Liverpool close the chapter of Scapegoats and ghosts
One of the first players I recognized in England was Ian Rush in the eighties. A player who used to hide in the shadows of the match for 89 minutes and 59 seconds giving the 21 players on the field the chance to showcase; then before the referee’s final whistle hammers the players’ eardrums, Rush rush and strike. He was my father’s favorite and I remember my father ignoring all the match scenario and only waiting for the Rush moment that change the game. The player’s quality made that appreciation infectious.
I can’t say I was a Liverpool fan at any time -which make this article an opinion of an outsider rather a judgment of an expert. But from Ian Rush to “you’ll never walk alone” to the uniquely refreshing red jersey and the culture surrounding the club and the city, from the Anfield , to The Beatles leads any observer and football follower to respect this amazing club in world football.
The early nineties witnessed the birth of the English premier league. The new competition was structured to meet two interrelated needs: Competition and financing. Yet, handing the competition management to the division clubs’ corporation prevented the ability of the football Association to tune the development process and maintain stability - that’s if we assume that they would have had enough vision and awareness in that matter. The result was an inflated drive to create competitive clubs regardless of any club resources and abilities to meet the challenges of competing to win the title or reach the European competitions. The traditional strategy of creating a club good enough to survive in the first division for few seasons needed to build a more competitive club was not appropriate anymore. The possibility of getting relegated for a season to enhance the team building and prepare a successful comeback became an unacceptable nightmare, because the huge return in the Premier division makes it almost impossible for any club that relegates to catch up later on.
If your club’s financial returns were not sufficient to meet the competition demands, you had one of three options: Loans, Acquisition, or death. None of the English clubs proved suicidal enough to avoid barking after destructive loans or strip to tempt wealthy buyers. The only flag up the hill was the competitiveness needs regardless of the price paid, or lack of fulfilling.
Football clubs became too fragile to acquisitions that a clash on a horse between an owner and a coach led to selling the wealthiest club in the Premier league to a buyer who paid the price demanded through taking loans, much of which were secured against the club's assets. In other words, a buyer who was financially poorer than Manchester United, still succeeded to buy the club - for free.
Chelsea in the other hand felt no need to check the books of Roman Abramovich to figure how he made his fortune before handing him the club. He may not be as amazing as one of their ex-owners like Elton John but he can make the fans sing by creating a competitive squad. That’s all what is needed. Manchester City knights were willing to go as far as offering the club to the likes of Thaksin Shinawatra. The uniqueness of each club faded under the new business oriented approach and there were no more fans, but customers.
Liverpool had more reasons to be aggressive while seeking their competitive spell. The club’s records were threatened by the dominance of Manchester United in the new league format. After the amazing era of John Smith ending 1990, the club lacked the suitable leadership to engineer the club and meet the challenges of the new league (EPL).
In 2004, David Moores decided to sell the club. Yet it took him three years of inappropriate bids (including a bid from the one and only Thaksin Shinawatra himself) to find the right buyers. Inspired by Roman Abramovich model at Chelsea, and Malcolm Glazer’s tale at Manchester united, George Gillett and Tom Hicks stepped in and bought the club.
The new owners of the club a club recently won the Champions’ league were welcomed by the fans and the coach. The expectations were high and everyone had the belief that Liverpool success in Europe will extend to dominate the English League again. I do believe that the crisis started there.
Josemi, Xabi Alonso, Antonio Nunez, Luis Garcia, Fernando Morientes, Bolo Zenden, Scott Carson, Godwin Antwi, Mauricio Pellegrino, Besian Idrizaj, Peter Crouch, Jack Hobbs, Pepe Reina, Miki Roque, Mohamed Sissoko, Paul Anderson, Antonio Barragan, Robbie Fowler, Mark Gonzalez, Jan Kromkamp, Gabriel Paletta, Fabio Aurelio, Ryan Crowther, Martin Hansen, Daniel Agger, Dirk Kuyt, Nabil El Zhar, David Martin, Astrit Ajdarevic, Craig Bellamy, Alvaro Arbeloa, Daniel Pacheco, Alex Cooper, Fernando Torres, Andriy Voronin, Jordy Brouwer, Francisco Duran, Sebastian Leto, Ronald Huth, Gary Stevens, Daniele Padelli, Mikel San Jose Dominguez, Javier Mascherano, Daniel Sanchez Ayala, Jermaine Pennant, Gerardo Bruna, Yossi Benayoun, David Amoo, Lucas, Damien Plessis, Andras Simon, Emiliano Insua, Dean Bouzanis, Charles Itandje, Krisztian Nemeth, Ryan Babel, Lauri Dalla Valle, Martin Skrtel, Emmanuel Mendy, Andrea Dossena, David Ngog, Vincent Weijl, Philipp Degen, Vitor Coutinho Flora, Peter Gulacsi, Robbie Keane, Zsolt Poloskei, Diego Cavalieri, Albert Riera, Nikola Saric, Christopher Buchtmann, Victor Palsson, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Glen Johnson, Alberto Aquilani, and Chris Mavinga.
A coach who buys 70 players for a club like Liverpool in 5 years is a confused coach who has no idea what he wants, or what his team need. I will not go as far as claiming that Rafa Benitez spent £229m on players, because he recovered some through selling the players he bought. Yet, that’s only a financial evaluation that must not cover the fact: Benitez created a chaos. Such Chaos cost the club money (transfers and salaries), and it damaged any chance to create any harmony in the squad. That’s a need if you want to win any titles. This habit started long time before the new owners’ arrival. The difference was that during the first seasons there were no expectations. That’s the environment where Benitez can do magic. When the club won the Champions’ league and welcomed the new owners with the likes of Mascheranos and Fernandos the expectations rocketed high, and Rafa suffered a panic attack leading him to continuously change players and tactics, and fighting with managers and criticizing everyone else, but himself. Some may argue that there are some players who were bought for the reserve team but the question is how many of the mentioned players served the first team later on?
Nowadays, with more businessmen running clubs, as businessmen, the role of managers became vital. It is true that Liverpool owners were unwilling to keep on financing Rafa Benitez “Football Manager” antiques forever, but if we compare the effectiveness and budgets of coaches like Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson, one can only wonder what would have happened if one of the mentioned would have been in Benitez shoes. The coach is the hostage of his team’s results and if he was able to achieve anything in the last few seasons he would have been able to dictate his conditions on the club owners. The owners made a bet on the coach and the squad he structured and when the bet failed there was no way to recover.
With the team underperforming and the owners lacking any charm and vision, it was a matter of time before the fans revolt. At the end of the day, competitiveness is the ultimate goal. There was no way back from there on.
Everyone who was involved in the acquisition in the first place carry the main responsibility for how the story ended. Some of those figures started Liverpool’s mess long before the arrival of the new owners. There should be strict guidelines governing this matter. Liverpool is neither the only victim nor the first one to fall. Portsmouth is another example. Manchester United already stands in the queue. One can only wonder what will happen if Abramovic failed to rejuvenate the aging Chelsea and the list is long.
Then there is a coach who failed to create a project and present a vision leading to Permanente success and forcing the owners to adopt.
In the English Premier league, managers role nowadays exceed their team building responsibilities on the field to their role in club building in the offices through contributing in the creation of the club business and football module. Genius technicians place is on the Assistant manager bench, while managers need to act as innovators.
Hicks and Gillett were just two naïve gamblers in a bad Casino; putting their bets in a game they don’t know its rules. They lost their money and were thrown out of the door for new wealthy candidate to take their place. Only time will tell if the new owners will start by setting rules and guidelines or will just lead the club to another gamble.
Posted by Ramzi
on 05:32.
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