Death by a thousand cuts

[MrMichael]

Yup, very good article. Where's it from out of interest?

[Corndog]

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.

good post, i absolutely agree about the P.R side of things.

[FrankB34]

Yup, very good article. Where's it from out of interest?

Here: http://jonnymacc.blogspot.com/

[BigChief]

Now that we've apologized and the neutral football community at large are willing to listen to us again, maybe we can start outing the truth slowly but surely. Today's 'embarrassing' apologies look like a crushing defeat but beware the injured snake in the corner. We're too big to go down without a fight, except now we've learnt the rules and are poised to strike!

[mick the click]

Now that we've apologized and the neutral football community at large are willing to listen to us again, maybe we can start outing the truth slowly but surely. Today's 'embarrassing' apologies look like a crushing defeat but beware the injured snake in the corner. We're too big to go down without a fight, except now we've learnt the rules and are poised to strike!

Nice thought...

[danperkins]

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.

quality post and spot on IMO

[Fivex]

Here: http://jonnymacc.blogspot.com/

Great article that.

Is this (conscious or sub-conscious) lack of balance struck for selfish journalistic reasons? Is it because Ferguson, incredibly and quite unbelievably, has individual journalists banned from Old Trafford if he doesn't like what they write?

The more I think about this, the more shocking and mendacious this situation is: United are almost certainly guaranteed favouritism in the UK media because an individual journalist jeopardises his career if he cannot report from Old Trafford - what use is he to a media outlet if he is not able to cover one of the most popular English clubs?

How is this situation beneficial to the overall level of the sport in England? How have the authorities allowed this situation to arise? Do Liverpool need to follow the same tactics to achieve even a remotely level playing field in the increasingly important PR arena?

It would be sad and laughable if it wasn't so serious. And how many double-standards need to be applied to different clubs before clubs, fans and administrators actually do something about it?

Especially this bit.

[Slinky Skills]

James - that is a great post.

You've summed up pretty much how I feel.

I agree that Dalglish has maybe struggled this year but I am willing to give him more time, not just because he is who he is but because I've seen enough positive results to believe that we're moving forward.

Whether the owners give him more time is another thing.

[Fivex]

Am I the only one who keeps reading the thread title as 'death by a thousand cunts'?

[topscorer]

if it were me, i'd be suggesting that some reasoned and considered criticism of the fa's penal process is very much in order. i don't think the two choices here are "pander to the pressure etc..." and "make childish, incendiary outbursts in public."

i'd be very happy if the fa were being attacked for its role, but that's not what's happening here.

Exactly

Now that we've apologized and the neutral football community at large are willing to listen to us again, maybe we can start outing the truth slowly but surely. Today's 'embarrassing' apologies look like a crushing defeat but beware the injured snake in the corner. We're too big to go down without a fight, except now we've learnt the rules and are poised to strike!

I wish! But I think we haven't.

We finally have an awesome commercial department and although extremely disappointed with our transfers from last summer I still believe in the Management team for the playing side but I think we are ****ing clueless on the PR and legal side of things. We are outmaneuvered at every level and every turn.

The owners need to reshape this side of things or we'll continually get ****ed by Fergie and the media. We need to be much 'smarter' about how we deal with our grievances, deal with the media and manage our image.

With caution advised for the language used from the start in the article below, football moved just a little bit closer to its utter moral collapse yesterday.

It was a day when the football almost didn't matter.

..................................


But football lost today - for all sorts of reasons.

By Jonny leesey

Brilliant article, agree with everything but frankly I think it means **** all whether we are right or wrong in the modern world, it's all about image and perception. It might mean something inside our souls to know that we are right and have been wrongly treated but our immature and unprofessional handling of the situation undermines our argument.

Something MUST be done about our PR and legal Departments NOW, we need some savvy media people hired to rebuild our image and start attacking our enemies 'with a thousand cuts' to steal the posters heading.

We will keep losing these PR battles and eventually the war unless we bring in some experts to get our message across in a more appropriate way for today's media/internet world

[Red_Polo]

Remember this?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUqg49uKIfE"]Neville vs Schmeichel - YouTube[/ame]

[Nicey]

Remember this?

Neville vs Schmeichel - YouTube

Ohh and what about that cheeky tackler Paul Scholes oohh look he nearly broke that guys leg and ended his career how hilarious that guy ho ho typical scoolsie challenge

[Icon]

I don't think anyone should have 'expected' anything from Luis, he should have been able to make his own choice on whether to shake the guys hand at the time, nothing more.
So to create a situation where something was expected and it did not occur brings about a big problem for the club.
And the requirement of apologies to the likes of Evra and his employers is pretty vile and displays a lack of courage and conviction I am not used to seeing from LFC.

How can so many people back him 100% and then demand a stance showing a lack of dignity?

Baffled...

[Nicey]

Well I for one see what the club has done, when the ****ing New York times is talking about it, its time to do what is required to make this go away. That has been done now, and if the press continue with there campaign surely there must be some kind of body we can file a complaint against. I think this will now die a death, slowly but surely.

[Red_Polo]

I don't think anyone should have 'expected' anything from Luis, he should have been able to make his own choice on whether to shake the guys hand at the time, nothing more.
So to create a situation where something was expected and it did not occur brings about a big problem for the club.
And the requirement of apologies to the likes of Evra and his employers is pretty vile and displays a lack of courage and conviction I am not used to seeing from LFC.

How can so many people back him 100% and then demand a stance showing a lack of dignity?

Baffled...

I think if he'd told the club he would shake his hand he probably ought to have made more than that miniscule effort to have done so. That's a reasonable expectation.