-HH-
Last season was strange in many ways, and optimistic though I am in general I can’t help but feel this time round is likely to be much of the same again. It’s sad when matters off the field seem to matter more than those on it, but that’s the way much of last season was - and sadly we seem no closer to ridding ourselves of the parasites that brought these problems in the first place. And what’s worse is they seem to have learned better manipulation. They’ve realised that the best spin for them is no spin at all. The quiet is dulling people’s anger and is allowing them to continue sucking the club dry. Meanwhile, Rafa is working his usual solid job in the transfer market with the added pressure of knowing that the owners want a league title and soon.
The saddest thing is that if Rafa does manage to bring back the title it will only serve to strengthen their hold on the club, attract more and more hangers on to the crowd which will lessen the impact of any protests we can actually make as supporters, either verbal or financial. Most people will tell you that they don’t care who signs the cheques as long as we win the league, but that’s not true for me. I want a good, responsible owner who will protect the interests of the city and the matchgoing fanbase as well as facilitating success on the pitch. Maybe it’s a tough ask, but we’re Liverpool and we should demand that of our owners. The matchday experience has already been ruined beyond recognition in the 7 years I’ve been going the match so god knows how those who remember the genuinely good days feel. *

On the pitch it’s been a good summer. The way I see it we’re a stronger attacking unit than we were last year - attacking full backs give us a new dimension, as does Robbie Keane. I think most defences will struggle against the talent we have, including the Mancs and Chelsea - where we lost the points that in the main cost us the title last year. The return of Danny Agger and to be honest the sale of Riise strengthens us defensively. On paper it’s all looking very good, but if we’re to turn that into a genuine title challenge we need to improve our mentality and defend and attack set pieces better, and all the signings in the world won’t solve that problem. We’re so close I can taste it, but being that close just makes it harder to take if you do fall short. Pre-season has involved a lot of positives too - some promising performances from youngsters, the return of Daniel Agger and for me a return to form for Jamie Carragher. Jamie was poor for me last season, but he’s shown he’s ready to get his head down again and prove any doubters wrong. And it being Carra, you just know he will.

My wish for the coming season is a complete reversal of last season, which started out with such optimism and petered out under a dark cloud of off pitch issues. Despite the strategic silence, those issues aren’t resolved and won’t be until the owners are removed. Getting rid of them in the first half of the season and settling things down off the pitch and finishing by taking the title to the wire would be my greatest hope. But even as an optimist by nature I can only see us getting one or the other at best, and sadly whichever we do get will be slightly sullied by the failure on another count.

*This ray of sunshine was brought to you by Powergen

Spartacus

The new football season kicks off in just over a week’s time and I can’t wait.  Every year it’s the same, come May I can’t wait for the season to finish and come August I can’t wait for it to start again.  It doesn’t matter how successful a season we have or more to the point how disappointing our league campaign may have been, it’s a cycle of emotions that I’ve lived with for many a year and I can’t see it ending anytime soon!

So what about this season?  What will Rafa’s fifth season in charge of the mighty reds bring us? Has he strengthened the squad enough to see us challenge for the title or yet again will our league campaign be over by Christmas?  I wish I had answers rather than opinions, but then if I had the answers would I still be waiting, eagerly anticipating the start of the season?  I think not!

For what its worth and purely from a leagues perspective I think we’ll have our best season yet under Rafa as long as Rafa lasts the season (I’ll come back to that).  So why the optimism?  Well partly because that’s my nature and I start every season full of optimism but also because I genuinely believe we’ve improved as a squad and I think Rafa is adapting to our league with every season, he’s not took to it overnight and he’s made mistakes but so what?  Who doesn’t?  As long as he learns by his mistakes and I believe he does then that’s fine. 

But I’m not getting carried away with my optimism, having the best league season under Rafa and winning the league are two very different things and in all honesty I don’t see us winning the league, I just don’t think we’ve done enough to bridge the gap.  I’m not a huge advocate of simply throwing money at the problem but I do believe we have to be buying players of the same calibre as Torres each season and not as a one off!  If that player costs money then he costs money!  All in all I’d class a title challenge and us still being in the race come March as a step in the right direction, anything more than that for me is a bonus. 

To be honest I feel sorry for Rafa, I’m sorry that he joined a club that prided its self on doing things the right way and supporting their manager, a club steeped in tradition with a reputation second to none yet he finds himself working with muppets and having to deal with unprecedented (for Liverpool) off the field antics, and I wonder how much he’ll stand for before he walks – but I also wonder how much our owners will put up with before they show him the door, a dodgy start in the premier/champions league and we’ll see how much faith they have in Rafa, have they got the bottle for the season ahead?  I believe a lesser man would have thrown in the towel by now and I don’t for one minute think he’s not considered that, but only time will tell.

Mark_P

August is usually a time for wildly confident predictions, the usual Evertonian bet and the usual “this is our year” statements.  This year seems totally different.

Maybe it’s another season of underachievement in the league.  Maybe it’s watching United do the double, edging ever closer to our haul of league triumphs.  Maybe it’s watching our manager having to try and sell players he wants to fund possible transfers, the funds he was promised by two cowboys eighteen months ago nowhere to be seen.  But “that feeling” isn’t anywhere near as strong as it normally is by the time August hits.

The signing of Robbie Keane undoubtedly excites.  As well as guaranteed goals, his clever play in attacking areas is something we’ve been missing.  Whilst the price may be a little high, the fact that he won’t have any problems adapting to the Premier League means that the buy is certainly no risk, bar the risk of a further dodgy chant from the Kop.

The departure of John Arne Riise means “For fucks sake Riise!” has been shouted at Anfield for the last time, and is another weakness in the squad addressed.  The probable signing of Gareth Barry and departure of Xabi Alonso is obviously in the manager’s mind, and, despite no obvious gulf in class between the two, something he will likely get.  The pre-season judging of new players is something that means nothing, and should act as merely a fitness boost and piss up for the fans, but David N’Gog has look a handful, and the form of the young reserve players has been encouraging.

Yet as Liverpool get into bed with Thomas Cook and tout tickets in the shape of their “Matchday hospitality”, buy out our pubs on a match day and have two owners with view so out of touch with supporters they felt it was a good idea to have a quiet pint in the Sandon after a match, it’s difficult to look forward to another season of bending over and taking it up the arse from Gillett, Hicks, Parry, Platini, Thomas Crook, the FA, UEFA et al.

Fortunately the Spirit of Shankly union continues to grow, and will undoubtedly go from strength to strength this season, hopefully giving us a platform to make some difference, with Thomas Cook’s lowering of rip off prices for coaches to Liege a testimony to what can be done through the union – http://www.spiritofshankly.com/join.html

Let’s hope by May we’ve found ourselves owners who back up their “snoogy doogy” claim, and Benitez and Gerrard are lifting the one we want in front of a celebrating Kop, with a loud rendition of “Champions!  Champions!” buzzing round the ground.

Enough to even get this miserable arse excited!

Raul: 

On the Pitch

An inveterate optimist, every year is always “our year” for me.  I’m happy to see that at least some of the more “thinking” posters agree with that view this time around.

I’m not sure whether having lived through the glory years makes me less or more desperate than some younger fans for success but my desire to win is tempered by the fact that I find a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure in having made the best effort possible, regardless of the outcome.  If we can look at ourselves at the mirror at the end of the season and say that we have done that, that we have tried our best, then there is nothing to be ashamed of, wherever in the league we might finish the season.  Old fashioned and perhaps even foolishly romantic but there you have it.

Practically though, this term, with the cast of characters that our manager has put together over the past few years I think that if we make that kind of effort, we have the quality and will find that we are there, or at least thereabouts.  The team to make the challenge is more or less there, the spirit must now follow.  And if there was ever a year for us to have that spirit, this is it.

Gerrard knows that this is the business end of his career.  I do not subscribe to the theory that some trot out about him “not caring” – I think does, enormously.  He needs to show that outwardly a little more this season.  Carragher clearly cares and Mascherano wears his heart on his sleeve too.  Question Kuyt’s ability if you must but his attitude is unimpeachable.  Skrtel plays like he wants to kill someone on the other team and Alonso, if he stays and when he plays, is always bothered about how we do.  If Keane is half the fan that he claims to be, he will have the bottle and I think that is enough of a nucleus to bring the Dossenas, Degens and N’Gogs of the world along and get them to do their best.

Of the new boys, Keane has done nothing to show that it was a mistake to get him, Dossena has impressed after a slow start and N’Gog seems to have the brains that Cisse did not.  I think Rafa has bought well this time around.

So let us see.

Off the Pitch

I’m going to leave out discussion of our owners, other than to say that I would like them out – they lied and they mistreated our manager.

I would like to see a significantly greater effort being made by the club in marketing LFC.  One of the reasons we fell behind Manchester United in the 90s was because their success was seen on TV by the teeming millions in Asia, leading to all that crap we love to deride – shirt sales, merchandise and more money for better players. 

News reports in the last few weeks point to the big enemy making big plans for countries like India, where the television coverage of almost every weekend game has meant that little boys are looking at the Premier League as a credible alternative to the IPL and cricket and, as is inevitable with little boys, are beginning to pick teams to support, however much that might be to the horror of the militant purple bin brigade.  And they will support the successful teams, which is why you will see more kids here with Manchester United and Chelsea shirts than Liverpool or even Arsenal.  Our three biggest rivals are setting up academies and twinning with Indian clubs, sending past players out for coaching camps and getting talented youngsters across to England for training and a taste of the big time.  Things like this are already happening in China and elsewhere in Asia.

We cannot afford to fall behind on this but the club seems to be dragging its feet on taking any significant initiatives in this area.  Whether this is down to Parry or the lying twosome, I don’t know but LFC needs to get its act together on increasing its global (shirt buying) support.  If we want to play with the big boys, we need to at least match their moves.

Perhaps we need to have the second coming of DIC to see this happen.

3. NickoH

I could quote the old saying of ‘heart or mind’ but I’ll let my mind rule this time.

It’s that time of the year when hope is usually high on the agenda, whereas in trophy laden times gone by it was an expectation of league winning success that was top of the list.

I’ve learned over the years to suppress this hope because sometimes even a little hope can be a cruel thing and the let down felt after Christmas (at best) can be a huge fall, with many a word typed in anger towards the owners, the underperforming team and the odd shot towards Rafa.

It’s been a slow progression, rather than a big bang but Rafa is steering the team in the right direction, I’ve no doubt about that. The summer has yet again seen a steady of never heard of youngsters, a couple of promising more experienced men and the possible ‘Torres’ signing in Robbie Keane. Will Robbie be this final missing piece of the jigsaw which has become harder to find than the Holy Grail and the Loch Ness Monster put together ? Only time will tell but I think he may just be the signing to turn them relatively huge number of last seasons draws into 3 points.

Obvious but Anfield needs to become the famous fortress yet again. Rafa seems to have cracked the away games but last season our home form let us down, which was a surprise to say the least. Maybe, just maybe, Rafa needs to go for the jugular when we are 1-0 up and coasting. Many times I felt if we got the second we would go on and win 3 or 4-0 instead of settling for what we had and many times ending up with only one point.

Babel, Torres, Gerrard, Keane, etc, etc…..on paper at least give us a mouth watering combination in the attacking third and fingers crossed the defence will be a place that will need to fight for places. Skrt’s, Carra, Agger and to a lesser extent Sami will be competing for the two central spots and it’s anyone’s guess who will make the positions theirs. In Pepe Reina we have a now hardened Premier performer in the nets and I wouldn’t swap him for anyone. His record in winning the Golden Gloves (or whatever it is called) tells no lies and gives us the start of that solid background down the middle.

Hopefully the off the pitch scenario will not be filling the papers as much as last season and whatever the outcome in that ‘battle’ the results will fill the message boards and column inches of Fleet Street’s ‘finest’.

So where will we finish ? Back to my heart and mind…….heart says we can win it, possibly all the way to the last game…..my mind says 3rd behind Chelsea and Man U but a lot closer.

The other cup competitions will hold the best hope of a trophy coming to Anfield. Rafa will play a second string in the Carling Cup but it may be strong enough (if we avoid Chelsea away) to bring it back home and give us a first visit to the new Wembley and a weekend piss up in London.
The FA Cup again may offer us a visit to Wembley twice but again it depends how seriously we take it. The scares last season and eventual upset in getting turfed out by lower opposition may well turn into a Burnley moment and we go on to win it the season after.

Europe….what can I say about Europe ? Every season now starts with me actually thinking we can go all the way….Maybe it’s the confidence we have got in recent seasons that fills me with hope for the forthcoming campaign or maybe it’s just a bit of wishful thinking that I’ll be sat in a bar in Roma come May. Whatever it is, I again think we can go all the way and after last seasons English domination we might just have to get through an all English quarter or semi final clash.

My Club-My View……full of hope as usual but don’t tell anyone…..I keep these things to myself.

2. The Bill Hicks Appreciation Society

Given the turmoil our beloved club has gone through in recent seasons I think it would be madness to dismiss Rafael Benitez progress in shaping this project, because that is after all what we are, an ongoing, not yet completed project. His mission was to overhaul the entire setup from toddlers to seniors, although the youth part of the operation didn’t begin in earnest until Steve Heighway was relieved of his academy duties.

After Benitez first triumphant season in Europe he declared that his team was only at 70% where he wanted them to be. It would be interesting to hear how far along he himself believes we are in this endeavour. It cannot be disputed that we have continued to improve year after year in terms of squad ability and depth if not unfortunately our league position, but I can forgive that, especially with the conditions he has been forced to work under.

Prior to the yanks taking over the club everything wasn’t as rosy as we were led to believe either, eventually finding out that David Moores stumped up just under ten million pounds of his own money as a loan to fund the purchase of Dirk Kuyt. A sum of which is regularly awarded to the Manager at the other end of the motorway in the blink of an eye and without having to sell a single player to boot.

It would have been great to have seen how soon his ideas could have come to fruition had he had that sort of backing instead of having to do the types of wheeler dealing that Delboy would be proud of. We know he’s missed out on some remarkable transfer coups due to the financial noose around his neck such as David Villa, Daniel Alves and Nemanja Vidic who have gone on to prove their worth, doubling and even trebling their value from when Benitez first showed an interest.

The only difference off the field from when Moores had ownership is that now we can borrow higher amounts due to the yanks status, yet still Benitez is forced to sell members of his squad to fund the players that he wants, so rather than having the luxury other top managers have of bringing in new players, seeing how they adapt and interact with each other before moving out less important members of the squad he has to anticipate who to get rid of before moving for the player he has targeted.

The danger the owners fail to acknowledge or whether they even care at all is that with so many comings and goings it is sure to have an effect on the squad, this is where I feel we’ve fallen short in the last couple of years. Whether this effect will be detrimental to our title campaign this season we can only wait and see, however in saying that, it bodes very well for us that those who have left so far have either been players who have been going backwards in terms of performance or not featured heavily enough in the first team that we will miss their contribution.

Even some of the players earmarked to go such as Voronin, Itandje and to a lesser extent Finnan offer little special and wont be missed out on the pitch as we’ve already got their potentially superior replacements.

All well and good, that is until the latest murmurings that Xabi Alonso and Jermaine Pennant may be heading out of the door. Now whether you rate these players or not I am certain that unless a team came in with an offer that was simply too good to refuse that Rafa would prefer to have these players in his armoury as both offer very unique aspects in their game that no-one else in our current squad possesses; Xabi’s passing and vision is unparalleled even by our Captain whilst Pennant offers a directness and possesses a forever attacking mindset yet Rafa may be forced to sell in order to find the money to bring in Gareth Barry, again whether you’re behind this transfer or not the fact is that he is a player our Manager has identified, where the player himself already has his bags packed and is half way up the M6 and we’re in a position where we could be forced into selling players to off set the cost of another. That’s just not right and it just might hurt us in the long run.

I say might, because I genuinely believe we have the best manager in the world at our helm or at the very least the best manager in the world for Liverpool Football Club and with L6Red’s very positive look on the season ahead coupled with Royhendo’s footballing version of War and Peace a certain spring seems to crept back into my step. It’s confirmed everything I’ve believed Benitez is trying to accomplish at the club or at the least confirmed I’m not alone in believing Benitez has a very definite and as always meticulous plan.

So despite the troubles off the pitch last season, the perpetual ducking and diving that Rafa has had to do and continues to do in the transfer market, the empty promises from our owners regarding the new stadium and the mounting expectations of a title challenge this season I am enormously confident that Benitez will deliver a title in the very near future and this season seems the perfect time to do so.

Whilst the transfer window is very much open it is hard to predict what our rivals will do however neither of the London contingent appear to have strengthened greatly and have lost influential players in Lehman, Flamini, Hleb and Makalele all except the Mancs who have made absolutely no moves whatsoever as yet and they’ll be without Ronaldo until October, it will be interesting to see how they cope but could it be the Glasers have put a stop on any spending after the estimated £70mil outlay of last season?

Surely there can be no better time to launch an all out assault on the League than this season? Fuck that why not a four pronged assault Our opponents are weaker and should expect to go through some period of adjustment; Chelsea with new management and everything that comes with it. Arsenal with the dangerous tactic of replacing experience with potential, and the Mancs who appear to be resting on their laurels whilst we ourselves have strengthened considerably without losing any first team players (so far) and there may even be more to come.

After watching the reds via shitty little foreign streams in the pre-season you can’t help but get excited. I can actually see the level 3 football described by Royhendo in his wonderfully analytical article and that I’ve seen sporadically throughout Mr Benitez’s tenure with my own eyes. We all have fun discussing how we like to see the team line up but in all the various line ups I’ve seen posted on these boards lately I have not seen a weak team posted. That in itself should speak volumes but put against our main rivals it has the capacity to make our ears bleed. Each one of them is going through a transition of some sort whilst the Mancs are on our tail and that should be the only motivation needed.

With the new season coming up, RAWK asked several of the sites’ notable writers to send in a shortish piece that could be anything they liked so long as it vaguely adhered to the words “My Club - My View”. We’ve asked opinionated voices and representitives from the SOS and so on to contribute. Here are their thoughts:

My Club-My View

1. royhendo

Next season? On the one hand, if Lady Luck’s on our side, we’ll win silverware, and maybe even the league. On the other hand, who knows? Mass wailing and gnashing of teeth, pundits calling for heads on platters, and endemic insanity? Either way, it’s going to be another emotional rollercoaster.

Off the field, I’d like to see the American owners ousted from the club, and a truly ‘worthy’ custodian installed in their place (with a minimum of fuss, and evidence that we’re planning for the long-term with genuine investment). I don’t see it happening though - I have a horrible ’sinking feeling’ about it.

On the field, other than hoping we win every trophy we enter, I hope this season brings a more consistent shift to dominant play-making football - something we’ve seen glimpses of in recent months.

More specifically, I want to see us imposing our football on teams in the final third, and evidence of true ‘pass and move’ to break down sides that park the bus. I feel Rafa’s recruited with that in mind this summer.

It’s time to see a new ‘crushing machine’ emerge from the strong foundations we’ve laid - not necessarily all season long (I don’t think we quite have the quality-in-depth for that yet) - but in a consistent way, and certainly against the sides we ought to dominate.

We’ll see the odd blip here and there… so with that in mind I’d hope our fans can see the bigger picture, recognise the improvement in the quality in our play, and see where it’ll take us in the seasons to come.

Having said that, the media will ramp up the pressure on Rafa if things don’t run on rails - journos and pundits both. Net spending will be ignored and perspective will be set to one side. We’ll hear how our owners have lavished cash on the squad, and how it’s this season or bust for Rafa. Why bother with facts? They’ll do everything they can to derail our progress - even the ones who profess to love the club.

We’ll also see hysteria take hold if Man United find a strong position in the league come the Autumn, and I’ve a bad feeling people will lose the plot. There’s a danger we’ll forget it’s our own progress we need to concentrate on, and the fact we’re tantalisingly close to something special.

So Ronaldo is a ’slave’ and there’s a thread in here about the money provided for Keane that says basically “say what you like about the Germans, but they made the trains run on time”

(Some people think Hicks has coughed up the money for Keane and Torres so he can’t be that bad:  http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=225240.0)

At what point do we the fan in the street say “Enough is enough”. It seems to me that for every SOS campaign there’s the opposite which says, “Actually never mind the morals feel the quality”. We all know many fans who remain silent on the take over and don’t really care and wouldn’t boycott a game if you paid them the SKY fee to the club per annum.

We all know that there’s been something rotten in the state of Football (esp the Premier League) since the day SKY bought it out and threw out any sense of decency. But this close season seems to have stunk more than ever.

1. Ronaldo is paid £100,000 a week and the very head of football says he’s a slave.

2. Joey Barton is released early from jail to see his manager fully back him and point out he was a good lad when he was at the club.

3. Hicks and Gilette, having loaded our club with millions of pounds of debt are now being almost forgiven by some who think they’ve stumped up the cost of Robbie Keane. (Good but overpriced btw.) when actually he’s paid for by the sale of others.

4. Real Madrid is accused of tapping up and unsettling Ronaldo, Sir Alex ‘whiter than a daz sheet in a nunnery’ Ferguson is livid. Never mind the hypocrisy, feel the price of Berbatov. Or Stam. Or Ferdinand. Or shall I go on?

It makes Chelsea’s sacking of Mutu for drugs abuse seem oh so applaudable. Except if Mutu was Drogba, would they have done it?

Would Barton have the loving father figure of Kev if he was a shit player?

Would Ronaldo matter a spit to either Real, Sepp or Alex if he was Wes Brown?

We often argue about the manner in which Liverpool play, what style would we put up with for a win. Well that’s no longer the point, its what would we lower ourselves to, to get a win? Let the club be taken over by two charlatans, sing their praises at the ground then wake up with a hangover realising we’ve not been seduced by the Texan lovely Jerry Hall, but fucked over badly by the Texan ugly George Bush Snr.
At least we’ve not sunk as low as something as crazy as our club hiring out Goodison for corporates.. Oh wait..

We the fans put up and justify many things in the name of winning and football, but this close season has made the bitter taste in my mouth even more sour.

Not Roy of the Black Cats, I was never keen on him, especially as his short stubble made him look like my action man with realistic hair and gripping hands, but Robbie Keane once of Spurs, and the cartwheel.

Personally I think £20m is too much. Actually I think £20m is too much for any footballer but that’s another argument (see the ‘morals in football’ thread). But in this case its an awful lot of money for a footballer who isn’t a first choice start for Spurs, and has a lot of years under his little belt.

That said, he’s a good signing for us - we’ve taken a proven Premiership player who knows the score and knows how to play against the teams in this league and has scored a lot of good goals. Also he’s a proper Red, not one who made his everlasting love for the club five minutes after the ink was dry on the contract.

Of course it remains to be seen how Rafa plays Robbie. Will we see Rafa the raffish rotator and play Robbie central defence? Or on the right? Watch out Dirk..

Or heaven whisper it, a 4-4-2 with Torres and Keane up front? Now that’s what I call happy days. Or 4-2-3-1? aren’t we strong enough to not need two holding? For me, a midfield of Masch/Alonso and Gerrard, with Babel on the left and Dirk or Pennant on the right and KnT up front sounds a good way to play.

We’ll see. How nice to see us discussing football as opposed to the dark shite behind the scenes that continue to plague our club.

welcome Robbie from RAWK.