Terrace Talk: Liverpool - If there’s to be a trophy it’ll be won the hard way
There was an interview after City when he said he feared the sack in November.
There’s two months still to go of this season so maybe ixnay on the chicken-count for now. Then he was spouting about sticking around beyond 2018 and “being everything I can be”, sounding just like an army recruitment ad.
There were also dubious rumours about him being pinched by City to replace Manuel, which he walloped out of the park, ever so publicly.
The only obstacle with this stuff is people that actually remember how the season began. It’s not the first time, either. Not long after he arrived, his halfway points tally equalled Hodgson’s. It wasn’t much better this season, while at least half of last summer’s eye-bleed transfer spend remains shrouded in unimpressive uncertainty.
It smacked of the 90s when Ronnie Moran scowled around Anfield’s corridors demanding to know “where are the vultures now?” after one win.
Roy Evans lasted another year. It must be horrible, of course. Social media’s reputation as an army of rats with Wi-Fi is well-deserved. Poor Arsene, there’s a deafening screech whenever Arsenal lose and it takes 10 wins for old Magoo to silence it.
The whining from Old Trafford about entertainment, like some brat who didn’t get the right clown for his fifth birthday party, is entertainment enough, while nobody would put up with Mourinho for a second unless he won stuff.
That’s the way of it with the big boys I’m afraid. You can leave the rat race, gracelessly, like Everton did years ago, but if you want all that “world’s best” ephemera you have to win. All the time.
Harsh reality doesn’t sit right with the gaga, rah-rah world of football support obviously but I’m not one of the “belieeeeeeve” types, haven’t been ever since a cricket in a top hat told me to wish upon a star.
Blackburn haven’t done a thing since 1995 and their trip to Anfield triggered uneasy nostalgia for that famous day “ABU” won the league and we celebrated like we’d done it ourselves.
It reminds us how Liverpool could have become just another rancid, small and bitter club (naming no names) but here we still are raging against the dying of the light, the way proper giants do.
Not that yesterday saw much rage, admittedly. There were too many changes even before poor Skrtel was stretchered off. Hardworking, disciplined Rovers got their reward. Maybe it will only be a financial one, like Bolton’s before them, but if Liverpool are this complacent again who knows?
Seriously, you’re going to put Sterling at left wing to accommodate the serial attack killer Markovic? Think the Serb’s played one full match from first whistle to last, and that isn’t any sort of injustice at all. Emre Can might be better off considering defensive duties as a full-time career if this is the best he can do in his ‘proper’ position. Liverpool really did miss Joe Allen… I’ll let that one sink in for a second.
Off days for the previously excellent Coutinho and Lallana meant there really wasn’t much you could frown upon. Sure, Andre Marriner adopted the usual Minnow Rules of one team fouling with impunity, certainly no penalties unless you’ve been shot, but that really is clutching at straws.
Mario came on, didn’t do much, but it was more than Sturridge who is starting to annoy me now. By the end. you could only hope Skrtel wasn’t too broken and the replay isn’t placed dangerously close to the business model’s preferred games for fourth place and the megabucks.
If there’s to be a trophy in May it’s clearly going to be done the hard way. T’was ever thus, as we say on the Kop. Well, almost…
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
