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diego

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Everything posted by diego

  1. Carragher gets two years contract. He boasts that he never negotiates - his contract renewals take two minutes. This one took a whole year of plotting and scheming. First were the threats that he would leave if he was benched, then the paranoia that Rafa would not recommend a renewal, then the campaign to undermine Rafa using Bascombe and TLW and eventually giving Purslow grounds to tell the media and the board that Rafa had lost the dressing room. Even after he started to talk openly about his contract - it has taken two or three months of negotiations. Its not right that one of the highest paid players should be given an extraordinary extension on the eve of new owners taking over. It smells like a pay-off. He was a good player 4-5 years ago. He's not good enough now. He should have been offered a one-year extension at reduced wages on the understanding that he would have to work for his place. That would have allowed him to look elsewhere - possbily go and play for "the Boss" - Houllier at Aston Villa, or even for the blueshite.
  2. Most of Hick's complaints about procedural breaches have been dealt with by the English High Court. The only other issues are his claim that (a) the RBS refused to accept payment of his debt and (b) the poor judgement of the BoD in accepting NESV instead of one of the other bidders © claims that the board's proceedings were influenced by their demands for bonuses or other inappropriate considerations. It would take Hicks two or three years to pursue such a civil claim through all the levels of appeal - it would cost a fortune in legal costs for the plaintiff and defendants. If there was any merit in his claims, at all, both sides would seek an out-of-court settlement. The defendant's insurers would have an influential role. I would welcome a fact-based enquiry into the whole process. I'm not one willing to put my trust in Broughton and Purslow's good judgement, although I am glad that the end result, forced mainly by RBS, was to get rid of Hicks and Gillet.
  3. That is another lie put out about him by those who had no genuine footballing reasons to attack him. He complained about the inefficient transfer system whereby we were losing all the best prospects because of Parry's slowness. It was Hicks who got rid of Parry, not Rafa. Rafa waited four years before until Heighway retired before he asked that the Academy be integrated with the first team as it is in most major clubs. He also encouraged and approved the appointment of first class youth directors and reserve team manager. He proposed the appointment of Kenny Dalgish (and then recommended that he be manager). These were not the actions of a control freak but of someone responding intelligently to the situation he had been asked to manage. Following all the instability and broken promises he also hesitated about a new contract until the owners gave him assurances that he would be in charge of footballing matters. Of course they and Purslow broke that promise, too. Rafa is at Inter now where the President describes him just as prepared and hard-working and focussed as Mourinho, but much more affable and easy to get on with. He is someone who does not pester him for new players like Mourinho did. At Inter there is a strong President and a strong director of football who decides the transfers. Rafa has made clear many times that he understands his role is to be the coach not the manager in charge of transfers, and he has repeatedly said that he will build on the club's traditions and respect all the good work of manager's and players before him. Its silly to control him a control freak - the facts say otherwise.
  4. We already know your endless appetite for sneering at foreigners. Your racism or xenophobia - whatever it might be - makes me wonder about the "purity" of your bloodline. You are so fascinated with the subject. I think we should be allowed to see the Lim bid. Broughton and Purslow have made a number of very bad decisions - the pressure on Rafa the hiring of Hodgson, the selling and loaning of good players and the purchase of second rate players. Purslow failed in his main job to bring equity participation. Broughton failed to find a buyer committed to building a new stadium and he failed to find a buyer by the end of August at a time when competition between buyers may have been expected. They tell us that Henry and co own a Nascar team - so does Gillet. They own a baseball team - so did Hicks and an American football team and Gillet was also praised for his efforts to stabilise and develop the Montreal Canadians. So what's the difference? Broughton and Purslow found a buyer only after the RBS called the shots and created the urgency of a deadline that brought the price down. Let us hear Lim's bid and exam his credentials and see his commitments. Subject to the above I would prefer to see LFC marketed in Singapore and the east rather than in the USA. In any case, a Chelsea part-time Chairman and an account/banker should not be making these decisions without consultation with the supporters. Purslow promising consultation after all the decision have been made is just more self-serving PR.
  5. Those who talk about "a decline" under Rafa are obviously so deep into their petty propaganda that they think the rest of us will overlook the fact that the team got better every year, under Rafa , and for two years was rated by the FIFA as No. 1 Even in his final season - despite the shocking early form of Carragher and the season long sulk of Gerrard who was saving himself for the World Cup, the long periods of injury for Torres and the serious injuries to 12 others, the team was still within two points of 4th place with two games to go. As for Rafa's negativism - which seems to be one of those props the anti-Rafa loonies use all the time - we were consistently near the top of goal scorers under Rafa - and once were actually top - not to mention shots on goal. The season before last we strung together victories where we scored a minimum of 3 goals a game and several times scored 4 - against, for example, Man Utd and Real Madrid. Under Rafa we broke LFC's record for goals for. Those who talk about Rafa and Hodgson in the same breath as "negative" managers are displaying their ignorance. Hodgson won only three times away from home in the last two seasons at Fulham.
  6. Why? Rafa is one of the legends of the club. We talk about Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish.
  7. Hodgson and the other five managers who applied for the job did so in the belief that Rafa had a left a first-class squad that underperformed for only one season because of injuries and the poor form of the senior players. All it needed, they believed, was a little tweaking to get back into the top four. Hodgson has said as much. In fact he said the squad was overstaffed and he approved the sale and loaning out of some of its most promising players. It was only when that first-class squad he inherited - now depleted and downgraded by his and Purslow's transfers and loans - started to play badly that he declared that it was short of 5 or 6 strong players. Actually Rafa had said it needed 3-4 new players . That's why Broughton and Purslow forced him out with the compliance of the owners who did not want to be subjected to pressure from the manager to improve the squad. Hodgson was hired because he undertook not to ask for new players and because he would let Purslow play manager in the transfer market.
  8. Every fan can buy their own seat and bring it to the match with them.
  9. That is the second time Purslow has thrown cold water on a Bascombe piece in the last month. Its another sign that Bascombe is losing his "senior sources at the club" - although he probably still has Carragher. The NoW announcement that it is converting to a pay-site - like other Murdoch sites, will mean that Bascombe's gossip, speculation and agendas disguised as reporting, will have far less circulation in the future. Find out more about the all-new News of the World website | notw.co.uk | News Of The World
  10. That may be because you read TLW which is a site with an anti-Rafa agenda. Most other sites and the vast majority of Liverpool supporters appreciated Rafa, have a deep affection for him and would have him back. The only hesitation would be that it would have to be right for him - nobody would want him to be subjected to a continuation of the same kind of abuse he suffered from the London based media, "Little England" managers, disloyal players like Carragher and Gerrard, xenophobes and extremists on sites like TLW, and interfering technocrats like Purslow. I've no doubt Rafa would take them all on if he had the choice, but his friends might advise him to hold back until the conditions are right.
  11. He didn't come for trophies he came for cash. He signed a contract which promised him a huge golden handshake if he was sacked by new owners. He knew perfectly well the club was for sale and the new owners could take over in as little as a month from the time he signed. As it happens it may have taken three or four months. He would have calculated that new owners would let him have a year before replacing him. But probably never foresaw that he would have quite such a disastrous start that new owners should contemplate removing him before Christmas. Purslow is also responsible, not only for forcing Rafa out and hiring Hodgson, but also for interfering in the transfer and lending of players just before Hodgson was appointed and just after - with Hogson's compliance. They have both seriously weakened the squad Rafa left and diluted its quality by their acquisitions. The two of them together are responsible for the debacle and they both should be sacked.
  12. I'd swop Gerrard and Carragher for Rafa (if Inter would take them, which I admit is highly unlikely). He was the heart and intellectual vision of the club - not those two . Broughton would have to go, of course, and so would Purslow, unless the new owners removed Purslow's ability to interfere in footballing matters.
  13. Carragher an Evertonian from an Evertonian family was lucky to have been picked of the street by LFC and given a decent education and a wage far beyond his wildest dreams. His playing career got off to a rocky start, and then he settled into life as a mediocre full back with very limited game intelligence or technical skills but with some physical strength, enough pace, and a fighting spirit. It was only when Rafa came on the scene that he was raised to a new level as a centre back and there was marginal improvement in his game intelligence and his technical skills. In the last two years or more his pace is no longer adequate. He has tried to compensate for his failing powers by developing the role of "organizer" - which is an euphemism for snarling and shouting at other players most of whom are better than he. He has also become increasingly active promoting himself as a "senior player" and "future manager" - the latter being particularly fanciful . He plays media politics (1) about his own contract (2) about whoever the manager is. He is anxious about his imminent future as an ex-journeyman player and is actively testing the media pundit market and the restaurant trade. His views on Rafa and LFC are shallow, ignorant and boring. As a scouser he does not represent me or any of the Liverpool people I know. His frequent sermons on all-things LFC are self-serving. Unfortunately, we will continue to hear from him well after he has stopped playing, because he is a big mouth, and like many of the ex-Liverpool players, he will try to continue to make money off the club and enjoy its perks by carping about it.
  14. Cannon is wrong to say he will lose $144 million. He will lose roughly half of that since he and Gillet are 50-50. Furthermore, most, if not all of that, is borrowed money. If it is lost it will be his creditors who will lose it - not Hicks. I'm not sure if that money includes the 10% interest they were charging the club for the money they "loaned" which they had borrowed from other lenders at a lower rate of interest. In any case they cannot say it was a loan and at the same time say they "invested" it.
  15. I agree with the first post on this thread. I have been saying it on here for a long time receiving the ritual negs every time, from the same people who were most vitriolic in their attacks on Rafa. There is a connection between the anti-Rafa crazies on TLW and Carragher. He has taken it upon himself to undermine Rafa. He fed Bascombe and TLW and Purslow and various ex-players and malcontents a constant stream of biased judgements and gossip. Of course his main motivation is money. He wants a new 2-3 contract at a time when his playing skills and prospects don't deserve it. He is trading on the "scouse backbone" tribalism that the media have attached to him - offering himself as a spokesman on every aspect of the club and the league on a weekly and even daily basis. He failed spectacularly to criticise the owners - even while he was sticking the knife in Rafa- and his two statements in the last week are self serving - hoping to position himself in a good light with the new owners. He has been very well paid and rewarded by LFC, he was backed solidly by Rafa, picked more than any other player. He is one of the main reasons the team did badly last year (along with Gerrard). His punting and snarling is one of the more unpleasant aspects of the club. He will be gone eventually - the sooner the better.
  16. The main reasons Purslow eventually opposed the owners was (1) he knew they were on their way out anyway and he wanted to position himself on the winning side (2) he has better job prospects with the new owners than the currrent owners, although he may be in for a shock there (3) he has been pasted so hard by genuine supporters for his devious ways, his attempts to undermine Rafa and hire Hodgson and for his politicisation of the players, that the opportunity to play the hero was irresistible. SOS played a huge constructive part in the scrutiny and informed criticism which has helped force Purslow's change of loyalty.
  17. Broughton's appointment was a slap in the face to Purslow who was failing in the job he was hired to do. They both tried to deflect scrutiny by forcing Rafa out, recruiting a willing Carragher and Gerrard to help them. Look at the cost of that action: - the 9 million already mentioned (compensation to Rafa and to Fulham): - loss of income from Carling Cup: - the worst league position in over 50 years and the subsequent loss of potential revenues from extra TV coverage of leading teams: - an unquantifiable reduction in the re-sale value of the club - possibly scores of millions: - the loss of some of the best players on loan or sale: - the costly acquisition of below standard players - the unquantifiable but real loss of support: - the potential loss of new players who will be wary of association with the club following Rafa's departure Broughton and Purslow should be sacked and I don't care if it is done by the current owners, new owners or an administrator.
  18. Gerrard (the captain) and Carragher (the vice-captain) have had innumerable opportunities to say or do something about the owners. But until Carragher said last week that there is no hurry to change them, both had said nothing. The idea that they, or any other player, would risk the possibility of a contract extension or new contract for the sake of the supporters is ridiculous. Both Carragher and Gerrard were active in betraying the squad and the manager last season. They didn't do it in the open. The fact that they skulked around behind the scenes feeding TLW, Bascombe and other hand-picked stooges, shows that they knew what they were doing was wrong. They also knew that it would please the owners. Carragher should not get a new contract and Gerrard should be demoted and put on notice to find a new club. The ruination of a club starts when the players pick the manager and betray the squad. And nothing good comes of owners and directors recruiting players as pawns in their in-house politics.
  19. It's fast forward to the divorce.
  20. The main culprits for the poor results last year were Gerrard and Caragher, in that order. That Carragher then went on a sneak campaign with Bascombe and others to undermine the manager is disgusting. On the bright side - the fact that Rafa has gone and the team is fighting relegation will now cause Ferguson, Bruce Big Head and Aldyce to respect LFC once again and share a glass of wine with Hodgson. That should make Carragher happy.
  21. Birds of a feather flock together - Ferguson, Bruce Big Head, Aldyce - the dominant TLW clique - Bascombe - Carragher. Rafa smoked them all out and he still does.
  22. I see Rafa has flushed the loonies from the main forum. He's really got them worried that he'll be back.
  23. Inter Milan under Rafa doesn't play dull, defensive football. They won 4-0 yesterday in the CL. That's the second four-goal game they have had in about 5 games. Even when they were defeated by Roma in the last minute of extra time they had 15 shots on goal during the game. When Rafa was manager at LFC in 2008-2009 he had something like 12-15 games when we scored 3 goals or more - the highest number of goals in the PL. There was a run of about 5-6 consecutive games that year when we scored 4 including against Real Madrid and Manchester United.
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