Incompetence & mismanagement of the highest level

[grahamlfc]

It is patently obvious after listening to various interviews that the dealings of bringing in new players is done by committee at Liverpool FC. Therefore we have the absurd situation of a bunch of people deciding on which players are bought, first of all chosen by the manager but then being decided by committee whether it is appropiate. Not since the pre-Shankly days of 1959 have Liverpool Football Club been run in this idiotic chaotic manner.

 

It is for the manager, and ONLY the manager to decide who comes in to the club because the manager is the MOST important person at any football club.

 

It is time for the Fenway Sports Group to do the honourable thing and release their ownership of Liverpool Football Club as they have been shown as both incompetent and inept in their dealings in English professional football and the mismanagement of Liverpool FC is there for all to witness.

Enough to make you weep............... .......

[Lario]

Not

Going

To

End

Well.

[Guest ShoePiss]

Release their ownership to who exactly?

[Megadrive Man]

It's about time somebody started a new thread to say exactly this.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

[Pony Princess]

[TheHowieLama]

Is Nathan on holidays?

 

Numero - that girl has a beaucoup of followers on tumblr - my daughter being one, lot of pretty clever stuff from her.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Link me up, Howie?

[TheHowieLama]

Link me up, Howie?

 

I'll ask her - locked out of her laptop after fourth password change in as many weeks.

[therevivalist]

So those penny pinching fools do not even know what was made by a committee. We're denied a striker for them to be able to save 2 mil but the idiots do not realize how much they stand to lose in the event that, God forbid, we're relegated or even finish below midtable. I don't see much of a future with the bastards.

[KopOut]

I have, currently, a spare five hundred bucks; the question is, how desperate are they to sell?

[scudger99]

Why when you hover over the red dots in his title banner does it say "grahamlfc is a massive tool" ?

[Unrighteous]

[stringvest]

thats how I imagine Durango looks reading this forum

[grahamlfc]

It appears Tony Evans from THE TIMES has the same opinion as myself, please read Tony Evan's article below:

 

Liverpool's lack of firepower is a cock-up by committee

 

TONY EVANS, FOOTBALL EDITOR

 

It is now a week since the great Liverpool deadline day fiasco. Yet again, infighting and absurdity reign in L4. Take down ‘This is Anfield.’ Replace with ‘This is chaos.’ The worst thing is that it was so easily avoidable.

 

Until January, Brendan Rodgers will have to cope with only two seasoned strikers, Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini. Neither looks like a 20-goals-a-season man. Andy Carroll was sent to West Ham United with the belief that Clint Dempsey would sign. It didn’t happen so Liverpool are very light up front. Unless, that is, a free agent can be found.

 

The names that have been bandied round make Dempsey, at 29, look like a whippersnapper. Michael Owen, Emile Heskey and Alessandro Del Piero were all suggested as stopgaps. That they struggled to find clubs was for a reason. The angst at Anfield was mirrored by mirth elsewhere.

 

Most of the supporters’ anger has been aimed at Fenway Sports Group. There is a presumption that the American owners did not want to spend money, leaving Rodgers short of manpower and firepower. The sad truth is different. Even FSG’s fiercest critics can seethat it was not simply a money problem. Liverpool entered September with unspent cash in the transfer kitty. It will be a long four months before that war chest can be invested in players.

 

How did this happen? Who is to blame? It is hard to point the finger at an individual. This was cock-up by committee.

 

Once Rodgers was appointed in early summer, it was always going to be a window of transition. Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez and Craig Bellamy all left the club, their fading talents making it sensible to move them on. But with them left goals. It was crucial to add more.

 

Rodgers, like all managers, wanted to reshape the squad in his own image. It is only right that he feels that way. He will take responsibility for results and should build around players he trusts. Even so, it was a big mistake to signal to the rest of football that Andy Carroll was surplus to requirements.

 

Across the game, Liverpool have developed a reputation for buying high, selling low and overpaying players. It predates FSG and is one of the big issues they need to address. Yet everyone knew the £35-million striker had no value to his new manager. It did not place the club in a position of strength in a marketplace where any sign of weakness will cost you millions.

 

There were others that Rodgers did not want: Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson and Joe Cole among them. It’s hard to blame him. Adam and Henderson, along with Stewart Downing, were last summer’s signings. Their main contribution was helping to get Kenny Dalglish the sack. Cole was bought by an overexcited and inexperienced executive during the tail end of the Gillett and Hicks era and is likely to cost the club more than £25 million over the four years of his contract. It would be easier for a huckster to sell the Brooklyn Bridge than to shift Cole.

 

FSG have struggled to come to terms with football – as John W. Henry, the principal owner, admitted to fans in his letter this week. Yet FSG have always had a clear vision about what sort of business they would like to do in the transfer market. They are keen on young players with potential resale value. This clarity of thought from Boston has been obscured by poor choices in employing the men to implement it. Damien Comolli overpaid for even the young players he bought. Eventually he was found out. But FSG believes it was the person, rather than the policy, that was flawed. It’s hard to disagree.

 

The owners were less keen on Dempsey than the manager. They struggled to accept that the only significant goalscoring target of the summer was the Fulham man. There must be, they believed, younger strikers out there with potential to grow. They also knew that Carroll could not be allowed to leave before he was replaced by at least one forward. Rodgers and Ian Ayre, the managing director, were expressly told that this situation should not happen.

 

Which makes the last-week meltdown even more shocking. Rodgers looked to have won his battle when a deal was agreed with Fulham for Dempsey with Henderson going the other way. It would have been against everything that "Moneyball" logic stands for – an £18 million youngster traded for an ageing striker - but it was sanctioned. It fell apart when Henderson refused to go to London.

 

Then everything collapsed. It looked like Daniel Sturridge was heading for Anfield on an initial loan with a clause to buy after a season. It was a bigger financial commitment than the Dempsey deal. As the transfer neared completion, Carroll went to West Ham. Then, at the last moment, Rodgers vetoed the move. One day was left in the window.

 

Dempsey appeared to be the only option. Unfortunately, Tottenham Hotspur made a bigger bid and Liverpool were left with egg on their face. The owners were even more flabbergasted when Rodgers was quoted as saying that the Carroll deal was “99.9 per cent finance”. It looked like Boston had forced the loan through. The fanbase went into uproar.

 

Rodgers, like all managers, was desperate to get his man. However, he was clearly working to a different agenda to FSG. This is the biggest worry for Liverpool in the future. The lines of communication failed.

 

Which brings everything back to FSG’s biggest mistake. The owners cannot run the club – never mind a transfer window – from Boston. The need for strong leadership at Anfield is shown more starkly with every crisis that occurs. Ayre is not chief executive material. As football administrators go, he is a pygmy, even in an area that has few giants. He should have been the bridge between owners and manager. So why did everyone drown last week?

Henry’s response was the letter. The things that stood out from it were the acceptance that FSG have made mistakes in their two years of ownership and the emphasis on the long-term health of the club.

 

Football is a tough business. Lots of things about it do not make sense – especially to someone with a background in American sport. The game here can be ugly and it encourages dishonesty and duplicity. In the States, there are entirely different ethical problems for owners but dealings are much more transparent.

 

FSG have not been hands-on enough. They know that. They need a greater presence on Merseyside, or employ someone they trust to make the ownership work properly. There are signs that they recognise this. Tom Werner, the chairman, was at the Premier League meeting yesterday and is one of the driving forces in trying to bring an extra level of Financial Fair Play to the top flight. Werner has allies in Manchester United and Arsenal – in matters of football politics, it is better to be on the same side as United than against them, as the Suarez incident showed.

 

Werner’s involvement - and he was forthright in exchanges with clubs like Manchester City, who are against wide-ranging regulation - backed up Henry’s assertion in his letter that FSG are at Anfield for the long run. Rumours have circulated that the Americans are looking for a buyer for Liverpool and that the cost-cutting of the summer was trimming the fat for a sale. There is no evidence for this and Henry, in particular, is desperate to make a success of the club.

 

If that is to happen, the disconnect between owners and manager needs to be fixed – and quickly. Rodgers is FSG’s appointment and they will back him to the hilt. However, even more than cash, the manager needs someone in the boardroom with the ability to convince Boston to go with his judgement. Equally, Anfield needs someone with the status to say no to the manager when Rodgers wants too much. Henry knows this. They need to find the right man. Yesterday. Anfield has drifted for too long.

 

Henry and FSG are not going anywhere. They will only spend in a manner they believe to be wise and this is no bad thing. The letter, quite rightly, claimed the club is healthier now than when they arrived.

 

They will be prudent. The manager had better get used to it, the fans too. They won’t be pumping huge amounts of cash in but, unlike Hicks and Gillett or the Glazers, they will not take massive amounts out. They should be held to account for their mistakes but last week was about wider issues.

The learning phase is over. The next months require action and progression. With strong leadership, comedy and chaos will be a thing of the past. It is time for action and for Henry to prove the letter was not just words.

 

---------------------------------

[Guest ShoePiss]

Why, does Tony Evans of THE TIMES say the time is now for them to release their ownership of the club?

 

Evans hasn't said anything we haven't all mentioned on here, we really didn't need another thread but I suppose it's showcased your weirdness so it's not all bad.

 

I think you're a bit of a strange one.

[The Golden Eel]

The initial post was let down by having too many ............ at the end.

[Guest ShoePiss]

The initial post was let down by having too many ............ at the end.

 

Yeah, too many, a gap and then more? Sure sign of madness.

[Dicko]

I don't rate Rodgers

I don't like Rodgers.

And I would fuck him off right now if I had the authority.

 

But i'll be fucked if I'd be seen dead using an article from Tony Evans to back my argument up.

 

The man is a bad ted.

[piscinin]

I don't rate Rodgers

I don't like Rodgers.

And I would fuck him off right now if I had the authority.

 

But i'll be fucked if I'd be seen dead using an article from Tony Evans to back my argument up.

 

The man is a bad ted.

 

Tony Barrett said much the same thing.

[DT]

Tony Barrett said much the same thing.

 

Maybe readers of the Times don't get things the first time?

[Original202]

It appears Tony Evans from THE TIMES has the same opinion as myself, please read Tony Evan's article below:

 

Yea, let's make it so that China buys Liverpool instead.

[piscinin]

Maybe readers of the Times don't get things the first time?

 

To be fair, it's a good story. Rodgers and the owners going to toe to toe after only a couple of months. Spinning against each other in the press. It deserves multiple airings.

[Dicko]

Tony Barrett said much the same thing.

 

Now that is more credible.

Piss poor by the owners.

Piss poor by the manager.

[Guest San Don]

It is patently obvious after listening to various interviews that the dealings of bringing in new players is done by committee at Liverpool FC. Therefore we have the absurd situation of a bunch of people deciding on which players are bought, first of all chosen by the manager but then being decided by committee whether it is appropiate. Not since the pre-Shankly days of 1959 have Liverpool Football Club been run in this idiotic chaotic manner.

 

It is for the manager, and ONLY the manager to decide who comes in to the club because the manager is the MOST important person at any football club.

 

It is time for the Fenway Sports Group to do the honourable thing and release their ownership of Liverpool Football Club as they have been shown as both incompetent and inept in their dealings in English professional football and the mismanagement of Liverpool FC is there for all to witness.

Enough to make you weep............... .......

 

TBH, Rodgers himself aluded to this method of transfers at his first press conference. He said himself and others would be involved in the process.

 

I think however, he, like the rest of us, thought he'd have the final say on the matter.

 

But, its not new the club not buying a player the manager wanted. Gasgoigne was wanted by Dalglish but the club couldnt afford to match Spurs' bid of over £3m at the time.

 

The difference there is the club couldnt afford or didnt have the money. With dempsey, it is a case of money there, henry or werner deciding they wouldnt back their manager and spend the money.