Players Only Loyalty is to the Game

Loyalty does not exist in football.

And nor should it.

Yet the topic of players and disloyalty rears it’s ugly head in the transfer window as frequently as players move club.

The problem with loyalty is simple.

The subject matter is always broached from a supporters point of view.

But supporters aren’t in football.

They are always only the support that allows football to live.

Football supporters can be the embodiment of loyalty.

Some will tell you they haven’t missed a games in 30 years.

Others have tattoos of crests twice the size of their heart.

But it is because of this almost blind loyalty that supporters believe their players will feel the same way about their club.

After all, these players are getting to live the dream of so many of these supporters.

They must love the club to do so.

They must therefore be loyal.

After all, every supporter would be - if given the chance to play for their club.

Or so some supporters would believe.

Wayne Rooney grew up joining his boyhood heros Everton.

They gave him Premier League football.

Yet Wayne wanted more.

As loyal as he was to the blue half of Merseyside, he wanted to win major honours.

He joined Manchester United.

He won major honours.

Jamie Carragher has now spent his entire career at Liverpool.

The biggest rival to Everton, whom like Wayne, he also supported.

Jamie would never have won the Champions League with the Toffees.

‘Loyal’ to the reds.

Yet I use the word loyal loosely.

True, Jamie and also Steven Gerard have stayed at the one club their entire careers.

Through thick an thin, supporters might argue.

But the reality is, they both stayed because they were getting something in return.

Their careers were benefitting from playing for a club who regularly qualified for the Champions League.

Who won the Champions league.

Along with numerous other cups.

But even after capturing the biggest club prize of all, Steven’s head was being turned by another team.

Liverpool supporters will say he was loyal in the end when he opted against the switch.

But if winning the Champions League was almost not enough to keep the player who joined them at the age of 10 - imagine what finishing mid-table would have done?

Or getting relegated?

Like the Leeds United team of 2003.

A great team that had taken a gamble on Champions League glory and when success on the pitch wasn’t achieved - the wheels came off rapidly.

A player exodus commenced.

Amongst them was a young Alan Smith.

A Leeds man through and through.

Made up of equal measures of love for his club and hatred for his rivals.

No bigger rival to his team of course was Manchester United.

The team he joined 3 weeks after Leeds left the Premier League.

No championship for Alan.

No, straight to the Champions League for this loyal supporters favourite.

Even those who stayed with the sunken ship cannot claim loyalty.

Gary Kelly hung around for 3 more seasons in the Championship.

Unlikely he could have found another big club at his age.

And he was the third highest paid full back in England after all.

Manchester United have their loyal bunch too.

Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs to name a few.

All loyal one club men.

All achieving every ambition imaginable in the game at one of the biggest clubs in the world.

No sign of the championship for them.

There are of course players who remain ‘loyal’ to their smaller clubs.

Matt Le Tissier perhaps the most overt.

Regularly coveted by larger, more successful clubs.

It would have been easy for him to move on.

But he was the star man at Southampton.

The center of everything.

And he was guaranteed Premier league football.

Finishing his career at Southampton was great to see.

Loyal to the team that gave him his break.

Yet Matt grew up in Guernsey - hardly a haven for Southampton supporters.

Supporters adorn some of the aforementioned players.

They see them as ‘loyal’ servants to the cause as they have remained at their beloved club.

The truth is, the ‘loyal’ ones always made sure it suited them to stay.

This was their career after all.

They don’t support their clubs.

Their clubs support them.

‘There’s no loyalty in the game anymore’ is heard up and down every terrace come transfer window season.

Could it just be that is heard during the period since the Bosman ruling came to fruition?

No longer could the clubs decide where and when the player would go.

Instead the player inherited the power.

The power to remain loyal.

Loyal to the club.

Or loyal to their career...

Who cares what Liverpool Supporters think

Liverpool 0 West Bromwich Albion 1.

Yet another defeat at Anfield for the mighty Liverpool.

They now sit in the Premier League in a group of teams separated by 3 points that include Norwich, Swansea and West Bromich Albion.

With only a couple of games left to go in the season, I see that as a disgrace for a club the size of Liverpool considering how much they have spent in the last year and a half.

However, I am not a Liverpool supporter.

I have enjoyed watching what I consider to have been great football under Rafa Benitez.

I have enjoyed watching the likes of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher over the years and would hate to see them retire without winning the Premier League.

And I have enjoyed numerous epic European nights over the last decade.

But I am not a Liverpool supporter.

And I say supporter, as opposed to fan.

For it is they who support the club.

They who pay the entrance fee.

They who are the ones who experience the emotions of both the clubs successes - and failures.

Not me, nor other neutrals.

Who cares what they think about their club - It’s their club.

So as most Liverpool supporters have been staunch in the defence of Kenny Dalglish - most neutrals think it is blind nostalgia towards a hero of yesteryear who is so far out of the game he should not be allowed near a club the size of theirs.

Liverpool supporters believe that because Andy Carroll scored 2 important goals recently - he starting to prove his worth.

Most neutrals think Andy was a colossal waste of money and at €40m, consider him to be one of the greatest flops in the history of the Premier League.

Liverpool supporters believe Charlie Adam is an acceptable signing because he cost only €8m.

Most neutrals think he is nowhere near good enough to even grace the bench of a club that size.

Liverpool supporters believe Luis Suarez is in the World Class bracket.

Most neutrals look at the record of Luis this season - 8 goals in 28 games - and think why?

Van Persie has 27 in 35.

Rooney has 26 in 31.

Even Yakubu has twice as many as Luis and played a game less.

But again, us neutrals are not Liverpool supporters.

The way Kenny brought shame onto the club with his handling of the racism row was again something that we didn’t agree with.

We also didn’t like the handling of Roy Hodgson.

Sacked after only a few months, Roy now sits 1 point behind Liverpool despite not spending €130million.

Most neutrals laughed when Liverpool won the Carling Cup.

We think it’s a trophy that lost all its prestige when big teams, and Liverpool were one of them, started using the cup to blood youngsters and allow recently injured players get back to full fitness.

As Real Madrid defeated Barcelona on Saturday night to almost guarantee them La Liga - I couldn’t help but wonder what has happened in the 3 years since Liverpool destroyed Real Madrid 5-0.

I miss that team.

That for me, was where Liverpool belonged.

Not winning Carling Cups with Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing in their team.

Hammering the greatest club in Europe with World Class players like Torres, Gerard and Alonso.

But alas, as I said, I am not a Liverpool supporter.

It’s them and only them who can make their judgement on their club and where it should be.

If they support Kenny and Charlie, Andy and Luis, plus the Carling Cup and feel all that is good enough for their club - they will get what they deserve.

I just feel they should be aiming a little higher...

Age is not on Redknapp’s side

If I was Harry Redknapp, I would think long and hard about taking this England job he is being linked with so heavily.

The positives of staying at Tottenham are obvious.

No longer considered a selling club.

Looking good for a Champions League place for next season.

And perhaps most importantly - a squad that has age on it’s side.

Something you definitely could not say about the current English team.

Harry should look closely at the age profile of England’s best as their golden generation start to dissipate from centre stage.

Only last week Steven Gerard said he would consider his international future after the European Championships this summer.

He was certainly one of the world class players from the golden generation.

He’ll be 34 come the next world cup.

John Terry - England captain and leader, has marshalled the defence for almost a decade now.

He’ll turn 33 for the tournament in Brazil.

His partner in defence may not even make it that far.

With injuries adding up, Rio Ferdinand’s career has been nothing short of stop start over the past few seasons and if he’s still playing will be 35.

It wasn’t so long ago that England could choose between Terry, Ferdinand, Sol Campbell and Jamie Carragher.

They were the main force at the back of the big four clubs as well.

Not any more.

Then there’s Ashley Cole.

He’ll be 33.

Frank Lampard 36.

Paul Scholes 39.

All of these players have gone through World Class stages throughout their career.

But if Harry is thinking beyond the summer in Poland and Ukraine, he won’t be able to think about any of these players playing a central role for him.

He will still be able to pick from numerous great players - just not world class players.

World class players that the future of England look to potentially have.

Those who qualified for the U21 tournament last summer are either at big clubs or have demanded huge transfers to big clubs.

Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Micah Richards, Jordan Henderson, Tom Cleverly, Jack Wilshere and Andy Carroll to name but a few.

Plus at just 24 - Joe Hart can consider himself in the same bracket considering the reality of goalkeepers not hitting their peaks until much later.

They come with huge promise and potential but of course, are players for the future, not the present.

It’s the present that should worry Harry the most.

With the exception of Wayne Rooney, not a single player in his prime in the England set-up can live in the world class bracket.

Not one.

Sure there’s good players.

Great players even.

But Wayne is the only one who can live with the 7 or 8 from the golden generation who are on their way out.

Perhaps in 5 years time some of last summers young stars will have laid claim to being in the same league as Gerard or Lampard.

But not for 5 years will they be performing to such a level.

Performing in their prime.

Harry must be looking at this and thinking to himself - I wish I’d had this opportunity 5 years ago.

Whether he would have made a bigger difference than Fabio Capello is a different debate - but he certainly won’t be starting from as good a platform.

If the golden generation could manage no further than a quarter final - then Harry must be questioning how far he can take this silver crop.

At 65, he doesn’t have many moves left in him.

He no longer has age on his side.

Nor it appears, do this England team...

One year on - Is Kenny still King?

Kenny Dalglish completed one year in charge of Liverpool Football Club over the weekend.

A lot has been said about how Kenny has had an excellent year when comparing Liverpool’s standing in the league now to where they where when he took over.

But Liverpool shouldn’t be comparing themselves to their lowest point of recent history - rather the height of just a few seasons ago.

Rafa Benitez did have a poor season to finish off his tenure, but he also had 5 great years.

And Kenny took over just 5 footballing months after Rafa.

Any comparisons should be made between Liverpool now and Liverpool under the great Spaniard.

This is where I have great difficulty in believing Kenny has done an excellent job so far.

He is not a patch on the master tactician and while you could argue that Rafa never lifted that elusive league title, that just goes to show how much further Kenny will have to go if he is to realise the dreams of the Anfield club.

Rafa never played the attractive brand of football that has become synonymous with teams like Manchester United or Arsenal, but his defensive set-up and tactical shrewdness meant he endeared himself to the purists of the game.

There was nothing more fascinating to watch than Rafa’s team defy the far superior attacking sides time and time again, bringing great success to Liverpool, namely in the Champions League.

Kenny, having spent over 10 years out of the game, has brought back all the passion, belief and inspiration that is loved on the terraces up and down England.

But he hasn’t added any tactical shrewdness - something that Rafa had in abundance.

The sort of tactical mind that is needed to take a team from being happy to compete for 4th place in the Premier League every season to a team that has their sights set on actually winning it.

What helped Kenny land the job was being a former player and manager of this great club.

If any Liverpool supporter actually thought about it objectively for one moment - handing the reigns of the club over to a man who had been out of the game for 10 years was ludicrous.

All this talk of ‘The return of the King’ was bound to cloud the issues for supporters - given the phenomenal support that Kenny could expect on the terraces from past glories.

Ultimately, they will be judge, jury and executioner for Kenny.

But walking into a courtroom when all 12 men are heralding you as a ‘King’ can only lead to clouded judgement.

For starters, his dealings in the transfer market have been questionable at best.

The signing of Andy Carroll his biggest mistake so far.

£35 million for a player of his quality was a massive misjudgment on his part.

However, his decision to sell Fernando Torres was both shrewd and brave.

An absolute hero to the Liverpool fateful and one of only two genuine world class players at the club.

But Kenny had seen signs of his demise and managed to top up his transfer kitty with £50 million.

Luis Suarez, whilst having undoubted talent, has question marks hanging over him following his 8 game ban for racism and 1 game ban for making an obscene gesture to opposition supporters.

Kenny was already aware of the disciplinary side of the ‘Cannibal of Ajax’, so aptly named by a Dutch newspaper following his 7 game ban for biting an opponents ear in Holland.

He will have his work cut out to make sure Luis doesn’t go the way of someone like Carlos Tevez.

However, the potential is there for Kenny to turn Luis into a world class player, if he can get the best out of his little South American.

Charlie Adam, whilst only costing £7 million, looks nothing more than a decent squad player, looking desperately short since the recent return of Steven Gerard.

Steven has shown immediately in his few games back, what is needed to be a general in the Liverpool midfield.

Good judgement on Kenny’s part was the signing of Jose Enrique, who has slotted in excellently to a defensive unit that Kenny is starting to build for the team.

But Stewart Downing until this weekend, had zero goals and zero assists.

Not the sort of return needed from an attacking winger.

Kenny just can’t seem to get the best out of his signing.

But with only one year in charge, and not even a full season to date, now is not the time to judge him.

He has his work cut out and should be given time during this transitional period.

However, with £115 million having already been spent, he is only in touching distance of fourth place because Arsenal and Chelsea are massively underachieving this season.

In a season without distractions like European competition either.

Kenny has appeased the terraces so far when supporters compare him to Roy Hodgson.

But he has a long way to go before he gets back to where Rafa had this great club.

Let alone to where the supporters really want to be...

It could be big time Charlie for Liverpool.

Charlie Adam is on the verge of joining Liverpool.

Great move for Adam.

Great deal for Blackpool.

But great business for Liverpool?

I’m not so sure.

Charlie Adam was a revelation last season.

Brilliant to watch.

A real talisman.

Scored 12 goals from midfield in the Premier League.

Add to that, 7 assists.

A great return for a club that ended up relegated.

However, a team in which Adam takes all the corners.

Takes all the free-kicks.

All the penalties.

He was pretty much central to everything Blackpool did.

Everything got played through Adam and it so nearly paid off.

But with relegation, came the inevitability that Adam would move on.

And if QPR, Norwich or Swansea could afford him, I think he’d be a terrific signing for them.

Or Aston Villa, Bolton, West Brom, Sunderland et al.

They could make Adam their focal point.

Build their teams around him.

But not Liverpool.

They have Steven Gerard for one.

Their own talisman.

Takes free-kicks, corners, penalties.

The central point of the team.

Everything gets played through him.

And that won’t change to Charlie Adam.

You can’t compare a man who has had success at the very top for a long time to a 25 year old who has only 11 caps for Scotland.

Liverpool can also call on midfielders like Kuyt, Meireles, Lucas, the returning Aquilani and new £20 million man Henderson.

The won’t feel the need to play through Adam.

Every one of them already has a certain quality to do it themselves.

In fairness though, good players do play better with good players around them and Adam might just excel in this Liverpool team.

He will have to adapt his game drastically though.

No longer set piece man nor the focal point means Adam will have to add something to his game that we haven’t seen from him yet.

The kind of quality that will take him to the next level.

The same quality Liverpool desire.

The same quality he should desire.

Just not sure where he’s going to get it from...