Ayatollah Hermione

That's...

Me, escaping the implications of this thread

Tad pessimistic that summary IMO. They peaked with Redknapp and will slowly revert back to type but there's still buys out there who can replace the likes of Modric and Bale (though the former is one of the best in Europe in his position tbh and he'd have been gone, CL football or not). If Redknapp does go, they need to get someone in who is more tactically astute if they want to get back in the CL positions; at times this season, the way Redknapp has set them up against certain sides has been asking for trouble and he doesn't seem to learn with regards to Europe either.

Can someone embark on a project to take all of Deano's PL predictions from last season and see where we would have finished if they'd all come off? It must have been Top 2-3.

Cup Final is 5th May and the last game of the league is on the 13th May. Chelsea are also supposed to be playing Liverpool in the league on the 5th May so that one will need to be re-arranged as well. Whoever wins gets the Cup AND 3 points.

ITV, man "What's certain is that it's not certain" Southgate becoming a philosopher all of a sudden. Shame he hasn't had an ephihany about his hair.

Chelsea have a cup final three days after they play us, Spurs' heads have well and truly dropped. Happy days.

Not even in the top 5 flounces.

The only precedent for them selling players has been daft bids or players that wanted to leave/didn't show themselves to have a lot of years left in them. Nolan will struggle with his fitness if they get promoted, Enrique wanted to go, Carroll was daft money and I'd say Barton was the only major risk but he's turned out to have a dodgy season as well and is facing relegation. The "spine" of the side have all just signed 5 year deals and unless daft money comes in, they'll stay. That's how it works at 98% of clubs in the world.

Misquote? It's a screenshot of what you said in direct response to someone else. That isn't a misquote. My opinion shifts on a lot of things when new evidence becomes available and situations change, it's a perfectly rational thing to do and stops you being stuck in your ways.

Last season you said that and lo and behold, we're in Europe.

Very peculiar behaviour remembering forum quotes from years ago like. I struggle to keep up with what Leazes' new catchphrase is.

the jokes on you Scotty boy....one day you will wake up and realise what has been nothing but utter delusion. Please tell me, what is the next step of this "progress" or "plan", and how will it be done ? The truth is while getting back into europe is good, it should only be the start. It IS only the start you pig ignorant Blend. What you whinging about you cretinous idiot?

Would take a SPECTACULAR collapse.

They call me CashFlowBot because I wipe my arse with £10 notes.

Just turned 22 according to Wiki. Still young, still time for him to be a handy squad member. Unlike Amdy Faye You say that but most of Liverpool's buys are young too yet people think it is perfectly fine to write them off. They may become world beaters. I wouldn't put it past Andy Carroll. Gosling cost nothing and is being developed slowly by a management team who has gotten results out of James Perch. Jordan Henderson went for £20 million, can't pass the ball 5 yards and is being expected to perform right away by Kenny Dalglish, a man so fucking useless, he signed Andreas Andersson. Henderson and Gosling could well turn out to be of similar quality. If so, and that level is England international quality, who will have had the best deal? Think hard now.

Just turned 22 according to Wiki. Still young, still time for him to be a handy squad member. Unlike Amdy Faye

2 of those signed as a newly promoted side. Gosling has missed a year with injury and is back in the fold now despite being behind two excellent central midfielders. Is still only 21. Perch may have been bad for a while, has now shown himself to be a tidy player when called upon. Every side needs players like that. Surely it's a decent signing considering he's come good and can cover a few positions? Hasn't looked out of place at all this season against some decent sides. Obertan is on a 3-year deal and could still yet become decent. Has shown flashes of it away from home. Really, do you want to compare players we spunked millions on back in the day? Luque, Owen, Boumsong, Martins were all shit. Then factor in the wages that the likes of Viduka, Babayaro, Duff etc were all on. I'd much rather spend a little bit of cash on a young player like Obertan in the hope we can develop him into something decent rather than a load of cash on a 30-something who is finished. Again, HOW is that a bad thing? If Obertan isn't decent, we've not spent much on him, so fuck. None of the signings that have come into the first side have performed poorly.

We've definitely been lucky in the sense that Chelsea are basically a shambles behind the scenes and that Capello's resignation basically fucked Tottenham's dressing room but looking at us in correlation to that first point (and in direct comparison to Chelsea), it shows we're heading in the right direction for progress into the top ranks. The fact we're even speaking about finishing above Chelsea this year is amazing to me. I find it almost impossible to begin complaining.

To further expand on that, there's very few clubs that can spend crazy money away each window and have it be a sound policy and that's because their budget is basically bottomless in football terms. This is sides like Barca, Madrid (and probably in a few years if they keep on building overseas branding and getting CL football, Man City) etc who can afford to spend £20 million on someone that could be a flop because they're going to make it all back in a season anyway. Of course, these are all backed up with sound footballing decisions with regards to managers, scouting, training etc which is why you're seeing Chelsea begin to fade since they've had just about none of that since Mourinho left. Shepard set us up like that; finish 13th? Better spend £35 million on players who will flop (because the scouting was non-existant outside of asking their agents if he was any good and seeing if he plays for another big side), and at the end of their contract, will be finished and therefore impossible to recoup ANY sort of money from their spell. This is exactly why we were never getting back into Europe, except through the Intertoto Cup whereas if we'd spent a couple of years out of Europe, concentrated on building league position and naturally strengthening our reputation, we'd have been in a better state.

you know fuck all about the players we signed then. Do you even watch our games? Yohan Cabaye has CL experience and captained the side that won the French league last season, Ba has shown his excellence, quite how Cisse, the man who has scored goals EVERYWHERE, is a low-rent version of a goalscorer is beyond me. Tiote has shown that he could slot into any top side in the PL with very little effort, Ben Arfa is, well, it's Ben Arfa ffs. The kid was as highly-rated as an angel's blowjob until his attitude got a bit dodgy. Santon has had rave reviews from managers like Mourinho. You want money spunked on players like Adebayor who are just mercenaries at the core of them. I bet you leapt through the room when that horrible little shit Martins signed on daft wages for a pay day. You are, literally, the first person I've heard that wants us to stop buying 20 goal a season strikers and highly-rated prospects on the cheap that have got a hunger to succeed and revert back to signing players based on agent chatter who just want vastly inflated wages off a daft cunt who was desperate to have all the charades of being a big club. We weren't a successful side in the dying years of Shepard but fuck me if we're not looking like the start of one now.

On the other foot; Henderson, Adam, Downing, Carroll, Coates. Which ones of those are quality?

it was if we finish in Europe last month. You can't keep moving the goalposts of what progress entails.

The current financial policy is fine for where we are at; but to get to the next level, we need to spend money. We were meant to be seemingly thankful that Ashley was prepared to spend £9m on Cisse. Cisse is a quality buy and worth probably more but we should be spending money like that regularly. You spend money, you get quality, obviously it may not happen if you spend it on shit but no one is saying that. As I say, if he starts spending money, all fine and good. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy. However, I can't see why it suddenly changes the fact that we were regularly qualifying for such competitions under Freddy Shepherd. We've bought French league winners, leading goalscorers, supreme attacking talent and exciting Italian prospects with our policy. WHAT could you possibly want to see? Millions spunked up the wall Liverpool style? Cabaye, Tiote, Santon, Ba, Cisse, Ben Arfa. Howay then, what one isn't quality? Santon will be in a season or two, it's plain to see.

It was two years ago we were away at Plymouth watching absolutely SHITE football, now we could be in the Champions League. There's absolutely no cause for concern now. No point in even following and supporting the team if you can't get caught up in the moment of it all; you can do it perfectly fine as well as look at the long picture.