Today is August the 1st. So we enter the last month on the transfer window. We're one day away from our first competitive game, 17 days away from our first league game of the season and 31 days away from the end of the Summer transfer window.
When Kenny was fired, I wrote a post saying I was excited about the future held. I stated that FSG were way too smart too make such an unpopular move without having a hell of a plan lined up to take Liverpool Football Club forwards.
That plan is evident now for me and is summed up in 3 words:
Lack of Ambition.
Thats what's killed me the most this Summer. Complete lack of ambition from top to bottom.
Lets start with the sacking of Kenny. Now, rightly or wrongly, it happened and even the staunchest Kenny fan would say they had a case.
What happened next is what worries me:
Fabio Capello, Louis Van Gaal and Rafael Benitez. 3 of the greatest managers in the history of world football and one of the greatest of this century are all available and reported to be interested in taking the job. What do FSG do? They go for a man with one year's experience in top flight football whose greatest achievement in his career was wining the Championship play off final.
Why? Because he plays nice football and is young? Or because he's not as expensive as the other 3?
Leaving alone the whole mess about changing the strategy of having a DOF/Technical director/manager threepartite comittee to fit the needs of Brendan Rodgers (he of championship play off final winning fame), by ignoring the 3 best names available (and interested) on the market, FSG displayed a shocking lack of ambition there and then.
Move on to our transfer targets and what do we see? More lack of ambition. With 2 and half weeks to go till the 1st game of the season, we've let 2 senior players go and bought one in. We have a weaker squad today then we did at the end of last season. We are at a standstill in transfers because it's patently obvious we're fucking potless.
And who are targetting? Mid table players like Clint fucking Dempsey who no other club aiming for top 4 are chasing. How the fuck did the club convince so many fans that likes of Dempsey is the best we can get? How the fuck has it come to this?
We self pity so much and set the targets so low when 18 months ago we were 3 points of the bottom of the premier league and went and bought one of the hottest players in Europe in Luis Suarez. There are players like Santi Cazorla at an unstable club who would be absolutely fucking perfect for us and we are doing next to fuck all to try to entice him to come to us.
Where's the "project"? Where's the fucking ambition?
Liverpool Football Club have done a wonderful job of convincing its supporters that it's impossible to entice top class players without Champions League football. That's absolute bullshit. Players will go to non CL clubs, just as long as they are paid top drawer wages. Cazorla is a perfect exemple, as he joined Malaga last Summer who were not in the Champions League.
The reality is, it's not the European Cup we are not offering: it's the medium to top bracket wages that Liverpool Football Club are not offering.
Gerard Houllier spoke a lot of crap but he did say one thing that always stuck in my mind "Aim for the moon and you may hit the stars". It's about having lofty targets, about going for the best, about always trying to improve.
This Summer is so similar to the one in 2010 its scary. Players coming in late to pre season after an international tournament. Early Europa League games against unpronounceable teams. Terribly difficult first few fixtures in the league.
New manager comes in from a mid table club off the back of a good season to replace a club legend. Speaks a shitload in press conferences, mostly about himself and his "methods". We aim terribly low in the transfer market, signing players who have played for that manager before and target mid range players. All that's left now is for Agger to pull a Mascherano and fuck us off in a couple of weeks.
People say some of some of us Reds fans are drama queens. Well...
We've finished 7th,6th and 8th in our last 3 seasons.
We've had 4 managers since 2010.
We've missed out on CL qualification for 3 seasons.
We've, since 2009, sold our best or very good players every season (Alonso, Yossi, Mascherano, Torres, Meireles etc...) a couple of times to our direct rivals.
We've been through 2 sets of owners and close to administration.
We've spend a shitload of money on horribly average players and made the most idiotic transfer deals in the history of global sport.
But yeah, we're drama queens.
It's bollocks. On field we are, presently, at the worst state it's been we've 1994. We had, then, come off the back of 3 league seasons where we finished 6th 6th and 8th.
The difference between then and now is how fucking rotten this club has become. When Roy Evans came in then, he had strong and experienced men like Ronnie Moran around him to give him strength. Who the fuck does Rodgers have now? There's no support group around him for what is one of the toughest management jobs in all of sport. Evans didnt have such a competitive league to compete with. We could still outspend a huge majority of clubs.
One last thing about Rodgers and I know this wont be popular but I have to share it once and pray Im fucking wrong: Every part of me says that this guy is a phoney. He's a fake. He's a snake eye salesman. He cant shut the fuck up about himself and his methods. That story about his 180 pages book the other day, the constant talk about his way of playing, about his experiences etc...
Im a salesman. Every time I look at Rodgers and hear him speak, I cant help but think what a brilliant bullshitter he is. Hope to fuck Im wrong and my instincts are way off the mark on this one, but there you go. That's my feeling at the moment.
But phoney or not, the guy needs help. Theres noone around him. Kenny had Sir Bob and Peter Robinson first time round. Who does Rodgers have? Ian Ayre? A set of owners who know less than a 6 year old about the sport?
There's no structure around the place, there's no plan and there's no ambition. We seem to be limping into the new season crossing our fingers none of our best players will leave rather than bringing in some other people who can become part of our elite group of players.
Anyone that's not, at the very least, mildly worried about where we're headed is deluded.
Great article.
Posted by: Rafa Benitez | 08/05/2012 at 10:53 AM