Liverpool Football Club was established on the 15th March 1892. In it’s 121 year history, there have been many players to wear that famous red shirt and touch that ‘This Is Anfield” sign. Some of these players went on to become legends of the club and live on in our memories; the likes of Billy Liddell, Ray Clemence, Ian Callaghan, Kenny Dalglish…. the list goes on.
Luis Suarez seems to think he’s different.
Luis has been at Liverpool since 2011. That’s not actually that long in reality. He’s scored some cracking goals, made us think “how on earth does he do that?!” but he’s also made us ask why he does certain things. For me, Luis Suarez has shamed Liverpool Football Club. We stuck by our player through two scandals, dragging the club’s reputation through the mud for him. The fans have sang his name and never mistreated him, he was becoming if not had already became….a cult hero.
Luis complains now that Liverpool have broken promises? I’m pretty sure Luis also broke promises (and contractual misconduct clauses) but look who stood by who through those tricky situations? Now this article is not here to lambast Luis Suarez. Personally, I’ve disliked him for a long period of time and you can personally check my timeline to see my opinions on him; petulant child gets a fair few mentions.
No, this article is about Liverpool Football Club. Whether you like him or not, Brendan Rodgers is the manager of Liverpool Football Club. Like all managers before him, he is trying to build a team that can be successful and make the fans happy. This isn’t an article about whether you like Brendan Rodgers either; frankly I couldn’t care for the purpose of this article.
When you’re a child, you want football shirts with your ‘hero’ or favourite player on the back. You become emotionally invested in that player and it seems that some of us haven’t really grown up out of that stage. Don’t get me wrong, you can have shirts with names on the back, I have Lucas, Carra and Allen on mine. Lucas and Allen because I like their style of play and Carragher, well he was my childhood hero and he was retiring. It seemed fitting.
Before you point out a slight hypocrisy on my behalf, I am aware that getting Carragher on a shirt, last seasons kit may I add, shows an emotional investment in a player. In my opinion though, there are only a few players that you can allow yourself to continue an emotional investment in from your childhood, I’m sure you’re aware who they are. As adults though, your footballing crush on one player must have grown up and you must realise who it is you really love, who you wish the best for and ultimately who’ll be there when any player you previously loved has been sold or has retired. It’s the club. Liverpool Football Club.
Liverpool fans have every right to be angry about how they have been treated by Luis Suarez. For it was you who defended him at work or in the pub, wrongly but you defended him. It was you who cheered his name when the teams were announced or let him know how you just can’t get enough of him at the game. You have every right to be angry in that scenario, but is it right?
Should we really be getting ourselves so emotionally invested in our players these days? I’m not saying you can’t admire them or enjoy their playing abilities but are the reactions of adults of a footballer, whom in reality has no emotional link with the club, the city or even you, leaving the club really how we should be as football fans? I’m not upset because Suarez wants to leave, I’m angry because he would have been a key building block in the project that Brendan wants to build at Liverpool. The club has been let down by Luis Suarez, I don’t feel personally let down by him. He let down the club that I love.
This thought process dawned on me when Torres left. I was at University when Torres left and I remember feeling awful, wishing it not to be true and hoping that for some strange reason the media had it all wrong. Seeing Fernando in that blue kit was horrible. I realized though, we’d signed two new strikers who could help Liverpool in the rest of our season, so why did I feel bad that he’d left? In reality, Liverpool had sold one striker who was in a slump and bought two strikers. Granted, Carroll never worked out but I realized that day, I care about Liverpool Football Club and the players are merely a part of the club. They aren’t to be seen as separate entities or as heroes anymore. The club advertises certain players in certain ways purely for marketing purposes to make kids want them on the back of their shirts. In reality, that’s the sad truth of it.
As adults, we see those adverts and our confused love for the club embraces the adverts and we create supermen. We become emotionally invested in those players, instead of focusing our admiration for the club who happen to have a talented player.
I think as a fan base, what we need to learn from Torres’ departure and ultimately when Luis Suarez leaves, not if but when, is that these players will come and go. Some of us will fall for next ‘superman’ that is put our way, but remember whose been there since the start of your love affair; Liverpool Football Club. The players will move on and disappear into history; the club will always be there.
My dad once told me when Michael Owen left; “Owen was just the name on the back, it’s what is on the front of the shirt that matters in reality son”. I have and will always remember that sentence, because he was right.
Love your club. Support the manager. Admire the players. Just choose what players to get emotionally invested in with caution, because break ups hurt but you’ll always have a shoulder to cry on.
