What are the owners made of?

[spider-Neil]

It's because it goes against the liverpool way ken.

Something which has fallen by the wayside apart from in the hearts of older fans.

As a club we aren't special anymore. Success is rare, our players on the whole are average/good, our fans are pretty flat... What makes us special?

absolutely agree. we start down this down and there will be nothing special about us. binning managers at a drop of a hat, booing at matches, there would be nothing that seperates us from (for example) newcastle.

 

[spider-Neil]

Because they're the typical example?

Chelsea and City have managed to plummet money into their clubs in a short space of time, so the basis was always there for them to adapt the right manager to an already capable squad. When we've brought managers in (in recent years), it's been to rebuild, everytime. How many times can we keep rebuilding and starting again?

Like Rosco, despite how the season has gone and the comparable form to the Hodgson fiasco, I can see the plus points and I think the difference for us much of the time has been marginal, and if people are so intent on looking at results then that's the evidence right there, we've drawn alot of games and lost many by one goal. That just shows our complete lack of a cutting edge which 'can' be rectified via a few additions to squad.

I appreciate that blowing what Kenny has is a big error and one which shouldn't go unpunished, but changing managers and being trigger happy isn't the Liverpool way. And someone saying they'd "love" to see that happen to a club legend after just over 12 months in the job, shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what the club is about.

You can argue the implications of that and whether or not the club needs to change what it's about and move with the times, which we've argued for in many respects over the years, but in this instance it seems a complete disregard for the clubs ethics and ultimately, it's just more impatience on the fans part. Understandable, but as clichéd as it is, Rome wasn't built in a day. He needs time.

mark as always has hit the nail on the head, before the result run of results which imho can be put down to the league being over as an event due to losing to arsenal and securing european football, our results were usually an inability to kill of games we had mostly dominated. small margins that can be worked on and I for one don't want to throw that all away to start from scratch, to pay off the current management team that will eat into our already average (and it will be) transfer kitty.

patience is needed and if ryan is overjoyed at the prospect at starting over, more power to him but I for one would see it as the beginning of the end.

 

[Fabio]

absolutely agree. we start down this down and there will be nothing special about us. binning managers at a drop of a hat, booing at matches, there would be nothing that seperates us from (for example) newcastle.

You miss the point neil

The liverpool way is now an empty ideal we don't fulfil. We cling to it because it makes us different, when in actuality, we're not.

 

[Sunny]

 

[Y1]

You miss the point neil

The liverpool way is now an empty ideal we don't fulfil. We cling to it because it makes us different, when in actuality, we're not.

Yup, the sooner we accept that we are no longer different nor superior, the better.

What we now are but mere memories of an era long gone. We have been living in the pass.

 

[kingjulian]

Has anyone already said lego blocks?

 

[Woland]

You mean Lego hair?

 

[Judge Jules]

Yup, the sooner we accept that we are no longer different nor superior, the better.

What we now are but mere memories of an era long gone. We have been living in the pass.

I find it difficult to put into words how strongly I disagree with this and similar posts.

We all know perfectly well we aren't the best any more. The point about our past is not that we think we're still in it, but that it makes us maintain our efforts to get back up there. Let go of THAT and we might just as well all go home, because then we really will be stuck in mediocrity.

 

[spider-Neil]

shankly said "You need to believe you are the best and then make sure you are".
empty words consigned to a bygone age?

 

[Modo]

To answer the OP, "play-doh".

 

[Judge Jules]

shankly said "You need to believe you are the best and then make sure you are".
empty words consigned to a bygone age?

Of course not. That kind of mental strength is indispensable to success in any field and, as such, will never be outdated.

 

[Y1]

I find it difficult to put into words how strongly I disagree with this and similar posts.

We all know perfectly well we aren't the best any more. The point about our past is not that we think we're still in it, but that it makes us maintain our efforts to get back up there. Let go of THAT and we might just as well all go home, because then we really will be stuck in mediocrity.

I don't mean that we forget our great history. Far from it but we should not use it to gloat over other teams now. The mancs (utd & citeh), the spurs, the gunners, the chavs... are the present and the near future. We are to eat humble pies now and should zip our lips until we get back to where we belong. The sooner the better.

 

[the count]

Of course not. That kind of mental strength is indispensable to success in any field and, as such, will never be outdated.

The remark unfortunately could well now be used to describe the shower that plays at Old Trafford.
Self belief alone seems to be enough to make up for their various inadequacies🙁

 

[Judge Jules]

And that's no accident. Ferguson consciously modelled himself on Shanks. In fairness to the old cnut, he's never made a secret of it.

 

[King Binny]

When Liverpool won their first trophy for six years last month, beating Cardiff on penalties in the Carling Cup final, the club's co-owners John W Henry and Tom Werner were photographed flanking Kenny Dalglish in celebration.

It was the Liverpool manager who placed his arms around them, to bring the three most important men at the club closer together - a picture of unity.

But one month on, with Champions League football for next season now a faded prospect after five defeats in their last six Premier League games, just how long will that triumvirate remain united?

In some respects Henry and Werner might see their first full season in charge as a rerun of their revival of the Boston Red Sox. After all, they won the World Series in 2004, just two years after a takeover.

Only one cup has been handed out so far this season and Liverpool have it. But the Carling Cup is not the World Series. And nor, for all its greater glory, is the FA Cup. And 18 months on from that much-vaunted takeover, after £113million of spending, are Liverpool actually any closer to building a team that might qualify for the Champions League?

Are they anywhere nearer building the new stadium the club so desperately need? That is the £65m question that confronts any Liverpool owner, the gap between the £43m Liverpool make each season from matches and the £108m Manchester United make.

In fact, the graph of Liverpool's decline and United's rise correlates almost exactly to the inertia at Anfield over the last 20 years and energy that has been invested in expanding Old Trafford, a 10-year project that started in 1996.

Sources within Liverpool would argue that progress has been made on the stadium since Henry and Werner took over. Two options are being considered: the redevelopment of Anfield or a complete rebuild with a naming rights deal on Stanley Park, for which planning permission has been obtained.

It is said plenty of work is progressing behind the scenes, not least on a naming rights deal. And it is not that the owners are not engaged, despite being in the USA.

Indeed, one of the accusations Henry and Werner face in Boston is that they are spending too much time and money on Liverpool to the detriment of the Red Sox. However, on the day that Liverpool take on Newcastle, there are uncomfortable comparisons they might wish to make with their opponents.

Henry and Werner bought Liverpool evangelising about Moneyball, their baseball philosophy of recognising undervalued talent and using it to bolster both the balance sheet and the trophy cabinet.

They hired a French talent scout in Damien Comolli as director of football to assist Dalglish in spotting such sporting gems and then promptly spent £113m on Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam, Jose Enrique and Sebastian Coates, as well as obtaining Alexander Doni and Craig Bellamy on free transfers.

Although they have sold players for £69m, Dalglish and Comolli's net spend has been £44m, with only Suarez, Enrique and Bellamy rated successes.

In the same time, Newcastle have spent £22.5m on Demba Ba, Yohan Cabaye, Papiss Cisse, Gabriel Obertan, Davide Santon, Mehdi Abeid and Sylvain Marveaux and have sold players for a total of £48m.

While Liverpool's wage bill was £121m at the last count in 2010, Newcastle's was £53.6m in 2011. And Newcastle are eight points clear of Liverpool. Henry and Werner might be entitled to ask who exactly are the Premier League's Moneyball experts.

Observers in Boston say that Henry and Werner are cautious owners, not intemperate hirers and firers in the mould of Roman Abramovich. They did sack Red Sox manager Terry Francona last October but that was after a spectacular end-of-season collapse and after eight years in charge which had elicited two World Series titles.

Dalglish is barely a year into his reign and has already won a cup so it is hardly the time to panic. But after the shambolic 3-2 capitulation at QPR, even Alan Hansen, Dalglish's friend and golf partner, was moved to suggest that Liverpool were becoming little more than a cup team.

Since they last won the title in 1989-90, Liverpool could be said to have challenged in only four title races. And if you are to be a cup team, it does help if one of the cups you win is the Champions League, as Liverpool did in 2005.

Henry and Werner have certainly bought into a famous global brand. But they do not seem much closer to getting the team and stadium to go with it.