Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Finishing fourth should NOT be celebrated. Liverpool is all about winning trophies
I’M THE biggest Liverpool fan on the planet but I’m old school. I don’t celebrate finishing fourth.
It won’t be a triumph if they win today. It won’t be a miraculous achievement. They shouldn’t be celebrating like they’ve won something... unless they actually win something.
Don’t get me wrong, it will be an achievement to have qualified for the Champions League, and of course I’ll be rooting for them to finish the job, but c’mon. With these clubs, the Liverpools, Arsenals, Man Uniteds, their history is about trophies.
I’ll be delighted if they win mind, and gutted if they don’t, because Liverpool have been outside the Champions League for far too long. And not being there hurts a club massively. It can even cripple them (as I discovered painfully at Leeds).
At the start of the season if you’d said they would finish above Arsenal and Manchester United, and go into the final day of the season still in with a real chance of getting past Manchester City, I’d have snapped your hand off. Jurgen Klopp too.
I actually thought it would be a tough ask to finish ahead of those clubs, even if Liverpool have not had Europe. City and United had new managers, so too Chelsea. All spent big money, as did Arsenal.
Liverpool broke even in the transfer market and had little depth in their squad, so that’s why getting in the top four will be an achievement, even if with my biased head on, I always think they should finish in the top four.
You look at the money United have spent, the size of their squad, and to finish ahead of them IS an achievement, even if the lack of any real adventure at Old Trafford has been a selfinflicted shot in the foot.
I really can’t see Liverpool messing it up now either, even if their home record in the past month will probably make a few fans wake up in cold sweats this morning.
If they do cock it up, then first of all, they’ll have that walk of shame around the pitch at Anfield in front of 56,000 murderous fans. And I’ve been there. You really, really don’t want to do that.
It’s one of the most humiliating experiences you can get as a footballer...that, and being put on your backside in front of 60,000 of your own Old Trafford fans by a cheeky Scouse imp, before he goes on and smashes one into the roof of the net. Eh, Gary?
Anyway. I digress. If they finish fifth, then it will mean Liverpool will have dropped at least nine points – possibly 10 – from their last 12 at Anfield
If you can’t beat the poor teams at home then you are not ready for Europe’s big competition
against three struggling sides in the bottom half of the table, and one that’s been relegated.
If that happens, then they have no one to blame but themselves, and they’ll have to hold their hands up and say they don’t deserve to be in the Champions League. Klopp has already come out and said as much.
He’ll know, if you can’t win a single game against poor teams at home in your final four matches, then you’re not ready for Europe’s biggest competition.
If they do win – and Boro will be in Ibiza after all – then they’ll need to spend some serious money in the summer to compete for the Premier League next season and hold their heads up in Europe.
It’s a tricky balance. Under Brendan Rodgers when they qualified for the Champions League the last time, I don’t think they had the squad after selling Luis Suarez, and they were a bit embarrassed in Europe, which had a big impact on the league form.
They can’t afford that again. Not after being out of the big money stuff for eight years, bar one. I think they’ll need a minimum of four to five signings, and not young players either, as has been the trend over the past few years.
They’ve got a fantastic first 11, first 14 in fact, but beyond that, there are some talented kids who are simply not ready. They need to keep those 14 and add five, who can all be comfortable on that stage.
It will cost. Big money. But if it means they can have a run at Europe while consolidating their position in the Premier League top four, it’ll be worth it. And who knows, maybe there will be a real celebration at Anfield soon.