This week I heard an English manager saying that football would be great without the fans.
Talking to the movers and shakers in the game, you often get the impression that there’s quite a few who believe life would be simpler if supporters would stick to being passive consumers.
Have they got a point? Imagine a game minus the passion but without the fickle nature of fans. We might be left with a football business, like most industries, where the head rules the heart: where calculated decisions are made by those with all the facts and expertise to hand and where things like a manager’s track record, decision making and progress are all seen in context and taken into consideration when his job’s on the line.
But when the fans and media combine - whether ranting on phone-ins or shouting with their keyboards in internet forums – perspective goes out the window.
Take Rafa Benitez – it doesn’t seem to matter to many that he has a better points average than Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson achieved in their first five seasons at their respective clubs.
When the heart rules the head, apparently all that counts is that Liverpool have lost four games in a row.
Immediately after the Lyon defeat, a rumour spread like wildfire that Rafa was about to be sacked. Liverpool, interconnected by big families and interchangeable favours, is that kind of town.
An ‘expert’ in a Merseyside pub boasts that he’s been told Rafa is going – and it’s all over the City in minutes. It seems last season’s progress and genuine title challenge is quickly forgotten.
What matters to the fans is the here and now. All of us, including the media, are obsessed with the short term solution.
Is there a massive problem at Liverpool or a handful of minor ones? In my opinion, the latter is closer to the reality of the situation: simultaneous injuries to Gerrard and Torres; the perception that this season the team has been weakened; the lack of funding and the long term injury of Aquilani are contributing to make a drama out of lots of little crises.
A loss of focus on the part of a manager who is rotating his squad more than last season: swapping player positions (is Gerrard a striker or a midfielder?) while surprising everyone with tactics (three centre backs against Sunderland).
Yet the solution is close at hand and resolving just one of those minor issues could tip the balance the other way and restore confidence.
For example, without all the information at hand, the armchair experts think Jamie Carragher’s form is a sign of a player past his peak – yet if they knew that regular physical tests have shown that he is amongst the five fittest players at the club, they might think differently.
Football is a state of the mind – but while the silent minority are using their heads, the majority speak from the heart and complicate life for those in charge. But even if it was possible, would we want our football any other way?
Talking to the movers and shakers in the game, you often get the impression that there’s quite a few who believe life would be simpler if supporters would stick to being passive consumers.
Have they got a point? Imagine a game minus the passion but without the fickle nature of fans. We might be left with a football business, like most industries, where the head rules the heart: where calculated decisions are made by those with all the facts and expertise to hand and where things like a manager’s track record, decision making and progress are all seen in context and taken into consideration when his job’s on the line.
But when the fans and media combine - whether ranting on phone-ins or shouting with their keyboards in internet forums – perspective goes out the window.
Take Rafa Benitez – it doesn’t seem to matter to many that he has a better points average than Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson achieved in their first five seasons at their respective clubs.
When the heart rules the head, apparently all that counts is that Liverpool have lost four games in a row.
Immediately after the Lyon defeat, a rumour spread like wildfire that Rafa was about to be sacked. Liverpool, interconnected by big families and interchangeable favours, is that kind of town.
An ‘expert’ in a Merseyside pub boasts that he’s been told Rafa is going – and it’s all over the City in minutes. It seems last season’s progress and genuine title challenge is quickly forgotten.
What matters to the fans is the here and now. All of us, including the media, are obsessed with the short term solution.
Is there a massive problem at Liverpool or a handful of minor ones? In my opinion, the latter is closer to the reality of the situation: simultaneous injuries to Gerrard and Torres; the perception that this season the team has been weakened; the lack of funding and the long term injury of Aquilani are contributing to make a drama out of lots of little crises.
A loss of focus on the part of a manager who is rotating his squad more than last season: swapping player positions (is Gerrard a striker or a midfielder?) while surprising everyone with tactics (three centre backs against Sunderland).
Yet the solution is close at hand and resolving just one of those minor issues could tip the balance the other way and restore confidence.
For example, without all the information at hand, the armchair experts think Jamie Carragher’s form is a sign of a player past his peak – yet if they knew that regular physical tests have shown that he is amongst the five fittest players at the club, they might think differently.
Football is a state of the mind – but while the silent minority are using their heads, the majority speak from the heart and complicate life for those in charge. But even if it was possible, would we want our football any other way?
