Editorial
By Steve Kelly
From Issue 50, Winter 2001
Fanzines and their fiftieth issues: discuss.
Most have a little look back over the years they've
been (ahem) publishing. Granted, not many have
eleven years to look back on - I think Red All
Over The Land had five! I've skipped all that
nonsense anyway, as looking back over the last
decade plus of Liverpool FC would fill me with
horror. Truth be told, I see nothing that's really
worth celebrating. The club I grew up with and
loved has almost ceased to exist. There's a certain
amount of pleasure to be gained from its current
incarnation of course, but sometimes it's like
cheering the stock market. Cold, calculated, frequently
inhumane, altered almost beyond recognition. So
there is a complete absence of 'nostalgia', since
everyone knows things ain't what they used to
be. Even nostalgia.
There are no messages of congratulations or support
for TTW&R either, since frankly I didn't receive
any! Thanks ever so. Once you've read issue 50,
you'll probably know why. There were several non-believers
amongst you who took the idea of a swift issue
49 with a huge pinch of salt. Letters about November's
'woes' started pouring in as soon as I was trying
to sell 49. I've still included some of them because
they make interesting points, or I might just
be too lazy to think of anything more topical
to replace them with. You decide. I did want to
write about the day we ended that abysmal run
of results at Old Trafford, especially the snidey
build-up that always seems to 'coincide' with
our visit there, but other stuff came in and I
was glad of the chance to back out. I'm not going
to pretend it was "just another win",
but I am fed up to the back teeth with opposition
supporters asking me to stand up if I hate Man
U. I love the way the majority of Reds are now
beginning to boo this little ditty down, with
a rousing Liverpool chant to drown it out completely.
Quite right too - we are the only team that matters
round here. Or ought to be. Two days after the
Barthez fiasco, I had received ten e-mails on
the subject. Fabian as the Statue of Liberty,
"Hands up if you're out of the cup",
the mock letter from that Cardiff hotel they were
supposed to have booked. I got them all. Thanks
and all that, but TEN?!? That's more than I ever
get on the Reds, and it's not as if we haven't
got enough on our minds is it? No one likes a
good anti Man U joke more than me, but the urge
to turn into Man City should be fiercely resisted.
So what about this team of ours? On the day we've
just pulverised a fairly limp West Ham, we're
in third place (a game in hand from second) and
still in all competitions. By any yardstick -
even the Mancs, thanks to Mr Di Canio - that is
a fantastic state of affairs. Should the ever-so-coveted
Champions League spot be achieved, there will
be intense scrutiny of the squad and whether it
has the necessary talent and strength in depth
to survive the rigours of season 2001/02. I suspect
it hasn't, and to avoid the fate suffered by Chelsea
and Leeds it'll probably cost another pretty penny
to put right. It was never really made clear whether
Gerard's legendary Three Year Plan was to gain
CL qualification or CL status i.e. annual qualification.
By the time that three years is over, at least
90m will have been spent and very little brought
in. I just hope everyone thinks it's worth it
if (almost said "when", then) we get
into it.
The results since #49 have been excellent. The
performances haven't quite been on the same level.
There's an interesting article in this issue that
more or less accuses the modern Reds of being
a fair weather team: give us home advantage and/or
a goal start, and we're more than a match for
anyone, even the Mancs and Arsenal. Send us away
and put us a goal behind, and you see a different
performance completely. I've been bewildered to
the point where I felt I was turning into Ian
St John at one point - simply moaning for moaning's
sake, or actually wanting Houllier to fail. I
would obviously dismiss the latter as ludicrous,
but I wonder whether it's a sub-conscious thing.
If Gerard takes us back to the top, then this
club is going to go the way of all things Manc:
shiny new stadium, multitudes of bag-carrying
no-marks gawking silently at those funny eleven
men in shorts because it's the thing to do, the
place to be seen at. Extravagant ticket prices
and a "fuck you, someone else will buy it"
attitude. It's already happening, I suppose. Will
I be able to stomach such a scenario - and will
the likes of me even be included?
Or maybe I just don't like being browbeaten. Claims
that Villa away was (and I'm quoting a TTW&R
regular here) "the best Liverpool display
for three years" are baffling, since it doesn't
take into account the fact that Villa stank the
place out. West Ham were woeful, Palace were dreadful,
Leeds are struggling badly at home - even Man
U were below average on the day - but then a little
voice pops up inside your head and says "they
can't all have been shite!" and there's no
arguing with that whatsoever. Cliché to
clutch, number one: you can only beat what's put
in front of you. Then you get home from Leeds,
drunk and ecstatic over the win if not the performance,
only to discover that Fowler was "excellent"
(he was never off his arse for 75 minutes) and
that Houllier's substitutions were "inspired"………inspired
by Babbel's flu, Smicer's awfulness and Danny's
injury, perhaps. It's exactly the sort of "Print
The Legend" rubbish that I'd expect from
the Mancs and the Shite - not from Liverpudlians.
February promises to be a very exciting month.
First of all, I hope everyone got back safely
from Rome (rather you than me). Results against
Man City, Roma and Birmingham (another bunch of
loonies) could well determine the kind of finish
we will put in during the remaining league games.
I've been rather flippant on the back page - if
you do decide to dress like that, at least you'll
fit in with the locals - and I'm wondering whether
the League Cup can provide the kind of morale
boost that the FA Cup gave Everton in '84 and
United in '90. It will certainly reflect badly
on Houllier if we miss out on the CL because of
the fixture congestion caused by winning a competition
that was regarded by many (including me) as 'Worthless'
before we got to the final. But then that's the
beauty of football, isn't it? It's all ahead of
us, and nobody knows anything really. We could
be happy, we could be sad. The only certainty
is that we'll be laughing our heads off at Everton
at some stage. Toodle pip, and see you in Cardiff.
|
