Ronnie Whelan

We haven't the will to sign someone special because we don't believe that we can. Other clubs are able to attract huge players with money, while we just assume that they wouldn't come to us. The Russian clubs are able to land serious talent. The club has a serious inferioty complex while also gloating about our magnificent past. It's a cocktail mix. If Vidal is a proper player's player, then he shouldn't be attracted to the 5th best team in England, because he can play for anyone in the world. However, if he isn't and money is his primary goal, then we stand a chance of getting him if we have the willpower. This may involve paying him something insane. We throw enough money at the great players and I've no doubt that we attract some of them to the table. This won't happen. I predict we will sign about 6 players this summer. One will turn out to be ace, three will turn out to be mediocre or good squad fillers and two will be the jokes of the league.

Their arrogance meant they failed to see that Pardew is a very good manager, albeit a complete tit.

Spot on. The Anny Road is the bare minimum of my expectations though. I really think that we need to put it to them whether they will increase the capacity further. Some kind of a timeframe would be fair enough. Right now, it would seem impossible to increase the Kop and the Centenary, but moving forward, it isn't acceptable to leave us with a 60k stadium, especially when the Mancs may have close to 100k capacity in the not too distant future. We should aim for at least 80k, if not more. We could have a cracking Main Stand, a very good Anny Road, an incredibly shit Centenary (which looks even shitter facing the Main Stand) and the Kop which will become totally dwarfed and look like an old beauty that is beginning to look second rate. If it was me, the Centenary would mirror the Main Stand and the Kop would regain it's place as THE stand in Europe.

Given that we are the most supported club in Britain and Ireland, and are based in the most football mad city in the country, you would imagine that FSG/new owners will look to build Anfield up to a greater level than 60k. You also have to throw in the football tourist, who will view seeing Anfield, the way I might seeing the Bombanera or the San Siro. The net worth of a redeveloped Centenary - ideally as big as the main stand - and an increased Kop would outweigh the very significant costs of this project. If we are puting an extra 12-20k in the stadium by doing this, then that pays for itself within a generation. I would love if this was something that we came out and said that we are thinking about. The Mancs did things the right way with Old Trafford by building it up over the last 20 years. They are looking at turing it into a 95k seater stadium - with our current redevelopment, we would still be 35k under them.

I see that point too. However, having such a big fan base is going to be attractive. Liverpool and United have that whereas a club like West Ham will take years to get to that. Of course, you could argue that the newer football regions are less static and there will suddenly be loads of Hammers in Tokyo, Beijing and Texas. Chelsea are probably bigger than us in Asia now.

I've no doubt we will be bought in the next few years. Our brand is huge and we are still one of the biggest clubs in the world, including being the most supported in Britain and Ireland. We are ripe for an oligarch or oil sheikh. They will love the fact that very little has to be done to build the "brand". We already have the worldwide support unlike Chelsea or city when their owners came in. However, I've no doubt that fsg won't sell without a massive profit. If and I honestly think when we get taken over, a huge part of me will delighted that we can buy the best and keep the best, but a huge part of me will feel it's almost a further nail in the coffin for football.

Sterling is a great promise, but there's a world of a difference between a player like that and a great player. A great player like Suarez or ageing greats like Gerrard and Keane ten years before him never stop trying and inspire those around them. Look at John terry this season. A fucking collussus for Chelsea and he's almost twice the age of this cunt. Over the past few months, sterling either hasn't been bothered or he has run out of steam. They both prove why he will never be a great. Great players ALWAYS contribute in some way. I don't blame players looking after themselves. Every year, our club like every other, rips the dreams up of thousands of young players it releases. Clubs are among the biggest thieves in the country; second only to the politicians. My big issue with sterling is not him chasing more money or looking to win trophies. It's his lack of class. Luis will always be loved by us because he played like he was from Bootle. Sterling plays like he's spent the weekend hanging around on the set of a rap video. I genuinely think we're better off without him. The big issue is that the club will get their pr machine turned against the little cunt in order to hide from their own bullshit. The Texans were at least robbing us blind in front of us. These lads are a bit cuter, with their big words and their stadium expansion. I still predict in 5 years, we will be fighting to get into the top 4 rather than fighting for a title. That isn't good enough. We're Liverpool not Spurs. Top players will come if they are given the money they feel they are warranted. If we do sell him, then nothing less than a world class replacement will do. Over to you Brendan and fsg.

Signing the cast offs from real, bayern and barca wouldn't be a bad start. Some serious talent in there. Throw in Milner, cabaye, Juergen klopp as manager and one or two a-listers from Dortmund and I'll be a happy bastard. Obviously, we'll end up with Ings, fonte, a shit number 2 goalie and maybe Milner. The only positive I see is that can, markovic and Moreno have the talent to get better and we have some prospects in the u21 team. The problem is that they need men in the team to shield them and a manager to believe in them when they don't hit the ground running.

Bolasie is a good to very good player. However, I think that he's the type of signing that we have made too often in the past 20 years. Yeah, they may turn out really good, but more often than not, they offer little and we end up shipping them out to your stokes or your west broms. our squad is full of that type of player. Rodgers is a good manager, but I've gone from being a massive admirer to barely wanting him to stay. If ancelloti or klopp want the job, we should give it to them.

Erikkson is a very good shout. He's a very good player. He's the level down from world class but I'd like him. I rate Milner - he's a very good player, with experience of being part of trophy winning teams and he seems like a good lad. He's a no brainer. Comparisons with Joe Cole aren't good - I never thought Cole would settle being away from London. Ings would be a good 4th choice striker - anything more and I seriously despair for us. Sterling seems to be a little pup. I think he has real world class talent, but I can't help but feel that his career could nosedive unless he gets a real no nonsense manager like Mourinho or Ancelloti. We may be handed a blessing in disguise if we do sell him.

I would put about 6 of the u21 team in for the last two games of the season - Brannigan, Ojo, Sinclair, Wilson, O'Hanlon and Cleary. They all look very good at the u21 level. I'm sure there could even be a few more. Take Brannigan. He could learn alot from playing against the yard dogs of Stoke and Palace. It isn't galactico level, but it sure as hell is the level that defines whether you win or lose a title. If even one of them impresses like Ibe has done, then we finish the season with something to smile about. Rodgers bought some very good talent in the summer. He just hasn't trusted them and it's fucking up their confidence. It doesn't matter whether you're a 15 year old that's moved to the club from Aberdeen, or a 20 million pound signing from Benfica, young players need confidence. Brendan hasn't done this with Manquillo, Moreno and Markovic. The Spanish know their shit and when they reckon that Moreno and Manquillo could be their future full backs, that shows they must be pretty handy - I saw Moreno tear it up for Seville last season.

Money talks with the average top class player. They won't give a shit about the boot room, the Kop and what trophies we have won in the past, but they will give a shit about £££. Some will want the Champions League to be fair so there will be players that we will miss out on, while others will be sold a project. Given this, the club need to make a pretty immediate decision on whether to keep Brendan or bring in Klopp or whoever they identify as a possibility of being our next manager. The whole ethos of how we do transfers needs to change - for most of the past 20 summers we have bought a pile of players for a large amount of money. It would be far better if we bought 2 or 3 top class first 11 players rather than spending the same amount on a load of squad fillers and hoping we get one or two that will make a proper difference. Given that top players go off to play in Siberia, I've no doubt that if the club really believed in itself, we could get alot of the up and coming talents around Europe. i struggle to believe that players at Porto, Benfica, Marseille, Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Villareal and Seville would not be interested if we waved a bit of wonga at them i.e doubling or in some cases trebling their wages. That's what you need to get these lads. Oh and Brendan, when we get them a la Moreno or Markovic, back them up rather than chopping and changing them and fucking up their confidence further By the way, I wish the club would get a bit of class in how it conducts itself. The Depay incident was cringeworthy. We obviously wanted him and he chose the Mancs. It would have been far better if we came out and said it like it was rather than blagging that we never had an interest. We looked like absolute knobheads. I remember when Charlie Nicholas chose the Gunners over us, the club confirmed we wanted him and wished him all the best at Arsenal. We had the last laugh there. The Mancs will spend big this summer but they only came fourh because of how god awful we are. I remain seriously underwhelmed by Van Gaal and they should give De Gea a sainthood. If he goes to Real, that would be a disaster for them. Depay looks a great signing for them and I would have loved him here. What is clear is that last season scared the shit out of them and they view us as a massive big marker of how you can't get complacent. I have no doubt that they will massively improve this summer.

Good point, Wilson, Brannigan, rossiter, Sinclair, Ojo and o'hanlon all look like they could be in or around squad in the next year or two. It's great to see but it would be lovely to have a top centre half coming through - I do like cleary but I'd be very sceptical if he'll become a top player for us...on the other hand he may turn out to be the best of the lot. Down the younger groups, I like the look of that Conor Masterson.

United are a dreadful team. It pisses me off royally that we basically gifted them 4th. We need to win all our games and they need to fuck up in two, losing one. It won't happen. However, it could conceivably come down to how we do against Chelsea and they do against Arsenal. If I was Maureen or Wenger, I'd be doing my best to get us 4th - we would buy some more slightly decent players while the Mancs would be fucked financially. On the other hand, if the Mancs get 4th, they will throw money at their team and get some serious talent.

I remember a few nuggets on the Kop saying that Rush, Whelan, Nicol and Lawro would amount to nothing when they were beginning to replace the 70's stalwarts - a few months later Whelan was being voted young player of the year, Rushie was banging them in and well Lawro was just brilliant, while Nicol was a fucking incredible player. Fast forward to about 91' and the same nuggets were namechecking Nicol, Whelan and Rush along with big Jan as irreplaceable by the garbage that Souey was buying - unfortunately the nuggets were right that time. If you were to give Whelan a season review rating for his seasons with us, he would have always been at least a 7 and a good few seasons an 8. For me, Jordan is currently a 7/10 at best..if he can take his game up a notch (big notch from being a 7/10 player to an 8/10 one), then we can begin to think of comparing him to Whelan. Right now, it's about as farcical as comparing Sturridge to Rushie or Sterling to Barnsie.

Terry Mac and Ronnie whelan are in my top 5 with Souey, Gerrard and Molby. Alonso counts himself unlucky and if he'd been at the club longer he would have knocked out both Molby and Whelan. Mascherano would have probably been top 5 material if he was at the club longer. Didi, McMahon and Gary Mac deserve a mention but aren't in the shakeup for my top 5.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/17/article-2607046-02E95F5D000005DC-953_634x351.jpg Love Rosenthal in this picture. I picture him head butting Stevie nicol and chinning ray houghton to get in the picture with the other lads!

Whelan was an outstanding player, not as outstanding as Souey but still brilliant. His equivalent today would get in pretty much any team here or in Europe - certainly your Barcas and Reals would be trying to snap him up in my opinion. Henderson is a very decent player and was excellent last year. Right now, I view him as our younger equivalent of Michael Carrick. He's a long way to get to Whelan's level.

Or we get bought by some fucking sheikh who will pump in money, but the club and the game I love gets taken further from me.the only thing I'll have is bragging rights when we do get number 19.

Jesus lovren

City have some cracking young players like Byrne and Pozo. Do you reckon they'll get a chance if your mob guarantee 4th? Yesterday was a disaster for us - United still have a few games they could conceivably drop points in. I just can't see City dropping too many more points. They are shocking right now, so I guess you never know.

Kompany looks a liability this season in every game because outside of Aguero, Hart, Milner and Zabaleta, the rest of them couldn't be arsed. He's going in for tackles his team mates should be going in for. I'd love him but I can't see it. City will build any new team around him.

Swansea, Spurs and Southampton are the big hopes. Unfortunately, we have to go to the Chavs and Stoke. I reckon they'll get it by about 3 or 4 points. I hate saying it but credit to the United players. They got their act together this season when it mattered. Ashley Young and Fellaini looking brilliant with Falcao and Di Maria on the bench - what the fuck is going on?

I still think we will be bought by an oligarch or oil sheikh in the next few years. We are still one of the biggest clubs in the world, with a huge fan base, so we will always be attractive to investors.

Aguero could single handedly win this but the rest of them are spineless.