by hishhish » Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:48 am
Here is an article from Hansen.
It is unfortunately painfully truth. Tactics, passion, and history can only get you so much. You need money, and I think the idea of negativity from not winning for so long, is defenitely possible. The Boston Red Sox "jinx" comes to mind, that was a barren period of 80 plus years.
Alan Hansen: Liverpool face critical time
This is the most critical time in the history of Liverpool Football Club.
By Alan Hansen
Last Updated: 2:17PM BST 01 Sep 2008
Comments 4 | Comment on this article
Looking to the future: Rafael Benitez will need the right investments to be made if his side are to challenge at the top Photo: Getty Images
If they do not succeed in building a new stadium and generating the money to bring in the players that can compete with Manchester United and Chelsea, the fear grows, month by month and year by year that they will never win the title back. And for the supporters who have backed the club like no other, that realisation will be very hard to take.
When David Moores agreed to sell the club to their American owners, it was on the basis that, if Liverpool were to challenge for the title again, they had to leave Anfield. Gates of 44,000 cannot compete with the 76,000 at Old Trafford, the money generated by the corporate boxes at the Emirates or the bottomless financial pit Roman Abramovich has enabled Chelsea to dip into. That the new stadium in Stanley Park is in further doubt is nothing short of a disaster for the long-term future of the club.
Liverpool have not won the title for 18 years and despite the fact that they have taken seven points from their first three games, that length of time creates a negativity around the club. Manchester United had to wait 26 years before regaining the title but in 1993, when Sir Alex Ferguson finally dragged them back to the summit, it was possible to win the championship with teams that were merely good. These days you have to be great to take the Premier League and Liverpool are a long way from great.
Under first Gerard Houllier and then Rafael Benitez, Liverpool have spent big money on players who have not pushed the club forward that much. And as much as I love Anfield I have to accept that the only way Liverpool are going to raise the sustained finances to compete month in and month out at the top of the Premier League is with a new stadium.
But I don’t just worry for Liverpool in the long term. I am already concerned for this season. It might seem strange to be so negative when Liverpool have done reasonably well in their opening games and are second in the Premier League. But it is those 18 years without a championship that contribute to those negative feelings because they create so much baggage around the club. We are all used to seasons starting on a tidal wave of optimism and seeing hopes dashed a third of the way in.
Yesterday at Aston Villa, Liverpool turned up with a determination that they would not lose rather than with any real plan to win the game. This was summed up by the fact that they did not have a single shot on target in the 90 minutes. Every supporter of every club in the Premier League would take winning over entertainment, but the truth is that in five matches Liverpool have never remotely looked like playing well. Watching Manchester United overcome Portsmouth last Monday, their passing and movement was way ahead of anything Liverpool have put together. And of the squad that Benitez has assembled, far too much depends on just two players if Liverpool are to win - Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. It has become fashionable to question just how good Gerrard is but you just have to examine Liverpool’s displays without him to get your answer. He is every bit as valuable as Cristiano Ronaldo is to Manchester United.
Robbie Keane’s impact has been less than dramatic but in his defence I would say he is not a left-winger which is how he was used at Villa Park yesterday. He had one great chance and he was not quite quick enough and did not quite have the confidence to take it. But Keane should be the least of Liverpool’s worries.
What should worry their supporters is their one-dimensional style of play with no width that makes it easier to defend against Liverpool than any other leading side. To have taken so many points from so few chances, Liverpool either needed to be incredibly good or incredibly lucky and the blunt truth is that they have been lucky.
players we have. prime example was last years pre season in china,where we played some part time Chinese team and struggled. after the match finished you had the embarrassing sight of our players looking for people to swap shirts with...but the players we have are so small time that even these chinese players had zero interest in getting their shirts. against standard they were hardly busting their gut to get our players shirt....we have nobodies playing for us. and its taken this bloody long for the fans to realize rafa is a kuntz,which means we now have nobody fans who don't know their stuff, fans who can't spot a junk player and come on here slagging off those of us who can. you are right its not just rafa to blame half of its is brain dead lazy thicko fans who has kept junk managers in a job. we need a new bigger stadium to let the real fans in instead of these brain dead cretins.....you'll never walk alone .
and it wasnt Rafa who annexed the deals it was everyones favourite chief exec, Rick Parry
