You're not playing this game very well.
Many posts in this forum, in the FSG thread, in certain players threads, claim that poster knew we'd be shite. Knew certain players were past their sell date. Knew we'd struggle because of that. Could see this last season when we were on for the quadruple.
So, there is no "if we don't sort this out".
You either know what the future holds or you don't. You either know Jurgen sorts it or he doesn't. You either know we buy players who help the side or we don't.
Therefore, i'm waiting for the answer to how the team will be in 2025. I'll even take 2024. Whether or not we'll be challenging and have an open bus top parade at the end of the season. Or we're shite and midtable. I want to know now. Not after the fact.
I'll give this a quick go because I have said that I could see the decline coming (if it wasn't addressed proactively) for a while. There's no crystal ball of course, just gut feelings on what I was seeing. I have to add, though, I never expected this level of drop off. I still expected us to compete for the top four.
No one knows what the future holds, but educated guesses can be made by looking at trajectory, current approaches, attitudes etc. For instance, when we lost to Madrid in Kyiv I was convinced we'd be back and we'd lift the European Cup under Klopp. The momentum was there and it was still building but, for me, Madrid in Kyiv came just a little too soon.
Despite that loss, I could see the desire, the drive, the ambition and the quality was there, and it hadn't peaked. So, there was a lot of evidence to go on in order to back the gut feeling up. Luckily for all of us, we were around to see that team reach its peak, and what a time it was. Stunning, absolutely stunning. Not only was there the European Cup, there were English and World titles too.
Around that time there was some clown on the Bitters forum that tried to cope with our success by banging on about how our players would all be older in a few years. Well, no shit, Sherlock. Aren't we all. He was laughed at, and rightly so, because I don't think a single one of us believed that once we peaked the club would sit on its laurels and not address crucial positions as and when necessary. I mean we were a well oiled machine both on and off the pitch, so no way would we believe such incompetence was not far around the corner.
Us older fans grew up with the Liverpool FC of Shankly, Paisley and Fagan. This club taught us all that if you bust your guts you can get to the top. It also taught us that once you get there, you strengthen from that position of strength, otherwise you fall away again.
Alarm bells started ringing for me when we simply never strengthened adequately when we had the league and Europe by the throat. Players were having to go flat out, season on season against the resources of a nation state. We had to go again and again, mentally, physically and emotionally, and each season we did so age, fatigue and injury were taking their toll.
The fans were often an emotional wreck, and absolutely shattered by the end of a season, so goodness knows how the players felt. They have given their absolute all. They busted their balls time and again for this club, but it all takes its toll eventually. Fail to refresh with quality acquisitions like we did and the drop off is inevitable. In the end last season we were running on adrenaline to try to get us over the line.
So yes, the drop off could be seen coming by multiple transfer window failures when areas of concern were left unaddressed. Basically, we've squeezed the last drop from that magnificent team and they naturally fell away as age, fatigue, injury and mental and physical exhaustion ate away at them.
Just as our rise could be seen coming by the trajectory we were exhibiting both on and off the pitch, so, too, could the decline. We simply failed to do what you have to do in order to stay at the top. We were in the position to psychologically demoralise our opposition by strengthening whilst we sat there drinking champagne from the Premier League trophy, but we decided to just go again and again with pretty much what we already had. In such a cut-throat sport at this level, that's lethal.
Whereas not too many seasons ago we had the approach, mindset, desire, hunger and growing quality to predict a reasonable level of success, since we finally did it we've exhibited, as a club, an approach more aligned with decline, or at least treading water. Which in this game also means decline.
The future? Well that's not possible to even get a handle on just now because we have absolutely nothing to go on for evidence of direction. I've no idea what, if anything, is going on behind the scenes, but the club feels totally rudderless. No one knows if these owners are staying or going. If they are staying, will they invest what is now necessary? If they are going, who comes in, and will they bring harmony or upheaval with them? We just don't know anything, so we have nothing to base any kind of educated guess on. We are treading water and being swept who knows where until we know where we stand. There is no trajectory and no plan we are aware of to address the current malaise.
I think once we get certainty on the ownership issue and we learn what, if anything, future strategy will be, every single one of us is totally in the dark. With the up curve we had evidence to go on. With the down curve we also had evidence to go on too. The future we have nothing at all to go on until we are either sold or FSG fully commit and give us a clue what their ambitions are with us.