Hell of a thread. Most of the managers over the years have had the club in mind and have done all they can an to keep us where we need to be. Mistakes have been made and some mistakes have been worse than others. Lets remember those that have done their best with affection and not forget their efforts.
Actually, the figures suggest the bottom of that table reads: Souness Hodgson Rodgers I'd also stick a big pin in that balloon of BS you call, "Horrendous transfer policy." Andy Carroll went from "waste of money" (when we made a profit swapping him for Torres) to demands for him to play in the Euros instead of Rooney; from "unplayable" at the end of last season to just unplayable this season. Enrique and Suarez have bailed us out recently. Downing is not a left back so any errors he makes there are down to Brendan. He put him there. There's always a raft of muppets throwing players into the water, just as they did with Lucas and Kuyt and Skrtel, eventually voting them Players of the Year. Not after one season, though. Why was that? Lucky for us they weren't in charge of transfer policy, huh? How horrendous could that have been? As Jan Molby said, "They'd have dumped me, too, because my first season was dreadful." That's you, that is. No manager gets 100% success. 50% is good. But sometimes the successes don't happen in the first season. Dirk Kuyt outscored Ronaldo in his first three seasons from the same position. For years we had no money. We made profit from transfers. So I have no complaints that we paid top price to get the players the manager wanted. 35m for Carroll or 25m for Bent is a no-brainer, but some muppets would've lumped us with Bent. Or Dempsey, FFS. Downing's confidence was shot months ago. Henderson's is going the same way. There were still good reasons for buying them. Carroll's confidence was back, though, and mighty. With Lucas Charlie Adam was brilliant but paid the price for his loss. Does anybody really want Degen, El Zhar and Ngog back? People seem to forget exactly where we'd come from. The depths of transfer Hell, with Rafa having to accept freebies like Jova at the end, then Hodgson giving away two of our top youngsters and 8m for Konchesky! You can't just come back from that kind of doom in one season. So, not "horrendous" and possibly better than we could've hoped for if they'd been given continued belief, the kind of belief Rodgers gets without any justification.
I don't see how anyone in there right mind can defend the transfer policy of Kenny and Damien. Has single handedly set us back 2-3 years. [video=youtube;w7RIgs3eygo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7RIgs3eygo[/video]
Think we can all agree that Kenny brought well with Suarez/Enrique and in Henderson/Carroll brought two players that could become good players for us given time. Had he spent £10mil on Henderson and £15-20mil on Carroll it wouldn't be as bad but the fact that a combined £70mil was spent on Henderson, Downing & Carroll suggests that although maybe not getting his transfer dealings "horrendously wrong" he wasted a lot of money during his time.
I got my season ticket under Kenny MK I, that was some of the best football I've seen us play. He inherited the side though, and the signings he made, although quality, were ones any manager with funds and the draw of the club could have made. For me it would go Rafa, Evans, Kenny Mk I, Houllier, Rodgers, Kenny mk II, Sounes, Hodgson.
Just realised I forget Houllier He would come in at third for me so move the above third to fifth down a spot
Cheers! If they'd spent the money wisely we wouldn't be in the position we're in now. Simple as that imo.
