Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12 MOD POST #1130

EchoO wrote: »

I doubt it. I go back as far as Paisley and this lot...



First match I went to see was Dundalk v Liverpool, Lansdowne Road, 1980.

Snap. I do beleive it was a 2-0 win?

djPSB wrote: »

Also, Rodgers isn't going to have the ideal preparation for the new season with all the players at the Euros.

Then there will be a few lads going to the Olympics.

Bellamy is playing in the Olympics.

Bad move for Bellamy's Liverpool career imo, he has a persistant injury problem and he seemed to struggle from February onwards for us so he might not have a full season in the tank

5starpool wrote: »

Indeed. If Rodgers gets 86 points in 3 years time the people who are deriding Rafa will be declaring it a miracle.

Well it would be a miracle with the current crop. We had a quality first team the year we came 2nd though.

murpho999 wrote: »

Well he will be playing in the Olympics when LFC do pre-season, and maybe he won't play every game.

It's 3 group games and then into quarters and is 2 weeks in total and finishes on August 11 (GBR could be out by then) so I don't think it's that punishing.

Only thing is Liverpool will start season on Aug 2nd

The 2012/13 Premier League season will kick off on Saturday the 18th August 2012. Fixtures will be announced around the middle of June, with the first set of television picks selected approximately 2-3 weeks later

Can't come quick enough now tbh.

Royal Legend wrote: »

I go back as far as the 74 final vs the barcodes, Keegan/ Toshack. I remember watching the 71 cup final as a toddler and for some reason I took to the team that lost. Cup Finals in those days were huge games, not like today.
I will always remember 77, I cried after we lost to the mancs in the Cup Final and fours days later cried with joy when we won the European Cup for the first time. I think that was the year that the lads we on the balcony of city hall and peed down on some nurses :rolleyes: and signing the song "Liverpool are Magic, Everton are tragic"
I thought the world had ended when Keegan left for Hamburg that same year, only for the greatest player to ever wear the shirt to arrive from Glasgow for £440k. (Its funny the things that stick in your head)
I listened to (on the radio) and watched some of the greats down through the years, Keegan, Clemence, Kenny, Hansen, McDermott, Joey Jones, Souness, Rush, Barnes, Fowler, Stevie, Carra, Nando and now Suarez. I have probably forgotten others that should be included, but Dirk goes on that list as well. Even though he was not the most technical and he could infuriate you at times by losing possession, one thing is, if he lost the ball he went twice as hard to won it back. Of all the players ever ridiculed by the supporters, he never ever deserved it.

Listen to how many times that tool on ITV will state about Scott Parker during the euro's that he has " put his body on the line" again.

Dirk did this week in week out, blood, sweat, unreal energy, and never gave in. He to me epitomises what it should mean to a player to pull on a Liverpool shirt. I wish we could always put out 11 players with his attitude, because, we would be chasing leagues every year with the likes of Dirk.

Great post that

Very sad to see Dirk go. He's the ultimate professional and a genuinely nice guy. On top of that, he has popped up with so many memorable moments and was one of our most important players in what was the best Liverpool side of the past 15-20 years. Players like Kuyt are the ultimate role models for young kids and hes a great ambassador for the game. YNWA Dirky.

Some Liverpool team that was - 1974

I think Sterling was also asked if he wanted to take part in the Olympics. Hopefully everyone gets knocked out of everything very quickly or we could have one very tired squad starting next season.

Opr

5starpool wrote: »

Has the ticket selling arrangements for next season been decided yet? I'm assuming it'll be in 2 batches again? Not a big fan of that really.

I'm waiting for news of this too.

Fixtures are announced mid June so should know by then I'd say ? Tv fixtures 2 weeks after the fixtures list..

On a purely selfish basis, I wouldn't be upset if we weren't to make it into the Europa Cup proper, or get knocked out early.

Sunday games are a nightmare for the travelling fan

Dirk Kuyt believes new manager Brendan Rodgers will bring the good times back to Liverpool FC.


The Dutch international is set to bring an end to six years at Anfield after informing the Anfield club today that he has agreed a deal with Turkish side Fenerbahce.

The transfer is expected to be completed in the next few days, and speaking exclusively to Liverpoolfc.tv, and having spoken with Swansea goalkeeper and Dutch stopper Michel Vorm, the former No.18 insists Rodgers is the right man for LFC.

"I think it's great for the club that they have finally announced the new manager," said Kuyt.

"From what I have heard from Michel Vorm, who is with me in the national team, he is a great manager and he told me he will be perfect for Liverpool and he will definitely lift the club up to a higher state."

Kuyt also wanted to make clear that his decision to leave Anfield has no bearing whatsoever on the new manager being appointed at Anfield.

He added: "I would also like to say my decision to leave Liverpool was nothing to do with the new manager coming in whatsoever. I just had the feeling that I had to go somewhere else for a new experience after six years. I made the decision but it's not about the new manager. I have great memories from my experience with the club.

"I'm sure Liverpool will improve under the new manager. Liverpool has a great squad of players and I'm sure with this manager they will do well. From the bottom of my heart I wish them all the best, wish the new manager all the best and I hope they will be very successful."




http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/dirk-backs-brendan

Yesterday, Liverpool Football Club celebrated its 120th anniversary in uncharacteristically quiet fashion. Few teams traditionally extract more pleasure from their history and lore.

But the club that, in the words of iconic coaching legend Bill Shankly, has thrived off the passion of a "Holy Trinity -- the players, the manager and the supporters" is changing. In the words of managing director Ian Ayre, "The modern game demands we add the business side as a fourth pillar. It is no longer sufficient to be historically successful. A clubs needs a commercial strategy if its intends to compete."

While all eyes rest on new manager Brendan Rodgers and his efforts to reincarnate Liverpool's tradition of "pass-and-move football," an appointment that recently occurred behind the scenes may prove to be just as transformational. Billy Hogan, formerly managing director of Fenway Sports Management, is the club's new chief commercial officer.

Cleveland-born Hogan, 38, is a modest yet ambitious strategist. "When Fenway Sports Group [John Henry and Tom Werner's Sports sports investment company, FSG] took over Liverpool, the club had been through a tumultuous time," Hogan said. "But the ownership group is a proven braintrust that owns and controls multiple sporting properties," referring to the Red Sox, NASCAR's Roush Racing and regional cable outlet NESN. "Our goal is to grow Liverpool's revenue and return the team to the top of every category -- be it the English Premier League, Facebook 'likes,' or number of global supporters."

Hogan is describing a position Liverpool enjoyed not so long ago. In the 1980s, this proud team from a spirited northern town was the game's gold standard. However, the creation of the Premier League in 1992 transformed English soccer into a money-fuelled game.

Ayre, a thoughtful and measured man, admits that "Football's business model changed, Liverpool remained conservative and our rivals took advantage. But in the last four years we have woken up and made great commercial strides." Identifying South East Asia, China, India and the United States as the prime areas for growth, Ayre said, "Our goal is to reclaim the territory we held in the '70s and '80s when we were football's most dominant brand."

At the press conference to announce Rodgers taking the job, club owner John Henry hinted at the strategy his team will employ to achieve that goal. "We will embrace the unconventional, build the right way and together set a bold, exciting course for this historic club."

The exact words could have been used in January to describe the record breaking $38.4 million-a-year jersey deal the team struck with Detroit-based New Balance subsidiary, Warrior. A six-year contract so lucrative, former manager Kenny Dalglish quipped it was as "good as points."

What's in a shirt, anyway?

The story behind that blockbuster deal offers a glimpse of the unconventional course Henry has charted. It also explains why a club craving a return to the elite level would associate its brand with a relatively unknown soccer manufacturer, and how that manufacturer was persuaded to fork over a record-breaking sum to an inconsistent team that stumbled to eight place in the English Premier League, 17 points off the Champions League pace, this past season.

The origins of the deal lie in the breakdown of negotiations with Liverpool's previous sponsor, Adidas, when the German manufacturer refused to increase its $18.4 million-a-year contract. "We got to a point where the disparity between our valuations was too great," Ayre said, referring to the strength Liverpool drew from its position as one of the leaders in global shirt sales.

"What we might not have achieved in footballing terms in recent years, we have certainly achieved in popularity as a brand," Ayre said. "We knew we had a passionate global fanbase, so we opened up the conversation to other sports brands and every major company jumped into the mix."

Once Henry and Tom Werner's FSG ownership group stepped in to rescue Liverpool from the verge of administration in October 2010, Liverpool's options multiplied. "The sports brand search was handled out of Liverpool," Ayre said. "But once FSG joined discussions from the Atlantic side, the relationship they had forged through the Red Sox with New Balance led to our introduction to Warrior."

From the perspective of Warrior's president and CEO, Dave Morrow, the strength of the deal lay in its timing. Warrior had become one of America's fastest-growing retail team sports companies by building an iconoclastic brand targeting elite teenage athletes in lacrosse and ice hockey. "We were looking to grow globally, and had eliminated one option after another," Morrow said. "Gridiron football is distributed on a team basis, not through retail. Baseball is not truly global, and basketball is not really an equipment sport."

Morrow's conclusion was simple. "There was no way for us to go global unless we moved into the soccer space."

Morrow is an immensely passionate man, a one-time All-American lacrosse player who started his company as a 20-year-old in a college dorm room and who ends every email with the sign-off "DOMINATE!" Analyzing the uber-competitive landscape of soccer-manufacturing, he remained sanguine. "There are 40 to 50 brands, but most are regional except Puma, Nike, Adidas and Umbro. They may be massive but we have a unique point of view [because] a 17-year-old competitive soccer player is our [target audience]. We are not going after everybody."

Asked about the attraction of Liverpool, Morrow was refreshingly honest. "I would love to tell you there was an elaborate plan but most of the top 10 powerhouse teams were already under contract, so when the Liverpool opportunity presented itself, the negotiation happened very quickly."

Warrior's parent company, Boston-based New Balance, had enjoyed a successful, long-standing relationship with FSG's Red Sox. "Liverpool were the only team on the top 10 list who would enable us to work with guys that literally work down the street, which means there was a trust element there. We had proof of FSG's record of returning a team to a winning tradition, which is a prime consideration in any investment."

Warrior harbors ambitious expansion plans for its soccer business. Morrow intends to sponsor a top-tier team in Spain, Germany and Italy. For now, the brand's sole focus is Liverpool, and Billy Hogan said his club is enjoying the attention. "There is a benefit to having a partner thinking only about you," he said, "just as there is a risk for us in that Warrior are a new entrant into the world of football."

Ayre believes that the freshness Warrior brings to the task makes them ideal partners. "We don't see ourselves as wearing a lacrosse brand," he said. "We are wearing an innovative brand that wants to break barriers and be at the forefront of football."

"Breaking barriers" is an apt description of what Warrior had to achieve to bring the kit to market. As Morrow remembered, "We won the deal on April 11th, 2011 and had to begin to develop 320 unique styles," referring to the home kit, away kit, third strip, European strip, and training kit that comprise a modern football line. "The process normally takes 18 months. We had 120 days to cram in design, production, material testing and social compliance."

Richard Wright, general manager of football for Warrior, remembers the stressful side narrative that accompanied a design process executed at lightning speed. "When Liverpool fans read about the deal, they loved the big check we had signed, but were skeptical of the Warrior brand," he said. "All the club message boards were ablaze with fans asking what the hell Warrior was and whether we would deliver mad skateboard designs."

From the very go, Warrior understood Liverpool as a club steeped in history. Its design team immersed itself in the past century of Liverpool jerseys to conjure a collection it called "Modern Tradition." Modern alluded to the construction and fabric performance; tradition referred to design touches stolen from some of the jerseys worn by Liverpool's most historically successful teams.

"Overall, the design of the home shirt is reminiscent of the '80s when the team won everything," Wright said. "We also restored the Liverbird crest in its original amber yellow color, a staple that had gotten lost in the early '90s and returned to a long neckline -- the placket -- inspired by the an early Liverpool shirt from 1902."

Most significantly, Warrior has returned the club to its original shade of red. "The club has gone too red over the past two decades," Wright said. "We reclaimed the shade Shankly chose in 1964 that he believed made his players look 7-feet tall."

The jersey was unveiled on May 10th. Although detractors declared the design similar to a McDonalds uniform, pre-sale orders have doubled those of past launches. "All the fans tell us the shirt conjures our glory years which is the exact message we are trying to deliver as we strive to grow the club's commercial side without losing touch with the 'Liverpool Way,'" Hogan said.

A way forward

The away shirt draws its inspiration from Liverpool's away uniform from 1900-1906, featuring a "yoke detail" that pays homage to the city's nautical roots. The home-and-away shirts are also a symbol of the club's evolution. "When we won the Champions League in 2005 we lacked the infrastructure to capitalize on that success," Ayre said. Pointing to Hogan's appointment and Liverpool's transatlantic future, he added, "The strength of our current infrastructure is the people we have in Liverpool and in Boston and the Warrior deal is the perfect example of that."

Hogan must now focus on sourcing untapped streams of revenue to close the gap on competitors such as Manchester United, which announced a five-year global sponsorship deal with Chevrolet as its "automotive sponsor," the latest in a maze of global partnerships it has brokered with an official airline, bank and beer seemingly on every continent. While Liverpool doesn't officially release sponsorship information, sources indicate the club had approximately 18 partnerships at the time of FSG's acquisition in 2010, and intend to have 25 in place before the kick of the 2012-13 season. By way of comparison, the Boston Red Sox had 35 in 2002 when FSG took over. It now boasts 95.

By that evidence, the Warrior deal may be the first of many. But that does not detract from the unbridled joy Morrow experienced when his jersey launched. "The unveil was at midnight Engish time," he said. "I had just landed at the airport in Detroit where it was 7 p.m." The CEO fired up his iPad and prepared to monitor digital feeds on Facebook and Twitter. "It felt like waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve," he said. "At 7.01, my iPad just went 'boom,' lighting up with thousands of people tweeting in languages I had never had to read before -- Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic -- and I could not determine whether the feedback was good or bad."

Then the messages started to arrive in English, French, Spanish, languages Morrow could understand. "The responses we received were rapturous and I found it emotionally overwhelming to experience just how passionate and global Liverpool's fanbase could be."

http://m.espn.go.com/soccer/story?storyId=8003415&leagueTag=usa.1&lang=EN&i=TWT&w=1btqz