This is a pointless post and I'm aware I'm treading old ground but having just watched the Zenit game it's hard to believe how badly we've fallen in the last four years. Just a reminder: Four years ago we finished 2nd in the league, just 4 points from Man Utd. We were unbeaten at Anfield. Only lost twice all season. Were the top scorers in the league with 77 goals scored (nine more than Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal). 3rd best defensively with 27 conceded (Man Utd and Chelsea joint best at 24). We reached the Champions League quarter finals after beating Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate. I'd speculate that the biggest cause for this (although there were many, Torres-injury etc) has been the deterioration of the squad. When we sold quality players they weren't replaced with sufficient talent. Alonso and Arbeloa (who never seems to get the recognition he deserves for some of the performances he had for us) left that summer and were replaced by Aquilani and Glenn Johnson. Aquilani never ended up contributing and Johnson, whilst a great attacking fullback has never been reliable defensively. Sami Hyypia also left on a free that season and while his on the pitch role had clearly diminished (he played 16 league games his final season) his influence on the training ground and in the dressing room must have been missed. At the end of the 2008/09 season we were the second best team in England and widely considered one of the best sides in Europe. It was vital that we took advantage of that in the transfer market by securing the best players available to us at the time and yet we failed to do so. We've been losing ground ever since.
Yeah, I guess it was a bit of an 'if only' rant after the latest mediocre performance. Just found it genuinely surprising dredging up those stats to think it was only 4 years ago.
We still failed to win the games we should. If my memory serves me right, we finished top of the 'top four mini-league'!
I wouldn't mind being back in that mini league. And we were in contention for quite a while. We were top of the league as late as April although Utd had a game (or two?) in hand I think.
No use looking backwards - although of course, it is horrendous and I can't remember the last time I genuinly enjoyed being a fan! Just have to keep going and hope for the better.
This. Bad owners, bad business, big debts led to broken promises regarding transfers and no decent transfer funds. It also lead to a sense of depression over the club which was to heavy a weight to carry. Christian Purslow can go on your list to btw.
I wonder how things might be different today had we got those 4 extra points. H&G couldn't have sacked Rafa without getting murdered. Different class of players coming to us... plus the added belief after winning to carry us into next season. Could have kept winning... ... there again, might have given H&G just enough power to hold onto the club that little longer to send us into administration... or worse... into a Pompey death spiral.
Transfer spending in the last 5 years 1. Manchester city - 537,450,000 2. Chelsea - 326,800,000 3. Liverpool - 260,650,000 4. Tottenham - 207,200,000 5. Manchester United - 184,850,000 6. Aston villa - 161,100,000 (this one surprised me!) 7. Arsenal - 145,700,000 But I don't think you can really pin it on lack of spending. Scouting network perhaps? Previous mangers, or maybe the owners chose the targets for the manager to get. Not trying to wum btw, I used to love watching the Liverpool of 5-10 years ago as you were up there competing with and beating the best in style.
Villa spent plenty under MoN, part of the reason theyare were they are, Lerner gamble on CL football.
Yeah, I'd say the most significant thing about the Johnson signing is the fee we paid. We pretty much broke even that summer, with about 40m coming in mostly from Alonso. Johnson cost 17.5M from a Portsmouth side who were starring administration in the face. That's only 5.5M less than Barcelona paid for Dani Alves the season before. I think Johnson is great player going forward, but has a habit of leaving the right sided (or left if he's playing their) central defender exposed. I'd say he's not the best positionally, but that more often than not he can use his athleticism to get him out of bad positions.
I actually prefer Johnson on the left. He knows it's his secondary position, and tends to play more conservatively and is more mindful of his defensive responsibilities.
Does this take into account outgoings? A far bit of what we spend (especially these days!) comes from the sale of other players. Also really think the bigger problem we've had hasn't been spending money, but spending it on the right players. That was the point I was trying to make really. We needed to make the most of our standing in the league and Europe to bring in better quality players. Players who probably aren't interested in joining a mid-table Liverpool as opposed to a consistent top 4, Champion's League contender Liverpool.
