2 Sept 2012

Don't do it, Brendan! Don't fall into the 'Benitez-Trap'...

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is probably the angriest man in Liverpool right now; and who can blame him? As a result of the breathtaking incompetence of Ian Ayre and FSG, the club's most urgent on-field problem remains unsolved, and the Reds must now tackle four competitions with only ONE proven Premier League striker (!) Rodgers has every right to feel aggrieved, and with a feeding-frenzy press conference coming up after the Arsenal game today, he may be tempted to fall into the 'Benitez Trap', and directly or indirectly criticise/blame the LFC hierarchy in public. Don't do it, Brendan!

Please remain calm; don't rise to the bait, and maintain the dignity you've shown in every press conference since arriving at Anfield.

Please don't fan the flames of discontent by publicly airing your frustrations and/or making Rafa-esque criticisms of the board and senior hierarchy. There's just no point; it will create negative headlines for the club, and it will ultimately reflect badly on you.

Additionally, there's no need to try and convince everyone that you're not to blame for the Dempsey failure; any objective observer can surmise what went on, and I doubt many fans blame you for what happened.

If you want to castigate FSG for their abject failure to follow through on their promises then please do so...but chew them out behind closed doors. This is - or should be - the Liverpool way of doing things, and you've shown so far that you are perfectly in tune with the philosophy and culture of the club.

Recent managers have let themselves down in this regard; please don't follow suit.

Now, go and stuff Arsenal!

Jaimie Kanwar


62 comments:

  1. This transfer policy debacle clearly shows that Rodgers does not have the stature, clout nor the experience to manage a club like Liverpool. With Kuyt, Carroll and Bellamy all out the door why did he not have several alternatives on the radar instead of just Dempsey? The way the club is being run it is now the laughing stock of the Premiership.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Exactly brendan rodgers isnt to blame for this. in brendan we trust pity we only have one decent striker. borini doesnt look like he will be scoring anytime soon. maybe adam morgan can take this as his time to shine.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Spot on JK. But I suspect BR will be highly tempted to voice his frustrations to the press. The only positive in this for BR is that whatever the team achieves this season can all boil down to FSG and Ayre's failure and incompetence

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good point Jamie there's no use in makling an 'us against them' mentality unless it's against outsiders. Still, gonna be frustrating seeing Suarez and Borini trying to put the ball in the net from 8 yards until at least January...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brendan is a wise man he know what to do.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What is this shit...? "Brendan Rodgers is PROBABLY the angriest man at Liverpool right now"....? smells like BS to me, he (BR) was PROBABLY involved with the owners in all of this.... my own feelings are that Gerrard is PROBABLY the angriest man at Liverpool right now.....

    Sorry, but i don't trust BR and i REALLY don't trust FSG, nor do i trust the nature of this article either....

    ReplyDelete
  7. So fed up with LFC continuing as a laughing stock. Deadline day was a disgrace. Werner said recently they could compete with any one in the finance stakes yet couldn't raise an extra million for Dempsey??? If I was BR I'd be tempted to walk away already... FSG wake up or get out

    ReplyDelete
  8. You're a wanker Jaimie... Go support you're beloved manure

    ReplyDelete
  9. What do you mean 'the nature of this article'? I don't really trust FSG either, but I do trust Rodgers. There's no basis upon which to conclude that he is somehow complicit in the transfer fiasco.

    ReplyDelete
  10. sorry but the Liverpool way no longer exists.. all our our privacy has been and will be aired by BEING:Liverpool and will be shown whatever the result.., the media outs all our interest in players for others to snatch up and our 'behind the scenes' tv show will be like big brother... might as well do it today.. it'll come out on the show anyway! might as well be honest too.. honesty's always the best policy in my eyes..

    Go on Brendan give em what for... then do em for unfair dismissal if they sack you.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I wonder who it was that highlighted the players that we went for in this transfer market...???

    Heard that Benitez had talks with John Henry in the run up to the summer transfer window....

    Liverpool Way...???

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jimbo chief JK tormentor12:07 pm, September 02, 2012

    Entirely Todgers fault, didn't he agree to take full control of transfer dealings before he took the job, probably still thinks he's at Swansea trying to get bargains, the man can't handle a club like Liverpool. That's why fsg got him, to save on cash. Im afraid the club is going down hill. The kanwar cult are gonna have to wait a very long time for any kind of success.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I agree with JK but when will the owners take responsibility for their actions?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Outside Anfield's corridors it's difficult for us to know who is responsible for the club's transfer failings. Did Dalglish just give Comolli a list of players required and leave the (exhorbitant) fees up to him? Did Rodgers give Ayre a list of players surplus to requirements and leave the (distress) fees up to him? Is it true that Rodgers didn't know that his £20m net transfer budget included wages? Rodgers also seems to be suggesting that he's lost players he wanted to keep. Who? Personally I'm baffled by the whole business. Time was Liverpool had a team that player-for-player, position-by-position, was at least the equal of any other premier league team. Now they are scraffling about for a never-was 29-year-old striker who refuses to play. Ugh.

    ReplyDelete
  15. He's already let slip more than he needed to. We can certainly now say that a "sell to buy" policy was in effect this summer thanks to some of his comments to date. Still, I'm not convinced that Rodgers didn't at least agree in principal with the price on Dempsey. Seems like it was a game we played, taking a risk and standing firm on the price and it simply didn't work out. Dempsey didn't seem to ultimately care if he ended up with Spurs instead of Liverpool.

    ReplyDelete
  16. He's repeatedly said that he's the man in charge of transfers. Perhaps some of the comments have been inconsistent and frankly we just don't know how it actually works behind the scenes. Suggesting either way that Rodgers was or was not implicit in a"fiasco" that may or may not have occured the way it is reported in the press is speculative, nothing more. Do we really know how desperate he was to sign Dempsey? Do we really know he didn't agree that the asking price was too much? All we know is that Liverpool were interested and made a bid but ultimately a higher bid from Spurs was accepted.

    ReplyDelete
  17. And you have concluded that BR is "probably" the angriest man at Liverpool...my conclusion is that that is probably BS, we don't know if this whole thing was a fcuk up or not do we..???

    I mean it could have planned for all we know, perhaps BR knew that we we'rent going to bring anyone in...perhaps thats why we have Morgan lined up....

    You see Jamie, i know that all is not what it seems at the Club....i also know that only one side of the story of last season is being propagated.....

    I also believe that you are much more in the know than you are letting on.....hence the nature of your articles of late...

    ReplyDelete
  18. What I mean by that is I doubt Rodgers is complicit in any behind the scenes shadyness, which is what Mitszu suggested. For example, I doubt he was happy with the alleged 3m bid; I doubt he was even involved.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What's wrong with ranting? Mourinho does it all the time, & he has no qualms to take the owners to task, & he's still regarded as one of the most successful manager of all time. It's better to speak your mind than to let the owners dictate what you do. If Rafa had not spoken his mind & tell the fans the "truth", fans would have accepted the owners' lies and blamed everything bad on Rafa. When that happens, things change very fast and even the players would turn against the manager

    ReplyDelete
  20. I can't see any manager willing to go with what went on, putting their own reputation on the line.
    If anything, he possibly saw the writing on the wall which is why he left melwood early probably seething, knowing he's just been buggered with more than a fish fork.
    I reckon if he keeps us out the relegation zone come January, then he's deffo shown his worth and deserves backing to the hilt from the owners to make up for this faux pas.

    ReplyDelete
  21. There is one reason why Brendan WOULD go along with this....and that is that he would get the symapthy vote from the fan's....you know...we all get peeved with the owners but get behind BR....

    That would provide the owners with some breathing space whilst BR would be allowed to get on with football matters...had this not happened, we would be unhappy with the net spend....and rightly so...

    This is just a method to get us behind Brendan...

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tell me this: what positives have ever come from Benitez and Dalglish moaning to the press? Did it bring goodwill on the club? Did it create positive headlines? Did it galvanise the team? Did it create success?

    ReplyDelete
  23. You sound like the a-typical conspiracy theorist.

    ReplyDelete
  24. This has NOTHING to do with JK's argument. JK argued that FSG denied Rodgers the use of funds, which has no parallels with the notion that he can't choose who to buy and etc. Your username suggests that you will counter JK's argument no matter what, regardless of how ridiculous you will sound.

    ReplyDelete
  25. just stop all the mourning fellow kippites... lets stuff arsenal today...i have only one concern right now... thats SUSO not being promoted, other than that we are all good, Morgana and Sterling will prove that age doesnot matter quality does...end of... YNWA

    ReplyDelete
  26. I say that it is time for the fan's to rally in protest, i say we are being taken for mugs.....

    ReplyDelete
  27. Just because you're in charge of transfers, it doesn't mean you can go and spend your employer's finance at will. He doesn't have a Damien Comolli there negotiating with potential signings and settling transfer fees- He is in charge of the activites that both KD and DC handled.

    ReplyDelete
  28. As parochial and uplifting it could seem sometimes (even his Fergie rant pumped me up), Rafa's rants kind of sent Liverpool's form into a downward spiral.

    ReplyDelete
  29. no point - it will just make us look even more like mugs, with no benefit to be gained

    Just move on and hope for the best

    ReplyDelete
  30. BRs biggest problem was that he wanted Dempsey knowing the boards ruling on overage players and excessive fees. John Henry will accept older players if they come cheap or even better, free. They where never going to pay more than £3M for him if they could help it, this was upped to £5M but knowing Spurs would beat that bid anyway. It was made to look like FSG had made a fair offer knowing full well it wouldn't be accepted and with 2 hours left Ayre went home. FSG don't know anything about English football and are taking advice from god knows who, and are making awful mistakes.

    ReplyDelete
  31. And you sound like someone who doesn't question ANYTHING......

    But unlike you, im happy to hear what others have to say....thats what a forum is for....differing views...? so other people can take a look at the whole picture and make up their OWN mind about what is REALLY going on....

    IF you think that everything that has going on at this Club for the last 3 years is simply black and white then you are VERY deluded...

    Look at the Rafa v the Owners saga, there WAS much more to that than what the fanbase was privy to....

    The appointment of Roy Hodgson....etc etc etc etc....

    Its got nothing to with being A - Conspiracy theorist... its got everything to do with LFC.....and trying to read between the lines....

    ReplyDelete
  32. Yes we screwed up here and by BR earlier comments this leaves us short. I am concerned by the negativity/anger shown here and elsewhere . Behind closed doors you say and yet we publicly show fans of the rest of the Premier League our percieved weakness. The spirit shown at Anfield for decades puts fear into teams and opposition alike. and these forums should maintain that, best fans in the world remember.

    We lost out on one above average player. The bigger picture is of young attack minded side that outplayed the current champions and since added Sahin. Take a look at our starting line up and compare to same time last season, I am excited about that.

    Add to that the financial saving we have made on the wage bill in this time of recession.

    How can youngsters become seasoned senior players if they do not play, Sterling, Morgan will now get those chances. So get over it, history done and let's put some fear into last season's top 4 coz here we come.

    ReplyDelete
  33. i truly believe brendan rodgers could go on to be a great for liverpool. i think he has started brilliantly, and it is only the owners hampering us. we are not a throw our toys out the pram style club, if you want that and instant success go blue, you got a choice of two!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Nope, i disagree, questions need to be asked...FSG sdhould NOT be allowed to get away with taking us for mugs....

    Its a case of SHOW US THE MONEY...simple as that!

    Protest is the only way to confront them, nothing wrong with a peaceful protest, just asking some big "money" men where their cash is....

    ReplyDelete
  35. That is so uncalled for, given BR has had only 2 games in PL...and what do u want to really protest against..yea its frustrating to lose to WBA...yea it is frustrating to draw a game after coming close to winning...yea it is frustrating not to sign a poacher but give the guy a chance, will u? It takes time to adopt his ideologies n his tactics...and about the poacher thing...if barca can play without any striker and still pwn teams, why can't we? especially when we are trying to play their style..give it some time...we may lose/draw all our games in first two months but after that..once everyone's settled its gonna be climbing the points table till the end...a la arsenal last season....

    ReplyDelete
  36. enlighten us further or we just have rumors

    ReplyDelete
  37. probably explains why your not a top class football manager then.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Just seen the line up for todays game and can't understand all the negative comments re: transfers; it is the most exciting line up of Liverpool footballers I have seen since King Kenny's first reign as manager!!! It was a disapponitment the end of summer transfer window however the line up today looks good, the goals will come!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Despite all the recent negativity around FSG, they are universally better than H&G from evidence thus far. They seem to actually care about the club's well-being while they are still learning the nature of football business. Some may argue they have no idea when it comes to football, but they arn't dumb- they didn't get to where they are as businessmen because they are dumb. They will make mistakes, but it's part of the learning process.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Jimbo chief JK tormentor1:04 pm, September 02, 2012

    I don't think I sound ridiculous at all. After completely shutting out Carroll, u would have thought he had a nailed on replacement. He has failed to get walcott, Sturbridge, Dempsey or huntelaar. Instead spent circa £28 mill on a borini who will not cut it and Allen , where we had plenty of midfielders of his standard anyway.
    We,ll see if you're still championing br after 10 league games.

    ReplyDelete
  41. I don't think he will do it. Brendan is much bigger than that. Still early days and he will say what is right. With limited resources, these will be testing times for Brendan and how things work out will reflect how good a manager he is.

    I believe he will do alright. It is not difficult for a manager to manage a club with a huge transfer budget. Just ship players in and out with money thrown into the market. But with limited resources,the manager's job becomes more difficult and requires skills to manage the club.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Great article. Couldn't agree more with you, Jamie.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Who knows whats been going on behind closed doors, so I agree with the notion that maybe Rodgers isn't blameless in this. But who knows.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Its good that more and more people are starting to realise just what sort of people FSG and Ian Ayre are and stop exercising blind faith just because we've had a bad few years, in management terms, prior to their arrival.

    I think it's fair to accept that they have done some good things since their arrival, but their first big mistake was to employ Comolli. Whilst it was Dalgish and Comolii that actually spent the transfer funds, where were the spending checks then - how naive were they? Now they overcompensate, which has seen us miss out on players and may have been the reason why we didn't buy a forward in January, which could have made all the difference to our season last year.

    Rodgers has to kop some of the transfer market blame. Whilst Allen looks like a fantastic signing, the priority was to get a goalscorer. Rodgers knew that lack of one was the problem last season, as did the rest of the world, but evidently no strong moves were made early in the window, instead he decided to strengthen in an area of relative strength.

    It is thus understandable, and not an exaggeration, to ask is Liverpool in good hands?

    ReplyDelete
  45. All is to blame here and BR needs to take his share in this. Dempsey cost 6 mil not 30 mil and can play in many positions. A forward should of been his priority after buying Allen and Borini instead of buying Sahin or rather bringing him in for the season costing over 7mil. He obviously had not got his prorities right. He can moan or groan all he likes but the fact is we play more defensive football than last season and results are looking just as bad!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  46. imagine if FSG had some balls and not withered away after one overspending window. they honestly seem like they are chasing their tail, trying to make up for a bad window by doing 180 degrees the oppossite of what they previously did.

    they are utter clowns. sorry kanwar, i know we are not allowed to criticise the owners on this site

    ReplyDelete
  47. 60 mins gone before the keeper made a save. we have gone backwards .tic tac crap.we used to appauld oppos keepers off the field not long ago for keepin the score down how times have changed

    ReplyDelete
  48. that half a million a week FSG are saving on wages will come in handy in the Championship

    ReplyDelete
  49. Didn't see United game today but by all accounts they were lucky to win.

    Is it luck or is it due to good players?

    The most vital part of football is scoring goals and we haven't had a goal scorer since Torres left.

    Also, Gerrard has now given away possession for 3 of the 7 goals we have already conceded. He needs to get his act together.

    Rogers looked very weary and a little shell shocked today in press conference.

    He has discussed Friday's shambles with the owners already. Our only hope is that Anelka is released from Chiniese club and fancies another stint at Anfield......

    ReplyDelete
  50. Anyone who watched us play last season could see that all we needed was a striker.
    Since BR has taken over he has shipped out Bellamy, Kuyt and Carroll, plus the potential midfield goals of Maxi. He then blows £10mill (??) on an untried and relative unknown in Borini, who he seems to want to play wide-right.
    We now have one recognised striker (Suarez) who isn't really a striker, but a creative attacker.
    If BR wants a sympathy vote, he can fnck off, because his FIRST purchase should have been a proven goalscorer.
    This smacks of negligence, and also BR having such an ego that he wants to discard EVERY player from the Dalglish era, regardless of how much damage it may do to the team's chances of success.

    His ego was further demonstrated by his picking of a clearly unfit Sahin over Shelvey, purely to show that "We got him and you didn't".

    I'm all for playing nice football, but when the goalie is not allowed to take proper goal kicks anymore, maybe it's time for a re-think???

    And yes, I'm tired and cheesed off.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I'm not sure if Fulham would have sold to us even if we had bid £12mill, to be honest. It's like taking the piss out of shopkeeper all year, then hoping he'll save you the finest Xmas goose.....

    Probably.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Ok, let's be fair here. BR isn't to blame? There's a little blame. Could've had Dempsy or Rhodes, his team went out and got Borini. And if we are being honest, it's a little too early to make a judgment on him. HE said he didn't see the need to get a goal scorer, then on the day before the trade deadline changed his mind. Pepe being lazy in goal and not playing up to his past standards? That's coaching. And if he can't be coached to get back into form, replacing him is also on BR. There's Johnson and his horrible play today against Arsenal. I've been screaming about defense on here for 2 seasons now, that's something BR needs to address as well, but didn't, and now he's getting hit in the face with it. There's a lot of blame for how this season is starting out, a lot of it may be on the owners and board. But Brendan's hands are far from clean in this.

    ReplyDelete
  53. No, he can't spend at will. But if he's in charge of transfers as well as the team on the field, he should know better than waste that much money on a Borini, when a scorer was of greater need. He had a budget, so what? 28 million for Borini, and he wasn't willing to spend 13 on Dempsey? Maybe Clint's asking price was too much. He still had time to go after a Rhodes or something. He didn't. A scorer was needed from the start, BR said he wasn't looking for one. Now the window is closed and we have none. And that is all on BR now. Plus, his attacking style now shows how weak we really are on defense as well as in the midfield. BR doesn't even realize there's a need there. He can't fix problems he doesn't see, and that has nothing to do with a fixed budget. Heck, if had used all of the transfer fees on one truly worthy, top-flight player that would have scored goals or improved the defense, I'd be applauding him. But it's Kenny 2.0, I want my own players, not the last guy's, and bringing in as many B level talents as he could find rather than slowly building up with 1 A level player until he got more funds.

    Are the people on here for real? We're sitting in 18th now, and looking at a relegation battle. And you all want to defend Brendan Rodgers for this? Well, at least FSG will have to pony up some cash in January to rescue us from relegation.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Still excited after today's loss? I'm not.

    ReplyDelete
  55. I don't want a learning experience for the owners. I want titles and hardware. If they don't know how to run a club, they shouldn't be running it, or at least get help from people who do. They haven't, and that's terrible business.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Agree comepletely!

    ReplyDelete
  57. LFC will finish below the likes of Everton,West Brom,West Ham,Newcastle,Totenham,Sunderland,Aston Villa .So i predict a bottom of the table finish this season.That will beat last year's record as well! Thats a hard reality!

    ReplyDelete
  58. Hi Jaimie I understand where your coming from but when the manager does moan to the press it should galvanise the players to at least fight for the manager and gear them up for the next game and mourinho also employs similar tactics with the press. But your right it doesnt create positive headlines in the media but it should fire up the players to prove the manager right which is what happened after the rafa facts rant which helped liverpool go on an amazing run.

    ReplyDelete
  59. A massive attack of Rafa Benitez's character and tenure at this club, disguised as half arsed insight into the way the club is run now, classic Jamie.

    Rafa talking out against the owners helped us out the last owners, maybe he should have kept his mouth shut and we could have gone into administration. Jesus wept, what utter drivel.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Rodgers is an intelligent manager. This is just a minor setback. Liverpool will come out strong against Sunderland and then United after they sort out the midfield issues. Losing Lucas is a blow but hopefully Sahin can fill the gap by being more discipline and being more like Pirlo type of a player. Borini and Suarez will score more goals than Carroll. We just have to give the team more time and I'm sure Rodgers and Co will deliver the title this year. It's not how we start that important, it's where we finish in May is the most important

    ReplyDelete
  61. I think supporters need to know what level of communication is taking place if the manager moves a striker on and then is told he does not have the backing to bring in the guys that he wanted to replace him. Seems to me as if FSG simply wanted Carroll off the books, if Rodgers was not going to play him, but then did a u turn when the manager tried to sign Dempsey. I've said it many times before, even with Dalglish's wasteful spending, they have not backed the team as much as they are making out.

    Not sure if this is a case of the manager or the board not knowing what they are doing or more a case of one not knowing what the other is doing. Either way, the entire saga is a bit embarrassing.

    ReplyDelete