Pattullo’s gripe seems to primarily be with football clubs going on tours in other countries, and not offering more to the local community other than purely an exhibition.
Furthermore – he’s annoyed at the fact the Reds and the Italians have selected Murrayfield Stadium (rugby) as their venue instead of Hampden Park.
My simple question is this – why should we? Without getting too self-righteous, Liverpool go on these tours so that fans around the world can see them as not everyone can make the trip to Anfield.
If we wanted to just get the lads warmed up for the new season, we’d invite British clubs to Melwood for a kick-about.
The Reds don’t go on tour to help promote the local football in the area; you look to clubs like Rangers, Celtic or Hibs if you’re after that, don’t put that weight on our shoulders.
Pattullo claims that the only reason Liverpool have gone up to Scotland for a friendly is because there is some renovation work going on at Anfield, but I don’t agree as the Reds travelled to Ireland last year to face Napoli.
If we wanted to stay close to home so desperately, we could have used Tranmere Rovers’ home or one of the many stadia in Manchester, Cheshire or Lancashire.
The Scotsman journalist makes a few valid points about pre-season friendlies becoming more corporate, but I think he’s got this Liverpool game all wrong.
Admittedly, he does highlight something which is somewhat unfortunate – Pattullo claims he’s been made aware of some Dundee fans who will be attending the Reds’ friendly ahead of their own fixture against Inverness.
That being said, if I were a die-hard indie rock band fan, and Def Leppard came to town on the same night – I’d be singing ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ with every other Lep fanatic, if you catch my metaphor.