This from Rodgers: "It gave me great pride to be Liverpool manager, not that you want it to come from a situation such as that, but there is absolutely no doubt that after meeting some of the families of the victims I drove away from the vigil feeling a greater responsibility to these people," he said. As a lifelong fan, this strikes me as very naïve. You would hope that everyone at the club would have a far deaper undertanding of their resposibility to all the fans, not just the families. The investment paid by people buying the shirts and match tickets. I think Stevie G gets it, and I'm not sure if Suarez gets it, or he just doesn't give up for his own needs. However, you suspect that the majority, simply don't have a clue, don't have the brain power to understand the investment that is made by every person who sits in that crowd every week.
no in all fairness Noble it smacks of naivety that you think a manager in the modern game should feel responsible for the fans and the locals. Good on Rodgers, couldn't see Mourinho etc givin a ****
I think he's trying to drill into the players whom they are playing for and that is the fans. There may be some that have already realised it, the ones that haven't, have now been told in no uncertain terms. Brendan Rodgers is right in making this statement.
I'm starting to feel like BR's PR rep but c'mon: he as one of the leaders of LFC has to say something: he can't pretend he didn't just get here and wasn't here throughout the last 23 years. The most he can say is how it made him feel to see & listen to those he met & like others that weren't there at the time how it felt to watch that horror transpire on his tv set (he was a teenager) If he says nothing "he doesn't get it" if he goes on too much "he's overplaying it & is false" He's talked plenty of times away from these delicate events about his responsibility to "all the fans" I believe he got criticised for that too....
He was anonymous at the vigil Noble as you know and that's as it should be, sometimes a dignified silence speaks a thousand words. PS, I'd like to thank Graeme Sharpe and the other blues that stood with the families and the blues in the crowd that turned up. YNWA-NSNO JFT96
His position demands he says something, he's been on the outside and probably feels a bit 5th wheelish especially after replacing Kenny who has done so much for the cause He needed to say something with meaning but not too much. He handled it ok. Players play for themselves, I certainly know that when players say the club is not matching THEIR ambitions, thaty this is true for many of them if not nearly all. Local players that stick local for their careers, they play for all three, themselves the club and the fans.
I'm not criticising him for speaking, it's just the comment of feeling a greater responsibility. I know it's a stupid idea that the obsession we feel towards the club should be mirrored by the club itself.
I'll have to side with DF on this one, Noblelox. Brendan is stuck between a rock and a hard place: he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. I think he's expressed himself as well as he can, all things considered. He's going to do everything in his power to get us sustained future success. He wants time to develop his extensive plan and I think the majority of us fans will allow him that time. As far as his Hillsborough comments go, it's a delicate matter and he's done as well as he possibly could. He needed to remain peripheral, as it's all about the families, the fans and those who endured the tragedy, e.g. Kenny et al.
He's only been here for a few months, if he demonstrated the obsession we have, we'd call him out on faking it so as to try and look the part. His comment, I felt, wasn't about his responsibility or obsession towards the football side of the club or the fans - which we know are high on his priorities - but now also about the people of Liverpool as a community and what this club can do for everyone, regardless of their footballing allegences; something he's come to realise through recent developments and how the community of Liverpool pulled together from red or blue side. Personally, I believe you're just trying to nitpick, Noble
Got to agree with the others on this one Noble. There is nothing disingenuous in anything that BR has come out with. I think you're reading too much into it.
Give BR a break FFS. I have no idea whether everything he says is carefully planned, PR-vetted or deeply disingenuous, but at least is engaging his brain before opening mouth. I think he was very balanced throughout this difficult week: It was said earlier that for him to have attempted enter centre-stage would have been wholly inappropriate. KK has that permission (although he never seeks to exploit it) because he was there and because of his unquestioning support over the past 23 years. To say nothing would have presented him as remote and disengaged from the hurt that still exists at a deep level, report or no report. The one thing you cannot accuse BR of being is unintelligent. I think he 'gets' the club and he is as committed to helping the club rediscover its mojo, as we can rightfully expect. That will take time and, to be honest, a level of subtlety that today's game doesn't value. To simply go back to the 'boot room' ethos will no longer cut it, so he goes to the other extreme with a 180 page dossier. Is that the right approach? - no idea. But at least he appears to give a **** about the long-term prospects of our club. And his contribution to the Hillsborough events this week need to be seen as part of that bigger picture. Very happy to have a separate conversation about whether he has a great footballing brain.... GKRK
^This^ I haven't bent over and puckered up for him and I've taken his cloying words about "the fans" with a pinch of salt the size of Northern Ireland but I suspect nobody can truly get it until they're right in the middle of the community. I think he would've been damned if he did, damned if he didn't. And especially having to stand alongside Kenny.
