Ne Moe Imya

I guess some might see it that way. I'm still holding out some faint hope that the owners won't make such a colossal mistake with the manager/DoF appointment. If they get it right, I think we could actually be in a pretty good position going forward. AVB, Segura and Beguiristain would be excellent, add to that 30 million or so, and we could see a serious move into the CL places next season, which would mean we'd be concerned about Chelsea adding top talents. Of course, that's not what I'm expecting. I'm expecting Martinez/van Gaal, 7th place at Christmas, the fans revolting, van Gaal getting into public disputes with owners/Martinez, and a future at the level of Aston Villa beckoning. But I could be wrong. *crosses fingers

I'm the president of the "Lucas Moura fan club" if there is such a thing ever since I first saw him play about 1.5 years ago for Sao Paulo (I'm from Brasil), and I desperately hope that whole article is a lie. If we're trying to claw back into the CL places, Chelsea getting a brilliant prospect to play across from (or beside) Mata is not a good thing for us at all. He may take a year or two to get to where he can do it consistently in England, but when he does he will be excellent. I'm sure he's faster than anyone in our side, and I dread the idea of him running with the ball at Enrique.

The latest is that Villas Boas, the last credible remaining candidate, has been ruled out, as written by the Guardian, the Echo, and the one person on twitter who seems to have some sort of source in FSG.

Great. Now there will be rallying call after rallying call to "support the manager," and "get behind him," etc. when Martinez is hired. We all know that it's a long shot he succeeds, but just like Hodgson we'll support him, at least in public and hopefully at Anfield, while knowing deep down it's not going to work. And then when, in six months, we're still languishing in 6th or 8th, the fan pressure will start to ratchet up, but the owners will be crying for patience. No, I'm going to go further with this. Listen, FSG, you give us competent, proven management and a tangible plan for moving forward, and we'll give you patience. We are still Liverpool fans, and if it takes a season or two to succeed, we'll be right there behind you. You won't believe the amount of patience most of us have - as bad as the past few years have been, we're still different from the fans at other clubs. You won't walk alone, is what I'm saying. But in order to earn the privilege of not walking alone, we ask that you respect us as fans, and as intelligent human beings. If you sack our beloved King Kenny for only winning one cup and getting to another cup final, you had better damn sure bring in someone to replace him whose entire CV doesn't consist of question marks. You had better bring in someone who makes us say "Well, now, this is exciting. I could really see this being a success." Not someone who makes us say "well, I suppose it's possible he could eventually build a winner." Because if that's all you had to offer, then why didn't you leave Dalglish in charge? That was a no-lose proposition. We all love him, and if we're going to struggle outside the top 4 anyway, we'd rather it was behind a man who lives and breathes for the club, a man who has put it all on the line for us before and would do it again. You still have time to reconsider. All the information we're hearing from behind the scenes (which, to your credit, is minimal) is that you're not willing to consider the obvious choice, a man who is on your doorstep twiddling his thumbs and who loves this club. That's fine. It's your prerogative; you just took a beating over sacking a club legend and if you don't want to risk it with another, I understand. But then we hear that of the few top names in the frame, you're ruling out the obvious one for reasons you won't explain, and it's starting to look like you're setting us up to bring in a man who won fewer games with Wigan than Steve Bruce. Do not make that mistake. I know none of you will read this, and I don't care, I'm just saying it as sort of a pathetic "plea to no one." Please, please, do not hire Roberto Martinez.

Well, there goes my hope that we had serious title ambitions. Reading the tea leaves a bit, I'm guessing his wage demands were too high, and FSG said "Hm, well, we know a manager who won't complain about a relatively low wage and transfer budget. Ring up that Roberto Martinez character."

Why are we even arguing who was worse between Aquilani and Downing? Both were terrible signings, and though I think there were some mitigating circumstances for Aquilani that make the decision to sign him marginally less awful (the fact that we were broke and it was one of the only players at a club who may have owed us, plus agreed to stagger the payments so we could afford them), it doesn't matter. Both were mistakes. Hopefully the new management structure will contribute towards us making fewer of those kinds of mistakes. Onward and upward and all that.

That story is just to boost the odds so the editor's cousin can make more money betting against this happening. Can't see any other reason something so patently absurd could be printed.

I agree that Gerrard is probably a bit overpaid relative to his value to the club on the pitch, but I think you're ignoring the PR disaster that would accompany us putting him up for sale, especially this summer when everything else is balanced on a knife-edge. How much would we get for him, anyway? I'd be surprised if someone wanted to pay us 20 million for an injury-prone, slightly past his best Gerrard on huge wages. I don't want us running a "retirement home," but we wouldn't get anywhere near what it would cost to replace him, so let's leave him alone. I think he'll still be an important player for us 2 years from now.

I don't recall him playing any reserve games after that. If you want my honest opinion Flanagan will end up at the level of Danny Guthrie; good enough to start regularly for a mid-table side, but unless he wants to spend most of his career on the bench not going to be Liverpool material (no jokes about our current position, please). That reminds me of a player I should have mentioned in my previous post - Ryan McLaughlin. A bit younger, but for my money the best bet to make it out of the youth setup bar only Sterling. Tremendous player, pacy, skillful, and puts in a great cross. An attacking right back, reminds me of a younger Dani Alves. A long ways off the first team right now, obviously, as he's just 17, but he's a good bet to get there in 3-4 years.

Sterling will get the odd game here and there, I'm sure, and he might get more than that if both Maxi and Kuyt are moved on, as per rumours. Suso is a bit further behind, but the last half of last season he really stepped it up and if he continues that level of progress, he'll debut next season. Coady is a long shot, in my opinion. If he weren't a defender I'd say that Wisdom was probably closest of the rest, but he might have to wait a bit. Robinson and Shelvey I assume don't count as they're already part of the first team squad. Joao Carlos is the wild card. We haven't seen him for the reserves yet, though he finally was on the bench for that friendly last week. Hopefully he's fit for preseason and we can see what he's about. At his age (19, turns 20 next January) you have to figure they must think he's not too far off first team material, else why buy him?

Come, now. Even if he's not the very best man for the job, even his detractors would have to admit he's in the top 5. Since we seem to be interviewing at least that many people, he should clearly be given an interview at the very least, unless the people making the decision have some political/personal vendetta against him.

Was involved (though it's not clear to what extent) in the racist quota scandal recently. Though he may not have done anything wrong, I think it's a long shot that the owners would appoint anyone with any hint of racist scandal in his past at this point in time.

I think everyone has been too quick to panic over the Martinez shortlist article. There are only so many possible candidates, just because he's on the list doesn't mean he's not on the bottom of it. I think the owners would know he would be a huge risk and if it went Roy-shaped early they could be looking for another manager, and that would be a total disaster. Someone like AVB would mean a LOT more patience from the supporters if he's struggling early. Bad as we've gotten, we're still not Chelsea. I'm still strangely optimistic. The news about Segura is very encouraging, and if we end up with, say, a management team of Txiki Beguiristain as general manager (whatever that means, exactly), Pep Segura as technical director, and Villas Boas as manager (presumably setting up the team on gameday, etc) or something similar then we could look back on this whole thing as a masterstroke, strange as it seems right now.

Klopp of all of them. I think the odds we could get him are low, but we should still pursue it until he slams the door in our face. Of the realistic candidates, I'd probably rather AVB. Though I have to say I wouldn't mind Benitez again, and I'm quite surprised to see that I'm not alone in that. I wonder how he would do if he had a Director of Football over/beside him, though? I could see it working well if they shared a tactical vision and the DoF held him in check at times, or I could see it being a disaster if they clashed with what they wanted for the team.

That same goal.com article shows the odds of the various potential Dalglish replacements, and the one the bookies have as third favourites is ... Mourinho. So I think it's safe to say they have no idea what they're talking about.

This could be a total disaster. It's one thing if Kenny has gone up to the owners and said "I think it's time I left," it's another if they've called him on the carpet and sacked him. And if it DOES prove to be the latter, they'd better have a solid replacement lined up already. If it turns out they've sacked him and the best we can do is Martinez, then I really fear for us.

That's a pretty good shout, actually. Upon consideration, I might just give it to Aquilani, who cost about the same amount and was never even fit enough to play. At least Downing was on the pitch for a reasonable number of minutes, and surely we could con Villa or QPR or someone into giving us 10 million if we sold him now. We basically offered Aquilani on a plate to Milan and they played him just enough to not activate his sale clause. But don't tell anyone on RAWK that he's not that good; for some reason everyone on there thinks he's the second coming of Bergkamp.

I know I'm comparing one man at the end of his career with another at the start of his. I'm also comparing one Liverpool manager with his potential replacement, and my point is that if the best we can do is Martinez, we should keep Kenny. Look, if we bring in someone on the Capello/Villas Boas-level, most will look past it them if we have another mixed summer and a 5th place finish next season. Because managers on that level have earned some trust when things are a bit wobbly, even if the improvement is slow. The problem is that Martinez, much as I respect him as a manager with a lot of potential for the future, will not get that. If we finish 5th or 6th next season and have at least one buy that doesn't work out this summer, the fans will be divided about whether he should go or stay, because he hasn't earned the trust that those others have. And if it really goes pear-shaped and we're 10th at Christmas, we could be looking at another mid-season change and then we're really in trouble. For that reason, Martinez right now for us would be a mistake. Sure, it's a risk that has a chance of paying off, but the odds are long and the situation is a dangerous one.

I've heard this argument before and it makes no sense to me. When Hodgson was brought in and it went badly in the first few months, fans demanded his ouster. "You're not being fair," cried the media. "Give him time." But we didn't want him in the first place, and knew he would be out of his depth, so when it proved to be true, we didn't have a lot of patience to sit around and wait for him to turn it around. The odds were very high, given his history, that he couldn't, so why waste time proving what you already know? In Kenny's case, it's the opposite. The man has earned our respect, as a player and a manager, so if he has a few rough months you don't just come in and throw him on the street. He has earned the right to more than that. Especially if the best you can come up with to replace him is Roberto Martinez.

I can see both sides of the "Kenny stays" debate, but the thing that settles it in his favour is the lack of a clear replacement candidate. I think the owners will have seen what happened when we sacked Benitez without a replacement lined up; all of a sudden we were stuck looking around as if we were surprised a top manager wouldn't be interested in Liverpool in the state we were in at the time. Things are definitely improved, but I hardly think we're going to get a Klopp-type manager to come here right now, so what does it serve to sack Kenny? For me, if they did that we'd be stuck with the realisation that none of those big name managers are going to come, and we'd end up with someone on the level of Martinez.

Still think City will bottle it on Sunday, making this whole conversation into "How much money do you need to spend to finish second?"

Unless Krasic is on paltry wages 10 million is not very good value for him, in my opinion. Won't track back, according to his current manager, and it's not like he's Ronaldo going forward to justify it. Now Altintop for 2 million? That actually is a pretty good value, if he'd be happy to sit on the bench. Cover for CM and fullback? An Aurelio replacement, perhaps. I don't think that would be the worst thing in the world, especially with only Enrique and young Robinson at LB.

I'm hoping the DOF thing is settled within a week of our final game; if we go into the transfer window without one I'm really going to worry. Unless they come out with some announcement that Kenny is adding those duties to the ones he already has, sort of making him a more traditional English manager. As for a guess about Kenny's future, I wouldn't like to make one. You can see why they'd keep him, you can also see why they'd demand better. My one hope is that this time we don't sack a manager without a better one waiting in the wings. Hopefully everyone will have learned from how the Benitez sacking went.

The thing that differentiates Shelvey from Henderson is that he takes risks. He doesn't always get it to come off, but I'd far rather a player like him is on the ball when we're steaming forward than Henderson, who always seems scared to try a through ball or run at a defender. He'll lose the ball every once in a while, Shelvey, but at least he does something special with it once or twice a game, leading to goalscoring chances often as not.

I hope the owl takes Holt and Bent to the Euros and fails miserably, and Andy stays at the Olympics and scores shedloads for the U-23s.