Just had a look at TLW and they have a “go fuck yourself FSG” thought it would be some sort of parody …and while there is some valid points raised , it’s surprising that some actually seem to mean it 
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Where’s the * checks notes *… actually, don’t worry about it, John. You’re grand.
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Not sure where to put this, so here it is…
Liverpool fans unable to attend this year’s LFC Foundation official Legends charity match at Anfield have generously donated over £250,000 back to the charity from their ticket refunds.
The match against Barcelona Legends which was due to take place on March 28th was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and then cancelled for this year in July due to the ongoing restrictions.
Additional donations totalling £47,000 have also been generously made by LFC’s matchday boardroom members and executive lounge members to the LFC Foundation.
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I was madly skeptical of FSG till recently. Prior to signing Klopp, they looked as clueless as Ed Woodward and the Glazers imo. But since Klopp took over i was willing to give them a chance. And they came through with the correct appointments like Klopp, Edwards, backroom staffs, etc. Took care of our financials stability like never before, expand our stadium, new training facility, etc. They backed Klopp with the right players and the right recruitment strategy, with value for money, cheap steals, great value for sales, etc. Albeit the ticket price hike and furloughing staff, what more can you ask ? They got the trophies and success to show for it now, with more to come.
I admit my skepticism came back when we started not spending for 2 years again. I thought that maybe they want to invest initially to get success, but could not be bothered to further invest given they have laid the foundations with the club, resulting in the club value as high as ever, maybe they are looking to cash out already. And with all the pandemic excuses, home grown quota rhetoric, coupled with the sections of fans who blindly support their every moce, i was pissed tbh.
Until they proved me wrong once again with the signings of Tsimikas, Thiago and Jota, all the signings we basically cried for in positions we pointed out. This proves that they are willing to invest anytime back the manager and his staff when the situation calks for. Now, i have no reason to doubt them at all, i am relaxed as ever, the first time since they took over.
I think the one challenge they need to overcome next is to continue this kind of on-field and off-field success after Klopp is gone.
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10 years. I would say they have done well.
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Yes, they’ve steadied the ship, learned from their mistakes, appreciated the value of retaining and respecting the club’s ethos and traditions and, most importantly, appointed extremely well after a rocky start. It’s a certain someone’s 5th anniversary tomorrow…
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It’s flown by the 5 years since Jurgen took charge - it makes me sad that we are probably past the half way point of his tenure, although I do expect him to carry on beyond his existing contract.
On FSGs other appointments, they were right to steady the ship with Kenny, right to hire Brendan, who nearly delivered the title, and right to sack him, albeit a bit later than I had wanted…
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Disagree with this. If there was one error they made, it was appointing Rodgers. He wasn’t ready for the job at that point of his career. I think that they should have shown more faith towards Kenny in the first place if they couldn’t find someone better than Rodgers.
Otherwise, I agree that fsg have done really really well overall. Expanding Anfield and bringing Melwood and Kirkby together are their biggest legacy for the long term so far. Appointing Klopp and then winning no 6 and no 19 is a marvelous achievement for them.
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Genuine Q, did you think that when he was appointed or more when it had gone wrong? How much would your view have changed if 13/14 had ended with the title?
I wasn’t keen on his appointment but not because I didn’t consider him ready, but more than he was an unknown at the top level.
I think the club were right to go with someone young, up and coming etc, but Brendan proved to be a bit of a flash in the pan. Loggerheads with the transfer committee didn’t help either.
As for Kenny, I was gutted they let him go, but beyond sentiment, I thought we needed to go for a long term appointment with some vision. I don’t feel Kenny would have been able to get up back to the top, and was riding on his history at the club. I am glad he remains at the club in other capacities.
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They have definitely done well overall but I wonder what the view would be had we not got Klopp. It’s all come together since he arrived. I just hope there’s a strategy for when he’s no longer around.
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When they fired Kenny I was heart broken, actually shed tears over it. I’d been down to Wembley for the cup runs and knee jerk reaction was he was sacked for losing the FA cup final. Thought if they can’t give Kenny time who the hell would get time and believed we were in for years of turbulence with new managers appointed every year or so.
All that said I now think about it properly and it was the right decision. Kenny came in and motivated the existing squad to get out there and express themselves. He fired them up and we had 6 months of exciting promise. Little, intricate pass and move, fluid, creative moves with the likes of Meireles, Kuyt, Suarez and Maxi. Occasionally Carroll there to bounce balls off, head a few, hit a few smashed shots. It was brilliant and if that was how Kenny continued he should have been manager till he retired. But he tried to restructure the side, moved Kuyt and Maxi to the sidelines. Brought in “ball deliverers” who could hit crosses and long balls to Carroll with Henderson (a player whose stats where from CM) and Downing on the wings and Adam in CM. It was a travesty and far too old fashioned. It worked a bit in cup competition but was useless in league format. We were too predictable and Carroll wasn’t quality enough to have the side formed around him. We needed younger, newer, fresher ideas.
Everything about his departure and Rodgers arrival was botched and showed the owners inexperience and although Rodgers did some great work moving the club to a newer way and style (which left a great launching point for Klopp) he couldn’t handle big characters in the dressing room as he didn’t really have a background that gave him authority. Also because he was so inexperienced when the club basically went from PTSD after losing the title, then Suarez to Barca and Sturridge to injury forced semi-retirement (those two really were good enough to win Balon D’Ors if they had more than a season together) he couldnt pull it back and made too many changes to playing style to try to reinvent us to get over the slump. The internal politics didn’t leave anyone looking good either. I still believe he’s a talented coach who sees football the right way and his heart was in the right place just wrong place, wrong time and not prepared enough for it.
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I thought hiring Rodgers was a reasonable gamble. We weren’t at the top table at the time, and he was a young manager on the up. Since we expected the club to also rise it seemed like a decent fit at the time.
With hindsight we know we played some exciting football, went so close to the title, but didn’t quite do it. In addition, there were a few wrangles over recruitment, who was in charge, how did it work, etc. And Rodgers also revealed some hubris, which is never great.
But still, a reasonable enough appointment at the time it was made.
Obviously since then it has been excellent in all departments. Klopp and his team are superb, the stadium is expanding, and the future looks very bright.
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Especially when you consider how other appointments could have gone. We could have got a defensive manager in like an Alledyce or even worse Jose who would have bankrupted us to achieve anything close to winning stuff. Rodgers didn’t work out but a lot of the changes he instigated made the club perfect for Klopp to pick up and play. Plus he gave a lot of great memories of attacking football. Unlocked the world class potential in players like Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling and Coutinho whilst moving Henderson to the CM role he’s excelled at since and giving Gerrard a bit of a career extension by remodelling him into a deep lying playmaker When, let’s face it, age was getting the better of his energy and movement. A lot went wrong under Rodgers but some seem to refuse to accept anything went right too.
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I know most of us were feeling quite glum after the weekend, myself included, but it’s certainly worth remembering where we were 10 years ago, as this article from This is Anfield does.
I had just become a fan relatively recently, in 2007, and had seen us fall staggeringly off the cliff following the 08-09 season. Hodgson was a known commodity and I thought Joe Cole could inject some spark into the team, but it became evident by the beginning of October that we were in for some tough times, particularly with the H&G era ending and the threat of administration. As someone based in New England, I was excited to hear that FSG was in for Liverpool, and I figured it would, if nothing else, help raise the club’s profile here in the USA.
There have been a number of ups and downs since the takeover, but given we were about a million miles away from the Premier League title when they came in, the fact that they have been able to scale that mountain that no one else could is, to me, remarkable. What’s impressed me the most is their (relative) humility and willingness to learn from mistakes. As has been litigated, there have been missteps along the way, particularly within the transfer market, but they have been willing to adjust and now our recruitment (at least in terms of potency, if not the cash we spend) is arguably the envy of world football. I do agree with the sentiment that Klopp has helped facilitate the overachievement, and I am hopeful that FSG will put in a structure to last beyond his days, but it’s also worth noting that Klopp has a very good working relationship with Mike Gordon, President of FSG, so evidently he thinks they’re doing a good job.
At the risk of comparing apples and oranges, it’s worth remembering that the Red Sox were “cursed” almost three times as long as Liverpool were (86 years), and many people were convinced after the Bill Buckner error in 1986 (arguably even more impactful as a single moment than “the slip” ) that it would never end in their lifetimes, but FSG helped to overcome the odds.
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That actually reinforces how good they are.
Yes, their next challenge is a smooth succession of Klopp.
Not sure where to put this, do we have an Anfield thread? If it’s not the right place pls remove.
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Whilst I agree that Brendan wasn’t ready, from memory there wasn’t too many options available and willing to come to us.
Klopp had been FSG’s main target since day one, but had always said that he would not walk out on Dortmund, so would only talk once he’s contract finished. Brendan had done a great job with Swansea and had them playing some very impressive football so I can see why he would have caught FSG’s attention. In terms of other managers, none spring to mind that were both available and willing to join us, but will happily listen if anyone has other names that we could have realisticly gone for.
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Yes I felt like that immediately. I was angry about how they had treated Kenny, and was even more angry to learn whom they replaced him with. There was a point in 13/14 when I thought that Rodgers might have turned a corner, but in the end, it all came out as I expected initially. He was the wrong appointment at the time.
As for Kenny, I don’t think that he could have stayed three or four years as the manager, but fsg should have given him at least one more season, taking the time to find a more able replacement for him. They didn’t play continuity, but disruption, and that was their main error. While Kenny had built on the basis of Rafa’s legacy (the remaining quality players and for instance the youth formation set-up), Rodgers ripped up everything as fast as he could, but with no clear long-term plan. Rodgers was just trying to establish himself and felt menaced by people like Segura or Borrell, or several coaches from Rafa’s time. The way he ousted Agger and Reina for instance was distasteful and disgusting.
fsg could and should have done better in that regard, both in the way they treated Kenny and the person they replaced him with. Ayre was a poor choice as MD too. Fortunately for them and for us, Klopp was available just when the wheels came off for Rodgers, and from then on, everything went far better, because Klopp gave the club a vision, and they are all working on it now.
Rodgers’ time with us on the other hand was just a loss of time imo.
Swansea’s team & playing style had far more to do with Roberto Martinez than Rodgers.
Rodgers largely inherited the team, and simply continued their established style of play. So, much of the credit should, in my opinion, belong to Martinez, not Rodgers.
FSG did make contact with Martinez immediately prior to Rodgers appointment, but, for what ever reason, chose Rodgers over him.
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I don’t think Rodgers was the wrong, appointment from the managers available at the time.
That summer we got knocked back by some big names. Klopp was one of them. From the raft of names who were available to us I think Rodgers was the best. I remember the debate on TIA being between him and Paul Lambert. Martinez name was in there for a while.
Much of my criticism of them, and this touched on the managerial appointment was the flip flopping from one plan to the next.
Then I don’t think we’re in position to get Klopp when he leave them. In your sliding doors alternative history, Kenny stays another year and we get a better manager that Rodgers at the start of 13/14. That better manager does at least three years and leaves at end of 15/16, by which time Klopp is signed up somewhere else.
I’m happy the way it turned out.
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