Underwhelmed or overwhelmed about the direction we're taking?

 I've seen quotes from what people refer to as ITK's (in the knows) on the transfer thread, and they seem to be suggesting that our targets are going to be almost exclusively based in England. Equally, they seem to be suggesting that Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, Scott Dann and Gael Clichy are just about as good as it's going to get (with maybe Conor Wickham chucked in), and some fans are beginning to get a bit twitchy. We've signed the fella Marveux or whatever his name is from somewhere in France, but where people are asking are the big names, the ones who are going to carry us to glory? (and I don't mean "big names" as in konchesky, or Kyriakos or Van helsingbourg of Hesseldink or whatever the f*** that blokes name is). Whether or not you are getting twitchy would seem to depend upon where you can realistically see us being at the end of next season, where we are as of now, and what should our aspirations be.

 Firstly we all obviously want us to improve on the last two seasons extremely poor efforts. Yes last years sixth was an improvement on the season befores seventh, but we need to do much better than that I think we all agree. Lets not forget though, we haven't been unlucky or robbed, we have finished behind the main pack of leaders because we are behind the main pack of leaders in terms of quality and depth. I'm sick of seeing people say that as we can beat anybody on our day, our first eleven is plenty strong enough. F*** me West Ham could beat anybody on their day, and they went down. They went down because far too often their first elven is sh*t, just occasionally they all turn up but not anywhere near often enough. So for me, forget about the squad improvements, we need players who are better than our current first teamers (many of whom aren't good enough IMHO).

 As far as aspirations are concerned, I personally think we have absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning the league next season. I know that'll annoy some people, but that's what I honestly believe so please don't start foaming at the mouth about it. If you personally think we CAN win it, then great and I obviously hope you're right. I won't waste time and energy trying to persuade you otherwise (and why would I because I hope you're right) so don't bother with me either. I think though we can probably all agree that getting into the top four has to be the target, not easy but realistic to hope for it.

 So to the nub of the issue. Do the players talked about improve us at all, if they do, do they do it by enough to give us a chance of getting into the top four, or even to challenge to win it? Firstly, I think the last one is unrealistic anyway so the answer for me is no, but I'm not overly concerned about that at this juncture. As to whether or not they improve us, my feeling is that the answer to that one is a resounding YES and by quite a long way. Clichy and Downing would instantly become the best player at the club in their postions by an absolute mile, while without wanting to start a row, both Adam and Henderson will walk into our first team IMHO as well. I don't rate Skrtel at all, never have, so Dann/Cahill would walk in instead of his as well as far as I can see.

 So to conclude it (and that f*** for that I hear you say), I'm not twitchy at all. Kenny is building, you don't get from 6th to 1st in one season, it takes foundations. I like the way we're going about it, and I think with these buys we'll be in the top four next season, along with the Mancs (both teams) and Arsenal. I think Chelsea will miss out.    

I'm content with the direction we are heading.

Last season following Kenny's arrival our form was that of top 4 material.

We had Gerrard, Agger & Carroll ruled out for the majority of that sequence of results.

So this season with all 3 presumably fully fit to start the new season and new arrivals to take over the roles of players like Jova, Poulsen, Cole, Konchesky et all, we should be a much stronger outfit next season.

We have no European football too which hopefully will help us steal a march on our rivals who will have to rotate their squads throughout the season to keep everybody fresh and avoid risking fatigue/burn out and they will drop points because of that.

If we can replicate the sort of form shown from Kenny's appointment onwards then we will certainly be up there challenging for top 4 possibly even the title, so for me I'm chilled out about the whole transfer window, which for me is a good thing considering the last 2 summers under H&G.

Im neither, we are just cruising at the moment. nothing special, certainly not going backwards though. A challenge for the top four is on, but it wont be easy.

You cannot speculate on the future until the pre-season is concluded,we have strenghtened and played our first dozen games.

Transfer speculation is rife and you need to apply a little common sense and not flap over who we are linked with. Looking at how the season ended under Kenny and the support he has from FSG we should have plenty of confidence.

Commolli has a proven track record and of course he and Kenny have a list of targets - we will never know if we have signed out 1st choice players as to reveal that would be detrimental to the morale of the team.

Journalists and supposed ITK's do not sit in the boardroom and can only guess like us who will be signed. I am personally impressed with the signing of Jordan Henderson and given we have tracked Sylvian Marveux for months we should expect to have targetted a real quality player.

It is too early to offer critiscsm over the direction the club is taking - we should reflect after first dozen games and them be better qualified if making a judgement.

Happy at the moment, if we get Marveaux, Adam, Downing, Dann and Clichy we'll have a great first team and squad

Reina
Johnson Skrtel Carra Clichy
Lucas    
Downing    Gerrard   Marveaux
      Suarez
Carroll

Subs from: Gulacsi, Agger, Dann, Kelly, Fabio, Spearing, Henderson, Adam, Raul, Maxi, Wickham

Not bad at all! Quality signings that add to the squad, significantly improving on last year.  I don't want to go into a rant, but you can't get your knickers in a twist because we aren't signing Sanchez, Aguero and Messi!

To early to say just yet. I think its going to be interesting to see how the other top 4 wanna be's do in the market over the summer. Come the end of July if Chelski, Mancs, City etc spend big we could struggle to make an impression. That said, Big Andy will be like a new signing. As will Gerrard. Suarez is still settling in. So that bodes well. We still need a CB (I thought Cahill would be good but its gone quiet about his future) a wide player and another striker. Let's wait and see but I'm broadly optimistic. Bring on the 2011/12 campaign!!!

Oh I forgot to mention we need a LB as well.

2 weeks into the domestic market, international market not yet open, the clubs doing things behind closed doors.  the one signing we've made so far has promise.  Don't think anything has been under or overwhelming yet.

There's a saying,  "slow and steady gets you there" which basically means, take your time and get it right, and eventually you will get where you aim to be. This sums our progress for me.
Things are falling I to place nicely, the manager is the best around, the owners seem to have their hearts in the club, and we have a good crop of young players coming through. No title this season, but we're heading in the right direction.

There's a saying,  "slow and steady gets you there" which basically means, take your time and get it right, and eventually you will get where you aim to be. This sums our progress for me.
Things are falling I to place nicely, the manager is the best around, the owners seem to have their hearts in the club, and we have a good crop of young players coming through. No title this season, but we're heading in the right direction.

This is basically how I feel, a top 4 challenge this season let the new players settle and get a full seasons of KK & Steve Clarke under our belts and then push on more the season afterwards.

Realistically level about everything.

Feel all is in good hands now.

I'm personally content. Got the opinion that some are neither underwhelmed nor overwhelmed, but just plain greedy and demanding.

Looking back to exactly a year, I'd say I'm quite happy with proceedings.

FSG's backing Kenny with his targets, and even though some supporters want to see big Marquee signings, I think we're making a solid start with the rebuilding project.

Let us do what we do best, that's supporting the Club, Management and Players, and let the guys at the top do what they do best, running the club.

Everything won't just go our way, but we're in a much better position then a year ago, and the future's looking bright, indeed. 

That's good enough for me.

The majority of players we have been chasing are proven performers in the Premier League week in week out. So of course I'm very satisfied with the direction we're taking.  Unlike the past few seasons we've largely chased players who have never proved themselves in England and have barely proven themselves in their own countries. With these signings or potential signings in store it shows that Kenny and Comolli have seen that we need to sort out matters on the domestic front and by doing that we need good proven domestic players in and less of the tacky cheap relative freebies from the continent.

Happy at the moment, if we get Marveaux, Adam, Downing, Dann and Clichy we'll have a great first team and squad

Reina
Johnson Skrtel Carra Clichy
Lucas   
Downing    Gerrard   Marveaux
      Suarez
Carroll

Subs from: Gulacsi, Agger, Dann, Kelly, Fabio, Spearing, Henderson, Adam, Raul, Maxi, Wickham

Not bad at all! Quality signings that add to the squad, significantly improving on last year.  I don't want to go into a rant, but you can't get your knickers in a twist because we aren't signing Sanchez, Aguero and Messi!

Not a spot even on the bench for our top scorer last season then??

I can see us adding the likes of Adam, Wickham, Marveaux, Dann, Clichy and Downing improving our squad to a very good degree. But I still think we need one or two big game players to mount a title challenge. Someone like Juan Mata or Hazard. The players we are bringing in now are capable of helping us back into the top four. But probably not into the top two.

Maybe we are looking at next summer (and hopefully European football will help) before we bring in the big game players.

How can anyone be underwhelmed? Seriously?

I'm quite happy with the way things are going so far ,we are trying to sign decent players ,we are  trying to sell the not so decent players ,think it really depends on the pre-season warm up games in the way we play and our attitude ,looking forward to next season !

I'm very happy at the direction we are taking. The Transfer Board is manic at the moment and it does seem as if some posters are demanding that we buy several megastars!. It's not going to happen.

People moaning about the money spent on Henderson are pissing me off, people moaning about the money we spent on Carroll are pissing me off!. We have spent serious money, for fucks sake people, be happy!.

We have the best manager in the world, i'm glad he's identifying British talent and buying British players. A manager who is not scared to promote youth. I'm expecting to see a couple of overseas players sign too. Though if we don't i won't be too disheartened.

I'm as happy as i've been in a long long time as a Liverpool supporter. It seems that some won't be happy unless we spend in excess of £200 million and buy every player in La Liga.

Some supporters need to remember that not so long ago we were on the brink of collapse. It will take time, but we'll get there.

The added bonus is that we don't even know what squad we've got yet. The best may be yet to come.

I'm very happy at the direction we are taking. The Transfer Board is manic at the moment and it does seem as if some posters are demanding that we buy several megastars!. It's not going to happen.

People moaning about the money spent on Henderson are pissing me off, people moaning about the money we spent on Carroll are pissing me off!. We have spent serious money, for fucks sake people, be happy!.

We have the best manager in the world, i'm glad he's identifying British talent and buying British players. A manager who is not scared to promote youth. I'm expecting to see a couple of overseas players sign too. Though if we don't i won't be too disheartened.

I'm as happy as i've been in a long long time as a Liverpool supporter. It seems that some won't be happy unless we spend in excess of £200 million and buy every player in La Liga.

Some supporters need to remember that not so long ago we were on the brink of collapse. It will take time, but we'll get there.

The added bonus is that we don't even know what squad we've got yet. The best may be yet to come.

All this, all day.

Great post.

I think the best is yet to come,they will get it right in the transfer market and with the stadium and so on,they are sports people they know what they are doing.I think there plan is to create a team of great footballers from England and abroad.If Kenny sees a player he likes and owners are willing to foot the bill i am happy with that.

I dont see the need to worry atm, coz lets face it our starting 11 (first team) is as good as any in the EPL and our focus is merely to strengthen in the areas where we dont have sufficient cover.
Those positions are LB and RM and LM. If we consider that the transfer window has only recently opened, we are actually one of the few "top' clubs to have made significant signings (Henderson). I have no doubt that when everything starts to settle down, we will see some more quality signings come early July.
I think the main positive from last season, is our ownership issue is resolved, we have the right coach and the club as a whole seem to be moving in the right direction. Lets be thankful, for what is going well atm and not forget how much worse it could have been. We had alot of faith getting us here, so lets have some more and trust that we will get things right this season.

I think an important distinction should be made between our policy and that of other big clubs.

Chelski and Citeh will buy largely established players and fit them into their teams (with differing results!!).
Utd buy established and some relative unknowns.
Arsenal don't buy anyone (well, you get the picture).

What our owners are doing is largely putting faith in younger (some quite established) players so they grow and the legacy and team ethic is there for years to come.  Of course we may have one or two bigger names to help things along.