19 Jan 2020 10:12:17
We are in the middle of another transfer window, admittedly the more difficult January one and there is frustration at not signing anyone. Personally I think we still lack direction, any obvious coherent plan and would just be throwing money out there to show we mean business, after all how do they decide if a player fits a plan if we haven't got one.

The perfect storm has happened, Liverpool have a unity of purpose, a plan from owners down. Their owners don't take dividends, they have an aim, a football not financial aim and let the professionals get on with it. I despair at what I am seeing at OT. People screaming about not buying a Portuguese player for a lot of money. However, not long ago we were told OGS cultural reboot meant a Longstaff brother from Newcastle was the answer. What it symbolises is an utter mess of our own making.

If ever there was a changing of the guard it is this afternoon, if we win it likely won't stop them and will merely show how fickle our club, team and management is, we would be the cup team again. Lose and we watch the spectre of Liverpool I grew up within the seventies and eighties becoming reality. Today is more than just a game it is a ultra high definition view of the train wreck on one side and the speeding train on the other. Liverpool with a new stand, planning another, investment in their infrastructure whilst we can't even repair the damn roof.

Like in the eighties we were an annoyance to that lot and are becoming that again. We won't be great until we learn the lessons of how they and City have planned their success, hence today and this time should be less about shiny new expensive players but what the structure is going to be. We have seen years of speculation about a DOF, let's see but I would prefer buying shiny new players after we have a direction.


1.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 10:36:02
So we should lose today, sack Ole and then buy players?

{Ed047's Note - well if as a club you have any ambition of getting anywhere then yep that sounds about right.

That or keep the blinkers firmly fixed in place and hope and I mean seriously hope.


2.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 11:03:25
Good post red man. Can’t really argue with any of that.


3.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 12:02:48
Great post Redman. The club needs a root and branch reform as politicians would say.

We need the following:

1) New Chief exec who has a clue how to run a sporting institution.

2) Ed to go back to the marketing team (he is very good at that to be fair to him) .

3) A Director of Football.

4) A new manager.

5) A new coaching team.

6) A new scouting dept that can spot players before they're worth £80m.

Once we get these in place we can formulate a long term vision for success. then we can start buying players to fit that vision.

As for Bruno (the fans latest obsession) I doubt Ole has even thought about how best to use him once he arrives or how to structure the team around him to get maximum impact from his skillset. He'll just be thrown into the playmaking position and expected to perform miracles then criticised when he doesn't.


4.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 12:10:17
Spot on Redman. Excellent post that and all very true.


5.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 13:11:35
Red Man, as you know we agree on most things as we've seen our club through good, bad and ugly. The club does need a complete overhaul on the footballing side. But we have owners with different motives to Liverpool's. Hence, this circus will carry on for as long as the owners and their puppets are in place.
However, I disagree on Bruno Fernandes, he is an exceptional player, scores goals from midfield, provides assists and works extremely hard for the team. He is better than any midfielder we've got including mr Pogba, by a country mile.
Is he going to single handedly get us back challenging for the title? No. But he is the start of the rebuilding of our midfield hopefully. Add Maddison or Grealish ton top and a fit mctominay, then we will look like a team who can score from midfield and dominate games.
Problem is that Moyes, lvg, and Mourinho bought a load of players that were not fit for the job. Lots of mercenaries, di maria, Sanchez, pogba, to name a few. However, Solskjaer is trying to put the onus back on buying younger, hungrier players who we can develop. Non of us can argue that McGuire, AWB and James have not been good purchases. They've all done well. So we're moving in the right way. But, we're going to need to continue to do so, and Fernandes will hopefully be the first to rebuild our midfield.
Will the owners back the manager? Will they spend money on OT? Will they improve Carrington? Personally, I don't think so. But we can only hope they give the manager money to buy the likes of Fernandes, who WILL improve our midfield.


6.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 14:08:46
Meh I'm a romantic so I'll keep my blinkers on for this race if you don't mind ed.
In Ole I trust. Believe!


7.) 19 Jan 2020
19 Jan 2020 19:39:08
Why do we need Bruno Fernandez when we have Pereira and lingard 😂.