Brendan Rodgers

[Shaggy]

I'm not holding out much hope. At all. I'll be very pleasantly surprised if we have, I dunno, say £15m-£20m to spend without selling. Surely Downing will go for £8m or so - maybe then we'll spend. Hope I'm wrong.

edit - I don't hope I'm wrong about Downing obviously.

[Fredo]

I think Downing can be a decent backup left back but with young Robinson around, he would be a luxury.

[danperkins]

Haha praise jesus Downing & Cole are sold, Henderson too IMO. If Rogers can have 15-20 million as you said and then by some minor miracle manage to get 15 ish for players sold... we could potentially do some good business.

I'm excited about the January window, well excited but nervous. Hard to say..... but IMO Rogers has been ok, made some mistakes but also stuck between a rock and a hard place. Difficult to form any real solid opinion on how he has done thus far. January is huge for him personally & we'll know alot more about him after that.

[el matador]

Spurs and Harry did us more favours than we could have possibly imagined in the summer. First he weeded out, and saved us from, the soulless mercenaries: Sigurdson and Dempsey. Then he took the only player that could have strengthened manure: Dembele. All while screwing up Spurs budget and CL challenge.

Silver lining everywhere.

what surprises me is that they picked three players who all like to play off the striker - not one of them likes it out wide or in central midfield.

[kingfunk]

Can't wait to play them plastic flag waving chavs in the new year.

Fernando who? Rafa who? Brendan Rodgers

[kingfunk]

This is the key point. He hasn't taken over a side that were getting good, decent or average results, he took over one that was in relegation form. He's so far improved us from relegation form, to mid table form. And for me, there is signs we'll kick on and improve much more, even without taking into account an influx of new signings.

I think Rodgers main problem is managing expectations. If people actually expected us to finish 6th-8th like they say, they would see we are right on course. Rodgers had a disrupted per season due to the Euro's and Olympic's and so he pretty much had zero time at the start of the season to get his ideas and methods across. We've had to learn on the job, so to speak.

We are slowly taking his ideas on board, and even without Lucas or any January signings I reckon we'd tail in about 7th. Which is okay. But in the circumstances, not an okay return, but a close to good return. With Lucas & new signings? I think we can at least run 4th place close - if we get the right players in.

So overall, taking into account:

* He took over a team in relegation form
* He had no pre season with the main players
* He got ****ed over in the transfer market by an error on the owners part
* And has had to steer a wafer thin squad through additional European games

I'd give him a mark of 7. Any less would indicate that I thought this squad good enough to be in the top 4. Which when compared to our rivals, we would be lucky to have the 6th best squad of players, after Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs & Arsenal. Add the right couple of players though and I'd see us jump a place or two on that list.

This.

[ronanm]

Not sure Jan will be the best barometer for BR either to be honest. Other than the odd decent acquisition (Anelka, Suarez), big names rarely arrive here or elsewhere. Irrespective, a lot of established players “worth their salt” are probably still engaged in CL competitions/African nations and the like. I don’t expect to see much cash splashed. Maybe an addition or two who could add to what we have, but nothing revolutionary. Accepting we won’t finish top 4 this year (unlikely looking at City, Scum, Spurs, Arsenal and even Everton), I would prefer to keep our big cash for the end of the year (if that cash even exists!). Yes, I am already looking to next season Hopefully our new scouting department will surprise me.

[Daniel 7]

Agger, Skrtel, Mascherano, Maxi....

[ronanm]

Agger, Skrtel, Mascherano, Maxi....

hardly all household names at the time.

[Blind Melon]

I think it was the right choice sticking to our guns with that one. Demspey never convinced me he would do it at a higher level, and is proving that at Spurs. He is inconsistent. I think he would have proven to be an expensive stop gap. Nothing more. But in 2 years time when he is done, we would have had a player on high-ish wages on the books doing **** all. We dont need that anymore.

I was at the Fulham Spurs game at weekend, my mate gave me a ticket. I was slagging off Dempsey to my Fulham mate and he told me that to be fair to Clint Dempsey, his wife had just (literally a month earlier) gotr a top job as a researcher at a london University, and that Clint himself is doing an MSC. If thats true, then I can understand why Clint didnt choose to come to us.

[peekay]

This is the key point. He hasn't taken over a side that were getting good, decent or average results, he took over one that was in relegation form. He's so far improved us from relegation form, to mid table form. And for me, there is signs we'll kick on and improve much more, even without taking into account an influx of new signings.

I think Rodgers main problem is managing expectations. If people actually expected us to finish 6th-8th like they say, they would see we are right on course. Rodgers had a disrupted per season due to the Euro's and Olympic's and so he pretty much had zero time at the start of the season to get his ideas and methods across. We've had to learn on the job, so to speak.

We are slowly taking his ideas on board, and even without Lucas or any January signings I reckon we'd tail in about 7th. Which is okay. But in the circumstances, not an okay return, but a close to good return. With Lucas & new signings? I think we can at least run 4th place close - if we get the right players in.

So overall, taking into account:

* He took over a team in relegation form
* He had no pre season with the main players
* He got ****ed over in the transfer market by an error on the owners part
* And has had to steer a wafer thin squad through additional European games

I'd give him a mark of 7. Any less would indicate that I thought this squad good enough to be in the top 4. Which when compared to our rivals, we would be lucky to have the 6th best squad of players, after Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs & Arsenal. Add the right couple of players though and I'd see us jump a place or two on that list.

Good post. As numerous other posters have pointed out, the January transfer window is going to be critical. Add a couple of goal scoring attacking players and we are going to be right in the mix for top 4.

[Nicey]

This is the key point. He hasn't taken over a side that were getting good, decent or average results, he took over one that was in relegation form. He's so far improved us from relegation form, to mid table form. And for me, there is signs we'll kick on and improve much more, even without taking into account an influx of new signings.

I think Rodgers main problem is managing expectations. If people actually expected us to finish 6th-8th like they say, they would see we are right on course. Rodgers had a disrupted per season due to the Euro's and Olympic's and so he pretty much had zero time at the start of the season to get his ideas and methods across. We've had to learn on the job, so to speak.

We are slowly taking his ideas on board, and even without Lucas or any January signings I reckon we'd tail in about 7th. Which is okay. But in the circumstances, not an okay return, but a close to good return. With Lucas & new signings? I think we can at least run 4th place close - if we get the right players in.

So overall, taking into account:

* He took over a team in relegation form
* He had no pre season with the main players
* He got ****ed over in the transfer market by an error on the owners part
* And has had to steer a wafer thin squad through additional European games

I'd give him a mark of 7. Any less would indicate that I thought this squad good enough to be in the top 4. Which when compared to our rivals, we would be lucky to have the 6th best squad of players, after Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs & Arsenal. Add the right couple of players though and I'd see us jump a place or two on that list.

spot on

[Rich]

I think Downing can be a decent backup left back but with young Robinson around, he would be a luxury.

A £20m back-up converted left back?

Jesus, now I know you're taking the piss.

[Daniel 7]

hardly all household names at the time.

Wat?

Mascherano - came as half of the previous transfer window's most covered transfer stories, one of Argentina's most talented players and hyped up throughout world football as one of that generation's most talked about national talents

Maxi - a proven international player who scored the goal of the tournament in World Cup 2006. Regular goalscorer for club and country, one of the highest paid players at Atletico Madrid

Agger - the best young talent to come out of Denmark at that time and was also being chased by Spurs (quelle surprise) amongst others across the continent

Skrtel - played at a high level for Zenit and a regular for the Slovakian national team.

Hardly unknowns

[little dave hedgehog]

like spending 15 to 20 million in a january window is a bad thing