Deja vu

As a non LFC fan I have a confession to make. A few years ago I started a thread criticising LFC fans for wanting Hodgson sacked when he was your manager. At the time I thought you were unfair and that Hodgson was unfairly sacked but after the Euros debacle I finally realised he's no good as a manager. You saw him for what he was years ago and I couldn't see it at the time so I want to say this: You, the liverpool fans, were absolutely right about Hodgson and I and many others were wrong. There, I've said it.

Until you actually experience Hodgson - as we did, you can't be expected to have understood. Now England fans know exactly why we got rid, just a shame he was ever made national manager in the first place, could have been so much better with anyone else!

I think his LFC record was shocking on several levels - results, style of play, signings, but maybe most of all his PR with the fans - and it was obviously he had to go. Non LFC fans felt we were unfair to him = their right - but we knew we weren't wrong - altho in fairness to him it was not an easy situation to walk into after a shocking season from Rafa the season before and being under the cloud of the final days of Hicks and Gillett. Any manager would have found it hard never mind Hodgson.

He was so bad for us I disliked him intensely for a while but again in fairness to him he did well at WBA. Even so it was a shock to me that Redknapp did not get the England job as he was the best candidate but typical FA they went for the safe pair of hands and Roy got it - he is their type - and most will know what I mean by that.

As England boss he did far better than he ever did at LFC with some good displays and qualifying for the 2 tournaments but the bottom line was the displays in the tournaments - totally underachieved considering the talent at his disposal. He had to go - he probably should have gone after the WC based on results and performances but now after the Euros there was no escape. Mind you the draw had worked out great for them with a so called easy game in the last 16 and if they had managed to play V Iceland it could have been so different - that was the worst England display in recent years and it was when they needed it so much. The players do need to look at themselves but Roy has to look at himself even more as they were so bad and his tactics or ability to get them 'up for it' was shown to be very poor. Someone else needs a go now but the names being linked (Alladyce, Bruce ... etc) are not my favourites shall we say but we'll see what happens. I personally do not think it has to be an Englishman, it has to be the best man for the job.

As I have said before altho I was born in England having lived in Wales for nearly 30 years I have much more feeling for them and I almost don't care about England much now. When they won in Germany tho pre Euros I had got to believing in them like many others did and thought it could be their time - how wrong we were (again)

Sky reporting Jordan Ibe is going to Bournemouth for £15m.

Wasnt this reported last week?

Hoping that conditions for us to have first picks on resale are in place for him. Still think he's a good player - just seemed to get a bit lost recently.

However, we do have his 'replacement' in the Unders doing pretty good, Ojo got two assists last night in the U19's Euros v France. He and Chelsea's Solanke (some player too!) played really well by the reports. So stupid it wasn't on TV - should have been!

Our pre-season carries on with another match tonight at Fleetwood, 7pm on LFCTV. Worth a watch to see how the squad are gelling.

Oh, and Sakho is carrying an injury and is out of the pre-season.

I think it was on Eurosport.

Having checked I think you're right James. I know they're not showing all the England matches and just assumed - my error!

Reports coming in that Fenerbahce have said that Martin Skrtel has passed his medical for his £5m move. I know that he has had a few dodgy games, but it will be sad to see him go. Thanks Skrtel & best of luck

Sad to see Skrtel go he worked his ass of for us, but I knew his future with us was not good.

Good luck to him.

Ah, Hodgson. I recall vigourously defended our right to slaughter him as many rivals took his thankfully short-term reign as a reason to kick us.

They couldn't have watched the tuurgid defensive rubbish he served up that had us flirting with the relegation zone. They must've missed the likes if Poulsen and Konchesky "starring" for us. We has decent players elsewhere in the team but they looked totally ill at ease with what, er, tactics they'd been asked to deploy.

The man was, and still is, a footballing dinosaur with the personality, charisma and drive of a house brick. Even Souness' tenure was less painful.

He was more Fagin than Fagan sadly.

Ditto, still feel sad that we let Agger go and will be the same for Skrtel, only Lucas left now from the 'last' era - so many changes.

I wish him all the best, and hope he comes back to visit when he can.

As a liverpool and Welsh fan, England should have sacked him after the world cup, there was nothing to justify keeping him on and he just made the similar errors in the euros.

Colin Murray is leaving TalkSport because they've been taken over by NewsCorp.


https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...wner-news-corp

His last show will be on the 2nd of September.

Good on him. I always did like Colin Murray.

In other news, Liverpool lineup for Fleetwood Town:

Karius, Flanagan, Matip, Lovren, Moreno, Stewart, Grujic, Alexander-Arnold, Markovic, Mane, Ings

Substitutes: Bogdan, Firmino, Lucas, Brannagan, Ilori, Kent, Smith, Wisdom, Ejaria, Randall, Woodburn

Nice to see Flanagan (and Ings, actually) get two starts in a row.

[quote=TheMunch;83154767]Colin Murray is leaving TalkSport because they've been taken over by NewsCorp.Deleted

[quote=Choc_villes;83156064]
Great stuff!


Marko Grujic scored a nice little goal. 1-0 at half-time.

[quote=TheMunch;83156880]
Yep, he looked a bit good, won a pen (saved from Ings) and scored, neat player too.

Kent just got the 2nd for us, but am keen to watch the young Ejaria this half!

Lucas scored! That's not something you see every day!

4-0 now thanks to Firmino.

Ryan Kent looks like he could be the real deal. 2 assists today, and he has his full back on toasts. A lot of really neat tricks, but it's his weight of passing and intelligent, incisive off the ball movements that impress me. I hope he gets some competitive first team football this season.

Ejaria and Brannagan also look promising.

Firmino gets the last goal (a tap-in) and makes it 5-0.

Nice little run out for the team. Some more promising stuff from some of our youngsters. Shame we didn't qualify for Europe, would've liked to have seen the young players in the Europa League. Hopefully some of them get some good opportunities this season.

Could save the club some money if any of them can break through.

Enjoyed watching Liverpool earlier tonight. Delighted for Ben Woodburn when he scored, he looked amazed by it. He tweeted on Friday 'Best day of my life' after making his first team debut so I imagine that's been beaten tonight!

I like the look of Grujic early on, we've lacked a goalscoring central midfielder who likes to get forward in recent years (excluding Gerrard ofc), he's still only 20 too of course so looking forward to seeing more of him!

Grujic certainly looked good in the first half. Hoping to see more of him. Ryan Kent shone in the 2nd half too. Between him and Mane, their full backs got a bit of a roasting.

Good to see Lucas get on the scoresheet too. Doesn't happen often.

Passed his medical today.

Good luck to him, hope he develops into a top player