It is almost a little misleading to say he was often sent back on loan to Italy. He basically only had one season at LFC, plus a couple of EL qualifiers in 10/11. After that, he never really left Italy, just wound down his contract playing at whichever Italian club could offer the best future price…which none of them ever exercised.
In hindsight, few players have ever been so set up to fail. Arriving injured to replace a pivotal player much loved by fans, brought by a manager whose owners were starting to stick knives in his back.
Roy said to make the team more English… More cockney was what I think he meant…!
Not that there is anything wrong with them in my eyes… but can anyone ever recall Bill Shankly signing a cockney…?? From what I can remember didn’t Bill used to call them ‘Southern Softies’…? He used to walk up and down the opposing London teams in the Anfield tunnel… especially West Ham in the days of Hurst, Peters, Moore and Brooking etc and tell them that Tommy Smith hasn’t had his breakfast yet…
Chivers and Gilzean from Spurs used to get the same treatment apparently…
What a guy Shankly was…
He arrived injured, and because of how desperate that season was, was likely played before fully recovered. Ankle injury, then a re-injury, then related tendon problems. After that was done, I think he missed about 15 games over the next 5 years.
Aquilani was actually a decent player. As one of the midfield 3 with Gerrard and either Lucas or Mascherano we were a top performing side playing some great football. But by the time he got up to speed there was a proper toxic situation going on. Rafa had been left with very little option but to play Lucas and Mascherano consistently as a 2 man midfield base and they just really didn’t compliment each other. He was doing it because he had to with very little other options available to him. But that didn’t stop people sticking the knives in. By the time Aquilani was finally regularly available it was a case of Rafa seeming to be on the defensive seemingly unable to drop Lucas without it somehow seeming that it was an admission of being wrong. It was all a big mess and an example of how the media were at war against Rafa sabotaging him. For his part Aquilani returned to the club every summer putting in hard work and being professional ready to be included and playing well in pre-season friendlies etc and every time he was loaned out he played well for the loaning club. It was all just a big mess. But it’s disappointing because he should have been that first successful Italian signing for us. Still don’t actually think he did anything wrong just all politics.
Had Klopp been black, he wouldn’t have got the job in the first place. Not because LFC is racist but because the entire football management structure is; I doubt he would have got any sort of start in management, let alone ended up at top clubs like Dortmund and Liverpool.
Klopp is a unique case,he’s capable of inspiring a unbelievable belief and work rate from club to players and is clearly extremely hot property in terms that most top clubs would have him,it’s difficult to see anyone whatever race who holds the kind of massive respect Klopp holds.
A like didn’t seem strong enough so quoting this. Klopp, if black, would probably never have got that first managerial appointment. A wild, larger than life type? Klopp has proven himself every step of the way but someone has to be given a chance to then be able to prove himself. Black explayers wanting to go into management are very rarely given the chance or when they are it’s at lower levels.
Putting aside the racism stuff, I can’t get my head around why so many people think Klopp’s early time he was a failure. It wasn’t, at all.
The media were obsessed with the ‘record is the same as Rodgers’ angle yet conveniently forgot that we were on a downward spiral when Klopp took over, hence why Rodgers was sacked.
Klopp took over a crap team, suffered a thousand hamstring injuries, and still got us to two cup finals in his first year. His first full season, 16/17, we qualified for the CL. Early on in that season we were talked about as title contenders for a long time as we started so well. 17/18 we finished in the top 4 again and reached a CL final. All that done on a relatively modest budget.
It’s an absolute nonsense to even suggest Klopp wasn’t doing well early on.
100%. But that is also why it’s nonsense to suggest he would have been sacked if he had been black. I agree with Barnes that there remains widespread prejudice against black managers but he’s picked the wrong comparator here both in terms of the club and also in terms of Klopp’s actual record over the period he’s talking about.
And Barnes’ claims about him suffering racism as a manager rightly fall on deaf ears. He was given the Celtic job with no previous experience and sacked 8 months in. The fact he still bangs on about being sacked for being black is a bit of a joke and detracts from real examples of prejudice.
Unfortunately the most prominent of black ex-footballers who speaks loudest about prejudice in the game, particularly when it comes to management is Sol Campbell. And he’s fucking bonkers. Sol…just keep quiet mate, you’re not doing anyone any favours.
Not quiet true, but also not far from the truth either.
Barnes, Ince, Chris Houghton, Chris Powell have all had ‘big’ jobs, but not really lived up to expectation at the higher levels, although lower down Ince Houghton and Powell all seemed to do pretty good jobs - maybe that was their levels.
Barnes is the odd one as he didn’t last the season at Celtic, but his record wasn’t all that bad from memory - just piss poor against a Rangers team that was pretty dominant in Scotland at the time. His time at Tranmere is altogether a different story which he would probably rather forget happened
When would you say Hughton has underperformed? Toon was a basketcase when he was there, and he got them promoted. Ashley did nowhere near enough to keep them up for most previews, fired Hughton when he was in 12th, brought in Pardew to save them…who had them finish in 12th to great acclaim.
His next shot in the PL was with Norwich, which he managed to keep up despite it being one of the most parsimonious clubs in the PL. They were almost universally picked to go down his first year. He got Brighton promoted, similar story.
Also confused over the definition of “big jobs”! Has there ever actually been a black British manager in a big job? Closest Celtic with Barnes What? Over 20 years ago? Any one else I’m forgetting?
