DonaldDonaldson

I'm still laughing at the betting on Rafa getting the chop being suspended the other week. :D Plus, I bet Bascombe is europhoric about this development. :whistle:

You make some excellent points with respect to the level of competition. I’ve got issues with Rafa but one thing many people chose to overlook when comparing records with previous Managers is the strength of the competition that we were up against at the time, and our ability as an institution to attract and pay for the top talent.

He should flog him…..every fucking day ‘till the summer, and then get rid. Seriously though, if Rafa gives Kuyt a new contract then I think Rafa will then be a lost cause and should be jettisoned asap.

So the qualifying criterion for Carragher is that he’s allegedly in the same position as a previously untried Manager and that turned out super.

I don’t think we fell into decline because we were tactically outwitted week after week; rather we became a crap team because a large proportion of the team were either crap or couldn’t perform under the weight of expectation, or both. Yeah, things have changed a lot, especially on the fitness side of things, but the basics of manoeuvring the ball into the oppositions goal more times than they manoeuvre it into yours is the same, and for that, the best teams with the best players will win out over time. And in our pomp, although we had great players, they didn’t just go out and do whatever they wanted; we did have a defined system of play, a pass and move methodology, and I don’t see why we can’t have one now – controlling the ball and passing it to your team mate is a timeless skill that should never go out of fashion, and I don’t see why we can’t do that now.

I’m not querying your post other than the part I’ve high-lighted; you reference the free-flowing football of the youth team so it must be something of importance to you, so do you think Carragher is a ‘free-flowing football kind of guy’? And if you do, what makes you think that? What qualifies Carragher to be the Manager?

I don’t think I’m ignoring Kenny’s achievements, or belittling them; rather putting some perspective on the notion he could come in now and be a panacea for all of our ills. And I'm not trying to knock Kenny in order to build Benitez up; I can perfectly understand, and sympathise with, some of the arguments a lot of people have against Benitez. I just don't see Kenny as the answer.

Name the team for his last game, the 4-4 vs. the Bitters, and pay particular attention to the defence. Also, it's ironic that Benitez get's so much stick for rotation, yet Kenny did this years before, with a horses for courses policy that he somtimes adopted, played Rush and Aldridge upfront sacrificing Beardsley, leaving Hougton out when employing a sweeper system or 3 centre backs, and we got badly twatted 3-0 away at Arsenal when we we're set up with six defenders in the team looking for a draw, if I remember rightly. We even had a phase of dominating games and not taking our chances (sounds familar) - so much so that I remember Ken Rogers reprinting a joke about it in the Footy Echo from the Mancheter Evening News (with Beardsley as the fall guy) to which he responded with one about a set of bins and their trophy room. It definitely wasn't all rosy in the garden during the last months of Kenny's reign, as some people would have you believe. And who were the Biggest threat at the time? Boring, boring Arsenal. We're not just battling against boring, boring Arsenal now, are we? Also don't forget, John Aldridge, one of your 'Holy Trinity' thinks Kenny did the dirty on him when he (Aldridge) got ofloaded to real Sociadad, so that would put 'ruthless' Benitez into perspective.

I think there is some merit in that but, I expect our players to be capable of the basics, such as controlling a ball and passing it 5 yards to a team mate. If you were around in the late 80’s you’d remember the tremendous amount of stick the likes of Wimbledon and similar ale-house teams got – a lot from our own fans, but they’d respond with something like: 'we’re only playing to our own strengths and making the most of our meagre resources’. There has got to be something that sets us apart from dross like that. I’m not advocating a gung-ho we’ll-concede-3-but-we’ll-score-4 90’s style Newcastle approach, or art-for-arts-sake Arsenal bollocks, but something more like our mid 80’s heritage, so to speak, that combined discipline and technique with fundamental football ability.

When Kenny took over, he inherited a side that had reached the European Cup final - that were Champions the season before, plus the fact that Bob was his right hand man, had a lot to do with the '86 double. His best signing was John Barnes - and Bob played as big a part as anybody in getting Barnes to Anfield. Kenny changed the style of play and we got one great season out of it (1987/1988), one half a great season (second half of 1988/89 when we went on a superb run prior to Hillsborough), and one good season (1989/1990). Even though he left when we were top of the league, the defence was fucked and the Goalkeeper needed replacing, Rush was a shadow of his pre-Juventus self and Aldridge had been offloaded - things were going downhill, and even Ronnie Moran, the bootroom stalwart, couldn't keep us in top spot. At Blackburn, where there were no standards to live up to, and an unlimted mountain of cash, he basically bought his way to success, ala Abramovich - he definitely wouldn't get that here.

You sound like a daft Geordie calling for the re-coronation of King Kev. Fair enough if you want Benetiz out, but to then go on to suggest the replacements you have suggested is laughable. The answer to all our woes is Jamie Carragher? Is he any good at management then? What exactly would Carragher learn from Kenny? How to let your squad get old and pack the defence with tripe like Gary Ablett, Glen Hysen, Nicky Tanner, and Bugsey Burrows? Harping on for yesteryear is laughable.

Do we infer from this that Gillett was one of the big losers at the bookies, then? :D

:whistle: Being as thick as pig shit, I think Moores gets a pass when it comes to this new-fangled interweb malarkey business. However, he doesn't get a pass on being a fucking liar, which is how he comes across in this 'I did my homework' bollocks. Parry doesn't get a pass on anything because he's a fucking cunt that can't rely on the "I've only got the brain power of an amoeba" defence.

This is the top and bottom of the whole shambles; at the time, Parry said on Dozy Dave's behalf that he (Dozy Dave) had done his homework vis-à-vis the probity of Hicks & Gillett. Then sometime later, when the shit hits the fan (and the fans) Dozy Dave informs the world that the sum total of his ‘homework’ actually amounted to merely accepting the word of a snidey munchkin.

I think this is overstating ‘inherited’ problems somewhat. Let’s not forget that in June 1995, only three years before Parry took over, we broke the British transfer record by signing Collymore, so were weren’t exactly destitute. Despite what people say about being miles behind the mancs in terms of merchandising and marketing blah, blah, blah, the killer blow they are landing week after week is in match-day revenue; until we get a significant boost in match day attendance we are going to remain hamstrung, and Parry royally fucked that up - if we had taken on the debt of the reported £80 million for the ‘Parry bowl’, we would be sitting a lot prettier now. The competition moved way ahead of us while Parry was in charge; it wasn’t a case of drafting Parry in to drag us back to the summit. Also bear in mind that with his bum chum as chairman, Parry pretty much had carte blanche to operate how he deemed fit.

The reason we didn't sign Laudrup was basically because Lazio offered him double the wages that we offered.

Moyes would stink the fucking place out if he went to Chelsea; good showing in the League is basically down to having an injury ravaged squad with few options so the team basically picks itself, giving the bog-eyed cunt less scope to fuck things up. His forte is putting out hard-to-breakdown teams that battle, safe in the knowledge that finishing in the top 8 maintains his status as the Moysiah. He'd be fucking useless working under the burden of having to actually achieve something tangible.

As Ulysses Everett McGill alludes to below, I think Taylor was already firmly ensconced as a media go-to guy on the back of Hysel, which left him in a strong position to milk the Hillsborough aftermath. It could be argued that Hysel was the best thing that happened to the Doyen of Condescension

The ginger support network coming into play.

It looks like Wednesday’s spot of giant-killing has gone to the bog-eyed cunt’s head, giving him the idea way above his station that he’s now some sort of Mariah Carey type diva that can flounce out of press conferences when he doesn't like the line of questioning, fucking Moysiah the ginger Mariah.

Who cares what other fans think, though? We shouldn't go out of our way to make people like us, and we shouldn't go out of our way to make people hate us; just let them get on with however they want to feel.

Alonso was just too dozy tonight, thinking he had a lot more time on the ball than he actually did. At one point the ball came towards him in our box when he was facing our goal, and he just nonchalantly ambled up to it to hook it upfield, yet his dawdling gave time for one of the Bitters to close him down and the ball ended up ricocheting towards our goal. Infuriating.

I think some people were a bit premature giving Skrtl down the banks for a couple of less-than-convincing displays when he returned from a long lay off; I think he's one of those players that needs to get into his rhythm with a game or two as he looked a bit shaky when he first signed too.

It's quite fashionable to criticize Kuyt, and I'm going to be a victim of fashion and add that he's fucking useless. Apart from the total poverty of technique, the idea that he merits his place due to a superior 'work ethic' it truly risible as a lot of his 'work' is completely futile; notice how many times he goes charging at the man in possession only for that man in possession to feint one way and bring the ball the other way while Kuyt's momentum takes him sailing past the player. No technique and no footballing brain. Woeful.

I don't think Lucas is a bad as some people make out in pure football terms, but: he's no good on the flanks; and is no good as a defensive midfielder on account of not being able to tackle very well. The only hope I'd see for him would be to play as an advanced central midfielder in a team that plays pass-and-move, i.e. one that gives options to the man on the ball. Ultimately though, I don't think he's going to thrive with us, or in the Permier League.