If you ever manage to put your points into something that reads as passably correct English then I may be able to respond. However, I will comment that the level of spend is almost not an issue. The quality of that spend along with the appropriateness of that spend are far more important factors. BTW you cannot be "more favourite" - you either are or you are not favourite!
Go easy on him Dave, I don't think he's English so it could be a second language [my money's on murican - almost English but not quite ].
I'll create a scenario for you, so that you don't squirm out of it and harp like an old man on linguistics again. 1) Suppose the season is in week 12 and both clubs are level with points. 2) Suppose you are the manager of a great club not unlike LFC, are in your 3d year at the club, and doing very well in imparting your ideas to players. You have spent about 40M in summer and have successfully implemented comprehensive management methods while working closely with reserves & academy. 3) Suppose also that a rival club has spent 100M in quality players (not unlike Negredo, Navas, Jovetic, Fernandinho) and already have big shots in the team (not unlike Aguero, Toure, Silva) but are in that fragile situation of trying to incorporate these new players into the schemes of a newly arrived manager. Now, as the manager of the first club, despite how you may dissemble in the media during the day, what are your true feelings lying alone at night: which club is favourite according to your gut, your club or the big spending club, or at par?
Scouser and a red down from my granpa. Live in toronto as my user name suggests. Now, on to the thread and business at hand...
Canada eh You must have lived there a while for the language to have seeped in. Welcome to the world wide red family
Firstly, your scenario is flawed as by the twelveth week of the season both clubs would be committed to playing with the players that they had until the January Transfer Window opens. Hence the quality of the manager in making selections and choosing tactics becomes the most important element. Secondly, Even if you have 'only' spent about £40 million (BTW the use of the mathematical symbol M is wrong) it will depend upon how many players you bought, their ages and probably mentality. Just because you spent less does not mean that you will not also suffer the same level of integration problems. Thirdly, I do not understand what you actually lean by "successfully implemented comprehensive management methods while working closely with reserves & academy." Are you trying to say that the future in-house development of the team is looking good? If so then that has nothing to do with the present situation of the evaluation between the 2 clubs!. So let's stop pissing around. At the beginning of the season I doubt that Rodgers believed or planned for an assault on the title. He also probably thought that Chelsea and City would be too strong. So his targeted opposition were Spurs, Arsenal, United and Everton (perhaps also Southahmpton). As the season progressed and his own sides result passed probable expectation and other sides failed to achieve expectations then he re-evaluated his situation. So far he has kept the pressure off his side and he has managed the problems the season has presented (injuries, bans, etc.). He knows only too well that he is, at best only 3rd favourite for the title. He also knows that his side want to go for it. He is now calculating how soon he can let the chains off whilst still ensuring that he achieves what has ALWAYS been his prime target A 4TH SPOT FINISH! But playing your little game, it matters not the level of spend! If Rodgers feels that he has in his squad he has the means to achieve the targets that he and the owners have agreed then his gut will rest easy provided that the team and his tactics are achieving. But if you do want to throw insults then this old man will be forced to teach you once more. I was correcting your GRAMMAR. It was not a question of linguistics. Now instead on consistently demanding answers to questions - just bloody say what you actually think in a form that is reasonably intelligible!
I give you an almost exact scenario to LFC and MCFC and you still find room to squirm about the premises. I'll tell you what my answer would be, were I in Brendan's shoes level with City and Chelsea in points... "I believe we are no less favourites. I believe in my team's strengths and my opponent's weaknesses. Our strenghts are such and such. Our weaknesses are such and such. Their strengths such and such. Their weaknesses such and such... ... ..." So, I would totally take up the question from an analytical perspective with no reference whatsoever to the moneys spent. Now, that answer would have to be reserved for my own self and my close circle (to the media I'd throw bones left and right of little service to truth but of much service to pressure management)
Livtor, I'm getting very annoyed with your inability to put together a coherent argument and then defend it using understandable English. You 2nd paragraph does not make sense and is extremely poor grammer - even for somebody living in North America. I have given you a clear and intelligible response.
My answer (in 1st person, no less): Your answer (loop inside bracket inside loop, all at the butt of a major dodge): Somebody else step in and hash out an answer to my original question from all that nonsense, please. Though can't say I give a f*ck what your answer could be TBH.
Then let's leave it there because you are too thick to comprehend responses or write anything like an ineligible argument.
Maybe not over 1 season. But if they spend £70m more than you on their team every summer then its going to tell eventually. Look at Dortmund vs Bayern, they competed for a few seasons but Bayern eventually powered away from them by strengthening their team heavily while weakening Dortmund's team in the process. And its going to happen to Atletico next season or the season after. It'll happen to us as well if we start competing the next couple of seasons with City & Chelsea unless we can match their spending and wages. These rich clubs have a stranglehold over their respective leagues at the moment, and I don't think anything is going to stop them. Chelsea & City in this league, Barca & Madrid in Spain, PSG & Monaco in France, Bayern in Germany etc. And 2 of those teams are going to be in the CL final as well.
If a financially-fair club that is on a great progress path does not become greedy for easy money and knows how to stamp their ambition and authority around, then that progress can continue indefinitely - why not. Even in this cynical world, smart businesses and smart investors have a lot of unencumbered upside to explore. On the flip side, giants flop all the time despite great assets - Inter, Milan, Liverpool, Bayern, Marseille, are having rough patches or have had so recently. FSG stamped their ambition and authority with Suarez in the summer, Atletico & A.Bilbao stood strong to some big offers too. But you're right that in the end, succumbed teams have historically outnumbered the toughminded ones. Wolfsburg, Valencia, Deportivo, Lille, Montpellier have all dismantled - being smaller and smaller-mided than us or Borussia - went for the safe option - easy money, "long-term investment" blah blah blah - OR maybe their success was not built on reliable foundations and was to be fleeting anyway. However, Borussia, Atletico Madrid and especially Liverpool (whose potential value worth is top 5 in the world) should be able to trace their own path to glory based on both considerable financial power and great management, unhindered by the advances of their bigger glossier neighbours and the lures & heckles of the media. Keep the blinders on and gallop down the straight, without any inferiority complex. Just like we did to Arsenal, we'll show City and Chelsea where to smoke that money - we will only accept it if we deem the deal clearly advantageous to us.
I'm going to get in trouble here but I'll state what I thought was the obvious. Rich teams should always win. They can not only afford the players, their wages they can afford the top management, facilities, stadiums and logic would suggest have the business acumen to bring in the commercial recebu that they don't actually need but can stop a rival obtaining.... But they don't. Because as we've seen really rich men have egos, ....be it they want to hand pick the players. Can't take a coaching staff that tell them to but out, have no understanding of the game outside of it being talked about at their gentlemen s club.... Like rich kids having an advantage with their education because they got a better school, tutors etc..they may well beat 9 out of 10 poor kids. But you can't beat the genius...Because they're just better than you...they will succeed. Now. Liverpool are not poor...let's not make this a David and goliath thing..it's not. We have millions. We don't have instant millions but we have owners that have wealth, a manager with both drive and skill, with what appears to be a team that supports him well. A commercial team that appears to be replicating the performance off pitch...elements....that h Abe come together. What apparently rich clubs have is a ability to thwart your aquisitions...front up cash to tempt the player away. 5-0 on that score and we are still ahead of Spurs....Chelsea don't have PL winning striker...they sold him to us...we refused the supposedly cash rich arsenal when they came for our best player.... Go figure
Can't buy vision, can't buy structure, can't buy smarts, can't buy dedication, can't buy inspiration, can't buy heart. Can try to lure off their carriers, but often these are intangible glues spread across many, thus the magic will fall somewhere between the cracks if the big brother seeks to steal the magical house brick by brick.
Atletico always sell their best players. And Dortmund have sold Gotze, Sahin, Kagawa & Lewandowski in the last couple of years. Bilbao much the same, Llorente dug his heels in and ran his contract down, Martinez left due to a clause in his contract. You simply can't stop these players leaving in the end. You might be able to delay them leaving but unless you can provide these players with huge money and the same chance of competing for honours, as they would have at Madrid, Barca, City, Chelsea etc. then you are ****ed, and that's not something Liverpool, Atletico or Dortmund can offer. I respect what you are saying in regard to money, but I've yet to see a team remain competitive with the big teams over a number of seasons that can't match them financially. Arsenal have been consistently good but never amongst the top tier teams, and their fans complain every season due to the frustration at the fact they can't compete.
I know too well Atletico and Borussia historically sell their players, and don't agree with them - luckily our owners have more spine and ambition. It is ok to sell the odd egotistical one (who needs their rotten egomaniacal ways anyway) like United had to sell CR7 to Real or we us Torres to Chelsea. However, it is pathetic of them to sell short their ambition. Both of those clubs have great potential - big leagues, stadiums, cities, followings - and both can offer consistent CL football, even in a meh year. Don't agree that either of them should bend forward to glossy big pants neighbour. Unfortunately they are doing that. But We aren't gonna!
