So the aim of this new season is to build on the success of the previous, I desperately want a domestic cup and the Champions League so hopefully the young players this season will come of age and add the depth needed to play in all four competitions its a lot of work, but I feel that the rotation system last season was one of the key reasons I was able to win the league managing to keep my form towards the back end of the season and I shouldn’t need to bring in many new players.
Coming into the new season it’s all change with all three of my major rivals changing who they had in charge, Wenger has left London to take charge of the French international team, something that he has wanted to do for awhile I feel and the only job he would have ever left Arsenal for. Another reason why he may have left last season was that Arsenal failed to challenge for the title and in the last couple of season have failed to break into the top 2. Even though they only finished 8 points a drift I never felt they put any pressure on my side at all and they finished in 4th place, The Gunners have drafted in Munich’s Hitzfeld to fill some big boots. Chelsea who I felt was my major rival last season, until bottling it at the end of the season dropping so many points that Manchester United leaped frog them to second place, seen come Thomas Doll in. With Grant in charge Chelsea spent £90 million with only the league cup to show for it. I am sure that Roman probably had a quiet word with Grant to jump ship before he sent the heavies in. Although United only failed to pick up the title last season after keeping it for three in a row, Ferguson felt that it was time to retire it was a sad day at Old Trafford and as he said good bye as millions of people flocked from outside Manchester to see him off, most notably the majority of Mancuians themselves were all down at the City of Manchester Stadium greeting Mathieu arrival.
I think a serious concern for me at Liverpool is the lack of money there is available, Ok things aren’t dire we have £28 million in the bank but there is still a hell of a lot of loans to pay back £270 million to be exact and we are moving in the wrong direction in the value rankings. We are valued at £109 million behind Spurs, Sporting Lisbon and Marseille and just above Ajax. The wage bill is under budget by £700k a week, so I am doing my bit I just wish the new investor would actually invest. The board have allowed me £18 million to spend this season which in comparison to what some of the bigger sides have got to spend isn’t much. Hopefully the new stadium which we will be breaking in this season will have the same affect it has had down at Ashburton Grove turning Arsenal into the highest grossing team in the league.
But on the other side I have spent £101 million on 32 players, £40million more then I have sold but that does include a lot of the youngster that have been brought into the side so that in the next couple of season I won’t need to rely on bringing in any new players and this season I won’t be looking for to many first team players during the summer and with a Premiership winning side that has an average age of 24 I won’t need to for a few years, taking the same template as Sir Alex’s Manchester United did when Mr Hansen famously made the quote the comes back to haunt him every year, “You will never win anything with kids”, I maybe even get rid of a few players as I have such a huge squad which can been seen here.
The first of the summers activities saw Xabier Eizagirre come in he doesn’t look like much yet if you nose into his attributes but Wojtowicz wouldn’t stop raving about him all last season telling me at just 16 he is a definite purchase. So I have punted £5 million on him from Spanish club Celta and should spend a few years coming through the ranks, Local Spanish papers have compared him to Barcelona’s Xavi and if we get half the player he is I will be happy. Another £10 million was placed on Ever Banega the young defensive midfielder he is of the right age to go straight into the first team but will be competing with Javier and Ignacio for a place, but you can see now that he is coming of age just by the fee that Boca commanded for him, they did drive a hard bargain with negations going back and fourth for some months. Lucas did leave the club when Sevilla offered £11 million I accepted straight away which would funded the Ever deal who I feel will be the better player.
I did a few more dealings in the free transfer market bringing in a few players that had been on my shortlist for a while Sotiris Ninis and Fernando Forestieri to add to ambitions youngsters that make up the reserves. Many of the other youngsters have gone on loan in search for first team experience elsewhere before they will ply their trade in my first team. I am hoping that it will keep them happy as they obviously won’t be seeing a lot of first team football at Liverpool. Filippo Mancini an Inter academy graduate and Trecarichi making up the other two free transfers. The coaches aren’t a fan of either of them but they will probably make up squad fodder and maybe even a money maker if the right bid comes along.
Leaving the club most notably was Daniel Agger who failed to extend his contract, instead he put two fingers up to the Liverpool supporters and left for Real Madrid. Torje did the same, a player I was gutted to see go, but ever since teams came sniffing around him he was never happy I turned them all away obviously he feels he is bigger then our club. Coelho the free transfer from last season coming from the San Siro was another player to leave, he was a mistake buy, a terrible player who even when playing against the lower league teams looked like he should have stayed at home, no wonder Inter didn’t make any challenges when I went over to Italy to talk to him. But £500k and half of his next sale was a fair deal maybe the first team football at Leicester will force a decent bidder in the future to make up the rest of his value.
With all the movements of the summer in the managerial department I did try my luck for the Arsenal job only to be quickly dismissed, but it hasn’t put me in good favour with Thomas White as when he seen the headlines gave me the Ultimatum to either resign or he would make sure that he would see to it that I would disappear on my next scouting trip. So for protection I have joined up with the Brazilian Mafia all they have asked in return is my soul and to bring the World Cup back to Brazil and of course I quickly accepted mouth drooling with the chance of working with the likes of Kaka and Robinho. Brazil had a terrible World Cup 2010 losing to South Africa in the second round. The winners of the World Cup were McLaren’s England beating Spain, Argentina along the way meeting the Czechs in the final.
The season started on the note it finished as we beat Arsenal 4-1 in the Community Shield, Kuyt taking one of those braces he occasionally has, so I won’t expect another goal for a while. But indeed he did prove me wrong with a goal against Arsenals nearest rivals Spurs in the opening game of the league and a 4-1 win at the Riverside made the team confident and already we were topping the table, Banega starting his season well with the team scoring nearly every other game including friendlies which isn’t bad for the defensive midfielder. In an attempt to keep my players fit for the up and coming clash with Manchester United I brought up some of the young players Wijnaldum and Iago both making debut both playing well Iago even firing a free kick into the top corner to open the lead. But the rotation system came undone as Jimmy Bullard’s equaliser rescued a point for Fulham.
The final game of the August against United was predictably a fantastic display of attacking football. Rooney broke the deadlock against the run of play, thundering through the middle of the park and in the one-on-one with Reina slotted home his second attempt at goal. We went in at half time 1-0 down, but very little encouragement was needed to get the players back on the pitch. Gerrard who played out wide for this game crossed the ball into the middle from deep to put Torres through who fired it into the bottom corner. Maxi Rodriguez again put United back in front, Reina caught out of position when the first shot arrived it bounced to Maxi who had a clear goal in front of him. A big game like this wouldn’t be complete without an Aguero goal. Sergio took his first goal of the season heading in another Gerrard cross, Torres secured the win late in the game Gerrard hit the ball from the middle into the box, Sergio selflessly headed the ball into the path of Torres to end the game 3-2. I was pleased with the performance of the lads today. In previous big clash games, it always looked like we were hanging on to games, lucky breaks won us games and strong defending. But this time the team played comfortably on the ball and Ramos’ first trip to New Anfield with United ended miserably.
In the first month Liverpool took all three monthly awards Babel securing player of the month with an impressive average rating of 7.62, Dos Santos claiming the young player of the month. Portsmouth were the big spenders in the transfer window, Ex Manchester City coach Tommy Soderberg was conned into paying £27 million for Antonio Valencia, maybe he thought he was investing into a Spanish football club? Portsmouth spent £62 million during the summer Lee Cattermole was also deemed to be worth £13.5 million in another big transfer for the Pompey we will have to wait and see if the signings will make any difference to a Portsmouth team that is stuck in mid table obscurity.