You've been supporting this club for 8 years. Lets see that'll be the season after Istanbul then. Who did you support before then, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal maybe. Sorry mate I can't take you seriously.
…and the season before a second Champions League Final. In other words, deciding to support potentially the best team in Europe.
The title of this thread is like the old conundrum about quantum mechanics: If you think you’ve understood it then you obviously haven’t. If you have to ask the question then you won’t understand the answer. The thread isn’t about club values. It’s about why the team isn’t winning as much as people had been led to expect.
The values this club used to be based on were the unique values of the city it called home. It may have been set up by businessmen but it attracted generations of people with a solid ethos of loyalty, generosity and passion. Before my first game I was just told three things: applaud the opposition goalkeeper, give credit where it’s due and never ever boo your own players. Nothing about winning.
It’s a city where fans of both clubs could drink together before a derby match, stand together without police segregation and go out again together afterwards. It employed managers who talked about “we”.
Admittedly, before Bosman, players were tied feudally to the club but it did at least allow us to pretend that they were loyal too. A surprising by-product of doing things the right way was that the club became successful.
The values of this club now are those of a bland international franchise. Some of the old DNA is left but it’s being overwhelmed and is rapidly turning into recessive genes. You just need a replica shirt as the passport to talk about “our” club and complain about its values.
If any other club finds a way of making more money it copies the tactics immediately. It appointed a manager who talked about “I” and “me”. “Managing Liverpool is the highlight of
my career”. If any player has half a dozen decent games his agent will be agitating for a move. The new pragmatic fan deplores all this but shakes his head and says you just have to compete.
The problem with Liverpool FC is that it is chasing values it never stood for. It’s a fish out of water. It made a late decision to slither out of the primeval swamp, only to discover that a lot of its competitors had already made the move. It’s rolling around, gasping for air, while the rest of them have developed lungs, arms and legs. They’re scampering away into the distance, well on their way to evolving into dinosaurs.
But you know what happened to dinosaurs? One day something they never expected dropped out of the sky and wiped them out. It was the ones who stayed in the sea who survived.
