Budge
07-12-2003, 10:46:AM
from KopTalk...i think it speaks for the feelings of many fellow reds out there...:
by Brian Reade, The Mirror
WHEN you strip away all the hype that is aired about the difficulty of football management, success comes down to one quality. Judgment.
Money, a patient board and a healthy contacts book help, but being good at this job means answering yes to these questions:
Can you look at the thousands of players on offer across the world and spot genuine quality?
Can you do it time and again? Have you the vision to mould them into a team with iron in its soul which plays a fluent, attacking game that can beat the best in north Italy one week and the worst in the east Midlands the next?
Possess that level of judgment and you will succeed at the highest level.
Lack it, and you will always be placing square pegs in round holes, stuttering between victory and defeat, flattering to deceive and a last-minute penalty away from a crisis.
This week we saw stark examples of how two managers reside in those different categories.
By parading a galaxy of young talent which blew away Wolves, Arsene Wenger once again showed that his judgment of unknown players is quite exceptional.
By parading a collection of second-rate internationals who meekly surrendered a trophy he cherishes, Gerard Houllier once again showed why Liverpool are further away from becoming English champions than they were when he joined five years ago. That his poor judgment of players has bogged his club down in a mire of mediocrity.
His public rage at the guilty men was intended to make the fans believe that certain gifted individuals aren't pulling their tripe out for the cause. But he is simply distracting attention away from the real problem at Anfield.
That he has spent £110 million, and with certain notable exceptions it has been wasted on heartless journeymen.
Worse than that, he has stubbornly persisted with them when it is clear they are not up to the standard required by a club of Liverpool's stature.
Arsenal can put out a complete reserve side in the Carling Cup and get a result because they have a decent squad.
Liverpool can't because they haven't. Rest a few key players, draft in internationals, and they struggle.
But who bought, selects and organises the men that Houllier now so illogically castigates?He says he will sell them if they don't shape up? Who will buy them? He says he'll let them rot in the reserves. Won't that block up even further a system that has failed to produce a home-grown first-team regular since Steven Gerrard?
Wasn't that what Bernard Diomede did for four years, forcing the likes of David Thompson and Ritchie Partridge to Coventry?
There are recent signs Houllier is finally finding his touch. Harry Kewell and Steve Finnan are quality and Florent Sinama-Pongolle could be something very special.
But prior to this summer many of the players he has signed and what he has done with them have been baffling.
Why were Frode Kippe, Daniel Sjolund, Eric Meijer, Titi Camara, Rigobert Song, John-Michel Ferri, Christian Ziege, Sander Westerveld and Abel Xavier bought, and why were Jari Litmanen, Nicolas Anelka and Markus Babbel so brutally discarded in a side screaming out for their class?
Why was £10m spent on two goalkeepers in one day? Why was £20m spent on Salif Diao, El-Hadji Diouf and Bruno Cheyrou and to "complete the jigsaw" when it was available at £15m in Damien Duff?
If Gregory Vignal and Alou Diarra are decent players why are they abroad on loan? Who is Carl Medjani and why haven't we seen him?
John Otsemobor was drafted into a makeshift defence on Wednesday and did well. But how much better might he have done had he not been playing alongside Igor Biscan and Djimi Traore?
The team that caved in to a weakened Bolton was a mess because it was made up of too many poor and gutless players arranged in a tactically inept formation.
And for that the responsibility lies with the judgment of the man who bought and picked them.
If Houllier is angry with those players, imagine how angry the fans are who know the Smicers, Biscans, Diaos, Cheyrous and Traores are not up to it, but still somehow wear the red shirt week after week.
That after 14 games of a make-or-break season, one of Europe's G14 elite clubs are 14 points off the top and playing Newcastle for what has now become the new Holy Grail. Fourth Place. In most Kopites' judgment that is the issue that makes them very, very angry.
by Brian Reade, The Mirror
WHEN you strip away all the hype that is aired about the difficulty of football management, success comes down to one quality. Judgment.
Money, a patient board and a healthy contacts book help, but being good at this job means answering yes to these questions:
Can you look at the thousands of players on offer across the world and spot genuine quality?
Can you do it time and again? Have you the vision to mould them into a team with iron in its soul which plays a fluent, attacking game that can beat the best in north Italy one week and the worst in the east Midlands the next?
Possess that level of judgment and you will succeed at the highest level.
Lack it, and you will always be placing square pegs in round holes, stuttering between victory and defeat, flattering to deceive and a last-minute penalty away from a crisis.
This week we saw stark examples of how two managers reside in those different categories.
By parading a galaxy of young talent which blew away Wolves, Arsene Wenger once again showed that his judgment of unknown players is quite exceptional.
By parading a collection of second-rate internationals who meekly surrendered a trophy he cherishes, Gerard Houllier once again showed why Liverpool are further away from becoming English champions than they were when he joined five years ago. That his poor judgment of players has bogged his club down in a mire of mediocrity.
His public rage at the guilty men was intended to make the fans believe that certain gifted individuals aren't pulling their tripe out for the cause. But he is simply distracting attention away from the real problem at Anfield.
That he has spent £110 million, and with certain notable exceptions it has been wasted on heartless journeymen.
Worse than that, he has stubbornly persisted with them when it is clear they are not up to the standard required by a club of Liverpool's stature.
Arsenal can put out a complete reserve side in the Carling Cup and get a result because they have a decent squad.
Liverpool can't because they haven't. Rest a few key players, draft in internationals, and they struggle.
But who bought, selects and organises the men that Houllier now so illogically castigates?He says he will sell them if they don't shape up? Who will buy them? He says he'll let them rot in the reserves. Won't that block up even further a system that has failed to produce a home-grown first-team regular since Steven Gerrard?
Wasn't that what Bernard Diomede did for four years, forcing the likes of David Thompson and Ritchie Partridge to Coventry?
There are recent signs Houllier is finally finding his touch. Harry Kewell and Steve Finnan are quality and Florent Sinama-Pongolle could be something very special.
But prior to this summer many of the players he has signed and what he has done with them have been baffling.
Why were Frode Kippe, Daniel Sjolund, Eric Meijer, Titi Camara, Rigobert Song, John-Michel Ferri, Christian Ziege, Sander Westerveld and Abel Xavier bought, and why were Jari Litmanen, Nicolas Anelka and Markus Babbel so brutally discarded in a side screaming out for their class?
Why was £10m spent on two goalkeepers in one day? Why was £20m spent on Salif Diao, El-Hadji Diouf and Bruno Cheyrou and to "complete the jigsaw" when it was available at £15m in Damien Duff?
If Gregory Vignal and Alou Diarra are decent players why are they abroad on loan? Who is Carl Medjani and why haven't we seen him?
John Otsemobor was drafted into a makeshift defence on Wednesday and did well. But how much better might he have done had he not been playing alongside Igor Biscan and Djimi Traore?
The team that caved in to a weakened Bolton was a mess because it was made up of too many poor and gutless players arranged in a tactically inept formation.
And for that the responsibility lies with the judgment of the man who bought and picked them.
If Houllier is angry with those players, imagine how angry the fans are who know the Smicers, Biscans, Diaos, Cheyrous and Traores are not up to it, but still somehow wear the red shirt week after week.
That after 14 games of a make-or-break season, one of Europe's G14 elite clubs are 14 points off the top and playing Newcastle for what has now become the new Holy Grail. Fourth Place. In most Kopites' judgment that is the issue that makes them very, very angry.