Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Both fans and media have praised Liverpool FC’s performance in the transfer window this summer, because its management team and owners are perceived to have acted quickly and decisively to sign players.  I don’t agree with this glowing assessment.  I’ve struggled to understand a recruitment policy which seems poorly thought out and haphazard. I’m not querying necessarily the ability of the players Liverpool have bought.  Some of them are proven performers and others have the potential to do well, if they’re developed properly and given opportunities.  My question is whether the manager, Brendan Rodgers, identified where his team had problems last season and addressed them through the transfer market, or instead bought in volume, including for positions where his squad already has adequate cover. Damien Comolli, the club’s former Director of Football Strategy, attracted fierce criticism last week when he suggested that Liverpool has taken a ‘massive risk’ by...

Well isn't it nice when everything turns out so everyone's happy? Roy Hodgson is a decent man and a decent coach, so no-one would begrudge him a manager's post in the Premier League.  Just so long as that role isn't at Liverpool. Just a month after his sacking he has taken up the h otseat at West Brom, which will surely be a more comfy fit for all concerned.   After all, he's got a proven track record of helping average club teams punch above their weight. Meanwhile Kenny Dalglish has coaxed Liverpool into a four game winning streak in the league, very quickly moving the club up to sixth in the table.  All is not rosy in the garden just yet, but optimism is back, attacking football is back and a chance to build for the future is back. Liverpool Football Club got a manager suited to its standing and West Brom Albion probably did better than it otherwise would, in terms of attracting an established and respected coach. Isn't that nice?

I can’t say I’ve missed Sky Sports News much since it was withdrawn from Freeview.  Yesterday though, I felt a pang.  As British football clubs flung cash around like drunken sailors, on transfer deadline day, rolling overkill and overwrought hyperbole was precisely what was needed. Chelsea and Liverpool were the biggest spenders during January‘s window.  As Fernando Torres edged ever closer to a record breaking move to Stamford Bridge, there was an ill disguised frenzy at Anfield to reinvest tens of millions of pounds anticipated from the transfer.     The club first completed the purchase of Luis Suarez from Ajax.  The fee, a mere £23 million, had been agreed over the weekend, but the player only put pen to paper yesterday.  More controversially, a reported £35 million was then spent on Newcastle’s young striker Andy Carroll. Liverpool’s caretaker manager, Kenny Dalglish, spoke about securing a “marquee signing” during January in order to boos...

Could Liverpool’s nightmare be over?  There is certainly a little more hope today, after a bid to buy the club by the parent company of US baseball franchise, ‘Boston Red Sox’, was accepted by the board. The proviso is that the two Americans who are currently in charge are fiercely resistant to the deal, claiming that Liverpool FC has been undervalued.  In a desperate attempt to derail a takeover, Hicks and Gillett, tried to sack two members of the club’s board yesterday. They claim that their fellow directors are not acting in the company’s interest.  It is a brass-necked contention from the pair, who saddled the club with a crippling debt following their leveraged buy-out. A majority on the board, the bank which financed the debt, the fans, the manager and Liverpool’s players have all agreed for months that Hicks and Gillett are the problem. Should the club finally get a buyer, its problems will not be at an end.  Liverpool will still be in the bottom thre...

A signing to warm the hearts of sceptical Liverpool supporters, awaiting the season with little enthusiasm (that's me!).  The creative England international Joe Cole, whose lack of football at the world cup actually enhanced his reputation, has today penned a four year deal at Anfield, becoming the new manager's first addition to the squad. Cole is a quality player who attracted interest from Arsenal and Tottenham.  This signals that Roy Hodgson is not prepared to manage Liverpool's decline.  Instead he has ambitious plans and intends to craft a squad capable of claiming back a place in the Premier League's top four.  More importantly the signing will create some optimism around a rather dispirited club.   

Traditionally, the appointment of a new manager would give fans cause for hope. Roy Hodgson arrives at Anfield amid acute apprehension that Liverpool's best players are about to be sold, in order to service a sky high debt run up by the club's owners.  His first task will be to ensure that Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano all commit their futures to the reds. The new manager has only once taken a job remotely comparable.  He steadied the ship at Inter Milan, but you could hardly accuse him of stacking up trophies at the Italian giants. Liverpool supporters know that Hodgson's arrival does not rid the club of its most pressing problems.  They are looking for something to inspire hope and optimism elsewhere . It's a sad situation for a great club. Hopefully, however other circumstances pan out, Hodgson gets the best from the players who do commit to Liverpool and spends whatever limited funds are made available wisely.  Joe Cole is available, and signing a qualit...

It’s beginning to look like Fulham manager Roy Hodgson could be the man to take over from Rafa Benitez at Anfield.  Several outlets report that Liverpool will approach the London club in the next 48 hours.  It is not considered likely that Fulham asking compensation of £2 million or so would derail any deal.   The move could raise a dilemma of ‘heads over hearts’ for Liverpool fans.  Because it appears that Kenny Dalglish has expressed his readiness to take up the reins at the club, for the first time since resigning as manager, way back in 1991. Dalglish was the last man to deliver a league title to Anfield and he went on to do an astonishing job at Blackburn Rovers.  The Scot is now in charge of Liverpool‘s youth Academy, but he hasn’t managed at senior level since 2000, when he spent a brief period in charge of Celtic. It had been reported that Dalglish was tasked, along with managing director Christian Purslow, with compiling a shortlist of candidates....

The formalities are not yet taken care of, but it appears that Rafa Benitez will finally leave Liverpool.  The Spanish manager has had six seasons to deliver success at Anfield and sadly, during that time, the team has gone backwards. Benitez will always be remembered for the dizzy heights he scaled in his first season at the club, leading Liverpool to its fifth European Cup, in astonishing circumstances.  The following season saw the reds pip West Ham in a thrilling FA Cup final. Unfortunately those early triumphs were to be the highlights of Benitez’ reign.  Under the Spaniard Liverpool were well equipped for Europe and reached another Champions League final in 2007.  And last term a remarkable second half of the season witnessed Rafa’s first convincing push for Premier League glory. That unsuccessful bid told a story, however.  Disappointing, negative home performances earlier in the season ultimately cost the team its first title since 1990.  Only...

Benitez' new player gets a medical? I am, it should be said, rather cynical about experimental medicine of any type. However the basting of Liverpool Football Club's players with horse placenta I fully support. Better yet, play the placenta at centre forward instead of Andriy Voronin.

‘The Fink Tank’ is the Times’ attempt to unravel the mysteries of football by statistical analysis. It usefulness is circumscribed by the fact that the sport does not, in reality, bear much resemblance to a game of Championship Manager. Rather, it is determined by the attributes and performances of flawed human beings, forged into a team with the help of another flawed human being. And both players and manager are, in turn, subject to the vagaries of wind, rain, beachballs and several million other variables. Nevertheless ‘The Fink Tank’ is useful for exploding various statistics based fallacies which are common currency for fans and football journalists alike. Take, for instance, the widespread assumption that Rafa Benitez’ Liverpool squad has been expensively assembled. In actuality the 2009-10 panel is ranked fifth in the Premier League by cost. Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs’ squads each required a larger budget to build. Hard statistics also show tha...

A quick Premier League transfer snippet. I was aware that Russian Cup winners CSKA’s teen prodigy Alan Dzagoyev had attracted interest from Chelsea. But Ria Novosti believes Liverpool are also chasing ‘the new Arshavin’. The youngster has played down suggestions that he will leave Moscow this summer, but where there’s a will in football there’s generally a way. Although it would’ve been better had Benitez’ side made a meaningful attempt to sign the real Arshavin when he left Zenit, perhaps the club’s first Russian player might yet arrive before the new season.

Liverpool supporters should enjoy the next four hours, because I strongly suspect they will be the last the club spend, this season, at the pinnacle of the Premier League. Although I have frequently criticised Rafa Benitez and his side, I have to acknowledge that topping the table in May, even for twenty two hours, represents the type of progress which defined the club’s aspirations at the start of the season. Of course fans will ruefully remember points carelessly cast away as the team spluttered to home draws against teams which it was expected to beat. Indisputably, though, the manager has managed to iron out inconsistencies as 2009 has progressed. 2008-09, then, will have to serve as a dry run for Liverpool’s ’big push’ in 2009-10. I tend to agree with the Observer’s Paul Hayward that the team’s spine is its strength and the positions around this core should form Rafa‘s focus when the transfer window reopens. I read with apprehension reports that the manager still views Gare...

You know how sometimes you just instantly decide that you like someone? This is Aly Cissokho, FC Porto fullback, displaying his knowledge of recent Premier League results at Old Trafford. The twenty one year old French-Senegalese player is said to favour another team in the north west of England.

Tony Adams seemed to be the major managerial casualty this weekend, losing his job after Fernando Torres rescued three points for Liverpool at Fratton Park. Now, however, the Chelsea website is reporting that 'Big Phil' Scolari has been dismissed . A club which doesn't understand it's proper place in the world? I think so.