alias75

Someone at the club needs to release a statement, its almost surreal that we're still unbeaten in the league and there are rumours the managers been sacked. If theres any truth in this G+H will have no way back with me i just cannot see the logic if it happens, we as supporters are now holding to the whim of a couple of wealthy men with big egos.

Ron Paul a Republican candidate for US President raised $4.4 million on Nov 5th all donations over the internet. There must be millions of Liverpool fans worldwide if the worst case scenario happens id like to think the fans would do something about it.

Think Rafa's point is the game in december could be too late, we may have missed out on the targets if we wait that long. Im sure he tried to explain how the window but it looks like he was given the answer to wait until the Utd game. I agree what happened in the pre-match interview was pretty childish, but Hick's reply didnt help things either. They have to trust Rafa on footballing matters, and transfers are footballing matters. Whether the money is there or not is their concern but to say he can't even consider selling players before the Utd game is telling Rafa how to manage the playing staff.

It really is a sad indictment on the way football has gone that theres even speculation that Rafa could be sacked because he had the nerve to tell new owners (that know very little about the game) how to deal with the transfer window. I still cant believe G+H would commit suicide like this, because they know they'd lose any goodwill from the fans towards them immediately if this happened, plus their losing a manager that's really turned the team around and is fundamental to its future success it just doesnt make sense. What type of manager are we going to get if this is how they do business? It won't be Mourinho thats for sure whether you like him or not no top class manager in their right mind will sign for owners that want to tell them how to manage the football team, it'll be another Avram Grant yes man type. Ive already lost a lot of my passion for football in recent times, the way these egotistical money men have taken over and control the emotions of millions of fans has killed the game. If Rafa is sacked i think G+H are going to realise what a huge mistake they've made because the fans wont stand for it.

Fair point and your probably correct that being a regular for Bolton will mean he wants more football, but the same applies to Momo, im sure hes not happy how far down the pecking order hes gone and to be blunt even when he plays hes a liability at the moment, we must be paying him big money that could be used elsewhere. Maybe Spearing is a better replacement as 5th choice.

Theres also Danny Guthrie of course whos getting some valuable experience in the PL and can play CM, why can't he be our 5th choice? Im sure Momo isnt happy being a bit part player anyway.

Agree if you can sign an England U21 player on a bosman you should do it, because if nothing else his value is overblown because hes English. Even if he doesnt make it here theres the sell on potential. Of course ideally he becomes a regular first team player, but it makes sense. I didnt realise he was out of contract in the summer, how did the Geordies allow that to happen?

Taylor has been shocking this season although in that defence its hard to judge he was very good last season, plus he can cover right back. On a Bosman its hard to be upset if it happens because as a young English player he'll be valuable if it doesnt quite work out.

I think its pretty obvious Sissoko is 5th choice now, Mascherano is as good a ball winner as anyone plus he can pass it and keep it, Lucas as you'd expect from a Brazilian plays with so much time and composure. There's maybe half a dozen games a season when we need a real ball winner, for the vast majority the key is keeping it and being progressive, Mascherano gives us that ball winner for those tough games, i just dont see the sense in keeping Sissoko on big money. Id be happy to cash in now while we can and even if someone like Spearing has to be 5th choice central midfield so be it.

Someone certainly needs to have a word with Hicks and explain this is not how we do things. While i do feel Rafas childish behaviour at the press conference was wrong, he doesnt need to be told how to run a football team by some American with no real knowledge of the game. I would not be surprised if theres some more quotes from the US in the next few days defusing the situation.

Ok but now we know roughly what the disagreement is about, don't you think Rafa's comments yesterday were very childish too? What we have is 3 big egos trying to get the last word, unfortuneately since 2 of those egos own the club theres only 1 winner in that argument if it gets that far. I fully agree G+H should keep their noses out of footballing matters but finances are their concern. One thing is clear this is not the way the club should be conducting its business from both ends its not the Liverpool way, hopefully they both see how silly they look and this will be sorted out.

Ok fair enough but whats wrong with waiting until December? He cant sign anyone new until January anyway so just concentrate on the players we have and the key games we have in the next week or so. Nowhere are they saying theres no money in January just wait until their over in December, that doesnt mean he can't approach players before then, no one is going to sign for someone else before January.

I can see both sides of this, on the one hand, G+H did give Rafa the money to get the players he wanted in the summer, except for a defender. We have a very big squad and some big earners that hardly figure. I can imagine G+H looking at the wages some of the fringe players get and its very hard to justify it, for players that maybe start 10 games a season. Now Rafa wants to add more players to that squad, i think their comments about concentrating on the games ahead and working with the players we have are fair enough. I can also understand that if we want to secure the players Rafa wants we may need to do a lot of the work before January, but lets be honest in January the selling clubs hold all the aces anyway and these deals are very rarely plain sailing, i dont see anything wrong with waiting until December i dont see that making a huge difference. Rafa started the whole episode by being pretty childish at the press conference, now it looks like a battle of the egos, hopefully it'll be smoothed over and it doesnt affect the team.

Agree with most of this but we can't sell anyone until January anyway so why sanction anything now? We could get an injury next week that means we need to keep players we might agree to sell.

I probably didn't say that as i meant, what i meant was the squad is already too big, we already have 3 or 4 top international players that are at best fringe players picking up big money for not much return, if you add another 2 players to that without anyone leaving it doesnt make sense. Our wage bill must be huge that is a concern of G&H and rightly so, they shouldnt be telling Rafa who to sign but they should be responsible for the outlay we have on wages and the return we're getting from those players. I dont think you can justify paying some players millions of pounds a season for being fringe players. Surely it makes much more sense to use the best prospects from the reserves to fill those positions in the squad?

to be fair they werent commenting on that, just that any potential transfers in January will be discussed in December and not now. Lets be honest its only a few weeks away and we usually leave things until the last minute anyway.

Thats what i think, we must be paying silly money in wages for players that will start maybe 15 games a season, yes you need strength in depth and options but why does our 5th choice midfielder have to be an international on big money? how about a squad of 21-22 top players and then 4 or 5 of our top young players making up the rest, this way the wage bill is cut and we dont have internationals getting unhappy cos they dont play very often. If Rafa is asking for 1 or 2 more players on top of what we already have i can't justify that unless players are moved out.

Ok but we now have a very big squad of players most of them will be on very big money, we already have some players earning big money and hardly featuring in the first team, i think its perfectly fair to look at that and see if we can justify keeping so many players on huge money. Why can't our 5th choice central midfielder be a youngster on much smaller money? we have internationals that hardly figure that are worth decent money maybe it makes more sense to have those fringe players made up of youngsters on smaller wages that dont expect to play all the time.

Exactly maybe they saw Riise's pay slip! But they must look at the wages we spend on players like Sissoko who plays maybe 20 games a season and wonder if we can trim the squad a little and save a lot of money, we certainly have a small group of players on very big money that figure very briefly.

Well maybe they could discuss if the money was there for that player since they write the cheques. Im not saying they tell Rafa who to buy or who to sell, but with a squad the size of ours any new signing should be justified and it should also mean 1 player leaving if ones coming in. The one exception is centre back where we need cover, but i see no reason for more players in the first team without selling, we have far too many players not contributing much on big wages as it is.

Ok but how many players do we need? I don't remember them saying they'll give Rafa the money to sign whoever he wants, they did say they'd. always support him as a manager and so far they have. Its all speculation anyway because we dont know what if anything has happened but the quotes of G&H suggest its transfer related. But at some point you have to justify your signings, we have a very big squad as it is, i think its perfectly fair if we want to sign 1 or 2 new players to have to sell first, we have internationals that aren't getting enough games as it is. I dont see anything wrong with G&H sitting down with Rafa before January to talk over potential transfers or Mascherano's signing.

Sissoko is arguably 5th choice midfielder at the moment, Pennant is behind Gerrard and Benayoun for me on the right. Riise isnt good enough so id play Arbeloa and Aurelio in front of him, plus Insua might get a few games and Carson hasnt been here all year anyway. We could sell those 4 and sign maybe 2 players without it affecting our options, in fact it'd probably strengthen us providing we signed the right players.

Ok, but where does it end? I think its perfectly fair to tell him he has to sell before he can buy in January we have 4 or 5 very saleable players that we could sell without it effecting our options, Sissoko, Carson, Riise, Pennant could bring in maybe 20 million then theres Crouch who would go for 10+ million if we wanted to cash in.

Whats the panic we usually wait until January 31st anyway!

Ok but there isnt unlimited funds available, he had more than enough to get the players in the summer if the right players weren't available then he should have waited if they were that important. I reckon it has something to do with Mascherano and other signings, and i really hope we manage to get Masch signed ASAP, if it means losing Sissoko, Riise, Carson, Pennant then so be it.