Kenny at least had the oppertunity to get rid of the dead wood (jova, poulson, konch). Rodgers has had to get Kenny's deadwood to actually perform as no-one wanted them. Carroll only got a loan deal thanks to his performances in an England shirt. Downing was awful, Henderson often went missing, Enrique was a shadow of a player. Kenny had experienced players in Maxi, Bellamy & Kuyt who, by the time Brendan took over already had eyes for other clubs. Lest we forget that in September we only had 1 first team striker as Ian Ayre had told Rodgers to ship Carroll out as he was going to bring in Dempsey. Both Kenny & Hodgson had a choice of at least 2 of the following to play in attack - Carroll, Kuyt, Suarez, Torres, Maxi, N'Gog, Jovanovic Rodgers had..... Suarez
'Kin 'ell Bozz, you do put your weight behind the current man, don't you? Henderson always was a good player, so explain to me why despite good performances he is dropped like a hot rock for a poorly performing Allen? Enrique a shadow of a player? He played well enough for Kenny. As for the striker shortage, yes, Maxi and Bellamy were already looking, but Kuyt? Brendan didn't rate him and let him go because he didn't fit the profile, and let Carroll go for the same reason. Didn't try with either man. That for me was criminal. You're blaming Ayre for the fiasco, but to go into the season with just 2 strikers is as lamentable as going in with just 1. And for the record, just because he is promised Dempsey, well, he should have waited until the ink was on the paper... Naive in the extreme to expect all deals to go through without a hitch. And Rodgers is experienced enough to know better. All this diverting the blame, its not manly. Admit your errors and move on, don't mealy mouth 'its not my fault'.
there are no quatation marks needed around "expensive". Don't go all MFG, Kenny had a lot of good points, but his dealings in the transfer windows were truly abysmal. Henderson, Adam, Downing, Carroll for £80m, it's cringing.
But Kenny rarely played him where he was at his best..... through the middle. As much as you said he backs Rodgers, you seem to have just the same as Kenny. Again, it is what we are supposed to do, back our managers, but I think Rodgers has shown enough and at the end of the day, I think the players seem to enjoy his methods. A few tweeks here and there, maybe hire some defensive staff, good buys ( please not Ashley Williams) and we could be a pretty good unit next year. Also have to note that we have now given some good minutes to players such as Sterling, Jonjo, Suso, Robinson, Wisdom to have another set of players who are more comfortable with the prem and better able to handle the next season. Isn't that what Kenny was doing with Henderson, Carroll, etc last year?
BR bought Allen and obviously trusts him a lot. I agree that Henderson should not have been dropped. Kuyt activated a £1m release clause in his contract, despite his age there is no way we would have sold him for so little had he not wanted to go. I agree with the ink drying. I don't think it is entirely fair to say Kenny cleared the dead wood and BR has had it easy. BR was tasked with getting the wage bill down when he came in which saw us lose players like Maxi, Bellamy, etc. He then had to use some of the youngsters to make up the squad numbers. Kenny did better but also had a hell of a lot more money to spend too. Most of his signing were awful and I would even include Henderson in that. I rate Jordan really highly but I wouldn't spend £16m+ on him now never mind two years ago! Downing for £20m...? Carroll for £35m...? Those three deals £70m, I'm convinced BR could get us into the CL with that sort of money this summer and I don't think BR is the best thing since sliced bread either!
For me the most disappointing aspect of the Brendan revolutionary playbook is without the ball, do they actually work on anything defensively? I thought his dossier said something about winning the ball back in 7 seconds, I've yet to see us press any team, at any time.
£35m for Carroll was a huge amount, granted, and Downing hasn't performed to his price tag, but £16mil for a young English midfielder would be considered about average - Zaha has gone for an estimated £17m to United from a Championship team, never having played in the PL. Anyone slating that deal? No mention of Enrique here either, why is that? Because it undermines the argument, perhaps? And Carroll has not been given the opportunity under Rodgers to justify that fee... Does anyone think that Kenny looked at the prices, or just told someone to go and get the players? I doubt he negotiated the financial side of the deals. Whoever had a hand on the financial side is the one who needs a kicking - Comolli perhaps? Has everyone forgotten about him?
Yes, me! I think Ince is the better option from the two but yet, I didn't want to see us spend £8m on him
Yes, I generally agree - Kenny made some clear errors on the pitch, Henderson wide right (we've done that before - Ged played Igor wide right and that was an unmitigated disaster), but to be given only one season and despite getting some silverware and clearing a lot of dross and cutting the wage bill, getting the axe - I still think it was precipitous action. You mentioned the wage bill, and I expect both Kenny and Brendan got the wage bill down. Kenny got rid of a number of frees who were almost certainly on big money (Konchesky, Poulsen, Jovanovic), whereas the players Brendan got rid of were 'paid for' with transfer fees (Kuyt, Maxi) who were therefore likely to be on lower wages - the exception to this being Joe Cole, a big wage free transfer. Given the lack of money available to shape the squad, I can't understand Brendan's insistance on forcing out the likes of Carroll, who is a good player and can do a job for the team. He might not be the No1 choice fo rthe team, but playing him into form in the team would surely push up his value more than shipping him out on a loan and making it clear he's available on the cheap... Chances of BR getting given £70 mil are slim to none, and slim left some time ago...
You and RHC - laughing at your own jokes I'd pay £8mil for Ince, no problems. I'd pay £12mil. Just so long as the wages weren't stupid...
Rodgers did do the unthinkable..... found a way to get rid of Aquilani!!! I think you will be hard pressed to find anyone one here who was glad/excited/thrilled to see Kenny go. Many wanted at least another season to see what he could build on ( without comolli there). Owners made the decision and here we are with the debate. I still think Rodgers has a lot of growing to do as a coach and does he his name have a good pull around Europe? Looks like we could fnd out this summer but think we have to give him some time as we don't have the funds for a revolving door of managers and just blow money on whoever we want.
Still not sure why all the hate for Rodgers on here by some posters. I reckon he could but Ronaldo and Messi and have a 100% win ratio and still some people will moan that we only scored 9 against united at Old Trafford. I thought Maxi was a free and his wages were pretty close to J Coles. Kuyt and Aqua's wages would of been quite high as well.
The major issue might be the lack of European football of any kind. I agree, we are in the situation where we can't just swap our manager every season - that way lies madness. But without even Europa football, will we be able to bring in the kind of quality players we need to get back to the level where we can offer the european competition they want. With Kenny's name we might have still been in with a shout (people might want to work with a legend), but without, we are relying on the club's name alone...
Maxi was a free, but would you argue his performances matched those of Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen or Paul Koncheskey? Or did he earn his money? As for Brendan, its not hate, just concern over what looks like a polished PR campaign that has run from his appointment onwards...
Interesting as Kenny was bringing players in with no European action and we bought Henderson, Enrique, Coates ( probably due to Suarez), and Adam ( not sure if I am missing out on anyone). Not sure if there is a correlation there as well with what you are saying or not. Either way, I agree it will be the name of the club, the project, and players convincing other players to come more than what we can offer. Although somehow we could still get in with the fair play spot?
Not if the FA have anything to do with awarding it we couldn't. Even if we won it be a country mile, they'd find a reason to exclude us, probably Suarez-related...
