Would you keep Rodgers at the end of the season?

[an tha]

The problem isn't that we didn't replace Suarez or get backup for Sturridge, it's that we bought shite.

 

Lambert is championship quality and Baloteli is world renowned for being a lazy bastard who we then proceeded to play up top on his own as a target man. Add Borini to the mix and you've got £30 million that could have bought a truly world class player.

Or spending a combined 45m on Markovic and Lallana when we already have Sterling, Coutinho, Ibe....one of them is fair enough as an extra option both is buying players that we can't fit into the team...

[Dr. J]

 

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is not under pressure to win a trophy this season, ahead of their FA Cup semi final against Aston Villa.

 

Now there's a sentence awaiting thick description.

[Russ Atmosphere]

Or spending a combined 45m on Markovic and Lallana when we already have Sterling, Coutinho, Ibe....one of them is fair enough as an extra option both is buying players that we can't fit into the team...

Also rushing Suso out of the door for £1m to accommodate them.

[aws]

And spending £10m on a striker who we had to leave on loan. We were obviously so well off for strikers this season.

[Jairzinho]

As JP will tell you, Suso isn't good enough to be part of our squad.

[Mark M]

The problem isn't that we didn't replace Suarez or get backup for Sturridge, it's that we bought shite.

 

Lambert is championship quality and Baloteli is world renowned for being a lazy bastard who we then proceeded to play up top on his own as a target man. Add Borini to the mix and you've got £30 million that could have bought a truly world class player.

bingo

[Kevin D]

And spending £10m on a striker who we had to leave on loan. We were obviously so well off for strikers this season.

It's also worth pointing out that we spent January negotiating to get that same striker back. That is to say that we were trying to pay money to get a player we already own.

[zigackly]

http://bbc.in/1EVUHYb

 

Carra's point is that expectations of wining titles were fair when we were competing with Manchester United and Arsenal, but that now Manchester City and Chelsea are spending like drunks in a brothel it's harder, and no-one here is arguing with that.

 

Last season though we were comfortably better than Manchester United and Arsenal and we chucked that away, even while spending more than I think we ever have before. That's a damning indictment of the management of the club at every level, and Rodgers doesn't get a free pass for his part in it.

 

If we reach the FA Cup final and finish a close fifth I guess you could still call that competing, and for me it would probably satisfy the very minimum of my expectations, but it will still have been a shit season unless we go on to win the cup.

 

Whatever happens with Rodgers position in the summer we need to step our game up next season. Another season  of backsliding like this one, or even treading water, and we will have slipped even further away. That wouldn't be acceptable. 

[Major Tom]

We have been, what the 5th(?) best team on average in the last 5/6 years. It doesn't surprise me we are headed for that position again this season. Things conspired in our favour last season and we made hay. Good progress this season would have meant another top 4 finish, but - after losing Suarez - we needed to be spot on with our purchases and we weren't.

 

We were up against it anyway, mind. Utd spending like a drunken sailor and Arsenal purchasing from the top drawer as well.

 

5th is about par. As shit as that reality is.

[Tyler Durden]

We have been, what the 5th(?) best team on average in the last 5/6 years. It doesn't surprise me we are headed for that position again this season. Things conspired in our favour last season and we made hay. Good progress this season would have meant another top 4 finish, but - after losing Suarez - we needed to be spot on with our purchases and we weren't.

 

We were up against it anyway, mind. Utd spending like a drunken sailor and Arsenal purchasing from the top drawer as well.

 

5th is about par. As shit as that reality is.

What's your opinion if we finish 5th again next year?

[Major Tom]

What's your opinion if we finish 5th again next year?

 

On the manager? Dunno. Depends how it unfolds, I guess.

 

But I do honestly think, no matter who the manager is, that until our transfer strategy changes - or we get it absolutely spot on every summer (which is pretty unrealistic) - 5th is about our lot. Unless the teams above us under perform and/or spend less, of course.

[Tyler Durden]

What is the strategy though? He is part of the set up and I'm pretty sure he has said numerous times he has the final say on transfers so for me it doesn't wash that he is blameless, I'd say there is no argument really that he is pretty average at signing players.

 

Most our best players are players he has inherited despite a massive spend since coming in, last season was great but you've got to put a lot of that on having one of the best players in the world in your side in the form of his life, that's not to say it wasn't down to Rodgers aswell of course.

 

Some people think he can become a great manager but if I'm honest I haven't seen it yet, a great coach maybe but I'm not convinced yet about manager,

[JermainePennant]

We have been, what the 5th(?) best team on average in the last 5/6 years. It doesn't surprise me we are headed for that position again this season. Things conspired in our favour last season and we made hay. Good progress this season would have meant another top 4 finish, but - after losing Suarez - we needed to be spot on with our purchases and we weren't.

 

We were up against it anyway, mind. Utd spending like a drunken sailor and Arsenal purchasing from the top drawer as well.

 

5th is about par. As shit as that reality is.

I don't see how things went our way last season when we went on an incredible run the second half of the season and lost out on the title after one slip up.

 

Manu were shit but we finished above arsenal and Chelsea as we'll while only being a few points off the winners.

[Phoenix]

Minimum expectation would have been top four. If he doesn't meet that target he should be moved on (if there is a better manager available and willing to join us).

[Anubis]

It's also worth pointing out that we spent January negotiating to get that same striker back. That is to say that we were trying to pay money to get a player we already own.

 

Admit it. On the one hand you want to shake your head and sigh, but on the other there is a sadistic part of you that finds it entertaining and highly amusing watching us behave like the Keystone Cops let loose in the transfer market.

[Dr. J]

I'm sorry, but you simply can't run a results oriented business by tacitly accepting mediocrity. If the owners say that they cannot compete financially with the petro/oligarch clubs but they can spend a certain amount of cash in order to make it into the Cl then they need a manager capable of doing that.

 

If you run a business, you sack people who say you can't get there from here, who say you're goals are unobtainable and you should just settle for second rateism. You set your goals and find people who can make them happen. Yeah, you weed out the pie-in-the-sky chancers and bullshitters first, but eventually you agree on someone  you think has a realistic plan and enough skill to have a real go. That's how Rodgers got the job in the first place. You do not settle for someone who accepts mediocrity. 

[JermainePennant]

I'm sorry, but you simply can't run a results oriented business by tacitly accepting mediocrity. If the owners say that they cannot compete financially with the petro/oligarch clubs but they can spend a certain amount of cash in order to make it into the Cl then they need a manager capable of doing that.

 

If you run a business, you sack people who say you can't get there from here, who say you're goals are unobtainable and you should just settle for second rateism. You set your goals and find people who can make them happen. Yeah, you weed out the pie-in-the-sky chancers and bullshitters first, but eventually you agree on someone you think has a realistic plan and enough skill to have a real go. That's how Rodgers got the job in the first place. You do not settle for someone who accepts mediocrity.

The goals they set Rodgers were to put together a young squad and to be in a position to challenge for fourth at the end of his third season.

 

It wouldn't make sense to sack him because last season he was exceeding their targets, before anyone mentions last summer a big investment was not made and Rodgers spent 30-40m net which is what the summer budget has been under them normally.

[Major Tom]

Minimum expectation would have been top four. If he doesn't meet that target he should be moved on (if there is a better manager available and willing to join us).

Our last five finishes in the league have been 2, 7, 8, 6, 7. We are the 5th biggest spenders on wages and transfer fees.

 

How do you get from there to a minimum expectation of fourth place or sack the manager? For whichever manager happens to be in charge.

[Major Tom]

I don't see how things went our way last season when we went on an incredible run the second half of the season and lost out on the title after one slip up.

Manu were shit but we finished above arsenal and Chelsea as we'll while only being a few points off the winners.

What do you put the difference between last season and this one down to?

[Major Tom]

What is the strategy though? He is part of the set up and I'm pretty sure he has said numerous times he has the final say on transfers so for me it doesn't wash that he is blameless, I'd say there is no argument really that he is pretty average at signing players.

Most our best players are players he has inherited despite a massive spend since coming in, last season was great but you've got to put a lot of that on having one of the best players in the world in your side in the form of his life, that's not to say it wasn't down to Rodgers aswell of course.

Some people think he can become a great manager but if I'm honest I haven't seen it yet, a great coach maybe but I'm not convinced yet about manager,

I wasn't really defending Rodgers. I was more making a general point about our place in the current football landscape under the current ownership. I understand why people are sceptical of Rodgers. I also think 5th is about par for us.

[Phoenix]

Our last five finishes in the league have been 2, 7, 8, 6, 7. We are the 5th biggest spenders on wages and transfer fees.

 

How do you get from there to a minimum expectation of fourth place or sack the manager? For whichever manager happens to be in charge.

 

If it all depends on the wages and transfer fees, why bother paying someone £3million a year? 

 

Fourth from a Second position the year before and 110 million on transfer despite losing your best player is a reasonable expectation. Especially when one of the other challengers for the position is a new manager to the league.

[Dr. J]

 

How do you get from there to a minimum expectation of fourth place or sack the manager?

 

I don't know. A hundred million pounds investment to a team that finished second?

[Jairzinho]

If it all depends on the wages and transfer fees, why bother paying someone £3million a year? 

 

Fourth from a Second position the year before and 110 million on transfer despite losing your best player is a reasonable expectation. Especially when one of the other challengers for the position is a new manager to the league.

 

They finished 20 points below us last season and, as you say, had a new manager. I'm trying to imagine the expectancy if the roles were reversed. 

[Tyler Durden]

I'd say given that Utds defence has been decimated all season they'd have more of an argument to be hard done by then us, the fact that while that's happened while there has been such a swing between us in the league isn't really acceptable for me. Neither is going from 2nd to 5th with what we have spent supposedly mitigating Suarez leaving, if we eventually finish there.

 

If we finish trophy less and out the top 4 then I think if he starts the season like he has his previous 3 then he'll be gone by Christmas. I'm not really confident we will progress either next year, we will have lost most our leaders and have a squad full of fucking fannies, so we would need a massive turn around in our transfer business and nail every position/deal we need.

[Tony Moanero]

I'd sack the cunt just before kick off tomorrow.