“Demand me nothing: what you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word.”
They say it’s the not knowing that kills you. But maybe in the world of Liverpool Football Club and player transfers it’s the not knowing that keeps you alive.
Liverpool Football Club is currently linked with a clutch of players that many of us know little about. This could be a cause for concern.
But think back to how underwhelmed we felt in the summer of 2011 when we signed three players we were all familiar with: Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam and to a lesser extent Jordan Henderson. You may not have wanted to believe it but in your slowing heart of hearts you knew they weren’t good enough and your excitement levels eventually flat-lined. Ultimately their familiarity didn’t as much breed contempt as it did genetically modify a giant snoring troll.
Jordan Henderson has certainly improved and may still have a future but still has a long way to go.
Charlie Adam has gone, taken his ridiculous misplaced 40yard ‘passes’ with him and has failed to stoke (ahem) any fires at his new club. I actually feel a bit sorry for him now – he just needed a gentle (heavy) gym regime.
As for Stewart Downing, tellingly the games I remember him performing best in were against lower league opposition such as Bristol City and Cardiff. And while he adds balance so too does a brick hanging from a rope.
In the summer of 2011 it wasn’t the signing of these accustomed names which gave us hope but Suarez, the second coming of Dalglish and the blistering performances which concluded the 2010/2011 season. I forget what happened next. Sigh.
But exotic, unfamiliar footballing faces from foreign lands? They can strike fear into your footballing hearts but they can also stir your imagination.
Indulge me a moment. Let’s take the Shakespearean namesake of imminent arrival Iago Aspas as an illustration of how the unknown has the power to both terrify and impress. Iago shares a name with one of the most malevolent and complex villains in all of Shakespeare’s plays. In the play ‘Othello’, Iago tricks his master, Othello, into thinking that his wife has been having an affair. Othello then kills his wife, finds out she wasn’t having an affair after all and then kills himself. However, just before he kills himself he asks Iago why he has done this to him. Iago says, “Nah, I’m not telling you. Jog on knobhead!” Or something along those lines.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to say that Iago Aspas is turning up at Liverpool with the intention of destroying Brendan Rodgers’ marriage (although the papers probably think this is Suarez’s next likely move). However, there is a parallel in the way that only knowing a little about Iago Aspas makes the prospect of his arrival as unsettling and intriguing to Liverpool fans in the same way that the mystery of Othello’s Iago is unsettling and intriguing to English Teachers.
If that analogy doesn’t work for you, think Darth Vader: scary mask, can’t see his face, but easily the coolest and most interesting character in Star Wars.
On the face of it Aspas is a player who at 25 probably doesn’t have much untapped potential left; who played for a poor side which narrowly avoided relegation; who only scored 12 goals (approximately the same as in Borini’s last season in Italy); and who’s £7.7m price tag hints at a possible squad player rather than the marquee signing that can get us challenging for the coveted Champions League places. Oh, and he apparently has 136 agents.
Yet, there is also just enough to make you believe he could be a shrewd bit of business. His stats are comparable with Messi in regards to the percentage of assists and goals he contributes to the team he plays in. If he can replicate his three in one goal ratio on the flanks of a front three for Liverpool, this, combined with his pace, means he will certainly pose more of a goal threat than some of the options currently at out disposal , for example, Downing. Furthermore, his apparent rebuttal of other clubs’ flirtatious advances, including Spurs, at least shows the desire and single mind-ness to play only for for us.
Furthermore, it’s difficult not to compare him with, and hope that he can have the same impact as last season’s most successful new face. Michu, was 26 at the time of his £2 million move to Swansea and has similarly played for Celta Vigo in the past, scoring 12 goals but only over two seasons. He then moved on to net 15 goals for a struggling Rayo Vallecano side who also escaped relegation on the last day of the 2011/2012. Aspas may end up being more Bruno Cheyrou than Michu but maybe, just maybe…
It has happened before. Hope springs eternal that if any of the names of Mkhitaryan, Luis Alberto, Muriel, Papadopoulos, Tello or Eriksen shortly appear on the back of a Liverpool shirt that they will be names that will go on to be held in the same regard as former but relatively recent unknown LFC quantities such Sami Hyypia, Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina.
So don’t be scared of the unknown fellow Redmen. We can’t lose a competitive game of football until August at the earliest. We might not know the ins and outs of those who may be fighting every day of their lives for this club (™ Brendan Rodgers) next season but the untested promise our unknown soldiers is the very thing which can keep the blood pumping around our veins for the next few months during this period of footballing hibernation.
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