Dear John & Tom, this is not baseball

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Dear Mr. Henry & Mr. Werner:

Again I wanted to thank you for saving us from Tom Hicks & George Gillett last October, the High Court victories marked the highlight of our year for many of us Liverpool supporters. While we admire what you did in breaking the famous curse of the ‘Bambino’ at Boston, we are nervous that you might not be reacting urgently enough to save us from the on-field misery at Liverpool F.C.

With all that said however please stop comparing football to baseball, it is an entirely different ballgame. While I am not a baseball expert, I can tell you what the main differences are.

1) In football we don’t play 162 games a season, so losing 8 games is a real big deal when you have played 18 games.

2) In baseball (and most American sports) if your team ends up in the bottom of the table, you get first pick at the draft and an opportunity to sign the best young players. It works the opposite in football, there is relegation for the bottom 3 teams and if you don’t finish in the top 6 or 7 you don’t play in any European football the following season. Not having any European football hinders any chances of signing the most promising players as they all want to play in the Champions League or at least the Europa League. Now a similarity to baseball can be made here, any professional would prefer to play in the major league over a minor league team.

Mr Henry with all due respect, you were wrong calling us “Impatient”. We have been very patient. This is not some short poor streak of form that will pass with time. With what we have seen so far, there is no way Roy Hodgson can win the Premier League Title for us. He has never won anything decent in his life, what makes you think that he is the right manager for Liverpool F.C.? He shouldn’t have been appointed in the first place, however many of us gave him the benefit of the doubt after he was appointed and supported him. To use your own words when you talked about the stadium, “If the fans don’t want it then it is a non-starter”. We don’t want Roy, and so he should be a ‘Non-Starter’. Please get rid of him. It will not only help you financially as a different manager is far more likely to get us into European football, but, more importantly, it will help us, Liverpool F.C., who do not belong in anything below Champions League football.

3) Baseball is not a fast action driven sport like football. While I do love baseball, at times it can be no different than watching paint dry. Football, on the other hand, is known as the beautiful game for a reason. It is not just about score-lines but, it also about the entertainment. Fans of the sport want to see a little sizzle and excitement while watching the game. They want to be biting their fingernails in excitement and anticipation. Unfortunately, Roy seems to want his football players to play like baseball ones, long balls with the hope someone scores from it.

We are not ones to turn on our managers and players, however the situation has now become dire. Roy has even hit a new low by claiming the best football supporters in the world are to blame for the negative vibe. Negative vibe?  These people are paying a lot of money to watch their team play, and then they have to sit and watch Roy’s crappy excuse of football against teams we should trash like Wolves?

Your first real test of your commitment to the fans is now:
Roy Hodgson is not respecting our supporters, our heritage, and proud history, fire him ASAP please.

-Antoine

On Twitter @empireofthekop

More Stories John W Henry Tom Wener

41 Comments

  1. Totally agree Hodgson has lost the fans and the players respect except for his players namely Poulson, Koncheski and Bable.

  2. Jesus you Liverpool fans have become massive whinge bags and the current Liverpool team doesnt belong anywhere near the Champions league. Get over yourselves. Best fans in the world? My hole. One bad season and the majority of you have turned into a bunch of whinging women you need to get a grip.

  3. A well thought out and heartfelt letter, and I am sure that nearly all LFC supporters will totally agree with your sentiments.
    I do hope that the current owners read this and take notice.

  4. i m throwing my full weight behind this write up,Roy doesnt respect the fans as he says the famous kop support is not there since he assumed duties,despite his 35 yrs disastrous football experience he has always been up and down getting fired from one job onto another and yet he hasnt won anything descent for his C.V and himself,he is an absolute joke of a manager with primitive zombie ideas.For instance we are playing against wolvehampton wanderers a club that sits rock bottom in the league,a club that has the worst away record Wolvehampton wanderers has only picked up 1 point on their away records this year before they visited us in Anfield last night,all predictions was liverpool would thrash wolvehampton maybe 4-0 in the wake of our recent home display..why did Mr Potato head Roy change his tactics??Why did Mr Potato head Roy played 3 central midfielders against a lowly rated team having Lucas,Gerrad and Raul meireles together at least if he is such an intelligent manager he should have realised the implications the few times he tried to play them 3 together we hardly win because there would be no width in the game..Mr Potato head Roy had a descent Rodriguez that can play wide right very well but he didnt choose him instead he played Raul Mierels out of Position and since i saw the set up i knew there was problem and the away team started taking the game to us buzzing around the flanks and delivering balls from wide areas into out box,Mr potato head Roy didnt realise this..At a point i said to myself maybe he sold out the game to Wolvehampton and he delibrately used that formation to loose the game even a layman would never adopt such formation especially at home and against a lowly rated side..he should receive the boot and get away out of our beloved club

  5. “Jesus you Liverpool fans have become massive whinge bags”

    LOL I do love to see a trainee troll don’t you guys.

  6. Thank you Antoine, you are a true liverpool fan, your work , commitment and care to the reds is really appreciated, with fan like you and all the other reds faithfuls around the world, the Mighty reds will never go down , hopefully by the new year we will see the golden sky again.

    YNWA YNWA YNWA

    LIVERPOOL IS MY LIFE , LIVERPOOL IS MY LIFE , LIVERPOOL IS MY LIFE

  7. thank you for the article,antoine. really hope the owner come to their sense.
    enough is enough. don’t care bout who’s gonna replace him…i just want him out of LFC !

  8. I agree with most points you make antoine.but we have to be realistic were an average(at best)team.the only way forward is to back the manager for now.most of the current squad are rafas buys,not roys.his tactics are not brilliant but his hands are tied with the lack of quality he has to chose from.

  9. Jesus H! More whinging. Get over the fact that you’re not a prominent club anymore. You’ll waddle in mid-table obscurity for two or three years before being able to contend with the new big 4.

  10. with Xabi Alonso on the pitch.
    And four yrs in football is a whole life.
    FOur years for a football player is a whole life.
    Like You said, football is not baseball.

  11. although i agree with all of your article and most of the comments below (apart from the united scum stickin their oar in) i do feel that to get our team rite we would need to spend in the region of £100m + paying roy hodgson off and paying a new manager, konchesky, kyrgiakos, johnson, poulson, kuyt, ngog, babel and joe cole all need to go with hodgson. Worst performances in 57 years says it all = WORST MANAGER since graeme souness!

  12. we have played the top 5 chelsea arsenal man utd totenham and man city, we were the better team against arsenal, tottenham and chelsea we deserved a draw at utd only city beat us fair and square but this manager always puts us down he is always negative.

  13. Tom and John said they would assess things and listen – so are they listening now because the message is crystal clear.There is a time for listening and now it is time to act – over to you boys.

  14. Antoine. I admire your endeavour. I too believe Roy has not made us move forward, but I also feel we need to rebuild the squad. Too many ‘non-Liverpool’ material players.
    I don’t agree with the football is not baseball argument. I am sure taking a team to the top is difficult in both disciplines.
    As you said the gist of the squad is the same as two seasons ago and yet we have lost that competitiveness. Any team that comes to Anfield comes there to win. No one is defending against us anymore!

  15. Can’t believe the club I supported for 43 years is in this situation but I’m not sure whether NESV want to get rid of Hodgson just yet. They’ll probably wait till we play Bolton. If we lose that too and it seems likely they’ll sack him and replace him with Rijkaard. I’d prefer Deschamps but NESV would have no option but to go for Rijkaard unless they do what Purslow resisted, that is, appointing King Kenny until the summer. That could be an option for NESV to consider and hoopefully with two or three quality signings we can finish at the top half of the table.

  16. This is what I did say when R.H was hired when everyone said “oh great, give him a chance” He will not win crap. Can someone please kick his ass out I have been supporting liverpool since 1975 I have never seen them play so bad as they do now.

    KICK HIS ASS OUT.

  17. Former Liverpool defender Phil Neal has delivered a scathing assessment of manager Roy Hodgson, insisting that Anfield’s legendary bosses Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley would have been turning in their graves at the performance against Wolves.

    The Reds lost 1-0 at home to Mick McCarthy’s men on Wednesday night, with Hodgson hitting out at supporters after the match, claiming that he is now used to the “negativity” shown by the fans.

    “Hodgson could rue saying those words about the fans, that they haven’t backed him,” Neal told talkSPORT.

    “Against Wolves there was 90 minutes without a shot on goal, no pressure, and no excitement for the fans. And that’s down to the players and down to Hodgson.”

    He added: “We couldn’t believe what we we were seeing. We didn’t put any pressure on Wolves. There was no cohesion and no-one looked as they were enjoying playing.

    “We didn’t look a team and that’s the frightening thing.

    “Shankly and Paisley would have been turning in their graves to see that pathetic team effort.”

  18. what would lfc fans think of gerrard or carragher taking over with dalglish as his advisor? Just until the end of the season then assess things in may. Tell me what you think guys YNWA

  19. unreal. first sign of an uphill struggle in 40+ years and just listen to you feks crying. pathetic. I hate everton but their fans make you lot look a laughing stock. I’m a man city fan, remember we’ve had 40 years of crap and one of the most successful teams in the world next door, and we’re still here. I wonder how many of the whingers on this board would still be here in 2048 if you won nowt between now and then ? get the scouse professional victim chip off each shoulder and get behind your once great club, you pathetic tw4ts. see you in 36 years :¬)

  20. Hedley…think that would be a bit improbable and outrageous friend. I’d say Martin O’Neill is free, bring him in now!!!!

  21. Great. Article Antoine. We just hoped the owners would look into what Liverpool fans around everywhere want rite now ie get rid of Roy.He does not show technical abilities and as always he never have a plan B or C which can turn a situation around.

  22. Please send this . I think we Shud donate to get a big 1 for outside the ground. It will defiantly get on sky sports news and the papers.

    Antoine please send it!

    YNWA

  23. @tublu well I can tell you that we still support LFC whatever happen. We simply refuse to support mediocrity and people that keep telling us to be grateful with it. We are Liverpool FC, not Man City, not Everton, not Fulham.

  24. I must disagree w/ #3. football is not a fast paced sport as evidenced by LFC this season. The all too frequent 0-0 ugly game on a huge field is exactly what has hindered growth of sport in in the US. You make a good point about number of games. Imagine 81 away games per season and shudder w/ horror LFC fans. Don’t complain about Crawford’s contract. Imagine an LFC player budget for a 162 game season. That and the fact that the Red Sox are contenders, LFC is not.

  25. The type of LFC fan that lured me in 6 months before Istanbul is the type of fan that applauds the wolves players for their effort in a classy way that doesn’t mock the LFC coach. The manager change is obvious but open disrespect and venom weakens the clubhouse as much as poor management. Personally, it’s the YNWA spirit that makes me follow not past glory.

  26. get rid of headless chicken roy very quick hasnt got a clue and take konchesky with ya and whats this we want raffa back no way come on lads we want a manager that will bring the good times back not bring us down even more

  27. Hey tublu, with that attitude, there’s no effing wonder Citeh were sh1te for 40 odd years (and still would be if it weren’t for the Sheik’s billions).

    If you accept mediocrity, that’s what you get.

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