Match over

The woes of loving Liverpool.

So it’s gotten to that time again. Well, at least it was later this year. A bit. Sometime during the football season, usually in mid autumn, I stop bothering about the Premier League title and simply hope Manchester United’s rivals win. It was by Christmas this season, so there was progress.

I should explain. I’m a Liverpool fan, so, every summer, I get excited about our new squad and convince myself that finally, FINALLY, this will be our year. 1990 was the last time Liverpool won the League Title, which has even changed names since, to the Premiership, then Premier League. There has been one sustained title challenge since 1990, in 2001/2, but things collapsed soon after. Of course.

This season has been different, though. Finally, we were told, we actually had the team to win the league. Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and John Arne Riise all said that this HAD to be our year. We signed Fernando Torres, Andriy Voronin, Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun. We had a great goalkeeper, solid back four, strength and depth in midfield, and at last, in Torres, the striking succesor to Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen.

The opening game against Aston Villa was going to be the big one. If we won, we’d set up a platform and challenge. We did win. We drew with Chelsea at Anfield, then got 2 more wins against promoted teams. Then came bad draws, squad rotation and questionable selections. We were even failing in Rafa Benitez’s saving grace, the Champions League.

So it was all over for another season, after 2 consecutive losses in December. We even lost at home to United. Now, my brother supports Man. United. Most of the people in my school support Man. United. I want ANY other team to beat them. So now I cheer on Arsenal and Chelsea through gritted teeth, purely in the hope that they can stop Man. United winning. Childish? I’m 16, I’m allowed be childish!!

 And now, after the dust has settled on the win over Inter Milan, I don’t feel like Liverpool have turned a corner, because I know the next mediocre league performance is just around the corner. Liverpool will qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals and maybe even win it, but I would sacrifice every other fixture if we could be guaranteed winning the Premier league, but then I look at United who might win a treble, and Chelsea, who might do the quadruple, and I think “Me too!!”

Liverpool love European football, having won 11 continental trophies in our history, but we also hold the record for most league titles (18), and the thought of Man. United catching us (currently on 16) actually makes me sick and worried.
Now, I will cheer if we win the Champions League, I will be deleriously happy, but it’ll be a sickener if we finish below 4th, espescially if Everton qualify for the Champions league above us. However, I think Liverpool will scrape fourth, just like 2004, sack the manager, like 2004, hire a “continental genius”, like 2004, and start the whole process again. Like 2004.

You might ask me then, “who would you hire, if not a continental genius??” I would reply, “Martin O’Neill”. This man worked wonders with Leicester City, delivering silverware; revolutionised Celtic within a few weeks of arrival, got them to a Europen Final; and has taken Aston Villa from 16th to 6th in the Premeirship in a year and a half.

He would rid the Liverpool team of the deadwood, get some passion, and finally deliver the League Title that we all  crave so much.

By: Ciarán Leinster