Because our best youngsters are competing in the Under-18s, not the Under-21s; the Under-21s are in large part a reserve league and, shock-and-surprise, your reserves are considerably better than ours. In the Under-18s, we dominated our group, finishing on 28 points...Man U had 27, third-placed Tottenham had 16. You finished fourth in your group, below Crystal Palace. Hope that helps to explain things.
One thing I'll bet on is us being a top ten - possibly top six - team before Liverpool win a league title again. And that includes if we get relegated this season.
Our under 18's also play in our u21's team and some of them have played in our 1st team (Jordan Ibe, Raheem Sterling, Adam Morgan, Jon Flanagan, Jack Robinson, Jerome Sinclair, Andre Wisdom, etc) and they are playing in Next Gen and they recently competed in the Next Lions championships in Singapore (a tournament we got to the final in) Why do we need him? We have decent young left backs in Jon Flanagan & Jack Robinson both of which are behind in the pecking order to Jose Enrique & Glen Johnson
Don't be silly. You would take Luke Shaw. He's the kind of talent you don't say "No" to no matter who you might have. U21 is irrelevant. Not saying Liverpool doesn't have a good academy, but the U21 teams feature plenty of players who are not under 21, and/or not products of the academy. As you noted yourself, the very best U21's are already with the first team. If not, and they are promising wouldn't you rather loan them out to get first team football instead of playing in the reserves. As for Nextgen, they weren't going to invite a Championship side.
You were bragging about their performance against our Under 21s. I was pointing out that, owing to the age group, the Under 21s aren't a great representation of one's development pipeline, as the squads are often comprised of players acquired elsewhere. For another indication to that effect, I went through your squad from that game. Best I can tell, only three of the sixteen players (Flanagan, Smith and Coady) originated with your academy...the rest were purchased from other clubs at age 16 or older.
I think what people are saying is that Southampton have the ambition of competing in Europe, being in the Europa league then ultimately the Champions League, then to challenge for major honours in the Premier League. I'm not saying that this will happen, don't know when/if it will happen, but getting in to Europe isn't that difficult really, but qualifying for the Champions League is going to be very tricky indeed. Nicola Cortese has the ambition of turning Southampton to the power house of English football, playing attacking football with a team full (50% or more) of academy stars. Will he succeed? Well, in my opinion, I think that we can definitely reach our goal of having 50% of academy graduates in our team, easy. Will he get into the champions league? maybe. Will win ever win the Premier League? I have no idea, but we have as much chance of getting into the champions league and win the Premier League as Liverpool have. In 5-10 years time, we might even have a 50,000 capacity stadium, that's what Cortese wants. Liverpool have had their glory days in the 70's and 80's and they have no chance of getting into the champions league with their current team nor to win the Premier League, the same as us. You're a mid table Premier League team, better than us, but worse than Stoke. I can't see you improve anytime soon I'm afraid. We've got more spending power, more ambition. We're gonna try to achieve these goals and only time will tell. I don't know what Liverpool's long term goals are, but I'm sure they are similar to ours.
No chance mate. Joe Allen, Sturridge, Tom Ince (soon to be), Suso, Borini...etc champions league?? No way, mid table premier league standard at best.
Rodger's didn't want Forren and reluctantly agreed to take him on trial as a compromise with the Transfer Committee as they really wanted to sign him but BR wasn't convinced. When BR found out he had full offers for first team footy on a good contract he told the lad to take it. I thought this was common knowledge as it was in most of the reputable papers and websites. Ramirez was never a LFC target once Dalglish & Comolli were sacked as he was their target. Rodgers and the new Committee werent interested but Bologna and Agents used our previous well publicised interest under the old regime to get more money and try and start a bidding war. All the usual games we see with Italian clubs atm as they are DESPERATE for every penny they can get, as we are currently seeing with Coutinho.
What makes me laugh the most is that the only people you hear or see talking about Liverpool's 'history' is other clubs fans. Thats the irony of it. I don't think I've ever had a conversation, except possibly with a Man U fan when discussing both teams achievements and how they rank alongside each other, about our 'history'. Far from us being obsessed about our history, I think its fans of other clubs who seem to be obsessed with it.
What makes me laugh the most is that the only people you hear or see talking about Liverpool's 'history' is other clubs fans. Thats the irony of it. I don't think I've ever had a conversation, except possibly with a Man U fan when discussing both teams achievements and how they rank alongside each other, about our 'history'. Far from us being obsessed about our history, I think its fans of other clubs who seem to be obsessed with it.
It's not so much an obsession with your past, more the refusal to admit that just because you spend alot of money, on lets be honest about it, crap footballers, doesn't mean you have the divine right to win silverware. It seems to be in most Liverpool fans heads that if you sign somebody, they must be good because they play for Liverpool. I would like to refer you to the case of Raheem Sterling and Jonjo Shelvey. Neither have particularly impressed me this season, while Sterling has shown rare glimpses of talent, I have never seen him massively influence a game, but yet most Liverpool fans think these 2 are the best thing since sliced bread. To sum up my opinion of Liverpool fans - Delusion.
I think that is a fair assessment. I think the Forren situation speaks for itself. If a team is truly interested in a player, they won't make him trial. Ramirez, I will take your word on the specifics and it makes sense. At best, the most Saints-centric view is that perhaps at the time between changing managers and shuffling players and money around you were not prepared to bid on Ramirez. But all that says is that perhaps Saints pipped you to a good player and made an astute signing. Not that we actually wrested a player away from you. You never made a bid. But I think Coutinho answers a lot of questions. I think we now know that 1) Saints fully intend to pursue these types of players regardless of "big club" interest. As a statement of intent, we see ourselves as competing with the best clubs for these transfers. 2) We need to be taken seriously. If the rumors are true, we bid 12 million Euros for Coutinho it definitely turned Inter''s head That forced Liverpool to bid 13. You were not going to walk away with an 8 million bid. 3) We aren't there yet. It seems like Coutinho strongly prefers LFC. I think it's fair to say we stretched you on this one. I actually hope we don't top your bid as I think it is too much. Nonetheless I think the statement of intent is clear. I cant see how you could say that Southampton and Liverpoole did not compete for this player. Nonetheless, winning the battle and competing are two different things. I honestly didn't think LFC would go this far to win Coutinho but fairplay, you did, It seems clear that when it comes to a mano a mano match-up you still have the advantage. I'm surprised the showdown was over Coutinho. Would not have viewed that as the #1 prioriity for either club. I thought if we were to butt heads it would be over a defender. As far as Liverpool's CL chances go, I don't know the club and its finances that well. But I do know Hicks, and he's a complete idiot which I think you would agree with. That was a sketchy situation for a bit, and it hurt you. But I do think Liverpool have dodged a bullet and done a good job of turning things around and are on the right track. We don't know if Coutinho will be worth the money yet but even if I think it's too much it still makes a lot more sense than some other LFC signings and I think you know who I'm talking about.
Alot of us are level headed, we just have enjoyed winding up some of the new visitors to our forum. I think the real basis for this is that we are back in the prem after 7 years away and 4 years of horror. Added to that, is that Liverpool have fallen from the levels that a lot of us were brought up with (ie best team in Britain/Europe for years). It just makes it interesting to even be sharing a thread with Liverpool fans; it says a lot about how far we have come back and how far from the top you are. Personally, I'd like to see Liverpool back up there and I hope they keep patient and stick with BR, as I like his style. It is strange to hear you target Champions League by 2015 though. Why aren't you targeting winning the league by then? It's the sort of target I'd expect from Everton, not Liverpool. You are not seen as a club in the likes of Manure, Chelsea, Citeh, Arsenal or even Spurs at the moment. You surely must agree that it is just a little bit funny or embaressing that Liverpool fans are having a ding dong over status with a little, provincial, jumped up start like Southampton and we're jostling over the same players. Good luck in getting back to where, I for one, grew up with you being.
... Apart from the individual who came on here telling us your history is bigger than our future, etc, etc. Scroll back Every Liverpool fan I know tells me how great you were.
