Official Premier League 2009/10 thread

[stokeriño]

Dunno. They were off to my right so I never really bothered to look at them.

And it was last year that my presence at the Bridge spurred Chelsea on to shiteness.

[Guest Sanctimony]

This is definetely Rooney's best season and if he stays fit he's gonna be the star of the World Cup. I guarentee it. Nice to see Berba scoring as well, and i for one hope Liverpool never sack Rafa Benitez.

[Baddar]

Well, he's scoring, that's for sure, but his best season at United? I wouldn't jump on that bandwaggon just yet. There's been plenty of times this season where he's been below average. The same can be said for most of the side, but if he's going to be the one the media jump on as being the "get out of jail card" for United, then we need him to perform when others don't, a la Ronaldo.

[Hobo]

This is definetely Rooney's best season and if he stays fit he's gonna be the star of the World Cup. I guarentee it. Nice to see Berba scoring as well, and i for one hope Liverpool never sack Rafa Benitez.

Well Benitez has been a quite successful manager for Liverpool, despite your snide remark. I've said it before, I feel sorry for him. He's hog tied terrible owners and under performing/injured players.

[britneyspearsisgod]

Well Benitez has been a quite successful manager for Liverpool, despite your snide remark. I've said it before, I feel sorry for him. He's hog tied terrible owners and under performing/injured players.

Benitez is by no means the worst manager and clearly has credentials. However, the entire club is at fault, including Benitez. Despite his terrible owners and his under performing team, he still picked that team. He is the one who was authorized to spend the money on those players. Were they his number one targets? Most likely not. But then why did he settle for some of the dross he's got there? And not to mention that he's the person picking these players. And not to also mention he's the one who has to motivate these players. Obviously he can't make miracles happen if he's got a team of uninterested bastards playing for him. However, it has to be accepted he hasn't performed good enough considering the lofty aspirations he held at the start of the season. It reminds me of the whole Newcastle/Kevin Keagan scenario when he made his "famous" outburst at the top and then proceeded to completely fuck it up. And has he ever been the same since? I argue no.

Is this as far as Benitez can take the club? Who knows. He has had injuries and bad luck (beach balls are scoring against them, after all), but some managers have the aptitude to turn it around in these situations.

I do believe it would be unjust to sack him now, however. He deserves the end of the season and to be able to sit down and decide how to solve the problems. If they don't improve next season, then sack him.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Some would probably say that at the time Liverpool couldn't really afford Torres thus would be forced to make that their marquee signing for a few seasons... the problem being that once Torres started being wonderful the expectation level rose to stupid levels and Benitez had no clue how to make the club as sucessful as the fans think they should be.

He clearly tried to make a 'quick fix' over multiple times, Robbie Keane never looked to me like a played he'd been tracking for years, neither did half of his defenders signed. The problem is that whilst this was going on his long term prospects didn't turn out to be as magnificent as they should have been.

For example, lets just assume that it's true that Benitez could only sign players for his reserve team. Over the past few seasons here are some of the signings other top four clubs have made for their reserves: Daniel Sturridge, Ritchie De Laet, Aaron Ramsey. Other clubs have managed to do this well and develop amazing players but Liverpool haven't managed to produce anything on that level... except Insúa who only broke through after the other left-backs turned out to be toss.

[IAceI]

Benitez didn't sign Keane, the board did after they failed with Barry.

Just sayin' before the Liverpool fans show up in droves.

[therockbox]

Regarding the reserves, you've misunderstood the point entirely. He wasn't signing these young players as 'reserves' for the first team, he was signing young players that, at a football club that was run properly, would have gone into the academy. Then, if they were good enough, they would have moved up into the reserves. Also if you're going to mention Sturridge and Ramsey you should probably mention their costs as well, given that Sturridge could cost Chelsea £6m or so and Ramsey cost Arsenal £5m. Insua, who you mentioned, only cost £1m or so (the actual fee was undisclosed, but all reports from the likes of Tony Barrett indicate it was barely in the seven figures).

I think you're well off the mark saying we haven't produced anything on the level of Sturridge, Ramsey and De Laet (wasn't he signed when he was 20? Hardly a young player in the sense of signing 16/17 year olds). Martin Kelly was one of the few players to perform at the u20 World Cup last year when England were shit, and he is highly regarded by a number of coaches in that set-up as a potential England centre back. Daniel Pacheco was one of Barcelona's highest rated prospects, has looked far too good for the reserves and would probably have made a few first team appearances this season if it wasn't for our horrendous form. Lauri Dalla Valle is another whose incredibly highly rated, and was linked with a £5m move to Fulham in the summer. I could mention others - Gulacsi, Buchtmann, Mavinga, Nemeth are just a few who, at the very least, have a chance of breaking into the first team squad. This is the first time Benitez has had this luxury - because of the failures of the academy we haven't had players coming through to fill in squad places, he's had to go out and sign players for £1-2m to fill in the gaps, whereas Man Utd and Arsenal have had some excellent prospects coming through who can play 10 games or so a season.

He clearly tried to make a 'quick fix' over multiple times, Robbie Keane never looked to me like a played he'd been tracking for years

The whole Keane fiasco was a fuck up from start to finish. His signing was dependent on getting Barry as well, who was Rafa's first choice that summer. The price we were originally quoted for him was within our budget but Parry, Hicks and Gillett decided he wasn't worth that amount of money. Keane was then signed regardless of the fact that Barry was key to Keane 'working' in the team, because it would have led to a change of system.

That's never been officially confirmed, so people will always be skeptical about it (like Ace), which is fair enough. But given that it essentially led to the Parry/Rafa 'showdown' and Parry's exit, coupled with stuff that's come out through Barrett and others in the Echo, I don't think it's fair to dismiss it entirely.

[HailtotheYo]

give 'em the point for a draw, or three for the win ... and they're still in the same stinking spot (due to GIH by Villa). So can we quit whining about that beach ball already ?

Rafa doesn't have the "whatever" it takes to be a title contending manager and the club is in shambles from the top down. The players seem to have left their heart in the locker room (or at home) and the "bad luck" is mounting up casualties at a torrid pace. Odd it seems to be sticking around 'Pool eh ?

No matter where the blame lies, everybody on that club has done their part to make this situation absolute shit. Gut the team at every level and start over.

[therockbox]

Rafa doesn't have the "whatever" it takes to be a title contending manager

Contended it in England last season, and has won La Liga twice.

If we weren't called Liverpool nobody would expect us to be challenging for the title.

[Scott McFly]

Ugh, Andy Gray in being a twat shocker.

*Klasnic scores goal, but flagged for offside*

"That was very... very... *pause for effect* close"

*Replay shows he's 2 yards offside*

"Just... didn't come back quick enough, good finish though"

So he was a mile offside there Andy? Why not say that? That always annoys me when the linesman flags offside and the pundit will go "ooh, that's very, very close" at the replay where in fact the player is, no matter how marginally, offside. So in actual fact it's a BRILLIANT spot by the linesman but it's always shaken off as "oh it was a close call that one".

Yes I'm in cynic mode today. >_>

[HailtotheYo]

Rafa doesn't have the "whatever" it takes to be a title contending manager

Contended it in England last season, and has won La Liga twice.

If we weren't called Liverpool nobody would expect us to be challenging for the title.]

That kind of reinforces what I'm saying about Rafa. The name is what the expectation is on, not the man in charge (or anything else).

As the team has turned over to "his" team now, they've progressively fallen off the pace. Judging by league placement, last year was the exception. I understand that there is more to it than just him, however in this situation he clearly isn't the man for the job. While he might be hamstrung from higher up in some regards, he's certainly had the talent/ability in his squads since he joined to have better EPL placement than he has.

[Szumi]

You be a cynic, and I'll be happy. Big draw for West Ham on the road, and out of the bottom three again. Now hopefully the takeover will get finished up in the next couple of days to help us bring in a player or two to make sure we're not relegated. With how badly the squad gets raped by injuries, we need all the depth we can get.

[HailtotheYo]

Mr Wenger,

Please sign a FWD and a MID during the window so we can properly finish and also get the absolutely shit on the ball Diaby off the pitch.

PLZKTHX

- Arsenal Fan

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Mr Wenger,

Please sign a FWD and a MID during the window so we can properly finish and also get the absolutely shit on the ball Diaby off the pitch.

PLZKTHX

- Arsenal Fan

The fuck is all this Diaby hate I constantly see lately? He's coming along greatly I feel. Sometimes great at dribbling with the ball for his height and build, fits into the Arsenal team brilliantly I'd say. Just never understood why so many people put the guy down when he's clearly improving his game and will only get better.

[therockbox]

Rafa doesn't have the "whatever" it takes to be a title contending manager

Contended it in England last season, and has won La Liga twice.

If we weren't called Liverpool nobody would expect us to be challenging for the title.]

As the team has turned over to "his" team now, they've progressively fallen off the pace. Judging by league placement, last year was the exception. I understand that there is more to it than just him, however in this situation he clearly isn't the man for the job. While he might be hamstrung from higher up in some regards, he's certainly had the talent/ability in his squads since he joined to have better EPL placement than he has.

Finished third in 05/06 and 06/07, fourth in 07/08, and second in 08/09. That's hardly 'progressively' falling off the pace. We've mostly battled with Arsenal for third though, and given the superior resources available to Man Utd and Chelsea (and the difference in squads amongst the top four when Rafa arrived) I'd say that's about as good as can be expected. His record in the Champions League over this time (vital for the money it brought into the club, it basically paid for his net expenditure) is also as good as anyone's.

We're massively underachieving this season, and yet we're still only four points off fourth. Given his record so far, he deserves a chance to put it right.

[Thrilla]

We interupt this episode of the 'Liverpool saga' for some breaking news...

Suck on that Fulham!

And now back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

[9 to 5]

Us - 1

Liam - 0

[Guest Stan Kroenke]

Arsenal are not looking like world-beaters here.

[Evafreak]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8464392.stm

Best thing to happen today hands down