by Chris Tobin

If there is one thing worse than a poor loser then surely it is someone unable to accept victory no matter the cost. The striving to ascend and achieve , without excuse and above all showing an ambition to constantly perform to a higher level as is possible – Above all endeavour, success.

 To quote a famous Shankly quote;

“If a man….who’s playing in front of the public, is being well paid, and he doesn’t dedicate himself to the job, I’d be hard on him. If I could I would put him in jail, out of the road of society. Because he’s a menace”

This week Brendan Rodgers would put himself precariously in the High Court of Shankly, he would assume the role of menace, even if only in words he would be guilty as charged as he lacked Shank’s expected dedication. His crime would be that of suggesting that perhaps not qualifying for European Football next season may possibly be a blessing in disguise, as Liverpool would have a greater chance of finishing within the elite top four of next seasons Premier League without such distractions.

Firstly and to add balance Rodgers exact quote –

“We would love to be in there and we want to finish as high as we possibly can, but it won’t be the end of the world if we don’t qualify for Europe. If it doesn’t happen then it could end up being a blessing for us”.

Liverpool’s abject failure to qualify for even a Europa League place should be seen as a complete disaster in terms of the clubs statue and as such Rodgers rather than looking for & finding a silver lining in a sows ear of a campaign, would be far better suited to expressing the unacceptable position of this great club – It would be no less than three weeks ago when Rodgers opinion; albeit it agenda ridden; Liverpool could achieve a coveted top four position.

This seems to be the agenda for Brendan Rodgers – self-preservation. At times like this his rhetoric becomes rather less palatable. Indeed unacceptable. Does he expect supporters to become apathetic toward success, by his reasoning our early exits from both The F.A. Cup and League Cup should surely have resulted in a much better league position this season – Failure excused by future triumphs, losing battles to have an opportunity to attend the war.

Rodgers expectation for his Liverpool team has been up & down on more occasions, than a whores knickers, & with it the fans expectations have become watered down with each passing week or press conference.

It costs nothing to kiss The Blarney Stone. It appears that this season Rodgers has made many a pilgrimage to west Cork and Blarney Castle. His chat has become rather nonsensical at times, more reminiscent of Allardyce, Redknapp or Steve McLaren – As much as I like our manager for footballing reasons and remain less reticent as regard this, I am increasingly concerned around his discourse, at times completely embarrassed by it. 

I do however understand he is a young man still finding his feet at one of the world’s biggest clubs. With my critique I do feel rather like I am criticizing my friend’s new Adidas trainers for appearing slightly garish.

Football managers do not have, or indeed expect immunity from supporter’s intent on clarification and justification, through their medium of criticism. Blindly following the messiah whilst unable to see and point out his shortcomings won’t win trophies. As Bill Shankly said “is being well paid” –

Abraham Lincoln once said “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”

You can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/christobinsings