ON the infamous Panorama documentary, with the iconic black and white footage of a boisterous, swaying 1960s Kop, there is a reference to “Wacker – The Spirit of Scouse.”
The term “Wack” (or Whack) is a precursor, taken from “The Sailors Farewell” printed in 1768, to the more commonly used “Scouser” to label the citizens of Liverpool, or if you prefer, Liverpudlians (or indeed Liverpolitan, should you wish to sound really posh).
Although it’s difficult to source the definitive summary of “the spirit of Scouse” to many it can be summed up by our defiance, our in-built swagger; that we look after our own and rail against disparagement from outsiders while protecting the reputation of a city that exists geographically on the margins and beyond the cultural boundaries of England.
The same spirit and defiance, one which confounds and unsettles our fellow inhabitants of the UK in equal measure, spawned an arrogance, confidence and “attitude” that once separated Liverpool FC’s match-going crowd from the rest of the country. “Where we lead, they follow”might have been our mantra and for decades we set the bar high in terms of terrace culture built on innovation, wit, passion and belief.
I started thinking about writing this piece during conversations I’ve had with many Liverpool fans since the semi-final debacle at Wembley, but particularly since the home defeat to Manchester United. This is not another article about the appalling Anfield atmosphere but an exploration into some of the reasons why our home crowd has become the antithesis to the Beatles-singing, happy-go-lucky Kop of the sixties and beyond.
By contrast, our current home support can only be described as mean-spirited, cynical, curmudgeonly and depressed. Ticket prices don’t help; its inevitable tariff of £50 brings an “impress me” stance from some supporters. I pay the same price. I don’t like it but God help me if I’m going to slag off my own team and make it easy for the opposition.
However, it goes beyond that.
At that recent Manchester United game the vitriol, in the wake of an extremely ill-advised public interview, aimed at Raheem Sterling went beyond the pale. Not only was much of it inaccurate, and I’ll cite you a chorus of individuals calling him a “lazy bastard” every time he got on the ball, it is unhelpful and counter-productive. Lazy? Don’t make me laugh. The lad covers acres every game while the manager, rightly or wrongly, has shunted him round the pitch into three or four different positions throughout the season.
None of us are particularly happy with his reported wage demands, nor the exorbitant salaries commanded by anyone claiming a red shirt, so the equally prevalent taunts that he’s a “greedy” so and so are more understandable.
But let’s try and separate our prejudices from football reality and actually base our opinion on the evidence of the play. Let’s also try and leave the abuse outside the ground if we can and get behind the team. This notion is becoming the impossible dream as swathes of Liverpool supporters enter Anfield looking to confirm their prejudices and give the players dogs’ abuse from the word go.
What bring this into sharper focus is that during the United game, aside from 10 other footballers wearing a Red Devil on their white shirts, there strolls Wayne Rooney — the Scouser who left his hometown club as a kid to lead the line for Manchester Fucking United — escaping scot-free. Not a whisper of abuse for the ex-Everton fella who’s gone bald three times. It’s a bit mean that isn’t it? A little personal perhaps but the Kop has always had a caustic edge to it and that persists to this day, but the vogue thing these days is to direct the abuse at our own lads.
Referee Martin Atkinson got most things wrong that day, and leaving the big decisions aside, gave United everything. A man whose shrill whistle might as well play a tune that begins, “I’ll show you, you Kopite bastards”; but there’s not a peep from our supporters aimed at him in response. Instead, we prefer to blame Sterling and other young lads for everything; to howl and wail from the stand at every misplaced pass, and exhibit a collective state of panic each time we play it out from the back.
Finishing up on Sterling; yes, he’s put pressure on himself with his stated aim to discuss contracts at the end of the season and his form has suffered. How much of that though is down to the prospect of jeers for every wrong move, every rushed finish? When it comes to those end-of-season talks, if he’s 50-50 on staying to develop his career or moving on, will those brickbats and taunts weigh heavy on his mind? Who the hell would want to play in front of that every week? And if he needed a reminder of the lure of pastures new, where the grass is as green as the financial envy on show in the Anfield stands, we were at it again against QPR last week.
It’s not just Sterling either. A ridiculed Mignolet has turned things round despite the pathetic, ironic cheers that met his catches and more competent kicks around Christmas time. Last season, Sturridge banged in goal after goal, barely hearing his name shouted from the stands. The latest from the younger element is that the players should “earn a chant”.
What a load of bollocks!
Sturridge has broken records in a red shirt and still he remains a divisive figure, rarely serenaded by the crowd. In days of yore new signings were welcomed with open arms, their names sung from the rafters to give them an instant fillip. I wonder if Markovic, Lovren, Moreno et al would have made a better fist of their debut seasons had they received some recognition from the Kop instead of fearing the angst and wrath of the Main Standers and the Kemlynites? I’ll leave the Anfield Road End out of this because they’re too busy taking pictures and dressing like weirdos to worry to progress beyond the mute. If you sit it in any of these stands, don’t take it personally. If you do, seek me out and smother me with your blanket, hit me with your flask, or poke me in the eye with your selfie stick. Rest assured, the Kop is also full of shit.
Does anyone at Anfield still realise the importance of home advantage; something that is at work at every other ground? Has anyone heard of the word, “bias”? Or would we prefer to just use the match to vent our middle-aged spleen at these cheeky, fat-walleted sods who had the impudence to be seduced by the lure of the red shirt? We moan when we miss out on our targets and then lambast the youngsters who come but take time to settle. Jordan Henderson, anyone? Hardly the warmest of welcomes in his first season, and Lucas too shed tears in the dressing room at the mercy of the boo boys before eventually winning over the meanest crowd in the country through sheer force of personality.
Perhaps, we all need to lighten up and remember the match is meant to be fun, or just take our ball home. There was draconian talk this week of fans being breathalysed on entry to football grounds. I’m for all it. Unless you’ve had three pints, out you go. Sober analysis and critique now rules at the expense of the animated supporter. Funny looks abound if you have the novel idea of berating a ref, or God forbid, call Rooney a c**t. For many these days it is preferable and more rewarding to just have a pop at a carousel of scapegoats in red.
The last word on that Anfield defeat to United; as thousands poured from the ground with minutes to still to play and a 10-man Liverpool a single goal down, I cast my mind back to Old Trafford in December and the deafening, inescapable taunts of the Mancs as they lauded it over their hated Scouse foe. Old Trafford too gets labelled as a sanitised product of modern football, but not on that day was it in the minds of their fans to target their own players.
Attitudes have changed and defeatism has usurped swagger, confidence and support. I’ve not spoken to one person, bar Rob Gutmann of this parish, who thought we could get a top-four finish before we played West Brom and Hull. Admittedly the players looked like they had given up too but sometimes the mood of a crowd permeates a dressing room and indeed an entire football club.
Had we won those two games we’d have been in pole position by now, but no-one thought it was possible. We labelled ourselves as “bottlers” for caving in against United and Arsenal, but no-one recognises that United are in freefall after three consecutive defeats with tough fixtures to come. Instead, we’ve given up. Perhaps the “Make Us Dream” outlook of last spring has bitten too many on the arse for all that caper again. Spare me from the wrath of Twitter for saying that this battle for a Champions League place still isn’t over.
At this time last season, Liverpool slipped up at the last, yet no-one dares to dream that karma plays its part this year in reverse. Some fans actually seem pleased we’ve had a bad season because it suits their misery arse agenda. We may or may not get top four, and bookies odds of 8-1 say we won’t, but the lack of hope defines a fan base that prefers to point the finger rather than look for the reasons why we’re likely to miss out. I hear far more condemnation of Brendan Rodgers and our squad across the board than the neglect of the owners in not addressing the need for a fit striker worthy of the name in January. FSG, like Hicks and Gillett under Benitez, are getting away with it. Ian Ayre is bouncing round town like a biff despite a recruitment record that looks worse with every Memphis Depay.
We lap up the media spin like zombies walking in the fog and it’s not wholly new. An entire fan base swallowed hook, line and sinker the press and Sky TV line on rotation and zonal marking (and not celebrating goals) to turn wholesale on a European Cup-winning manager. That media, and our fans complicit with it, gave us Roy Hodgson. Later, many of our own turned on Kenny Dalglish once his brief honeymoon with the fourth estate ended. That says it all. Where once we led with our own peculiar, defensive but strong mentality, we’re no longer able to think for ourselves. When Suarez crossed the line, thousands cried out in moral outrage, “He’s got to go” and many of us agreed we should cash in; get rid. No sticking up for our own there, and look where that defeatism got us. Where we once read Militant, we now espouse the sneering values of the Daily Mail.
When the Kop was seated in 1994 a banner adorned by the biggest biased bastard ever, Shankly, read “All round the ground The Kop Spirit survives”. In the City of Liverpool proud, boastful lads and girls still laugh, joke, take the piss but defend their mates. Those of us who travel round the country try to counter the stereotypes and project the most positive image of Liverpool, and cross us if you dare. Liverpool retains its unique identity; “The City that dared to fight” continues to scrap on and have a laugh at the same time. We still look after own and circle the wagons when we need to when it comes to things that matter.
Anfield though, the ground that is home to the City that gives the club its name, retains none of those values. An ageing, embittered local crowd, infused with passionless neutrals dilute what remains of a support and culture that was once the envy of Europe. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs as we bid farewell to the Sprit of Scouse.
Tara Wack.
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Pics: PA Images/David Rawcliffe-Propaganda-Photo
noticeable how many yet to be cynical youngsters appear in the standing Kop of old — i was one of them in the early seventies.. perhaps though now that the game can often seem so much hype and money, it is easy to be a cynical ole twat.
standing seats – reduced pay on the day kop prices could improve a lot and getting rid of the surround pitch shouting neon –> let the televised pundits put up with that, not us that have turned up for the event..c’mon you mighty mighty reds — shout it enough and we’ll all believe
The article I wish I could have written
Last nights election results prove that scouse defiance is still there though
Let’s make sure we all don’t turn into Evertonians – I think we have started down that path
Let’s make sure that we continue to be proudly different from the rest
On the 3 occasions I’ve sat in Anfield Road end hospitality this season I’ve sang, screamed ‘cunt’ at opposition players and made lots of noise while sat down (on my own like a nutter). YOU CAN SING AND MAKE AN ATMOSPHERE WHILE SAT DOWN IF YOU HAVE THE WILL. Too many people in the ground just don’t have the passion needed to give the boys a lift. People don’t eveb know the songs. Even when songs get going they just die out.
The chant of ‘Liverpool, Livvvverpool’ evens dies out after 4 liverpools !!!!
I think this is Because 18-25 year olds are being priced out of the ground. Even if these youngsters did have the means to attend, they then have the battle of finding tickets and once in the ground they are separated from their mates.
The best thing Liverpool FC could do to improve atmosphere is:
– Give concessions to GROUPS of students/under 25′s in the new stand(Sell tickets in 6′s)
– make new stand a pay at the gate. Hard core supporters queuing up from 6 in the morning would certainly ensure hardcore singing and support.
– Have a rule whereby ONLY the season ticket holder can attend the game. Picture ID on the cards with strict checks.
Will any of this happen? NO! Will the atmosphere get better? Not unless we get relegated or spend 5 seasons in the bottom half of the table so that the younger, more vocal crowd can get hold of tickets again and be able to sit with a group of mates.
Liverpool FC just don’t care. It’s just a business where the most important thing is the bottom line. Greed is ruining our game.
Gate receipts are a drop in Ocean compared to TV money. Would love LFC to take a stand on this. Surely a better atmosphere creates a cauldron atmosphere and leads to better results which indirectly boosts profit.
I’m out of love with football. I’ll never fall out of love with the club but these so called fans need to start acting like fans. Too bitter, too long in the tooth, too stuffy. It’s not just us, it’s the same at all the top clubs.
it was very different then. The Kop was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. We sang almost non-stop, and it was absolutely spontaneous. You knew the words without knowing how you knew them. Ee-aye-addio formed the basis of most songs, with the words changed to suit. Visiting fans tried to join in, to be drowned out by ‘Sing Yer own songs, sing Yer own songs, ee-aye-addio, sing yer own songs!’ Or, ‘the parrots are ‘ere again, the parrots are ‘ere again…’etc.
I’d walk to the ground along Oakfield Road from Tuebrook, collecting pals on the way, get there early to avoid the crush barriers…I never ceased to be thrilled at the sight of the towering, faded red Kop stand as you approached…
Those wee the days. Working class tribalism at its peak.
Yeah, you’re all miserable fuckers. If you wanna make Anfield better kick the Scousers out and bring in out of towners, wools and Thomas Cook fans. The atmosphere will soon improve.
I’m glad I read this though. I try and stay positive because I actually like LFC but the events of this week have sent me on a bit of a spiral. With this Depay thing I’m kind of left wondering if any department of the club is competent or is it more that we expect the best yet others see us differently. I’ve no idea anymore. Then there’s the plane, the Sturridge out news and even the guard of honour. The election result hasn’t helped either, although I’m proud to say Chester was one of Labours few gains, with a 0.01% majority or 93 votes. It just feels like everything’s broken. You mention the bile in the ground but it suddenly dawned on me this week how much Liverpool fans fight with each other on places like this, RAWK, The Echo comments or Twitter and Facebook or basically anywhere they can communicate. I do it myself but have taken a while to see the extent of what’s going on. I sometimes think I despise people but I don’t think I do. I think I’m disappointed in us all more. Anyway, after reading this I’ve just decided I’m not gonna get down about it. It is what it is and the last thing I want to do is take it in the ground with me.
Regarding 4th place, I’ll be honest I’ve been on the beach since the Arsenal game. You’re right though, it was a huge mistake for us all to go down that route. I think it was daft for Rodgers to say it too, especially with hindsight.
I wonder if we need to win the league to change the atmosphere. My theory, which I’ve just thought up, is that Liverpool fans want to win the league. When you get your hopes dashed it’s not a great feeling whatever the situation. if it happens again it can really deflate you but eventually we learn to adapt. We become more hardened to it and a bit more cynical until we have no hope to be dashed. Like a natural defence against it. Last year brought us so close we couldn’t help but raise our hopes again only to have them dashed in the cruellest of ways. I reckon this season is a reaction to it. We let our defence down that we’d spent 25 years putting up and the pain has all just flooded back. Maybe we have to heal the wounds of last season and 23 others by winning the league. Or maybe I shouldn’t smoke then comment. Maybe people just need to simply cheer the fuck up. Simple.
I enjoyed this article. Very true comments. I was in the kop in the 70s when songs and chants rang out non- stop and the ’12th man’ was a big presence in ‘fortress anfield’.
Now we have a whole generation of fans in the ground and all around the world supporting LFC who have not experienced that. They want to see us win trophies, they want to enjoy success but need to realise its not just high wages that get it.
We know some newspapers are full of negative and biased anti northern club stuff.
All LFC supporters need to use their voices to support our players while they are on the pitch. The games are on tvs, live, all around the world so show the players, the supporters everywhere and the haters that WE ARE LIVERPOOL.
Great Stuff Mike and spot on,
Everyone gave up after United, this then went into Arsenal the whole 3 months of being the best team in the land binned, and if anyone thinks for a millisecond that we weren’t the best team in the land then Mikes article is even more salient, because we were and even if we weren’t it doesn’t fucking matter tell the world we were the best just to piss them off.
The crowd is one of FSGs biggest problems, they don’t understand it after 4 years and for people that are supposed to be intelligent they are fuckin thick at times. They bought Liverpool because they could get a bargain because the fans waged war on Wall Street, scared the shit out of the banking world via cyber attacks and forced Hicks and Gillette out.
That same crowd made so much noise against every team in Europe under Rafa that they collectively bottled it, then shit themselves for good measure.
Give that crowd something to shout about and they will line the streets and cheer the bus into the ground. You don’t get that at City, Arsenal, United or Chelsea, you have the twelfth man, you have the competitive edge that you are looking for in the transfer market it’s under your fucking nose, you market the club around it yet you still don’t understand it or know how to use it but you sure as hell know how to piss it off.
All because you are the American equivalent of a wool John Henry you don’t need to act like one. The data analysis approach that wins you games of baseball and millions of dollars trading in stocks and shares is successful but fucking dull, and while it will get you results and identify technical ability it doesn’t make us the supporters dream, or sing, and if the crowd doesn’t dream and sing then we become just like any other club with more money than most but not as much as the other 4.
The reason everyone is so pissed off at the ground this year is because you sold Suarez and did not replace his goals or spirit, when the transfer committee look at new players add a couple of criteria to the profile.
Is this player going to make the crowd dream?
Will they score goals?
Does this player have the potential to be a cult hero?
Will they deck an opponent like Souness?
Will they deck one of their own team mates like Souness?
Will they cover more ground in a game than Dirk Kuyt?
Will they put an opponent into row Z and take a yellow?
Will they try outrageous things?
Will they wind up opponents, their fans and manager and make them look like cunts?
If you want to use the twelfth man as well as market it then dont look at a player unless they tick most of those boxes and the more money you spent the more boxes need to be ticked.
One final thought, when you do the season review and look to find out where things went wrong, find the person that let Suarez go to Barca without getting Sanches as part of the deal and squeeze their balls tills their eyes pop out so they understand how painful it is watching Liverpool play all season without a striker, with any luck they won’t make the same mistake again and we can have a bunch of players to dream and sing about.
” fans waged war on Wall Street, scared the shit out of the banking world via cyber attacks and forced Hicks and Gillette out.”???? If the North Korean security services’ hackers don’t worry Wall St much, I’m not sure a few scousers sitting at their laptops will have caused them to lose sleep.
What about the possession? You forgot the ducking possession!!
“Can we buy ****??? He’s outstanding when it comes to ‘the possession’..,Who cares about goals? It’s possession thst counts, children!’
Football was always a business but nowadays it’s so expensive to watch, so removed from its roots that you can understand why an element of sourness and cynicism has crept in. It’s become ‘entertainment’ rather than sport – a huge soap opera created by Sky and other media ‘outlets’, with a massive disconnect between the millionaires that play the game and local support. Do you really think that someone like Suarez sees himself as ‘one of our own’? He was always passing through but has a good publicity team behind him now to ensure injudicious comments made on international duty and his desire to move to Arsenal are long forgotten. (Plus there was the thrill of the 2013/14 season where he played like a demon for his move to Barcelona.)
Who wrote this? Sounds like something crazy bob would have written. What happened to him?
Great article! Everyone going to the game should be made to read this as a reminder of why they are there.
The following post is cut & pasted from the ‘Footie Chat’ forum and I am being devil’s advocate by offering an opposing view to the article above:
So in other words, the play is a great success but the audience is a flop.
‘Defending our own’? What is this bloke, 12 years old? It’s apparently a sin to have wanted to sell a player who had three convictions in four years for biting opponents, with a racial abuse conviction thrown in for good measure, and who was tipping the wink to Barcelona before the World Cup even began. It’s an even bigger sin to want to unload a 20 year old who’s refused to sign a contract that trebles his wages on the back of one good half season in three years, who publicly gives interviews saying how nice it would be to play for another club and who is currently turning in one diabolical performance after another and has been pretty much all season.
But we can’t criticise any of that, dearie me no, because that wouldn’t be ‘Defending our own’. So instead, let’s slag off people who earn a fraction in a year of what these bastards earn every month, whose pay has probably been frozen for the past five years (and, after Thursday, will probably be frozen for the next five years too) but who still shell out over a grand a year on home games alone. ‘Defending our own’ doesn’t apply to our own fans, apparently!
Or to our owners. As well as it being the fans’ fault it’s also FSG’s fault for not signing a striker in January. Far be it for me to speak on John Henry’s behalf but if I was Mr. Henry reading that I’d probably think ‘So £220 million in 3 years isn’t enough then?’ Maybe Henry should just erect a giant, gold credit card outside the new Main stand with a sign on it saying ‘Their y’are lads, help yourselves, piss that against the wall as well’ FFP? What’s that?? Never heard of it mate. Oh but I’m forgetting, the fact that last summer’s signings have flopped? That’s our fault as well, for not instantly chanting their names the minute they walk through the door. Leaving aside the fact that Sturridge DOES have his own chant (which makes you wonder whether this bloke even goes to the match at all) the fact that not every player has his own individual chant didn’t seem to have caused a problem last season. But it’s a hell of a convenient excuse when this season goes south. Certainly far more illuminating than looking at Rodgers transfer record, for example.
Oh and, just a thought, if you’re going to compare the atmosphere at Liverpool v United at Anfield with United v Liverpool at Old Trafford last December then you might mention one little detail, when we went to OT last December United beat us 3-0. That’s quite an important detail to leave out, don’t you think? If we’d beaten United 3-0 in March, what does this bloke think the atmosphere would have been like then? I suspect it would have been quite joyous with a fair bit of mickey taking, as it is every time we beat them. But it obviously suits this bloke’s agenda to pretend there was no difference in the two games bar the attitudes of the respective crowds. It’s not like Old Trafford was exactly a cauldron when the 4th goal went in in 2009. Remember the joke that went round after that game? ‘Dossena is a magician, he made 70,000 Mancs disappear.’
Sorry, I’m probably one of the embittered old misery arses that he’s complaining about but I can’t stand these tossers who try to present themselves as Uberfans by slagging off their fellow supporters while demanding absolute, North Korean style loyalty to the manager and every single one of the players no matter how blatantly some of those players demonstrate their contempt for us. And I hate the boozy, laddish, Scouse Master Race mindset that always seems to accompany that mentality. The atmosphere isn’t great at Anfield these days but that’s a reflection of what we’re seeing on the pitch, there were no complaints about the atmosphere last season. It’s not going to be helped by people who think it’s OUR fault that we took one point from two away games against West Brom and Hull, or that the solution is for us to abuse Rooney over his bald patch.
Read more: http://hammertimeschat.proboards.com/thread/14102/farewell-spirit-scouse#ixzz3ZnM7qxJK
Missed the point entirely. The thing that gets me is this notion “because we are Liverpool, we deserve to be winning trophies”. Why?
Are we the richest club in the league? No, we are currently 5th I think.
Do we have a team of seasoned players with a strong culture success? No, we haven’t won anything of real consequence since 2005 (despite coming close on a number of occasions) and have a team full of talented youngsters.
Do we have the best support in the league? No, not any more and the United game proved that beyond doubt.
You don’t support your team because you feel obliged to, like turning up to church on Sundays, you support them because you want them to win and it is the best way to enjoy yourself. It is not a coincidence that the team with the best support in the league went on to become the most successful.
I think morals are probably a good thing but you won’t catch me putting them before players like Suarez and Sterling. Fuck that! Without doubt, Liverpool not being the best offends me far more than cannibalism ever could.
Agree with everything except the blaming on FSG. They have given plenty of money during their tenure AND sorted out the stadium problem. As much as we must support the players we shouldn’t just redirect our anger to the owners because it’s easy to shout at them. They supplied massive budgets to both Kenny and Brendan but both have spent unwisely. Trying to shift that responsibility on dubious pretences is wrong.
True that they have handed out generous budgets to Dalglish and Rodgers but always with strings attached. Don’t necessarily think their approach is a bad one in the long term but it has taken quite a few windows for them to fine tune it. Although given their inexperience this is probably understandable if frustrating.
I think we can consign this article to the irrelevant section … Since Jurgen and his pass n move n press football arrived .
I bemoan the sports tourists in the SKD stand … but , my god . I don’t know what the
Kop do to the opposition , but they scare the living daylights out of me .
Just re-read this…what a difference five years makes!