We are all disappointed as the last chance to grab the fourth place has gone, we will not play any Champions League football next season but let us take a step back and think this out objectively.
First of all, ask any Liverpool supporter on which trophy they would rather win, the Premier League or the Champions League and I can guarantee that most of them would want the Premier League. So why are we so upset in not playing in a competition that is not our top priority?
Good to note also that fourth place does not guarantee a place in the Champions League proper (the group stage), the fourth place team has to play a though qualifier in August. Because of the Platini rules that took effect this season, the qualifier can be against teams such as Benfica, Glasgow Rangers, Celtic or Sporting Lisbon to name a few. With a record number of Liverpool players heading to the World Cup this summer you can easily predict that some of them might be there into July, this would mean that by the time they return to Melwood and are fully fit it might be late August or early September.
Some might fear that without Champions League football we might not attract top talent, I would dispute that. City did not have Champions League football this season, yet they attracted some world class players, it is all about money unfortunately. On the money side of things the news today sounds positive and if Rafa gets a £60 million war chest then I can see Stevie G lifting the Premier League Trophy in 13 months.
Y.N.W.A.
-Antoine
sure we can focus on winning the league but who’s going help clear our debt? we need that money for reperation / squad improvements .. the Europa League doesn’t pay the bills ..
I would think that the Semi-Finals and Finals of the Europa league pay more than the 1st knockout stage of the Champions League.
Are you real we are in so much debt and we are going to miss out on over 20 million not finishing forth and what gives you the idea we can win the premership next year. I am sick of hearing that rafa is the man and everything is going to be ok. We need to qualify for champions league and win the uefa cup to have a medium season.
Re: if Rafa gets a £60 million war chest then I can see Stevie G lifting the Premier League Trophy in 13 months.
Oh dear oh dear, watch Rafa waste every single penny of that £60 million in more shite players, and then it would still cost £20 million to sack him, thats £80 million, you can forget winning anything with him in charge.
A positve way to look at another disappointing draw in the League. It seems to be one step forward, two steps back this season.
Without Torres, we are toothless upfront.
Still, we have the Europa Cup to fight for and lets hope we win that to end a very poor season for Liverpool.
Thats not an excuse how can we play for the 19th title with no money and only one good striker at the club
Antoine, meagre consolation friend. We’ve seen our objectives slip out of our hands one by one this year and now we’ve are even saying that perhaps its best not to be in the Champions League so we can concentrate on the PL! Well, we will end up in the Europa League with as many games, only with less kwality and prestige!
Having said that, we are NOT mathematically out of the running YET!
Whatever happens, and whichever way we look at it, this season has been way below expectations!
Hello Antoine,
Hello Scousers,
I didn’t write since a long time on EOTK. And this afternoon of trouble is a good moment for a back.
Before the kick off, 4th place was, mathematically, possible. Even if it’s still possible, we now need a real miracle.
So, as Antoine do, let’s say that this 4th place is missed and let us focus on next season.
Of course, every scouser, from Liverpool and everywhere around the world, are still Fu**ing waiting for our 19th title.
This year is a bad year for us, and for our players, for many reasons. Our only “confort gift” could be the fact that, in may, we’ll still be the most famous club of England, if Man utd miss the title too.
But next year, what can we expect?
First: yankees have to leave Merseyside.
Second: Rafa has to stay (I hope he’s not thinking about leaving… and hope that Yankees are not think that too. Because financially, they can’t fire him).
Third: We have to keep all of our players. This summer who can leave Mersey? I’m only scared of loosing Masch. All the others have extended their contracts.
Fourth: please supporters keep the faith !!! Since many years players and managers, with their good results, gave us caviar to eat. But that’s not because this year we only have the toast to eat that we’ll lost our faith ?
Season was bad but is not over, we can be European champions again.
And after that, everyone has to be honnest: Liverpool has to live and be the heart of football. To conquest our 19th title, players have to stay even if they’ll not play the “big ears cup”. Rafa have to stay (we are all loving him, he’s our second father). And supporters have to sing louder and keep their faith and their humility.
YNWA
Denis from France (I’ll go to Anfield for the first time next week ^^)
Well, provided Rafa does have transfer funds and can keep his main players, I have no doubt we can challenge for the Premiership. If Liverpool get solid, long-term investors to back Rafa in the transfer market and build a new stadium, the sky is the limit…
Dreaming as usual. Concentrate on the league? Not a chance. .
1) Squad is lacking about 6 world class players. Left back, 2 wingers, 1 central midfielder and at least 2 strikers
2) Liverpool are broke and wont/dont have any money
3) Rafa not good enough to win the league, wasted alot of money on dud buys.
4) Who wants to come to Liverpool with so many problems?
if rafa gets his 60m warchest he needs to invest it all in the attacking department(which he wont cos hes so defensive minded).yet again we had so many opportunities to score against fulham but wen chances fall to a striker with 2 left feet wot hope have we scoring???ngog wouldnt get into tranmeres startin 11 so why is he are 2nd choice striker.we need to go all out for benficas cordozo and di maria.2 quality attack minded and pacey players who would fit right in in the prem league in my opinion.for a left back i would defo have a sneeky bid for someone like maxwell from inter.ive also heard that j.cole and s.w.p are unhappy at there clubs but dnt want to move abroad!!!!!go get em rafa
Rafa’s finished any new owner would be crazy to give this man 60-80 million get mourinho in and get the special manager for the special club! Ynwa
Our season started with an extremely poor pre season in which I believe we were walloped by Atletico Madrid, its a good thing we don’t have to play them again….DOH!
We look more like our old selves now but I believe the confederations cup last year and the Euros before that have ensured that our best players have not been fresh for a while. At least we will get a break at the end of the season…DOH!
Let’s hope your right antoine, I for one although disapointed, believe every manager deserves a season of awakening hopefully this was it. I don’t believe we can win a league with so many old lads Gerrard 30, maxi almost 30, kuyt almost 30 benayoun almost 30. These are our main guys and unfortunately all seem to have peaked. Time to start again maybe?
First of all I’ll say your optimism is admirable. But a few points you draw this optimism from are really not valid.
First of all – this warchest of £60m – where did this come from? the news that barclays are looking for investors doesnt mean we will get money to spend on players. It just means they will give us longer to pay the debt off than rbs and wachovia.
Considering this and the emergence of Tottenham and Manchester City with the investment they have. I find it hard to believe that next season will be any better than this.
If new investment isnt found, and by that I mean if there is no investment to pay down our debt – not to spend on players – we will be forced to sell our assets. Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard etc. This money wont be reinvested. This will pay down debt. Without these players and no investment without selling further we will become a mid table or worse club languishing in no mans land.
Champions league football is a ludicrous income. Playing europa league football is not the same.
Also we will still be playing european football regardless of competition. Players will still be playing games around europe. Its not like they wont be playing midweek and so be refreshed come the weekend.
Of course this could all be redundant if a saudi sugar daddy buys us over summer and spends 200m on new players. You just never know.
YNWA
“…if Rafa gets a £60 million war chest then I can see Stevie G lifting the Premier League Trophy in 13 months.”
What kind of daydreaming is that? First, why would anyone give Rafa 60 million? Just to please the fans? What ROI do you expect on this investment? And what would you prefer: a new stadium to increase revenue, reduce debt and start building for future or risky proposition of spending 60m with elusive goal to win PL next year?
Secondly, even if Rafa get aforementioned 60 million it is hardly enough to seriously challenge PL title. Liverpool needs to add 2-3 quality players and 1-2 world class players to compete with likes of Chelsea or Man City. 60m will not buy that not in this over-inflated market.
It is time for LFC fans to get some sense of reality. This club for all its glorious past is no longer among world elite. Not in this financial condition. The only reasonable option you have is to replicate what Arsenal is trying do but it means years of underachieving in years to come.
If it is any consolation Man U is pretty much in the same boat. They are in even worse financial situation and don’t have easy way to fix it. They will need to replace 7-8 players and realistically they don’t money to do that. And Man U fans are dreaming about summer buying spree to bring things back to normal…
I’m sorry but what have you been smoking for the last 8 months.
We are crap.
We play the worst football i have seen and we have some of the worst players to ever wear the red shirt. How do you expect him to turn it around when he’s wasted most of the money he has spent. Reina, Torres, Alonso and Agger apart, the majority of the them have been embarrassing to watch. Why was he called god in Spain? Not because of his success! Because everyone was wrong and he was always right. Look at the facts, Heighway, Paco and Parry all driven out. Are we any better? Have we gone backwards? I think we all know the reasons. Look at the body language of the players. When was the last time they ever ran to the bench to celebrate a win or goal.
Don’t blame the Yanks. Have they gone out and continuously, wasted millions on full backs when he has let home grown ones go. He hides behind them all the time. When he won the cups did he ever say it was all down to Moores being the chairman? Not that I recall.
I’m just waiting for him to say he can guarantee us winning the league next season, face facts Rafa you’ve wrecked my club.
Andy whatever I am smoking is less strong then yours. Your arguments are taken from the London based media.
Antoine has a point ok. Firstly if we had made champions league football this season then the yanks might not even be selling up right now. Secondly anyone saying Liverpool won’t have cash to spend next season is stupid as they haven’t been reading the Sunday Times, Telegraph, Sky News Blogs, BBC etc, I remind you these sources aren’t thrashy newspapers like the Sun, they are reliable. It is 90% certain that we will have new owners by June the 15th. The following parties are interested in buying us…The Ambani Family who own realiance industries, The Faisal Family, Cash Money Productions, The Sahara Group, DIC, The Kuwaiti Royal Family, The Qatar Royal Family. I also have been informed that the Rhone group weren’t even a buyer, they were just confirming the interest on behalf of one of the above parties. They were simply going to be used as a transaction veichle. The numbers being touted about for a purchase range from 500m pound to 600m pound, the problem is the owners are changing their minds literally everyday. The Ambani Family already had a 500m pound offer rejected and are returning to the table with a second offer. So far Cash Money Productions have offered the largest some which is 550m pound, they have also promised to build an 80,000 seater staduim and invest heavily in the team, they have also promised they are in it for the longterm, the Ambani family on the otherhand as I said have bid 500m pound and will return to the table with a 550m pound bid within days. They will go ahead and build a 70,000 seater staduim but wish to sell one key player, they have promised to invest 150m USD in transfer funds from the kep player being sold and additional money. They are souley interested in redeeming liverpool to its old status as the greatest club in britain and then they wish to sell the club for a healthy profit. Ambani himself supports Liverpool. I must warn you that both groups do not want Rafa in charge, the idea is to cut a deal with Juventus and then to attract Mourihino to Anfield. If you wish to learn more you can join this facebook group http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=370831316774&share_id=116998888311931&comments=1#!/group.php?gid=370831316774&ref=ts
Even though most of us prefer the PL(me included),I beleive it should bother us that Liverpool didn’t do well at all in the CL.We are Liverpool.Plus it doesn’t matter what Platini does the 1st qualifying round is what it is.We showed Europe a few days ago how much better we are than those teams(which also have players in the World Cup this summer).
I hope Rafa stays and has funds so this summer quality players come and don’t go.
Let’s get no.19 next year!
YNWA..
To be honest Rafa would’nt no what to do with 60 million he has allready waisted 200 mill [apart from torres]i have been a liverpool fan for nearly 40 years and can remember all the shanks and paisley days and the liverpool side now is so poor compared to them days its unbelivable i mean who in there right minds gets rid of alonso sammi and arbelo if they aint good enough to start they are quality squad players. Rafa’s going backwards i think he’s after a pay off. all he is intrested in is getting that uefa cup on his cv he dosent give a fuk about 4th place because he dosent belive he is gonna be here next year f-ck him off and get Kenny in charge
Antoine mate are u sure your not a man u fan
just read the comments ant peeps like u are just what liverpool dont want [ no need for champs league u t-t]
The real problem is we have the same team as last season minus Alonso. Nothing major happened with the other Top 4 teams. Money is not the answer if you have a manager who doesn’t know how to use it. There is no excuse w/ virtually the same team to be in 6th. There have been a lot of injuries this year (they also need to sack the trainers) not helping the cause. Then again, whose fault is it that we don’t have suitable players coming from the bench? You guessed it the Manager.
Let’s see what Barclay’s helps bring to the table.
Also, from what I hear, IF the boys win Europa don’t they make the Champions League? Not sure if it’s only the August play-off or not but we’ll be in it.
Will we even get Europa League next season without winning it? Villa, Spurs and City all have games in hand over us and I think it’s the top 6 plus Pompey for Europe? God forbit we finish 7th but would that mean no European nights for us to look forward to next season without winning the thing?
well said cooper i dont think we will
229 million pounds lmao and we cant finish in the top 4 or maybe 6 says it all
Winning the Europa League Cup (channel 5 trophy) will not get us into the champions league!!!
Sorry but Rafas had long enough and has run out of time and money, no investors will give him full control of the club and i feel im not alone in wanting Rafa gone, has nobody else noticed its only a small minority of fans still singing his name! (bout time) bring in the “special one” he’ll get us our 19th, Rafa can go win Real the Champs League cos thats all his interested in!
pompey cant qualify for europe. they went into administration and couldnt produce there records
Guys, till it’s mathematically impossible, please don’t give up hope. It isn’t over till the fat lady sings.
IF Rafa got 60m he won’t buy craps, but you’ll see more in Torres and Mascherano class players in the squad.
Does Rafa need 60 million? Or can he just learn to properly use what he’s got? Kuyt is a striker. He scores goals. People ask “who will partner Torres up front…?” We’ve got him already. Let Lucas attack a bit more. Play Aquilani. Hell, try a 4-3-3:
Defense as per whoever is fit
Masch – Gerrard – Lucas/Aqua
Benayoun/Maxi – Torres – Kuyt
Bench:
Keeper
2x Defenders
Lucas/Aqua
Babel
Maxi/Benayoun
Ngog
This formation would let the players move around a bit more and would be more attacking. The current formation revolves around #8 and #9, and that has got to change.
Don’t get me wrong, if we get the money I’d love to see some more good players brought in. I just don’t think we should give up hope if we don’t.