Paddy 'the cunt' Barclay has one more go at rescuing his buddy....
Calls for a messiah are not worthy of Anfield
Patrick Barclay Chief Football Commentator
1 minute ago
None of the 42,529 present will ever forget it: the night in early May 2005 when the irresistible force that Liverpool can be at Anfield took on the immovable object that was José Mourinho’s Chelsea and the immovable object moved.
A much-disputed goal by Luis García did the trick. Liverpool proceeded to a Champions League final against AC Milan in Istanbul which they should have lost but won. When the clubs reconvened in Athens two years later, Liverpool should have won but lost.
And in the process a view emerged that Liverpool and Milan shared something in their DNA that entitled them perpetually to be contesting the game’s great prizes.
The trouble is that, in order even to take part in the Champions League, English and Italian clubs must finish at least fourth in their domestic leagues. And thus, while Milan prepare to meet Tottenham Hotspur in the round of 16 in February, Liverpool have only emptiness and aspiration; the sort of aspiration Newcastle United supporters encounter when an FA Cup draw takes place and their club is not in it.
How unrealistic is the Liverpool dream? I confess that, when Roy Hodgson was appointed manager in the summer, the notion of their finishing fourth and qualifying for next season’s Champions League seemed feasible. After all, a similar squad — crucially augmented by Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, it must be conceded — had finished second little over a year earlier.
Events have made a nonsense of this and Wednesday night’s home defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers left Hodgson’s Liverpool in the bottom half of the table, more concerned about the possibility of visiting Doncaster Rovers next season than jousting again with the likes of Milan.
Poor though the team were, however, nothing insulted the club’s traditions more than the chant aimed at their manager, whom the FA has considered as a potential successor to Fabio Capello. “Hodgson for England” yelled sections of a support once regarded as fundamental to the fortress-like character of Anfield. Today, when Bolton Wanderers come, the same people will belt out You’ll Never Walk Alone without a whit of irony.
Anfield will always be a great place to watch football. But it has been belittled in the eyes of the wider game. The neutrals privileged to be there in May 2005 will always remember the winter when Anfield went flaky, not only pointing Hodgson to the door but holding it open — let’s not forget this either — to Kenny Dalglish.
My impression is that, although disgruntled Liverpool fans have a huge variety of alternatives to Hodgson in mind, most want Dalglish in at least temporary charge (the more delusional imagine that Pep Guardiola or some such luminary will beat a path to Anfield at the end of the season).
Some want Rafael Benítez — free after his dismissal by Inter Milan and still regarded by many as the club’s best manager since Dalglish reeled away, suffering terrible symptoms of stress, in 1991 — back straight away. But essentially there is a yearning for an icon.
Remind you of any other club? It would do if they yearned for Kevin Keegan rather than Dalglish. Sections of Liverpool’s support have come to resemble their Newcastle equivalents in times of disappointment: angry rather than sad, but still bereft. And now ready to welcome a messiah. Newcastle fans, weighing the respective merits of Keegan and Dalglish at St James’ Park, might even joke that they’ve picked the wrong one.
I am in no position to mock Anfield. Not after having counselled that the Hodgson effect, most recently noted in carrying Fulham to their highest ever league position and a Europa League final, would work on Liverpool by Christmas. But what is the point of making things worse by weakening your own manager? It can only eat into the players’ commitment.
Liverpool fans used to know that instinctively. When they sang it, they meant it. The spirit of Bill Shankly, whose idea it was to play You’ll Never Walk Alone before every home match, permeated Anfield.
It was there that night in May 2005. The team sent out to do battle with Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba and Claude Makélelé featured Djimi Traoré and Igor Biscan and I do not recall anyone decrying them for having been promoted above their level (a common, and rather impudent, accusation made against Hodgson now) or chanting for alternatives.
Perhaps Wednesday was just part of the cycle of change and decay. The traditional supporter, seldom more knowledgeable than at Anfield (and those of the view that Hodgson should never have been appointed are more than entitled to claim vindication), is surrounded by the products of instant networking and facile punditry and sometimes the beautiful noise becomes a cacophony of disrespect.
Six months ago Hodgson was, by near-universal acclaim, an excellent manager, the toast of not only pundits but his peers. He is the same man. But the Liverpool he thought he was joining has changed.
Patrick Barclay Chief Football Commentator
1 minute ago
None of the 42,529 present will ever forget it: the night in early May 2005 when the irresistible force that Liverpool can be at Anfield took on the immovable object that was José Mourinho’s Chelsea and the immovable object moved.
A much-disputed goal by Luis García did the trick. Liverpool proceeded to a Champions League final against AC Milan in Istanbul which they should have lost but won. When the clubs reconvened in Athens two years later, Liverpool should have won but lost.
And in the process a view emerged that Liverpool and Milan shared something in their DNA that entitled them perpetually to be contesting the game’s great prizes.
The trouble is that, in order even to take part in the Champions League, English and Italian clubs must finish at least fourth in their domestic leagues. And thus, while Milan prepare to meet Tottenham Hotspur in the round of 16 in February, Liverpool have only emptiness and aspiration; the sort of aspiration Newcastle United supporters encounter when an FA Cup draw takes place and their club is not in it.
How unrealistic is the Liverpool dream? I confess that, when Roy Hodgson was appointed manager in the summer, the notion of their finishing fourth and qualifying for next season’s Champions League seemed feasible. After all, a similar squad — crucially augmented by Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, it must be conceded — had finished second little over a year earlier.
Events have made a nonsense of this and Wednesday night’s home defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers left Hodgson’s Liverpool in the bottom half of the table, more concerned about the possibility of visiting Doncaster Rovers next season than jousting again with the likes of Milan.
Poor though the team were, however, nothing insulted the club’s traditions more than the chant aimed at their manager, whom the FA has considered as a potential successor to Fabio Capello. “Hodgson for England” yelled sections of a support once regarded as fundamental to the fortress-like character of Anfield. Today, when Bolton Wanderers come, the same people will belt out You’ll Never Walk Alone without a whit of irony.
Anfield will always be a great place to watch football. But it has been belittled in the eyes of the wider game. The neutrals privileged to be there in May 2005 will always remember the winter when Anfield went flaky, not only pointing Hodgson to the door but holding it open — let’s not forget this either — to Kenny Dalglish.
My impression is that, although disgruntled Liverpool fans have a huge variety of alternatives to Hodgson in mind, most want Dalglish in at least temporary charge (the more delusional imagine that Pep Guardiola or some such luminary will beat a path to Anfield at the end of the season).
Some want Rafael Benítez — free after his dismissal by Inter Milan and still regarded by many as the club’s best manager since Dalglish reeled away, suffering terrible symptoms of stress, in 1991 — back straight away. But essentially there is a yearning for an icon.
Remind you of any other club? It would do if they yearned for Kevin Keegan rather than Dalglish. Sections of Liverpool’s support have come to resemble their Newcastle equivalents in times of disappointment: angry rather than sad, but still bereft. And now ready to welcome a messiah. Newcastle fans, weighing the respective merits of Keegan and Dalglish at St James’ Park, might even joke that they’ve picked the wrong one.
I am in no position to mock Anfield. Not after having counselled that the Hodgson effect, most recently noted in carrying Fulham to their highest ever league position and a Europa League final, would work on Liverpool by Christmas. But what is the point of making things worse by weakening your own manager? It can only eat into the players’ commitment.
Liverpool fans used to know that instinctively. When they sang it, they meant it. The spirit of Bill Shankly, whose idea it was to play You’ll Never Walk Alone before every home match, permeated Anfield.
It was there that night in May 2005. The team sent out to do battle with Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba and Claude Makélelé featured Djimi Traoré and Igor Biscan and I do not recall anyone decrying them for having been promoted above their level (a common, and rather impudent, accusation made against Hodgson now) or chanting for alternatives.
Perhaps Wednesday was just part of the cycle of change and decay. The traditional supporter, seldom more knowledgeable than at Anfield (and those of the view that Hodgson should never have been appointed are more than entitled to claim vindication), is surrounded by the products of instant networking and facile punditry and sometimes the beautiful noise becomes a cacophony of disrespect.
Six months ago Hodgson was, by near-universal acclaim, an excellent manager, the toast of not only pundits but his peers. He is the same man. But the Liverpool he thought he was joining has changed.
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