Liverpool FC Forum

[Judge]

josemi and potter as captain or vice captain

youve gotta be fucking joking mate       

[Ydde]

Looks like Parry read the thread and agreed. 

Parry: It's not all doom and gloom

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry today insisted there are plenty of reasons to be positive about the season despite no new faces arriving on deadline day.
Parry admits he was disappointed not to be able to strengthen the squad yesterday but ultimately the club weren't prepared to pay inflated prices for the sake of it.

A deal for Benfica winger Simao had been agreed before the Portuguese champions had a change of heart, demonstrating that it was circumstances and not finances which led to a day of frustration at Anfield.

"We don't believe it should be all doom and gloom. There isn't a club which hasn't suffered disappointments in the transfer market, so we're no different," said Parry.

"The big danger, particularly when you're approaching the deadline, is you get desperate and do the wrong deal. You have to hold your nerve and we decided not to pursue certain targets in the end yesterday. We have a lot of faith in the players we have.

"We have brought in most of the players we wanted. Let's not forget we've spent £20m to bring in Pepe Reina, Momo Sissoko, Peter Crouch and Bolo Zenden. They are four top players.

"We have spent the same amount we spent in 2002 when we bought just three players, so lack of money has not been an issue here. We also had a deal for Simao which would have taken us well beyond what we'd spent then.

"We've enjoyed a pretty good summer in the transfer market. There's been a substantial outlay.

"If you compare last August to this, we have spent heavily on strikers, as Jamie Carragher has pointed out today.

"We didn't leave things too late because the deals we wanted were completed early during the summer and at that stage we were content we'd achieved four out of four on our list of targets. That left us looking for a right midfielder and cover for Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia at centre-half.

"I think our problem finding a right midfielder began when Luis Figo decided not to come. Things were progressing well with that deal and we were hopeful. Had he joined us, we wouldn't have been in the situation we were."

He added: "It's never ideal trying to do business on the last day because things can go wrong and then there's no room to manoeuvre.

"Yesterday was a strange day. We had an agreement with Benfica but when the story leaked there was such a strong reaction they felt they couldn't sell. Simao was sitting on a plane waiting to come for his medical, but Benfica called it off. In a way, it was similar to the Steven Gerrard situation here when Chelsea were interested.

"It was disappointing but there is nothing we could do. Had the deal broken down on June 30, perhaps there wouldn't be such doom and gloom because you know there's time to find someone else. That's not the case on deadline day.

"Rafa is philosophical about the situation. He insisted we didn't pay for players who weren't worth the money. We could have signed centre-halves yesterday, but there was no point wasting money for the sake of it.

"He is sure we are better placed to challenge for the top places this season. We want to push on from last season and we are still confident we have the players to do it.

"We haven't got 100 per cent of our targets, but which top club in the world ever gets everything it wants. We've done pretty well. It was a strange contrast between European success and disappointment in the Premiership.

"Have we got a better squad to do well in all competitions this season? Rafa's answer to this is yes."

[stmichael]

there shouldn't be any worries rafa has done wonders at this club could u image 2 or 3 years ago, tricky sytlish players like ALonso, Garcia and Cisse at the club. Could we image we would have the best central midfielder in the world at the club, the best passer. One of the quickest players(cisse) at the club and most of all the European Cup. No one dreamed of us getting it so soon. We have the players, the best manager around for tactics and style. i'm not worried he has won the european squad with a worse squad then wot he had. He's got rid of mainly Smicer, Baros, Biscan who r the onli mains ones that where in the team last season. He's got a fully fit Cisse, a new strong keeper, a 7ft striker, the new vieira and the Best palyer in the world at the moment Steven Gerrad wat more do we need apart from the Preimership title. Sure we can't compete with chelsea in the transfer market but for me we more as compted with them last season on the field(against them), we are the only team that chelsea are scared of playing. Terry moans we don't want to go back to anfield , mourinho pulls a face when the prees tell him bout us. Rafa was the only manager that competed with him last season so beware. As fro manutd the onlyn thing they have over us personally is WAYne fat boy Rooney so if he gets injured there stuffed , arsenal to me look lost without vieira so why can't we challenge them on the field we have as gd startnXI as all three
come on you reds
YNWA

Good post! A lot of common sense spoken there instead of the knee jerk reactions posted by many yesterday.

I'm as disappointed as any by the lack of world-class signings at CB and RM (I say world-class because that is what we should be aiming for under normal circumstances) but I do think the size of the rebuilding task that needed/needs to be undertaken by Benitez has been conveniently overlooked by many. We have never been anywhere near challenging for the title in nearly a decade or more (that includes 2nd place in 2002) and the bald facts are that huge swathes of our squad needed culling and replacing with players that the new manager feels are suitable for his long-term vision.

This long-term approach is also I feel being overlooked by many - I'm sure Benitez is acutely aware of where he is and where he is going, and in this context to suggest that he gave the board a list and then disassociated himself from transfer dealings does not ring true. It does not ring true in relation to Benitez himself but also to the board, who have a long history of providing financial backing and functional autonomy to their managers. I am not naive enough to think that there is not some culpability on Parry's part in the summer business, but I cannot believe that Benitez has not advocated much of the inactivity or indeed the brinkmanship which has turned sour on a couple of occasions.

I would like to think that Benitez has not wanted to tinker too much with his new squad in order to foster the togetherness which enabled Valencia (and Wenger's Arsenal) to thrive amongst much richer rivals (ManU, Chelsea) and will now only add if class becomes available at the right price. Remember, all this squad rebuilding has to happen while financing a new stadium, and it is unrealistic to expect that we will spend tens of millions every summer.

Perhaps I don't want to countenance what the alternative may be - Benitez, one of the top three managers in the world, has been shafted by a board again and will off to Madrid at the drop of a hat. In that case, we are truly up creek.

I don't believe it - it's gonna take a couple of seasons, maybe three, but he'll win us the premiership.

[A.B.]

Many people have their minds in the Football Managers and the Championship Managers. Winning the CL brings you money but not enough money to buy Ronaldinho,Adriano,Shevchenko,etc... You can't expect a club to grow money out of it's ar$e after winning one competition.

[rash]

okok.. the transfer window is closed and after slagging off certain players and complaining about not getting a right-winger (which is still a tough pill to swallow)  i feel that we can still have a very good season, providing we play consistenly and find goals.  THis optimism thing has finally rubbed off on me, and i guess in the end all i wanted what was best for the club.  I agree with the fact that we shouldn't be getting ripped off for players and i think that maybe if we'd approached benfica 2 weeks earlier we would have got simao for much cheaper, but that's in the past now.

What i can say is that i do hope our players who have been disappointing can find some form and show that they deserve their spots and the reason that they are in the squad is not that we couldn't find somebody else, but because they are actually good (ie: finnan, garcia, mori, zenden and whoever plays on the right)

all the best to the players and staff..

Go REDS!!!!!

[stmichael]

i think that maybe if we'd approached benfica 2 weeks earlier we would have got simao for much cheaper

i think this is why most fans are annoyed. i'm no fan of the transfer window but leaving business so late is just ludicrous given that selling clubs will just up the asking prices for their players.

what i couldn't tolerate though was fans coming on here saying that the board had not backed the manager. what a load of sh#te.

[El Nino_#9]

i think that maybe if we'd approached benfica 2 weeks earlier we would have got simao for much cheaper

i think this is why most fans are annoyed. i'm no fan of the transfer window but leaving business so late is just ludicrous given that selling clubs will just up the asking prices for their players.

what i couldn't tolerate though was fans coming on here saying that the board had not backed the manager. what a load of sh#te.

i don't think simao was first choice on the list.
the board did not leave it until last minute at all, if you can remember we went through figo which dragged on. then we went for stelios, then nobby..........when your european champions its not that easy to snap up players just like that.
although players would like to come, the club would demand a price double the valuation of the player!
i'm glad we didn't cave in like newcastle did with owen...

[Luis Garcia]

Rafa left it far too late to try and sign this winger form benfica. why wait until the last day? the window was open for two months. the same with the magic midget.

now we are short.

[A.B.]

Have you followed Liverpool news in the past two months at all Hustler? Simao was not our only target for the right wing, in fact he was not our first choice for the right wing because if he were we would had approached Benfica earlier on. The first choice was Figo, but the saga took so long (due to Figo and Real Madrid) that it wasted our time. We looked at other players such as Stelios, and Bolton wanted 3 million for him. Obiviously we didn't agree with their evaluation of the player so we didn't bid 3 million.

Michael Owen wasn't available until Real Madrid signed Baptista and Robinho so we couldn't had gone after the "midget" as you so kindly put it, earlier on because he wasn't looking for a move at that point of time.

[anfieldadorer]

Rafa left it far too late to try and sign this winger form benfica. why wait until the last day? the window was open for two months. the same with the magic midget.

now we are short.

WTF

'late' you say, jeez.., you're so hard to understand aren't you
Did we know or did anybody guarantee that every approach initiated would always end up successfully?
you mean at the very early days we should have targeted 10 players for each position required at the same time?

[azriahmad]

So we failed to get Simao.

It's not the end of the world, we'd struggle a bit but we should solder on until the next transfer window.

Get a grip, this is reality. Rafa's rebuilding job is so massive that many have forgotten what kind of shambles Houllier left behind.

[Ace Ventura]

If Simao was not our no1 target and was behing Stelios and Solano in rafas plans, that is worrying, for 2 reasons.
1) Why where we willing to pay between 7-10 million on him then ?
2) We really couldnt attract Bolton and Aston Villa players.
I am not being neagtive....ans applaud the positive nature of some fans, that will only help the club and the players.
But realistically someone f@cked up the last couple of weeks before the deadline.
Solano ended up going for next to nothing...if Rafa actually wanted him and was prepared to go so high for supposed 3rd choice Simao why not pay 3 mill for Solano...it might be slightly too much, but not exactly stupid money.

[stmichael]

We don't need big-name prima donnas in our club compared to others... other clubs are more into selling jerseys, we are into winning.

If we can win the CL last season with our rag-tag band, our new players have only improved it. Rafa is not an idiot... Crouch and Mori would become successes. Momo is already starting to look like a seasoned vetaran.

And don't anyone start the nonsense about how come as Euro Champs no one wants to play for us. I don't recall anyone dying to play for Porto when they won the CL.... and that's because Porto won't be able to afford most players' wages.

Just believe in Rafa and support the lads... stop whinging and get behind the team.

[HacksawJimDuggin]

Liverpool's success last year was built on teamspirit, a hard work ethic and a doggedness I haven't seen from Liverpool for ages. Now I am not saying that I am happy with the lack of activity in the transfer mkt but many of the players who were quoted - Figo, Simao, Solano etc do not fit into this mould. All have a history of being trouble makers (to differing extents) so I am not dispondent at all. I am delighted with Reina, Sissoko, Crouch as they clearly have the qualities Rafa is looking at. Yes a RM and CH would have been good but we have Whitbread + Josemi to cover at the back and Potter, Garcia (he will be better this season...remember Pires) and we are very strong in other areas.

Let look onwards and upwards guys rather than moan about what might have been. I for one have complete faith in the Anfield Board, Manager and Team!!

[Ace Ventura]

Nobody is criticsing the players we have brought in, Sissoko and Reina have impressed everyone.
Its the positions of players we badly needed thats bothering anyone thats head is not stuck in the bubble after winning the champions league.
ST.MIKES QUOTE :
And don't anyone start the nonsense about how come as Euro Champs no one wants to play for us. I don't recall anyone dying to play for Porto when they won the CL.... and that's because Porto won't be able to afford most players' wages.

St Mike that quote is a shocker, no1 wanted to play for Porto after there success and they never got close to it last year.
They were runners up in there league and have started not so well again.
I am delighted with the job rafa has done but just a bit worried that we have failed to capitilise on our status as champions of europe...and if we are not careful it may be a long time before we hold this title again.