Bloody hell you great gang of moaners! So Rodgers is peeved and slightly pissed-off. The player will go elsewhere because the owners were not prepared to go above £30M because that's the highest value that they placed on him. Well played the owners!!!! Who the **** does Rodgers think he is? He's there as a manager. He's not an executive he''s responsible for operational decisions. So ****ING GET ON AND DO THEM! These statements are just a prima donna hissy fit. It ain't the end of the world. There's more managers in the Prem who know they can't even think about spending £30M on a player and he's got the temerity to start the crocodile tears!!! For ****s sake we've already got the best squad that we've had for seasons and you lot are already writing the season off. Grow Up
It's more that we've lost out on all our major targets, have made a profit on sales this window and face another struggle to keep Suarez for the remainder of the window with absolutely no hope of adequately replacing him if he does go.
It's also compounded by the fact that Spurs, one of the teams we hoped to be competing with have strengthened significantly. His 'crocodile tears' might also be due to his employers expecting him to finish in the top four with a squad that's considerably weaker than five other teams in the league.
It happens - live with it! Anyway, we've no struggle to keep Suarez for the remainder of the window. All this last minute crap about Real is purely that - crap. Even at £60M it makes no financial let alone football sense to sell him at that stage. AND if the stories of a new contract are true then you can be sure that LFC have not left themselves open to any such interpretation of any clause!
Dave, normally I agree with you but where's the balance here? It's not about this particular player or his price. By all means if it truly was too much, as Rodgers says its their money, their decision. But they can't have it both ways. They can't sit on their arses back in the US and leave what they and you seem to consider merely a coach to be the public face of the club when it's clear to all he has very little say in matters. Is Rodgers a coach and that's it? Is he just here to train the team of players he's given? Because he's the guy sitting out there in the press conferences before and after failing to get players trying to put a positive spin on it, before & after results. He's the guy that no matter who is or isn't bought will be the scapegoat if results don't go our way. Should he respond to each question from now on : "I just train them I don't buy them?" There is a distinct lack of leadership here. If he's just a coach he shouldn't be left alone. They treat him like a mere coach when it comes to choosing who we buy but leave him to face the music on his own like he's the boss. Sounds familiar. Went well last time they did this didn't it?
You're being willfully ignorant. They've brought players in to strengthen areas where they were weak last season. Capoue, Paulinho, Soldado, Chadli, Willian(?), Lamela(?) The only significant loss will be Bale. There squad is unquestionably stronger now.
can no one see whats actually going on ... they are clearing out all the big wage guys and replacing them with low wages guys , why ? its simple its to make the club more attractive to prospective buyers , note theres still no concrete stadium works yet
Well said Dave, its nice to here a bit of positivism for once, I don't understand how are season has fell apart because we haven't signed a player nobody had even thought about 2 weeks ago. There's possibly 5 teams stronger than us in the league if we beat the other 14 we will have a good season. Lets start with some optimism about Villa or are they better than us now as well.
Yanks open the wallet or get out. -£5m spent and another £5m saved on wages is a joke - that's Arsenal levels of investment FFS.
frank, I really don't see it in those terms. Yes Rodgers PRIME responsibility is to manage the players. He's not a trained negotiator. In fact for the Willian negotiations Billy Hogan our Commercial Director was said to be in charge of the negotiations. Traditionally part of the Managers role in UK sides has been to be the spokesperson for the club. So yes it is part of Rodgers remit. From what we have been told about the structure within LFC there are a number of people who have an input into the selection of targets and our attempts to secure them. It was made clear that it would not be Rodgers alone making the selection decision but that he would have a very significant input. He's lucky most managers in Europe don't even have an input and are told - these are the players you'll work with! This transfer was lost because the owners were not prepared to spend past their agreed limit. When you consider a 5 yr contract with the kind of wages he would want on top of at least £30M then I don't blame them. We have no real idea why other target negotiations failed only media speculation to work with. But I would put a bet that at the start of this window Rodgers would have been more than happy if he knew that the "there is money for the right man" was as much as £30m + wages!!!! We know that in global terms we no longer have the pulling power - no CL football and not even Europa football. So for the supposed 'top players', it was always going to be a long shot. But we have improved the squad and we can keep doing that with players who are hungry to improve. It may be slower but provided we avoid the Wenger mistakes it can be done.
Do you know what?A year ago I would have dismissed this idea. But their complete lack of willingness to be seen on this side of the pond makes me doubt them. I mean the only time Henry did the "leader" bit was when his major playing(financial) asset was at risk. Flew in, said no, flew out. The committee is a suggestion box, a pretence that football has anything to do with this. Fair enough, they bought us, they can run it how they like financially but at least have the balls to be here to stand over it and answer for it. Don't send out the powerless guy in the track suit. At the minute they are yet again sending out a guy they see in US terms as a coach, with no powers. But they've been in the game long enough to know that's still not how a manager is viewed in this country and they know his every word will be picked up as if he has some say. so instruct him to say nothing, except they can't because that's not how the PL sees his role either. It makes Rodgers look weak & foolish. So Henry, you make the decisions? Show us those balls every week and take the press questions...not the dude who puts the cones out.
It isn't about getting Willian or not getting him, it's about strengthening the first team. We've gone from bringing in two or three players to add 'that bit of quality to the first team' to 'we hope get a couple more players in one at the back and one on the wing' to 'we're working tirelessly really, so we hope to unearth something before the window shuts'.
Hash, you know as well as I do that they can't any "concrete stadium works" until the Council grant permission and have finished their planning 'stuff'.
I was just being facetious I do think we've improved our squad a lot since last year, just hoped for more.
