As expected but the highlighted bit in bold...

Skrtel named LFC Player of Season[U]

Martin Skrtel was today crowned the Standard Chartered Liverpool FC Player of the Season for 2011-12.



The Slovakian clinched the award after fans voted for their star man of the campaign on this website.

Skrtel tallied an incredible 44 per cent of the 66,937 votes cast.

Luis Suarez was the runner-up with 33 per cent, while Daniel Agger clinched third after collecting four per cent.

2011-12 was Skrtel's most consistent season in a Liverpool jersey, with the 27-year-old cementing his place amongst the finest central defenders in Europe.

Our No.37 made a total of 45 appearances and helped himself to four goals, including a crucial equaliser in the Carling Cup final triumph over Cardiff City at Wembley in February.

Upon being presented with the award at Melwood, Skrtel told Liverpoolfc.tv: "It's a great feeling. It's my first big award at Liverpool and I'm very happy about it.

"I think it was my best season since I came to Liverpool and I'm happy with my performances. I hope I will carry on in this way.

"I scored more goals than in past seasons, and I also think the way I played was better than in past years.

"Thank you very much to everybody who voted for me. I will try to do my best next season as well and we'll see how I go on."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news...layer-of-season

Doesn't sound like a player who wants out.

Lots of rumours that Kenny has walked/got the sack, but just rumours.

Empire of the Kop ‏ @empireofthekop
Ditto RT @paul_tomkins: Lots of rumours about Kenny being sacked or Kenny standing down. As far as I know, just rumours. So don't ask me!
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6m Marina Dalglish ‏ @marinadalglish
@empireofthekop
Retweeted by Jim Boardman

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As for signings .. I would love players like Kagawa, Chung-Yong (coming back from injury but Bolton relegated), Rossi (injured but Villareal relegated), Muniain, Martinez, Llorente and Gotze .. but one can only dream on.

hAhahahahaha well Mascherano and Carragher could fit!

The best is ...

Rumours will always be rumours because I've heard that Kenny steps down but Steve Clarke stays and Brendan Rogers comes in as manager. Rumours also he left US quickly because he's going for holiday tomorrow.

Look at this, everyone hears different news! So I guess we should take everything with a pinch of salt at the moment.

I think it will become clearer in the next 24 hours.

This post has been edited by Adryan: May 15 2012, 08:14 PM

No .. it's good to have silence, no official words because that's how the club was run in the past - behind the doors and the way it should be.

Sad to see him go but he will forever be a Liverpool legend.

Yup very true or look at it this way ..

Do we want a manager to continue the same philosophy Kenny has or has tried to instilled or do we start from scratch again?

Starting from scratch requires a clear out and 100 million to spend again. Imagine if someone like Martinez comes in .. do we pay over the odds for Franco Di Santo, Jordi Gomez and Victor Moses?

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Added on May 17, 2012, 2:50 amAlmost like Chelsea, eh?

I still believe in stability. Wenger and Ferguson have shown that!

This post has been edited by Adryan: May 17 2012, 02:50 AM

Then they will have to be prepared to invest heavily everytime a new manager comes in because sometimes a new manager wants to bring his players and new ideas and even one transfer (or two) won't be enough, i'm afraid.

And to be entirely honest, I don't think anyone - manager or player, would want to come to a club which is always in uncertainties.

Agents will tell their players, managers will think twice in case they don't make it and so on.

And apparently rumours that Ian Ayre has left the club? Now that's no manager, no DoF, no CEO.

Yup, just read it and to be honest, it's now how I exactly want the club to be run.

I like owners who are ruthless and want to win all the time but are we always going to sack a manager who doesn't finish top 4..

Actually I meant "that's NOT how" and not "that's now how".

Lol, one letter wrong and I gave the sentence a whole new meaning! Sorry about that.

He finished 11th, 2nd, 11th, 13th, 6th. Winning his first trophy in his 4th year (FA Cup) and first league title in his 7th season. During 1985 to 1990, English clubs couldn't play European so where you finished didn't really bring any good stuff (other than 1st of course) and it was us who won 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90 with Everton winning 1986-1987 and Arsenal winning the other one.

Yes, you said he revamped and isn't that what Rafa did and Kenny slowly introduced the academy players into the squad? Maybe his signings were not the best but we had a small pool to choose from in all honesty. 8th position but two finals, winning one and qualifying for Europe, could be considered progression. Also has 32 trophies in 15 years with Liverpool (player and manager) and Ferguson has 37 in 28 years .

I don't know much about Arsene Wenger other than him winning 3 league titles but look at them now, terrible start to the season but still finished in 3rd place. It's his philosophy and belief that reap rewards - something we decided to throw away that made us successful.

League position - terrible.

Sensible signings - Only Downing, Carroll and if you want Henderson but these guys were brought for HG quota in mind as well and that comes with a premium. Adam - well, 7 million not exactly terrible. Bellamy, Coates, Suarez and Enrique - not so bad.

Good football? Certainly better than what we were playing towards the end of Rafa's tenure and under Roy. Good enough to hit woodwork 33 times as well. Defensively .. joint third in best defence.

Depth of squad - You aren't going to have a depth of squad in one full season where you've got rid of almost 10 deadwoods. Would you prefer to have Mata, Augero and Young as first team players but Poulsen, Konchesky, Degen and N'gog as back ups? I'd rather give him another season to buy some established players then have Downing, Adam, Carroll as back ups. In short, you need wayyyyyyyyy more than 100 million (well 58 came from Torres + Babel's sale) to even build a first team, let alone the bench. So technically, FSG only invested 42 million.

As for Arsenal .. they pretty much had to just compete with Man United, Newcastle and maybe ourselves back then. Now we've got to compete with Spurs, Man City, Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal and maybe even Newcastle.

Okay so he was appointed mid season and finished 2nd in the next season, which means f*** all and goes on a 11th, 13th and 6th the next season? And in that same exact time, Kenny Daglish wins the double in his first season.

Second stint, half season not so bad but first full season terrible but people forget the nightmare we were in 2 years before and a huge change of fortune is needed in all honesty. Improvements and progression is more than just about one (and a half) season.

The English lads have home grown premium and Henderson and Carroll are ones for the future. Why do people harp on their fees but no mention of Phil Jones costing 16 million (shite anyways and younger than Henderson), De Gea (20 million and no home grown premium and also shite) and Chelsea paying 18 million for Lukaku (also no home ground premium) who hardly played a game there. Also part of the reason for their high fees is due to Man City, Chelsea, Man United, Real Madrid and Barcelona inflating the fees like crazy.

One reason we paid for Henderson, Downing and Adam I think is because they were three of the leagues chances creators and having played in the league already, it's completely understandable but players have proven that whether you are actually Premier League proven does not matter anymore.

As for Juan Mata, I would love him here but he would probably not come anyway but yeah, I agree, I would take Mata over Downing any day.

As for Martinez, I hope we do sign him this summer actually.

No doubt in general, the seaosn has been bad but we actually reached two finals in three competitions we started out with. We won one. We qualified for Europe. We didn't have this at this stage last season. I believe the league measures your capability and we did terrible there, no doubt about it but as I've said, the league has become more difficult with teams capable of taking points off each other.

Maybe not great football but maybe we did enough (here comes this topic again) to win games. Yes, whether you deserved to win games or not, doesn't matter in football but why is always that the opponents are scoring from their only shot at goal, yet we can't score with 15x the attempts and we actually have one of the best defence in the league (as I said, joint 3rd best defence). The major problem is the attackers.

Depth of squad and as I have pointed out, would you prefer to have 3-5 world class players starting week in, week out but a totally shite bench (poulsen, degen, el zhar, n'gog) or slowly introduce good players to the bench?

Like I've said, 100 million in one season isn't going to build a top team especially with the fact that opponents like Man City, Chelsea, Man United have been spending 100 millions for at least 3 seasons, that is why their bench is strong and their first team are challenges.

I only put in the players costing 15 million or more and those who I feel expensive at that time (like Diouf, Heskey and Lampard)

United - Stam (10 mil), Yorke (12 mil), Van Nistelrooy (19 mil), Veron (28 mil), Ferdinand (29 mil), Ronaldo (13 mil), Saha (13 mil), Rooney (27 mil), Carrick (19 mil), Hargreaves (18 mil), Anderson (16 mil), Nani (17 mil), Smalling (12 mil), Jones (16 mil), De Gea (20 mil), Young (18 mil), Berbatov ( 31 mil), Valencia 17 mil).

that's 335 million and you can argue that at the time they were bought (considering year and their age), they are costly and majority came even before Ronaldo was sold for 80 mil and he himself for an 18 year old at 13 mil, is just costly.

Chelsea - Sutton (10 mil), Hasselbaink (15 mil), Lampard (11 mil), Ferreira (13 mil), Makelele (17 mil), Crespo (17 mi), Mutu (16 mil), Veron (15 mil), Duff (17 mil) , Drogba (24 mil), Carvalho (20 mil), Mikel (16 mil), Shevchenko (30 mil), Essien (24 mil), Wright-Phillips (21 mil), Anelka (15 mil), Malouda (14 mil), Bosingwa (16 mil), Zhirkov (18 mil), Ramires (18 mil), Luiz (26 mil), Torres (50 mil), Mata (24 mil), Lukaku (20 mil), Meireles (12 mil)

479 mil and again, costly at the times they were bought for most of them and Chelsea has no good record of selling players.

Man City - Aguero (38 mil), Nasri (22 mil), Toure (24 mil), Silva (25 mil), Balotelli (25 mil), Milner (26 mil), Dzeko (27 mil), Santa Cruz (18 mil), Tevez (26 mil), Adebayor (25 mil), Toure (16 mil), Lescott (22 mil), Jo (18 mil), Robinho (33 mil), Bridge (12 mil), Bellamy (14 mil), De Jong (16 mil)

One league title and one FA Cup after 387 million in the last 4 years.

Liverpool - Henderson (20 mil), Downing (20 mil), Suarez (23 mil), Carroll (35 mil), Meireles (12 mil), Johnson (18 mil), Aquilani (20 mil), Keane (19 mil), Mashcerano (17 mil), Torres (22 mil), Babel (12 mil), Alonso (11 mil), Cisse (14 mil), Diouf (11 mil), Heskey (11 mil)

265 million - and considering the nightmare between 2010-2012 and the fact that only six of the 15 players above remain in Liverpool, we've always got a huge task against them lot.

As for Arsenal .. Wenger is just a genius!

Yes, Kenny can be criticised for not keeping Meireles and Aquilani but you and I could probably see the reasons (Meireles wanted out and Aquilani cries for Italy apparently).

Jones, De Gea and Lukaku are in teams that yield good results so they don't get look at. I still can't remember anyone highlighting the fact that City have spent so much money in the last 4 years possibly more than anyone else, yet they time and time failed to qualify for Champions League under last season.

I know they may be decent and all that but why doesn't anyone highlight their price tags considering they are non home grown and are De Gea (20 y/o) and Lukak (18 y/o). Kenny gets criticised for buying Henderson who hasn't exactly done much wrong but not exactly a world beater and yet Jones, 16 million 19 year old who also isn't any better?

Yes, I agree that Kenny can take the blame for persisting with Henderson and Adam (to be honest, Downing and Carroll weren't really playing every week all season). Kenny put too much faith in them and it ultimately cost him.

While top 4 may have been a decent target at the start of the season, it takes alot more than 42 million of investment from their accounts (let's not forget Torres and Babel were sold for 58 mil to buy Suarez and Carroll). That only leaves money spent on Jordan and Steward, 20 mil each.

And this isn't even going to strengthen the bench!

Like I said, I would rather have Kenny spend on established players this season, THEN move Carroll, Downing and Adam to the bench and IMO, they are a stronger bench than Poulsen, Degen, N'gog and El Zhar will ever be. And no way Poulsen, Degen, Ngog and El Zhar are improvements of Kuyt, Maxi, Spearing.

And I also said 100 million is NOT going to even buy a team, let alone strengthen the bench.

It was not a problem for Mancini because he's got a handful of players left by Hughes there!! The same couldn't be said for Kenny because alot of our better players brought by Rafa eventually wanted to leave when Rafa left.

I dont quite understand the 80 million part and it's Jose Enrique Not Luis.

It also wasn't easy to spend 40 million on one player when we could get two to overall strengthen the squad. It probably wasn't ideal but sometimes we just need to have a bit more of strength in depth. I didn't mean spend 40 million on bench players in terms of Downing and Henderson but maybe Dalglish saw the British method may help him because in truth, it is helping Man United and it has helped Kenny in his first stint.

Yup but I guess at every time before money is spent, there will always be that risk of transfers, won't it?

Some people argue that buying Premiership proven players would be better instead of paying over the odds for foreigners. Who would have thought the Premiership proven players we bought would be disappointing and those that came from other leagues, take the league by storm.

I guess maybe Kenny got it unlucky there.

Anyways,



And for those who don't know Txiki Begiristain is the current Director of Football (DOF) at Barcelona.

It all makes sense now!!! Pep Guardiola steps down as manager of Barca, comes to Liverpool to take over and is reunited with Rodolfo Borrell and Txiki Begiristain.


One can only dream

True but the thing is, it shows that it pays off to have people who understand the club, culture, tradition or whatever. Their whole club is run by people who understands the Barcelona philosophy from top to bottom, from manager, coach to players.

Majority of the Barcelona squad consists of players who came from La Masia. Pep Guardiola graduated from La Masia. His backroom staff? - Tito Vilanova, Juan Carlos Unzué, Andoni Zubizarreta, Guillermo Amor and Eusebio Sacristán all at one point, played for Barcelona. And now, Vilanova is set to take over and will no doubt continue the system.

No surprise that our successful years were from Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish (and Rafa if you'd like) - people who knew what it meant to be part of Liverpool.

I think Barca's "mes que un club" fits well. That's where we are similar

Yup .. look what happened after "fans" wanted Rafa sacked ..

Becareful what you wish for!

Anyways, this will really show whether FSG know what they are doing or not ...

This post has been edited by Adryan: May 17 2012, 08:44 AM