September and October
A fairly good two months as we suffered our
very first Premier League loss in
nine games against Newcastle 1-0. We have also been knocked out by Spurs 1-0 in the Fourth Round of the Capital One Cup, it was rather disappointing to go out at such an early stage and I made my feelings known to the boys. However we recovered and returned to dispose of West Ham 3-1 in our next match.
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We only have 1 loss in 9 Premier League matches but we are only at 4th, because of the many draws that we have. However I am not complaining...
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Nathan Eccleston has agreed to extend his loan at Leyton Orient while
Andre Wisdom has signed a loan contract with Yeovil Town.
I want to bring in a quality winger but I prefer to sell before buying.
Stewart Downing has been offered to clubs for cheap fees but as of now is not attracting any interest.
We have qualified for the Europa League with two games in hand, from what was an easy group.
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With Tom Werner informing me that Manchester City were interested to take Stewart Downing off our hands, I headed up to Manchester to have talks with the club and Roberto Mancini, bringing along my trusted assistant manager Tony Coton.
Just a few days ago I had hinted that Downing was available for a cut-down price. Kenny Dalglish had brought the winger from Aston Villa over to Anfield for 16 million last summer and although a fully-fledged England international, he flopped at Liverpool in his first season and made 36 league appearances, but extraordinarily was unable to score even one goal, nor provide one assist. To turn Liverpool into a title-challenging team, I thought, I had to off-load some of the flops first, so out Downing would go. I had offered him for a mere 5 million, but with no club interested I was forced to lower my asking price as I was desperate to get him out of the club.
After I had made him available for transfer, Downing automatically became superb for me in the next two matches he played and was named Man of the Match in both matches. Those performances attracted last season's league winners Manchester City, who are also dominating the league this season. And with Downing available for only 3 million, I can't say I was surprised when I heard of City's interest.
Introduced into the meeting room at the Etihad Stadium, Tony and I were greeted with the faces of Roberto Mancini and City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
"Alright let's cut straight to the point," Tony said quickly upon sitting down. "We want at least 3 million for Stewart."
"2.5 million," Al Mubarak offered.
"I didn't think a club of your stature would be interested in negotiating prices down," Tony said sarcastically, prompting a frown from Al Mubarak, and I cut in quickly.
"2.5 million it is," I agreed.
"Well, that was quick," Mancini smiled. "A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Tham, and you too, Mr. Coton."
"Stewart will come down to Manchester in the next few days to discuss personal terms and have his medical," I decided, but Mancini shook his head.
"No, he does not need to come to Manchester. I will go to him personally, just to show my sincerity," the Italian replied. "Again, it is a pleasure doing business with you."
I shook Mancini's hand, although hoping I didn't meet Mancini too much. Arsene Wenger probably knows everything about Mancini by now.
Lucas Leiva has scored his first international goal for Brazil while Craig Bellamy has bowed out of international football with 68 caps and 19 goals, making his last appearance for his country in a 4-0 win against Luxembourg.
Very suprised you let downing go for as little as that, i managed to get malaga to cough up 14 million for him haha, get rid of spearing aswell!
We played Man City home at Anfield and Mancini took advantage of his time at Merseyside to seal a deal with Downing. After having his medical, the winger will join up with the champions in January for 2.5 million.
November
It has been a great month!
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We are now 3rd in the Premier League, which is rather pleasing!
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I am 3rd in November Manager of the Month and
Fabio Borini is runners-up for November Player of the Month.
My Liverpool revolution is starting to kick off, with Tom Werner informing me that Stoke City want to hold talks regarding them purchasing Jay Spearing while Arsenal are very interested in Martin Skrtel.
After a good long talk with Stoke City's Peter Coates and manager Tony Pulis, it was agreed that Jay would be allowed to discuss with them personal terms, and if contract talks were successful he would join them for 3 million. I would also be willing to entertain Arsenal and Wenger if they made an offer in the region of 15 million, but they probably won't.
I am on the lookout for a new left winger and so far Bologna have rejected my bids for Gaston Ramirez, even after I made them a final offer of 25 million. Wigan are not willing to sell Victor Moses either and I might have to look at Swansea's Scott Sinclair. Joe Allen is also a target but he will only arrive if I decide to off-load Charlie Adam.
Jay Spearing has agreed personal terms with Stoke and will sign for 3 million after completing his medical at the club.
Meanwhile talks with Swansea have ended positively as we reach a 10 million deal to allow left winger Scott Sinclair to come to Liverpool.
Sinclair wanted 55k per week and 1+million in loyalty bonuses and agent fees on a three-year contract, we finally agreed on a four-year contract, seeing him earning 50k per week and 1 million in loyalty bonuses with his agent getting a 1 million agent fee.
The English winger will join up with us in January.
I like your new style of writing, Glenners. And your results are turning around, which provides some hope for me, because I am expecting to be slaughtered in my first few matches with Stoke City...
#63238 Glenn T :
Jay Spearing has agreed personal terms with Stoke and will sign for 3 million after completing his medical at the club.
I welcome this news lol.. wish it would happen in real life though
December
A very good month but the 5-1 loss against Arsenal was terrible and there was a heated argument in the dressing room right after the match. I started Craig instead of Pepe and he completely flopped, letting 5 goals in, just because he had talked to me about not getting enough playing time even for a backup. I told him that he was not better than Pepe at all and should have improved before asking to play more games and from that, an argument started, but he eventually apologized and we went on to win our remaining matches in the month.
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We are still at 3rd, and I am rather proud.
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It amazes me, but I was browsing through Eurosport at home on my computer and guess who won the Ballon d'Or and World Player of the Year -
Lionel Messi, but that's not the amazing part, the amazing part is how
Cristiano Ronaldo and
Andres Iniesta are 2nd and 3rd for both awards... we really need to get a new superstar in soon because I'm tired of seeing Messi, Ronaldo, Messi, Ronaldo.
Ballon d'Or
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World Player of the Year
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World Team of the Year
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Stewart Downing made his last appearance for Liverpool in the 2-1 win against Norwich, and the next day, finally completed his move to Manchester City as the transfer window opened. Everyone at Liverpool will miss him, he was a great player, a great lad, but I couldn't find room for him because I wanted to bring a better winger in with greater potential and I didn't want to let Craig Bellamy go. Always one of the first in training over the past six months I've been here, attitude has been wonderful too.
We have completed two new signings, with
Donervon Daniels of West Bromwich being the first. Only 18 years old, Don is a product of the West Bromwich youth academy and is part English part Montserratian and will slot straight into my Reserves squad. He had a tremendous amount of potential when we first looked at him and my scouts have been following him since September until now, and he seems to have declined a bit. But we will see what we can do with him. Don's natural position is center-back but is also fairly competent at right-back.
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Scott Sinclair of Swansea, with whom we have already agreed a transfer a few weeks ago, is my second signing in the January window, and my third signing as Liverpool manager. He is a direct replacement for Stewart and will also wear the No 19 shirt vacated by him. First playing his football at Bristol Rovers, he joined the youth team at Chelsea but his development didn't go as expected and he was farmed out on loan to several clubs before joining Swansea two years ago where he has flourished.
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