The walters step over

We've had sustained backing over the last two years. I think they've made a big mistake in not allowing BR to bring Dempsey in (even though tbh, I think he's no more than a decent to good player) and that'll cost us points but they HAVE backed Kenny and BR. If you look at the transfer fees we've been paying over the last ten years then what we've spent over the last two has been more than we've spent in most of those years - and that's without CL football. Again, they're not sugar daddies throwing hundreds of millions at us and everyone knows that and knew that from the start - I can't see why they're criticised for that. Spurs have shown CL can be achieved without having to pay silly money for players, that's obviously what FSG are trying to do and it's the only road open to us at the moment. I might be getting the wrong end of the stick but it just looks to me as though people are whining because we haven't spent £60-70m on players, it just smack of entitlement that doesn't take into account where we actually are as a club. You have absolutely no idea if that's true or not.

Which is a clever line but unfortunately completely wrong. So far this season we've had posts talking about relegation,the manager isn't good enough,.this player isn't good enough,that player isn't good enough,worst team I've ever seen and so on and so on. We've had three games.

Isn't that what managers are supposed to do? If Sahin had been on the bench and we'd lost then people would have gone bananas. Seems to me as though there are some that are willing to jump on his back for any little thing - real or imagined. Same with Ayre. The majority view is that he's incompetant and incapable of working for a club our size. Nobody knows the ins and outs of what actually happens in the day to day running of the club but fingers get pointed anyway. Bascombe defends him, and instead of "well, he sees and speaks to these people every day,maybe Ayre isn't so bad" it's "Bascombes his mate". Yet when people go on twitter or on here and say "I've heard.." then it gets taken as gospel as long as it feeds the accepted narrative.

I don't know what the figures were. But if you add on agents fees, signing on fees,wages and bonuses then it's all going to add up. Pointless going on about it now though, everyone accepts we made big mistakes in the market but my point is that it doesn't really serve any purpose for BR to lie about how much they all cost - why would he?Even if you want to go down the "he's blaming Kenny route" (and again, why would he?) BR will now exactly how much each player is on, what they were signed for and how much fees were paid.

Tbf, Rodgers would know more about the figures than anyone in the press or on here.

Wasn't that much, iirc he was on somewhere in the region of £20,000 an appearance with a pretty big goal bonus - that came from the Times a while ago. Unless he scores then he'll be the lowest paid player on the pitch by a decent amount (except for Sterling). We might as well sign him. He'll contribute more than Joe Cole or Downing. SAw something on SSN before - I only caught the end of it but they were quoting Bascombe about the people advising FSG on players. Did anyone catch the full bit?

It's alright saying that he isn't good enough for a club of our stature but that's not taking into account the state we have been in these last few years. I've seen posts on here within the last few years saying that there's no way Mourinho should be allowed anywhere near the job because - quote"he's a c*nt" endquote. It's pie in the sky delusion. We haven't qualified for the CL for a number of years. Pre-Rafa we'd had one CL campaign since the new format started, we haven't won the league for over twenty years, in fact we've only challenged a handful of times over that period finishing second twice. Oh yeah, we almost went into administration the other year which would've led to administrators conducting a firesale of players and the relegation battle that's been mentioned on here a few times would actually have been more likely than not. Last year we finished 8th despite spending more than we'd ever done on players, ending up with the lowest goals scored total since we were relegated in the 50s leading to the sacking of the clubs biggest ever legend and a group of players that were worth about a third of what we'd paid, all of whom need to be replaced.Just remind me again, who were the world class proven managers that were knocking down our door to pick up those pieces that we snubbed for BR could you? Rodgers is a good, young manager trying to turn things around. Anyone could see the start we have is difficult, especially when it's your first season and you're trying to bed in players. I can understand wanting to vent on a forum, but if fans get on his back at the game it's totally out of order imo. I wasn't on here then but I can imagine if I was back in 04/05 then I'd have read about Rafa being clueless, Alonso being a Hollywood ball passer and Garcia being a lightweight showpony - I'm not saying Rodgers is as good as Rafa, but he needs time, just as anyone else in the job would need time. Let's just say he walked/was pushed - who really thinks we'll get a top line manger to replace him?

I think he would do alright. The added bonus is that Gerrard might perk up a bit if his mate is around. Utter balls that it should even come to this but needs must. He thought we had someone lined up. Anyone blaming Rodgers for this is talking out of their ar/se.

We've played 3 games.

Behave. We're playing a good team that have been better than us every season, with about 2 exceptions, for the last 15 years. If you wanna say "we're out the title race" then yeah,absolutely - but we were out of the title race before the season started,same as last year,and the one before that, and the one before that. In the last twenty years we've had three, maybe four, seasons where we were in with a title shout by March - this expectation that we should be beating Arsenal isn't based on any realism. We are what we are - a club that has a decent budget, but nowhere near enough to make up the gap to City,etc within a year but with a decent group of players with a few newcomers that will need time to settle and a good young manager that needs time to get the team to play exactly how he wants. We've got the toughest start to a season that I can ever remember us having and it wouldn't surprise me if we're bottom half come mid October BUT I can still see us challenging for fourth.

I'd have thought that was a good reason to get rid tbh. If BR doesn't think he can use him then why keep him? He's had 18 months here and never really looked the part, at the Euros any balls knocked up to him were bouncing all over the shop and in the FA cup final Kenny didn't think he was up for starting the game. Allardyce will probably get the best out of him but even if Carroll scores 15 goals this year it doesn't mean he'd have done the same here.

That's the way I see things. Our first eleven is pretty good on paper, with one or two options in midfield and defence but we did desperately need someone to knock the goals in - whether Dempsey or Sturridge would've been the answer I'm not sure about tbh, and I certainly don't think Carrolls up to the job with the style of play we're attempting. Sturridge was only a goer if Chelsea could bring in someone else so I don't see that being anyones fault tbh. With Dempsey I think we've paid the price for p*ssing Fulham off all summer, there was no need to talk about players at other clubs until the deal is done and I think if we hadn't done that then it'd probably have gone through. Personally, I need to hear BRs view on it before I start losing it. If Fulham were playing silly buggers to punish us then fine, walk away but if we knew the fee they wanted and couldn't scrape together the extra 1-2m then they need to answer some question. Either way they need to come out and explain what went on otherwise the vaccuum will be filled with guesses, half truths and twitter ramblings. Looking at the summer as a whole though,in my view it's been pretty decent I am a lot more confident about this season then I was at the same point last year and I do honestly think we are good enough to challenge for fourth although a couple more long term injuries and that'll go out the window.

I'd have thought the really badly run clubs were the ones that sell players for world record fees then sit back and watch the owners pocket it all to pay off debts..

They haven't demanded CL football this year, or last. This summer Henry came out and said that they know it'll take time and they're not expecting us to make the gap up in one season. They obviously think BR is better suited than Kenny to bring regular CL football within the next few years and whether anyone agrees with that assessment or not it's just not true that finishing outside the top four was the main reason Kenny lost his job.

I thought the deal W.Ham wanted was a year laon with a cast iron commitment to buy (£18m was the figure reported) if they stayed up? In effect he's their player but if they go down we "buy" him back for nothing.

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I honestly think the fee weighed heavily on him. I know it shouldn't make a difference but being the most expensive English player ever probably was part of his problem here. Good luck to the lad, if we can use his wages to bring in someone else then it's one of those deals that could be good for all concerned.

The story I saw him tell on SKY was for £3m, but it was the £1m fee that they walked away from. Utd didn't come for him until months later and Houllier/thommo were shocked at the fee. Doesn't matter now anyway but what might have been..

Cristiano Ronaldo that, I think. May have been Walcott as well but we definitely turned down the chance to sign Ronaldo for £3m ish because he/his agent wanted a million signing fee.

Be interesting to see what Cole decides to do. You'd think that we'd probably let him go fo free if he found a club that wanted him, but would he be willing to take a pay cut to get games, and does he think that he's too good to play for certain teams?

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Isn't Walcott in his final year? If he is then effectively they've only got a few days left before he can leave for nothing so it wouldn't surprise me if we got him. Still find it bizarre that Wenger lets players contracts run down so much - it seems to happen every year.

Ian Abrahams was the guy that Everton threatened to sue the other month for completely making up a story (think it was about Moyes leaving).