JonShar

Was BR considering Flanagan as the natural replacement?

That's right, cheers. Bloody ace Bosman at that.

This. And this. As you know, I was replying to a post that said "and as we've pretty much declared (through our actions) that we are not a club that will sign top established players any more, it's not looking too rosy at the minute" Barnes played for Watford, he was nowhere near a top established player. Beardsley, as Begbie mentioned, was rated, but he wasn't a top player. Xabi had about 7 Spanish caps when he signed for us, not yet a top player. Reina didn't have any caps when he signed for us from Villarreal. Lovren and Lallana are nowhere near top established players, as they've shown for much of this season. Kvarme comes closest to naming some - Ince, although he was 30 when he joined us, Hamann, although he had less than 130 professional appearances when he joined us, Babbel was probably the closest, although I think even he was cheap. I never said we've always signed a player for potential, I said we've never been a club that bought the finished article in their prime. We never went for a Van Persie, a Fabregas, a Lineker, a Tevez, a Shearer. This doomsday nonsense that 'these owners' have made it clear that's not what we're going to buy are following in the footsteps of every other owner we've ever had.

That and it was in the last seconds of a match against one of our biggest rivals, a crucial match in the scheme of things, and we were only a goal down. Of course Skrtel is going for that ball. It's a crap decision by the FA, they didn't take any of that into account.

When were we a club that signed 'top established players'? It's a myth, we never were. We've always signed players with potential - the last time we bought a real superstar was Morientes, and he was at the tail end of his career. We didn't face much, if any, competition for Torres/Suarez when we signed them - they went on to be world class for us, but when we signed them they weren't at that level yet.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

That's a great video, first time I've really been able to put my head around how it was going to come together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26QNQJ04QJA

This content is not viewable to guests.

Agreed, Johnson was fine, seemed to have a better first touch than anyone else on the pitch.

I'd take Coleman quite happily.

This is true. Whatever people think of FSG, they're not mugs as businessmen, and they've no track record of putting 'yes men' in position. Think Ayre has been left there to fill a purpose and he'll be on a plan to be upgraded, but he's not done too badly. That doesn't mean I don't think he's a massive whopper though.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Haha thank you, probably my best work ever!

BRENDAN. RODGERS.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Is right. Has hundreds of million quids worth of attacking talent and plays near enough every match with 2 defensive midfielders. He's a f***ing fraud. Like this?

I saw that as a deliberate tactic. He didn't have them set up as defensively as vs. Besiktas, but they seemed to be content with occupying space just inside their half and pinning their fullbacks back, without getting beyond their fullbacks so we were screwed if we lost position. Thought positionally they were both really good today.

Is right, it's good to see it get to this point.