Liverpool FC Forum

[anfieldadorer]

During the spells where the five trophies were collected, Gerrard had only been another liverpool powerhouse. Our team strength was generated more by a collective contribution delivered by players like: Owen, McAllister, Fowler, Litmanen, the best of Hyypia-Henchoz, and Gerrard himself, rather than individual magic.

Later on, Liverpool emerging forces appeared and marked by the display of "promising" players like Cheyrou, Diouff, Diao, etc. as well as the disappearance of legends like Fowler, McAllister, and Litmanen. Many feel that some of the buyings at the times of Houllier's regime e.g cheyrou are only a wasteful of money, but the rests, e.g Diouff, may only be  mistreated players. (Examples of significantly misrated players are Baros and Biscan. In contrary with Baros, Biscan should have been curbed before playing as much as 29 performances). The sold out players, regardless of their age limitation, were those who adequately met the requirement of liverpool standard: Fowler, McAllister and Litmanen were creative and inspirational players who gave the soul to overall Liverpool performance.

The problem, for some reason, has become more chronical and been causing the team's skeleton systematicaly being paralyzed. Gerrard has also become the only part being still  at his best function (with a little help from the "crutch" Kewell and Owen) and, as the consequence, has been working too hard to support the other parts to accelerate when the body can't even walk (probably he's now reaching his limit already).

Perhaps Gerrard is not a type of player who has a heart to take advantage from situation of being "the only functioning part in a paralyzed system" and seen as a fantastic player due to that since he's also been outstanding in the national team. But what made Liverpool once become the greatest team in Europe was that this team were fulfilled by -not only one or two but, more than a half of high-quality players. And (unfortunately for every manager) the fans tend to see the liverpool standard with the same old eyes.

Gerrard is now God since he is now the only leg that is still working. Like it or not, he's now becoming very crucial to the whole team if not the whole club.

It's now down to Benitez. Ask for his opinion whether we should beg on Gerrard's feet or work extra hard building on the existing resources by particularly recovering the potential parts while cutting off the problematic parts to replace them with the new bloods. It does need time. But it's now all that we have.

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when you walk thru the storm, hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark...

[azriahmad]

Anfieldadorer, I think we have a few excellent players, not necessarily all are workd-class but excellent none the less, and Gerrard has stood out because he has been playing his heart out and given his talents stood out much more than the rest.

Liverpool's squad comprise of other talents who can shine more if they can be moulded into an effective unit and play together like our teams of the past. The Liverpool team of the golden eras were a group of excellent individuals coupled to some good but hard working players. For every Keegans, Sounesses, Dalglishs, Hansens, Rushes and all, we also had the Sammy Lees, Nicols, Kennedys.

What I am trying to get at is that it is the team and their desire to play for each other and the manager's management and tactics which makes them winners. No one player, no matter how world-class he is, is above the team.

As much as we love Gerrard, we now have a winner as a manager. He knows how to win and he has repeated his success to prove that it is not a flash in the pan. His team even outplayed us home and away that some of our players have even expressed admiration for his team's organisation. Let Benitez try to convince Gerrard when he returns from Euro 2004. If he decides to stay, then good for all of us. If he decides otherwise, let's make sure we make the most of the transfer and ger the repalcements and reinforcements fast and get on with it.

Players are human capital and not like other forms of capital. Even with a long term contract, if he does not have the heart and desire to stay, it is best that we let him go. Otherwise it will have an undesirable effect on the others.

For me, as a fan, I hope Gerrard gives Benitez the chance to instill his ideas and put them into motion for at least one season and see how it goes. After all, he is at home in Liverpool, he is the club captain and he is adored by the fans like you and me

[redandblue]

If indeed we do lose SG this summer, we will have lost a fabulous home grown player, who still has many years ahead of him. As we all know he is a great talent in a team which is short on talent. But the biggest thing about his departure would be the statement.........that he cannot win the trophies that count with LFC.

When we were winning big trophies for fun in the 80s and 90s, our players generally didn't want to move on. Souness wanted cash so he went to Sampdoria and the board wanted money for Rushie from Juventus. But Dalglish? Hansen? Lawrenson? Nicol? Neal? They knew that they were getting something that no other club could offer. Success at the highest level.

And that's just why our very own SG will move. Finishing 30 points behind Arsenal and 15 points behind United (who had a dreadful season by their standards) must make him embarrassed. He sits there looking at the Neville brothers with their cabinets full of medals, and what does he have.........a couple of Worthington cup medals, an FA Cup medal and a UEFA medal. All very nice. But not the real thing.

He knows what we all know. That standards under Moores and Parry have been allowed to drop a long way. We can't match Chelsae's money nor Arsenal's talent for the next few years at best.

He deserves better.

[redandblue]

I meant the 70s and 80s. The 90s were horrible!! Sorry.

[woof woof !]

And that's just why our very own SG will move. Finishing 30 points behind Arsenal and 15 points behind United (who had a dreadful season by their standards) must make him embarrassed. He sits there looking at the Neville brothers with their cabinets full of medals, and what does he have.........a couple of Worthington cup medals, an FA Cup medal and a UEFA medal. All very nice. But not the real thing.

He knows what we all know. That standards under Moores and Parry have been allowed to drop a long way. We can't match Chelsae's money nor Arsenal's talent for the next few years at best.

He deserves better.

AND SO DO WE !!!
The difference between us fans and Gerrard Owen etc is that they can swap their loyalties for cash and possible medals whilst we fans continue to pay through the nose to keep these B'stards in their luxury lifestyles hoping that one day they might actually win us something.
Now that we have a new manager and a new beginning I would have hoped that players of Gerrards and Owens stature would remember the loyalty we fans have shown them and at this most important time in recent LFC history show us some loyalty in return. It would not be the end of their careers if they both gave us another two seasons after which who knows ? We could be winning things 

[XSD]

It would not be the end of their careers if they both gave us another two seasons after which who knows ? We could be winning things 

I think the problem is that one or two seasons ago they were saying to themselves "ok one or two more seasons won't hurt to see if LFC improves". Where did we finish last season?
It would be ideal if they loved LFC enough to take the chance but another 2 years out of Gerrard's career could be 2 years where he wins a Premiership or CL title.

[woof woof !]

Two years from now they would both be approaching their prime and my point was not about the last two years BUT how MASSIVE the next two will be for this club. We are at a MAJOR crossroad now is the time for them to show some loyalty and belief.

[jonnymac1979]

I heard a whisper from a guy who co-owns that bar in Liverpool with John Aldridge (I hardly frequent Liverpool City Centre so the name of the bar escapes me).  Reckons the deal is done, £31 million to be announced in the next two weeks.  I heard that on Thursday 17th June (FYI exactly two weeks before 1st July, which is when most transfers are likely to be announced), it kind of ruined my day actually, but I never take any information like that at face value. 

Until I see the player in the kit I don't believe it.  Still, this situation needs to be resolved as soon as possible.  I hope Benitez had a bit of luck persuading him to stay at Liverpool out in Portugal.

[XSD]

I think it'll be at least 50-60m we get IF he goes.

[JBG]

We won't get more than £31million if Gerrard does leave.

Abramovich has spent a lot of money but he knows a team's breaking point: he won't spend £40million if he feels the selling club will accept £30million.

The rumours have gone out of control at this stage and I have to say that noises have come from certain corners which sound ominous.

I think Gerrard should at least give Benetiz one season: if things don't work out he could go next season, but he might be gutted if Benetiz proves to be a major success while Chelsea turn into the new Lazio or Inter Milan.

However, JohnBull could be right when he says that Gerrard is only going for the money.

Personally I don't like the sound of any player exchange for Gerrard. I would only fancy Gallas or Duff of Chelsea: they can keep dead weights like Gudjohnson, Cole and Geremi.

[jonnymac1979]

Chelsea have signed Arjen Robben, maybe the deal clincher could be Damien Duff coming this way.  I agree with you on that JBG, I would take Duff as a sweetener if there was any kind of player swap deal involving Gerrard.

[azriahmad]

Damien Duff and 31 million would do fine by me. We can use the money to get a replacement and a few good recruits. nobody is indespensible, including Gerrard. We may not be able to replace him like for like but surely there is a way to overcome his absence.

[JBG]

If Gerrard goes Benetiz would probably buy two hard running central midfielders similar to what he had at Valencia.

Costinhia and Abelda woudn't be bad replacements.

[stmichael]

The joke is that one newspaper described swapping Anfield for Stamford Bridge as Gerrard's "dream" move. What is there to dream about? Am I missing the point here?

At Liverpool he is the club captain. Captain of the most successful British club ever, no less: domestically, and in Europe (a team still respected and loved worldwide, unlike Chelsea). The team he supported as a boy. His roots are Liverpool Football Club. And now we're being told by journalists that he'll walk away for a big pile of money, when he already earns more than he knows what to do with.

Rick Parry said it's not about the money - it's about medals. And with the top players, that is true. But excuse me - how many trophies have Chelsea won lately anyway? Haven't we won four since their last success? If Gerrard wanted to join Arsenal or Man United, I could understand that *to a degree*, as they are "proven" - they have won all the major trophies in the last five years (although no-one whose opinion should be trusted has said he wants to go anywhere ). But Chelsea? They are still just an unproven theory; it's all "what might be". They are still only an experiment - not yet a great football club.

[JBG]

Bit of cut and paste there, holy man.