The Football.....

[dellzeqq]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/17/manchester-united-debt-glazers

I know that the Guardian has been calling time on Manchester United's finances for a while, but when total indebtedness rises by £26million while income is falling, it looks to me as if they'r going to have their work cut out competing with the likes of Chelsea, Man City and (dare I mention) Liverpool in the transfer market next year.

Whatever happened to the Ronaldo eighty million?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Di Matteo got sacked from WBA and seems to be a success at Chelsea. How one explains that I've no idea.

Some managers can get good players to play at their best because they understand the systems he wants them to play, but fail with lesser teams because they don't. It works the other way too, Clough could make moderate players perform well above themselves, but failed at leeds because he couldn't use the same bullying tactics with experienced top-class players, just as he probably would have failed had he got the England job.

 

[musa]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/17/manchester-united-debt-glazers

I know that the Guardian has been calling time on Manchester United's finances for a while, but when total indebtedness rises by £26million while income is falling, it looks to me as if they'r going to have their work cut out competing with the likes of Chelsea, Man City and (dare I mention) Liverpool in the transfer market next year.

Whatever happened to the Ronaldo eighty million?

it was spent remember Young Chichirito Jones who else?

 

[musa]

Can you really say its Di Matteos doing of Chelsea current form? or that since AVB had gone its changed? Maybe AVB was trying to change too much too fast
Credit to Di Matteo though, the players are playing well, but if there's a bad vibe in the dressing room it spreads surely?

 

[PaulB]

Di Matteo got sacked from WBA and seems to be a success at Chelsea. How one explains that I've no idea.

Paul - your problem is this. You have an attachment to a team that is brought down by its own myth. I, by contrast, know that supporting a football club is always tragic. And here's the reason why.... http://www.aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk/

I don't have 'an attachment', I have an in-born loyalty and there's no myth. Look at what's been actually won. I don't get the concept you optimistically hope that 'supporting a football club is always tragic'. Football is cyclical and chucky ar lar, as they say (but I don't know how to spell and can't be bothered Googling it). I have seen such glories that if Liverpool were to win nothing ever again, as gratifying that would be for some Johnny-come-lately who glorifies in that unfeasible scenario, I could conjure up memories that will warm the cockles of my heart should I live (and I fully intend to) to be 347 years old. And when I say I have seen them, I mean I was there, present in the actual stadium on the occasion of the victory. Many, many victories.

 

[dellzeqq]

and that would include Heysel?

 

[martint235]

Are we playing nicely yet?

Liverpool are a great side (I would say that wouldn't I?) but there is no getting away from the weight of history. The trouble is I don't think it's the fans that create this weight. The real Liverpool fans care about the team and we want success, of course we do. We want to go back to the heady times of the 80s but we also want to watch Liverpool play the football they are famous for playing. We finished 8th. That's not good for a team with ambition as great as ours but it's not bad either. We won a cup which is great and reached the final of another cup.

With respect to Dalglish, the fans were happier, thanks to him, than they were a year ago and he is a legend at the club. However when he was in Boston, I don't think the question was "What went wrong last season?" which is what the media seem to be making out, I think it was "What are you going to do to make next season better?" and unfortunately I don't think Dalglish had the answer. Yes we've played better football than we were doing a year ago. That is good. That would have bought Dalglish another year from the fans at least. But what went wrong was we were miles off the two Manchester sides and you can go on about how many times we hit the woodwork but it doesn't matter because City and United didn't hit the woodwork that many times. They scored goals and won games.

Now if I knew the answer to stopping the ball hitting the woodwork and making it go in the back of the net more often, I'd be on my way to Anfield with a check in my pocket. However I don't and I'm not, so I'll remain at home hoping that the guys who makes the choices will recognise the guy that knows the answers when they see him.

 

[thom]

Some kittens playing football

 

[StuAff]

Are we playing nicely yet?

Liverpool are a great side (I would say that wouldn't I?) but there is no getting away from the weight of history. The trouble is I don't think it's the fans that create this weight. The real Liverpool fans care about the team and we want success, of course we do. We want to go back to the heady times of the 80s but we also want to watch Liverpool play the football they are famous for playing. We finished 8th. That's not good for a team with ambition as great as ours but it's not bad either. We won a cup which is great and reached the final of another cup.

With respect to Dalglish, the fans were happier, thanks to him, than they were a year ago and he is a legend at the club. However when he was in Boston, I don't think the question was "What went wrong last season?" which is what the media seem to be making out, I think it was "What are you going to do to make next season better?" and unfortunately I don't think Dalglish had the answer. Yes we've played better football than we were doing a year ago. That is good. That would have bought Dalglish another year from the fans at least. But what went wrong was we were miles off the two Manchester sides and you can go on about how many times we hit the woodwork but it doesn't matter because City and United didn't hit the woodwork that many times. They scored goals and won games.

Now if I knew the answer to stopping the ball hitting the woodwork and making it go in the back of the net more often, I'd be on my way to Anfield with a check in my pocket. However I don't and I'm not, so I'll remain at home hoping that the guys who makes the choices will recognise the guy that knows the answers when they see him.

Nicely said. Unfortunately, there were too many 'what ifs' for Kenny to keep the job. If they'd won the FA Cup, I suspect that would have made a lot of difference, but that defeat kind of sums up Liverpool's season in one match. When they were bad, as in the first hour (after which I switched off) they were bleeding awful. The team that managed to make the famous sign read 'This is Anfield, do have some points why don't you?'. And as for the Suarez affair...one simple apology would have contained that PR disaster (and perhaps have saved the Premier League season for the team). When they were good, they were, well, Liverpool...the team that hammered Chelsea in the next match, that took the League Cup, and sporadically looked like getting the European spot. I have to agree, it was the question of how Kenny was going to take the club forward that was the key. I'm not entirely sure why Peter Brukner, the sports science chief, went- by all accounts I've read he did a great job. Damien Comolli clearly paid over the odds for players (Newcastle were very happy when his initial bid for Carroll was £30m, they asked for £35m and he just said yes...!!!), and as for the PR chief...Suarez affair, simple as that.
Hopefully the club can now move forward. FSG have been a bit hands off until the last few weeks (which undoubtedly worsened all those issues), but they seem to be learning pretty fast now....

 

[thom]

Are we playing nicely yet?

With respect to Dalglish, the fans were happier, thanks to him, than they were a year ago and he is a legend at the club. However when he was in Boston, I don't think the question was "What went wrong last season?" which is what the media seem to be making out, I think it was "What are you going to do to make next season better?" and unfortunately I don't think Dalglish had the answer. Yes we've played better football than we were doing a year ago. That is good. That would have bought Dalglish another year from the fans at least. But what went wrong was we were miles off the two Manchester sides and you can go on about how many times we hit the woodwork but it doesn't matter because City and United didn't hit the woodwork that many times. They scored goals and won games.

Ok, having done something to point the whimsy level back towards normal for a Cafe level, I might undermine that effort now.
What I think is interesting about Liverpool's owners is how they got the Red Sox to win the world series again. They used statistical analysis and performance metrics as shown in Moneyball, coupled with cash to create a winning team. Football isn't anywhere near as amenable to the technique because it is not based around a set play or repeated event but I reckon a strapped for cash club could do pretty well if someone worked out how to transfer the analysis. If Liverpool played boring but won, I'm sure the fans would be ecstatic.
Are Liverpool's owners currently looking for a manager with a pragmatic and scientific approach to team building ?
Not sure AVB would fit that bill. Capello ?

 

[StuAff]

According to the Beeb, Martinez and Rodgers are both on the shortlist, AVB is being considered but 'unlikely to get the job'. Report also said Steve Clarke's resignation has not been accepted (Ian Ayre quoted on official site as saying SC's on holiday, any discussion on leaving will be later on).

 

[on the road]

Martinez is a bad choice, it just goes to show the owners know sod all about football and are just listening to the media bigging Martinez up.

 

[rollinstok]

Kenny will always be King in my eyes, but I believe in never taking a backward step and the results ( despite some otherwise excellent play in many games ) bear this out.
AVB..no thanks, not just yet.. same goes for Martinez, seems a nice guy but the media are building him up off the back of a decent run at the end of the season and ignoring the fact that he was almost down and out for the lions share of it.
The Liverpool job I believe still holds plenty of status and we should be aiming for someone young, talented and proven.. I heard Mourhino is a fan of Liverpool ? would he be tempted I wonder ? do the owners have the funds to support him ?...Mourhino likes a challenge and if he returned Liverpool to the glory days then he would experience adoration on a level that even he would not know existed.
As for the support of Rafa, I really hope they are not giving him serious consideration.. tactically astute and a master of squad rotation he may be but remember zonal marking and all those ( over 100 ) poor purchases, a master of self promotion and causing friction with the owners ( the other yanks deserved it-but Milan ? )

 

[MarkF]

Martinez is a bad choice, it just goes to show the owners know sod all about football and are just listening to the media bigging Martinez up.

I am sure all the Wigan fans think he is a bad choice too................

 

[martint235]

I'm afraid to say I think Martinez would just be another Hodgson, same goes for Rodgers to an extent although the way he has Swansea playing football is a major plus mark. I thought Mourinho had just signed a new contract with Real. The papers are mentioning Capello and Guardiola but I think it needs a pause, some thought and then choose the best available candidate. Let's not rush into signing someone because the media says we should. We've been there before.

Kenny will always be a hero to me and to think that at the time I thought there was no one good enough to replace Keegan (SWMBO once said to me "What do you mean Keegan used to play at Liverpool? Don't be silly"). I think that if it wasn't time to go now, it was certainly time to start asking questions. He's left with dignity and the respect of the fans and I'm glad he's against the idea of a backroom job too.