๐ง๐ช Football without Origi is nothing
Divock Origi retires at 31, and somehow that feels perfectly him. Early, unexpected, a little mysterious, with the last word belonging to nobody other than himself.
Letโs be honest, he never became the player his natural gifts suggested he might. He could disappear for weeks, sometimes months, and leave you wondering where all that speed, strength and serenity had gone.
And yet, look at the roll call.
Champions League winner. Premier League winner. Scorer in a European Cup final. Two goals against Barcelona on the maddest night Anfield has ever staged. Pickford, 96th minute, bedlam. Madrid, 87th minute, immortality.
His isn't a career to apologise for. It's a career most players would crawl over glass to own.
Origi was never a weekly certainty. He was something far rarer, a man for the thunderclap. When the match was dying, when logic had packed up and left, he would appear with that calm face and those cool feet, as if the pressure had mistaken him for someone else.
Liverpool have had far greater players. Plenty of them. Players with better numbers, longer peaks, more trophies, fuller bodies of work.
Few gave us moments quite so sharp, quite so absurd, quite so joyfully impossible.
So congratulations, Divock. On the trophies, on the memories, on knowing when your part was complete. Go make your fashion, build your work, carry your purpose.
Football without Origi is nothing, tongue in cheek, of course. Except for a few wild nights, it was absolutely true.
I have witnessed this club go from doubters to believers, and from believers to champions. It took hard work and I always did everything I could to help the club get there. Nothing makes me prouder than that.
Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve. I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies. That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.
Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about. All teams win games.
Liverpool will always be a club that means a great deal to me and to my family. I want to see it succeed for long after I have moved on.
As Iโve always said, qualifying to next seasonโs Champions League is the bare minimum and I will do everything I can to make that happen.
I have witnessed this club go from doubters to believers, and from believers to champions. It took hard work and I always did everything I could to help the club get there. Nothing makes me prouder than that.
Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve. I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies. That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.
Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about. All teams win games.
Liverpool will always be a club that means a great deal to me and to my family. I want to see it succeed for long after I have moved on.
As Iโve always said, qualifying to next seasonโs Champions League is the bare minimum and I will do everything I can to make that happen.