Much worse comments made about Liverpool players that are hall of shame comments. Have a look on Hendos social medias if you think I’m bad
I have no problem with that as long the first two stays healthy … 
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Until today and this graphic I had never heard of Guimaraes. I now have and he must be bought.
So good he is named after a city.
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I think if you look around any of the top squads with the same slightly pessimistic eye you could probably say the same. If your eye is on 2024 then;
City - Pep probably gone. Walker, Fernandinho, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Mahrez all the wrong side of 32. Sterling reportedly looking for a move, Mendy (less said the better).
Chelsea - Tuchel probably gone because how long do Chelsea managers last. Potentially Azipilecueta, Rudiger and Christensen gone for free this summer. Thiago 39 by 2024. Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic, Lukaku all 30 or over. Some good young players in place but a lot of work to do at the back and in midfield.
United - Ralf will be gone. Who knows who comes in but recent history suggests it won’t be a great appointment. Pogba likely gone for nowt this summer. Van de Beek and Martial off too. De Gea, Varane, Maguire, Fred, all the wrong side of 30 by 2024. Two strikers who are already 35+. Again, some good young players in Greenwood, Rashford, Sancho but they’ve a long way to go to catch up already.
This isn’t meant to start an argument or say your point isn’t valid as it totally is. But when you look at 2024 with the context of what other clubs will also be navigating then you’d say there’s an equal amount of work for them to do in the next two years, if not more, than there is for us.
That’s not including the likes of Spurs and Arsenal who need or are going through big rebuild projects without the benefit of CL money. In Spurs’ case, there’s a huge amount of expensive dead wood to shift and only really Kane who they could cash in on but that would almost be an acceptance of their place in on the second rung of the Premier League ladder. Arsenal are a year or two further along that but still have a lot of dead wood to shift and are relying heavily on young players who are still finding their feet.
*also, I don’t think 30 is necessarily the point at which a player needs replacing. Some will but some will be able to play on to 33-34 so they aren’t all going to need replacing or pushing out the door at that point but they do need to be supplemented by younger options in those areas.
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100% and I’m sure both City and Chelsea will be looking both internally and externally, just as we will be.
City for example have Palmer and McAtee (who I’d love we nicked) starting to get minutes in and around the first team… They are potentially who they look at for the long term replacements for Silva and De Bruyne for example.
Chelsea have their pick of around 100 youth players loaned out around the world…
Where as we have Gordon, Morton, Beck, Elliot, Jones who are look likely to step up to the 1st team, with a load of others who are 50/50, Balagizi, Frauendorf, Woltman etc.
My money is that Elliot, Jones, Gordon and Morton are all playing more minutes next season and I’d say something like the following is in progress or about to… (Ages ignored if left or leaving);
Firmino (30) → Jota (25) (already happening)
Henderson (31) → Elliot (18) (already happening
Wijnaldum → Jones (20) (was meant to happen this year)
Salah/Mane (29/29) → Gordon (17)
Milner → Morton (19)
With the main incoming replacement being what we think we can’t internally recruit, this could be a no.6 like Tchouaméni, or a more progressive left sided no.8 i.e. someone to replace Thiago and then another forward to replace Mane/Salah eventually.
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Good post and you are right. Were we differ from the other 3 “big” sides (hey do we have a big 4 again?!?!) is that we seem to have a self imposed restriction on bringing in multiple starting options per year. Those teams can and do just throw money at it and bring in new talent en masse. Chelsea and City also have academies that at least rival ours if not better and all 3 can offer higher wages so can be more appealing to “free” signings so they can have their share of cheap signings too (its not all about money when it comes to adding to the squad). Also all those sides are better able to cope if a signing doesn’t work out, allowing them to be more ruthless when disposing of players that have disappointed. Not sure Keita and Ox for instance would still be on the books at those sides. Origi and Minamino almost certainly not.
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While I completely agree with your points, there’s one thing that we shouldn’t overlook and one that scares the hell out of me: all of the rival clubs will be spending much more than us if the last five to ten years are anything to go by. Imagine Man City adding e.g. Haaland, an extremely expensive guarantee of goals, to a side that is already running away with the league title or Man United getting a manager worth his salt who will be backed like Mourinho and Solskjaer in terms of finances…
Meanwhile, there won’t be a baseball-cap wearing safety blanket in our dugout from 2024 on, which is scarier than Man City’s almost-nine-figure net spends. I wonder what are the odds of Salah signing an new contract, Mane and/or Firmino leaving this summer and the club buying a forward and a midfielder (presuming there are other departures such as Origi, Keita and/or AOC).
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The reality is though Nikola, there aren’t that many good (elite level) managers out there, especially proven ones and Pep will leave City sooner rather than later. All the money in the world is for nothing if you don’t have the right manager in place to coach those players.
Everything at City is built in Pep’s image, from the bottom to top it’s all to support his ideas and his management… Take away that focal point who ties it together it can quickly fall appart and take years to get back… Look at Fergie at Utd.
An example is to look at Poch, he’s struggling in “the” farmers league and I had him as the worrying saviour of Utd if given the riches he wasn’t afforded at Spurs, yet when given basically some of the best players in the world its get it to Mbappe or bust tactics.
Despite knowing losing Klopp is one of the worst things to happen in my 38 years of supporting the club, I’m quietly confident that our succession planning is vastly superior to other clubs.
So City aren’t to be worried about because they’ll struggle to replace Pep with a good enough manager but we’ll be fine replacing Klopp with lesser wages and lesser budgets so a more challenging/less rewarding job? Pep could be there for years yet.
I’m not sure. If you look it’s quite rare those teams bring in more than three first team players a season. City and Chelsea only really brought in one permanent one each in the last window. The exception is a couple seasons ago when Chelsea went quite big with Havertz, Werner, Chilwell, Mendy, Silva and Ziyech but I think that was the first summer window after their transfer ban.
Again though, when you look at those teams and see some of the players on their books. Barkley, Bakayoko, Batshuayi, Drinkwater, Phil Jones, Dalot, Lingard, Mata, Matic. Would you want any of those in our squad? Only City really seem to be clear of too much dead wood.
This is the major difference. What they can and do spend is beyond what we can stretch to. But how do you counter that? You get better at identifying players that fit and that I think is where we’ve been able to punch above our weight.
City will spend £100m on Grealish but you’d be confident our guys could find someone that will be more successful for us than he will be there for half that. Chelsea will spend £90m on Lukaku but he’s being outscored by Jota who cost about half that. United buy van de Beek for £35m and he does less for them than Thiago for us.
If we lost Mane, Milner, Ox, Origi and Williams in the summer and bought two new forwards, a midfielder and promoted Bradley and Morton we wouldn’t need Man City sized pockets to do that and could be fairly confident we’d get it right.
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You’ve missunderstood my point totally, it was simple I do not see currently a manager who could come in and deliver from day 1 and continue what Pep is doing at City, I feel there will be a big drop off in levels when that happens.
Whereas I feel Ljinders could pick up what Klopp has done and from day keep us around the same level.
Your obsession with money being the only factor blinds you to everything else. The irony is our wage bill is similar to City and Chelsea.
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That would be at least a start. I think a new 3rd choice Keeper too and that could be a good starting foundation for the approaching rebuild and both realistic and reasonable. I’m still hoping for at least one or two of Salah, Mane and Firmino extending their deals (in that priority order) to save us some of the rebuilding work required. I think if we lose Salah in particular we’d need to change how we set up, either become more defensive minded to counteract less goals scored or set up more attacking in other areas to compensate for a drop in goals and assists from the right wing.
There are managers out there as good or better than Ljinders who doesn’t have the best record as a manager. Why so confident that Lijinders would be such a success? The irony being if our Pep is a known commodity that could match an elite manager like Klopp what’s to stop City hiring him as the replacement for their Pep if needed?
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When solid foundations are laid, and the 2nd in command plays a huge part to the entire system, he can take the reigns and carry on, or even improve, on what’s happened. Shanks and Paisley did it. Pep was an internal promotion too at Barca.
Of course, it doesn’t always work, but I am confident that it could work because of Klopp and the way he’s set things up.
Financially, we will always be behind City and Chelsea - but I agree with the sentiment (from @rab) that we spend smarter than those. City’s domination, winning 4 of the last 5 PL titles, mostly at a canter, shows how strong they are, but that’s not only down to the money - it’s also down to the manager. Pep is self serving - he doesn’t appear to think about the bigger picture, and is less likely to be laying foundations the way Klopp has been.
Chelsea have shown that they can challenge every few years with the right man in charge, but they also chop and change every few years.
Basically, there are reasons to be positive about the future of the club when you look beyond the money - in the short-medium term anyway. Things will be different when Newcastle work their way up towards challenging .
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I’m sure there are, but it’s the understanding of this club and it’s identity that Klopp has implemented that gives him such a huge start over someone like Gerrard for example.
That’s a reach but of course it’s possible. I’d like to think he’d pick us over City though…
I don’t think that’s what will happen at all actually. I think it’s an open secret behind closed doors at LFC that Gerrard is out in the world finishing his education to be ready. Gerrard and Klopp signed deals at Rangers and LFC at the same time, could have been coincidence sure, but Gerrards contract at Villa also ends when Klopps ends here.
I think the continuation will be the recruitment team and a lot of the infrastructure built here remains in place for Gerrard to step into the Klopp sized hole. One of Gerrards strengths is surrounding himself with experts in matters and him putting his trust in them to perform just like Klopp does and opposite to a fine detail controller like Benitez or Rodgers.
But this is getting way off topic now.
I might be reading too much into Edwards’ departure, given that all the other members of his staff are still here, but it’s Klopp’s departure that has me worried. He’s the one responsible for turning e.g. Robertson into a world class left back, bought for a fraction of the price of all of the natural fullbacks Man City have bought since Guardiola was appointed. I think that club’s scouts and analysts can continue to source good players with a huge upside, fitness permitting, but will the new coach be able to squeeze every drop out of them that is needed to catch Man City?
That said, I hope that club’s academy will continue churning out some decent players. I don’t expect them to provide a future world class player every year but it would be nice to continue what they’ve been doing under Inglethorpe - give the chance to the best, find the best possible club to all those who are not deemed ready or good enough while making a solid profit on them.
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I was merely saying that it could work with with Pep L. I didn’t say I think that’s what will happen. The club will also only bring Stevie in if it’s the right time - that doesn’t necessarily mean 2024, or whenever Klopp goes. Depends on how he performs. The overall point of my post was about Klopp (and all involved) laying foundations - those foundations will hopefully put is in a better position to compete in future.
Back on topic then - who would I buy - Jude Bellingham in the summer, I’d take Bissouma now.
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I don’t think there’s a fan out there that isn’t worried by the day that comes to pass. He fits this club so perfectly it’s impossible not to worry about what happens after he goes.
But City will have the same with Pep. Every inch of that club has been built in his image, including the squad. Who else out there is going to be playing five attacking mids and no strikers and still tearing up the league?
The thing is, we know this day is coming and there’s not a lot the club can do about but try and plan for the future without him being here. Be it Lijinders, Gerrard or someone else I think the idea will be to find someone who can take over what Klopp leaves behind rather than the route Chelsea, Spurs and United have gone down. We won’t be hiring whoever is the “best rated available option” like those teams did and then given them squads that don’t fit the managers style and then needing to rebuild the squad only to sack the bloke two years in.
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Ljinders and Gerrard co-managers bring it on.