Respect ‘Bootroom’ Tradition, But Commit To Our New Vision

OUR club is different, our club is special. Every supporter of every team believes that, but as Liverpool fans we have a greater claim than most – after all, we have a proud tradition of winning trophies, conquering Europe and having a name that’s still recognised and respected across the world.

Not just that though – even more importantly than just becoming a winning machine, we’ve all grown up understanding that Liverpool did all of those things differently; the Liverpool way, founded on the now legendary bootroom values.

Those values were simple, honest and straightforward – the cornerstone of a footballing philosophy that dominated the world. Even more than just football, they were a way of life.

Everyone should be rightly proud of that tradition – in fact all of us as Liverpool fans should never forget that we have a duty to remember where our club has come from and what we stand for.

As we look at things now though, the problem with respecting those proud traditions is that we sometimes find ourselves in danger of getting stuck in the past. Brendan Rodgers’ first press conference as Liverpool manager saw him talk a lot about Liverpool’s history, and it’s almost the first thing that every new player – or every player that’s even linked with a transfer to Liverpool – comes out with as their first quote for the press. Can we really succeed in future if we’re forever stuck in our past, referring to those old trophies and name checking the greats of the past at every turn?

I’ve heard it said a million times already and you know that it’s started – comparing Rodgers to previous managers and comparing players in the current teams to the great players of the past. The more we wish for Brendan Rodgers to be Bill Shankly, or for Andy Carroll to be John Toshack, or for Glen Johnson to be Phil Neal, the more we’ll restrict the development of a new team and a new tradition, and as fans we’ll end up wishing to re-create things that will never be the same.

The fact is that with a new manager – and a young, ambitious but unproven new manager at that – we are at a tricky crossroads as a football club. As fans we have to be big enough and brave enough to understand that we just don’t live in the same era as 40 years ago. Brendan Rodgers is not Bill Shankly, he’s Brendan Rodgers and we shouldn’t expect him to be anyone else.

The bootroom legend was built on clever, shrewd blokes like Ronnie Moran who knew the game inside and out and could work opponents out weeks in advance, and suss players out before anyone else had even watched them play. But the key point is that the game they knew is fundamentally different to the game today – that’s why Brendan Rodgers’ own equivalent “bootroom” is more likely to include the statisticians and the sports scientists that he’s brought with him from Swansea than Roy Evans and a sneakily hidden bottle of scotch.
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We have to get to grips with that and also accept that it’s absolutely fine with us – by bringing in his own team, with no links to the past or the club, Rodgers is clearly determined to set his team up right and do things in his own way. If he wants to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson then I won’t be jumping up and down and expecting him to be the next Kevin Keegan – I’ll be hoping that he, or any new signing that comes in, becomes an effective part of the new team that Rodgers will try and build.

Dare I say it, but I’m sure that Shanks himself walked in on that day in 1959 with a desire to do things his own way, rather than being a slave to the championships that the club had won before. He had a plan of his own, the fans stuck with that plan and were rewarded – many times over.

Let me say it one more time, I’m immensely proud of our past. Those bootroom values are exactly that: a set of values that are a massively important part of what makes us Reds and a huge part of what makes us truly different.

But if we are to move on and re-establish ourselves as a successful football club and a force in the modern game, we have to accept that the bootroom days are behind us – the actual physical bootroom area itself was closed off years ago if you’re interested – and we need to focus on building our future. We have a new manager, with his own style and principles to bring to the football club. It’s time to be brave and give him the space to create a new chapter – one that respects the traditions of our past but is never restricted or stifled by what’s gone before.

Find me on twitter @rossco1981

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