This weeks postbag sees a letter from one of the most influential players in English football. Soccerlens is very proud to be chosen as a sounding board by this particular individual.
Dear Soccerlens,
I am a twenty-seven year old footballer who has achieved nearly everything it is possible to achieve in the game. I am a veteran of sixty-five caps for my country and I am a loyal one club man for my beloved club.
I am loved and adored by the fans of my club who are amongst the most passionate in the country and I am recognised by most people to be one of my country’s only truly world class players.
Individually I have been named in the UEFA team of the year three times and the FIFPro World team of the year twice. I have been named the Champions League’s most valuable player and have won the PFA player of the year, PFA young player of the year and PFA fans’ player of the year awards. I have been named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and have been selected in the PFA team of the year an incredible six times, including the last five seasons in a row. I have been awarded the MBE.
With my team, I have won the Champions League, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the UEFA Cup, the Community Shield and the European Super Cup.
“You should be very happy and proud,” I hear you say. Well, I am, but I would swap all of what I have won for just one thing. I want a Premier League winners medal.
Twice in the past I could have gone to Chelsea. If I had done, I would almost certainly now possess the one medal I want. I didn’t go because of my loyalty to Liverpool and my love of everything about the club. Of course, the one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a week contract for the rest of my career, making me the highest paid English player was also a slight consideration.
I am now committed to my club and am determined to win that elusive prize. This year we were eleven points behind the winners, last year it was twenty-one and the year before that it was nine.
The problem I have is that I don’t think the men who own my club have got the faintest idea of how to conduct themselves in public or behave like adults, never mind running Liverpool football club or taking us to Premier League glory. My manager is a fine man and a tactical genius in Europe, but he doesn’t seem to care about winning the one competition that the rest of us are all so desperate to win.
Whilst Chelsea have just signed a right back for sixteen million pounds and Manchester United are being linked with all the top players in the world, we have made a public show of being absolutely determined to sign Gareth Barry. Don’t get me wrong, Gareth is a fine player but is he really the man who can take us to the next level?
There are other great players at my club as well as me. Fernando Torres for one. OK, there is one other great player at my club. We also have a lot of very good players but we are just not good enough to compete with the other three top clubs in our league. I want us to spend a lot of money in the summer and turn us into a team capable of winning the league. I don’t think the owners or the manager are having the same thoughts.
What do you think Soccerlens? Can we win the Premiership? Will the owners start to behave like grown men and sort out their differences? Will the manager make the Premiership his number one priority?
The fans deserve better. I deserve better. Are we going to get it?
SG, Liverpool
Soccerlens reply
Dear SG,
You are indeed a very fine player. You do indeed deserve better, as do your club’s fans who have waited nearly twenty years for league success.
Sadly, you have asked four questions at the end of your letter and I don’t think you will be happy with my answers.
Can we win the premiership? No, I don’t think so.
Will the owners behave like grown adults? Definitely not.
Will the manager make the premiership his priority? He hasn’t done in the four seasons so far, so, no he won’t.
Will me and the fans get what we deserve? Will it be better? No.
Sorry SG. You do deserve better.
Any similarities to real people are entirely accidental.
Graham Fisher
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