Patience my arse. I’m going to kill something.

It’s hard to walk away from your football team. Even when you know it’s the sensible thing to do. Even when the alternative is unremitting anger and sorrow.

When you’re sharing a house with your father who’s a lifelong supporter. When you met your very best friend at the match. When you’ve committed a significant proportion of your life to Liverpool FC. It’s fucking hard to walk away.

And I can’t. Not yet.

But I’m close to it. Every day Roy Hodgson remains at Anfield and Melwood is an insult. An insult and an injury.

There are people who preach patience and argue that the new ownership has done nothing wrong and that they simply need time to find the right people to run and manage the club.

I disagree. I say that if they were prepared to invest almost half a billion dollars in Liverpool FC they should have already known who they wanted to run the club and manage their investment.

I say that if they want me to be patient, then they need to get in their private planes and make the trip to Liverpool. Stay in the city. Feel the anguish. Savour the gallows humour. Listen to the sound of a football club and half a city in pain. Take the trip – home and away – to the games. Sit and suffer with their paying customers. They’ll never feel this pain as badly as I do, because they have no history with the club, they live an ocean away. and they have their millions and their Red Sox to keep them warm. But until they share just a little of this torment, then they have no right to expect anything other than impatient fury.

I’ve seen people – typically those who hope to build a relationship with John W Henry – argue that I shouldn’t expect anything to happen in a hurry because that’s the Liverpool Way. They point back at the era of Peter Robinson and Sir John Smith and remark that the old guard never washed their dirty linen in public. No, they didn’t. But they did live in Liverpool. They did go to every match. And when Anfield called for the head of Graeme Souncess after a second ignominious exit from the FA Cup then they dealt with the issue overnight. Souness was out. His assistant, Roy Evans, was in.

Clearly there is no-one working at Anfield today that is capable of stepping into the job and taking the club forwards. But there are candidates who could step in and fill an unattractive Hodgson-shaped void until the end of the season. Sammy Lee. Phil Thompson. Kenny Dalglish. Obviously Dalglish would be the popular choice but I fear that the owners distrust his long term ambitions and are reluctant to allow him to extend his powerbase at Anfield. Regardless, they ought to be capable of either reaching an agreement with him or killing his under-the-radar campaign — if it exists — outright. Isn’t it easy? Offer him a job til the end of the season and a pre-defined role upstairs thereafter. If he refuses, leak it to the press.

Of course, my personal choice – however politically unrealistic – remains Rafa Benitez. I love the man. He loved the club. He loved the city. He still fucking lives here, for eff’s sake. We had a truly world class manager. We let him go. We have a chance to bring him back. We should be biting his hand off.

The most critical assessment of Rafa’s last season at Anfield that I’m prepared to accept is that he let himself down a little. Having come so close in 2008-2009, his goal for 2009-2010 had to be to win the league. Everybody seemed to agree that the way to achieve this was to open out and play a more expansive, attacking game. So he brought in Glen Johnson for Alvaro Arbeloa – after, let’s not forget, Arbeloa had been targeted by the influential Jamie Carragher. Sami Hyypia – unable to hold down a first team spot – moved on. The Xabi Alonso saga reached its inevitable conclusion. And the replacements Rafa brought in failed to fill Sami or Xabi’s shoes. As the season progressed and our luck got worse and worse, it became clear that toys were being thrown out of prams inside the changing room. Carragher, it’s believed, was at the heart of this. A future manager in his own mind at least. But really, who the fuck knows?

What I do know is that after all his excellent work previously, Liverpool FC should have BACKED not SACKED Rafa Benitez. He should have been given the change to repair the club. If necessary, he should have been allowed to sell one or two “untouchable” players, bring in replacements, and have another go. We owed the man that much. And more.

But instead the long knife was wielded and media darling Hodgson – who had been in talks with Christian Purslow for the previous six months – was comfortably esconced in Rafa’s Anfield office. With pomp and circumstance everywhere. Except in Liverpool.

It was a shameful period for Liverpool FC. And everything that’s happened since has just rubbed salt in wounds that refuse to heal.

So. Yeah. If I was the owner of Liverpool, I’d sack Hodgson today. I’d bring Rafa in tomorrow. And allow him to list ANY player he thought we could do without and spend every penny raised. And then I’d sit back and wait til the end of the season.

But what do I know? I don’t even know the rules of baseball. But one thing I do know. If the owners don’t do something soon, I will find it in myself to walk away.

Memories

Media Fun

So Jim Boardman, an apparently “respected” Liverpool supporter and commentator, has enjoyed a brief correspondence with the Chairman of Liverpool Football Club. This article is being reposted with almost first-strike speed all over the interweb to support a claim that LFC is being run by the media. A fatuous claim that is being given credence by a significant number of angry but unthinking supporters.

To be clear, Broughton doesn’t say that he fired Rafael Benitez Maudes because of the media. He merely says that the media seems to disagree with Jim’s opinion on the firing. See? I note your opinion doesn’t seem to be shared by the media. To which the appropriate response should have been: I note that the Champions of Italy and Europe seem to disagree.

So please, read a little more carefully and ask yourself, what have I learned here today?

This is what I’ve learned:

As Chairman of Liverpool FC, Broughton will act as the boss whenever it suits him while continuing to shun day-to-day responsibility whenever it suits him.

As a proudly unofficial and independent commentator, Jim Boardman is every inch as bad as the red top media.

First, he misinterprets something that is genuinely simple to understand. Then he uses that presumably deliberate misunderstanding (though he could just be stupid) to build his argument and grab your attention. He legitimizes his argument by paying lip service to a number of popular and undeniable issues and then he moves crassly onto the the real point of his story: Kenny Dalglish.

Boardman criticises the club and its “senior sources” for the way they manipulate the press. He slates the ex-players who criticise the club in the media but then excludes some unnamed “good players” who he believes don’t have axes to grind. And then he argues that all these ex-players parroting their opinions for money in the media should be believed when they call unaminously  for Kenny Dalglish to take charge.

Why, I wonder, does Jim Boardman seem happy to be media-savvy on every issue but one? Why is he incapable of considering the possibility that a substantial number of ex-players and football writers known here as the Friends Of Kenny have been mobilised to support the removal of Rafa and the nomination of Dalglish? I can think of at lease one obvious answer.

So, to summarise:

• Liverpool FC is not being managed by the media
• Liverpool FC has and will continue to use the media to support its agenda
• The media have and will continue to use Liverpool FC to supports its own agendas
• Other interested parties may also be using the media and vice versa
• Even independent and unofficial commentators are part of the media. They’re just not making as much money as they’d like to
• Too many people like to be told what to think. It stops them having to think for themselves
• You should all send me your contact details because I have a substantial fortune in Nigerian oil money and I need your help getting it out of the country

Brand new, you’re retro

The true value of LFC is not the stadium, the players, the TV deals, or even the trophies. It’s the brand and the global recognition and competitive business advantage that goes with it.

Yes, these other elements contribute to the overall brand. This Is Anfield. Fernando Torres. Steven Gerrard. They’re all brands in their own right. But above all else, the brand is three little letters – LFC, And the value of that brand to its owners and their partners in crime is the income it can generate for them. It’s entirely possible and largely accurate to say that effectively managing brand value is the only true responsibility of the CEO.

So if we assume that the goal of Hicks and Gillette is to exploit the LFC brand to the full for their own advantage through any combination of entirely legitimate asset-stripping and perhaps an eventual sale at profit then we can also assume that the brand is the only thing that really matters to them. Because the brand is the bottom-line.

Our job as Mujahideen therefore is complex and challenging.

We are actually a vital part of the brand. It wouldn’t exist without us. The Twelfth Man. The Kop. The Murderers. The Victims Of Hillsborough. More than anything else, in a weird circle-of-life way, the supporters of Liverpool FC are both its core brand and its core customer base. The affinity we feel for the brand is the brand. We are the tradition and unique selling point of Liverpool FC. We’re the reason people all over the world want to be part of the Liverpool family, to be part of our “brand community”. We are Anfield.

With the help and leadership of a few good men, we created the brand that is Liverpool FC. But we’ve allowed a few bad or incompetent men to steal it from us and treat us like chattels. They see us not as partners, but as marketing collateral and as blindly loyal consumers with nowhere else to go.

Well, no more. It’s time for us to say No. (And say it loud)

We created it. Let’s take it over.

By controlling the brand, we can control the agenda. Once we’ve reasserted our ownership of our brand and made it clear to the world that we own the one thing that truly drives this business, only then can we drive the money-lenders out of our temple and hope to rebuild through an alliance with acceptable and worthy business partners.

We don’t own the media. We can’t control what they say or how they spin the truth to serve their own agenda. But we can reveal their dishonesty and duplicity by the way we manage our brand.

The most important part of the brand experience is match day. We don’t own Anfield, but we can control the streets around it. We don’t own the TV channels, but we can control what their cameras can see.

We don’t own Liverpool FC’s relationship with its partners, investors, and sponsors but we can massively influence the value of those relationships.

We need a clear mission – to reclaim our brand.

We need a new identity. Something that clearly and visually distinguishes the true LFC from the business that is owned and operated by Hicks, Gillette, Purslow, Broughton, Dalglish and Whoever.

I’ve argued elsewhere for a red star on a blue background. But that doesn’t matter. I also like words like Jihad and Mujahideen, and hate the name Sons Of Shankly. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that someone takes the lead and does it RIGHT.

Give us a single simple effective visual brand.

Give us an effective distribution that allows us to subscribe to that brand on a global basis.

Take control of the streets around Anfield. Fill the ground with our brand. Take the message to the world — it’s no longer hip, cool, or appropriate to wear the red shirt, the corporate crest, or the Standard Chartered logo.

And then take that message to the sponsors. Show them that they are in partnership with an irrelevant business, not a vibrant meaningful brand. Tell them we will be happy to re-engage with them once the cancer has been cut out, but warn them that until then we are at war.

Jihad

In Islam, Jihad is a duty. The word literally means a struggle, a striving, or a great effort and its primary connotation – the Greater Jihad – is the struggle to maintain faith. The Lesser Jihad, its second connotation, is the struggle – military or otherwise – against oppression and tyranny. Jihad, therefore, can be interpreted as a defensive war,a just war.

What could be more appropriate today?

Something we love has been under attack for several years. In removing Rafael Benitez Maudes from the battlefield, our enemies have dealt us a severe and savage blow. It is time for us to engage in Jihad.

Let us strive to keep faith with our traditions. Let us struggle to protect our community. And let us declare our own defensive war. Our just war against the tyrants who oppress us.

Today let us all become Mujahideen

Credo

It’s a matter of belief. Arguments can be made on many sides and most of them will be valid to a point but in the end it’s all about belief. And this is what I believe.

Rafael Benitez Maudes is a great man, and a gentleman.

This great man gave me the greatest night of my life when he took Liverpool FC to Istanbul and somehow contrived to deliver a miracle. This gentleman has shown little other than immense dignity and dry humour in the way that he’s continually confronted the sea of unholy troubles that has finally swept him away. And Rafael Benitez Maudes deserves my respect, gratitude, and love.

So he’s getting it. Unconditionally.

It’s the Liverpool Way.

I’m not going to argue about the sale of Xabi Alonso or the purchases of Robbie Keane and Alberto Aquilani. I’m not going to relive the triumphs over Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and Barcelona. Or Chelsea, Manchester United, and Everton. And I’m not going to debate David Moores, Rick Parry, Stadler, Waldorf, Hicks, or Gillette.

I’m just going to put this out there: Rafa Benitez loved Liverpool FC. He gave us everything he had to give and he still wasn’t finished. He was ready to carry on. He’s been betrayed. We’ve been betrayed. And this should not be forgiven, forgotten, or allowed to go unpunished.

There’s a cancer that has eaten away the heart, guts, and soul of Liverpool FC. Through the collaboration of the banks and its former custodians, our club is now in the hands of charlatans and snakes. And for reasons of pride, lust, greed, and envy they’re being aided and abetted by great ex-players, by current players convinced of their own greatness, and by a number of once respected supporters who have chosen to lie down with the dogs. And snakes.

As far as I’m concerned, this is no longer my club. It’s an evil, farcical business masquerading under a false flag. It’s not something I can love anymore. In fact, it’s everything I was brought up to despise. Perhaps I should have seen and said this before but for me, from the moment these evil fuckers published their smug, glib, and utterly dishonest statement about the leaving of Liverpool by its one remaining great defender, Liverpool FC became my enemy.

And I do not believe for one moment that it can be saved from within, or by compromise, or by Kenny Dalglish. I believe it can only be saved by jihad.

Triumph and tragedy

Liverpool FC today confirmed that Rafael Benitez is to leave the club by mutual consent.

Mr Benitez relinquishes his position as team manager after six years and the Board of Directors would like to place on record their grateful thanks for his services and wish him all the best in his future career.

The Board has now asked Managing Director Christian Purslow, with the assistance of Club Ambassador Kenny Dalglish, to begin a formal search to identify and assess potential candidates for the managerial position.

No timescale has been placed on the process and Liverpool FC will make no further statement until a new manager is appointed.

LFC Chairman Martin Broughton said: ‘Rafa will forever be part of Liverpool folklore after bringing home the Champions League following the epic final in Istanbul but after a disappointing season both parties felt a fresh start would be best for all concerned.’

Rafael Benitez said: ‘It is very sad for me to announce that I will no longer be manager of Liverpool FC. I would like to thank all of the staff and players for their efforts.

‘I’ll always keep in my heart the good times I’ve had here, the strong and loyal support of the fans in the tough times and the love from Liverpool. I have no words to thank you enough for all these years and I am very proud to say that I was your manager. Thank you so much once more and always remember: You’ll never walk alone.’