Sep

02

Coming Up Short

By Justin Heron · Comments (4)

The transfer window is now closed, many would say a blessing in itself.

Moving into the break for International games and with Liverpool not taking to the field again until Septmber 12th when they travel to face Birmingham City, I found myself stepping back from football to a degree, tired. Tired of transfer related rumours, tired of failure by those that lead our club at a business level and tired of Tom Hicks “Big Summer”.

Just over 24hrs later and a few words from a film and thoughts return once more to Liverpool Football Club. Having successfully and most unlike me, avoided a number of conversations about our infamous custodians on Twitter, I opted for some sofa time and watching “A Knights Tale” to let my world slow down a little. If you have seen the film, a more than reasonable one at that, starring the late and talented Heath Ledger, as he goes in search of his dream to become a knight and “change his stars”. During the course of his journey to success, the plot of many a film, the words “you have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting” are thrust upon him.

For me, Heath Ledger or William as his character is, may as well have been sat upon his horse wearing a Liverpool shirt contemplating these words, is this not exactly the place that a Liverpool fan finds themselves today? pondering a similar position? Standards Corrupted more fitting than Standard Chartered as they say. Perhaps Fernando Torres had opted to pop the same DVD on at home as me as he sat absorbing that no new support / strike partner would be joining him just yet, as his thoughts were loud and clear when he spoke to Spanish radio station Cadena Cope.

”It’s fundamental new owners arrive who can make us a competitive side,” the star forward commented amongst his summary.

It is fair to say that Liverpool’s transfer window exploits are by no means of Titanic disaster proportions as some make them out to be, we have after all seen the arrival of Joe Cole, Raul Meireles, Milan Jovanovic who have the ability to influence games. Complimented with experienced campaigners Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen plus the youth and back up of Jonjo Shelvey, Danny Wilson & Brad Jones all coming in the door, it is not a case of dire straits squad side at L4. But two sides a coin most certainy has and if you look at the underside and what lies below it is all to clear that a side desperate to extract striking powess to support Torres, ended up adding nothing but losing two more. It is also more than unusual for a side lacking depth and requiring somewhat of an extensive overhaul to walk away from a transfer window with over £7m in profit and not feeling the wallet alot lighter. Unless of course that was always the plan?

There is no need to go into the depths of the many failures of Hicks & Gillett, they are heading towards being as well known nowadays as the words of our famous song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” which the fan base continues to turn to for faith, hope and unity. Tom Hicks may well have now added his “Big Summer” quote to his efforts to dominate the entire Top 10 lies in football but did we honestly expect any less? It is not so much the fact that we haven’t seen the arrival of an Arda Turan, Maxi Gomez or Ola Toivonen in the dying hours of the transfer window that sets alarm bells ringing all over again, more the actions and time seemingly spent on trying to secure the likes of Carlton Cole, who simply just isnt good enough, while the likes of Rafael Van Der Vaart are snapped up by Spurs for a mere £8m with minutes to spare. The club at times is simply just looking in completely the wrong direction when it matters.

To a degree, the same may be said of Roy Hodgson. Support the man and his efforts I most certainly do but reserving judgement on him is also my right. It is very early days in the season, fitness still being found and players still getting to be known by a new manager but so far apart from a 2nd half against Arsenal, the Liverpool report card is saying average. Now average is an improvement on a lot of games last season, theres no denying that and the grades should start to rise now that the manager can concentrate on matters purely football but going 442 against Manchester City is a rookie error in my book, the result was too predictable as was how it was achieved, different it could have been.

Whether Dalglish, should he have been given the chance, would have played it any differently on the pitch or his purchases we will never know, nor any of the other candidates that were interviewed but probably never had a cat in hells chance of getting the job (unless Hodgson declined it). Despite these mentioned moments of disappointment, optimism must continue to prevail, for now they are just a couple of bad days in football there are many more better ones to come.They can be pushed to the back of the mind somewhere, not completely forgotten as they represent caution and lessons that should be learned but they shouldn’t be held to the forefront either, gaining limelight that they do not deserve.

We are now just under 5 weeks away from the RBS deadline of October 6th that hangs over Hicks & Gillett and possibly the future of Liverpool football club being decided by a bank if a suitable buyer does not present an accepted offer between now and then. Kenny Huang may well be going off now in search of an alterante Premier League club to suit his consortium and Eastern expansions but Martin Broughton and our board still remain very tight lipped on their own thoughts, many argue a little too quiet. While the club remains held to ransom by owners that have no interest in it, or have anytime for the fans that support it both financially and passionately, RBS may yet face a decision that they really dont want forced upon them. This is where the fans thought process needs to be, along with supporting the squad that wear the shirt week in and week out with our unrelenting backing regardless of a result we do not appreciate. All roads point back to our American owners and that road needs to be closed permanently.

For Messrs Hicks & Gillett they will always continue to come up short and that is just not acceptable at Anfield as a permanent state of affairs. “You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting” they most certainly have. Times up!