http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/arbeloa-grateful-to-kenny I do find the contrast between the attitude shown by some players we've signed and sold rather amusing. Arbeloa, garcia and alonso are very good examples of how players from spain seem to buy into a club's ethos and become semi-supporters themselves. torres on the other hand may well privately be very upset at how he's regarded on merseyside now. He too said all the right things but then took a decision that his career needed trophies and went out of his way to get his move then moving to one of the worst possible destinations.... I wonder does it hurt him to think of it? I have to contrast to mascherano and tevez out of argentina who seem VERY mercenary in outlook caring little for these things. same language, different mentality?
It's great when players like Alonso have this love for the club. The supporters seem to appreciate it.
to be fair to Mascha he has tried to make amends with Liverpool fans by dedicating his champions league win to us, I doubt we'd see the same attitude by many others
He left for the same reasons Luis Garcia did..for family reasons,ans ''Little Luis'' is still adored by the KOP faithful.Mascherano should be remembered in the same way,and his dedication of his CL win makes up for his no-show against City.All is forgiven Javier.
maybe he did, maybe not.... i'm not so sure those family reasons were in fact valid.... when he is directly quoted as dreaming of barca with messi etc thats the issue. I think luis was a bit different, he was sold on and left a nice letter open to the fans thanking them etc.... mascherano did rather the opposite..... look when a british press camera is stuck in your face and you've the brains to realise who'll be wathcing then saying what he said is hardly amazing... if he'd said it to spanish TV without any prompting it'd be something else. Alonso wanted to go.. arbeloa wanted to prove himself in spain, garica wanted to go... but they all handled it well and so are respected in return... mascherano was maneauvering (sp?) a move for months and we can reasonably expect it was all sorted with barca a year in advance despite that not bieng legal.
oh and i think yes, for irritating garry neville alone its worth forgiveness... torres would have to do an awful lot to earn respect lol... then take rafa... yes or no on him deserving to go we can all see a similar story of a guy who gave a lot privately to the community,came back after the inter debacle to live so thats what we mean by buying into the ethos. (i'm in the he should have gone camp but he's still a legend)
Alonso will always be highly regarded among Liverpool fans in my opinion. I, like many Liverpool fans, was disappointed in the way Mascherano left. The whole Man City incident left a bad taste. His Champions League dedication went some way to re-building the relationship between himself and the fans. And Torres... Like another poster has already said, I don't think he will happy with the way he left. I always felt he had a good relationship with the club and Liverpool fans. He made a decision to force through a move to Chelsea and I believe that massively damaged his relationship with Liverpool fans.
I'm surprised no one's mentionted Rafa. Although he wasn't a player for us, no one can doubt the love he had (and still has) for the club and fans, much more so than other managers hold for their clubs/former clubs.
I can't blame any player who wanted to leave last summer. Hicks, Gillett *and* Hodgson? And Mrs Masch was part of it, if not all. So when Masch got frustrated at the way negotiations were going, or not going, his head wasn't in the right place. Who plays players in that situation? How long did Fergie hide Rooney away? And Masch wouldn't have changed the City result that much anyway. He wasn't exactly prompted. It's not like he was asked what he had to say to Liverpool fans for leaving. At least not as I remember it. Maybe he was. He certainly hid it well. There was no lack of effort from him that season, in contrast to Torres this season.
Rafa left in a dignified manner and still has a place in the hearts of Liverpool fans.He donated in the region of £90,000 to a Liverpool charity.He didn't have to but he did. Hodgson who did leave initially in a dignified manner slightly spoiled that by taking pot-shots,and looking for excuses.Overall he's a top bloke that was out of his depth,but he should have said nothing to the media.His ''Kenny was overshadowing me'' and ''I was never wanted by the fans'' did annoy people. As for Torres.His ''Chelsea are a bigger club''...Since when?Chelsea will NEVER be a bigger club than Liverpool.Everton are a bigger club than Chelsea.
To be fair to Hodgson he never was wanted and Kenny did overshadow him. Rafa was, and is, great. Kenny has the ability to lure players to the club in the short-term, but long-term, without trophies, will be seen as a LFC legend but nothing else. If we get a Champions league place at the end of the season then Kenny's appointment will be justified. I'm a massive LFC fan but also a realist.
Kenny knows how to win titles.He's been there,seen it,done it.He knows how to buy players short term.What? Is Jordan Henderson aged 20..short term.Is Andy Carroll aged 22..short term?Is Luis Suarez aged 24..short term?Under the instructions of Rafa,Kenny was brought in to oversee the academy.He has introduced youngsters into the senior side.The youngsters know him,they respect him.He has coached them and brought them on. And theres more to follow.Kenny's taking Liverpool to the top,It may take him a bit of time,and he may have to destroy and crucify Ferguson and United in order to do so,but he will do it.Thats one thing that 100% certain.Kenny wants Uniteds throat and he intends to choke them.
I wasn't suggesting Kenny knows how to buy players in the short-term for a short-term objective. I was saying that the appeal of Kenny to lure outsiders will be short-term if no trophies or major progress is made. I agree that Henderson, Carrolla and Suarez are signings made for the long term.
Interesting article mate. I think most of it down to the individual. I mean Torres and Alonso are both Spanish, but they are very different people. You cannot realy generalised. I used to think English/British Isles players were more loyal, but the likes of Rooney/Rio/Smith prove otherwise. There are some though like Terry and Carragher. It's all about what motivated them. I would be lieing if I said I wasn't motivated by money - but I am also motivated by other things. In the game of football it should also include loyalty to a club and their fans. Michael Owen argh.
Yes it is down to the person Shame that a lot players just do it for the money but that is part of today's football BIG MASSIVE SHAME REALLY
i really don't see much loyalty in the english players.... i guess loyalty is the wrong word... what i see here is a guy signing up to a club and he can bascially think "ok i'll be here for 2 years. who cares about it after that" Do we think for example ballack cares two hoots? he's moves lots on frees and never seemed to care what happened when he left. I do see a common thread of players for us who seem to buy into the club and care even though they move on. Hyppia returns also... I am wondering if it is a trait of the spanish in gerneral that when the look at a move they really buy into the community... rafa did it too. but what about say.. .the french... has any one of the muck houllier brought ever given a second look? then what about holland where kuyt is an example onway but others are bad examples? I don't think so. I guess the nub of the question is should we be shopping in spain more than other european countries and not just for the tehcnical ability given? I totally agree the individual is very important in this assessment of character but it seems to me you could write off quite a few countries when thinking about plaeyrs to buy... italy, france, for example if required.
Really interesting question. I suppose you have some players that seem to just love the club, a lot of Spurs fans hope Modric feels this way and that's the main reason we would look at for him not leaving. We've been good to him and he's been good to us. We hope VDV has bought into the idea of Spurs as well, attacking football, allure of living in London and the love of the fans. I suppose with Liverpool you see a lot more players buying into the idea, the level of the support is still right up there with the best in the world. It must be such a great feeling for a player knowing they're part of something like that, and yeah spanish players do seem a lot more likely to feel this way about it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that football clubs generally mean a lot more in Spain. Like Barcelona are fully part of Catalan culture and politics while Real Madrid have their past affiliation with Franco and that. They're truly a bit more than a club. Same way I suppose you have big teams like Liverpool become truly representative of the cultures they're from, it becomes so much easier to buy into their ideals when there's something more behind them than just the football. Went off on one a bit, but really interesting article. Best I've seen on not606 so far I think.
somehow i am not sure aboutVDV on that... but modric. I think he might be the type. Like alonso all you can really hope for is the guy plays stragiht with you and you get value or he comes out and says he's staying and does so. I've concluded that there's always another player. we sold torres for 50mil and got suarez whos selling as many shirts and is not injured. we sold alonso for way more than his value but haven't quite replaced him. We will though. he after all replaced hamann who was a legend too. There may be something i nthe way the club is set up, or closeness to fans or perhaps its just the idolisation they get, who knows. thanks for the compliment on my first article though... much appreciated. one point that is interesting here is to branch off into a city type expereince v a traditional club. will city only ever get mercenaries cos thats the culture they create. when the chip are down will they run and hide? Contrast to utd, arsenal, spurs etc who have the traditions o nthe wall and the longer term philosophies.. will they attract the guy who will do it for the teammate beside him and the fans in the stand so when the chips are down they come through? Or is that grasping at straws seeing a club like wolves would laugh at a liveprool fans tlkaing that way seeing we spend so much?
