So it looks like the Moores chapter is finally on its last pages in forever growing historical book that is Liverpool Football Club. As one chapter draws to a close, a fresh, new one begins. Many are excited, some are worried and excited, some are worried and the small minority are against the move altogether, whether you are for or against the consortium which looks likely to seal off the Moores legacy at Anfield there is no denying the need for investment. We Liverpool fans have endured some highs and lows supporting Liverpool, most of the lows have come since the demise of Liverpool the once sole dominant force in English football since the passing of the enchanted gauntlet from Dalglish to Souness this has extinguished. All Liverpool fans want the one thing we haven’t managed to win in almost two decades, the title that eludes us and has done for years, the title which should be ours but somehow finds its way into other teams cabinets accept for ours. It’s the one trophy that even the oldest and youngest Liverpool fan yarn for. Now we have a chance to get what we want and have wanted so badly since 1990. We’ve come close in the past, most notably under Roy Evans in 1995/96, Gerard Houllier in 2001/02 season and you could also argue that if we had beaten Charlton, Man Utd and Fulham last season we could have won it under Benitez too. So close, yet so far from the bread and butter of this football club. This is a club starving because we have had to wait for so long to get our bread and butter, we’ll have to wait another season now.
Realistically out of the title race by November, Chelsea and Man Utd roll on into the distance and we’re left behind, in the shadow of the city we Scousers and OTT supporters truly hate Manchester. All we realistically have left is a few cup runs and even cups have lost the ability to seal the cracks in this football era, no trophy we win can make up for the hurt, pain and misery of not being able to watch our captains lift the Premiership trophy.
So it this the time that the man who has given the most important times of his life, given all he can give and do all he can do to step down as Chairman of our club? Yes it’s time, the move is pretty much set in stone and Moores’ Liverpool days are drawing to a close.
What does this mean for the Club? I don’t know, I cannot say, but although these are exciting times, where we will no doubt be saying good bye to old Anfield, which will forever be close in our hearts, to start a new era in a new stadium, a “New Anfield”. This is time where we say good bye to board members who have been at our club long before some of us were born, out with the old and in with the new it most certainly seems. This is where a minority or small majority of fans worry, the words that shudder down their spine, “out with the old and in with the new”. The most conservative Liverpool supporter will be worried, worried for the future, worried about the past. What will this consortium mean? What will this consortium do? Where will we go under them? All questions just waiting to be answered and sure enough they will be answered soon. The papers say he (the head of the consortium) is richer than Chelsea’s sugar daddy Roman Ambramovich. The Papers say he wants to make us a global brand, he wants to see everyone in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, North America wearing Liverpool merchandise, he/ consortium wants to take out of the club as much as he puts and no in surprising doubt he/consortium wants to earn back more than what he puts in. This is fair enough, that’s how the modern day society works, and that’s how this forever growing capitalist society operates. Is this how Liverpool Football Club, soon to be Liverpool Public Limited Company (if we believe what’s written) well operate? Is our 114 year old history filled with hard work, honesty, guts and determination going to be used to cash in on world wide shirt, cup and other merchandise sales? Will the hard work that our players, managers, chairman, coaches, scouts put in to this club to make it what it is be sold in the name of money, which will no doubt go into our club and then be taken out by this consortium. Will our legacy vanish, will we lose the respect and reputation that managers like Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and countless others spent their lives building up? Will the foundations that make this club stand tall, above the rest come crashing down around our ears? Does modern day football, where money has far more meaning than the football played on the pitch is mean we have to sacrifice all this history and tradition just to be on the top of the pile where we truly belong? Is this new consortium worth us losing 114 years old history, because as Chelsea will find out and as Real Madrid have found out, without respect from oppositions players, managers and fans, without respect these glorious trophies aren’t worth their weight in gold.
These are the issues that the most Conservative Liverpool football fan will raise, these worries and fears are what they will be worried about, these are the people who will pick up the echo and The Times, who will surf the Internet going over the negatives. There is no denying we need investment, the Conservative core of Liverpool’s fan base cannot argue that we are fading faster than a batch of sea monkeys from our rivals, who in a few years without possible investment could not be our rivals anymore. There are many plus points, that many of us Liverpool fans can take away from this, we can now see some (not all) of Europe, the world’s finest talent playing in the red shirt, we will be able to compete with the very best on the pitch and off the pitch. Rafa and the next manager will be able to afford the players who they want and not settle for second or third choice players. We will have new things to sing about, we have the chances of more special nights like in Istanbul, we have a chance to compete not only short term with Europe’s best, and England’s finest clubs, but in the long term.
There are many reasons to worry, the possible radical reformation of our club’s structure, the possibility of revolutionary change that could either be a very positive happening or a very negative happening. There are many reasons to be happy too, the chance to capture old big ears every season and eclipse Real’s record, the chance to leave Man Utd in our dust in terms of Leagues, we have a chance to win number nineteen, twenty, twenty one and so forth. Whether you’re for or against investment, you cannot deny the need for investment and you cannot stop it from happening, we must stand united for our club in both the good and bad times.
A new chapter is coming, it’s a step away, but whilst it’s a happy/sad time (depends which side of the fence you are behind) it’s sad time to have to say good bye to David Moores who gave everything he possibly could the club, he helped provide an even playing field for us to expand our trophy cabinet and may he never be forgotten.
David Moores, you’ll never walk alone.
(Wookieman)