Paul Tomkins: Liverpool's Most Indepth Football Writer Talks To Jamie Ward

At a time when the media representation of Liverpool Football Club is at its lowest and most vile, and all around supporters seem to be losing their way. 

It's reassuring to know that at least some people out there are still able to judge the situation with honesty, common sense, integrity and a welcome dash of humor.

That is why Paul Tomkins is currently one of the most critically acclaimed, and closely followed Liverpool writers around today.

Some consider Paul to be overly optimistic and dependant on twisted statistics to suit his rose-tinted agenda. But those comments and accusations mostly seem to come from supporters who disagree with his fundamental view on Liverpool Football Club under Rafael Benitez.

However, even if you don't share the opinions of Paul Tomkins; it's difficult to argue that he doesn't put in the hours and do his homework. Spend some time reading through his articles to see just how thorough and in-depth the research goes.

The independent sports writer doesn't just spread his exceptionally researched word via the official Liverpool website; he is also a published author, with seven very well received books that have topped best seller lists since he began in 2005. 

The amount of work that has gone in to these Liverpool based publications is at times simply staggering, and it goes along way to backing up his opinion with unarguable facts and statistics, that prove every media myth, tabloid shark, and narrow minded supporter to be way off base.

This is not the typically shallow knee jerk opinion you would get from the large number of media hacks peddling sensationalistic headlines, and ex-player turned pundits desperate to make some money off the back of their name.

Paul Tomkins is, first and foremost, a passionate supporter of the club who simply writes about what he believes in. Love him or hate him; what you will always get is honesty, common sense, integrity, and a dash of much welcomed humor.

Was there a specific moment when you thought: I want to be a journalist?

To be honest, I have never thought that. I still don’t necessarily see myself as a journalist, perhaps because I never studied to be one. I kinda fell into it, starting off writing for a hobby when I first got ill, at the end of 1999. 

What journalists do you consider inspirations now that you are an established writer yourself?

The more I learn, the more I realise how awful so much of the media is. There may be a lot of journalists who think they are writing insightful pieces on the Reds, but they don’t know enough on the subject to realise they are missing the point. Their ignorance blinds them from the truth.

Some might not care. But it’d be like me writing on science; I might think I understand it, but of course, beyond a superficial level, I haven’t got a clue.

To be honest, I find more of interest in people who take on the mass media, like Charlie Brooker in Screen Wipe/News Wipe, and Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. They tackle the hypocrisy of the media, and the agendas that drive the dumbing down of news reporting.

Have you met any of the journalists you consider inspirational or affective on your work?

No, and have no real desire to in most cases. I’ve known Oliver Kay of The Times via email for a good few years now, as well as doing the same with Tony Barrett before he left the Echo, but I’ve never been one for networking.

I’ve seen some well known reporters walk by at airports covering Liverpool in Europe. In future, I might pelt them with rotten fruit.

What do you think about the treatment of Rafa Benitez in the English media?

I honestly think some previously respected journalists have really underestimated the depth of feeling towards them lately, after they have shown their true colours and a stunning ignorance in their attacks on Rafa Benítez.

The amount of people emailing about the likes of Henry Winter and James Lawton, asking "what’s happened to these guys?". There’s been little hardcore analysis, and a lot of hot air.

Winter writes that Rafa blames everything and everyone but himself, then writes a piece saying that Alex Ferguson deserves respect after he’s found guilty of outrageous comments about Alan Wiley; that Ferguson deserves leeway for all he’s done "for St George".

I mean, what the f*** is that all about? I didn’t see Benítez getting a lot of praise for bringing the European Cup back to English soil. People should be judged on their crimes, not on their ability to supply expensive players to the English national team.

No-one’s success gives them the right to ride roughshod over the rules. Imagine the outcry of bias if I said that Rafa should be above the law because he’s won a few trophies!

It’s like Jon Champion on ITV constantly referring to Benítez as a "lucky" manager; as if you could have won the amount of games and trophies he has in the last eight years based on luck, especially when he’s had less money than rivals in both England and Spain, and real problems behind the scenes at both Valencia and Liverpool.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard another manager described as "lucky" other than in the odd instant, when of course any can have fortune go for or against them. It’s truly bizarre.

I’d expect supporters of other clubs to be sick to their stomach if I went on TV or into a national newspaper–supposedly neutral media outlets–and launched into an ill-conceived rant about Ferguson, Wenger or Moyes. It wouldn’t be fair of me to do so.

That’s why I like people like Jonathan Wilson and Simon Kuper, who write about tactics and managers with real insight and, shock horror, actual research.

If you had to choose, would you only write about football, or would you further your passion in fictional writing?

Well, writing fiction was always my first aim. I fell in love with reading literature when I was about 19, having never been interested at school, all I did was draw and paint or play football.

My mum used to have to drag me back from the park after dark, as I’d still be playing football!

When I was 20, I was studying Graphic Design, and I decided I wanted to be a novelist. I dropped out of college, then woke up the next morning in a blind panic, realising that I hadn’t got a clue what I was doing! So I went back, cap in hand, and continued with my education.

But over the years I kept plugging away on the side, doing bits here and there, trying to hone my craft. And as I’d discovered with art, you know you are progressing when you find your older work to be naive, or, now you’ve improved and grown, relatively poor by comparison.

Can you describe your influences for your fictional writing, and what compelled you to want to write fictional books?

Ian McEwan was a favourite from the start. I was 20 when I read The Innocent, and just loved it. I like the darkness in his work, particularly his earlier stuff, which can be a mixture of beauty and brutality. That’s the kind of thing that appeals to me.

Can you write a brief description of your current work in progress?

It’s a multi-layered, unconventional love story, centred around a woman who has disappeared. I’ve had advance interest from publishers, and hope to have it finished in the new year.

You have an immense amount of work to be very proud of. What would you consider your pinnacle to date, and are there any you are aiming towards in the future?

‘Dynasty: Fifty Years of Shankly’s Liverpool’, is the book I’m most proud of. It lacks the really vivid first-hand accounts of Istanbul and Athens that two of my other books have, but I think it’s a great achievement for me, given the amount of research and the level of unique analysis I developed to judge the managers on an equal footing.

I feel that there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else out there.

But if I could pick one chapter, it’d be the one from ‘Golden Past, Red Future’, about Istanbul. I don’t like reading my old work, as I’m always fearful of a typo or an opinion I no longer stand by, and I never read my pieces again once they go up on the Internet, either.

But that chapter will always be something I’d be happy to read again, because of the memories and the sheer joy of the whole experience.

Do you have any regrets as a football writer? and any regrets as a fictional author?

Not sure I have any regrets. You learn from your mistakes, so take away your mistakes and you’d be a different writer, and a different person. But as a writer, once you put things out there you can’t take them back. You have to get used to that.

What benefits have come from writing about the club that you happen to passionately follow, and what negatives can this bring with it?

The positives are knowing the subject. With very, very few exceptions, I must spend more time thinking, watching footage, and writing about Liverpool than anyone else on the planet. That’s why mainstream journalists wind me up; they don’t know the full picture, and I can often see where they are wrong.

There’s the 10,000 hour rule, where, if you have the sufficient natural ability, you get to the top of your field by putting in that many hours’ work.

Let alone in my lifetime, I think I’ve put in that many hours thinking and writing about Liverpool since Benítez took charge! Whether people like or loathe me, I hope they find me thorough.

The negatives have been trying to make a living via my independent means when results go against the Reds. Book sales slump after every defeat. Then there’s the fact that I not only feel the defeat as a fan, but I feel it professionally.

That’s why I set up The Tomkins Times. A subscription-based site for people who want to read what I have to say, even in the bad times, that benefits both them and me.

Also, you have to get use to abuse from fans of your own club. I don’t mind being called a c***, or whatever, but I must have been called "Goebbels" on a dozen different occasions.

As if what I do has any comparison whatsoever with a man responsible for Holocaust propaganda! It’s not that it insults me, but it insults all those who suffered at the hands of a monstrous regime. All I do is write about Liverpool Football Club, in the face of some unfair criticism.

But that’s the moronic levels some people will drag the debate down to.

Did you become a journalist because of your love for football, or is it a career that you would have taken up anyway?

Again, I didn’t really ever become a journalist.　I prefer the term football writer, or football analyst. I know the latter might sound poncey, but I analyse a lot of details other people don’t go into. I think that’s why Benítez responded well to my work.

As an ex-semi-pro, and ex-season ticket holder, I understand a good amount about playing and a good amount about being a regular match-going fan.

I do love the game, but I’ve had to learn about analysing it more dispassionately. Of course I will always have some bias, but I try to be as fair as possible, and to not pretend that I have all the answers.

I made the same defence of Arsene Wenger last season during Arsenal’s struggles, and look at them this season. By media and knee-jerk logic, Wenger should have been sacked. Where would Arsenal be now?

I argued that of course Chelsea would struggle without Terry, Drogba and Essien in recent seasons. Yet when I say such things about Liverpool, my critics call me hopelessly optimistic and, in extremes, "Goebbels".

If you could no longer write about football: what other things interest you enough to passionately write about them?

Music is something I’d probably write about. I listen to music constantly, and it’s something else I’m very passionate about. But I don’t spend as much time reading up and researching about it, so I could write about my tastes, but do not know the ins and outs like I do with football.

If the official website asked you to push a story that wasn’t necessarily true; would you do it for the sake of the good publicity it would bring the club, knowing the influence you have on so many Liverpool supporters?

Not at all. That’s not my job. I am not the club’s PR machine.

I’ve never said anything I don’t believe; I might have had to omit certain criticisms, or the Press Office may have removed them if they overstep acceptable bounds for what is, after all, the club’s own website, but I’ve never been told what to write.

The people at the website are great. I write what I want, when I want, and submit it to them. The only times I’ve been asked to write something was for Gerrard Week, or similar such events, and even then, it’s just "can you submit something?".

If they said they could no longer employ you if you chose not to push their story, would this affect your decision?

I don’t think they’d do that. That’s not the way they, or I, work.

People have to understand that the site is there to give the club’s point of view, when the mass media has no loyalties to Liverpool FC, and will often look to sell papers with untrue stories, some of which can be deeply unsettling to those concerned.

It’s not necessarily anti-Liverpool, but part of the "Crisis at Big Clubs" phenomena. We all love to read about our rivals in peril, but that doesn’t make it right.

However, when you have someone like Henry Winter admitting that he doesn’t really like Benítez as a person, even though he doesn’t know him personally, then you know that the criticism is getting personal, too.

From a supposedly neutral source, that is unacceptable, particularly when he shows a clear bias towards Alex Ferguson and the other "chummy" managers out there.

So I will not tolerate anyone putting in the boot to the club I love when it’s down; especially if doing so with a sneer and a chuckle.

The official site may seem like propaganda at times, but it has to support its players and manager. They do after all get enough stick from those who want to see them fail. Why can’t people understand that simple concept?

If I didn’t believe in the Liverpool manager, I’d stop writing for the site. I’ve always said that.

I’m sure I couldn’t write a weekly column if the club was employing Neil Warnock. But if the club is employing a proven top-class manager, then I see it as my role to analyse the way he works, and to accept that there will be highs and lows along the way.

Would your answer be different before your website, The Tomkins Times, was created, and now that it is successfully established?

Well, I have my own independent means to express myself, and I always have. I’ve never had to write anything for anyone that I didn’t want to. And I never will.

I will always find my own ways of making a living by what I do, that gives me complete control over what I say. I could never write anything against my beliefs, be it football or political.

As a writer, I am nothing but my words, so I need to be honest with them.

I spent a lot of time defending Peter Crouch in 2005, when people said he was an utterly useless plank. I did the same for Kuyt in 2007, then Benayoun in 2008, and then more recently, Lucas and N’Gog, not because I was asked to, but because I believed they deserved it.

I got stick from fans for doing so, and yet later also got a few apologies, too.

I don’t like seeing any player mindlessly slated, and I will stick up for the whipping boys if I think they deserve better. But that doesn’t mean I spent a lot of time sticking up for Nunez, Josemi and Degen.

I believe every player deserves the time to settle in, and for judgement to not be instantaneous, but I put most of my energy into defending those I see as having real ability, even if it’s not apparent to everyone else. And if I can’t see the appeal, I try to work out what the manager saw, but also, whether he had been refused his 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices beforehand.

I know from my own playing experiences that it’s difficult going up a level in the sport, even in non-league terms, and can take time. And no matter how professional you are, you cannot just take to the pitch, click your fingers, and every problem in your life, or in your career, is instantly solved.

You cannot learn English overnight, or settle if your wife is desperately unhappy, or your child is ill.

Would you consider becoming an editor of a national newspaper if you had licence to employ your own journalists, and you didn’t have to work to a higher force dictating what stories must appear?

I don’t believe such a newspaper could exist, and I certainly don’t think I’m editorial material! I respect people like Tony Barrett and Oliver Kay at the Times, but I couldn’t personally be associated with papers that print some of the rubbish, like Cascarino’s column.

Seriously, toilet paper is both cheaper, smoother and less likely to leave newsprint on your arse.

In many ways I think that Barrett, Kay and Brian Reade are doing a great thing, fighting Liverpool’s or Benítez’s corner from within the establishment, but personally, I’d be too pissed off with the idiots in other parts of the paper.

We have a situation in the media where failed, flawed ex-players are those ones making the most vocal criticisms. But really, do we need alcoholics, drug abusers, betting-based cheats, wife-beaters and sexual deviants, many of whom messed up their own careers, sitting in judgement?

None of us are perfect, and we all have our skeletons, but some of these people would rather grind theirs down to a fine white powder and snort them away.

A massive thank you to Paul Tomkins for taking time out of a very hectic work schedule and answering these questions. If your interested in reading more of Paul's work, you can visit his website or buy his books.