cuppatea

We were absolutely miles behind the current top 4 (and Spurs for that matter) when he took over and they've all spent more than us on transfers and wages since then (significantly so in the case of United, City and Chelsea). The only way a decent manager wins the league in those circumstances is if all the teams above us are managed by shite.

If you think that's bollocks, go on villatalk.com and look at their fans discussing him, it's exactly the same tone. Here's a bloke with 45,000 posts: I said on here last week that Shaqiri seems like the sort of player who is rated incredibly highly by people who have barely seen him play and not highly at all by people who have. The opposite appears to be true of Benteke. The Villa fans who have spent the last 3 years watching him week in, week out seem to think he's absolutely top drawer, while our fans, based on the odd game and match of the day highlights think he's shite.

I take comfort from how highly he's rated by the Villa fans, who have seen far more of him than any of us lot. Comments like the following seem to be the norm on their forums at the moment:

They spent £330m net on transfers in 3 years to break into the top 4. Our net spend in the last 3 years is less than £100m. That's not factoring in the huge difference in wages, either.

I wouldn't expect him to ever get near the level of Aguero but Benteke is a far more accomplished player than Costa was at the same age.

http://streamable.com/mdsi Some decent vision/awareness/passing from him there.

I was referring to Sterling.

Absolute fucking insanity if they pay him £200k a week. That would make him one of the top 10 highest earners in the sport when he isn't in the world's top 50 on current ability.

He played in the Euro u21 final. He'll have been given extra time off, same as Can, Coutinho, Firmino.

We're very transparent in our transfer activity. The players we're genuinely after get leaked to James Pearce, Tony Barrett, Andy Hunter, Paul Joyce, Ben Smith etc and everything else (like the Illaramendi and Kovacic stories) is pure made-up bollocks.

Benteke has scored 42 Premier League goals in 88 games (that's a better goals per game ratio in the Premier League than Sturridge, Torres, Owen, Fowler, Drogba, Dzeko, Bony, Giroud, Lukaku etc), compared to Andy Carroll's 34 in 136. As for headers, he averages 4 goals per season in the league with Villa, whilst Suarez, for example, scored 3 per season with us. He might not be the right player for us but the Carroll comparisons are just lazy.

In what world is a 24 year old, 1 in 2 Premier League striker, who starts up front for one of the best international teams in the world (ahead of £28m Lukaku), who plays for a team that doesn't want to lose him and with more than a year to run on his contract, going for £20m? Even using our own transfers as a measuring stick, we paid £35m for a painfully average 1 in 4 Premier League striker, £25m for an attacking mid who was playing in the League One at Benteke's age and we're holding out for £50m for a 20 year old winger whose most recent form has been horrendous. Around £30m is about the going rate for a Benteke these days, see Carroll, Bony, Lallana, Fellaini, Shaw, Cuadrado, Herrera, Soldado, Lamela etc.

Andy Carroll was and is a bang average player who looked destined for mediocrity through every stage of his early development that we spent £35m on after a brief run of good form. He was being heavily linked with a £5m move to Stoke a few months before we signed him but because he hit a purple patch in the run up to January, we decided to make him the most expensive English player of all time. As an act of sheer fucking lunacy, making a mediocre, limited, injured, non-prolific striker with a bad attitude who "likes a drink" one of the most expensive players ever because he played well for a few months will never be equalled by any transfer in this sport.

If our only change this summer was to bring in a decent striker I think we'd be miles better off than last season. We started the league campaign well last year with 6 points from 3 very tricky opening fixtures but Sturridge was injured in the last of those. Next up was Aston Villa at home, with Balotelli leading the line. We lost 1-0. "But, although Adam Lallana enjoyed an encouraging debut and Lazar Markovic again looked lively, Balotelli was anonymous on his first home start." We followed that up with an abject display against West Ham, in which we conceded twice in the opening 10 minutes and deservedly lost, so no complaints there, but after that was Everton at home. We drew 1-1 after Jagielka scored a worldy from 30 yards in the last minute (jammy cunt). "But the Reds' recent problems in finding the net again proved costly, with their failure to take their chances leaving them with one point from a game where they will feel they deserved all three. Mario Balotelli had more shots than Everton." We won 2 on the bounce after that, before facing Hull at home. We drew 0-0 "Mario Balotelli suffered another frustrating day as his Liverpool team were held at home by Hull City. "Liverpool had the majority of the possession and chances and were unlucky not to take an eighth-minute lead." It continued like that for months. Yes, there were some god-awful displays but in a lot of the games we had plenty of possession and created a good number of chances but simply couldn't score, with one goal often being enough to take all three points against us. A side dominating possession, with Coutinho, Sterling and Lallana all playing reasonably well, shouldn't have been that difficult for a striker to score in. Once we found a player who could give us something up front (a 19 year old winger with poor finishing) we went on a run of 33 points from a possible 39 and gave ourselves a real shout of getting top 4, despite having been lying in 10th before that run began. We're not that bad. We weren't that bad to begin with and we've strengthened so far. We'll strengthen a lot more if we sign a good striker and more still if Sturridge can sort his fitness out.

Shaqiri seems like one of those players who is rated incredibly highly, except by the people who have actually seen him play football.

http://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/3bjl5z/clearing_up_some_misconceptions_surrounding/ Decent write-up there from a Villa fan on Benteke for anyone who can be arsed reading it.

Not seen anyone besides Sky say we're paying £15m. Even Southampton's local press are reporting the fee as £10.5m with a possible further £2m in add-ons. Sky were the ones putting the firmino fee at £18m when every other outlet had the price well above that.

Andy Carroll can win headers and kick the ball really hard with his left foot and do almost nothing else well. Statistically he's miles behind Benteke in terms of shot accuracy, pass completion, successful dribbles etc and I've watched enough of both to conclude Benteke is by far the more well rounded player. Again, he wouldn't be my choice of striker but if I accept we're not going to be signing anyone from the top bracket (or arguably even the one below it) then I'd take him over a Rondon or a Bacca.

Benteke wouldn't have been my first choice but he's not quite the immobile lump who can do nothing besides head the ball, that some people on here like to paint him as. There is some finesse to his game: And pace: Combined with strength: And vision/awareness: And technique:

He's only played 1 season in central midfield and it earned him the PFA young player of the year award, a place in the PFA team of the year and a £26m move to Man City.

I wanted him to work here but fuck me, if I have to watch him standing 5 yards offside one more time, or shooting from some ridiculous fucking obscene distance or angle... Get rid.

I didn't know Victor Meldrew was a Red?

From The Echo: "Liverpool will press ahead with plans to sign a top striker following their £29million swoop for Brazil international Roberto Firmino. The 23-year-old South American has been bought for his creative instincts as much as his goal-scoring prowess and Liverpool still intend to invest heavily in another out and out frontman. Liverpool had targeted a move for Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke but they have been put off by the £32.5million asking price and believe there is better value available elsewhere. As a result they are currently looking at other options with Sevilla’s Carlos Bacca and Zenit St Petersburg’s Salomon Rondon under consideration. Rodgers wants four frontline strikers to cope with the demands of domestic and Europa League football and he needs an experienced and proven goalscorer to complement Daniel Sturridge, Origi and Ings. Liverpool will look to bolster their transfer kitty by off-loading strikers Mario Balotelli, Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert over the coming weeks. None of the trio have a future at Anfield."

If you can't get excited about your team signing a 23 year old Brazilian international with a name that ends in 'o' you might as well pack this football supporting lark in. I'd never seen him kick a ball a week ago and but I've watched a few Youtube clips now and I feel confident in saying this lad is better than Messi. Apparently Barca are already plotting a £100m bid on him in 3 years time.

I see your team with Carragher, Johnson, Reina and Meireles in it and raise you this: Babel Ecclestone Cole Shelvey Poulsen Jovanovic Aurelio Wilson Skrtel Kelly Jones