From Hunter to Hunted: A New LFC Experience
By David Rice @davidjrice83
Things will change. It’s the nature of the world. Liverpool are champions for the first time in 30 years and that is a change that was not welcomed by rival fans, but it’s one they have to get used to.
Eventually, Liverpool will not be champions, someone else will be once again. But for the next six months at least, that isn’t a reality we have to face. The reality we have to face now is much different. Any time you do something historic for the first time in three decades, the period of time which follows is bound to require some adjustment. The Reds being champions for the first time that many of us can remember is no different.
Liverpool are in uncharted territory in some ways. This team will no longer be a contender, they are THE contender. They wear the belt 19 other Premier League teams want and they will have a target on their backs everywhere they go.
Personally, I’m confident they can handle that pressure. They came into last season as European Champions and the winningest runners up of all time. They weren’t exactly flying under the radar when they proceeded to win the league faster than anyone before them whilst collecting three different trophies over the course of the season.
They’ve proven time and again they can handle the pressure, rise to the occasion and do things that blow our minds. Will they be able to do them forever? No, probably not, and that’s why I continue to worry about you.
If this summer has taught us anything it’s that a title didn’t quench the Liverpool fan base’s thirst for success. But it also is showing us another ugly truth, that modern Liverpool fans don’t really grasp how to enjoy being champions or trust in the ones that brought us here.
Had the title been won in somewhat flukey fashion, like Leicester’s in 2016, with the Reds backing into a title courtesy of rivals collapsing and a string of lucky results, then I would understand the collective panic that has set in around the transfer market. But as things stand, the Reds have one of the best squads on Earth, with their nearest competitor having finished 18 points adrift. They’ve taken 196 out of the last 228 points on offer in the league and will return the core of that team to the pitch in 2020/21.
This team is hands down the best Liverpool team I have seen in my lifetime and it’s no accident. It was built methodically and it is maintained methodically. And now, when all of football is navigating a new economic reality and other strange challenges COVID presents, it is being managed in careful, intelligent fashion once again.
What Do You Want?
The levels of acrimony from our fanbase on social media over a lack of signings has reached a fever pitch. But you have to ask why? What is it they’re in search of? What were the glaring weaknesses in the squad last year that justify breaking the bank in the middle of a pandemic and oncoming year of economic uncertainty?
When Manchester United were raking in titles, they didn’t routinely overhaul the squad or spend vast amounts of money. They simply bought what they needed, where they needed when the time came. I have no doubt Liverpool’s owners will do the same given the time. Afterall, the window doesn’t close for another month.
The truth is there is no reason for the mass freak out unfolding on social media. Fandom isn’t built on logic, especially for a group of people carrying the collective scarring that Liverpool supporters do. We see that rivals are spending money and, for all of our past lives, that meant we would have to spend money just to keep up. We’re not used to others pushing to get better to challenge the Reds, and we aren’t used to not needing something to push us over the top. The fact is we are used to needing improvement, even if it’s just so slightly.
Last summer, the recruitment team opted not to spend, a decision that was greeted with vitriol from the social media experts until the Reds began dismantling opponents week after week and held a death grip on the league by Christmas. Yet here we are, one year on and living life as Champions and still, ye have little faith.
There is an assumption that the club have tons of money to spend and like assumptions tend to be, this is a mistake. The off-field running of Liverpool has been brilliant, but complex. You have to be willing to dig into the realities of the past, present and the future to understand why we won’t be dropping huge sums of money into the transfer market this summer or even in the winter.
The New World
While I admit that Thiago would make us deeper and better and Klopp and co would do well to have him, I refuse to accept the notion that without him, this team is doomed. Whether he joins or he goes somewhere else, Liverpool remain the hunted with good reason. The squad will tell itself what it needs to in an effort to keep the mentality of the hunter, but that doesn’t mean we should follow suit.
At some point, you have to face two realities. The first is that we are champions and in good position to compete for that top spot again. This is not built on sand. One big departure or arrival will not be the reason we lose the title. We simply aren’t packaged that way anymore. We’re resilient, consistent and creative, boasting the man who is my opinion, the best manager on the planet.
The second reality is that the football world, like the rest of us, awaits the fallout from the impact of COVID-19. Economic crises aren’t limited to a snap shot. They’re expansive, unfolding over months and years. John W. Henry knows this as a man who built his fortune managing assets and funds, assessing risk and betting on futures. He’ll no doubt have access to some of the finest minds who are working to understand both the risk of further spending and the implications it has for Liverpool’s future. These decisions will no doubt be fueled by the termination of broadcasting rights in China for the league, which had an immediate cost of 160 million pounds worth of revenue that would be disseminated across the league.
In accepting these realities you also need to come to grips with Henry not being a Roman Abromavich style sugar daddy. It’s simply never going to be the case and rightfully so. FSG’s stewardship of the club has been one of sensibility, pragmatism and responsibility.
As the club prepares to swing the doors open on a world class new training ground, the financial market is in a state of chaos.
A breakdown of the financials reveals the kind of money the club currently spends and how it has lured so many great players into its ranks. You can find more details in this thread from football finance writer Mo Chatra of The Daily Mirror.
If you can pull back and take an objective look at it, at what the pandemic means and what they have to look at when looking at the future, you’ll see that spending big is not an option. That’s just another reality you have to accept. Look at any analysis of what exorbitant spending has yielded opponents in the last 5 years, and you begin to understand where the confidence comes from that we don’t need to.
Football, if a great economic crisis should befall the world, is in for a day of reckoning. Spending will decline across the board, transfer markets will be even more unpredictable and clubs with infrastructure will be better off than opponents reliant on markets for success. Liverpool have, in truth, been building the academy up to serve as a catalyst for first team success and the timing couldn’t be more poignant as the Reds business model just may become the envy of all clubs who lack a sugar daddy, which is most of them. That’s not such a bad place to be.
