[From: A reader that browses Guardian] Shed no tears for Liverpool: our football needs deflating

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Shed no tears for Liverpool: our football needs deflating

Bill Shankly was wrong. This unimportant game is an insatiable monster. Financial collapse would get it back in perspective

Martin Kettle
Friday October 15 2010
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/14/shed-no-tears-for-liverpool-football-club

There are things that matter. And then there are things one cares about. Sometimes the two coincide. In my own case the list of things that are both subjectively and objectively important includes family, a good education, and having a double-door American fridge with an ice-making machine.

On the other hand, there are also things that one cares about that do not ultimately matter as much as one sometimes imagines. This list includes things such as balsamic vinegar, foreign travel and the leadership of the Labour party. And then there are things that matter a lot, even though one does not care about them as much as one should ? tackling the budget deficit, solving the Middle East problem and ironing my own shirts.

Finally, however, there are the things in the twilight zone about which one does not care and which don't matter either. At the top of this list, for me, is every single reality TV show ever devised. But somewhere close behind comes the ownership of Liverpool FC [http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/liverpool" title="Guardian: Liverpool], followed by England's 2018 World Cup bid [http://www.england2018bid.com/" title="England's 2018 World Cup bid] and, increasingly, by the precarious condition of English football in general.

Don't get this wrong. I'm a northern boy. I like football as well as gravy. I enjoy going to football matches. I have a season ticket. I'm loyal both to my birthright and to my adopted teams. I watch a lot of football on TV. I always at least scan the football news. I can speak fluent football if required. It's still the people's game. It's still the global game. Sometimes it is still the beautiful game.

But the truth is that English football has become an insatiable monster. And the truth is that we ought to face up to the fact, but have shied away from doing so. In the 1990s the culture bought the idea that we couldn't have too much football, and that it didn't matter how it was run as long as English football felt like the centre of the world. We lionised the players and thought lots more money in the game meant lots more satisfaction from it. Fatally, we also thought this was all really positive. In fact, football was too big. This wasn't living the dream. It was living the deception.

The parallels with what was happening in the financial sector at the same time and for many of the same reasons are absolutely unmissable. In some ways the processes were not even parallel, they were one and the same. The owners, the sponsors, the merchandisers ? increasingly even the mercenary players and coaches ? were more interested in the money, then leveraging the money into more money, than in the game, never mind the fans or the clubs.

No one regulated. No one objected. No one thought strategically. Stopping it was too difficult and too unpopular. We took the line of least resistance. Even the supporters, never great strategists, were more interested in today than tomorrow. If a billionaire bought their club they didn't boo, they cheered. They only objected when the money dried up.

That's why it is hard to feel sympathy for Liverpool, whose survival hangs on court cases on both sides of the Atlantic this week. The current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, bought Liverpool in 2007 so they could borrow massive amounts of money against the club. They were not interested in football but wealth. It should have been stopped. Inevitably it wasn't. Now Liverpool are loaded with millions of pounds of extra debt that no one wants. But neither Hicks and Gillett nor Liverpool were unique in the deal they struck. Leeds, Portsmouth, Newcastle and West Ham have all been tempted down similarly ruinous paths. Even Manchester United are not wholly safe. There but for fortune go many other Premier League clubs too. Fortunes made and lost, the money is now heading elsewhere in Europe, leaving England's wrecks behind.

If it is Liverpool's fate to be the Lehman Brothers of the Premier League, then that is hard luck on them. But so be it. Shed no tears. A football club is not a bank. Lives do not depend on its existence, and no amount of anguish in the streets around Anfield can make it so. Governments have no obligations here. No football club is too big to fail, especially when, on the contrary, English football is too big not to fail. The moral hazard on which so much English football has partied for so long has to end somehow. The football authorities, so-called, are unwilling and incapable. If only a collapse will do, then bring it on.

Football is a game. Football is entertainment. Yes, it's a really good game. Yes, it's exciting entertainment. Yes, it is hugely enjoyable ? or can be ? to follow your own team through thick and thin. But that's all. Football is not more than that. It's not the reason we exist. It's not a way of life. It's not even a religion, except inasmuch as it is a comforting delusion. Football doesn't prove anything at all about anything. It certainly does not validate the worth of the disturbingly large number of people, still almost all male, who appear to think that it does. Great footballers are nothing more than great footballers.

Liverpool are simply one club among many. Their self-absorbed glamour, their tough, storied past and the iconic splendour of Steven Gerrard should not distract from the club's collective responsibility. Don't blame the Texans ? at least not just because they are Texans. Liverpool are just another club that got greedy, got careless and, blinded by the allure of quick success, got their priorities wrong. Even a quarter sensible club would have got together with Everton to build a shared stadium on the Mersey years ago. The fans haven't been betrayed. They have just been blind.

The idea that English football deserves the World Cup can only be the work of an ironist. A tournament whose early rounds were played exclusively in the grounds of bankrupt clubs and which climaxed in the awful, debt-crushed, windswept new Wembley stadium with its bumpy pitch would, perhaps, have a kind of macabre metaphorical attraction. But the sight of David Cameron hosting Sepp Blatter and his fellow international football bigwigs at Downing Street this week [http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/oct/13/sepp-blatter-england-world-cup-2018" title="Guardian: Sepp Blatter praises England's example in tackling hooliganism] in pursuit of the awful 2018 bid made the heart sink. Cameron has a country to run. He shouldn't follow New Labour down this demeaning route. There are no votes in football.

Get real about English football. It is a god that failed. Stop worshipping it. It is the reflection of the unbalanced, short-termist hedonism of the financial boom era. Bill Shankly was wrong. Football isn't more important than life or death. It is infinitely less important. Enjoy it and get it back in perspective.

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Is the real 'Liverpool' back?

A bit groggy from following this early morning’s crunch game against 4^th place challengers, Spurs. Thot it was a good game by the 2^nd stringers, where Greek, Skrtle, Degen, Riera, Kuyt, Aqui all filling in for the injured, or in Babel’s case, frozen out. Finally I saw a performance, and a corresponding result, so it was a great effort from everyone. Lyon away was a similar performance, except for that lousy last minute goal that was conceded, and though there were threats of a repeat, it was sufficiently repealed and nullified. Some would attribute it to Redknapp’s introduction of Keane which caused them to lose shape, but Modric was well marshaled and Defoe / Crouch strikeforce handled quite easily. With the return of confidence, a little bit more of last-year’s barnstorming performances wouldn’t go amiss.

What are my views on this years farce? Defensive nervousness. CL exit was due to the last minute goals conceded to Lyon in both legs, as well as in the dead Fiorentina game. Similarly in the FA Cup. In all those cases, midfield and strikers did their jobs, there was some cohesion and effort, but the defense let them down. Is Alonso being missed. Definitely. With Alonso, my most favourite cerebral player, we can always have hope to find ways to overcome the handicap of a goal against when he’s in charge of the tempo and the angle of attacks. But without him and with the whole team just hanging on to slender leads, the nervous amplifies, and thereafter sure enough we concede at the end.

In the League though, is where we suffered from the collective loss of confidence. Damaging defeats to Pompey, Sunderland, Chelsea, Arsenal, Fulham, following the early season losses to Spurs and Villa means there was never any momentum to regain that confidence. Athletes in a finely-tuned team game understand this condition. It is hoped this big win over a direct rivals can regain some of that confidence while the cavalry arrives in the shape of Torres, Gerrard, Johsnson, Agger and Benayoun.

Can we nick 4^th? This I’m not too sure. City will be our direct competitors, it seems, and will require the whole team to be surgical cutting-edge in attack and blatant mean reinforced defence for the rest of the season? No one can answer that it seems, but I can certainly hope so, if for nothing else but the catastrophic implications of missing 4^th place for Liverpool FC’s future.

End of the 2009 Challenge

1. The 2009 Title Challenge

From not wanting to believe we could mount a title challenge, to ruing the fact that this could have been our year but for the unfortunate home draws against the lesser clubs. To me, it was a simple question of belief, which in the beginning was emerging but did not have the fullest conviction. Yet after the destruction of RM and MU, we could see the measured performances against all-comers, the ability to raise our game to not just win, but destroy the opposition. By then, of course, MU had the advantage – four, and then six points ahead, leaving the challenge to die after MU’s Arsenal draw.

What was most encouraging was the whole team structure – the formation, the performances, the substitutes, and embedded successfully throughout the whole core and exuding from its pores the mentality, the character and the confidence of winning regardless of who they face. It’s a most scary proposition now that the team in on the brink of domination if they can continue on this trajectory. The only concern would be that the additions to the squad this summer may have the unintended disruptive effects it had when trying to bed in Keane into the side early on in the season. The solution to that was his ejection though perhaps other considerations played their part too, as in his dropping value relative to his meager attacking contributions. Other additions this summer may not have similar outcomes.

I remember writing about Alonso and his impact in the Sunderland game after replacing Plessis (what happened to him?!), and I’m pleased that he had sustained that level of performance throughout the season. He stood out as the engine room of the team enabling all the other mechanisms to move and work in synchronicity. I believe without Alonso, and he has been a mainstay throughout the season, the challenge wouldn’t have been on at all. He would be my man of the season, and if he does leave to be replaced by Barry, I would be truly disappointed.

2. Building a future

I am in the process of finding my hedgehog, the overlap between what makes me the best, what can drive my economic engine and what drives my passion. It’s an important quest, and who knows if I do find it or not? But it should make for an interesting quest.

Chosen hope over fear

OBAMA-hypeology

 

“Chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord”, “Harnessing the sun and wind and soil”.. and for sure other Obama soundbites will enter the lexicon as the craftily designed inauguration speech gets analysed to death. How to say a lot of things, move people towards optimism and hope, yet not lay on too much for people to bite you in 3-4 years time as the realities of the world’s problems set in.

 

We all live in hope that tomorrow, next year, 5 year’s time will always be better. But the values that remain is of how we touch the hearts of others, and of that I have been a terrible failure to myself in my lifetime and moreso in my adult life. But the thought processes of leaders, particularly the great ones who could mobilise the masses to believe, and to bring forward the collective issues in their own voice, is a model for others to emulate.

 

We all can build our opinions, with hindsight, based on the mistakes of others, but those were judgments they had made within their circumstances. Of greater value is the ability to extend the same lines of reasoning to the future and choose our path, the best path for us and those we want to be with. That is a trait difficult to obtain and carries the risk of creating more bystanders instead of those partaking in the forging of the path to tread. Obama has chosen his way.. and our greatest hope is that he does not fall by the wayside too early. Pak Lah had a similar effect, though perhaps not in scale, when he took over from Tun, but 6 years on, he moves on with a whimper, generally with some sympathy at his inability to stamp his personality and character onto his political support, and in some cases reviled as the guy who brought shame to UMNO.

 

All this is well and good, but what can I use for my takeaway? A better adab when addressing people, including those of my kith and kin, and a greater sensitivity towards decision making when faced with life’s intersections.

 

Everton fallout

Firstly, good for Kaka to reject Mansour’s millions – money isn’t and cant buy everything. And it takes a devout Brazilian Christian raised in poverty to remind an Arabian billionaire that. Now if only he can donate the money towards reconstruction of Gaza and Palestine, I’m sure Gaza’s GDP is equivalent to that obscene amount for a footballer.

 

Secondly, MU has gone top, Chelsea is slowly turning things around and we’re still drawing games. Fans are getting anxious about the way things are going on and off the pitch, Chelsea, Villa and Arsenal are closing in, and not only are we falling off the top to MU (of all things), we’ll have to contend with the new, increased threats. I’ll support Rafa, though he has done many good things, not sure if his mind games are that good though although it was a valiant effort to take on all-comers – SAF, G&H, Parry et al. Now if only we can focus on regaining the early season and the first half form against Hull and Newcastle where we looked every bit as title contenders. In the meantime, I’ll have a lot of anxiety watching things unfold. I remember coming back from Hajj and seeing in the papers we had a chance to win the EPL in 2002 until that defeat to Spurs, and feeling a bit guilty that Liverpool playing many miles away is still a concern despite just coming hope from Mekah.

 

But, I do choose hope over fear.

 

Assortments - reinforcement and tank filling greatly required

Wednesday, November 26, 2008; 16:19:27

Another assortments piece here – namely for key action steps:
personal and family strategies – for here and hereafter
tech and RE work strategies – developing institutional capacity
CIRED, energy and TNB – sustainable progress
Liverpool – keeping the momentum
making sure I am sustainable

First salvo, personal and family strategies.
the kids take precedence – and by that I mean their development as muslims & mu’min, their education, their akhlak and their disposition should be a primary concern.
Hence, selection of school is crucial. Ensuring the right school meets these objectives must be done right, and also the practical aspects, including finances and potential risks assessed in making this decision. Once, decision made, however, there should be no stones unturned to make sure the objective is achieved.
Central to this is also the issue of wifey getting the time, a critical resource to carry out this role effectively. If that means compromising on financials in the short-term, then adequate contingencies have to be thought through, as well as bracing ourselves mentally and physically to meet the expected troughs.
This additional resource – time- should be used judiciously. One is to realign our interests to what are the key priorities in one’s life – and hence, participation and commitment in jamaah should be reinforced, participation in educational improvements at pre-school, school levels towards policy governance and administration could be enhanced; or even formation of new commercial interests taking into consideration of previous interests – in short, pursuing the hedgehog.
Mak? Well, she seems to accept her destiny of not being able to draw upon her children’s devotion. I blame my sisters for not being able to get-together to do things for mak’s best interests. I’m not too sure how to go about doing this, but definitely this is far from ideal.
Again, I do need to relook at this particular area and find ways for betterment.

Tech, RE and investment work strategies
Not as appealing as the point before, but I owe it to myself to make sure this works given the strategy from above. To that end, initiating indispensability is a key strategy, and that requires both intellectual and attitudinal shifts. Intellectually, justification for every position that I take is a necessity, and attitudinally, a strong and firm disposition is required.
The former, insyaAllah, whilst hard is not as difficult as the latter proposition. Being firm is not something I’ve been used to in a work context, being dripfed on the neo-feudalistic TNB culture. Even LTK, who I should have vociferously engaged antagonistically on numerous occasions, is addressed deferentially and nodded with in agreement. Although, I should think in private conversations, he tends to steer towards my opinions more times than usual, and then uses that opinion to influence his bosses. The result? He gets promoted a few times in 2 years, and me? Well, I can’t complain cos I’ve made my bed outside.
So, I’m reminded of the story of Musa a.s, being given his stick by Allah, and his articulation of its uses as evidence of characteristics of a daie. Also, the voluminous writings of numerous muslim scholars who had created a gigantic knowledge repository covering all possible permutations of life as being a key reason for the spread of the beauty of Islam and knowledge illuminating the Dark Ages of Europe. Never mind that it was later, erroneously, proclaimed that ijtihad is closed, thereafter relegating Islam to a slow, glacial-like deterioration to the sad happenings to muslims today. Yoga-issue doesn’t help – but more than that demonstrates the deficiency of wisdom in addressing today’s issues.
Key issue to follow through at work in portfolio content in addressing technology risk – as well as other possibilities that needs further analysis and considerations.

CIRED, energy and TNB issues
CIRED, utility and energy are the unholy trinity in the country now. Of course, CIRED is just a small association, but I’m using it as a proxy for other disengaged organizations and agencies who should be doing something but probably is not able to do much now for whatever reason.
Something needs to be done, and pushing it forward requires more mental preparation to move it forward at pace.

Liverpool
playing OM tonight. I think Rafa should play Lucas and stick a finger to the dumb fans who booed him after the Fulham game.
Of course, I was disappointed with the game – the performance stank until Alonso’s introduction (see comment abt Sunderland’s game before), result was awful and other big 4 results were no consolation given we would have outright league leadership had we won. But to boo Lucas, and therefore betraying an ego as if as fans they knew better than Rafa, and as if that was the only reason for the poor performance, boy that pissed me off more than the performance and the result.
Primarily, because I face the same set of ego here at work, and elsewhere, (cue: “I’m doing research, I know everything comment” from this colleague), of people who just because they have access to wiki and google knows everything. What they have is just information and data. Without that being tried and tested in real-time, having the big-time experience of putting it into the pounding mill, where wisdom can be churned out, then these type of people needs to re-learn humility. It’s a disappearing commodity.

My last comment is – well, apart form waking up at night to watch Liverpool, I face a serious challenge of developing myself to meet numbers 1-3. It requires getting my head screwed on right, my motivations spot-on, an action-packed orientation, the courage to standup and suffer and not just to follow the easy path all the time, and to develop relationships and networks to help meet aspirations. These are all great deficiencies, arising from the vast gaps of iman and the postponement and procrastination of addressing and filling up this empty tanks so hungry for reinforcements. The longer the wait goes on, the worse it will become, and should death invite me under this condition, then I shall fear very much for my condition in the hereafter. In this condition, hyprocrisy and munafik reigns. I pray I shall find the light.

Making this world a better place is easier to say than to practice.

Kl walk and Liverpool's chances

KL Walk
I hadn't realised KL had changed so much. Took a walk from masjid jamek LRT to menara maybank just now - it was hot, smoggy air, the interlocking pedestrian floor tiles are downright dirty, the air at the LRT station was stale and poorly ventilated, the traffic isn't sympathetic to pedestrians and let's not talk about the pavement (not) design(ed) for walkers. I sensed an awareness of the seedier side of KL as I approached Mydin and my xenophobic side took note of the large nos of indons and banglas- tho equally likely was the posssibility of snatch theft from the mcycle riders of the mat rempit kind. And even the food was lousy.

Liverpool's chances
As per every season, it's 50-50 - either we win or we don't.. bleah how uncommitted can I get!

But Rafa's strengthened the front, back looks as strong as ever, the middle-even by exchanging Alonso with Barry looks quite formidable, tho I can't really see how that transaction is a reinforcement, really looks a like-for-like replacement. But, what do I know?

United, Chelsea, Arsenal are still the main competitors - and Rafa better not sell Alonso to Arsenal as that really strengthens our rivals- esp with Wenger's track record of polishing talents and Alonso's industry and sublt passing skills with Fabregas eye for a pass will be a very strong central axis for Arsenal's attacking verve to pirouette from.

All in all, if pushed to give a prediction, we shall improve our points tally given the number of draws last year when we couldn't score the killer second goal and the defensive lapses, it'll be close and we'll fight it out until May, hopefully - then it'll just be who has the most luck - with injuries, refereeing decisions and so on. Btw we'll get our first league win against MU under Rafa this year - that I'm sure!