Yes, I believe now is the time for me to face up to facts
and issue an apology to all the Liverpool fans out
there.
When Fergie walked away at the end of last season, an uprising of Reds fans from Merseyside began to crow about how the domination of Manchester United was over, and how suddenly, despite lying in seventh, they could now win the title.
It was laughable and I lambasted them on my Facebook account
by insisting that there were at least another five teams that were better than
them. How wrong was I?
This season has seen Brendan Rodgers lead an astonishing
transformation at Anfield. His belief in the youth set up at Melwood, coupled
with his commitment to play concise, disciplined and entertaining football has seen Liverpool
rise from mediocrity, to stake their place as front runners to win the title.
The transformation didn't begin in August though, like many
would perhaps think. No, Rodgers, who seems to make a habit of proving people
wrong (in particular the great Sir Alex Ferguson, started his club’s transformation
in the January transfer window last year..
Fergie once echoed the words that there was no real value in the window, that it was almost impossible to get the best players and, in many senses, insinuated that it was mainly a portal for clubs who were in trouble to panic
buy.
But Rodgers bucked this trend with the signing of Daniel
Sturridge, a player who had previously been at Manchester
City and Chelsea
and not got the game time or backing of their respective managers, for
whatever reason, that he was about to get at Liverpool.
Taking risks is what has served Ferguson
so well over the past 20 years and is, in many ways, what makes a winner.
The ‘Class of 92’ are the biggest example of this. ‘You can
not win anything with kids’ are the immortal words sounded out by Anfield
legend, and Match of the Day pundit, Alan Hansen.
It was a huge gamble by the Manchester United manager yet he was repaid for his faith back then in 1996 and prospered from it for many years afterwards.
With his former clubs, Sturridge was a player deemed to have an attitude problem, someone
who was difficult to manage and on his way with failing to fulfill his true potential.
Rodgers, who worked at
He knew it would be a gamble,
but winners take risks in order to get to the top and so Rodgers hedged his
bets with the signing, and what a signing he has been.
Not only has he introduced a second source for an unbelievable
amount of goals over the 13 months he has been at the club, but he has also brought
the best out of his strike partner, Luis Suarez, and even helped revitalise the captain, Steven Gerrard, who even
the staunchest of Liverpool supporters could admit, had started to wane a
little as he moves further into the twilight of his career
This brings me to the controversial Uruguayan or Liverpool ’s
Eric Cantona as I like to refer to him.
At the end of last season he was hated by everyone and problematically for Liverpool, he had got himself suspended
for ten games for biting an opponent, which would mean he would miss the first six games of the 2013/14 season.
Don’t get me wrong, there is never a way I can like Suarez
and the personality he carries with him, but since his return he has turned a
corner in terms of his discipline and you can only admire his ability and performance, which have seen Liverpool rise as contenders to more than just a European qualification spot.
Of course this again is largely attributable to the manager
and his risk taking. All summer Suarez was lined up for moves away to various big
clubs who are already playing in Europe ’s elite competition. A temptation which brought about a transfer request and a desire to leave the club.
But Rodgers was not about to let Suarez leave Liverpool
without at least attempting to repay the club and the fans for sticking by him
through his worst times.
He even had the strength to make Suarez, the club’s star
player, train on his own as punishment for making a fuss about a
potential move away, which could have torn the harmony at the club in two.
Through all of this though, Rodgers had faith though that he and his captain could get
through to Suarez and make him see that they were on the brink of something
special. Within a matter of weeks he had signed a new contract and the rest is on course to be a big addition to the clubs already impressive history.
The Suarez gamble has paid off and the Uruguayan has been in
sensational form for the most part of the season, forming a formidable
partnership with Sturridge and spearheading Liverpool ’s
return to the Champions League in style.
As I said I could never like the man, but his 'Cantona’esque' turnaround has to be admired and yes, every club would love a player of that ability in their squad, perhaps minus his controversial antics.
In truth the entire Liverpool story
this season has been based on gambles and risk. Take Raheem Sterling for
example, a young lad who couldn't stop letting his personal life effect his
professional.
The manager sat him down and told him to go away and sort
himself out if he wanted to be a part of Liverpool
football club, knowing he could have potentially pushed away one of the
brightest young talents in European football.
Yet
There is no way I would have put him on the plane to Brazil
six months ago, but now I would gladly let him fly it.
Jordan Henderson is another player who looked finished not so long back.
At
Stats show that he has been the best midfielder in the
Premiership this season, not bad for someone who has probably been one of the
worst for the previous two and again he will surely go to Brazil
this summer as a potential starter, rather than staying at home
wondering what could have been.
There are success stories throughout the Liverpool
squad, all with similar background stories and all with the same common
denominator and that is Brendan Rodgers and a crazy thing called belief.
If you ask United fans why we have been so successful over the
past 20 years, they will tell you one name, Sir Alex Ferguson. The same respect
should be applied when Liverpool fans look back over this
past 12 months, with Brendan Rodgers.
He has galvanised a squad that had been strained first of all by the lack
of motivational ability shown by Roy Hodgson and then perhaps the dated approach
from an out of touch Kenny Dalglish.
That said the latter does deserve credit for getting that
winning feeling back at Anfield with the trophy he delivered during his tenure and perhaps providing the launchpad for Rodgers to take the club on to bigger and better things.
Rodgers breathed new life into the players and they have
responded by being unplayable for the best part of this season but it is not just the players he has effected in this way, it is the supporters as well.
I remember going to watch Liverpool
play at Bolton a few years ago (my mate is an avid Bolton
fan) and I was expecting a deafening atmosphere, created largely, with all due respect to Bolton fans, by the away support.
This was not the case, well not until they grabbed a late
winner and I remember walking away from that game thinking what was up with the
Liverpool support because having heard so much about their 12th man and seeing it at big occasions on the TV, it was always one thing you were forced to admire about the club.
But since the Rodgers revolution has kicked in, this couldn't be more different. They are now seeing football being played the way they have been generously treated to for many years.
There is flair and discipline, the basics are done right and
instead of sitting back and accepting their fate in games, this Liverpool
team are making their own, like the teams of old.
It has given them an extra volume and the ability to believe
again and when you believe in something you will give it that little bit more in vociferous support. .
To conclude Liverpool for 20 years have suffered the indignity of watching their biggest rivals win everything while they have been limited to short term gains, peaking with their Champions League success in 2005.
That must have been hard, none more so for their captain and
talisman, Steven Gerrard. After years of trying, and millions of potentially
good but often disappointing signings, they have finally built a team capable of competing and
barring an unlikely capitulation in the final three matches, the great man will no longer be known as the greatest
ever captain to never win the league title.
So to