How far behind are they?

Corkinator

Well-Known Member
Just thinking there, how far behind do you think they are? I reckon they’re where we were about 2 years ago, NOW!
So where will they be at the end of the season when they need 13 players? Where we were 3/4 years ago?
it’s Gona take more than 1 or 2 transfer windows to even get up to a par IMHO!
1. tgey can’t afford it.
2. Loads of new personnel behind the scenes.
3. New manager.
4. Time for players to settle and gel
5. They’re only looking at doing it half arsed because they’ll probably keep the back room staff.
There are more reasons but I think they’re in for a massive shock.
Hopefully we keep going and kick on again next season.
 
I would be confident we could retain the title again next season but I don’t buy into us being miles ahead.

Decent management team and a couple of decent windows for them and they could turn it around. Can’t see either club going on a mad run of title wins again any time soon.

We will have players coming and going aswell and at some stage in the next few years our management team will most likely change
 
We'll only be miles ahead if we continue to recruit well, get CL money and if their next appointments are poor. What we have in our favour, is that there is so many things they need to get right it makes their window for success much smaller in the short term. In this sense it's all to play for imo. We need to keep focusing on ourselves and get CL money and win the league again. Only from there can we look to dominate with healthy reserves, and by then I'd imagine Gerrard would be ready to go. Meaning we are into the unknown, and they may well have persevered with a new management team and the tables are turned again.

The important thing is to enjoy the here and now. Don't think and speculate about who we're going to sell in the summer or our own period of domination. We could suffer a hangover like Liverpool have, so enjoy everything about this season today and for everyday til next season. Gerrard and/or these 55 legends leaving is beyond our control, I'm just going to enjoy it.
 
Probably not as far as we want to think, I include myself in that.

It's pretty clear that a lunatic like lennon and his angry bastard blame-everyone-else approach didn't work, an actual football manager like Rodgers got much more from alot of the same players.
 
Not far at all, they have had a shocker of a season, but with a good coach, they do have some good players.

They showed in the last OF that if they are more tactically drilled they will cause us problems.

This idea that they're us pre Gerrard is idiotic. They have their problems, and we can still get better, but they're starting from a far, far healthier position than Gerrard had to.
 
Depends on what they want to spend , money talks ,will they spend big on a manager and give him millions to spend .
 
Not far at all, they have had a shocker of a season, but with a good coach, they do have some good players.

They showed in the last OF that if they are more tactically drilled they will cause us problems.
Probably the correct answer. They'll have to completely rebuild though and as we know that can take years to take effect. Gerrard has been successful thanks to that time and backing.

We need to, and I'm sure we will, build from a position of strength.

That was their undoing, they got cocky and complacent with a lack of competition when really they should have been a lot further ahead of us.
 
Not far at all, they have had a shocker of a season, but with a good coach, they do have some good players.

They showed in the last OF that if they are more tactically drilled they will cause us problems.
A good chunk of that team won’t be there next season I’d imagine but i agree with your whole point that there probably isn’t too much in it
 
Probably not as far as we want to think, I include myself in that.

It's pretty clear that a lunatic like lennon and his angry bastard blame-everyone-else approach didn't work, an actual football manager like Rodgers got much more from alot of the same players.
When Gerrard arrived I thought it would take 3 to 4 transfer windows to genuinely compete with them. Celtic are not nearly as far behind us as that. One good transfer window from them(and a bad window for us) would probably see something like a 50/50 league.
 
If we play our cards right we could dominate the league for a few years in my opinion – but we need to be wary, this season alone is proof enough of how quickly things can change.
Yeah I’ve seen it all turn around in a year but the point I’m making is in this day and age in football, with a rebuild the size of what is needed it won’t be done in a year or even two.
 
Prior to Martin O'Neil arriving, I'd thought 3 or 4 years and was so wrong. I suspect probably 2 seasons, but DD might throw money at them (along with other investors) to get their fans back on board.
We'll known by mid July.
 
Yeah I’ve seen it all turn around in a year but the point I’m making is in this day and age in football, with a rebuild the size of what is needed it won’t be done in a year or even two.
Don't count on it. They will pull out all the stops.
We have to be one step ahead...at least.
 
Yeah I’ve seen it all turn around in a year but the point I’m making is in this day and age in football, with a rebuild the size of what is needed it won’t be done in a year or even two.

I agree, realistically it will probably take them a couple of years – but you also never know, we might lose some players we struggle to replace, they might recruit well and get a good coach and bounce back quickly. Unlikely, but possible.
 
Their demise has been greatly exaggerated IMO they still have the nucleus of a decent squad depends on what level of financial backing they get and of course what style of manager they recruit we are ahead in terms of recruitment and current squad strength but that can quickly change
 
A good manager or head coach, couple of good signings and things can change dramatically.

Let’s hope it’s a Keane and Kennedy dream team leading the charge next season.
 
Personally, I don't think they are that far behind. But irrespective of how far they actually are we should think they are as good as us and going to get better.

We shoul learn from them and not get complacent - I don't think those in charge will.
 
They could sell and buy well in the summer but i think that they will lose too many players from the current squad that in reality should take about 3 windows to replace properly
We will lose players also due to finances and some players might get much more lucrative offers than we can give them but if we qualify for the champions league that will be a game changer in who we can afford to keep and quality of replacements .
Next seasons title with the carrot of automatic entry to cl the following season is crucial to continue our rise back to dominance.
Im hoping for a fully blown civil war amongst the filth as their pain of losing the ten will linger on and on
 
They are not far enough behind for us to be complacent. In the ideal world we would be so far ahead they could never catch up. Now is the time for us to drive home what advantage we have and try to extend it. If we fail to do that then any gap will be closed quickly.
 
This 'x amount of years behind' is nonsense. Look after what we do and don't stop improving. It was our relentless drive and their complacency which turned it in our favour. They were arrogant, I wouldn't like us to act similarly.

Other thing is, it's football, good players come along and things change. Either team discover the next Laudrup or Larsson it's a game changer.
 
If you’d asked me ten years ago I’d have said they were a good few years behind. However, football changes so quickly these days. If they get the managerial appointment right, and he brings in a handful of good key players, they could be back challenging us again next season. That’s why we need to consolidate and focus on strengthening our own squad, especially if we have CL football to play.
 
They have a major rebuild on their hands.

GK - all 3 are shite
LB - One is a wee lassie on loan, the other is bang average
CB - Only decent one, Ajer, wants away. All others pish, on loan, of in duffster's case both!
RB - loan

Mid -
Only decent one in Turnbull, but has now been elevated to Xavi standard due to others being pish.
Broon - done
Christie - wants away
McGregor - had a pish season, prob wants away
Rogic, Soro..... average

Forwards
Edouard - wants away
Ajeti - fat, lazy, pish
Thumb - tik tokking junkie (allegedly..) done
Ellyanoussi - loan
Kilimalla - utter pish
Forrest - decent if he get's fit again

They also need to pick the right manager, but whoever they pick, has at least half a team to build, and that's before you look to have a strong bench, which made all the difference to our challenge this year.

They are in a total mess, which is just wonderful to witness :)
 
Their choice of manager is absolutely key.. they need a marquee appointment to keep the hordes happy. They obviously need a new keeper, playmaker etc but if they haven't got their new false idol to worship they will not allow anyone any type of slip up. My personal hope is their problems are so embedded they will not mount a serious challenge for at least 5 years
 
This summer and the champions league qualifiers will be crucial. If we make the group stage and find good replacements for any big players who leave, we’ll be in a really good place. If that is coupled with them hiring Roy Keane or some other idiot and wasting another £20m in transfer fees, then that’s when the gap will really start to get massive
 
Probably not as far as we want to think, I include myself in that.

It's pretty clear that a lunatic like lennon and his angry bastard blame-everyone-else approach didn't work, an actual football manager like Rodgers got much more from alot of the same players.
That’s why I really want them to get Roy Keane
 
We are ahead of them this season but it’s small margins. Once we go 2-3 season then we can start thinking we are pulling away a bit. At the start of next season it would be naive to not look at them a serious challengers
 
We need to do what they didn’t and keep our eye on the ball. Strengthen each year obviously with a few player sales hopefully bringing in £££. Things can change very quickly
 
First, let's not fall into the arrogant levels that helped in their demise.

Second, they pissed away the thick end of about 75 million in the last 18 months. That would include transfer fees for absolute failures with declining values, loan fees for failures and declining values for assets they were counting on from 2019-20 forward.

They'll get about 10c on the $ for the players they bought in those transfer windows. They've all decreased in value by a mile.

The players they counted on to sell at a huge profit have declined. They were talking about 40m for Edouard, now that's more like 15m. Still good value, but with sell-ons etc. they barely make a profit. Ajer was another asset that's declined in value. You'd also have fancied them to make a bit of money on Christie and possibly McGregor, those now don't seem likely.

We'll need to balance the books with a couple of sales. Best case scenario for me is that Kamara has a massive Euros and we can sell for a big number. A crazy offer for Tav would be an outlier, but with Patterson looking like a replacement at some point, a crazy bid would have to be considered. That one would be outside normal business for me though.

You'd also think guys like Alfie and Borna would at some point be looking to the EPL. Our hand may be forced on those, which would mean we need to spend some money to replace. If we sold those three (Kamara/Barisic/Alfie), I'd hope Ross Wilson could replace at a sizeable profit to the business.

Net spend and with their recent history of signings, I'd probably say they are in the 40m range needed to get close to our squad strength. That's not to say that puts them level with us, since we still have a squad and they will have an accumulation of pieces.
 
we won the league this year because we took care of the smaller teams. its one thing having the motivation to stop 10, lets see if our team can keep it up and push for 56
 
Not far at all, they have had a shocker of a season, but with a good coach, they do have some good players.

They showed in the last OF that if they are more tactically drilled they will cause us problems.


Do they though?

Of the players they'll still have next season, I'd say McGregor and Forrest fall into the "good" category.

Other than that, I'm struggling to think of any others.

That said though, if they get their recruitment right for once, they could improve quite dramatically in 2 or 3 transfer windows.
 
A lot has to go right for them quickly to get back to where they were, if that’s even possible given our strength and confidence. Even before their collapse we ran them pretty close and were beating them. I suppose they could with the right management team and recruitment but they’d have a big job on their hands assuming we strengthen and carry on from where we left off.
 
They could sell and buy well in the summer but i think that they will lose too many players from the current squad that in reality should take about 3 windows to replace properly
We will lose players also due to finances and some players might get much more lucrative offers than we can give them but if we qualify for the champions league that will be a game changer in who we can afford to keep and quality of replacements .
Next seasons title with the carrot of automatic entry to cl the following season is crucial to continue our rise back to dominance.
Im hoping for a fully blown civil war amongst the filth as their pain of losing the ten will linger on and on
Good summary
 
Just thinking there, how far behind do you think they are? I reckon they’re where we were about 2 years ago, NOW!
So where will they be at the end of the season when they need 13 players? Where we were 3/4 years ago?
it’s Gona take more than 1 or 2 transfer windows to even get up to a par IMHO!
1. tgey can’t afford it.
2. Loads of new personnel behind the scenes.
3. New manager.
4. Time for players to settle and gel
5. They’re only looking at doing it half arsed because they’ll probably keep the back room staff.
There are more reasons but I think they’re in for a massive shock.
Hopefully we keep going and kick on again next season.
About 10 years or £150 million, depending on the hyperbolic headline I feel like writing.
 
We don’t know but we will have a better idea in July.

I wouldn’t get too cocky about this anyway, football can turn on you in as little as a week, we’ve seen it before.
 
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