youngsters, who will eventually be sold on for a profit…
… like fans of the Once Mighty, European Cup winning, League Topping Aston Villa… a fallen giant, who can still occasionally go to a top club and beat them 3-0.

Their first transfer window saw them sell 2 players for £58 million and buy 2 for players £53million.
Their second transfer window saw them offload 38 players to bring in 9 players for £120 million
Its fair enough to complain about the value we got for that money… but it fuckin annoys me no end when people ignore the 38 player exodus that financed the "£120 million spending spree". Some dead weight on ludicrous wages went in that window… but some promising young players and a certain Raul Meireles went also.
Its also annoying as fuck to see blame laid on one person for what was clearly an institutional collection of fuckups.
(I'm referring to all decisions and players there. I don't know what we pay Downing, but I'm fairly sure we'd have been better off paying some of it to Raul to keep him here.)

In the same way, whatever the actual ins-n-outs of the Dempsey saga… I'm pretty sure it wasn't all Ayre's fault.
We inquired about Siggurdson, then fucked him off for the price tag and wage demands. (supposedly)
We inquired about Dempsey, then fucked him off for the price tag and wage demands. (supposedly)
Yet, we spunked £11 million on Borini who's initial price tag was (according to Jenn Chang) less than £8million. (and rose due to rumor leaks as opposed to any real valuation???) (supposedly)
And £15 million on Allen whose initial price was £12. (supposedly)

So what the fuck is our transfer policy?
We won't be held to ransom for a player?
Or
We'll gladly overpay for one?
And whose decision was it to let Andy go? Coz there seems to be some conflict on that as well?

I know some always want to wade in with "Dempsey isn't pulling up trees at Spurs" or "Andy has been injured all season at Wet Spam" or "Gylfi couldn't score in a brothel with a case full of cash"
And there's some validity to such comments… individually they are discussion to have…
But it does cloud the discussion of what was behind the decisions at the time.
We courted Dempsey, we tapped him up… it wasn't a case of Ayre hopping on his bike and doing an Easy Rider when he should have been working the phone.
And frankly I think that has bearing on the "buy British policy" and the decision to spend £35million on Andy Carroll, or value Downing at £20 million, or let a £6 million Charlie Adam leave for only £3.5million to the first bidder… and NOT see the value in the likes of Demba Ba or Michu before anyone else did.
… coz you know… our current targets are Thomas Ince and Danny Sturridge?
Our "tranfer policy" and just Who is in charge of it are unanswered questions.
January should be quite interesting?

So to return to my opening point…
…decisions have been made and we went from a proven Winner of top trophies, to a proven winner of 3rd tier trophies and mid-table security, to a semi-retired Winner of top Trophies, to a Bloke that did alright in Wales.

That might be terribly unfair on Brendan Rodgers… but in all honesty we simply do not know if it is or it isn't.

A frustrating element of recent results… wins, draws and embarrassing loss… is the manner of the performances… in that… after initial progress made in implementing "possession football" even when results weren’t going well, it appears that Rodgers has somewhat turned his back on what he was trying to achieve…
…. And he now seems to have reverted back to the core of the squad from last year, playing quick, long balls up to the forwards…er forward… er midfielder masquerading as a forward…
Only one player from the side that started against Aston Villa was a Brendan Rodgers sigining… Joe Allen.
So for all the drum-banging trumpeting of a youth policy playing total/possession/death-by football… in terms of the sides development… have we now stalled?
(and did we perhaps need to, in order to progress beyond the weak start?)

Where was Assaidi against Villa… surely it makes more sense to play this kid against a weak Villa defense given that he did reasonably well against a fairly strong Udinese defense?
Adam Morgan was the sole striker against our pre-season opposition, and was given a run out in early Europa games… if you want to see what a kid can do… in a side that has only one recognized (sort of) striker… surely the defenses of Aston Villa, Sunderland, Southampton, Reading and QPR, are where you find out?

Nah… fuck that… put Downing at left-back and bring Cole off the bench to change a game…. Whatever you do, don't have Suso or Pacheco handy on the bench… 3 defenders makes more sense???
I'm trying to give Brendan the benefit of the doubt… it is very early doors yet… but fuck me lad.

And someone explain this to me…
When Lucas was injured we played Allen in the holding role… not Henderson.
…and when Hendo did get a game, it was either alongside Allen, or pushed in front of him.
But in the two games Lucas has played… the player who replaced him from the bench has been…err…. Henderson… with Allen playing further forward.

Ah shit… that sounds very Anti-Brendan… and I don't mean it to be… as much as I'm trying to "stay all cerebral" about where we are… I'm feeling as frustrated as many of you are.
(Although there are a few that continue to fly the "4 bells and all's well" flag. Kudos to youz even when I do disagree.)

I think we made a big mistake firing Kenny.
I think we put all our money on the green zero when we hired Brendan.
Maybe it'll prove one helluva a bet and bring in the big rewards that such bets sometimes do???
I hope so… I hope I'm proved wrong on both points… I really do.

We simply do not have a choice but to hold fast and "let it ride" now.
Another managerial change at this juncture or in the summer (unless the wheels really do come off in spectacular fashion) could be catastrophic, in a way that will eclipse our previous 3 managerial changes.

The owners need to back Rodgers, and buy who he wants… regardless of a million here or a million there.
And get our targets sorted. No more promising youth, we need proven players.
Rodgers responsibility is to pick the right targets (if he's the one doing so.)

It was all well and good as a financial philosophy cutting Kuyt, Bellamy and Maxi… and even Carroll… from the wage bill…
… but cutting them from the squad (the team actually rather than the squad, which makes it even worse) without competent replacements, was unforgivable and frankly criminal.
Assaidi and Borini were players you ADD to the above names, not replacements for them.
It is part and parcel of why we are where we are.
Goals left… and they never came in.

And AS important … we need to show the "top players left in the squad" that they haven't made a mistake extending their contracts.

For those keeping score…

Our reality is…We’ve played 29 games so far and we’ve got the same number of wins as the last 29 games last year, the difference is 4 draws more and 5 goals less scored.
…and that playing the "much vaunted possession" style of play that was supposed to make all the difference from last year… the style that people would be "happy to see regardless of results"
…and yet two things remain unchanged…
…the on-field outcome remains largely unchanged…
…as it appears do the (albeit yet muted but beginning to grow) calls for a manager's head.

2 blogs back, I listed 7 fixtures as "not too many games that could not be described as a must win" They were Reading, Anzhi, Everton, Swansea, Newcastle, Anzhi, Chelsea…
… they yielded 2 wins, 3 draws, 2 Losses

In the last blog I listed the next 8 fixtures, reiterating the suggestion that most of them were "must win". They were Wigan, Young Boys, Swansea, Spurs, Southampton, Udinese, West Ham, Aston Villa…
… they yielded 4 wins, 2 Draws, 2 Losses

I'm hoping that trend continues, coz the next 8 fixtures are:
Fulham(h) Stoke (a) QPR (a) Sunderland (h) Mansfield (FAC-a) Mancs (a) Norwich (h) Arsenal (a)

… in my opinion, we need at least 6 wins out of that lot…
…or its gonna be a long season

Monday, November 19, 2012

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“Un – titled”

Posted: 18 Nov 2012 04:35 PM PST

by Aitch

NB: Post written before Saturday’s win over Wigan.

I'm not really sure where to start this blog.
I'm trying to get over being "comfortably numb" but with each passing week of the campaign, the numbness sets further.

I'd love to get excited over something… you know, besides naughtyschoolgirls .com… but I just don't seem to be able to.
I need some footy viagra or something.
Some sort of pill or perhaps sports drink, that will keep me excited for four months, but come with a warning to seek medical attention should I find myself still sporting footy wood come May.

And I know it's not just me. I've read similar comments on various MBs, and the 200 emails per week I used to exchange with my mates, discussing all manner of LFC related issues, has now dwindled to a meager trickle, that is largely driven by a weekly results predictor league we continue to engage in, with barely any post-match analysis, player rating, or general comment.

I'd love to have the passion of opinion, on any of the pros or cons of LFC 2012, that I have had with previous incarnations of the club… but I just don't right now.

I hear people waxing lyric over our newfound passing system, and I think… what?
Have we not always been a passing team?
Did you not watch us under Rafa?
Did you simply choose to ignore (consciously or otherwise) Kenny's first 12 months and concentrate only on whatever that last 6 months was?
… or even the almost complete ignoring of how often we seem to be carelessly and in many cases, needlessly giving the ball away in this new "possession centric passing game".
But I find myself not really caring to make such an argument.

And I hear people talking about how good we're playing now and how a striker would solve all our ills.
… but we've actually created fewer goalscoring chances than at this point last season.
… he says making an argument…

"Ah but we're creating better chances" I actually read one lad argue in another forum.
Which is a bit strange considering we'd hit the woodwork about 15 times at this point last season, and have only done so 4 times this campaign… so in actual fact, not only are we creating fewer chances, but our shooting accuracy is deteriorating also.
… which is once again, engaging in the argument…
… but I hardly feel like pressing these or any other points these days.

Let me interject here and state categorically that this is in no way an attempt to convey a message of discontent with the current manager.
At this point, as at the moment of his hiring, I continue to be 100% behind Brendan Rodgers and what he is trying to do.

My first few entries as guest blogger in Gerry's absence caused a few ruffled feathers
Okay, they asked pointed questions… about the club… and of the fanbase… but while we've gone through considerable change since then, I'm not convinced yet that it is considerable improvement to be honest.

We are in the virtually same League position as we were 2 years ago under Hodgson..
…granted we aren't spending 45 minutes camped out in our own half against the Mancs, or considering a point at Birmingham some sort of "historic result or achievement…
… And I hear all the hope, and recognize the signs that point to the potential for progress as the season continues…
… but I don't yet see anything that suggests that as a likelihood we can count on.

For my money, LFC's situation is as much in-flux as it was.
And for all the "mistakes of the past" …frankly… we've continued to make mistakes in the now.

In some ways the club is now "more stable" since the new owners are actual businessmen, rather than cigar smoking pretenders to that title.
But I am under no illusion that John Henry and Co bought us for no other reason than that we were an undervalued asset which could be stabilized fairly easily, and flipped at some point for a profit.
I'm seriously at a loss to understand why anyone thinks otherwise?
And on many levels, I suppose that's fine… but we've ceded any pretense of a title challenge, and much pretense of an actual top 4 challenge in the process.
Too many in our fanbase, in lauding this idea of a "self-sustaining club" seem to be ignoring what that means in terms of practical league position and squad personal… especially when starting from the "depressed position" we were in.

In their first transfer window they made a "statement of intent".
All I can say about that is "thank fuck Luis Suarez was part of that statement, coz every other word of it was a fuckin disaster."
…and frankly… the "statement" was a bit of a boondoggle really.
Maybe it wouldn't have been had they spent better, or more wisely… but it is what it is… and what it was, was a boondoggle… riding on a sea of euphoria over the "just in the nick of time" termination of G&H's disastrous regime and the headlines of "record signing"… it looked for all the world like we were back and competing.

But we weren't… we sold a piece of the family's best silver to do those deals. There was no investment from the owners.

In the subsequent transfer window they again made what many thought to be "a statement of intent".
…120 million quids worth.
Impressive… but that figure obscured for many the actual numbers …which involved 30+ players leaving the club to finance that shopping spree.
And again… the failures of the new signings are there for all to see and argue about incessantly… and boy do we all love such arguments…
… but it conveniently steers us from looking at the men behind the curtain… who once again sunk none of their own money into the transfers… player sales, tv money and sponsor revenues covered the deals.
Decisions certainly could have been better. Money better spent. But it wasn't.

And only one man paid the price for decisions that were made not by him alone, but by committee of him, Comolli, Ayre and FSG.
I know some people don't want to hear that.

The voices blaming Rafa were loud and clear… but we now KNOW beyond doubt that the poor bastard was crawling through a sewer of bullshit during his time at the club…
… that he kept us competitive for all but one season is testament to his ability…
…but people chose to look only at his final season.
Some continue to do this to this day… and call themselves… well… I won't go there.

I remember a discussion with a good friend of mine at the time.
He wasn't particularly anti-Rafa, but he had at that point allowed all the anti-Rafa arguments to sink in enough to the point where he had simply concluded that perhaps Rafa needed to go for the good of the club… coz we needed unification.
While I disagreed with his conclusion, I accepted how he had come to it…. how could you not at that point…
…but I suggested that it wasn't Rafa that was dividing us… it was G&H and all their shenanigans… with Rafa the one without a seat when the music stopped.
He now accepts the folly of that decision… and the road it has led us down.

Now bare with me here… coz I need to make a point about Kenny to get us current.

I know I'll not change anyone's mind about Kenny Dalglish.
I think as much as with Rafa, there's little to no middle ground with Kenny.
Hodgson should never have been thought about, never considered for the position, and anyone who thought it was a good idea should frankly be embarrassed. When England fail in their endeavours, he will be fired and immediately hired by whatever mid-table club needs to stay mid-table, or whatever 3rd rate foreign team thinks he might be able to give them a shout at a title in a Championship grade league. That is who he is. Like Allardyce, like Curbishley, like "insert name of managers who are always employed below the surface" here.
Hodgson's dismissal was righting a ludicrous wrong.
But like Rafa, you either think Kenny's dismissal was a mistake, or you think it was the right thing to do.

Understand… it is not that I don't understand the arguments for Kenny's dismissal.
I do.
I just don't think they outwayed the arguments for allowing him to continue.
And more importantly I think the decision set precedent for the current manager.

The man was in charge for 18 months. The football we played in that time was successful for 12 months and "unsuccessful" (coz cups don't count) for 6 months… and so he had to go.
Under his stewardship (completely ignoring the DoF experiment) we wasted 120 million in the transfer market…. So he had to go.
Under his management the quality of football went backwards in the last 6 months… confirming the hypothesis that it would continue to regress into this season… again ignoring victories over Stoke and Everton en-route to the FA Cup Final, and a 4-1 romping of the Chavs.

Again… I'm not discounting the utter shame of losing embarrassingly to Swansea in the last game of the season… what I have a problem with is the ignoring of the games mentioned above, and as many others for every negative result/performance, in order to draw the conclusion that we were regressing unequivocally and therefore a change was needed.

I do think a change was needed. In fact, I think 2 changes were needed.
First… the removal of Damien Comolli as DoF and the termination of that experiment… Second… the replacement of Ian Ayre as Top Executive.
Ayre was a fine transitionary appointment from the debacle that was Christian Purslow… but he's a fuckin lightweight of a CEO (in and of himself, let alone in comparison to the Execs at other top clubs.)

Which brings me to where we are.

The change was made.
Brendan Rodgers was installed… and the DoF was scrapped.
Sounds good.
Ian Ayre kept his job… which was not so great… (but I will concede that given the number of heads that rolled in the summer, we needed "some" stability, so maybe that justifies saving him?)

I gotta say that regardless of how well or not "certain players" did last season… the almost cynical culling of Kenny's signings was slightly alarming…
… not coz they were world beaters… but simply coz we didn't really "replace" them with players who were clearly and unequivocally better.
Some will want to argue that X player is better than Y player… the arguments are there to make for and against all exiting and entering players… but the fact is… only Joe Allen was considerably better than the player he directly replaced (either Spearing or Adam depending on your point of view).

And again, don't get me wrong, I like the look of some of the new lads. Assaidi for instance looks promising, as does Sahin (though we only borrowed him.)
…And I love that we are promoting kids… but you get what you get with kids… real talent shown occasionally, brain farts of concentration lapses shown also… and inexperience of decision making…
… and then there's the burnout factor.

Andre "Norman" Wisdom has to be one of the best right backs we've produced since Rob Jones. He has looked immense in some games. But he's also looked really tired in the last few.

As much as I love watching Sterling, defenders have seen enough of him now to know that you double-team him, you don't let him get a run on you, and if necessary, you simply muscle him off the ball… I fear for his continued fitness… and that is a two-pronged fear…
…first…in that young players are still physically developing and can easily be ruined by the weekly intensity of the prem (let alone getting called up midweek for England… seriously… there were no senior players, so you had to call on a kid???)…
…and second… in the likelihood of some fuckin thug like Shawcross simply twatting him so as not to look like a nutmegged dickhead.

And even the revelation that is Joe Allen has looked a bit dodgy the last couple of games.

While some of these lads do look like they might be able to last the season… we've already seen a few of the others clearly show they can't be relied on for 38 + the cups.
How much better would it have been to hold onto Spearing to give Allen a break in the Carling Cup for instance?

And so to the "bit of a poisoned chalice" that I think Brendan Rodgers has been sold.

It was my one defense of Roy Hodgson.
He was sold the LFC manager's job, and probably promised all sorts of players and control… who wouldn't take it? Then when he got here, he probably thought… "fuckin 'ell, this is what Benitez was dealing with? These guys are fuckwits. No wonder he "had a rant" and "left by mutual consent."
(he was still a fuckin pratt, mind you J )

The 2012 Summer's business can't yet be classed a clear cut failure…
… we singed a few good young lads. If they fulfill their promise, there's a squad to build on… but they must be given more than one season to prove themselves…
… but build on it we must.

Say what you want about Clint Dempsey. He would have been a very useful tool.
And useful tools often cost 6 million.
I don't give a fuck about all the he said-she said that has been printed about that transfer…
What I "know" is that FSG posted an article on their own website announcing his signing in July. So they MUST have been more than marginally interested in buying him.
…meaning this was NOT a last minute cock-up.

The price at that time was being rumored at 10 million quid.
A good friend of mine rates Dempsey quite highly. He was a happy camper when that "rumor" surfaced. And we subsequently had a discussion about his acquisition.
He argued we needed him. I argued he'd be useful, but not at 10 million. Maybe if we could get him for between 4 and 6 million that would represent good business, especially with the TV show and U.S. shirt sales to consider. He agreed.
So there it was. In July… Dempsey for 6 million. Fair Enough.
Then we fuckin haggled them and rejected 6 million???
Just exactly how much did they think he was gonna cost when they posted that article in July??? He was their leading goalscorer for fucks sake.
He was never gonna cost less than 6 million.
Whatever the "truth" of this saga… someone… somewhere… got it badly wrong.
Some blame Ayre. Some FSG.
And frankly… questions have to be asked about this idea that Brendan demanded transfer say over a DoF system, yet basically didn't have say over this deal and the Carrol loan that was perhaps part of it?
Not because of those deals… but because it speaks to any future transfers.

To clarify my point…
Any judgment of Brendan Rodgers… and there is going to be judgment… must include this continued backstage wrangling…
… the fuckin bollocks we thought we'd left behind us when G&H were ousted…
… but which has proved, with every transfer window, to be still a big and continuing part of our incessant tendency to fuck-up!
(I await a call requesting a private meeting with Jackie Chan wherein I'll be "warned" to ease up on FSG, or else)

We must back Brendan Rodgers. We must back him 100%.
6 months is not enough to judge. 1 season is not enough to judge.
These time-frames 'inform" our opinions… but if such information is used to conclude that "he's not good enough" and we make yet another managerial change in the summer, then be under no illusion… we will be lucky if we are in the position of getting one last chance to "get it right" …or be mired in mid-table for a decade.

Whatever BR's plan is… we must stick to it… but part of sticking to that plan… is investment.

If we are to be nothing more than a "self-sustaining" club… then we will not win the Prem.
We are starting from too eroded a position… and we now have too many "rivals" trying to buy it.
If we are to be nothing more than a "self-sustaining" club… then a Top Four finish is going to be increasingly out of our grasp… certainly in terms of finishing there season after season… since the competition is stronger for those spots… and the competition for the 5th through 8th spots is also stronger.
If we are to be nothing more than a "self-sustaining" club… then cup wins, let alone runs, will be increasingly rare.

Ask yourself… what club outside the "top 5 or 6" has consistently… consistently… run to at least the semi's of one or both cups, every season?
Or even 3 out of 6 seasons.
The answer is… Not many.

This is the position we are now in. And the fault does NOT all lie at Kenny Dalglish's door.

And the fault does not all lie at FSG's door either. They picked up a company in great disrepair. That is what they do.
G&H were like Bain Capital … people who strip mine companies of its assets… then sell off what's left, or bankrupt it if that is more profitable.
FSG will eventually flip us. But flippers make money by improving the asset to be worth more than it was.
Unfortunately for us… we weren't worth much.
Fortunately for them… we weren't worth much, so they've already made us worth more.

What I mean by that is…LFC's worth existed in its salvage, rather than in what it was. Coz G&H left us in more disrepair than any of us really knew… even those of us with too much fuckin time on our hands, who troll the internet for any tidbits of information we can get about these matters.

LFC's worth is in its "global brand" and that "global brand" is worth only what it's "global appeal" is.
But it's a Catch 22…
…coz your "global appeal" is based on winning things.
Yes that means the Prem and the CL… those are the big ones… but the small cups keep you relevant too. The ones that don't matter are still "Finals" and "Finals" are "Big News" … broadcast to a worldwide viewing audience…
We need to be in them AS we work our way back to the top…. To stay relevant … To attract talent… To make us more competitive, so we CAN work our way back to the top.
These things are stepping-stones to success, rather than success themselves… but they count in the march to success.

This is gonna require investment… beyond a "self-sustaining" 30-40 million per window.
And we have few precious salable assets left… Suarez, Pepe, Agger, Skrtel…
Can we afford to lose any of them… really?
(Amid rumors of a bid for Suarez, I'm more concerned that it'll be Pepe leaving us in January.)
If we were still comfortably "top 4" and selling and replacing… that would be one thing…
… but we're not…
We're a team that finished 7th, 6th, and 8th and is currently in 13th place with 12 points from 11 games… and with our next game against 14th placed Wigan.

I am behind Brendan Rodgers… and anyone even remotely thinking about a managerial change at this point needs to check that shit, big time, stow their fuckin wishy-washy, lean which way the wind blows, not good enough for mentality and get the fuck on board.

Analyze what your seeing.
Criticize decisions.
Rate players.
By all means analyze and rate Rodgers… but do us all the courtesy of agreeing that he absolutely MUST get what Kenny did not… regardless of results, or league position… TIME.

I am not particularly impressed by our passing stats, nor our possession stats.
I'm not particularly sold on the idea that "this system" will work.
But I do recognize that we do not have the players (or not enough of them anyway) to properly implement this system to any real effect just yet.

If you think Lucas would have made a difference, you're right. But I seriously doubt it would have made a 12point difference.
The same can be said of buying Dempsey or keeping Carroll.

But all 3… fit and available each week?
Maybe, just maybe, that could make a 6point difference or even a 9point difference.

We need a helluva lot more than just "a striker in January".
This squad still needs a top striker, 2 top wide players, at least a 2nd tier DM, a quality "hole player" and a fuckin Top Quality LEFT BACK… coz Enrique ain't it, and neither is Johnson… and while Robinson might be "a little engine that could" and could become a good left back, he's not even on the same level as Wisdom over on the right.

That's six players… and not Borini's or Assaidis… we need better than that…
…Get those and we'd have a "decent squad that could consistently compete" for the top ¼ of the Table… regardless of manager.

Until then…Brendan will keep huffing and puffing.
He'll keep the lads passing and passing… and passing… and passing… (…and passing… sorry couldn't resist)
… and maybe occasionally we'll switch to probing… and win a few.
And earnestly… the kids will try their best, and sometimes that'll be good enough, and sometimes that won't.
And hopefully, enough of the senior lads won't decide "fuck this I want Champions League" and Brendan will be able to ADD to them, rather than REPLACE them.

Until then… we'll "expect" to pick up 3 points against Wigan, when realistically, we no longer have the right to such "expectation".
…we'll "expect" to bag 3 points against Young Boys, when they've just showed that such an "expectation" would be, at the very least, ill-advised.
…we'll "expect" January signings of strength and note… and not at the cost of an established pro… when we've been given little evidence to suggest that will transpire.

…we will Hope that…
… Luis stays fit and suspension free…
… that Sterling doesn't get injured…
…. that Wisdom doesn't burn out…
… that Allen finds his consistency again…
… that SG is still capable of more than 1 good game in 3…
… and that whatever Enrique is eating or drinking, he continues to eat or drink it, (same for Jamie C.) J
… and we will hope that somehow, Brendan finds some precious points from somewhere, be it Wigan, Swansea, Spurs, Southampton, West Ham, Aston Villa… with at least one of Young Boys and Udinese, a must win, in there too.

Those are the next 7 matches… (5 league games… 2 Europa Leagues.)

To end the last blog I listed our upcoming fixtures and premised that it didn't contain too many games that weren't "must win"
Reading, Anzhi (EL), Everton, Swansea (LC), Newcastle, Anzhi (EL), Chelsea
2 wins, 3 Draws, 2 Lost

We NEED to fair better in the next 7 than we did in that 7.
The thing is… I used to always have "confidence" we would… now I only "hope" we do.
And some of you will think that hope is a good thing, perhaps the best of things.
I want to side with you, I really do, but at the moment, I'm a Red and I think hope might be a dangerous thing to have in a place like this.
(see what I did there? J )

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

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“Twelve Angry Me…at Pies”

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:27 AM PDT

By Aitch

No… this is not a blog about the outrageous prices of meat pies at various grounds throughout the UK.
The things journalists get fuckin narked about is really rather embarrassing.

Seven games into a league season is no time to judge…
As fans though, we simply can't help ourselves really… there's an almost pathological, ingrained desperation on our parts to do so.
But there's little to be gained from such judgments at this stage.

It was often said during the latter half of last season, that… and I'm paraphrasing in spite of the quotes… "we wouldn't mind losing, if only we were playing good football and seeing progress".

I'd imagine the people who said that are looking at the development of young players and thinking they got what they wanted.
I'd imagine the people who disputed the idea are looking at the unforced errors, continued (even if it is now being described as a "transitional ball") use of the long ball, defensive mistakes, goals conceded, fewer goals scored from far, far fewer goalscoring "chances" and thinking… hmmm… this is progress?
I'd imagine many are mulling around in the middle.

For sure it is great to see a Sterling playing over a Vorronin, and you can definitely see the kernel of an effective controlling/passing game emerging…
… but you can also see many of the same problems we've had for several seasons now, either raising their heads, or at least bubbling just under the surface.

It has been talked about in terms of a "transition season"
… but a transition to what?

I recently asked a friend the following question…
Do you think we are still a Top 4 team?
It sparked an interesting discussion about what that really means.

Let me explain.
Of course, being a "Top 4" team, means simply to finish in the top 4 places in the league…
… currently Everton sit in 4th place.
But even if they could hang on to that spot for the duration of the season, would that make them a "Top 4" team?

LFC have finished outside the top 4 spots now for 3 seasons.
So technically it is a bit rich for us to be still referring to ourselves as a "Top 4" contender…
But along with final standing, there are other factors to consider…
….things like UEFA rankings, our continued membership among the elite, decision-making clubs of Europe, our worldwide fanbase, (which still sees almost all of our games televised, at least here in the States, while only a handful of, for example, Spurs or Everton's are) and finally, a combination of our History and financial might (even while both of which have taken hits in recent years.)

…So while we haven't been among the "top 4" for a few seasons now… I do still think we are a "Top 4" team… in spite of the last 3 seasons!
My point is… such a team can survive 3 or 4 seasons outside the Top 4 spots… but 5 or 6 and the patient is in serious trouble.

Of course, there's a slightly separate, but certainly related argument now, with the emergence of Man City and to a lesser degree Spurs, that involves the idea that the "traditional" competition for the top 4 spots, is now a more closely contested competition of the Top 6 spots…
I'd somewhat agree with that… (but we will still discuss it as "top 4" due to the CL spots.)
(We are currently looking like the 7th team in that list, and Newcastle may join the ranks as an 8th team, but that remains to be seen… I can't see Everton sustaining their start to be honest, and even if they do have a good season, I doubt its indicative of a resurgence and without investment, they could as easily be contesting relegation again next season.)

So the question then becomes… are we still a part of that group… that "top 4" group?
…are we barely hanging to that "top 4" group's coattails?
… have we fallen to more of a "top 6/8" group status?
…are we barely hanging onto the "top 6/8 group's coattails?
And depending on your answers… the question then becomes…

What are we in transition from?
And what are we in transition to?

These are not easy questions… coz our History weighs heavy upon them.
…and I think this has largely been at the core of the majority of disagreements over the last 4 seasons among the fans.

The idea that a Manager who had won Number 5, taken us close to Number 6, along with 2 CL semis, did not have the 100% support (in as much as any manager can) of the fans coz we'd dropped outside the Top 4 spots once in 5 years surely says something?

But the decision to remove that man, set off a chain of decisions that saw us tumble from those heady heights…
… and while some have sheepishly run from their opinions of those days, in the full realization of the realities of the day, some people still don't realize just how fuckin good we had it!

From my viewpoint… I don't think this season is a transition back to those heady days.
The summer's decisions simply do not bare that out.

It seemed to me that there was an acceptance that we were, if not a "fallen giant", at the very least we were a stumbling one…
…. and that we are now looking to transition back to solidifying ourselves as a 5th/6th place team this season…
(A viewpoint that should perhaps have been in place last summer rather than this?)
… with the hope of building back to Top 4 finishes perhaps the following season.
Of course… January and next summer will almost need to be flawless and error free, for that to happen… and I'm not entirely confident in that happening.

There's a mentality" element to it all, as well as a physical one.

So anyway, here we are… playing "new football" in a "new season" with "new personnel" under a "new manager" with a "new philosophy"…
… at least we won't be doing it in a new stadium…

Seven games into a season IS too early to judge where we are, or where we're going.
The record so far does make for a sobering read…
In the Premier League we have:
One win, Three Draws and Three Losses… 6 points from a possible 21

In all games played (including cups and friendlies) the math reads…
Six Wins, Six Draws and Six Losses… or the equivalent of 24 points from a possible 54

Now none of that necessarily means anything… the babies are only just out of nappies and learning to walk…
Some will say we are playing some great football… and we are…
… but we are playing some poor footy too, making errors and conceding goals.
… not unlike last season actually…
Ultimately stats are numbers that could be a harbinger of doom…
… or they could simply be the teething pains en route from puree to a Prime Rib and chips.

So at the very least…. I'm hoping for a transition to some meat paste and mashed potatoes in the coming weeks…
We host Reading this weekend, followed by Anzhi in the Europa, then Everton on their patch, and then Swansea in the Carling.
Three of those games are gonna be tough fixtures, given that Anzhi are the Russian Chavs, Everton are, well, Everton, and Swansea are Brendan's former team, so both sides will have something of a point to prove.
Not an easy October.

A busy November sees us host Newcastle, then travel to Anzhi and Chelsea. We then host Wigan and Young Boys, before traveling to face Swansea again, this time in the Prem, then Spurs.

One judgment I will give…
There are not too many games in there that the words "need to win" do not apply to.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

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“I… Have Become… Comfortably Numb”

Posted: 03 Oct 2012 08:33 PM PDT

By Aitch

I know a lot of people are getting really excited by what they are seeing.
It's permeating the fan base like a fungal growth.
It's seeping between my toes as I speak.
But I'm sorry, I'm just not drinking the cool aid… not just yet.

I just finished watching a rebroadcast of the Norwich game and at 1-0 that game could have gone either way.
Yes Luis Suarez suddenly found himself in an MMA cage-match…
… no… of course he didn't get the decision… silly…
… yes… the referee's view may have been slightly obstructed…
… but YES… the linesman had a clear view of it.

Forgetting for a moment that should have been a penalty, potentially 2-0, and them reduced to 10 men…
…Norwich actually had 3 or 4 chances to change the game, prior to Luis scoring his and our 2nd.
Ultimately we should really have won that game about 8-1… maybe 8-2…
…but in spite of that, and this is where the blog title comes into play…
… while I thoroughly enjoyed the first 70 minutes of this match…
…I found myself getting really annoyed watching the last 20 minutes.

We started this game in 18th place with a minus 6 goal difference.
Norwich were absolutely demoralized on 70 minutes… their heads were down, their shoulders sagged, they'd given up.
Manchester United would have put them to the sword… so would City, and even Spurs.
… and its not about having a team full of stars or better players or whatever…
… its about an attitude that says, you don't take your foot off the gas…
… you don't stop playing with 20 minutes left.
Its about professionalism… and while I'll concede this is a young team in development, we had pros out there too, and they allowed the drop off.

Consequently… we conceded a goal… making the final score 5-2 instead of 5-1 or greater.
So we finished the weekend in 14th place… with a minus 3 goal difference instead of a minus 1… or zero or a plus… and that matters… or at least… it should.

Am I a moaning bastard? Maybe.
… but that doesn't make my point any less salient?

Now that's not to take away from some of the praise that has been quite rightly lauded on Rodgers and the players following the last two decisive wins…
… we absolutely did play some terrific looking football…
… but there was some dodgy stuff in there too.
I reckon Brendan is the kind of guy that would be thinking the same thing, and as such, he'll have maybe given them a bit of a bollocking at some point about this.
I hope so anyway.

So while I enjoyed the game and the win and everything we did well…
…I found myself annoyed by this "lack of professionalism" on our part, along with some very disturbing lapses in defending that happened early on in the game..
…and along with loving the way we went about beating Young Boys and really playing a more experienced Manc (plus ref) side off the park…
… I'm keeping myself in check.
I wasn't overly distraught at having been cheated against the Mancs. I normally would have been… but we played so well, outplayed them really, even with 10 men, that it offset the disappointment of losing the game.
…and such has been my feeling after most of our games.
Something to be excited about, some forward progress… yet stymied by something, be it a loss, or horrific officiating, or dreadful errors, or whatever.

…and so… in Floyd's immortal words… "I… have become… comfortably numb".
(but to some extent, in a good way at least)
(I hope that makes sense?)

So now to the meat of a matter…

…Goals change games.
… Moments change games.

…and in the same way that moments changed games in favor of our opposition in some recent games, moments occurred in our favor in the last two… but there were additional moments too… potential game changers that will be largely overlooked, coz the outcome was favorable.

"Luck" was harsh to us in our first few league games.
"Luck" smiled on us in the last two games.

… but I want to take a quick look at this whole "luck" thing.

Let's be clear about this.
There are moments in games where a ball takes an awkward bounce…
…say… off a beach ball for instance.
The bounce wrong foots the keeper and suddenly you're a goal down in a game you were controlling.
Bad Luck?
Absolutely.

…but… and it's a BIG, MASSIVE, SHAKING IN THE CAMERA, GANSTER RAPPER, VIDEO-VIXEN's BUTT…
… there is actually a rule in the games' rulebook that clearly states that goal should have been disallowed.
…and it wasn't.
That is NOT bad luck. That is either officiating incompetence, or clear officiating bias.
It has to be one or the other… there is no other option.

Both linesmen had a clear view of Mulumbu's challenge on Henderson midweek… assuming the referee didn't… and it was practically right in front of the 4th official.
(is this the easiest money in sport… aside from 90 minutes of foul language from managers, all you do is hold up a lightboard a few times???)

The foul wasn't whistled (where the above assumption comes from) and play was waved on for about 90 seconds.
Now there is absolutely no excuse for the two linesmen, and the 4th official, NOT to have flagged, motioned to, or radioed the Ref and said "yep, that's a studs up to the standing leg tackle mate, think he's got to go there."
And it wasn't like he completely let it go… he actually "had a word" with Mulumbu, so he knew something happened.
The decision wasn't bad luck… it was just bad officiating… plain and simple… cut and dry.
(of course, it was incredibly “good luck” that Mulumbu didn't break Henderson's leg, but that shouldn't cloud the utter and complete "wrongness" of the decision.)

Was it bias… or incompetence?
… and not just on one man's part… but on the other 3 men's part as well?
Which actually gives much, much greater weight to the question.

It is one thing for one man to get it wrong…
… it's another entirely for all 4 to get it wrong.

Which brings me to Saturday.
Now it was fairly clear that the referee's view of the foul on Luis Suarez was obstructed.
(and it's fairly clear that calling it a "foul" is somewhat outrageous, since such an incident on the street would result in jail time for the perpetrator. In fact, in MMA they have an actual patented name for that move. Same in WWE or whatever they call it now. Watch any given episode of Spartacus and you'll see it a few times, it was one of Gannicus fave moves… but I digress.)
… the "foul" (see wikipedia page describing GBH or Grievous Bodily Harm) took place in clear view of the linesman. He had an unobstructed view of it… he simply couldn't miss it. Yet he did.

Now its all well and good us suggesting "he should have had a penalty there"…
… but you know what… fuck that…
…Luis should have had a penalty when the Manc defender tried to toe-poke the ball away from him, was just a second too slow, and clipped his foot.
That wasn't vindictive… uncharacteristically :) for a Manc defender… it was a mistake, an ever so slightly mistimed tackle coz Suarez has quick feet…
… not getting that decision was "bad luck" in that while it was a poor decision by the ref, it wasn't a clear-cut, stone wall, by the book, obvious decision that he got wrong for any reason other than he just wasn't quick enough to see it in that moment.
… such incidents happen…
… but the decision at Norwich was either horrendously incompetent officiating, or some sort of clear bias. (…as was the Valencia decision… but again, I digress…well not really… it's a growing "body of evidence" in support of the argument.)

There's good luck and bad luck, and then there's… this other thing.

If its incompetence, then it needs addressing, and that won't happen while it is masked in the category of "refereeing mistake"… coz those happen, and that's fair enough… but that is not what the Norwich decision was, not what the Mulumbu decision was, not what the Valencia decision was. (and there should be an "etc." there.)

It is important that we talk about these decisions as WHAT THEY ARE.

How often do you hear a pundit say "he opened up an extra yard of space for the shot there" …when what the player did was find about a 6-to-8 inches hole to put the ball through?

I'm sick to fuck of hearing commentators say "that was a great cross, he put that into a very dangerous area", when what he actually did was just twat the ball into a space that was so unoccupied by a player in the same shirt, that his closest teammate was 30 yards away from where he "crossed" the ball, and therefore NOT in a dangerous area.

NO… such a cross is not "great" …when there is clearly nobody to get on the end of it…
… what it is, is a wasteful ball… a needless conceding of possession.

There are semantics… and there's daylight highway robbery of the English language!
…Coz these things are now part of the collective discourse…
It is no longer just a case of pundits using such banal phrasing…
… these types of things are now just accepted as truisms…
… and its not just numpties you hear talking this nonsense… people who have actually played the fuckin game, and know the difference between being a yard offside and being 6 inches offside, all use this language now…
… like the seeping fungus… (not the Manc manager, ;) but actual fungal growth) it has crept up the trunks and down into the roots of our collective discourse…
… and it prevents a proper discussion of what is really, truly happening in all aspects of the modern game.

…so likewise…
Decisions made (or not) about a blatant, clear cut infringement of the rules of the game… when at least ONE of the FOUR officials whose job it is to manage those infringements… have a clear and unobstructed view of the incident… are not simply "bad decisions"…
… not simply a case of "oh he got that wrong there"…
… NOT simply a case of "bad luck"…
… they are more than that…
… and we need to be talking about such incidents for what they are…
… coz United have won at least 4 titles on the back of such nonsense…
… and we all accept it coz "that's just the way it is".

Evil thrives when good men do nothing.
It is time for everyone who loves this game to stand up and say NO… this is fucked up and we're not gonna take it anymore.
Stop allowing "journalists", who have no earthly right to call themselves that, to frame the discussion.
If we stopped simply accepting banal punditry… maybe the broadcasters would stop hiring the cunts.
When there's a backlash for "politically incorrect" reasons, they act… just ask Keys and Gray.
Maybe if we as fans… collectively stopped asking what we could do about it, and actually started discussing these issues for what they are… things would change?
Yeah right!

So anyway… we've played some good footy lately…
… I am liking what I'm seeing.
I am honestly… numbness or not.

The kids are looking good, and "with a bit of luck" Brendan might surprise a few people this season…
… I get where the excitement is coming from…
… like a teenage boy who's just found his Dad's Playboy collection, I'm feeling the twinge myself…
(guess that's pretty much a dated reference nowadays huh… should be more like "a teenage boy who's just found his Dad's passcode to "naughtyschoolgirls.com" or something?)
…but twinge be damned…
…I'm not getting carried away just yet.

I'm still glass half-full in spite of this statement….
… but we are still giving the ball away an awful lot…
… still unnecessarily conceding possession…
… will still be on the end of "unlucky decisions"… (argh… head explodes)
… and while its great to see, not only, youth given the chance, but youth taking that chance, the season is a long, hard road to travel, to rely entirely on it.

There's many a slip, twixt the cup and the lip… and we still have a dangerously thin squad… still have senior players who need to step it up… still have only a half-dozen or so games to truly judge what we're seeing thus far.

We rightfully beat Norwich… and WBA in the Cup… and Young Boys.
The chance to get anything from WBA, or the Mancs was to some extent taken out of our hands.
And both scenarios will continue to repeat themselves as the season develops.

…and so to a sterner test in the Europa League.

The most successful clubs in the history of this competition are: Juventus, Inter Milan… and Liverpool F.C.

For that reason alone, we should be taking this competition seriously every single time we end up in it.

We've been drip-fed a fungal rot of "mickey mouse cups" for far too long, and some of our fans are well and truly digesting this fuckin cool aid.
Its got to stop. Its got to stop now.

We lost our "most titles" mantra recently… we immediately pivoted to "still the most successful club in England".
Thank god we can still say that.
But you know why we can still say that, instead of sitting with egg on our faces as the Mancs chant their number of titles at us?

…Because we've won more fuckin trophies in total… and that's not just the be-all-end-all Champions Leagues…
… its League Cups… and the UEFA Cup… (now the Europa league.)

Win the Europa League this season and Liverpool Football Club will have won this competition more times than any other club.
Do we really need more incentive than that?
Really?

And keep in mind that we hold this distinction in the "nobody cares about" League Cup as well… 8 Cups… the second placed team is Aston Villa who have "won it 5 times".

When time comes to attract players to Liverpool… you can sell them on where you are… you can sell them on where you are going… or you can sell them on where you've been.
We can do ALL THREE!
We can…. because even though we might not be playing in the "oh so important" Champions League spotlight…
…a simple wiki search for either of these two "lesser" competitions reveals the name "Liverpool F.C." listed under the heading "most successful clubs in this competition."

…Alongside Juventus and Inter Milan…
…Ahead of Manchester United, and Chelsea, and Spurs (who all have 4 LCs)…
… and in spite of two decades without a title…
Liverpool Football Club still has the phrase "most successful football club" attached to it.

This is where we've been… but this is also where we STILL ARE!
Liverpool Football Club… Still Relevant… even now!
This shit matters. Cups matter!
Anyone says otherwise, is drinking the cool aid… with a nasty case of fungal growth between their toes.

…and where we're going…
… well… that remains to be seen…
… but taking the Cups seriously needs to be a part of that.

…so… comfortably numb… but hoping for a wee twinge of excitement Thursday.
…now … what the fuck was my passcode to naughtyschoolgirls again?

Saturday, September 8, 2012

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Will The Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 08:06 AM PDT

By Aitch

We should be talking about football right now.
We should be discussing who played well, who didn't.
We should be discussing what went right against Arsenal, and where it all went wrong.
We should be discussing how what seemed to be an utterly overhyped signing in the form of the promising Joe Allen, is actually starting to look like a masterstroke in the form of a Joe Allen who in being referred to as "the poor man's Xabi Alonso" has read such comparisons and thought "I'll show you poor man's Xabi, you fuckers."

That's what we should be discussing…
There are certainly a lot of things to talk about, but I'm left with the overriding feeling that "the big issue" is simply, squarely, once again (for fucks sake) the ownership of Liverpool Football Club.

Now there are lots of little details in and among the events of the past few days that people are getting all hung up on, and it seems, from reading on other forums especially, that there is now little doubt left, that "The Great Unification of the Fanbase" that had supposedly taken place when Kenny Dalglish was appointed to his second term as our Manager, has now been demolished like so many Liverpool inner-city buildings.

In a recent blog, I asked a series of questions of our owners… and it kicked up a bit of a fuss.
I don't think the majority of those questions have been answered… and worse still… the events of the last 7 days have opened an American "can of whoop ass" sized list of additional questions.

Those entirely exasperated by the owners, are shouting loudly about the utter betrayal of not stumping 6 or 7 million for a "proven premiership goalscorer"…
…while those who feel the need to leap to the defense of our owners, have trotted out phrases like "what do you want a sugar-daddy owner"? …and regurgitating comments about FFP …in defense of the seeming "refusal" to spend 7 million… not 35, not 20, not even 17… but 7 million on Clint Dempsey.

The Clint Dempsey "saga" is just one incident under the current owners that has one hell of a lot of nuts and bolts for people to discuss, argue about, agree/disagree about…
Is Dempsey worth 7 million?
Is he worth 4million, or 10 million?
Is he a proven goalscorer?
Would he or would he not have guaranteed us 12 goals, 15 goals, 20 goals, this season?
Would he have made a difference against Arsenal?
They're interesting points to debate…
…I had such a debate with a Yank mate in June… yes that's right… not 4 days ago as a clock ticked down, but in June… when we were first rumoured (read: actually fuckin announced on LFC.tv for several hours, that we'd bought him… in June) as being interested in him (and at the time the rumour suggested 10 million)
… I argued at that time that Dempsey wasn't a top draw striker… he would have been a great addition (he cost Fulham 1.5 mill by the way) when all we had was Nando and Ngog… but as long as he didn't cost us something like 10 or 12 million, and could be gotten for a reasonable price (I'd have accepted him at 6-7mill as a good buy, now proven in the prem and all that,) then he would still be a good addition to the squad.

…but for my money, that is all smoke and mirrors that prevents any real discussion of OUR (the clubs and the fans) current situation.
So to that end… I'm going to try to cut through the clutter with what I think are "a few" underlying issues…

This week, in response to the "transfer window backlash", the Owners issued an "open letter to fans".
Some read it and found solace.
Some read it and immediately reached for their blood pressure meds (or pitch forks as the case may be.)
Me… I read it and simply smiled … coz what the fuck else can you do with that fucker?
Here's what I mean.

While I'm not a marketing guy, I've had a lot of experience working with marketing and pr people, even written some marketing and pr text myself as part of certain jobs I've had…. And THAT letter was your typical PR/M gobbeldy-speak.
It said something, while it said nothing.
It made promises, while making no promises.
It explained "mistakes" while not at all explaining any mistakes.

If the jury was out on the owners before that letter… how is it not completely fuckin sequestered in the Hilton now.

Pro Owners… Anti Owners… its all bullshit… that letter was designed to speak squarely to the fans sitting on the fence… the undecided voter, if you will…
… it was calm, it was calculated, it read reasonable.
Look past it and ask the questions that need to be asked.

Was Brendan "promised" Dempsey, or any forward?
Who was negotiating said deal? (for a player we "supposedly signed" back in June)
Begging the question, why was his singing left to the last day?
Why exactly did it break down?
Was it for the sake of 2 million? A not-made phone call?
Or was there much more to ALL of this.

See, here's what I want to know…
As far back as June, Brendan Rodgers was talking about every player having his price.
He never once said that Andy "Couldn't fit into "the BR System".
He never once said that Andy "Wouldn't fit into "the BR System".
He never once said he didn't rate Andy.
He never once said he didn't want Andy.
All he said was "Every player has his price, and Andy is no different."

Now admittedly, I hated this. I made comment to that effect. I suggested at the time, that it was the one mistake Brendan made since his arrival.
But now I'm left wondering… was Andy's "sale" always on the cards?
Was part of Brendan's hiring agreement simply, sure you can have say over players, but not Andy, he's got to go no matter what?
I dunno. That IS speculation on my part.
But following Brendan's, "I'd have kept him if I'd known" statement, I just can't help escape the feeling that all his statements about Andy having his price were not a mistake from a naïve manager at all…
…. but perhaps those statement were a calmer "I'm just concentrating on coaching my team", "Rafa Rant" moment?
I dunno… but there's definitely more to this.

Brendan has spoken on it.
FSG have written about it.
Ian Ayre appears to have taken the blue pill and disappeared down the fucken rabbit hole, where he's perhaps currently getting his arse handed to him by Agent Smith.
Something happened here… and we are no closer to the truth after "the letter" than before it was written.

Trust them?
I did, and they're eroding it with almost every action they take, almost every statement they make.

Now this is the point at which their defenders will suggest I'm an advocate of "The Liverpool Way" and that most treasured long since dead aspect of it… not airing our dirty laundry in public.
Fair enough… except, the more they keep saying one thing and doing another… we've got problems.
FSG said they are afficianados of Pay As You Play and Soccernomics… which both posit that recent PL success has been directly tied to having a high wage bill…
… yet, they "demand" the culling of 18 players to "reduce the wage bill" from an already thin squad replacing them with only 7 players.
We didn't get rid of a single player making 125k per week… but signed Sahin who was making 125k at real Madrid. At the time, it was reported we sealed the deal by agreeing to pay "almost all of his weekly wage". But now that's being walked back and we are "not paying all of his weekly wage". What's the truth?
None of our business?
Fair enough, keep it behind closed doors… but not if your writing open letters to fans claiming FFP and the continuation of "G&H's outrageous wage bill" reduction.
You opened the door, you can't then slap us for looking in.
Conversely to these two ideas, FSG made big noises about implementing "moneyball" at LFC. They hired Damien Comolli to implement it. And they stated that they were in it for the long haul.
Yet at the first sign of "moneyball" failing, or not quite working to plan, they abandoned it lock, stock and barrel.

… or did they???
Coz supposedly, Brendan Rodgers condition of employment was the scrapping of the DoF plan, and the implementation of some TBD committee, headed by Brendan and in which he would have final say…
… which simply does not jive with what we've been told, not by dubious press sources, but by their own statements, with what we know about Andy's exit, and the subsequent failure to replace him.

We don't know what really happened… and frankly from what I've read, the more we've learned about "what happened" in the last few days, the LESS we actually know about WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?????

Saying you want to succeed, in a Pay As You Play League, does not jive with only providing a net spend of about 40 million, then 20 million though…
… especially while continuing to cull more players than you bring in to an already dangerously thin first team and squad.
They sanction a Pay As You Play, 35million pound deal for Andy Carroll, then seemingly squash a Moneyball/Soccernomics 7 million deal for Clint Dempsey…
I'm sorry but your actions DO NOT match your words.

As long as they keep saying they are here to win, then fire a manager who actually did win the first trophy since 2007…
As long as they keep saying they back their manager 100 %, then fire that manager…
…Then replace that manger… under a new system(?) … restating their backing, then leave that guy twisting in the wind over the singing of a player he clearly wanted… seemingly at the last minute, but in actual fact, not at the last minute, since we clearly courted him for over 2 months…
… then wax vacuous about Financial Fair Play, and not breaking the bounds of Responsible Finance… when in fact (supposedly?) the breakdown difference over Dempsey was between a fee of 4 and 6 million… while selling 7million Charlie Adam to Stoke for 4 million, when at least 2 other clubs were interested in him…
…simply does not jive.

Yeah… how come there is so little discussion out there about the fact that for all the fees paid for failed players… one of the few purchase prices Comolli got even close to right was Charlie Adam at 7 million. The lad might not be "Liverpool Quality" but are you seriously telling me we couldn't have got our money back on him?
Was that 4 million as much as anyone was going to pay?
And that's 3 million… how much was the disparity of the Dempsey deal again?

In the interest of fairness…
As a business… FSG have most certainly "saved us".
The financial condition of the club, is growing ever closer to the days prior to when Rick Parry and David Moores ended the meeting with several "gentlemen of Arabic decent" by whispering sweet nothings into each others ears about how there were two Yanks outside the boardroom offering them matching Ferraris…
… and the marketing and financial sponsorship appear to be much improved from those days, making future accounting very favourable… and greatly improving on the sound condition we once enjoyed.

Kudos. Big Thanks. We … each and every one of us… Appreciate it.
Honestly, we do.
But unfortunately it doesn't… it simply cannot… stop there.
… that act… since it was not performed out of any altruism, (they didn't "save us", they bought an asset on the cheap) but out of pure unadulterated business acumen… that act was the easy part.
Doing business. What they know and are supposedly good at.

They are business men… they saw the potential… the potential Parry never seemed to, yet almost every LFC fan who'd never even so much as taken a fuckin O-level let alone accumulated any, could see with their eyes shut… and they've set about "tapping that financial arse" like a Rapper in a Music Video.
Was that racist?

What FSG did was buy into a "Sports Franchise"…
…an under-marketed but highly marketable "Global Brand" for sure…
… but in a sport they knew nothing about…
…in a league they knew nothing about…
…in a country they knew little about…
…in a town with a history… and… with a history of creating that history in a "different way".
Now yes… I can hear some of you now, accusing me of waxing poetically lyric… no question… admit it… you got me… doesn't make every point there less true though.

Because, the business that Liverpool is in, is playing football and winning at it…
…so there was a steep, steep learning curve for them…
Some will suggest that they have "learned from their mistakes" hence all the firings and such… but honestly, all I'm seeing is reaction not learning…
… and frankly… of the same knee-jerk variety that many fans are accused of.

I strongly suspect that Ian Ayre will fall on the sword for "Friday's failure".
There is already a groundswell of blame pointing in his direction, so it'll be an easy "fix" for FSG to suggest they put everything in place, and Ayre dropped the ball…
Maybe he fucked up…
Maybe he was sent into a gunfight with a rolled up newspaper…
…and…
Maybe, he shouldn't have had those responsibilities in the first place…
…who the fuck knows?
Where we may not, someone does.

We don't know exactly what the truth is.
Maybe there is more to it all than there appears to be?
There probably is.

… but there are now more questions, or there should be anyway, about FSG and their statements and actions than there was 1 week ago, than there was 3 months ago, 8 months ago, hell even 22 months ago, when they were called NESV???

Having undergone a LOT of interviews lately, I'm perhaps more recently reminded that when you interview for a job, one of the first questions the interviewer is going to ask is "tell us a little bit about your experience, and how you think that experience will help you in this position?"

FSG's answer to that question was, to put it simply… "The Boston Red Sox".
You all know the story, so I won't go into it.
The cliff notes, for those just tuning in…
Boston were a 20year also-ran baseball club. Steeped in tradition. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. The wallflower, bespectacled brunette, constantly living in the shadow of her popular, fit-as-fuck, 34DD Blonde friend.
But along came the handsome gray haired bachelor, who as luck would have it, was also very rich, and within 2 years, the wallflower was now Angelina Jolie as Mrs Smith, judo kicking The Yankees Brad Pitt into a wall and quipping "who's your daddy now?"

Fuck me… sign me up… where do I get my John Henry bumper sticker, lapel pin, collector card, and I'll take one of them Tom Werner pennants as well please luv.
Come on… we all said it. :)

But a slightly closer look at that story… you know, the one with more detail than the cliff notes… shows us 2 guys who'd owned sports clubs prior to the Red Sox, and with far less spectacular results… in fact… those clubs are still drinking their Cosmos at the end of the bar waiting for "the man of their dreams".
And the Red Sox, well they're not doing so great at the moment by all reports either?

But what was the actual story of "The Boston Red Sox" though.
A lad named Billy Beane had an idea.
He was a Baseball guy, was Billy. He played it as a kid, as a teenager, and, as a young man he got the chocolate bar with the golden ticket. The tour of the Chocolate Factory didn't quite go as planned though, but while many a man is broken by such things, Billy stuck to it, stayed in Baseball, and eventually became General Manager of the Oakland A's

I will disclaim at this point, that I hate baseball. I don't get it.
Oddly though… I do quite like Baseball movies. …Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, For The Love of The Game, (NO… it is not merely a strangely homo-erotic addiction to Kevin Costner) The Natural, The Scout, the 3 Major League movies (well maybe not the 3rd), hell even Summer Catch, which I'm fully convinced the Director only really made so he could see Jessica Biehl in short shorts every day, and have that one day, re-shooting take after take, of her getting out of that pool in a wet t-shirt. (it's the only thing that makes any sense. That's what I'd have done… hell I'd still be shooting take 5 million and 2, "just a little to the left this time Jess and drop your shoulder" and making history as the most over-budget film in history…) …but I digress…
My point is simply that there will be others who know more details of the baseball side of this story… but again, as the story continues… cliff notes version again, mind you…

Billy had an idea. It went against everything everyone in Baseball "knew". It became known as Moneyball… and while he gave it a good go, and came close to proving everyone in baseball wrong… it failed.
John Henry saw what Billy was doing, found it interesting and offered him a lot of money to try again… this time without hindrance and with the full support he never got at the A's… but Billy wanted to do it at the A's.
Commendable actually, in a world where money talks… but worth noting, when the idea of moneyball gets discussed… that he is still trying… at the A's… unsuccessfully!
But Henry… undaunted… copied Billy… took his "moneyball" idea… implemented it at Boston… and it worked… twice.

Now all this recap of Boston is important WHY?
Well for one very simple reason.
John Henry knew Baseball. So did Werner.
They grew up on it, played it as kids and teenagers, maybe even as young adults, I dunno, but they followed the sport all their lives and knew the game… much as we do footy.
As I said, I don't get baseball, I wouldn't know the first thing about how to coach a baseball team… but I have very successfully coached youth footy teams.
And therein lies the rub…

In October 2010 …with their copy of "moneyball" under one arm, and a fistful of dollars in the other, they bought Liverpool Football Club with the idea of replicating their success at Boston.
It was a big risk… simply because in addition to not knowing if "moneyball" would work in the English Premier League, let alone in football in general… they had no idea how the sport worked, how UEFA worked, how the EPL worked…
…more importantly what Footy was all about…
…and perhaps even more importantly, what Liverpool Football Club was all about… and what following LFC was all about.

It was always going to be a big risk….
…And honestly from where I've been sitting… as much as they may have made great strides to right the financial business… they have simply made one mistake after another in trying to run the Club in a "moneyball" manner.
And I say that primarily coz they haven't stuck to a single idea they've implemented… not on the field, and not even off the field.

Are we to believe that cups don't matter?
That is why Kenny was fired, no?
8th place isn't good enough… period… no cups in the discussion, the FA Cup wouldn't have saved his job.
So if that's the case why did Suarez and SG and several other senior players spend 90 minutes huffing and puffing around Anfield, with a 1-0 lead from the first leg, when they were going to be needed for the "game that mattered" 3 days later?

There are so many more questions than that…
Why … given the club's recent history… is there a single LFC fan that is not asking them?