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Tony Barrett article in The Times this morning:
- We're preparing to make a bid for Benteke (not sure I'm happy about that)
- Lambert, Balotelli, Borini & Enrique will be allowed to leave
- Jones & Johnson are in the process of securing moves
- Liverpool are confident in Markovic's talent, but concerned he might not be equipped to thrive in England and so may consider allowing him to leave if a suitable offer comes in
- Toure & Wisdom have both signed contract extensions
- No suggestion that Rodgers' position is under threat, however indications are that FSG intend to add 1 or 2 more individuals to the football department to give greater support to the manager, particularly with respect to recruitment - I've heard Monchi (Sevilla DoF) & Frank Arnesen (former Chelsea youth director) mentioned pretty regularly. Monchi in particular would be an outstanding addition, here's an article on him:
http://www.espnfc.com.au/spanish-pr.../post/1981765/monchi-the-man-who-made-sevilla
 
BlueBen said:
The problem with the "par" argument though is that if things are just going to fall into some sort of natural order, we might as well just bring back Hodgson, Konchesky and Poulsen since it's not going to matter anyway. It's also a bit deceptive, given that because of the relative lack of quality/resources enjoyed by most teams in the league, we are never realistically going to finish below seventh, or eighth if we have an absolute nightmare. So it's not like it's some kind of achievement to finish fifth/sixth when we can't realistically finish below seventh.

It's depressing to see how low we set the bar these days and how happy we are to accept excuses and mediocrity.
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Dylan8 said:
How hollow are we to accept 6th, 5th, 7th, every season.

Can't help but think Brendan has somewhat lost the dressing room. No unified team puts in as disgraceful a shift as that in that, let alone in the final ever game of the club's greatest player.

Sure, he hasn't got the personnel, but does he even have the prestige to attract the right personnel in the first place, money notwithstanding? Will he ever? Finish 2nd in the richest and best league in world football and still we didn't seem to be serious suitors for world class players.
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Nothing to do with accepting mediocrity and everything to do with being pragmatic and realistic. We're not in a vacuum, we are competing in a league with 4 very strong sides who have the exact same end goal as we do. Of course I want us to be challenging for the league every year but I also know I can't just ignore the fact that City, Chelsea & United are far, far better resourced than we are and thus have an obvious advantage in that battle, and while we might do it occasionally it's just not realistic to expect us to consistently finish alongside/ahead of those sides every single season. It's not an even competition, there is no salary cap, it's not the AFL, and so for any side to displace those 3 is a massive achievement.

Like I said, with the resources and spending power at our disposal I'd put us on par with Arsenal so while finishing 4th-5th isn't an achievement, it's probably about what you'd expect for this club. If like them, we never break that cycle and never look like finishing anywhere near the top of the league, then yes I would get frustrated and as you say BlueBen I would see little point in persisting with that manager. Whoever is in charge of either of our clubs has to show that at least every few years they're capable of getting the club to bat above their average, breaking the dominance of those big 3 sides and challenging for the league for them to be worthwhile, otherwise regardless of whether we finish 4th or 6th we're just filling in numbers.

I don't want to be a club that sees balancing the books and qualifying for the Champions League (only to be knocked out in either the group stages or round of 16 at the first sight of decent opposition every season) as success, I want to be a club that sees qualifying for the Champions League as a stepping stone to getting this club back to the top and actually competing for major honours again. The reason any of us think Brendan Rodgers is worth persisting with (for now) isn't because we're happy to accept mediocrity, it's because he has shown that when he gets it right he's capable of getting us to punch through that glass ceiling and into contention for the league. With that in mind I want to see if he can get it right this summer, remove all excuses, and if we get to the halfway point of next season and we're way off the pace for the top 4 then by all means pull the trigger and replace him.
 
ADL9798 said:
Tony Barrett article in The Times this morning:
- We're preparing to make a bid for Benteke (not sure I'm happy about that)
- Lambert, Balotelli, Borini & Enrique will be allowed to leave
- Jones & Johnson are in the process of securing moves
- Liverpool are confident in Markovic's talent, but concerned he might not be equipped to thrive in England and so may consider allowing him to leave if a suitable offer comes in
- Toure & Wisdom have both signed contract extensions
- No suggestion that Rodgers' position is under threat, however indications are that FSG intend to add 1 or 2 more individuals to the football department to give greater support to the manager, particularly with respect to recruitment - I've heard Monchi (Sevilla DoF) & Frank Arnesen (former Chelsea youth director) mentioned pretty regularly. Monchi in particular would be an outstanding addition, here's an article on him:
http://www.espnfc.com.au/spanish-pr.../post/1981765/monchi-the-man-who-made-sevilla
Click to expand...

I'll be furious if we sell him after one season of playing him out of position. Would be incredibly stupid by the club.
 

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Robbo92 said:
I'll be furious if we sell him after one season of playing him out of position. Would be incredibly stupid by the club.
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Doesn't seem right. Why would you pick up a guy based on potential, play him and see (albeit inconsistent) glimpses of talent and then sell.
If we do sell him it does put a line through the last transfer window as one of the worst ever. And that's saying something.
 
Good points above, but we're miles behind Arsenal

Massive stadium (paid off apparently). Able to attract Sanchez/Ozil/Vidal? world class players. Consistently in the Champions League. Stable/capable manager.

We are perma 5th.

Good enough to stave off Spuds, Toffs, Soton, not good enough for top 4.
 
Jesus christ... if Benteke really is our number one target then I just give up.

Im done.

Also why would we sell Markovic when we just spent 20 million on him?? He has a ton of resale value so we may as well keep him and see how he develops before we make any decisions like that.
 
jod23 said:
Jesus christ... if Benteke really is our number one target then I just give up.

Im done.

Also why would we sell Markovic when we just spent 20 million on him?? He has a ton of resale value so we may as well keep him and see how he develops before we make any decisions like that.
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Benteke, Milner, Ings, Origi ... inspiring stuff isn't it! :$

Markovic was the wrong signing for a club in our position. We can't afford to spend that sort of money on someone who might eventually come good. Some of us said this exact thing at the time.
 
BlueBen said:
Benteke, Milner, Ings, Origi ... inspiring stuff isn't it! :$

Markovic was the wrong signing for a club in our position. We can't afford to spend that sort of money on someone who might eventually come good. Some of us said this exact thing at the time.
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It's depressing isnt it. Names like that wouldnt look out of place at West Ham, Villa, Stoke etc...

Are we purposely trying to be a mid table team??

You look at Arsenal being linked to Vidal and all the big names and we get linked that utter dross.
 

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Robbo92 said:
I'll be furious if we sell him after one season of playing him out of position. Would be incredibly stupid by the club.
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I thought it was fairly obvious that he was very talented but wouldn't suit English football (basically another Aspas with shitloads more talent), it was a signing we shouldn't have made in the first place. But now that we have him, we are giving him a season and giving up on him?
 
I like Benteke, If we can not massively overpay for him (20mil tops) and he can stay fit, he can be a great signing. He can achieve 20+ goals like Sturridge.

Also Markovic has plenty of talent and is a great prospect, he was definitely misused and there is no way that we should sell him (also that red card in the champions league was pathetic by the ref, Still annoyed by that and I'm sure he is too).
 
I saw this on the internet. A few quotes from fans on twitter.

So have our scouts/transfer committee really covered every corner of the globe and come back with Milner, Ings and Benteke?

Have our committee really sat down and decided that Ings, Milner and Benteke are the players to take us back to the CL and beyond...

It’s really happening isn’t it? What on earth have we done to deserve this? It’s Lallana v2, in the sense we’re buying a decent (but no better) player for a vastly inflated sum of money which said player will never be worth. They just won’t learn from their mistakes – is it becoming an active effort to sabotage the club?

Complain about Balotelli & Lambert's lack of movement etc. Go after Benteke. Liverpool Football Club.

Dear Brendan, Just in case you didn't know, there are players available outside of England. In other leagues. Who can actually play.

Ahhh Liverpool :(
 
That last comment is interesting too. Have a look at all of Rodgers signings since he came in. Here is a rough list not including youngsters and loan deals. I have separated them into two piles. The first are players bought from England, the next are players bought from outside of England.

Joe Allen
Fabio Borini
Daniel Sturridge
Kolo Toure
Simon Mignolet
Adam Lallana
Dejan Lovren
Rickie Lambert

Phillipe Coutinho
Mamadou Sakho
Tiago Ilori
Iago Aspas
Luis Alberto
Mario Balotelli
Emre Can
Alberto Moreno
Lazar Markovic
Divock Origi

I know Borini was technically bought from Roma but all his time had been spent in England and Rodgers knew of him from his time at Chelsea. Interesting to note that two of the ten bought from outside England, im pretty sure Rodgers had nothing to do with. Those being Balotelli and Sakho. Sakho eventually won Rodgers over. Balo never will and with good reason.

Also the hit rate of buying outside of England is horrible. Only Can, Coutinho and Sakho can be heralded as successes. That is 3 from 10. 30%.

Although his successes from buying in England arent much better with Sturridge being the only hit. You could give passing grades to Migs, Toure, Lallana and Allen but they havent excelled. So 5 out of 8 isnt horrible but only 1 out of 8 was a smash hit while the other four are just passing grades.

Fast forward to this year and we are looking at Ings, Benteke, Milner.

What is it with Rodgers and buying from England? Is it Rodgers or the transfer committee? Why cant we scout better overseas? There is so much more value overseas. We should be doing far more at bringing in top talent from overseas which will cost you far less.

It would be interesting to see the results stacked up against Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea, City etc with their respective last 18 or so signings. Were they buying from within England or looking overseas and were their hit rates better than ours. Without any research at all on the other clubs, im willing to bet they bring in more players from overseas and have higher hit rates than we do.

Frustrating.
 
Dylan8 said:
Like that post except for the Lallana bit. Hopefully his season isn't totally interrupted by injury and he can show his class next season.
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I do rate Lallana. Lallana is just pace short of being completely world class. Im not just saying that because he plays for us. I thought that when he was at Southampton. If he had Sterling's pace to go with what else he does. He would be frightening.
 
RossFC said:
Reading Aspas's name annoys me. Such a ****
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