Time To Give The Yanks Credit?

[Faustus]

Signing Finnan on a new contract has kind of inspired me to write this but I feel I must give a bit of credit to George and Tom. I know it's only early days in their stewardship of the club but fair play to them, so far they've tied down all of our key players onto new contracts without any fuss, backed Rafa in the transfer market, about to reveal plans for the new ground to the public and so far, have conducted themselves with class and dignity. Very much in "the Liverpool way" one might say.

 

So I ask- is the time right to give them a bit of credit after the hysteria on these boards of a few weeks ago?

[Red Nick]

Way too early but I have ordered by peice of best Mierda ready to eat come the end of the close season should they come up trumps.

 

At this moment in time the net spend isnt what they led the fans to believe what it would be, Q the history rewriters:thumbup:

[Spy Bee]

It's all Parry. Parry is the man!`

[Faustus]

It's all Parry. Parry is the man!`

 

Speaking of Parry, isn't this the scariest headline in history?

 

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N156450070723-0249.htm

[aws]

Ask me again in 2010.

[zigackly]

Aye they seem to have done pretty well so far. Still haven't spent over our usual transfer budget of £15M to £20M net is about the only criticism I could bring, but making the money available up front to sign Torres when previously we would have had to sell first and likely have lost the player was good. I would have liked us to have splashed a bit more to sign top quality out wide I suppose, but there's no doubt we've improved the quality of our squad in those positions.

[Moschops II]

http://forum.liverpoolway.co.uk/showthread.php?p=761275#post761275

[Ged B]

I think they've done o.k so far but it's early day's.

 

The net spend for this summer is pretty much the same as recent year's, and I expected more than that.

 

They deserve credit for pulling the plug on the stadium and getting it redisigned, and from the leaked picture's the new design look's fantastic.

 

The star player's in the squad are now tied down to long term contract's, which was a really important step, and that seemed to be handled very quickly and efficently.

 

 

I'd like to see them adopt a lower profile in the media to be honest, although I suppose that may come in time, as at the minute everybody's thirsty for info on what plan's they have for the club.

[Christianlfc]

anyone got a picture of the leaked designs? I cant seem to find one but half the stuff i try to get on in work is blocked. I'd appreciate it

[Liquid football]

They wont get any credit until we win the league or possibly the european cup. Its just not the done thing imo.

[Jose Jones]

The only reason they should be getting any credit so far is because they haven't blatantly sold us down the river as some hysterical posters envisaged. We haven't done anything differently really, just been run in a fairly capable way. In a few years when the new stadium is built, pulling in 70,000 punters a week with improved ticketing and efficient commercial operations so we can compete with the best on equal terms that will be the time to say, "yeah, they've done a decent job".

[Ian Sea]

So far I think they've done an excellent job. I don't think they could have done anymore.

[Stephen Adams.]

Is "net spend" the new "4-2-3-1?"

They have done things differently, they've acted more quickly than before and we've signed a £20m player.

As for this net spend bollocks, is the reason it's low not because we've managed to get rid of some of the shit in our squad for good money?

Maybe if we'd let them all got for a million each you'd be happier because our net spend would be higher.

I've never seen a summer like it for big money signings, contracts tied up and deadwood shifted for good money and it's not even the end of July yet.

From what I've seen they've been very sensible in the transfer market, while also spending some big money.

Safeguarding the club's future perhaps is more important than signing the next flash in the pan winger.

[WaltonRed]

I think they've done o.k so far but it's early day's.

 

The net spend for this summer is pretty much the same as recent year's, and I expected more than that.

 

They deserve credit for pulling the plug on the stadium and getting it redisigned, and from the leaked picture's the new design look's fantastic.

 

The star player's in the squad are now tied down to long term contract's, which was a really important step, and that seemed to be handled very quickly and efficently.

 

 

I'd like to see them adopt a lower profile in the media to be honest, although I suppose that may come in time, as at the minute everybody's thirsty for info on what plan's they have for the club.

 

I agree with everything although, I do think the lower media profile will come once Foster is in place at his new job, I think they feel they have to be quite high profile because they are thousands of miles away and want to get across that they care.

 

Also on the spending, I still think we will sign two players with Heinze being one of them of course.

 

But they deserve loads of credit for getting the core tied down and that hasnt stopped yet, breaking the transfer record, backing Rafa on the academy and signing loads of young good prospects for next to nothing and to Mr. Hicks a big thumbs up for giving us what will be the best ground in Britain when its built.

[zico]

They have done great on some accounts, disappointed a little on others.

 

First the positives:

 

They have renegotiated and signed the spine of the team on new long term contracts in a professional and fairly effective manner.

 

They have presumedly tore up that horrible soup bowl design stadium, and if the leaked pictures are anything to go by, come up with a contemporary and unique design worthy for LFC. Also they have said, f*** this 60.000 capacity with no possibility of expansion, we need to compete with Man Ham down the road and set up the option for a further 15-20.000 capacity. (Which Parry thought was perfectly logical, funny how he did not think so when the fans were voicing those same concerns!)

 

They have hired a new commercial director, which can only be a good thing.. Time will tell if he can sort out the online store, the club stores, the ticket office and all other commercial aspects. (A record breaking deal with Coca-Cola for them to tap the asian market would be nice):thumbsup:

 

The club really has to get professional in terms of branding in order to tap the foreign markets, as this is key to the long term financing of the club, hence also playing a big part of it's power in the transfer market..

 

Now for the negatives:

 

First of all we have spent less in the transfer market in terms of net spending than I expected us to do.

Our spending has been pretty much average in terms of net spending, and considering the club were sold to be able to compete in the transfer market in addition to the 20+ extra revenues this year from the new television deal, I expected us to have at least another 20-35 million to spend...

And what is this we do not have a transfer budget, all transfers are player specific nonsense..

 

Secondly Parry have kept his job, but that can turn out to be for a transition period only?

 

It's is still a bit to early to pass any judgement with certainty, but winning trophies is what this club is all about.. So we'll have to see, but I fear we are a few players short of lifting number 19...

[Ian Sea]

They have done great on some accounts, disappointed a little on others.

 

First the positives:

 

They have renegotiated and signed the spine of the team on new long term contracts in a professional and fairly effective manner.

 

They have presumedly tore up that horrible soup bowl design stadium, and if the leaked pictures are anything to go by, come up with a contemporary and unique design worthy for LFC. Also they have said, f*** this 60.000 capacity with no possibility of expansion, we need to compete with Man Ham down the road and set up the option for a further 15-20.000 capacity. (Which Parry thought was perfectly logical, funny how he did not think so when the fans were voicing those same concerns!)

 

They have hired a new commercial director, which can only be a good thing.. Time will tell if he can sort out the online store, the club stores, the ticket office and all other commercial aspects. (A record breaking deal with Coca-Cola for them to tap the asian market would be nice):thumbsup:

 

The club really has to get professional in terms of branding in order to tap the foreign markets, as this is key to the long term financing of the club, hence also playing a big part of it's power in the transfer market..

 

Now for the negatives:

 

First of all we have spent less in the transfer market in terms of net spending than I expected us to do.

Our spending has been pretty much average in terms of net spending, and considering the club were sold to be able to compete in the transfer market in addition to the 20+ extra revenues this year from the new television deal, I expected us to have at least another 20-35 million to spend...

And what is this we do not have a transfer budget, all transfers are player specific nonsense..

 

Secondly Parry have kept his job, but that can turn out to be for a transition period only?

 

It's is still a bit to early to pass any judgement with certainty, but winning trophies is what this club is all about.. So we'll have to see, but I fear we are a few players short of lifting number 19...

 

The net spend thing is irrelevant as someone says above. We've got rid of shit players for decent fees so that's a positive thing in my eyes.

 

Also, as part of the takeover, didn't Parry have it written into his contract that he got a massive bonus and couldn't be sacked for 2 years? I'm pretty sure I've read that a few times.

[G Richards]

I think they've done well. Rafa stays and key players have signed long deals. We've brought in a top notch striker and smashed our transfer record, and we have also added some talent in other areas. Dead wood has been shifted for reasonable money, which is a good thing - though you wouldn't have thought so given the bleating about the net spend not being big enough!

 

You get the sense that money is still there should Rafa want to push the boat out and sign an Alves or a Quaresma, and under the precious owner this would not have been the case.

 

The young team behind the first team is being assembled with remarkable vigour, and this augurs well, not least for the long term. It also gives a sense that there is a long term project in place, rather than resorting to splashing the cash 'like a drunken sailor'!

 

Finally, we come to the stadium, which is about to be revealed. By all accounts it has been redone and will be more spectacular than we could have previously hoped for, and there will be scope to get it up to around the 75K mark, which is what most fans wanted when the first designs for the original 60K stadium were all over the internet. Financing a bigger stadium looked to be beyond the means of the previous owners.

 

Granted, G&H are not philanthropists. They are businessmen. They are here to make money. But it just so happens that our interests converge, since I would imagine that the more successful we are, the more appealing their investment.

 

In the long term I can see them taking more of a back seat as the whole thing pays for itself. This will mean some hard work over the next 2-3 years to ensure the team challenges at the very top, the stadium is built, and revenue streams are maximised (though at the same time, one would hope we don't become brazenly commercial and end up with something silly like the 'Home Depot Arena'!)

 

I'm encouraged so far.

[zico]

The net spend thing is not irrelevant if you do not have a good enough squad to take on the champions!!! I really hope I am wrong, but I feel we are lacking in both wide areas, we still lack a world class poacher at the club and also the fact that we will be desperately short at the back should Carra or Agger get injured....

 

I do agree with you about getting rid of some shit players and we have strenghtend, but the gap was 20+ points, and they have probably strenghtend similarly to what we have...

 

One thing I forgot to mentioned above was that I was positively surprised that Rafa could get Torres before the sales to fund it were in place, which is a massive improvement over the "wait until we have sold" stance taken by the club in the past..

[Faustus]

The net spend thing is not irrelevant if you do not have a good enough squad to take on the champions!!! I really hope I am wrong, but I feel we are lacking in both wide areas, we still lack a world class poacher at the club and also the fact that we will be desperately short at the back should Carra or Agger get injured....

 

I do agree with you about getting rid of some shit players and we have strenghtend, but the gap was 20+ points, and they have probably strenghtend similarly to what we have...

 

One thing I forgot to mentioned above was that I was positively surprised that Rafa could get Torres before the sales to fund it were in place, which is a massive improvement over the "wait until we have sold" stance taken by the club in the past..

 

You've kind of touched on what I'm going to say there. One of the things I've been impressed about us this pre-season is that we seem to be more forthright in the transfer market. You mentioned that we actually bought Torres before we could recoup the money from sales so from that, I'd like to think that the money to buy the lad was actually in place regardless of sales.

 

Anyway, compared to the last few pre-seasons anyway, I feel we've acted well in the market with Rafa being backed sufficiently to get his targets without any fuss. Probably the Babel transfer impressed me most as, correct me if I'm wrong, we actually managed to lower Ajax's asking price. When was the last time we managed to do that?

[Dicko]

The net spend is relavent the bottom line is that we haven't done anything this summer with investment than we could have done without.

 

The fact is we've brought in £25m fom player sales, £21m from the Champions league run, £10m(I think) from Premier league position and £30m from the new TV deal, thats a total of £86m gone into the club this summer and we've spent on players under half that (up to now) £40m.

 

So while Rafa and Parry have done well this summer (and infact Parry exceptionally well if I'm honest in the transfer market) you can hardly lay the credit at the door of G&T because given the same set of circumstances I think Moores and Parry would have done the same thing.

 

Were I think you can give enormous credit to G&T especially Tom is in the redesign of the new ground. For years we've been told we can't increase the capacity and this is the final design only for the costs to increase steadily for a ground that most Liverpool fans thought was bland and dull with no Kop as such. What we have now and if the plans we've seen are correct is a ground that once built (and hopefully extended in the future) will have the likes of UEFA falling over themselves to host European finals there, oh the irony.

 

Edit: this is all my opinion not fact, there's no way of knowing what Moores and Parry would have done but my feeling is that it wouldn't have been too disimilar to what we've done now.

[Cardie]

The net spend is relavent the bottom line is that we haven't done anything this summer with investment than we could have done without.

 

:D

[Dicko]

:D

 

Cardie you tit way to take something out of context quote the whole reply not just take something out that suits your (non) argument.

Please tell me the last time Liverpool brought in £86m of which we haven't spent half, that money would be there whether G&T were there or not.

The fact is G&T haven't had to invest in the team because the money has rolled in from other sources, other sources that would have been there whether they were or not you fucking gimp.

[Kurt]

Although the netspend has`nt been that big, the fact that they allowed us to spend before selling also meant we did`nt get pressurised in accepting lesser deals.

 

Without the investment im certain we would`nt have recouped as much for either Bellamy and Cisse.

 

And the stadium plans looks really exciting, so I guess tomorrow we will know more about how much praise they deserve.

 

Im kinda pleased we havent gone on a Chelsea spending spree. We have improved both the squad and the first team without really spending too much. That is very good business, and also means we have something in reserve if the right player becomes available.

[Cardie]

Brought in 86 million from what?

 

Since the mid 90's, seeing as people feel outraged and cheated at the net spend, we've averaged a net spend of between 10 and 11 million.

 

Only twice in that period has our net spend broken the 20 million barrier and on both occasions it was a mangers first season (Houllier and Benitez) outside of those two seasons the highest net spend has been 13 million.

 

We've spent more this summer than any other summer in that period with more to come (excluding the 15-20 young players we've signed) double our average outgoings since mid 90's and only the third year we've broken the 30 million mark.

 

All without taking into account the massive costs of the stadium and the timing of signings that weren't dependant on players being sold first.

 

But yeah, this takeover has been terrible and we've got nothing out of it, Moores should have stayed in we'd be no worse off.

 

Strange world when the biggest complaint people have is that a football club hasn't got themselves heavily in debt.

[El Rojo]

Some people don't seem to realise that securing 5 or 6 of our top players on long term contracts costs an absolute fortune.