Gary Neville's Thoughts On LFC's Stature

Liverpool are stuck in the past and in danger of becoming a provincial club

Gary Neville: It is no surprise Raheem Sterling wants bigger and better things elsewhere - a proud club is failing to think beyond the confines of its city

Raheem Sterling has been in the eye of a storm this week following the revelation that he wants to leave Liverpool, but while there is a lot to be said about the way the story has developed, the harsh reality for the club is that this situation has been 15 years in the making.

When it comes to representing young players, the onus should be on protecting and supporting them; maintain your dignity and keep out of the headlines.

But has Raheem Sterling really let Liverpool down by suggesting he wants to leave or is he just a kid who wants to play football and win trophies?
There is a wider context to this story and it centres on how Liverpool have gone from being from one Europe’s great superpowers to one which is in danger of becoming a provincial club.

The prospect of losing Sterling will be a major concern for everybody connected to the club, but the uncomfortable truth is that this is nothing new for Liverpool.

Just look back over the past 10-15 years and count the number of players who have left Anfield to pursue bigger and better things elsewhere.

Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez have all gone.
Steven Gerrard is also being allowed to leave and, although his circumstances are different, there is no way in a million years that Liverpool should be allowing him to pack up and sign for LA Galaxy.

If you compare Liverpool to Manchester United over the same period of time, I can think of only one player - Cristiano Ronaldo - who left when he wanted to go, rather than when Sir Alex Ferguson wanted it to happen.

The comparison with United is valid because, regardless of the recent successes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, English football’s biggest, most historic, successful and best supported clubs are Liverpool and Manchester United.
But while United have been happy to shout from the rooftops about how big they are and promote the legend and mythology of the club on a global scale for years Liverpool seem to have been stuck in their own mud.

Liverpool have begun to realise the commercial value of their brand on a worldwide basis, but they are years behind the biggest European clubs and, for me, their problems - which have been given a public face this week by the Sterling situation - are a direct result of that failure to think beyond the confines of their city.

Let me give you an example which highlights the difference between Liverpool and Manchester.

When Gerrard was preparing for his final game at Anfield last week, Jamie Carragher told me that whenever Steven goes out in Liverpool he simply cannot escape the attention or go about his business without being aware of the suffocating pressure that comes with being a Liverpool player in the city.

If you travel to Ireland, Scandinavia, Malta, Thailand or wherever, the red shirts of Liverpool and United vastly outnumber those of every other club.
I spent almost 20 years playing for United and, like the rest of my team-mates at Old Trafford, could walk through Manchester quite easily without feeling as though I was living in a goldfish bowl.

I can’t think of any United or City players who would socialise or go for a meal in Liverpool, but I know of several Liverpool or Everton players who do exactly that in Manchester.

Liverpool has an incredibly community-minded mentality and in many ways that spirit, pride, passion and togetherness is one of the city's great strengths.

I joked with Jamie last Monday that, if Andy Burnham ends up as Labour leader and then Prime Minister, Jamie would be announced as Defence Minister, Kenny Dalglish Scottish Secretary, Ian Rush in charge of Wales, HS2 going direct to Liverpool, and the Trident nuclear deterrent protecting that city only.

It was a back-handed compliment about the unity of the city and how Liverpudlians will always defend themselves and fight passionately for their beliefs.
It is a very emotional city and, again, in many ways this is a strength, but for Liverpool Football Club, all of those qualities have become weaknesses which have contributed to the position they now find themselves in with Sterling.

Take Anfield for example.

It is a wonderful old stadium, with a fantastic history and atmosphere, but when I drive towards it through the narrow streets which surround it, you just feel that it is in the wrong location and that it is another symbol of Liverpool looking to the past rather than the future.
The streets around Anfield are not suited to a modern Premier League stadium

I have lost count of the times Liverpool have unveiled plans for a new stadium at Stanley Park, only to end up staying at Anfield because of the history of the place and the fervour of the Kop. In the early 90s when United made their move, Liverpool should have been on their coat tails.

But Anfield has held them back because every other big club - with the exception of Chelsea, who are owned by a Russian billionaire - has moved forward already, either by vastly increasing their current stadium or building a new one.

The emotional ties are given too much weight - that emotion played its part in the performance that led to Crystal Palace winning at Anfield in Gerrard’s farewell game last Saturday - and they are not helping Liverpool.
Arsenal left Highbury, another famous, traditional old ground, to move into the 21st century at the Emirates, City left Maine Road for the Etihad and, in Europe, the clubs who jostled for European Cups with Liverpool in the 1980s and beyond have all put the past behind them and moved on.

Bayern Munich have a new stadium, Ajax have a new stadium, Juventus have a new stadium, while United, Real Madrid and Barcelona are playing in huge arenas which have moved with the times. With five European Cups it is these clubs that Liverpool should be neck and neck with.

Only now are Liverpool increasing the size of Anfield, but will it enable them to close the gap enough for them to compete with the top clubs and prevent players like Sterling wanting to leave?
Liverpool need a visionary with the ambition to take the club into the 21st century. They even decide transfers by Committee. How can that be an efficient, clean process with clear accountability?

Great football clubs like Liverpool will never go away, but they need to find a way to arrest the slide and make themselves a team that players want to play for rather than one they try to leave in search of bigger things elsewhere.

If Sterling leaves, then that will be another star player who has decided that Liverpool is a club that is unable to match their ambitions.

I might be the last person that Liverpool fans want to hear this from, an outsider who played for their biggest rivals, but these are things that need saying.
Despite my United past, I have enormous respect and admiration for Liverpool Football Club, but it is time to put the past aside.

If they can get it right and look beyond the confines and restrictions that lie within their own city, Liverpool can remain one of the world's most successful football clubs and Sterling and the others that have wanted to leave would be banging on the door to sign for themthem

He's talking bollocks, we constantly have preseason tours of foreign countries, we have worldwide commercial partners.
And who's he trying to kid about players being able to go out in Manchester without any hassle, just because nobody wanted a chat and selfie took with him.
Its not like players from our two clubs or theirs go out on the lash in town to none exclusive pubs/clubs.

 

Page I'm not so sure - I do think as a club we focus on looking back more than we focus on looking forward, and possibly that is why we are in such a **** position now

 

My view:

1. Neville is right to say we are YEARS behind other teams. Why? I have said it time and again we had small minded cheap skinflints like moores and parry running the show. The failure stems from the 80s. never seeing the reality of the new world and thinking a boot room and a amateur hour way was the right way.

I have said before looking back and seeing mcmanaman, redknapp and folwer BETRAYED by having to play with fat ****s like rouddock and dicks... go on i say watch the famours 3-3 draw at anfield. UTd players were streets ahead of LFCs in terms pf professionalism.

2. Neville is talking bollox about anfield. Old trafford opened i n1910 not 1992. dunno what he is on about but perhaps old trafford had the best base location but that was an expansion policy.

Again I've pointed towards the fact that post the taylor report for all seater stadia old traddord was 44,000 seat stadium. Utd had foresight and invested.

Arsenal only did it in 2000s...

We built the centenary stand and thought we were great... we struggled up to 45k unde rmoores and ****ing well stuck there. He is right in saying we should have been on utd's coat tails. We should have had 65k seat stadium min... no vision.

We still have no vision. FSG will compelte main stand 54k... will they really do the anfield road end? no sure at all.

Wheres the plan for third teir on centenary stand. wheres the plan to foce the council to accomodate the crowds, wheres the train link?

3. Parochial.... The fact that utd fans leave utd players along in salford says more about them than anyone else. I think neville is talking bollox here cos if you go to madrid or barca then he'd know about goldfish bowls... the fact is he's never moved so he has no clue.

4. He is not talking bollox about committees. It is an archaic blazier type approach from the 19th century. I cannot believe what we are doing.

 

Of course we look back, but we(the supporters)want success, want a club geared for a bright future.
The only problem is our owners aren't supporters and don't have the feeling for the club.

Yeah we're an asset of theirs and they are not going to see it go down the pan but in terms of cost cutting they chose not to build a new stadium, they chose a cheap option as manager(but he hasn't been cheap in the transfer market), Arsenal sold Highbury and built The Emirates, Spurs are going for a new build stadium, Wet Spam are taking over the Olympic Stadium, other clubs smaller in stature have new modern stadiums.

 

About time he did this, I was starting to like him too much.

 

I think the horrible, filthy Bolton gobshite should mind his own business and **** off. And anyone who agrees with him is a **** as well

 

And like Neville isn't living in the past when he's using Ferguson's time as manager to draw comparisons?
If he wants to go back pre-ferguson united were much as we were now, signed mainly players of a low status, didn't pay the highest wages, were also rans in the league and ****e in Europe.

What we need is luck when choosing our next manager, but not Darren Ferguson.

 

where exactly is he wrong though.

why did we

a) end up at 45k stadium and seemingly unable to get to 55k for 25 years when utd could get to 75k and FSG managed in 3 years to figure it out....

b) why did utd players not leave... simple they won ****. LFc lost players cos we did not. LFC lost players mentioned under rafa simply as we fell apart un G&H


the sad simple fact is moores was pathetic then sold badly to G&H who put the club in defacto administration but we somehow avoided a deduction in points.... then FSG came in and are running it on a business footing... it seems.

UTd built their revenues hugely a very long time ago and are where they are as a result. WE are 8th richest club but act like we are small time.

my view is:

1. melwood = small time
2. 54k.. maybe 58k... small time thinking
3. rodgers. small time.
4. committee... shockingly stupid and very amateur hour
5. Discipline... totally lacking...
6. squad.. full of dead wood.
7. baosts of kirby... small time..

in compariosn lets forget about ****ing utd.

Lets compare ourselves to what chelsea have done.

Top training facilities, top under age level, top manager, top squad, bought area to expand stadium which is the only thing small time about them..

Seriously.... we are in 5th in the table somehow... **** knows how and we are the most disorganized and backward of clubs.

 

Provincial? I sort of understand what he's saying. We've said ourselves about our failing to attract big names, does that make the club parochial though I don't know. We set our sights on some top players and who knows which top managers we talked to before Rodgers came. That looks like we set our targets high but had to readjust to the level who wanted us. Does it all come down to money? Were City provincial until they got a sugar daddy? So Sterling wants trophies, guess what, so do most players but the reality is the majority, and it's a vast majority, won't win trophies and are happy committed to their clubs and enjoying the sport they are oh so lucky to be a part of.

 

actually... stature is about belief.


I think a lot of us just don't really believe... we know the truth.

Compare to cheslea and utd. their fans believe utterly they will win and take it for granted.

We have been damaged by all this stuff and we simply don't really believe we can get up there.... not really. FSG sure as hell don't. IMO

 

Neville is 98% bang on the money with this. The other 2% is the Gerrards staying bit!

Sure we have foreign tours now and we're looking too increase the stadium now but it all started fifteen years too late.

 

Other than failing to capture the league title, it's not like we've been in the wilderness is it? We only just missed out on 4th, who would have thought that after Suarez leaving? Yes others results have helped but that's always the case. We're going into second tier Europe - the booby prize maybe - but still keeps our name in the European sports columns.

 

its NEVER too late IMO.

Well...... if we had started 15 year ago and there was 3 really big sides up at the top... us utd and arsenal would ambramovich thought hey i'll buy chelsea and woudl the arabs have come to play here? who knows.


The reality is in 10 years time we could have a scenario where the clubs change uefa again and we gain a 5th cl spot not by right but by virtue of teams like aC milan demanding access to the big cash. who knows...

I can see in the mists of time the possibility that if we were professional that when arsenal retire wenger they are our rivals and its close between us..... but that is not now nor the next 2/3 years.

Its never too late but it is too late for sugar daddies to enter the enlgish game. building revenue and ground size as long as we keep doing it and not think 58k is enough nor listen to fans who say oh this ticket price is too high when arsenal then double it (sorry lads but that's a sad truth too)... we always have a chance of getting back.

HAs to start with the top though... the top of our club is not right at all.

 

Last year for example i had to beg lads to believe and i said enjoy it while it lasts... that said it all. I didn't say this is it we are back.....

I've said take the europa seriously and it will reward us but again i don't see the belief in that.

 

I dont know about the reasons why but LFC definitely dont aim high enough. Fck knows why not. It's like you make a half-arsed attempt at it.

There's big TV money coming soon. If LFC dont sack Rodgers before then and get someone in to turn those funds into a significant building block to future success, they will be out in the wilderness.

 

The other thing to remember is that Liverpool [the city] is and always will be different to the rest of the country. It's a city full of sentiment that loves it's own and keeps them close, which is why ex-players and Rafa [God love him] feel wanted and surrounded by love, a part of the community not just the club. If London and Manchester are cold and soulless - that's not our fault!

 

So

So. it would appear there are a few ****s on here

 

you missed the polls?

 

Spoken like a true geordie

 

Don't know the **** from Bolton you refer to, Neville's from Bury.