There's something about Brendan Rodgers that just seems to attract me to him.
I have my doubts about his capabilities and his way of thinking sometimes, the same as many other supporters do but there's just this gut feeling i have that tells me this man is right for the job.
It may sound a silly reason for some of you but it is as simple as this for me. He is one of us. By us of course, i mean he is of our class. The working class i mean.
When i read about how his mother and father brought him up it reminds me of how i was brought up. The values of working hard and appreciating and respecting what you have. The values i was taught as a kid, the values i am now teaching my kids.
He has an affinity with me as i do with him. We are cut from the same cloth. He has worked his bollocks off to get to this Club and whatever anyone says he deserves this chance. He has earned this chance.
He's working under difficult circumstances here yet not once have you heard him whinge or moan about wanting loads of money. When he has required something he's gone about it in a diplomatic and dignified way, while still maintaining respect. He knows how to deal with people.
A friend of mine who is close to his son Anton told me about something that happened when Thatcher died. I won't go into detail about it but you can guess what it was.
Sometimes it is these little things that make you realise he really is one of us. What he's been taught and where he has come from are all to do with what we are and what we stand for as a family and as a Football Club.
The results have been hard this Season and at times i've been angry at Rodgers, angry at the owners and angry at the players.
The thing is this, when you know in your heart of hearts that this man is one of us and that this man has the same values as us, then you'll stand next to him, watch his back and fight for him.
Well i will.
I remember people making comparisons with him and Shankly when they heard him speak during the first weeks of his appointment. Before people go mad at that I know you've got to 'walk the walk' before you 'talk the talk' so to speak and I didn't jump on that bandwagon myself.
Looking at a quote from Shanks though just now, I couldn't help thinking that if I read it in a few years and didn't know it was from the great man it could quite easily have been said by Brendan with exception to the reference of Huddersfield:
"I realised that although that this was a challenge which everything within me urged me to take up, nevertheless it was a gamble as Liverpool supporters would only accept one thing - success.
I was, at that time, leading as peaceful a life as any football manager can lead in the comparatively sheltered calm of Huddersfield.
Was I to step out of this into the cauldron-like atmosphere of Anfield to undertake a task which, however much I put into it, could end in failure?
Nobody can guarantee success and certainly not quick success, yet it seemed to me that the latter was being demanded and therefore the risk was doubled....
.....From what I had heard and seen, I decided that even if the risk I was taking was great, it was nevertheless a calculated risk because I am an ambitious man and I knew that the Liverpool club and its supporters were ambitious too. We were therefore sharing a mutual feeling."Rodgers has much better resources than Shanks had, of which is testament to the great man himself and what he built, but I can't help hoping that Brendan was thinking similarly to Shanks when he took over with regards to the supporters.
I'm sure he was.
Shanks certainly didn't have the resources that Brendan has got but I'll go out on a limb and say he had nowhere near the pressure that Brendan has now.
Bill Shankly got us going and he is without doubt everything I see when I think 'Liverpool Football Club' before I was born. The supporters had a Messiah with Shankly and ever since he resigned we have all been drunk on success whilst enjoying the fruits of his labour. We've seen legends on and off the field come and go whilst seeing the club's support expand on a huge scale across the globe.
Shankly had bollocks to take on such a huge job with support that demanded so much.
No matter what you think of Brendan Rodgers you cannot deny that he has bollocks made out of titanium to take a job on with a support that now demands so much more.
Everytime a doubt creeps into my head about Brendan I like to remind myself this.
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