IT’S going to be a long summer.
Hell hath no fury like a Liverpool fan scorned. Hell hath no fury like a Liverpool fan yet to be scorned, but expecting to be scorned. At times hell even hath no fury like a Liverpool fan faced with the rumoured arrival of a James Milner or a Danny Ings.
Memphis Depay chose Manchester United over Liverpool (or so goes the tale despite plenty of evidence to the contrary). Fury. Have all the people who were furious about Liverpool’s ‘failure’ to sign the player actually seen Memphis Depay kick a ball around a rectangular patch of grass before? I know I haven’t. Not enough for me to go “ooooooooh” anyway.
Isn’t it exhausting being angry about Liverpool not signing a player you’ve never, or at best rarely, seen on TV and surely never seen in person? Did Liverpool genuinely make a move for the player at all? What’s the craic with the concept of getting irate about the perceived calibre of the players we’re being linked to, long before any of them even gets to smell, or actually wear a Liverpool shirt?
Let’s dispense with the common-sense and just go nuts instead.
Have those contracts been signed by Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson, Jordan Ibe and Martin Skrtel yet? (Quick Google search unearths that Henderson signed his the other week.) When does Glen Johnson stop being on the payroll of Liverpool FC? Frankly I just don’t care. I don’t do soap operas.
The door of Brendan Rodgers’ office swings open and there stands the returning Andre Wisdom, arms folded, face fixed to a menacing glare as the words, ‘hello boss, I’m back’ fall from his lips. Cue the unmistakable EastEnders ‘Duff, Duff. Duff, Duff, Duff. Duffa Duff’ cliffhanger electronic drum beat.
If it’s all the same, I’ll stick with the Great British Bake Off, thanks.
Rumour, counter rumour, conjecture and silence, anger, bitterness and resentment. Blah, blah, blah, blah and blah once more.
I love the vast majority of Liverpool fan-powered websites, there are a string of great ones out there, each one with some very knowledgeable and brilliantly artistic writers. However, when I’m scrolling through Twitter for something to read you couldn’t pay me to click on one of those ‘Liverpool should sign….’ or ‘How Liverpool would look tactically if… comes to Anfield’. I’d rather poke myself in the eyeballs with knitting needles. The hypothetical does my head in.
Wake me up when a new arrival has signed the contract, posed for a photo in front of the boot rack at Melwood and uttered a few weather beaten platitudes about how they have always loved the club, how they want to put the club back where they belong and how big of a dream it is to play with Jon Flanagan.
This season hasn’t panned out the way any of us would have wished it to, but we’re far from the write off that many outside and inside the club’s supportive circle would have you believe.
Part of the problem has been the basics. Round pegs in square holes, not always playing systems that suit the players at our disposal, potential double acts not being given time to flourish and an undeniable hangover from going so close 12 months ago have all blighted us.
Throw in the loss of Luis Suarez, combined with the pleasure and pain of seeing him blossom so brilliantly for Barcelona after a sluggish start (all very Peter Beardsley circa 1987-88 of him), the injuries to Daniel Sturridge, Champions League humiliation, the Steven Gerrard countdown to leaving and last summer’s acquisitions at best not hitting the high gears and at worst face-planting into the turf. It all means the positives are thin on the ground.
Back to the actualities and the basic ingredients present at the club. Not exactly devoid of talent, are we? We have some players that could do with being elsewhere come August but there are many others that can build on reasonably promising seasons individually.
We can all name the names regarding the good and the bad but then we’d just get into a heated bout of cyber-fisticuffs. Many players have shown periods of promise only to go off the boil again. Consistency has been lacking for most — maybe even all — of the squad, yet only a small handful of players could be truly branded as a write-off throughout. Redemption is still a very real possibility for many of these players.
Jordan Henderson and Simon Mignolet stand as shining examples of how players bracketed ‘misfit’ can be upcycled. In a modern day context of sink or swim expectations, players like Ray Kennedy and Terry McDermott wouldn’t have been forgiven the slow starts they had to their time at Anfield.
We aren’t in a position to blithely write off players that could still come good. We have to be considered in who we cast off as deadwood and who lives to fight another season. In varying degrees, and despite experiencing difficulties at times, I still think it’s worth persevering with the likes of Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Lazar Markovic. Somewhere within each of them lives an aesthetically boss footballer. It’s more a case of whether or not they have the inner-strength to rise or they continue to wilt.
Next season will be a bit of a straightener in one way or another. Either FSG will look at the high calibre managers that are available this summer and show ruthlessness in removing Brendan Rodgers from his job, or he will walk away from his Boston appraisal with a defined remit to achieve something real and tangible in 2015-16, or else.
The teams that finish above us this season are unlikely to regress next season. This time out only Chelsea will have plundered past the 80-point barrier. Three clubs plundered past the 80-point barrier last season, one of which was our club. That needs to be our target again in 2015-16, no matter how unrealistic it may or may not seem. Liverpool has to set the bar higher than we should reasonably be able to reach; we are at our best when we make ourselves stretch.
Arsene Wenger looks like he’s starting to bark up the right tree with Arsenal, Jose Mourinho won’t allow standards to slip at Chelsea, Manchester City will likely start afresh once again and Manchester United will continue to offer the full-on Disneyland experience. It will be harder to claim a place in the top four next season than it was this season, but we’ll be back to being the determined and hopefully innovative pursuer. Basically we’ll be the Buford T Justice to their toupee-wearing Bandit.
Regardless, it’s going to be a long summer. Don’t make it harder by going nuts at every transfer rumour and unsigned contract.
Rest, recuperate and be ready for the next ride. Who knows where it will take us?
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda-Photo
A fantastic article that couldn’t reflect my personal opinion any more. Let’s put faith in some of the talent we have, both in the senior team and coming through the ranks, and supplemented with a few good signings (real signings, not hypothetical ones) we will be in a position next year to go again. I want success as much as any Liverpool fan, but seemingly unlike the rest I have faith that we aren’t a million miles away from achieving it, and that we can do so under Brendan Rodgers.
DELUDED
After spending my summers clicking away hourly just awaiting the imminent arrivals of Costa, Willian, Papadapolous, Shaqiri, et al what else could I possibly do with my time?
Surely it is just a matter of time before Lacazette/Cavani/Higuain join them in that hallowed pantheon of my credulity.
‘Who knows where it will take us.’
Er’ … 5th?
And I’m a fan and an optimist!
Feel sorry for Lazar, think he has real talent. Lovren may yet prove worthwhile. Lallana the most disappointing of all for me, expected more, given his experience.
I’ve heard it said that losing a pre-season can seriously mess with the months that follow. He’s not as young as the others, but I would be shocked if he doesn’t have a much stronger season ahead of him.
Lallana has been hampered by injuries, made a bit of a mess of his debut season, but I have confidence enough unhis ability to see a very different outcome next time out..
He has less than a goal every five games in his career, and he isn’t exactly an exceptional passer of the football like a Coutinho. I am far less optimistic
He’s a decent player who has good days and that’s about all I see him as
Last season for Soton he had great figures for winning the ball in the opposition half, had good assist numbers and a decent goal return. We should judge him after a proper injury free run in the side.
CLUELESS, he has 2 goals and 2 assists less than your presious coutinho in half the minutes! Absolutley clueless, lallana is class end of!
This coming transfer window will reveal all. How ambitious are FSG? Will they signtm the (costly) experienced players we need?
Does Rodgers/the transfer committee have a Plan B if they don’t sign a targeted player?
Has Ian Ayre got the ability to get a deal done swiftly instead of haggling over the odd few million and see a potential signing go elsewhere.
Only time will tell.
You’ve just nailed the questions I go to sleep worrying about. I imagine they are the same questions Rogers goes to sleep worrying about, too.
That’s kind of a weird thought.
Thanks for a great read….. First time here, don’t know why, but for the reason you alluded to above, I needed to search for greener pastures… So cheers
Memphis Depay was one of the best young talents in world football and shone a year ago in the World Cup, so most people who enjoy football will have heard of him and watched him play.
People were disappointed about not signing Depay for a number of reasons. He is young, exciting, fast and scores goals. Liverpool have lacked that at many times this season. He chose to go to Manchester United, which is of course frustrating for a Liverpool fan. Publicly missing out on a player is extremely damaging for the clubs reputation and attracting other potentially great signings. If we sign a big name (and yes he is a big name in football), then in my opinion we gain momentum and can use that to sell to other big name players, rather than looking like a club losing their best players (Suarez, Gerrard and potentially Sterling if a contract is not signed).
If Liverpool want to compete both on the field and commercially, then we will have to be able to attract big names. Football has changed and is changing rapidly off the field and we could fall very far behind and very fast. We need big names or to be savvy enough to sign the potential big names.
I think Memphis Depay wanted Manchester United all along and his agent used Liverpool as a foil to get Louis Van Gaal — who has probably been predominantly focused on his own need to seal a top four finish — to sit up and pay attention.
Depay is Dutch. Van Gaal is Dutch. Van Persie captains the Dutch national team. In terms of career planning it makes perfect sense for Depay to go to a club where he can make important connections with people who speak his own language and are influential both at the league and international levels.
And what better foil than Liverpool to get Van Gaal to pay attention and act swiftly to avoid him going to the most bitter rival? This is all just common sense, but there’s not a lot of that among our angry and ridiculously hypercritical fan base right now.
Maybe we were used as a foil. However, he does fit what LFC is trying to do even if he came with a higher original cost. We need goals badly. He scores them. He’s also the type of player, that if successful, would get sold to Bayern, Barca or Real for Suarez money in 4 years. Is that not buy low and sell high and what FSG seems to be about to some extent?
Every summer we say, “this is an important summer for the club.” Every summer we never buy the players we should have..
I’ve stopped caring. FSG have stopped caring.
I’m switching off all summer, I’m gonna wear shorts and maybe a little straw hat, spend time in nice beer gardens.. switch off all talk of football and signing and manager merry-go-rounds.. come back fresh and optimistic in August, I suggest everybody do the same.
Good advice, but every morning, I click on BBC sport gossip, Echo transfers and then here, its just working on muscle memory now, I need help to stop..
ahhh.. the transfer gossip treadmill. i got off that long ago.
i was sick of wanting to shop in Harvey nics but ending up in primark
I can’t get my head around what Liverpool Football Club has become and is becoming. We used to be a club that sold off fading stars, giving tnem another couple of years with a weaker club to see out their careers. This goes back as far as Roger Hunt and Callaghan. Now, NOW!!! we are looking to BUY the fading stars. FFS, if, say, Man City or United has squeezed the juice out of a player, what pips will aid us to get CL?? There are very few Gary Macs around – arguably there was only one.
Who are these fading stars we are looking to sign?
Most are complaining that we are signing young/potential.
We know exactly where next season will lead us…5th or 6th and possibly a cup….all commensurate with the squads value. Obviously revenues will increase again as they always do as the prefab stadium extension fills up with the wealthy support contributing to FSGs healthy bottom line. The rest of us will listen to another season of Aldo’s groans and Frustrations.
I have minor gripes with our transfer business as ive aired many times on here before but I’m also convinced if we had bought a decent striker last summer (Bony) we’d be sitting at least 4th in the league today. It’s fine lines that are keeping us from succeeding but it’s time we made sure we are on the right side of these fine lines in future.
Couldn’t agree more with this and is why I remain positive about the near future.
We haven’t got the spending power of others so we have to make sure the deals we do are spot on..
If Mario had worked out, if sturridge had stayed fit.. If we’d spent the extra on a Bony..
Once we get rid of the if’s we can make up the difference and get into the top four.
We’ve been shit this season and we’re fifth…!! (Just..)