Whilst I sympathise with the sentiments many are expressing, in particular John, I am not as concerned about what this says about Liverpool FC.
Yes, in 2001, we managed to get 4th and win 3 trophies.
But, we JUST made it to fourth.
Last season, we JUST made it to fourth winning NOTHING losing embarrasingly to the likes of Portsmouth, Bolton, Marseille and this after being denied Champions Legaue football the season earlier.
When I was chatting to my mates last night, they couldn't believe I said I'd rather finish 4th than win the FA Cup. My Evertonian mate said he'd choose the FA Cup every time. I understand that. But... it is not an enjoyable thing to admit, that we'd rather be 4th than win the FA Cup. Its not enjoyable to admit that we are in essence valuing Silver over Silverware.
However, there is a lot more to it than that. We cannot win the league witht the squad we have. Not a chance. We not bloody likely to win the Champios League with the squad we have.
So we need new players. Now, lets say we don't qualify for the Champins League, because Stevie breaks his leg at Turf Moor, and Baros pulls another Hammy against Bournemouth. We start to drop valuable league points, but progress through the competition. At the end of the season we win the FA Cup but finish 5th behind Everton, Boro or Spurs.
We Finish 5th, 40 points behind Chelsea.
Forget the money. Who's going to want to join us? Second-rate players. Young kids with potential. Not Proven Winners, like Morientes.
We need to make a mark in Europe for the best of the best to sit up and say I want to play for Liverpool. Of course some will take issue with that: The 'we're Liverpool for fucks sake, if a player only wnats to come here to paly in europe, they can fuck off.'
Well, Yes and No. I don't want anyone who isn't committed to playing in that Red shirt be it vs Bayern or Burnley.
But we have to be realistic. Campbell, Smith, Rooney... Gerrard? All these players want/ed to be playing for the best clubs in Europe. Not the most successful clubs, not the clubs with a glamorous past but the clubs with a glamorous future. They want to be challenging for the title. They want to face off against the AC's and Real's of the world. They want to be in that exclusive club.
We may not like it, but we have to face it. The likes of Emlyn and the rest the likes of players who would stay with a club through thick and thin are gone.
As are the days when we fans would let a manager go five seasons without winning anything.
We've won the FA Cup recently, it was fucking great. We won the UEFA Cup and League Cup, we've put our name back on the map.
We've got some of Europes best players. One of the Worlds best managers and we are set up to develop a side that could COULD COULD challenge for the title. Only if we get a team capable, and that means getting a SQUAD capable of winning the title. We don't have it at the moment. Risking damaging our good first XI (that's already damaged) would be reckless.
4th or FA Cup? This season 4th, every time.
I hope that changes. In a few seasons, I would hope when we play a 'rotated' side in this competition, it will still include top class Internationals and a couple of the brightest young talents around. Players who are part of a Championship Challenging squad.
Either that or as John says they make winning the Cup have a Champions League place. Or reducing the amount of places each league can have. Reducing the gap between the haves and the have nots. But at the moment, we have to go with the flow, we have to be a part of the financial elite or risk losing any chance to reclaim our glorious heritage - barring a takeover from one of Roman's chums, and money becomming no object.
With Rafa at the helm, seeing who is up to it and who isn't, seeing who can go and where we need strengthening, I believe we have a lot to look forward to.
It may be hard to deal with an embarrassig loss like this now, but we'll reap the rewards later.