Liverpool FC Forum

Just been browsing some "big" LFC forums and most/majority seem happy and optimistic with Rodgers.

Next season more pressure will be on, some people are more effective under pressure - let's hope Rodgers is. He's done a good job in his foundation/transitional season imo I'm quietly optimistic he can build on that. I think having these new scouts has been a bonus for him judging by January's signings and I think that Aspas fella will surprise a few too. If he buys prudently, I see no reason why we won't be in a 6 horse dogfight next season - how times have changed, there used to be 3 or 4 including us, now there's 6 with possible outsiders too like Everton of course. He's got it hard but I hope he revels in it.

Any increase/decrease in pressure on Rodgers will only be as a result of whatever our amibitons are next season. If we have a ***** summer in terms of transfers then it would be unfair to expect any improvement from him. If on the other hand the owners let him bring in a few quality players, then yes I would expect to finish higher. If there is more pressure on anyone it's FSG.

Now that LS is wanted by the big clubs, it makes me doubt whether this FSG idea of generating good players from the youth academy or signing kids is a good idea after all though I used to think it was. Because if they do come out good, then they'll be signed by RM, Barca, MCity, Chelsea and we'll forever be a work in progress team. This kind of policy may work during the pre PL and CL era but not today. After seeing this LS saga, I am urging the owners to start investing heavily in the team with quality players and qualify for CL football next season. If you wait, then your star players (if any) will be snapped up by the bigger, richer clubs. If they are not going to do it, please, sell up to someone who can.

That's the way it looks isn't it? Its difficult to build when players/agents don't respect contracts. As is now painfully clear, no CL = no loyalty. Goodness knows what Sturridge and Coutinho must be thinking.

Exactly. If next season Cout. and Stu. give brilliant individual performances like Suarez did last season and we still fail to finish in top 4, those big clubs will snap them up quickly. So I hope FSG can see it and if they're going to fund BR with 20M which is a relegation battling or mid table club funding, we'll forever be a work in progress team and a feeder club to the football giants. Their plan works in the 80s or even 90s but not in today's CL football fever where players esp. foreign ones are mercenaric. After all, it's a short career, who can blame them.

Liverpool up for the Cups now they have stronger squad vows boss Rodgers
12 Jun 2013 22:30
Lack of depth forced Reds to focus on the league last season but now they'll be attacking on all fronts, Plus: Aspas flies home WITHOUT signing

Deep joy: Rodgers feels he'll have the squad to challenge in the FA Cup and League Cup
Andrew Powell

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has insisted there will be no repeat of last season’s cup chaos.

Rodgers began his first Anfield season with such a painfully thin squad, he was forced to concentrate his limited resources on their league position... and ignore the lure of winning silverware in the three other competitions.

The Reds' manager admitted at the end of last season that he was glad they won't be in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League - his first game in charge was on August 2 away to Belarus side Gomel - as it will allow him to concentrate on building up his playing staff.

And he reckons he will be able to buy enough new faces to avoid last season’s humiliation of crashing out of the FA Cup at League One side Oldham... and challenge seriously for glory.

“This time, we’ll certainly give the Carling Cup and the FA Cup a proper go - we have a much better squad to do that,” he explained.

“We had a paper-thin squad last year, we had kids all the way through. Obviously those players who have come in have added quality and it’s no coincidence that we have kicked on when we’ve had quality in the group.

“We need to improve the group and the depth but that's what gives me great hope for the summer. If we can add that, we can make a real start and then we’re ready to challenge.”

Rodgers has already agreed a deal for free-agent former Manchester City defender Kolo Toure, is closing in on Spanish striker Iago Aspas and will add at least three more new faces - and possibly as many as five - as he looks for the strength required to compete on three fronts next season.

“You can flip it about, but it’s the depth really. We just need to build up the depth of the squad,” the manager added.

“I want to have people who might be disappointed because they’re not even on the bench. At the minute we probably don’t have that so it~s competition we want to get.

“I don’t want a massive group, we want a tight group with a real core of 17 or 18 players who feel they should always be playing and then supported by a few of our top young talents.”

Liverpool meanwhile, remain confident of completing the £7million signing of Aspas, despite a hitch - thought to be over payments apparently due to the player’s agent from the Spanish end.

Celta Vigo star Aspas returned home on Wednesday without signing, but his representative - his brother Jonathan - insisted the move to Anfield would still go ahead: "There are no problems, just a few bureaucratic issues that will be resolved.”

Liverpool too, are calm, with a club spokesman insisting there are no concerns about the deal.



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why is it when things don't go smoothly with players signing there's always a fuking AGENT causing the problems?

Nice words from BR, lets see if he can put them into actions. FA Cup Winners 2013/2014 - Liverpool. Put a tenner on it now.

redno7 » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:17 am wrote:why is it when things don't go smoothly with players signing there's always a fuking AGENT causing the problems?

Nice words from BR, lets see if he can put them into actions. FA Cup Winners 2013/2014 - Liverpool. Put a tenner on it now.

Should do away with agents, f.ucking estate agents, football agents, any kind of agents, f.uck off these vipers and negotiate yourself. Need no middle man.

Last summer we sold/released 4 regular first team players and brought in 4 first team players - the depth was the same as the previous season plus Lucas returning from injury.

The problem was the letting of Carroll go on loan without a replacement

We let forwards and strikers go and brought in CM's and a wide guy we never played. Last summers dealing were awful for everyone concerned and it left us horribly exposed and reliant on kids and it showed during the season.

We are now losing CB's and we must ensure we replace them this summer. The team is very unbalanced at the moment and unable to deal with a physical threat. Hopefully those issues will be dealt with - if not we will be exposed again.

Claiming that we concentrated on the league isn't good when we did perform consistently in the league. We were losing and drawing games even after we got knocked out of the cups early - the squad depth was the fault of the management ( manager , owners and Ayre ).

last summer we lost quite a few experienced squad players who all contributed to the team in some way (bellamy, maxi, kuyt, soto (even carroll) etc) but unfortunately the players that we brought in to replace them didnt have much of an impact (allen, sahin, borini, assaidi etc).
we deffo went backwards in that window and it showed on the pitch where we had our worst start in over a century and accrued our lowest points total at the halfway stage of a season since the 3 points for a win system was introduced in the early 80`s.
at christmas though we made 2 excellent acquisitions who really did have an impact, they added a new dimension to our game in the final third, coutinho brought tremendous vision and passing ability and sturridge brought pace, skill and goals.
i think this summer could be huge for rodgers, its looking ever more likely that we will be losing suarez, reina, skrtel and carroll so he will be trying to replace a lot of big players all at once.
it`s easy to forget that this time last year skrtel was picking up an fan award for not just being the best defender at the club but the BEST PLAYER at the club. it`s also easy to forget that carroll is being shoved out because he doesnt suit the system, before rodgers arrived carroll was playing well, even his biggest critics were admitting that after he won us the biggest derby in a quarter of a century, nearly turned around the f.a cup final single handedly and then a few days later again destroyed the european champions elect at anfield with a barnstorming performance. john terry called him `unplayable`.
all those players wont be easy to replace, especially if the club is trying to replace them on the cheap.
what are the odds on us going backwards again? if brendan gets us kicking on again after this summer then we really might have the next shankly on our hands because i`m telling you he really does have a tough job on here.
if we lose those players and get into the top 4 that would be a phenominal achievement by rodgers.

he seems to be bulking the squad up nice and early,maybe he knows we're going to lose a few players.

It looks like they're being pretty ruthless moving out higher paid/average ability and looking to replace with less highly paid (economic crisis is helping there), younger and better prospects. They have no choice if they plan to redevelop Anfield at the same time, the two strategies are mutually dependant.

Reg » Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:48 pm wrote:It looks like they're being pretty ruthless moving out higher paid/average ability and looking to replace with less highly paid (economic crisis is helping there), younger and better prospects. They have no choice if they plan to redevelop Anfield at the same time, the two strategies are mutually dependant.

If we are going to redevelop anfield then i would understand why we wont spend big on players. we arent though and fsg have made it clear that a redevelopment would only happen through the help of sponsorship.
when they bought the club they remarked on how well the arsenal model works and its something they would like to emulate with us. it looks like they are well on their way to enforcing that already and this transfer window could very well turn a profit.
its a model thats clearly flawed and proved by a player that wanted to leave arsenal to win a prem medal, which he did.
even if we where to fill an extra 20 odd thou seats a week there is no reason to suggest we will spend more on higher quality players.

red till i die!! » Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:49 pm wrote:

Reg » Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:48 pm wrote:It looks like they're being pretty ruthless moving out higher paid/average ability and looking to replace with less highly paid (economic crisis is helping there), younger and better prospects. They have no choice if they plan to redevelop Anfield at the same time, the two strategies are mutually dependant.

If we are going to redevelop anfield then i would understand why we wont spend big on players. we arent though and fsg have made it clear that a redevelopment would only happen through the help of sponsorship.
when they bought the club they remarked on how well the arsenal model works and its something they would like to emulate with us. it looks like they are well on their way to enforcing that already and this transfer window could very well turn a profit.
its a model thats clearly flawed and proved by a player that wanted to leave arsenal to win a prem medal, which he did.
even if we where to fill an extra 20 odd thou seats a week there is no reason to suggest we will spend more on higher quality players.

at £50 a ticket would a mid table side fill a 60,000 seat stadium week in week out? in this consumer age if the `product` on the pitch isnt great people vote with their feet (which is what happened when hodgson was in charge).