Recruitment strategy under the spotlight

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, GingerrrFox said:

Next summer will allow us to get our ducks back in order. We’ve let the wage bill get out of hand and hopefully the club (more rather those in positions of power) will learn from mistakes that we’ve made in the past 2-3 years, I will say however that it also requires the fans to be more understanding of how a club like ours becomes successful.

 

Our fans in recent years have become adverse to selling players of value, we can only keep a few players on big money and build the team around them, the rest have to be smart investments and concentrate on signing young players before they outgrow us (which has happened with players such as CDK in recent times). Fans have to understand that eventually certain players will be sold, not because the club particularly want to but they kick start the next player cycle.

 

Unfortunately it’s how clubs like ours are able to compete against the financial might of other clubs. We’ve got in this situation because we’ve tried to keep players by inflating wages and it’s not sustainable. 

Spot on, although sadly I'm not holding my breath.

[JimmyC74]

8 minutes ago, Scotch said:

It's not that anyone wants to "stick him up as a liar" but more so that he's told proven lies in the past (admittedly, at other clubs) so when he claims that there is a specialist set piece coach at the club and NOBODY could tell you who it is as he's never been saw or heard of, it isn't too far of a jump to conclude that he's talking sh!te, or at the very least bending the truth and in fact referring to the analyst Mathew Edge who we know is tasked with focusing on that area of play from reporters and ex players. 

It becomes an issue because he was slow to accept the problem initially and then has been slow to find / implement a solution to it. And close season many fear that it isn’t being addressed / including by way of recruitment. To be fair there is still time for him to get someone in and sort the defence but many will reserve judgment until the season starts.

[themightyfin]

Stop panicking.  

New signings are coming.

Patience .

[Foxes BC]

I do get the impression there is disparity going on behind the scenes. Rodgers on one side and recruitment/scouting team on the other. Apparently Vestergaard and Bertrand were Rodgers signings and went against scouting team. Wish we could go back to days of the positive relationship between Pearson and Walsh.

[SafewayFox]

All this talk of lying reminded me of Love Island and the LIARRRR meme that’s doing the round below…..

[Scotch]

3 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Are we talking about Ric's "evidence" of lies here. As the best we've got is Andy Carrol saying he lied about him playing a game when he didn't. In which case every manager in the world is a liar.

 

When you say "nobody", you make it sound like there has been some in depth investigation. A Mercury reporter (the same paper constantly derided as not knowing a jot about the club anymore on here), says they called a few people, then GUESSED it was Edge.

I was more referring to him stating that they beat Madrid to the signing of Charly Musonda. Stating that Real wanted to sign him after he played a blinder for Betis against them when we know that he's never played against Real Madrid. 

 

Or his weird story about assuring Danny McGrain that "as long as I'm here, you are here" after he came in to training asking if he still had a job despite Mcgrain claiming that nothing like that conversation ever took place. 

 

My Fav was the conversation he had with a Rangers fan in the Clyde Tunnel whilst traffic was at a stand still who just wanted to tell him that he was a "Breath of fresh air for the Scottish game". I've lived around Glasow my whole life and I've never known traffic to come to any sort of stand still in the Clude tunnel, much less enough for anyone to do anything as crazy as get out their car. I've also never known a fully grown Scottish man to say the phrase "a breath of fresh air". 

(Admittedly this last one can't be disproven but I have my doubts. The first two were outright lies though). 

 

When I say nobody, I mean NOBODY. Nobody has heard of this set play specialist. Not one single person, wether they know the inner working of the club like Andy King or don't like you or me. 

 

Listen, I'm willing to accept the possibility that there might be a super duper secret specialist that no one knows about. He might be invisible. He might be imaginary. For all we know, he might be a borrower and live in a match box that Brendan keeps in his shoe, who knows. But equally, you have to accept the possibility that maybe he lied and there isn't one. 

[NasPb]

17 minutes ago, themightyfin said:

Stop panicking.  

New signings are coming.

Patience .

How many trialists will we bring in then? 

[smudgerfox]

21 minutes ago, JimmyC74 said:

There has been a growing erosion of faith in Brendan which in part has been driven by performances / results but more so, some of his statements / failure to address inadequacies in the set-up. He doesn’t help himself.

my “erosion of faith” journey 

1 failure to make CL in 2020 having spent most of season in top 4 and in retrospect due to some woeful performances against the weakest opposition

2 as above in 2021 - with less of an excuse having done same season before 

3 failure to fix set pieces at either end of pitch and claiming we don’t have the right type of player to defend corners …(what?) 

4 failure to stop late goals, costing us buckets of points 

5 failure to fully utilise Praet, Hamza, Mendy, Ihenacho, Soumare and other less favoured members of squad 

6 last summer transfer window (which is the noose currently around our necks - three new players of no value whatsoever) 

7 Forest away 

8 promised rebuild 

9 failure to realise rebuild (in which case why promise it?) 

10 implication that supporters have no right to expect any more than we’re getting 

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Scotch said:

I was more referring to him stating that they beat Madrid to the signing of Charly Musonda. Stating that Real wanted to sign him after he played a blinder for Betis against them when we know that he's never played against Real Madrid. 

Scratch the surface and check the actual quotes. He never actually said all of that. He said lots of teams were interested in him, not that Madrid were. The point about Madrid comes from him repeating what someone at Chelsea said to him. The full quotes give an entirely different slant on it.  And I'll say the same for all the other "lies", a bitter Celtic fan posting up a mere or chopped up quote isn't fact. 

 

1 minute ago, Scotch said:

When I say nobody, I mean NOBODY. Nobody has heard of this set play specialist. Not one single person, wether they know the inner working of the club like Andy King or don't like you or me. 

 

Listen, I'm willing to accept the possibility that there might be a super duper secret specialist that no one knows about. He might be invisible. He might be imaginary. For all we know, he might be a borrower and live in a match box that Brendan keeps in his shoe, who knows. But equally, you have to accept the possibility that maybe he lied and there isn't one. 

You keep saying nobody. By that you mean people on foxes talk and the bloke from the Mercury, who basically have no business knowing it and don't know 99.99999% of what goes on. The people that matter might have heard of this person. 

 

Yeah they might not exist, but then I'm not going around slating him for not bringing one in. Perhaps lets stick to what we know for certain if we're getting the knives out? Christ, the bloke serves up enough shite for people to focus on that instead. 

[HoustonFox]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

As you know, I'll back Rodgers when I feel he deserves it but he said he was preparing for a "shake up".

 

If we weren't in a position to do this, and I know there's a lot of time left yet, then he shouldn't have said it. You can't say things, as a manager, especially in public and then not do it.

Maybe he meant that the team were about to go on a smoothie diet as part of the preseason fitness routine? 
 

[Grebfromgrebland]

This is all getting a bit weird 

[Muzzy_Larsson]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

Are we talking about Ric's "evidence" of lies here. As the best we've got is Andy Carrol saying he lied about him playing a game when he didn't. In which case every manager in the world is a liar.

 

When you say "nobody", you make it sound like there has been some in depth investigation. A Mercury reporter (the same paper constantly derided as not knowing a jot about the club anymore on here), says they called a few people, then GUESSED it was Edge.

I think it's more the lies he's been caught out with in the past with Suarez, Sterling and Dembele the ones that are jumping out. Gerrard mentions the Suarez one explicitly in his book. The Dembele one in particular was pretty crass.

Edited 15 July 2022 by Muzzy_Larsson

[Muzzy_Larsson]

On a more general note, what the feck is happening this summer. Rodgers vocal at the end of season about transitions and rebuilds and then not even a single signing a few weeks from the start of the season. HAve been away on holiday for a few weeks so haven't been keeping up but something seems a bit amiss, stand-offish even. Maybe I'm being a bit cynical or paranoid.

[Spudulike]

For a manager to announce a 'shake up' in a way that suggests many comings/goings is usually reserved for clubs trying to stoke up enthusiasm to shift season tickets. LCFC don't have that issue so it makes it all a bit odd. A transfer fest at this stage isn't good timing considering a large portion of pre-season, including an overseas boot camp, has been done. 

 

I think that for once a lack of transfer activity isn't neccessarily a bad thing as it will be almost like having new faces in the team following the unprecedented amount of injuries during Last season. We are due some good fortune on the absentee front and we have a very decent squad when all fit and healthy. I'm optimistic especially without the distraction of Thursday night football. 

 

Bring it on. 

[kingfox]

1 hour ago, themightyfin said:

Stop panicking.  

New signings are coming.

Patience .

We’re still waiting on that RW you said would be joining last summer but never happened 

[Scotch]

18 minutes ago, Muzzy_Larsson said:

On a more general note, what the feck is happening this summer. Rodgers vocal at the end of season about transitions and rebuilds and then not even a single signing a few weeks from the start of the season. HAve been away on holiday for a few weeks so haven't been keeping up but something seems a bit amiss, stand-offish even. Maybe I'm being a bit cynical or paranoid.

From my opinion, the problem is essentially the gulf in finances between PL clubs like us and everyone else now starting g to present major problems. 

 

We have a massive squad, as it stands, there will be players who are surpluss to requirments not registered in the squad but we can't move these players on because of how much we pay these guys. Praet, Vesty, Hamza, Amartey, Bertrand, Perez etc etc are all on wages that most clubs who would actually want them can't afford but we really need them to move on before we can bring anyone else in. 

[cruzFOX]

Can we accept the possibility that Rogers was vexxed like we all were at the sun oar performances of our players in those infamous games and he simply spoke his mind in the heat of the moment without thought to how it might be backed up by the club. Or maybe he intended to do just to psychologically light a fire up the players bums you know chastize them?

this is the only reason I can see after all this time. Maybe the club gulped after he said that in public but can’t officially challenge it as it would give the impression they aren’t 109% backing the manager which would draw negative press.

[Dames]

3 hours ago, Babylon said:

Do you think he should have stretched him or something?

No but in 10 years he could have taught him how and when to come and collect a ball into the area rather than staying rooted to the line. Its not rocket science is it, especially for a pro who played in that position at a good level himself. 

[themightyfin]

19 minutes ago, kingfox said:

We’re still waiting on that RW you said would be joining last summer but never happened 

I know I have some wrong but that's not mine 

[Babylon]

11 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

For a manager to announce a 'shake up' in a way that suggests many comings/goings is usually reserved for clubs trying to stoke up enthusiasm to shift season tickets. LCFC don't have that issue so it makes it all a bit odd. A transfer fest at this stage isn't good timing considering a large portion of pre-season, including an overseas boot camp, has been done. 

 

I think that for once a lack of transfer activity isn't neccessarily a bad thing as it will be almost like having new faces in the team following the unprecedented amount of injuries during Last season. We are due some good fortune on the absentee front and we have a very decent squad when all fit and healthy. I'm optimistic especially without the distraction of Thursday night football. 

 

Bring it on. 

 

If you read the initial outburst after Forest, it's clear to me it was also a challenge to the players to prove they deserve a place here still. In fact the next interview he'd already toned it down a bit. And it seemed like every interview after that things kept on scaling back. Talking about how he's improved the squad and how we now need to improve the starting 11. Percy then repeated similar in March and stated we need to sell to buy and that three players good enough for the first team was the target. 

[Babylon]

5 minutes ago, Dames said:

No but in 10 years he could have taught him how and when to come and collect a ball into the area rather than staying rooted to the line. Its not rocket science is it, especially for a pro who played in that position at a good level himself. 

Was it a problem when we won the league? Or just when the people running recruitment filled the team with smaller technical players?

[JimmyC74]

15 minutes ago, Scotch said:

From my opinion, the problem is essentially the gulf in finances between PL clubs like us and everyone else now starting g to present major problems. 

 

We have a massive squad, as it stands, there will be players who are surpluss to requirments not registered in the squad but we can't move these players on because of how much we pay these guys. Praet, Vesty, Hamza, Amartey, Bertrand, Perez etc etc are all on wages that most clubs who would actually want them can't afford but we really need them to move on before we can bring anyone else in. 

Rob Tanner this morning advising that

A few clubs have watching Castagne, including Atletico Madrid, who have expressed an interest. 

#LCFC have no interest in selling such a key member of their squad, but there are no takers for others.

 

[KingsX]

29 minutes ago, Scotch said:

From my opinion, the problem is essentially the gulf in finances between PL clubs like us and everyone else now starting g to present major problems.

 

It’s the business side yet again having a big impact on the playing side.  And most clubs appear not to have seen this one coming.

 

Stratification in TV revenues has changed the transfer window.  A club like ours makes considerably more off TV than a Real Betis makes in total.  This season’s new US TV contract will only widen the gulf.

 

The “top ten” huge Money League clubs have long had to look to each other to move their players.  Well, there is now a financial second division consisting of (a) secure/ambitious PL clubs plus (b) clubs in the bigger continental leagues that make CL/EL yearly.

 

If you can’t find takers in those two groups, you’re loaning out or selling at a loss.  And it doesn’t help that these continental clubs have always po’ mouthed their own situations when dealing with PL clubs.

 

We’re not the only club scrambling to adjust its transfer plans.  The whole model has to change.  A club like ours has to emphasize the academy and young talent, so we’ll always have guys on their “rookie” contract who can be moved if they don’t have what we need.  There’s an ever narrower band of clubs to whom you can profitably move your veterans.

[RoboFox]

27 minutes ago, cruzFOX said:

Can we accept the possibility that Rogers was vexxed like we all were at the sun oar performances of our players in those infamous games and he simply spoke his mind in the heat of the moment without thought to how it might be backed up by the club. Or maybe he intended to do just to psychologically light a fire up the players bums you know chastize them?

this is the only reason I can see after all this time. Maybe the club gulped after he said that in public but can’t officially challenge it as it would give the impression they aren’t 109% backing the manager which would draw negative press.

Totally. I think most of us can accept the reason TBF. He was hurting and embarrassed and spoke out in what was probably a bit of a red mist at the time to spite his players who he probably felt incredibly let down by. It was definitely his damaged ego talking that day.

 

What I find a little bizarre was to keep doubling down on it for weeks, only to do this u-turn and claim it was all about "ethos" and "re-finding our mantra" or whatever he was coming out with last week. He's either gone rogue from the club's official line or there's been a miscommunication, and has had to backtrack looking a bit daft.

 

I'm a big Rodgers in guy, but the bloke doesn't do himself any favours sometimes.

 

Edited 15 July 2022 by RoboFox

[Dames]

57 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Was it a problem when we won the league? Or just when the people running recruitment filled the team with smaller technical players?

It was always a problem but Robert Huth was an excellent defensive marshal and covered a lot of those aspects. Having taller players helped mask the issue but its always been there. 

Either way you’re still deflecting from the point. Stowell has had 10 years to work with Kasper, why are the same weaknesses

he had 10 years ago evident today? Its only fair to question it.