Much has been made and said of Liverpool’s ‘decline’ over the past 12 months as a powerhouse in English and European football. While some of that is justified and factual, most of it is coming from (especially back home in India) fans whom one of my good friends and probably one of the most knowledgeable football critics I know describes as ‘The post 2000 Star TV premier league generation’.
Theory: Liverpool are in a decline
Facts: 2nd in premier league in 2008-09, Champions League Winners in 2005, FA Cup winners 2006, Champions League Runners-up in 2007
Why is this relevant: For a squad which has not seen the obscene influx of money as Man United, Chelsea, Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. this is pretty respectable. If you look at the squad comparisons , you will see who spent the money. I do believe that Arsene Wenger is the only true gem finder who has turned sub $500,000 purchases into $20M profits!
Yes, we had a manager in charge last season who wanted to be out, fought with everyone in the boardroom and absolutely destroyed the confidence of the team. He wasn’t helped by anyone, except the fans. Despite that, he got hired to be manager of the most successful team in Europe last season (Inter Milan) and he doesn’t speak Italian at all! I think that lends some credibility to his stature, and I personally feel he did a good job at Liverpool. In football though, 4-5 years is usually when you need change unless the team is doing phenomenally well. I have no grudges against Rafa, but I do feel it was time for him to leave. We have huge problems in the boardroom. The LBO model hasn’t worked well at all for us, and Hicks and Gillett should have left a long time ago. Greed is not good, definitely not for the fans. Enough said about this.
So are we concerned as Liverpool fans? Yes, absolutely. The club is close to our hearts and lives.
What are we doing? Spirit of Shankly and ShareLiverpool are putting together a group of fans ready to be long term stakeholders. This is the Barcelona model, but if we are able to achieve ownership, we’ll obviously do better!
Are we less passionate about the club now? No. Never. We don’t support a club which became famous for purchasing stars in the last 10 years, we’re part of a club which has produced stars the last 60. We’ll be back, and we won’t grudge the players and the manager time as long as they are proud to say YNWA.
Go ‘Pool. You’ll never walk alone
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