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Arsenal bother
Its obviously not the right cause of action to refuse to travel with the Arsenal squad for the USA tour. However there was rumors all last year Koscielny wanted out and the club have done nothing to prepare for this. Just like Ramsey before him we face the real possibility of losing a key player albeit it past his best and there is no sign of a replacement coming. We already needed a centre back this summer, now you could argue we need two. I don’t believe a year at Fulham taught Chambers to be a better defender.
Arsenal are in a club in denial, a bit like climate change deniers everyone around us sees the warning signs yet we stumble on probably until it’s too late. Saliba might be a great buy, however it’s terrible pr to sign a player who we can’t use this season and not announce his signing at the time of I don’t know the same time we sign a player who can play this year maybe?
We’ve cocked up this window so far, we’ve known Ramsey was leaving yet no midfielder seems to be on the horizon, it’s unfair to expect Smith-Rowe or Wilock to fill Ramsey’s shoes, we’ve dragged our feet on the Tierney deal and now Napoli are sniffing around. They have money because we sold a guy with 70+ caps to them for change.
Emery is already under pressure after the way last season ended, every fan can see the areas we need to strengthen and I refuse to believe it’s that hard to sign players if you really want them. Why aren’t we trying to sign Nathan Ake from Bournemouth? He’s a solid player who is a centre back oh and can play left back too. I don’t believe Callum Chambers became a better defender at Fulham. We have to act now because unlike in years gone by making panic buys after a bad start to the season is no longer an option.
Tom, AFC
Striking sanction
Dario brought up an excellent point yesterday about “Players Going On Strike”, we have seen it happen throughout the years and more commonly since the turn of the century, player power is strong and if a player wants out of a club they usually get their wish, which only encourages future incidents with other players all over the world as they know if they kick up a fuss they will get their way and be allowed to leave, sometimes at a cut price fee (Agents do not help in this manner either as they are known to likely encourage said behavior as they get a nice bonus when a player moves clubs)
A 6 month ban from all football related activity seems quite harsh in my opinion for refusing to train, not play or fulfill other commitments as part of their contract, however my alternative punishment that came to my mind is as follows, it does require some help from the football governing bodies though;
The FA (Even better UEFA/FIFA) introduce a law which it enables clubs to stop payment of wages to players if they refuse to play for their club or refuse to honour their contract, this in my mind seems a realistic way to diminish player power, as players will think twice before making rash decisions, as they know if they do decide to breach their contract they will not be paid, and like it or not money makes the world go round after all.
Would be curious to know what other mailboxers have in mind to prevent player power in this situation and any appropriate punishments they would suggest.
Mikey, CFC
Liverpool fragility
Just been having a good chuckle at Sanjit’s emails in regards to where LFC finish the year after finishing second. I’ll give it one thing, it’s accurate with the positions we finished in but a lot of actual details seemed to be conveniently left out of his analysis. Not sure why? OK here goes….
In 1991 when we finished second, Kenny had left suddenly and was replaced by Souness, who tried to stamp his own authority on the team with only a few games to go. It backfired and we blew the league. Souness was allowed to change the team in his own way the next season (rightly so; he was the manager after all) and we ended up sixth as we were in transition from a team that had dominated for the best part of the last 5 or 6 years (and even further if you count Paisley and Fagan’s teams) into one of the worst Liverpool sides in memory and it set us back years while Man United become the juggernaut that they did and we couldn’t realistically compete with them. Cheers for that Souness (and not Dalglish as Sanjit suggested).
After 01/02, we had just had Anelka on loan and him and Owen upfront had started to look like they could be the next frightening partnership in the Premier League. Houllier however decided this was not happening and sent Anelka packing for… El Hadj Diouf. Wow! Without doubt one of the biggest mistakes in club history and I still wonder to this day if Gerrard’s heart problems had also caused him to have a severe brain fart in the transfer department…
After 08/09, Alonso left and was replaced with Aqualini who basically never played. That and the beginning of the power struggle between Rafa and a pair of crooked owners who instead of backing the manager to take us to the next level when we had been so close, decided to strip us of our assets for their own gain, and leave the club on the brink of administration. This sparked a terrible period in club history which had Hodgson in charge the next season and a side that “boasted” the talents of a finished Joe Cole, Paul Konckesy, Christian Poulsen…
After 2014/15, we lost the player who had been the been best player in the world for 12 months in Luis Suarez and replaced him with a load of s**t basically. Sigh…a man who had scored 34 goals and set up countless others the season before was replaced with Mario Balotelli and Ricky Lambert, as well as the returning Fabio Borini. Suarez scored more goals in one month in December the previous year than they all managed between them in their entire Liverpool careers.
As for our side that won the European cup that then went out the year later in the first round knockout stages…come on mate. We were playing competitive fixtures to qualify for it thanks to UEFA before most teams had even started preseason! Most of the players were knackered before we’d even hit Christmas and yet still managed to win the FA cup that season and finish 3rd.
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As even Stevie Wonder can see, not at all a case of “disappointment of coming so close has been overwhelmingly crushing to their spirits” but other factors. We have kept all our star players together for next season whereas we didn’t in the years mentioned above. Either a manger getting rid of key players, star players wanting to leave or a loan player not being kept permanently when they should have been set us back on each occasion, and other dross brought in to replace them didn’t help.
The big difference for next season is that we go in with confidence and as European Champions. We didn’t have anything like that in any of those other seasons; not even a League cup to cling to from those seasons we finished second. It’s different this year as while we don’t seem to be looking at strengthening anywhere yet, no one knew Allison was coming in last season until he was at Melwood having a medical, so who knows? Maybe we do have some more quality coming it and if we do or don’t, I still think we’ll be right up there challenging City for the title again. Aside from Spurs who are strengthening in key areas, who else is going to be up there with us and Man City? More chance of Wolves or Leicester getting into the top 4 right now than Chelsea, Arsenal or Man United who all have their own issues to deal with; inexperienced top flight manager who can’t sign anyone and two teams who need serious work to fix the current messes they are in.
My money is most certainly on a Klopp to keep taking us forwards and to do his best again, as he tries to establish us as regular challengers for the league title and Champions league. Roll on the start of the season.
Cheers
Neil (Could do with a good FA Cup run this year too!) Mulvaney
…Sanjit is either fishing or has a fishes memory, either way his mail yesterday was fishy.
It’s a different side, said often how different things feel here, no Alonso/Suarez type player being sold (talk of Van Dijk giving Barca a ‘short shrift’ when enquiring about his availability in the papers also helps). No crisis about how transfers are done, only problem there’s no one available to us that we want.
We literally tested this Liverpool sides fragility last season, desperately close to winning a remarkable Champions league trophy only to fall at the finish line, it wasn’t supposed to happen again. We were placed, in general, as City’s nearest challengers but only if we dropped all the cup competitions and instead we cut City’s absurd lead to 1 point and went one further in the Champions League (6 times by the way, quick reminder, unbearable and all that).
They’re dubbed mentality monsters for a reason.
Tyla (Brewster looked pretty good last night) Roxburgh
…Re Sanjit in yesterday’s mailbox. What relevance does Liverpool in 1990/91 have with Liverpool today? Come to that, what relevance does 2013/14 have?
What are these selective omens of which you speak?
30 seasons ago, Liverpool finished second. The following season, they finished first. How does that fit in?
Remember when Sours fan used to think they would win the FA Cup if the year ended in a 1?
They didn’t realise the year had to also start with a 1.
Pete – private in Bielsa’s army
Overachieving XI
Long-time reader, maybe first time published (1 in 3 attempts would go down well on the CV).
We’ve seen some cracking disappointing X’s and XI’s this week, so I thought look for balance and find out everyone’s over-achieving XI. This can be based on your own expectations, or those of the media / other fans.
As an avid Liverpool supporter I’ve gone with the below, in a classic / rigid 4-4-2:
GK: Alisson – granted I hadn’t seen an awful lot of him, however I was set on getting Jan Oblak from Madrid and was somewhat disappointed with his acquisition, especially after conceding about twenty goals against us in the CL the previous season. Three Golden Gloves later, don’t I look a golden goose.
RB: TAA – I don’t think anyone could have predicted how good The Trent would go on to be, no matter what you say. Then again when Clyne trotted off to Bournemouth for a few months. There is always hope that a local lad would make the break, but it doesn’t pull off anywhere near as often as you’d hope. He was given his chance, and wow has he taken it with both hands (opportunity and the CL trophy…).
CB: Sami Hyypia – has to be him, right? Got him for relative peanuts and went on to be one of our best (and my favourite) players for a long time.
CB: Stephane Henchoz: similar to big Sami, Henchoz was relatively unknown and plucked from Blackburn for £3.5m. He went on to be part of our trophy haul the following year and amassed over 200 games for us.
LB: Andy Robinson – £8m from relegated Hull. Nuff said.
Mid: Gary McAllister – a free 72 year old from Coventry, his signing was a masterstroke. A key part of our cup wins that followed, one of the greatest goals against your local rivals you are likely to see, and credited by Gerrard as a real inspiration at the club.
Mid: Phil Coutinho – an unhappy Brazilian from the bench in Italy… wasn’t exactly stirring stuff, but wizardry, goals (1 in 4!) and megabucks later, he proved to massively exceed expectations.
Mid: Paddy Berger – on the bench for most of the 95/96 Bundesliga winning season with Dortmund, Ged Houllier took a risk and he became a massive favourite. I’ll always remember a two page pull-out poster in the local paper after he scored a hat-trick against Chelsea.
Mid: Javier Mascherano – taken on loan behind a cloud of corruption, what could possibly be right here? Well, a monster was born. What a beast.
CF: Luis Suarez – now bear with me on this. Yes, he cost a pretty penny but from what I’d seen, he had a proper short fuse (thankfully we didn’t see that at Anfield…) and I didn’t think he was strong enough to cut it England. Boy was I wrong, and he didn’t miss a single game through injury. Crazy.
CF: Dirk Kuyt – another that may surprise some, but his work rate, knack of scoring vital goals, and overall attitude was not expected. Massive cult hero at Anfield.
Steve (Liverpool > Wales)
Be more Brett
Brett, AFC is the type of fan we should all aspire to be. That was one of the single best critiques of a football club that I have ever read and I hope to live up to that lofty bar in the next few days with my Liverpool XI. Credit is due and even overdue and Brett, well done on a wonderful email that was perfectly pithy and pissed in equal measure.
Niall, Denver