Support Group

Dear C.L.

How have you been? Hope you are well? You don’t mind me writing do you? Its just….Its… I miss you. There, I said it. I really really miss you.

I’m sorry I know right to say this. We never said it was forever. I always knew you couldn’t guarantee to always be there for me. Hell, you already changed your own rules once when it looked like I didn’t have the stuff to get to you.

After that time I tried really hard. You know I did. And it seemed to be getting easier. But that didn’t last. My friends all say you are fickle but I understand. You have certain requirements and if I wasn’t meeting them…then I guess I can’t be with you.

I’ll never forget those nights we had though. You made me feel so alive. So much passion, so much excitement. I swear there were times when you had me so exhilarated my whole body throbbed and I thought my brain would explode.

Those midweek rendezvous made everything else seem bearable. Even when the bread and butter stuff was going wrong you always found a way to make me feel hope. Even with all the hassle with the bosses you were there for me.

I hear you’ve started seeing T.H. Does he make you happy? Does he give you the thrills I used to. I know its none of my business who you see but I don’t think he’s good enough for you. He’s just a poser from ‘Laandan.’ He doesn’t have the class that I have….used to have.

I know he got you on merit but he’s not what you need. Those fancy things he gives you. The Van De Vaart and Modric? They’re nice and all…but what about all the good times I gave with Alonso and Masch? I still have the El Nino….you deserve the El Nino. And even if Mr. G is past his best he still has more good qualities than T.H.

You know I’m seeing E.L. of course. I can’t keep lying to myself. I hate her stupid face. She isn’t half of you…not even a small portion compared to you. When I’m with her, I fake it. She makes me use a Poulesen and Lucas. What kind of tempo and penetration can you expect with that. And she takes me to places like Utrecht. It sounds like S.T.I.

Remember the nights we had all over Europe. Madrid, Barcelona, Turin, London. And Istanbul. What a night. I thought I was finished. Over before I’d even got started. But you, you inspired me. I pulled out the most magnificent performance I can ever remember. Do you remember how you joked about my ‘Big Pole.’

I miss you so much it makes my bones throb and my heart ache. What I wouldn’t give to be there with you once again, sharing the highs and the lows. If you can tell me there is a chance…just a glimmer of hope, I’ll walk through deserts, climb mountains, sacrifice Sammy Lee. Anything to just once more be able to say you might be mine.

Don’t let the company I keep fool you. The likes of Hodgson and Knochesky I only keep around for E.L. I’m still in your league. We can be great together once again.

I love and miss you so much.

L.F.C.

For those of you who haven’t guessed that is not me pathetically pleading to be taken back by some European beauty. If only. No these are the pleas of a man deprived of something even more special than sexy time with a Spanish senorita. I’m talking about football.

I’ve been supporting Liverpool FC since 1986. In the interest of disclosure I need to add an addendum to that statement. I began supporting Liverpool in 1986 when they won the league and F.A. cup double. Before that I supported Man Utd.

I know, I know. Heresy. You are not supposed to switch football teams and you are definitely not supposed to switch between Man Utd and Liverpool. In my defence, I was only 10. And I only supported Man Utd because my nanny had gotten me an easter egg with a Man Utd cup. They didn’t win anything that year and Livepool had.

So yea, you can call me a fair weather fan. I like to think I’ve endured enough misery over the years to restore the karmic imbalance of abandoning my first team. Man Utd as anyone with oxygen in their body knows have become the biggest and most successful team on the planet. Liverpool? Livepool have become the bane of many tortured existences.

As the only member of my extended family who supports Liverpool, I’ve tolerated the (good natured) taunts and jeers of my United loving uncles, cousins and brothers for twenty years. I could always resort to the fact that my team had an overall historical better record. Man Utd have since caught up and Livepool only have slight advantage.

Do I regret my decision to switch allegiances? Not in the slightest. For all the heartache and torment, following Liverpool has given me some fantastic moments. They have an unrivalled penchant for drama even in defeat. I still have nightmares about losing the league in 1989 to that last minute Michael Thomas goal.

When they do win? Oh they do it in style. Their ability to come back when all seems lost in the big games is a phenomenon. Never has a team mastered delivering high drama and tension the way Liverpool have. Especially when it comes to the Champions League.

Last Wednesday, as I was once again losing a game of pool to my good friend Al, Man Utd were on the T.V. playing in the Champions League. For those of you who don’t know, Liverpool didn’t qualify for the Champions League and are instead competing in Europes inferior (no other word for it) competition, the Europa League. It was then that I decided to write the above letter.

Since then it has been an incredibly tumultuous week for all Livepool fans. A 0-0 draw to the above mentioned F.C Utrecht was bad enough. Our new managers comments after the game however were bewildering.

Roy Hodgson, who’s previous managerial experience with the likes of Fulham, Neuchatel Xamax and the Finnish national team was deemed the appropriate experience to take charge of one of the biggest football names in the world, said ‘It's the first time we haven't won one of these games but to be honest it would have been unfortunate for them if we'd won the game tonight. They would have felt hard done by. For me, a draw was a more than satisfactory result.’

Well I’m sorry Roy, actually no its not. Five years ago Liverpool where the champions of Europe. Their pedigree is second to none. In no way should they be considered fortunate to be on a par with a mid table Dutch club.

It was to get even worse. Three days later, at Anfield, for so many people the home of football, we lost to Blackpool. A team in their first season in the premiership. A team with no star players. A team expected to struggle to stay up in the top flight.

A team with more heart and character than Liverpool.

At the moment Liverpool sit third from bottom in the league. Fernando Torres is injured again. Our marquee summer signing, Joe Cole, has failed to impress so far. The team are playing a dull passive style that is not the Liverpool way. It is however, the Roy Hodgson way.

We have great players but they aren’t performing. So many players are playing out of their best positions and it shows. No one seems certain of what they should be doing.

All this without even mentioning the fact that they got knocked out of the League Cup by Northampton. That’s Northampton who at the time of writing are 19th in League 2, three divisions below Liverpool. It really isn’t easy being a Liverpool fan.

The letter to the Champions league seemed like a nice little blog. Something to make fun of the current situation that my team find themselves in. Then as when the Utrecht result came in, I didn’t feel like poking fun. When the Blackpool game happened, I was too depressed to post.

A lot of the malaise has been attributed to the clubs American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette. They took over a couple of years ago using the club as collateral and have since crippled it with debt which in turn has delayed progress on promised developments for the team such as a new ground and investment in the team.

They have angered and alienated many of the clubs great fans and have changed the atmosphere of supporters from one of hope and optimism to despair. Supporter groups have organised in an attempt to oust the owners. Protest marches and sit ins are a common occurrence at Anfield these days. And while I’m sure thick skinned , brass necked Americans like Tom Hicks couldn’t care less about fan protests there is finally a chink of light for the put upon supporters.

The Americans inability to pay their debts resulted in the banks forcing them to sell the club. If they failed to do so before the 15th of October the club would then be repossessed (as such) by the bank. The Royal Bank of Scotland did not want this and put in a non executive chairman to ensure the club was sold.

This morning it looked like a sale was agreed. With more American but this time ones who have a track record for reviving flagging sports teams fortunes. New England Sports Ventures are the parent company of the Boston Red Sox. Since taking over the Red Sox they won their first championship in over 80 years and followed that up with a second. They renovated their old Fenway Park stadium, redesigned the management and playing staff structure and basically woke a sleeping giant. The head of the consortium, John W Henry (not the Steel Driving Man) was recently voted the best owner in Major League Baseball.

The saga has not had its happy ending yet as Hicks and Gillette are attempting to block the sale as they make no profit from it. Despite the fact that they have put the club in a position where financial administration is a possibility they still have the audacity to try and screw over the club one more time. Thankfully it does not look like they have a leg to stand on legally.

So whilst always being aware of the old adage of ‘once bitten twice shy’ it looks like off the field there is hope for Liverpool. Now, if we can get the team playing to its ability and in a style that its fans have become accustomed to there may be more reasons to be positive.

Its rarely easy being a Liverpool fan. But for emotional turmoil, drama, intrigue and high tension I wouldn’t swap it for any other team. This blog has been one the more negative ones I done. My team have given me a hard time lately and yet I’m able to find hope to end it on. Having hope, that sums up supporting Liverpool in two words.