Apologies, the Order of the Day

APOLOGIES have been something that haven’t particularly come easily to Liverpool of late.

In fact if anything LFC have poured oil, rags, explosives and nuclear warheads onto previous fires making for bad publicity and endless media battles.

But Liverpool have started to show a softer side since the mistakes of last season regarding our superstar striker.

Liverpool have needed to blow the swarf away and start a clean sheet of PR work and it looks like the machinery has started to work again.

This week saw Gerrard rile up the blue Merseysider’s with his ‘Stoke’ comparison. This was a sure fire way to undo some of the recent bridge building between the red and blue halves of the city. The rivalry remains strong but the vitriol has cooled of late. This is why it was a good day for LFC when Gerrard withdrew his comments and stated that he was just miffed that we hadn’t been awarded the last minute winner.

Swathes of Blues were up in arms over Gerrard’s comments, particularly because it was one of the most competitive derbies for eons. Stoke fans were equally annoyed that the age old ‘Stoke don’t play football’ mantra was applied again but this time it came from the mouth of the England captain and a respected footballer rather than a jaded old pundit.

So it is a relief to see Liverpool looking to operate with dignity and while we all probably had a wry smile at Gerrard’s tactical dissection of Everton, we all know that it’s better to retain the moral high ground. We were the team that could have won in the last minute and that is that. We should keep our heads high and focused on the top end of the table.

The apology has come swiftly and has drawn a line under a story that could have escalated and ran for longer than it would be worth. This is where Liverpool have shown that maybe things are operating a bit smarter than before. Nip the negative stories in the bud before they cause too much damage is the first step. The second step is to stop these kind of stories being associated with the club at all. We all want the spotlight to be on our football and nowhere else.

This is why it is also good news that the club have apologised to ‘Duncan Jenkins/Sean Cummins’ for the fall out over a Twitter account. For those who are unaware, I would suggest you Google Jen Chang Duncan Jenkins for an interesting read. That a Twitter account can cause so much damage is a matter for discussion another day but the important part is that Liverpool are aiming to clear these problems up. Even though the club haven’t gone public with the apology, Mr Cummins has accepted Ian Ayre’s attempt to diffuse the situation and we can all move on from a story that could only have done further long term damage had it been allowed to boil under the surface.

Liverpool fans know how important apologies are, we have campaigned for apologies from various organisations and people for years because we know that a timely ‘sorry’ is worth something. The difficult part is acting the same way as a club. As a supporter the natural instinct is to defend our club when we are wrongfully under attack but when we attempt to vindicate the inexcusable we do not do the club or ourselves any favours. So let’s continue in the same vein, be responsible, be classy and show the world we’re a big club in more ways than one.
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