Category Archives: Liverpool FC

Stepping into the unknown: Liverpool season preview 2010-11

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When I recorded my thoughts at the start of last season I was full of trepidation. As my worst fears were realised it was little comfort that I’d thought it all possible. And I don’t want to be wrong this year. So with total certainty, I can declare that this season is uncertain. We are stepping into the unknown.

Most importantly, our league challenge (for fourth place) could be over by September or, more worryingly, before the transfer window shuts. With tough early fixtures against top sides and bogey teams, Hodgson’s budget honeymoon may come to a shattering end.

We can also be fairly certain that Liverpool FC will have new owners at some point during the year. The Hicks and Gillett LBO nightmare is playing out its final stages but we don’t know whether the new owner will be a rich knight, a dodgy speculator or RBS.

There are rational reasons to be optimistic for the team’s chances. We haven’t signed bad players; as a unit we know they are almost as good as any other (it’s not a wholly different team from the one that finished second) they can’t be as bad as last year and whatever happened last summer (remember how bad pre-season was as an omen) is now consigned to history. None of the other top sides – Manchester City excluded – are demonstrably stronger this year.

But there are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about the team’s chances. We haven’t signed particularly good players at the peak of their careers. You’d expect the early start to the season and a long Uefa Cup run will be damaging at some point. We will always be playing catch-up on a Sunday afternoon. More importantly, Roy Hodgson has been unable to deal with any of the most obvious weaknesses in the team:

  • a lack of defenders that attack the ball,
  • a lack of height in important positions
  • fullback
  • Second striker

There are a number of factors which are up in the air. A new medical team was recruited to lessen the prospect of soft tissue injuries – but when will they have an impact? Carragher says that training was as hard as he could remember in pre-season, but will that mean we fade away at the end of the season?

The factors that worry me most for the medium term are:

  • Goalkeeping. The happiness of Pepe Reina is immensley important. And it’s one area where teaching all the youngsters in the same way was clearly having an impact. But now Hodgson wants to sign Brad Jones. And who is the goalkeeping coach?
  • We don’t know what will remain and what will change of the team’s structure. Frank McParland has said that he hasn’t talked to Hodgson yet about what he wants from the young sides. Will they be playing the same formation as the first team? Or will LFC be abandoning 4-2-3-1 just as world football adopts it as a standard?
  • We don’t know what chances there will be for young players coming through. Benitez or a member of his staff were always t reserve team games. Will Roy or Sammy be as committed?

A month ago, I would have settled with a 7th place finish this season. With the futures of Torres and Gerrard uncertain, not going backwards was the key objective. Now, I’m not so sure. But would any of the big players hang around if we finish again outside the Champions League places and fail to win a significant cup?

I haven’t lost that tinge of excitement at the start of a new football season. But I also know what an emotional investment it is; that it will end up in disappointment but there will be flashes of ecstasy and despair on the way. Will this season be worth it?

Why sacking Rafa Benitez opens a wound that won’t heel

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There are many sound reasons for the sacking of Rafael Benitez:

I’m past caring. Like Paul Tomkins I’m ambivalent – this last season has been tough. And after defending Gerard Houllier’s bunker to the end (in a fashion that would have made Peter Mandelson proud), reluctant to make the same mistake.

But Rafa’s departure has cut a wound in me that will not heel. Because the club, from top to bottom, has not behaved as it should – as it promised. It has treated a dedicated, hard-working, loyal servant in a shabby, underhand manner. In doing so, it has ripped at the bonds of affection I have for the club.

Supporting LFC isn’t a leisure activity for me.  I’m not sure I even like football. I’m not from Liverpool. I may never live there. For most of the life I remember it’s been a top 8 side rather than title-challengers. I’ve been the glory hunter with the worst sense of timing ever!

Instead, supporting Liverpool Football Club for me has always been an ideological endeavour. I support it for its values:

  • Respecting the past but creating new traditions
  • Maintaining principles based around Shankly’s ‘football socialism’
  • Remaining loyal and discreet.
  • Respecting each other, and servants of the club for more than winning silverware

These principles are no longer alive at LFC. Even though many of the fans still hold them dear there are too many in positions of influence and power who do not. For all his failings, David Moores ensured a respectful send-off to Evans and Houllier. Both were dispatched with succession in mind. This board apparently leaked discussions with Benitez whilst he was on holiday. Statements given to fans are now apparently untrue. And he was deprived a dignified send-off. Senior executives, having been brought in to achieve one task and failed at that, have moved on to more sexy tasks: negotiating with prospective staff, briefing journalists, opening up direct lines of communication with players.

This is not the first time the current leadership of LFC has disgraced itself. It is not the first time it has made a mockery of that ephemeral concept, the Liverpool Way. But for me, and perhaps for them too, Benitez’s departure is a new low. And if we can’t treat our own with respect, who are we?

I’ve seen in the Labour Party what happens to people when their levels of pragmatism and compromise are pushed to breaking-point; it’s painful. I make no grand statements for what I will or will not do next season. And I hope to be careful not to act out of spite less it cheapen the memories and be disrespectful to those who remain, loyal to the Liverpool Way. But win or lose, it won’t mean the same. And you can’t place a value on that.

Why Rafa Benitez will never be a media darling

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Rafa Benitez will never be a darling in the eyes of the media. He could win the double twice on consecutive seasons and pundits would find reasons to criticise. Why? Because he works hard not to be human.

My Benitez revelation came stood at a bar, feeling smug about a recent up-turn in the fortunes of my own business. I was reflecting on Sir Clive Woodward’s maxim that when things go badly you should go and get piased and when things go well you should organise an early morning autopsy to discover why. The scientific approach (and the large number of Scousers in the pub) helped me draw the parallel.

I was then that I realised both how hard it was to follow success with self-criticism but also how it ran counter-intuitive with the grain of human emotion.

And that’s why Liverpool fans can never expect Rafa to be loved – or even admired – by the media. Like Sir Clive the best he can hope for is a ‘lucky professor’ tag.

Watching lots of historic games of football – and the characteristics of current Valencia manager Unai Emery -I had been wondering: does Benitez’s lack of obvious passion during a match matter? Most definitely – but only as far as gaining media approval. And if that’ a clincher for Liverpool fans, it’s also a litmus test for whether or not you are a proper Liverpool fan.