Well the season is barely over and here we are already issued the fixtures for next season. While UEFA,CONCACAF and South America further drain the players of much needed rest with their bi-annual, meaningless tournaments.
The UEFA U-21 Championships being particularly useless. If you have a Championship every 2 years what is the point? The players used 2 years ago are still not yet established in their various club sides and barely cracking the nod at full International level and here comes another raft of 20 players to fasttrack! These tournaments are devisive and serve no purpose whatsoever due to their frequency. Belarus,Iceland,Switzerland,Denmark,Czech Rep,Ukraine,Spain and England. Only the last 2 of those are from Europe's top tier of football nations. Where are Germany,France,Italy, Holland etc,all knocked out or more likely not interested.
The Gold Cup another bi-annual waste of time (Mexico meet Honduras in one of the semi's) Hardly quality stuff there. South America are about to start the Copa America for its 8000th running! Honestly who cares who wins these if you have it every 2 years? All you do is end up with poor quality football and tired players for the start of next season.
FIFA complain about too much football yet they are the ones creating the issues. 2 International dates a month? That means a player can get 100 caps in about 5 to 6 years of playing for their country. Yet someone like Kenny Dalglish took close to 15 years to achieve that and that was when Scotland were qualifing regularly for World Cups. Its all diluted and as a result is a waste of time.
The Euro U21 has been particularly poor. I have watched some of the games and Spain look decent. England have Sturridge,Smalling and Jones. Denmark, Eriksen and Switzerland Shaqiri. Thats it as far as quality goes. Even at this level its all about systems and shape. When are the players allowed to express themselves. Utter nonsense.
Henderson is like Steve Sidwell completely anonymous and unnoticeable. Hopeful we will see something else from him otherwise we have wasted 16 million on a mediocre player, which is what I think he is..
So to the fixtures once again, we get a somewhat short straw at the start of season. Bearling mind Liverpool have run the gambit of 2nd to 6th over the last 8 years or so, you would reasonably expect a variation in our fixtures. Policing and clashes with Everton fixtures considered. But no, here we are with Arsenal yet again in the first 2-3 games. Thats 9 times in the last 12 seasons we have played either Arsenal,Chelsea or ManUre in the 1st games of a new season.
So we have away trips to The Emirates,The Britannia,White Hart Lane and Goodison in the 1st 8 games. Hardly the recipe for improving our away day woes. Still it could have been worse. ManUre play everyone in the top 6 in the 1st 8 games (all at home) so they could really be in trouble or be so far ahead the rest of us can go home.Wigan have been handed a decent start playing the the 3 promoted clubs 1st up and they dont play a top team for the about 8 or 9 games.Early season 6 pointers for them. They could be off to a flyer.
As to transfers, it seems that the worst kept secret that Marveaux was coming to us was a done done deal was indeed fantasy after he signed for Newcastle. No news on the Charlie Adam front. Zapata looks promising although it seems that unless we spend £17mill we dont seem to be able to sign anyone! Still no left back in sight and Fulham dont want Konchesky back.Martin Jol's 1st masterstroke at the Cottage!
Still no wingers to be seen either. Lets hope Mr Comolli is more successful in his quest otherwise dont really see the point of him. We are linked with about 10 new players daily, obviously the journo's are getting their info from somewhere, seems to be very scattergun approach at this stage.
We need to get the balance right and ensure we bring in quality who can hit the ground running especially with the start we have. Cant afford to have lost 2 or 3 games by the time we face MaUre on the 15/16th of October. I dont think the PL will be like last season at all. No way can the top six teams be as bad again away from home and lets be honest the 3 new clubs are weaker than the teams we have lost.
Lets see what the next few weeks oftransfer madness holds.
YNWA
P.S. Have you seen the 3rd kit for next year? Lets hope we only wear it on League Cup nights.Its hideous. Bearing in mind we have no European competition do we really need 3 kits???? I am sensing exploitation here.
Sunday 19 June 2011
Tuesday 7 June 2011
Off Season Woes
Well our season petered out into nothing, much like it started. I suppose that finishing 6th was about right in the end and to have denied Spurs Europe would have been a little unfair.
Yes,Liverpool fans are sporting a magnanimous until it comes to Toffees, Manc's,Chelski and The Sun!
So what joys do the off season hold for us. At the moment nothing but bewilderment. WE NEED A LEFT BACK OR TWO. I think I have mentioned that about 3645 times since Paul Konchelsky 1st took the pitch for us!!! Wingers would be welcome too. Again Carroll need crosses to be effective. If you wanted a a big strong guy just to hold up the ball we could have bought Kevin Davies for a sack of oranges!
Yes, I know the season is barely finished 2 weeks however some of the players and money being talking about is ludicrous. If Kenny has a budget of £50 mill as we are led to believe, why on God's green Earth or any other Deity's Planet for that matter, would you waste £20 mill on Jordan Henderson???????? At best the guy is worth £10 Mill. He is 20 and has had a decent half a season at Sunderland, thats it!
I am sorry but just because we are Liverpool doesn't mean we are here to be ripped off. But we appear to be plowing ahead. Lets hope we walk away as ManUre have already done, that should tell you something. With £20 Mill we could get Adam and N'Zogbia or Downing, clearly a better bet than a kid who might be good in 5 years.
We dont have 5 years to wait.Can you really see Man City,Chelski and Gooners challenging ManUre next season? Every season we don't challenge, ManUre will win 2 out 3 titles. That is what they have done for 20 years, we need to wake up. Wenger has been building for the future for 6 years and he has nothing to show for it.
Kenny has the reputation and the respect WORLDWIDE to attract to players. Lets rather bring in 4-5 established PL players and a few youngsters with potential. We have a whole team of donkeys to get rid of:
Konchesky,Aurelio,Agger(sorry always injured he needs to go), Insua,Degen, El Zhar,Poulsen, Cole, Jovanovic.
There is even cases for Ngog and Kyrgiakos to go.
We are being linked with Scott Dann while Arsenal are linked with Gary Cahill. ManUre are looking at adding Young and Sneijder and Young we are looking at Downing and Henderson
We are clearly not buying in the same market and we certainly cant compete financially with the likes of MaUre,Chelski,Man City and Gooners if they ever spent anything. We didnt in out pomp but we won things. Players from Scunthorpe, Chester, Ayr Utd, Partick Thistle have all come to us in the past and succeeded.
Even the great John Barnes only cost us £900k almost 10 years after Trevor Francis became the 1st £1 mill man.Kevin Keegan cost us £35K and we sold him for half a mill and bought Kenny and had 60K change!
I just feel we are looking at players who may or may not be any good and to me spending £20 mill to find out isn't worth it. Connor Wickham I would pay the money for but Ipswich arent being greedy they are looking for around £10. Sunderland just seem to be out to fleece us or anyone else. Why not just say the kid isnt for sale.
I would still want one of the following 3 leftbacks - Baines, Clichy or Luis Enrique. Flano and Robinson provide the cover. Right back we have Johnson,Kelly,Flano and Darby. So no issues there could even sell Darby if we had to.
We need a Centre-back who is fit and can cover Carra and Skrtel, Wilson will learn and ideally thats probably where Kelly will end up. Cahill would be good and Roger Johnson would be a better bet for me than Dann.
Midfield we need wingers for me its got to be N'Zogbia and looks like Marveaux will join on free in July. Still think it might be worth a gamble on Eagles or Snodgrass . Or if we are being really clever Aiden McGeady . He looks a far better player at CSKA Moscow than he ever did Celtic, has loads of CL experience, can play either flank and can cross with both feet.We have youngsters like Amoo,Ecclestone,Sterling etc who can play wide as well.
In the centre I would go for Adam. We have Lucas,Spearing,Gerrard,Meireles,Shelvey and Pacheco in that area of the pitch. If we bring in an other I would send Shelvey out on loan. I dont see too many other centre midfielders who standout. Scotty Parker maybe but at 31 what are getting 2 seasons maybe and can he play with Stevie G, not sure.
Up front we have Suarez,Carroll,Ngog and Kuyt, pretty good options but 1 more wouldn't go amiss. A smentioned Wickham would be my choice unless you could get a Defoe or Agbonlahor.
Looks like we have signed Dida, a brazilian golakeeper. Now other than Cesar I cant think of a decent one, maybe Tafarell. All the other are useless! Let hope we dont need to use him play Gulacsi please instead if Pepe is injured!
Let hope we bring in some reasonably priced quality and field a strong team every week, no Euroe so no need to rest anyone. And a favourable start without the obligatory Arsenal/Chelski showdown in the 1st 3 games!
Got my replacement away shirt today, no longer look like Hot-Shot Hamish!
YNWA
Yes,Liverpool fans are sporting a magnanimous until it comes to Toffees, Manc's,Chelski and The Sun!
So what joys do the off season hold for us. At the moment nothing but bewilderment. WE NEED A LEFT BACK OR TWO. I think I have mentioned that about 3645 times since Paul Konchelsky 1st took the pitch for us!!! Wingers would be welcome too. Again Carroll need crosses to be effective. If you wanted a a big strong guy just to hold up the ball we could have bought Kevin Davies for a sack of oranges!
Yes, I know the season is barely finished 2 weeks however some of the players and money being talking about is ludicrous. If Kenny has a budget of £50 mill as we are led to believe, why on God's green Earth or any other Deity's Planet for that matter, would you waste £20 mill on Jordan Henderson???????? At best the guy is worth £10 Mill. He is 20 and has had a decent half a season at Sunderland, thats it!
I am sorry but just because we are Liverpool doesn't mean we are here to be ripped off. But we appear to be plowing ahead. Lets hope we walk away as ManUre have already done, that should tell you something. With £20 Mill we could get Adam and N'Zogbia or Downing, clearly a better bet than a kid who might be good in 5 years.
We dont have 5 years to wait.Can you really see Man City,Chelski and Gooners challenging ManUre next season? Every season we don't challenge, ManUre will win 2 out 3 titles. That is what they have done for 20 years, we need to wake up. Wenger has been building for the future for 6 years and he has nothing to show for it.
Kenny has the reputation and the respect WORLDWIDE to attract to players. Lets rather bring in 4-5 established PL players and a few youngsters with potential. We have a whole team of donkeys to get rid of:
Konchesky,Aurelio,Agger(sorry always injured he needs to go), Insua,Degen, El Zhar,Poulsen, Cole, Jovanovic.
There is even cases for Ngog and Kyrgiakos to go.
We are being linked with Scott Dann while Arsenal are linked with Gary Cahill. ManUre are looking at adding Young and Sneijder and Young we are looking at Downing and Henderson
We are clearly not buying in the same market and we certainly cant compete financially with the likes of MaUre,Chelski,Man City and Gooners if they ever spent anything. We didnt in out pomp but we won things. Players from Scunthorpe, Chester, Ayr Utd, Partick Thistle have all come to us in the past and succeeded.
Even the great John Barnes only cost us £900k almost 10 years after Trevor Francis became the 1st £1 mill man.Kevin Keegan cost us £35K and we sold him for half a mill and bought Kenny and had 60K change!
I just feel we are looking at players who may or may not be any good and to me spending £20 mill to find out isn't worth it. Connor Wickham I would pay the money for but Ipswich arent being greedy they are looking for around £10. Sunderland just seem to be out to fleece us or anyone else. Why not just say the kid isnt for sale.
I would still want one of the following 3 leftbacks - Baines, Clichy or Luis Enrique. Flano and Robinson provide the cover. Right back we have Johnson,Kelly,Flano and Darby. So no issues there could even sell Darby if we had to.
We need a Centre-back who is fit and can cover Carra and Skrtel, Wilson will learn and ideally thats probably where Kelly will end up. Cahill would be good and Roger Johnson would be a better bet for me than Dann.
Midfield we need wingers for me its got to be N'Zogbia and looks like Marveaux will join on free in July. Still think it might be worth a gamble on Eagles or Snodgrass . Or if we are being really clever Aiden McGeady . He looks a far better player at CSKA Moscow than he ever did Celtic, has loads of CL experience, can play either flank and can cross with both feet.We have youngsters like Amoo,Ecclestone,Sterling etc who can play wide as well.
In the centre I would go for Adam. We have Lucas,Spearing,Gerrard,Meireles,Shelvey and Pacheco in that area of the pitch. If we bring in an other I would send Shelvey out on loan. I dont see too many other centre midfielders who standout. Scotty Parker maybe but at 31 what are getting 2 seasons maybe and can he play with Stevie G, not sure.
Up front we have Suarez,Carroll,Ngog and Kuyt, pretty good options but 1 more wouldn't go amiss. A smentioned Wickham would be my choice unless you could get a Defoe or Agbonlahor.
Looks like we have signed Dida, a brazilian golakeeper. Now other than Cesar I cant think of a decent one, maybe Tafarell. All the other are useless! Let hope we dont need to use him play Gulacsi please instead if Pepe is injured!
Let hope we bring in some reasonably priced quality and field a strong team every week, no Euroe so no need to rest anyone. And a favourable start without the obligatory Arsenal/Chelski showdown in the 1st 3 games!
Got my replacement away shirt today, no longer look like Hot-Shot Hamish!
YNWA
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