On Liverpool, London and Roy Hodgson
Supporting Liverpool has become so ingrained with hating the country, that much of the vitriol from our fans aimed at Hodgson is because he's English – itself a reaction to the supporters of other clubs and national team who'd rather have an Englishman over any other nationality. If we have an English manager it might make us less Scouse.
When Rafa got the boot, every prospective candidate was seen as nowhere near good enough, that there was no doubt that they'd oversee a “fire sale” and take us to relegation “or mid-table at best”. Apart from, however, Manuel Pellegrini, not just because of his record, but because he was Chilean, and we could pretend he was Spanish, and therefore further proof that Liverpool are different to other English clubs. (This applies to every other club apart from our friends down the Lancs, who share the same anti-English credo as we do. Though they like Argentina more than Spain.)
The Cole deal is another blow to perceived Scouse separateness, or the separateness that has seen the city by the Mersey become an outpost of Andalucia for the Red-supporting side of the town. But I don't see the problem with a “Cockney*” in charge or playing a key role in the team – it certainly doesn’t make Liverpool less Scouse. We’ve become so ingrained with the anti-English thing (while moaning about tickets, drinking pints, queuing up etc – all very English traits) that if Bob Paisley turned up at Anfield today there'd be threads on internet forums about “Wools taking over at Anfield” or "the state of his his zip-up cardie".
England is a tiny country with a huge population. Its capital has over 7m people in it – it's also two hours from Liverpool, something that in any mid-sized state would be considered local. So, of course we'll get Londoners playing for us, and out of the blue we’ve got one of the best. For the first time in months I’ll allow myself a little bit of optimism – not about the ownership – but that about the fact that we may, may just have a pretty useful side this year. It doesn't matter where are players are from – though it's sad that the last local to break through was Warnock – but that we have good players. That is all.
Liverpool is not Spain, in the way that it wasn't France, when we were under Gerard Houllier. It's time we defined ourselves by what we really are, rather than temporarily cherry-picking bits from other cultures when circumstances suit us. Then we wouldn't feel so weird about having a Londoner in charge. We could even have union jacks on the Kop like we did in the ’70s. Alright, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far.
* What actually constitutes a Cockney isn’t made clear, but there are very few of them in London these days and the accent has all but disappeared from the capital
Supporting Liverpool has become so ingrained with hating the country, that much of the vitriol from our fans aimed at Hodgson is because he's English – itself a reaction to the supporters of other clubs and national team who'd rather have an Englishman over any other nationality. If we have an English manager it might make us less Scouse.
When Rafa got the boot, every prospective candidate was seen as nowhere near good enough, that there was no doubt that they'd oversee a “fire sale” and take us to relegation “or mid-table at best”. Apart from, however, Manuel Pellegrini, not just because of his record, but because he was Chilean, and we could pretend he was Spanish, and therefore further proof that Liverpool are different to other English clubs. (This applies to every other club apart from our friends down the Lancs, who share the same anti-English credo as we do. Though they like Argentina more than Spain.)
The Cole deal is another blow to perceived Scouse separateness, or the separateness that has seen the city by the Mersey become an outpost of Andalucia for the Red-supporting side of the town. But I don't see the problem with a “Cockney*” in charge or playing a key role in the team – it certainly doesn’t make Liverpool less Scouse. We’ve become so ingrained with the anti-English thing (while moaning about tickets, drinking pints, queuing up etc – all very English traits) that if Bob Paisley turned up at Anfield today there'd be threads on internet forums about “Wools taking over at Anfield” or "the state of his his zip-up cardie".
England is a tiny country with a huge population. Its capital has over 7m people in it – it's also two hours from Liverpool, something that in any mid-sized state would be considered local. So, of course we'll get Londoners playing for us, and out of the blue we’ve got one of the best. For the first time in months I’ll allow myself a little bit of optimism – not about the ownership – but that about the fact that we may, may just have a pretty useful side this year. It doesn't matter where are players are from – though it's sad that the last local to break through was Warnock – but that we have good players. That is all.
Liverpool is not Spain, in the way that it wasn't France, when we were under Gerard Houllier. It's time we defined ourselves by what we really are, rather than temporarily cherry-picking bits from other cultures when circumstances suit us. Then we wouldn't feel so weird about having a Londoner in charge. We could even have union jacks on the Kop like we did in the ’70s. Alright, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far.
* What actually constitutes a Cockney isn’t made clear, but there are very few of them in London these days and the accent has all but disappeared from the capital
boss. well said tony. looking forward to umbrella.
ReplyDelete(from above)
ReplyDeletealso any idea how i can get on the rattle. the links not working anymore and i cant register. i need my fix !!
Hey Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteCheers for the kind words. OK, with the Rattle, the best thing to do wold be to get in touch with Scully, I think he's the fella in charge of the site at the moment – he's certainly been helping on that from recently. If you know someone on there, get them to PM him and recommend you. Reckon that would be the best way.
Good luck.
The Cockney's are coming.
ReplyDeleteLiking the mag'