What's gone wrong since Jan 2009?

[pauliewalnuts]

Who are "they"?  If we do buy him, then that's presumably whatever budget we have gone.  We're not scoring any goals, is Randy going to go five whole years with out buying a decent striker after Carew?

I was referring to the talk in the media.

So now you're saying that if we do strengthen one of the areas in which we are particularly weak, it'll mean we can't strengthen in another? Damned if they do, damned if they don't

As for not signing a decent striker since Carew, I thought you were saying that was MON's fault the last three years, now it seems it was Randy's fault all along.

[Risso]

Who are "they"?  If we do buy him, then that's presumably whatever budget we have gone.  We're not scoring any goals, is Randy going to go five whole years with out buying a decent striker after Carew?

I was referring to the talk in the media.

So now you're saying that if we do strengthen one of the areas in which we are particularly weak, it'll mean we can't strengthen in another? Damned if they do, damned if they don't

As for not signing a decent striker since Carew, I thought you were saying that was MON's fault the last three years, now it seems it was Randy's fault all along.

Well buying Makoun would be better than not buying him, but if that sort of money IS available, then I'd prefer to see it spent on a striker. 

[darren woolley]

A lot of it is down to MON leaving us 5 days before the start of the season and appointing GH who is not improving us we do need to get a striker in i agree but who and from where is my question and how much have we got to spend in this window something needs to happen that's for sure.

[KevinGage]

* Signing Heskey  -  I know he's done OK this season but for a team with serious designs on 4th in 2008/09 he was no kind of solution. Arsenal signed Arshavin.

*Moscow  - no guarantees that we could have got a result out there but the festering resentment from senior pro's at being robbed of their chance to play in the latter stages of a European comp -the kind of things that you can look back on as highlights of your career-  carried over into the rest of the season starting with...

*Stoke  - 2-0 with 80+ minutes on the board and 8 points clear in early March. Game finishes 2-2. Walking out the ground that day everyone knew it was pretty much over.

*Missing out on 5th to Everton.  Hard to argue we'd made genuine progress when a spend of £40+ million resulted in the same league placing as the season before.

*Selling Barry. A deal that made sense for a whole variety of reasons, but nevertheless it set a precedent. We would sell one of our best players to a rival if the price was right and our captain -as was- didn't believe in the project. For the first time questions started to be asked of MON, RL and co, and the direction we were taking. Previously everyone seemed to be on the same page.

*Big darts on the likes of Collins, Dunne, Warnock and Downing - most of those have been OK performers at one time or the other. But with Citeh on the rise and Tottingham getting their act together our purchases needed to be inspired if we wanted to improve on the efforts of 08/09. Hard to make the argument that any of those players were/are in that category.


*Phil Dowd bottling the big decisions in the LC final in Feb


*Lack of rotation in the second half of 09/10. Played a part in tired performances at home to the likes of Wolves and Sunderland and particularly exposed at...


*Chelsea 7-1


*Milner's (eventual) transfer, which was rumoured as far back as just after that Chelsea game.


*MON's cowardly walkout.


*The perception  that developed around the same time that we were only interested in cost cutting, as evidenced by James Nursey's sterling efforts all summer to mention it at every available opportunity. Despite the fact that other clubs including most of our rivals were faced with similar challenges.

*Appointing GH

[Rip Van We Go Again]

As spot on as it's possible to be from young Kevin there.

[not3bad]

Randy's given up.

I think his reaction to the equaliser on Sunday begs to differ.

And that proved what exactly? 

Saying he has given up suggests that his heart is no longer in the club, and that he would have little interest in the clubs current situation. To me that response would prove the opposite.

In the last year he hasn't spent any proper money on new players, has sold our best player and appointed a cheap, shit manager.

Shit, quite possibly.

But apparently Houllier is anything but cheap.

He's even dafter than I thougt then.

He might be daft and worthy of critisism but that's very different from your ridiculous "given up" accusation.

[Risso]

Jumping up and down like a toddler after too much Sunny D costs nowt.  Appointing a decent manager and giving him the funds to do his job does.  And he's shown no sign of doing the latter recently.

[UsualSuspect]

Bluntly, the money ran out. We spent a hell of a lot of money trying to improve on 6th with less and less progress. MON wanted more spending and when he didn't get it he surmised that this team had peaked and he couldn't stop the rot with limited funds. This isn't the first time we've gone from flying high to near relegation in a couple of seasons and its usually down to players leaving, other players getting past it, and replacements not being good enough. We've had all three in spades

Good point

Very comparible to 1990/91

Finished runners up under GT MK1 in 1990, sold best player (Platt), got a foreign manager in and nearly went down

[sfx412]

Bluntly, the money ran out. We spent a hell of a lot of money trying to improve on 6th with less and less progress. MON wanted more spending and when he didn't get it he surmised that this team had peaked and he couldn't stop the rot with limited funds. This isn't the first time we've gone from flying high to near relegation in a couple of seasons and its usually down to players leaving, other players getting past it, and replacements not being good enough. We've had all three in spades

Monies run out has it ?

We'll see.

[not3bad]

Jumping up and down like a toddler after too much Sunny D costs nowt.  Appointing a decent manager and giving him the funds to do his job does.  And he's shown no sign of doing the latter recently.

I seem to remeber you agreeing that RL was right to withhold money from MON until he'd got the wage bill down.  And this is only GH's first transfer window.  If no money has been spent by February 1st then you'll have a point, until then, you don't.

[LeeB]

Bluntly, the money ran out. We spent a hell of a lot of money trying to improve on 6th with less and less progress. MON wanted more spending and when he didn't get it he surmised that this team had peaked and he couldn't stop the rot with limited funds. This isn't the first time we've gone from flying high to near relegation in a couple of seasons and its usually down to players leaving, other players getting past it, and replacements not being good enough. We've had all three in spades

Monies run out has it ?

We'll see.

Yeah, well people keep saying that but we're still waiting.

[Risso]

Jumping up and down like a toddler after too much Sunny D costs nowt.  Appointing a decent manager and giving him the funds to do his job does.  And he's shown no sign of doing the latter recently.

I seem to remeber you agreeing that RL was right to withhold money from MON until he'd got the wage bill down.  And this is only GH's first transfer window.  If no money has been spent by February 1st then you'll have a point, until then, you don't.

Balls.  We've needed a striker for years, and I said so during the last two transfer windows.

[sfx412]

If we're going to spend money, we need to buy improvements on the players we have.  You're looking at probably £8m for a player in each of the departments, eg left back, central midfield, and more for a striker.  Can anybody really see that sort of money being spent?  This January will see loan players like Walker, maybe one or two French youngsters, and possibly an old has been if we're lucky.  Nobody who's going to make a big difference in other words.

In January no it would be folly and as I'm continually reminded, we have a squad that finished 6th in 3 consecutive seasons, a squad the previous manager despite his huge spend didn't buy a decent striker for, in 4 seasons and one from which he sold our 2 best midfield players.

So "sack him now Houllier" must find these answers and be financed by Randy to do so.

More good thinking.

Seems more logical to me to strengthen wisely at a low cost and then subject to survival set about the real rebuild in the summer, hopefully having reduced the wage bill by unloading wasters like Carew, Sidwell, Beye, Davies and co, rather than players who could offer something, like Gardner, Cahill, Davis, who were on far smaller wages.

[not3bad]

Balls.  We've needed a striker for years, and I said so during the last two transfer windows.

Spent plenty of money in the Summer 2009 transfer window.  Might not have been on the players you wanted but it was spent.  And again, I'm not denying mistakes were made.

[Risso]

Balls.  We've needed a striker for years, and I said so during the last two transfer windows.

Spent plenty of money in the Summer 2009 transfer window.  Might not have been on the players you wanted but it was spent.  And again, I'm not denying mistakes were made.

I never denied we spent money that summer.  I'm talking about the 18 months since then.