I’m going to be totally honest. I’m glad Michael Owen was relegated yesterday. I don’t hate Newcastle United. I find them a bit ridiculous as a club and can’t abide the nonsensical media claims that their fans are brilliant and deserve success but in general the club has been a reliable source of points for Liverpool Football Club and there have been some excellent games between the two teams over the years. I don’t especially take delight in Newcastle going down but I do take some satisfaction at seeing Owen relegated.
Owen was at one time one of my heroes. He played a major role in Liverpool winning the treble of cups in 2001; was top scorer in each of his seven full seasons in the first team, and gave the fans many memorable moments in his time at the club but in the summer of 2004 he bit the hand that fed him and kicked our football club when it was down.
As a supporter, I want playing for Liverpool Football Club to matter to the players. I’m not naive enough to think that every player who pulls on the famous red shirt cares as much about the club as I do but I still want to believe there is some truth in their statements about wanting to win for the fans. With the foreign players, you can perhaps forgive a little less loyalty but for the home grown players who have come through the ranks, I want to believe that being successful with Liverpool FC would mean more to them than being successful with other clubs.
What Owen did in 2004 revealed he wanted to win honours for himself whether at Liverpool Football Club or any other. He looked around at the mess Houllier had left the club in and he saw a team years away from challenging for the top honours. He saw a team not currently capable of helping him achieve his own ambitions. Rather than stay and help the club improve to a level where it could do so, he decided he deserved to be at a better club. He thought he was too good for our club.
Tellingly in his autobiography, Owen wrote: “As the mood darkened, I did look with envy at the leading teams. If I was in this or that team, I’d fancy my chances of getting X number of goals.”
I get the impression Owen was obsessed with personal achievement. For him it was about how many goals he scored and how many honours he won. If the team wasn’t creating enough chances for him and wasn’t good enough for him to win trophies then it wasn’t his responsibility.
“When we weren’t playing well and not creating anything, and people were accusing me of not performing, I wasn’t getting much of a kick half the time.” So there you have it. It wasn’t Michael’s fault; it was the team’s for not getting him more of a kick.
If Rafa Benitez’s task in rebuilding our football club wasn’t big enough already, by engineering a cheap move to Madrid, Owen not only deprived Rafa of the team’s best goal scorer but also of suitable compensation with which to purchase a replacement. £8 million plus Antonio Nunez (a total value of approximately £8 million) was barely half of Owen’s true market value. Had Owen not let his contract run down to its final year and left the club facing the prospect of losing him for nothing the following summer, a fee of £20 million would not have been unrealistic.
Michael joined Real believing he would have a better chance of winning major honours. As it turned out, he spent the majority of the year on the subs bench and won sod all while we won the biggest prize in domestic football. Silly boy.
Had Owen done a Rushie and returned to Anfield after a year’s sabbatical abroad, all would probably have been forgiven but when Newcastle came calling Michael made his second stupid decision in two years. Liverpool quite rightly were not prepared to pay more than the fee they had received a year earlier to bring Owen back to Anfield. Unfortunately Newcastle bid £16 million and understandably Real wanted to deal with the highest bidder. I understand that Rick Parry told Owen to reject Newcastle and tell Madrid he wanted to go to Anfield or nowhere. Owen didn’t do so. The next thing he was on telly being wined and dined by Freddie Shepherd, Graeme Souness and Alan Shearer in the North East – hardly the message he was asked to send out. That trio cleverly played to Owen’s ego telling him how the fans idolise their goal-scorers at St James Park. Some bad advice from Sven Goran Eriksson later and Owen was signing for the Geordies. In a World Cup year, he thought it was too big a risk to play hardball with Madrid and risk a half-season or longer on Real’s bench. Owen put his ambitions with the national team ahead of Liverpool FC. Yet again it was all about Owen. The outcome was he joined a crap team, got injured after a handful of games and had a dire World Cup in which he was clearly unfit to play.
By this time he had proven he did not have the qualities to be a Liverpool player and there was no chance of Rafa launching a rescue mission to get Owen out of Newcastle.
With Newcastle now down, I expect Owen will do what he does best. He will turn a blind eye to the devastated Geordie masses who desperately need a hero to take responsibility for the mess they are in and lead them out of the Championship. He will absolve himself of responsibility for Newcastle’s fall from grace and convince himself it was not his fault he couldn’t be the goal-scoring legend Newcastle fans thought they had signed in 2005. He will pat himself on the back for his wisdom in letting another contract run down and look for a move to the biggest club willing to offer him a decent wage.
Not many players leave Liverpool and go onto achieve better things elsewhere. Owen left Liverpool with winners medals from the League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup and European Super Cup on his CV plus a European Player of the Year Award. The only thing he has added to his CV in 5 years since is relegation. Thus concludes the Parable of the Silly Boy. Well done, Michael.
Monday, 25 May 2009
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Big Sami - some Finn special
I feel genuinely sad at the thought that tomorrow against Spurs, Sami Hyypia will make his final appearance for Liverpool after ten years of impeccable service to the club. It is a poignant thought for a number of reasons. Firstly, with Sami we are talking about a truly fantastic player whom it has been a privilege to watch. In years to come when people discuss the great centre-halves in Liverpool’s illustrious history, Hyypia will be up there with all the legends like Hansen, Lawrenson, Yeats and Thompson. Unlike those others, I and those of my generation can say we witnessed Hyypia’s Liverpool career in full from his debut at Hillsborough in 1999 to the moment he receives his standing ovation at Anfield tomorrow with so many highlights in between.
For me, Sami has been a hero. A player I got excited about seeing. A player I got behind. A player I cheered loudly. A player who’s name I sung with passion. A player I desperately wanted to do well. A player I desperately wanted to take a Premiership medal away from his time at Anfield to go with his League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup, Champions League and European Super Cup medals.
That brings me nicely onto the second reason Sami’s departure is so poignant. Sami’s departure brings to an end a decade in which Liverpool Football Club failed to win the Premiership. In that time, numerous far less gifted players than Sami have picked up medals courtesy of being at other clubs at the right times. Sadly for Sami, in his time at Liverpool – particularly in his peak years - we had too few players who could match the big Finn for quality and consistency to bring home the title. It is a damning indictment of Gerard Houllier’s management of Liverpool football club that his failure to recruit players of the right calibre in the right areas cost Sami the chance of being a League winner in his first 5 years at the club and left Benitez with a squad needing such extensive rebuilding that the title was not won in the 5 years since. For a player of Sami’s quality to have spent a ten-year career at the club without winning the League sums up the underachievement of our football club.
It’s easy to think of highlights from Sami’s time at the club. I will remember his Champions League quarter-final goals against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, Juventus in 2005 and Arsenal in 2008; his goal-line clearance of Thierry Henry’s shot in the 2001 FA Cup Final; him lifting the UEFA Cup in Dortmund with Robbie Fowler and lifting the Worthington Cup in 2003, and him having the courage to take a penalty-kick in the penalty shoot-out in the FA Cup Final of 2006 (even if it was saved). What I will remember most though was his outstanding performances as a centre-half that are too numerous to mention.
Maybe it’s because in the years prior to his arrival, I had to endure the hapless defending of Phil Babb, Bjorn Tore Kvarme and Dominic Matteo and with David James behind them, any cross into our penalty area was likely to result in a goal for the opposition, but I’ve always appreciated Sami’s no-nonsense approach to defending which saw him consistently get the basics right and make defending look simple. You can count the number of bad games Sami has had on one hand of a Middlesbrough supporter (six).
It was the simplicity of Hyypia’s performances that perhaps ensured he stayed out of the limelight. What perfectly summed up Sami’s Liverpool career was Liverpool victory at Old Trafford this season. Dropped into the first team at a minute’s notice Sami was a colossus. People will remember the fact that Liverpool scored 4. They will remember that we fell behind to a Ronaldo penalty; that Torres forced an equaliser; Gerrard put us ahead; Aurelio made it three, and Dossena rubbed salt into the wound. They will remember the nightmare that Nemanja Vidic experienced before being put out of his misery by the referee’s red card. Not many will recall Hyypia’s contribution that day. Hyypia was so good at being in the right position at the right time and was so flawless in possession that any potential danger from United was snuffed out before it could materialise. Consequently Hyypia won’t have featured in any highlights of that game and yet he was as crucial to Liverpool’s win as Torres or Gerrard that day.
Similarly when I think of the 2005 Champions League Final, it’s easy to recall Carragher’s heroics and Gerrard’s inspirational performance. It’s easy to remember Jerzy Dudek’s antics in the penalty shoot-out and THAT save from Shevchenko. I can remember Vladi’s strike, Alonso’s equaliser, Traore’s balls up for Milan’s first goal and even the sight of Baros and later Cisse running around like headless chickens up front but I can’t remember a single touch by Sami Hyypia in that game. What I do know is that Milan failed to score in 45 second minutes and 30 minutes of stoppage time and that tells me that in addition to the Alamo-style defending from Carra and Jerzy, somewhere in there Sami was doing a terrific job.
Sami, it has been a privilege and a pleasure to have you at Liverpool Football Club. I will miss you but I wish you all the best at Leverkusen and hope one day you return in some capacity. Thanks for the memories.
For me, Sami has been a hero. A player I got excited about seeing. A player I got behind. A player I cheered loudly. A player who’s name I sung with passion. A player I desperately wanted to do well. A player I desperately wanted to take a Premiership medal away from his time at Anfield to go with his League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup, Champions League and European Super Cup medals.
That brings me nicely onto the second reason Sami’s departure is so poignant. Sami’s departure brings to an end a decade in which Liverpool Football Club failed to win the Premiership. In that time, numerous far less gifted players than Sami have picked up medals courtesy of being at other clubs at the right times. Sadly for Sami, in his time at Liverpool – particularly in his peak years - we had too few players who could match the big Finn for quality and consistency to bring home the title. It is a damning indictment of Gerard Houllier’s management of Liverpool football club that his failure to recruit players of the right calibre in the right areas cost Sami the chance of being a League winner in his first 5 years at the club and left Benitez with a squad needing such extensive rebuilding that the title was not won in the 5 years since. For a player of Sami’s quality to have spent a ten-year career at the club without winning the League sums up the underachievement of our football club.
It’s easy to think of highlights from Sami’s time at the club. I will remember his Champions League quarter-final goals against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, Juventus in 2005 and Arsenal in 2008; his goal-line clearance of Thierry Henry’s shot in the 2001 FA Cup Final; him lifting the UEFA Cup in Dortmund with Robbie Fowler and lifting the Worthington Cup in 2003, and him having the courage to take a penalty-kick in the penalty shoot-out in the FA Cup Final of 2006 (even if it was saved). What I will remember most though was his outstanding performances as a centre-half that are too numerous to mention.
Maybe it’s because in the years prior to his arrival, I had to endure the hapless defending of Phil Babb, Bjorn Tore Kvarme and Dominic Matteo and with David James behind them, any cross into our penalty area was likely to result in a goal for the opposition, but I’ve always appreciated Sami’s no-nonsense approach to defending which saw him consistently get the basics right and make defending look simple. You can count the number of bad games Sami has had on one hand of a Middlesbrough supporter (six).
It was the simplicity of Hyypia’s performances that perhaps ensured he stayed out of the limelight. What perfectly summed up Sami’s Liverpool career was Liverpool victory at Old Trafford this season. Dropped into the first team at a minute’s notice Sami was a colossus. People will remember the fact that Liverpool scored 4. They will remember that we fell behind to a Ronaldo penalty; that Torres forced an equaliser; Gerrard put us ahead; Aurelio made it three, and Dossena rubbed salt into the wound. They will remember the nightmare that Nemanja Vidic experienced before being put out of his misery by the referee’s red card. Not many will recall Hyypia’s contribution that day. Hyypia was so good at being in the right position at the right time and was so flawless in possession that any potential danger from United was snuffed out before it could materialise. Consequently Hyypia won’t have featured in any highlights of that game and yet he was as crucial to Liverpool’s win as Torres or Gerrard that day.
Similarly when I think of the 2005 Champions League Final, it’s easy to recall Carragher’s heroics and Gerrard’s inspirational performance. It’s easy to remember Jerzy Dudek’s antics in the penalty shoot-out and THAT save from Shevchenko. I can remember Vladi’s strike, Alonso’s equaliser, Traore’s balls up for Milan’s first goal and even the sight of Baros and later Cisse running around like headless chickens up front but I can’t remember a single touch by Sami Hyypia in that game. What I do know is that Milan failed to score in 45 second minutes and 30 minutes of stoppage time and that tells me that in addition to the Alamo-style defending from Carra and Jerzy, somewhere in there Sami was doing a terrific job.
Sami, it has been a privilege and a pleasure to have you at Liverpool Football Club. I will miss you but I wish you all the best at Leverkusen and hope one day you return in some capacity. Thanks for the memories.
£50 million Tevez?
I heard a rumour that Liverpool were interested in signing Carlos Tevez for £50 million. Where people get these ridiculous prices from is beyond me. Given that Liverpool don’t have £50 million to spend and have never even spent half that amount on a single player, the suggestion has all the credibility of Fergie’s assessment of his team’s performance in their 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool.
It is believed Tevez can be signed for a fee in the region of £25 million and, if true, I hope Liverpool are interested. Yes he may look like a deformed rottweiler but as a player I rate Tevez highly and firmly believe that without him, Man United would not be Premiership champions right now. He is a huge crowd favourite at Old Trafford and what better way to wind up Alex Ferguson than stealing a quality player from under his nose.
In terms of work rate and industry, Tevez is very much Benitez’s type of player but this guy can also hit the back of the net too and would be an invaluable addition to our squad. He’s at a good age with his peak years still to come and if he needs any incentive to join Liverpool he can look at the fact he would be rejoining his Argentinean captain and international team mate Javier Mascherano as well as fellow Argentines Emiliano Insua and possibly Sebastian Leto (work permit permitting). We also have Maurricio Pellegrino on the coaching staff while Benitez has a history of getting the best out of Argentinean players – notably at Valencia.
If we were willing to pay £20 million for Robbie Keane last summer, at £25 million Tevez is a bargain.
It is believed Tevez can be signed for a fee in the region of £25 million and, if true, I hope Liverpool are interested. Yes he may look like a deformed rottweiler but as a player I rate Tevez highly and firmly believe that without him, Man United would not be Premiership champions right now. He is a huge crowd favourite at Old Trafford and what better way to wind up Alex Ferguson than stealing a quality player from under his nose.
In terms of work rate and industry, Tevez is very much Benitez’s type of player but this guy can also hit the back of the net too and would be an invaluable addition to our squad. He’s at a good age with his peak years still to come and if he needs any incentive to join Liverpool he can look at the fact he would be rejoining his Argentinean captain and international team mate Javier Mascherano as well as fellow Argentines Emiliano Insua and possibly Sebastian Leto (work permit permitting). We also have Maurricio Pellegrino on the coaching staff while Benitez has a history of getting the best out of Argentinean players – notably at Valencia.
If we were willing to pay £20 million for Robbie Keane last summer, at £25 million Tevez is a bargain.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
First blog entry
I have decided to start a blog having become increasingly frustrated at my inability to adequately express myself within the restrictions of Facebook’s character limits. Plus I seem to be collecting “friends” for the sake of it, many of whom I haven’t seen or spoken to in years; who don’t necessary share my passion for football, and who seem to think the world wants to see photos of their babies or know what they are planning to have for dinner. As a consequence I have become convinced that Facebook is not the place for my rantings about the world of football. Therefore I will be posting my reactions, views and rants on this blog henceforth whenever the urge takes me.
It might appear an odd time to begin a blog that is most likely going to be mainly about football and more specifically Liverpool Football Club with just one game of the season remaining but if I keep updating it might be interesting in 12 months time to retrospectively read my views on the summer’s transfer business and my undoubtedly over the top reactions to the highs and lows of the 2009-10 season. After all, going into the 2008-09 season, I thought Robbie Keane would prove an excellent acquisition while I conceded hopes of Liverpool winning the League after each of the home draws with West Ham, Everton, Man City and Arsenal only to find reasons for hope and optimism thereafter. That Liverpool did not win the title perhaps proves I was right but on reflection I can see that I gave up hope too early.
In fact, if I look back even further in the club’s recent history, I can recall calling for a change of manager after our FA Cup defeat to Barnsley in the 2007-08 season only for Rafa to make me look like a fickle idiot by leading the club to home and away wins over Inter Milan in the next few games.
So already it appears my views are invalid and likely to change but then couldn’t the same be said about most football fans and pundits for that matter? How many people have said Liverpool will never win the League under Rafa yet look how close he took us this season.
If we beat Spurs at Anfield on Sunday we will end the season with 86 points. To put that into perspective, 86 points would have won the Premiership in 7 of its 16 seasons. Manchester United won the Premiership 6 times with less than 86 points. The only team to have won more than 85 points and failed to win the Premiership was Manchester United in 1994-95; they won it the next year with fewer points.
Even if we lost (which is highly improbable but with it being the end of the season freak results can occur), our current total of 83 points (plus our current goal difference) would have won us the Premiership in 6 out of its 16 seasons.
The importance of securing second place is emphasised by the fact that in the Premiership era, only Arsenal in 1997-98 and Manchester United in 2002-03 have won the League after finishing outside of the top two places in the previous season (and Arsenal were level on points with the second-placed team in 1996-97 but finished third on goal difference). By that logic, the probability is that next season’s winner will be either Liverpool or Manchester United and given that no team has ever won the top division in four consecutive seasons, it would appear the fates favour Liverpool.
Considering Liverpool have already achieved their record points total in a Premiership season during a campaign in which Fernando Torres missed numerous games through injury and struggled for form and sharpness in many of the games he did play, there is reason to believe that Liverpool can go one better next season if Torres and Gerrard stay largely injury free and if this summer’s transfers are considerably more successful than last year’s.
Finally, a word on the over the top media criticism Rafa has received this week for declining to concede that Manchester United were the best team this season. I fully support Rafa for not pandering the biased media hacks. Why should he? Had Liverpool won the League, would Fergie have conceded Rafa’s team were the best? This is the same Fergie who after seeing his team trounced 4-1 at home by Liverpool claimed his side had been the better team. Does anyone remember Fergie conceding that the teams of Wenger and Mourinho who beat Manchester United to Premiership titles were better than his? Thought not. So why should Rafa be gracious in defeat when he has every right to feel it was an undeserved one given the rub of the green referees have given Fergie’s men in the run-in?
Had Rafa come out and said Manchester United were the better team, what message would that have sent out to his players and the Liverpool fans? Isn’t it better to convince his players they were worthy of a Premiership title this season but were robbed by a combination of unfortunate injuries, freak results and generous refereeing decisions in Man Utd’s favour? Wouldn’t it benefit his team to get his players fired up to make amends next season rather than telling them another team was better than them? Fergie seems to get praised for building a “siege mentality” despite his petulance in refusing to talk to the media whenever his team loses, etc, etc. while all Rafa seems to get is criticism. Is it racism or just the anti-Liverpool agenda that so many believe exists?
In any case, I for one don’t actually agree that Man United were the best team. The old sound bite that the League table doesn’t lie and the best team always wins is absolute rubbish. The League is won by the team that is most effective at winning points. That is not a matter for debate and it is statistically proven that Manchester United were the most effective team at winning points this season (irrespective of whether they did so deservedly or profited from a series of generous refereeing decisions). The identity of the best team in the League is a matter of opinion and varies depending on each individuals’ personal opinions of what qualities make a team the best.
I know plenty of Evertonians who would swear that Everton are the best team irrespective of any factual evidence to the contrary. It is a common perception (and one I subscribe to) that Arsenal have consistently played the best football over the last three or four seasons. Neither of those teams has been as effective as Man Utd, Chelsea or even Liverpool when it has come to winning points but it doesn’t make anyone’s opinions less valid. My opinion is that since the 4-0 win over Real Madrid, Liverpool have played the best attacking football this season and taking into account the injuries, notably to Torres, as a team they have performed outstandingly well this campaign - better than Man Utd who won the League because of their squad rather than the quality of their first team.
It might appear an odd time to begin a blog that is most likely going to be mainly about football and more specifically Liverpool Football Club with just one game of the season remaining but if I keep updating it might be interesting in 12 months time to retrospectively read my views on the summer’s transfer business and my undoubtedly over the top reactions to the highs and lows of the 2009-10 season. After all, going into the 2008-09 season, I thought Robbie Keane would prove an excellent acquisition while I conceded hopes of Liverpool winning the League after each of the home draws with West Ham, Everton, Man City and Arsenal only to find reasons for hope and optimism thereafter. That Liverpool did not win the title perhaps proves I was right but on reflection I can see that I gave up hope too early.
In fact, if I look back even further in the club’s recent history, I can recall calling for a change of manager after our FA Cup defeat to Barnsley in the 2007-08 season only for Rafa to make me look like a fickle idiot by leading the club to home and away wins over Inter Milan in the next few games.
So already it appears my views are invalid and likely to change but then couldn’t the same be said about most football fans and pundits for that matter? How many people have said Liverpool will never win the League under Rafa yet look how close he took us this season.
If we beat Spurs at Anfield on Sunday we will end the season with 86 points. To put that into perspective, 86 points would have won the Premiership in 7 of its 16 seasons. Manchester United won the Premiership 6 times with less than 86 points. The only team to have won more than 85 points and failed to win the Premiership was Manchester United in 1994-95; they won it the next year with fewer points.
Even if we lost (which is highly improbable but with it being the end of the season freak results can occur), our current total of 83 points (plus our current goal difference) would have won us the Premiership in 6 out of its 16 seasons.
The importance of securing second place is emphasised by the fact that in the Premiership era, only Arsenal in 1997-98 and Manchester United in 2002-03 have won the League after finishing outside of the top two places in the previous season (and Arsenal were level on points with the second-placed team in 1996-97 but finished third on goal difference). By that logic, the probability is that next season’s winner will be either Liverpool or Manchester United and given that no team has ever won the top division in four consecutive seasons, it would appear the fates favour Liverpool.
Considering Liverpool have already achieved their record points total in a Premiership season during a campaign in which Fernando Torres missed numerous games through injury and struggled for form and sharpness in many of the games he did play, there is reason to believe that Liverpool can go one better next season if Torres and Gerrard stay largely injury free and if this summer’s transfers are considerably more successful than last year’s.
Finally, a word on the over the top media criticism Rafa has received this week for declining to concede that Manchester United were the best team this season. I fully support Rafa for not pandering the biased media hacks. Why should he? Had Liverpool won the League, would Fergie have conceded Rafa’s team were the best? This is the same Fergie who after seeing his team trounced 4-1 at home by Liverpool claimed his side had been the better team. Does anyone remember Fergie conceding that the teams of Wenger and Mourinho who beat Manchester United to Premiership titles were better than his? Thought not. So why should Rafa be gracious in defeat when he has every right to feel it was an undeserved one given the rub of the green referees have given Fergie’s men in the run-in?
Had Rafa come out and said Manchester United were the better team, what message would that have sent out to his players and the Liverpool fans? Isn’t it better to convince his players they were worthy of a Premiership title this season but were robbed by a combination of unfortunate injuries, freak results and generous refereeing decisions in Man Utd’s favour? Wouldn’t it benefit his team to get his players fired up to make amends next season rather than telling them another team was better than them? Fergie seems to get praised for building a “siege mentality” despite his petulance in refusing to talk to the media whenever his team loses, etc, etc. while all Rafa seems to get is criticism. Is it racism or just the anti-Liverpool agenda that so many believe exists?
In any case, I for one don’t actually agree that Man United were the best team. The old sound bite that the League table doesn’t lie and the best team always wins is absolute rubbish. The League is won by the team that is most effective at winning points. That is not a matter for debate and it is statistically proven that Manchester United were the most effective team at winning points this season (irrespective of whether they did so deservedly or profited from a series of generous refereeing decisions). The identity of the best team in the League is a matter of opinion and varies depending on each individuals’ personal opinions of what qualities make a team the best.
I know plenty of Evertonians who would swear that Everton are the best team irrespective of any factual evidence to the contrary. It is a common perception (and one I subscribe to) that Arsenal have consistently played the best football over the last three or four seasons. Neither of those teams has been as effective as Man Utd, Chelsea or even Liverpool when it has come to winning points but it doesn’t make anyone’s opinions less valid. My opinion is that since the 4-0 win over Real Madrid, Liverpool have played the best attacking football this season and taking into account the injuries, notably to Torres, as a team they have performed outstandingly well this campaign - better than Man Utd who won the League because of their squad rather than the quality of their first team.
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