Here comes the Klopp

We all knew going into the month of October that Brendan Rodgers days as Liverpool FC manager were numbered but like many, I thought the owners, FSG would give him till the end of the month to prove his worth at the helm of one of English footballs most prestigious clubs. Little did we know that his fate was already sealed come the day of the derby between Merseyside's biggest two teams. Regardless of the result, the time on the Anfield clock was up for Brendan, even though his team put on a fantastic first half and should have went in at half time in the lead thanks to a Danny Ings goal, only for a shoddy clearance by Emre Can, who I feel was played out of position to find its way to Lukaku off Martin Skrtel to which he cooly slotted past goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to level the scores before half time. 

Brendan's career at Anfield was a roller coaster of note, whether or not he was fit for the position was questionable but after witnessing the drastic fall of the team after that dramatic season in which we narrowly finished second, it was clearly evident that Rodgers was batting above his weight. In time I suppose he would turn out to be a stellar manager but in today's game, many are not afforded that luxury as results are needed almost immediately. When hearing his closing comments after the decision was made to release him from his duties at the club, you can see that the man is passionate about the game, about the club and understands the values that go along with it. It's with this I wish him nothing but the very best for the future and in time he will become a manager that is ready to take on a role at a big club.

Now with FSG taking the decision to relieve Rodgers of his duties, it would be stupid of them to do so without having a plan in place. Everyone knew that there were two contenders for the position, Jurgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti. Jurgen was always the favourite with rumours doing the rounds that FSG had always been chasing for his signature even prior to Rodgers but he stayed true to Borussia Dortmund and had a magical 4 seasons with them, not so great in the last one which saw him take a sabbatical from the game. He said at the time he will take a year off but with the timing in place, I'm sure there was an approach from FSG which had to be behind closed doors as it would be in breach of their contract with Brendan to lure him back into the game. 

FSG announced that a manger would be in place before the end of the week and they were true to their word. Negotiations took place in Germany with Jurgen and by Wednesday he was on a plane to England. With half of England in a scurry to get pictures of the German on English soil you could sense there was a new buzz not only in Liverpool but in England as a whole. A new life as such that has reignited the flame on the red half of Merseyside and has instilled belief in the supporters again. Jurgen is no miracle worker but it's the first time the club has brought in a manager of such high calibre. Hence one has to commend the owners on securing the signature of such a highly sort after manager with a club that's performing mid table with no Champions League football and no superstar players. 

Jurgen's first presser with the club on Thursday was even more enlightening to the faithful as he gave us a brief view into his vision of the next 3 to 4 years in which he said he is confident we can win the elusive Premiership in that time. Like I said, he is no miracle worker but he is a worker! If one has to look at his playing career in which he called himself an average player and what he did at Dortmund, it speaks for itself. He works hard and expects his players to work as hard, it's like that old saying, hard work pays off in the long run and that's the mentality he will bring to the club. The kind of stuff that motivates players again and in term motivates the fans in the stands. His first game in charge will be against Spurs in London, a tricky game but we've had a good run there. He has quality players at his disposal but we will have to wait and see the strategies he will use with the players and the formation he chooses. 

It's exciting times at the club once again but I urge fans not to expect us to turn things around with immediate effect as it will take some time but not as long as we would think. He is a quality manager, one that's already got the others fearing because they know what knowledge he brings to the team but apart from that, he has and understands the passion that it brings to Liverpool. He has experienced this with Dortmund as it is a very similar setup between the clubs with the fan base also being identical, so he knows how much it means to the people of the city for the club to be doing well. He is a winner and with that winning mentality in place, it's very hard to stop a person. It won't be long when Klopp will be King of the Kop. 

Striker crisis

Headache for Brendan

Okay maybe the heading is making it sound more dramatic than it really is but with the departure of Carroll and management not being able to secure a 3rd striker before the summer transfer window closed, its fair enough to admit that Liverpool FC do have a problem up front. Brendan Rodgers obviously had a plan as all good managers do before the start of the season and Andy Carroll wasn't ideally involved in it so he was mainly benched and only thrown on when desperately needed. I agree 100% with Rodgers when he said he cant afford to have a striker of Andy's price tag being the 3rd choice and also with such a high salary, so it was a no brainer to palm him off else where but the idea was to get a suitable replacement, unfortunately that didn't happen and as explained by club owner John W Henry, its not only the fans whom were disappointed.

Linda Pizzuti and John Henry

Realistically speaking it wasn't a bad window for LFC, they secured to signings of 3 top players namely Sahin, Borini and Allen all of which found their way into the starting 11 and we cut off the highly paid players who weren't featuring that often, Carroll mentioned earlier being one of them and Charlie Adam being the other along with Maxi, Kuyt and others. Carroll, Adam and Kuyt whom we must give credit to for holding the team last season as they all provided valuable contributions and I wish them success at their new clubs for the season.

Andy Carroll on loan at Westham

Back to the problem in our strike force, in terms of 1st choice players there is only Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini for the boss to choose and sometimes like last Sunday against LeArse that combination just didn't do anything, Suarez being wasteful with possession whilst Borini was lucky to get a touch at times. We controlled the game well but much like last season the finishing just was not there. The stats were in our favour for most of the match but the important one being goals was not.

So what are our options?
 

Dani Pacheco

• We could always dig into our reserves where we have the likes of Morgan who impressed in our tour to the USA and there's Pacheco who I feel hasn't been given a decent run in the team. I've seen glimpses of the kid with the various managers we've had in the past 3 seasons and I really think if given the chance he could do well. He has great vision, he is pacey and knows where the goal is, perhaps he needs more confidence and being given first team chances will give that to him. 

Alessandro Del Piero

•  The other option is we look at a free agent, the thought did cross my mind at 1am on September 1st "what about Michael Owen?" then my brain kick started and I smacked myself for thinking such a thing. Anyway that wont happen seeing that he has signed with Stoke City. There were other rumours of recent linking Drogba to LFC, I'd take him in a heart beat but there is no way we could come close to matching the pay he's getting in China! Another one mentioned in the mill was Del Piero, the Italian legend who spent most of his career playing for Juventus was let go at the end of last season and looked certain he was going to play for Sydney FC but talks collapsed early this week. There's no doubting his quality and his experience will be invaluable to the players at the club but we all have to wait and see if Rodgers opts for any of them.

Didier Drogba

Until then there is really nothing us fans can do but hope and pray. The start of the new season does look like a disaster but its only been 3 games and not the easiest of fixtures too. We've shown we have the quality and there is a significant improvement by most of the players it just needs to start going in our favour in the final 3rd of the pitch.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Farewell to the King

Kenny presented as manager

Today, at approximately 5pm UK time Liverpool Football Club announced that the club had parted ways with its manager Kenny Dalglish. King Kenny as he is fondly known to many was brought in an emergency situation to help steer the club to safety after what could only be described as a disastrous start of the season by Roy Hodgson. Roy, who was employed by the old regime failed badly and with new owners growing increasingly impatient, along with the fans there was no other option but to terminate his contract. Kenny was called in as a temporary replacement. He did well by guiding the club to a 6th place finish, after such a horrendous start, a place outside the top 10 looked well on the cards. Kenny was rewarded with a contract extention for his good work and so begun the 2011/12 season.

John Henry

 The season which can be described as a lot of things, didn't turn out to be our finest. Even though we ended up with silverware (unlike other "big clubs"), our league position and home record were major causes for concern. Hence after the season ended, he was called up to Boston by the owners for meetings. There was tons of speculation over the internet as to what these meetings were about but everyone seemed to have guessed correctly. It was the end of the Kings reign.

Andre Villas Boas

 What next for our club? There have been many names mention so far, even though its been barely 6 hours since the announcement but the few interesting ones have been Roberto Martinez and the other, Andre Villas Boas. Both young and have a good sense of the game. Roberto having a good few years experience in the English Premier League and helping Wigan  not only keep their head above relegation but also finish in a decent place, whilst Villas Boas has a point to prove after his stint at Chelsea was abruptly ended.

Roberto Martinez

To end off, most of us knew Kenny was not the long term solution to our problem and FSG knew that, it was nice having him around but in order for us to be really challenging for top spots, we need someone that is capable of achieving that. Kenny will forever be known as King to us, his record speaks for itself, some say he has tarnished is reputation after the last season but you cannot over shadow the rest of his achievements over one season. He, himself must be disappointed, but I'm sure he knows it was the right thing to do. After all, it was he who said "Nobody is bigger than the club". Thank you King Kenny.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart.

King Kenny

Its Done

John W Henry- Skysports.com

After days that can only be described as "manic" its finally done, as of yesterday 5pm South African time New England Sports Ventures are now the owners of Liverpool Football Club. The deal was concluded at the offices of Slaughters & May in London where John W Henry signed on the dotted line & by doing so paid over all remaining debt owed to RBS & ridding LFC of its negative balance. We can proudly say that our club is 100% debt free.

Obviously one doesn't find £300 million lying in their  back pocket & we are not entirely sure how NESV raised the money but one thing is for sure if the money was loaned out it was not taken under Liverpool FC's name, also note that the English Premier League put the NESV under their new assessment test to see if they were fit enough to own a premiership club which they passed. So if the EPL are happy we can rest assured to be happy as well.

Tom Hicks - Cunt face

Now it wouldn't be Hicks like if he just let the matter slide, not wanting to jump the gun like the other day I didnt want to blog anything until I was 100% sure. So lets go through what transpired, on Thursday we learnt that Mills Financial had purchased the shares of George Gillett & were in the process of buying Tom Hicks stake, but obviously before doing that they had to under go the assessment from the EPL, yesterday morning we learnt that they did approach the EPL in order for them to be asses ed, the EPL rejected this which meant even if they did purchase Hicks stake of the club they wouldn't have been allowed to go through. Also early yesterday morning as Hicks & Mill were awaiting to hear from the EPL with regards to the test, the TRO issued by the Texan court was lifted obviously to allow the deal for Mill to go through, but after failing to under go the test this paved the way for NESV to conclude their deal. After accepting defeat Tom Hicks kept his stance on him wanting to sue LFC & the board for $1.6 billion in damages, Tom... the club is worth £300 million, your team of  "qualified evaluators" claimed the club was worth £823 million, how in gods name do you end up with a figure of $1.6 billion? He keeps referring to this term "epic swindle" & he claims the Martin Broughton & the board were part of an "organised conspiracy" to get rid of him and tarnish his name... again Tom, they didnt need to do that, you already did that before Martin came in. Anyway he has now dropped this damages claim but says he will pursue legal action against the club & RBS because this has "damaged & hurt his family" ... oy fuck face! look what you did to OUR CLUB! RBS have rubbished his comment saying they are willing to fight anything he throws at them, as far as they are concerned they are happy with the deal.

Christian Purslow, John W Henry, Martin Broughton

Getting back to our new owners, Henry made his way up to merseyside to look at his new purchase, understandably he said there was a lot of work needed to be done to get Liverpool FC back at the top, but his words were encouraging "We are here to win" is what he said, it will take time & Roy will need patience but this is no doubt the biggest step forward for the club. Spirits have surely been lifted by this & I have no doubt that the players feel the same way as the fans, infact Jamie Carragher just put pen to paper on a new contract! Henry didnt make too many promises about transfer funds, nor any suggestion for a new stadium but he did say he will work with the club to get it back on top where we belong. So to my faith full Liverpool supporters, all I can say hang in there as the worst is over. Lets look forward to the future, Im not going to be coy by saying we will win the EPL title anytime soon but lets just focus on a finish in the top 4. Its going to be tough with us lying in the bottom 3 but nothing is impossible... we all are well aware of that ... 2005.

Walk on, Walk on

Hold the phone, what?

So no sooner than a day since my last blog post Victorious which highlighted LFC's victory in the high court against the hill billys, another "official statement" emerged on Liverpool FC's official website. We as fans we expecting to see a statement from the club around that time in any case. Seeing that on that evening that board called in a meeting & Mr John W Henry invited to sit in on behalf of NESV to conclude the sale of the club to the franchise.

John's arse must have hardly warmed the chair that he was seated on before the news broke of Hicks & Gilletts Texan court injunction which prohibits the board from concluding the sale of the club to NESV. LFC have stated that this is unwarranted & have appointed lawyers in Dallas to overturn the injunction. Hicks is also claiming $1.6 billion in damages. What damages? if he wants to claim for damages, we'll damage his face so he has something to claim for!

Broughton is confident that the TRO (temporary restraining order) will be overturned as it holds no substance & looks like it was prepared hastily after yesterdays ruling as it bares little facts. Now its comforting to know that it doesnt hold much but what this does is hampen the sale process & keeps the matter dragging on. Thankfully John Henry has stated today that he is prepared to wait no matter how long it takes. He will be the new owner of Liverpool FC... when ever that will be.

Hicks, all I can say is that you are the biggest cock the world has seen. I havent seen children being so clingy in my life. Why is it so hard for you to understand that we hate you, we hate what you've done to our club, we hate your lies, we hate the mere sight of you! You're doing nothing but drag your name in the horse shit from the high horse we offered you last week. If anything, what you're doing is making your name in the business & sporting world worse. Who is on this god forsaken planet will want to do business with you after this debacle? Just accept defeat & go sit on prairie & chew on some hay.

In the words of your son "Blow me fuck face"

 HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE!

This just in!

Reports are breaking that Tom Hicks & George Gillett have sold their stake in Liverpool FC to Mill Financial,

in turn owned by Springfield Financial who have links with the Washington Redskins American Football team, may be acting on behalf of another, as yet unnamed and unknown group who have put themselves in a position to move in at the 11th hour and take over the club.Therefore he has taken on the debt from RBS & will pay it off! This is just getting too fucking ridiculous for my liking!

Rumors are that Mill has jumped in the last minute to save H&G to clear their debt leaving the door open for Kenny Huang, the Chinese billionaire to come in & buy it off Mill.... Okay now I know I confused you lot but I think this is the story.

Apologies as before I stated Mill Financial was owned by Peter Lim