Liverpool tell Benítez league title is a must

[AFII]

It looks like the £20m January transfer kitty is true then.

Rafa spent £20m this summer and if you add £20m to that then you get £40m.

£20m plus Sissoko, Riise and Crouch. I can't imagine that anyone of them will stay.

[Sarb]

Nothing wrong with what Hicks has said. It's refreshing to have a chairman who is not going to stand for under-achivement anymore. We need to run the title race close this season. Everyone knows it and it's what us fans want.

Personally I'm not bothered about the cup competitions. Just the Premiership

[AFII]

Nothing wrong with what Hicks has said. It's refreshing to have a chairman who is not going to stand for under-achivement anymore. We need to run the title race close this season. Everyone knows it and it's what us fans want.

Personally I'm not bothered about the cup competitions. Just the Premiership

I think G&H worries about the CL. If we miss out on the knockout stages then it will cost them a lot of money so I'm not surprised that this comes out after the Besiktas game.

[Slim]

I really hope so. Manure's and Arsenal's success has come through stability, it's what we need IMO to succeed. Getting rid of Rafa now (or at the end of the season) would be nothing short of crazy.

As Wenger himself said last week, if you change managers regularly “you go nowhere”.

Even if we win **** all this season, it’d be crazy to sack Rafa. We’d be back to square one with a new coach who’d want his own squad. Yet another period of ‘rebuilding’ would have to be endured….would I not like that.

Exactly. God forbid we could end up a joke like Spurs!

[Howard_lfc]

It looks like the £20m January transfer kitty is true then.

Rafa spent £20m this summer and if you add £20m to that then you get £40m.

£20m plus Sissoko, Riise and Crouch. I can't imagine that anyone of them will stay.

2 of them will still be here after Jan I reckon. Crouch looks a gonner but the other two will at least finish the season.

[friedk]

Well if winning the league is what he has to do, then godammit, that's what he'll do.

[Colemere]

I like Hicks, not sure about Gillet, buts Hicks knows what to say to the fans.

[tomasjj]

2 of them will still be here after Jan I reckon. Crouch looks a gonner but the other two will at least finish the season.

I reckon so, mate.
I don't think we want too much change within a season.

I can see two new faces coming in though. A centre back, and a creative player, be it a winger or forward.

[Morten_nogamst_Pedersen]

I reckon so, mate.
I don't think we want too much change within a season.

I can see two new faces coming in though. A centre back, and a creative player, be it a winger or forward.

I agree fully with you, Haubukk (whatever that ****in means)

[Craig_H]

£40M to buy the Premiership!!!!!! How much was actually spent when we take into account the sale of Garcia and Bellamy? Half that?

They've given us a little more money than was previously spent, but lets be honest, the Chavs and Manure will continue to spend far more than us. It will take more than £40m to really give us a fighting chance. You can win that amount with a months rollover on the bloody lottery for crying out loud.

Rafa's spent about three times the '£40m' you mention, in his time at the club.

[keniget]

I don't think he's for one minute suggesting that Rafa HAS to win the league to keep his job, however if we are knocked out of the Champions League early and fail to mount any sort of significant challenge in the Premiership, questions will [rightly] be asked.

Who knows, maybe the Americans aren't quite as supportive of Rafa as we thought. There were rumours back in May / June that they were seriously miffed with the way Rafa came out and demanded action / money, so maybe that's still a bit of a sore point for them.

[carlton]

If there was ever any doubts about selling the naming rights to the new stadium the increase in costs have put paid to them.It would appear to be an absolute must now as are increased ticket prices. The price of steel seems to rise unbeleeevably every month!

[AFII]

2 of them will still be here after Jan I reckon. Crouch looks a gonner but the other two will at least finish the season.

Sissoko has said that he want to leave.
Riise should have been sold in the last window to Villa.
Crouch will be sold if the bust up is true.

I doubt that anyone of them will stay. We really don't need them and have cover in their positions without them.

[dww]

2 of them will still be here after Jan I reckon. Crouch looks a gonner but the other two will at least finish the season.

I think that it depends on how true the Sissoko quotes are about wanting out. Having an unhappy player about the squad isn't a good idea IMO. We also have options in the squad at CM so we could handle letting him go without bringing anyone in.

[alunevans]

I do wish these new owners would be more spotlight shy. They're like bloody rentaquote and it's annoying.

Plus, to say "win the title or we need to have a massive meeting about it at the end of the year" is ****ing ridiculous, not just in terms of the pressure it puts on the manager but also in terms of the expectations they have of us which in my view are not realistic at this stage.

If Rafa has said "this is what you need to win the Prem" why have they interpreted it as "give me the money and i WILL win you the Prem THIS season" ????

Rafa's next task is to get us to be a top 2 team consistently. If he ever does that then I believe the title would come, but thats his first task and even that is a big one.

This is just silly talk from the new owners. But then they don't mind silly talk so long as they've got a camera pointed at them. They should take a tip from David Moores on this one. I never rated Moores as a leader, but he was the ideal Chairman in terms of media exposure.

Maybe he can have a word in their ear that the Liverpool way is to shut the **** up and stop talking to the press every two minutes.