MFletcher

I think big players are more likely to stay whenever there's a big manager in place. Although that said I think we'd have finished higher up the table and got more points if Rafa had been in charge this year, so if we'd qualified for Europe in some capacity we probably wouldn't be having the argument. I don't know - it's hypotheticals. What I am confident in saying is that Brendan Rodgers is not the sort of name that quality players are going to move to work with. He might become one, but as it stands there's just nothing to suggest we're going to do anything of genuine consequence apart from hoping that it'll all fall into place.

Without wishing to start the debate again, I do believe that if someone with Rafa's record was in charge they would probably stay. Largely because he has a European-wide reputation and you'd probably have a lot of confidence that if you give it a year or two we'll be competing again. I don't think there's anywhere close to that level of confidence in Rodgers, nor could you expect there to be given his track record. It also demonstrates one of the problems with last season. We appeared to be operating on the basis that we'd improve and the whole squad would stay together and we'd add to. I don't think the penny seemed to drop that doing s*** means the good players we sign who look ahead to better days aren't going to want to stay whenever said good days don't appear. It's nice to evoke arguments like "we're Liverpool, they should want to play for us regardless" but I think those days are long gone.

I think it would be naive to pretend that the media wouldn't play some part in it. It must be f***ing grim feeling as if the people who cover the sport are just waiting for your next c**k up before laying into you in a massive way and agitating the national association to ban you for four years for it. I think it's part of it, alongside wanting to play in a more competitive team. I don't blame him in the slightest. There's an argument to say "he owes us", but he scored 30 goals, basically carried the attack for half a season himself. We finished seventh and we're not even in any European competition. Europe is the big thing for me here, I think. Our European record with Luis here is: 2010/11 - Cup-tied 2011/12 - Did not quality 2012/13 - Round of 32 2013/14 - Did not qualify He's 26, he's approaching his peak. It's simply unsustainable to expect players of his ability and calibre to stay. Yes, we're a massive name, but we're not competitive in any meaningful way. We have a manager who is far from a big name and who isn't exactly going to have players coming here to work with him. On a purely footballing level, it's far from a surprise he would want to "move up" and it's far from a surprise that he'll cite other factors beyond footballing ones. Ultimately he wouldn't be leaving if we were competitive. We're not. The problem when he does go is trying to replace him, and I don't know where we'd even start.

f*** the FA indeed, but he'll have been here three and a half years by next summer and only had one knockout round of any European competition to play in. Given he's world class and one of the best players in the league, it's a bit much to expect him to stay here for solely footballing reasons. He might stay because he likes it, but if Madrid or Bayern come in for you then, on a footballing level, there's really not much of a decision to make. It's annoying not being a very good team.

I think he'll go if Madrid or Bayern are serious about buying him. It depends on whether they're serious or hoping to try and get him on the cheap.

The idea that a fan site could be "pro Benitez". How f***ing dare the fans support the one man at the club trying to do his best for it. They're talking about him like he's Goldstein in 1984. It's f***ing mental.

It makes you wonder what sort of atmosphere there was throughout the whole of 2009/10. "Benitez sympathiser" for f*** sake.

He's free, experienced and has played in teams which expect to win. He's not the same player he was five or six years ago, but barring some dreadful drop in form (which might happen, we don't know) he's probably as good a signing as we're going to get for a couple of years as a rotational option. I'm pleased with this, although I reserve the right to claim I always knew he was s*** and a waste of money if it transpires that he's s*** and a waste of money.

You'd be hard pushed to argue that he's not being given a chance. Some are highly sceptical of what he brings to the table longer term, and the fact that he has made naive mistakes all season is indicative of the wider problem that he has little discernible track record. The fact he has no track record also means we have absolutely nothing to fall back on when doubts set in.

We did this because he's a brilliant player and we thought we'd get something out of it ourselves.

He'll be playing no European football for the third season in the three and a half he'll have been here by next summer. Cup-tied, didn't qualify, last 32 UEFA Cup, didn't qualify and really no guarantee we'll qualify for the UEFA Cup next year never mind the CL. And even if we did qualify we'd never go and win it. If Madrid or similar come in for him, I don't think there's any way we could realistically keep him.

We've only had one season since 2004 which didn't have some interest in it up until late April/early May. It's a bit grim whenever your season is effectively over by February.

Given how rubbish the first half of the league season was (the exact same return as Hodgson point-wise, for f*** sake) he'd have been in massive trouble if things didn't pick up a lot in the second half of the season. I don't really accept this as evidence of progress as the progress itself is simply advancing from "unacceptable". I don't buy into Rodgers not because he isn't Kenny Dalglish or because he isn't Rafa Benitez, although I'd have appointed the latter last summer, but because I simply do not believe he has the requisite track record to justify throwing all of our eggs into the Rodgers basket. He has one season in the Premier League behind him. He's had some right s*** performances in the lower leagues. He hasn't shown anything to suggest he can manage a club this size or deal with the expectation. I just don't think he's going to improve us to where we want to be. He simply doesn't have the track record for it and the appointment was made by people who don't seem to have the first idea.

Dortmund were poor defensively all night. The words piss and wind come to mind, seemed to trust to luck a bit too much to stop them scoring.

Houllier's first full season was 1999/2000 when he got 67 points. He was joint manager with Evans until November of the one specified there. Rafa also reached two cup finals, and so did Kenny. We might as well ignore the 10/11 season and pretend it never happened. So not only is the comparison factually wrong, it also completely disregards the fact that both Rafa and Kenny put silverware in the cabinet in their first years and were in another final as well. Across all competitions, Rodgers probably had the weakest first full season in charge of the last four who were afforded a full season. There are some positives to take from the season just gone, but this sort of graphic is a waste of everyone's time when it completely ignores other competitions we're involved in. Rafa would have got more than 58 points if he hadn't been resting players for Europe, the same with Kenny and his 52 etc.

Eight years ago.

I couldn't spell his name without going and checking it, so no.

It's more in reference to the other players, I'm quite enthused by "the Greek lad". The point I'm more making is that we should go and buy a boss central midfielder and a boss winger and that would probably do. A boss left back would be nice as well, but I'm prepared to put up with Enrique for another season if it allows us to buy the other three. Agree completely.

Seems to be quantity over quality. The squad's nowhere near as weak as some have suggested, it's had £40M spent on it since last summer. Centre back is weak, improvement needs made there and we need another central midfielder. I'd rather see us spend good money on two or three quality players at this point.

If we're using Gerrard as a barometer then we might as well give up on 80% of the players we buy before we've even bought them.

Reluctant to write Shelvey off at this stage, and I'd advocate some sort of Madrid-esque buyback clause even if it meant taking a lower fee for him this summer.

If the question is "who should be the current manager of Liverpool Football Club?" then it certainly is the correct answer.

Where has Enrique to Southampton been mentioned?

Why the f*** would City want him anyway?

Fifty-two points, irrespective of cup performance, was deemed sufficiently rubbish to justify a sacking, so it would have been far from acceptable not to at least garner additional points this season.