Reasons to be cheerful

I’m depressed. There is too much disappointment, too much finger pointing, and way too much character assassination going on. This isn’t why I love football. I’ll take the lows with the highs, but wander on to any Liverpool related site or blog at the moment and it’s a lemming-fest. It feels like a painful, slow death at the moment.

So, enough of that. Let’s look at the bigger picture. And by the ‘bigger picture’, that doesn’t mean I’m about to list the ‘miracles’ the reds have performed before, or list statistics which show that progress is being made ( though I think Paul Tomkins’ stuff is considered and insightful ), or demonstrate how we can still win the Premiership/Champions Leage/Europa League/Fair Play Award. Instead, I’m going to remind you all why we’re here, and why we love Liverpool.

1. We’ve got two of the best five or six players in the world. All this ‘Liverpool are a 2 man team’ stuff is nonsense. Any team in the world would miss Gerrard and Torres. Let’s celebrate the fact that we have two of the best players in the world. And even better, one of them is a Scouser.

2. Liverpool Football Club makes heroes out of ordinary men. Think of the look on Vladimir Smicer’s face when that second goal went in in Istanbul. The shock, the relief, the sheer unbridled passion. The first goal made us smile, but this is the moment when we really believed. Vlad was a decent professional who hadn’t really delivered at Anfield, and whose career was ending in a blaze of nothing. But you saw what LFC meant to him in that moment.

3. We are the originals. How many clubs’ fans have copied the Torres Bounce in the last year. No copycat songs for us. Don’t you just marvel at the invention every time a new song is heard on the Kop ?

4. ‘If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same’. We remember Hillsborough with the same fervour we remember Istanbul. And we will never forget. We’re a community not just a club.

5. The past is the past. But if you forget where you have come from then you forget what made you what you are. And we are Rome. Wembley. Paris. Rome. Istanbul. Our history is glorious. Let’s never forget that and the men who played a part in it.

6. The Kop. Win, lose or draw, I love being on the Kop. You feel at home, you feel part of 45,000 people with a common cause. You feel knowledgable, respectful, amongst friends. You applaud the opposition goalkeeper, you applaud the opposition. You give your all in the support of your team. You go home tired, with a strained voice, but whatever happens before or after, for 90 minutes, this is all that matters.

7. “There’s not one club in Europe with an anthem like You’ll Never Walk Alone.

“There’s not one club in the world so united with the fans. I sat there watching the Liverpool fans and they sent shivers down my spine. A mass of 40,000 people became one force behind their team. That’s something not many teams have. For that I admire Liverpool more than anything.” Johan Cruyff

You’ll Never Walk Alone isn’t about football. It isn’t even about Liverpool. It’s about a spirit of togetherness. Look at other clubs ( Z-Cars ? Glory, Glory Man Utd ? ) and you don’t need any more of an explanation about what sets us apart. 

8. “What I can tell you is that if Rafa had been at any other club, any other big club, whether it be Arsenal, Man United or Chelsea, he wouldn’t be there because I don’t think the supporters at those clubs are like Liverpool supporters.

“I think they will be a bit more patient and give a manager a bit more time.” Graeme Souness

I was taught in secondary school RE ( many years ago ) that the Church isn’t the building, it’s the people who go there. If Anfield is our Catherdral, then it’s us who make Liverpool what it is. New stadium, old stadium, no stadium, it doesn’t matter. So. Leave off Lucas. Get behind Insua. Back Rafa. Support the men in red.

YNWA