I shouldn’t be writing. Honestly, I shouldn’t. As I type these very words I’m asking myself why I’m continuing. Put the laptop down and pop on a film.
Go on Luke, crack on Iron Man 3 and have a brew. Wait for this to all blow over.
Yet, instead of doing that, I’m doing an article, my first in a while, about something that has been brewing in me for a few weeks. It’s been brewing and now it’s overflowed, spilt out onto this very page you’re reading. It’s got me really mad and I’m not going to sugar coat it.
Loads of Liverpool fans are absolutely shite.
There, I said it. I feel better already. But, as part of this art therapy session, one must continue. I don’t feel completely better, but I’ve certainly started the journey.
Liverpool fans of late have really been making fools out of themselves and it needs to stop.
Tuesday, September 1. Transfer deadline day. The crappiest day of the year. Whether your team are going big or going home, Jim White will be there regardless, being the worst thing to happen to the world ever. He is a natural disaster and a whole planet of wankery in one man. One man in a bright yellow tie, like a disgusting zit on the face of an already crap Sky Sports News. He’ll be there. Shouting at you. Shouting about breaking news like Glenn Whelan leaving training or Harry Arter tweeting about how much he loves that massive screen that no-one can use. The one that tells you someone shit has moved to somewhere worse.
Yet, then, just as you consider ending your life because you just laughed at Jim White making a pun about football, you hear, you see, that he says he has breaking news coming from Melwood.
Melwood? THE Melwood? Like, Liverpool Melwood? Shit, I better turn the TV up.
“Hi Jim, absolutely loving the coverage today,” lies whatever reporter is stood in the pissing wet entrance of a quiet Premier League training ground.
“Our sources are telling us Tim Sherwood is scrambling to get the transfer of Liverpool star Tiago Ilori over the line in time for the 6pm deadline.”
Scrambling? Over the line? I’ll tell you a few things about that statement. Firstly – Tim Sherwood is doing fuck all, let alone scrambling. He’s sat at home in his gilet playing FIFA 15 like a top lad. He’s definitely playing online and he always goes Barcelona because he won’t accept second best.
Secondly, if there was indeed a line that he was trying to get over, he wouldn’t be doing it “scrambling” – because no-one has ever finished a race, set a time, or completed a signing whilst “scrambling” anywhere. If you really wanted to get something done in a short time, you would sprint, or at worst walk quickly. Lastly, and most importantly, Ilori was a youngster. An Under-21 player. A prospect. And this statement isn’t aimed at Sky Sports, Tim Sherwood or Jim White. It is aimed at Liverpool fans.
Tiago Ilori is a youth team player. You, I almost guarantee, have never seen him play competitively. I’ll tell you what you know about him. He’s Portuguese and quick. That’s it. But still, does that stop you from fuming? Nope. Does that stop you from calling our club an absolute farce? Nope.
The point of this absolutely gigantic rant I’m embarking on isn’t people’s reaction to Ilori’s move to Villa entirely. It starts with it, because the reaction was honestly worse than that of Luis Suarez’s departure (maybe if young Tiago had bitten his way out of the club you would all be happier?) but more so the reaction of Liverpool fans to anything even remotely bad lately.
Yeah, the result against West Ham was bad. Of course it was. But to say our season is over already is idiotic and shows how little some people actually know about football.
Short memories you may have, but I remember that beautiful season of 2013/14 and how we started. We were proper average. I mean, we were BANG average. We got lucky with a few wins, Mignolet saved a penalty and then we embarked on a truly piss-poor first three months. Remember Hull City? Southampton at home? Chelsea and City within a few days? I bet you any money you all thought we had no direction then. I guarantee that. You would have all been calling for Rodgers’ head and saying how we would never return to the Champions League under the Ulsterman’s guidance.
And then the rest of the season happened. What followed was a crescendo of happiness at the end of a perfectly orchestrated six month spell to sling-shot us up to second. Boy were we happy. Yet, I still get the feeling that a lot of our fans were secretly excited for Rodgers to fail next. Can’t go too long without a moan, can they? The moaners. They love it.
Last year came, and last year went and everyone was a bit down beat. It was crap, wasn’t it? I for one couldn’t wait to get away from all of that and start afresh. I didn’t want to hold onto the past like a lingering smell. I wanted out of last season and into a new one, all excitable and giddy. And for the most part, that’s what I am.
But there’s an awful lot of people who have let shit fester. They’ve taken the view that, instead of backing a fragile player, short on confidence and clearly trying hard, they’re going to throw shit at him instead of giving him a break.
Lovren has been solid this year. Good, I would say. But we’ll go with solid. He made an awful mistake on Saturday. I mean, it was really, very bad. But mistakes happen and why he isn’t given the benefit of the doubt after three clean sheets in a row is anyone’s guess. One goal was his fault. Yet, we lost 3-0. Our forwards never scored and our defenders (all four of them) never defended. Our midfielders never created, yet that’s all Lovren’s fault?
We’re in a time of football shit-housery. Snidey vines and hiding behind screens mean that today’s ‘football fan’ can garner attention at the click of a button. Maybe some Liverpool fans have forgotten how to support? People seem more clever, more knowledgeable or more clued up when they’re being critical. Shouts of ‘Klopp in, Rodgers out’ reek of idiocy when you look at the bigger picture, the recent restructure and the signings made.
I’m not saying that there is nothing wrong because this club could be getting much more right. But with a lot of fans, it seems to be a scenario of either criticising or supporting, but never the two shall meet. If you’re having a go at Rodgers, then fair play, but get behind the club when we need it.
Think Lovren is crap? Alright, go ahead and think that, but when he’s on the pitch, don’t jeer every time he gets the ball. Give him a bit of support. If I stood behind you in your place of work and, whenever you did something wrong, called you a wanker for the following three weeks, how would you feel? Would it inspire and motivate you? No, it would make you nervous and on edge. Multiply that by 45,000, and then again by however many thousand outside the ground, and you have how any one footballer, at any one time, can be feeling after a rocky game. Let that sink in and tell me if you’re being a proper supporter? No, you aren’t. You’re being a tit.
Liverpool’s start has been OK. Two wins, a draw and a defeat is a good starting block, especially when you include that we’ve been to the hardest away team in the country in Arsenal. We have performed OK for the start of the season, but yeah, we need to up our game in the next few months. But there’s more than enough chance to finish in the top four.
Unless you’re Harry Redknapp, who inexplicably thinks Liverpool may not even finish top five. And what I say to that is this; shut up you horrible tea-bag faced meff. When we want your opinion we’ll call the clubs you got relegated with and see if you’re worth listening to.
Give the Reds a bit of love, guys. Football is well better when you’re supporting.
