My word, do managers ever think of resale value when buying players? I mean, with the exception of Arsene Wenger. If so, impose a cap on players above 26.

I think he just did. Whenever Keane played well, he was taken off for a few games and placed back on only after a few games when he's cold again.

Guys, methinks no order from the wifey can put me off footie for long... but i myself can't seem to get excited over Liverpool and footie in general nowadays...

Those who know me well would have realised that I've been steadily growing weary and disenchanted over the affairs of Liverpool FC over the past 12 months and i do think that the selling of Keane was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

It doesn't really fit into our 'You'll Never Walk Alone' mantra does it.

I have been supporting the club for more than 20 years, and throughout those times we have gone thru terrific highs, damning lows and experienced unspeakable loss. However, I have always felt that the club was still essentially there for us all, with all the components pulling in the same general direction. We are not now. Be it the fault of Parry, the Yanks or Rafa I do not know, nor do i really care to phantom anymore.

Strange this, when we finally have a decent shot at the premiership after the long wait, i no longer feel the sense of belonging, that 'magic' anymore.

So until I do, here's one disillusioned, disgrunted supporter signing off.

This post has been edited by madmoz: Feb 4 2009, 11:29 AM

Try to ask GulaV

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Added on February 4, 2009, 11:34 amIs not about him dying or not.We all know how he was treated unfairly.Like us, he is a Liverpool fans and he deserves some respect for what he did for us.


Anyway, for those worrying about lack of attacking option, Nemeth gonna be back by end of Feb

This post has been edited by solstice818: Feb 4 2009, 11:34 AM

Wow so much has changed over a weekend. Im sad to see Keane's red career ended so prematurely but the whole debacle was mostly his own doing. He has great desire but poor attitude imo. Im incline to believe that Keane was becoming a negative influence in the dressing room and that his presence was unbalancing the team. Players like Riera and Benny were also getting subbed out and rested quite often yet they remained focus and got on with their game. Had he stayed focus, devoted and clinical with his finishings, the sale would had been unjustified. Alas, there's very little to argue for his departure, other than the common '..he should be given more time' comment.

I think with Keane gone, the squad is more balanced and Rafa will have some weight of his shoulder as he no longer required to figure out when and how to fit in Keane. Maybe not having a replacement is risky, but did we entirely depended on Keane ? His purchase and performance have been under intense scrutiny from both the media and fans. Majority of fans remain till today unsure to what Keane had brought to the team. It seem to me that Keane was more of a luxury addition to the squad and that the team was already already getting most results without him.

This is a bold decision by the manager, a calculated decision that i think will benefit everyone from the team, the manager and Keane himself. If we did end up wasted merely 3mill, then come next season we could very well spend more on a rm or tying up Agger's contract. With one less player in the roster, means other players such as Babel, Ngog will now have better chance gaining minutes on the pitch. This, imo, is essential for team morale and player's development for the likes of Babel and Ngog. And Keane ultimately will be happier and will probably play an important part when Spurs play against the big 4. There are potentially still lots of points Spurs could take from the the mancs and chelsea. Not that we going to be depending on it, but football as they say is a funny game.

The problem is will babel stay next season? He will probably submit a transfer request....

For me, R.K is a good player but he still not match on the way Lfc team play.
Well, thanks a lot to him for his conrtibution last year facing Gunners.
D.Ngog should be partner up with Torres sometime..he's young, tall (aerial threat) n some similarity with Babel on shooting..Rafa should give him some chance to pair up with Torres...
Arshavin already join Gunners. We should grab Quaresma last year rather than RK. See what happen now, Quaresma already join the Blues..hmm...
Well, hope to see Torres netted some goal vs Everton this upcoming Thursday morning...

i just wonder if keane was bought for around 7-8M, would there be a big fuss if he left? i doubt so.

If not mistaken, the transfer fee is 12m..

If Rafa got buying power, the club should consider brought in Young or Agbonlahor (Ast Villa)..this two fellows can become a threat in left or wright flank...

He is not asking for the transfer fee from Liv to Tot.

What he means that if we have bought Keane for 7-8million will there be any fuss if he were transfer back to TOT.

I wonder did we really lost any money in this transfer saga.... we only manage to pay TOT 12million so far and we sold Keane for 12mill..............

Well the issue with Babel was that he was not getting enough games. With Riera proving a better option on the left and Benny contributing on the right, the only left position for him is to play as a striker. Even then, it wasnt a positon for his taking as he had Keane to compete against. With Keane gone, theres less player to compete against. If he still does end up wanting to leave, well thats just tough luck and i would wish him hte best. We had been wanting to see our players securing places in the starting team through merit (hardwork and consistency), so until Babel can provide a more demanding performance that warrants a starting place, he can moan all he wants or request to transfer.

Owh...sorry dude...

Well, yeah..anyway...sometimes Irish/English player always expensive...that is the truth... That's why Rafa normally ask his scoutting dept to bring the best from out of England...the price tag not so high...

If u look at C.Ronaldo and Nani ....both from S.Lisbon..where S.Lisbon train lot of their player with individual skills.. Last time...nobody recognize both players..but now ...their name spread out widely accros the globe... Same with F.Torres... as what T.Henry says in LFC official website last year... "Torres" show his real ability as a striker and worldwidely recognize since join English team rather than his old club...

YWNWA

if not mistaken, u didnt read properly.

if liverpool had initially bought keane for what he was worth, around 6-7M based on his previous transfer fees and age, probably no one would make that big of a fuss if he left.
his inflated 20M tag commanded a much greater expectation from him, which he of cos failed to deliver.

im sure he would do well at spurs again, and get the space around the box he needs to perform.
but just not with liverpool, given that teams who play against liverpool tend to pack their defences.

12m+wages for half year+appearance+goals etc

Good point. Here's another spin, what if the player was a black french, colored hair and named Cisse ?

i was thinking along the lines of morientes

What I mean with 12m trsf fee is moving back to Spurs...not to Liverpool...all ppl know last time he move to Liv around 20m..since liv tapping him...

Check my previous reply n post.

Cheers..

YWNWA

I'd bet if Keane had cost 7-8M, Rafa wouldn't have sold him back to Spurs at all.

omg, lscm website confused Steve McManaman with Steve McMahon.

good point.

maybe keane can linger in the squad and warm the bench, occasionally getting a good run of games. he doesn't have to be exceptional and banging in goals week in week out. sounds fairytale no?

but problem is, robbie keane came to liverpool with a 20m price tag stamped on his forehead, that had to do some serious pressure on the player and the manager. and to simply put it, at least from my POV, keane had failed to justify the sole reason we bought him for, which is to score goals. 20m is a too expensive mistake to make, and RB at least tried to make amends by cutting the losses. doesn't look pretty, but he decided on a solution and went ahead with it. it's a bad mistake to sign him for 20m in the first place, but at least he's not living in his own dreams and thought keane's really the player to bring us the title just because 20m is splashed out.

keane had good games here and there, but will he really do good over the course of the entire season? no one knows, but i know he could've won us more games in the first half of the season. and the fact is he didn't.

fans will not yell for RB's head if keane's signed for 6-7mil, because for that transfer fee no one would've bothered if keane didn't even make it on the sub's bench.

we can whine all day long why RB decided to let keane go when realistically, keane could've provided cover for torres should any injuries occur in the next few months. but we don't know the financial difficulty or boardroom problems as detailed as we thought we know, and to solely blame RB for everything that had happened under the sun is a bit, in my opinion, too much.

Liverpool Co-Owner George Gillet: It's Rafa Benitez's Fault

The Reds' owners have not received a particuarly warm welcome in the city of Liverpool this week, but one of them has implied that the club's position is perhaps someone else's fault...



Liverpool's American co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks have endured a torrid time in the city of Liverpool this week as they have been on Merseyside for discussions concerning the future of the football club.

A protest at Anfield had involved a banner that read 'Thanks But No Yanks' during the weekend's game with Chelsea. Earlier in the day, members of supporters' pressure group 'The Spirit of Shankly' (SOS) had converged on the hotel where the Americans were staying and mounted a noisy protest.

Mr Gillett agreed to speak to SOS spokesman Jay McKenna, after a number of fans had breached security to confront, peacefully, the Colorado-born businessman.

McKenna informed The Liverpool Echo of the contents of the 'interview', which contained an interesting insinuation that Rafa Benitez was responsible for Liverpool losing their lead in the title race, his ant-Ferguson/Manchester United rant about 'facts' being blamed.

"I told him all the fans who were outside and thousands more were angry and upset at how he and Tom Hicks were running the club," the Echo reports McKenna as saying.

"He looked shocked and asked me why. I told him he knew why, because he met Spirit Of Shankly before the Manchester United game.

"I said ‘fans see it as you have made three promises and broken them’. So he asked me what they were."

McKenna reportedly then pointed out to Gillett that fans did not like the fact that the club were now massively in debt due to the Americans' purchase of the club.

"He claimed this was at the ‘request of the banks’ and they were in a ‘sound financial position’ with ‘revenue per pound or dollar in ratio to the debt’ better than at any other football club," McKenna said, before revealing the extent of Gillett's and Hicks's attempts to bring Jurgen Klinsmann to Anfield.

"The second one was backing the manager and then not doing so. I said they said they would back the manager, so why had they approached Jurgen Klinsmann about the position of manager?" he continued.

"He then went on to claim they had met with the manager, who told them he was to have discussions with ‘three other teams’ about joining them and they approached Klinsmann to have him in place to work as a ‘consultant at the club’ if Benitez left them.

"I asked why they had approached Klinsmann, because his pedigree was not one that immediately made fans sit up and take note.

"He claimed Klinsmann had a brilliant track record, and he had excellent marketing talent, having close links with those at Adidas, Nike and Reebok and the benefits of him being at Liverpool.

"I asked who the three clubs were, but he refused to answer."

McKenna also enquired about the progress of the new stadium, another promise on which SOS feel the Americans have failed to deliver. McKenna was assured that £100 million had been spent of Hicks' and Gillett's own money, and work was ongoing with architects, designers and other professionals to keep the stadium plans on track.

"I asked if the club’s accounts would show and support this when they are released, and he said yes. Gillett then claimed all transfer fees to date had been met by himself and Tom," McKenna explained.

"He said when they bought the club, they were told about the ‘Liverpool Way’. I asked if he felt they had been true custodians as they promised. Gillett told me he ‘had tried, but it had been difficult’ and they had ‘done what they could’.

"I asked why he could not speak for Hicks because he was his partner. He said that ‘husband and wife can say different things but one does not get the blame’.

"I explained they were both responsible, and he was not happy at being blamed. I asked why he was in partnership with Hicks. He said Hicks and himself had worked together well for six years in other businesses such as food, but this is different because the media are involved.

McKenna also quizzed Gillett about whether the club was still for sale, and whether there had been any interest from potential buyers.

Gillett reportedly replied: "Yes, there have been expressions of interest and some negotiation." This repsonse triggered further questions from a determined McKenna

"I asked who with, and he told me he could not tell me that. I asked would he sell, and he admitted he was ‘open to it’, but he could not speak for Hicks."

But McKenna reserved perhaps the most surprising insight until last, when he revealed that Gillett had implied that he held Rafa Benitez reponsible for the Reds' conceding of their league lead to Manchester United.

"I then went to walk away," added McKenna, "and he came after me saying, ‘A few weeks ago, we were in first position, then a certain individual from the club attacked another individual from another club, and, since then, we have lost form and slid down the league.’

"I was stunned, and asked if he was blaming Benitez as a result, and in saying that, was he not backing the manager?

"Rather than confirm or deny as I expected, he replied ‘that’s your implication’."

If those words are true, as McKenna claims, then there does not seem much unity of purpose behind the scenes at Anfield.