Sometimes You Have To Call A Spade A Spade
At some point, every sports fan has to acknowledge that loving their team takes a little bit of delusion. Throwing the rose-tinted glasses on and covering up blemishes and erasing stains, all could be required at some point during the year. And then you hit a point where the patches and cover-ups are just as painful to see as what you were attempting to hide. Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade in order to survive a season.
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The Liverpool/City game at Anfield was a disaster. It was a rollercoaster affair that was bookended and penned by Dominik Szoboszlai’s brilliance and equally being left out to dry. We are at that point. This season is not going to right itself magically.
The league chase is long gone. Champions League qualification is the only thing worth fighting for. We are currently three points off of United in 4th, sandwiched between Chelsea in 5th and Brentford in 7th. But the other “real” goal is European glory. However, at this point, aiming for that crown once again feels like the delusion talking.
Something is off at Anfield. Whether it’s Slot, the dressing room, the stars, contracts, transfers, board room, or all of it is the real mystery here. Where did it go wrong? Fingers and accusations have been thrown fast and furious since the collapse in September. The rot has festered and metastasized till we are the walking Dead Men of Europe.
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I understand the allure and the danger in subscribing to the “Grass is Greener” philosophy. But the rose-tinted glasses, patches, and cover-ups aren’t doing it anymore. Something must be done. Maybe it’s out of character for the club, but this season is just as much out of the norm. If the answer is more signings, who is going to come here? What appeal do we still hang onto if we don’t quarantine the rot?
If the answer is a new head coach? Again, who will come here if we can’t do what needs to be done to hang onto top talent and provide results?
If it’s farther up along the chain? Well, we know what happens if clubs are allowed to rot into irrelevance.
The season as a competitive fight is on its last legs. There needs to be a reckoning and honest preparation for what sits in the wings. We are in a deep hole, and we need to stop deluding ourselves that the tool we hold in our hands is a ladder and not the spade it always was.