Don’t see them parting with Howe anytime soon, guys doing exceptional things this season…beyond belief things that’ll probably see him pick up the Prem/LMA and all that managerial awards.
Fair play to them they’ve found that hard to beat formula…not even scratched the surface with their spending & will almost certainly be playing CL football next season.
Not this again if you raise 100m in sales but spend 120m you have still spent 120m. Its like buying a house sell your old for 100k buy a new for 300k your new house still cost 300k.
So when there’s nothing to sell, where do WE get the money to invest. And pls none of your childish remarks.
Being a net spend club doesn’t work in these circumstances now. Tbh, I am not happy with FSG now, I am trying to not cross the line of #FSGOUT, but I am close.
It was an analogy to staff bailing out of a declining system…and the time line for appointments seems to be longer and longer. And, tell me if I’m wrong, …(I’m sure you will), most of our backroom staff, docs, physio etc…have gone to other premier clubs…as if the backroom system is breaking down…
Would you be FSG out if all they do is give Klopp 40m in the summer for 1 midfielder, (or maybe 2 midfielders if Klopp decides to buy 2x championship midfielders)
If they don’t help Klopp by giving the help he needs in midfield players and or other players in specific positions, I will blame FSG. Klopp is an honourable man with integrity. He will never publicly criticize the owners. If Klopp walks in these difficult circumstances, I will never forgive FSG.
I’ve been trying to properly articulate an opinion for a while, and vent a bit of a bugbear that I’ve been harbouring across a few social media channels. Some that is really, really making me pissed off.
The idea seems to have taken root in our fanbase that there is some sort of battle at Liverpool between FSG and Jurgen Klopp. You are either Team FSG or Team Jurgen. Jurgen is been held back by FSG. FSG are limiting a great manager. Jurgen isn’t being backed.
This is of course utter fucking drivel. Nonsense by people who want to reduce everything down to a simple narrative they can understand. A goodie and and a baddie.
The truth is, as it is so often in life, much more complicated than that.
The idea that Klopp and FSG are two opposition factions needs putting in the fucking bin and setting fire to.
Klopp and the FSG representatives at LFC (Werner and Hogan) are part of the same decision making forum, alongside other key people like the Sporting Director etc. They decide the football direction together and the idea that Klopp has no input into the strategic direction of the club is ridiculous.
I personally think the club made decisions around the time of winning the CL that this squad could run for a few years with little investment. We’d let this squad age together over 4-5 seasons, by which point it would need refreshing. This would create the space to extend Anfield and build Kirkby. Klopp always admired the way Madrid kept their team together, winning multiple CL titles, and spoke about how much he’d like to be able to do this. He has never been a manager who wants to churn a team with continual new players. He doesn’t want to bomb lads out.
So yes the purse strings have been tightened over the last few years regarding the squad, and we haven’t ‘invested from a position of strength’ (although £300m has been put into the team, which isn’t peanuts). But if you think this decision making didn’t involve Klopp and he wasn’t on board with it, then I think you are oversimplifying this, and also being a bit of a coward. I get that Klopp is a legend, and nobody would swap for any manager in the world. But he is, no matter how it pains us, partly responsible for some of the mess we’re in. Alongside FSG. And the DoFs. And the analysis teams. And the sports science.
Cos’ this is the point. Liverpool FC are a business and decisions don’t get imposed like Twitter seems think at any successful business, except ironically maybe Twitter. John Henry isn’t making unpopular decisions and then cascading then down like an autocrat. He isn’t saying to Klopp you have no money to spend and suck it up. Decisions will be made by a senior team collectively, and Klopp will be part of that team. Shall we spend 50m on the team or shall we redevelop Kirkby? Shall we borrow more money in a pandemic for players or can we ride this out?
We can think the club has made mistakes in how we have approached squad development over the last few years. Maybe more should have been invested? Maybe tough decisions should have been made on a few contracts here and there. Maybe the club should have borrowed money to invest over the pandemic? I don’t know. It’s all fair enough, and I don’t have a problem with any of that.
What I do have quite a big problem with is separating our the decision making at LFC to throw a protective ring around the bit you instinctively like, and throw under the bus the bit you instinctively hate.
Decisions have be made that have left us in a bit of a mess. Jurgen Klopp has been part of those decisions, and that’s fine. Nobody (with any sense) wants him sacked, but he is a big boy with broad shoulders, and I’m sure if you went out for a pint with him, after bollocking you for skimming an Erdinger, he’d be quite open that in hindsight he’d do things a bit differently.
Look who is talking, stupid is your fucking middle name,.
Perhaps you could show me where I called Jurgen a quitter?
Mr innocent again, no longer waisting my time on you, have a nice life …
What does it mean for Klopp to be “on board with it,” though? There is a fundamental distinction between Klopp being happy with something and Klopp accepting/tolerating something that he ultimately has no control over and trying to make the most of it.
The fact that he hasn’t explicitly expressed public frustration in FSG is indicative to me of nothing more than that he’s a loyal professional who has respect for his bosses.
But he’s often talked about how “we cannot do things” in the market like City, Chelsea, and the like. That we do not operate that way.
That is clearly a statement of reality, but that isn’t indicative that he’s happy with it.
We don’t know what the discussions have been behind the scenes.
You accused me of calling Jurgen a quitter and I asked to to back up that absurd accusation. Don’t go round accusing people of shit if you can’t back it up.
Three things.
Building a squad and keeping it together is something that Klopp has often expressed a desire to do.
Klopp recently signed a new contract which he is not likely to do if he isn’t happy with the way things are done at LFC.
He is Jurgen Klopp, and has a lot of power at the club. If he had wanted more signings, I am convinced FSG would have found a way to make that happen.
I see Jurgen that is a man who tells how it is and if something was a major bugbear at LFC he would speak his mind and that would include if he thought he wasn’t being backed the WAY he wants.
Our Jurgen likes to bring the best out in players and doesn’t give up on them for a new shiny toy, I think he also believes that the current price for the new shiny toy is ridiculous, as we all do.
For me, I would love to see us unearth players like, Caicedo, Onana, Paulinho etc before they make it big and I love to see the emergence of Bajcetic.
I love Bellingham as a player as I do watching Enzo but the prices are ridiculous, surely their are gems out there that the sum of their parts add to making us a better more athletic team.
I don’t believe the first point you make says much about FSG and says more about Klopp’s loyalty to his players. But he’s also expressed over the last couple years the need to build the next generation of this club, indicating his sense that turnover was on the horizon.
The second point certainly reflects Klopp’s comfort with FSG at the time he signed ihis extension. Feelings are not static, though. Klopp signed an extension during a period of time where this club was chasing the quadruple and there was no indication of this dive in form on the horizon.
As to the third point - I’m not sure if I share that same optimism. FSG have shown themselves to be quite fiscally disciplined with every club they’ve owned, spending only when it’s within the paramaters they’ve set. They’ve let quality players leave without blinking an eye simply because their financial model didn’t support it, team performance be damned. I am not convinced that they would have deviated from that, even if Klopp insisted on it. That’s especially the case with a potential sale on the horizon.
What part of “have a nice life …” did you not understand and yes this is a retorical question.
I’m so fed up with your arrogant condescending way you speak to people and when push comes to shove you throw the moderator broom in.
I can not put you on ignore but the moment I see your nick I will scroll down.
Again have a nice life, you are no longer worth my time …
Respectfully Mascot, I disagree with your analysis. This is not the impression I am getting. I know I am not a fly on the wall at the meetings and none of us know what is really going on behind closed doors. I do believe Klopp hasn’t been given the backing that he should have by FSG. He may have asked for players he wanted and has been vetoed on it. Of course he is going to ‘officially’ say we don’t need anymore players at the moment and has to work within the limited parameters he is given. This is my opinion. He is an honourable and intelligent man, he is not a person who would speak against the owners publicly.
Sure, Klopp made mistakes in his tactics now and then. I also believe, selling Mane many was one of the many reasons why the team are in dire straits now. The whole team has become unbalanced, Salah and Mane were a top goal scoring duo. Also, the uncertainty of, ‘are FSG selling or not’ or just selling a small share of LFC doesn’t help either. I am not saying that FSG have done nothing, they gave us Jurgen, I am very grateful that. They built the stands and the state of the art AXA Training centre and they have reduced the debt etc, but deep down, I always felt they ‘don’t get LFC totally’ or English/European Football. They seem to be far more interested in their local sports.
However, their model of net spend however will only take you so far with football constantly changing in the next few years. FSG may mean well, but they need to find a way to generate more funds to help LFC be a successful club and compete with the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd. Klopp can’t keep performing miracles and getting Top 4 every year (and FSG get money for this as well), he said in his very first press conference, he was not a miracle worker.
Right now, I am doubter of FSG and a believer in Klopp.
Klopp isn’t a Mourinho or a Conte or a Tuchel. He’s not going to embarrass his bosses publicly or criticize their lack of investment explicitly. He’s definitely the type that would do so behind closed doors, though, but that doesn’t mean he’ll get his way.
I could see FSG telling him that he has to choose between certain options and entitling him to make that call. They could give him a budget and let him decide who he wants to buy within that budget.
I think Klopp is his own man and would say what he thinks, I actually think he is aligned with the FSG spend model from a ideological point of view and it has worked well until this season.
Jurgen for me believed in the midfield and saw the addition of Tchoumeni as good addition and when that fell through he thought the players could go again, how wrong he was. What is galling is that when the injuries materialised in summer, we should have gone for someone different than Arthur who was unfit and injury prone.
I do believe that it is negligent on all parts that we didn’t try for a midfielder in the Jan transfer window, not Enzo or Caicedo as they are overpriced but someone that could bring some much needed athleticism to our midfield.