Topic: A time to reflect honestly or nothing to worry about ?

[nerdster4]

Last season I truly believed that we were in trouble . Our first front 3 were approaching 30, back 3 had long term injuries and we had a poor season . But we bounced back and came close to unprecedented levels of success .

So are the bits below somewhat the product of a disappointed mind following events in the last 8 days or things requiring a deep level of reflection ?

1. Despite having won everything under klopp , we have only won one final in 90 minutes against a poor spurs in a match where Allison was MoM.
2. Our midfield in both finals we lost against Madrid lacked creativity . Is this an area we need to strengthen given age profiles , inconsistency issues , potential ceilings in terms of ability and injury proneness ?
3. Diaz and Jota have polar opposite strengths and areas they need to work on . With Mane possibly leaving and Salah’s recent form do we again need to look at seriously strengthening here ?
4. Are we likely to spend the amounts we need to ? Elite number 10s and 9s don’t come cheaply . The next 4 seasons whilst klopp is with us and United are so far off challenging present a potentially golden opportunity to at least equal the 20 league titles . With city getting 2 excellent strikers we need to keep our level since January going and hit the ground running .

Your thoughts welcome .

[Cid]

We're competing against an opponent that has broken all rules to financially fund a period of dominance the league has never seen before.  Despite that we are competing and pushing them constantly and we're rightly considered one of the finest teams in the world. We did it the right way, with our own funds, strong scouting and brilliant management.  Take some pride in that.

If we go and buy an 80m striker to replace Mane I'll be very happy, but if we buy a 40m prospect I'll have total faith that we've done our homework and Klopp believes he can mold whoever that is into a diamond.

Enjoy this period because it may not last forever.

[Son of Spion]

I've been watching LFC all my life, but I'm not really clever enough to offer anything with depth on this. However, I do think we are entering something of a transitional period due to age of certain players. When I say transitional, I don't mean a period of slight decline as we rebuild, I just mean maybe some old guard moving on and new blood coming in.

I remember many of us having trepidation when we lost Kevin Keegan, but we then recruited Kenny Dalglish. Personally, I have faith in this manager and his staff. They've proved they know what they are doing. As a club, we've remodelled winning sides numerous times and actually improved them. I believe we can and will do so again with Klopp.

Regarding finals, as much as we'd all love an easy 3-0 victory in 90 minutes, it's wise to remember that at this level the margins are incredibly tight. In three finals this season we won two and only conceded one goal, so it sounds different when put that way.

Does it really matter if Alisson was MotM in the final against Spurs? Madrid's 'keeper was MotM on Saturday against us, and we were the better side. Do we think Madrid care about that? I'm sure they don't.

I think there will always be areas we can improve, but nothing will never be perfect. I mean look at Abu Dhabi. Every conceivable advantage given to them on a plate, yet they still only scraped the league by a point, and they didn't make the final of any of the three cup competitions they were in. We reached all three. We are more than the sum of our parts, Abu Dhabi are less.

I'm not worried. I think the players we bring in might not be ready made elite stars, but I believe they will be made of the correct stuff for us and our needs. I think Klopp will make sure of that.

Anyway, that just my ramblings on this. Not very insightful, but just how I see it really.

[PaleBlueDot]

Last season I truly believed that we were in trouble . Our first front 3 were approaching 30, back 3 had long term injuries and we had a poor season . But we bounced back and came close to unprecedented levels of success .

So are the bits below somewhat the product of a disappointed mind following events in the last 8 days or things requiring a deep level of reflection ?

1. Despite having won everything under klopp , we have only won one final in 90 minutes against a poor spurs in a match where Allison was MoM.
2. Our midfield in both finals we lost against Madrid lacked creativity . Is this an area we need to strengthen given age profiles , inconsistency issues , potential ceilings in terms of ability and injury proneness ?
3. Diaz and Jota have polar opposite strengths and areas they need to work on . With Mane possibly leaving and Salah’s recent form do we again need to look at seriously strengthening here ?
4. Are we likely to spend the amounts we need to ? Elite number 10s and 9s don’t come cheaply . The next 4 seasons whilst klopp is with us and United are so far off challenging present a potentially golden opportunity to at least equal the 20 league titles . With city getting 2 excellent strikers we need to keep our level since January going and hit the ground running.

Your thoughts welcome .

In all honestly I don't think we should shy away from having the conversation regarding our usual front 3 not being the best against low blocks. It's clear that Mane and Salah thrived off having the space to attack teams in the past few years but our shift into having a dominant defence and midfield meant we now play the majority of football matches with 70% possession and most of it in the opponents half. Whilst both Mane and Salah are one of the best in the worst in their positions I do think their play-style is more direct, fast and furious compared to, for example, City's technical players that tend to pass around a low-block. We see this manifesting into games where we rely on set-pieces or an abhorrent number of crosses into the box.

Diaz has been fantastic and it feels like he tries so hard that when he gets into shooting positions he just runs out of steam a little bit. I have no doubts as his confidence grows he will slow down his game a touch and become one of the deadliest LW in world football. Jota is a different kind of player that we are lucky to have coming off the bench. The question lies with what we do now Mane is off?

This is an unprecedented moment in our history in which we have a group of elite players at the peak of their powers. Whilst I have every confidence in Klopp to bring in players needed to rebuild this team, I feel he has worked incredibly hard and worked miracles with the players he has been given, and deserves a high-profile, absolutely ready striker that will take us to the next level. The gap created with us losing Mane and City signing Haaland will not be filled with a Nunez type signing in my opinion (not immediately anyway). I trust the recruitment and Klopp's ability to get the best out of a player like Nunez but we are freeing up some serious wages this summer with the likes of Mane, Ox, Origi and one or two others leaving. We have the funds to be able to sign a player like Harry Kane (levy might have a say but there's no harm in trying). There are fine margins in football and a ready made world class striker can be the difference between this side going down in history with the more trophies in the cabinet that it deserves.

[Oddbod]

This is my crap insight on this when I'm pissed:

Dont worry about it, Klopp will sort it.

We're the best fucking team in the world, I dont care what anyone says

Up the Reds

[MNAA]

Jurgen has signed until 2026. Why the doubts? He asked us to believe in 2015. Any reason for us to not believe that whatever the shortcomings (if any), Klopp and his team will figure things out. No ifs, no buts ... trust Klopp, trust the process. We are in a great place. Just enjoy the ride ...

[him_15]

Just keep supporting the club, nothing to worry about.

[Macphisto80]

The best is yet to come.

Just wait and see. If you think we're fucked off as fans for constantly missing out on big prizes, it'll pale to how Klopp and the players are taking it. Difference is, they are the ones that will do something about it. We'll just get to watch and it'll be fucking glorious. I think this summer we'll make more additions that will improve us to give us an edge in these one off games when the chips are down, and they'll be the difference maker. Fuck City. They've hit their ceiling.

[harleydanger]

We lost 4 games in 63.

We played literally every game we could have.

We averaged 2.4 goals A GAME in the league.

Our xg is the three finals this year was +7.

I think changing ideas now is madness.

The difference between the quad this year and 'just' two cups was arguably the best GK performance in a CL final in 20 years and Villa shipping 3 goals in 10 mins.

[Johnny Aldridge]

We lost 4 games in 63.

We played literally every game we could have.

We averaged 2.4 goals A GAME in the league.

Our xg is the three finals this year was +7.

I think changing ideas now is madness.

The difference between the quad this year and 'just' two cups was arguably the best GK performance in a CL final in 20 years and Villa shipping 3 goals in 10 mins.

We lost the league and the CL. XG +7 doesn’t won’t you a trophy. It’s actual goals.
Villa shipping 3 goals didn’t cost us the league, not beating one of City, Chelsea or Spurs cost us the league.

[Dim Glas]

We lost the league and the CL. XG +7 doesn’t won’t you a trophy. It’s actual goals.
Villa shipping 3 goals didn’t cost us the league, not beating one of City, Chelsea or Spurs cost us the league.

We didn’t lose it. Abu Dhabi won it.

We are up against cheats, that the PL is happy to have, despite being owned for sportswashing.

Teams shouldn’t need 90 plus points every single year in the hope it wins them a league. It doesn’t happen anywhere else.

And the harsh reality is, we may well not win another as long as clubs can be owned by human rights abusers and crooks.

[AmanShah21]

I dont think there's need for massive retrospect.
The CL final was just so poorly handled off the pitch that by the time the game kicked off, I can honestly say that the result was the least of my worries at that time. It just never felt like a game that should be occurring on those circumstances. There were family members of players in that rush outside so I cant see how any of them would be unaffected. We played well, but just the gut feel from kickoff was that the game never felt right.
For the league, we were supposed to be done and out of it in december. The fact that we nearly won it if not for 5 minutes of crap football from villa is still good.
We need a small squad refresh and i trust the folks running this team to do it right. Period. Onwards to the new season.

[JRed]

Just enjoy these times. It’s all we can do. Yes it would be so much better if we weren’t having to compete with the biggest cheats the game has ever known, but when they are finally dealt with , history will show what a remarkable achievement competing with them was.
I’m sure Klopp realises where we have struggled and find a solution.
I do expect the cheats to blitz the transfer market again( what’s new) so it will take something special to compete with them again.

[Fromola]

You can't argue at all with what the players and manager have done, they've given everything they've got and we came so close. Where we've fallen a bit short at times:

1) The costly draws earlier in the season while Matip and Virg were recovering from horrendous injuries and Konate settling in. We were also trying to find our way again after last season.

2) Covid issues around the Christmas period which was when City built up their lead.

3) Mane and particularly Salah's brutal schedule this year with AFCON and World Cup qualifiers. Personally I think this is a big cause of the three scoreless cup finals, along with Jota picking up the injury just before the LC final when he was flying.

4) We've been one short in midfield at times, in terms of a player with a bit more pace and dynamism (Tchouameni was earmarked to solve this). We didn't replace Gini.

A mixture of the above helps explain why we didn't beat the rest of the top 4 in the league, or score in 3 cup finals.

We just need a bit more evolution in the transfer market in the summer. Look at the impact Diaz made. Without that we'd have struggled to go the distance.

[Johnny Aldridge]

We didn’t lose it. Abu Dhabi won it.

We are up against cheats, that the PL is happy to have, despite being owned for sportswashing.

Teams shouldn’t need 90 plus points every single year in the hope it wins them a league. It doesn’t happen anywhere else.

And the harsh reality is, we may well not win another as long as clubs can be owned by human rights abusers and crooks.

Cheating City Bastards weren’t responsible for us failing to beat Chelsea or Spurs, they weren’t responsible for us drawing with Brentford & Brighton. Cheats weren’t responsible for us not scoring in 3 finals. Wether teams should need 90+ points to win the the league is irrelevant. It’s the reality of what it takes to win now. There’s no point in saying “we should have won it with these points levels” we’re still losing. Stop looking to City and look at ourselves. We’ve lost the league on 2 occasions by a point in seasons where we drew too many games. Look at the tables and you’ll see the tale. We need to be cut throat and take games to teams. We were toothless in 3 finals. I don’t care about 9 chances in a game “should be enough to win” the reality is we lost.

[Mister Flip Flop]

Never seen as confident of future success as i am now. Klopp is a flipping genius

[UntouchableLuis]

Cheating City Bastards weren’t responsible for us failing to beat Chelsea or Spurs, they weren’t responsible for us drawing with Brentford & Brighton. Cheats weren’t responsible for us not scoring in 3 finals. Wether teams should need 90+ points to win the the league is irrelevant. It’s the reality of what it takes to win now. There’s no point in saying “we should have won it with these points levels” we’re still losing. Stop looking to City and look at ourselves. We’ve lost the league on 2 occasions by a point in seasons where we drew too many games. Look at the tables and you’ll see the tale. We need to be cut throat and take games to teams. We were toothless in 3 finals. I don’t care about 9 chances in a game “should be enough to win” the reality is we lost.

Go and support PSG then. You'll win the title every year and can be happy.

[Fabulous_aurelio]

Peip

We lost 4 games in 63.

We played literally every game we could have.

We averaged 2.4 goals A GAME in the league.

Our xg is the three finals this year was +7.

I think changing ideas now is madness.

The difference between the quad this year and 'just' two cups was arguably the best GK performance in a CL final in 20 years and Villa shipping 3 goals in 10 mins.

People forget that VVD was coming back from a major injury at the start of this season and was still rusty. We dropped points (understandably) whilst he got back to form.

We have had an incredible season.

[royhendo]

Last season I truly believed that we were in trouble .

For me that says a lot. Can I ask where you go to talk about or read about Liverpool’s prospects?

This is the best run football operation there is.

[CS111]

I have no doubts there is and has been plenty of work going on behind the scenes. My only worry is the age of and contract situations of most of our top players
Mane
Salah
Bobby
Keita
Milner
Hendo

Our back line is very strong, except maybe cover for Trent. ( gomez if he's still here )
Midfield definitely needs a box to box player who can also score his fair share , just imagine Gerrard in this team
Up front needs something doing, Diaz has been brilliant, salah is starting to get marked out of games , bobby not getting any younger and injury record starting to get serious , mane is probably gone, origi is gone

If we could sign a worldie midfielder and striker , that would be a great summer in my eyes

[Eeyore]

For me that says a lot. Can I ask where you go to talk about or read about Liverpool’s prospects?

This is the best run football operation there is.

If we are the best run football operation, then how come we ended up with Salah, Mane and Bobby all with one year left and none of them signing a new deal, Roy ?

Origi is leaving on a free this season and Ox and Keita have one year left as well.

Over the next 12 months, we could feasibly see 6 attacking players leave on a free.

[meady1981]

It’s time to panic.
And panic hard.

[killer-heels]

The league we have to factor in we started it with a number of issues hanging over us and if anything cost us then it was the natural rebuilding of confidence. We also got screwed big time with Covid in December. Nothing we could have done and we were amazing.

However, the CL final will hurt for a while. We should be winning that. I certainly am not over it.

[Barneylfc∗]

Cheating City Bastards weren’t responsible for us failing to beat Chelsea or Spurs, they weren’t responsible for us drawing with Brentford & Brighton. Cheats weren’t responsible for us not scoring in 3 finals. Wether teams should need 90+ points to win the the league is irrelevant. It’s the reality of what it takes to win now. There’s no point in saying “we should have won it with these points levels” we’re still losing. Stop looking to City and look at ourselves. We’ve lost the league on 2 occasions by a point in seasons where we drew too many games. Look at the tables and you’ll see the tale. We need to be cut throat and take games to teams. We were toothless in 3 finals. I don’t care about 9 chances in a game “should be enough to win” the reality is we lost.

Christ 

[CS111]

The league we have to factor in we started it with a number of issues hanging over us and if anything cost us then it was the natural rebuilding of confidence. We also got screwed big time with Covid in December. Nothing we could have done and we were amazing.

However, the CL final will hurt for a while. We should be winning that. I certainly am not over it.

The final paragraph

[Dim Glas]

Cheating City Bastards weren’t responsible for us failing to beat Chelsea or Spurs, they weren’t responsible for us drawing with Brentford & Brighton. Cheats weren’t responsible for us not scoring in 3 finals. Wether teams should need 90+ points to win the the league is irrelevant. It’s the reality of what it takes to win now. There’s no point in saying “we should have won it with these points levels” we’re still losing. Stop looking to City and look at ourselves. We’ve lost the league on 2 occasions by a point in seasons where we drew too many games. Look at the tables and you’ll see the tale. We need to be cut throat and take games to teams. We were toothless in 3 finals. I don’t care about 9 chances in a game “should be enough to win” the reality is we lost.

my god, I can’t be arsed with these kinds of posts, about dropping points gainst such and such a team, how do you people who do this even enjoy this great team. That’s football, it isn’t supposed to be perfect, teams draw games against less strong oppo, even Abu Dhabi do it. I’m sure we probably gained some points in games we could have lost too.

The fact the margins are so tight is becuse we are up against a machine aided by the money of human rights abusers. That is the only reason. Otherwise we’d be winning leagues easily with each of these 2nd place finishes under Klopp. Get annoyed at what this league as become maybe..

[bornandbRED]

We need surgery in the midfield.

[Johnny Aldridge]

The fact the margins are so tight is becuse we are up against a machine aided by the money of human rights abusers. That is the only reason. Otherwise we’d be winning leagues easily with each of these 2nd place finishes under Klopp. Get annoyed at what this league as become maybe..

Mate of course I’m pissed we’re getting the points total we are and still losing leagues. It’s not the game I remember over the years, but it is the game now. I don’t like it the demands on the players are intense mentally and physically, the margins are tight. I don’t like the money City and United, now Newcastle have to throw around. But it is the reality. “It should be enough” means nothing, to win a league you need more. We needed to beat one of the top four teams.

I still can’t explain our 2 domestic final appearances and not scoring, that’s on us.
(I have no knowledge of how the pre game shithousery from the French cops affected us on the pitch Saturday night, so I’ll leave that out)
 We beat City in the semi of the FA cup (a better team than Chelsea) but failed to score against Chelsea in the final. We struggle against teams who defend like Chelsea, Spurs, and a few mid table teams who play this way. If we could find a way through that defending and those games you improve your chances of winning a league.

The squad gave everything, a brilliant group of lads, I think it needs a little more freshness and creativity like Diaz brought, and we need someone who can get goals in big games and scrappy games.

[has gone odd]

Teams shouldn’t need 90 plus points every single year in the hope it wins them a league. It doesn’t happen anywhere else.

Spot on. We had to smash all records to win our title, superhuman and insane levels and am still in awe how easy we made it look. It cannot be done each and every year. If you're team is spending £100m + each and every season it becomes mandatory that you win, there is no soul in that.

Everything the team has earned is through hard work, determination and perfect squad balance. LFC does not have to overpay mercs for their time, our players want to be here and still make a good living! The culture surrounding the club makes the whole deal real and complete, perhaps the envy of world. I don't know about everyone else, but when Jurgen signed up it felt different, on day 1 everyone started to believe. Worried? Not in the slightest. Win, lose or draw, the city shows that even when the most miserable days arrive, we can all walk through it and hold heads up high.

 
 

[Legs]

We are still a top team we have forced the whole of Manchester to support their City rivals 😂

We have also forced Chelsea and Madrid to park the bus like Burnley that is a compliment to us.

I trust Klopp we might not win the league or CL next year but we’ll have a go.

[Dave McCoy]

We are still a top team we have forced the whole of Manchester to support their City rivals 😂

We have also forced Chelsea and Madrid to park the bus like Burnley that is a compliment to us.

I trust Klopp we might not win the league or CL next year but we’ll have a go.

Or we might be worse next year but still win the PL or CL or both. I think it's an interesting question for both ManC and us, is improvement from this level of football even really possible? What does that even look like? Dropping points in 5 games instead of 10? No losses, win every game 4-0? Even an extra 10% better just seems so extreme in that in a lot of ways it's not even the same sport we grew up with.

So what's more likely between better, worse or the same? For me personally I think it will be the same but whatever it is you think there should be an understanding that getting better and still not winning is just as likely as getting worse and actually winning. The margin at this level is now so small that just one string of bad luck over a couple of weeks or a month could be all that matters.

[liversaint]

I’ve seen us through good, great, bad, average and the climb back to where we are now.

We’ll be fine regardless

[averagestudent]

Last season I truly believed that we were in trouble . Our first front 3 were approaching 30, back 3 had long term injuries and we had a poor season . But we bounced back and came close to unprecedented levels of success .

So are the bits below somewhat the product of a disappointed mind following events in the last 8 days or things requiring a deep level of reflection ?

1. Despite having won everything under klopp , we have only won one final in 90 minutes against a poor spurs in a match where Allison was MoM.
2. Our midfield in both finals we lost against Madrid lacked creativity . Is this an area we need to strengthen given age profiles , inconsistency issues , potential ceilings in terms of ability and injury proneness ?
3. Diaz and Jota have polar opposite strengths and areas they need to work on . With Mane possibly leaving and Salah’s recent form do we again need to look at seriously strengthening here ?
4. Are we likely to spend the amounts we need to ? Elite number 10s and 9s don’t come cheaply . The next 4 seasons whilst klopp is with us and United are so far off challenging present a potentially golden opportunity to at least equal the 20 league titles . With city getting 2 excellent strikers we need to keep our level since January going and hit the ground running .

Your thoughts welcome .

New user here 

Personally, as much as others think this is a disappointment, I would have bitten your arm off at the start of the season for a top four finish, and a decent run in the cups. Bonus achieved with winning both domestic competitions. The biggest bonus for me was Clop signing an extension.

Your points
1. Yes, we beat a poor spurs team but look who we beat to get there. We also had back to back CL finals and getting 90 plus points over three seasons. If it wasn't for us, the EPL would be another Ligue 1 or Bundesliga.
2. Our midfield has always been an issue and hasn't yet gotten to where it needs to be. Naby's poor form and Thiago coming in injured hasn't helped, but its not the worst midfield out there.
3. Diaz is very new and wants to impress which he most definitely has done, the end product needs improvement, but with time it works. Jota has been a delightful addition to the squad and contributed at times we needed him the most. Currently, I think he needs to improve his link up play, but he's got a cracking header on him.
4. As much as city have bought the league in recent years, following in Chelsea and United's footsteps respectively, our recruitment process hasn't been too bad.

The worry is if we make drastic, wholesale  changes to the team next season. Mane leaving, as gutting as it is, you can't begrudge him a move, he's won everything and wants a new challenge. It's a shame to break up our front three which we have had memorable games watching, but I agree we need to gradually and mindfully make the right changes.

Again, Klopp staying on an extra 2 years is the best news we could've gotten about transfers/contracts. Have a lot of faith in his management, and ability to turn good players into world class ones.

[darragh85]

as long as the squad remains fit and stays consistent we will, without a doubt, win more.

positives-

we have a team that can bounce back from failure. You could see they were disappointment on Saturday and last week but they got over it quickly. Their mentality is different.

we are consistent. its as simple as this. To win leagues and champions leagues you have to remain consistent especially league titles. If, for whatever reason Man CIty aren't at the same level in the league, im confident we will be there. For a long time Liverpool didn't have this and after a title challenge defeat inevitably either lost key players or spent the following season feeling sorry for themselves.

we are in a great position financially. we can attract our top targets to the club now.

the players got a taste of winning silverware again and will want more.

[kcbworth]

I think that was a very reasonable OP. Well done, all the questions have merit. I believe the club are in great hands right now though, so I have faith they are already addressing these points and hopefully they can pull it off

[Ghost Town]

We'll be fine with Klopp and co in charge. But people need to understand that 'fine' does not, and never can, mean 'perfect' or 'immaculate'. We'll drop points now and then because all teams do. We'll miss chances and have frustrating games because all teams do. Our players will go in and out of form because all players do.

That is the nature of football. Each side has these complexities and ups and downs. You can mitigate them to a degree with smart buying and smart coaching but you can never eradicate them totally. They will play their part and at the end of each competiton there will be one winner. It may be us; it may not be, but if it's not it will be due to fine margins and 'on-another-day' moments.

We won two competitions and lost out in two. But we could easily have lost the two we won and won the two we lost. There was very little in it. That's what football at the very top level is like. At a single season, or even several season, level of resolution these losses and near misses are happanstance. You'd need a much bigger sample to see if they are part of anything meaningful

Having said all that it's not really wrong to wonder, constructively, if there's anything that can be done to improve our chances even further. For example I think if we played a bit faster we could leverage the skills of our attackers in a more effective and potent way. As it is our relatively slow build-up tends to give the opposition every possible chance to nullify our attacking shape and movement. Of course 'every chance' is still only a relative term and we score remarkably often despite that.

And I'm not here to second guess the mighty Klopp. Perhaps there are crucial reasons why we play the way we do. Perhaps he already has plans to tweak things next season.

The best thing is how fantastically fun and enjoyable and thrilling it will be, once again, to see what happens. We're spoiled, so why spoil it?

[please, I have my reasons for it but...]

You can take all the football knowledge over here combined, multiply it by ten and it will still be less than what Klopp knows about football. As long as he is in charge, we're fine even if there is a feeling that it might be an end of an era after this final, I am confident, Klopp, his team and those in charge of scouting and recruitment has one or two surprises up their sleeves.

[The_Nomad]

If we are the best run football operation, then how come we ended up with Salah, Mane and Bobby all with one year left and none of them signing a new deal, Roy ?

Origi is leaving on a free this season and Ox and Keita have one year left as well.

Over the next 12 months, we could feasibly see 6 attacking players leave on a free.

[RedG13]

PeipPeople forget that VVD was coming back from a major injury at the start of this season and was still rusty. We dropped points (understandably) whilst he got back to form.

We have had an incredible season.

Not just Virgil coming back from injury but the MF has so many injuries the first half of the season also, felt like never more then 1 of Naby, Thiago, Jones or Elliott was healthy

[royhendo]

If we are the best run football operation, then how come we ended up with Salah, Mane and Bobby all with one year left and none of them signing a new deal, Roy ?

Origi is leaving on a free this season and Ox and Keita have one year left as well.

Over the next 12 months, we could feasibly see 6 attacking players leave on a free.

Because that’s my opinion.

Saying that we just had what was almost the perfect footballing season, after renewing contracts for the bulk of the squad, and renewing the contract for the best manager in world football. As half filled cups go that’s pretty good for me. It’s like I’m reliving my childhood, just with a load of oil money for our competitors.

We have to rebuild - we are rebuilding. And we’re doing it the only way we can.