Alex Oxlade Chamberlain aka "The Ox"

[Irishnev]

He was a terrible value for money signing. We are too sentimental as a fanbase sometimes & we absolutely hung on to him and Keita 2 seasons too long. Time to be ruthless, good luck Ox you are somebody else's problem now.

Sentiment isn’t a thing for me - all I said is that he was superb pre injury and he could’ve been a mainstay in the side. Post injury as soon as he was “fit” I’d have sold him and Naby for that matter, and Milner two years ago, and Origi post CL win, and no extension for Henderson, and Phillips, and Mane a year earlier, and Robbo this summer

Klopp is the too sentimental one here - footballers are assets, they need to be moved on when their best days are behind them

[Doc_Piptorious]

Well he played 30 times in the League the season we won it for the first time in 30 years, so not awful. Maybe he should have left last season but it didn’t happen. I genuinely don’t feel the need to bad mouth any of our players, just not how I choose to support - but, as ever, each to their own.

Yep. Roar them on when they are on the pitch, and hope they improve as long as they are wearing our red.


Once they are gone, then they are gone.

The ones that were let downs because of injuries, well it is difficult to blame the players for that as it was out of their hands. They are let downs in the sense that they showed signs that they could have been good if not for those injuries as we would have had high hopes as fans but not a thing to berate them over.


The only ones that deserve real disdain when gone/leaving are the ones that disgraced themselves with their behaviour, the likes of Diouf for example.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Sentiment isn’t a thing for me - all I said is that he was superb pre injury and he could’ve been a mainstay in the side. Post injury as soon as he was “fit” I’d have sold him and Naby for that matter, and Milner two years ago, and Origi post CL win, and no extension for Henderson, and Phillips, and Mane a year earlier, and Robbo this summer

Klopp is the too sentimental one here - footballers are assets, they need to be moved on when their best days are behind them

100% agree, though that is far easier in principal that it is to do in practise.

Some of it may be down to Klopp's admirable loyalty towards his players, but more might be down to players wanting to see out their contracts.

[Buzzo]

Football is all about sentiment. It’s why we wave flags and talk about famous games and nights and trophies, it’s why we name stands after players and have statues and singsongs about them. Without sentiment sport is nothing.

What’s new is balance sheets and contracts and wages and agonising over things that really have nothing to do with the game. We have now got the ability to communicate about the club we follow 24/7 and we have access to this glut of either factual or speculative information, and boy, are we gonna discuss it.

The first paragraph is why following a club is amazing and the second is why it’s becoming ****.

[baitman]

Sentiment isn’t a thing for me - all I said is that he was superb pre injury and he could’ve been a mainstay in the side. Post injury as soon as he was “fit” I’d have sold him and Naby for that matter, and Milner two years ago, and Origi post CL win, and no extension for Henderson, and Phillips, and Mane a year earlier, and Robbo this summer

Klopp is the too sentimental one here - footballers are assets, they need to be moved on when their best days are behind them

You'll do for me

Lots of hugs and togetherness during Sir Bob''s time, but the team came first and sentiment was what happened when you looked back on a players glory years.
He would never hang on to a player as he dwindled away to become a dried up husk.
Constantly looking for the next better version is the way forward.

[Buzzo]

I agree with that though, however, players that left were treated with respect. YNWA means something right, that community is and always has one of the core values of the club (certainly in the real online workd). Suspect I’m an army of one here

[baitman]

I agree with that though, however, players that left were treated with respect. YNWA means something right, that community is and always has one of the core values of the club (certainly in the real online workd). Suspect I’m an army of one here

The old players that left were always treated with respect.
Maybe at the time they felt hard done to as the club moved them on before their flame dwindled too much. The club always seeing the bigger picture and doing what's best for the team.
But our memories of these players were of them being in their prime and before they became "extra baggage" they were moved on. No doubt tough on some of our legends, but that's the nature of the beast.
More recently, unfortunately, we have hung on to these guys well longer than we should have, as we maybe try some weird magic physio witchcraft to heal the infirm.

[Doc_Piptorious]

The old players that left were always treated with respect.
Maybe at the time they felt hard done to as the club moved them on before their flame dwindled too much. The club always seeing the bigger picture and doing what's best for the team.
But our memories of these players were of them being in their prime and before they became "extra baggage" they were moved on. No doubt tough on some of our legends, but that's the nature of the beast.
More recently, unfortunately, we have hung on to these guys well longer than we should have, as we maybe try some weird magic physio witchcraft to heal the infirm.

The flipside of that is we have had plenty of players did the exact same thing of running down their contracts and then leaving but without them getting the same sort of criticism.

Only difference is one bunch were lucky with injuries and the other were not so lucky.

We as fans might want an always injured player moved on, but why would another club buy that player if he is always injured and why would the injured player want to leave when he has the security of a contract to ensure a set wage for him and his family?

We as fans want the players to excel and be great for the team, sometimes they are, sometimes they are not good enough, and sometimes they are just unlucky with injuries.

Way I see it, those that are gone at the end of the season are gone. Any annoyances their injuries caused to me as a fan (which no doubt pales compared to how frustrated the players themselves must have been ) are gone and I hope they go on to have good careers/lives and do not say or do something in the future that reflects negatively on the club.

None of them caused any major scandals whilst at the club, none of them damaged the club's name and by all accounts were good guys behind the scenes.

Actually one of them did do something really bad whilst at the club and he is the one we will all praise the most as he comes across as a really likeable guy who had great onfield success after coming from harsh poverty. Firminio as he was caught and convicted of drink driving whilst with us.

[chadrtc]

Football is all about sentiment. It’s why we wave flags and talk about famous games and nights and trophies, it’s why we name stands after players and have statues and singsongs about them. Without sentiment sport is nothing.

What’s new is balance sheets and contracts and wages and agonising over things that really have nothing to do with the game. We have now got the ability to communicate about the club we follow 24/7 and we have access to this glut of either factual or speculative information, and boy, are we gonna discuss it.

The first paragraph is why following a club is amazing and the second is why it’s becoming ****.

[Fosterbloke]

And if Ox had come good and scored 10 goals from midfield and came close to the CL level? You'd have lauded Klopp as a genius.

[rudedog]

He was a terrible value for money signing. We are too sentimental as a fanbase sometimes & we absolutely hung on to him and Keita 2 seasons too long. Time to be ruthless, good luck Ox you are somebody else's problem now.

Too sentimental as a fan base?

I can just picture the board room chat

JH " We need to cut the dead wood, give me the optics on the fan sentimentality temperature at the moment"

MG "Not good John, there's been a couple of threads over on EST indicating some emotional premium could still be in play"

JH "OK, I’m taking 5 to think big, need to get some altitude on this"

[Buzzo]

MG “And what we really need to know, John, is what do the fans make of our 5 year financial projections and their views on the amortisation of the 2022 transfer spend. We cannot make any strategic moves until we have aggregated this feedback from all the top online players”.

[danperkins]

Sentiment isn’t a thing for me - all I said is that he was superb pre injury and he could’ve been a mainstay in the side. Post injury as soon as he was “fit” I’d have sold him and Naby for that matter, and Milner two years ago, and Origi post CL win, and no extension for Henderson, and Phillips, and Mane a year earlier, and Robbo this summer

Klopp is the too sentimental one here - footballers are assets, they need to be moved on when their best days are behind them

Ooohh ruthless I like it

[danperkins]

Too sentimental as a fan base?

I can just picture the board room chat

JH " We need to cut the dead wood, give me the optics on the fan sentimentality temperature at the moment"

MG "Not good John, there's been a couple of threads over on EST indicating some emotional premium could still be in play"

JH "OK, I’m taking 5 to think big, need to get some altitude on this"

Interesting

Also interesting is getting absolutely nothing for Ox, Keita, Mane and Bobby in transfer fees in the space of a year. Winning absolutely nothing this season, not getting champs league football and the tens of millions that goes with that. Holding on to dead wood like Ox and Keita and forking out their few hundred grand per week and getting nothing in return. I wonder how the board feels about that. Oh and then there's Arthur.

[danperkins]

Ox has scored 18 goals and got 15 assists since signing for LFC 6 seasons ago for 35m and has been on 125k pw. I let you guys work out the averages and then you then we can all agree that he has been a complete disaster signing.

Nice fella though.