Season 2012-2013

[Tes]

Enthusiasm of youth i suppose 

Which reminds me, doubt Lucas is up to speed yet for the start of the season (wasn't 100%
sharp against Leverkusen). Shame we didn't sell a certain player to Bolton  and get proper
cover for that position.

West Ham have just bought Alou Diarra, our Alou Diarra who was never given a chance and is now a French international. £2M is all he cost. Experienced, quality cover for Lucas, at an age that won't inhibit the development of any young player and we'd have got our money back (surely) when we sold Spearing.

[the dude abides]

there ye go again, with that common sense malarky!

it will never catch on.

[Tes]

there ye go again, with that common sense malarky!

it will never catch on.

I've always been a behind the trend type rather than ahead of it. 

[the dude abides]

 

[Juan]

we'd have got our money back (surely) when we sold Spearing.

For that you need a willing seller and a willing buyer.

Unfortunately for us we seem to have neither.

[the dude abides]

it's a real eye opener when you see us buying allen at 15 million
 
and then swansea offering bolton a mere 4 MILLION for his replacement.
 
bolton have not accepted the bid, for mark davies....seemingly holding out for 7 million.
 
you can see the difference, money wise, in the haves and have nots.
 
and also the REAL price of these players.  Because of one decent season in the premiership, Joe Allen's price has now pretty much doubled, even trebled (to 15 million).
 
Hell of a risk, for a tiny midfielder, who has scored a mere 8 goals in 149 professional games, across all divisions.   Do we not already have a sufficient quantity of non-scoring midfielders at Anfield?
 
 

[Juan]

it's a real eye opener when you see us buying allen at 15 million
 
and then swansea offering bolton a mere 4 MILLION for his replacement.
 
bolton have not accepted the bid, for mark davies....seemingly holding out for 7 million.
 
you can see the difference, money wise, in the haves and have nots.
 
and also the REAL price of these players.  Because of one decent season in the premiership, Joe Allen's price has now pretty much doubled, even trebled (to 15 million).
 
Hell of a risk, for a tiny midfielder, who has scored a mere 8 goals in 149 professional games, across all divisions.   Do we not already have a sufficient quantity of non-scoring midfielders at Anfield?

Agreed Dude 15 million does equate to a risk for a player with one year premier league experience. What gives me a small shred of comfort is that Rodgers has worked with the player and still feels hes worth the money. He was even willing to break his agreement with Swansea regarding not going back for their players so he clearly feels the players up to it.

Also the fact that he wouldnt pay the extra wages to land Siggursson I suppose shows hes not willing to pay over the odds for just anyone. I dont know what it is but I have a feeling Siggurrson is going to regret his decision to go to Spurs over us. Hes looked lively in preseason but I think they could flop under AVB.

[Juan]

I dont think theres any point in starting a new thread for this, last season I dont think anybody responded  .

So I'll just do it in this thread. The PL season starts this weekend. Do we have any predictions?

With our big players back, with new signings in the bag and with more players on the way I've started to feel a little more optimistic!!

This could be our year!

In all seriousness I dont think so. I actually am a little more optimistic than Ive have been of late but unless we can show some major form we're looking at 6th-10th. My predictions go as follows;

Winners Man City
2nd Arsenal
3rd United
4th Chelsea
5th Spurs
6th Liverpool

I think Chelsea will be inconsistent under RDM hence the 4th spot. I think Spurs could flop. Funnily enough whether RVP stays or goes I think Arsenal will be a tougher proposition this season. You can only assume Newcastle and Everton wont be far away from those 6 teams if not in amongst them. As for us we could finish 6th, I dare not predict higher. Theres also the fear we could end up in 10th. Lets see what kind of a start we make.

[Ed]

I dont think theres any point in starting a new thread for this, last season I dont think anybody responded  .

So I'll just do it in this thread. The PL season starts this weekend. Do we have any predictions?

With our big players back, with new signings in the bag and with more players on the way I've started to feel a little more optimistic!!

This could be our year!

In all seriousness I dont think so. I actually am a little more optimistic than Ive have been of late but unless we can show some major form we're looking at 6th-10th. My predictions go as follows;

Winners Man City
2nd Arsenal
3rd United
4th Chelsea
5th Spurs
6th Liverpool

I think Chelsea will be inconsistent under RDM hence the 4th spot. I think Spurs could flop. Funnily enough whether RVP stays or goes I think Arsenal will be a tougher proposition this season. You can only assume Newcastle and Everton wont be far away from those 6 teams if not in amongst them. As for us we could finish 6th, I dare not predict higher. Theres also the fear we could end up in 10th. Lets see what kind of a start we make.

I think we have to take inspiration from the Olympics, a bit like those long distance runners:

Bide our time,
Stay with the chasing pack,
Get in position and
Strain every muscle in the club and win a sprint finish for 4th.

I'm totally f*cking deluded aren't i? 

I think that we have to look at the other clubs around us (even behind us) and accept that it's going
to be tough. However, what i want to see is the determination to secure 3 points every game home
and away. None of this giving up with 20 minutes to go stuff. Right up to the 95th minute we need to be
trying. I think that's where Rodgers is mistaken when he says clubs will have "the longest 90 minutes of
their life" against us:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18971650

He should have said 95 minutes!

It's become uber-fashionable amongst the LFC pundits & TAW lads to talk about being in contention for 4th right up
to the final day (as if success now equated to noble failure or something). I can't accept that, if we're in
contention for 4th right up to the final day then we should secure 4th? (i really don't understand the contention
bit?).

1.) City
2.) United
3.) Chelsea
4.) Liverpool
5.) Arsenal
6.) Spurs

Maybe Arsenal and Chelsea are swappable. Tbh, our position is based on bloody-mindedness rather than
belief  and is subject to change once the transfer window closes and the nature of our performances home and
away becomes clearer

[the dude abides]

1st Man City
2nd Man Utd
3rd Arsenal
4th Chelsea
5th Spurs
6th Newcastle


sorry, but I just cannot see Liverpool competing for a top 4 spot, given the downsizing (and unskilled and inexperienced personnel) at the club (owners, chief executive, manager, players).  Indeed, we may not see the club competing for a CL spot any time soon.  It may be years, if indeed we ever compete again.

[Tes]

For that you need a willing seller and a willing buyer.

Unfortunately for us we seem to have neither.

That Juan is the unfortunate truth of it. Why we are pesisting with him, I don't know. We'd love him to be good enough, but all the wishing ain't working, the well must have broken.

[the dude abides]

Agreed Dude 15 million does equate to a risk for a player with one year premier league experience. What gives me a small shred of comfort is that Rodgers has worked with the player and still feels hes worth the money. He was even willing to break his agreement with Swansea regarding not going back for their players so he clearly feels the players up to it.

I take that shred of comfort from it too, Juan (that our boss knows the player well).

another little thing that has gone largely unreported.   We didn't have Allen's registration done on time (he was bought after 5pm and the registry office was closed).  But Swansea COULD have given us permission to play Allen against Leverkusen.  That type of friendly agreement happens all the time.  Swansea REFUSED to do so. 

That tells you all that you need to know about what they think about Rodgers raid on their club for Joe Allen.

Rodgers is a bullsh.itter and (I suspect) is not as well liked in the industry as he likes to believe.
 

[Juan]

Strain every muscle in the club and win a sprint finish for 4th. [/i]

I'm totally f*cking deluded aren't i? 

Completely 

It's become uber-fashionable amongst the LFC pundits & TAW lads to talk about being in contention for 4th right up
to the final day (as if success now equated to noble failure or something). I can't accept that, if we're in
contention for 4th right up to the final day then we should secure 4th? (i really don't understand the contention
bit?).

1.) City
2.) United
3.) Chelsea
4.) Liverpool
5.) Arsenal
6.) Spurs

Maybe Arsenal and Chelsea are swappable. Tbh, our position is based on bloody-mindedness rather than
belief  and is subject to change once the transfer window closes and the nature of our performances home and
away becomes clearer

Know what you mean by "contention" alright Ed. I suppose its a consequence of firstly failing to launch title challenges over the years and in more recent times failing to be in the mix for the Champions League. Pundits now equate success for LFC as not winning things but moreso not being far away from a title challenge or running one of the other also rans close for fourth place.

Your 4th place prediction is uber positive alright. Its not impossible, unlikely perhaps given whats gone on in previous seasons but as you say we will have to see what happens in the early part of the season to see where we are really at.

[Juan]

1st Man City
2nd Man Utd
3rd Arsenal
4th Chelsea
5th Spurs
6th Newcastle


sorry, but I just cannot see Liverpool competing for a top 4 spot, given the downsizing (and unskilled and inexperienced personnel) at the club (owners, chief executive, manager, players).  Indeed, we may not see the club competing for a CL spot any time soon.  It may be years, if indeed we ever compete again.

Its a fair reflection from you Dude given whats happened over the last number of years. Like Ed says it will be hard to tell where we're really at until the league season starts proper. At the moment we are probably hovering somewhere between 10th and 4th. 10th would equate to an even poorer season than last year, 4th would probably represent a level of consistency or perfect home record that hasnt been seen in a number of years. Realistically we are probably somewhere in between but we'll have to wait and see.

An away win against West Brom would definitely lift the spirits. Last season the result at home to Sunderland seemed to be the catalyst for our inability to convert chances and was a sign of things to come at home. We need to burst out of the blocks.

[Juan]

I take that shred of comfort from it too, Juan (that our boss knows the player well).

another little thing that has gone largely unreported.   We didn't have Allen's registration done on time (he was bought after 5pm and the registry office was closed).  But Swansea COULD have given us permission to play Allen against Leverkusen.  That type of friendly agreement happens all the time.  Swansea REFUSED to do so. 

That tells you all that you need to know about what they think about Rodgers raid on their club for Joe Allen.

Rodgers is a bullsh.itter and (I suspect) is not as well liked in the industry as he likes to believe.

I thought that was petty from Swansea. Whatever they felt about the deal or how Rodgers went about it at the end of the day they were getting 15 million for a relatively unproven player. To refuse Allen permission to be part of Sundays game smacked of small time club to me. I do understand your point about Rodgers though Dude. Whether we like him or not though I dont think we can do anything other than back him. We cant afford to keep chopping and changing manager so even if his first season in charge ends in a bigger league failure than last season I think Rodgers will still have to get the time needed to turn things around. Hopefully he will get the team performing this season though and the subject of replacements wont even have to be discussed.