I rarely post long opinions on here, but I feel the need to vent my spleen right now.
I don't expect everyone (maybe anyone!) to agree with me, but I've reached a point where I am deeply embarrassed by the on and off field position our club finds itself in. Almost every day at the moment there's something else that chips away further at our reputation (hence the thread title). The performances on the field are so far below what we expect that I've no answer to the banter from the Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U fans I'm surrounded by at work. And worse still all of them, regardless of club affiliation, think that the way that Kenny and Suarez have handled the whole Evra thing is appalling.
I know most of you will say "**** 'em", but it's not that simple. We are Liverpool FC, a club with a reputation second to none, and who have always represented the positive side of the game. For years Man U fans have moaned about the "ABU" phenomenon. I'm afraid that it's rapidly becoming the "ABL" phenomenon instead. We can rail against the media, commentators and Twitter gob****es, but perception is everything, and the perception is that our managers, players and fans are refusing to acknowledge that Suarez has done anything wrong, when the rest of the world is convinced that he has.
This is not to suggest that they are right and we are wrong, but there comes a point where you have to accept what has happened and move on, and Kenny in particular seems unable to do that. I love his passion for the club, and his staunch defence of one his players, but it's playing out very badly in public, making him look dogmatic and intractable. In a world where PR is everything, we're ****ing this up badly.
With regard to the on field performances, I'm lucky enough to remember Kenny as both a player (one of the greatest ever), and as a manager first time round. When he became manager again I was over the moon, and the transformation in the team from Jan to May last year was a joy to watch. That's what makes this season even harder to take.
The loss of Meireles was clearly a blow, as is Lucas's injury, but we all know that the money spent should have taken us to the next level, not set us back. Kenny & Comolli's work in three transfer windows has been well below par. Suarez is clearly a talent, but for all of his skill and trickery his end product has been piss poor. I really hope that will change soon. Carroll is clearly a £15m player starting to find form, so we pissed away £20m there. As far as the summer signings go, we have received value directly inversely proportional to the amount spent: Bellamy has been brilliant, Enrique great, Adam decent, Henderson inconsistent and Downing atrocious. That's no great advert for the scouting approach. The lack of any major investment in January unfortunately points to one of two conclusions: they don't recognise the shortcomings, or FSG don't have sufficient confidence in them to put money on the table. It may have been an overpriced market, but when the need is so stark then you have to do something.
I really want Kenny to be the man to turn this around, but I'm no longer convinced that he is. His judgement has been found wanting several times recently, both on and off field. He is, and always will be, and absolute legend, not least for rescuing us from the clutches of the Bodge. However, this afternoon I found myself watching the first 30 minutes or so of the Spurs match, and couldn't help thinking that for a melty-faced illiterate wheeler-dealer media whore, Redknapp's assembled a team far greater than the sum of its parts that plays football that's great to watch. Pretty much how Kenny's Liverpool team of the late '80s was. And the opposite of what we have now.
Maybe it's just me, on the back of a ridiculously stressful week, seeing everything in a negative light. But I can't help feeling that we're reaching a crisis point, and FSG don't seem the sort to leave these kind of things to chance. Barring a major shift in our results, I think that this summer will be one of huge and fundamental change.
I don't expect everyone (maybe anyone!) to agree with me, but I've reached a point where I am deeply embarrassed by the on and off field position our club finds itself in. Almost every day at the moment there's something else that chips away further at our reputation (hence the thread title). The performances on the field are so far below what we expect that I've no answer to the banter from the Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U fans I'm surrounded by at work. And worse still all of them, regardless of club affiliation, think that the way that Kenny and Suarez have handled the whole Evra thing is appalling.
I know most of you will say "**** 'em", but it's not that simple. We are Liverpool FC, a club with a reputation second to none, and who have always represented the positive side of the game. For years Man U fans have moaned about the "ABU" phenomenon. I'm afraid that it's rapidly becoming the "ABL" phenomenon instead. We can rail against the media, commentators and Twitter gob****es, but perception is everything, and the perception is that our managers, players and fans are refusing to acknowledge that Suarez has done anything wrong, when the rest of the world is convinced that he has.
This is not to suggest that they are right and we are wrong, but there comes a point where you have to accept what has happened and move on, and Kenny in particular seems unable to do that. I love his passion for the club, and his staunch defence of one his players, but it's playing out very badly in public, making him look dogmatic and intractable. In a world where PR is everything, we're ****ing this up badly.
With regard to the on field performances, I'm lucky enough to remember Kenny as both a player (one of the greatest ever), and as a manager first time round. When he became manager again I was over the moon, and the transformation in the team from Jan to May last year was a joy to watch. That's what makes this season even harder to take.
The loss of Meireles was clearly a blow, as is Lucas's injury, but we all know that the money spent should have taken us to the next level, not set us back. Kenny & Comolli's work in three transfer windows has been well below par. Suarez is clearly a talent, but for all of his skill and trickery his end product has been piss poor. I really hope that will change soon. Carroll is clearly a £15m player starting to find form, so we pissed away £20m there. As far as the summer signings go, we have received value directly inversely proportional to the amount spent: Bellamy has been brilliant, Enrique great, Adam decent, Henderson inconsistent and Downing atrocious. That's no great advert for the scouting approach. The lack of any major investment in January unfortunately points to one of two conclusions: they don't recognise the shortcomings, or FSG don't have sufficient confidence in them to put money on the table. It may have been an overpriced market, but when the need is so stark then you have to do something.
I really want Kenny to be the man to turn this around, but I'm no longer convinced that he is. His judgement has been found wanting several times recently, both on and off field. He is, and always will be, and absolute legend, not least for rescuing us from the clutches of the Bodge. However, this afternoon I found myself watching the first 30 minutes or so of the Spurs match, and couldn't help thinking that for a melty-faced illiterate wheeler-dealer media whore, Redknapp's assembled a team far greater than the sum of its parts that plays football that's great to watch. Pretty much how Kenny's Liverpool team of the late '80s was. And the opposite of what we have now.
Maybe it's just me, on the back of a ridiculously stressful week, seeing everything in a negative light. But I can't help feeling that we're reaching a crisis point, and FSG don't seem the sort to leave these kind of things to chance. Barring a major shift in our results, I think that this summer will be one of huge and fundamental change.
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