Stan, you really are talking nonsense!
LIVERPOOL’S army of fawning acolytes are hilarious at times. And none is funnier than former Anfield star and current pundit Stan Collymore. The Brummie burbler has excelled himself in his Mirror Sport column by suggesting Kevin de Bruyne should leave City and head down the M62 to Liverpool.
The difficulty with analysing such comments is determining whether they are driven by ignorance, arrogance or are just intended as a groundless wind-up. Maybe an impotent mix of all three in this case.
The notion City would even consider selling their star man to their biggest rivals, when he has three years left on his contract, is preposterous.
It is true that players hold a lot of power these days, and if they want a move away, they can force one, more often than not.
But De Bruyne and his agent are smart enough to know that the Blues hierarchy would dig their heels at the prospect of selling the brilliant Belgian to Anfield.
Just consider the fee for a start. Even in a contracted transfer market, De Bruyne is worth £140m-plus.
Let us not forget it was just over four months ago Liverpool announced they were placing some of their staff on furlough during the pandemic lockdown.
It was a despicable idea, getting the UK taxpayer to fund their own employees while they continued to make profits and pay huge wages to star players.
They reversed the plan days later after a predictable outcry - and only Liverpool would then be praised for backing away from an abomination, such is the mysterious hold they seem to have on strong voices within the game.
Having tried to avail themselves of a scheme intended to prevent businesses plunging into poverty, to start spending big money on their squad would be a disgrace.
But Collymore romped on, regardless.
‘Isn’t it time he tested himself’ at Real Madrid, Barcelona or Liverpool, he asked.
Obviously De Bruyne has NOT been testing himself at City, where he has established himself as arguably the best midfielder on the planet, won two Premier League titles, four League Cups and an FA Cup in five years.
This is where Stan’s argument becomes really funny.
He says that De Bruyne hasn’t played for a ‘massive club’ as his former club Chelsea and City come with ‘B-grade expectations.’
So if City, the most successful English club of the last decade, have B-grade expectations, where does that leave a club with one league title in 30 years to their name? Clearly, Liverpool are on the comeback under Jurgen Klopp, and were worthy winners of the title. But to suggest the expectations are greater at Anfield than they are at City is frivolous, arrogant nonsense.
It’s a self-feeding cycle of pretentious guff that overwhelms clubs after a period of domination, such as Liverpool had in the Seventies and Eighties.
United had it - and still have it in some quarters, despite the chill of reality cooling their superiority complex in recent years.
The check on their infinite selfregard was perfectly illustrated by the photo of City players celebrating their sixth goal at Old Trafford in 2012, right in front of that droll banner which proclaimed ‘Not Arrogant - Just Better.’
That lack of an ability to see the bigger picture led to the idea that it ‘means more’ at Liverpool, as the infamous marketing slogan went. And it leads to the entitled drivel of Collymore and other Liverpool mouthpieces, who think ‘history’ only means trophies - and that football history only began when their club started to shine, which in their case was in the mid-Seventies.
Obviously City don’t have an honours board to match the Reds of either Manchester or Merseyside.
But they won the FA Cup - then seen as the prime trophy in England - before Liverpool, and in doing so became the first Manchester club to land any major prize.
They won a European trophy before Liverpool, and the Scousers’ run of eight consecutive seasons in the second tier, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, is longer than the Blues have ever spent in the lower reaches.
All of this shows how football is restless and cyclical, and to make a judgment based on the now, or the last 20 years, or the last 40 years, will eventually become pointless.
Of course, Liverpool’s success since they resurrected under Bill Shankly HAS increased expectations, but City’s fast forward march in the last 10 years has done exactly the same.
The hurt felt in the squad, and the club in general, at ‘only’ finishing second, winning the Carabao Cup and reaching the FA Cup semi-finals, tells you about the expectations in east Manchester.
Collymore urges the Anfield hierachy to go for it, saying: “It’s only nonsense if Liverpool don’t have the brass neck or the finances to go for it”.
Which means, to answer Stan’s question - A. It’s nonsense. And B. It’s nonsense.