Liverpool F.c.

[rixalex]

our lad has sent the team through, united fans are not going to like this.

Reina

Degen Ayala Kyrgiakos Johnson

Maxi Lucas Aquilani El Zhar

Pacheco

Ngog

gerrard probably on the bench but not certain, carragher, kuyt and mascherano not in the squad.

Mate i haven't closely examined the table - am i right in saying that if Spurs and City draw when they play against each other mid-week, and then both lose their final games, Liverpool could still finish fourth by winning their last two games?

If that is the case, long shot though it might be, is it not a little sad to not even bother fighting? I mean how will people feel if that scenario does come true with regards City and Spurs, knowing that Liverpool could have been fourth had they actually tried to win?

I appreciate that obviously i've got my own agenda in all this, i just wonder how i would feel were it my team. I can honestly say i don't think i'd be happy. I'd want my team to be concentrating on its own affairs, and letting the chips fall as they do for the other teams.

heh, was only messing mate, just wanted to see what the reaction might be on here. actual team is:

Reina, Mascherano, Agger, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Gerrard, Lucas, Aquilani, Maxi, Benayoun, Kuyt

and you're quite right, we'd need spurs and city to draw and then lose their last ones while we win both remaining games. so we can still mathematically finish fourth. so we'll be going for it alright, don't you worry about that. just hope you lot lose at the mackems.

You got me hook line and sinker. Still, in hindsight maybe your wind-up team selection would have put in a better showing. A limp performance from both sides. After Chelsea's masterful performance at Stoke, i myself was praising them as being worthy potential champs. Based on last night though, i think they are no more worthy than we are really, especially considering all the falling over nonsense from some of their chaps.

[dave111223]

Gerrard should never be picked for England again. I would liken his performance to that of the snooker player, Higgins. So how much did you get for that back pass to Drogba Stevie?????

Seriously! And many of his other passes looked like there were designed to be just close enough to a teammate that it wouldn't look suspicious, but just far enough way that they wouldn't be able to get to it.

Gerrard looks like:

A ) he was getting paid to lose the game

or

B ) He is a shadow of the former player he used to be.

Or maybe both. He should definitely not be on the plane to South Africa, he doesn't deserve it this season. If he's in the starting line up come June i think i'll kick my TV in.

Or maybe it's just because Stamford Bridge is a difficult stadium to go to...that's where it was being played right?

Edited May 3, 2010 by dave111223

[carmine]

Bob Paisley would be disturbed to say the least. There is no longer any core element of Liverpool that care about the reputation and future of the club. "Porque es el problem con Liverpool?" No problem, as long as you're Spanish, and don't trust Scousers (or even English) to do a job for you.

That was an absolutely appalling 'display' by Liverpool. Those players and the manager should be ashamed of themselves. A pathetic roll over.

[StevieH]

You got me hook line and sinker. Still, in hindsight maybe your wind-up team selection would have put in a better showing. A limp performance from both sides. After Chelsea's masterful performance at Stoke, i myself was praising them as being worthy potential champs. Based on last night though, i think they are no more worthy than we are really, especially considering all the falling over nonsense from some of their chaps.

nah, can't agree with that. think chelsea have been comfortably the best team in the division this season and should have had the title wrapped up before now. united without rooney have been average at best this season, he's carried you.

Bob Paisley would be disturbed to say the least. There is no longer any core element of Liverpool that care about the reputation and future of the club. "Porque es el problem con Liverpool?" No problem, as long as you're Spanish, and don't trust Scousers (or even English) to do a job for you.

That was an absolutely appalling 'display' by Liverpool. Those players and the manager should be ashamed of themselves. A pathetic roll over.

we certainly didn't roll over, i thought we were competing pretty well and playing some decent stuff until gerrard lost his head. after that it was a pretty predictable display against a far better side with a far bigger squad and far bigger resources which hadn't played 120 minutes on thursday.

[NADTATIDA1]

Lets be honest here for the first 30 minutes Liverpool give Chealsea a game,after that it was shameful like watching Tranmere Rovers.

Thanks for the effort not! After that performance i would say Liverpool are at there lowest point now and will be very interesting come the summer!

They need something that Benitez cannot give them.....a championship and he has had enough time....get rid!

[StevieH]

Benitez has struggled, but he's not Liverpool's biggest problem

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

The Times

They love an anniversary at Liverpool. At this time of year, the time when the prizes are handed out, barely a day goes by without the club’s website informing supporters what happened on this day in history. But a twentieth anniversary went unmarked last week. Some dates, it seems, are better glossed over.

It is two decades since Liverpool were last crowned champions of England, two decades since an occurrence that had become so natural happened for the last, or most recent, time. Two decades in which the game — or at least the business — has been transformed, threatening to turn the Merseyside club into a relic or, as Chelsea’s supporters put it yesterday, "ancient history".

It was unimaginable back then that, within 20 years, Liverpool’s unassailable record of 18 league championships would have been equalled by Manchester United. Unimaginable, too, that a day would come when a dispiriting home defeat by Chelsea in early May would be welcomed by many supporters — albeit not inside the ground — because it may have spared them the ignominy of surrendering that record to United once and for all

Rafael Benítez is not to blame for the fact that the famine, in terms of the trophy that Bill Shankly once called the club’s "bread and butter", has been extended to 20 years. In his six years at Anfield, Liverpool have never been the best-resourced English club.

Winning the title in any of Benítez’s seasons in charge would have required his team to perform beyond realistic expectations, something they did 12 months ago in finishing second with 86 points, a total that Chelsea can only equal this time by winning their final game on Sunday.

The failures of the past two decades cannot be laid at Benítez’s doorstep. Nor, to any great extent, can this season’s abject struggle, the roots of which lay in a summer in which money was not made available to strengthen a squad that had overachieved in finishing runners-up last season. But none of that can disguise the fact that Anfield is in the grip of a malaise. Some prefer to call it a cancer — a cancer that started in the boardroom and has spread — but, whatever it is, it has had the team in its grip since last August.

The much-loved Benítez has struggled all season long to find an antidote, but, the more the malaise has taken hold, the more impotent he has begun to look. And the deeper Liverpool have fallen into a familiar sense of depression, as past glories become ever more distant and future successes become ever harder to foresee. His managership has ceased to be a source of comfort for anyone wondering where the next league title is coming from, but Benítez is not anything like Liverpool’s biggest problem.

[rixalex]

You got me hook line and sinker. Still, in hindsight maybe your wind-up team selection would have put in a better showing. A limp performance from both sides. After Chelsea's masterful performance at Stoke, i myself was praising them as being worthy potential champs. Based on last night though, i think they are no more worthy than we are really, especially considering all the falling over nonsense from some of their chaps.

nah, can't agree with that. think chelsea have been comfortably the best team in the division this season and should have had the title wrapped up before now. united without rooney have been average at best this season, he's carried you.

The table doesn't lie, and one point clear does not shout "comfortably the best" to me at all.

Last night i expected them to come out guns blazing. They came out looking like terrified mice. Were not for Gerrard's gift, who knows where their nerves might have taken them.

[NADTATIDA1]

^ Err....as long as scousers keep thinking he has got fuc_k all to do with your demise i will be happy...just because he won the Champions league he has kept his head above water...now he is drowning and the ship is going down to!

The Spanish Armada....come to think of it

[StevieH]

You got me hook line and sinker. Still, in hindsight maybe your wind-up team selection would have put in a better showing. A limp performance from both sides. After Chelsea's masterful performance at Stoke, i myself was praising them as being worthy potential champs. Based on last night though, i think they are no more worthy than we are really, especially considering all the falling over nonsense from some of their chaps.

nah, can't agree with that. think chelsea have been comfortably the best team in the division this season and should have had the title wrapped up before now. united without rooney have been average at best this season, he's carried you.

The table doesn't lie, and one point clear does not shout "comfortably the best" to me at all.

Last night i expected them to come out guns blazing. They came out looking like terrified mice. Were not for Gerrard's gift, who knows where their nerves might have taken them.

they looked a bit nervous at first yeah, but playing at anfield does that to most teams.

i just think all round this season they've been a much better side than united, though they've had their blips. they were without key players for the african nations cup and rode it out while you take rooney out of the united side and united are pretty average really.

[oldgit]

You got me hook line and sinker. Still, in hindsight maybe your wind-up team selection would have put in a better showing. A limp performance from both sides. After Chelsea's masterful performance at Stoke, i myself was praising them as being worthy potential champs. Based on last night though, i think they are no more worthy than we are really, especially considering all the falling over nonsense from some of their chaps.

nah, can't agree with that. think chelsea have been comfortably the best team in the division this season and should have had the title wrapped up before now. united without rooney have been average at best this season, he's carried you.

The table doesn't lie, and one point clear does not shout "comfortably the best" to me at all.

Last night i expected them to come out guns blazing. They came out looking like terrified mice. Were not for Gerrard's gift, who knows where their nerves might have taken them.

It would have been suicidal to come out with all 'guns blazing' at Anfield. Ancellotti could not have known before the game how Liverpool would perform, so it was proper that Chelsea felt their way for the first half an hour at least.Gerrard's back pass to Drogba was the turning point.From then on,I thought we were excellent and could have stuck away more chances.

[StevieH]

It would have been suicidal to come out with all 'guns blazing' at Anfield. Ancellotti could not have known before the game how Liverpool would perform, so it was proper that Chelsea felt their way for the first half an hour at least.Gerrard's back pass to Drogba was the turning point.From then on,I thought we were excellent and could have stuck away more chances.

don't know about suicidal but ancelotti certainly knew that we'd tire. we played 120 minutes on thursday, you lot had had a week off.

and yeah, after gerrard's rick your pace really began to expose us. we're a bloody slow team these days.

[carmine]

It would have been suicidal to come out with all 'guns blazing' at Anfield. Ancellotti could not have known before the game how Liverpool would perform, so it was proper that Chelsea felt their way for the first half an hour at least.Gerrard's back pass to Drogba was the turning point.From then on,I thought we were excellent and could have stuck away more chances.

don't know about suicidal but ancelotti certainly knew that we'd tire. we played 120 minutes on thursday, you lot had had a week off.

and yeah, after gerrard's rick your pace really began to expose us. we're a bloody slow team these days.

The impression that i and everybody else that watched the match with me got was that the Liverpool players could not give a toss if Liverpool won or not. No blame attached to Chelsea at all. All they had to do was turn up

[StevieH]

It would have been suicidal to come out with all 'guns blazing' at Anfield. Ancellotti could not have known before the game how Liverpool would perform, so it was proper that Chelsea felt their way for the first half an hour at least.Gerrard's back pass to Drogba was the turning point.From then on,I thought we were excellent and could have stuck away more chances.

don't know about suicidal but ancelotti certainly knew that we'd tire. we played 120 minutes on thursday, you lot had had a week off.

and yeah, after gerrard's rick your pace really began to expose us. we're a bloody slow team these days.

The impression that i and everybody else that watched the match with me got was that the Liverpool players could not give a toss if Liverpool won or not. No blame attached to Chelsea at all. All they had to do was turn up

well, you and everybody else that watched the match would be wrong.

[MSingh]

It would have been suicidal to come out with all 'guns blazing' at Anfield. Ancellotti could not have known before the game how Liverpool would perform, so it was proper that Chelsea felt their way for the first half an hour at least.Gerrard's back pass to Drogba was the turning point.From then on,I thought we were excellent and could have stuck away more chances.

don't know about suicidal but ancelotti certainly knew that we'd tire. we played 120 minutes on thursday, you lot had had a week off.

and yeah, after gerrard's rick your pace really began to expose us. we're a bloody slow team these days.

The impression that i and everybody else that watched the match with me got was that the Liverpool players could not give a toss if Liverpool won or not. No blame attached to Chelsea at all. All they had to do was turn up

well, you and everybody else that watched the match would be wrong.

What he didn't mention Stevie wa sthat he was wathcing it with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & David Blunkett, same as who he watches his T*ttenham Games with...

[StevieH]

What he didn't mention Stevie wa sthat he was wathcing it with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & David Blunkett, same as who he watches his T*ttenham Games with...

apparently someone bought david blunkett a new cheese grater the other day. he reckons it's one of the best books he's ever read.

[carmine]

What he didn't mention Stevie wa sthat he was wathcing it with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & David Blunkett, same as who he watches his T*ttenham Games with...

apparently someone bought david blunkett a new cheese grater the other day. he reckons it's one of the best books he's ever read.

Hilarious For all the excitement and competitive spirit of that gamei might have well been blind

[smokie36]

apparently someone bought david blunkett a new cheese grater the other day. he reckons it's one of the best books he's ever read.

Oops.

[smokie36]

What he didn't mention Stevie wa sthat he was wathcing it with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & David Blunkett, same as who he watches his T*ttenham Games with...

apparently someone bought david blunkett a new cheese grater the other day. he reckons it's one of the best books he's ever read.

Hilarious For all the excitement and competitive spirit of that gamei might have well been blind

carmine me old son you just need to accept the fact Liverpool are pony just the same as the scammers isn't that right boys?

[samuibeachcomber]

liverpool have a big squad.Either they bought badly or have never given the youngsters enough time to develop into premier league players and add the behind the scenes going ons its no wonder they have n't performed very well.

[carmine]

What he didn't mention Stevie wa sthat he was wathcing it with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & David Blunkett, same as who he watches his T*ttenham Games with...

apparently someone bought david blunkett a new cheese grater the other day. he reckons it's one of the best books he's ever read.

Hilarious For all the excitement and competitive spirit of that gamei might have well been blind

carmine me old son you just need to accept the fact Liverpool are pony just the same as the scammers isn't that right boys?

Look, i don't care how pony Liverpool or anyone else is for that matter. Only interested in what Tottenham do. My only point was, that i went out to watch a football match last night, not a time/motion study

[smokie36]

Look, i don't care how pony Liverpool or anyone else is for that matter. Only interested in what Tottenham do. My only point was, that i went out to watch a football match last night, not a time/motion study

You've clearly been on the orange juice again carmine. Stick to beer! I watched the game with no ill effects better than some other teams I've seen recently....over to you singhy...

[StevieH]

liverpool have a big squad.Either they bought badly or have never given the youngsters enough time to develop into premier league players and add the behind the scenes going ons its no wonder they have n't performed very well.

except we don't have a big squad. we only have a big squad if you believe the tabloid press crap about us having 65 first team players or something which includes all the reserves, youth team and junior players.

we're a bigger club than spurs for example yet we have torres and ngog to choose from up front, they have crouch, defo, pavlyuchenko, gudjohnsen and keane out on loan.

[sorensen]

Danish Carlsberg Logo on Liverpool's Shirt to Appear in Chinese

29.04.2010 | news Newsdesk

Danish Carlsberg is bidding to increase its brand awareness in China with a novel one-off marketing ploy which will see its logo on Liverpool football kit written in Chinese.

The specially designed kit will appear in Liverpool's match against Chelsea on 2 May and marks the first time the logo on the kit has changed in 18 years.

The lager brand is using the shirt sponsorship to capitalise on the interest of football fans in China. The move also ties in with the brewer's role as partner of the Danish Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 event in Shanghai.

The event in Shanghai takes place on the same day as the match between Liverpool and Chelsea.

The Danish beer's longstanding sponsorship of Liverpool Football Club concludes at the end of the current season and will be replaced by Standard Chartered Bank.

The game is expected to attract over 750m viewers around the world and Chinese messages will be displayed during the match on the LED perimeter advertising hoardings around the pitch at Anfield.

The messages will read 'Carlsberg is partner of Danish Pavilion in World Expo - Carlsberg & Liverpool Cheer for World Expo'.

Carlsberg took over the sponsorship of Liverpool in 1992. Liverpool's first sponsor was Hitachi, followed by Crown Paints and Candy.

Liverpool, which has been twinned with Shanghai since 1999, is the only UK city to be exhibiting at World Expo 2010.

Keld Strudahl, group sponsorship director at Carlsberg, said: "We're delighted to have been able to bring about this momentous occasion. We believe it's a nice little gesture to our friends and fans of Liverpool in China where we know Liverpool FC devoted huge support in working things out and we also worked hard with all parties to mark this special occasion for the World Expo."

In April Carlsberg renewed its sponsorship of Wembley Stadium, signing a new four-year deal to remain the 'Official Beer of Wembley Stadium'.

The deal takes the partnership through to 2014 and covers all England football international home games, FA Cup matches, play-off finals and all major music events at the stadium.

The specially designed kit will appear in Liverpool's match against Chelsea on 2 May and marks the first time the logo on the kit has changed in 18 years.

<script type=text/javascript> <script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type=text/javascript> <script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/expansion_embed.js"> <script src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/test_domain.js"> <script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/render_ads.js"> <script>google_protectAndRun("render_ads.js::google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad); Original news source: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/999864/C...appear-Chinese/

[carmine]

liverpool have a big squad.Either they bought badly or have never given the youngsters enough time to develop into premier league players and add the behind the scenes going ons its no wonder they have n't performed very well.

except we don't have a big squad. we only have a big squad if you believe the tabloid press crap about us having 65 first team players or something which includes all the reserves, youth team and junior players.

we're a bigger club than spurs for example yet we have torres and ngog to choose from up front, they have crouch, defo, pavlyuchenko, gudjohnsen and keane out on loan.

Stevie, we are a very, very big club as everyone knows

[rixalex]

i just think all round this season they've been a much better side than united, though they've had their blips. they were without key players for the african nations cup and rode it out while you take rooney out of the united side and united are pretty average really.

With the squad they have i think they have underperformed - you yourself said they should have wrapped things up comfortably by now, which i think is true but the point is they haven't. How a team performs is how we judge them, not how they could have performed.

With the squad we have i think we have over-performed. I personally think that warrants some credit. I am of course very biased.

[longstebe]

It's all about us not being able to cope with the injuries we've had this season. It's all well and good having a big squad but you need the quality there to

compete. No real quality up front, in the middle we have 1 to fall back on and same with the back 4. I'm talking about if we have injured players here.

Babel IMHO has not performed. I believe Aquilani will be stronger player next season and for sure he has the quality to start every game.

Any news or gossip over a takeover?

[StevieH]

ain't going to matter this week anyhow, think the manager's going to announce his departure. club is fuc_ked in the short and long term, tom and george win again. and david cameron is going to be in number 10 downing street. thank fuc_k i no longer live in england.

[StevieH]

anybody with an interest in football, and particularly anybody who still maintains that rafa benitez is somehow to blame for liverpool's current woes, needs to read this. it is 100% absolutely spot on.

Finance expert predicts bleak Liverpool future

By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent

May 4, 2010

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...and&cc=4716

Liverpool's asking price for a takeover may be as much as an inflated £800 million, according to analysis from a leading City expert in football finance.

And David Bick, Chairman of Square 1 Consulting, argues that Liverpool are in urgent need of a "rescue" package rather than a takeover, as the club need to move from their crumbling Anfield to a new stadium, and are in danger of losing star players such as Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.

Bick is an advisor to Keith Harris, who has been behind two abortive takeover bids for the stricken club in the recent past, and says City sources have informed him that even the reduced price the two American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett might accept, £500 million, is far too high, saying: "Rumours abound of a price being asked from £500 million up to an incredible £800 million."

While Harris is a leading light in the 'Red Knights' group heavily linked with trying to buy out the Glazers at Manchester United, Bick has focused on their North-West rivals and warns of an impending £10 million fee to be imposed by the Royal Bank of Scotland to extend bank-loan facilities for a further six months.

And Bick suggests that, while the club is due to publish and publicise a £35 million profit, there are huge similarities with the recent Manchester United bond issue launched after a similar posting of a putative financial gain.

As part of their bond prospectus, United were able to claim a £48.2 million profit, having sold Cristiano Ronaldo for £80 million while Liverpool sold Xabi Alonso for £35 million to Real Madrid last summer - almost the exact amount Bick believes will be trumpeted as this year's profit.

In a damning indictment of financial affairs and long-standing neglect at Liverpool, Bick writes in an open letter: "Liverpool has potentially reached its most important historic point. The club has now gone 20 years without winning the English League title. It has never won the Premier League. It was drummed out earlier than expected from this year's Champions League and now, as one of the world's biggest clubs, faces the ignominy and reality of failing to qualify for next season's premier European competition.

"To my mind, the people running the club over the last two decades must bear the bulk of the responsibility and the brunt of the criticism. On a recent visit to Anfield to watch my team, West Ham, play like a pub team with a Force 10 hangover, one had only to look at the stadium to see the years of dreadful neglect at first hand. Unbelievably, there are still pillars holding up one roof!

"Whether it comes down to incompetence or thoughtless arrogance at Liverpool, we have seen the club left behind by the other great clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Spurs. They have rebuilt their stadia to high standards and, largely speaking, to capacities that accommodate their substantial fan bases. Yet all Liverpool fans have heard is talk and a string of broken promises.

"The other clubs have built their revenue streams or attracted owners that have given them the wherewithal to compete effectively at the top of the modern game. It seems to me that the Liverpool fans are being treated to a 'product' that is rooted in the 1970s. Sadly, in very recent times, Liverpool has also been owned by people who have said much and delivered little of the stated vision. Replacing them is a very urgent imperative.

"Liverpool claimed in a recent statement that it has 'overseen a significant improvement in the financial performance of the club since 2007'. Well, that's difficult to assess. The management has not published accounts for Kop Football (Holdings) Limited - the main trading company - since the filing for the year to 31 July 2008 and, in that year, the business showed net losses of over £42 million and net interest payments on debt of £35 million not covered at all (let alone adequately) by operating profit - pre-player amortisation and trading - of £25 million.

"Debt remains stubbornly near a reported £240 million, so what profits are produced do not leave much, if anything, for the manager to work with, even if we believe rumours of a £35 million profit for the year that will end this 31 July. In short, Liverpool's financial structure can't work in my opinion and, since the sale of the club in 2007, it was never going to.

"If the manager cannot operate competitively in the transfer market, he has no chance of competing regularly in the top four. We have now seen the first concrete sign of this with the failure to even stay in the top four. Manchester United, a club manfully trying to cope with a similarly onerous financial structure will also, I believe, start to experience similar problems, although their state of decline is nowhere near as advanced as Liverpool's.

"It seems axiomatic to me that Liverpool needs new, responsible owners and new top-flight, football-experienced executive management. It will not be beyond the wit of man, the new well regarded chairman included, to find such a new owner. But first of all, Liverpool needs to stop spinning silly numbers. Rumours abound of a price being asked from £500 million up to an incredible £800 million, the lower of which is, in my view, way over the top for a club in its current condition and by any sensible comparison with Arsenal or Manchester United.

Bick pinpoints the burning issue of a new stadium, a project that has stalled during over three years of American ownership, and says that this can only make any takeover more complicated.

"Financially at least, Liverpool must have a new stadium if it is to have any hope of restoring past glories," he writes. "But the finance for that, and any subsequent financial benefit to owners, must accrue to those who put up the money. In any case, this will not be a conventional acquisition of a football asset - it is more likely now to be a rescue.

"The new owners will need to be people of high calibre. They will need to have access to very large sums of money to build the new stadium, revitalise the management and allow for a well thought-through strengthening of the playing squad."

On the current and much-debated issue of Rafael Benitez's future as Liverpool manager, Bick expresses the pressing need for stability to be restored or else the club could face a doomsday scenario. "Right now, Liverpool is at risk of losing its manager and some of its best players, demoralised by a recent Europa Cup semi-final defeat and a poor season. While no-one is irreplaceable, such an exodus will leave a new owner with an even more difficult task. Therefore, the new chairman of Liverpool needs to act with some swiftness.

"Once decline becomes precipitous, even money may not prevent the decline spiralling into permanency."

Bick's open letter, headed 'Rescuing Liverpool', seen by Soccernet, may well cause shock waves among the Premier League community and not just at Anfield.

[longstebe]

&lt;deleted&gt; great!!!

What a mess. Lets just hope someone comes in with a load of money and gets things turned around.

[Penkoprod]

LOOKS LIKE Benitez has had his bluff called, or that his brinkmanship isn't going to work THIS time.

Seems this new chairman isnt going to run round putting Rafa's toys back in the pram and trying to placate him as best he can.

Its just a pity it had to happen to our once great club in such a public way

Penkoprod