Date: 2nd February 2011 at 10:40am
Written by:

The last few days have really been strenuous on many football fans the world over, with sides hoping they can do enough to keep hold of their prized assets while acquiring some more enforcements to give them that extra impetus for the rest of the season. For days during the transfer window period, I waited with baited breath, to see what we would do this transfer window….DAYS!! Glued to every web pages and TV screen I could find to see who we would be linked with….nothing…..NOTHING!!!! Now, some idiot will say that most teams don’t do much business in this window anyways, but if you have been watching our games, we NEEDED reinforcements like the desert needs rain! Simple. We were not in the position to let this window pass us by without doing something to try and add one or two signings.

HONESTLY AS A LIVERPOOL SUPPORTER, DOESN’T THIS PATTERN ABOVE BRING BACK A SENSE OF DÉJÀ VU?! For 2 years (under Rafa’s reign and even before) we begged for a striker, everyone including Stevie Wonder could see that we needed a striker, but NOT the people AT Liverpool. We brought in wingers, wing backs, defenders, reinforcements for defenders, goalkeepers, coaches, and then more coaches, medical staff, sponsors, ball boys….ANYTHING and EVERTHYING else BUT a striker?!!! I mean for crying out loud!!! WTF?!! You know, the guy that gets paid to put the ball in the net….coz the last time I checked that’s how you win games, by putting the ball in the net….i mean ask Arsenal….

Then the news that Torres had put in a transfer request…for 2 days, I was glued to the TV, trying to fathom what the hell is going on?

Monday was a sad day for Liverpool fans across the globe, but more so for football as an establishment. For Liverpool, because Torres and Co. put us in this mess, then hands in a transfer request! No honour! No stomach for the fight! No loyalty! Whatever you want to call it, he had a duty to dig us out this mess before transferring anywhere. If it were up to me I would have sold him to Shakthar Donesk before selling him to one of our rivals. After all they also in the champions league.

The fact that Carroll cost 35 million pounds! Yes, 35 million not 35 million Indian Rupees is of big concern for me as a fan of the game. The guy has 1 years’ experience in the Championship and 0.5 in the EPL. With 35 Million we could have gotten Ozil, Van der Vaart, Khedira and still had change. The fact that Holloway wants 15 million pounds for Adams, is even more hilarious. I mean is this guy on crack!…it must be that cheap ish though…coz only that cheap ish has that effect. BUT here is the really scary part….Liverpool, YES, us would have willingly paid that cash if we had more time. No other team in the world would, except Liverpool. Blackpool will eventually go down by the end of this season and Fergie would pick him up for 1 million, and then everyone would hail it as a great piece of business.

Liverpool’s issue has always been 2 fold: We sell our best players,Owen, Alonso, Garcia, Babel now Torres to replace them with panic buys like Aquaman and now Carroll (both injured when they came in too) as far as I’m concerned we go 1 step forward and 3 steps back. This is evident in everything that is Liverpool at the moment, we don’t seem to have the pulling power that we once had. we don’t necessarily have the cash anymore to get top transfers too (although the board would be quick to tell us otherwise….but I’m a practical guy….SHOW ME THE MONEY!). Progressively our play has become very workmanlike, predictable and dare I say it, boring at times, thus we find ourselves out the Champions league, out the FA cup, out the Carling Cup, months, not even days off the pace in the league and very soon out the Europa league and this pattern has been reoccurring for some time now.

As you guys can imagine, I’m hurting and no amount of “feel good phrases” like no one player is bigger than the team will take away the pain. I would really like to see or feel the optimism that has been discussed here previously, but I honestly don’t see it guys. It’s been long that Liverpool fans have had to settle for second best, too long. The Liverpool hierarchy needs to catch a wake up soon, rather than later otherwise my friends, I don’t see us fighting for the Championship for years to come.

 

12 responses to “Common sense or raising the white flag??”

  1. Manny says:

    I think Torres leaving is just the after effect of the chaos that was the destructive ownership of Hicks and Gillet and the poor management of Roy Hodgson.

    Torres did not want to play for us anymore because he sees Liverpool as a sinking ship.

    Personally, I think he made a mistake and he should’ve stuck around until the summer just to see if NESV would bring in quality players. He didn’t seem to think things through and it’s almost like he acted in an emotional rather than a rational manner. He has gone to a Chelsea side that’s on the decline, and he is going to be competing with Drogba for a place in the starting line-up. It doesn’t make sense to me. (It’s also another ego to be managed in the dressing room for Chelsea).

    We spent nearly 23 million on Suarez in January, and we were also after Young and Adam, all before this Torres stuff broke-out, to me that sends a clear signal that the new owners are not afraid to invest in new players. Somehow this point seems to have been missed by Torres but I am hoping that the football world has seen this and we can get some quality individuals in the summer when there isn’t this mad rush that characterizes the Jan window.

    Linked to this: come the summer the Special One will be taking over!

  2. Ngoni says:

    It’s a bitter one to swallow but LFC has to move on gentlemen. Undoubtedly, the timing of Torres’ transfer request always meant that we were going to be left holding the short end of the stick. I know it hurts and it will take a while for us to come to terms with it, but let it be known, no player is bigger than LFC. It doesn’t matter what your name is, and if you need references ask a certain Michael Owen. I know it all seems gloomy, but we will be back and we will triumph. As for Andy Carroll, he probably is a good prospect but lets face it 35m is about 3 times what he’s really worth. Newcastle must be having a laugh, but that’s the situation Torres left us in. Couldn’t he hand in his transfer request at the start of the window or even wait until the end of the season. I doubt that this Andy character will ever justify such a fee, unless of course he scores 25 goals for 4 seasons in a row, but he’s a promising talent and can be quite a handfull so lets hope this will come off for The King. The whole situation is rather unfortunate for Suarez, who now has to hit the ground runnig, there is no honeymoon or bedding-in period. We need goals, and if he feels he needs to bite someone to score then he has to do that. Sunday is fast approaching and we’ll need to pull off something special, just to make a statement.

    YNWA, roll on the f****** REDS

  3. Sam says:

    I think we should not be overly concerned by the departure of Torres. He is definitely replaceable. The Carroll deal is an example of bad business. However you have to understand that the club needed a replacement, especially with Babel also leaving. We really had no option and Mike Ashley and co knew this. They did what any reasonable man would do. The cause of this is Torres, his timing was just k@k and it can’t be overemphasised.

    From a purely footballing perspective, I’m understanding NESV’s philosophy. Great teams are developed and not bought. They are buying all these young players, below 25, and building a team for the future, Fergie style. In all honesty we should write-off this season, it going to be another non-event. 6th will be excellent. Things hopefully should start happeninng next season, i.e top 4 and maybe domestic cup. In 2 years, this team will be be competing for the league. The good thing is that if you have a core team for 2 or 3 years, as players age and leave, you don’t need to make any wholesome changes or purchases, its a matter of plugging the holes and moving on, again Fergie style.

    The Palooka, to me, is Abramovich. He buys a player 27, with Torres’ medical history for 50m and possibly on 200k/week wages. I’d give Torres 3 years at the top level if he is lucky. The return on investment is negative, considering that out of West London, Chelsea has a pathetic global following, no-one will buy their shirts.

  4. Angelo says:

    My point is simple, and maybe I didn’t quite spell it out earlier….how many years have we been building? It normally takes other clubs 4-5 years….for Liverpool it’s been since the 80’s….let’s be frank here….

    Torres issue is a simple one, he got fed up with lack of progress at the club and in my opinion was man enough to do something about it…..got to give him 10/10 for it….considering the flack he is bound to get from fans all round. Whether the decision was rational or emotional, we need to take stock as a club here to make sure we prevent these kinda things happening again…Liverpool will be, with or without these players….but if we still had all our players that we had sold, players like Alonso, Babel, Garcia, Babel, Torres and now Suarez and Carroll, just imagine the heights we would be at now…. Instead we buy one average or injured player to come in for a top player…. And this has been the Liverpool way for some time now…

    The issue I DO have is the way and timing of this whole debacle…the utter disregard for the fans that once held him in such high regard and worshipped all his goals….and stuck by him when he looked no better than a red hot Charlton Cole……. My concerns are:
    What message does this send to other clubs….that when it suits them, they can turn our players heads with a dangling carrot, and we will fold?! Have we become a selling club?
    What message does it send to the other players in the change room? You can manufacture a move at any point, if you feel like it….what is stopping Reina going to ManUtd? Whats stopping Gerrard from joining Chelski? And Suarez going to man city by next season?

    So what or how would Fergie handle all of this? How would the Special One handle this? Fergie would have chucked the player in question with a boot and showed him what time it is, before banishing him to the reserves just for good measure…

    • Manny says:

      I agree with you Gelo,

      Liverpool have gotten accustomed to selling their best players to other clubs.

      And that’s why NESV went out of their way in Jan to buy Suarez (and hopefully Adam and Young), this whole Torres debacle just put a spanner in their works and has muddied the message they were trying to send across. As you said, Torres timing was just completely inappropriate! The new owners are trying to show they have the financial muscle to make Liverpool a buying club again.

      In this day and age players can leave whenever they want, regardless of who is the manager or who the owners are. (Alex couldn’t keep Ronaldo!)

      The game these days seems to be about who has the deepest coffers to entice the best players to the club.

      What’s stopping Torres from leaving to go to Barcelona next season?? Nothing except Barcelona’s transfer and wage kitty!!!

  5. Kava says:

    Torres just showed how classless and unprofessional he is. He was sulking this whole season, putting his career and the clubs ambitions in jeopardy at the same time. He is as much responsible for our malaise on the pitch as say Konchesky.

    We were winning trophies without him before and we will win trophies without him again. Torres has not earned the kind of understanding we could’ve afforded Stevie when he was tempted by the Chavs. I read his book as I’m sure you all have and you could tell as much as he wanted success he didn’t really want to leave Liverpool. I wouldv’e accepted as much from the man whose armband said he was a Red. Maybe the whole season he was wearing Chelsa jockstraps.

    The future is bright, gents. The owners belatedly showed they can spend some cash to get top talent and I believe we will see more from them in the summer.

  6. Bill says:

    I feel similar worries,we have to hope that something good will come from the transfers,they are no doubt over inflated in price,Torres left not for trophys but for more cash,what sweeteners were offered,house in London etc?
    Was this already pre arranged last year when the Chelsea supporting chairman was there???
    Quiet word etc.
    I hope for success and believe we may turn the corner,but to lose,Alonso,which I believe was our first real bad move,mascherano and now Torres for a 2 totally unproven strikers,in this league anyway is a very big gamble and to spend all the money accrued from the sale of Torres is nigh on criminal,we should have dug in and bought in the summer when the new regs come in and some sense of reason returns.

  7. Steve S says:

    Have some faith in Carroll – or should i say in Dalglish.

    When he was manager of Blackburn, he broke the british transfer records on a geordie striker and we all know where that ended up. Look at shearer’s record before he went to Blackburn, and tell me that people wouldn’t have had the same reservations about that signing?

    I’m not saying Carroll is Shearer, but give the guy a chance to prove himself. People are writing him off before he’s even had a chance to pull on the shirt !!

    Have faith – Torres didn’t want to play for us, now just get over it !

  8. Dave G says:

    We are still a big club and getting rid of FT9 was a good thing no more sulking up front just players giving there all. If torres would have shown that he was a least trying in the first half of this season then I would be gutted but he wasnt and neither did he perform in the world cup I really do think hes done a Owen and burnt out already.

    Time to stop moaning about transfer windows and get behind them. We need to look forward not back, yes we have a great history but its time to create some more and this is were it starts ladies and gents.

  9. MoKo says:

    I’m praying for stability. Live u said Gelo, this 4-5 year rebuild followed by a demolition will never work. We need to commit to a path and stick with it. The path must be strong enough that even a change in manager won’t shake it.