Describing our games against Spurs as our "cup finals" is laughable, yes Spurs and Arsenal, Chelsea, City are big games to us but our seasonal "cup finals" are against the mancs and then Everton. And yeah we've been pants for a few seasons bar one, but IF we get Klopp or Ancelotti there's a decent chance we'll challenge for a top 4 place on a regular basis.
I don't watch Liverpool on a regular basis, but whenever you played us in recent years a bang average team always seemed to raise their performance levels to see out a victory. Of course, your game against Everton is the biggie, but to speak of United, City and Chelsea as your closest rivals is perhaps part of the problem. The reason your games against us have been so high octane is because like you said - barring that one great season - your immediate rivals have been us and Southampton. I think most Spurs fans have the common sense to admit the reverse about yourselves, so don't see what's so surprising about this revelation. And yes, Klopp or Ancelotti would be fine appointments and testimony to your club's enduring image and allure - and that's a credit to you. But I say with the greatest respect that the current Liverpool team will be the poorest either manager has ever had to work with. Both will have a huge task on their hands - will they get the funds to fix it?
"And yeah we've been pants for a few seasons bar one, but IF we get Klopp or Ancelotti there's a decent chance we'll challenge for a top 4 place on a regular basis." IF. <Sparta> (or should that now be Spurta) .
Yeah, I think they'll get the funds to fix it, they gave Rodgers almost £300m gross to spend in just over 3 years, obviously a new manager will sell a few on for a lot cheaper than they were bought for but that's expected. The cash is there and they only gave Rodgers the Sterling money to spend in the summer window because its looks certain they were divided whether to give him more time. Klopp was sounding us out a few weeks before the season began but Rodgers had already spent on Benteke, Firminho and a few others and they probably had a "lets see how the first few weeks go" attitude.
I sincerely hope not. A decent manager with those sort of funds could seriously improve a club of your size. It remains to be seen if Klopp can get the current band of misfits to play like a team instead of a group of strangers who only just met each other and apparently the manager as I've no idea what sort of system Rodgers was trying to implement this season. There are 11 games between now and January and that's a heck of a lot of points to be won or lost before the new manager can begin to clear out some of your expensive flops and rebuild. Pochettino only managed to do so this summer and we already look vastly improved compared to last year. I guess the difference is that we'll always be confined to maintaining our zero net spend record, whereas you can splash the cash a bit more. Realistically, what are your expectations this season at home and in Europe?
I'd take 5th as things stand but with what we've got and injuries we might get 6th or 7th, as for Europe I think we might scrape out of the group but nothing certain or to be confident about.
And that is why to a certain extent Liverpool vs Spurs is the "cup final" for both clubs. Because our expectations are fairly similar and we're effectively battling each other. So each meeting is likely to be either at the time or retrospectively at the end of the season, a 6 pointer. There are teams we hate more and have a bigger rivalry but with all respect to both Spurs and Liverpool we aren't battling with Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea (lol, maybe we are this year) and City
I gave up expectation years ago. Now I just dream of winning something significant again before I pop me clogs!...
Liverpool are "expecting" to sign Klopp. Weren't we "expecting" to sign Berahino? Or Willian? Or Moutinho?
The BBC showed a documentary called Rooney: The Man Behind The Goals last night. I didn't see it, but I assume that it's about Wayne's journey to become a 5th official, now that he's only good for scoring penalties against San Marino.
Eriksen's Denmark have lost to Portugal and are probably not going to the Euros. Real shame for the lad, but probably good for us.
