The Melanoma That Liverpool Is Suffering From: A Fan Asks for Chemotherapy

The conflict between present and the past, especially when the present is dire and past is extravagant, leaves people timorous in dwindling about the future. As some wise man had said, truth hurts; it really does.

The new year 2011 saw the Manchester clubs, Utd and City, share the top spot with equal points, only to be separated by a sheer amount of experience Sir Alex Ferguson puts in every time he's in the dugout to the slew amount, literally amount in Pounds Sterling, the Abu Dhabi City has precipitated in the last three years into City's build up.

At third place, we have the Londoners' Arsenal who normally finds themselves in the same position every year since their last Premier league title in 2004-05.

Whether the trophy-less days could finally be over remains to be seen for the Frenchman Arsene "professor" Wenger.

The fourth and fifth spots are encrouched upon by other London clubs—Tottenham and Chelsea, respectively. The Spurs being the enlightened club this season and Chelsea being the ones to blame no one but themselves for their recent slump in form.

Where's Liverpool? One must be conjuring them up at sixth or seventh position challenging for the fourth and final Champions League spot like they have been seen doing since 1989—the last time Reds won the league.

No, sorry but they're sitting at a mediocre position in the league and in reality.  

So, looking at the past 21 years or so, I cannot stop myself from those thoughts, probably normal to the fellow Reds; why haven't Liverpool won the league title yet?

My inner me vociferated in vehement voice that it is so because the club, it's fans, people associated with the club have not moved on since 1989-90, though the rest of the world have.

Perhaps true? No, definitely true. The beauty is when we ask our inner selves, we get the truth, which hurts, which we always try to avoid for the sake of not being hurt or to avoid the reality.  

Living in the past is like living on drugs or some stimulants which do make you feel good for the time being, but when the effects wear off, you realise that you're still miserable and pitiful.

Being proud of a glorious history is utterly different compared to living in the past. That's the mistake Liverpool fans, such as me, have done. 

We still think it's our club, we still think we have a divine right to win trophies for no reason and we still think we are a team capable of munching the opponents even if we are mediocre at times.

The problem is Liverpool FC is not yet "modernised" in every aspect of the club.  

Our expectations have risen to plateau, but the exertions needed to convert those expectations into results are still in the 1970s.

Every year, we go into the league on match day in August thinking "this is our year" only to cringe and say "maybe next year," three months later during Christmas time.

It is not far that the Oxford dictionary will start having a thought of including those phrases as an example in their next editions.

The once-mighty Reds have fallen badly. I could see Bill Shankly crying and probably shriveling in his grave when Liverpool touched the relegation zone in October this year.

He could not have seen what Torres, Gerrard and Reina—the most gifted players on the Liverpool squad—have been showing on the pitch this season.

But the problem doesn't lie in this season's performances or the last; it's, well, deep-rooted somewhere in those 21 years.  

Manchester United started going into the 21st century in the 1990s, and Liverpool stayed in their glorious past only to see the Manchester club standing on the same perch as Liverpool which used to be a distant dream until the 1990s.

Man Utd started realising the then-current situation to get the best possible young talents, develop them into stars, sell them and make profound profits. Utilise these profits on development of the club in every aspect.

A part of the money would go to improvise scouting, when the other part may be utilised to invest in advanced medical and fitness equipments or into buying the next best talent in Europe.  

The cycle of profits started moving slowly, but steadily, and with better profits came better players. With better players, Man Utd started winning trophies.

One other of Liverpool's failing, a bigger one, was to avoid the stadium rebuilding or renovating. Because of the Taylor Report in 1992, Man Utd had gone from a 60,000 to a 44,000 all-seater Old Trafford.

The modernised mindset of people running the Red Devils quickly factualised the situation and started adding bits and pieces year after year, and in 2006, the Old Trafford became the third largest football stadium in UK with the seating capacity of nearly 76,000.

What did Liverpool do? They continued living in past. They made plans to build all-together a new stadium, The Stanley Park, only on the blueprints though.

This resulted in a horrible mistake. Just for a simple mathematics, Man Utd earned nearly double the amount from ticket sales and other facilities in stadium compared to that of Liverpool's for years.

If Liverpool stayed up-to-date with the present in the 1990s and renovated Anfield, they could have spent nearly double on players recruitment and who knows? There could have been many Torresses and Reinas. 

Liverpool have been unsuccessful in winning the league for these 20 years, however, they have been one of the most frightened and intimidating clubs in Europe, perhaps the only great achievement for the fans to boast about until 2008.

European luxury comes after the season long hard work in domestic league. Since 2008, the Anfield outfit have been trading their woes in Europa League—a second tier European club competition after the UEFA Champions League.

Man Utd mixed it all up when they were on the high. They stuck to a man who vowed to knock Liverpool off their perch, though he had won first league title in his seventh year in charge.

Liverpool sacked their Spanish man in his sixth year in charge who was able to win the league title sooner or later and replaced him with a mediocre manager to "steady the ship."

The fact of the matter is every new manager will need at least one or two years to rebuild the team and the overall squad.

Appointing Roy Hodgson made sure that Liverpool stay in 2004, the rebuilding phase for another two years to see if "that year" comes in 2012 or not.

Had they not changed the manager, they could have saved these two years of rebuilding, and in fact, delaying to win the league.

Liverpool Football Club, their owners and the fans must understand the modernised concept of winning football trophies.

The traditional way is you develop your extraordinary youth talent into first team superstars, like Arsenal and Barcelona-way or a much modern way is to simply go out shopping to buy those talents, the Man City or Chelsea way.

The third one is to do what Man Utd have been doing for decades. Develop your youth AND buy expensive talents. As I said earlier, Utd have been mixing it all up and thus winning mixed trophies, too.

At the times where Anfield was being invaded by the likes of Blackpool and Wolves, the fans started chanting "Dalglish" and "Roy for England" things. Again, Liverpool fans, as always, are still in the past.

Although a vast section of the fans, more intelligent than emotional, do believe that Dalglish is not the answer.

Roy Hodgson was appointed because he said he could get the best out of the players.

When a person could take a lesser team like Fulham, with my highest respect, to Europa Finals, imagine the possibilities of getting the best out of Torres, Gerrard et al.

However, Hodgson failed doing that.

If he cannot get the best out of the players, then Liverpool must find someone else who can. But, Dalglish is not the answer.

Liverpool owners and the fans need to be ready to take ruthless decisions. They need to start using the 1200 grams more than the 300 grams.

I am no football expert to suggest any remedies to Mr. Henry on how to run a football club.

This is just a fan's frustration vented out from his saddened and bleeding heart to see his beloved club suffering from the contagious disease called "living in the past," and I am sure I am not the only fan feeling this!!!

This article was published on 2nd Jan, 2011 by me. By mistake it got deleted, so I am re-publishing it. I appreciate the comments  and views expressed by readers on original article.