Klopp is not making much of an impression at Liverpool, and financially it looks tight.

By Tony Attwood

Speaking with their regular authority on such matters on September 15 the Daily Express announced the “Liverpool owners will not sack Brendan Rodgers”.  And no they didn’t do it then – they did it on 4 October, and immediately the Daily Star said, “Replacing Brendan Rodgers with Jurgen Klopp will not solve all of Liverpool’s problems.”

Their reasons were interesting:

“Competing as Dortmund boss against just one financial powerhouse in Germany was one thing.  But in England, Klopp will have to go toe-to-toe with four big-money heavyweights in Manchester United, City, Arsenal and Chelsea as well as fellow contenders Tottenham.

“As former Liverpool star Jamie Carragher pointed out on Sky as they discussed Rodgers’ departure, the big clubs are not worried about the Reds.  They know if they compete for a player’s signature then more often than not the top four can easily blow Liverpool out of the water.”

And they had a real point.

Allowing a manager to run riot spending something like £76m on players and then getting rid of the manager isn’t really a clever move.  Better to not let him in sight of your club credit card in the first place.

This can be seen by the league tables…

When a Mr Brendon Rodgers was sacked by Liverpool! on 4 October the table looked like this…

Liverpool! were 10th with…

  • 1.5 points per game
  • Goal difference minus 2
  • 1.25 goals scored a game

Today the situation is very similar

Liverpool! are ninth with…

  • 1.41 points per game (down 0.09 points per game)
  • Goal difference minus 2 (exactly as before)
  • 1.29 goals per game (point 0.04 goals per game better).

So no real change.

Of course Klopp could turn out to be a better manager than Rodgers over time – only time will tell – but there is no getting over the fact that changing in the summer would have saved a lot of money.

What one should also notice is that clubs have to spend a huge amount of money in sacking a manager.  They are in breach of contract, and contracts are legal affairs.  So the manager who is sacked is able to claim not just money to shut him up, but also money that he is legally due.   The amount might be written into the contract, or it might be according to an employment tribunal.  But payment there will be.

There’s also another point here.

Arsenal’s financials read like this

  • Turnover in the last accounts was shown as £304m (up from £283m in 2013).
  • Profit before tax £5m (down from £7m)
  • Net debt £33m

Liverpool’s figures…

  • Turnover in the same period was £256m (up from £206m in 2013)
  • Profit before tax £1m (following £50m loss in 2013)
  • Net debt £126m

In one sense you might say that the difference (in footballing terms) was not that great, with Arsenal having £48m more turnover, £4m more profit and £93m less debt.

But, Arsenal have built their stadium.  Liverpool are still undertaking the long process of rebuilding – and even when it is all done in a year or so, they will still have an awful lot of debt to pay off.  (The figures quoted above are for the financial year up to June 2014.  Liverpool have spent a lot more on transfers and stadium building since then.)

So, a lack of progress is happening at a time when a lot of the money that might be available being soaked up by the stadium rebuild and other money was used by the last manager, both on transfers and on his settlement.

Over the past five years Liverpool have a net outlay on transfers of over £350m according to Transfer League.  Now they know that after a number of years without reaching the top four, they need to develop a new team.  But Man City have spent £741m in the last season for which figures are available on new players which is the sort of money you might well expect a club that is trying to upgrade from 6th in the league to fourth to spend.

Arsenal on the other hand have spent £136m, and as I have noted, have the benefit of a completed stadium, which is bigger than Liverpool’s and which has a lot more executive seats which bring in a sizeable part of the revenue.

So Liverpool! are being squeezed all round.   The stadium has to be paid for, and even when done it will not take their annual revenue up to the level of Arsenal.  What’s more they clearly need to recreate their squad to reach the top four position.   They kept spending lots of money, and then they sacked their manager.  That’s the wrong way around.

More Anniversaries

  • 20 December 1924: In a rare success in Knighton’s final season Leeds were beaten 6-1.  The result left Arsenal 10th, but a terrible second half to the season saw them end up 20th, escaping relegation by one place.
  • 20 December 1998: Arsenal 3 Leeds 1 (Vieira, Bergkamp, Petit).  From this game to the end of the season Arsenal lost only one game, going the next 19 unbeaten in the league losing finally to Leeds on 11 May.

41 Replies to “Klopp is not making much of an impression at Liverpool, and financially it looks tight.”

  1. So that means after the Watford result the position Liverpool are in today is actually worse than the day BR got sacked? I’m loving this 🙂 If only the PIGMOB hadn’t robbed us of those points at chelski and west brom we’d be having only one challenger in the title race. and that’s Leicester 🙂

  2. I’m beginning to get the impression that the gremlins that control football have red shirts with white sleeves.
    Rarely have I seen so many bizarre happenings in the EPL before Christmas.
    Champions Chelsea closer to relegation than retention.
    Unfashionable Leicester City seemingly immovable from top spot.
    Manchester United and Liverpool being humbled by the likes of Norwich and Watford.
    And all this apparently to the benefit of Arsenal FC…IF they can take advantage of it.
    As for the managers, the game of musical chairs continues. The previously impregnable seats at Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool appear precarious indeed.
    Even the most experienced of pundits would never have forecast the EPL table as it stands today OR the topsy-turvy results which now appear to be the norm in this crazy season of 2015/2016. 😉

  3. Al, I make it 11 points that we have been robbed. We should be leading by a distance!

  4. Wow, didn’t realise it was that many points! Cheers Andrew. We should be out of sight. Really hope this is not going to be another season they rob us of the title, a la 2008.

  5. Interesting stats:

    Arsenal have played five matches against the rest of Top 7 so far.

    Four victories (Leicester (a) 5:2, United (h) 3:0, Crystal Palace (a) 2:1, Watford (a) 3:0) and a draw (Tottenham (h) 1:1). 13 points out of 15, 14:4 goal-difference. Not bad for a team that doesn’t play well in big games, eh?

    We have been the only team to beat Leicester, the only team in the league to put three past United and the only team to put three past Watford. A bizarre coincidence: Alexis has scored all of his six league goals in those three games.

    Tomorrow we play City and I’m nervous like before my first date with a woman who is now my wife.

  6. Liverpool humbled 3:0 by Watford. And Klopp was supposed to be some people’s ideal choice to replace Wenger….All the WOBs and Klopp lovers masquerading as Arsenal fans, please stand to be counted.

  7. have a feeling Liverpools spending next summer will be frightening, as Klopp offloads Suarez squanderlings, and others at a massive loss.
    Are the owners putting their money into the club……and if so, for how long can they sustain that? Klopp has a decent record….at times, but he is still a big risk, as is any new manager, fortunately, Arsenal , and Untold seem to understand that.
    looks like , if some reports are correct ,we may be on the verge of an elite manager merry go round ….and the only winners will be the agents. Just hope it all destabilises a few of our rivals.

  8. From the analysis so eloquently put forward in the article, Liverpool might find things a little harder next season. I am not saying they will, they just might… Well, that’s what happens when you attempt to do what someone with way more gray matter than you, with simplistic ill-thought out methods. With all the help Liverpool gets, they are hardly going to take the top-four by storm. Shame.

  9. Does mike Riley read Untold? Coz I can’t understand how anyone could dislike my comment that we were robbed in 2008 🙂 Ah well..

  10. Speaking of Klopp, whenever a name of our next manager is discussed, I get a bit nervous when they say we should have gone for the German.

    Yes, he has done a wonderful job at Borussia Dortmund. He didn’t just beat Bayern to the title twice, he also wiped the floor in Champions League with billionaires Manchester City and Real Madrid. Also, he promoted players like Götze, Hummels, Gündogan and Lewandowski to the world-class level.

    However, let’s take a deeper look at Klopp’s work at Dortmund in a context of usual criticism pointed at Arsene Wenger.

    1) “Wenger’s players get injured too often.”

    In case you have missed it, Klopp’s Borussia had had number of players in the treatment room. Gündogan was out for a year and their whole first defensive line-up was out at some point due to injuries. Not to mention Marco Reus who missed World Cup 2014 due to injury and who has been on the sidelines number of times. Klopp’s football is physically demanding and it takes its casualties. And, it all happened in the league that has a winter-break, four league matches less than in England and no league cup whatsoever.

    2) “Wenger doesn’t have a Plan B.”

    Klopp had been found out in Germany. Borussia’s opponents would simply let them play with the ball and hit them on the counter-attacks. In case you have missed it, the same thing is happening in Premiership with Liverpool. They have destroyed Chelsea and Manchester City, I give them that, but teams like Crystal Palace and Watford have given Klopp a football lesson. It seems that Klopp hasn’t found any other solution bar his Gegenpressing. If that one doesn’t work, his team is in a big trouble.

    3) “Wenger made a mistake by selling Robin van Persie to his biggest rivals. He should have kept him, like Klopp did with Lewandowski, until the contract expiry.”

    Wenger sold Van Persie to United and purchased his replacements. Whilst I will always disagree with Gazidis’ statement about Van Persie’s sale being from footballing reasons, we at least got something in return. In case you have missed it, we got Podolski and Giroud. Neither of them was on Van Persie’s level but both of them hit double-digits in their first season. We got versatility. We got some sort of compensation on the pitch.

    Klopp had kept Lewandowski against his will but it didn’t exactly work for the German side. Bayern won the league without problems and Borussia failed to repeat their European success from the previous season. Furthermore, they lost a fee that they could have got for him.

    4) “Wenger didn’t sign a WC-replacement for Van Persie.”

    Yes, Wenger didn’t do that. But at least we got Giroud’s goals and defensive work at set-pieces and Podolski’s goals and assists.

    Klopp signed Adrian Ramos and Ciro Immobile to replace Lewandowski, with a note that he had to spend some money that he didn’t earn from Lewandowski’s sale. Neither of those two signings worked for Borussia.

  11. @AI

    You actually think Mike Riley can read? I bet Mike Dean does it for him, between rubbing his feet and oil massage.

  12. Your figures are disingenuous because you deducted Arsenal’s cash reserves from the debt but did not do the same for Liverpool. Arsenal have £33m net debt because they have £200m in cash reserves. Liverpool have around £130m in cash reserves, so are in fact debt free.

  13. One small note. Arsenal’s NET debt is lower than Liverpool. Probably not overall debt. I would be shocked if that were the case because our debt is a result of the stadium.

    Net debt in Arsenal’s case is so low because we have huge cash reserves. Liverpool will have lower debt (they haven’t got their stadium yet) but significantly lower cash reserves. Hence a higher net debt.

    As for Klopp. I hadn’t heard these coments from the media before. Pretty sensible, but oddly enough such understanding was never accorded to Wenger and Arsenal.

    I like Klopp, but I’m not sure he’d have been a worthy Arsene successor. As it is, he’s Liverpool manager so likely that is a moot point.

  14. AC

    Wow! 11 points , really?

    I thought Walter’s 6 was a bit generous, but 11 ?

    I’m genuinely curious how you’ve arrived at this number.
    Would you care to share it?

  15. I quite like Klopp but I’ve said many times that he isn’t the finished article yet. Playing in the Bundesliga where there’s only 1 top team and at best 3 chaser teams means they have an awful lot of games where they can play below 100% and rest players.
    The PL is different with ‘few to zero’ games being less that 100% effort and there are lots of dim-witted fans that don’t understand that.
    He took Mainz down but learnt from that, they gave him time and he took them back up. He wasn’t an immediate success at Dortmund but they gave him time.
    Klopp may well become a top manager over the next 3-4 years, but that will only be because he’ll have worked in the PL and they’ll have to give him time….. but will they!
    It’s like these guys that say Pep is the best manager when he’s only managed Barca and Bayern. Both of which had pretty amazing teams before he took over and he had a very decent transfer fund to add/fill holes. That’s not to say he’s a bad manager, but he’s hardly the ‘whole package’ based on that experience. And managing Barca B team is hardly a tough job either!

  16. Al

    I have noticed the same type of pattern re “dislikes” – any comment hitting on the miserable performances of the “Clones in Black” attracts disproportionate “dislikes” – but who cares!

    The “dislikes” may well be from PGMO plants or possibly from the cowardly (but presently frustrated) aaaa.

    Either way I am very sure the Clone Master directly or indirectly keeps UA under surveillance.

  17. Think you may be right bjt.
    The pgmol are a shambles, and the AAA should go and support Chelsea, as some of them do anyway

  18. After all the ostriches’ arguments and suggestions have been shot down ; their blue eyed boys sacked and generally getting everything wrong , what will they do next ? Use their brains for a change and think for themselves ? Make a better detailed study and use fact based analysis ?
    No ?
    Then there is to be more fun from all their failings this season !

    Has there ever been a season that none of the 3 promoted clubs were relegated ? Has the standard of the Championship improved , or has the EPL standard become poor ?

  19. @ bjtgooner – December 20, 2015 at 11:46 pm – And fellow AKBs – a ‘ DISLIKE’ from ‘them’ is proof for me that we have hit the nail bang on the head , and we are right !
    But that I would really like to hit the nail into their heads still stands !

  20. Change is good ?

    Cinderella was now 75 years old. After a fulfilling life with the now dead Prince, she happily sat upon her rocking chair, watching the world go by from her front porch, with a cat called Alan for companionship.

    One sunny afternoon, out of nowhere, appeared the Fairy Godmother. Cinderella said “Fairy Godmother, what are you doing here after all these years?”

    The Fairy Godmother replied, “Well, Cinderella, since you have lived a good, wholesome life since we last met, I have decided to grant you three wishes. Is there anything for which your heart still yearns?”

    Cinderella is overjoyed, and after some thoughtful consideration and almost under her breath she uttered her first wish: “I wish I was wealthy beyond comprehension.”
    Instantly, her rocking chair was turned into solid gold. Cinderella was stunned. Alan, her old faithful cat, jumped off her lap and scampered to the edge of the porch, quivering with fear.

    Cinderella said, “Oh thank you, Fairy Godmother!”

    The Fairy Godmother replied, “It’s the least I can do. What does your heart wish for your second wish?”

    Cinderella looked down at her frail body, and said, “I wish I were young and full of the beauty of youth again.” At once, her wish became reality, and her beautiful youthful visage returned.

    Cinderella felt stirrings inside her that had been dormant for years and long forgotten vigor and vitality began to course through her very soul.

    Then the Fairy Godmother again spoke. “You have one more wish, what will you have?” Cinderella looked over to the frightened cat in the corner and said, “I wish you to transform Alan my old cat into a beautiful and handsome young man.”

    Magically, Alan suddenly underwent so fundamental change in his biological make-up, that when complete he stood before her, a boy, so beautiful the likes of which she nor the world had ever seen, so fair indeed that birds began to fall from the sky at his feet.

    The Fairy Godmother again spoke. “Congratulations, Cinderella. Enjoy your new life!” And, with a blazing shock of bright blue electricity, she was gone.

    For a few eerie moments, Alan and Cinderella looked into each others’ eyes. Cinderella sat, breathless, gazing at the most stunningly perfect boy she had ever seen.

    Then Alan walked over to Cinderella, who sat transfixed in her rocking chair, and held her close in his young, muscular arms.

    He leaned in close to her ear, whispered, blowing her golden hair with his warm breath, “I bet you regret having me neutered now, don’t you?”

  21. James – I take your point, but as with Arsenal during their high debt period, it was part of the loan deal that Arsenal had to keep massively high cash in the bank. It was their money, but they couldn’t use it. I think that the same applies to Liverpool.

  22. Tom
    I know you know exactly where to find the evidence you’re asking for, but in case you missed it, read the article listed below this one, titled Arsenal v Man City: the match officials. There’s a nice table in there.

    What concerns me though is the idea of an Arsenal fan attempting to dismiss such evidence in favour of the obviously incompetent (I should be using the word biased here, but don’t want anyone to latch onto that and twist the argument) officials. A natural reaction I’d expect from a true Arsenal fan would be anger at being cheated like that.

  23. Bjt
    True. I think I’ve noticed too.

    I fully agree with your views on the pgmob keeping surveillance on UA, what with our manager constantly referring to UA in his press conferences ‘as that site that keeps stats on refereeing decisions’…..I wouldn’t expect that mob to have missed that! 🙂

    Of course, Wenger’s comments aside, I think we have seen evidence of mainstream media copying some arguments posted on here and publishing them as theirs. And didn’t the pgmob take their website offline after UA started challenging their figures of their men being 99% correct most of the time as sheer fantasy? So yep, I agree those bastards do keep an eye on this site. They, and their cheerleaders in the form of the aaaa, can click the dislike button as much as they like but it will not change anything.

  24. Mick
    Lol. Really wish I could get my hands on the logs on IP addresses of posts made here. Now that would be interesting 🙂 I remember Walter outed one troll who was masquerading as tailgunner and rolf at the same time, never heard from ‘either’ ever since 🙂

    On another note just seeing that blatter and platini have been handed 8 yr bans. Hope the feds turn the screws on these guys, and send a message that if you’re corrupt you will get your comeuppance one day.

  25. We all remember that some went in meltdown about Klopp going to Liverpool and so we would miss out on him as our new manager. After the initial (and usual) hype when they won a few matches it all is going downhill again. But mind you when we drop the next point in a match that will not stop the usual suspects to shout out loud that we should have fired Wenger and get Klopp in his place….

  26. I wouldn’t go writing Klopp off just yet. It’s early days and he hasn’t even had the benefit of a single transfer window to bring in his own players. That said, there have been some wildly fluctuating results under his short tenure so far. The 4-1 win at our place the other week was the obvious highlight and to be fair Liverpool were outstanding that day, although we in part were the architects of our own downfall. Then they had the 6-1 at Saints in the League Cup and the 3-1 win at Chelsea in the league. 3 fantastic results and 3 fantastic performances. But that’s been tempered by some absolute shockers, culminating in yesterday’s 3-0 defeat at Watford.

  27. Morning all.

    Great post Tony and like Josif’s analysis.

    Look, there is far more to football management than the media, pundits and a section of fans will have you beleive.

    The FFM tend to sign into the ‘flavour of the month’. You know, you get some manager have a couple of good seasons and all of a sudden he’s a world beater. I laughed at someone calling Guardiola a football ‘God’. This is a man that inherited a very strong Barca team including Messi, in a two league team. He then went to manage Bayern another already dominant team with exceptional players and with similar resources. How great is he really?

    The same was true of Mourinho. Inter had won the league and cup treble under Mnacini and 3 league titles on the spin.

    Klopp did well to compete with Bayern in that lopsided, one team league. However, he struggled in his last season and had all kinds of injuries. However, unlike Wenger he was allowed the ‘excuse’ of injuries, Wenger is not. Our injuries are all Wengers fault, of course.

    Pre-season on a certain blog, the name of Garry Monk was being put forward as a future Arsenal manager. The past is littered with Managers we should have replaced Arsene with, all have since either disappeared or been proved fallable.

    Man Utd have found out how difficult it is replaceing a manager. They have also demonstrated what we all know, that signing loads of players is unsettling. The fcat LVG spent so much on Matial proves how difficult the market is.

    For me, great football management is about a philosphy and the importance of stability within that philosophy. It’s about educating young players so they are ready to come into the first team squad and understand what is required. This is a key tactical element that the ‘Arsene doesnt do tactics’ ignoramouses do not understand. It’s about improving players, identifying their abilities and making the most of that. It’s about taking a wing back and turning him into our greatest ever striker. Its about signing unknown or unfancied players and making them work within a system and become household names. Its about motivation.

    This is total different management style and philosophy to cheque book management.

    The fact that people are unable to seperate the different types of management firther exemplifies the ignorant way football is reported and follwed by so manager. The ‘crowd’ who cannot think for themselves but prefer to joing in with what everybody else says.

    Klopp was flavour of the month. He was this incredible manager that was going to come to England and win Arsenal the title in his first season. He was going to drag Liverpool out of the 1980’s. I

    Well it isnt so easy, there is far more to this football managment malarky than the media and the FFM’s on their playstations will have anyone believe.

    The Premier League too is different, the recent TV money has just made the Premier League even more competitive. Real Madrid won 10-2 yesterday. Bayern bought Dortmunds best players to essentially wipe out their competition. Italian football has seen clubs like Juventus relagated for match fixing.

    This is why I appreciate Arsene. He has NEVER had all the benefits the managers of Barcelona, Bayern, Real, Chelsea and Man City have had. In fact, for many years he was hugely disadvantaged but still somehow kept us at top 4 level. VCould Guardiola, Klopp, Mourinho have done that while selling their best players and trying to break even? I don’t think so. Nojne of this is to say Arsene hasn’t made mistakes, by his own admission he has. But so too has every manager because at teh end of the day we are only human. Who are we to judge? Who are we to abuse?

    There is more to Football Management than just accumulating and signing players like the FFM would have us believe.

    Unfortunately, it appears to be labelled a ‘great’ football manager, or a ‘god’, you have to have success with an open cheque book and the best resources. Meanwhile, winning the league unbeaten and growing a club with both hands tied behind your back leaves you open to ridicule.

    It’s a funny old game isn’t it…..

    Yes he did a great job of course but its a helluva lot easier to manage Ba

  28. Interesting point.

    On the radio, despite having the fewest goals against and the fewest losses since the start of LAST season, apparently we can’t defend at that will cost us.

    ‘Evidence based reporting’

    On the radio this morning, despite having been the only team to beat Leicester (5-2 away), our weakness is our inability to beat our rivals. No mention of the fact that we gave Man Utd a good hiding when they were riding high.

    ‘Evidence based reporting’

    Man City will be a tough game, they have great players that can win games on ther own. But so do we. Both teams have injuries to contend with but this will be a great game – two teams who actually play the sort of football we want to pay to see.

    Losing for either team won’t be good but a draw wont be the end of the world.

    This is a weird season and thank god for that.

    It may be the first time for years that a title win has been truly ‘earned’ and not ‘bought’ – which can only be good for the sport.

  29. On the subject of dislikes, it may not even be the pgmob, but just one of their cheerleaders from the aaaa ranks. I’ve my suspicions, based on observations I’ve made, that there’s a certain culprit who clears their browser history and reloads the article, click the dislike button on all AKB posts while clicking the like button on aaaa posts. They do this a few times, but it’s easy to spot because the number of likes or dislikes increase/decrease uniformly; e.g., you first visit an article and as an example you see bjt’s comment with 2 dislikes, jambug’s comment having 4 dislikes, and an obvious trolling aaa comment with 3 likes. You come back after a short while later and you notice bjt’s comment has now got 7 dislikes, jambug’s with 9 dislikes, and the obvious troll post now with 8 likes. A simple analysis shows the numbers moved by 5 positions in each case. So what are the chances that we will get 5 readers who will all dislike bjt and jambug’s comments, and like the trolling comment? I’d say that’s highly highly unlikely. Leads me to think there’s an idiot with lots of time on their hands that they’ll go through the posts clicking dislike on certain AKB comments while clicking like on others, mostly aaaa comments. They clear their browser history and repeat this action 5, 6, 7 or whatever times suits them. How sad. Well it’s not usually quite as clear cut as seeing the likes/dislikes have increased by a certain number, but generally you can see a trend of heavy down-voting of AKB comments while on the contrary seemingly aaaa posts get high number of likes. I’m sure whoever it is needs to be a bit more clever than that, hopefully they’ll read this post and see we can see through this childish behaviour, and stop it.

    Anyway it just could be my imagination running with me, I used to read lots of sherlock holmes when I was young 🙂 Now to wait for a torrent of dislikes to my post 🙂 Good day AKBs!

  30. Lots of dislikes from gremlins not aaa but long haired lovers from klopperpool. Sad they can’t all play because they would be formidable.

  31. M18CTID, it could just be the press talking BS but I think I heard that Klopp had stated that he wouldn’t buy anyone in the Jan window as he’d need the rest of the season to gauge the players already at the club.
    A very sensible Idea as far as I’m concerned but will he be given the luxury of time?
    Would the present Tiny Tots manager still be there if his first season had started like AVBs time there, or would they have finally appreciated that a manager needs time before he can be deemed either a success or a failure…

  32. Tom -Now that you appreciate brains in others, try to do some research on the 11 ‘lost’ points. I would be happy if the FA replayed the Chelsea – Arsenal match as their official got major decisions wrong – but then pigs might fly.

    An 8 year ban on PGMO would not be enough to void their corrupt practice.

  33. Al.

    Hitting the dislike button without leaving a comment shows an inability to debate sensibly.

    I would take it as a compliment that they can’t actually disagree with what has been said.

    It is a childish way to behave but we should be used to that by now – these clowns are experts at making themselves look stupid.

  34. Menace

    I was being sarcastic of course.

    Anyone who believes Rupert and I could possibly be the same person must be a total moron.

    Rupert , according to his posts, loved music, books, and football was his third or fourth favorite passion.

    He also clearly was either a Brit or a Kiwi residing in Britain, and his English was proper.
    I , on the other hand was born in Poland and English is my third language, which is more than obvious from the frequent grammar mistakes I make.
    And I reside in the U.S.

    Football is my live’s passion and because of the lifestyle I was afforded from playing at pro level, I watch more football than anyone I know, something a person like Rupert would no doubt consider stupid, boring and probably a waste of time.

    But the biggest difference of them all is of course that Rupert disliked Wenger and wanted him gone, while I support him and believe he has earned it to call time on his career whenever he feels like it.

    Now, of course it may seem a bit harsh to call people who believe Rupert and I might be the same person morons, perhaps they just don’t pay attention to details and as soon as someone criticizes Arsenal or Wenger for whatever reason, a red mist comes over their eyes and everything else becomes irrelevant.

    Or maybe they have memory lapses and forget what was said on these pages just a few months ago.

    Al might be one of those people.
    Here’s an example.

    I was the first to compare the significance of Cech signing to that of Van Der Sar by United from Fulham when the news of Cech transfer came out, and I produced details and numbers to predict Cech was a bargain and would be a huge success for Arsenal.

    And six months later, Al, about a week ago, posted something similar as his own idea.
    Now , I’m not claiming plagiarism of course. Anyone could make that comparison on their own- not rocket science, but six months later?

    But here’s the funny bit . Al was part of the conversation when Cech news came out , and he was surprised Wenger would sacrifice one of our own ” world class” keepers for Cech.

    Talking about being way behind the curve 🙂

    @Al
    Instead of trying to get your hands on IP addresses of posters’ , just ask Bootoomee, who’s not exactly a big fan of mine , or Rupert for that matter.

    He’s pretty clever and he could tell you Rupert and I are two different people 🙂

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