Becoming The Bully
The Alexander Isak transfer saga was wildly entertaining and ended fabulously for Liverpool. But it was a strange experience being on this side of bending a team to one’s will. I’ve hated holdouts since long before I learned to appreciate the beautiful game. Growing up, NFL players would rack up fines by not doing their jobs to bully their teams into getting a new contract. I typically scoffed. I rejected their claims that they had “earned” a new contract through their performance; after all, performing at their best was simply what they were getting paid for.
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Other Side Of The Coin
As a Liverpool fan, I’ve experienced both Spanish giants forcing their will on us. The Coutinho saga was frequently invoked in summer coverage of the Isak drama. In 2017, Barcelona attempted to buy Coutinho as the summer transfer window was closing. Coutinho sat out due to “injury” (which was the official reason Isak didn’t travel to Asia). The claim wasn’t credible, and while we were able to hold on to him until January, Liverpool were forced to sell the first player to be my favorite Liverpool player. More recently, we’ve seen Real Madrid whispering in players’ ears. “Run down your contract and we will sign you on a free transfer.” It was funny with Mbappe. It aggravated a lot of Liverpool fans with Trent. Now it’s getting freaking old as they try it with Konate.
So at first, I was somewhat uncomfortable as Isak began to go scorched earth to force his transfer. “It is how the game is played” and “sports make hypocrites of us all” are true enough, but neither helped. Here we were, doing unto others what we were outraged when it was done to us. Were we the baddies? We’d become the bully.
Embracing It
But I found myself pushing through that discomfort awfully easily. This was less because of Isak’s talent, or that LFC’s summer of spending is still within the sustainable business model. No, my comfort with becoming the bully is because of who LFC and FSG bullied: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (Spare me the outrage and whataboutism, Newcastle fans. The idea that the Public Investment Fund is separate from the government is a farce.) With Newcastle United being the latest sportswashing project of Mohammed bin Salman’s blood-soaked tyranny, something was refreshing about seeing MBS told he doesn’t rule the world.
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The UAE and Qatar have skewed European football with petrodollars, and the chairman of each club is a member of those despotic governments. Saudi Arabia came to Tyneside to do the same, so I was thrilled to see their project take a hit. Someday Newcastle may reach the same heights as Man City and PSG, but for today, they’ve been reminded that there is more to football than oilwells and oil money. We became the bully and gave the Saudis a black eye.