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From Guardian Online -
"Fans get the team they deserve
Liverpool supporters would not admit it, but their attitude may be helping to keep the club down.
Paul Doyle January 10, 2007 12:35 PM
Here's the unpalatable truth for anyone who admires what Liverpool Football Club once was: the club's fans deserve to dine on the steaming dung they were served up last night. Because as a crowd (not as individuals), they're dumb. Maybe lovably simple like Jason McAteer. Possibly so ostentatiously, in-your-face stupid that they inspire not laughter, not solidarity, not even sympathy, but a desire to avoid them at all costs ... or exploit them for all their worth. Here's why:
Midway through the second half of last night's shambles, Liverpool fans began booming out 'You'll Never Walk Alone' with such gusto that anyone tuning in at that precise moment would have assumed the home side were comfortably ahead. But, of course, they weren't. They were being rogered 5-1. Once again, then, the Liverpool faithful, like the loyal sheep of certain other clubs, were wallowing in failure. And this morning many of them smugly expect everyone to congratulate them for that by agreeing that they're "the greatest fans in the world", or some such swill.
Belting out your devotion to a club when it is, yet again, blatantly underachieving is not being a "true fan" any more than cheering on an alcoholic every time he downs a jug of vodka is being a true friend. Like a man suffering from an addiction, a once-great club hooked on mediocrity and half-success needs a mighty metaphorical boot in the hole. It needs to be shaken out of its self-defeating stupor. Sure, when you see signs of a willingness to get better, then rousing outpourings of affection may be appropriate, but until that point is reached, you've got to be cruel to be kind (like I'm being here, see). Gérard Houllier inched towards recovery and was embraced. Then he lost the plot and was indulged. Fan desertion should have: a) forced him to change his ways; or b) forced the directors to bin him sooner than 18 months after he'd passed his expiry date.
Similarly, Rafael Benítez initially suggested he was the man to restore Liverpool to greatness, most obviously when he somehow led them to Champions League triumph in 2005 despite initiallly botching his selection and tactics in the final. Greatness doesn't mean sporadic success in cups, it means sustained domination of leagues. And in that sense, Benítez has been going backwards since his inspired half-time changes in Istanbul.
So let's be clear: rather than pledge their allegiance to the unacceptable, Liverpool fans should have walked out en masse shortly after half-time in yesterday's debacle. And made it plain that until they're convinced that Liverpool could win the Premiership (nothing less should do) they will not be paying into Anfield, nor buying replica jerseys, official merchandise or Benítez's guff about not having enough money to rival the big three (when you've spunked £6.7m on Arsenal reject Jermaine Pennant, £7m on one season wonder(ish) Peter Crouch and oh-my-god-how-bloody-much?! on busy-but-aimless strikers such as Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt, do you really deserve to be entrusted with even more funds, even if they were available? Certain Dubai fat cats may well be asking themselves that questions right now).
If there is anybody other than away fans at Anfield's next game, then Liverpool deserve another tonking.
All of the above is, of course, equally applicable to many fans of Newcastle, Manchester City and every other band of fools who regularly boast about filling their ground to watch overpaid underperformers. At best, you're the drunk following the blind. At worst, you're fodder for the likes of Freddy Shepherd."
From Guardian Online -
"Fans get the team they deserve
Liverpool supporters would not admit it, but their attitude may be helping to keep the club down.
Paul Doyle January 10, 2007 12:35 PM
Here's the unpalatable truth for anyone who admires what Liverpool Football Club once was: the club's fans deserve to dine on the steaming dung they were served up last night. Because as a crowd (not as individuals), they're dumb. Maybe lovably simple like Jason McAteer. Possibly so ostentatiously, in-your-face stupid that they inspire not laughter, not solidarity, not even sympathy, but a desire to avoid them at all costs ... or exploit them for all their worth. Here's why:
Midway through the second half of last night's shambles, Liverpool fans began booming out 'You'll Never Walk Alone' with such gusto that anyone tuning in at that precise moment would have assumed the home side were comfortably ahead. But, of course, they weren't. They were being rogered 5-1. Once again, then, the Liverpool faithful, like the loyal sheep of certain other clubs, were wallowing in failure. And this morning many of them smugly expect everyone to congratulate them for that by agreeing that they're "the greatest fans in the world", or some such swill.
Belting out your devotion to a club when it is, yet again, blatantly underachieving is not being a "true fan" any more than cheering on an alcoholic every time he downs a jug of vodka is being a true friend. Like a man suffering from an addiction, a once-great club hooked on mediocrity and half-success needs a mighty metaphorical boot in the hole. It needs to be shaken out of its self-defeating stupor. Sure, when you see signs of a willingness to get better, then rousing outpourings of affection may be appropriate, but until that point is reached, you've got to be cruel to be kind (like I'm being here, see). Gérard Houllier inched towards recovery and was embraced. Then he lost the plot and was indulged. Fan desertion should have: a) forced him to change his ways; or b) forced the directors to bin him sooner than 18 months after he'd passed his expiry date.
Similarly, Rafael Benítez initially suggested he was the man to restore Liverpool to greatness, most obviously when he somehow led them to Champions League triumph in 2005 despite initiallly botching his selection and tactics in the final. Greatness doesn't mean sporadic success in cups, it means sustained domination of leagues. And in that sense, Benítez has been going backwards since his inspired half-time changes in Istanbul.
So let's be clear: rather than pledge their allegiance to the unacceptable, Liverpool fans should have walked out en masse shortly after half-time in yesterday's debacle. And made it plain that until they're convinced that Liverpool could win the Premiership (nothing less should do) they will not be paying into Anfield, nor buying replica jerseys, official merchandise or Benítez's guff about not having enough money to rival the big three (when you've spunked £6.7m on Arsenal reject Jermaine Pennant, £7m on one season wonder(ish) Peter Crouch and oh-my-god-how-bloody-much?! on busy-but-aimless strikers such as Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt, do you really deserve to be entrusted with even more funds, even if they were available? Certain Dubai fat cats may well be asking themselves that questions right now).
If there is anybody other than away fans at Anfield's next game, then Liverpool deserve another tonking.
All of the above is, of course, equally applicable to many fans of Newcastle, Manchester City and every other band of fools who regularly boast about filling their ground to watch overpaid underperformers. At best, you're the drunk following the blind. At worst, you're fodder for the likes of Freddy Shepherd."
Exactly Neil. This was obviously written by somebody who not only knows nothing about the game, but has no idea what being a supporter is all about.
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