Bascombe latest effort

[SpeedyG]

Not sure I'd put him in the top 5.Toure isn't in the same class as Mascherano, IMO.

 

Agreed, Toure isn't even in the top 10, let alone second.

[GazWillo]

I really don't see why people get so worked up over an article. Seriously. There's loads of people shouting really loudly about how sad Chris Bascombe is, but IMO it's far sadder to be shouting so loud about someone you profess to not care about!

 

The Mascherano situation is obviously real and could go either way. I have an idea; when you read an article in a newspaper, try not to put so much stock in what is written and make your own mind up.

 

fuck off and support the bitters, you gang of sad twats.

[Paul]

That's what Perez (Makele) and Wenger (Flamini) thought. How very wrong were they? More evidence of how under-rated the DM role is and how an even better player than Xabi (Cesc) can become crap with an average DM (read Toure) to work with.

 

It's very obvious Benitez would much rather lose Xabi and there are good reasons for that.

 

The Chief is the best of his type I know of, bar Essien who I think is the better player. However, my point is that I think that with both Xabi and The Chief you'd almost certainly be replacing them with inferior players. I just see more players and less of a gulf in quality as far as Mascherano is concerned than Xabi; I don't want to lose either of them though, as both losses would be significant blows to our title credentials.

[Brownie]

fuck off and support the bitters, you gang of sad twats.

 

Haha, quality.

 

By the way, earlier in the thread you mentioned my name and said that's i'd negged you with the comment, 'Bellend'.

 

I'd prefer it if you quoted me accurately - I wrote, 'gobshite'.

 

Cheers.

[Trumo]

I really don't see why people get so worked up over an article. Seriously. There's loads of people shouting really loudly about how sad Chris Bascombe is, but IMO it's far sadder to be shouting so loud about someone you profess to not care about!

 

The Mascherano situation is obviously real and could go either way. I have an idea; when you read an article in a newspaper, try not to put so much stock in what is written and make your own mind up.

 

 

Why is it that all the really sensationalist bullshit only gets printed on Sundays?

[Brownie]

Why is it that all the really sensationalist bullshit only gets printed on Sundays?

 

Probably because sales are at their highest on a Sunday due to people being off work etc?

 

It's just a case of the British culture.

[Dougie Do'ins]

We've had our best league season in 19 years. His stories have been unduly negative for about 18 months, at least, rarely positive; his negativity predates any recent issues surrounding the club. Whilst the factual information is often near correct, it's quite sad to see a once decent journalist stoop so low.

I was talking more about the shit that's been going on off the pitch. We may well have had our best league season in years but its been dogged with none football related shit. The owners financial mess, Gerrard being arrested, etc. Plus we still won nothing and that's not a successful season for me.

 

The tone of what people write is often influenced by a result, a players performance and so on. Bascombe is no different and no matter what peoples views on him as a journo, at the end of the day he's still a good red and wants this club to be successful.

 

Ive not been to slow to have a go at Bascombe before on this forum for other reasons. As I've said the tone of whats going on at the club sets the agenda of whats being written either in the press or on the forums.

 

There are plenty of other journo's out their who print story's about Liverpool that are wide of the mark but because their not Liverpool supporters it's taken with a pinch of salt. Would it be tolerated more if Bascombe was writing pieces that were off the mark but suggesting that all is a bed of roses at the club.

 

The club is in fucking turmoil so people best get used to the negative press.

[Durango]

That was one hard read, I jibbed about half of it just to keep my sanity.

 

I think we will get another year out of Masch - just a gut feeling - Hamstrung said the same and I agree.

 

Alonso is off and it has been done to death who is responsible and why it is happening, I no longer honestly give a fuck, all he needs to do is put it in writing and not just tell Chris B.

If Alonso goes it will be because Alonso WANTS to go!

[INTORRESTING]

I was talking more about the shit that's been going on off the pitch. We may well have had our best league season in years but its been dogged with none football related shit. The owners financial mess' date=' Gerrard being arrested, etc. Plus we still won nothing and that's not a successful season for me.

 

The tone of what people write is often influenced by a result, a players performance and so on. Bascombe is no different and no matter what peoples views on him as a journo, at the end of the day he's still a good red and wants this club to be successful.

 

Ive not been to slow to have a go at Bascombe before on this forum for other reasons. As I've said the tone of whats going on at the club sets the agenda of whats being written either in the press or on the forums.

 

There are plenty of other journo's out their who print story's about Liverpool that are wide of the mark but because their not Liverpool supporters it's taken with a pinch of salt. Would it be tolerated more if Bascombe was writing pieces that were off the mark but suggesting that all is a bed of roses at the club.

 

The club is in fucking turmoil so people best get used to the negative press.[/quote']

 

I know what you are saying but once he has got the message across why does he fill the rest of the article by sticking the knife in? A positive sentence or two wouldn't hurt i am sure

[INTORRESTING]

If Alonso goes it will be because Alonso WANTS to go!

 

He owes the fans, we stuck with him when he was not at his best, he owes us a title shot. If he wants to go then i will be pissed off.

 

If he has been forced out then i hope the right players come in and it works.

[Dougie Do'ins]

I know what you are saying but once he has got the message across why does he fill the rest of the article by sticking the knife in? A positive sentence or two wouldn't hurt i am sure

Thats just it, is there anything positive to write these days ?

[Dougie Do'ins]

If Alonso goes it will be because Alonso WANTS to go!

That's true enough John but shouldn't we be asking ourselves why the player/players want to leave the club.

[Durango]

He owes the fans, we stuck with him when he was not at his best, he owes us a title shot. If he wants to go then i will be pissed off.

 

If he has been forced out then i hope the right players come in and it works.

Where does this myth come from that the Club want to sell him?

 

12 Months ago Benitez WAS willing to sell him, things change in Football and that is no longer the case, Xabi couldn't be "pushing for an Improved Contract" as have Torres and Gerrard could he?

[GazWillo]

Thats just it' date=' is there anything positive to write these days ?[/quote']

 

depends on how far up mushroom heads arse crack you are.

[INTORRESTING]

Where does this myth come from that the Club want to sell him?

 

12 Months ago Benitez WAS willing to sell him, things change in Football and that is no longer the case, Xabi couldn't be "pushing for an Improved Contract" as have Torres and Gerrard could he?

 

I am treating it all as speculation, i dont know the background, that is why i gave my views on both possible scenarios

[Durango]

That's true enough John but shouldn't we be asking ourselves why the player/players want to leave the club.

Why would ANY player consider leaving Liverpool Mick?

[Dougie Do'ins]

Fucking hell, you've got the memory of a goldfish.

Dirk is, as ever, absolutely correct. Bascombe is getting more tedious by the week.

Next week i expect his scoop to be Gerrard and Torres to ManU for £80 mill

Is he ? Do I ? So in the 18 months Dirk mentioned please remind me of all the positive things Bascombe could have have written about other than individual results.

 

Bascombe may well have issues with Rafa but Rafa is hardly whiter than white in all this.

 

Get in the real world.

[INTORRESTING]

Thats just it' date=' is there anything positive to write these days ?[/quote']

 

could have popped in something about he will hope to be able to replicate his form next year and hopefully have the best partnership in the world to feed the ball to more often. Something like that?

 

The club is in a mess but we pretty much bottled the league against very weak teams at anfield. It is positive that we are very close even with our two best players barely playing together but at the end of the day he is just doing his job and we dont know how much he is allowed to put in but it seems strange that we have an article or two about us every week, other fans must be sick of it!

 

We have been in a title race, scored the most goals, lost the least, best goal difference so there is plenty to write about, we were not even praised when we lead the table for half the season

[SpeedyG]

The Chief is the best of his type I know of, bar Essien who I think is the better player. However, my point is that I think there with both Xabi and The Chief you'd almost certainly be replacing them with inferior players. I just see more to players and less of a gulf in quality as far as Mascherano is concerned than Xabi.

 

I guess it comes down to the qualities you consider important ball winning, positioning, leadership, ability to energize an entire team, tackling, killing counter attacks. Seriously, name one DM that does even one or two of them better than Mascher.

 

Xabi's qualities you are right would be difficult to replace but the real question is not about the player, but the role. Is a pure playmaker really necessary? Is it really wise to play the slow build up game against park the bus teams, giving them all the time in the world to retreat into their set patterns that they've spent years practicing. As Benitez alluded to in an interview with Ballague, what use a playmaker when the opponents make sure the ball is in the air most of the time and winning the second ball is more likely to lead to a goal than patient build up play?

 

The question then becomes about coming up with a partnership which offers the best balance in attack and defence and in situations where there is space and where space is limited. Now if I work through my mind combinations based on Xabi or Mascher, the combinations with Mascher are almost always better and more feasible.

 

And I know Xabi does good passes, passes most couldn't pull off, but when it comes to doing the dirty work that gives you the right to compete against midfields like Chelsea, or keeps you in with a chance in those final 10 games that define a season, or that that gives Xabi the time to get his head up to pick a pass there is only one name in the game.

 

We will seriously rue letting Mascher go, as did Perez, as did Wenger when they made the same mistakes. History is pretty clear on this lesson, let's not ignore it.

[INTORRESTING]

Why would ANY player consider leaving Liverpool Mick?

 

bloody women and not wanting their kids to be english or their boyhood dream. If we had the weather and culture here we would be fine but we are a professional move for the spanish/south american players imo whereas North European players are more likely to stay imo

[Dirk]

Thats just it' date=' is there anything positive to write these days ?[/quote']

 

Yes. We've witnessed a vast improvement in the league. In Torres and Gerrard, I believe we have the best front two in the world. One was a midfielder and the other wasn't here when Rafa came. We have the chance to go further next season but, no, it's all "The SkY's FaLLiN DwN, ChCKn LicKeN." There are areas of concern but I don't think the lack of balance fairly reflects the health of the team. If the club is in such a state, then what does that make of the team's achievements last season, given the turmoil? The players and the manager are improving despite the constant, unsettling speculation. I think that indicates how focussed upon winning some of the people we have at our club are. The club isn't in the rosiest of states but we've been improving on the pitch depsite these problems and I think that, whilst we have reasons to be concerned about the long term health of the club, I don't think we should generalise this concern to all areas of the club and allow the concern to become a general state of negativity.

[Dougie Do'ins]

Why would ANY player consider leaving Liverpool Mick?

There used to be a time when I asked myself that very question John. That was in the days of my youthful blind love of for the club.

 

But I cant answer your question John. You'll have to ask, Mcmanaman, Owen, Sammi, Babel, for their views.

[Durango]

There used to be a time when I asked myself that very question John. That was in the days of my youthful blind love of for the club.

 

But I cant answer your question John. You'll have to ask' date=' Mcmanaman, Owen, Sammi, Babel, for their views.[/quote']

Have you fell out of Love with the Club Mick?

[GazWillo]

There used to be a time when I asked myself that very question John. That was in the days of my youthful blind love of for the club.

 

But I cant answer your question John. You'll have to ask' date=' Mcmanaman, Owen, Sammi, Babel, for their views.[/quote']

 

is that sami who is 35 and on the verge of retirment, babbel whose career faltered due to a debilitating illness and macmanaman and owen who were both part of underachieving teams and wanted to test themselves on the biggest stage in europe.

 

you're right, it's been one mass exodus after another. i blame dat durty spaniard.

 

maybe the problem is you eh...

[diego]

Why is it that all the really sensationalist bullshit only gets printed on Sundays?

 

Bascombe's opinions are unimportant. He is a junior hack journalist and relatively inexperienced who is out of his depth the moment he goes beyond reporting a match and begins to dabble in corporate finance, organizational politics or the psychological profiling of players and manager. He made many errors of judgement when he was at the Liverpool Echo. From being a slavish sycophant of Houllier with a mission to "expose" Fowler, he changed to become one of Fowler's defenders and Houllier's tormentors when he saw which way the wind was blowing among supporters.

 

As journalists go he is a cheap option for the NoW. However, the NoW has the largest sales on Sunday and is part of the Murdoch Group which is not only dominant in the UK but has hundreds of outlets throughout the world.

 

Articles in the NoW are amplified by this editorial and distribution network. In addition, services like NewsNow ensure that the NoW headlines (which are probably written by sub-editors) are picked up by virtually every English language outlet in the world.

 

Because of the sheer scale of their dissemination, those articles and headlines have an impact irrespective of their truthfulness or integrity. However much clubs advise their players to ignore hacks like Bascombe, it must be unsettling for all concerned when their scribblings are being read by many millions throughout the world. It must be a real pain in the arse for the players and the club to have to deal with the enquiries generated by a false or distorted story because a hack has to justify his wages by providing his editors with enough plausible material on Sunday morning to justify a headline that will feed the Murdoch Group's corporate needs. Every newspaper sold and every online hit contributes to its bottom line.