The Supporters.
That’s us. Devouring every column inch with anything vaguely related to Liverpool. Reading the same articles from about 10 different websites (all directly copying from each other but trying desperately to seem different!). Having opinions and ideas. Turning speculation to rumour to fact. Doing what we do. Loving our club.
The near ones who are lucky enough to get to the games.. and the far ones who have to be content with what they can see on the telly or via the net. No different really. Toxteth to Thailand – all want the best for the club. Opinions may differ on who and how where and when, but really there’s only one way we can affect the club. And that’s with our support.
Either vocally from the stands, or financially from the amount we spend to what we choose to believe and fight about. These are the ways in which we influence the club. A huge amount of liverpool’s appeal is the massive fan base we’ve got. Sadly the moneymen think of us as numbers.. profit. But I’d much rather be big numbers and big profit!
Organisations like Spirit of Shankly and ShareLiverpool show how much the fanbase cares about the club and will motivate themselves to put effort into helping fix it. This is a good thing. Burning american flags and threatening people is not.
Last season saw one of the most unique sights in football. Perhaps in Life. That hundreds of fans took to the streets before a game, to show their support for the manager and team in troubled times – joined by thousands more in spirit – proved two things:
Firstly that Liverpool fans are really not like other fans.
Secondly that Liverpool football club is very lucky to have us.
Quinity with Unity.
So… the squad is good, the owners are not great – but they’re ok and they’re going soon, the finances seem to be in order and, aside from the fact that the whole Premier League system is probably going to implode in a few years because it’s totally unsustainable, Liverpool’s assets seem to be valuable enough to provide some stability enough for further development. The media does what it will always do and the supporters are all out there just willing and waiting for something to cheer about.
So what’s wrong with Liverpool FC? Well.. on examination it doesn’t seem to be very much. We had a bad season and now we’re missing a great manager.. and a bit of faith.
If those in charge of choosing choose wisely – maybe we’ll get both. I wait with bated breath.
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Only Kenny Dalglish will do, are you listnening Cristian Purslow?????
good and different article. an interesting way of looking at things.
AND the first person who i’ve ever seen write “bated breath” correctly.
rely on the owners.are you f***ing mad you t**t.
I have a feeling anon@5:58 may not have realised the article is more than a page long…. 😀
dont agree,
1st, the managers jobs is a poisined chalise as working at LFC is a nightmare under the Yanks.
2nd, the purchased you attributed to the Yanks were in fact Rafa dealing and making money in the market and reinvesting as he only had £16m net spend. They have not put their own money in the club and even the cash that they were forced to pay RBS is accounted for as a debt on LFC. Cash from recent transactions was not made available to Rafa which indicated it was used elsewhere. Where?
3rd, the media have been writing utter nonsense about LFC, Rafa, Zonal Marking etc…. Some of our ex-players have made some comments that showed little intelligence and no research, example the £200m Rafa spent when his sales are not taken into account, or Hansen saying Rafa has left LFC with a worse squad then he inherited. These are not people to be complemented or thought of highly if they make such comments when the club needs support and not negative and false garbage.
I cant accept the Yanks or the behaviour of the media and ex-players as anything but culpable in undermining LFC and dragging us through the muck of gutter garbage.
Frank,
Thanks for the reply, let me try and answer your points.
1st… the poisoned chalice. Does this mean, Frank that you would turn down the chance to manage lfc? Would I? Would Sven Goran Eriksson? Would Kenny Dalglish?
No. As I was trying to point out… it may seem like a nightmare to the type of mercenary manager who is only interested in big budgets and short term contracts… but to be honest that’s not the type of manager we need.
Yes it’s going to be a hard job… but it’s worth bearing in mind that the relationship the new manager will have with the owners may be totally different to the one Rafa had.
2nd… You make a good point that Rafa used his available spend quite wisely and increased the value of the squad far more than the amount he received. That’s what made him a good manager. However where did the 16 million net spend per annum come from? It came from Hicks and Gillett… and it’s a significant investment. more than enough to build a strong squad. Liverpool are not like ManU or Chelsea or Real or Barca… we haven’t been and are not the type of club that buys high profile big name players… we make them.
Of course, being businessmen they expect a return on their investment, they want their money back… but at least the investment was there. As for where the money went… we’ll see.
3rd… you misunderstand me, I think. I’m not saying I agree with a lot of the guff that’s been written but that the attention shows how big the club is. And that everyone’s entitled to an opinion.
In the final analysis the point is that neither the yanks, the media or the ex-players are responsible for awful year we had last year. And that’s the real reason why the club is in the position it is. Results.
Gee Sinha,
Nice to have an intelligent debate about football for a change, please allow me to respond.
1st, I agree with you about mercenary managers and I would not turn such a job down, but many who are ill-suited would not turn it down.
The quality of manager we require would have to consider the impact on their reputations which results from dealing with these people. Much of Rafa’s bad press has origins of Yank or boardroom briefings. How can a class manager manger when such behaviour is by test of history very possible.
Although I agree that a new manager might have a better relationship with the owners, the type of manager who is likely to have such a relationship is also likely to be substandard and one seeking to make a name for themselves rather than the type who has a name to protect and therefore will not stand for the lies and asset stripping.
2nd, The 16m spend was easily covered by what Rafa earned in Europe and from the ELP. I do not believe that the Yanks have put a single penny in from their own pockets. Should you be able to prove me wrong, I’ll happily stand corrected.
I believe that Rafa has financed them for these three years and now they must understand that this source financing has gone to Milan. Will a new manager better Rafa’s record? This I would be confident could happen if the right type of manager is brought in and this does not look likely with the names touted about.
Had Rafa received all his earnings from the CL only, he would have had a pot between £20m and £30m per season. Now what a difference would that have made to him and our club over that last three years?
3rd, I have no complaints on this point although I disagree on the matter of what really affected us last season. I believe we over achieved the previous season and we have been over achieving throughout the Rafa’s reign.
When a club is so divided, the hacks and mischief mongers have a field day. Do you believe the media would have been so brazen had the club been united with good sensible ownership and board?
We had a magnificent run under Rafa and it could have been better had he been working with people of more integrity and better football business sense. The owners who are seeking a profit are seeking it for nothing and I believe this to be the real reason Rafa had to eventually fail.
Their business sense has to also be questioned when they continually undermined Rafa when they should have given him the room to spend the money he was earning for the club. We need to at least compete with Villa and Spurs and this we have not done since the arrival of the Yanks.
I actually like your view of things, it’s just that I don’t believe it to reflect the reality of what is happening to LFC.