Mindless Babel

I see Ryan Babel has been shouting his mouth off again. Apparently, Rafa Benitez has broken promises to this poor sensitive soul.

"There have been a lot of things promised, but they haven't been followed up," Babel complained. "I would get to play for more minutes and have more chances, but after the first defeat, I only lost my place."

How dare Rafa? How dare he select Babel in the squad for the first three games and then leave him out for the fourth after the player managed to do nothing more than concede possession and help the team to lose both the games he was involved in?

Let’s just apply a little perspective here. Babel started the season opener against Spurs and for the 67 minutes he was on the pitch he was as infuriatingly crap as he was for pretty much the whole of last season. He was replaced by Yossi Benayoun who performed extremely well and significantly improved the performance of the team. Does anyone other than Ryan Babel think Rafa was therefore wrong to select Benayoun for the next match ahead of Babel?

Does any Liverpool fan with more than half a brain feel a jot of sympathy for Ryan Babel after watching him lose possession virtually every time he received the ball last season?

Basically, in the mind of Ryan Babel, he should start irrespective of whether he adds any value to the team. It doesn’t matter whether the team wins, draws or loses or how that result impacts on the fans so long as Babel gets a game. And if Ryan Babel isn’t getting a game – sod Liverpool who invested £11.5 million in signing him and even more on his sky-high wages – he wants to go to Ajax reducing Liverpool’s squad by one without any financial compensation just so he can get a game. Given the complete disinterest and lack of effort he shows in games, one has to wonder why getting games is so important to Babel. Probably the answers are to earn performance related bonuses, to maintain a high profile (which also carries financial incentives), and to ensure he retains his place in the Dutch squad in a World Cup year.

This is not a player who will give sweat and blood for the Liverpool cause. This is not a player who cares one iota about the history, present or future of Liverpool Football Club and its fans who shell out hard-earned cash so that he can piss about embarrassing himself with his sad attempts at being a rapper instead of practising the one thing he is actually supposed to be good at. This is an ignorant, spoilt, stupid, self-centred, immature, fool who is a disgrace to our club and is no more fit to wear the shirt than Osama Bin Laden.

Like most Liverpool fans, I hoped that this would be the season Babel came good and added another name to those of Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano, Reina, Carra and now Johnson as truly world class players at the club. For that reason, I wasn’t too unhappy we kept him but now I am certain we need to offload him for as much of a fee as possible at the earliest opportunity. Loaning him out isn’t an option. Why should another club get a free player at our expense?

Rafa should tell Babel he is now fighting for his career and will have to be extremely impressive in the Carling Cup tie at Leeds if he is to get more opportunities in the shop window as right now he figures below Nabil El Zahr in the Anfield pecking order and below David Moyes in the Anfield popularity stakes.