BG

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Doubt it. I don't doubt for a second that Sturridge could have received similarly world class treatment in the UK. Kelly (his surgeon) is widely respected in the field but no more so than, say, Prof Fares Haddad at UCL in London. As for physio rehab it's a highly specialist area and the job of club physios is not to be experts in the rehab of specific problems following operations. For that you go to the sort of ultra specialist now seeing DS.

How so?

It remains a very serious injury but the orthopaedic technique and rehab process has improved significantly (the orthopods at work tell me) in the last 25 years.

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He was at Liverpool when we signed Suarez and at Spurs when they signed Bale and Modric. He may just be lucky but as Napoleon said of his generals better to be lucky than good... Additionally when he was here there didn't seem to be so many contract situations drifting on as far as I remember.

Some years ago I worked for a start-up where the owner was also the chairman of a lower league team. From time to time he would chat about what was going on there, his plans for the new stadium etc. It was always an amusement in a dull moment (of which there were many) to go online on that clubs forum and see all the s*** that was being chatted about what the club was about to do etc...

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Or the Monk family.

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Picking over everything he's ever said is tiresome. The things he's done or not done (organise the back four, sign enough good and great players) are all I really care about.

I think Andreas Brehme tool penalties with either foot... I'm pretty sure I remember being surprised in 1990 when he took the pen in the World Cup final with his right.

[quote name="Molby" post="3805090" timestamp="1433411150 This is the kind of example that I'd hope FSG might follow I think they are more bent on following the example of that poor fellow on here years ago who was considering flying over a young Russian that had caught his eye on the Internet and had good stats.

Agreed. None of the centre halves bar Skrtel (just about) and Carra have ever looked convincing under BR for long periods. Personally I think BR can't organise the back four and so no one will ever look good there. Really think if he stays he needs a specialist defensive coach.

Had the same thought the other day. He could just be a lucky man and who knows what exactly his role was at Liverpool and Spurs but he was there when Suarez, Bale and Modric were signed. And Henderson... Obviously there was a fair amount of rubbish signed at both clubs too... I might be putting too much gloss on this but I also felt when he was around contracts etc got sorted out more quickly and professionally: someone really out to be doing this as their main job. My impression is at the moment Ayre does it when he's not fulfilling other MD functions which is a recipe for disaster.

Agreed on the f***-up point. The current squad has players in at that Rafa signed. If we're going to assess the quality of our buys over that period then it makes more sense to look at all the players signed since then. I'm excluding the players that were cheap and made no impact (the Jack Hobbs, the Barragans etc). Foreign: Morientes, Pellegrino, Nunez, Alonso, Garcia, Josemi, Cisse, Agger, Reina, Kronkamp, Sissoko, Gonzalez, Lucas, Mascherano, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Aurelio, Palletta, Skrtel, Insua, Babel, Leto, Torres, Voronin, Dossena, Cavalieri, Riera, Ngog, Maxi, Kyrgiakos, Aquilani, Poulson, Meireles, Suso, Suarez, Doni, Coates, Borini, Assaidi, Coutinho, Alberto, Aspas, Ilori, Sakho, Can, Markovic, (Origi), Moreno, Ballotelli Domestic: Carson, Bellamy, Fowler, Crouch, Zenden, Pennant, Bennayounn, Itandje, Keane, Johnson, Shelvey, Wilson, Cole, Jones, Konchesky, Carroll, Henderson, Adam, Downing, Enrique, Ibe (youth team), Sterling (youth team), Mignolet, Toure, Lambert, Lallana, Lovren An awful lot of dross and mediocrity on both lists but when you look at both lists there are an awful lot more clear hits on the foreign list than the domestic one. A foreign XI, e.g., Reina, Arbeloa, Skrtel, Agger, Aurelio, Kuyt, Alonso, Mascherano, Coutinho, Suarez, Torres looks pretty handy compared to any XI that could be made of players we've signed from the Premier league.

The wages he wants are more than apparently Neuer and Muller get...

Benteke at 32m is a bit of a worry. Even without his injury record. 32m would probably buy any player in any league apart from Spain, Germany, England and Italy and France (or PSG) - I'm struggling with the idea that there's not someone better in Brazil or Argentina or Portugal or Holland etc But maybe our lot are seeing something I'm not.

Agree with this. They're clearly not ideal sugar daddy owners but: 1) They're not malign like the last lot 2) They're nowhere near as stupid as Moores - they are clearly quite smart people 3) They are actually increasing capacity. If this had been done 20 years ago as it obviously should have we'd doubtless be in a much better place. But they should still sack Rodgers and bring in Klopp.

It's a weird area of medicine that not many people know much about. One of the few people who actually did have a big reputation in the area was fired by us in 2012. Not sure it was ever clear why.

Agreed. I think the overwhelming feeling is a kind of resignation that we're here again. As it happens I think Rodgers has faired far better than here than either Houllier or Benitez did given the level of invective they both attracted towards the end and their relative achievements in comparison to Rodgers'. I agree with the points that if Sturridge had been fit we'd have fared better. That said all of the principal forwards at the club - the cover in the unbelievably unexpected event that Sturridge was injured - were signed by Rodgers.

I couldn't see a thread on this and think it should have one. RIP the 39 who lost their lives 30 years ago tomorrow. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/27/heysel-stadium-disaster-30th-anniversary http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/27/heysel-stadium-disaster-30th-anniversary

Of course it affected the price. 1. It made him a riskier buy as if he does anything much wrong he faces a long spell on the sidelines. 2. It makes him less marketable.

It's the hope that kills you.