Re: He's going. What do you think Lyon would pay for him? Houllier is there and he has history with him Maybe we could get Juninho and or Eissen for him?
Re: No One Player is Bigger than This Club bye steve, take your whinging, and whining negativity and close the door behind you!
Re: He's going. the bottom line is this: gerrard was planning on leaving all along. winning the champions league was actually a crimp in said plans. hoisting the european cup forced him to take a pregnant (and phony) pause. but he was always going to go. at one time, gerrard loved liverpool. but then, as he made friends on an english national team that you couldn't melt down and pour into a tough game, he adopted the hollywood prima-donna attitude favored by most of them. and that attitude revolves around money and nothing else. we should appreciate what gerrard did for liverpool. but he leaves in a manner as phony and duplicitous as can be. liverpool brought in a superior manager and superior players. won the european cup, then offered him a monster raise. everything you can get in football was at gerrard's fingertips. but enough is never enough when you can get more. as for converting his sale price into a great team, getting that money and spending it wisely are two different things. liverpool clearly need to bring in a big-name superstar to placate fans and, more important, to make big plays to win big games. but players like that aren't often available. if liverpool doesn't rebound from this -- and quickly, too -- rebuilding to a truly elite club is going to be a hard job.
Re: He's going. Now you are talking. However, LFC shouldn't take a penny less than £40 mil. We were royally screwed over Owen and got nowt for Macca. It's about TIME we started cashing in for fcuk's sake.
Re: He's going. Here's what Gerrard told Sky Sports... "The last six weeks have been the toughest of my life," he informed Sky Sports News. "The decision I have come to has been the hardest decision I have ever had to make. "I fully intended to sign a new contract after the Champions League final but the events of the past five or six weeks have changed all that. "I have too much respect for the club and the people at it to get involved in a slanging match." __________ Not really saying much there, is he?
Re: He's going. La. That is a cynical view of Steven Gerrard and I hope it is not true, although it has been reflected in many of the other naff England players. But you could not be more wrong than you are in that last bit. How many talented future players were on their dad's shoulders as that bus went by a few weeks ago? What are their dreams composed of each night? You can say "But that's not the modern game. You cannot build a team from local talent." And I will say that just such a team won Liverpool a lot of silverware over the past five seasons. And if Mike and Steve and Steve had stayed - other players would have carried them along to a league championship. Besides the local youngsters, you go on holiday to Spain and see how many bright new Liverpool shirts you see on the youngsters there. Rafa Benitez is too shrewd a man to be denied. He is committed, the challenge is before him, the resources are at his disposal. And players all over Europe continue to clamor to get in a red shirt. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Re: He's going. Mark I came on here to launch a diatribe against what I see as a duplicious bastard but you stole my thunder fin a way far more eloquently that I could put it. Couldnt agree more
Re: He's going. The poor youths of Spain really are going to become big 'Pool fans at this rate. It is the only way they will be able to see great Spaniard players on the pitch.
Re: He's going. there's never any reason to be ashamed of facts and honest opinion. i really don't want to wait for the kids in red jerseys being hoisted on their dad's shoulders during the open-top bus tour to develop into impact players. silly me, i thought winning the european cup actually gave liverpool some momentum. now that momentum has been broken, and only some GREAT investing of gerrard's sale price can undo the damage. say all you want about liverpool winning with local lads. but lately, it's the local lads who seem to be the most disloyal. i do believe in rafa, though. and i believe in the players liverpool still have. this will turn out to be a bigger blow emotionally than it is in terms of winning football. one man can't stop a revolution. or a rafa-lution. liverpool should sell gerrard abroad. bad enough he turns traitor. i don't think liverpool fans deserve to have it rubbed in their faces during liverpool-chelsea games. and i don't think gerrard deserves the reception he would get.
Re: He's going. Now if Rafa manages to build a squad with these funds and make another Valencia... how exactly would this sale be a bad thing?
Re: He's going. It's the 'slagging match' part that leads me to believe there's alot more to this than either side is letting on. I'm gutted and was utterly shocked when I read it this morning. I fully anticipated him staying.
Re: He's going. So, where are the facts in your description of Gerrard's possible thinking process? He has done more for Liverpool Football Club than you could ever dream of in a thousand lifetimes, yet you dare to pour buckets of sh8t over his head. I think that is absolutely f8cking wonderful. Whilst I am extremely upset that the captain is leaving, I will remember him standing opposite us on the corner of the pitch in Istanbul with the Big Ears on his head, whilst I was in the midst of the best footballing experience of my life. Yes, he has not been himself quite often this season, with his mind elsewhere too often, perhaps, and I have criticised him for it. People around him have turned his head in a direction he, perhaps, would not have done himself. But such is life - he is just a Scouse kid who happened to be one hell of a football player and a hero to many such kids but perhaps "bright lights big city" might've glimmered just a bit too much and with a well-chosen whisper in his ear his mind was swayed towards them. So, it happens... It is awful that something like that could've happened but we now have to look and plan beyond it. I think Rafa has had one... ahem... "interesting" year to cope with. He's coped with it superbly and I strongly believe he will do well with us. It's a great shame to see Stevie G leave but that does not give "fans" the right to sling mud at the kid, whom I saw ran his socks off on his full Anfield debut in December 1998 and who's given a lot to this football club.
Re: He's going. the proof is in the pudding. as for what gerrard has done for liverpool as opposed to me (and other fans), at least we never stopped loving liverpool. glad you think my posts are wonderful.
Re: He's going. Give hime time. Wait till Juventus comes calling. Joking aside, I wonder if there is a difference in attitudes between locals and transplants. It could be that local kids take the fan adoration for granted while the new kids come to the club and discover it so they appreciate it better?
Re: He's going. Surprised you aren't all a bit more critical of Benitez what with the rumours of him being extremely cold and rude to Gerrard when confronted about why contract negotiations hadn't started, and the eagerness with which he booted Stevie G's mates Danny Murphy and Owen out the door. Never mind I'm he has his eye on a whole range of la liga benchwarmers he can bring in.
Re: He's going. How exactly has Steven Gerrard screwed us? We are hopefully going to get in the region of 30-40 million for him. He's given the club 6 1/2 years in the first team and there were times (when the disinterested Owen stood around hands-on-hips but we'll come to that) he doggedly dragged the team along. What have YOU given Liverpool Football Club to say Gerrard's screwed us? Again Macca gave years upon years to the club, Evans did nothing about resigning him, so he was quite forward about his desire to leave once it became clear the club needed an overhaul with the new management and stuff. Lastly we come to Owen, with whom I have the most problem (and, by the way, Chester is not Liverpool ) if I was to have a problem. I think Owen's protracted negotiations in the run-up to the last year of his contract were holding the club to ransom. On the pitch he gave disinterested performances. I thought he could've been fairer to the club and said he wanted to go with 2 years, as opposed to one year left on his contract. Yes, Gerrard was not at his best during last season, he was absent at Cardiff - yet when it mattered in the end he really put in the effort - something I do not think Owen did. But then again, Owen left and we won the European Cup, so one can almost giggle... So, these lads gave the first team 6-7 years and you start calling them disloyal? How long have spent in your last job? And what did your work place get when you left?
Re: He's going. That's all fine and good. But why this "if liverpool doesn't rebound from this -- and quickly, too -- rebuilding to a truly elite club is going to be a hard job." It is not supported by anything else you have written here. If anything, the mercenary attitude that you are holding up as all too typical makes Liverpool rather more likely to return to elite status than less, because we have more money than almost any of the "pretenders". Including Arsenal (especially over the next few years). Arsenal and Manchester United are now cash-strapped clubs and Chelsea shows just how quickly an "elite" team can be built. If anything, it is pie and the sky people like me who don't want a Thai or Steve Morgan-style sugar daddy at the club who prevent us from being an elite club. Not the Steven Gerrard's whose actions work to dispel the club as a unique institution mystique. Our team composition and tactical system - not our ability to sign top players - has been the reason why we have struggled to succeed in the domestic league. Our club was much closer to folding emotionally the last 2 seasons under Houllier than we are with or without Steven Gerrard under Rafa Benitez. Liverpool remains an elite club. With comprehensive support across the world. The results in league play are the only aspect by which we can be deemed less than the elite. Just look at our UEFA coefficient as proof. I don't agree with M. Wenger that beating up on the likes of WBA, Blackburn and Birmingham City is the measure of elite. But under Rafa, I daresay we will be doing that as well as doing a number against Chelsea, Juventus, Milan, Monaco, Roma, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Valencia and all of the other scalps we have collected over the past five seasons. Steven Gerrard or no.
Re: He's going. Ah, along comes the Trophyless one. "Rumours" - 'gis some facts, not rumours. In the meantime, before you leave the room and close the door behind you, I would like to point out that Murphy wanted regular first-team football (which Rafa could not guarantee and which, ironically, he would've got, given our injuries last season) and Owen was, well, not very interested in the first place - he made the right decision and Liverpool won the European Cup. Now, please shut the door and come back with some facts. Do not forget to knock.
Re: Gerrard hands in transfer request ...he's an Arsenal fan...he is disturbed. I am sorry to hear that Stevie will be leaving. He was one of the final world-class players not at the massive clubs. He should have stayed. Everyone can see that you are turning the corner with Rafa. You're European Champions for goodness sake! I believe you'll be better than Man U within the next 5 years also. If you get £30 million for him, expect Rafa to bring in 2 worldclass players to replace him.
Re: He's going. A couple more thoughts- Yeah, £40 million if he goes to Chelsea, and there is legitimate competition. That's what I think, and I'm aware that it would be the domestic record. It's a special situation, and I think a lot of us would settle with slightly less (is there any confirmtion for the £37 million bid?) if he goes to Spain. We already have a replacement for Gerrard in Alonso. Not that they were intending or wanting to Gerrard to leave, but I think that Alonso was bought with this possibility in mind. It's not like this is the first time this issue has arisen, and there was only ever going to be one resolution.