Topic: What's really going on? Selling, 'rebuilding the squad', what?

[The 5th Benitle]

What has Ayre done now? Genuinely curious as I've never read a direct complaint towards him, it's always very vague and sweeping the vitriol levelled at him.

You can't seriously be asking that question. Is it not blindingly obvious?

[KM519]

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport Chief Football Writer
"Seems very much like tonight was the night Brendan Rodgers picked up the tab for £100m spending under Kenny Dalglish."

[TSC]

It's a disappointing deadline day and we should've brought in a forward, there's no denying that, and that's a let down.
Letting Andy go was Brendan's decision. There's no spin that can cancel this undeniable fact. He'll live by it and I'm convinced that his gamble will pay off in the long run.

Apart from addressing the need up front (no small feat, mind  ) I'm really happy with our dealings in this window. Still hampered by the mistakes of the previous managements and ownerships, we've almost completely got rid of the staggering amount of deadwood and of a considerable part of a bloated, unacceptably unbalanced wage bill.
We extended a couple of crucial contracts, and hopefully Dagger's will follow. We got rid of players who wanted out (Maxi, Craig Douglas Bellamy), were past their prime/permacrocks (Dirk, Fabio) never had a role in the squad (Aquilani and a couple of fringe youngsters) or were deemed not good enough/unfit for Brendan's system (Andy, Charlie, Jay).
All of these decisions were made by Brendan, and by Brendan only. He'll live and die by his decisions, and I actually have unbelievable respect for a man who has the balls and the confidence to come from Swansea to a club like ours and stamp his mark at the club from the start and who's ready to be frank and ruthless in trying to fulfill his vision.

On the other hand I'm enthusiastic, or at least very intrigued by all of our new signings: Allen is already showing he's absolute class, Sahin has been one of the most exciting young playmakers in European football for two seasons, before stalling at RM last year. Borini (trust me on this, I've seen tons of him) will come good, and he's already showing his movement, his workrate and his skills. Assaidi and (mostly) Yesil are sort of unknown quantities and we'll soon find out whether they're up to the task and a talented bunch of youngsters (Robbo, Jonjo, Sterling, Morgan) will be given a chance to shine.

It's a matter of expectations, I guess... A number of knowledgeable and respected posters on here have rightfully been warning us in the last few weeks to manage our expectations, to have patience and to believe in what Brendan is building.

I, for one, didnt believe that we were gonna be top-4 material this year, bar a huge overachievement and someone elses's cockup, and it's not a Clint Dempsey who'll make the difference. This is just the Step-1 of a long journey.

And here's the first of the apologist posts excusing a disastrous transfer window.  Step one of a long journey?  Ownership have been here 2 yrs, and in that time have had 3 managers, nothing happening on the ground/redevelopment, sacked a legend after Suarez fiasco which they should have taken ownership for, and now overseen a clearout and left us squad wise in a worse position than we were over the last couple of yrs.

Fucking awful.  Fuck them.

[Mutton Geoff]

The answer is our portfolio looks better if they want to sell the club at a profit for them, we are now a leaner prospect with wages etc, we have all these new commercial deals in place, you could say FSG has done everything right for them up to now, the 100 mill spent often quoted they saved by buying us cheap, really hats off to them!

[RJH]

Seems very much like tonight was the night Brendan Rodgers picked up the tab for £100m spending under Kenny Dalglish.

Are you actually plagiarising stuff said by Phil McNulty?

I'm assuming you're a WUM. If not, I actually just feel sorry for you.

[hedger]

Is Joe Cole still at the club?

[Libertine]

Not including subs, and for me im not going to complain and see what occured before going scooby-do but those who have genuine concerns about the direction FSG are heading with LFC have not been helped at all by todays turn of events.
You cant blame them for being a tad sceptical.

yeah, was being sarcastic, sorry. find the whole situation farcical. the incompetence of this club is staggering. but then when you have had no CEO for 3 years and a board totally bereft of football knowledge, hardly surprising.

[williamson84]

Honestly believe Man C, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle, Everton all have better squads than us.  Think we'll finish 8th again    loads of other teams really strengthened as well so gonna be a tough season with only 2 strikers available.

[KM519]

Are you actually plagiarising stuff said by Phil McNulty?

I'm assuming you're a WUM. If not, I actually just feel sorry for you.

Thanks for that.....but is he far off the mark?

[Mutton Geoff]

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport Chief Football Writer
"Seems very much like tonight was the night Brendan Rodgers picked up the tab for £100m spending under Kenny Dalglish."

And Ferguson's best mate guy is a total gobshite.

[pelevin]

And here's the first of the apologist posts excusing a disastrous transfer window.  Step one of a long journey?  Ownership have been here 2 yrs, and in that time have had 3 managers, nothing happening on the ground/redevelopment, sacked a legend after Suarez fiasco which they should have taken ownership for, and now overseen a clearout and left us squad wise in a worse position than we were over the last couple of yrs.

Fucking awful.  Fuck them.

Thank fuck they sacked the legend.

[gerrardsarmy]

Is Joe Cole still at the club?

Yes sir.

[Lothairio]

Can't believe the crass stupidity of this club at times. Doesn't anybody ever think things through properly or plan ahead?

[TSC]

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport Chief Football Writer
"Seems very much like tonight was the night Brendan Rodgers picked up the tab for £100m spending under Kenny Dalglish."

Someone should tell him much of that spend was funded by sales. 

Be interesting to see an update on 'net' investment post this transfer window.  It was running at about £10m per window before it.  Think they've now moved into profit mode.

[Scousebeef]

What the fuck was that all about?? we were lead to belive we would have a couple of quality signings by the end of the day to strengthen our front line but we end up with shite all!

I think the owners are leading us on a merry dance here! 

[steveeastend]

Is FSG to blame for this? Yes and no.

Rodgers stated pretty early on his intentions. It was pretty clear he didn´t want Carroll around and some striker instead. The budget available for this was pretty known in house as well.

So we had the entire summer to indentify two attacking players and bring them in but we couldn´t. There is only one to blame and that´s how the club is run in house in terms of pretty much every aspect related to the business side of things of football and scouting to some extend.

Allen and Sahin were Rodgers connection. So what the fuck did the rest of the in house gang for the entire summer? LFC cannot identify two possible striker and replace Andy Carroll and do this with enough time to give Rodgers a good preperation for the season? You have to be kidding me...

FSG is to blame for not setting up the right structure they promised in order to give Rodgers the backing he needs. They have been talking about this since the came in and you wonder what they are doing cause I cannot see anything which would look like a normal, proper structure in house for a football club.

This summer, it´s been our people (again) who were supposed to support Rodgers but fucked it up. And it´s FSG to blame for not looking for the right people with the right connections being able to handle this properly.

I just hope Rodgers comes out just like Mancini did this summer and Rafa when he was here, things like that just cannot happen at a club like Liverpool.

[TSC]

It's embarrassing watching the LFCtv end of show.  'Underwhelming' deadline day is how they finished off.

[hedger]

Yes sir.

Seriously? How has he slipped under the radar? 90k a week to sit in the stands and we cant afford Clint fukin Dempsey

[Dirk18Kuyt]

Atm we've got:

Goalkeepers: Reina, Jones

Defenders: Johnson, Kelly, Agger, Skrtel, Carragher (Last year?), Coates, Enrique

Midfielders/Wingers: Gerrard, Lucas (Out for 3 months?), Allen, Henderson, Shelvey, Sahin (Only here for a year), Cole, Downing, Assaidi

Strikers: Suarez, Borini

Players out: Kuyt, Aquilani, Rodriguez, Aurelio, Adam, Spearing, Carroll, Wilson, Pacheco, Eccleston, Doni (Not officially out but he's gone missing). Even that's two potential back up strikers going.

[AM76]

No more crippling interest payments, record kit deal, record sponsorship deal. Now please feel free to call me thick if I am missing something, but why do we appear to be skint again. I know Kenny fucked up royally last year spending wise, but surely things can't be that bad the we can't afford an extra 500k for a player we have been after for close on 2 months. Something is not adding up here

[Twelfth Man]

You can't seriously be asking that question. Is it not blindingly obvious?

Depends what his role is in terms of fees etc. Does he have the authority to say no, hold on we are paying too much for X player etc. It has all been a bit muddled under FSG. No chief executive, the Comolli farce, also the power of Dalglish at the club, could Ayre have said no to Kenny w/r/t last year's transfers? He may be part of the problem, but I doubt we can lay a large part of the blame on him. No doubt FSG gave him a strict budget this window, and that is all he has to work with, so no Dempsey, hardly Ayre's fault that.

[montysmum]

Can't believe the crass stupidity of this club at times. Doesn't anybody ever think things through properly or plan ahead?

It really is unbelievable what has gone on tonight.  Send Carroll out on a loan without having a cast iron signature on another striker is so bloody stupid it beggars belief.

We are lurching from one bad decision at high level to another - it is truly disheartening.

[Twelfth Man]

Is Joe Cole still at the club?

I hope he is sent to clean the boots of the youth team. Disgrace to professional footballers.

[John C]

The answer is our portfolio looks better if they want to sell the club at a profit for them, we are now a leaner prospect with wages etc, we have all these new commercial deals in place, you could say FSG has done everything right for them up to now, the 100 mill spent often quoted they saved by buying us cheap, really hats off to them!

That's not what the thread is about or indeed perhaps not what FSG's intentions are about mate.

[TSC]

It's an FSG fuelled embarrassment.  Let's see how they spin this.  Prob get Rodgers out with a 'This is Anfield' sign claiming he's 'over the moon' at the business done this window.

And this'll be backed up by the faceless Cheng through twitter.  Does this guy actually exist?

[felix.]

total fuck up from the club today, i don't know or care who's to blame, whether it's brendan 'nutcase' rodgers, ayre, fsg - whoever sanctioned the carroll loan without bringing in a striker first or at least having something 100% foolproof lined up is a fucking retard. fucking embarrassing. suarez as a number 9 till new year, think that'll shave 2 years off my life expectancy. worst thing is you could just see it coming, couldn't you, by the time we'd brought noone in by 4-5 it was obvious that we didn't have anything planned apart form dempsey and sturridge; as the evening went on the sturridge deal looked increasingly unlikely, what with chelsea having noone up front apart from him and tosser. dempsey i couldn't care less about but as soon as fulham started rejecting our bids you could see where it was going. but it's not about one player it's about the ineptitude of this fucking club time and time again.

after a season where we've struggled for goals we've sold most of the players that were scoring last year, and brought in borini who lets be honest isn't a 20 goal a season man, seeing as BR seems reluctant to play him as number 9. hope he proves me wrong. and the situation is this bad without injuries/fatigue etc... there will come a time when we'll have to rely on morgan and yesil or whatever his name is and unless they surprise us all and go all robbie on us WE ARE FUCKED. hopefully we'll have some good luck and be in touching distance come christmas.

at least our midfield is fucking awesome. and we've kept agger...

[HiTs]

Worse thing in terms of strikers is that the first few games highlighted the same issue we had under Kenny.....and nothing has been done about it....Ayre is basking under the commercial deals he's done but at the end of the day its all about performance on the pitch.....Rest just buys you time.

[steveeastend]

No more crippling interest payments, record kit deal, record sponsorship deal. Now please feel free to call me thick if I am missing something, but why do we appear to be skint again. I know Kenny fucked up royally last year spending wise, but surely things can't be that bad the we can't afford an extra 500k for a player we have been after for close on 2 months. Something is not adding up here

It´s the people at the club being not good enough for the job. Ayre is a sales guy, good in merchandising but he has no connections and experience in the big world of football business.

The people at the club fucked it up and failed to give Rodgers what he was asking for, simple as.

It´s not as much of a money thing, it´s the people at our club not good enough...

[Gods_Left_Boot]

And here's the first of the apologist posts excusing a disastrous transfer window.  Step one of a long journey?  Ownership have been here 2 yrs, and in that time have had 3 managers, nothing happening on the ground/redevelopment, sacked a legend after Suarez fiasco which they should have taken ownership for, and now overseen a clearout and left us squad wise in a worse position than we were over the last couple of yrs.

Fucking awful.  Fuck them.

Trust me mate, no owner apologist here, I was just expressing what I feel and where I see this club heading  . I'm far from being sold on FSG, and they have a lot to answer for and a lot to be judged upon in the next few months (stadium, hiring Comolli, allowing Comolli to waste a ridiculous amount of cash, club structure, academy structure, failing to deal with our glaring need for a striker in this window and so on).
The clearout was a necessity and personally I don't agree with the fact that this has been a disastrous tranfer window and that we're worse off, squad-wise, than we were a year ago, but that's all a mtter of opinions.
When I said Step-1 I was referring to Brendan and the squad, not to the owners.

[...]

Disgraceful

[lostpet.]

Am i disappointed by not bringing in another striker to replace Carroll, yes.

BUT

We have reduced our wage budget

We have culled a load of aging deadwood

AND

We are going to be giving youngsters a chance, hopefully seeing some Suso and Pacheco, something many of you guys (myself included) have been hollering for a long time now.

ALSO

If we still look like we need another striker, there is a window in Jan where i'm sure we can do some deals...

ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

I would rather see us run a sustainable system, bringing in Young players and turning them into stars that win us stuff than see us go broke after consistently overspending on Players when we could produce better ourselves...

it seems we are entering a new era, i for one am hopeful as to where this goes... In Liverpool I Trust (yanks and all (as i've seen worse)

[PepsiRebina]

Embarrassing.

[Scousebeef]

Deadline day has just ended and so have our chances of a top four finish this season!!

paralympics anyone?

[smicer07]

I get the impression FSG are slashing the wage bill in order to sell the club. Can't see any other reason why they won't put their hand in their pocket for new players.

[The 5th Benitle]

Is Joe Cole still at the club?

Yes. Just cracked open some bubbly.





Mint Aero balls.

[hedger]

I hope he is sent to clean the boots of the youth team. Disgrace to professional footballers.

One of the strangest decisions yet. He shouldve been the first guy moved on

[Libertine]

if there's one good thing that should come from this, it should be that some people's eyes would be opened to FSG, but you just know that still won't happen.

[Noble Nayudu]

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport Chief Football Writer
"Seems very much like tonight was the night Brendan Rodgers picked up the tab for £100m spending under Kenny Dalglish."

If you look at net spend, we didn't spend much at all. So easy, blame everything on King Kenny and his signings.Did FSG ask McNulty to write this tripe?

[1892tillforever]

Another season of dominating games followed by blunt edge and getting beaten by teams who actually have finishers lies ahead. Regardless of what FSG have or have not spent, not addressing the pressing need for a goalscorer in 2012 is criminal IMO. We are left to hope that Suarez finally finds his shooting boots or else Borini/Morgan/Yesil surprise us and have a killer season or else Stevie starts scoring like he did a few years ago. Way too many ifs, buts and maybes. The squad is far too thin to even consider a challenge for 4th place. Rodgers will be pissed and I don't blame him.

However, it may work out as people may not have great expectations now. Let's just try and win on Sunday and take it from there.

[RideTheWalrus]

what's going on?

don't know about you, but...

crying