Really surprised by the tone from some on here to be honest as I think it’s a great forum with great posters.
However, anyone criticising Spion Kop 1906 is out of their mind. The idea that they’re a splinter fan group, can’t speak for everyone and shouldn’t be going if they can’t afford it is insane because what they actually are is a bunch of lads and ladies who give up their time voluntarily to ensure that there are flags and banners on the loo and coach welcomes when necessary. They contribute more to this club through their actions than the majority of fans or employees and to see them described as self important or up their own arse is ridiculous. They have every right to look after their own interests and their own interests are also the best interests of the club that uses them and their efforts and their banners to market the club and profit from.
Once they’re gone, and that is happening, people are dropping out and giving up, the club loses a huge part of its identity that it just won’t get back.
Personally I’m in the main stand and contribute nothing but songs and enthusiasm. Whether I’m priced out or not doesn’t really matter, and I won’t be tbh, but you can’t herald the impact of the people who go above and beyond and then at the same time also say they can’t have a voice, or that they simply shouldn’t go if they can’t afford it.
Anyway we were terrible last night. Kostas did my head in, Mac had his worst game for the club, Kelleher poor on and off the ball. Setting up full backs and wingers who simply don’t offer an outlet out wide is a recipe for disaster and I thought Atalanta were superb.
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I hope you’re right, but it didn’t feel like that to me. Arsenal away felt like a bump in the road from which we could recover. This game felt like the end of the road. So many players looking jaded, tired, lacking intensity.
Sorry, I’m still in mourning. If we spank Palace I will be back on board.
That is going beyond the call of duty tbf
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Equally then, if their contribution on the match day is so important, why did they choose to torpedo Klopp’s last team over £0.86?
You can’t have it both ways.
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This is something that has to be answered. Isn’t that less than a cost of a bag of crisps ?
The ‘if’ there implies you’re sceptical about their importance, but then you suggest they carry enough weight to ‘torpedo’ a game of football they’re not playing in, so maybe you can’t have it both ways.
I think it’s fine to disagree with the protest if you want, btw. Thats a position and it’s reasonable. But what is mad to me is that this particular group, not SOS or anyone else, are getting criticism when they’re the ones who actually do the thing. Like if they’re priced out, which is obviously their concern, then there’ll be no flags anyway and something has to be done about that
How is that price hike pricing out anyone ? It’s not as if the club did anything like what’s happening at Spurs ?
Tickets are already too expensive for many people. Many have already been priced out and simply can’t afford it. The natural order of the flags and banners is that historically the younger generations would start picking up the mantle but SK1906 are on record as saying that stopped happening years ago because a lot of young people simply can’t afford match tickets.
In isolation this increase doesn’t seem huge. But it’s on the back of prices that were already too high and on the back of a hike last year also, suggesting there’s more and more to come. This on top of a cost of living crises that is squeezing all household expenditures. It’s easy to see why people would have to give it up. And if that person is me in the main stand, it’s no skin off anyone’s nose apart from mine, fair enough. But if its the people who create the Anfield we all love then that’s a huge shame and a huge loss.
Last years increase, the first in 6 years wasn’t met with protests and most were relatively accepting but two in a row creates an unsustainable trend.
Earlier in the thread, I said that in the end, the team has to give the crowd something to work with, and I didn’t really believe there was much merit to blaming a comparatively small group of fans for the demonstrably flat atmosphere. The protest obviously would not help that, but woeful football is the driver there.
However, setting aside whether or not I think their contribution is that critical, you were the one suggesting they were important, not me. You made that assertion, let’s assume I take it at face value. Does £0.86 merit withdrawing their support? Seems terribly conditional, if not outright abusive.
You know full well it’s not about 86p to argue as such is disingenuous.
That’s fair enough, but the club’s costs are increasing as well. Should the club be holding the line on wages for the Anfield staff? I would genuinely hope their wages are being increased at something like a COLA. The club cannot be expected to solve a broader societal problem, and maybe their problem is they have been half-trying by increasing at less than the rate of inflation.
It is £0.86 per match. Multiply it by the number of matches if you like.
Sorry to everyone, I didn’t mean to massively derail the thread, and while I have opinions on the price rise in general that wasn’t necessarily what I was trying to say. Mostly that criticism at that specific group is foolish.
If they’re concerned enough to take drastic action we should listen because once they’re gone Anfield is gonna be a different place.
But since you asked about increased costs the clubs revenue has increased significantly alongside. Record deals with Nike, with Standard Chartered, match day revenue on its own is now more profitable than ever due to the expansion of the stadium.
Happy to continue via DM here or on socials mate, with anyone really, but I’ve probably derailed the thread enough. Apologies for that.
Thought gakpo was good in isolation but him wide left didn’t help the team at all. X
I don’t see how a section of match going spectators can protest against the club increasing the prices though. It’s not a humungous increase. A statement can be made but them not bringing the traditional banners etc might well have played a small part in players not feeling the energy in what’s essentially a crucial game for Liverpool.
Not that it should have been a factor. But still.
I understand that the match going supporters in their own way have been a big part of what makes playing at Liverpool a spectacle.
I think any drop in atmosphere is more noticeable when watching the game on TV. I honestly didn’t notice it from my seat in the Anfield Road stand, as there was plenty of singing and fans getting behind the team. The protest might have had an affect, at the very least, I think it was bad timing. They shouldn’t have chosen a big European night.
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This sort of makes the point though - a group of supporters chose to stage a protest, that protest was part of the match. They could have protested outside the ground, they wanted the attention of doing it at the match. It really isn’t derailing the thread to discuss something that occurred at the match.
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From my foreign, far away perspective I thought the PL has had too little fan protest in general, not too much. Maybe this specific issue isn’t it though.
That’s a fair point - flawed though it may be, it seems that German football has more of a consensus on what the game should be about, and that leads fans to rise above some of the more tribalist concerns that appear to dominate the English game.
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That is disgraceful and I don’t want even to think about it happening. The team will give everything they’ve got in a week but currently it doesn’t look like it’s going to be enough.
What a way to fuck up though, one to go down in the history books like Gerrard’s last league game.
Klopp having to comment will feed down to the players though.
Isn’t the first time they’ve protested and we have been shit.
Liverpool FC pay the real living wage (not the government branded one).
That will have gone massively up with inflation.
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