Can't deny that once Brendan Rogers finds a formula, he sticks to it

[PSRB]

Milner and now Ings, how very 2014 transfer window

[Billy Goat Sverige]

pretty sharpish. A realistic target for them next season is trying to get back in the europa league. Wonderful.

[Berni]

gone after the shambles of this season.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Ben.]

If they can keep hold of Sterling Liverpool's front four next season will be MISS.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Or Real Madrid style managing as I like to refer to it.

Rogers has been there 3 seasons I think, one of which he managed to bring the club closer to the title than they have been in 20 years and to be perfectly honest they really should have won it. He probably deserves another go though he spent an awful lot of money last season and most of it now appears to have been spent in folly.

[Monty91]

We more than anyone should appreciate the importance of stability and giving managers time.

Liverpool would be utterly mental not to give him at least another 3 years.

[Berni]

However, they also choked badly, which could also be laid at the manager's door.

And I would argue that to have a season this awful immediately after such a good one represents a massive, massive failure in management. It's not simply been a case of not being as good as the previous year, it's been catastrophically bad, relatively speaking.

[redgunamo]

I'm not even sure of the answer to that :-(

[Berni]

Yes, we didn't do as well after that, but everyone knew the stadium and our constrained finances were a major factor in that.

That situation bears no comparison whatsoever with Liverpool, where Rodgers has spunked a load of money in order to create a team that is now considerably worse than the one he inherited.

[Peter]

Possible in finishing 3rd or 4th each year.

[Classic Jorge]

http://strettynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Boss.jpg

[Monty91]

we are the club more than any that has shown the merit in sticking with your manager when the majority think he should leave.

You can point to the failed transfers as much as you want, but knowing what we do about Rogers from the outside, to not give him a chance to redeem himself would be utter madness.

[Monty91]

[Peter]

Clearly he needs another year but i do wonder how much say he has over transfers. They were almost spurs-like last summer. It looked dangerous.

[Peter]

[redgunamo]

[Billy Goat Sverige]

the season just gone. It's not just one bad year. They'll more than likely finish 6th/7th again next season, although you could argue that's where they should be finishing.

[Monty91]

because being a big club is more important than being a rational, well-run club :shrug:

[Berni]

They went from 2nd last year to sixth this, with a number of hopelessly bad transfers, a goal drought that left them with a goal difference of just 4 at the end of the season, what looked like a near-total collapse in morale, public disaffection from their best young player and ultimately a 6-1 humiliation by Stoke. It was shockingly bad.

[Ashberto]

If I was a Liverpool fan this might bother me even more than a string of very expensive and very **** signings.

[Classic Jorge]

I know im in the minority here but I think it's a terrible shame that they're brought so low.

[Monty91]

What would be the point in sacking him? The overwhelming evidence is that clubs trying to break through to the next level who apply a conveyer belt policy with their managers never succeed.

It is quite obviously the sensible choice to give him a few more years.

[Ashberto]

Especially seeing as you've said similar things about Leeds United in the past.

[Classic Jorge]

Leeds less so, obviously, but still.

[Monty91]

He's emerged into a very good player.

Same could happen with some of the others.

Let's face it, look at our glorious FA Cup winning side. How many of those were rated by the majority? Two (Sanchezz and Cazorla), one of whom was playing in a position that not a single Arsenal fan would have ever imagined or suggested.

[redgunamo]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

In fact, I'd go so far as to deny it.

They were a second division team in the 1960s. They have a proud history of 'cheeky' 'scallies' roaming Europe stealing clothing and pushing Italians under walls. If no Italians are present, they'll happily do the same to each other. They have Steve McMahon and Jamie Carragher.

The sooner they're back in the second divison where they belong, the better.

[Jake]

Henderson is also definitely still good, rather than very good. Let's be honest.

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

There is an argument to say that they are in a process of inevitable and inexorable decline as a footballing power and that the best anyone can hope for is to arrest that decline as much as possible. However, that makes it more rather than less critical that they remain relevant now. If Rogers stays and they go into the wilderness, they may never emerge from it. They are not in a position to be patient with abject failure.

[Classic Jorge]

Liverpool are a bigger club than us. I'm secure enough to admit this.

[redgunamo]

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Classic Jorge]

[PSRB]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

They went and I think it's fair to say that nobody outside West Yorkshire has missed them one little bit.

[redgunamo]

It was Manchester United over Chelsea the other week too, wasn't it. What's happened to you, man :-(

[Berni]

Liverpool FC.

[Classic Jorge]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Classic Jorge]

Power and money have nothing to do with it, as Liverpool can undoubtedly attest

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Not sure what he does when he has the important thing at his feet, the ball.

[Classic Jorge]

[Jake]

You're being strangely romantic.

[redgunamo]

like sport though, and are somewhat jealous of those that do.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Just ignore what I have to say and insist you are correct.

[Classic Jorge]

Though I do think blaming them for Hillsborough, even now with all the stuff that's come out, takes the piss.

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

He fears change and thinks everything was better in the good old days.

[Classic Jorge]

That said, are trophies part of traditional football theory?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

than discussing who is the 'bigger club'. What the hell does that even mean?

My point is simple. Liverpool FC is a skidmark in the underpants of British football, and it demise would be a welcome clearance of a nasty smell from our footballistic nostrils.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

they have the better collection in their cabinet. In terms of current global fanbase, revenue, success, whatever you want to name, we are the bigger club.

[Classic Jorge]

And I do so enjoy you saying I'm a conservative hankering for the past.

[Classic Jorge]

Maybe I'm listening too closely to your rhetoric

[Ashberto]

I bet the cool kids in Italy prefer Arsenal to Liverpool. Althoug Italy may not be a good example under the circumstances.

[Classic Jorge]

Where are Chelsea in all of this btw?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Classic Jorge]

If anything, that's grossly unfair on the lad.

I just look like a hipster in the company of all you right wing old men.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

not past glories.

All depends on your criteria with these things.

[Classic Jorge]

[Jake]

They're part of a different football era.

That's not to say they're not worth anything, but their worth is significantly diminished when there is less recent history to substantiate the "bigger club" view.

Ironically, your belief is very UK-centric imo.

Looking at it through a more global, current footballing perspective, and it doesn't stand up at all.

[Classic Jorge]

[PSRB]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3115064/Ma nchester-United-world-s-billion-dollar-brand-Red-Devils-beat -Real-Madrid-Bayern-Munich-Barcelona-surge-past-mega-money-m ilestone.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3115064/Manchester-United-world-s-billion-dollar-brand-Red-Devils-beat-Real-Madrid-Bayern-Munich-Barcelona-surge-past-mega-money-milestone.html)

[Ashberto]

to look back with affection. When we are young we look forward in anticipation. I used to be really keen about the future. Now it's here I'm a bit disappointed in many ways.

[Classic Jorge]

I take leeetle offence that my view is very UK centric.

[Berni]

You're talking about a club that is shrinking in size and importance every year, that qualifies intermittently for the Champions League, hasn't won the league in nearly a quarter of a century, has a declining fanbase, vastly lower revenues, inferior players, a crappy old ground and which exists in a godawful provincial town.

What they've won in the past gets less relevant with each passing year. Mind you, the notion of 'a big club' is transitory, since it very soon turns into 'Sleeping Giant' or even fades into history (Notts Forest, anyone?).

Put it like this: if you offered someone Arsenal's situation or Liverpool's, which do you think any sane person would prefer?

[Jake]

It's true though.

British fans are far more likely to romanticise and idealise past glories and teams to the point where these thoughts take over rationality in terms of backing up past success with recent success.

I'd take no problem with your view if they had the recent success of say, City or half of Chelsea's. Because their history is undeniably more prestigious than ours. But they haven't.

There has to be a point where history doesn't weigh heavier than the present.

[Berni]

A brief glance at Liverpool's record in the last 25 years is enough to tell you that their CL win was an aberration of pretty monumental proportions.

[Classic Jorge]

The fact that, as Sir C pointed out, they werent even really a force until the 60s probably also mitigates against the idea that I'm some sort of sepia toned idealist.

I'd understand if I were arguing Forest or Villa were bigger, which I'm not, but Liverpool are a proper club and I cant help but suspect it's largely by virtue of some reactionary, anti-scouse bias that people are loathe to recognise it.

They are a bigger club than us, I'm cool with that.

[PSRB]

[Jake]

That sums it all up.

[Classic Jorge]

Though, having met one of his former teachers, I doubt he could get a BTEC in eating glue.

[redgunamo]

[Berni]

top ten best sides in Europe (let alone the best) and at a point where you haven't even had a realistic sniff of winning your own domestic league in 20 years.

[redgunamo]

[Ashberto]

They largely did this by kicking and elbowing players off the park at Anfield, where the refs allowed them to get away with 'murder' as Souness has admitted.

It's a shame Arsemart isn't here. Proper Liverpool-hater is Arsemart.

[Berni]

[redgunamo]

I think. Is that not indicative of anything wider either?

[Classic Jorge]

[redgunamo]

[redgunamo]

[Peter]