External Pressures Loom as Liverpool Concede the Title

It’s round about now when many of us are feeling deflated.

I recall something I read over the festive period by the Tory Politician Anne Widdecombe who expressed her concern at the counter-productive nature of making over-ambitious resolutions on Jan. 1.

Her pearls of wisdom may resonate with some more than others as the stodgy food and bad habits slowly creep back in.

Edging past my evening quota of black stuff at the turn of the year, I too stand culpable of making bold proclamations, and upon reflection concede, setting an objective of completing my first novel in 2009 may have been a tad premature.

Widdecombe’s antidote was to write 12 resolutions on scraps of paper: Six easily achievable (like reading more in the evening) and six less doable (like contacting and arranging to meet up with a friend you’ve not seen in five years or more).

At the beginning of each month she would pick one at random from a hat and vow to make a diligent and importunate effort to achieve this task.

The demanding world of football wouldn’t go far wrong if it adopted a similar approach.

A club that knows all about mammoth expectations is Liverpool, with many portioning blame on the club’s illustrious history. Post-eighties players and managers alike have subsequently carried this self-defeating burden.

We only have to look at McManaman, Smicer, Kewell and Robbie Keane, who tried and failed to fill the No. 7 shirt once famed by Keegan, Dalglish and Beardsley, to see how such pressures can affect even the brightest of prospects.

It is revealing to see Edwin van der Sar breaking records up the East Lancs. Rd. where a long line of successors to a certain ‘Great Dane’ had previously been stripped of their confidence and unsympathetically slipped out the back door, visibly shaken.

Some of these ‘United failures’ have managed to rebuild their careers under less glaring lights of so-called smaller clubs, most notably Tim Howard at Everton.

Great players, you might argue, can handle things much better and block out all external pressures, listening only to their inner-voice and strong sense of destiny.

Players or managers cannot control what has happened in the past only what happens in the future and it is unfair and unrealistic to judge and compare them by what has come before. Sometimes more patience is needed

Football, nonetheless, deals in fine margins. Just ask Tony Adams.

If Portsmouth had not conceded some late sloppy goals in games they deserved to win, he would surely still be in a job. That’s not to say I think Tony Adams is a good manager, far from it.

I personally feel that despite being a leader of men when he took to the pitch, he is better suited to a No. 2 coaching role.

Expecting a man of his little experience (and less resources) to match what Harry ‘Houdini’ had already achieved was like pressing the ejector seat on an experienced pilot when the plane was experiencing problems, expecting the co-pilot to land the jet in the Hudson River.

There is a case Adams should’ve stayed at Portsmouth until they found a suitable replacement for Redknapp. Someone of similar experience, who Adams could still work under and continue his apprenticeship at the club.

You can sympathize with Chairmen when you see the likes of Guardiola sharpening his matador pearly whites at Barcelona.

But, despite him proving more popular than Rijkaard on account of the progressive, and at times, breathtaking football his side are currently producing, how difficult can it be to tame such precocious talents as Messi, Alves, Bojan, Yaya Toure and Busquets?

Especially when you consider he has experienced wizards like Henry, Xavi, Iniesta and Eto’o to call upon if he ever needed advice (if you’ve not watched Barca this season, it is a must for any sports fan).

Nevertheless, the astute Guardiola is that rare breed of intelligence that allows great players freedom to act on their own impulse and intuition. They represent what Chelsea tried to achieve in the early seventies and came short.

The fact that Guardiola is achieving a brand of football not overly reliant on rigid tactics and also being successful is a magnificent feat, and for this he deserves lauding.

Not all managers, however, have it quite so easy.

Nobody enjoys seeing managers under pressure, throwing on substitutes in the last 10 minutes of a match like a gambler desperately pulling coins from a pocket that is full of holes.

And though a new manager with the Midas touch can often galvanise a team in trouble, after the initial lift there is usually a trough, we have to remind ourselves what happened to Midas in the end (that’s in no way a warning to Spurs fans by the way)?

For clubs in free fall, sacking your manager is rarely the quick fix owners are looking for and can often have disastrous consequences. So too can harbouring unrealistic expectations.

Leeds don’t need mentioning again, but if we cast our minds back to Charlton, now a club languishing perilously at the foot of the Championship, the dangers and repercussions of attempting to build instant success from foundations that are far from stable, blow gales of caution.

Charlton no longer deemed Premier League survival as good enough, despite them being a club of the PL under classes. When you see where they are now this was ambition bordering lunacy.

It is worth considering the faith that has been bestowed to David Moyes and the recent success He and the club are enjoying. The board and supporters, even at times when it was a real fight to keep the club in the division, have stuck behind their manager and this is justifiably paying dividends.

In a previous article, I compared watching my team Stoke City this season to being invited around to Nigella Lawson’s house just to wash the dishes, whilst herself and her cronies enjoy fine exotic foods.

Since my sudden change of heart, if this is dish-washing, it’s like getting paid £100 an hour. And I’ve never been so happy just to clean pots!

If you’re a Liverpool fan, and you’re thinking Rafa has thrown away your best chance of a league title in 20 years, a man always good for the optimistic statistic is the irrepressible Paul Tomkins. He recently suggested that no team has ever won the Premier League without finishing second the season before.

After witnessing United—inspired by the evergreen Paul Scholes—put on an exhibition against Fulham, it is hard to see anything better than second place for Liverpool this season, even if they do beat City today (which I am not confident they will do).

But in light of Tomkin’s information, this has to be seen as definite progress for a club used to finishing behind United, Chelsea and Arsenal in recent years.

Even if my team Stoke suffer relegation, which of course I don't want to see happen, we have made similar progress and I am confident of a swift return. It is still a far cry from the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and you cannot beat the excitement and experience of a relegation fight or a push for promotion.

For these reasons, I will not be too disappointed if we do go down.

You see I am starting to realise that we all have to lower our sights a little as a sort of insurance for our personal happiness. Things need to step by step, and if we want to succeed, it has to be more gradual.

I am probably not going to write my novel in 2009, nor will I run that marathon, yet for the moment I’m thoroughly content with keeping modestly fit and attending my creative writing evening class. The rest, as they say, is in the post.

Nevertheless, given Liverpool’s stuttering form, I think it is realistic to beseech that Barcelona win the Champions League, as after enjoying their free-flowing uninhibited approach to the game this season, and the message it duly inspires, they surely deserve it.