KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum The one issue that really counts

All as we debate on this site how good Carroll is who we should sign, bicker and about what King Kenny will do or not depending on your viewpoint. None of this really matters none of this will change fundamentally where we are heading. Made my annual pilgrimage to Eastlands last night and once again it hit me very hard indeed how far behind we are. Forget the result forget the driving rain and bitter wind. What did I see ? I saw a superb modern stadium huge open concourse quality fast food outlets train link to the city ticket prices at £40 and very disconcertingly loads of kids as opposed to codgers. We tend to concentrate on what Man City are doing in transfer fees and we never see just what is happening off it. Make no mistake people they are building and building for the long term. While we bicker Anfield is a worn out relic crammed in a rundown area landlocked in old boarded up terraced houses. While at city you could stroll up for a Costa coffee cappuccino or have a beer watching the pre match discussions on a screen. Anfield you fight your way 10 deep crowd to get a £2 plastic cup instant coffee and (if you are lucky) some surly bird will serve you a three week old microwave pie. Anfield is filled with old has been codgers like me who will one day be off our ticket prices are a minimum of £46. Our club is dying people please believe me! I was in Manchester about 10 years ago when Rick Parry was guest speaker as chairman of LFC. Someone shouted out and asked him about the ground vs (at the time Man Utd) . Next day it was all over front page of the echo Liverpool’s ground up for debate. About a year later David Moores announced he was selling due to him not having the financial resources to finance what the club needed to put us on a level with our rivals who where light years ahead even then. Since then we have had DIC, G&H and now Fenway all with the same result NOTHING ! nothing whatsoever. Why must I stand by and watch the greatest club in the world slowly die because its run by people who are crooks, incompetents or profiteers / sit and wait merchants. You may think I am a cranky old git but I am by profession have had many years commercial involvement in the North West of England and I am telling you this club is heading one way and the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd and possibly spurs are heading the other way. And at a time when the city of Liverpool is having its biggest ever renaissance for 100 years. Unless this situation changes and changes fast you lot had better wind in your expectations big time.

Thanks for that nugget of wisdom, truth or not. Just what we all need on this already gloom filled week.

Right. I'm off to slash me wrists now.

Your report is spot on and really well observed,i have to say that apart from the few that have the big bucks many other clubs are in the same boat,it doesn't change anything me saying that but i bet when the second/third/fourth division clubs were saying the same thing many years ago although noticed no one done anything about our national game going down the pan,no one cared as long as it wasn't happening to them it was up to the people in their ivory towers to stop the rot and help the feeder clubs but they struggle on today.It is obvious what we need here but again its the men at the top that need to get their finger out if not we at least may enjoy cheap walk in tickets when no one but the willing turn up to support club. The problem is that theres no movement at all to improve,if there is its very very slow...too slow.

I think the lack of stadium talk from our owners speaks volumes unfortunately.

Very good post Stanley, you put your points over very well and I have enjoyed reading them, I think you deliver the same information as me alotof the time but in a more user friendly way where as I would rather hit people between the eyes with home truths without beating around the bush.

I have said for along time on here we are no longer the Club fans think we are and have been sinking fast for years going back to the John Smith and Peter Robinson era whose big mistake was taking the success we had for granted and thinking it would always be there. I honestly believe we can no longer claim to be a so called world big Club based purely on sentiment and the past, we have been caught up and overtaken by Clubs always beneath us like City and Chelsea now, these are now part of the powerhouses of world football, even Chelsea proved this by taking our so called best player Torres off us, that was unheard of even 15 years ago.

I think the Club lost it's identity years ago with an influx of new fans from all over the place, although not an issue for most for me identity still plays a part in a football Club and it should of been looked after more. I am in now way saying it's not important to have a wide range of fanbase but I am saying we needed to look after our future better and protected it more as we are now at the point where there is no young local fans coming through whatsoever, the future will tell us if that will come back and haunt us if we ever fell on really hard times or dare I say it ever faced relegation.

The Stadium move has always been a disaster going back to the old days when those two old sisters refused to move and the Club could never get around it, so obstacles were always there even back then. I honestly believe the Clubs only hope is to move into the northwest corridor somewhere between the Tarbock roundabout and Birchwood into a purpose built 80 or 90k seater stadium with reduced prices and a scheme to repopulate the young local fans back into going the match, we need to set it up like the German fan parks they had in the World Cup 2006 with big beer tents, food halls and stages to promote local bands and provide pre match and aftermatch entertainment. I fear all this is a pipedream because as you say it looks like John Henry wants to put minumum money in and take maximum profit out, he would rather build a 60k seater stadium in a land locked area and within 10 years be charging 70 pound a ticket.

i agree it's taking way too long for them to come to a deision regarding the stadium. i understand that it takes time but the last we heard from the club regarding this was back in june or july. i would have expetcted it to take less than 14 months(and counting) for the owners to come to a decison...

Undertaking a massive construction can take years to plan,a feasability study alone can take month's.

Not to mention planning permission etc if we change venue and start from scratch

yep, that could take a lot of time. but we've got a super modern stadium (one of very few positive things h&g did) just waiting to get built. i don't see any reason to draw up new plans...

the problem seems to be the funding.. finding the right sponsor... and even then it will be very expensive. so it seems like the owners are doing everything in their power to stay at anfield but that possibility seemed almost impossible if you go by the last statement from the club.