Liverpool Banter Archive January 07 2014

07 Jan 2014 23:58:58
United should be sponsored by Tampax, because this an extremely bad period for everyone at the club!
I'm sorry, it had to be done!
Cheers,

Yep, although its fun while it lasts I was thinking the same thing. I do think we should finish ahead of them if we do not have Suarez injured and the rest of our strong players stay fit. but that's a lot of buts!

I've been told not to park around old Trafford because they're giving away 3 points! ;p
In Buck/Moyes we trust!

07 Jan 2014 23:37:26
Has anyone heard Moyes' comments on the ref?

"It looks as if we're having to play them (the referees) as well as the opposition at the moment.

"It's really terrible, it really is, we're actually beginning to laugh at them.

"We just need to keep going, we didn't do an awful lot wrong. We conceded a terrible first goal from the free-kick, but it was never a free-kick, it was our free-kick.

"I thought the referee was going to blow in our direction. I couldn't believe he gave a free-kick for that Jonny Evans challenge on Fletcher in the air, it was just a terrible decision.

"We've got an opposition to play and sometimes we've got other people to play at the moment."

Astonishing, if Rodgers got charged by the FA then surely Moyes must!
Also, they have nothing to complain about compared to us! We got robbed by match officials two games in a row.

Rodgers was charged for implying a bias on the ref part, not for criticising the decisions. Although the two are linked there's a difference.

If Moyes saying that they are having to play the referees as well as the opposition is not implying bias, then Brendan should have nothing to worry about when he has to defend himself in front of the FA panel.

The FA are looking into Moyes' comments, but I suspect that they will choose to give him the benefit of the doubt rather than have to trouble him with a hearing. After all, he has got his hands full at the moment trying to prevent the Glazers' business model of 'guaranteed CL football every season' sending them down the Old Toilet!

07 Jan 2014 19:14:57
ED001, you are of course a fairly knowledgeable fella and I love it when you put clowns into their place when they say trash like Lucas isn't good enough etc so I have a few of questions and I would really appreciate an answer

1) what do you think of Ibe, Wisdom, Harry Wilson and Jack Robinson, also do you reckon we have any players in our academy that have the potential to be truly world class, I know Rossiter and Suso are looking pretty boss.

2) are the club still losing money? I know when the new Yanks took over the club was losing around a million quid a week, but having moved so many high owners of our wage bill, having not had any managers sacked in over a year, no nonsense with 40 million quid drawings etc and of course we have had a couple of boss sponsorship deals with Warrior and Standard Chartered are we anywhere near to financial stability .

3) Is 60k truly the limit for the anfield expansion or could we be hitting 65k/70k I know it would mean we have to invest in transport infrastructure but I can't help but feel it would be truly worth it seeing as we sell out practically every game, we could easily fill even 90k what with us having 70k+ people on a season ticket waiting list, also do you reckon we will be selling the naming rights to anfield and is the focus of the expansion more corporate boxes etc?

4) last question, what's your opinion on FSG? I think they as owners are doing a decent job of managing the club despite their initial naivety but I still don't trust them, think i'm still a bit paranoid because of their fellow countrymen H&G

i know its an incredibly long question but thanks for your time.

{Ed001's Note - 1) Ibe is reminiscent of Sterling, quick and tricky, but with power and strength as well. Sterling 2.0 so to speak! I like him a lot, I think he can be a real threat, especially as an impact sub against tiring legs. If fit, I would like to see him take over the role we had Moses was taking up in the first half of the season. He would provide so much more attacking thrust and desire than Moses, who just looks like he can't be bothered.
Wisdom has a great attitude to the game, a real desire to make it, unfortunately he doesn't quite have the quality on the ball for the modern fullback role and is a little too short to play as a centre half. Hopefully he will go on to prove me wrong in the same way Carra proved so many wrong when they said similar things about him.
Harry Wilson looks a bit special, being Welsh could be a big help to him, as it almost guarantees international football early in his career. He will need his feet kept on the floor though.
Unfortunately Jack Robinson has looked like a Championship level defender in his loan spells at Wolves and Blackpool. He has not shown any signs of being good enough for the Prem, despite his early promise. He is young enough to improve, but I don't see him returning for us, more likely to be sold in the summer.

Rossiter is the outstanding prospect, while I love Suso, Rossiter is the one who could go on to be as good as he wants to be. It all comes down to him, he has all the ability he needs to be a great player.

2) Yes. Without a bigger stadium, there is little that can be done to change that, while we remain competitive in the league.

3) Short term it is, as the infrastructure of the surrounding area is deemed unable to cope with higher incoming visitors. There are plans on the drawing board to change that, but we are looking at years in the future, as this country ties up big projects like that in red tape. Sadly we could have easily had a big stadium in David Moores time, if he had been as willing to invest money in the club as he was to take it out. He deemed his travel expenses, first class on the club, of course, as too vital to risk.

4) My opinion of FSG is that they are a safe pair of hands, not perfect, they have made a few mistakes, but not the worst owners in the world by any means. They are not jeopardising the club's future, but they are not Roman Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour, and will not just throw unimaginably huge sums at the club.}

Agree w/ all your points, Ed. On Moses and as a Nigerian, I had high hopes for him. But he just seems to lack the effort and attitude to even try. He`s been a complete flop and as a nigerian, it pains me to say it. If we could shift his ass back to the chavs, we would IMO.

Thanks mate, really appreciate the response, especially on the Stadium bit. absolutely shocking the owners we have had in the last couple of decades.

Further question on the stadium Ed001, are we still having legal troubles getting hold of those last few houses or has that been settled now?

{Ed001's Note - still ongoing, it could take many years mate.}

That's a shame to hear about the stadium and legal issues. The only positive is that FSG seem prepared to battle through that, definite sense that they wish to be hear for the long haul - that sort of stability combined with their sensible approach is just what we need. Can I ask Ed001 do you see FSG being a part of the club for an extended period of time? Or do you think, if the right offer were to come along for them, they would sell up?

{Ed001's Note - I do think they would sell for the right offer, but no one is going to offer the kind of money it would take without the stadium issue sorted anyway.}

07 Jan 2014 22:46:55
Borini dagger into the heart of the mancs chest all we need is jonjo to cut off the head on Saturday how the tables turned so quickly the board must be scratching their heads thinking did saf do this on purpose just to cement his place as their greatest manager hahaaha

Moyes is doing a nice job and long may it continue.

07 Jan 2014 16:55:19
Ed 01 could you give us an update on how Tiago Ilori is doing? Hardly had a look in at the moment. What would you say are the reasons for him not being included, i.e some weaknesses in his game. And what are his strengths? Do you see him having more of a look in towards the end of the season or possibly next season?

Thankss

{Ed001's Note - he is just a kid settling in. It is more about getting him used to the country, his surroundings, the different foods and language etc. He also needs to get used to the physicality of the English leagues, if he is ready, he will go out on loan for the second half of the season. He is not quite ready for the first team, plus we have Toure sat on the sidelines needing games as well. The lad was bought for the future, to play alongside Sakho in a couple of years.}

Ed001, you know he lived in Kentish Town (London) until he was 8! I know he needs to adapt to the physicality, but I think he'll already be used to this culture to an extent.

{Ed001's Note - yes and my parents lived in the UK until recently, but every time they come back for a visit from Spain, it takes them a while to adjust. Plus London is a lot different from Liverpool!}

They are the future and for once, we ar planning for it. Good job, Ed!

Fair enough Ed001, having lived in London my whole life and been to Liverpool a few times, I think I agree; London is a lot different from Liverpool!

07 Jan 2014 22:34:56
Saw this on another site - quite funny -

Manchester United were once the Goliath of English football, then along came David.
ynwa

Very good one

07 Jan 2014 22:23:56
Please ed tell we will sign some quality additions? It's driving me nuts now haha I can't bear the anticipation any longer! We need Salah and another quality addition to make a nice squad. I would look at replacing Johnson but now is not the time. I would look for another quality young left back also, I feel if we want to move to the next level in the near future this has to happen. I would say we need a central midfield prospect also but a real good one, hoping Rossiter could be that lad if given the opportunity. Hoping also we give Ibe a look in at some point, he is a talent!
Thanks for all your hard work eds! 001 and 002 especially.
Ryan

07 Jan 2014 22:14:20
To Ed's & Reds.

If Chelsea won't take Moses back and we don't use him for the rest of the season, which IMO we shouldn't have him even on the bench. How much will he be worth as a player in the summer?

Wouldn't it be better in the long term for Chelsea to loan him abroad for the rest of this season and we all win? Ed02 may have his Chelsea spin on this, which I'd like to hear.

Thanks all.

Ynwa

{Ed002's Note - The rules for loans have changed. Moses is a Liverpool player for the season unless everyone agrees to the cancellation of the contract which would have further penalties (financially).}

07 Jan 2014 22:05:47
The mancs are against the ropes the fear factor they possessed is dead well and truly they are their for the taking hopefully they get to the final so west ham or more then likely city destroy them
Ynwa

Yh I remember when we were not feared at Anfield anymore. But BR made it right.

07 Jan 2014 21:47:59
now I no i'm 1 of one that has been a bit annoyed about the fact that we haven't yet signed anyone well it just hot me thinking no teams yet done anything I no I should only be bothered about our team but think of it like that and hopefully we will get what we want as lfc fans

We will not sign a player just because fans whine about it. Nobody runs a club that way. I suggest that you chill out and support the team.

07 Jan 2014 21:39:37
Ha ha ha ga ha ha ha ha ha ha Man Utds . They are shyte

07 Jan 2014 21:14:53
FABIO BORINI GOALLLLLLLLLL delighted for him extra bonus against the mancs Even if it was a peno

Mancs lose, Liverpool owned player scores the winner and a cheeky £5 bet at 14/1 comes in. Get it up ye utd. Hehe. ;)

I had £5 on Sunderland to win 3-1 @ 45/1!

Well done fella ;)

07 Jan 2014 20:38:01
Mancs down 1-0 love it! *fallin apart*

They are going to need a smaller stadium

#MoyesIn

#MoyesIn

07 Jan 2014 19:16:29
What a window if we could secure salah and costa now that would shake the premier league to the core!! YNWA

I heard that Costa will cost over 40 million because of 'taxes' and doesn't want to leave until the end of the season. But that was a 'Spanish football expert' on the radio, so who knows? :)

We wait and learn.

Did you guys hear anything about him as a possibility?

{Ed002's Note - There is zero chance that Costa will move to Liverpool in January.}

Thanks ed

Cheers ed. Here's hoping!!

07 Jan 2014 17:38:39
Hi Eds,

I notice a lot of people posting regarding tickets on here.

Is it something you guys would consider hosting - some sort of page dedicated to ticket exchanges (at face value)?

I realise the potential for abuse this has, and the grey area of legality over hosting a ticket exchange.

Cheers guys

07 Jan 2014 15:01:07
been posting all day but non have come up and yes I no there bout salah lol but in your opinion is the deal still on do you see us matching the asking price that basle want or is the difference in valuation to big to get a deal done as we don't like paying inflated prices but surely to compete with the big teams that's what we need to do and hopefully with champions league next season we need we need that type of player

{Ed002's Note - RTP.}

Just wait and see what happens.

07 Jan 2014 15:22:06
There's a few rumour sites saying we are considering sending Moses back to Chelsea after his disappointing first half to his load period.
ED002. you are pretty clued up on these issue's. Where do we stand if we were not interested in keeping him till the end of the season? Could we send him back before the end of his season long period?
I've seen reports Chelsea are not happy with him being on the bench and not getting much playing time. Would they HAVE to accept him back. Or could they force us to keep him till the end of the season?
I am not that clued up on the loan situation. So any insight would be great.
vrcomp
Y.N.W.A.

{Ed002's Note - He is on a season long loan. Lots of things would need to happen for him to do back.}

LoL, yeah Moses needs to use his legs, which he seems to struggle with at the moment. :)

Ed002 when you say lots of things need to happen to send Moses back, would that include us having a whip round to get him a cheap day single to London? Because that's easy to arrange. We might even have change for a pint too.

{Ed002's Note - Liverpool cannot "send" Moses back.}

07 Jan 2014 12:35:35
eds in your honest opinion do you still see us ceiling able to complete the salah deal this window or do you red the summer he no 1 else buys him as the time to buy or are we going all out to get our man

{Ed002's Note - RTP or use the search engine.}

07 Jan 2014 13:30:47
My my how things change so quickly.
couple of teenagers that live round my area both were united fans, six months ago you'd see them in there jerseys nearly every day well most days anyway.
Went for a walk with the dogs and guess what . one of them wearing a man city top, I said hey Damien what's with the city top thought you were a united supporter, he shrugged his shoulders and said his mate change to city too, I said you just can't do that because they gave started badly. you stick with your team through the good times and bad.
Laughable really

Money can buy anything and everything, its so sad. I would have slapped em twice at least

It wasn't any different from when I was a young fella, to the victor goes the spoils I suppose.

I think Damien is a smart boy. Totally understand why he wouldn't want to support that lot :)

Damien didn't say his mates name was Disney by any chance?

Haha redace, Disney is gone AWOL but I haven't checked the city page

07 Jan 2014 12:11:51
Cannot believe we are losing out on Salah. Why do we try and skrimp and save on targets all the time. Costa. Mhykitarian. Salah.
FSG need to man up and get the job done asap, not as if they are short on money. Fed up of this every transfer window, same story.
Nobody's fault but there own that they got shafted on the first batch of new recruits in terms of inflated prices. common sense would have told you Andy Carroll was not a worth 35 million!
Hope we get something sorted this window.

Whats andy carroll got to do with this window? hope were not trying to sign him again.

FFS grow up! I mean for the love of Jebus can people stop getting so upset after reading some drivel in the paper or an article online, its the same every transfer window. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, well some people are getting fooled every year so what does that make them?

And the the guy who posted earlier about Mata's farther being due in to discuss a move, really? really? man u talk some rubbish.

I couldn't agree more, i'm not a pessimistic fan in any way and often disagree with those persistently complaining about the owners and particular players but I do have to agree that this is cause for concern.

Now i'm unsure as to whether the reports of our bids being as low as £6/7m for Salah are entirely accurate however as you said this extreme pice haggling has been widely reported to have occurred more than once in the last transfer window and has resulted in our targets going elsewhere.

My problem with this is that it is well known that there are only a very limited number of players available in the particular position, at the top level in their position and at the right price. As you said we were looking at Mkhitaryan, Costa & possibly Willian too but haggling over the price led to us turning to a cheap loan alternative in Victor Moses who is deemed to have not performed to the standards required.

I just hope that Ian Ayre & co have learnt their lesson from the summer, and being the january transfer window when teams are less keen to sell players especially for lower prices means we may struggle even more to replace these targets and with rumours of Ola John being the new loan target, a player who cannot get in the benfica side I am concerned we're seeing a repeat of the summer again.
Keen to hear your opinions.
Cheers.

We have not lost out on him yet.its still on going.

Where did you hear that we are not getting him

Can you Really Describe it as "Shrimping and Skiving" When your talking about such vast sums of money!?

07 Jan 2014 14:51:09
All your doing is using 1 source to cite another's inaccuracies, despite having nothing more substantial to go on than the original source.
A newspaper writes something and you believe it, then it writes something else and you believe that. If your going to go on the words on unreliable sources prepared to be disappointed a lot.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan hasn't exactly performed like the €27.5 million man for Dortmund. Maybe Liverpool's valuation was fair.

The players mentioned above all decided to go to or stay at Champions League clubs. It isn't always about money

Best stick a £30m bid in then eh.

NOMISYOUNG, perhaps the owners
have seen BORINI 10m out on loan,
ASPAS 9m and ALBERTO 8m not
contributing nothing to the team,
when you add it up that's 27m which is dead money. you can see were there coming from.

Hate fans that go on about just handing over money to get a player look what happened to leeds pompey etc we need to be smart an not over pay for a player who hasn't did anything of note in a major league now i'm not saying he's a bad player I think he could be quite good for us but not at way over the odds.

07 Jan 2014 11:38:22
Our transfer policy is a shambles. Rogers has bought bit part players that may come good but most will not. He buys then loans out or sells then says we have a thin squad. Most managers would buy players for the first team first then the squad but seems Rogers does the opposite. I think he's playing the average game buy lots of cheap players and if your lucky one or two will come through. And my last gripe is the negotiating of transfers, when a decent fairly cheap player comes to the market we offer half the rate we haggle for weeks and get nearer the price by this time other clubs get interested the fee jumps up and then we buy at the higher sum or we say he's too expensive. Just for the sake of a few million quid it ends up costing us more. We are not talking about tens of millions just a few paltry millions. Instead we pay top dollar for players who are not even first choice in the 1st eleven. FFS if you think he is quality and want him save the hassle and pay up.

07 Jan 2014 12:25:24
Rodgers has signed players for present and the future.

In the summer we signed a 25 year old keeper, a 31 year old centre back, a 25 year old striker, a 23 year old centre back, a 25 year old left back and a 22 year old winger (last two were loans though). The only players you could even argue were for the future are Ilori and Alberto (who will both be excellent in my opinion). This myth that Rodgers only buys kids is getting ridiculous now. As for the rest of your post, "a few paltry million". Wow, that is some serious juxtaposition there. Paltry and million should not be used together in that way irrespective of circumstance. It doesn't matter whether you are a builder or an entrepreneur, a million pounds is a hell of a lot of money and you don't just chuck cash around like its a snowball fight. The reason these guys are so rich in the first place is because they know how to look after their money. Liverpool have obviously got their own valuation for Salah, and don't want to exceed it. If we pay your "few paltry million" pounds extra, we look like walk overs in transfer dealings. that's what happened under Commoli. He bowed down to Newcastles demands and paid twice what Carroll was worth, then ended up doing the same for Henderson and Downing in the Summer because clubs knew how to play him. If we pay whatever Basel ask for Salah, next time we go to buy a player the team won't budge again and we'll end up like Man City paying £20m for players like Lescott, Milner, Rodwell and Jo.

Nobody here except Ed002 has a good idea of how the finances work in football, so don't pretend you know all the ins and outs of transfer negotiations.

YNWAdam

How do you no the quotes of Liverpool offering 6million but basel want 12 is true we could have offered 10 and they want 20 which is a lot of money so were trying to get it ddown this is why ed002 says ignore figures

LFC have not had Champions league football for years now. So we can't compete for current Champions League established players. So the only way to try and get players of that quality is to be better at identifying young talent or to find that level of player that hasn't reached his potential at another club and LFC think we can bring him to the next level or previous top players that have a few more seasons in them.

That is a very very difficult thing to do successfully, and there will be a turnover of players that don't work out. However the good part is that if a young player purchased for 5 to 10 million doesn't quite make it at LFC his wages will be low enough that he will be able to move to another mid level club on similar wages and there may be a small hit on the fee (if any). EG. Assaidi, if Stoke sign him would we at least get back the 3ml. we paid?

This approach is to try and find players that would be good enough for eg to get in a Man City or Chelsea team without spending 20 to 30 million per player. It takes a bit of time and patience and for every Sturidge and Couthino there will be players that don't work out and have to be moved on. But they can be moved on without bankrupting the club in paying off crazy contracts.

07 Jan 2014 11:03:05
Lost piece from last post.
Stand like he's preparing to take his man on and actually do neither. Resulting in a break and a RB who's 50 yards away from the play.

07 Jan 2014 10:41:15
Eds. Is there any substance or truth to the rumours about Roma's Miralem Pjanic being an option for us?

{Ed002's Note - RTP.}

07 Jan 2014 09:41:53
Morning eds and reds. Eds do you think we may soon hear something on the salah deal and he may possibly be at the Stoke game. Also eds I don't wanna tell you how to run your sites but to all the people who give you stick how come you just don't ban them surely it will make your life a lot easier

07 Jan 2014 09:53:02
Salah and Sisdney Sam? With Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling already in our squad and Suso back next seasons urely we'd be unstoppable with SASASASASAS!. Beaut!

Don't forget skrytle and sakho

Also Steven

07 Jan 2014 02:17:28
Signings I hope we make.
Mohamed Salah, RW/LW/SS
Sidney Sam, SS/LW/RW
Ever Banega CM/DM/AM

Send Moses back and send Alberto & Ilori out on loan where they will get game time.

Disappointed with Moses I thought he would be a good player for us.

07 Jan 2014 01:34:58
With our depth of options in central defence, does anyone else think Kelly could be pushed up and converted to a solid Defensive Mid?

He can get up and down the pitch as shown at RB and is more composed on the ball than your average centre half.

Either that or I think he may have to be looking for a loan or move soon because I can't see him tying down a CB spot unless there are a lot of injuries.