Lol- I do like how £100m spent on largely flops can be justified by your sales. It doesn't matter what you recouped, he was given £100m and he spent it on rubbish. You might have got £50m from Chelsea but that's not an excuse. Someone before saying that Hodgson bought badly, he spent about £10-15m on players that didn't make it - how much has Kenny thrown away. Also, on the subject of development - Henry talked about Moneyballing when he came- using stats to identify players with huge future potential without the price tag to match- then Dalglish spends £16m on Henderson?! What do you think his final price will be? £35m on Carroll- do you think his value will actually ever rise? What exactly do you mean by "Additionally, we have a squad that will now form the basis of a very strong side next year" - do you mean the squad as it stands will be strong, or that the squad he has invested in will be added to over the summer and you will be strong?
He was given 35mill plus whatever else he recouped on sales which equalled a total 110 spend but only 35mill out of pocket. Yes, it's questionable that the total spend was worthwhile. Henderson is just like Jones and at a similar price. People rave about Jones like he's the next bobby moore yet he looks just as average to me as Hendo. They'll both improve with experience and age. Carroll...currently is **** and has dropped vale. The squad as it is is better than what we had last year.
Of course the squad is better - you spent £100m on it- could hardly have gotten worse! Henderson is not like Jones - Jones is potentially the future England captain - Henderson will be like Ashley Young, he'll develop into a good league player but he is not international standard. When you consider the real value of the players you bought; Carroll - £10 - 15m Downing - £8m Adam - £3 Henderson - £8m Suarez - £35m Coates - £6m Enrique - £6m There is over £20m missing- this runs completely against the supposed strategy of NESV.
In your opinion. Clearly the England U21 management think otherwise when making Henderson the captain, unless you know more than they do about player potential. 20mill missing given the potential that Henderson and Coates have is nothing. Also I think you undervalue Enrique massively and Carroll, potentially, could still come good - but that's up in the air still. Adam was good when he played alongside Lucas so he could still come good next season.
U21 captain is always going to be a player that is picked consistently, Jones is more likely to be in the full England team so there is no point making him captain.
So Jones is too good for the U21 team, okay then, that would mean Hendo is second best - but yet you think Hendo will only be a good league player. Make your mind up -.- Besides, I don't think Jones is ready for full England duty anyway. At CB there is Cahil, Terry, Ferdinand, Jagielka, Lescott all ahead of him. At RB there is Johnson, Richards and Walker and the midfield is packed for choice. Jones shouldn't be anywhere near the England team yet, just like Henderson. Hence my comparison between the two. They both have potential to be good players but neither are there yet.
No, we were willing to give Hodgson a chance. We recognised we wouldn't attract a big name, nor would Hicks and Gillett hire one. 'Steadying the ship' was the only rallying cry we had. Sadly we hired the captain of the Titanic. The "bloated squad" had the form to get 2nd or 3rd in the league when Kenny took over. That squad was the best Rafa could manage under H&G. We were told it was Rafa's fault and the squad's fault for results under Roy. It clearly wasn't because there's a long way between the form of 2nd under Kenny and languishing at 19th under Roy. That is not revisionism. Do you know what wages Rafa was asked for by the free agents he had to buy because he had no money from H&G? No, yet you give Hodgson the benefit of that doubt. Do you know what type of players were refusing to come to us because of the ownership mess? Even Jova was thinking of pulling out, FFS. Do you know who offered Joe Cole 100G a week? Purslow, not Rafa. J And you're talking about a guy who can't win away from home. At all. You're talking about a guy whose time at Inter is held up as proof of his abilities, a stint which produced worse results than Rafa's few months there, which was held up by the Europhobic English media as a disaster. They said Liverpool fans were unfair on Roy., Well, Inter fans threw coins and lighters at him. That's who you're talking about. The fact you call them flops after less than a season reveals your fickle nature. Pth! I bet you said Lucas was a flop two seasons ago. Pth! I bet you think Fergie's got better transfer stats than Rafa. Pth! Haha, "£50m is not an excuse!" Sure it isn't. Pth! We got paid £15m to unload a donkey who wanted to leave for a promising 22-yr old player you were probably ****ing yourself silly over previously, just like the entyre media were. And we got paid all that money right at the end of the transfer window. Pth! We didn't sign you so the rubbish is still firmly ensconced in the PLASTIC dept. Lucas's has. Oh gee, did you predict that? No, you judge players at 21 and decide their value at 25 from that. PLASTIC! Potential? Wait a minute, now you can talk about potential? No, no, no, sunshine, you refuse to appoint any potential to our signings so we'll judge Jones by his performances to date and extrapolate future value, just as you've done. Jones was part of the humiliated team which crashed out of the Champions League against FC Basle. Both legs. Oh dear, is he another Berbatov? Haha, Lazyboy was going to be a major part of Fergie's attempt to match Barca for silky football after that CL lesson. Oh. My. Sides. I'll make a bet with you - a hundred quid says we get more for Carroll when we sell him than Utd get for Berbatov this summer.
I said Jones is more likely to be called up to the full team - I didn't say Hendo was the second best, I said Jones isn't going to be made captain if he is likely to be in the full team.
We were in for Jones but he signed for Utd,if he'd signed for us instead would we be up their in the CL places?,i mean our guest is making him out to be world class.
I like your use of âweâ, do you talk for the club? Now Iâm confused, people were blaming Roy for signing dross â youâve just supported what I wrote earlier â that Hodgson had very little choice in the players available in the positions he needed. The club was in a financial mess. Iâm not blaming Rafa for the bloated squad, Iâm stating it as a fact- the squad was bloated with a high wage bill. Fairly selective in your examples about Roy â Iâm not trying to say he is the greatest manager, but he is a good manager- worthy of more time than he was given, and certainly more respect. You speak of him like he is a fraud who bluffed his way to Anfield. Iâm not sure what you mean by plastic, Iâm clearly not a Liverpool fan. Evidently you have constructed yourself as THE fan who knows and represents the club truly and wholly. I never once wrote anything negative about Lucas â Liverpool fans did though, booed him too! I did write about the potential of your signings, I said Henderson has the potential to be like Ashley Young, who UTD signed for £16m at his peak. Youâve bought Henderson for £16m before he has done anything.
You pull Mupp about using 'we' when referring to LFC then you tell him he's personally bought Henderson for £16m. We Liverpool supporters always say 'we' when referring to our club.
There is a difference - when I say 'you've bought Henderson' it is a fact, because Liverpool did sign the player. He used 'we' whilst expressing an opinion, therefore implying it represented the whole club. If he had said 'we' signed Henderson that would be fine, he didn't, he said "we were willing to give Hodgson a chance" and I know for a fact that not all fans were.
That's the classic response on this board - point blank refusal to accept any form of critique and a tendency to look for a simple solution to a complex problem. Cheerio.
