Nordic Saint

Rickie Lambert interview: http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/290357-rickie-lambert-lfc-southampton-adam-lallana

Much as I agree with you, I think you'd have to shut up most of the traps on here to achieve that, as nearly every player we sell gets slagged off nowadays, and the Club does seem to encourage it.

I assume Bednarek will folllow him out after an appropriate interval. In spite of some of the big profits we get, selling players to Liverpool, we do seem to fritter away a lot of it on fringe squad players who never look likely to make the grade.

Fair enough. It's probably as simple as that. Old Les just doesn't seem very good at negotiating with footballers and managers. I guess, as our head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell used to handle most of that before. Pity Lepzig got him. Seems to be a good fit for both of them. Leipzig are a very ambitious club, currently 3rd in the Bundesligs and looking to build their squad for the Champions League, and they have now got one of the most talented chief scouts in the business.

In retrospect, it seemed a pretty half-hearted attempt to buy him. Being linked with big name players in the transfer window, even if you don't actually buy them, always goes down well with the fans. There were certainly a lot of PR updates/'leaks' from the club about it to keep the fans excited, right up to the end. You just have to look at the number of posts about it on here to see how well it worked. Certainly since Paul Mitchell left and even before, our club seems to do its transfer business incredibly publicly. We get told about every player we are interested in and we also get told all of the negative things the players and managers who ae going to be sold are supposedly doing, in the weeks leading up to their sale. A lot of it does seem to be PR bullsh!t to appease the fans.

I'd like to see Sam McQueen playing as an attacking midfielder for the 1st team, as he is a goal scorer, and that is exactly what we need.

Bring back Pellè!

You must have been incredibly close to him to witness all that. What people forget are the circumstances which led up to Lallana's sale. At the very beginning of the summer transfer window, before the World Cup finals, Les Reed announced very publicly that Rickie Lambert had been rewarded for his 5 years service to the club with a 'dream move' to Liverpool. So, Lallana thought, after 8 years service to this club, that sounds great, I'll get a 'dream move' too. But, he found out that was not the exact moment when Reed planned to sell him to Liverpool. And, yes, then Lallana got stroppy and Reed made sure that the fans got to hear about it. It was all very unsavoury but unfortunately that is the way our club does its business nowadays, washing its dirty linen as publicly as possible. You could argue that they 'both threw a strop", which seems to happen far too often when Reed is involved in negotiations with our players and managers, and that if Les Reed had been wanted by Liverpool he'd have been off like a flash and wouldn't have let anyone stop him.

They were good for us and I believe that a few of them who would have happily stayed a year or two longer, like Wanyama, Mane, Fonte and Koeman, were sold far too soon, because that was what Les Reed and Kat Liebherr wanted to do. Of course, they nearly all get tainted by the negative PR 'leaks' to the media and internet, which many fans choose to believe. I'm not saying that most players aren't happy to go along with being sold to a big club but the club has been very happy to cash in on them too. There was a 'leak' from West Ham not long ago that a certain DOF had been letting other clubs know he was available but it seems none of them wanted him. That 'leak' probably has as much validity as the 'leaks' about our players and managers.

I think the key word there is 'perceived'. I doubt that they left in any way differently to how players and managers have always left the club, including fans' heroes like Mick Channon, Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer and Lawrie McMenemy. The diffference now, is that what should be private discussions between the players & managers and the DOF are 'leaked' to manipulate fans perceptions of the club's transfer deals. We really would have no other way of knowing who said or did what if these PR 'leaks' about what happened behind closed doors didn't occur and it would be better for the long-term image of the club if they didn't. Before the board were mostly 'gentlemen' who would have considered such underhand tactics beneath them, even if they were unhappy that a player or manager wanted to leave. In most cases our DOF and the owners are happy to sell players and managers to the highest bidder when it suits them but would prefer it if the fans didn't think of it that way.

Assuming Austin will play in most of them, we should get 15 points from those 12 games; without him maybe 10.

Jack Stephens is an excellent footballer and I'd love to see him played farther forward, as he has great skill on the ball and an eye for goal. At the moment he is in a central defensive partnership with another youngster and they are both learning. They shouldn't really have been put in that situation. That's not his fault. Our experienced central defenders were all sold and you really need an older player leading the back line at this level, like Fonte did. But, Stephens is learning fast and, like McQueen and Ward-Prowse, he is going to get even better next year.

That's a 7 match unbeaten we're on run now. We haven't lost a game this year. OK, he's no Pochettino, but I honestly don't think Reed will bring anyone better in if he sacks him. Pellegrino's certainly at least as good as the Pardew and Hughes types and a far more likeable character. His biggest mistake was not playing Austin when he was available earlier in the season. He has been left a squad, which apart from Austin, has no reliable goal scorer up front and that has been the real problem.

They are the worst team in the Premier League. Who is he going to have it easier against???

The first thing is none of us would have appointed him in the first place. But, once he was here, I'd have sacked him after sacking Les Reed, because every appointment Les makes is worse than the previous one. So, there isn't a great deal to be gained from sacking him while Les is still here. Many thought it was a good idea to sack Puel and get rid of Eric Black as first team coach but then Les appointed Pellegrino and Kelvin Davis. There are still plenty of people on the planet so you can bet your bottom dollar Les will still be able to find somebody worse than Pellegrino.

And Villarreal keep on winning. Soon Calleja will be beyond our reach too. All we needed to do to stay up was bring in Javier Calleja as manager and Carlos Bacca as our new striker. It wasn't that hard.

One of the worst goalkeepers in the history of the Premier League, the man Sunderland fans still hold responsible for getting them relegated in 2006, no previous coaching experience, and he's coaching our first team along with ex-Barnsley goalkeeper, Dave Watson, neither of them with any experience of coaching outfield players. It is ridiculously amateurish and just about sums up the shambolic state the club is in. Kelvin became first team coach in December and we haven't won a single league games since. He'd be lucky to get a managerial position in the Conference.

He's a mediocre, Championship level player, worth no more than 5 m tops, but we already knew that.

It needs to happen at the end of the game if we lose this one. The lazy b@stard couldn't even be bothered to try to get anyone toinight as he'd rather sit back, watch the game and enjoy the free hospitality. He can't be allowed to get away with this any more.

Hoedt reminds me of Hooiveldt. He gives the general impression of being OK but he's always good for one goal for the opposition.

I really don't think it is. It's more about not selling your best players as quickly as we seem to do. Very few top flight clubs sell so many of their best players after such a short spell at their club as we do. We're then left casting around looking for replacements, which in the last couple of years have mostly been inferior ones, and if the accounts are to be believed. spending more money than we receive, for what is ultimately an expensive downgrade.

To be fair, apart from what clubs' PR people 'leak' we have no idea what fee has been asked or offered. Even players and their agents wouldn't necessarily be privy to that information.

That certainly seems to have been the Les Reed way with Carrillo. He paid a ridiculously high price for a player Monaco were desperate to get rid of, who nobody else wanted.

I guess we'll find out which club those words apply to in 2 days' time.

It is very good news if he can return soon but I think they are probably announcing it a bit prematurely to soften the fans up for the sale of Gabbiadini.