There’s been a fair bit of unhappiness flying around of late. Fans have really turned against each other. The club has tried to put our flags in an admin-based cage and pundits have been putting the boot into the club any which way they can (apart from John Motson, who has decided to defend Brendan Rodgers completely out of the blue) and this has made the club feel like a black hole of negativity.
I’ve written a number of pieces myself being a critic of our fans’ attitude – I suppose putting myself in the same box as them, deeming myself a hypocrite in the process.
I’m sick of the moaning, the bitching and the sniping so much so that it’s turned me off top-flight football. My last feature piece was about AFC Liverpool, of whom in that time since writing, I’ve been to watch three games and loved every second. In comparison, I’ve been to Anfield to watch Liverpool lose at a whimper to West Ham and draw against Norwich. And not wrote about Liverpool Football Club for a good while. For someone who wants to become a writer, not writing a single piece in almost two weeks isn’t a great way to go about your business. Yet that’s how turned off I’ve become.
Each game that comes along passes by with a flicker or a flash, not a cheer or a gasp. Liverpool Football Club has lost its mojo. Lost its ability to entertain and put on a show. Anfield has become a library of nightmares more than any kind of theatre of dreams. Supporters aren’t cheering, and that’s something I can’t stand. But between trying to sing myself and the anger of hearing a pin drop inside the stadium, you have to watch a game with no speed, no excitement and usually more goals conceded than scored, so in a way it’s understandable (but probably not acceptable) that fans don’t want to cheer.
All of this brings us back to the team. Management and playing staff, and what is being offered to us as supporters. Far from being a ‘Rodgers apologist’, I quite like the bloke. Good at speaking and telling me things that I like to hear, not bad at managing and clearly cares a lot about the club that I support. Nothing there to suggest why I should hate him, why I should insult him or why he should get a hard time about things other than football. But then again, that’s been happening by the boat load.
The reason I like him as a man is because he genuinely seems decent. Taking the club to his heart, I honestly think he loves where he is, loves who he is managing. For what it’s worth, too, I also think he is under the impression that he can turn the tide and weather the storm he is currently embracing. And why wouldn’t you? This is one of the biggest football clubs in the world, and to bring success here grants you jubilation like little else in the game, therefore it is only natural that you want to pull up trees to turn around a bad moment. As fans, we should be proud to have him feel this way, we should appreciate the type of gentleman he is. We needn’t disrespect him because he deserves nothing but respect. But even at my optimistic best, I no longer see how we escape this rut with him in charge. This is no longer just a bad moment.
It takes a lot for me to lose faith, because I’m a romantic. I love the game. I love the stories that football can create and I love the passion of the underdog. But becoming an underdog in your own back yard against so many average teams is a tough thing to take. I’m romantic towards Brendan Rodgers because he took us almost as close as you can get to the league title without actually winning it. He has shown me, along with Sturridge, Suarez and Coutinho, that football can be a magic show and a gala performance to match the best of them. Football can be the greatest of entertainment. But for over a year now, I haven’t been entertained. I want my entertainment back.
At this point, I don’t care who brings it to me. I want to scream at a brilliant goal, cheer hard work and goad opposition fans, not criticise my team’s fellow fans. Danny Ings’ goal and performance v Norwich showed me something I haven’t seen in a Liverpool shirt since Suarez left. Hard work, tough battling and pressure play starting from the front. That was probably my favourite performance since the team ethic seen in the first half against Palace during 2014. It represented everything we had once been. But that needs to happen every game and every minute, not every year-and-a-half.
I want my entertainment back because I deserve it. We all do. Not just because of the money paid, but because as fans we shouldn’t be expected to have an endless tether and unlimited patience. To expect that is to presume your fans will take anything for their club. We may well do, but it shouldn’t be expected. We’re stakeholders and we’re the most important people at the club. If we’re expected to give our all, so should our manager, whoever it may be, and our players and owners too, whoever they may be.
I want my entertainment back because I haven’t had my bum leave my seat at Anfield enough this season, or last, for that matter. If Rodgers can give me this, then great. He’s a sound man with great, pure, footballing beliefs. I want him to succeed, but I’m no longer loyal to the man. If it takes him losing his job to bring back exciting times at Anfield then so be it. I’ve got to the point where I will never actively be amongst the #RodgersOut club, but I need to be able to look forward to the football again. I need to enjoy the 90 minutes again, not just as a day out, but as a competition.
I want my excitement back, and I don’t care which manager gives it to me, which players give it to me, I just want it back. Now.
