You can buy my first e-book on Amazon in kindle format, it is called The Kopite View Season 2012-13, here is the link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kopite-View-Season-2012-13-ebook/dp/B00BMW7JTA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1362780961&sr=1-1
The book consists of my match reports and articles from earlier in the season. If you like my blog, you will like my book. All the money is going to help Hillsborough Families.
A Selling Club
Liverpool are now finding themselves struggling to attract top players in the game but also struggling to hang onto their best players too. The latest transfer rumours regarding Suarez who is arguably Liverpool’s best player, is a major problem for the club, as his goals last season proved crucial in a mediocre mid-table League position finish for Liverpool.
Strikers like Suarez are irreplaceable and I fear Liverpool are resigned to the fact of losing him, but understandably they will want as much cash as possible for their star player. Big money for a player like Suarez can help Brendan Rodgers bring his own players in to shape Liverpool into the team that he wants, but he will have to find promising youngsters with outstanding potential, or players like Daniel Sturridge that want the chance to show prove themselves.
Many supporters and affiliates of Liverpool feel that Suarez should show loyalty to a club that has stood by him during some tough and controversial times at Liverpool. But loyalty is a word that is not regularly associated with the footballing vocabulary and Liverpool would be naïve to expect loyalty from a player who is from the other end of the world, and who has showed ambition throughout his career, and now Suarez looks to take another positive step in his career as he looks to display his talents at the highest level in the Champions League at a club that can provide that. Unfortunately for Liverpool, they can’t provide that next season and possibly not for the foreseeable future.
Not qualifying for the Champions League is a major problem for Liverpool and in recent years qualification for this elite competition has got tougher with the improving Tottenham Hotspur and the bankrolled Manchester City along with the usual suspects of Chelsea, Arsenal and current League Champions Manchester United. With only the top four earning entry into the Champions League Liverpool find themselves adrift of the teams mentioned.
It seems an awful long time ago since Liverpool were regular entrants into the Champions League, managing to win it in 2005 followed by another final 2 year later. Liverpool’s previous owners have not helped in Liverpool’s decline and the new owners have tried to steady the ship. But the loss of Rafa Benitez and the managerial revolving door in recent years has not helped along with the loss of world class players.
Liverpool lost players of world class calibre like Xabi Alonso, Mascherano and Fernando Torres which was always going to be detrimental to Liverpool’s team. Those players left because Liverpool couldn’t pay them the big money, but more importantly because Liverpool couldn’t offer them Champions League football as they found themselves in a team in decline. World class players are difficult to replace and Liverpool have struggled with inferior talent. Liverpool’s current owners FSG backed former manager Kenny Dalglish with money to build a team to challenge in the league, although most of the money was from the sale of Torres to Chelsea. But after allowing Dalglish to bring in many new players they impatiently sacked him after one full season after a disappointingly low position in the League, although he won the Carling Cup and lost in the FA Cup Final to Chelsea.
With trigger happy tactics the American owners were not going to give Dalglish time for his new signings to blossom under a second full season in charge. I still think it was a big mistake, but they have changed their attitude by employing the relatively inexperienced and young Brendan Rodgers to rebuild this massive club back to former glory. By cutting the wage bill, and not allowing for more money to be wasted like the Andy Carroll investment. FSG don’t seem to be giving Brendan Rodgers much money to spend unless he sells first to bring his own type of players to the club.
The sale of Torres to a rival club like Chelsea was a sore one to take for Liverpool as they have become a selling club in recent years with their top players being plucked from Liverpool’s grasp by the vultures of European football’s elite clubs. Now young players from the Rafa era like Lucas and Agger have matured into top players and this summer is a summer of worry for Brendan Rodgers as he tries to hang onto the nucleus of his team as the vultures circle once again.
Liverpool have shown vast signs of improvement after a difficult start to the season and Brendan Rodgers would look to hold onto his players as well as add to his squad which is very young and lacks experience.
The latest talk of star striker Luis Suarez wanting to leave Liverpool is another example of Liverpool as a selling club as the lure of Champions League football looks to be all too much for the Uruguayan, and if his departure materialises then that would result in another world class player exiting the Shankly Gates. Liverpool will no doubt look to get financially rewarded if he goes, but Liverpool will be unable to attract an equal as a replacement which will once again be detrimental to the team.
FSG have set their transfer sights on young promising talent who have a long shelf life and can be re-sold later on, but every team needs a mix of youth and experience to be a top side, alongside world class talent and Liverpool will continue to be a selling club until they bridge that gap to finish in the top four and the longer they are out of that elite group the more difficult it will become as players won’t come to Anfield just because they have a great history, it is the present that counts to these top players and they want to challenge for honours.
This summer is very important for Liverpool Football Club and the transfer activity that occurs will shape the new season for the Anfield club as they desperately try to break into the top four again.
The Kopite View 
liverpool hold all the cards suarez is under contract and will stay if the club want to get into top four not because he wants to but because he has to,the problem is i dont believe what the american owners say they will let him go and blame it on him not wanting to stay the words of a mid table club without a plan of top four.sick of promises off owners of what they want but dont follow through
The larger perspective is that Liverpool continue to be a club in transition and that what we have seen so far in the transfer window is an attempt by the club to lower a bloated wage bill. This started in earnest when Joe Cole was unloaded in January. Carragher’s retirement also removed one of the biggest wage bills. Ditto Andy Carroll and if rumours are to be believed Pepe Reina shortly. Additions to the squad have a youthful tinge. This isn’t about resale value it’s about the lower wages they command. If both Aspas and Atsu come in I’d wager offers for Downing wouldn’t be refused either.
As for trying to make the top four – it’s going to be a mighty challenge. Look at Spurs. Despite Bale being one of the most dangerous players in the world and the addition of five quality signings last summer (Vertonghen, Lloris,Dembele,Sigurdsson and Dempsey) they were unable to make the top four.
With or without Suarez I realistically think the best we will achieve next year is 5th or 6th. Times have changed. Despite the best hopes in the world we don’t have the financial resources of Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal or Chelsea. We wasted a terrific opportunity in the transfer market when Damian Commoli and Kenny Dalglish allocated huge funds on a ragtag of mediocre British players. NESV the owners won’t commit that way again and the new Financial Fair Play rules in the EPL tie their hands even if they wanted to.
Personally, I am delighted that we are now trying to box clever in the transfer market and that under Brendan Rodgers we are frequently a delight to watch again.
The one area we need to strengthen now is central defence and hell, probably at full-back too. We lost too many goals in key games last year because of defensive mistakes. I am wary of revisionist thinking but we might be in the Europa league if Skertel and Reina had kept their concentration at the Eithad and Agger at the Emirates. And don’t let me ponder how we lost goals to Chelsea and West Brom at home. Every decent team knows they always have a chance against LFC from corners.
Anyway, I hope Suarez stays but think this difference will be marginal either way. Oh, and Daniel Sturridge has all the tools to be a world-class striker and with Coutinho we go a player of Mata’s influence for a third of the cost and a fraction of the wages. YNWA.