If Liverpool get treated like Celtic, what then?
The Fifa Club World Cup sounds like an important tournament.
But if I were Liverpool manager, I’d be treating it as the inconvenience it really is.
Let’s be honest, the Reds’ priority this year is clear – winning the Premier League. Claiming back-to-back Champions League titles runs a close second behind that. Next should be the FA Cup, then the Carabao Cup.
Travelling to the Middle East for Fifa’s club tournament should be a distant fifth in the pecking order, especially given its mid-December scheduling.
That’s a piece of nonsense!
The Christmas and New Year period is a hectic enough time for English teams.
That’s why I have issues with Jurgen Klopp’s side going to Qatar next month, while leaving the youths to face Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
With the Villa game taking place the day before the first Club World Cup game, something had to give.
Truth be told, I haven’t liked these inter-continental games since I was an eight-year-old
There are Premier League games against Watford the week before and Leicester City the week after to consider too.
But dragging first-pick players to Qatar for a glorified PR exercise of a tournament just before the crucial festive period wouldn’t be my priority, no matter the financial gain for the club.
Truth be told, I have never liked these intercontinental games.
I remember as an eight-year-old boy hearing about the European Cup-winning Celtic team’s 1967 games with Racing Club of Argentina, who had won that year’s Copa Libertadores.
The first leg was a 1-0 win for the Hoops at Hampden, while the Argentinians triumphed 2-1 in Buenos Aires.
These days, Celtic would have won the cup on away goals. Back then, it went to a tie-breaker, and what followed was an absolute disgrace. The Hoops ended up losing 1-0 in a match that is now known as “The Battle of Montevideo”.
There’s no point dressing it up. The
Argentinian side kicked Celtic up and down the park that day. They were absolutely vicious.
Football is different today, and Liverpool’s opponents – whoever they may turn out to be – are unlikely to go about things the way Racing did in 1967.
Even so, can you imagine the uproar if the Reds go to Qatar and Mohammed Salah ends up getting injured?
For that matter, what about Sadio Mane? Virgil van Dijk? Jordan Henderson? Andy Robertson?
If key players get injured in games that really matter, fans can accept it.
But at the Fifa Club World Cup? No chance. Some folk will say the Carabao Cup isn’t any different in terms of importance.
I can see where they are coming from to an extent, but for me, it’s still a domestic competition, and it deserves respect.
I’m not saying Liverpool’s kids aren’t capable of beating Aston Villa for a place in the semi-finals.
They proved in the last round against Arsenal that they’ve got something about them.
But it’s no coincidence that Villa were made odds-on favourites after Jurgen Klopp revealed his plan to take his main guys to Qatar.
Listen, it all might work out fine for Liverpool in the long run.
They might make it a clean sweep of every tournament they’re in this season.
But I think giving Fifa’s mid-season folly of a tournament – and one that means nothing to the fans – too much respect is risky.