Topic: I'm desperate for him to fuck off

[rushyman]

I think about the fact that this is my payback time for being lucky enough to have gone through school and teenage yrs with Liverpool winning nearly everything.  But the payback has been well and truly delivered a right few yrs ago.

We're well in credit now.

Yep. But we used a bit of it in Istanbul

Think weve earned it again the five years since though. Ive lasted without blowing my brains by thinking Man U and Liverpool are the two biggest clubs. Theyre having there years now, we'll just keep swapping maybe, our 20 years of dominence is round the corner.

But money has completely changed the face of the sport to the point where I dont even recognise it. The sick thing is I wouldnt mind half as much if the pisshead left and Man U rolled down the hill with us, leaving Chelsea Spurs and City. But theyre somehow still up there even thought their debt is bigger than ours. I dont get that

[Jokerman]

The worst thing is this is perfect and i mean fucking perfect for the Tumors. They've put someone who is clearly out of his depth ...

They'd have been better of keeping Rafa and giving him some money. It would have keep the spotlight off them.

Isn't that post a bit contradictory?   

[TSC]

The owners.

They'd have been better of keeping Rafa and giving him some money. It would have keep the spotlight off them.

I agree.  But thankfully they're stupid bastards as well as being greedy cnuts.

[redmark]

Isn't that post a bit contradictory?   

Silver 5 Star doesn't use quote blocks (using a mobile?) - the first line isn't his.

[John C]

I hate having to say this but it needs to be said: he just does not seem to have a grip on the team, tactics..............

During January maybe a better time to discus this mate. As shit as we are, there are other issues to consider without a full blown blame on a individual.

[withgreataplomb]

Is it wrong of me (a supporter of 20 odd years) to want a few more bad results to hasten Hodgsons departure?,
believe me when I say this is the last thing I'd ever want for the club,
but the reality is.......Hodgson has simply got to go.

[shanklyboy]

I can't understand all the fuss about Hodgson and what he has both said and our start to the season.
It tells you right here where the blame lies.

It all makes perfect sense to me once you read past the innuendo, despration to be proven right after 5 years of constant virtiol,selective comparisons and complete disregard for any comparibly mitigating circumstances.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-hodgson-must-be-given-time-to-clear-up-the-mess-left-by-benitez-2087967.html

James Lawton: Hodgson must be given time to clear up the mess left by Benitez

One brutal fact screamed out of the latest Anfield debacle. When Roy Hodgson came to pick his starting team he turned to seven of Rafael Benitez's hand-picked signings.

Roy Hodgson may prove not to be the man for Liverpool but if he does go down, and if the blow delivered by Northampton in the Carling Cup comes to be seen as a killing early assault on his confidence, his defence counsel might run the risk of lockjaw if he cites all the extenuating circumstances.

Chief among them, surely, is the obligation to clear up the mess left by Rafael Benitez.

There always had to be those doubts expressed by Kenny Dalglish about whether the new man was the right choice to guide the stricken giant through a crisis that is becoming increasingly, and nightmarishly, surreal. This is because his achievement at Fulham, where demands were so much less oppressive than the ones he faces now, spoke more than anything of a knowing veteran who could fiddle his way to a certain level of glory.
Related articles

It did not announce a miracle worker at the highest level of the game, which is pretty much the job requirement the task of rallying Liverpool has so transparently become.

Certainly, it is a challenge of an entirely different order from the one Hodgson met so successfully at Craven Cottage and perhaps the clearest indicator of this came with the insipid performance at Old Trafford last Sunday.

Yet if defeat by Northampton, from the bottom tier of the Football League, was by far the most serious assault on the spirit of the Liverpool faithful, it did bring one benefit to the embattled Hodgson.

It defined the root of his immediate problem. He simply doesn't have a quorum of adequate players.

This was the charge levelled, eventually, at both his predecessors, Gérard Houllier and Benitez but the difference in Hodgson's situation is that they had years to select the performers they deemed up to the job of maintaining and developing Liverpool's place in the game.

One brutal fact screamed out of the latest Anfield debacle. When Hodgson came to pick his starting team he turned to seven of Benitez's hand-picked signings, including five – Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Daniel Agger, Lucas Leiva, Ryan Babel and David Ngog – who cost a combined total of £27m.

Hodgson also fielded Daniel Pacheco, who starred for Spain in the recent Under-19 European Championship and had the pick of one of English football's most expensive academy production lines, but if the manager's brief reign is already under the most piercing scrutiny he cannot be denied his claim that the team he sent out should have been far too good for opponents from League Two.

Sickeningly, it wasn't, no more than the one that contained Pepe Reina, Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher, who must be close to his limits of optimism these days, was able to make much of a case that it belonged on the same field as United a few days ago.

There is not so much new to say about the ever-spreading disaster slick represented by the club's American ownership. It would not have happened if the Liverpool board, and especially the then chairman David Moores, had been properly alert to the dangers implicit in a deal so heavily based on speculative borrowing, or if the Premier League had in force the kind of vetoing procedures in keeping with a multi-billion pound industry. What is beyond dispute any longer is that Hodgson has been bequeathed the results of a Benitez regime that became increasingly exposed for its failure to galvanise a first team of some individual brilliance but an unshakeable core of mediocrity.

From his fortress of escape at San Siro Benitez wages tit-for-tat warfare with his old employers, including the claim that it was an impossible burden to work with people who didn't know anything about football.

He would be better advised to keep his head down while attempting to walk in the shoes of Jose Mourinho, among whose achievements has been the banishment of any hint he is capable of allowing the drift in morale and squad strength that Benitez presided over in the years that followed his initial successes in the Champions League and the FA Cup.

What can Hodgson do? He can say sorry, which he did copiously yesterday, he can play for a little time and hope that over the next few weeks he receives at least a fraction of the blind faith offered to his predecessor.

Benitez bemoaned his lack of transfer funds, even after lashing out £20m on the football invalid Alberto Aquilani and stockpiling the biggest squad of professionals (65) in the European game.

It was a performance of some nerve but then perhaps Benitez knew he wouldn't be around to bear the cost. Judge a manager by what he leaves behind is one of football's oldest commandments. However he fares, Roy Hodgson may find it hard to avoid offering a withering verdict.

Liverpool starting XI v Northampton Town

Signed by Rafael Benitez:

D Agger (£5.8m from Bronby)

S Kyrgiakos (£1.5m, AEK Athens)

Lucas (£6.75m, Gremio)

D Pacheco (Free, Barcelona)

M Jovanovic (Free, Standard Liège)

R Babel (£11.5m, Ajax)

D Ngog (£1.5m, PSG)

Signed by Roy Hodgson:

B Jones (£2.3m, Middlesbrough)

D Wilson (£2m, Rangers)

M Kelly (youth)

J Spearing (youth)

Total spent by Benitez £27.05m

Total spent by Hodgson £4.3m

[Jokerman]

Silver 5 Star doesn't use quote blocks (using a mobile?) - the first line isn't his.

Ah okay, fair enough.

[silver 5 star]

Isn't that post a bit contradictory?   

No because the first paragraph is a quote from someone else..

[TSC]

Yep. But we used a bit of it in Istanbul

Think weve earned it again the five years since though. Ive lasted without blowing my brains by thinking Man U and Liverpool are the two biggest clubs. Theyre having there years now, we'll just keep swapping maybe, our 20 years of dominence is round the corner.

But money has completely changed the face of the sport to the point where I dont even recognise it. The sick thing is I wouldnt mind half as much if the pisshead left and Man U rolled down the hill with us, leaving Chelsea Spurs and City. But theyre somehow still up there even thought their debt is bigger than ours. I dont get that

They're on the verge.  You only have to analyse the transfers over the last few yrs re them.  Fact is they're still relying on scholes and Giggs.  Their 'core' supporters realise it, and have done for a couple of yrs to be fair.  Fergs has never enjoyed much of a relationship with the 'core' support.  Isn't that astounding?

Given his success?  But he's always cosied up to whoever satisfied him.  You go on red cafe or red issue and there's little support for him generally, because of his stance.  I find that amazing given his success.

UTD's 'big' problems are in the post.  They're a bad season away from a bigger disaster than us (OK that's wishfull thinking, but at least as big a disaster as us).

[silver 5 star]

Silver 5 Star doesn't use quote blocks (using a mobile?) - the first line isn't his.

Well spotted

[buchigo!]

'It is insulting to suggest that because you move to a new club, your methods suddenly don't work when they've held you in good stead for 35 years and made you one of the most respected coaches in Europe. It's unbelievable,' he said.


OMG, just come in from the pub and read this... I've had several pints but still don't believe it ... maybe it's a drunken dream? Did Roy really say that? he thinks he's "one of the best coaches in europe"?

He's never actually won any major trophies has he. Talk about talking the talk but not doing the walk....

well trabzon is in europe. (well technically in it's in asia)

[silver 5 star]

Anyway - Bon nuit - Just think, one morning we'll all wake up and H and G will be gone.


It will happen.

YNWA.

[withgreataplomb]

I'm speechless at that "piece" from Lawton.

[Mad Men]

I want to see opposing teams shitting themselves before they walk out against us.. 

That.

[Mad Men]

I'm speechless at that "piece" from Lawton.

It's so poorly argued/put across/written, it isn't worth reading a 2nd time.

[withgreataplomb]

I see Eriksson is about to sign on with Leicester, surely even he would be better than Hodgson?

[Redcap]

It's so purely argued/put across, it isn't worth reading a 2nd time.

Or a first really.

[TSC]

I'm speechless at that "piece" from Lawton.

Even standing aside and attempting to take a neutral view, it's so full of holes it's not funny.  He's a wee pretentious cock anyway who appears on Sunday Supplement sometimes.  Most of 'em are pretentious cnuts.

Don't forget, the media loved Roy coming in here.  They don't admit they were wrong without a defensive fight.

[Samee]

He said: 'I don't understand questions about Liverpool and Fulham players being different types. At the moment arguably one or two of the players that are suggested as being very different to the Fulham players maybe aren't playing any better than the Fulham players played. So maybe people should be having a look at that. If I can be accusatory of some journalists, I think they work on names and not on performances. A judgment is based on their name and not necessarily what they have actually done on the day.'

Is he having a swipe at Gerrard and Torres here?

[Johnnyboy1973]

Is he having a swipe at Gerrard and Torres here?

Looks a clear and blatant swipe at Torres.

[Jokerman]

Looks a clear and blatant swipe at Torres.

Didn't Rafa say something that was similarly critical of our big name players last season?

[Mad Men]

Didn't Rafa say something that was similarly critical of our big name players last season?

Yes, for him to stop bitching and arguing with referee's and to focus on the game.

[Mad Men]

I see Eriksson is about to sign on with Leicester, surely even he would be better than Hodgson?

But the problem with Eriksson is Eriksson.

[redmark]

Is he having a swipe at Gerrard and Torres here?

Not sure it's Torres, because he has been getting plenty of criticism from the press; the clear message here is that Hodgson thinks the press isn't criticising his players enough, instead they have the nerve to question one of Europe's most respected coaches. Essentially he's being suitably vague to piss off his entire first team, having done so with the B team already.

[Raz]

That Lawton piece is a week old but the first 'Comment' from Daniel is fucking spot on. Well in!

[Rafa_La]

.
I want to see opposing teams shitting themselves before they walk out against us..

Those very words should be shoved in the faces of the Manager & the lads. Fcuk me, that's what is needed.
Said it yesterday, the MOJO needs to flow. (please )

[deadlybuzz]

I'm speechless at that "piece" from Lawton.

It's as bad as that shit he wrote comparing Rafa's Famine Liverpool to Wenger's Harvest of Arsenal the night we beat them in the CL.

[rushyman]

They're on the verge.  You only have to analyse the transfers over the last few yrs re them.  Fact is they're still relying on scholes and Giggs.  Their 'core' supporters realise it, and have done for a couple of yrs to be fair.  Fergs has never enjoyed much of a relationship with the 'core' support.  Isn't that astounding?

Given his success?  But he's always cosied up to whoever satisfied him.  You go on red cafe or red issue and there's little support for him generally, because of his stance.  I find that amazing given his success.

UTD's 'big' problems are in the post.  They're a bad season away from a bigger disaster than us (OK that's wishfull thinking, but at least as big a disaster as us).

Ive noticed the cores stance toward him. Its odd, Fletchers no Giggs or Scholes. he' improved but he'll never match them. That mexican midget hailed as the next Pele worries me a lttle as does Nani's recent discovery that pace can beat full backs in this country and the merits of an improved cheating system can work to your advantage.

[ziggyy]

I remember when "This is Anfield" used to meant something...

[shanklyboy]

I haven't seen this article anywhere else and tend to only believe what I hear from the horses mouth.

However if the man management style that appears to be creeping into articles recently are anything to go by it is extremely worrying.
We have heard the 'dead wood' comments from the horses mouth and we have heard Purslow commenting on how N'Gog and Babel have possibly until January to convince the manager that he doesn't have to buy a striker in the next window.

If we are to believe the article,we now hear that our best players are no better than Fulhams. It's obvious that this isn't a dig at Torres or Gerrard as Hodgson has gone to great lengths to ensure they both remain at the club and has spoken of them with great admiration. It also cant be the players he has signed who have been playing.

I would assume that list wouldn't contain Reina either or Kuyt who has been out for a few games. I would also imagine that Kelly can be ruled out of that too as a young lad and Spearing, Pacheco, Wilson, Shelvey, Amoo and Eccleston.
So that rules out Gerrard, Torres, Cole,Miereles,Konchsky,Jones, Poulson,Reina,Kuyt,Kelly,Spearing,Pacheco,Wilson,Shelvey,Amoo and Eccleston.

So out of the first choice players there is only Carragher and Skrtel to shoulder any blame. Out of the fringe players there is only Agger, Jovanovic,N'Gog,Kyrgiakos and Babel left.

N'Gog has done well as has Kyrgiakos,Skrtel and Carragher.

So by my reckoning it's all the fault of Babel,Agger and Jovanovic.

[Mad Men]

I disagree. We have 2 world class players in the side, a good number of defenders who are experinced internationals with years of experince playing at the top level. And we have some average but still quality midfielders and reserves who can do a decent job if they had the right manager, tactics and motivation and confidence to excel.

Something is seriously wrong at the moment and it all seems to be pointing at:

1) The tactics
2) The fact we are sitting so far down the pitch in our half
3) The manager's inability to stand up for his players and to keep praising opposition teams and managers when he should be trying to gee his team up and to protect/stand up for his players when criticized by psychopath's from Manchester
4) His signings have thus far been duds; Poulsen is no way half the player Mascherano was, whilst Konchesky has been poor thus far on the left back slot, committing some horrendous errors that have cost/contributed to losses and Raul who, for the life of me, can't figure out WHAT his role is in the side....

Need I go on?

[shanklyboy]

I disagree.

Who are you disagreeing with mate?

[Mad Men]

Who are you disagreeing with mate?

It was Hodgson who stated they (babel/ngog) had until January or something along those lines..don't think it was Purslow.

[El Campeador]

Only two possible seeds in the back of our minds sprout to a sacking of Roy Hodgson. One is knee-jerkism. He can't win matches, and the team looks like shit. The other stems from looking ahead, extrapolating the current trajectory, and cutting losses, essentially betting that all else being equal - reduced revenue from loss of CL revenue, crippling interest payments, indebted absentee owners, borderline supporter mutiny, potential administration, possible relegation aside - the future is marginally better without Hodgson than with.

Knee-jerkism is a poisonous trait to have, to be sure. Six games into a new managerial reign may indeed be too little time to try, judge, and execute a new manager. Rafa's early results were worse than Roy's are now in some ways - a home loss to Graz versus 5 straight wins to start a European campaign. League results weren't that much better under Rafa in the early days. I'd argue that Trabzon is a tougher result than Anfield. It could get better with Roy here, and not someone else. After all, it's happened that way before.

However, it is my opinion that the best possible outcome for the future of the club probably does not involve Roy Hodgson at the helm of football matters. That much is clear. Even if future results get better, this team cannot evolve into anything substantial. It is too old, it is too expensive, it has too little money for replacements, and it is dangerously unbalanced to the detriment of certain glaring positions.

The competitions by which Roy is judged are at best distractions that will not earn enough for a Torres or Mascherano, assuming that Roy would even know one if he saw it. Those who masturbate to fantasies of a benevolent owner spunking his fortune on making sure you don't have to understand the concept of a viable business may now stop reading. That Graz result was worth a more than than the five UEFA cup results that Hodgson has mastered. A domestic cup run solves nothing. FA Cup prize money - even for the winner - will not pay Joe Cole's salary for the year. Fact.

Benitez prioritized the Champions League because reaching the final is worth about two league titles. First place in the league and seventh place in the league are separated by only 5m quid, or approximately one Christian Poulson. Reaching the final is worth 30m quid, or approximately 3 young Xabi Alonsos, if you got your scouting right. And Roy doesn't do body counts.

Even if we swerve every other potential disaster, this squad is aging, expensive, and will only get older and more expensive under current transfer policy. Just as Roy has no Plan B, Squad B, or Media Cheat Sheet B, his squad is quickly shooting its own future in the foot. Alonso, Garcia and Josemi or Poulsen, Meireles and Konchesky? Hint - the right answer includes a winning lottery ticket worth thirty million quid. We're not even buying the tickets now.

One thing that's striking about the communistic nature of American sport is that once a team knows it's licked, it immediately identifies the youth as either the future of the struggling club, or as bait for funding or replacements, and dumps the longterm contracts of the aging, knowing that results don't matter because there is a basement. If you're gonna lose, you might as well do it with Insua and Lucas instead of Poulsen and Konchesky. It's cheaper and you have two tickets to the Brazil 2014 lottery. Poulsen and Konchesky will be pensioners by the time Lucas and Insua go to Brazil.

But here, the difference in league positions means fuck all in financial terms; it serves only bragging rights. The competition for the top four's lucrative spots is fierce, and we won't get there with Roy's team. City has a bottomless pit of money. Ancellotti's team is a decent bet for best in Europe. United are flailing like King Kong falling off a building, but still own the wild cards. Spurs are borderline settled, with good signings, and are even performing well with injuries. Ged's got a point to prove at Villa, and his donkey's really excited. We on the other hand have Roy Hodgson, who is under mounds of pressure to deliver results in a league that doesn't even count financially, especially considering that winning the damn thing wouldn't even cover a quarter of our interest expense.

Every spot we gain in the league has a delta of practically Fuck All, outside of the top four (potential windfall) and the bottom three (utter financial disaster). Roy talks about the former, in a vague and broadly accepted as unattainable goal of "top four". We will not end up in the top four. Anywhere below doesn't really matter as long as it's above the bottom three.

So then what really is point of Roy Hodgson exactly? He's not the one who can sort through the Riojas, picking the rights one to drink and cellaring the rest. The longer he stays here, the more likely it is that he tries to raise money for overpriced aging shot-term solutions by selling what precious Riojas we have left. That is his policy. Insua should be a warning - 8 years younger than Konchesky, and probably makes half as much per week. Seventh place earns about 10m quid in prize money while twelfth earns 7m. We fuck him off for less than a million euros and then send 4 times that amount plus 2 kids to Fulham for a 29 year old journeyman backed up by a disgruntled centreback and a crock who refused a pay as you play deal for obvious reasons.

His transfer policy can't get the basics right. His matchday selections are even worse. Four centrebacks in a loss against a 4th division team with one of them up front, and not a sub until the end of the match.

To top it off, he himself is a steady the ship appointee on a three year deal worth 9m that cost a further 6.5m to hire. A manager on a 3 year contract who has no track record of delivering 3 years of results. His team features a number of new signings on 4 year contracts who have not delivered 4 years of results. A punter would be best off betting on a wilting of the tree, really, as opposed to a steadying of the ship.

If it's instant success we delude ourselves into expecting, Roy is probably not our best bet. That much is clear: there are no instant results, not even a dessert at the end of lunch at Nando's. If it's medium term survivalism we crave, Roy again is not the the answer, because the difference in revenue between league positions isn't even worth the millions of pounds it cost to bring him in. If it's laying the longer-term groundwork for future chess masters, Roy again is not is the answer. He spends on Poulsens when he has Luci.

The Robbie Keane saga should a lesson in cutting losses early before they grow too large. The situation we find ourselves in is not one that Roy Hodgson is capable of solving. We have enough shit to worry about without mortgaging the future for journeymen who aren't delivering results. The longer he stays here, the deeper the hole he will dig for us to climb out of.

The risk of ending up with a geriatric squad on disproportionately large wages that has nothing to play for increases with each passing week. If he can't get the best out of what he has, what use is he exactly? At the very least, if all he's bringing is is shit wine to the party, he shouldn't be allowed to pop open the bottles that were stored for 2015.

We should cut our losses now. Kenny Dalglish is a better bet at steadying the ship, both on the pitch and off it. He asked for the job. He should be given it as soon as possible.

[Mad Men]

I am extremely reluctant to get Kenny Dalglish into the seat..if it all continues to go downhill, imagine the backlash later by supporters on him...I don't think he deserves that...he really doesn't.

If there is ONE guy I think who understands what the club is about and how we should be playing our football, it's Steve Nicol. A proven manager in the american soccer league, I would bring him "back" to Anfield in a heart beat.

[Keith Lard]

Only two possible seeds in the back of our minds sprout to a sacking of Roy Hodgson. One is knee-jerkism. He can't win matches, and the team looks like shit. The other stems from looking ahead, extrapolating the current trajectory, and cutting losses, essentially betting that all else being equal - reduced revenue from loss of CL revenue, crippling interest payments, indebted absentee owners, borderline supporter mutiny, potential administration, possible relegation aside - the future is marginally better without Hodgson than with.

Knee-jerkism is a poisonous trait to have, to be sure. Six games into a new managerial reign may indeed be too little time to try, judge, and execute a new manager. Rafa's early results were worse than Roy's are now in some ways - a home loss to Graz versus 5 straight wins to start a European campaign. League results weren't that much better under Rafa in the early days. I'd argue that Trabzon is a tougher result than Anfield. It could get better with Roy here, and not someone else. After all, it's happened that way before.

However, it is my opinion that the best possible outcome for the future of the club probably does not involve Roy Hodgson at the helm of football matters. That much is clear. Even if future results get better, this team cannot evolve into anything substantial. It is too old, it is too expensive, it has too little money for replacements, and it is dangerously unbalanced to the detriment of certain glaring positions.

The competitions by which Roy is judged are at best distractions that will not earn enough for a Torres or Mascherano, assuming that Roy would even know one if he saw it. Those who masturbate to fantasies of a benevolent owner spunking his fortune on making sure you don't have to understand the concept of a viable business may now stop reading. That Graz result was worth a more than than the five UEFA cup results that Hodgson has mastered. A domestic cup run solves nothing. FA Cup prize money - even for the winner - will not pay Joe Cole's salary for the year. Fact.

Benitez prioritized the Champions League because reaching the final is worth about two league titles. First place in the league and seventh place in the league are separated by only 5m quid, or approximately one Christian Poulson. Reaching the final is worth 30m quid, or approximately 3 young Xabi Alonsos, if you got your scouting right. And Roy doesn't do body counts.

Even if we swerve every other potential disaster, this squad is aging, expensive, and will only get older and more expensive under current transfer policy. Just as Roy has no Plan B, Squad B, or Media Cheat Sheet B, his squad is quickly shooting its own future in the foot. Alonso, Garcia and Josemi or Poulsen, Meireles and Konchesky? Hint - the right answer includes a winning lottery ticket worth thirty million quid. We're not even buying the tickets now.

One thing that's striking about the communistic nature of American sport is that once a team knows it's licked, it immediately identifies the youth as either the future of the struggling club, or as bait for funding or replacements, and dumps the longterm contracts of the aging, knowing that results don't matter because there is a basement. If you're gonna lose, you might as well do it with Insua and Lucas instead of Poulsen and Konchesky. It's cheaper and you have two tickets to the Brazil 2014 lottery. Poulsen and Konchesky will be pensioners by the time Lucas and Insua go to Brazil.

But here, the difference in league positions means fuck all in financial terms; it serves only bragging rights. The competition for the top four's lucrative spots is fierce, and we won't get there with Roy's team. City has a bottomless pit of money. Ancellotti's team is a decent bet for best in Europe. United are flailing like King Kong falling off a building, but still own the wild cards. Spurs are borderline settled, with good signings, and are even performing well with injuries. Ged's got a point to prove at Villa, and his donkey's really excited. We on the other hand have Roy Hodgson, who is under mounds of pressure to deliver results in a league that doesn't even count financially, especially considering that winning the damn thing wouldn't even cover a quarter of our interest expense.

Every spot we gain in the league has a delta of practically Fuck All, outside of the top four (potential windfall) and the bottom three (utter financial disaster). Roy talks about the former, in a vague and broadly accepted as unattainable goal of "top four". We will not end up in the top four. Anywhere below doesn't really matter as long as it's above the bottom three.

So then what really is point of Roy Hodgson exactly? He's not the one who can sort through the Riojas, picking the rights one to drink and cellaring the rest. The longer he stays here, the more likely it is that he tries to raise money for overpriced aging shot-term solutions by selling what precious Riojas we have left. That is his policy. Insua should be a warning - 8 years younger than Konchesky, and probably makes half as much per week. Seventh place earns about 10m quid in prize money while twelfth earns 7m. We fuck him off for less than a million euros and then send 4 times that amount plus 2 kids to Fulham for a 29 year old journeyman backed up by a disgruntled centreback and a crock who refused a pay as you play deal for obvious reasons.

His transfer policy can't get the basics right. His matchday selections are even worse. Four centrebacks in a loss against a 4th division team with one of them up front, and not a sub until the end of the match.

To top it off, he himself is a steady the ship appointee on a three year deal worth 9m that cost a further 6.5m to hire. A manager on a 3 year contract who has no track record of delivering 3 years of results. His team features a number of new signings on 4 year contracts who have not delivered 4 years of results. A punter would be best off betting on a wilting of the tree, really, as opposed to a steadying of the ship.

If it's instant success we delude ourselves into expecting, Roy is probably not our best bet. That much is clear: there are no instant results, not even a dessert at the end of lunch at Nando's. If it's medium term survivalism we crave, Roy again is not the the answer, because the difference in revenue between league positions isn't even worth the millions of pounds it cost to bring him in. If it's laying the longer-term groundwork for future chess masters, Roy again is not is the answer. He spends on Poulsens when he has Luci.

The Roy Keane saga should a lesson in cutting losses early before they grow too large. The situation we find ourselves in is not one that Roy Hodgson is probably capable to solving. We have enough shit to worry about without mortgaging the future for journeymen who aren't delivering results. The longer he stays here, the deeper the hole he will dig for us to climb out of.

The risk of ending up with a geriatric squad on disproportionately large wages that has nothing to play for increases with each passing week. If he can't get the best out of what he has, what use is he exactly? At the very least, if all he's bringing is is shit wine to the party, he shouldn't be allowed to pop open the bottles that were stored for 2015.

We should cut our losses now. Kenny Dalglish is a better bet at steadying the ship, both on the pitch and off it. He asked for the job. He should be given it as soon as possible.

I would only want King Kenny as manager after we get new owners ... would much prefer us to have someone like Rijkaard at the helm. An attacking purist that will get us playing decent football.

[Mad Men]

Riijkaard's attitude is suspect....and that arrogance.

[fefs]

Riijkaard's attitude is suspect....and that arrogance.

I think the squad could do with some arrogance/belief

[Carra-ton]

I really like Roy, but if he has said the things in those articles, then he is going to find out what a media witch-hunt is all about. He will be having pressure on him now like none before, false articles, false quotes making him look like a clown. I am not too sure he can handle all this. Already an article from N#TW saying his friends are worried about him, I know it is crap but this will affect him.
He has had a tendency to be affected by media-reactions when he was at Inter, spouting curse words in press-match conferences. Hope this doesn't turn out very badly for him.