The Tipping Point

By: Ed | August 31st, 2010

hicks

“Jan(uary) is a poor-quality market. The summer window will be big.”

All this over Carlton Cole?

Of course not.

But the West Ham striker had been linked with Liverpool for weeks now, and it was expected that come Tuesday night he’d be Anfield-bound. If not him, there would be others—Fernando Torres is coming off an injury riddled 2009-2010 season and an underwhelming World Cup performance, and his only true back-up, David Ngog, currently has injury concerns of his own. The young Frenchman has been encouraging in his performances thus far, scoring four goals in three matches to start the season, but his ability to be successful as a go-to striker is largely unknown. A move for a striker, at least according to 300 of you, was the top priority.

So naturally, all Liverpool do is go out and snatch up Paul Konchesky. Nothing like fixing a problem that you created for yourself.

The day in total saw six players leave Anfield, all part of deals that are either permanent or, in the inexplicably f*cking stupid case of Emiliano Insua, a loan with a sale on the horizon. Here’s the activity on the way out:

Soccer - Football Transfers - ESPN Soccernet - ESPN Soccernet_1283298048919

Six players, all under the age of 25. For a club whose youth academy was finally made right, today was mostly a case of “buy for now, develop for sale.”

Dalla Valle and Kacaniklic were part of the semi-swap that brought Konchesky to Anfield, and along with Plessis, Weijl, and Insua, they would have qualified as homegrown talent in the coming years. All arrived with some level of acclaim, and all performed at a level of note at one point or another. I’d argue that, outside of Insua, the exit of Dalla Valle stings the most. He’s lit the youth and reserve squads’ opposition on fire in the past few years, and along with Dani Pacheco, he looked to have a bright future.

You won’t be surprised that I reserved a special place to rail on the stupidity of loaning Emiliano Insua with a view to a permanent move. The only circumstance in which this makes sense is if the player himself was so desperate to leave that he’d go anywhere, but we never heard anything along these lines. And with Liverpool these days, you’d think something would have most certainly found its way out.

Otherwise, it’s an absolutely terrible move made worse by the fact that, just to replace Insua, the club shipped off Insua, Dalla Valle, and Kacaniklic. Plus cash. For Paul Konchesky. It’s probably unfair to Konchesky that he’s at the center of it all, but there’s no sense to be made out of creating a problem out of a perfectly fine situation and then patting yourself on the back when you solve the problem.

The talk of “Liverpool solving their left-back dilemma” is an absolute joke—don’t make the dilemma in the first place by forcing out a talented young player.

But unfortunately, it’s not just about Insua, or Carlton Cole, or Dalla Valle, or Konchesky. It’s about the fact that the owners profit anywhere between £7m to £10m on the year’s dealings. It’s about the fact that, time and again, they lie to the supporters, to the players and staff, and, at this point, very likely to themselves.

I’ve staved off getting heavily involved in commenting on the ins and outs of the ownership tragedy—the financial aspect is over my head, and a low boil seemed appropriate when a sale looked to be on the horizon. After today, though, I don’t know that avoiding the topic is possible.

This day was a perfect microcosm of the damage they’ve done to the club—driving away committed young players, buying on the cheap, and pocketing millions (at least temporarily) in a transfer window that was supposed to see the club improved greatly. Devoid of class, dignity, loyalty, or honor, they once again played Liverpool for a fool.

Eventually it’s got to stop. But until it does, things are looking mighty scary.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Miscellaneous, Team News, Transfer News

« Deadline Day Over; Liverpool Still Run by Liars, Inc. | Home | Squad Announced; Fernando Torres Has Been Paying Attention »

J. Moss

As a lifelong Texas Rangers fan, I feel your pain. As long as Hicks is in control, expect nothing but mediocrity on the pitch and debt on the balance sheet.

And Marc, yeah, it's not the best of times. But at least you can say that you started supporting Liverpool when they were s***!
Marc

Hello! I'm a brand new Liverpool fan from the United States (mostly because of my undying love for Joe Cole). Did I pick a really bad time to be here?
Grubb

I'm spamming the boards again Ed. Sorry.

I've been asking myself if we needed to sign a striker at all. Torres, N'Gog, Kuyt, Jovanovic, Babel and Pacheco can all play there, fairly sure Maxi can as well. Sure they're not all 9's like Torres, but they all can or all have played striking roles.

Maybe Deadpool was right, what we actually needed in that window was wingers?
Ed

I think the biggest thing is that there was no significant impact across the board--winger, striker, whatever, there was no follow-through. Like I said above, I didn't even really want Carlton Cole to come to Liverpool. BUT NOW I DO!@!!@#!
Grubb

Some interesting comments from Torres floating around the interwebz about rebuilding Liverpool being a 'beautiful objective' or some such. But he ends with the rallying cry of all reds - it's important to get new owners as soon as possible.

My take is that if we're not competitive and don't have new owners by January, he might be on his bike. Could you blame him?
LFc4life

Corinthians ring any bells?

Next To go is torres for sure...

The yanks are bleeding us dry!

Daylight robbery and all we can do is watch as our beloved is raped in front of our very eyes...

These bastards have been predictable for quite some time now... I knew when Rafa goes it will all become obvious to the blind of what's happening here...
With YES man ROy in charge the only way Is down!
When I say down I mean at best a 5th place down to pick a number....
We play football like Bolton, we have a manager who thinks he's managing fulham and we are replacing quality players with shit!

Let's go back 5months... Would you rather be fighting for 4th under Roy or competing for the league with Rafa?

All those that wanted rafa out didn't stop to think, what would happen after he was gone...

All those who wanted him out should hang there heads in shame because you wanted this and you got it!
yaniv

first of all, can anyone here seriously tell me that roy was brought to the club to stay on ala wenger or fergusson.. this is a stage of rebuilding.. i honestly cant see roy staying for more than 2 seasons.. he'll rebuild the team, stop them from sliding further in the standings.. this thing of the youth is valid, but not at this time.. imo there is a big gap between the youth and the first team.. realise that first.. and youth strikers very rarely make it to the first team because its a very difficult step up... the epl defenders are very hard to play against... also, youth defenders dont usually make the step up because they are young in terms of defenders.. stop worrying about the youth.. there is plenty of time for them.. this is the time to absolutely focus on the first team.. when that has stabilized, the youth can be blooded into the team.. and all this blaming... just step back and take a look at your team. gk- pretty good, defenders good, midfield- on paper, good enough, striker- awesome when playing, but on the whole manageable..
Galahad Threepwood

I agree that our first team quality is pretty good on paper. Reina, Torres, Gerrard, Cole, and Meireles are all top-flight talents, Kuyt, Johnson, and Jovanovic are good players who work their hearts out, and Carra and Skrtel are strong and reliable. But here's the thing: We're good when we could be great, and that difference comes down to the front office, particularly Hicks and Gillett. Nothing against Roy, but we had a world-class manager, one of the top tacticians in the game, and the owners drove him out because he insisted on keeping the squad competitive and wouldn't back down about it. And these same owners refuse to invest money in the team, which means we're limited in our ability to sign the players we need to stay in contact with the other title contenders. Look at our transfer signings this time around. Yeah, we landed Joe Cole and Raul Meireles, and I'm happy for that, but if we had owners who actually spent money on the team we could have ended up with Loic Remy (who was dying to come to Anfield from what I read), or Bryan Ruiz. We also could have remedied the left back situation effectively, and maybe added a winger or two to give us width in attack. But we didn't do any of that because H&G really couldn't care less about what happens to our team on the field, as long as they keep making money from it. Now we have a manager who, with all the goodwill in the world, is not in Rafa's class and never will be. We have a team that, despite all the promises to the contrary, has not improved significantly over last season, and doesn't have any real hope of contending for the title this year. And on top of that, we're shipping out young players who have a chance to be really good down the line (Dalla Valle), alienating players who could help us out immensely (Insua), and failing to recognize quality when it's staring us in the face (Aquilani). If we want to be LFC again, with all that entails, we have to change the climate, and that starts with the two parasites holding the purse strings.

Whew, that became more of a rant than I expected. Sorry, yaniv, didn't mean to go off on you. Just incredibly frustrated with how things are going at the club right now.
rkw

As a Texas Rangers fan recently released fromt he Financial Tyranny of one Tom Hicks. He actually leveraged the Baseball team against somewhere around $300M in debt to make his move on L'pool. I feel for you guys. My biggest problem with the guy is how meddlesome he is. Fancies himself Sports savvy, but doesn't really know his @$$ from a hole in the ground when it comes to franchise decisions. Hated him for his entire reign, coulnd't be happier to see him leave. I'll be even happier yet, when he is out of sports completely.
YNWA

Ryan Babel is going to score 25 goals this season. And then go on strike until he is sold to barcelona.
Rowanblades

The yanks, Broughton and purslow can all goto hell.
Things are going to get worse before they get better , and we'll be lucky to keep g&t another 6 months, let alone a year.
60% of our goals were leaked on insua's side last season, AND dalle valle wanted to be in the first team squad, but we didn't have the room to accomodate him, as with mavinga, hence them both wanting to move on.
This club has become a joke.
Jerry

The interesting thing about your article is that you completely miss out on who has caused the problems. The Liverpool rot started with the hooligans in the 80"s. It would not surprise me if many of those voicing their venom were part of that era. Then there were two tragedies that set the club back. Lastly the club was allowed to languish under Moores. For 15 years, the academy produced little. We allowed ManU to take center stage and we did not compete. We should have built a new stadium in the 90"s but rested on our laurels. Have H&G delivered all that they promised, probably not. But your frustration and anger should not be directed at them but at Moores. He took the money and ran caring little for the club. At least under H&G we are branding our name and revenues have leapt from 40M to 100M. That 60M will go along way to rebuilding the club. How do you know where the revenues from sales are going? Why do you assume they are going into their pocket? Rafa spent 246M and what do we have to show for those purchases, Josemi? Give it a break.
Noel

Now, really, perhaps I'm missing the boat here, but it seems to me you're willing to cut H&G rather more slack than a man who won us the European Cup and brought the largest points haul in Liverpool's history, as well as revitalizing the academy to the point where people can take issue with promising youngsters being pawned off because we actually have promising youngsters. If you are, indeed, going to give the esteemed Hicks and Gillett a get out of jail free card while heaping the majority of the club's failures, it puzzles me that you can simultaneously throw Benitez under the bus for building a squad that Real Madrid and Barcelona and Chelsea have been, and Manchester United and new money City would be more than happy to have been, poaching top players from over the past few seasons.

Rafa brought us some way back to respectability. Close enough that perhaps is seemed he'd even brought us all the way back. Watching the club going to shambles now gives lie to that hope, but it doesn't diminish the work he did, and that he started doing before H&G wandered into frame. And it sure as shit doesn't set him up to be the scapegoat who "wasted" millions achieving "nothing" even as the club gets stripped down with him out of the way and the four horsemen free to do as they please.

Good day, Sir.
Ed

Appreciate the comment, Jerry.

I can't speak for anyone else, but the frustration for Hicks and Gillett comes from a string of lies and a lack of follow-through on many of the things they've "promised" since getting on board. Today was especially significant in that regard, as it represented yet another failure to better the squad after it was guaranteed that things would change.

That they bear the brunt of supporters' frustrations for decades might not be fair--I'd agree with you on that. But they've earned the right to be criticized for the way they've handled (or mishandled) the club since arriving.

As for knowing where the revenues are headed, I absolutely don't. The pocket line was a bit misguided and unclear--my guess, as I referenced with the "at least temporarily" line, is that it's going to help pay off the debt.

And Rafa did spend a good chunk of cash, and beside Josemi he brought in Fernando Torres, Daniel Agger, Dirk Kuyt, Pepe Reina, Martin Skrtel, etc. Along with the departed Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, Luis Garcia, Emiliano Insua, Yossi Benayoun, and Alvaro Arbeloa, among others.

Yes, he brought in some lemons--Josemi, Phillipp Degen, Andrea Dossena, Robbie Keane, etc. But to say that all the club have to show for those purchases is Josemi ignores the number of things he did for Liverpool. He wasn't perfect, but he wasn't all bad either.
Grubb

Even there we can't lump Rafa with some of those criticisms in regards to signings - Rafa wanted Barry, Parry wanted Keane. Who did we get? Not Rafa's man. And Degen was signed on the advice of one of H or G's chums who happened to be poor Degen's agent. I actually even think Degen is a good player, just not LFC material, and possibly not the thinking man's fullback. And Dossena is still worth every penny we paid for the face Ferguson pulled as 'that' goal lobbed into the net. I mentioned earlier we had some magical moments didn't I?

I think we should blame those responsible for what they have done. I blame Moores for being short-sighted and not moving with the times. I blame Parry for being 'too slow' with his transfer targets. I blame Phil Thomson for advising the club not to take a gamble on a young Cristiano Ronaldo over wage payments. I blame Rafa for being difficult with the media (who in fairness were difficult with him). I also congratulate him for his many successes with our under-funded club and some of the threadbare squads he had to work with. Igor Biscan is a champions league champion for crying out loud!

And lastly I blame H&G for lying about stadiums, debts and transfer budgets. I blame them for tying their personal debt to our club, and then tying the clubs debt to their personal income. I absolutely reject the legitimacy of their ownership in every detail, as they have demonstrated from the very beginning that they are empty - their wallets are empty, their words are empty and their hearts are empty.

Thanks for your input Jerry, but I strongly disagree with your assertion that we have completely missed out who has spoiled our club. We are passionate fans, and we know the club's history intimately. We blame those responsible for the damage they have caused.
Redhed17

I can't believe we didn't get a striker, nevermind a quality striker. Cole? He'll be injured next week.
There were so many stories about the different strikers we were supposedly after I don't know whether it's best to be true and that the club were actually trying to get a striker, or lies that make us look desperate and failures for not getting one. Who knows with so many stories being peddled about us.
The young players didn't get much of a chance under Benitez, and Hodgson looks like he doesn't rate them either. Sad to see so many young players go, I hope we don't regret it.
steven.

Jesus wasn't the only one crucified between two thieves.....
Grubb

You mean we've shipped out LDV, Insua, Kacaniklic AND crucified Jesus? Hopefully you're not referring to Suso, although given the way we've treated youth players this week nothing would surprise me!
steven.

everything you heard is true .. the Pope thinks we some 'splainin' to do!
Acarroll1

I think Konchesky is poo but there you go. Insua was often poo as well so won't miss him.

Woy is beginning to look like a fool to me. 7 weeks to get a striker and he ends up bidding for Carlton Cole? Can't see Woy being in charge by next summer.
Sairax

How is the overall squad looking in time for the deadline tomorrow?
Ed

You're referring to the 25-man deadline, yeah?

As I understand it, Liverpool can't actually fill the 25-man roster. They've got the 8 homegrown requirement met, and with U21 players not needing to be listed, there's only 13 names remaining.

Depth! And vodka.
Grubb

Hasn't deadline passed? Awful would be the short answer. Apparently Tom Ince, Amoo, Suso, Eccleston and Irwin are amazing enough that we don't need to purchase senior reinforcements.

Vodka?
Steven

Totally agree with your comments. Cannot believe the Della Valle, Insua and Aquilani moves. It doesn't make any sense. Our club has become a joke, I'm absolutely devestated. Rafa would never have allowed this to happen which is after all why they got rid of him and appointed the more amiable Roy Hodgson isn't it?
Galahad Threepwood

Yeah, it is. The ownership mess has to be cleaned up--and soon--if we're going to have any hope of staying competitive as a club in the coming years.

I know there's not a whole lot we as fans can do about this, but one thing you can do is join the supporter's union, Spirit of Shankly (http://www.spiritofshankly.com.... It costs about $20 US, but in joining up you help support a group that's doing everything it can to make the fans' voice heard in the boardroom. I did, and I recommend it to all the other fans who read this blog.

BTW Ed, great post as always. :)
Ed

Appreciate it, but after going back I realized I basically just restated a lot of the points that you and Noel had made in the previous post. Rough day all around, and it's made worse by thinking about the future implications, as you say.
Grubb

It's your mighty fine blog, you can restate whichever points you like. They made good ones, so at least you didn't restate utter rubbish or advise people on the correct insertion of savoury snacks into bodily orifices.

Tipping point? We would all agree that was a long time ago. How long until we become the next Aston Villa? Newcastle? I would've said Tottenham (they were my go-to joke team for years) but they've demonstrated what positive team building and regular investment achieves - a solid squad of good to excellent players. Jealousy is a serious sin!
Noel

Well it always helps, in a way, to not be the only one screaming that the sky is falling. Better to have a similar outlook to Galahad, Ed, and others than to have them calling me paranoid and insane. Perhaps.

Unless it would be better if it was simply delusional over-reacting on my part.

I suspect that would be rather better for everybody else involved, really.

But my god what a rapid descent, from number one in the UEFA coefficients, from being a draw against Sunderland from the league title. Knowing that H&G were damaging the club but thinking the storm could be rode out. Songs about having the best midfield in the world and having a manager that for all his occasional off-putting stubbornness or head-scratching bit of squad selection you just knew would be the one to put Ferguson and United back in their place.

That kind of shock takes a million little tipping points, and today was certainly one of them, because today alone there were probably a good couple dozen little moments to make people step back and re-evaluate where the club stood--and I dare say, none of those moments were especially flattering. It's damnably hard to reconcile where we seem to be now, and just how short a time it's taken to get here, with a memory as recent as Hyypia taking a lap of Anfield for the final time with his son, I think it was, on his shoulders.

At least, it's damnably hard to reconcile that without feeling like Chicken Little.
Ed

Today when I was driving home from work I kept replaying the 2007 CL semi at Anfield against Chelsea in my mind. One of my favorite Liverpool memories since being a "real" supporter, whatever that means.

Right around three and a half years since then, and as you said, feels like a hell of a long ways away. And that's ignoring the league campaign two seasons ago.

Whiskey?
Ed

Just deleted that duplicate comment, Grubb.

I didn't really do as good a job explaining the title as I should have. I agree with you that, in terms of recognizing the severity of the problems, we've known things were not right for some time.

Today was the tipping point regarding my relatively passive stance when it came to the ownership issue. Never a fan, but today just put me over the top, and I can't mask my contempt for what's been done. Carlton Cole's name is now burned into my brain forever--I didn't even want the club to buy him, and now that they didn't, I'm furious.

What the fuck is wrong with me? I'll consult my hot dogs.
steven.

I didn't really do as good a job explaining the title as I should have.

i guess anyone who read the book would understand what you were getting at...
Grubb

Please don't take any of my comments as criticism, just a reflection of where I'm at. Tipping point for me was way back, probably when it became apparent our owners were leeches and not interested in investing in the team. Then the media turned on Rafa, after his peculiar rant at Fergie, and it seems like one big downhill slide after that. We've had moments of magic, even recently when we smashed a decent Benfica side on the counter-attack.

When we signed Cole, Torres and Gerrard committed and it looked like the sale process was running smoothly, I felt for the first time like things were headed in the right direction for the first time in a long time. Laugh at my boyish hope.

All is not lost, but the ownership must still change hands soon - a lot of good can be done before the transfer window opens again. Maybe Roy needs time to work out what he wants and what the team is lacking.

As far as this transfer window goes, I feel like we've done a lot of paddling but not made any progress up-river. A striker would've helped, but it's still clear to me we're at that same point we were before - 2 or 3 (or 5) good players away from challenging. Some tricky wide players (we have to sign a winger ONE day) a decent backup striker and Gokhan Inler (whom I fallen slightly in man-love with) and I'd say we are on the road to upsetting the expensive applecarts assembled at Stamford Bridge etc.

Beer?
Ed

Oh I didn't take anything as criticism, Grubb, I just realized that if I presented today as the first day I thought Liverpool were in trouble I'd be drawn and quartered. Virtually, of course.

I think "it's still clear to me we're at that same point we were before" puts today's activities perfectly, and Noel has referenced it a few times today--full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Grubb

Like anything H&G have ever promised really. A tale, told by an idiot...
Ed

If we're honest, I had that in there, and then I deleted it because I didn't want to imply that Noel was the idiot.

Which might be true, but not necessarily more or less true than implying that you or I are, in fact, idiots.

Shakespeare!
Richardusa

Thank you for saying what many liverpool fans (and probably players) are no doubt thinking.