Brendan Rodgers

[danperkins]

He also got very good big ones in the bag, Staam, Ferdiand, RVP, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Rooney, RVN, De Gea, Ronaldo, Cole, Yorke etc. He was very good at this, we can pick a few out but he was very good at transfers. He wasn't afraid to pay top dollar for a player he felt would fit in.

[MrMichael]

it would be crazy to get rid of Brendan Rodgers in the summer. We are a young team with great potential and he has proved that he is the man to make young players get better......

I can't wait to see Emre Can, Markovic and Jordan Ibe next season. To see how they get better and more effective under Brendans guidance....

For me, if there was a lessons learned session in the summer, it would probably focus on the signings from last summer. The root causes are possibly:
1. We signed too many players and it was always going to be difficult to integrate so many at one time.
2. We panic-bought with Balotelli.
3. We didn't sign anyone that could slot in to where Suarez played - and as a result we were forced to change formation.


What this should result in is that we only buy 3 or 4 players (as well as welcome some of our loanees back).

I think that we have so much potential to get better and better over the next few seasons. It would be silly to start again with a new manager.

Rodgers is on the committee and I think it's only fair that all the members take shared responsibility for the huge sums wasted. Only the club knows who pushed for certain players (although the Rodgers mouthpiece, James Pierce at the echo, gives us a good idea), but they all shoulder some of the blame.

If no changes are made to the committee (either personnel or structure) are you confident of a successful transfer window? Because I'm not. We really can't afford to sign more Bago****ties and Lovrens.

They do indeed... I'm not yet convinced as to how great the wastage was, hopefully we get most of our money back for Ballotelli and the likes of Markovic really should show more next season (the less said about Lovren the better)... but yeah, could have been much better but I do think the committee system saves Rodgers from complete responsibility for all the dealings, or at least it will in FSG's eyes.

I'm relatively confident that the personnel at the club will learn from what hasn't worked so well previously, and we have made some good signings over the last couple of years even if the totality hasn't been entirely great. I do strongly believe that in our position success is most likely to come through consistency and long-term planning and am very wary of a "grass is greener" approach to our management IF there are enough positive reasons for sticking with what we have.

I think with Rodgers there are quite a lot of those; his man-management is good, his willingness to trust and develop young players is exceptional, and I do think he has demonstrated a significant amount of flexibility and a refreshing preparedness to learn and change. I also think he's very likeable and articulate, a view I know isn't shared by everyone but personally I just don't get why sections of our fanbase don't ever seem to have really warmed to him. He should definitely get another season, but our summer dealing and the way we start next season will be crucial for his long-term future at the club.

[MrMichael]

It's fair to say best laid plans and all that. Even the most successful managers probably only have a transfer success rate of 50%. But what they do is they get the key signings right more often than they don't and this is the area we are struggling in.

If things keep going awry then is it time to start looking at the strategy?

I'd say it is much lower than 50% really when you consider all signings, depending on your definition of a successful transfer. Unless you're talking about per £ rather than per individual.

Just as an example, here's a list of Wenger's signings for Arsenal (its a few years old), this is a manager who gained much of his reputation initially from apparently clever transfer market dealing

Patrick vieira
Remi garde
Nicolas Anelka
Marc Overmars
Christopher wreh
Alex Manninger
Emmanuel Petit
Gilles Grimandi
Matthew Upson
Luis Boa Morte
Alberto Mendez
Nelson Vivas
Freddie Ljungberg
Oleg Luzhny
Kanu
Fabian Caballero
Kaba Diawara
David Grondin
Davor Suker
Thierry Henry
Sylvinho
Stefan Malz
Moritz Volz
Jermaine Pennant
Igors Stepanovs
Robert Pires
Sylvain Wiltord
Lauren
Edu
Tomas Danilevicius
Sebastian Svard
Francis Jeffers
Gio Van Bronckhorst
Junichi Inamoto
Sol Campbell
Richard Wright
Jeremie Aliadiere
Pascal Cygan
Gilberto
Kolo Toure
Rami Shaaban
Jens Lehmann
Gael Clichy
Jose Antonio Reyes
Efstathios Tavlaridis
Cesc Fabregas
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie
Olafur Skulason
Phillipe Senderos
Michal Papadopulos
Robin Van Persie
Mathieu Flamini
Manuel Almunia
Emmanuel Eboue
Johan Djourou
Sebastian Larsson
Daniel Karbassiyoon
Arturo Lupoli
Abou Diaby
Alexander Hleb
Alex Song
Mart Poom
Emmanuel Adebayor
Theo Walcott
Tomas Rosicky
Julio Baptista
William Gallas
Denilson
Armand Traore
Niklas Bendtner
Bacary Sagna
Eduardo
Havard Nordtveit
Lassana Diarra
Fran Merida
Nacer Barazite
Vito Mannone
Lukasz Fabianski
Samir Nasri
Carlos Vela
Mikael Silvestre
Aaron Ramsey
Andrey Arshavin
Amaury Bischoff
Francis Coquelin
Gilles Sunu
Thomas Vermaelen
Wojciech Szczesny
Laurent Koscielny
Marouane Chamakh
Sebastien Squillaci
Emmanuel Frimpong
Ignasi Miquel
Carl Jenkinson
Gervinho
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Park Chu-Young

Now you could probably bold a few more of those but they'd be a bit arguable in one way or another I reckon, and still wouldn't get you that close to 50%

[ChrisDR1968]

The more you spend the higher you finish, that's why FFP was brought in, to safeguard Utd + Arsenal at the top table, Chelsea and City supported it to stop others coming in and doing what Abramovich and Manseur did for their respective clubs and we supported it to give us a chance of competing in the top 4 as FSG knew huge improvements could be made in income and running of the club.

I thought FFP was brought in to stop the vast majority of football clubs being financially pathetic and posting losses season after season after season.

No?

[The_weatherman]

That's the relevant bit.

Top dollar these days is £50 million upwards, unproven, young, promising players cost £20m+

We don't have that money to compete and with FFP it means we'll always need to take a longer term view.

I don't understand how fans (not saying you) don't realise this and also accept that Rodgers is the best manager for the club at this moment of time because he develops players and makes them better.

It's about getting more than value for money - there's some stat (somewhere) that says amount of transfer fees spent + wage bill = final PL position.

The more you spend the higher you finish, that's why FFP was brought in, to safeguard Utd + Arsenal at the top table, Chelsea and City supported it to stop others coming in and doing what Abramovich and Manseur did for their respective clubs and we supported it to give us a chance of competing in the top 4 as FSG knew huge improvements could be made in income and running of the club.

Im half way with, but several top players were going for 20-30 million last summer, in our range IMO.

[MrMichael]

I thought FFP was brought in to stop the vast majority of football clubs being financially pathetic and posting losses season after season after season.

No?

So it was originally sold, but in practice all it has turned out to do is enforce maintenance of the status quo, enabling the biggest clubs to spend the most and preventing anyone else from challenging them.

Fwiw I also believe something like 17 of the 20 Prem clubs posted profits last year, not sure what the numbers are like in the other top leagues.

[The Birdman]

So it was originally sold, but in practice all it has turned out to do is enforce maintenance of the status quo, enabling the biggest clubs to spend the most and preventing anyone else from challenging them.

Fwiw I also believe something like 17 of the 20 Prem clubs posted profits last year, not sure what the numbers are like in the other top leagues.

Yep, FFP is about living within your means, you can spend a % of your turnover on wages.
That's generated income, not interest fee loans from uber rich benefactors.

So the bigger your stadium, the more commercial deals you have, the less debt you carry means the more you can spend.

[peekay]

So it was originally sold, but in practice all it has turned out to do is enforce maintenance of the status quo, enabling the biggest clubs to spend the most and preventing anyone else from challenging them.

Fwiw I also believe something like 17 of the 20 Prem clubs posted profits last year, not sure what the numbers are like in the other top leagues.

Overall I have been disappointed with the enforcement of FFP but it is not a bad policy to have at LFC irrespective of whether other clubs are following or not - living within our means.

[ChrisDR1968]

Here's an interesting post from RAWK I've just read. If it's accurate I'm not sure the players that Rodgers really wanted last summer would be very popular signings with most here on Est.

From the James Pearce interview (and latterly another Liverpool forum...)

James Pearce has given an insight into the club behind the scenes

https://soundcloud.com/anfieldhq/james-pearce-corrected

The transfer committee is composed of
Rodgers
Ian Ayre
Mike Gordon (FSG representative)
Dave Fellows (Head of recruitment)
Michael Edwards (number cruncher)

Rodgers insists he has the final word on transfer, however Rodgers has been having to pick from 2 or 3 man short list which did not include players he initially wanted (due to fee, availability etc)

Rodgers really wanted:
Lovern
Lallana
Lambert
Vorm (cost too much, club were not prepared to pay)
Bertrand
Boney
Eriksen

Transfer committee wanted
Can
Markovic
Moreno
Balotelli (Rodgers didnt want 2 weeks before he was signed, as other deals fell through and was left with a choice of Eto or Balotelli)


FSG wanted a director of football, but Rodgers opposed this. However FSG in essence got a DOF by committee.

Muddies waters who is held to account. FSG still fully behind Rodgers, and still has credit in the bank despite poor start. But FSG expect a top 4 finish.

Rodgers wanted another keeper in the summer to push Mignolet (Vorm). Mignolet not sweeper keeper Rodgers talked about when he arrived.
Rodgers has said to Pearce its tactical why Borini has not played (not performed in training). Reading between the lines he believes Rodgers was frustrated at Borini for rejecting the moves, and generally he has not impressed. The club are making it abundently clear they want him gone.
Rodgers left out new signing as he felt he needed to go back to what he knew. Thats why seen Lucas and Toure return to team, and players like Can left out.

[Daniel 7]

Eriksen would have been a great signing, I still don't know why he wasn't signed - it looked like he was all set. I would rather see Bony here than Mario, despite what the Bony doubters say. I'd rather we had stayed away from Southampton altogether though, not one of those players is a good signing - ranging from disastrous to unproven.

[Gibbo]

Who'd sack him then? And if not what would it take to make you consider it.

I wouldn't currently, but lose to Blackburn and finish below 5th and massive questions would be asked.

[Daniel 7]

Who'd sack him then? And if not what would it take to make you consider it.

I wouldn't currently, but lose to Blackburn and finish below 5th and massive questions would be asked.

Not sure it would make a whole lot of difference. One thing for sure is that FSG won't be going cap in hand to Rafa Benitez - they'll probably go after the next up and coming manager rather than an established name, and this is where the problem might lie. Imagine going through recruitment now - who would we go for? Tim Sherwood? Might as well stick with Brendan.

[captainfog]

Who'd sack him then? And if not what would it take to make you consider it.

I wouldn't currently, but lose to Blackburn and finish below 5th and massive questions would be asked.

I've made up my mind on him now for these reasons posted in the post match thread

Its not about isolated results its about how the team has performed over the whole season and I think he's fallen way short of acceptable standards. The results against the top sides have been terrible, our results in Europe were terrible and in the first half of the season the results against everyone was poor. And I also think in three years he still hasn't managed to find a balance between attack and defense and has a transfer record no better than average.

For me it is time to move on. Others are welcome to a different opinion though

FA cup or not I'll be disappointed if he's our manager next season because I just don't believe he's the right man for the job.

[captainfog]

Not sure it would make a whole lot of difference. One thing for sure is that FSG won't be going cap in hand to Rafa Benitez - they'll probably go after the next up and coming manager rather than an established name, and this is where the problem might lie. Imagine going through recruitment now - who would we go for? Tim Sherwood? Might as well stick with Brendan.

Ajax manager or Klop would both be top of my list.

[Daniel 7]

Who is?