This weekend has been excellent! My excitement has been restored in football and in particular in Chelsea FC. The news broke on Friday (28/01) that an offer for Torres had been made, as i sit here tonight on Monday 31/01 the deal is nearly done for a British record £50m. Unbeleiveable. A frankly disgusting amount of money but an exciting and invigorating signing. Anyway this blog isn't about that it's about the reaction of the Liverpool fans. A reaction that is crystalised by someone burning a Torres shirt live on Sky Sports News.
Pathetic.
The crux of it seems to be how dare anyone want to leave Liverpool for whatever the reason! The reason no-one should not want to leave Liverpool is because of their tradition and history. Because they are well supported in thailand (apparently). No-one can deny that Liverpool have a great history, umpteen league titles, FA Cups, European Cups etc etc.....but seriously how many years ago? When Abramovich bought Chelsea the Liverpool fans were on talk radio saying how "...you couldn't buy history...", "...you can't buy class...". indeed they are right. But what you can do is start.
History has to start somewhere.
Actually they were wrong, Hicks and Gillette bought Liverpool among a load of promises of new stadiums and players. Turns out you can buy history even if you don't have the money. That went bad so Liverpool, having had their laundry well and truly washed in public, have new american owners. Oh and the appointed chairman to oversee the sale of Liverpool was a Chelsea fan and season ticket holder.
Back to Torres, Liverpool fans on phone-in's, twitter and countless other media mechanisms have been incredulous that Torres would want to leave. The actual reason is yet to fully transpire, you can only speculate that it is Champions League football. Liverpool not in it this season and unlikely to be there next. That said Chelsea are not currently looking assured of Champions League football next season although our position is stronger. Even Stan Collymore tweeted that clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool tell players when they can leave which is basically when they are done.
That might have been the case before but everything has moved on. There will always be players that want to play for Liverpool because they supported them as a lad, probably more than any other club. The flip side of that is that the days of Liverpool as a power are firmly in the past, that glory may be restored in the fullness of time. The fans opinions are also firmly in the past - look at the hysterical reaction to Kenny Dalglish being given the manager role - two words: Newcastle and Celtic (actually that was three).
Fans never understand why a player wants to leave their club - we love the clubs so why don't the players? Doesn't matter what club it is that's the way it is.
