Are we a selling club?

The reason why players wanted to leave is because they wanted trophies and felt that their career will stagnate at us ...

No, we're not. As far as I'm concerned, we sold our best players to only two of the biggest clubs in the world. Barca and Real are buying clubs and all the best players in the world (with a few exceptions) want to play there. Over the past decade we sold Owen, Xabi, Mascha, Suarez, Arbeloa to these two. Torres is an exception, but it's been proven that he was on the decline anyway.

All our other big players left when either their form or their age dictated that they were no longer good enough for us.

Hyypia to Leverkusen, Hamman to City (before they were billionnaires), Riise to Roma, Agger to Brondby, Pepe to Napoli, Finnan to Espanyol, Garcia to Athletico, Kuyt to Fenerbahce, Carra retired, McAllister retired, Gerrard will retire here.

So if people want to elude to a phantom FSG business model of turning players world class and selling them on for profit, then pretty much every big team in Europe have the same model. Bayern have started to join the Spanish giants, but those two still dictate the markets. We don't sell to any other big clubs (rare occasions aside) because, regardless of the up and down seasons of the past 10 years, we're still regarded as one of the biggest clubs around, simple as that! The fact that we haven't qualified for Champs League regularly and we're in danger of not doing so prevents us from attracting some of this talent...but that's a different debate.

Javier Mascherano - Christian Poulson. *Shudders*

I shuddered too. Even more so when I remembered that Paul Konchesky was his team mate.

They were the days ay......

I shuddered too. Even more so when I remembered that Paul Konchesky was his team mate.

They were the days ay......

Still can't believe he played for us

Still can't believe he played for us

I can't believe it either. When I think that was bad I then remember who the Manager was and start remembering the depressing football.

Oh the depressing football.

I can't believe it either. When I think that was bad I then remember who the Manager was and start remembering the depressing football.

Oh the depressing football.

It was tragic stuff mate.

Lest we forget:

Any chance we can sell, or frankly give away, these moaning F***ing whoppers of fans who come out of the woodwork when we have a poor run?

Lest we forget:

Oh don't mate.. Don't bring that back into my life

Define a selling club. I don't think theres any club that doesn't sell

Lest we forget:

Christ that's riled me up! You've given me the right hump now!

Suarez,Pepe and Daniel Agger will have been very big earners its hardly a surprise that people still think we are restructuring the finances of the club.

Suarez,Pepe and Daniel Agger will have been very big earners its hardly a surprise that people still think we are restructuring the finances of the club.

That is true Walton, but lets be totally honest here; Luis was gone no matter what; It's what he asked for and though Pepe and Daniel were great servants of the club at a time where they are part/time or even not playing at all players not paying them top wages is hardly a crime...It's not like Pepe is tearing up the Bundisliga, he just found the one team in Europe that was willing to pay his wages to sit on the bench.

Does not exactly make LFC a Tesco

Does not exactly make LFC a Tesco

Sadly we are more like LIDL than Tesco's.... we always seem to sell cheap.

That is true Walton, but lets be totally honest here; Luis was gone no matter what; It's what he asked for and though Pepe and Daniel were great servants of the club at a time where they are part/time or even not playing at all players not paying them top wages is hardly a crime...It's not like Pepe is tearing up the Bundisliga, he just found the one team in Europe that was willing to pay his wages to sit on the bench.

Does not exactly make LFC a Tesco

But we have had a few big eanrers leave. when keegan left and this relevant we had 12months notice he was going and brought in Kenny.
Now how many people honestly thought Luis would stay and even if he did the odds where that if Barca or Real came he would go.
What planning was in place for his replacement ?. Little or any if the pursuit of Remy and signing of Mario is anything to go by.
Whatever way you want to look at it our transfer policy has been poor for a long time and it hasn't improved since FSG arrived.

Any chance we can sell, or frankly give away, these moaning f**king whoppers of fans who come out of the woodwork when we have a poor run?

You could figure out a way to do that you'd be a gazillionaire mate.

Javier Mascherano - Christian Poulson. *Shudders*




Fernando Torres - Andy Carroll & Luis Suarez

The only time we have adequately replaced a player.
Every other time we have spread the money across the squad.

Suarez arrived the day before Torres left didn't he?

Didn't FSG say something about buying players with a resale value? Seems to me like they see players as a way of Avoiding spending Money.
And before anyone says that they couldn't have stopped Suarez leaving, funny how they stopped him leaving the previous summer, and were lavished with praise for it. It just shows if Arsenal had offered enough, he would have been away.

As people have said, all clubs are selling clubs for the right price,  but when we go for cheaper, lesser players it reflects badly on the intentions of the owners.

Alonso - Pushed out the door over the depressing Gareth Barry pursuit, the club were always going to accept £30mill for him.

Masch - Wanted to leave for Barca and his family were apparently unhappy in England so there was nothing we could have done to keep him unless we wanted an unhappy player on our hands.

Torres - Wanted to leave so we drained every penny we could out of Chelsea. Again, what use is an unhappy player wanting to get out the club and who had just started his decline.

Suarez - Always seemed to be his dream to play for Barca and we got a massive fee for him. He is probably the only player that would have played just as well regardless of if he was happy at the club or not.

I don't think we are a selling club as such, all our key players that have left over the years have gone because they have wanted to for whatever reason, Xabi is the only one we have pushed out the door other than Pepe. There is no point in having unhappy players, it destroys morale within the team and it's the last thing we need so we get every penny we can and most the time they go on to regret their decision to leave us.

Every club sells key players over the years, doesn't make them a "selling club" as such, it's just the way the transfer market works.

I'll post fuller tomorrow. But in summary, the reasons for these players leaving were various.
Nando loved the fans and our history, but realised the club had become very toxic, esp the way Purslow meddled with the advice given by the club doctors to pressure him into playing when he needed an operation. Very likely cost him the mobility he had earlier in his career.
Nando was hacked off at our lack of ambition and repeat bullshit excuses. He even tried to pull out of the Chelsea deal but was told "f**k off". In other words, asset strip.

They were trying to force Pepe and Dagger out for a LONG time. Wage reduction was the game. They tried to push Johnson out for quite a while and it seems they did a similar thing to some degree or other with Skrtel.

Masch- again fed up with the toxic atmosphere and the pillaging of the club by G&H. Dedicated his Champs Lge win v the Mancs to Liverpool fans. Loved Liverpool and said on live tv "they dont do enough to keep their players".

Alonso- also loved Liverpool. Contrary to the media spin, Barry wasn't an issue the yr he left. The yr BEFORE, Alonso wasnt up to par. Alonso was impressed with Real's ambition. And disgusted by G&h's LACK of it.

Mereiles - was ripped off by Fenway. They refused to up his very low wages and broke a gentleman's agreement. He scored and gave them a v sign in the stands. I'd be disgusted too.

Benayoun - sold to Chelsea. Good enough for them...

Suarez- loved the fans and our history. Was never really supported by the owners in the barrage of media abuse.
Again hacked off with our lack of ambition vs rivals. And the owners were rather duplicitous last Summer(I'll elaborate some other time maybe).

In summary, the top top players were distinctly unimpressed with the board's behaviour. Furthermore, with all this soccernomics bullshit, the owners aim is buy cheap, develop, sell, rinse and repeat. So if a star was unsettled/unhappy, that is music to their ears.

Ultimately, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. How many TOP players have we signed ie top players on high level wages? Absolutely NONE. Because they simply dont want anyone on high wages if they can find any way out of it.

So we're downsizing time and time again. THAT is the definition of a selling club. Failing to show ambition is a selling club.
Part of their spin, whether its the rounders team or football saccer-ball, is to blame the player. But the reality is that the haemorraging of quality and replacement with cheapos is all part of the trick.

And all a reason for our continued lack of success.

The answer to the question posed is 'Yes'.

No point in denying that it's what our current 'policy' and future 'plans' are built on.

Think about this: if we hadn't sold Suarez our net spend would have been, circa, £50m. Now, if, as has been suggested, we needed to strengthen the squad above all else which of these players [Lallana, Lovren, Markovic, Can, Balotelli, Lambert, Moreno, Origi] would we have signed with that £50m?

We couldn't have signed them all so either, we didn't need so many or, as often suggested, we did.

Bear with me; if we did [need so many players] then we needed to sell... and that fact, sadly, defines us as a selling club.

Every club is a selling club if Barca or Real come knocking for your players and aren't willing to go away. It's a fact. Doesn't matter if you Bayern Munich or Manchester United.

Every club is a selling club if Barca or Real come knocking for your players and aren't willing to go away

Yeah Scott but not every club needs to sell - which is more the point.

What's worse than being a selling club?  Being a selling club, and a feeder club for Real and Barca!

Lest we forget:

There is the complete Directors Cut version where he wipes his arse as well .