July 8th, 2016 was a reasonably good news day at Liverpool Football Club, to say the least!
It started with the news of Jurgen Klopp agreeing a new six-year deal at the club. This is what the club needs, stability, and it looks like FSG have decided that Klopp and his backroom team are the lads to do that.
I am fully on board with this, much like the majority of Liverpool’s fan base aboard the Kloppo Train!
The next bit of good news was having three of the new signings making their debuts last night over on the Wirral at Tranmere Rovers. The game was decided by a Danny Ings goal after some lovely play by young academy starlet Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Now, if that was all the good news for the day we would definitely be happy enough but news broke during the friendly that Mamadou Sakho had been cleared of all wrong-doing regarding his doping charge.
The player and Liverpool both commented shortly after the news broke with Liverpool FC releasing this statement on their official website:
Liverpool Football Club welcomes today’s decision from UEFA to dismiss the case against Mamadou Sakho, confirming that he did not commit any doping violation.
Since then, Sahko has posted his own statement on his Instagram account:
It was also reported last night that the World Anti-Doping Agency didn’t even bother to show up and provide evidence in person at Sakho’s hearing, which shows how much they thought of the case.
Let’s think about this for a minute, as Liverpool fans, one of our own who is quickly becoming a cult hero for his warrior-like attitude in games and his obvious pride in playing for the Reds, has had three months of hell for nothing.
Three months of no football, eight games missed for his club, two semi-finals and the biggest cup game for the club in nine years which they lost without him.
Not only that, but his own country are hosting a major championship where he would have been a key player in the host nation’s squad and he is forced to sit it out too.
His sponsorship with Nike was also suspended. He has become the butt of jokes all over the media and social media by not only non-Liverpool fans but also some of his own fans. He has had his name tarnished and no matter what he does in the rest of his career, be it winning titles at Liverpool (fingers, toes, knees and arms crossed) or helping France to glory, he will always have this hanging over him. Horrible!
All because UEFA thought they had found him doing wrong. Surely the whole way this was handled needs to be looked at? Surely they can speed up the disciplinary proceedings a lot quicker? Dragging it out for three months is a farce. Now I’m not naïve, I know like the rest of us that drugs are rife in sport and soon a major player in football will be up to something and get caught. By that stage hopefully UEFA will handle it better because we all know they are just supreme as an organisation…
I can’t wait to have Sakho back in red, which I’m sure you can gather from reading this.
He may, at times, look like he’s wearing shoe boxes on his feet and can be a tiny bit rash as well when he’s flying in to tackle, but in his finest performances like Manchester United away in the Europa League, he has shown why he is vital to Liverpool going forward.
He’s a leader on the pitch, a vocal one, and Liverpool have lacked that since Jamie Carragher retired. I hope this news lifts him and I hope he can get back to playing just like he was before his season was cut short.
SAKHO SAKHO SAKHO!
