Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool statue will be adorned with shoestrings after Great Midfield Rebuild
Liverpool’s Great Midfield Rebuild has been done on a budget, says the Mailbox, which also has views on Arsenal, Saudi and more.
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Liverpool and the usual Big Small-Time
Right out the gate we nab two of the best midfielders out there. Then…we remembered.
This is not what we do. We’ve spent the vast majority of Klopp’s time at Liverpool enduring that what could have been a dynasty was rather a budget enterprise.
Klopp was brought in by FSG because he’s a miracle worker and a loyal worker bee. The perfect combo for the Yankee VC vultures.
What happened in the Great Midfield Rebuild (which was the direct result of dicking around and acting like we were f**king Stoke or something)? We then dicked around Southampton despite having bagged an ungodly sum for two ageing stalwarts until the Saints got rightly fed up. Nice work.
Now we’ll end up with a net midfield in the minus territory to where we began the Great Midfield Rebuild. Also great math.
Massive club on a shoestring. When a Klopp gets his statue, it will be festooned with shoestrings. That will be his legacy, undeservedly.
FSG Out.
Scott, LFC, Toronto
READ: Premier League five-year net spend table: Chelsea lead Man Utd in the £600m club
Why haven’t Arsenal won the Premier League yet?
So, apparently Arsenal need a new striker, a whole new system, more pace and urgency after winning their first two games. This is while employing a new system at the same time their main striker is injured.
I for one am really glad the Premier League is back in full swing so we get to read these reasoned opinions based on a sufficient sample size. The fact they haven’t already won the league this season really highlights something is wrong over there.
James, Kent
Sitting on the dock of the bay…wasting time
Quick point on the Arsenal tears about Tomiyasu’s first booking for time wasting. There seems to be a groundswell of opinion that he was harshly dealt with as Havertz held the ball for longer. Tomisyasu was left holding the baby and therefore took the yellow. One of them DID deserve a yellow though, and Tomiyasu was utterly complicit in it.
The point is that ARSENAL were time wasting, and the ref punished them accordingly.
Surely the point of policing timewasting is to punish the team, along with the player granted, but following the flawed logic above, all eleven players could pass the throw in to each other (as long as they didn’t hold on to it for too long), in a weirdly comical game of musical chairs until the ref lost his patience. Is that what we want?
Havertz and Tomiyasu cynically wasted time and one was punished, end of story.
The fact that he then got another soft yellow is almost immaterial. Separate issue. If you don’t want to risk a red, don’t waste time, get a yellow and then walk a tightrope.
Had it been Palace at the Emirates, the screaming would have been ear splitting.
ANON
Three points
Three things crossing my mind at the minute, and you lot (if published) are the ones who’re going to be subjected to them.
1 – time wasting
We saw in the Arsenal game some heinous time wasting still going on and some being yellow carded for the liberty (if a little harsh on Tomiyasu). Teams are always going to do it and refs will always be criticised for booking the wrong player or not applying the rules evenly.
The fix to this, for me, is a ball back in play clock. Tennis has the serve clock, American football has a play clock. Why can’t football have a back in play clock? Auto yellow card for anyone over the time allotted. I also think the time should vary based on what stoppage there is and it should be started (and signalled to the players) by the refs.
2 – The best thing Pep can give back to the game
Now I don’t want this to read as a criticisms of the coaching in women’s football, there are lots of excellent coaches who have done great things. This is more of a point about the excellence of Pep.
There are plenty of Disciples of Pep (DOP) who are looking promising as managers.
Arteta, Xavi, Erik Ten Hag (known as mini pep when the two of them worked together at Bayern), Xabi Alonso, Vincent Kompany and early days but Enzo Maresca, all looking exciting at their respective clubs. Their managerial prowess obviously can’t all be linked back to Pep, but it’s undeniable that they all take cues from his playbook after working under/with him.
Now he’s at no liberty to do what I’m about to suggest, he doesn’t owe anything to anybody, but Pep’s next challenge after winning it all with a second club should be women’s football.
I’m not sure there’s a big club he’d go to that can match what City can give him and after ruling the world of men’s football (twice), why not have a crack at raising the bar of the women’s game? In the process he can help create a new generation of women in management who have benefited from his footballing brain. If we take stock of how many DOP there are in management, and go on to assume that the successful ones will bring on a further generation of great footballing brains (as Johan Cruyff did for Pep), there is a massive opportunity to spread this legacy of knowledge into the women’s game.
Surly bringing a new level to women’s football (while trying to break the Lyon/Barca vice grip on the women’s Champions League) is a more enchanting legacy than going after the ££ in Saudi or trying to get a tune out of an MLS team.
3 – Leeds are crap again
That’s football. I had a good couple of years where my team part of the Our League conversation, even if we struggled at times. Now once again, we are in a dire situation.
I get that swapping the owners and the director of football after a relegation is hard, but there really seems to be no plan and a distinct lack of first-team players left. It was a big risk to give everyone a favourable relegation clause and it’s now biting us in the ass.
Here’s to hoping we’ve been stacking our sales cash and planning a big final day mop up of players people are needing to shift before they can buy their own targets.
Donathan – Still marching in together though
Mo money, Mo problems
I’ve taken a few days to breathe before sending this in just so I can leave out as much emotion as possible. Reading, and re-reading Anand’s email bemoaning the disparity between reactions to Messi going to the MLS and the likes of one-time LGBT-ally Jordan Henderson taking a fat paycheque from Mo bin Salman. It’s clear that Anand is either a massive troll, or a complete cretin. Either way, he comes across as a right c**t.
“How is it any different from any other profession?”.
Who’s saying it is?
“America doesn’t quite shine as a beacon of human rights, does it?”.
Well, no, not uniformly. Half the population wants to take abortion away from women. Healthcare is a racket. And, god help you if you’re a black man being pulled over by the police. But, did you just equate signing for David Beckham’s Inter Miami with joining a Saudi regime-funded club? Forgive me, but, I must have missed the news about that ESPN reporter getting dismembered for criticizing Beckham for hiring his mate Phil Neville as head coach. I’m not sure what power Beckham has over the citizens of Miami. I guess he dictates the colour of Inter’s kit and the price of tickets. And, yeah, he’s definitely not averse to accepting money from questionable regimes.
But, that guy Mo… Bin Salman is the monarch of the autocratic Saudi Arabia, whose legal system is modelled on Sharia Law. That doesn’t float my boat, Anand. What floats my boat is women having autonomy, and not being treated as second-class citizens. What floats my boat is people of whatever sexual orientation being free to get married and have kids and live a normal life.
There was a guy who wrote in a few weeks ago about being treated terribly in England by locals (not excusable) but being warmly welcomed when visiting a Gulf State. I can’t quite remember if it was regarding the controversy of Qatar hosting the World Cup or Saudi Arabia buying all of the football. In any case, I remember the phrase “their country, their religion” was being used in a sort of “my house, my rules” kind of way. This is so very wrong. A people born into, and governed by a religion is oppression.
In Saudi Arabia converting from Islam is punishable by death. That doesn’t float my boat. So, say what you want about American foreign policy (I’m not here to defend that), but, don’t you ever try to suggest that American and Saudi citizens are on a level playing field.
And, Anand, seeing as you’re clearly a fan of the whataboutery, you might ask how I feel about PIF and Newcastle. Fuck ’em. The government shouldn’t be getting into bed with such regimes and allowing them to permeate its ecosystem. As for other clubs (including my own) taking money from questionable regimes? Fuck them, too. Nobody is free from scrutiny.
And, for anyone who would rather not hear Western media outlets criticize Mo & Co. I would recommend VICE News. They’ve just been bought by, you guessed it, Saudi Arabia. Hopefully they can avoid a Jamal Khashoggi incident.
Simon, Norf London Gooner
Still supporting Greenwood
I have read the various opinions and denigrations of both Greenwood and Man United with a fair bit of bemusement in the last couple of days. I’ve been quite surprised how easily some are willing to terminate their fanhood (is that a word) of a club based on how they’ve dealt with one situation. I have been even more surprised at how ready we are to throw young Greenwood out into the cold based on the allegations levelled at him. We are in-deed an outrage-based society and kneejerkery seems to come more easily to us by the day.
Football is a Billion Dollar/Rand/Pound/Euro industry and the players get a fair chunk of those benjamins. We all love a talented young prospect and ‘we’ shower those young players with adoration, fame and more money than they could ever imagine. We tell them that the world is their oyster and that they can have whatever the hell they want because they are who they are!
Many of those players fall into the trappings of what their fame gives them access to. Women, drugs, betting… you name it. They start to believe what we’ve been telling them all along. When those players eventually fall we pounce like vultures ripping at their carcasses, assassinating their characters and illuminating their every character flaw. I’m not saying that Mason fell into that trap because only those two know exactly what happened that night, however the spotlight ‘we’ put on him is why ‘we’ are all even talking about this.
We rightly speak of morals and that these players should be examples to other players, and to society at large, but how many of us were expected to be role models at 19, 20 years old? Should that not at least buy them a sembIence of leeway in the event that they fail to live up to expectations? Quite frankly, I shudder to think what an utter A-hole I would’ve been had I been a millionaire at 19.
Man United were placed in an unenviable position. Contrary to popular belief, there were quite a fair amount of fans that were calling for Greenwood to be retained after his name was ‘cleared’, that’s not even talking about how any club would be loath to part with someone that good at kicking a football.
All things told, I believe United came to the right decision. They released him but also extended a hand to him and did not merely cut ties with him and tell him to fend for himself. Both sets of views can find solace in the way it all unfolded. The fact that it took so long shouldn’t matter in the greater scheme of things.
Farewell young Greenwood. I hope there are some lessons learned but, I, for one, will celebrate every goal you score no matter where you end up.
Buchule Fulanisi, East London, South Africa (do we still do the brackets thing?)
No comparison with Mendy
To all those unfortunate souls who believe that Greenwood was/is innocent and try and link him to Mendy, there is no comparison. Mendy was in prison, on remand, awaiting trial and suspended by City.
When the details of his lifestyle emerged in court, I don’t know of one single City fan who wasn’t disgusted at his attitudes and unprofessional behaviour.
Too many fans usually try and defend their own but not in this case. Even when he was found innocent of all the charges, again, I didn’t know of one Blue who wanted this innocent man back at City.
To all those United fans who did want Greenwood back, ask yourselves this question. If it’d had been a City or Liverpool player, in Greenwood’s position, would you have taken your same stance again or would it have been different?
Think on, and if the stance is different, you need to ask yourself what kind of person you really are.
Levenshulme Blue, Manchester 19
Women’s World Cup fall-out
Various points on the fallout from the Women’s World Cup:
Vilda: I’ve done a lot of reading about this situation and my takeaway conclusion is that we are basically witnessing mass bullying of a man who has done little-to-nothing to deserve it. The level of vitriol aimed at the guy is completely out of proportion. You’d think he was some sort of Mark Sampson-esque figure based on how people talk about him. But there is apparently no suggestion of inappropriate behavior.
He’s just a bit of an amateur who has clung onto his job for 7 years. I can understand why Spain’s players are frustrated with him persisting and surviving during a period when they wanted + rightly expected increasing levels of professionalism, but I don’t think “not being very good at your job” is a valid reason to be subject to widespread abuse, whether that’s being booed in stadia or aggresively insulted in various articles/memes/Guardian cartoons/etc.I hope he now leaves the job with his head held high and moves on, it seems like it would be best for all parties.
Rubiales: the kiss on Jenni Hermoso, meanwhile, has attracted an entirely appropriate level of criticism! But I would actually go a step further: Rubiales actually inappropriately kissed several other players on the cheek prior to the Jenni Hermoso kiss-on-the-lips. As most/all of us know, there is a thin line between “cheek kissing” and “kissing someone’s cheek with your lips”. But if you watch it back, you’ll see that the guy was behaving creepily with the other women too. I’m very relieved to see that this is getting the attention it deserves and hopefully this guy, unlike Vilda thus far, does not persist beyond this incident.
Olga Carmona: the story is just so sad. I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s a kind of coincidence that is so tragic it just shouldn’t be allowed to happen. I’ve been here trying to write this into a paragraph for 10 minutes but find myself unable to say anything further about it. Too sad.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
Why does F365 hate all men?
The absolute hatred you display towards men at every given opportunity is quite sickening. You keep fighting discrimination with discrimination. So, um, other then, you are pretty shit social justice warriors, there’s not much more to say about it. Be better, or shut the f**k up.
For so many years all you ever wrote about woman’s football was articles about the fight it is doing against men’s football or something along the lines. How about write about the f**king football. Only now, now that there is money in woman’s football have you done it. Seriously pathetic. You had the chance and the audience to make a difference, yet you only chose and continue to choose to write about whatever will get the most clicks. Bravo.
Zdravko
