As an ardent and long seated Liverpool fan I have found myself at odds with my beloved club for so long that i had to wonder whether any common sense remained. The activities undertaken since Henry bought us have just made SENSE time after time and that makes me feel so good. That's not to say I think we are where we need to be yet but I feel we're on the right track and I'm behind the efforts. So what's changed? Well the first point of order simply has to be the lunacy that has been going on for years in transfer policy. The list of outgoings this summer only needs to be looked at Saric, Ince, El Zhar, Ayala, Bouzanis, Konchesky, Jovanovic, Kyrgiakos, Insua, Poulsen, N'gog, Degen and the loand out of cole and aquilani... This list alone shows the utter madness that succesive managers got into. I certainly was not alone in getting quite mad at Rafa for playing el zhar toward the end of this reign... His signings were very inconsistent and to be frank bargain bucket rubbish that made no sense on day one let alone after 5 games. Hodgson was worse as he had absolutely no ambition and would have been better to keep the moeny in his pocket rather tan buy trash. Listening to Comolli today he drops a few tidbits out that reinforces why things are making sense, his is a consistent message about a concerted effort to improve the team in all areas, to increase the amount of pace in the team, to get value for moeny without penny pinching, to build a squad with balance and one that can compete in the league it needs to compete in. If you listen to kenny every word and selection makes sense, his team is picked on merit, not names being stuck in just because of thier name. The teams make total sense as the right player is in the right position. The crazyness that i say last season under hodgson is just totally gone, his mad selections of players who were left footed on the right etc was infuriating. You listen to the owners and see thier actions... the fans committee alone.... they are engaged with moving o nthe right path. So immediately I can see some fans will not be happy about meireles but let me say this, if the guy wanted to go we sold him on our terms. I've absolutely no doubt he was tapped up as per usual with chelsea and had his terms all agreed long since. We forced him to submit a transfer request and got what we wanted so that the club didn't pay him a cent for loyalty that didn't exist.... The same fans may talk about aquilani but this guy represents the total madness of our club the past few years, a guy who when it drizzles gets the flu, a slight breeze knocks him over and who club after club wouldn't take his wages or fee. It was utter madness to commit our clubs total summer resources to this buy and it rightly cost rafa his job. even with meireles gone this guy doesn't fit the englsih league. He'll look good in a league with less pressure on the ball and thats fine but we need players who can play in the english premier league. Cole has gone too, his injuries were well known before he came and to be frank i was not suprised he didn't work out. So what makes sense about our buys? Coates is a CB with real promise, presence and pedigree. He's cost slightly more than dann but Dann has injuries and far less than cahill. Enrique looks to be a total class buy already, he's got good positional sense, huge pace, defensively sound and offers something going forward Adam is a hard nosed player with a sweet left foot and a work ethic to match. He needs more fitness Doni is a solid reserve in on a free with 20+ brazilian caps he proves that he's got the pedigree for the position. Henderson looks to have huge energy and adds pace, he's got the skill but is not the complete package, and at 20 we've paid for potential which is quite fair seeing other "big clubs" have done the same for the likes of jones, chamberlain etc Bellamy is an older safe type of purchase, he improves the squad depth and adds pace. Our expereince of him for 12 months was that despite some issues away at barca he was a good trainer and contributed to the squad well. While i don't like him personally at all I can see that he solves an issue in the interim between now and when we get the next pahse of player in. Downing also adds some pace and in many ways is a safe buy as well, he's expereinced, plays wide, is well used to the english league and has imprved year on year from when we first saw him. So every signing filled a gap, was done for good reason, gives the squad real balance (especially down the left) and most importantly fits into the style kenny wants to play.
For the first time, as you say, we have as Balldrick would say "a cunning plan". Even more importantly it is built upon good strategic principles. The club has done the first parts - Where Are We Now and Where Do We Want To Be and are now implementing the 3rd stage - How Are We going To Get There. The beauty is that this plan is also based upon the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle. The interesting thing is that when the club (owners and management) make statements about this plan, they are always consistent. It is this openness that confuses both opponents and commentators. When Kenny says he's wedded to 'pass and move' then they can't accept it as fact. When the owners say that building and investing in the long term success of the club they want to interprit the statements. Liverpool are in the fortunate position of being work in progress - we are moving forward, we are a moving target and therefore harder to hit and stop. Things will not always go right but they will continue to go forward. So to miss-quote: "The Future's Bright - The Fitire is RED"
It is a well thought out article, but its partly filled with the ''£20 million Jordan Henderson'', Some people should by now know the difference between ''did'' and ''could''. According to Damien Comolli the £20 million fee is way off the mark, in other words Jordan Henderson cost nowhere near £20 million. It could and this is a could be nearer to £16 million. Liverpool and this could also be a scenario have paid £13 million in cash with £3 million in additional add-ons. As for the other signings, They've done well, I was a bit disappointed last night with Mereiles going, but I had a bit of a think about it, he can't tackle and he can't play for 90 minutes. Is he all that necessary even though he is a talented individual? There is those factors to consider. He got his head turned by Chelsea, so I hope he's as successful at Chelsea as El No No and Skeletor were. Dave. That is a brilliant synopsis. The KISS (Keep it simple stupid) is the Liverpool way, making complicated things look easy....not the other way round. Luis Suarez does that on a regular basis...he makes the impossible look easy. As for the strategy, I completely agree. DC and Kenny only made signings because there was a reason for each one of them....none of them were pointless.
Its Also worth noting not many of our young players went on loan. It looks like we want to keep all the youngsters together so they learn to play the same way as the first team so they can slot in when they are ready to make the step up.
Few typos in there Dave (you know me and correct grammar!), but the correct sentiments. I've used that quote many times in the recent past since the LHC was commissioned. Now MY cunning plan is coming to fruition. When the LHC finds the Higgs Boson, which should be around the end of next year, we will be PL champions. The future is indeed RED!
Before the transfer window opened there was a lot of talk about who should go and a lot of people gave a list of 10+ players. I never knew that we would actually get rid of that many in one transfer window but we have. Delighted with our business this summer.
elpiso.. the 20 i referred to is his age not transfer fee... 20 = potential anyway looking at our incomings and outgoings... did we spend 40mil net this summer? on top of what was done in january thats less than 50mil to completely rebuild a squad to the point where from here on out we've player in every position plus depth so we will be looking for only special players from here in the next two years. in short whether or not we are in a good postion for a tilt at the title we've spent about as much as cheslea bid for modric total.... now thats common sense! we've got suarez, carroll for torres and babel.... downing, henderson, adam, enrique, doni, bellamy and coates.... meireles and n'gog out plus change for the monor sales... thats 9 good good players that better than what we had and all for the outlay of a modric......... this PROVES why common sense feels good. Cheslea can splash cash about buying with no strategy bar roman abramovich buying anyone who scores against them but would i feel as good NO! doni and bellamy are genuine frees... the likes of degen, voronin et al were terrible... bargains. adam and enrique were bought for what 6-7mil each? total bargains... comapre to dossena!!!! henderson and downing and carroll are all expensive but there you go! it costs to buy england internationals.... coates could be the best bargain of all at 7mil. amazing work really, when you look at the whole work done comolli's words ealrier in the summer must come to mind "sensible".... very very good work from where we were.
Kenny had no choice but to play GJ @ LB because at the time we didn't have a recognised LB at the club. Welcome to the forum btw. Keep posting
Thank you. Robinson? Recognised, no but neither were Kelly and Flanagan when he gave them their break.
Moreinjuredthanowen. Good points all-round. I still think that we need another centre-back and a striker. Coates replaced Soto, and is a better replacement, and Bellers replaced Ngog, again a better replacement. However that can wait for the time being. If we could sign 3 big money players next summer, they for me would be a top striker, a young top centre back and a skill-ful right winger. I think then we would have a title-winning squad.
There is another side to this. Many people were overtly critical of Johnson's defensive discipline when played in his natural position on the right. The suggestion was that Kenny employed GJ as a Left sided Full Back in order to instill some discipline into an unfamiliar role, with the expectation that this would enhance his ability as a RIGHT sided FB.
You beat me to that one. I think the fact GJ can't attack quite so frequently on the left due to him naturally getting squeezed inside actually benefitted him by forcing him to think a bit more defensively but whether this was planned on Kennys part or coincidental then who knows. Excellent article by the way, I think it reflects the current levels of optimism most of Reds are feeling very well...but remember the simple fact is it's easy to see the positives when results are good. The real mark of a great team/club is how it reacts after a defeat (and this goes for the fans as well as the team IMO). We aren't yet ready to challenge for the title (again just an opinion) but we are certainly trying to do things the right way for the first time in years. Kenny is trying to assemble a team with a clear direction of playing good quality pass and move football rather than just trying to plug this gap and that gap with bit part players. Time will tell how far this will take us but to improve so much in less than a year can only bode well for the future None of us know how successful the new look team will ultimately be but one thing I would like to say is this...if our new signings do take us onwards and upwards then reserve some credit for the likes of Comolli. He will take the rap for bad signings but more often than not Kenny will take the praise when a new player does well so after what I would say has been a pretty decent window for the club then a bit of praise should go his way
agreed, optimisim is hig, not for results necessarally but for more entertainment, good times... enjoying our days out at matches rather than grinning and bearing bad players who should never have got a shirt. I feel as though even though maybe i don't like bellamy as a man that everyon one of our squad is not up to snuff and so I don't groan when i see a team sheet. Where ever we get to this year, 7 players in plus stevie g making 8... thats quite a change to bed in. If we improve and play well and kenny is idolised as he should be then we'll have a bright future.
