The announcement of Martin Broughton as our new chairman was quite surprising but the most discussed thing was that he’s a Chelsea fan. A Chelsea fan in a red chair? Is that a good idea at all? Will he be able to make the right decision for Liverpool? Will he be professional enough by taking this decisions? There were lots of common questions. Not only in my head, by the way.
In his first interview with LFC TV he appeared to me as a very dignified man who knows what he’s up to by taking over the red chair at Anfield. His calm voice nearly convinced me that he is the man we’ve needed. Nearly …
It was nice to see him in the stands during the Europe League clash against Atletico Madrid. Was it a sign of interest or was it just duty? I hope the it was the first …
I think he really has a lot respect for the club, the history and the fans. It is quite observable, isn’t it? The fact that he wasn’t in the stadium on Sunday to watch Liverpool’s encounter with Chelsea proves respect.
I mean, our beloved American owners did know they are not welcome in Liverpool but they kept coming to the matches. In situations like these you just think: why are they doing this? What are they trying to show us? Their presence was not a sing of respect or something comparable to this. Their presence was more comparable to a slap in the face. That’s what it felt like to me.
Martin Broughton wasn’t in the stadium on Sunday afternoon – he chose to watch the match at home instead. To show the fans respect and, well yes, to be true to his own principles as a life-long Chelsea fan.
“I can’t come to the match on Sunday and show any of that emotion because that would be very disrespectful to the Liverpool faithful. Liverpool have terrific fans and I wouldn’t want to do that, so the only sensible thing is for me to stay at home and watch it on the television.”
I think it was a very kind gesture. I was quite impressed by that, to be honest. And thankful.
If he sat there in the stadium, it would have been … just not true. I mean, everyone of us knows that he was glad about his team’s victory – a fan is a fan. At least he was honest with us and that’s a big plus for him. As long as we don’t have to watch him celebrating for Chelsea, it doesn’t bother that much, does it?
As I mentioned, I’m not totally convinced, but what about you guys? Do you think he’s a worthy representative of our club? Is he the right man for the red chair?
-Amanda
Yes, he seems to be perfect. His proven ability to pull difficult situations together is just what we need. Another step in the right direction. Now if we can get new ownership who believe in stability we can progress. By stability I mean not changing managers every time results don’t our way. We need to stay behind Rafa and give him the opportunity to work in the kind of enviroment that lends itself to sustained success.
couldnt give to shite about the man, i want the club sold, for god sake, have you not had enough of this stuff.
yossi has come out and said id stay at liverpool for ever, rafa cant be that bad to work for can he! and yet he then said because we do not know whats going on,,, so what type of way is that to run one of the best football club in the world?
wake up… it was disgusting yesterday, losing to chelsea, the team did all they could and for me having to see utd close to winning another bloody trophy is so bad.
rafa has made ,mistakes but when you see how he has to balance the books and see our bench yesterday was worth 19 mill pounds when chelsea bring on a left back that they paid 18 mill for and hardly play him, tells the truth about how the manager has had to deal with things. the owners have nearly killed this club.
they are so bad its now only really at this time we see the damage, gerrard looks like he has had it, torres has asked for the owners to get investment, so to has reina, why he has committed is crazy but godbless him for doing so… we are very lucky that even reina wants to stay, agger has spoken out, so to did jamie this year, what more do you stupid fans need to hear, this club needs to be sold, keep rafa buy better players and start running this club with the respect it sould be given.
i think it time fans stop bashing rafa and start having a real aggressive go at the board, the owners and a certain moores,,,, this season if it hasnt killed us, has nearly brought lfc to its knees, and all you can do is talk about the new chelsea fan chairmen…. you stupid pri*** you.
@samuel It’s not all I can talk about. This season was disgusting, but we can#t change it, can we? So please, stop act as if it was the end of the world. because it isn’t. And the new chairman is a prt of our club’s future, if you stil didn’t get it. Stop call others stupid, if you do not understand the gist of the story yourself.
Broughton’s job isn’t to love Liverpool… it’s to sell it.
It makes me uncomfortable that he’s linked to BA given how badly they are doing financially and in terms of staff… but I don’t really know how responsible he is for the day to day misrunning of it.
This has been a terrible season… but everyone has some responsibility to take.. players, fans, manager and owners. We could pick fault all summer but it’s clear that it’s not all down to one person.
And saving the club won’t be down to one person either. I think it’s high time we stopped concentrating on the administrators of our club and more on keeping the best players and readying them for next season. There are plenty of good players around and there is no danger that we will have difficulty recruiting as long as sufficient funds are available. The liverpool way was always about snapping up good players for great prices and making them superstars… even in this modern era there are still hundreds of players around just waiting for a chance to shine.
We could all name some potentials.. but really the names don’t matter yet… what matters is how well they can integrate with the team.
Liverpool fans, like the team itself are incredibly optimistic and never say die… even our theme song tells us that the storm will end and… just when it’s darkest… there is a golden sky.
Samuel, this site has become bloody hostile, thanks to nice blokes such as yourself. Get a sense of perspective and direct your ire somewhere deserving. Your name-calling was a but of an overreaction, don’t you think?
Totally agree with you Liam P. This is a site for people to voice their opinions and obviously at times peoples opinions conflict. Samuel, this website is meant to be a friendly enviroment where we discuss opinions not attack each other.
Also, you say stop bashing Rafa.Throughout this season Empire Of The Kop has been a huge place for the IN RAFA WE TRUST campaign and we have constantly shown how we want H&G out and this has been put through the Spirit Of Shankly. I agree there are large amounts of people who have been calling for Rafa’s head and that is wrong. He has shown he is a great manager and worthy of the job.
Amanda was simply bringing up a point for discussion which is fair enough because many of my friends who are not liverpool fans have said to me ‘what do you think of Broughton being appointed and being a Chelsea fan?’. He is going to help us sell the club and therefore is playing a part in Liverpool’s future so it is right to question whether he is the right man for the job.
Lets not attack each other and as Liam said, This site will become hostile if people like Samuel start verbally attacking the writers.
We have a long summer ahead of us.
YNWA , Hugh
hugh@empireofthekop.com
Samuel,
How patronising is that.”stupid fans”.Think your the pr..k.
Rafa deserves absolutely nothing this season and how dare he start talking about transfers and planning for next season. Why would anyone in their right mind want to give him more cash, more chances, or indeed – any sympathy? Time and time again he just brings the misery on himself and it is getting so predictable how the games go. Take the latest Europa debacle and apply just a little cursory rationale and you’ll tear your hair out at his imbecilic decisions.
The left-footed Agger has been doing well at left-back with Krygiakos and Carragher forming a reasonably solid partnership in central defense. So what does Rafa do? He comes up with this hair-brained idea to put Johnson on the left and Mascherano at right-back. Not only do we lose our midfleld steel… but sure enough, Athletico’s winner comes from Johnson getting wrong-footed in an unfamiliar position.
Then we have Aqualani, who is not a flop as the lobotomized soundbite swallowers would have you believe, playing in his correct position and having a blinder. As usual, Rafa decides to haul an influential player off and replace him with that perennial world-beater known as Nabil El Zhar. Needing a goal, he takes of the one player who looks threatening and knits the forward play and brings on a player that has never done a solitary thing for our club in any position or scenario. Of course, when Aqua departs, we begin to lose control of the ball in midfield and any possession becomes static and sideways.
As if that weren’t enough, Rafa decides to repeat the same bufoonery by hauling off our second most influential player, Benayoun. Now, I’m all for bringing Pacheco on and giving him (gasp) more than his eternally alloted 6 minutes to make a difference – but why pull off Benayoun and leave on the absolutely woeful “I can’t be bothered” Babel – or the sheepdog on acid, Dirk Kuyt? In taking off our two best players, Rafa effectively nullified any chance for a Gerrard special in that the only players that just might get the ball to him in a decent position have been terminated from the game.
Now you might think this harsh but we’ve seen the same things all season long, to the same effects. How many times have we coughed up a damning late goal because Rafa decided to sit back too early, or haul off our best players at key intervals? I’ve never seen a manager pulverize his own team so often, so consistently, and without an ounce of humility or remorse. There is an unwritten law at Liverpool these days that if you have a promising game you are liable to get dropped (unless you are a favourite!), or that if you show skill and forward prowess in a game you are close to being substituted. We needed a goal and we got El Zhar and Degen – are you having me on? I seriously think you could pull any fan out of the stands that could manage the game better than Rafa, make more sensible decisions, and motivate his players to some noticeable effect. How can anyone in their right mind conceive of giving this man more time, more power, or more money?
He is tailor made for the Italian game so let him go to Juve – and let him take Ryan Babel with him. There are progressive managers that would not make such moronic decisions game after game that could get a lot more out of this squad. For all the talk of a Liverpool demise, we might not be that far away from a return to glory with a bit of common sense and positive thinking. But to stop the rot, we must move on from Rafa Benitez immediately, whatever it costs.
Having a Liverpool fan at the helm is no guarantee of success, a certain Mr Moores can testify to that!!!!!
Nice one for Amanda for posting this. Some people who post on here might not be from England and seen some of the horrid business and financial desicions which have been made by BA. Now to be honest I’ve never paid a great deal of attention to it. I don’t think alot of the desicions involved this Martin Broughton. But there has been price fixing, numerous employee strikes, bad business calls which have lead to months of distruption. Now who know how much or how little Broughton had to actually do with this or how much he resolved. (Just google British Airways troubles and you’ll uncover a whole heap or dirt from the past 10 years.)
But he’s been given the task of selling our club, to the correct owners, now part of me respects him not showing up for Sunday’s game, as at least he’s been completly honest with us up front. I don’t actually think the club he supports has anything to do with him doing a bad job at selling the club, as his main concern will be what’s in it for him, and not having any emotional ties to the club might help him speed up things. But I am also unsure of what to think, but I’m praying he can do a good job.
And Dan, are you for real mate? Rafa can’t win at all with some fans. Attack more the cries from the all the fans whilst we were playing a moderatly defensive game, with the majority of our attick players either injured or just not turning up. So he took a real chance last Thursday, by putting all our attacking options in *wait for the big shocker* attacking positions. Yes it didn’t come off as we would have hoped, but would you rather have an attack being led by Glen Johnson or Mascharano? Please answer honestly? As Johnsons stats speak for themselve and I would have much preferred him on the right wing but it surely proves his versatility as a player. Did you see Aquilani when he was taken off, the guy was shattered, he needed to come off as he wasn’t going to provide anything new. So then I ask a question, forget who the players are but surely he made the correct desicion to take off a shattered midfielder (again plays in the middle of the park, and yes he did have a great game) and replace them with a forward (it’s his job to score goals) so surely you can see the logic behind his desicions when looked at.
The reason why he should be given money to actually spend because for the past 36 – 48 months Rafa has been forced into balancing books to bring in players, yes he’s made mistakes, like all bloody managers have and will do. But look at the class he has brought in, Torres, a steal at the price, gone from a mediocore striker, never netting over 19 goals a season, and Rafas man management skills and tactical desicions has made him into the worlds most prolific striker, who’s goals to games ratio is second to none, bad judgement call from Rafa? He brought Masch from west ham’s bench, yes quite expensive but is now currently Captaining his country and is known as the most solid defencing/holding midfielder in the world. Yossi cost his 5mill an absolute bargain for a guy who looks like he’s been playing in England forever. I could go on about his judgement calls, but everyone knows they are all right. So imagine this…….Rafa is actually given money to strengthen the squad, imagine what he could do with a few of these mediocore players kicking round the premiership/la liga etc. It’s unfathomable what Rafa could turn Liverpool into given the chance. We have some world class talent, and we have some alright players, we have to accept this with our current financial situation, but given more money I believe our whole squad could be world class under Rafa.
I’m going to say this and sorry Amanda for taking up so much space on your thread for something so unrelated, but we as Liverpool fans seem to happy to pick apart Rafa’s faults, instead of what he has actually done well. Yes he may have signed some flops, and he may have took risks at times, but if he didn’t I can pretty much garuantee we would have been in much more trouble than we are now. So why not look at the good things he’s done, he’s carried on with Holliers vision of being glory days back to Anfield, he’s build up a world class youth academy system. He’s using all resources available to build the club for better things at any opportunity, and lasty, he LOVES Liverpool even if a few moronic fans with an internet connection and sky sports subscriptions don’t love him back.
@Steve, you don’t have to appologize. You’re comment made my day. ;-)
I just thought i’d apologise as this place has become quite hostile at times, and people have lashed out (without knowing the facts, and I for one will hold my hards up as I will have done it in the past) but it was more because it went a bit off topic haha.
as misguided as my belief may be, i’d like to think that he’ll be professional enough to handle his role without football bias playing a part ..
it doesn’t excuse the fact that he’s a Chelsea fan (which nothing really does) but only time will tell ..
as long he’ll make the right decissions fro our club, the “Chelsea-fact” doesn’t really bother me …
I hope we don have to worry where his loyalty lies to be honest, as all the fans want is the sal of the club made quickly but safely! Hey maybe he can get Roman on board :)