Good grief.
As someone whose Mum literally had to talk him off the ledge (well, the top of the stairs) after the Michael Thomas goal in 1989, and who's punched an embarrassing number of coffee tables since then, I'm certainly not going to slaughter anyone for reacting to this stuff emotionally. But at the risk of patronising anyone, I think some of us maybe just need to take a minute and question whether there are really grounds to get so worked up.
I've not seen one comment that takes issue with Arne's putative appointment on the basis of his style or ability. 99% of the criticism has been based on experience to date: is the Dutch league better than the Portuguese league? Is ending a six-year wait for the title really an achievement? Are PSV really that good? How shit are Ajax?
Maybe it's understandable that folk are pawing at his record, because superficially it seems like a thing - and God knows we're all desperate to have something to get our teeth into to feel like we know where we are again after the bombshell of Jurgen leaving. But that kind of thinking is absolutely riddled with cognitive bias and subjectivity masquerading as objectivity. How a manager has performed at one club is influenced by far too many other things (ownership, resources, supporters, medical staff, facilities, expectations, scouting, players inherited, opposition, experience up to that point, etc....) to provide a reliable indication of whether they will succeed in the very specific role that our club has in mind (which, it's worth saying, we also know very little of - it's likely to be a different role to that which Jurgen is leaving, and I'm pretty sure most of us wouldn't have the faintest idea how Jurgen spent most of his time anyway).
Had he been demonstrably shite, then maybe. But he's obviously done 'well' everywhere he's been. Beyond that, none of us can really say anything based on CV alone. And those of you who say, even more specifically, that you want experience of winning x, y or z. Why? Evidently if the only people that won things were people who'd already won them then no-one else would win them. Not to get drawn in, because like I say it's a badly flawed metric, but (oh go on then...) Klopp hadn't won in Europe when he came here, and hadn't won in Germany when he took over Dortmund (ditto Guardiola when he took over Barca). All three were incredibly successful appointments in difficult leagues. On the other hand, Mourinho won plenty before being dreadful at Man U and Spurs.
'Ahh...' some will say, 'but those are all different'. YES! They are different! That's the whole point: each case is different and trying to simply 'apply proven winner' is an idiotic way to try and win things. Trying to be smart isn't just about trying to save money - it's about trying to spot the next thing to get in front of everyone else, and plainly the club have identified something in Arne they think will work. To my uninformed brain there's enough in that article The Final Third posted early this morning to make me think it could well be a great appointment.
Obviously it might not work out, but getting in a fume on the basis of CV alone just shows a staggering amount of overconfidence in your own ability to know how any of this works. The closest anyone's come to assessing him on him has been saying he sounds overly keen and concocting this entirely fictional image of him as some sort of sweaty-palmed dweeb our players will reject for telling us he fancies us rather than playing it cool (based on about ten seconds of interview).
Now, I've got absolutely no idea what goes through the mind of a professional footballer - I reckon they're all different - but neither do most of the people saying this. And I would, at least, expect they're used to actually judging managers by, y'know, their management. It sounds for all the world like he'll have an absolute field day with Trent; the idea that he'd suddenly want to jump ship just because the fella now in charge isn't a big enough name is laughable - he's the manager of Liverpool Football Club. How many managers are bigger than that any day of the week?
And frankly, if any of the current players do want someone with more GQ covers to their name then they can jog on and make room for those who actually want to play for this club, this set of fans and a guy who by all accounts inspires genuine respect and affection from his players.
Now, I'm not for one second saying we shouldn't discuss the merits - but, please, if we're going to do that then can we discuss the merits and not just rant about things that don't matter?
