Xabi Alonso: Welcome back to Anfield.

[an tha]

5 minutes ago, Leyton388 said:

I think at the end of thr day we habe missed the biggest question of all. 

 

What would the Everton board do? 

Value Alonso being manager at worth 125m a year in extra revenue then attempt to get that written into losses for next set of accounts after they end up bringing Roy Hodgson out of retirement.

[Vincent Vega]

It’s better we know and accept this now than go into the Euros still thinking we have a chance that Alonso might join us. I just hope that the club identify the guy they want and can get, and have them lined up for the second the season ends*.

 

*As long as the person identified isn’t Gareth “fucking” Southgate. Honestly, if the club even entertain the idea of bringing him in, I may be inspired towards terrorism in the same way Martin McGuiness was when the British army were marching down his street.

[Vincent Vega]

Anyway this is all working out exactly as I wanted, we are going to get someone pretty shit in, they’re going to fuck up royally, and Klopp is going to bored of his life as a serf and come back and ride to our rescue feeling refreshed from his year off and ready to wipe the floor with the entirety of European football.

[Fallen Angel]

On some level it makes sense for Xabi to stay at BL and consolidate his position. They clearly have a set up that suits him.  The Villas-Boas route of taking a big club early can rapidly backfire. 
 

The risk for him personally is that if he has a poor run, the interest from the giants in Europe may dry up quickly and he never gets that that chance. 
 

I’d think the set-up at Anfield would best suit him right now. Especially in terms of being afforded time to make his mark. He may still be salty about how he was treated here. I do think he’d be good fit for us right now. That said, the club will gauge his interest in the job and act accordingly. 
 

FSG / Edwards have a task - they may have lucked out with Klopp (wasn’t there stories we weren’t interested in JK with quotes from Henry?). There is a dearth of available talent right now so the club are fishing in a small pool. Any appointment carries a risk, it’s a shame we weren’t better prepared for this moment with a succession plan in place. 
 

With the contract position of several player running down, expect an interesting summer. 

[Trojan1892]

I think it’s going to be Amorim and I’m fully on board with it, he’s 39 and already won 5 trophies as a manager so he’s not somebody who’s won absolutely fuck all like previous successors who were then a disaster.

 

De Zerbi just looks like a Chelsea manager to me but lots of people rate him, I’m not sure.

 

Apart from those two who really could come in…. Nagelsmann I don’t see because him being part of Euro’s with Germany would all be a rush getting him in and tbh I’m not keen anyway.

 

Its such a huge decision that needs to be the correct one because I believe this current squad could be special, looking forward to seeing how well these younger lads perform as well a bit further down the line.

 

 

[Turkish Delight]

4 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

The comparison to Rodgers is nonsense but I get the reticence with De Zerbi because of lack of impressive CV.

 

Serious question, though; what do you make of all the plaudits he gets from players and other managers?

 

The same debate about being well thought of in the game was used to justify Hodgson.  Gerrard and Carragher also wanted Curbishley back in 2004.

 

Players don't know everything and managers often throw around platitudes about other managers (especially about those they get the better of and pretty much every one playing a low block and counter gets the better of him).

 

He's won 6 out of the last 22 league games with a set of players who should be doing far better and a lot of the reason for it is that they're constantly wide open to the counter. They get pasted by shit teams regularly and even Brighton's fans aren't too worried about losing him.

 

It's a massive no from me.

[Josef Svejk]

6 hours ago, JohnnyH said:

I always find it weird when people do this. 

 

Seems we're at odds. I respect that. It’s a proper forum disagreement. Good for you.

 

Sorry, not that it matters, but that moralistic tone just grates on me.

[Josef Svejk]

6 hours ago, Chris said:

 

 

"THAT'S BOLLOCKS" he screams, with a ridiculously subjective comparison lacking any self awareness that only really emphasises my original point.

 

I didn't "scream" anything. Nor do I see how me disagreeing with you ("subjectively" or otherwise) could possibly be taken to "emphasise" the point I was disagreeing with.

[JohnnyH]

1 hour ago, Josef Svejk said:

 

Seems we're at odds. I respect that. It’s a proper forum disagreement. Good for you.

 

Sorry, not that it matters, but that moralistic tone just grates on me.

Very very weird. 

[Section_31]

I actually think this is a good move for all concerned. Whoever follows Klopp will not measure up, and I don't want that for Xabi. I'd rather him come here next year or the year after with lower expectations and a clean slate. It also shows that he's loyal that kid. 

 

A wise experienced head is needed to enable the transition. Get Ancelotti in or someone of that age and pedigree.

[Scott_M]

We’ll see, we didn’t believe Edwards was coming back either.

[VladimirIlyich]

9 hours ago, an tha said:

So Alonso is staying at Leverkusen as a story is basically coming from what that gobshite at Bayern Munich has said?

 

I wouldn't take too much notice of noise coming from Bayern Munich.

Their president is trying to unsettle Alonso as wants him and wants to try and derail Leverkusen's season as they are beating them hands down to the title.

He's been gobbing off for weeks with different stuff about Alonso - meanwhile LFC are saying nothing and acting professionally - we'll see come end of season.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68690445

Yes,exactly the way it looks to me. Let's enjoy Jurgen's last few months,eh?

[chrisbonnie]

28 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I actually think this is a good move for all concerned. Whoever follows Klopp will not measure up, and I don't want that for Xabi. I'd rather him come here next year or the year after with lower expectations and a clean slate. It also shows that he's loyal that kid. 

 

A wise experienced head is needed to enable the transition. Get Ancelotti in or someone of that age and pedigree.

 

How come this logic doesn't ever seem to bother the likes of real Madrid, juventus, inter Milan etc.... 

 

They simply change managers and continue winning, why can't we do the same?

[joe_fishfish]

8 minutes ago, chrisbonnie said:

 

How come this logic doesn't ever seem to bother the likes of real Madrid, juventus, inter Milan etc.... 

 

They simply change managers and continue winning, why can't we do the same?

Juve are shite this year.

 

Madrid are the richest club in the world and their only domestic rival has imploded.

 

Inter spent fortunes to get nowhere for about thirty years. They only started to win stuff after Calciopoli.

[Jairzinho]

The forum is finally out of the muck.

 

Arguments, In the know nonces, and the forum moral police are back! 

[Section_31]

11 minutes ago, chrisbonnie said:

 

How come this logic doesn't ever seem to bother the likes of real Madrid, juventus, inter Milan etc.... 

 

They simply change managers and continue winning, why can't we do the same?

 

Usually when most managers go the fans are happy to see it. Klopp is essentially at the start of building a new team, his team, that's impossible to follow for a young manager with no reputation to fall back in.

 

We also have a tendency as a fanbase to deifiy managers who're successful. At the likes of Madrid they're probably regarded by the fans as disposable employees.

 

That's not even accounting for the fact our press will already be smelling blood with Klopp's successor, the story is alresdy written.

 

The only kind of manager that can pull off following someone like that is someone who's already got standing in the game and doesn't give a fuck. They come in with a plan, even a short term plan, and keep things ticking over.

[VladimirIlyich]

1 minute ago, Section_31 said:

 

Usually when most managers go the fans are happy to see it. Klopp is essentially at the start of building a new team, his team, that's impossible to follow for a young manager with no reputation to fall back in.

 

We also have a tendency as a fanbase to deifiy managers who're successful. At the likes of Madrid they're probably regarded by the fans as disposable employees.

 

That's not even accounting for the fact our press will already be smelling blood with Klopp's successor, the story is alresdy written.

 

The only kind of manager that can pull off following someone like that is someone who's already got standing in the game and doesn't give a fuck. They come in with a plan, even a short term plan, and keep things ticking over.

Let's hope they don't choose the latter option after last time! Twit- ta-woo.

[TD_LFC]

#Alonso2024

 

#Amorim2024

[Scott_M]

6 hours ago, Trojan1892 said:

I think it’s going to be Amorim and I’m fully on board with it, he’s 39 and already won 5 trophies as a manager so he’s not somebody who’s won absolutely fuck all like previous successors who were then a disaster.

Started reading about Amorim this morning. 
 

Seems to be a lot of similarities to how Leverkusen and Sporting play, both in formation and philosophy. 
 

I think the reason Xabi appealed to me is because Klopp will be such a hard act to follow, Xabi would instantly have the respect of squad as a great player who’s been there, seen it, won it all (apart from the Premiership, literally won it all)… he’d instantly have their respect. 
 

Given I hadn’t heard of him until Klopp’s announcement, I’m assuming Amorim had a less than stellar playing career. He’s obviously done / doing a really good job at Sporting and I’ve read man management & communication is one of his strengths. 
 

To be fair to our analysts etc, it’s not very often they get it wrong, especially not in recent years, I dunno, whoever it is just won’t have the emotional bond Klopp has earned or Xabi would re-inherit. 

[El Rojo]

Myself and @3 Stacksare doing a limited run of De Zerbi ‘Making Liverpool Great Again’ baseball hats if anyone’s interested. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Having months of this shit is a killer. I know there was no choice but to reveal Klopp was leaving mid season and long term it allows us to put our house in order better but this shit of not knowing for months, endless speculation.

 

Anyway as always the one we salivate over goes to Madrid... its always Madrid the Bride, inevitably maybe not next season but soon enough.

 

If he stays at Leverkusen I hope he has a dogshit season next year because I'm a little bitter about not getting what I want.

 

[Scott_M]

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

We’ll see, we didn’t believe Edwards was coming back either.

Although I do feel this could be a line drawn under Xabi. I assume he’s had talks with all interested parties over the international break and the news coming out on the last day of the break is planned. 

[Barrington Womble]

8 hours ago, an tha said:

Why would we as a club want this splashed all over news and to be a distraction right now.

 

Bayern want that and it looks like that is what they are getting.

 

There is absolutely no reason for us to be telling anyone our plans here.

 

I think Chris' post nails it. This is how we handled the Bellingham news. 

 

8 hours ago, Chris said:

All of the beat writers (Bascombe, Joyce, TIA, etc.) covering Liverpool went with it at the same time.
 

That only means one thing: they’ve been briefed by the club he’s either unavailable this summer and they have to move on to other targets or he’s not interested in coming at the moment. 

 

Same thing happened with Bellingham. 
 

It has very little to do with what the Bayern fella has said. 

 

Exactly. It seems all of the patch journos had a story within minutes of each other, which suggests briefing or earlier info which was embargoed somehow. 

 

7 hours ago, Trojan1892 said:

I think it’s going to be Amorim and I’m fully on board with it, he’s 39 and already won 5 trophies as a manager so he’s not somebody who’s won absolutely fuck all like previous successors who were then a disaster.

 

De Zerbi just looks like a Chelsea manager to me but lots of people rate him, I’m not sure.

 

Apart from those two who really could come in…. Nagelsmann I don’t see because him being part of Euro’s with Germany would all be a rush getting him in and tbh I’m not keen anyway.

 

Its such a huge decision that needs to be the correct one because I believe this current squad could be special, looking forward to seeing how well these younger lads perform as well a bit further down the line.

 

 

 

Nagelsmann has said he will make his choice in April. I don't really see the issue if we choose him. If you're getting a manager in for 5 years, you're not going to let a 2 week overlap get in the way. The question is only if he's the right man. If he is, 2 weeks doesn't matter. Someone who has the German national team, Bayern and RBL behind him by the age of 36 must have something about him. I've felt he was the outside choice from the beginning. I don't see us paying 20-odd million release clause for amorim. 

[joe_fishfish]

You might be right in Nagelsmann, Baz, hope you’re not though. He’s a dickhead, a German Brendan Rodgers imo.

[elvis]

49 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Myself and @3 Stacksare doing a limited run of De Zerbi ‘Making Liverpool Great Again’ baseball hats if anyone’s interested. 

Christ on a bike , going into business with 3 stacks - that'll test your patience alright