reading too much wiki?
pls pls pls name the few transfer records that dalglish has broken.

im not sure coz i havnt seen him in action be it as a plyer or as a  manager, but ive read he kinda lost his spark after hillsborough...still managed to do what uve said with blakcburn but if, big if, he takes over, is he still gonna be good enough?

which obviously he tried, i suppose i dont hav to remind u that footy player r human 2, so emotion or not is out of the question..

gah even with king kenny i doubt we can win..

Well, same goes to Capello, Aragones or even Guardiola. Just a thought, how about the great Liverpool managers of the past like Shankly, Paisley and Dalglish? I'm too young to be familiar with their managerial style, but I seemingly remember a quote of Shankly saying a Liverpool player has to run into a wall for him. They all demanded a lot from their players and made it the point not to massage the players egos.

About the "This is Anfield" plaque:

"It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind
the opposition who they're playing against."

Any praise for Bill Shankly cannot be too high. For me he was a great manager and certainly the best motivator - and he was so funny with it as well. One minute he would give you a roasting and the next he would be telling you that you were the greatest player in the world. But he never let any outsiders do that to his players. As a man and a manager, he is just in a class of his own. There is nobody else like him and there never will be - Emlyn Hughes.

He was a great man. You could not talk to him, you listened. His motivation could move mountains - Ron Yeats.

GEORGE BEST
"We were back at Anfield and Shanks was up to his old tricks. As the United party made their way down the corridor to the away changing room, he appeared from his office. 'Guess what, boys?' he said, brandishing a little orange ticket. 'I've had a go on the tickets that give the time when the away team will score. And it says here, in a fortnight!' With that, he disappeared back into his office.

We lost that encounter 2-0 and after the game I was chatting to Liverpool's Ray Clemence, who revealed to me another piece of Shankly kidology.

Prior to the game, Shankly had received the United team sheet and he incorporated it into his team talk. His intention was to run us down and, in so doing, boost the confidence of his own players. 'Alex Stepney,' Shanks began. 'A flapper of a goalkeeper. Hands like a Teflon frying pan - non-stick. Right back, Shay Brennan. Slow on the turn, give him a roasting. Left back is Tony Dunne. Even slower than Brennan. He goes on an overlap at twenty past three and doesn't come back until a quarter to four. Right half, Nobby Stiles. A dirty little -beep-. Kick him twice as hard as he kicks you and you'll have no trouble with him.'

'Bill Foulkes, a big, cumbersome centre half who can't direct his headers. He had a head like a sheriff's badge, so play on him. Paddy Crerand. Slower than steam rising off a dog turd. You'll bypass him easily.' The Liverpool players felt as if they were growing in stature with his every word. 'David Sadler,' Shanks continued. 'Wouldn't get a place in our reserves. And finally, John Aston. A chicken, hit him once and you'll never hear from him again. As the manager finished his demolition job on United, Emlyn Hughes raised his hand. 'That's all very well, boss,' he said, 'but you haven't mentioned George Best, Denis Law or Bobby Charlton.' Shanks turned on him. 'You mean to tell me we can't beat a team that has only three players in it?' he said, glowering."

Defender Tommy Smith, the so-called "Anfield Iron", joined Liverpool as a 15-year-old in 1960 and was made captain in 1970. He says that Shankly became like a father to him – Smith's own father had died shortly before he signed, and Shankly "took care" of him. The father-son relationship was common in Shankly's dressing room. John Toshack, who was signed as a 21-year-old striker from Cardiff City in 1970, says he was in awe of Shankly from the moment he met him. "He inspired us in every way," says Toshack, now manager of Wales, "his belief in Liverpool Football Club, the standards he set for himself and for the club, the intensity that he went about his job. His quote about football being more important than life or death, he really felt that way. He rammed it into us how important it was to be playing for Liverpool, how privileged we were to be playing for these people. We really believed that."

Anyway if it weren't for Rafa's lack of emotion, he could have hit the panic button during half time at Istanbul. Of course, this type of managerial style has its flaws and it seems to be backfiring at the moment but it's just the way he is and he's right to stick to it.

No. Kewell was a right arse and deserved to be offloaded.

P.S. Ever seen a ball bouncing off a brick wall? That's N'gog and his first touch right there

I don't see any problem firing all the backroom staff. Like it or not, it's hard truth that every manager picks their own backroom staff, including Mancini.
Moreover, we don't really know what happened in the backroom then.
So, comments on Rafa's "intolerance" or acceptance on "indifferences' is irrelevant or rather personal view as we don't really know what happened in the backroom.

I don't see any impact for the ex-backroom staff hitting back on Rafa. Nothing has bigger impact than the current poor run of results.

Alan Ball was Everton's idol at the time while his father, Alan Ball Snr, was the manager of Preston. Alan Snr asked Shankly if he wanted to accompany him to a midweek game against Wrexham. Shanks agreed, but said he would follow Alan in his own car in case he wanted to drive home before the end of the game. Shankly was uncertain of the directions to Wrexham, so Ball Snr agreed that Shanks would drive behind him.

When he turned up at Shankly's house, Bill was pleased to see Alan Jnr. in the car with his father as he admired him as a player. When the two cars reached the Mersey tunnel, Shankly was struggling to keep up and ground to halt halfway through the tunnel. Shankly was renowned for his lack of driving skills and was rather accident prone. Shanks couldn't restart the engine. Ball Snr. was naturally concerned, 'I'll tell you what, Bill. I've got a rope in the boot. I'll attach it to your car and tow you to the tunnel exit. We'll then call a mechanic to sort out the problem. Shankly paused for a few seconds, thinking over Ball Snr's suggestion and then exclaimed: 'I don't think that's a good idea, son. Can you imagine the headlines in tomorra's Echo?' "SHANKLY DRAGGED OUT OF THE MERSEY TUNNEL BY THE BALLS."

Shankly giving new signing Alec Lindsay instructions about his role as a Liverpool player.
'Listen son. I want you to take men on, go past them and lash in those shots that brought you the goals when you were playing at Gigg Lane.'
'But that wasn't me boss. That was Jim Kerr.' protested Lindsay.
'Jesus Christ, Bob.' said Shankly to Paisley. 'We've signed the wrong bloody player.'

PETER THOMPSON
"Shanks had a knack of making his players feel special. One night before a particularly big match he phoned my wife and told her to lock me away on my own all night. He said that sex was out of the question because he wanted his most vital player at his peak the next day. I felt ten feet tall, until I found the next day that Shanks had also rung up Ian St John’s and Roger Hunt’s wives and told them exactly the same thing!"

IAN ST JOHN on the first game after the "This is Anfield" sign had been put up at Anfield
"When the sign went up Liverpool were playing Newcastle. The Newcastle players are in the passage way and they see the sign. Malcolm Macdonald, "Supermac" is going: ‘Oh we’ve got the right ground, lads. This is Anfield.’ Shanks heard him. They get into dressing room, get stripped, go out and play. Liverpool won, it was 5-0. After the game boss goes in and knocks on their door. Joe Harvey says: ‘Yes, Bill.’ ‘Is Supermac there?’ They are sitting there, they had just been battered. Shanks then went: ‘You’ll know where it is next time.’"

"Shanklyboy"
I have many a memory that I could share...... could talk all day about him.

However I'll just put this as an indicator to some of our younger fans as to what Shankly was all about.

Midweek game in the 70s.
A group of rag arsed Liverpool fans hitch down to London for a game against Spurs.
No tickets....no money.

Liverpool put in a poor display and lose the game.

The same group of lads are waiting to see the team outside the players entrance after the match.
They file past onto the team coach.
After a while Shanks comes out...sees the lads and stops for a chat.

He soon realises they don't have a carat and are going to hitch it back to London.
He tells them to follow him and leads them onto the team coach.

He stands at the front and rips the players apart......informing them that these lads are why they play for Liverpool.
That while they are in a warm comfy coach,then in their warm comfy beds.... these boys will be on a motorway somewhere.

He tells them to put their hands in their pockets so the lads can have something to eat and get home properly.
The players duly oblige, Shanks thanks them for their support and hands them enough cash to get to New York and back.

He tells the players that if they had shown as much passion and commitment tonight against Spurs as these lads had in getting there to support them, they wouldn't have had a problem.

Different time, different world.....same philosophy demanded today.

A question, what do you mean by fair? How is Rafa in anyway un-fair? He was harsh but it is clear that players who work hard with the right attitude (Lucas, Kuyt, Carra) are given chances while those who do not (Babel, Pennant) are benched.

IIRC, Crouch was on his last year of contract, he need assurance on 1st team football which clearly he won't get ahead of Torres. So instead of losing him on Bosman, maybe its better to recoup something. As unlike others, we can afford to lose some assets to Bosman.

On Valencia, he did turn a few nobody's into champions like Rufete & Mista which is mediocre players at best. Just look where their career headed after RB left Valencia.
But somehow, RB left his midas touch (on moulding mediocre players) behind as well

On the other side of the coin though, I think Rafa still have some faith for Babel as he's quite relunctant to sell him and even said he would be in the squad tonight. I've always wished that Babel has Kuyt's attitude, as he would have been a massive player for us, our future Henry. But we shall see.

Not sure about Valencia then, but he had the task of leapfrogging Barca and Madrid who was the dominant force. But consider this, Ranieri too inherited a similar squad from Rafa but failed to mount a proper challenge in La Liga. There is this infamous story floating around (Can't seem to find the source) that Valencia at one point was leaking goals under Ranieri and the coach told the players to revert to Rafa's defensive system, only to be replied, "Which one?" Rafa was the glue that held them together.

We didn't, remember we put Stoke away 4-0 or something? Burnley as well? Earlier the season we were playing the same attacking football last season but our defense crumbled. Insua and Johnson aren't Aurelio and Arbeloa, and left Carragher and Skrtel/Greek/Agger/Ayala exposed. You can see how nervous we are when we are defending, as if we are expecting trouble. You could see Aurelio and Agger was guiding Insua (Literally sometimes) on how to defend as a fullback.

To be fair, the Stoke match was a gamble, would you risk Aquilani who played a full match against Reading

Riera who returned from injury

Maxi who has barely settled down

or Pacheco who is an unproven midget in a physical match against Stoke?

Tonight though, he has no excuse as the players are well-rested. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get to see Riera/Babel, Aquilani and Rodriguez playing around Kuyt.

Lovely performance by our lads but even better performance by the supporters. So proud to be a Red. Onwards and upwards!

To Dukered, the game back then was more physical, but the modern game is more pacy and certainly more taxing in terms of stamina. I'm not a sportsman myself but correct me if I'm wrong stamina is only recovered from proper rest. Surely 300 minutes of football a week allows Lucas to dip slightly in form eh? At any rate, he still was working his socks off to win balls back.

That said, as peripheral as Sammy is, I would still hate to see him go, as he IS the last direct link to the 'boot room' legacy that we have.

JonC is not Jonno - Both are loud, rude drunkards but totally seperate entities 

why after beat spurs, everyone said in rafa we trust, then draw today, ask rafa to go ...

so if next match pool win, i can see in rafa we trust again ...