The Reds' embarrassing own goal...
PUBLISHED:22:00, 22 September 2012| UPDATED:22:01, 22 September 2012
With the first episode of Being Liverpool, C5’s ‘behind the scenes’ football documentary drawing to a close, the narrator was clearly building up to a big Hollywood moment: ‘These are the players of Liverpool Football Club.
'Their task is to return their club to glory. Their ambition is to win as one.’
Sadly, a glance at the league table this morning would provide an update on that ambition. Because now they just want to win ONE.
Liverpool's new boss Brendan Rodgers seems a decent, thoughtful, hardworking sort of man
Of course Sod’s Law and Alex Ferguson’s ‘Football – Bloody Hell’ Law dictate that they will achieve their first victory of the season this lunchtime against the team I support.
But either way it is to be hoped Liverpool will have learnt a valuable lesson about the dangers of getting into bed with a documentary crew.
No matter how much control you think you have – and at times, Being Liverpool did rather resemble a glossy, Americanised corporate marketing video – you will come unstuck eventually.
I just hope the man who appears to have the most to lose isn’t the one who ends up losing the most.
Because the club’s new boss Brendan Rodgers seems a decent, thoughtful, hardworking sort of man.
But if the on-field woes continue and he becomes this season’s first big-name managerial casualty, his role in Being Liverpool will simply be viewed as a stick with which to beat him.
Instead of his words of wisdom adorning the training ground walls like Bill Shankly’s, they will be passed around the internet with Rodgers being treated as some David Brent-like joke figure.
Having said that, if he comes out with many more gems like ‘the player plus the environment equals the behaviour’ he might deserve some of the ridicule.
I mean, that kind of talk is surely a mere step away from him bringing his guitar to training and forcing Steven Gerrard to grunt a chorus of Freebird.
It was a bit harsh of the producers to leave in Rodgers’s quote about Andy Carroll’s future, though:
‘It’s going to take something incredible for him to leave.’
As we all know Carroll was duly sent off on loan. To, er, West Ham.
Rodgers also deserved better than the lingering unexplained shot of the huge pop-art print of himself which dominates his living-room wall.
The film-makers were clearly inviting us to base a judgement about his character on this shameless display of ego. Who knows, if they’d bothered to ask maybe Rodgers would have explained it was a gift of appreciation from a group of disabled Swansea fans?
I also felt a little sorry for Rodgers when, to his obvious discomfort, he was obliged to take part in a cringey press conference with the coach of the Boston Red Sox, the baseball team owned by Liverpool’s owners.
The guy was called Bobby Valentine, for God’s sake. How is a thoughtful unassuming guy from Ulster meant to compete with stardust like that?
Still, at least the Andy Carroll mention did lay bare the basic flaw of this whole enterprise. Rubber-necking joy that it undeniably is, it was mainly filmed during Liverpool’s pre-season and is therefore already woefully out of date.
This will presumably mean Being Liverpool will fail to even mention the biggest news surrounding Liverpool lately – the Hillsborough report.
From a TV perspective though, my main gripe is this: how come the production team saw fit to provide subtitles whenever Liverpool’s new Italian signing Fabio Borini was speaking English, yet left us to fend for ourselves with Jamie Carragher’s thick Scouse accent?
Coz dat’s juss norron, la.
PUBLISHED:22:00, 22 September 2012| UPDATED:22:01, 22 September 2012
With the first episode of Being Liverpool, C5’s ‘behind the scenes’ football documentary drawing to a close, the narrator was clearly building up to a big Hollywood moment: ‘These are the players of Liverpool Football Club.
'Their task is to return their club to glory. Their ambition is to win as one.’
Sadly, a glance at the league table this morning would provide an update on that ambition. Because now they just want to win ONE.
Liverpool's new boss Brendan Rodgers seems a decent, thoughtful, hardworking sort of man
Of course Sod’s Law and Alex Ferguson’s ‘Football – Bloody Hell’ Law dictate that they will achieve their first victory of the season this lunchtime against the team I support.
But either way it is to be hoped Liverpool will have learnt a valuable lesson about the dangers of getting into bed with a documentary crew.
No matter how much control you think you have – and at times, Being Liverpool did rather resemble a glossy, Americanised corporate marketing video – you will come unstuck eventually.
I just hope the man who appears to have the most to lose isn’t the one who ends up losing the most.
Because the club’s new boss Brendan Rodgers seems a decent, thoughtful, hardworking sort of man.
But if the on-field woes continue and he becomes this season’s first big-name managerial casualty, his role in Being Liverpool will simply be viewed as a stick with which to beat him.
Instead of his words of wisdom adorning the training ground walls like Bill Shankly’s, they will be passed around the internet with Rodgers being treated as some David Brent-like joke figure.
Having said that, if he comes out with many more gems like ‘the player plus the environment equals the behaviour’ he might deserve some of the ridicule.
I mean, that kind of talk is surely a mere step away from him bringing his guitar to training and forcing Steven Gerrard to grunt a chorus of Freebird.
It was a bit harsh of the producers to leave in Rodgers’s quote about Andy Carroll’s future, though:
‘It’s going to take something incredible for him to leave.’
As we all know Carroll was duly sent off on loan. To, er, West Ham.
Rodgers also deserved better than the lingering unexplained shot of the huge pop-art print of himself which dominates his living-room wall.
The film-makers were clearly inviting us to base a judgement about his character on this shameless display of ego. Who knows, if they’d bothered to ask maybe Rodgers would have explained it was a gift of appreciation from a group of disabled Swansea fans?
I also felt a little sorry for Rodgers when, to his obvious discomfort, he was obliged to take part in a cringey press conference with the coach of the Boston Red Sox, the baseball team owned by Liverpool’s owners.
The guy was called Bobby Valentine, for God’s sake. How is a thoughtful unassuming guy from Ulster meant to compete with stardust like that?
Still, at least the Andy Carroll mention did lay bare the basic flaw of this whole enterprise. Rubber-necking joy that it undeniably is, it was mainly filmed during Liverpool’s pre-season and is therefore already woefully out of date.
This will presumably mean Being Liverpool will fail to even mention the biggest news surrounding Liverpool lately – the Hillsborough report.
From a TV perspective though, my main gripe is this: how come the production team saw fit to provide subtitles whenever Liverpool’s new Italian signing Fabio Borini was speaking English, yet left us to fend for ourselves with Jamie Carragher’s thick Scouse accent?
Coz dat’s juss norron, la.
