Monday 5 October 2015

Rodgers And Out

Not very long ago, Brendan Rodgers was the best young manager in the country. I know - he was even better than David Moyes. He led a side full of vim and vigour - a veritably Keeganesque mixture of attacking wizardry and defensive stupidity, with a little splash of King Kev's heroic failure to top it off.

That Liverpool team had a hellluva lot to recommend it. Gerrard was magnificently resisting the status of grizzled veteran, a kind of Scouse Pirlo, Sturridge was a stiletto blade of a striker, Sterling buzzed round in his Little Richard bouffant, hell even Jordan Henderson started to resemble a footballer. And the real bite was provided by a wantaway front man who transformed himself from villain to hero in nine short months.

Suarez left, Sturridge limped, Sterling mooched, Gerrard moped, and each has been replaced by... by a lamentably poor clutch of misfits. Even then, Koppites witnessed two Cup semifinals, but for a club who can justifiably wallow in past success, this is small beer. In fact it's not even beer - it's flat Lambrusco.

Rodgers' days have been numbered for some time now. And yet he has done his best to carry that large head around on that tiny body with the same confidence he had when Suarez was doing things Derren Brown could only dream of.

Even in the aftermath of another formless and nondescript performance, Rodgers would insist he can't criticise his players who had given everything. Brendan seemed not to realise that Everything = Nowhere Near Enough.

His main crime - and here the blame can be fairly shared around - has been the squandering of huge sums of money received from the sale of Suarez and Sterling. It's a struggle to think of anyone Bren's bought who could be considered even a qualified success.

Top of the list of misfits was Balotelli, a sort of kryptonite to the supermen of Rodgers's 2014 vintage. Ballotelli makes the original Maverick look positively conservative. Why Liverpool thought they could tame this fruit-loop is beyond, well, everyone.

Added to that, Rodgers seemed incapable of looking beyond Southampton and ripped the heart out of the Saints. Unfortunately, by the time it reached Anfield that heart was suffering from serious arrhythmia. Dejan Lovren transformed from defensive rock to powdery chalk, Adam Lallana went from nimble and inventive to nonplussed and defective, and Ricky Lambert... well at least he got to spend a bit of time back home, la'.

Recently Firmino and Benteke have turned up, neither of whom seemingly aware of why or how that happened. You can't help feeling Liverpool's transfer policy, conducted as it is by a 'transfer committee', is a total dog's dinner. It's not so much a constructive way to unearth real potential and talent as a kind of Merseyside X-Factor audition all of its own, with Ian Ayre playing Simon Cowell and whoever the can-carrying numpty who gets the manager's job playing Louis Walsh.

Jurgen Klopp is the new man, it seems. Here's a bloke who cuts the right sort of dash. He's got specs and he speaks a few languages which makes him smarter than your average gaffer. Dortmund were a fine outfit under his tutelage. And, as Arsene is Arsenal so Klopp could be to the Kop.

But the first thing he has to do, surely, is be allowed to select transfer targets and pick players who he sees might fit into a structure of his choosing. Otherwise, in three years' time we'll be looking at another £292 million that's gone to waste after the likes of Coutinho have been flogged to La Liga for the price of five no-marks.

But Rodgers, decent fella though he is, had to go.

Meanwhile, in other sports, the nation (that's England) is slowly edging out from behind the sofa, faces as white as the team shirts, as the Stuart Lancaster's men go into hiding. It was not pretty, that mauling at the hands of the Wallabies. (And that's just rubbing it in, too, isn't it? Australia is full of the animal kingdom's most poisonous bastards and yet we get beat by a pack of iddy-biddy kangaroos).

Two things about this:

one, England haven't been much cop for a few seasons now - even in terms of the Six Nations they've not been great and they were never going to win the whole thing;

two, home advantage is supposed to count for summat so how come England ended up in a group with Wales, Australia and Fiji? Look at the other frigging groups! I mean New Zealand have barely had to break sweat, South Africa can afford a humiliating defeat and still get Scotland as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Why couldn't they have recruited Sepp Blatter to do the draw? Warm those balls and the hosts don't suffer. Everyone knows that!

Of course Lancaster has to walk. He picked a brilliant League player in Burgess but had no idea where he should be played at Union. He deselected the stand-off Ford for the Wales game when England's whole attacking platform for eighteen months had been built around him. And even though there are many, many more people in England playing the game than anywhere else in the world, England still manage to resemble a bunch of lumbering cybermen who've run on to the pitch through a line of hospital bed-linen and can't quite get the sheets off their faces. Dire, it was.

And as with Liverpool, that's no going to change soon, but with a different bloke in charge, at least there's a chance it might.

In the meantime, let's support someone else. I'm backing Ireland. Life's more fun that way.



50 comments:

  1. First ever time first!! And I read it all!

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  2. I'd just like to say that I fucking hate rugby union and all the snobby blazer wearing Tory voting protein shake and eachothers cum sucking twats who play it. I hope they all get fucking dysentery from shitting in each other's pints.

    Just my personal opinion of course

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    1. Mr Wet Underpants '895 October 2015 at 19:59

      You speak way too highly of rugby types.

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  3. Mr Wet Underpants '895 October 2015 at 19:57

    The Rodgers sacking came at the perfect time for Chelsea, deflecting attention from the latest deluded cuntish Mourinho outburst.

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  4. good stuff Robbo and yes, it deflected attention from Mourinho's whinging and the Gooners big win and AdamPSB having 5 goal Aguero as Captain of his ffsl team, not to mention another Trotter capitulation. Wonder what next week will bring?

    But Blog, how do you really feel? sn^5

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    1. Rugby League, now that's a proper sport SN^5. Sporting Life with Richard Harris - who needs teeth anyway?

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    2. I was just gutted I forgot to click Triple Captain. I was looking forward to gloating at work after we'd gone top but wisely thought I'll wait until after the Arsenal game and it was a good job too as ai was worried we'd ship 6 or 7 the way the game went in the first 20 minutes.

      Mind you if we win our next 2 games I'll be happy (and I don't care if teh football's pretty as long as we win.)

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  5. I always believe the manager should be the one to pick who he wants to sign. The problem for Liverpool is that years with no Champs League (most years) in recent times has left the top talent not wanting to sign. Add in losing their best players without replacement and they were always going to struggle this season. At least Klopp may know some decent cheap German players to buy.

    As for the rugby I will support Scotland, mainly as I'm Scottish. England will regret for a long time the decision not to take the 3 points against Wales. If they had then next weekend they would have something to play for. A naive decision on the pitch for sure.

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  6. You can always tell a Liverpool manager is in trouble, when he starts talking up the club's being "big," particularly pre-Merseyside derby. "Oh, we always want to be favorites - for we are Liverpool. Behold our bigness!" I think Rafa was talking the same shite before he was canned.

    And true, Everton have a lot less to spend. But they've got some pretty good young talent - some of it English, even!

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  7. I'm kind of excited actually with the prospect of Jurgen Klopp coming to the Premier League. Too bad it's on Brendan Rodgers' expense. IMO, selling Suarez was good decision from 'morale' perspective though. A football genius, but serial offender. I'm happy enough that he's no longer in the Premier League. The Sterling and Gerrard case, however, could be avoided. Rumour said they have 'issues' with Rodgers before leaving, and I'm under the impression that those issues could actually be avoided by Rodgers if he wanted to.

    Looking forward for whoever will be the next LFC manager!

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  8. It would have been cheaper for Liverpool to have bought the scouts at Southampton rather than the players.

    As for the rugby,vive La France. (Even though one of the 3 southern hemisphere teams will win it)

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    1. Liverpool might take up that idea on the scouts ))

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    2. Well Im not sure the scouts would have won more games Jack as they'd be too busy whittling and making campfires in the centre circle but its an interesting idea cough cough.

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    3. Tottenham have already bagged the manager and Director of Recruitment. Scouts and Academy Director will be next

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  9. Agreed Robbo, £292 million spent on absolute shit! Could've got Messi for that whole sum and he'd probably end up winning the league for liverpool.

    As for rugby union, Australia will probably end up winning the cup so solace for England, being beaten by world champs. Though I hope the Springboks take it!!!

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  10. All that money burns holes in their pockets. Chelsea have 34 players on loan. Why? Is it a cover for a Russian invasion? You think you're watching Hartlepool and you wake up in a Siberian gulag and a russian has moved in with your wife but on the bright side youve moved in with his.

    nah, they'd be better spending a billion buying up their competition and turning eg the Kop into a supermarket and Old trafford into a greyhound track.

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  11. Well in Robbo, good to see you're back in the flow of things.

    Liverpool, eh? where to start?

    Actually it's pretty simple, as Jamie Carragher, in a shocking moment of clarity, remarked early in the week;

    "The situation that Liverpool find themselves in now, it's not just for Brendan, this has been going on for a long time - even when I was there. We talk about Arsenal, but Liverpool have won one Carling Cup in 10 years.
    Liverpool are becoming Tottenham, think they're a big club but the real big clubs are not too worried about them - who they buy, what they're going to do - that's the situation as it's become for Liverpool, even when I was there at the end. I'm not just blaming Brendan Rodgers and this set of players. What are these owners of the club going to do to get Liverpool back where they need to be?
    That's consistently in the Champions League and challenging for trophies because at this moment we're becoming a team who think we're a big club but we're not."


    When I was growing up Liverpool were the biggest club in the land, easily. Even though I grew up basically on the doorstep of Highbury, you would still find hundreds of local footy "fans" doning Lpool shirts, bags and other such crap, like a pre PL glory hunter , a sort Plastico Erectus if you will, and if you think that sounds a little bit like a sex toy (dildo) then you'll get no arguement from me.........But I digress.

    Ofcourse they were big, they were frigin massive, but that status, not unlike my youth is long bloody gone, I'm hurtling towards 50 and the last time that Lverpool could call themselves Champions of England I was at the tender age of 21 ffs. Not only has the game changed, the whole bloody league that they dominated is gone.

    The PL was formed in 1992 and since then it has been won by Blackburn Rovers (once) more times then it has been won by Liverpool. (that would be none for all you math genius' out there). But winning the PL is not the only thing that defines a "big club" so let's look at where they have finished in said league since Rafa (their last manager to win anything of note) was hounded out.

    7th, 6th, 8th, 7th, 2nd, 6th.

    Not a briliant record by any means and interesting that their highest finish was under Brendan's reign.


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    1. If you take a closer look at Liverpool since Brentan took over then you will find that they have the league's 5th highest turnover, with the league's 5th highest wage bill and he achieved, over three seasons, an average 5th place finish, that's pretty much par for the course if you ask me. I believe it was only the one eyed Mickey fans that feel they "deserve" to be finishing higher and, ironically, a big chunk of that delusion of grandier is basically down to that 2nd place finish that was delivered by the very man they've just sacked.

      A lot has, rightly, been made about the players that have been brought in over the last few years, but I would like some light shed on how many were actually his choice? I seem to remember him coming out in the press and saying flat out that he really didn't want to sign Balotelli just days before the nutter was being paraded in his shiny new red jersy.

      "I can categorically tell you Mario Balotelli will not be at Liverpool."

      Was the direct quote, but hey, maybe my grasp of the English language has waned over all these years of me living abroad.

      Rodger's biggest fault was his seeming total lack of defensive tactics/understanding. Even when they finished runners up the back line looked shakey. Last season without the SSS's banging them in for fun, the backline short comings were highlighted even more. So what did the infamous transfer comitee focus on? Why, the midfield and attack ofcourse.

      Clyne seemed a good signing, as did Milner, but why the other ropey looking midfielder?

      To fill the massive void in their front line left by the departure of Sterling and Suarez and the unavailability of Sturidge they brought in/back that Guy who'se greatest claim to fame last season was, inspite of intense competition, managing to get into the French leagues worst XI, a striker who epitomises hot and cold from a team that has been flirting with relegation since I can remember, plus a front man from a team that did manage to go down.

      Surely I can't be the only one to detect a flaw in that master plan?

      'm gonna miss Mr Rodgers, mainly because of his ability to make me laugh. Also for his uncanny knack of putting a jinx on his team by proclaiming such things as how great his keeper was before a game in which the poor sod would have a howler. For all his percieved faults he was an honest kind of chap and truly believed (like the rest of the deluded Mickeys) that Lpoo were still a "big club". He bought into the whole philosphy and ethos and seemed extreamly proud to be connected to the club and I believe his sacking would of really hurt him.

      As said above, it is kind of hard to feel sorry for any PL manager who loses his job in todays high finance, stupid wages bubble in which they operate, but I kinda do feel a bit sad for him.

      Must be getting soft in me ol' age.

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    2. I like Rogers because he has genuine respect for the club and tried his best. If he could have sorted out the leaky defence, who knows? Stevie G hitting the deck like an innocent bystander caught in the middle of a gunfight didn't help either.l Only for that they would have been champions. For all the money they spend they could have bought Messi and Pogba and still have enough left over for a decent defender.

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    3. I came here for the blog but stayed on for the Plastico Erectus. How's life, lads?

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    4. Not too bad Spits, mate.

      I'm out of the bar business and I spend a lot of my spare time at the gym trying to get rid of all the excess weight I gained while in the bar business.

      You still doing your thing in Germanyland?

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    5. Yes, H-Man, became a German National last year, just in time to give them (us?) the boost they needed to win the World Cup.

      Had you fill of the bar business or just an excellent opportunity to cash in?

      Yeah, losing some weight sounds like a sensible thing that I shall do too but also sounds like an awful lot of work so I'm gonna stretch it as much as it goes and then buy a larger pair of pants.

      How's the low country treating you?

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    6. Spitfire - sorry mate, but if you're now a hun, you'll have to change your tag to something like Stuka or Fokker. I know "we" have not won the World Cup since 1966 but I think that's a bit drastic!

      Spider

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    7. #ello Spider, how've you been?

      It used to be MesserSpit, but changed it a couple of times. You do realise more Spitfires made it over to Germany than Stuka's of Fokkers made it to Britain? Or certainly made it back home. I dont think I'll lose my identity, simply because nobody else will let me forget where I came from, the matter things go a bit tight.

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    8. Nice one.

      I was in Dusseldorf for the WC Final, great laugh.

      As for the bar, I just had enough, I had the chance to step out early without losing too much, so took it. Living out in the sticks was getting to me too, there's only so any conversations you can have about a sheep, I'm not Welsh ffs.

      To compensate,and to preserve a modicom of sanity, I was drinking too much and starting to look like I had an elephant's crash helmet under my shirt. So for my new years resolution I packed in the beer, went on a diet and started to hit the gym. 24kilos lighter now and I allow myself a few beers once a week.

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    9. Nice one.

      I was in Dusseldorf for the WC Final, great laugh.

      As for the bar, I just had enough, I had the chance to step out early without losing too much, so took it. Living out in the sticks was getting to me too, there's only so any conversations you can have about a sheep, I'm not Welsh ffs.

      To compensate,and to preserve a modicom of sanity, I was drinking too much and starting to look like I had an elephant's crash helmet under my shirt. So for my new years resolution I packed in the beer, went on a diet and started to hit the gym. 24kilos lighter now and I allow myself a few beers once a week.

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  12. It's all very exciting for the Scousers, my mate Scouse Phil is crackin' jokes again, his aching knees feel better and he's looking forward to a brighter future but it'll end in tears and especially if they keep this stupid transfer-by-committee set up. One bloke at the helm needs to carry the can.

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  13. The two thieves have been suspended from FIFA and we have Issa Hayatou in place as their spotless as Caesar's wife replacement. What's that?

    Panorama claim to have obtained a document from a company called ISL which showed that Hayatou was paid 100,000 French Francs by the company?

    The IOC has announced it will investigate Hayatou, due to his membership of the organisation?

    In May 2011, The Sunday Times published claims from a whistle-blower that Hayatou had, along with fellow Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma, accepted $1.5 million bribes from Qatar to secure his support for their bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup ?

    Who'd a thought it?

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    1. You're right Blogs, it's beyond parody and basically institutionalised corruption. Blatter greases they palms of various candidates who continue to vote for him to keep the gravy train going. Blatter knows that once he goes and someone has a proper look at the finances, the massive scale of the corruption (sorry, I mean assistance to emerging football associations) will become apparent - always assuming that his replacement is not a crook (so, obviously, has nothing to do with FIFA at present)

      Spider

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  14. this is beyond satire...a possible replacement for Blatter is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. If this happens surely we've got to leave this rancid asylum which has clearly been taken over by the inmates>>>> (Sorry for the cut and paste)>>>>

    Kirsan is the chess world's version of Sepp Blatter, and has faced his fair share of corruption allegations, just like Sepp.
    He has been president of Fide, the game's governing body, for more than 20 years but is perhaps most famous for believing he was abducted by aliens.
    The 52-year-old ally of Vladimir Putin has also had well-publicised dalliances with Syria’s President Assad and the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
    Kirsan was reportedly pictured playing chess with Gaddafi while rebels stormed him compound.

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  15. As a Scottish man I would like to congratulate the rest of the Home Nations and the ROI for their great European Qualifying campaigns. I am now off to cry myself to sleep (again).

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    1. Sorry for your loss Amateur but even without that last-gasp equaliser, you were always going to be struggling once the Iris had beaten the Germans, whose wasting of chances was so profligate that they made the usual Arsenal forward line look clinical! (Common denominator Ozil?)

      Spider

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    2. Thanks Spider. You are right about the Irish result against the Germans. I just hope they get the second place not third as they deserve to go straight through after their points won against Germany. I'll be supporting them against Poland.

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  16. One of Allardyce's first acts as Sunderland boss will be to bring in midfielder Kevin Nolan - who he managed at both Bolton and West Ham - on a free transfer. (Sun - subscription required)

    Trott' knows.

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    1. that's right H, but the dicks forgot to mention Newcastle and the Rope & Anchor darts team.

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  17. A good read H2, I'll buy the book when it's released.

    Your comment on Rugby was a little subtle Blog but I think I agree with you. Rugby, to me, is 80 minutes of a bunch of men running up and down a field fiddling with each others bottoms.

    How are we second in the league (we being Arsenal, of course.) We have a mediocre defence, a reasonable midfield, a decent bunch of forwards and no striker worth mentioning. Walcott, if given the opportunity, may prove to be be the pick of the crop but it seems to me that in today's Arsenal he may need to cross La Manche and become naturalised to be given the striker's role.

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    1. Walcotts good enough Bo but can hr stay fit?

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    2. Euros in they bag eh Trot? Shocked by how bad the Dutch were...deservedly displaced by.... Iceland. England have a good young squad so maybe this time, with a bit of luck vs the bloody Germans...

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    3. in the bag, heat sealed, vacuum packed with a bow on top!

      Can't fail. Awise Sir Woy.

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    4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Yf5B6GbYk

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  18. I hope that this time the English press don't try to run stories against any of the squad just prior to the tournament. It is hard enough to get a good team spirit without the added difficultly caused by the press. I hope this is the time for England. It may be better if there are less egos on the plane.

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  19. Unfortunately, it's the way of the world - English footballer in bed by 10 pm - no story. English footballer NOT in bed by midnight (drinking/fighting/shagging) big story. I can see the headlines now - "Unpatriotic Kane shuns full English breakfast for museli" "Rooney doesn't shag granny". We can only hope that Jeremy Corbyn proves how patriotic he is by having a set-to with Prince Harry and keeping the football off the front page. Alternatively, perhaps Bale can oblige with a sheep.

    Spider

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  20. Bale with a sheep would not be news - he is Welsh. You are right Spider, I guess sales of the paper will be more important than the team doing well.

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