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View from the Kop

Have A Little Patience….Or A Lot!

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WHAT a funny old game football is. A sport that in 2012 has become such an unwieldy behemoth and so seemingly complex, still relies upon such simple and fragile factors that have been ever-present.

Factors such as the mindset of a player, confidence and form have played their part in the sport since the first kick by Sheffield FC. Regardless of the astonishing weekly wages we see in this day and age, you can’t buy confidence.

In order for confidence to grow and thrive one of the most important factors is patience; and here we have the key word. As Take That lovingly warbled, ‘have a little patience’ (and Gary Barlow is a Liverpool fan, don’t you know!) Patience is the subject of my piece today as I believe it is one of the most relevant words relating to the club right now.

It is not a blanket word that carries an instruction book laying out time frames and requirements for all situations, yet I do believe that circumstances can help dictate its extent.

So, when is patience more prevalent? I would suggest that a greater level of patience is required managerially when the new incumbent comes into a club that is struggling, and in terms of a player, when you are discussing young up and coming talent. In contrast, levels of patience should be cut dramatically when talking about a manager taking over a successful side, or an established player arriving at a club. That’s the basic theory anyway…

Set the DeLorean (or hot tub time machine, it really is your choice) to 1959 and head on over to Liverpool. You will find a club languishing in the equivalent of what is now the Championship, having been relegated some 5 seasons prior and been knocked out of the cup by the all conquering Worcester City (feel free to now day dream about what a side The Loyals were back then). It is fair to say that the club was struggling is it not?

In the doldrums as it were, what happens next? A young Scotsman by the name Shankly (heard of him?) stepped up and began the long process that would ultimately lead this side to being one of the greatest clubs ever. Yet this was not a smooth transition and despite his arrival in 1959 the club wasn’t promoted until 1962 before going on to win the league in 1964.

Shankly was allowed the time to raise a seemingly sinking ship and mould it in his own image and we reaped the rewards. Similarly down the road at Old Trafford a young Alex Ferguson was brought into a proverbial sleeping giant finishing his first 3 seasons in 11th, 2nd and 11th. Despite being brought in in1986, it wasn’t until 1993 that United won the league; again an excellent example of how patience saw a club move away from mediocrity and towards stardom.

Even our recent history has seen Rafa take over from Houllier when the club was on a slippery slope and turn it around to make us into actual league challengers. The Champions League success was an incredible bonus, but domestically it took a number of seasons for Rafa to truly stamp his signature on the team and I firmly believe if he had been backed properly we would have league titles in the bag.

I would argue here that the position Rodgers found himself in on his first day in charge was not too dissimilar; a club grossly underperforming, struggling with confidence and still recovering from horrendous senior mismanagement. Like him or loathe him Rodgers has been chosen by the club and surely must now be shown patience?

Nobody is suggesting he is the next Shankly or the messiah (although some think he is a very naughty boy) and nobody accepts the league position we are in, but in terms of a bigger picture with a club craving stability and a long term plan is firing Rodgers the way forward?
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On the flip side of this you can look at someone like Bob Paisley when he took control of the club and suggest that his job came with a lower requirement for patience. Why do I say this? I say it because when Shankly left, he left a successful team that was flying high. The genius of Paisley was to recognise this and build upon it rather than dismantle. Subtle changes allowed the team to flourish in its greatest ever period.

This style continued under Fagan and Dalglish, with Liverpool falling from grace under Souness who went for wholesale changes. Whether Souness would have worked out (I don’t think he would), levels of patience were not there because of the drastic fall from grace. Whereas, Roy Evans was allotted more time because of the Souness mistake.

In terms of playing staff and the patience they require I will present exhibit ‘A’ as Lucas Leiva and exhibit ‘B’ as Stewart Downing. Taking the Brazilian first, he is the prime example of a young lad coming in, with added pressures of such a massive culture change, who needed time to settle. Quite a number showed little patience in him, but fortunately for us he has grown to prove them wrong. Are we now making similar mistakes with Allen, Henderson and Borini?

As for Downing (and feel free to substitute for Cole, Morientes or Poulsen..ahem), he was bought as an established player with the trust placed in him to hit the ground running, which results in patience levels being much lower. For whatever reason this hasn’t worked out and unlike the youngsters Downing does not have age on his side. QUIZ TIME – A quick question to further emphasise my point: which Reds striker took over 9 months to arrive and score his first league goal over 10 months? A clue would be to suggest that it was a good thing that patience was shown in this young man!

Thank you for making it this far if you have, and I’m sure some people will have itching fingers waiting to pour abuse my way and dismiss my levels of support for the club. But before you do I would just like to make this point; the current league standing is not acceptable for Liverpool Football Club, of course it is not, but we need to be realistic here, as a direct result of H&G the club has fallen from grace somewhat. I am not suggesting that FSG are the perfect owners or that Brendan Rodgers is the perfect manager, only time can answer those questions, but what I am suggesting is that the club needs to come together and support what we have.

I cannot think of a single person on the planet that could come in and guarantee instant success, even with the money of messrs Mansour and Abramovich success was a number of seasons away. We are currently on a journey with a manager who I am sure wished for a brighter start but with the resources at his disposal, has it been horrific? (If you think it has, more than ‘WE ARE 11TH’, please tell me why).

I have been accused of being a spokesperson for FSG, thinking the sun shines out of Rodgers bum, identity fraud, being a Nazi and talking BOLLOX (which I think is a combination of bollocks and botox which smoothes out a historically wrinkly area), whereas in reality, in my mind the jury remains out on both Rodgers and FSG, but I strongly agree that the club needs stability.

Come find me on twitter @timdibs

YNWA
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97 comments

  • Tim Williams says:

    Well that’s a well thought out argument and succinctly put, certainly showed me the flaws in my thinking whilst fully expressing your own point. ?ell done you.

    (I hope this isn’t actually stevie G, could be embarrassing for the club that!)

  • redrum says:

    Once again you write a fictional piece of s*ite , at this stage i think u do it just to wind the fans up . your opinions are stupid and they dont come from knowledge or intelligence , you are like a irritating troll repeating his nonsense again and again . not sure its good for this sites image , and no i couldn’t be troubled backing my opinions up , just read Nicky Cuzin or some of the other comments for the truth

    • Tim Williams says:

      hahaha ‘fictional piece of s*ite’? really? please do tell me why!

      Am i surprised that you arent backing your opinions up? nope, but then that my lack of knowledge and intelligence.

      I did read Nicky Cuzin’s stuff, and his reply to me, why because i value others thoughts and opinions, particularly when they have the ability and the bravery to support what they say. Do I agree with him? no, does that make him less of a fan or supporter in my mind? no, does it make him ‘stupid’ or thinking that he is ‘trolling’? not at all, suprisingly enough i am not vain enough to think everyone should agree with me.

  • wesker says:

    Stop going on about your patience crap – you really dont understand football or Liverpool FC – I see from your profile your not from Liverpool , no surprise there with your annoying attitudes – You would have us waste years waiting for this tosser to come good , well its not on – Rodgers is so far below Liverpool standards in so many ways as it seems so are fans like yourself – I hope when Rodgers does get sacked he will take fans like you with him

    Have patience with him – endure his negative possession boring football – Love and embrace his ‘philosophy ‘ bull – enjoy his low standards and expectations – BUT P@SS OFF AND DO IT AT SOME OTHER FOOTBALL CLUB

    • Tim Williams says:

      ah the old Geography argument, you have done well there Wesker, well done you.

      Please re-read the article before an expletive shouty response. this isnt about Rodgers this is stepping back and looking at the bigger picture.

      let me ask you a question, who would you have manage Liverpool from tomorrow? How long would they get?

      The club has been on a downward slide ever since we finished second, and in that time rafa was given a season, roy half a season and kenny a season and a half, so in your mind sacking another manager after not even half a season is the right way to go? What do you expect to happen? Dynamo to walk in perform a trick and all of a sudden everything is rosey again? not going to happen, the reality is Liverpool have been heading in the wrong direction for too long, someone needs to turn it around. Whoever that is will need time to ahcieve this and during this time results wont be pretty. it just so happens that Rodgers is in place now. Hey, thats pretty much summarised my article up but you probably wont read that either.

      Im also eager to hear why I am below Liverpool standards?

      • wesker says:

        The Liverpool ethos has always been about being the best , winning trophies , not settling for 2nd best – Those high standards should be embrased by staff and fans alike – Hodgson was a failure , he got sacked – Dalglish failed , he got sacked .Rodgers is worse than both of the them and is revoltingly still here – You dont have high standards , you are accepting of Rodgers poor performance , i have even seen you praising his pathetic efforts on a different article , which i find disgusting – Liverpool fans should demand the best possible and FSG have not given us that with a lower league cheap manager like Rodgers

        • wesker says:

          And yes , Non scousers dont have the same passion and love and burning desire for the club to succeed as people from the area – How could you ? you love the club , I love the club , the fans , the people , the city . I understand scousers and this city . You love Gerrard and Carra as great players , I love the guys for what they have done around the city and the people they are , i know people who know them . We are a part of this city and club in ways you arent

          So yes support who you want , but dont tell us how to think or behave towards OUR club . I find it deeply offensive .

          ‘Have patience ‘ MY AR@E

        • Tim Williams says:

          Firstly Wesker i will address your georgaphy point. You know absolute nothing about me, my background, my reasons for being a Liverpool fan and so on, you made assumptions purely because I was not born in Liverpool, that is something i find deeply offensive.

          Im not sure where I told you what to do, perhaps you could tell me that bit? I merely expressed my opinion based on how I view things. If you are looking to Liverpool supporter sites for people to tell you what to do I would suggest you have some serious problems.

        • Tim Williams says:

          Now for you point on the club. Im not sure where you get the impression from that I accept anything less than best, never once have I expressed something like this. The other article you mention, again, wasnt a praise Rodgers article it was a piece presenting 2 sides to the argument, so again please read somehting properly before throwing your toys out of the pram.

          What I have tried to do in recent articles is take an emotional step back and view the situation as a whole rather than looking at a result and the league table. I notice you have commented elsewhere about wanting Rafa back in the summer, I wonder if you carried the same opinion of him in his first season at this point as you do of Rodgers?

          now lets try something here Wesker, instead of being a assuming and offensive why dont we start over and attempt a mature discussion. Football is a game based on opinions and who is to say one opinion is superior to another. My opinion is that the club needs to show patience and look to build, like successful sides have done in the past. Rodgers would not have been my first choice manager when he was appointed but he is here now and I see sacking him, and having another manager and starting again, again as counter producive. you disagree, which is entirely your right to do, so instead of calling me names and slagging me off, convince me that your opinion is right and that I am wrong.

          Who would you hire as manager tomorrow? why?
          How many games would they get until you called for their head?
          Where is Rodgers going wrong in your mind?

  • wesker says:

    No -I see from your comments here and previously that you are too closed minded to convince you – You twist arguments to reflect your own biased viewpoint . And you dont give 2 sides to any argument that i have seen it is always unfairly slanted towards your opinions

    If you want to write crap – i will comment on it but i wont get into a discussion with someone as disconnected to reality as you seem to be

    • Tim Williams says:

      now there is a suprise, there is nothing to fear from posting your own comments! I embrace differing opinions to mine and would never respond with abuse. Far from being closed minded, I am strong minded and wont change my opinion on something simply because someone replies to a piece I wrote with 1 sentence, or calling me a name, or comparing me to a nazi, or simply from where I was born.

      I do fail to see your point, obviously when anyone has an opinion on something they think they are right and will defend that point, that is human nature no? Previous articles have presented 2 and 3 different views, followed by my opinion, if you chose to see that as slanted that is your opinion but at least come back with something! I want to hear your point of view, you obviously feel strongly about the subject, why not tell me about it, hey I may be wrong, I have never claimed to be infallible. What you have missed by not reading the article, like many others here is that my actual position is undecided on Rodgers. The simple fact that im not holding up a placard saying ‘Rodgers Out’ does not make me any less of a fan with any less passion. Any manager coming in needs time, that is my opinion.

      but please, come back with something at least

  • Brent says:

    Tim Williams you really are a total imbecile

    • Tim Williams says:

      Brent you really need to explain your statements!

      I probably am in more ways than one, at least specify

  • Finn says:

    rubbish article . it amazes me that one guy can spout so much crap

  • lucky says:

    Popular guy arent you Tim Williams ? There is alot of intelligent comments on this page … but none from you
    Sorry

    • Tim Williams says:

      Popularity is overrated, I have always preferred people how can have an opinion and then support it, something you fail to do! Sad thing is its not surprising!

  • Abhijit says:

    Hi Tim,
    I generally do not post comments, but I had to after reading most of the drivel thrown your way. I am from India and have been following LFC for the last 15 years. I had formed an impression that most(95%) LFC fans are knowledgeable about their club and football in general, you seem to attract the other 5%. I agree with you, we need patience without it we are liable to stay mid-table if that. I think BR is good, FSG is good and they will prove it. We will be on top in a couple of years.

    • Harry86 says:

      BR is good and FSG are good ? – u have just shown your lack of knowledge about football . they are both untrue and ridiculous . how can anyone say the man who brings us down to mid table level , and wastes our money on players who are not good enough for our reserves , is good . Not to mention the total and utter mismanagement of our club by FSG

      Im sorry sir , but you are in the 5% .

  • prement says:

    Tim, your article was a good read. Didnt really wanna get involved but didnt have a choice after reading wesker, we have to be born in liverpool to be a true fan? I will have to know someone who knows the players to support the club? let me give you some facts and figures, singapore has got almost 90% of its population registered as fans of liverpool, the total population of that country is close to 5 million, we still have malaysia, thailand and indonesia just to name a few, if tomorrow lfc decides to be fan owned can you liverpool born and bred town boys foot the bill alone?
    liverpool fans are passionate but dont you dare say that you have to be born and bred and live in liverpool to show your support.
    As for br and fsg plans, they better turn things around 2nd half of the season or else its a disaster waiting to happen

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