Liverpool FC Forum

[maguskwt]

Liverpool is in a catch 22 situation regarding signing star players, without CL we cannot get them, and to qualify for CL you need star players. One way to get out of this dilemma is to have a great scouting system where unknown gems can still be found and signed from other parts of the world. Newcastle and Swansea did a great job in signing Ba and Michu from Germany and Spain respectively. Both players are among the top scorers in the PL and they didn't cost their clubs a bomb and were relatively unknown. So I hope our scouting system can emulate them.

So far BR (Get well soon by the way) gives me the impression he mostly signs players whom he has worked with in the past like Borini (Chelsea), Allen (Swans), Siggurdson from the Swans as well but failed. He must look outside the box and not just on Buy British, a grave blunder that our previous out dated manager made.

that tactic of bringing in players he knows from previous clubs has worked well for him in the past (when i say past i mean the previous 4 years, thats all he`s been managing).
he took the likes of scott sinclair (who he knew from chelsea), fabio borini (chelsea), gylfi signurdsson (reading) and ryan bertrand (chelsea) to swansea and to be fair he had quite a bit of success with the tactic, but the obvious flaw in that plan is that fringe chelsea players might improve a side looking to be promoted out of the championship or a side that is battling to stay in the prem but are they good enough to catapult a fallen giant (with asperations of winning titles and going toe to toe with the likes of real madrid and barcelona) back to the top again?
in a way i`m starting to feel a bit of sympathy for rodgers, i was reading in the paper over the weekend that rodgers has been told to get us back to the top of the game by investing in youth and by signing reasonably priced players. in other words he`s the first liverpool manager in half a century that cant go out and sign at least 1 marquee player. when the interviewer asked him if our better players are going to hang around waiting for us to stumble across a great side rodgers just said he speaks to luis on the training ground every day and so far he hasnt said he`s unhappy at the club. rodgers also said that his contract as manager runs for 3 years and all he can do is try his best in those 3 years to build a side and see what happens.
rodgers doesnt stand a chance, he`s got an impossible job, one constant in football is that the teams with the better players win the big trophies and if we arent in the market for those better players then the fact is we wont be competing for the big trophies.
i`m just glad i grew up watching so many great sides and seeing so much success because barring a miracle those days wont be back anytime soon.

That's what I mean when I said the owners have a specific profile of players and that Rodgers seem to have to work within the constraints. The owners need to show some balance... by all means be sustainable... but you also need to sign a marquee player now and then just like how Rafa did to win trophies. We can't be another Arsenal...

[SouthCoastShankly]

Liverpool is in a catch 22 situation regarding signing star players, without CL we cannot get them, and to qualify for CL you need star players. One way to get out of this dilemma is to have a great scouting system where unknown gems can still be found and signed from other parts of the world. Newcastle and Swansea did a great job in signing Ba and Michu from Germany and Spain respectively. Both players are among the top scorers in the PL and they didn't cost their clubs a bomb and were relatively unknown. So I hope our scouting system can emulate them.

So far BR (Get well soon by the way) gives me the impression he mostly signs players whom he has worked with in the past like Borini (Chelsea), Allen (Swans), Siggurdson from the Swans as well but failed. He must look outside the box and not just on Buy British, a grave blunder that our previous out dated manager made.

that tactic of bringing in players he knows from previous clubs has worked well for him in the past (when i say past i mean the previous 4 years, thats all he`s been managing).
he took the likes of scott sinclair (who he knew from chelsea), fabio borini (chelsea), gylfi signurdsson (reading) and ryan bertrand (chelsea) to swansea and to be fair he had quite a bit of success with the tactic, but the obvious flaw in that plan is that fringe chelsea players might improve a side looking to be promoted out of the championship or a side that is battling to stay in the prem but are they good enough to catapult a fallen giant (with asperations of winning titles and going toe to toe with the likes of real madrid and barcelona) back to the top again?
in a way i`m starting to feel a bit of sympathy for rodgers, i was reading in the paper over the weekend that rodgers has been told to get us back to the top of the game by investing in youth and by signing reasonably priced players. in other words he`s the first liverpool manager in half a century that cant go out and sign at least 1 marquee player. when the interviewer asked him if our better players are going to hang around waiting for us to stumble across a great side rodgers just said he speaks to luis on the training ground every day and so far he hasnt said he`s unhappy at the club. rodgers also said that his contract as manager runs for 3 years and all he can do is try his best in those 3 years to build a side and see what happens.
rodgers doesnt stand a chance, he`s got an impossible job, one constant in football is that the teams with the better players win the big trophies and if we arent in the market for those better players then the fact is we wont be competing for the big trophies.
i`m just glad i grew up watching so many great sides and seeing so much success because barring a miracle those days wont be back anytime soon.

That's what I mean when I said the owners have a specific profile of players and that Rodgers seem to have to work within the constraints. The owners need to show some balance... by all means be sustainable... but you also need to sign a marquee player now and then just like how Rafa did to win trophies. We can't be another Arsenal...

Whilst Carroll did not seem like a marquee signing, FSG purchased both Carroll and Suarez who would have been considered marquee signings to them, considering the money they spent. The Carroll purchase may have been ill-advised in terms of value but they have spent significant funds.

I hate the way some of you on here make out like no money has been spent/invested. Give them time FFS.

[red till i die!!]

i dont think fenway are controlling the players we sign but more the budget. they wont want a repeat of the deal that brought carroll here and then 18mths later they will struggle to get half back. they will have a budget but its up to brendan on who he spends it on and its up to him whether he buys one quality player with it or 3 squad fillers.
what worries me is that he talks so much about getting special types of players in that he wants and most are young and unproven.

[Boxscarf]

what worries me is that he talks so much about getting special types of players in that he wants and most are young and unproven.

Isn't that in line with what FSG want anyway? They want us to sign players like Sterling and then do an Arsenal and make a profit from their sales a few years down the line. After all they're not bothered about winning trophies as Ayre stated after they dismissed Kenny, they just want the revenue that comes with playing in the Champions League.

[eds]

Liverpool is in a catch 22 situation regarding signing star players, without CL we cannot get them, and to qualify for CL you need star players. One way to get out of this dilemma is to have a great scouting system where unknown gems can still be found and signed from other parts of the world. Newcastle and Swansea did a great job in signing Ba and Michu from Germany and Spain respectively. Both players are among the top scorers in the PL and they didn't cost their clubs a bomb and were relatively unknown. So I hope our scouting system can emulate them.

So far BR (Get well soon by the way) gives me the impression he mostly signs players whom he has worked with in the past like Borini (Chelsea), Allen (Swans), Siggurdson from the Swans as well but failed. He must look outside the box and not just on Buy British, a grave blunder that our previous out dated manager made.

That is exactly what I have been saying.

Our scouting needs to definately improve, if Daniel Sturridge is the best we can do then we are truly f**ked.

We need to start taking calculated risks in the transfer market (with our limited budget) and Brendan needs to get out of his comfort zone.

[eds]

maguswkt

Demba Ba who is available for 7m

I'd love to have Demba Ba here mate. And I'm sure we are monitoring his availability too. But sadly if Chelsea is interested, we are unlikey to match the wage that they offer. Probably the reason why Chelsea is letting go of Sturridge. We need to start accepting the reality that:

1. We are not one of the top destination choices for top players anymore due to the fact that we are not in the CL
2. We can't compete with the likes of City, Chelsea and United when it comes to wages.

In an ideal world, we should've signed Huntelaar when he moved from Milan to Shalke. Now that he is doing well in Shalke, it is harder to convince him or his club to sell him. It doesn't mean thought that we cannot get any top players. It just means that it is that much harder. Our scouting network needs to improve and I feel that our scouting has never been the stronger side for us. Arsenal's scouting is top notch and United can find gems here and there. Ours has been quite mediocre. The investment in youth that Benitez started was actually promising, but after he got sacked I'm not even sure that there's continuity.

I have a feeling though Sturridge might be a better choice in the long run, provided of course he can adapt into BR's system and form a good partnership with Suarez. And being able to adapt to a system is what it's about these days...

I can't disagree with what you have said here, no stupid comments such as 1 in 13 foreign players fail in England.

I totally agree that we should have done our best to sign Huntelaar but if he doesn't want to come then he doesn't want to come.

Brendan and the club needs to work much more harder on improving our scouting network and we need to start spending the money on the likes of the following:

- Erik Lamela (Roma purchased him for a bargain 12 million last season)
- Mateo Kovačić (Not sure how much he would cost us though)
- Lucas Ocampos (He cost Monaco 15 million, time will tell whether this risk of paying that amount on a 18yo will pay off)
- Antoine Griezmann (what ever happened to resident our Real Sociedad / Liverpool fan and expert, forgot his name, he could shed more light on Griezmann)
- James Rodriguez (Porto signed him back in 2010 and the guy know has a 30 million buy-out clause, he is the type of player our scouts should be concentrating as we a crying out for a playmaker)
- Philippe Coutinho (I am still convinced this guy has a future in Europe, despite not impressing at Inter. I think we were sniffing around a season or so ago)
- Christian Eriksen (If we were to go bananas on signing one for the future, this is definately him. Will surely head to bigger club in England, Spain or Italy in the next few years)
- Adryan (18yo Brazilian "wonder kid" Currently being reported as scouted by Manure, not sure how much Flamengo would sell him for)
- Leandro Paredes (Argie Bargies are ***** over this one, 18yo plying his trade for Boca Juniors, has been scouted by Arsenal and AC Milan)

All these players are calculated risks by either the clubs they are at, or the European clubs they will end up.

Not exactly the type of instant noodles orgasm, you were going on about, were you?

[maguskwt]

maguswkt

Demba Ba who is available for 7m

I'd love to have Demba Ba here mate. And I'm sure we are monitoring his availability too. But sadly if Chelsea is interested, we are unlikey to match the wage that they offer. Probably the reason why Chelsea is letting go of Sturridge. We need to start accepting the reality that:

1. We are not one of the top destination choices for top players anymore due to the fact that we are not in the CL
2. We can't compete with the likes of City, Chelsea and United when it comes to wages.

In an ideal world, we should've signed Huntelaar when he moved from Milan to Shalke. Now that he is doing well in Shalke, it is harder to convince him or his club to sell him. It doesn't mean thought that we cannot get any top players. It just means that it is that much harder. Our scouting network needs to improve and I feel that our scouting has never been the stronger side for us. Arsenal's scouting is top notch and United can find gems here and there. Ours has been quite mediocre. The investment in youth that Benitez started was actually promising, but after he got sacked I'm not even sure that there's continuity.

I have a feeling though Sturridge might be a better choice in the long run, provided of course he can adapt into BR's system and form a good partnership with Suarez. And being able to adapt to a system is what it's about these days...

I can't disagree with what you have said here, no stupid comments such as 1 in 13 foreign players fail in England.

I totally agree that we should have done our best to sign Huntelaar but if he doesn't want to come then he doesn't want to come.

Brendan and the club needs to work much more harder on improving our scouting network and we need to start spending the money on the likes of the following:

- Erik Lamela (Roma purchased him for a bargain 12 million last season)
- Mateo Kovačić (Not sure how much he would cost us though)
- Lucas Ocampos (He cost Monaco 15 million, time will tell whether this risk of paying that amount on a 18yo will pay off)
- Antoine Griezmann (what ever happened to resident our Real Sociedad / Liverpool fan and expert, forgot his name, he could shed more light on Griezmann)
- James Rodriguez (Porto signed him back in 2010 and the guy know has a 30 million buy-out clause, he is the type of player our scouts should be concentrating as we a crying out for a playmaker)
- Philippe Coutinho (I am still convinced this guy has a future in Europe, despite not impressing at Inter. I think we were sniffing around a season or so ago)
- Christian Eriksen (If we were to go bananas on signing one for the future, this is definately him. Will surely head to bigger club in England, Spain or Italy in the next few years)
- Adryan (18yo Brazilian "wonder kid" Currently being reported as scouted by Manure, not sure how much Flamengo would sell him for)
- Leandro Paredes (Argie Bargies are ***** over this one, 18yo plying his trade for Boca Juniors, has been scouted by Arsenal and AC Milan)

All these players are calculated risks by either the clubs they are at, or the European clubs they will end up.

Not exactly the type of instant noodles orgasm, you were going on about, were you?

Did you just turn on your FIFA, set the age limit to 21 and sorted the players by "Total Skill Points" or whatever? 
So what's the difference between these players and the Sahin's, Yesil's and Assaidi's? I'm not saying they're not good but I'm saying BR has a similar strategy when he signed those 3. The flip side is these players although talented are very young and inexperienced and may not hit the ground running in the Premier League. Actually young foreign players are a huge risk not a calculated risk. For me I would stick to older foreign players, but not too old. There needs to be a balance. When the likes of Alonso, Torres came to us they are already above 24 or so. They were more equipped with handling a foreign league. That's why the likes of Sturridge, Walcott and Dempsey are important, players who have Premier League experience, to give stability and consistency to the team.

[eds]

Did you just turn on your FIFA, set the age limit to 21 and sorted the players by "Total Skill Points" or whatever? 
So what's the difference between these players and the Sahin's, Yesil's and Assaidi's? I'm not saying they're not good but I'm saying BR has a similar strategy when he signed those 3. The flip side is these players although talented are very young and inexperienced and may not hit the ground running in the Premier League. Actually young foreign players are a huge risk not a calculated risk. For me I would stick to older foreign players, but not too old. There needs to be a balance. When the likes of Alonso, Torres came to us they are already above 24 or so. They were more equipped with handling a foreign league. That's why the likes of Sturridge, Walcott and Dempsey are important, players who have Premier League experience, to give stability and consistency to the team.

               

F**k me you are a dunce.

If Walcott came to Liverpool he would demand for 100,000+ wages per week. As he continues to blow hot and cold, he has not proven himself to demand such a staggering wage. Dempsey, your kidding, how is he doing at Tottenham again? Remind me what he achieved outside that one season at Fulham that everyone was w**king over? 

Do you have any idea who the f**k the players are that I mentioned?

Are you honestly comparing some of the world's best young players (under 20) to the likes of Yesil and Assaidi? If you were to compare the likes of Christian Eriksen to someone like Assaidi in Holland you would be laughed out of the country. 

When someone like Eriksen ends up going to a bigger club the transfer will probably be 5 to 6 times the size of Yesil and Assaidi's transfers you dips**t. 

As for your argument of getting established players over 24yo who would you recommend that we get for 12 million? You f**king dumb muppet, THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF GOING FOR YOUNGER PLAYERS WHEN YOU STRUGGLE WITH THE BUDGET CONSTRAINTS WE HAVE!

FIFA, you are having a laugh aren't you. I don't play FIFA so I assume half the players wouldn't appear on a game dedicated to Manure / City chasing fanboys WHO have no idea about the game. As I am Chilean, I spend my a bit of time watching the South American qualifiers, watch the occasional Argentinean match and read a bit about the various leagues. Not that I have to justify this to you but its obvious by your idotic rant that you don't have f**king clue. 

[Octsky]

something to put things into perspective.. steve clark's wba is with 33 points with a "lesser" team.
roger's ex club swansea is level with us at 28 points. so rogers managed to take over a far superior club/players and manage to finish on par/ worse than smaller club.
if only kenny and clark were given another year, would we be in top 4 now?
the season is not yet over but our 1st half is clearly disappointing.

[red till i die!!]

wheres the announcement of sturridge?.
surely he was able to complete the move today?

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

i just wish rodgers would get more realistic, in my lifetime i have seen 2 genuine `total football` sides, the dutch national team of the 70`s and this modern barcelona side.
i have seen dozens of teams attempt to replicate that total footballing style in some way but none of them were successfull, even the best sides we`ve had in our history (and at in one 8 year period we won the uefa cup (when it was hard to win) and went to 5 european cup finals) werent good enough to play that way.
the idea that rodgers is going to build a total footballing side out of reasonably priced players and young players is pure pie in the sky, what we will end up with is a half @rsed version of it like swansea, easy on the eye but but not good enough to compete for the top prizes in the game.
if rodgers stays here for 3 years i`m convinced we`ll have a good passing team but i`m equally convinced that that passing team wont be challenging for the title or the CL. at the moment this philosophy of rodgers has more holes in it than a swiss cheese. it`s pointless having a style of play if the opposition can counter it easily.
constantly signing small players like allen, sahin, assaidi and borini is just making us lightweight and easy to play against, and i dont see sturridge and ince changing that either.
it`s admirable what rodgers is trying to achieve, the easiest thing for a coach to do is to go down the allardyce or pulis route
but at the end of the day this is liverpool football club, the club that has won more major trophies than any other club in england, we are the most succesfull team in the country that is the home of football.
we aspire to more than just having a nice footballing team, that might be great for swansea but it`s not good enough for us, we want to win, and win the top prizes in the game.
rodgers has got adjust his style, bill shankly and bob paisley developed a style of football that even the best teams like real madrid and barcelona couldnt cope with, it was a passing style but it also contained a lot of steel, we scored goals were there were 30 passes before the ball went in the net and we scored headed goals from crosses, corners and free kicks.
we passed teams off the park and we kicked teams off the park, thats why teams struggled to stop the liverpool juggernaut because we had no weakness, you couldnt out pass us and you couldnt bully us.
it wouldnt need a huge paradigm shift in rodgers style, just a slight adjustment, but we have got to become a more physical team without losing our passing style, at the moment we have too many weaknesses that can be exploited.
rodgers has got to become a manager who`s primary objective is to win games too, at the end of the day that is the be all and end all, it is at this club anyway.
at the moment if the opposition had 2 five foot 6 centre halves and we had andy carroll and peter crouch on the bench he wouldnt play them because it doesnt fit his philosophy but that is not the liverpool way, bill shankly once said to a player who was unsure what to do with the ball when he got in the opposition area `just put it in the net and we`ll discuss it later`, the same applies to rodgers, just win the game and we`ll discuss the finer points of the game later.
winning is the liverpool way.

[red till i die!!]

i just wish rodgers would get more realistic, in my lifetime i have seen 2 genuine `total football` sides, the dutch national team of the 70`s and this modern barcelona side.
i have seen dozens of teams attempt to replicate that total footballing style in some way but none of them were successfull, even the best sides we`ve had in our history (and at in one 8 year period we won the uefa cup (when it was hard to win) and went to 5 european cup finals) werent good enough to play that way.
the idea that rodgers is going to build a total footballing side out of reasonably priced players and young players is pure pie in the sky, what we will end up with is a half @rsed version of it like swansea, easy on the eye but but not good enough to compete for the top prizes in the game.
if rodgers stays here for 3 years i`m convinced we`ll have a good passing team but i`m equally convinced that that passing team wont be challenging for the title or the CL. at the moment this philosophy of rodgers has more holes in it than a swiss cheese. it`s pointless having a style of play if the opposition can counter it easily.
constantly signing small players like allen, sahin, assaidi and borini is just making us lightweight and easy to play against, and i dont see sturridge and ince changing that either.
it`s admirable what rodgers is trying to achieve, the easiest thing for a coach to do is to go down the allardyce or pulis route
but at the end of the day this is liverpool football club, the club that has won more major trophies than any other club in england, we are the most succesfull team in the country that is the home of football.
we aspire to more than just having a nice footballing team, that might be great for swansea but it`s not good enough for us, we want to win, and win the top prizes in the game.
rodgers has got adjust his style, bill shankly and bob paisley developed a style of football that even the best teams like real madrid and barcelona couldnt cope with, it was a passing style but it also contained a lot of steel, we scored goals were there were 30 passes before the ball went in the net and we scored headed goals from crosses, corners and free kicks.
we passed teams off the park and we kicked teams off the park, thats why teams struggled to stop the liverpool juggernaut because we had no weakness, you couldnt out pass us and you couldnt bully us.
it wouldnt need a huge paradigm shift in rodgers style, just a slight adjustment, but we have got to become a more physical team without losing our passing style, at the moment we have too many weaknesses that can be exploited.
rodgers has got to become a manager who`s primary objective is to win games too, at the end of the day that is the be all and end all, it is at this club anyway.
at the moment if the opposition had 2 five foot 6 centre halves and we had andy carroll and peter crouch on the bench he wouldnt play them because it doesnt fit his philosophy but that is not the liverpool way, bill shankly once said to a player who was unsure what to do with the ball when he got in the opposition area `just put it in the net and we`ll discuss it later`, the same applies to rodgers, just win the game and we`ll discuss the finer points of the game later.
winning is the liverpool way.

good post.
size isnt a problem for rodgers because he will keep insisting they form the triangles and if they do it quick enough they will take players out of the game.
he is too stubborn to stray away from that philosophy imo and will continue to sign his special type of player and as long as the potential losses on players are kept to a minimum(ie, bought for 12 and if flopped moved on for 7) then fsg will continue to back him.
with only 4 years experience behind him he should be still learning but unfortunately he seems to think he knows it all and has a revolutionary blueprint for success.
fenway really need to get off their lazy ar$es and put something of a board together with some actual football people on it rather than pursue a 180 page sales pitch without a plan b.

[Thommo's perm]

i just wish rodgers would get more realistic, in my lifetime i have seen 2 genuine `total football` sides, the dutch national team of the 70`s and this modern barcelona side.
i have seen dozens of teams attempt to replicate that total footballing style in some way but none of them were successfull, even the best sides we`ve had in our history (and at in one 8 year period we won the uefa cup (when it was hard to win) and went to 5 european cup finals) werent good enough to play that way.
the idea that rodgers is going to build a total footballing side out of reasonably priced players and young players is pure pie in the sky, what we will end up with is a half @rsed version of it like swansea, easy on the eye but but not good enough to compete for the top prizes in the game.
if rodgers stays here for 3 years i`m convinced we`ll have a good passing team but i`m equally convinced that that passing team wont be challenging for the title or the CL. at the moment this philosophy of rodgers has more holes in it than a swiss cheese. it`s pointless having a style of play if the opposition can counter it easily.
constantly signing small players like allen, sahin, assaidi and borini is just making us lightweight and easy to play against, and i dont see sturridge and ince changing that either.
it`s admirable what rodgers is trying to achieve, the easiest thing for a coach to do is to go down the allardyce or pulis route
but at the end of the day this is liverpool football club, the club that has won more major trophies than any other club in england, we are the most succesfull team in the country that is the home of football.
we aspire to more than just having a nice footballing team, that might be great for swansea but it`s not good enough for us, we want to win, and win the top prizes in the game.
rodgers has got adjust his style, bill shankly and bob paisley developed a style of football that even the best teams like real madrid and barcelona couldnt cope with, it was a passing style but it also contained a lot of steel, we scored goals were there were 30 passes before the ball went in the net and we scored headed goals from crosses, corners and free kicks.
we passed teams off the park and we kicked teams off the park, thats why teams struggled to stop the liverpool juggernaut because we had no weakness, you couldnt out pass us and you couldnt bully us.
it wouldnt need a huge paradigm shift in rodgers style, just a slight adjustment, but we have got to become a more physical team without losing our passing style, at the moment we have too many weaknesses that can be exploited.
rodgers has got to become a manager who`s primary objective is to win games too, at the end of the day that is the be all and end all, it is at this club anyway.
at the moment if the opposition had 2 five foot 6 centre halves and we had andy carroll and peter crouch on the bench he wouldnt play them because it doesnt fit his philosophy but that is not the liverpool way, bill shankly once said to a player who was unsure what to do with the ball when he got in the opposition area `just put it in the net and we`ll discuss it later`, the same applies to rodgers, just win the game and we`ll discuss the finer points of the game later.
winning is the liverpool way.

good post.
size isnt a problem for rodgers because he will keep insisting they form the triangles and if they do it quick enough they will take players out of the game.
he is too stubborn to stray away from that philosophy imo and will continue to sign his special type of player and as long as the potential losses on players are kept to a minimum(ie, bought for 12 and if flopped moved on for 7) then fsg will continue to back him.
with only 4 years experience behind him he should be still learning but unfortunately he seems to think he knows it all and has a revolutionary blueprint for success.
fenway really need to get off their lazy ar$es and put something of a board together with some actual football people on it rather than pursue a 180 page sales pitch without a plan b.

Bit harsh
Rodgers is a good young manager who gets us as a club and needs some belief and faith from people who know what hes trying to do
I dont think hes a know all, but he does have a vision. I think hes learning the game all the time and is willing to hold his hands up when it goes wrong. People should realistically lower their expectations and stop waiting for someone to wave their magic wand and make everything the way it was in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Those days are gone, get over it. Weve had the false dawns of Houllier and Rafa, the twit and tw@t/Hodgson nightmare and finally the KK spendthrift deterioration phase. Rodgers is the future and with financial backing and our support there are sign that the glory days are not too far away

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

what do you mean by glory days thommo?
the title or the CL?
or the fsg `glory days` of getting to 4th?

[Thommo's perm]

what do you mean by glory days thommo?
the title or the CL?
or the fsg `glory days` of getting to 4th?

Im opting out of the race for 4th as I have felt for a long time its a distraction, and the CL is nowhere near as meritorious and important a trophy as the European cup was. Thanks to the greed of those in power it has become nothing more than a cash cow spread out for as long as they can to fleece the fans
I want the title and although at this minute we are a long way away from it, I firmly believe that man uniteds days are nearly over, especially when purple nose calls it a day. City are too inconsistent with Mancini in charge, Chelsea are on thin ice while Abramovitch holds power and Arsenal will not reach the heights they once did. That leaves spurs and us. The rest are also rans who wont be good enough to mount a serious title challenge.
FSG have their part to play but Rodgers must be backed to the hilt in order for us to progress. The alternative, unless we get a billionaire who signs the cheques and keeps his nose out, is not worth contemplating...