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

[DerKaiser]

You could argue that Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli did as much damage to Liverpool as Gillett and Hicks.

Absolutely fucking shocking.

Carroll, Downing, Henderson - £75m.  Fucking criminal.

Everyone's moaning about our lack of willingness to spend this window, but you can't blame FSG after they had their fingers so badly burned.

Worst comment I've seen all night, and that's saying something when there's been tonnes of shockers.

[ShibbyLFC]

Judging from our spending and as has been suggested before, the owners gave Rodgers and Ayre somewhere between 20-30m to work with, and they needed to work within that. Nothing wrong with that. It's up to BR and IA to make the most of that money. Ayre blew the Dempsey negotiation, leaving it SO late, and counting on their desperation to sell at a low price. Well they weren't that desperate, and he left himself with no time to fix it.

[SerbianScouser]

I'm sure he was told buying a replacement was feasible, else he would have kept Andy.

I think everyone in football knows there are no guarantees when it comes to transfers, Sturridge btw always looked like a long shot, not to mention Walcott.

[Circa1892]

Those commercial deals and revenue didn't keep the club from getting within an inch of registration under H&G.

That's due to the fact they had interest payments of 100k+ a day loaded onto the Club from their hedge fund purchase of the club...

[AM76]

All those saying 'what if Suarez/Borini get injured?"

I presume Carroll will be recalled from his loan in that case?

Dont think we can recall him as West Ham have paid a loan fee.  Otherwise, we could have loaned him ysterday, get the £2mil off West Ham, blag an injury to Borini and call him back and be 2mil richer and have AC back.

[McSquared]

Probably the most accurate quote on this thread so far. People need to stop fucking blaming it on Rodgers. We made a shit load of mistakes last summer that severely set us back.

Haven't seen a single person blame it on rodgers

[rafathegaffa83]

1 million for Dirk Kuyt

Fucking Joke

Blame Comolli for allowing such a low release clause in his contract.

[Always_A_Red]

I can understand the frustration and some of the criticism in here hits home...but a lot of the comments in here are absolutely shocking. Defeatism at its absolute worst. Have a word with yourselfs for fuck sake. Agger and Skrtel stayed. Spearing and Adam went and we got Allen and Sahin as replacements. Its not all doom and gloom.

And we gave away a £35m striker away for £1m loan and replaced him with nobody! We need goals not CM's, not wingers, not right or left 18 year old forwards....a proven striker who will score us 20 goals!

We have failed massively this summer and we will be talking about this in 12 months time. Mark my words

[oojason]

All those saying 'what if Suarez/Borini get injured?"

I presume Carroll will be recalled from his loan in that case?

Don't think so mate - the £1m loan fee is for the season - no recalls.

[LondonRedMan]

People getting all worked up should realise we have one of the strongest midfields in Europe now plus a mobile and exciting front three

Yeah sure we don't have much cover for Suarez but all he other positions are more or less covered.

We only need to get through 3 months and we can sign someon in the winter window. We also have the free transfer market available and you never know there may be a gem or two in that market

All Said and done, we've got a team that can challenge for top 4 but will need reinforcements in the winter when the FA cup and latter stages of the uefa cup come round along with cinch league games.

I'm upset we missed out on deuce Dempsey but I realise we are as strong if not stronger than the other top 4 contenders. Plus we have the winter transfer window to give us a boost

PS us not signing anybdoy on the last day of the summer transfer window may be a blessing in disguise as we have already signed a few players already. Signing too many I one window impacts on team cohesion.

Let me also add I think our kitty for next summer and the winter window will be much bigger be uase we are saving plenty by having the wage bill reduced. That cash will be reinvested. sometime you've got to lose a battle to win the war.

Think about things las emotionally peeps. I know it's been an emotional day with us having been linked to a number of big names throughout the day. An emotional roller coaster

[tommy LFC]

They let go of 3 players that were owed $270 million in salary over the next five years.

So are FSG in trouble financially?

[Spraynard Kruger]

Meanwhile we actually have less strength up front than last season (an area which should have been our number 1 priority) and Spurs have signed Vertonghen, Adebayor, Dempsey, Lloris, Sigurdsson and Moutinho. We are definitely going to beat them this season! 

Spurs didn't sign Moutinho.

[scared_person]

Reading through the last few pages only confirms that unfortunately we have some absolute fucking twats in our fan base. Everything we do as a football club is met with the same old moaning shite about how it could of been better if we did it another way or how the staff we have are shite or how the owners are just like the previous owners who almost ruined the club.

We are all disappointed in the way things have turned out tonight but why the need to embarrass both yourselves and the rest of the fan base with the same old hyperbolic bullshite that will no doubt crop up on a variety of other websites where people take the piss?

Have a bit of dignity and most of all support the fucking team.

Think you need to separate the team and the owners. The team is there to win. I support them absolutely. The owners are here for a profit. I couldn't care less about their profit. They seem to have calculated that they can make money with us as a mid table side.

[Scousebeef]

Have a bit of dignity and most of all support the fucking team.

we are supporting the team like we supported the team when we ousted H&G

[Fitzy.]

Easy to say you're willing to pay high wages when in reality you sign no-one to actually pay wages to.

Fucking smokescreen from the beginning.  Now it's confirmed.  At least we all now know what they're about & what we're up against.

I think this is hyperbolic nonsense. We've spent over £20m this window and raised little in sales. A lot of the players that have left were at the end of their time here. The only questionable trade was Carroll an there are lots of sound reasons why he has been moved.

It's been a bad day but the paranoid claims about the owners are not built on real evidence. They have spent decent money at Liverpool. The disaster of summer 2011 has to be off-set with a quieter window.

We are not owned by mega-bucks owners. We are in the second tier of spenders and our purchases reflect that. I really think some fans need to stop the desperate cries to spend, spend, spend. It's actually pretty spoilt behaviour.

[TepidT2O]

I think Ayres just signed his resignation letter.


Fails to control Commolli and Kenny spending and wasting silly money (ok, maybe that was comollis job to control).

But to end of with no centre forward is his fault.... If we were that short he should have pursued other options earlier...

[Dirk18Kuyt]

similarly, you could argue that supporters (and I use the word loosely)  like you, aren't fit to lick the dirt off Kenny boots...

You can't argue it. They spent so much and then flopped.

If we'd have had a better season and better tactics/manager or whatever those fees wouldn't matter.

[Libertine]

that's actually a good point, i would hope we have contingency to recall if injures happen

yup, I'm sure Ayre would have insisted on it. He'd have thought of every eventuality, he's quite thorough like that.

[skipper757]

So are FSG in trouble financially?

No.

Full rebuild mode.

[Mutton Geoff]

How fucking dare you. You should get fucking banned for that.

Do you even have a fucking clue what Kenny did for this club, for this city?!

Maybe he fucked up in the transfer market, but that statement is a fucking disgrace.

Agree he doesn't post much that's a blessing or a sign!

[pelevin]

Even Ian Dowie baffled on sky.  Saying 'we all know LFC have a fair bit of catching up to do.  They've got a new young and ambitious manager in.  I'm just baffled that they've got no-one in and let Carroll go'.

He makes a point to be fair.

It's not a hard point to make though. There'd be something serously wrong if their critical perceptions don't reach to that level of obviousness. . . But then the intellectual level of Sky's football crew tends to be a bit on the low side.

[Always_A_Red]

Judging from our spending and as has been suggested before, the owners gave Rodgers and Ayre somewhere between 20-30m to work with, and they needed to work within that. Nothing wrong with that. It's up to BR and IA to make the most of that money.

Tomkins suggesting we have an overall net spend of £16.1m

[Noble Nayudu]

I have never liked John Henry

I have never liked FSG.

[TALBERT]

its fine, i'm really rather miffed with how we've handled affairs.  Not arsed about bog eyes.  I'm arsed about brendan, about suarez, about the club, and we've (well those with the keys to the safe) have done it to ourselfs, again.   

I fear for this club again

A fear that were going to have to go through it all over again....


And no I'm no knee-jerk

The yanks are deffo up to something!!!

[FernandoTourettes]

Deliberately spent the night out drinking that watch in pain the final hours of this window.

To loan out Carroll and bring in no replacement is obviously a joke - but you can't put any blame on BR for that. I would say that he has probably now learned a good lesson now however. Don't flirt with the media regarding signings because you will get egg on your face.

There's is a lot of over reaction on this forum tonight, clearly we did not lack ambition chasing Walcott, Dempsey and Sturridge. We didn't get any - lets get over it and move on as much as it annoys us.

[Pistolero]

You can't argue it. They spent so much and then flopped.

If we'd have had a better season and better tactics/manager or whatever those fees wouldn't matter.

clueless.

[Nana]

First of all, I would like to ask all the fellow LFC supporters to calm down. True, we have been badly let down by our owners during the last 2 transfer windows, but I am not really surprised by the developments, so I won't hold that against them. For some time, I have been noticing the signs that FSG are slowly executing an exit strategy at LFC. For the last 8 months, their actions are not directed towards building a competitive team that would challenge for trophies. Actually, it is quite the opposite. Their actions are mostly directed towards making the club a more attractive proposition for the possible buyers. Sacking a legendary manager and replacing him with a young an unproven one, severely decreasing the wage bill by implementing drastic measures, significantly dropping down the average age of the squad. All of these signs are pointing out to a very realistic scenario where FSG are preparing the club for sale. Fortunately for the club and the supporters, there is a silver lining in this situation. We have been fortunate enough that Rafa has set the foundation of a modern and effective youth system, a work that has been continued by Kenny during his 18 months back at the club. We are already seeing the results of this policy, with many of the young players getting playing time with the first team. The fact that we have sold/loaned/released 8 senior players in this transfer window, and bought/loaned only 4 senior players, is a clear indication that the youngsters on our squad will be getting even more playing time in the coming season. Considering that we have some awesome talent on our reserves/youth team, this could only be a good thing. I know that most of our fans will find it difficult to accept that we won't be competing for any honors this season, even though we always have the chance of a good run in the domestic cups. However, no matter what we do on the pitch this season, there are only 2 important things: How will our talented youngsters develop over the course of the season, and when will FSG make their true intentions public, and put the club up for sale.

[Mizerooskie]

That's due to the fact they had interest payments of 100k+ a day loaded onto the Club from their hedge fund purchase of the club...

And they would have been able to better pay those interest payments if they hadn't loaded the club with further debt from player transfers.

[Tom_B]

You can't argue it. They spent so much and then flopped.

If we'd have had a better season and better tactics/manager or whatever those fees wouldn't matter.

IF you actually think the first line of the post he is commenting on is in any way true you want to have a long hard look at yourself.

[Skidder.]

There really are some absolute moronic, sensationalist, part time supporters on here of late, just using LFC as some kind of sounding board.

Judging from some of the seriously childish overreacting, I can now see why certain forums limit new registrations.

Go and play Football Manager, learn English on Skype or whatever else gives you some kind of outlet.

You'll never walk alone?

Fat chance with some of these idiots.

[Benimar Col]

I think everyone in football knows there are no guarantees when it comes to transfers, Sturridge btw always looked like a long shot, not to mention Walcott.

It makes you wonder where these intentional ' leaks ' in house to appease the coming transfer apathy and the subsequent fall out ?

[liverpoolfan1]

Spurs didn't sign Moutinho.

Still a much stronger side than us.

[southendkopite]

You could argue that Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli did as much damage to Liverpool as Gillett and Hicks.

Absolutely fucking shocking.

Carroll, Downing, Henderson - £75m.  Fucking criminal.

Probably the most sense anyone has said on here. Its about time people take off their rose tinted specs and come to terms that the transfer business we did last season was fucking diabolical. I'm still fuming about that now. For 75m we should have rebuilt the squad, challenging for top 4 and consolidating on that this season.

But the fuck ups caused by Kenny and Commolli have put us in a worse scenario then we were last year. The fact that Rodgers has tried to/has moved on the majority of last seasons signings and the potential loss we have made on those players speaks volumes about the abject failure of those transfers.
Everyone's moaning about our lack of willingness to spend this window, but you can't blame FSG after they had their fingers so badly burned.

[litliper]

And we gave away a £35m striker away for £1m loan and replaced him with nobody! We need goals not CM's, not wingers, not right or left 18 year old forwards....a proven striker who will score us 20 goals!

We have failed massively this summer and we will be talking about this in 12 months time. Mark my words

I will

[Red Razor]

He has already openly stated, before Carroll left, that the squad was small. Since that time three more players have gone and a youth player has come in. Doesn't strike me as a yes man. But I also think he loves the club, so will not want to rock the boat too much this early in his career. I expect veiled comments about the situation.

expect an 'arry type excuse - we was really close to signing a couple of real quality guys but just ran out of time - bollix! This is a massive gamble.....

[DerKaiser]

Ayre has been good this window but not having multiple targets is just horrendous.

[clinical]

So much Pressure has just been put on Suarez. We're going to run the poor lad into the ground aren't we

[rafathegaffa83]

Someone just said that the Red Sox also sold without investing significantly. Is that true?

They engaged in what is known in North American sports as a "salary dump." Basically when your team massively underperforms, you get rid of many wasteful contracts to teams who compete and re-distribute the funds the following season. They'll be fine, as they have got rid of several stupid contracts. That said what the Red Sox do shouldn't necessarily be used as a comparison with what we do in our business.

[ShibbyLFC]

So are FSG in trouble financially?

No, it was a business desicion that the Red Sox were not performing, and those contracts were ultimately holding them down, so they needed to clear out to rebuild.

[tomster]

I think Anne Robinson..... Sorry John W Henry is in for a torrent of abuse on twitter.  I do not condone it, but FSG are as tight as a camels arse in a sandstorm.