Given the recent discovery in Leicester, and the general accusation of my being a negative miserable cunt, I was gonna title this blog "Now Is The Winter of Our Discontent, Made Glorious Summer…blah, blah, blah…"
… but it seemed the calls for me to stop being such an unbelievably miserable bastard, who must also be a rasict twat if I can't clearly see how fuckin BOSS Danny Sturridge's cock is, never mind his obviously innate abilities on the dance floor…
… I felt compelled to just change my outlook, turn that frown upside down, and go with the above title…
Some people seem invested in taking what I write and insisting that I'm anti-FSG, anti-Brendan Rodgers, and even on occasion, anti-LFC.
To clear things up, let me categorically state something I've categorically stated before (not that it'll make a blind bit of difference to some people, but as a reminder to the rest of youz… )
I'm neither pro, nor anti FSG.
I don't really give a fuck about John Henry, or Warner or anyone else that might be part of their financial group.
I am not an "FSG Supporter" I am a Liverpool Supporter… and that's how it should be.
I haven't bought a new rope with which to hang them.
I have zero agenda either for, or against them.
I want them to do right by my club… PERIOD… and that's about as far as my thoughts on them take me.
As such, I think everything they've done since purchasing the club (and that includes the manner in which they bought us… be that "saving us from administration" or simply "capitalizing on a very undervalued investment with a very broad and strong International Brand with an untapped revenue potential" … depending on your point of view,) is up for discussion.
They are not here to carpetbag us like G&H were.
But neither are they lifelong reds that came to our rescue out of a deep-rooted love for LFC, with a heart-held desire to see LFC WIN at all costs.
… and in the long run, maybe that position between the two extremes, isn't such a bad thing?
But, Their Record is there to be discussed…
…they've done some good things and made some good decisions…
… and they've done some not so good things, and made some very questionable decisions.
Maybe the problem arises simply because I think it is "THEIR job" to "get behind" and "support" all of US… not our job to "get behind" and "support them".
… and some seem to be suggesting the opposite… I dunno?
They have said they want to take LFC back to the top… and some of their actions seem to support that claim…
They have not said they want to do it in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years…
… and maybe that is where some of us part ways in our opinions of them, when judging some of their actions that do not seem to necessarily jive with those statements.
I feel some of their statements (and even actions since purchase) have been made as PR exercises to appease, and get us the fans on board with them and their regime… and to some extent, I can understand their need to do that, following on from the last lot…
… but really… some of their statements and actions have not (to date) really shown a dedicated adherence to making that happen…
…and some were simply ill-advised from the off. (the Nando-Carroll deal most notably.)
My making such a statement seems to prompt some people into suggesting I think they are the Devil incarnate, here to asset strip us … which is not only NOT even remotely what I'm suggesting… but is frankly a pretty stupid position to take.
They have purchased LFC… they own the club… and some day, be it a year from now, 10 years from now, whenever… they will sell LFC…
WE… ALL of US… we'll still be here.
So I'll watch what they say, and I'll watch what they do, and I'll judge them on both…
… We are Liverpool Football Club, not Fenway Sports Club.
I'm neither pro, nor anti Brendan Rodgers.
He is Liverpool manager and as such he has my support… but if you think that means his actions or statements can't be questioned, then we just think differently about our job as fans.
I am not calling for his head, never have done… in fact, I've said clearly and definitely more than once, that to do so is bang out of order… coz he simply hasn't been in the job long enough to make such a call or judgment.
But equally, I will not blindly support his every decision… that is as big a recipe for disaster as writing him off.
Again… Brendan Rodgers exists as LFC manager to serve US … not the other way around… and you know what… He himself has said as much.
Some people seem to have a problem with the notion of calling him a "mid-table manager".
I get it… it is a phrase that can be used as an insult.
But I've not used it as such.
Simply put… the best Premier League finish Brendan Rodgers ever had as a football manger was last year when he took Swansea to 11th place in the Premier League.
For a club of Swansea's stature that was a terrific accomplishment.
The previous season Brendan's Swansea finished 3rd in the Championship. They didn't win the title, they finished 3rd, gaining promotion to the Premier League via wins against Forrest and Reading in the play-offs.
Now I don't say that to diminish the accomplishment. Gaining promotion is hard, however you achieve it.
And for Brendan Rodgers, both achievements were terrific accomplishments.
…but I'm sorry, the highest he's ever finished is 11th…
…and he did it once…
… the greatest accomplishment on his CV to date is 11th place in the Premier League…
…so he IS by definition, a mid-table manager.
Now none of that is to say he can't achieve more than that, particularly at a bigger club like LFC.
Now none of that is to say he can't achieve more than that, particularly at a bigger club like LFC.
Now none of that is to say he can't achieve more than that, particularly at a bigger club like LFC.
(I've typed that 3 times, coz you just know someone is gonna try to twist that into "you're anti-Rodgers" 
)
I'm just trying to be objective here… as well as supportive.
Fact is, Gollum has finished higher in the Prem… and more often than once.
So has Steve fuckin Bruce and Tony fuckin Pulis.
I wouldn't want any of them at LFC, and rate Brendan's ability to eventually match and then supercede their "achievements"…
… but right now… just yet… he hasn't.
Now brace yerselves… …here comes the bit where I talk about Rafa and Kenny… probably coz I just can't help myself and am a broken record… stuck in a time warp, unable to look forward… but maybe, you know, its coz it might actually having some fuckin bearing on the subject.
People have accused me of some strange man-love for Kenny and Rafa.
Kenny has won league titles, as a player, as a manager, as both. (and a few cups too)
By definition, that makes Kenny a Top Manager.
Now yes, that was some time ago… but I see what he did in 18 months as "stopping the rot" that was the end of G&H's regime, and the CP/Hodgson debacle.
I see taking us from relegation spots to 8th, as a positive, and not falling below 10th, while taking 2 Cup runs and dealing with the January fallout, as "treading water" rather than failure or steps back.
I'm not blind to people's criticisms of his 2nd tenure… I just draw differing conclusions on where it suggested we were headed.
As for Rafa… well he wasn't even a mid-table manager when he went to Valencia. They took a bigger gamble on him than I have suggested we took on BR.
But he proved himself THERE… and when he came to US… well given who he had to beat to win those Spanish titles… he was unquestionably a Top Manager.
There are those that love to point towards him and say, "if he was any good, why has he been mostly unemployed since he left us?"
… as though no teams have offered him the job…
… this just displays ignorance of reality… the man has been offered countless jobs and turned them down… he didn't need to work, so he was choosey about where he went.
(although his judgment of where to go, when he did make a choice, is certainly questionable, coz both Inter and Chelsea were "hidings to nothing" in their own different ways.)
Now Brendan Rodgers… by definition of his career so far, is a mid-table manager.
And it would even be fair to say, that given LFC's slips in the table over the past 3 seasons, LFC are, by that same criteria of definition, simply a mid-table team.
So maybe we actually are the perfect match?
…And he may very well prove himself as more than "a mid-table manager" this season… and in doing so, prove that he was a very good choice to replace Kenny Dalglish.
(the logic though, does not "prove" that Kenny would not have achieved a similar mark had we stayed with him.)
That's the thing about where we are right now….
In-spite of any shortcomings LFC has right now, be they the result of past-foolishness, FSG's mistakes, Brendan's mistakes, poor buys, whatever…
Liverpool Football Club currently sit quite comfortably in the league… upper mid-table, but capable of so, so much more.
It's not where most of us would want… … but as always, a bit of luck here and there, and we would be higher.
It's not a position that was even remotely acceptable 4 or 5 years ago.
And that's part of "the problem" … for us, for Brendan, for FSG…
If we are no longer a Top 4 team… then by what means and on what schedule are we planning on getting back there???
(It hasn’t clearly been stated, and hints of intentions have been mixed.)
4th seems a bridge too far…. But 4th is actually quite achievable.
We're hitting a bit of form.
We've just hired a striker who looks the biz (let me just decode that for some of youz so you don't have to get out your decoder rings and that magic marker that makes invisible ink visible again – Sturridge is shit and a waste of money.)
…and he really could make the difference for us… maybe…
Given the fixtures that are left…. And the fixtures that "our competition" have on their roster…
…. Put a good run together and 4th really is ON.
… but…
… well my blogs are like MTV Rap videos… you knew there had to be a "but" didn't you? (negative, glass-half empy cunt… just when we were popping corks and toasting each other)
… but…
…we'll have to face “lower” opposition with the same sort of swagger we faced Citeh this past weekend…
… (and if it wouldn't be asking too much, do it for the full 90 minutes, eh lads.)
Do that… and Brendan Rodgers can prove he is more than a mid-table manager.
Do that… and Brendan Rodgers can silence his doubters (well, you know,) and prove he was a good choice last summer… maybe even go some way to, (I wouldn't say prove, but at the very least,) fully justify the decision made by FSG last summer.
Maybe then… we'll be able to all hold hands, sing cumbayah, (or, you know, YNWA, since we actually do have our own song) and all be Happy, Smiling People…
… abask in the afterglow of "a successful" campaign…
… unified in the opinion that we have re-amassed at the bottom of the hill boys and are about to commence charging back up the fucker.
"Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house.
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; Our stern alarums chang’d to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visag’d war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front; And now,–instead of mounting barbed steeds. To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber… To the lascivious pleasing of a lute."
(a lute???? 
Now that’s fuckin Cheery!)
… you know…
… until the transfer window opens and we can all start arguing about who's Shit, who's Ace, and how much money we should be spending, and what a cunt John Henry is…
… even though I haven't read a single opinion from any source even remotely suggesting such a thing. (though "There was always something, if you remember, in Willoughby's eyes at times which I did not like." … I'm getting literary as fuck on youz now.)
… but until that happens… have a read of Tomkins latest blog, a listen to the latest TAW episode (and the "Gray Area" blog) and a read of some of the latest offerings from the TIA lads…
… and realize that "definitive opinions" of where we are, and what we are, are a fool's game, as nothing is as yet "proven"…
… not even Sturridge's unbeatable, unplayable, amazing awesomeness!
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