No matter how hard to you try to foresee how other people will interpret your work, there will always be surprises in their reactions. Having seen a few conclusions drawn from my most recent piece, I just wanted to clarify a couple of points.
Such is the importance placed on being in the Champions League, the thought of Liverpool missing out on the top four will be treated by many as the same as relegation. Last night’s defeat against Wigan won’t have helped ease such fears.
This is an abridged version of a chapter-length piece published on here five weeks ago for members, which examines various facets of the media, and how it affects perceptions of Liverpool Football Club.
It has come to my attention that one of football’s most prominent television personalities, in a seriously high-profile position, continually refers to Rafa Benítez as “the fat Spanish waiter” when off camera. Perhaps even more alarmingly, editorial decisions have been made to purposely show Benítez in a bad light, in a way that would definitely not be done with other managers.
It’s interesting to me that a manager with a world-class CV could be described as ‘lucky’ by his critics. If these naysayers were confined to cranks on the internet, it’d be one thing; that the accusation has been made on national TV by commentators is quite another.
“The Need to Balance the Books”. Having previously looked at Gross spend – which, in effect, deals with the boost of new players irrespective of whether anyone is sold – it’s time to focus on the Net figures, which take into account money raised by sales. This is particularly important for ‘properly run’ clubs, i.e. those that cannot write off expensive flops with a shrug of the shoulders.
This is a list of some of the achievements of Rafa Benítez and his players in the past five and a half years. Some of them won’t be remembered as highly significant, but many of them highlight the progress made since 2004.
The shocking, damning statistic is that this season Liverpool have been awarded only 15% of undeniably clear penalties, and 13% if you include a couple of very strong “seen them given” shouts. That’s right; 13 penalties should have been awarded, with a further two taken into consideration. Only two have been given. Even with my obvious Liverpool bias, and in full whinge-mode, I find that quite incredible.
The Reds are in some kind of tailspin, and have been ever since losing those games at the start. It was built into a massive deal because, shock horror, Liverpool only lost two games all of last season. (As I’ve stated before, this was noted, without irony, while ignoring what an achievement that was in the first place.)
We have Martin Lipton, noted Spurs fan (hmm, who do we play at the weekend?), slating Rafa’s “terrible transfer policy” and questioning whether Ryan Babel is part of that, or actually just someone who’s just been made a scapegoat by the manager.
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