02 Sep 2022 11:28:26
Sky sports article "Arthur is a low-risk gamble worth taking" says the deal comes with an option rather than obligation to buy. Everything I've read elsewhere just states its a loan. Can Eds clarify if there is infact an option to buy and at what price or is it just poor journalism?
{Ed001's Note - I am sure there is an option to buy. 100% sure in fact, the only person who said there wasn't was the conman Romano who is a shyster and should be ignored. The deal hinged on there being an option to buy, which is why we are paying over £4m as a loan fee.}
02 Sep 2022 12:56:14
Ed 1 if he does well do you see us paying the purchase price? Not really seen much and it gives him a chance to impress I guess as we will be in need of a few midfielders next season anyway if ox naby and Milner leave.
02 Sep 2022 13:00:14
Ed001 do you have any thoughts on Melo or - like most of us probably - have you not seen much of him?
{Ed001's Note - I saw him a fair bit for Barca but he never really seemed to settle so was not at it. Footage of him from Gremio makes him look special but he just hasn't been able to replicate it since moving to Europe. To be fair, Juve never played a way that suited him so that has turned out to be a mistake of a move.}
02 Sep 2022 13:58:35
Hope it works out, not sure we’ve had much success loaning players in the past - Nuri Sahin and Victor Moses spring to mind - but it’s good to have a ‘try before you buy’ option before wasting £35m or so!
02 Sep 2022 14:16:49
Anelka was the best loan we've had.
02 Sep 2022 16:04:48
Couldn't believe we didn't sign anelka permanent at time. I guessed he of his advisers was trouble behind the scenes but never heard anything like that about them since.
{Ed001's Note - there were no issues other than Houllier being Houllier. He was a typical schoolteacher and hated being questioned, Nic liked to ask questions so he could understand and would also make suggestions. Houllier really hated that. He just wanted people to say 'yes sir' and do what he told them. Shame as Anelka was brilliant, whereas Diouf was simply the worst player and human being ever to play for us.}
02 Sep 2022 16:40:45
Remember Gerrard not long since said. with anelka we would of won the league. He was on fire when on loan. Then houllier royally ****ed it up.
02 Sep 2022 16:50:24
Only 3 times from winning 18th to 19th league title did I believe we would win it. Once was after treble when Houllier blew it by signing Diouf and Diao instead of Anelka, second was when Benitez blew it by trying to get rid of Alonso and bring in the Villa lad and 3rd was when Rodgers had us blowing teams away and Gerrard slipped at Chelsea albeit when we were 3-0 up at palace I thought we might real in the goal difference. Anelka looked world class when he came to its for those 10 or so games. The next season was going to be the one.
02 Sep 2022 17:20:25
What really bugs me about Diouf is that he was recommended to Houllier by Patrice Burges, who had previously been a member of Houllier's coaching staff.
Clearly, Ged didn't at any point think to ask his mate Patrice why Diouf was already on his third professional club at just 21 years of age.
02 Sep 2022 21:07:00
Show some respect to a man who gave his all to this club and is no longer here. Its embarrassing to be a LFC supporter these days with people like magico around.
02 Sep 2022 18:10:57
A definite shame that ed1. I really liked anelka as a player, Suited us as well and by all accounts he liked it at liverpool. The sergent major approach only gets u so far, both houllier and benitez I would imagine like that. that's the beauty of klopp, his man management and attacking philosophy. Has his faults but pros massively outweigh the cons.
03 Sep 2022 00:02:13
Anelka was great for us, complete co. up by Houllier not signing him.
03 Sep 2022 00:12:45
I thought Arthur was vastly improved at Juventus with a higher work rate and doing a lot of defensive work with tackles and interceptions. Driving the ball forward constantly. At Barcelona (saw a few games when he first joined) I got the impression that he was trying to live up to the "new Xavi" moniker with small "tiki-taka" passes. Ended up just slowing the game down.
I suspect his salary is a major reason he has been shipped out by Juventus. Even after our loan fee of 4 Million, supposedly Juventus is still paying him too. Arsenal was strongly linked with him for a long time but they must have backed out after hearing the financial conditions.
03 Sep 2022 01:21:01
That 2002 summer window was a disaster. Diao, Cheyrou, Diouf. Supposedly the final pieces to the puzzle.
03 Sep 2022 01:56:44
@Babbity, to be fair almost every window is ‘the final piece in the puzzle’. Spot on about that window though mate - the pieces we bought were fo4 the wrong puzzle.
03 Sep 2022 15:45:06
Beg your pardon rambo. geuss you think just because he was a lovely guy and all that he didn't royally **** up letting anelka go and buying diouf.
03 Sep 2022 16:45:13
Even lovely guys make mistakes.
04 Sep 2022 14:07:36
Lads, Houllier was a nice bloke, and he loved the club, but he was not a good manager.
He spent a fortune (at the time) to gut and replace most of the squad he inherited and we had one season where we better in the league than we had been under Evans. One. And by the end he'd fallen out with pretty much every player apart from Stevie and Carra. He was hamstrung by a useless owner and Chief Exec tbf (Parry's first contribution to Liverpool was to try and block the signing of McAllister cos he didn't understand it), but he wasn't good enough in his own right either.
I'm a nice bloke who loves the club, but that doesn't make me fit to replace Klopp.
04 Sep 2022 14:07:36
Lads, Houllier was a nice bloke, and he loved the club, but he was not a good manager.
He spent a fortune (at the time) to gut and replace most of the squad he inherited and we had one season where we better in the league than we had been under Evans. One. And by the end he'd fallen out with pretty much every player apart from Stevie and Carra. He was hamstrung by a useless owner and Chief Exec tbf (Parry's first contribution to Liverpool was to try and block the signing of McAllister cos he didn't understand it), but he wasn't good enough in his own right either.
I'm a nice bloke who loves the club, but that doesn't make me fit to replace Klopp.
04 Sep 2022 19:48:29
Something "FORGOT", Houllier was not a good manager? He won Three major trophies in 2001 UEFA Cup, FA Cup, Worthington Cup (now called the Carabao Cup) . He also finished third in the PL that season and it was the first time since the early nineties that LFC were back in the Champions League. He won one more trophy than JK last year, so what does that make JK who only won two last season on your basis.
In 2001 he also added the UEFA Super Cup and Charity Shield, Five major honours and he wasn't a good manager, are you having a funny half hour?
05 Sep 2022 09:59:32
Houllier was a good manager, but you need a great one to win leagues. I can understand why he felt the need to assert his authority early on to establish himself at the club, but the problem is that his inherent insecurity never subsided. Far too often he allowed personal issues between him and a player to end up with that player being replaced by an inferior player whose primary virtue was him being prepared to shut up and do as he was told. I'm not sure having Thommo as his number two did him any favours in that regard, either.
Look at how Klopp handles challenge and dissent - he won't stand for a lack of discipline, but he'll listen to alternative points of view. He'll allow players to contribute their ideas, and he doesn't feel the need to take credit for everything that works. I recall several times in past seasons when Klopp credited the players for a specific move or routine; can't imagine Houllier ever doing that. And that's not a small point, because it's not just giving credit in the post-match interview, it's about fostering an environment where players feel empowered to try things.
Not winning the league (and in truth, not ever really getting us especially close to winning it) keeps him from the top tier of Liverpool managers. His record stands up well against the rest, maybe second only to Rafa in that respect. I'm giving Rafa the edge for (1) the Champions League (yes, largely Houllier's squad, but I don't think it can be argued we'd have won in 2005 if Houllier was still there), and (2) the 2008/ 9 season felt like us getting a lot closer to the league than we ever did under Houllier.
06 Sep 2022 12:26:11
CP1975, Wasn’t there to a degree a requirement of Houllier to be a authoritarian, Due to the “spice boys” tag the team picked up? If memory serves me correctly he took over that period?