Manager’s claims aside, this season alone we have had numerous player claims too – Marouane Chamakh, claiming he turned down Liverpool and Tottenham for Arsenal; Alexander Hleb likewise for Birmingham and most recently Rafael van der Vaart announcing that he preferred ‘beautiful’ Tottenham to Liverpool. And while these claims from players are far less detrimental than similar reports involving managers, it still begs the question: why did we need to know?
The only conclusion I can draw from this is, strangely, quite a positive one for Liverpool fans: we are still a big club. These people want the club they have either stayed with, or moved to instead, to know that they turned down the opportunity to play for one of the biggest clubs there is; at once, stroking the ego of their own fans and boardroom and making them seem like a much more sought after manager/player, than they usually are. Deschamps mentioned the ‘solid’ interest from Liverpool as a means to secure his own position at his current club. Marseille are a bit off the pace after the first 2 months of the season, lying in 6th and having lost to Spartak Moscow and Chelsea in the opening two games of the Champions League, Marseille are likely to struggle to qualify for the next stage and Didier’s position is not as strong as it was. He wants to remind his fans and – more importantly – his employers, who he turned down in the summer; how loyal he has been to them to turn down such a massive prospect. The impact on Liverpool was not even in his mind, he was guarding his own back, and using the name of one of Europe’s top clubs to remind those with his future in their hands of where he could go if they chose to let him go if things don’t pick up at home and elsewhere.
Likewise, the players mentioned have all moved on to other Premier League clubs. None of them were greeted as what the press would term a ‘marquee’ signing; that all important World-class player, so the players (or, more likely, their own PR teams) have had to create their own press, and what better way to do that than to mention the name of Liverpool as a club you turned down to get your dream move.
So, next time one of those ‘I turned down Liverpool for… ‘ stories appears in the dailies, or tabloids at the weekend, bear in mind: it says more good about us than we actually realise.
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I believe it was to a response to a question before Chelsea’s champions league game against Marseilles.
Didier Deschamps is a little goblin.
I like that – a little goblin. comments on another article says Roy is a whopper and the team are sandboys. Any more anyone?
talking about players linked to LFC – Roy says he knows nothing about Wolfswinkel – where did that rumour come from then?
Yeah, bit of a pointless article really, it was just a response to a question and then it gets reported as if he’s ‘announced’ it! Press making a fuss over nothing as usual, no need to jump on board. Came out that we approached him a fair while ago also so hyped up and old news!
Anyone who looks at Newsnow will have been aware that Deschamps was approached in the summer and Monaco would not consider releasing him. Not only is this old news but it is also a total non-story. Just seems like the press have goldfish memories and will pounce on the slightest thing to ridicule LFC at the moment, as if the owners, the current performances and managerial tactics arent doing a good enough job of that already… So depressing being a Red at the moment…. YNWA