Moo

Funking hell, how anyone can say with a straight face that wasn't a dive by Rooney I don't know , but I suppose they are a pair of complete and utter mongs. Kilbane could have been a little more forceful in his assertion but at least he didn't just blatantly lie about it.

Feel free to take a look at my join date moof, I'll accept your apology in advance!

Exactly.

Robbie didn't have to hold the club to ransom as despite the added bonus of him being a local lad, probably not keen on moving, we offered him an unprecedented deal. That's the difference between the club then and now, resulting in what I believe is a first time scenario for us with Sterling the guinea pig. The comparison between Fowler's ability and Sterling's comparitive lack of is not one I'd strongly disagree with (but would point out their respective positions automatically makes Fowler more distinct), however I'm fairly sure that Sterling is on the radar of every major club in Europe as much as Fowler ever was.

We don't know what he's asking, and I might be kidding myself, but I fully expect it's not greed but market value as we have paid several youngsters in the past. If we can't do that anymore then we do have to pretty much accept we are a selling club.

Just going back to an earlier example, didn't we make Robbie Fowler the highest paid teenager in Europe at one point? So what do we do now? Accept we're not on that playing field anymore and that we are a selling club? Or allow ourselves to operate on that playing field in exceptional circumstances?

I think it's telling that the examples you give mainly pre date the new Chelsea/City football reality. Sterling has had his first contact, Rooney went to Utd before it got to this stage. And potentially the same with Barclay, though we'll have to wait and see what happens when his next contact is due but if he gets to the same level as Sterling I'll be very surprised if he re-signs for Everton.

I think that's because it's a quite unprecedented scenario. He's at a club that aspires to be in the elite (in terms of winning things regularly) but won't or can't pay the same wage as those already in this elite. He wouldn't have any other club over a barrell, they'd either sell him when his stock is high (see Bony et al) or he'd be at a club that can pay the silly money.

I wouldn't worry about that too much, it is a football forum and this is the "Other football" thread after all.

It clearly does lie sometimes as they have been terrible. At the very least Southampton and probably Arsenal have been better than them. I swear, to a man, every Manc I know is shocked near enough week on week with how badly they've been playing and equally shocked by their position in the league.

It's funny I was in Booths earlier and wondered about it's fancy-ness and actually, produce wise it's quite ordinary, you don't see much in there you can't get at one of the other chains. However, it is presented considerably nicer in Booths and they're clearly more selective in what they stock but as they're a smaller store I suppose they have to be.

Stu I'm sure someone's already made the point but I don't have time to read the whole thread...although "regular CL qualification = occasional title challenge " sounds okay in theory, qualifying for the CL is getting more difficult in practice. So in short, I don't think that can be a strategy for any club, you either need to go all in and aim to be top dogs, or accept being amongst the number of clubs hoping to snatch 4th once every few years. Arsenal will be used as the example to disprove this, but they've gone many years without genuine threats to the top 4, and in actual fact they haven't really challenged for the league in that time either, they've just sat there for the majority of time in their comfortable position not really being a threat or feeling threatened, but I think that's changing.

Not that it's quite World of a Woman territory but the joke is on you a bit here too. You know what you would have got for five numbers on last night's National Lottery? £235, yes £235. So she's got a point with the Health Lottery.

And just to add, if you don't have a lot of spare time and energy then the only spaniel, or part spaniel, I would consider is a Cavalier King Charles as they are lazy compared to all other spaniels.

I don't know specifically about a "Springador" but would think they would need a hell of a lot of exercise seeing as though Labs and Springers both do. So don't risk it unless you have a lot of time and energy on your hands, and if you do have a lot of time and energy on your hands just go the whole hog and get a Collie, wonderful dogs.

He captained Southampton, where he came through the ranks, had everyone's respect and could lead by example. He's now at Liverpool, and has been for five minutes.

Lallana? Strangest shout for captain yet. He's too quiet, so would have to lead by example but so far has not shown the ability to do that.

You forgot that he can't suffer any bad patches or make mistakes. Keep rolling those dice.

"Long term gain". What's long term about the Liverpool managers job these days?

Edinburgh, Barcelona, Skiathos island, or Wellington NZ. I'd be delighted to call any of those places home.

So you agreed with Rafa and Kenny getting sacked too? I know I didn't but if you want us to keep rolling the dice until we hit the jackpot fair enough, I just don't agree with you.

I wasn't being a dick but will happily leave that to you.

The manager I hope he is? Shouldn't all Liverpool supporters hope he's a better manager than he's showing at the moment? I've no strong feelings towards Rodgers either way, I've learnt my lesson with previous managers, but I care passionately about the club and I don't see how being that club who gets rid of four managers in five years is in the best interests of LFC.

I think the sooner I accept that we are one of those clubs the better for my mental health. I can picture the forum in 2.5 years time "Does Klopp deserve another season?" with people stating the frigging obvious as a reason for him to go "we're playing shit and there's no signs of it getting better", "he might have done it in Germany but who's to say he'll be a success in England?". It's all so basic and predictable. I agree Rodgers had lost it, at the moment he can't see the wood for the trees and is creating more problems than he's solving (Brad Jones in goal yesterday). But he doesn't know better at the moment, he's got to learn how to improve, just like inexperienced players do. He's the managerial equivalent of an 18 year old promising player, not someone at the peak of his game. I honestly believe there's not a single manager in world football that LFC fans wouldn't find a reason to hound out of the club when going through a difficult time.

Have we really become one of those clubs? The type that literally doesn't give the manager a chance, a chance to make mistakes and learn from them? I wouldn't have employed Rodgers as manager of Liverpool, but someone else did, and if you take on someone of that age, of that level of inexperience you have to give him the chance to learn on the job. I mean really, we're talking about sacking a 42 year old manager after two full years in the role, the first of which showed plenty of promise and the second achieved way beyond our expectations. Really?