From Kopblog
As a Liverpool fan I guess I should be feeling pretty happy right now. Afterall, we managed to get to the international break unbeaten, joint top of the league and safely through to the group stage of the CL, but despite all of this I find that I have mixed emotions about things on the pitch at the moment, and developments off the pitch have me feeling downright depressed!
On the pitch and in regards to our game against Villa at the weekend, I think that if the club is really struggling for finances than maybe they should try to bottle our performance in that game and sell it as a miracle cure for insomnia, they`d make a bloody fortune! If we don`t play well in a game but still manage to win than I`m happy to focus on the positives and if we do play well in a game but don`t manage to win than I would also tend to focus on the positives, but when we don`t play well, don`t win and don`t even manage to get a shot on target, then I can`t really see anything to feel happy about.
I know a lot of people may say that as we were without Steven Gerrard and we also lost Fernando Torres early in the game, and that the game was at a tough ground like Villa Park, so maybe we should be happy to get out of there with a point, but I don`t agree. I can`t help feeling that this was a missed opportunity for us and I just hope we don`t end up regretting it. The chavs drawing with Spurs earlier in the day, I thought would have provided us with an extra incentive to really push for the three points and open up an early lead at the top of the table.
I know it`s still very early days in the season but these teams just don`t drop that many points and on the rare occasions that they do I think we`ve got to be doing everything we can to take advantage of the situation, particularly if we are aiming to seriously challenge them at the top. That`s what disappointed me most about the game, even without Gerrard and Torres in the side I still think we are extremely well capable of beating Villa at their own ground, but we just didn`t do enough on the day to earn the points.
I`m full of admiration for Rafa and all of the great work he has done and continues to do at this club under very difficult circumstances, the man is a diamond, but even diamonds have their flaws. On this occasion I thought he overcooked things on the tactical front and we were a bit too over cautious in our approach. With all due respects to Villa, I would expect us to adopt this kind of approach if we were playing an away leg at the Nou Camp in the CL but playing at Villa Park, tough and all that it is, I would have expected us to open up a bit more and take the game to them.
My main frustrations in the game all centred around Ryan Babel. When Torres tweaked his hamstring early in the game I felt certain that Babel would be brought on and Keane would move into the centre, so I was more than a little surprised to see Eggnog coming on. Then on the hour when Kuyt was withdrawn, again I felt certain that Flyin Ryan or even El Zhar would be brought on to spark a bit of life into our attack but instead of this we brought on another bloody defender!
I was surprised to see Keane taken off with 15 minutes to go but again I was certain that Babel would finally make an appearance, but alas Benny Onion was brought on instead. It`s not that I think Babel has reached superstar status as yet, but it`s difficult to see the logic in not bringing him on in a game where we were struggling to create any meaningful attacks because even if he`s having a stinker he is always likely to do something that can change a game, just as he did when he dug out that cross against Liege in midweek.
Still, I suppose 7 out of 9 points is a pretty decent haul for us to start the season with, especially considering how stale our early performances have been. On the plus side, defensively we looked as solid as ever and Mascherano looked to be in good shape and had a great game. So there`s all to play for when we meet the mancs at Anfield in our next game and fingers crossed that Gerrard and Torres make it in time.
In other matters it was great to see us finally completing the signing of Riera on the last day of the transfer window and hopefully he will prove to be the answer to our problems on the left wing. However, my happiness at this signing was overshadowed by my concern about the events at Man City. The fact that they have now been taken over by a middle east consortium that is estimated to be 50 times richer then Robbing Abrahmovitch, is very worrying indeed.
Judging by the events on the final day of the transfer window they are clearly not afraid to splash the cash. Other then managing to secure the signing of Robinho for £32.5 million, they also reportedly put in another five offers of more than £30 million for other players including a £50 million bid for our own Fernando Torres that was thankfully turned down.
Apparently every time the price of a barrel of oil increases by $2, these guys make an extra £500 million and with that kind of wealth they are set to turn the whole game on its head. When you consider that Rafa had to offload 2 or 3 players just so that he could bring in an £8 million winger it`s clear to see that we are mere paupers in comparison. We may not see the full effect of this development this season, although the January transfer window should be very interesting, but by next season these guys should have bought in enough big guns to be competing at the very top of the table.
Suddenly the “big four” has become a big five. These are changing times and we are now in real danger of dropping out of the CL places in the not too distant future if we don`t change with them. Things are bad enough for us at the moment, not only do we already have an uphill battle to catch the teams in front of us but we are also being regularly outspent by some of the teams coming up behind us. And with all the debt our American idiot owners have saddled the club with to enable them to build a fence on Stanley Park, we need the money from CL qualification just to make the payments on it and should we fail to qualify just once it could have disastrous consequences.
We are all relieved that the new Man City owners failed in their £50 million bid to buy Torres but I wouldn`t get too excited about it just yet. I`ve no doubt they will make a fresh bid for him when the January window comes around, and January also just happens to be the same time that this massive loan we`ve been saddled with comes up for renewal and should these guys start waving about £60 million under the noses of Hicks and Gillett, then who knows what might happen.
But perhaps this takeover of Man City might also work in our favour and help to accelerate the departure of these two clowns. Clearly the money these guys are capable of splashing around will drive up prices in the transfer market and with the two American clowns in charge of our club we just don`t have the financial muscle to compete with them. So if things stay as they are I think it`s likely we will drift out of the top four and without the revenue from the CL we might be lucky to stay in the top ten and then our revenues will continue to fall and so will the value of our club. So if these guys have even half a brain between them, which is debatable, then they should see that now is the optimum time for them to get out.
In an ideal world I would love to see the Share Liverpool Scheme succeed in their efforts to buy the club but I just can`t see it happening so I think the best solution for us is DIC. Despite having plenty of other options they are only interested in owning Liverpool and have spent the last two years trying to make it happen, which has to be a good sign. Apparently their offer to Hicks and Gillett still remains on the table and it`s an offer big enough to clear the outstanding debt and allow them to walk away with a £75 million profit.
Despite being continually frustrated in their efforts to take over the club they have continued to work in the background. Their plans to put a fan on the board have been well documented but I have also heard of meetings with some legendary names from the clubs past as well as local businessmen, the plan seemingly to not just regenerate the club but also the area around the club.
These are sound business people who would bring some much needed stability to the club and also provide the kind of financial clout that would enable us to truly compete with the other top clubs on a level playing field for a change.
Football has certainly changed an awful lot from the game I watched as a kid, and not for the better as far as fans are concerned. The game seems to have lost its soul and things such as honour, loyalty and common decency have become meaningless words from a bygone era. The majority of players, managers, chairmen and governing bodies at the top level in the modern game are nothing but a bunch of greedy, lying, cheats.
The despicable conduct of Ronaldo over the summer and the disgraceful actions of Ferguson and Berbatov on Monday are prime examples. The sport and the media should properly vilify them for their behaviour but instead of this they are held up as role models and heroes, and a blind eye is turned to anything to the contrary. To ordinary fans the shameful conduct of these players and club officials is really quite stomach churning at times, but that`s the game as it is today.
For us to survive and compete at the top level of this quagmire, we need to have people in charge of the club that have the financial means to properly back the boss, the team and get this bloody stadium built. For me the only way for us to achieve this is with DIC at the helm. With them in charge I can see a bright future for us, but without them I can honestly see us heading towards a downward spiral that there may be no way back from.
Keep the Faith
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