Liverpool FC: The 30-Year Wait

[Barrington Womble]

I often wonder if it's an agent thing that stopped the anelka move. I know they made a big deal about his brothers being pricks (wasn't one of them his agent?) but the reality was he just wanted to use his normal agents. 

[Jordy Brouwer]

The really baffling Houllier signing was Salif Diao. £5m was a lot of money back then. He was basically a very athletic bloke who couldn't really play football. Apparently he wasn't even good in the reserves. 

 

As someone said before the reason we can look on Ged so fondly is because we don't have to deal with him any more so we are free to don the rose tinted glasses. 

[Arnaud]

4 minutes ago, Jordy Brouwer said:

The really baffling Houllier signing was Salif Diao. £5m was a lot of money back then. He was basically a very athletic bloke who couldn't really play football. Apparently he wasn't even good in the reserves. 

 

As someone said before the reason we can look on Ged so fondly is because we don't have to deal with him any more so we are free to don the rose tinted glasses. 

Couldn’t stand him, can’t stand him !

[Harry Squatter]

Phil Thompson said Anelka was bad news and was a moody twat who would have upset the dressing room. However, he was more proven in the Premier League than Diouf. The fact that Diouf was a complete and utter twat and wasn't even a decent player makes it more baffling.

[Barrington Womble]

47 minutes ago, Doctor Troy said:

Phil Thompson said Anelka was bad news and was a moody twat who would have upset the dressing room. However, he was more proven in the Premier League than Diouf. The fact that Diouf was a complete and utter twat and wasn't even a decent player makes it more baffling.

Yet people around the squad at the time just said he was a quite fella. Wasn't much involved with everyone as he always had his headphones on,. but was never any trouble and always worked hard. 

[Harry Squatter]

8 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Yet people around the squad at the time just said he was a quite fella. Wasn't much involved with everyone as he always had his headphones on,. but was never any trouble and always worked hard. 

Plus at the time he really seemed to enjoy playing for us. Which he has confirmed recently. 

 

I remember him scoring against Birmingham in the FA cup shortly after he signed and a few chants of his name piped up after his goal. Felt a bit weird as he was still seen as an Arsenal player to me, even though he had left them. 

[lifetime fan]

Watching it again now. It’s very good. 
 

Odd why Kenny and Souness aren’t involved.  Were they asked and declined? 

[Reckoner]

34 minutes ago, Doctor Troy said:

Plus at the time he really seemed to enjoy playing for us. Which he has confirmed recently. 

 

I remember him scoring against Birmingham in the FA cup shortly after he signed and a few chants of his name piped up after his goal. Felt a bit weird as he was still seen as an Arsenal player to me, even though he had left them. 

Also there was an Everton game were we had someone sent off. He played upfront by himself and was great, worked really hard for the team. We won 1-0 if I remember correctly

[littletedwest]

Just watching this now,  good stuff. As said earlier bit to much sue Johnson, nothing against her. Great to watch while having a beer

[Captain Turdseye]

On 07/09/2020 at 11:13, El Rojo said:

Passing up on signing Anelka was a seismic dereliction of duty by all concerned, especially when you look at who we brought in that summer instead. 
 

Of course he could be a difficult character, but he was a world class striker. Watched the glossy documentary about him on Netflix during the week and we’re the one club he almost seems warm towards, saying he liked the city and wanted to stay on. 

 

On 07/09/2020 at 14:05, Arnaud said:

Anelka is one of the worst person in the world. It would have turn sour quickly, it did actually because Ged did not actually give him a contract.

 

The tv report on Netflix is not a show, it’s Sovietic propaganda, no conflicting views.

I watched and enjoyed that documentary myself last week. Interesting to hear Arnaud’s perspective of it as a French Liverpool supporter. Didn’t Houllier say the only reason we didn’t sign him is because his brother/agent was talking to other clubs? Seems bizarre really because that’s completely normal these days. Surely it wasn’t that much different 15 years ago. 
 

I imagine all that stuff with the national team was and is still a huge part of football history over there. There’s been some mad scandals with the France team. 

[johnsusername]

On 07/09/2020 at 23:21, lifetime fan said:

Watching it again now. It’s very good. 
 

Odd why Kenny and Souness aren’t involved.  Were they asked and declined? 

I wonder if Kenny didn't want to steal any of klopp's thunder? You put Kenny on a Liverpool programme and he's number one. 

[s(k)aturation]

49 minutes ago, Captain Turdseye said:

 

I watched and enjoyed that documentary myself last week. Interesting to hear Arnaud’s perspective of it as a French Liverpool supporter. Didn’t Houllier say the only reason we didn’t sign him is because his brother/agent was talking to other clubs? Seems bizarre really because that’s completely normal these days. Surely it wasn’t that much different 15 years ago. 
 

I imagine all that stuff with the national team was and is still a huge part of football history over there. There’s been some mad scandals with the France team. 

 

If the Netflix doco was "Soviet propaganda" it seemed to have a lot of French footballing royalty lending what appeared to be reasonably honest and voluntary sympathetic sentiments - he came across as a talented footballer, who clashed with authority, might be a bit prickly, didn't quite fulfil potential, made a lot of money and has a good looking Mrs. Does it make him any more of an enigmatic, opportunistic prick than, say, Cantona?  Things can't be that easy, publicly, in a country that created it's "liberté, égalité, fraternité" schtick by cutting people's heads off on a mass industrial scale, while toothless old hags sat watching in the front row, knitting.

Mind you, we all have our faults.

 

 

 

 

 

[Barrington Womble]

8 hours ago, Captain Turdseye said:

 

I watched and enjoyed that documentary myself last week. Interesting to hear Arnaud’s perspective of it as a French Liverpool supporter. Didn’t Houllier say the only reason we didn’t sign him is because his brother/agent was talking to other clubs? Seems bizarre really because that’s completely normal these days. Surely it wasn’t that much different 15 years ago. 
 

 

That was just houllier's excuse because he never wanted him, he was just a stop gap. He thought it would play well with the fans and it did to some extent when people thought diouf might be good. Why wouldn't anelka's agent talk to other teams if he didn't have a solid offer on the table from LFC? In just the same way I'm sure we were talking to diouf, which was why we were able to get the deal done before the world cup. 

[Arnaud]

8 hours ago, Captain Turdseye said:

 

I watched and enjoyed that documentary myself last week. Interesting to hear Arnaud’s perspective of it as a French Liverpool supporter. Didn’t Houllier say the only reason we didn’t sign him is because his brother/agent was talking to other clubs? Seems bizarre really because that’s completely normal these days. Surely it wasn’t that much different 15 years ago. 
 

I imagine all that stuff with the national team was and is still a huge part of football history over there. There’s been some mad scandals with the France team. 

Yes, weird comment by Houllier, but remember the documentary has been made by Anelka’ people so it’s only their perspective. Ged may have talked hours and their only put this bit ?

 

Anelka was totally mad. He went on strike at Real because the manager only agreed to speak after the training, not before.

 

With Gerrard, and Houllier and Thommo, it would have been nasty  pretty quickly.

 

Anelka is really stupid, his dream is to live in Dubai says his wife. How sad this is ....

 

 

[Arnaud]

7 hours ago, skaro said:

 

If the Netflix doco was "Soviet propaganda" it seemed to have a lot of French footballing royalty lending what appeared to be reasonably honest and voluntary sympathetic sentiments - he came across as a talented footballer, who clashed with authority, might be a bit prickly, didn't quite fulfil potential, made a lot of money and has a good looking Mrs. Does it make him any more of an enigmatic, opportunistic prick than, say, Cantona?  Things can't be that easy, publicly, in a country that created it's "liberté, égalité, fraternité" schtick by cutting people's heads off on a mass industrial scale, while toothless old hags sat watching in the front row, knitting.

Mind you, we all have our faults.

 

 

 

 

 

Only his friends were invited to speak....

[s(k)aturation]

44 minutes ago, Arnaud said:

Only his friends were invited to speak....

 

Fair enough. 

 

Although I'm not quite sure what higher purpose could be achieved by a "propaganda" video for an ex-French footballer, if that was the producers' intention.

 

He struck me as no more nor less a tosser than many modern-day players.

 

I think it was a piece of documentary entertainment, rather than anything more sinister.  

Comme ci, comme ça.

 

After he went to City, I did think perhaps we might have done better to keep him.  We'll never know.