4 Apr 2012

Earle tells Kenny: Dump Downing and sign this £8m star instead. Agree?

Liverpool winger Stewart Downing continues to be a crushing disappointment at Anfield, and with no goals and no assists in the league all season, it's clear the club need to prioritise the signing of *effective* wingers this summer. Liverpool haven't had much luck with wide players over the years, but according to Wimbledon legend Robbie Earle, Sunderland's Stephane Sessegnon is a ready-made replacement for Downing.

Speaking on ESPN last night, Earle - who was appointed an MBE in 1999 for his services to football - enthused that Sessegnon was the 'best player on the pitch' during Sunderland's recent draw with Man City, and when asked if a bigger club should sign him in the Summer, he said:

"He's certainly someone with the potential to go and play for one of the big clubs in the Premier League, and do well there. I look at Liverpool in the wide areas with Stewart Downing, and I think he gives you more than Downing in the wide areas".

Sessengon has been linked with Liverpool several times this year, and although he's aware of interest from bigger clubs, he told L'Equipe recently that he refuses to 'think about that so far', and will only talk about his future 'at the end of the season.

Martin O'Neill recently Insisted that he would be 'massively reluctant' to let the Beninese International go, but as we've seen so many times though, if a bigger club wants a player from a smaller club, the chances are that, eventually, a deal will go through.

Having said that, Sunderland are doing far better than Liverpool at the moment, as the form guide for 2012 shows:

Liverpool FC Relegation Form - 2012

In January, the Daily Mail claimed that Liverpool were prepared to open the bidding at £8m, and were 'willing to put together a package that suits both player and his family in a bid to convince him to remain in the Premier League'.

The midfielder has seven goals and nine assists in twenty nine games for Sunderland so far this season, which is a creditable return. Worth a bid?



Jaimie Kanwar


94 comments:

  1. How much smaller are Sunderland than Liverpool?

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  2. Would be a good signing for Liverpool as besides Gerarrd and Suarez we lack any creativity and flair in our build up, making it hard to score against teams who sit deep. I would very much like to see a creative player to provide the link between midfield and attack (nobody mention Adam please) to take some of the burden off Suarez who is tasked with creating and scoring. We either sign a creator for him or sign him a finisher, he should only be playing one role in the team.

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  3. Right now, the difference is pretty minimal, but irrespective of current woes, Liverpool overall is a bigger club, and will probably still have more chance of regularly competing for trophies in the future.

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  4. I think smaller and bigger club in this means - financial capacity

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  5. Chi Bai lu, just stop gap measure, this puki mak team needs an overhaul. Me, Ashfah says so, now it's kunkit time.

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  6. Bring him 2 Anfield, Really like this player he has amazing technique and would unlock the best of defences.... he also plays without fear something which seems 2 be crippling LiverpooL this season.. Henderson seems afarid of making a mistake, Adam and Carroll suffer with their confidence...??? Know why because they doubt their own ability and guess what...??? Their right you aint good enough 2 play in the red shirt... Dowing and Henderson however are good players but unfortunately they also lack belief!!!!! YNWA

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  7. He will not sign for Liverpool as one of the big teams in the league will come in for him !!

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  8. Suddenly every Pundit is trying to tout Sessegnon to the "bigger clubs". So predicatable and so disrespectful to Sunderland. Funny how nobody was interested when the Fat Geordie Bruce didn't know how to play him to get the best out of him, nobody was the slightest bit interested then!
    Pundits and Journos really are a pain in the neck!!!

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  9. please stop sign a player from mediocre team. Enough is enough. Take a lesson from the past season. Get talented player from abroad

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  10.  The problem is will the player be able to perform on form when he come to Liverpool? Many player have fail to perform like their old form since they come to Liverpool.

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  11. such as? Sessegnon was playing abroad a year ago to be fair.

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  12. And Liverpool are a bigger club .....  How ? please explain. Liverpool are midtable at best just as sunderland are, sunderland and
    Liverpool get much the same support.

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  13. so we're only going to sign players from arsenal, real madrid and etc? this guy has much more talent and flair that downing puts on show. he gets the good odd cross in here and there, but he doesn't take defenders on yet alone beat them, which draws defenders away from the centre and allows a better crossing position. downing rarely does that, he'll pass horizantally or backwards instead.

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  14. Eventhough Downing has been poor, i think he is still good squad player to have, his job is to put decent crosses in the box but what is he supposed to do when Carroll regularly gets beaten in the air for the ball and there is no other player to aim for in the box. Downing could have done better and with a better striker upfront, he would have definitely had atleast 5-6 assists.

     Only players i think Liverpool should get rid of are Carroll and Adam both have been very poor signings, both are very stiff and technically poor and looses the possession alot and not good enough if Liverpool aim to compete for the league in the future. Though statistically Adam is not bad but his general play is not that of a top quality midfielder but of a average midfielder.

    Sessengon looks a quality player and i won't mind Liverpool buying him but Martin O'Neill is tough negotiator and it won't be at all easy getting him cheap. I would like to see Liverpool signing Hoilett, quality player, young and free agent in the summer.

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  15. mate there is two very good reasons why we would go for him, first he is not british and second and more importantly he is black and we know what king kenny thinks of black players.  After all look at our team infact look at the whole squad how many black players do we have....

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  16. as a sunland fan sess could play for anyteam liverpool of course are a bigger club trophys define that, but 8million  not a prayer ya gotta pay more than ya did for hendo

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  17. would not go for him even...should have proof read it b4....oooops

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  18. 8 million?  Are you all mental?  Put a 1 in front of it. 

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  19. Sessegnon has talent no doubt why with Liverpools resources cant they find a Sessegnon of their own on the cheap.
    Everyone seemingly are able to find class players on the cheap why cant Liverpool take a punt on a few carefully chosen cheapies and pick up 1 or two world class players.

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  20. Lets think about this...Downing cost £20m but Sess is performing much better.  So where the hell did £8m come from?!

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  21. I can tell you now... Living in Australia e erroneous here follows Liverpool, Man U or Chelsea...
    Sunderland who???

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  22. Typical deluded Liverpool suporters... face it , Liverpool like Sunderland, Swansea , Norwich etc are mid table teams.. Im not clear why any player with ambition would want to go to any of those. the only odd thing is that Liverpool su[orters appear to be "slightly" deluded. Look at the table , i believe Liverpool have 8 points from their last 36 possible. Big club!! do you not realise the fans are a laughing stock..

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  23. Sess is better then most in the EPL, i never thought sunderland would be so lucky to get a player of this quality... Any bid less then 20million is a joke. His is the closest thing in this league to lionel messi

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  24. Mediocre team? Sunderland are one point behind Liverpool and have a better goal difference...

    Liverpool aren't as big as they once were, deal with it.

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  25. Sorry mate let me stop you there Henderson is not a good player full stop.

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  26. If his price goes over 10 million, don't even bother. The main thing the team needs, however, is a playmaker. But as long as the team is coached in the same manner i suspect that most players who are doing the business elsewhere will not make any difference for us.

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  27. KD biggest mistake was to go for overrated British players at ridiculous prices. If comes to that they cost him his job than so b it. Just how many better foreign players he would have bought with 80 million English pounds. I wonder did mr Liverpool (Carrager) had any say in it cos back in September he said that there is great togetherness in the team with all the British lads coming in cos when we went out b4 we played I think it was Everton my wife could talk to other players wife's without having to try and speak Spanish or French.I haven't seen Sessegnon play often enough but I've seen enough of Downing. So I think he would b better player for us.

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  28. Total lack of knowledge by Robbie "I've seen Sess on tv once" Earle. He aint a winger, he play's behind or off the Centre forward. Anyway he wants to back in Paris / France with his family

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  29. There are enough "homegrown" in LFC now so we must look abroad to scouting talent that we can afford.

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  30. So you're saying Dalglish is a racist now are you? Jesus, if that's not a personal attack I don't know what is. Absolute tosh. The amount of black players in the squad is irrelevant. The amount of GOOD players, or the amount of players actually living up to their values - that's anoher thing. You seem to be the kind of person who would inflict an "ethnic count" into football.  

    Out of interest, seeing as you're insinuating - no actually accusing - the manager of being a racist, can you tell us all how many black players he's dumped? And how does Glen Johnson get a game? How does Sterling get on the park? Ecclestone? Suarez (who is of mixed race background)?

    I understand (and sympathise) that you are unhappy with the job he's doing, but calling him a racist is uncalled for, and damaging.

    And pretty silly.

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  31. Go follow one of the Australian teams. Sitting in your armchair thousands of miles away don't make you a supporter!!!!!

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  32. Ahahahahahaha - £8m for Sessegnon...what a load of rubbish! Add at least a 2 in front of it and it may be considered. He is 3 times the player Henderson is and you paid £16m for him!!

    Same onld saying but give me some names of players who have skills, pace, can beat and man, is ok in the air and can finish? And be realistic - £8m?? A scouser must have wrote this!

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  33. Sunderland aren't doing 'far better' than Liverpool this season. The league table actually shows that liverpool are still above Sunderland. The form table merely shows recent results, hence it being the form table. Cracking journalism as ever. 

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  34. £8m ? ... good luck with that

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  35. Clearly you haven't seen him play - ripped Liverpool, Man City, etc to bit!

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  36. And we have took 4 points off them this year!

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  37. Stay in Australia then - But take away the European exploits in the past and look at the present! Its not all about fan base! If you said European then does that make Forest a 'massive' club?

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  38. that's neither here nor there. Antonio Valencia went from Wigan to the Scum and now he's one of the most dangerous wingers in the prem. Just saying Sunderland are a smaller club is ridiculous. These "smaller clubs" have been wiping the floor with our multi-million pound squad this season.

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  39. I think Earle is suggesting that Sessegnon could still do a better job than Downing, despite not being a natural winger.

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  40. Russell077. I don't think the color of the players should come into this. It might have to do something with him not being British cos for some reason he thinks they r good. But than again he signed Emrique, Coates and Suarez who has black background.

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  41. £18m?? Same money as henderson - come off it, who would you replace Sess with for £18m? Try at least £30m then you coul dbuy 3-4 'quality' signings for all areas - defence, strikers, etc!

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  42. I didn't say I agree with that figure, I just stated the Daily Mail's figure.

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  43. So name a player that is a quality playmaker that you will get for £10m? Speak to you in about 4 months when your still looking! And Hoilette on a free doesn't count - somebody you need to pay for!

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  44. Very true but the ways things are going that could soon change! Only time will tell

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  45. Please idiot, he is a good player but wake to yourself Modric, Silva, even Bale is better. Closest thing to Messi dream on.

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  46. I like him he is a good player and someone that really enjoys a fight (not literally) but i think what KK and LFC have done is coming back to haunt them, the price tags they paid for average players will make it hard to get anyone on the cheap inside PL. Which i believe that they would have to look outside the PL and make deals early.

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  47. kenny doesnt wANT BLACK.THat racist.

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  48. I like the idea to get Sessegnon but don't dump Downing. 

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  49. FROM WHERE WE ARE SITTING IN THE TABLE LIVERPOOL LOOKS TINY

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  50. I reckon Arsenal will go in for him. Will suit them. Will give Walcott a good kick up the backside that he needs to achieve consistency as well as question marks over Arshavin's future.

    I don't see us spending big, unless we sell big. Last winter/summer windows was our chance to spend big without worrying too much about selling loads of players to fund it. From now on, its likely FSG will be more disciplined about the spending. We really have made a big mess of the £100m+ we spent in last winter/summer windows, its not like we can afford do that every year without selling big. Apart from Suarez and Agger, don't see any teams spending big on our players.

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  51. He isn't a natural winger but certainly can play out wide in a fluid 4-3-3-1. But yes, PSG is one of the places to be at the moment, especially for players that have ties to France, in terms of money and ambition. 

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  52. £18m for a squad player for a club that has barely got enough 'good enough' first XI players.....great(!)

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  53. Yes, because last 12 games defines a team's historic standing doesn't it? I can't think of many sadder things than coming onto another team's forum to attempt to mock - vacuous existence.

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  54. Downing never was a 18 or 20m player (whatever the price was), everyone knew it except for Kenny or Commolli, whoever signed him. His fair price should have been 10-12m.
    Summer business was so bad, that alone should enough to sack both Kenny and Commolli. Downing, Carroll, Henderson, Adam were all bad signings. If owners had knowledge about football they would have never sanctioned those signings.

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  55. I have always had respect for Liverpool FC and the fans. Other than being an immediately recognisable top flight English club, their status is built on past achivements which aren't going to revisit the club for a long time. If anything you could say SAFC are on the rise this season and have met Liverpool on their way down to a mid table finish.

    Now all these LFC supporters who are talking about getting top quality players in from Europe need to really take stock if their clubs position. I doubt the owner will sanction another mad spending spree and any top player will look at the squad and see some quality but alot of mediocrity and players reaching the end if their prime.

    LFC's days of going into a season expecting to challenge for the title or automatic to 4 place are well and truly over. Welcome to the experience of having to truly support your club through thick and thin.

    Good luck against the Toffees in the Cup

    SAFC FTM

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  56. Why doesn't Hoillet count? The club should be moving heaven and earth to get the guy, of course he counts. If there are free transfer out there, it is our job to go for them!

    Also, you misunderstood, i didn't say not to pay over 10 million, i said not to pay over 10 million for this guy. The thing in common that all our dud signings have is that they came from dud teams. Big fish in small ponds. The reason Hoillet is worth the risk is exactly due to the price. If i see us making another club rich by buying their rubbish who has no clue what it is like to play for a club like ours. Being an international of Benin, and not Ivory Coast, or another team that deals with expectation, means that anything over 10 million is a blind faith risky signing, once again. If the swop him for Henderson, fine, but paying another stupid fee to Sunderland? No way. 

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  57. We really blew it. Now we have to sell to buy to get anywhere near that level of funds again

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  58. Rassell077. Spot on. I remember Kenny refusing to buy John Barnes because he wasn't white. Wonder what would have happened if he'd played for Liverpool? Oh, hang on!

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  59. Are we seriously considering who are bigger than who, based on current form?? Have Sunderland ever won anything? Same as Newcastle?? And before you start I do not live in the past but understand our history makes us a much bigger club than any other in the league, Including Man Utd, We have had shit teams for 2 decades now, still compete, win trophies, global reckoning and massive fan base so yes a player like Sessegnon would jump at chance of leaving mighty Sunderland to join LFC even if Sunderland finish 6th and we finish 12th!!!!

    The lad has got quality, no doubt but so has Downing, just hasnt shown it enough.YET

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  60. Swop him for Carroll

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  61. Can't believe the rubbish people come out with. We may not have won the league for 20 years but a couple of seasons ago we won the champions league, got to another final, was ranked the number one team in the competition and competed for the title. We also signed what was then the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in football due to our global reach. We might not be what we were in the glory days and have have a couple of terrible seasons but these have been terrible for our standards, not Sunderland who would be delighted with what we've done this season! Get a grip

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  62. What does chi bai lu mean lol

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  63. This comment is a disgrace and should be removed. Jaimie, how can you allow a comment like this which is accusing the manager of our club of being a racist! Surely you can't defend this?!

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  64. henderson and downing lack alot more than belief.

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  65. sunderland-they play in the premiership.you know the premiership don't you?
    it's that programme that comes on after home and away.
     

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  66. sunderland don't have to sell so we'll end up with a situation where we pay over the odds again just like with henderson.

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  67. MN - I obviously don't share his view (!). I've removed the post.

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  68. keep downing,sessegnon will need someone to clean his boots.

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  69. do you really believe that?

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  70. Steven Mitchell705:57 pm, April 04, 2012

    this sess thing will be a good judge of Sunderlands ambitions under MON , 1 in my opinion that sunderland should be building as we have no replacement should he decide his future lies else where, unlike henderson who collback was a ready made BETTER replacement

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  71. Hardly a risk of faith when he is now established in the PL, Your comments Typify everything what is wrong with LFC and it's fans, Bleeting on about how historic your club is and rightly so but as with everything in life else time moves on and and relying on reputation of old has failed.
    I'd rather have our team of so called 'duds' than your set of overpaid crap anyday.

    Long live the 'king'  : )   

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  72. Lazy 'so-called' journalist blaming yet another lazy 'so-called journalist.....copy and paste professionals. 

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  73. Disagree.

    purchase: Hoilett, A. Johnson, and Llorente (if possible)

    Promote: Sterling (offcially), Shelvey (officially) and Eccleston

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  74. May I just say that Sess isn't actually a winger, he's an attacking midfielder, a baggio style player, and when he has played on the wing, he hasn't been great, MON plays him down the middle, he becomes properly world class. Anyway, Sunderland is a classier club all round, Dalgliesh (Or Dogliesh) and his cronies behave in a disgraceful manner, even though he is only an average manager ( I feel he believes he was sent by god). Liverpool are good to have there simply for a laugh!

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  75. Robbie Earle's MBE doesn't add any weight to his views for me, nor does his association with the Crazy Gang

    Sessegnon would be a fantastic signing, but is he homesick or is that BS to excuse a move to a bigger club

    Liverpool can certainly pay him more

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  76. We can't just keep dumping players and buying new ones. Downing is a good player so is Henderson. The problem is the complete and total inability of the Manager and coaches to get them playing with either confidence or in the right bloody position half the time. They may not be worth 36m between them but they are more than good enough to play in this league.

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  77. Liverpool are a big club but have not always been so,
     pre Shankley they were a joke, they are in now in serious decline and face the danger of becoming a "has been", "sleeping giant" eg.
    Leeds.
    No one has a divine right to success , the same goes for Man U post Fergie and Arsenal when Wenger goes, it can slip away very quickly. 

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  78. 'us a MUCH BIGGER CLUB than....Man Utd'

    OYes, you do live in the past.

    We have almost done bugger all in the last two decades whilst that bloody club in Manchester has dominated for the past two decades, yet we are somehow 'much bigger'....yeh, right(!) No wonder we are becoming a laughing stock as time goes by, as fans like you and embarassing post like the above, throw up the 70s/80s success as success we have just achieved recently and that we have some god-given right to be top of the tree, regardless of the mediocre crap we have served out for most of the last two decades. Get back to the history museum. 

    This club needs bringing right down to back to Earth, sooner, the better.

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  79. Not sure where you got the idea that i mentioned 'historic' in anything that i said. But happy to repeat it if you didn't understand. We've bought, so called, established players for large fees already and, for some reason, they have not worked. Until we work out why those signings have not worked, signing any player for a large sum is a risk, particularly from the same teams. If those players had not found their transfers to Anfield difficult, they would have done better. It's nothing to do with history, Liverpool are still bigger than Sunderland, Blackpool and Villa. So, getting another player from one of those clubs is going to be a risk. Of course, the way that O'Neill is going, compared to us, there might not be any difference between the two teams in the near future.

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  80. Agreed, but, unlike Leeds, Newcastle and other sleeping giants, Liverpool have competed for trophies and prizes up to 5 years ago. Even winning the carling cup was more than the other sleeping giants have achieved.

    I also think that the money in football now will make it harder to displace the top sides compared to 20 years ago when teams like Norwich, Southampton, Ipswich, Watford were all challenging for the title at various times.

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  81. I dont think anyone really believes he buys a player based on race... but we all know WITH CERTAINTY that he buys players based on passport. I'd say that makes him a nationalist. He forced both Aqua and Raul out of the club bcuz of passport..now how is that working out??

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  82. Both are aboslute crap... and have shown in week in and out .. pure garbage..

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  83. The bottom line is that Dalgish is the one that needs to be dumped... possibly the worst manager in the EPL... go manage a pub team. Maybe his players there wont have to shoo him off of the field like a lost senile old man...

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  84. Absolute Bollocks Steven! I am a mackem and live in Perth and we had 150 supporters watching the match last week! What you dont know you idiot is each Premier league club has their own place to watch the match! Dont talk shite man!

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  85. To me Carroll needs time. 

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  86. He will be great signing for LFC but not to replace Downing.I personally believe that Downing will be a great player for us in a near future.

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  87. That was more embarrassing, in my opinion, than the dives and the headbutting and showed, more than anything, that the players appear to be losing respect for him. I remember when Gerrard shook his head, at Birmingham, when Benitez took Torres off, that seemed to confirm that he was losing the players, Gerrard's attitude towards Dalglish at that moment seemed to show a lack of respect. There would have been better ways to ask your manager to leave the pitch than the way he decided to go about it. Carroll swearing at the bench didn't look great, either. It suggests people not buying into what they are being told.

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  88. I agree, not so sure about Henderson and Adam, but I don't think that the signings of Carroll, Downing or, even, Suarez can be judged until they are, at least, playing as well for the team than they used to play for their old teams. And they are not even doing that. I don't know what goes on during training, and Steve Clarke seemed to get the defence playing well when he first came here. If Mourinho rates him, he must be decent. But when we got Kevin Keen, an ex West Ham coach, I wondered what he had shown, must have been on Clarke's recommendation, to suggest he was the man for a team like this when West Ham are always battling relegation or fighting for promotion.

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  89. Definitely, Arsenal do it, Newcastle have been doing it, even Tottenham have done it. Our scouting network needs an overhaul. But if we lose Sterling, then it is not only our scouting network that needs looking at.

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  90. We heard all this kind of talk when we tried to buy Downing, Adam and Henderson. In the last case, we heard it from Sunderland. So, apologies if the club does not want to get bitten again.

    If he costs more than 10 million, it may be a missed opportunity but i think the club should look elsewhere.

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  91. Were you saying the same thing when the club, misguidedly, tried to take Henderson off your hands?!

    If your argument is that you ripped us off with Henderson and now this guy is twice as good as him, I don't think we should be falling into the same trap again! Hoillet has to be the one that we go all out to get. Resale value and all that.

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  92. Agreed that there is a lot of frustration by the loyal fans of Liverpool as our Team is not performing to the highest standard right now with a worst record of 6 losses in 7 games. Players like Downing, Henderson, Carol and Adam have not been able to play to liverpool style. Kenny should look for good and cheap players who can hold the ball well and distribute them accurately. We missed Lucas a lot as when he was playing the defence looked very good and since his injury everything look bad. King Kenny have lost his magic touch. He should leave in a honorable way if he loves the club. Henry should get the Special One as he is the only one who can challenge Ferguson in managing the players and Team.

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