LIVERPOOL have played great teams many times, writes PETER FURMEDGE. Quite a few times we have been behind illustrious opponents in terms of what we can put on the pitch. Sometimes quite a distance behind.
What always prevailed, something that brought grudging admiration and resentment our way in equal measure, was that arrogant Scouse-infused “fuck them, we’re Liverpool” attitude. It carried us through some unlikely triumphs. The 2001 UEFA Cup run saw Liverpool emerge from Europe’s shadows to beat Porto, Roma and Barcelona. Nobody needs reminding about 2005 and what happened when football’s hand of fate put Juventus, Chelsea and AC Milan in our way.
It also left us looking a bit daft at times as well, but that didn’t matter, a few pints later and we’d be ready to take on all comers again. Bill Shankly famously responded to a 5-1 first leg drubbing at the hands of Ajax by saying Liverpool would turn the deficit over in the second leg. 54,000 believed him. Clearly second best to the emerging Dutch masters, but clearly having none of it.
Wednesday 22nd October 2014 was the first time I’ve gone to a Liverpool match where the prevailing mood was one of awe. Yes we’ve applauded great players. Goalkeepers have always been given a good reception by The Kop. Decades ago, when Liverpool’s crowd struck as much fear into visiting fans as the players did to their teams, we used to always applaud opposition goals as well. But they were interludes in an unswerving conviction that, no matter how good the XI lined up against the Reds were supposed to be, “we are Liverpool and we’re going toe to toe with you”. Players and supporters alike. Partisan, passionate, aggressive. Sometimes deluded, never defeated before a ball was kicked in anger.
Against Real Madrid at Anfield, very large sections of the crowd lacked any sort of Liverpudlian arrogance or bottle. In fact, many were just as happy to be there because Madrid were in town as they were to support Liverpool.
This was also apparent with the team. I’m not advocating kicking the opposition off the park, but we barely put anything on any of their players. Would a Jamie Carragher, Phil Thompson, younger Steven Gerrard, Jimmy Case, Sammy Lee, Tommy Smith, Gerry Byrne or young Jon Flanagan have gone through 90 minutes without at least letting the superstars in white know they were in a game? Our team was standing off, not good enough to play Real Madrid and too in awe to battle with them instead. There’s playing it clean and then there’s being overawed.
Six fouls and no bookings in 90 minutes says the footballing demigods from Spain would have faced a sterner foe in the selfie-stick mob by the players’ entrance than they encountered on the Anfield turf that night.
The trip to Madrid for the return leg cemented an image of Liverpool as a club happy enough to play second fiddle. Never mind the team selection, Brendan Rodgers can pick who the hell he likes. Rafa Benitez and Gerard Houllier did it often enough to make me immune to unexpected line-ups. However, gone was the ultra-professional “get in, get the job done, get out” approach of years gone by. This was “little Liverpool on tour” — an entire club on a mid-season break. Everyone bar the then ostracised Mamadou Sakho on the plane to Madrid. Nobody on the club’s charter plane home. Instead, that extra 24 hours to “prepare” for the Chelsea game was spent in the Spanish capital and a narrow 1-0 defeat treated almost like a victory.
“Plucky Liverpool”, a club one step away from a losers’ lap of honour to a chorus of “we’ll support you ever more”. Not a hint of the steely-eyed determination to bridge the gap that typified the Reds of yore, just relief that a drubbing had been avoided.
How did it come to this? A global giant. Five times Champions of Europe. Now established as a feeder club to Barcelona and Real Madrid. A team that might as well have stood with autograph books welcoming Real Madrid onto the Anfield pitch. A crowd turning up and behaving like we’re Fourth Division underdogs playing, erm, Liverpool; the proper Liverpool that fears no foe.
Lack of vision. That’s what it is. And it comes from the very top.
A stadium development that will leave us permanently in the second tier of European clubs and struggling to keep up domestically. Sitting closer in terms of capacity to Newcastle than to Manchester United and completely giving up the ghost where the likes of old foes like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are concerned. Never mind Barcelona and Real Madrid, they’re over the hill and far away now. Built in obsolescence, an investment risk mitigated by the development’s minimal payback time being guaranteed by a decades long season ticket waiting list, premium prices that are yet to be set and the naming rights cherry on the cake. A big tick on the FSG investment appraisal, no matter that generations are priced out and already in the process of being alienated for good.
A transfer policy that’s all about unearthing talent that can be resold at a profit. Quarter of a billion pounds spent (some may say wasted) on “investments” in three years, largely evaluated on the basis of age and resale potential instead of ability to improve the first team. A balanced risk investment portfolio where a football team should be. Spreading risk across a transfer window and ending up with nine players of potential (maybe questionable) quality instead of concentrating the risk and ending up with three of proven status. A club that players now leave with their most successful trophy winning years ahead of them, yet it’s never the club’s fault.
A self-imposed salary cap that’s leading to a Gordon Lee style “no stars” policy in spite of the club still shelling out a gargantuan payroll bill. Blaming the lure of London instead of fighting it — how the hell did we bring John Barnes north and then keep him here? What are the likes of Sagna, Nasri, Clichy, Mata and Van Persie doing in Manchester if the mythical lure of London always wins out?
A support that’s been rinsed and cleansed and sieved out until all but the last bastions of the old ways and attitudes cling on, defiant in a vain hope that one day things will return to some semblance of “normality”. A new crowd, welcomed off chartered planes by Mighty fucking Red, filling hotels, clogging up motorways from all points north, south, east and west. Spectators and customers, taking selfies to a backdrop of opposition set pieces, providing an audience that’s more excited by the presence of opposition superstars than it is determined to help the men in Red put these upstarts from the continent back in their place.
The tipping point has been passed. First Liverpool ended up with the only penniless “billionaires” in America, now it seems we have the only Small Time Charlies from a land of Big Time Charlies. The new crowd accepts our place in the order of things, happily filming Ronaldo’s gloating goal celebrations and celebrating the avoidance of humiliation in Madrid like some sort of triumph in adversity. A tame and timid Anfield crowd, about as imbued with the Liverpool-Manchester rivalry as people who’ve rarely (if ever) set foot in either city can be, flat as a pancake for the traditionally the most partisan of all English football fixtures.
Quarter of a century without a league title, players leaving year on year for bigger and better things, how long before Rodgers becomes the first Liverpool manager to leave for bigger and better? Gone is the defiance. Gone is the arrogance. Gone is the vision of building Liverpool up and up until we conquer the bloody world.
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Read: Season ticket prices – A letter to John W Henry
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I like the article and it sums up the defeatist attitude now growing among our fan base. Many of our own fans now basically claim they don’t care about trophies, the Uefa Cup or FA Cup mean nothing now without top 4. I remember the 2001 very, very fondly and it wasn’t for the Champions League spot.
However I take serious issue with:
“how long before Rodgers becomes the first Liverpool manager to leave for bigger and better?”
Big-game bottler Rodgers who is clueless in Europe and was the architect of the double embarrassment against Real Madrid, is part of the FSG ‘cheap option’ problem. Man City are the only richer club who would touch him, and he wouldn’t last long under that demand for silverware.
With rumours intensifying on ManCitywanting our key players to sort out their home-grown issue as well as overhaul the aging squad a thought of them using Brendan Rodgers as some sort of a bait does not sound very outlandish.
They lure BR. BR lures players (who by coincidence are unwilling to sign contracts)
Incidentally, BR will not have freedom to cherry-pick LFC best players if he is bought out by City. But if he is sacked for not achieving top 4, he’ll be free to do so.
Ignore this, it’s only me looking at possible scenarios.
He might very well get the job because City can swap managers as often as they like. But how long he keeps it when the expectation is turned up is a different matter. He’s worse in Europe than Pellegrini and can’t beat Mourinho either!
brilliant spot on. Only one slight difference of opinion Brendan won’t leave for bigger or better as Alan has just said he is part of the cheap option from FSG and not having won anything in his career shines through owners and manager both not good enough and are instilling mediocrity in our once great club ……unless like the old manager from down the road You don’t have to win to be a winner’.
PS might be history now but the blame goes back to the dope who should never be forgiven David Moores.
“spiltter” how could you ????
Provocative read Peter, but it’s easy to forget it took a borderline miraculous run of form from Man City to stop us winning the league, but 11 months ago.
I’m sorry, that’s funny. Unintentionally funny, but funny all the same.
It has the same tone as a UKIP manifesto, longing for halcyon days gone by, when we were a world power, when we had pride, when others knew to take us seriously. (I can here Jerusalem playing in my head as I read it)
It has the same delusion and refusal to accept the new realities. It looks to back to an idealized past (pre ’86), when the club was last able to dominate both home and abroad, rather than forward to a better future, that those of us who are inclined to be optimistic hope for. A better future already signposted by finishing 2nd last year, by balancing the books, and by starting the expansion of Anfield.
thanks mate for a sensible post. Rodgers is learning and I believe the future look bright. Far brighter than it did over the past 6 years. Christ, he’s only been there a few seasons….bloody hell, give him a chance. And he’s not going to City. Don’t be so bloody stupid. Muppets!
It’s this type of negative attitude that’s the problem. Shame on you, call yourself a supporter, what happened to through the wind and rain, ill answer all your criticisms in one word bollocks. YNWA unless you write for the anfield wrap ..
Really persuasive argument that, Shaun. Thanks for contributing to the debate.
Shaun,
You might not like the points being made (I don’t agree with a lot of them myself) but being a fan of a club does not equate to blind loyalty. What about the fans who protested H&G, good knows where we would be were it not for them.
This seems like an article written in anger at our frustrating season and seemingly ever diminishing status at football’s top table, but are we not entitled to question the ambition of the owners when we look around and see our stars leaving, our rivals signing our targets, and the undeniable arrogance the “we will not overpay” attitude of the owners.
The fan/owner relationship has to work both ways otherwise we may as well resign ourselves to the mediocrity of mid table.
I know it is said every single year but this summer will he huge for the club and is undeniably going to truly the most indicative of the owners ambitions. Do we stick the the status quo of under paying and “finding value” or do be bold, brash and a little bit arrogant, basically do we be a little bit Liverpool?
Really patronising response from you.
Sorry I don’t agree with any of your points. Thought bollocks summed it up quite well.
@Roy Henderson before we ‘Sold’ arguably the best player in the world at that time .
Peter I think you’ve got it spot on here
What a refreshing honest appraisal of LFC,expect some hostility off the internet warriors.
If I take issue with the stadium it was Moores and Parry that lacked the vision and clout needed to take the club forward when they should of. Ideally for me leaving Anfield in the early 90’s for the waterfront, somewhere like the Kings Dock. The club under M&P was run like a corner shop, off the past, without any foresight of where football was going and then to wrap it all up their due diligence on the yanks.
The current owners know that in terms of Commercial Real Estate the land in Anfield is worth nothing and any investment into the stadium is not going to add any value to the actual land. This may sound harsh but in terms of real estate it’s the truth.
The lack of infrastructure in Anfield is one of the planning reasons why the club can’t go 60K plus, not withstanding the club has acted as a slum landlord for over 20 years to get the current land. So the lack of vision from previous owners has left us in this position where expanding the current ground is the only option.
With no sign of any investment into travel infrastructure (a bloody tram or train or new road links) then the regeneration of the area to bring in other commercial companies is limited and leaves LFC as the only pull to the area. Thus the land that the ground sits on remains pretty much worthless.
Once the ridiculous heritage claim over a large section of the waterfront is removed, (might well of already been done) then there is a multi billion investment in the pipeline.
A stadium on the waterfront would ustiise all the existing and new travel networks therefore allowing expansion of the ground up over 65K, therefore allowing the club to take a more sensitive view on ticket prices whilst still bringing in decent match day revenue.
So as a comparison when they value Arsenal there’s a value applied to the land as well as the club. That value will of gone through the roof since they moved due to the redevelopment of Kings Cross.
The actual new stand looks decent but FSG have already said the expanded capacity is about maxing out match day revenue and not taking a sympathetic view on ticket prices, so expect nothing there. Then were left with another planning battle for the anny road, expect that to take another few years then another few to build it. The expansion of Anfield can’t be looked at in isolation it has to be done with in partnership with the council and that means THEM putting in tram, train lines into the area and making it more accessible.
FSG could of bought land on the waterfront, built a 65K stadium (with an option to extend it) and put a tram line in. With it would of come the hotels, pubs, bars, business’s and then in 15 years the whole area would of been redeveloped. Not withstanding that LFC could of had a stake in all those ancillary business’s.
The current build is a sticking plaster to increase the revenue of the club and try and keep it pace with the others. I’m sure the wider discussion of regenerating Anfield will be going on well after we’ve all exited the planet.
I’ll get off my soapbox now
Attitudes like the one expressed in this exceptionally cynical article are what will ultimately kill the Liverpool spirit.
Fans who have given themselves over to this sort of darkly negative thinking would be better off supporting a different club — in the interest of their own well-being and mental health as well as that of fans who still believe that Liverpool Football Club is the best football club in the world.
Had we bought the best of the cheaper players available over the past few years, things would have been very different.
there was Kennys mega stodge spunk up. Adam over Cabaye , downing/carroll. Then there was the Aspas summer, where, had better players been bought, we would have been champions (morgan S anyone?)
Who is making these decisions and why?
FSG can not be faulted for a lack of spending. Prudence is required for obvious reasons , and its not as if big fee’s have not been paid, they have, and failed, which is part of the reason for this ‘new’ approach.
I personally believe a Koeman type, someone with a bit of gumption on the world stage would have the balls and pull to do things differently.
I can’t disagree with any of that. Well written Retro, articulated what a lot of people are feeling.
But John Henry and Ian Ayre have increased the amount of money we get for sponsorship deals, as well as the number of brand affiliations we have. But, but, but, but, but, but, but we’re still unlikely to win the league any time soon.
Good article. It’s a bit optimistic though. You can see that in the crank replies like the one off Ellie. It shows that lfc fambo has gone past the point of no return. Well written all the same
Well written article but can honestly never remember a more negative piece on TAW! Disagreed with practically every paragraph. Where was the author last season? In a coma?
The football landscape has shifted. Ok so we missed the Oligarch boat. So what? Last season showed what is possible. Let’s give FSG a chance to see how their medium to long term strategy pans out before pissing all over it
Jesus man, your cynicism is depressing. It’s spring time, we’re in the cup semi final and have a young and progressive squad. The stadium redevelopment has started to eventually take us up to 60000 capacity.
You need to go have some sex with another person.
That last sentence made me laugh out loud. But your comment is entirely accurate.
While I love the passion of the article it is completely out of touch with the reality of football in 2015 and beyond.
It is as if we can just make the top players in the world want to come to Liverpool, pay them 250K a week, but not raise prices for tickets or try to generate income through commercial deals – because those are so lame.
Agree completely we need more toughness on the pitch, but the rest of this is living in the past.
Can I just say that, under KENNY Dalglish in his second coming, I still believed we could beat everyone. The FA Cup. final loss tonChelsea still showed they we were Liverpool and couldn’t be taken for granted. Thst Brendan Rodgers could pick teams that he expected to lose made him no better than Roy Hodgson, but even more mid-table if possible.
BR is widely believed to see us as a stepping stone to ‘bigger and better.’ Fat chance!!
RAFA didn’t. For all his faults (not too many, actually) he was and is s true Red. Rodgers is not and will never be.
This is not prompted by two losses. He has gutted the club of people with balls. Jonjo cared, Spearong cared, Agger cared, Wisdom cared…
Anyone who doesn’t agree with the above doesn’t understand the history of Liverpool FC.
The whole place is a joke, to many fans are coming for a day out to see the famous Anfield atmosphere. The irony of this is that the whole place is invested with so many people with no affilation to the city, the football club or (and this is the main point) the community the football club is supposed to represent. There is no issue with fans from all over the world coming to Anfield, for gods sake we’re and outward looking City, people and football club in general due to our port heritage. But a tipping point has been reached and the whole thing is wrong. It’s time Liverpool FC introduced some positive discrimination in favour of local supporters and especially local children. Generation after generation is lost in the hunt to squeeze as much coin out of everything that is LFC. OOT fans will never admit it and will probably scoff and pour scorn on this but they’re are the reason why Liverpool FC is dying on its arse. Do something positive LFC and get more scouse kids with their parents through the door and stop a trend that will ultimately lead to a soulless shell of a football club that used to mean something.
soz mate!
If you’re gonna pretend FFP doesn’t exist then you can’t put a valid argument across. Its ridiculous to ask how come Utd can entice Mata and RVP when it’s not London. It’s simple, they offer them high wages although you know that. What your insinuations ignore is that Utd have an extra £200m a year to spend over us. A club can only spend 70% of its income on player salaries. There’s no magic wand anymore.
Forgive me if I’m wrong but it sounds like your policy would be to build a 90k new stadium, go out and buy the best players in the world, enticing them with huge wages if necessary and drastically reduce ticket prices to get more scallies in. Look, I won’t lie, it sounds like the perfect plan.
It’s good to be critical but I’ve got an interesting proposal for you. Why don’t you do a follow up article where you inform us how you think the club should be run rather than listing everything that’s wrong with it.
I totally understand that fans demand lower price tickets to enable more youngsters and locals to the game but understand this….. Unless every other club do the same we are going to drift even further behind in the financial stakes to clubs like Chelsea, city, utd and arsenal. That means we will be even less competitive in the transfer market. Are we going to spend millions increasing the capacity to then lower ticket prices and bring in the same revenue? The development needs paying for somehow and is supposed to put us in a more competitive position after it is complete!
As for the article there are some great points in there and I agree with it for the most part even if it is slightly negative. Negativity has spread through the club since the summer transfer window though after losing the leagues best player. Is there anyone that actually expected us to do better than 4th position this season? I for one would have taken 4th in a heartbeat because the financial implications to the club are of such magnitude. Am I being negative for happily accepting 4th before a ball has been kicked or is it being realistic on the basis of what we did in the transfer window?
Don’t get me wrong this is no excuse for the supporters not giving their all in the games mentioned but how long can the club keep relying on that kind of support when they are offering little in return? Sometimes it’s up to the team to get the supporters going and showing them that they want it as much as the people that have paid their hard earned cash to go and see them play. This season that has happened on far too few occasions. We had a disastrous start to the league campaign and the champions league was no better. It was Embarrassing in all honesty. I can’t say that I was happy with the team selected for the away fixture with besiktas in the Europa league either. That was a competition we had a good chance of winning and was another alternative to qualifying for the champions league should we not have secured a top 4 spot.
I would like to see Rodgers given the summer to rectify the bad signings he’s made and hopefully prove he has learned something from this season. I hope he realises that just because he’s increased our squad size it hasn’t necessarily given us options. Just look at our strikers to see my point!
At the same time I can understand fans views that would like to see him replaced. After all the club set a precedent in sacking 2 legends in rafa and kenny for not securing champions league football.
I just hope the club realise that it’s all well and good trying to build a young team that will develop into contenders in the next few years but that we then need to keep these players together and do what it takes to keep them. It’s ok saying that we should cash in on sterling but for what? To risk spending it on 2-3 players that might become great players for us when we can already see that raheem is going to be. The bottom line is that the concern for the majority of players is money. They will go where they can get the best pay check. City signed a handful of players on mega money before they could offer European football.
Ok sterling has gone about it in the wrong way but don’t be of the opinion we should now write him off because he’s made a mistake. He’s 20 for goodness sake! However most people think his age is only relevant when it comes to how much money he is asking for!
What we really need is to win the F.A cup to galvanise these young players. Give them a taste of success and make them hungry for more going into next season with belief and desire. Replace some of the players that don’t fit into our system with a few signings that will get the supporters believing we can achieve something and then we can maybe start to dream again!
The piece is well thought out and very accurate. Most people who will identify with it are those who have being going every week to the game without fail long before Micky Owen was in nappies. And will have seen the many faces of LFC over the last number of decades. The success we achieved under Shanks right up to Kenny turned a very local success story into a global brand. What has failed more than anything over the last 20 years is a lack of vision and the wrong people at the business end of the club who could not balance keeping tradition while progressing as a global brand.
We have gone after one end of the spectrum running the club like a business and have managed to leave the sporting and terrace culture out of the equation for the sake of the dollar.
RIP LFC as we use to know it.
If you’re at the game and near someone with a selfie stick or half and half scarf then it is YOUR DUTY to take the piss out of them!!! Simple.
Feels more like a rant and pining for the success of the past when there was little competition. I guess it’s probably been building up out of the frustration of walking on one turd after another when there’s a better path available.
We’ve always had top players leave. Keegan legged it after being an enormous success but went on and became European player of the year – twice. LFC were done, doomed, never to be the same again, but he was replaced by some scottish chap. Can’t remember his name, but I’m sure he did ok.
Rush left, again, the club was spent, had no future and he was replaced by some local with a dodgy ‘tache and another player who couldn’t speak properly.
The rot started before PL invented football. The owners rested on their laurels, the manager let the squad age and failed to do what the boot-room had been doing for over two decades. Then Souey turned up…
If you remove the oil clubs from the equation, the club has done reasonably well despite spunking way too much money of squad fillers. Even the financial juggernaut down the road has had trouble keeping up with those two. It’s a great shame we didn’t capitalize on their demize last season and keep them out of the top 4 (yeah yeah, I know, season isn’t over).
FSG don’t care about us. They bought an asset on the cheap, stopped the rot, eventually addressed the stadium (on the cheap of course), and starting bringing in more money from marketing the club overseas. All good stuff, nowhere near enough to compete with the oil, but enough to make selling the club a viable option with a hefty ROI. It does feel like they’re scared to twist when a genuine top player or two may be all that was needed to bring in success.
People hark on about MLB and the Red Sox, the two are different. They are Sox fans, it’s their local, and it’s a closed shop where they all get to hit the reset switch at the end of the season. Fenway is still a dump, they reduced the size of the seats to increase the number of bums, and that’s about it. I’m surprised they haven’t tried that with us.
The future may not be rosy, but we are stable now and moving forward. Whether that’s enough to keep up or enough to stop Spurs and WH (oh gawd) overtaking us once they’ve got their new stadiums and London cash remains to be seen. I suspect we’ll be hearing noises about selling the club once the ground is nice and shiney in a few years.
Before everyone starts listening to The Smiths and throwing themselves off bridges, don’t forget Italy had all the wealth and best players before it all imploded and the corruption started to leak. The PL will do the same one day.
There’s 2 points I’d make in reply to that. Firstly, regarding the Utd game (more a response to the author of the article), the atmosphere there was not down to the make up of the crowd. I sit on the Kop and I can guarantee that whilst there are people there who could be classed as ‘day trippers’ the majority are regular season ticket holders. The simple fact is, people turned up for it in good spirits but within a few minutes it was clear something wasn’t right on the pitch. Had we gone in front it would have been a different story. People forget that the performance of the team drives the singing. If Chelsea had gone one nil up in 2005 then we wouldn’t be talking about it as one of the best atmospheres ever. If we’d lost we’d have sang YNWA at the end as a show of appreciation for the teams effort but it wouldn’t have been anywhere near how it was when we won. Either way, there was enough regulars on the Kop against Utd to raise a song. As a side note to the author, if we’d been outside and the Mancs had been singing those songs I’d have happily steamed into them, no questions asked, but I can’t stand at the opposite end of the ground and be full of bile and bitterness, I’m too old for all that. I did it as a teenager.
Regarding the ticket prices, if the club put just £8m of the new tv money aside it could knock a tenner off the price of a ticket for every game for everyone in the ground. It’d go along way to appease the fans. The future of football attendances is unclear. I’d speculate that in 100 years when people look back at today they’ll call this the boom years. Less young kids today will become match goers in the future. If they’ve never been they won’t see it as value to pay today’s equivalent of £50 when they’re used to watching on the tv. The other thing is the rise of football on the internet. People can already watch any Liverpool game on a good HD stream (if they know where to look) and certainly on a poor stream. At some point the clubs will have no choice but to engage this and try and get a piece of the pie. It’s gonna happen whether they like it or not. My point is, if nothing is done about prices people will stop going. I know a few who have given up their season tickets recently. It’s too much for a family man in his 30’s and 40’s with dependants, not to mention the time invested. In 10 years time the landscape could be quite different. Already, in what I’d guess are the boom times, the majority of the Premier League clubs can’t fill their grounds every game. If Liverpool become a 5th / 6th / 7th place team the demand will go down. I think, today, Liverpool could sell out an 80k stadium regularly. I don’t think the future is so certain.
**supposed to be a reply to Dan
Half of our fans are pathetic to be honest, some actually think Joe Allen is good enough to play for Liverpool. He wouldn’t get a game for a team anywhere near us. Our transfer targets are pathetic, but maybe its because what’s the chances the best players in the world would like to come and play for a team that hasn’t won a league title in 26 years. Liverpool have never ever signed a world class player in his prime. Torres and Suarez were not at the level they became before liverpool. Were a big club because of our fans and we won trophy’s years ago that anyone younger than the age of 26 can’t remember.
This is a decent read on the business end of the club.
http://swissramble.blogspot.ch/search/label/Liverpool
Under FFP infrastructure program costs can be written down as long term investment so don’t have such a negative effect season by season. Which is why although FSG have started the new build program I agree with the view that it’s being done on the cheap.
They should of pushed the Council on the Anny Road, I’m sure they could of come up with a suitable scheme to accommodate all the logistics. Starting another 2nd build project down the line just adds to the overall cost.
Getting the stadium over 60K then allows you to max out match day revenue, do something creative with pricing structures, allows groups of mates to sit together, accommodate day trippers and the like.
54 with the new main, 60 with the anny road then stick another 5-7 (move the road) on the kop taking it to 65+. Then why couldn’t the council build a train station up at Uttings Ave and run a football special non stop from the centre of town on match days
As well as the daytrippers myth, I come over from Belfast to the games and believe you me there are plently of locals who are just as bad. I tend to notice I’ve met a lot of locals who settle for failure, the actually like Joe Allen because he recycles the ball, love Jordan Henderson he’s boss. These players are nothing compared to Europe’s top clubs absolutley nothing. Over here the fans are just as passionate though we get the blame for Anfield being terrible most times. Arsenal at home this season, could hear a pin drop. All daydrippers? Wake up.
Poor Ryan. The locals haven’t got his football expertise and they don’t give him the atmosphere he obviously deserves. He’s doing us a very big favour by blessing us with his presence.
Luckily he’s got the option of all the rest of the geg ins by watching a team from where he’s from. I’m sure it’s not because they’re not as big time that he has to put himself out so much. Don’t worry lad you won’t be missed.
Some of my mates are like you peter. Can’t be wrong, call the team and the manager and the owners fit to burn after a couple of defeats. But you’ll be there waving your flag and basking in the glory when we win the cup. Yes you’ll probably say something smart like, “I’ve been calling out for Brendan to play that formation, I’m right so I can celebrate ”
Or some such nonsense. But we all know in the long run your fair weather supporters.
l make no apology for supporting my team through thick and thin. It’s thin at the moment and you and your like can scoff, but we are liverpool, we will rise again. And when we do, I for one will remember your ridiculous rants.
now go on, say something smart !!
Shaun go buy the new replica, good lad.
Jim B I bet your an old fart who wanted king Kenny to stay. Liverpool had 90,000 foreign fans over last year, that’s about 5.000 each game on average. That 5.000 out of 40.000 is the problem? I couldn’t care less if you want us at Anfield or not. You probably Bought a Carling cup winners top a few years ago!
Poor Ryan. With that many geg ins heading over no wonder the atmosphere is pitiful.
Replicas? Haha. I think that’s more your sort of thing along with gel heads , earrings . bad gear and wacky leprechaun outfits. I know that you’re desperate to copy things and become a top red. Monkey see monkey do. You’ll always be a latch on though.
Christ!!