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Liverpool, Others

A Look Back on 2011

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So, where to begin?

It’s been an eventful year, has 2011.

First, a brief summary of my take on Liverpool’s 2011.

We began the year by ditching Roy Hodgson, whose charisma could rival an ostrich’s, and whose ability to handle pressure at the highest level reminds one of Paul Konchesky. In his place, of course, came Kenny Dalglish, dubbed so affectionately “King” by many Kopites (but has yet to fully justify this tag in my EPL eyes). Then Luis Suarez came in, followed quickly by Andy Carroll, while Liverpoolfc.tv tried their best to hide Fernando Torres’ departure under the covers.

They failed. As hyped up as the new Keegan-Toshack partnership was, Torres’ transfer request and last-minute deal was the story I put all my attention on. And it was a story that made my February one of lethargy, jadedness and general miserableness. Scratch that – I still haven’t gotten over it.

Moving on (for now). There was the great home win against Manchester United, in which Dirk Kuyt set the unofficial world record for shortest yardage for a hattrick. And of course, I personally witnessed his last-gasp penalty equalizer at the Emirates, and Maxi Rodriguez’s hattrick against Birmingham at Anfield a week after. Even Joe Cole got a goal. That’s definitely one for the history books.

Of course, we would finish the season with a well-deserved defeat to Tottenham, which meant no European football this season. Blessing in disguise? Considering that we could be beating both United and City en route to the Europa League final in 2012, I’d think not.

Then came the summer. We brought in the overrated, overpriced Stewart Downing. We brought in the overrated, overpriced Jordan Henderson. We brought in the overrated, just-about-right-priced Charlie Adam. We brought in the underrated, good-priced Jose Enrique. We brought in the underrated, free Craig Bellamy. If you think about it, effectiveness and cost have followed an inversely proportional relationship for our summer signings. That’s Moneyball for you.

Oh, and we let go of Alberto Aquilani because our attacking midfield position was so permanently occupied by an injured Steven Gerrard that Aquilani would’ve had a lot of trouble fitting into our strongest eleven. We also had Raul Meireles on the books for that very position, but of course we let him go too, without finding a replacement.

No matter – we started the season with a bang. Well, a bang first half. Then the boys set us well on our magnificent unbeaten and unwinning home run with a second-half capitulation against Sunderland. Our attack kept setting up chances, but we couldn’t take advantage. But it was only the first game of the season, and surely after a few games the goals would start coming after the team had more time to gel on the pitch.

Except that didn’t happen.

This, for me, has been the story of Liverpool’s 2011. If I were to sum 2011 up in one doubly-hyphenated word, it’d be this:

Coulda-woulda-shoulda.

Imagine what could’ve been if Torres stayed, at least for the remainder of the 2010-2011 season. Imagine what could’ve been if he struck up a partnership with Suarez. And – just imagine – Suarez, Torres and Gerrard. What could’ve been.

Imagine what would’ve been if we finished off even a third of the chances we create. Imagine what would’ve been if we turned the dominance, possession and goalscoring opportunities into goals and points. Imagine, if it weren’t for such wasteful finishing and infuriating ineffectiveness, the points we’d have on board by now. What should’ve been.

Kenny’s has been a mixed start. The football we’ve started to play has been sumptuous at times, absolutely breathtaking at others. As he himself has said on numerous occasions, the only result we’ve actually deserved to gain nothing from was that dreadful performance at White Hart Lane. All the others – we should’ve taken home all three points.

The finishing has been profligate, to put it nicely. The lack of a real cutting edge has shown through in Gerrard’s absence, and I still have yet to be fully convinced by Suarez, who, for all his trickery and unpredictability, lacks the deadliness and finishing prowess of a truly world-class striker. Add his controversial personality in, and we’re in for a rough ride with this fella. For me, my true affections still lie with Torres, and it hurts to see him in his current state at Chelsea. Schadenfreude doesn’t even come into the picture.

So, 2011 was always going to be a year of transition. And to be fair, in hindsight, the transition happened at a much quicker pace than I thought. It happened so quickly that I’m frustrated because we don’t have the goals, the points and the league position to show for our performances this first half of 2011-2012.

They say we should compare this with our relegation form last year. They say we should be very proud of having come so far from such a wretched period in our club.

But I won’t have any of it. This is Liverpool Football Club. This is the team that made waves in the Champions League just a few seasons ago. This is the team that came second, that would’ve finished as champions in most other seasons, just two calendar years ago. To be glad that we’re in our current position just because we were serious relegation candidates a year ago is to be complacent, and I won’t have any of it.

But I suppose the silver lining from this is that the finishing is generally the only thing I’m disappointed about. Sure, Downing’s been a flop, I don’t take too nicely to Suarez, and I couldn’t understand for the life of me why Kenny refused to play Maxi, but the performances have generally been of a high standard. It’s just frustrating that all the pieces are in place, but that we’re just missing that final, final touch to turn dominance into points. I certainly hope we’re making moves to rectify that.

Because if we are, we’ll be in for a hell of a 2012.

And here’s to exactly that: a hell of a 2012.

Liverpool, Others

On Luis Suarez’s Racism Row

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Let me cut straight to the chase.

I will assume that most readers of this piece will have been aware of the events that transpired between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra during the Liverpool-Manchester United game last month. I will assume that you are also aware of the English FA’s subsequent decision to charge Suarez.

In the weeks that have passed after Evra first came out with his claims, and in the days that have crept by since the FA confirmed their charge, Liverpool fans have shown incredible support behind their No. 7, and indelible condemnation towards Evra.

And I’m here to denounce their blinkered support.

Before I give my reasons, let me first clarify my position. I’m not here to denounce Liverpool Football Club’s support. As with any case involving such sensitive matters, full evidence has to be gathered, and Kenny Dalglish and the Club have come out expressing their support for Suarez.

Stepping away from a feverish football-club “gladiatorial” mentality, an employer or a family member should always step up and provide full support to a person going through such trials and tribulations. Innocent until proven guilty. And I am confident that they will be strong with their public condemnation of racist behavior if Suarez is indeed found to be guilty in this case.

The same mentality applies to the fans. Liverpool have traditionally been famous for their family-oriented fanbase. Players, coaches and fans alike have all praised the welcoming community at Liverpool, and you don’t call the Merseyside Derby the “friendly derby” without any justification.

No, I’m not here to condemn the Club and the fans in getting behind Luis Suarez.

I’m here to denounce their blinkered support.

This blinkered support has seen Liverpool “fans” call Evra a “crybaby” and a “boy who cried wolf,” among others, just because he has raised a claim that he considers serious.

This blinkered support has seen Liverpool “fans” hang on to Suarez’s responses that Evra’s Manchester United teammates were even surprised with his reactions.

This blinkered support has seen Liverpool “fans” blindingly agree with Suarez’s claims that, in Uruguay, the alleged word spoken (“negrito”) has no racial allegations or discriminatory undertones.

But this is the same group of narrow-minded people who pointed fingers and made gestures towards Nani after his embarrassing “look at me!” episode against the referee in March and cried that Jamie Carragher wouldn’t have deserved a red card for his high tackle.

This is the same group of narrow-minded people who have been quick to condemn Chelsea’s John Terry after allegations of his racial abuse towards QPR’s Anton Ferdinand, even when Terry’s case is still under investigation. Terry will surely be the subject of boos from the Liverpool crowd during this Sunday’s matchup.

It’s double standards at its best. (Or should it be worst?)

As a Liverpool fan belonging to a minority race, I hope that Liverpool will cooperate fully with the investigations and continue to show the support that Suarez has received.

But only if he turns out to be innocent.

Now, I understand the high-stakes on-field pressure, and I also understand that, to get under the opponents’ skin, some players turn (in my opinion, stupidly) to derogatory name-calling. Given the social backgrounds of many players, an outright ban on stronger language and a huge tightening up of the rules and regulations would be an overreaction and unnecessary.

But if Suarez does turn out to be guilty of racially offensive language, I would support a reasonable match ban and hefty club fine. Even if the FA decide to use this as an “example,” it would send a much stronger message than the pathetic several-thousand-pound fines FIFA has leveraged on racist chants during international games.

And I sincerely hope that Liverpool fans, who have been known for their generous support, would be sensible enough to not afford him a heroic reception when he takes to the field after his ban.

Because a welcoming, family-oriented football club, a club that Liverpool pride themselves for being, would not tolerate this sort of behavior. Not even from a No. 7.

Original article from the Bleacher Report.

Liverpool, Others

Liverpool the Business: A Beginner’s Guide

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Ever since Kenny’s return to L4 at the beginning of the year, ever since Luis Suarez walked through the Shankly Gates in place of El Nino, ever since we turned around our league form to come within an inch of finishing the season among the European places, most of what we’ve heard about Liverpool Football Club has been on the pitch. Rightly so, given the traditional “Liverpool Way” of focusing only on the next game and leaving everything else to the side.

A year ago, we were struggling with the Hicks and Gillett regime. “Finance” (or, more accurately, “refinance”) was probably the word that we Liverpool fans dreaded the most. Liverpool the business was hampering Liverpool the football club. We didn’t like Liverpool the business; we just wanted our football club back. Business and football were the last two words we wanted to see together ever again.

Oh, how a year has turned things around. Now, we can’t go a week without hearing an ex-player or someone in the Liverpool hierarchy sing the praises of the way FSG has revolutionized Liverpool as a business. Behind the scenes, the reality is that the business side, the “everything else” of our football club has undergone as radical a change, if not more so.

Let’s go all the way back to the Standard Chartered sponsorship deal. Now, before we fans got any wind of this partnership, we were cruising along perfectly content with the Carlsberg logo splashed across the front of our shirts. Sure, we saw O2 on the shirts at Highbury, and we saw vodafone, and subsequently AIG, at Old Trafford, and then we saw Ashburton Grove renamed as the Emirates Stadium. Those corporate sell-outs. Carlsberg: the best beer in the world. Liverpool: the best football club in the world. End of story.

But then, one fine (or cloudy, or rainy, I forgot which) day in 2009, the news came through that we struck the largest shirt sponsorship deal in football history. I very clearly remember that day. That was the day that made me sit up and take notice of what we were capable of achieving as a company. That day, on the back of a successful Premier League season, as I saw Rafa Benitez, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres swapping shirts and posing for pictures with the Standard Chartered management, I realized that our club still had an amazing appeal to it.

This, remember, was a financially unstable club with rumors about our long-term financial stability. Amidst ownership struggles behind the scenes, we managed to pull off a deal like that. I almost immediately started idolizing Christian Purslow (and latterly Ian Ayre, when I read that he was the Commercial Director then). When it was first established that we had genuine financial concerns going forward, I didn’t panic. We even appointed Martin Broughton from the British Airways. Despite his outspoken Chelsea links, here was the chairman of one of Britain’s most famous corporations, brought in to “save” our club.

We would’ve been forgiven for thinking that ousting Hicks and Gillett was the final piece to the financial jigsaw.

But there are bits and pieces to the journey that cannot, and should not, be ignored. We saw Rafa overhaul the Academy. Yes, the headline news was that we want to go back to our famed traditions of graduating top players to our first team. But we didn’t just see Rafa take full control of our youth development. He restructured the Academy and brought staff in to take up managerial positions. He brought Kenny back to spearhead our youth recruitment drive and latterly as a Club Ambassador. These were all new roles. What Rafa noticed was not just that we were falling behind as football club; we were also falling behind as a company, a business, a corporation. And these were his first steps to establishing a structure at Liverpool, to the greatest extent he possibly could.

And when FSG recruited Damien Comolli and gave him the position of Director of Football (later renamed as the fancy Director of Football Strategy), it was not just a signal of our intent to bring in the world’s top footballing talent; it was our owners’ way of further instilling business organization and structure to Liverpool the corporation.

Outside the club, FSG helped us establish links with LeBron James, one of the biggest stars in modern basketball (and indeed in modern sports), in the process linking us with the Boston Red Sox. FSG and Standard Chartered put together our Asia tour this past summer with great aplomb, complete with a tour-specific website, extensive media coverage of all the players’ football and sponsorship activities, and a chance for our Chinese Reds to win a meet-and-greet with LeBron James. The express plan for our summer activities next year is a money-spinning trip to the US: imagine the fervor that would greet Gerrard, Suarez and co. as they run out onto the Fenway Park pitch.

But it’s not just the dollar signs and star brandnames that show our transformation as a corporation. Look at the way we have been catered to (in business terminology: customer experience) – comments in almost every LFC.tv article, expansion in the LFC.tv forums, the Bootroom Sports Cafe, our first ever official Supporter’s Committee, The Kop fan blogs and social network…

Oh, and don’t forget that key business buzzword: corporate social responsibility. For all the corporations that might have skeptical motives behind such activities (for example, a tobacco company sponsoring a health clinic), our family- and community-oriented traditions makes CSR a perfect fit for our promotions. Here’s an observation: have you noticed a significant increase on LFC.tv in the promotion of free football clinics in the Liverpool area? Coaching sessions in Korea? Summer camps for disabled children both in Asia (while others were promoting our business interests) and in the UK? We’re beginning to hear a lot more of these campaigns that are a win-win-win combination: they sustain our image and reputation within the footballing community; they help our players and staff understand the community better and thus form a stronger bond with Liverpool Football Club; and they bring us commercial opportunities in previously untapped areas. We are already in talks to establish Liverpool-themed cafes and lounges in India after setting up our academy there.

And on I ramble.

During my short working career, I’ve been exposed to the way businesses and corporations are run on a strategic and institutional level, and I hope I was able to give you some basic insight on the good work being done by FSG, and to help you make some sense of the commercial operations and developments that might sometimes slip under our radars.

I will wrap things up with a quote from Ian Ayre: “The absolute reality – in the case of Liverpool, not everyone – is that this is a global brand, one of only a handful of clubs that are truly globally recognized and supported.”

Liverpool as a business: I personally have been very excited about the way our management team has driven commercial growth and organizational change. Keep up the good work, gentlemen.

————

If you’re interested in further reading, here’s a list of articles that I’ve referred to in this post:

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1068601/Ian-Ayre-transformed-Liverpool-FCs-commercial-fortunes/

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/liverpool-fc-cafes/1/18199.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/08/04/lucchino-liverpool-football-club.html

http://www.bitc.org.uk/community/communitymark/communitymark_companies/liverpool_football.html

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/corporate/charter

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/corporate/lfc-is-listening

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703280904576246640754493456.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6831489.ece

Liverpool, Others

Swaps, Options and Futures

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When the Hicks and Gillett regime was ushered out last year, I wondered if we were taking a massive risk in bringing in American owners yet again. When Luis Suarez was signed in January, I wondered if we were taking a massive risk in bringing in a top scorer from the Dutch league. When Fernando Torres was allowed to leave on deadline day, I wondered if we were taking a massive risk in breaking transfer records for an unproven replacement.

I wondered many times out loud, as we made our signings this summer, if we were taking massive risks. I questioned the wisdom of paying inflated fees for Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing. I doubted if Charlie Adam would be fit to lace Xabi Alonso’s boots. I hadn’t watched Jose Enrique much during his time at Newcastle. I hesitated about the signing of Alexander Doni, our umpteenth backup goalkeeper since Pepe took up his gloves between the goalposts.

These were average players, I thought, who were way too expensive as stop-gap measures while we would grind our way back to European football this term. We would probably have to let them go in search for better and more pedigreed replacements if we ever made it back to the Champions League, and even then we would lose out to the Cities and Chelseas in the race to pay big wages.

Yet, in they came, and out some others went. I wanted Charles N’Zogbia for 9.5m. I wanted Phillippe Mexes, Taye Taiwo and Nuri Sahin on free transfers. I read about Tottenham’s interest in Lassana Diarra on the cheap. I wanted Adam Johnson on loan. I wanted Aquilani to stay after some fine preseason performances. I didn’t want Insua, who I rate highly as a young defender, to leave. A few thousand miles away from the transfer action, I wanted a say. And after witnessing the second half meltdown against Sunderland, I unhappily thought I was vindicated, and all the delirium and euphoria from the exhilarating first-half showing came crashing down. Here we go again, I thought.

Then we went to the Emirates. And then we destroyed Bolton at Anfield.

I found myself suddenly opening my eyes to a Liverpool team that, for the first time in a long while, could play around with our personnel selection. Never mind Kenny’s 3-5-2 ploy against Stoke and Chelsea last year: we could now play all the formations in the world with our strength in depth. (Oh, the wonders of victory.) My eyes glittered as I thought of Suarez, no, Carroll, no, Suarez and Carroll, no, Suarez and Kuyt with Carroll coming off the bench, in attack. My heart fluttered when I saw a front three of Downing, Kuyt and Gerrard behind Suarez – or was it Suarez, Gerrard and Henderson behind Carroll? I got slightly disappointed when I realized I forgot about Maxi Rodriguez and Glen Johnson. I was even more baffled when I realized that we were launching outrageous attacking moves without Steven Gerrard. How on earth would we fit him back in the side?

As we passed and moved all over the pristine Anfield grass against Bolton, I saw Henderson’s defence-splitting chances, Downing’s touchline crosses, and Adam’s Hollywood passes. The glowing, glistening and glittering post-match reports only confirmed to me Kenny and Comolli’s transfer policy this summer: not only were we now loaded with alternatives in abundance, but we were now full of first-teamers who can create a damn good goal-scoring chance.

Upon the close of the Summer 2011 transfer window, Damien Comolli immediately lavished praise on our new owners. John Henry took a massive gamble and showed incredible patience, he said, because he was willing to buy before he sold.

I thought we were taking a huge risk when we let go of Aquilani again, despite some stellar performances in preseason. I thought we were taking a huge risk when we said goodbye and thank you to Insua. (Not so much Konchesky, Jovanovic, Cole, and Poulsen, among others, mind you.)

But when I woke up after the 11pm BST transfer deadline to see that Raul Meireles had left for Chelsea, I felt strangely un-disappointed. Because, like his news item on Liverpoolfc.tv, his importance had already been taken over by more exciting headlines. Craig Bellamy, a seasoned campaigner, was back, presumably as an impact substitute, and a high quality one at that.

And we signed Sebastian Coates, who I first saw playing an absolute blinder at the Copa America final against Paraguay before looking him up on Wikipedia, finding out he was 20 (unbelievably) and still playing in Uruguay, and subsequently making him my top defensive preference in the summer window.

Sometimes I get a bit too excited a bit too easily for my own good. Eh, it’s a risk I’m now willing to take. Hello, optimism.