Opinion
City fans, genuinely feel for you, we all support clubs through good and bad, and maybe hold our nose at times when something seems too good to be true. Being genuine here, no bs, no clucking, no delight. Could be any supporter today. Needed to say that.
But this now is the biggest football scandal in British football history
nothing comes close.
Expulsion from the Prem and EFL a bare minimum, several billion in fines, Abu Dhabi struck off global football ownership, selling all clubs, an independent commission into all Premier League clubs financial conduct, and where applicable, criminal fraud charges.
English football has been relatively lucky with financial or general cheating Scandals over 150 years ( there have been minor things) but this makes this season's Premier League ( are the practices alleged still happening? How many managers and players today are paid off books in contravention of HMRC and English law?) null and void until sanctions are implemented.
The motion that one club can fulfill fixtures while serious and potentially criminal allegations are pointed at the directors box would make it a circus and grossly unfair on every other club.
We all need to take a harder look at just letting anyone in to own our club on the promise of trophies and memories. Our forebears supported clubs simply for enjoyment and competition, not to end up like this. A mess.
‼️ Liverpool Are Too Big For This SH*T
£85m for Cody Gakpo is a serious offer. If Andoni Iraola genuinely believes Bradley Barcola plus a different profile on the right, whether that is Sarr, Minteh, Fernandez-Pardo (yet another left-sided player) or somebody else, gives Liverpool the attack he wants, then the manager deserves our backing.
The problem is Richard Hughes has done almost nothing this summer to earn the benefit of the doubt.
Liverpool have 3 days to replace Gakpo when it's taken most of the window to address an attack already lacking depth. Szoboszlai finished our first home game at right-back (it may actually be his position, gulp). Ekitike is unavailable. Isak cannot be expected to carry the centre-forward position alone. There are holes everywhere, square pegs filling them, and around ten senior players heading towards the final year of their contracts.
That's incompetence. That's neglect.
I went early on Hughes after the Diomande debacle and took plenty of criticism for it. I wish I had been wrong. Instead, every week seems to bring another example of a sporting director operating without a convincing plan, reacting late, shopping beneath the required level, and leaving the manager to make sense of a squad assembled without proper balance.
If Hughes were not seemingly edging towards Saudi Arabia, the calls for his dismissal would already be deafening.
FSG deserve their share of this too. They appointed him, empowered him, and have allowed Liverpool to drift through a summer where the manager appears to be accepting whatever is available from a late trolley dash.
None of this is the players’ fault. I also struggle to believe this is the happy transition some keep portraying. How could it be with this much uncertainty?
I want to enjoy Liverpool. I want Iraola to succeed. I want to be proved spectacularly wrong.
Yet Champions League qualification currently feels like the ceiling, two games into a new era.
Liverpool are too big for Richard Hughes, too big for second and third choices, and increasingly too big for an ownership model whose sell by date has passed.
I hope this time next year serious people are running the football operation.
Kan du svara på det här utan att googla? Vilken svensk spelare var först med att vinna Champions League? Testa dig själv på https://t.co/q9zh6Jh2S2 #fotbollsquiz
@esomiemilsson@Patrik__Gbg Håller med. Känns som de vägt varje ord i uttalandet för att inte be om ursäkt på riktigt.
Men, hoppas verkligen att det räcker, att man kan ta upp dialogen från det och komma överens
Semantik kanske, men är verkligen att erkänna att det blev fel - och be om ursäkt - samma sak?
Kan ju hoppas att det leder till dialog iaf, även om man igen är mindre imponerad av KGs agerande överlag.
#ifkgbg
@PatrikSyk Helt välförtjänt. Vi förtjänade att få stryk idag. Men är det inte sjukt intressant att Joelinton klarar sig från kort i så många situationer , match efter match. Helt fascinerad av det 😂
This tackle of Lewis Skelly looks much worse from this angle.
Studs up, makes contact high on the shin first, no chance of getting the ball at all.
Very dangerous. Could have caused a serious injury to the player who was moving at speed.
https://t.co/ygh6BiGG3u