THE sun is shining (for now), birds are singing, Pimm’s is quaffed (probably) and strawberries devoured, the frivolities of summer are upon us.
A lovely time of year for everyone as long as they don’t like football! For the average football fan, sunny days are spent looking longingly at the calendar wishing it forwards to the start of the new season in amongst the anxiety of losing your star player and desperately searching the worldwide web for the 16 year old world beater your club is allegedly buying.
A time of year where we reflect on the season gone by and non-transfer talk is consumed by reviewing managers, players and owners, yet never ourselves.
So for a change, and to distract from talk of Suarez et al, I wanted to raise a personal bug bear in modern support. It is this seeming need for a villain of the piece, the infamous ‘scapegoat’ that truly grinds my gears.
For me it is detrimental for the player, the club and the fanbase and epitomises the negative aspect of the modern game. This short-termist plague covering our game I have christened the ‘Goldfish Syndrome’.
Why I hear absolutely nobody ask? Well famously Goldfish have next to no memory; how else can you explain something being so content swimming round the same bowl day after day? Translating this into footballing terms, a player/manager/team are merely as good as the last 90 minutes played.
Destroy a team 6-0 are they are world-beaters, get beat and it is time to pack your bags son! Should a player not set the world on fire from day 1 or perhaps see a dip in form, then heads are called for and they should be cast aside as a complete waste of money.
It’s always good to support your claims and that’s what I am going to do now. Here follows a couple of comments posted on some of my previous articles. Initially I won’t include the players name (I apologise for spelling and grammar, taken directly from the comment):
– ‘X is the worst player iv ever seen wear a red shirt..dont care how old he is.’
– X is ‘worse then Jovanovich, konchesky, voronin, insua or even worse than lucas leivas. oh wait you seen the potential in lucas from the start, real reson for this is that you prob an over night red cant even remember these players. for lack of a better word.’
– X is a ‘player with no skills at all’.
Now to be clear, this was not a general consensus, but a worrying trend. The player?
Jordan Henderson.
These were comments left on articles posted after his first season with us.
Fast forward 12 months and the lad is viewed very differently. Many times throughout this season his name has been wanted on the teamsheet by the fans. His substitution during games has been questioned and we have seen what sort of player we are getting now the lad has been playing a more natural position and playing it with confidence.
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Of course every fan wants a new signing to come into the club and have a ‘Suarez’ or a ‘Torres’ kind of impact, but coming to a club of this size with its history and expectation can take time to adjust to in itself; this is not eased by derision from Goldfish!
Looking back in history, before this scientific breakthrough was made, look at the early records of Shankly, Ferguson, Rush, and you will see initial impacts in terms or results/trophies/league finishes for the managers and goals/performances for the players, as light; certainly when compared to what they went on to achieve.
Both Shankly and Ferguson took time to establish themselves and build a base, and Rushie took a year to register on the scoresheet. Hard to imagine but what would the ‘Goldfish’ world of today made of those kinds of records?
Where is this leading to?
Whilst I am sure the Goldfish Syndrome is systemic throughout football, I am only really commenting on Liverpool, and in the squad at present there are seemingly two favourite targets for the Goldfish crew. Step forward Joe Allen and Fabio Borini.
Unsurprisingly when their names are mentioned transfer fees are referred to as seemingly this should be the strict indicator on performance, followed closely by an absurd accusation that they were brought in not based on talent rather they were brought in as they are favourites of Rodgers.
What these two have seen is a debut season disrupted through injury. Borini missing the vast majority and Allen not seeing the finish, alongside playing on whilst needing surgery. Yet in the Goldfish world this is largely ignored following a misplaced pass or a squandered opportunity.
Should either Allen or Borini be judged to date? In my humble opinion no. I happen to think Allen is an exciting talent that should what we can expect at the start of the season, and Borini shows intelligent movement and work rate. It is wrong to judge any player so soon, particularly negatively, let alone young players experiencing such a culture shock.
We have seen Henderson begin to blossom, needing the full season to bed in so really need to learn the lesson. Any player pulling on that famous red jersey needs the support from those cheering on, needs the pick up when they are down and needs the belief to drive them forward.
It is the support that turns good into great and great into world class. Learn the Henderson lesson and smash that goldfish bowl!
I’m sure many will disagree and I embrace that: please leave a comment as to why you agree or disagree on Allen, Borini or Henderson (or in fact the whole Goldfish Syndrome!)
Come find me on Twitter @timdibs
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wow… some harsh critics. br deserves a chance. some of you make spineless accusations and assumptions but dont back it up with any evidence. you cant argue like that. Tim is right in what he has written. if you want to be a fickle fan then go support some local pub team. rome wasnt built in a day and even shanks and ferguson took time to lay foundations for a successful club. br has all the right ingredients to be a real top class manager in my opinion. he is a student of football and admits that he gets things wrong sometimes but learns from those mistakes. that to me is someone whose heart and head are in the right place.
Ffs . He has had a chance , he has been awful. Totally below the standard expected by a great club like Liverpool. Get your head out of the clouds and join the real world . Rodgers deserves to be fired. Simple as .
Your opinion Mikey. To qualify it please list why you think he deserves to be fired,….
yeah mikey. explain why and actually make it factual and not opinion or hearsay. tim has put forward facts. now to dispute that you have to come up with a logical answer, not just a one line simplified opinion.
Can you tell me 1 fact Tim has put forward.
Fact not opinion.
Fact . Liverpool finished 7th .
Fact . Liverpool were dumped out of all cups early, two by embarrassing defeats to lower league opposition
Fact . Rodgers spent over 50 m
Fact . He had lucky season with no injury to best players
Anything else is opinion , just like this whole article and your comments
We are going to continue accepting mediocrity into the championship.
Maryland, based in what? We finished higher in the league than last year, so it’s an odd route to relegation based on what has happened so far
Not Maryland, mrlynd! Bloody autocorrect
Based on the fact that we are holding on to mediocre players in our team, Hendo, Shelvey, Robinson…analyze their ball handling, game changing strengths and vision. The U21 tournament did paint a pretty picture didn’t it. They played their age group peers and they could not take control of the game. With the experience our team has given them, one would think the U21 tournament was for the 3 Lion’s pickings. We have to be honest with ourselves with these players. Rome was not built in one day but if a brick is evidently a bad brick why use it as your cornerstone?
You can’t judge the 3 players you mentioned on an International tournament! Ludicrous. No English playerdid well because of poor management and poor tactics, that doesn’t make them rubbish.
Shelvey and Robinson need loans to play consistent football to polish the rough edges before a true idea of heir level can be ascertained. He do was arguably one of our best performers last season
Well I tell you one thing Mikey, you should really check your facts before posting. We were knocked out of cups by Zenit, Swansea and Oldham, only 1 lower league!!
Also, by my reckoning LFC under BR spent 48.9m last season which includes yesil, one clearly bought for the future and not now. Then you minus the outgoing sales of about 12.45m which makes about 36.45 no?
Despite these errors lets deal with your facts:
1. We finished 7th, true, an improvement on the previous season. This done inspite of losing experienced players, bringing through a lot of youth, and having 1 forward for half a season.
2. Cups are funny things, on any given day any team can beat any other. I believe I saw a stat not long ago that suggests LFC have been knocked out be lower level opposition more than any other, so not purely a BR problem.
3. I believe the transfer problems relate more to FSG than BR to be honest. The players signed were more of a youthful outlook rather than the experience we desperately need in the wake of losing the likes of kuyt and maxi. In the long term this is good as we have some quality youth all coming together but would always leave a roller coaster ride short term as we have seen.
4. A lucky season? Really? We lost experience and had a summer having to move on high earners like cole and aquilani in an ongoing attempt to set the club straight after H&G and purslow. Carroll was also let go without a replacement, so half a season with one fit striker!! These are all issues I lay at the door of FSG rather than BR. 2 of his big signings had seriously disrupted seasons through injury meaning good starts couldn’t be built on and rhythm couldn’t be found. Brings in DS who has done well but struggled with injury and then we had the bite. In spite of this we returned more points and goals than last season. Finished product? No way. Work in progress? Very definitely.
Nonsense . Rubbish excuses . Simple as
That is all you have to say Mikey? Your point of view and facts have been challenged in a reasonable and mature way but rather than comeback you state it all as nonsense and rubbish? Really? Because you have no comeback? I would be disappointed as I would honestly like you to respond to my previous comment
I stated the facts . They are indisputable
I stated no points of view in my last comment , just facts .
you cameback with opinion. A extremely biased narrow minded one at that.
If you want to spend your time arguing about the facts and making lame excuses , then do it on your own
Well you didn’t really Mikey as 2 of your ‘facts’ were wrong, so very much disputable. A third ‘fact’ about having a lucky season sounds more like opinion.
So in all out of your 4 ‘facts’ the only one true is that we finished 7th. So in response the ‘fact’ is that this is a higher finish than the previous season and therefore an improvement no? That’s not biased not an opinion, just stating the facts that you crave.
As for being biased, biased to what? My opinion? Obviously! If you think my opinion is wrong then show me! I disagree with your opinion and have attempted to show why! Who is to say either of us is right, the beauty of football and this site is to allow people to discuss the game we love!
Excellent article- if it isn’t processed, potted and neatly packaged into small bite-size chunks it takes too much concentration for many fans.