Had a discussion on the Leicester City match thread regarding the club's PR strategy of late inspired by the mind boggling and insulting announcement just minutes after that humiliating defeat to Leicester City to announce a new CEO. What is it about the football club, or the all round PR and 'online engagement' strategy that makes them think that we will lap this sh*t up? This week has been absolutely vintage by their standards with the PR department in full firefighting mode pithily combating the righteous anger that has stemmed from the supporters in the aftermath of that terrible defeat.
Just look at the daily interventions by the players and coaching staff since that defeat, rolling out the usual pre made statements banging on about how we 'must do better' and the usual claptrap which wouldn't be so insulting if it weren't be trotted out for about the zillionth time under these current owners. A brief look at the official website will lead us to such well meaning headlines as:
"Simon Mignolet: We've got to look forward and not for excuses"
"Lallana: It's time to stand up and be counted"
They've even got old legends in on the game!
"Luis Garcia: Reds must look forward, not back"
"Sami Hyypia: Reds must stick together and trust themselves"
And yet just days before the Leicester City, Mignolet (LFC OFFAL favourite) was rolled out banging on about how 'Team ethic is making us harder to face'...I sh*t you not! Now I know in this age of media it's impossible to be silent and you must be seen to be saying something because saying something equals doing something...right? So that should excuse their strategy and all that? Does it f**k.
How many times have we gone through this cycle in the last few years? Win spectacularly - posture big. Lose pathetically - cower apologetically. And repeat. Only that it becomes even more depressing when just minutes later the social media stooge hits send to a link of videos reminding us of all the wonderful goals and great moments of years that seem more distant than ever - Fernando Torres smashing it into the top of the net from a tight angle, Gerrard scorching one in from 30 yards or Reina flying down to his left to save another penalty during the good days, an act of online activity so self defeating in that it only makes us compare it to the latest dropped bollock by Mignolet or yet another selfish scuffed slither of a shot by "Barca bound" Coutinho.
And then there's the fan engagement which descends into parody, just like a few weeks back when they got fans to design promo in conjunction with the whoring out of the latest Hollywood popcorn flick. I mean...just look at the state of this. Not surprisingly supporters were quick to point out that we hadn't actually won a league game in 2017 when this monstrosity was spread around the internet providing more embarrassment for us fans than if John Henry himself had accidentally tweeted a dick pic for all to see.
https://twitter.com/LFC/status/829426578115350528This false deification of the players continues into match day. Like when LFC on Facebook alert us to the arrival of the big red bus. 'THEY'RE HERE!' they exclaim. 'WHERE?!' we all excitingly scream...or so they imagine. Yes that's right Beatlemania had nothing on this sh*t. Because these players are just such hot property at the moment that we just CRAVE to see them trudging off the bus, headphones on, sporting serious faces as they convincingly march their way to another heroic defeat to a relegation threatened team.
It feels misguided at best, infantile at worst. When you see your team revert back to the squalid averageness that has become the norm in the last few years it's hard for me or anyone to lap up the 'celeb' appeal of this. We're supposed to sit back and suck in the 'remorseful' attitude from the 'players' and that we will absolutely get on board with the notion that they are going to 'learn from this' and 'stand up'...for about the 1000th time in the last 7 years or so. All the while thinking that we care enough to fangirl over them.
Speaking to other fans, it seems that there's a distance between team and supporter that has never been bigger. Even at the heights of the start of the season we still couldn't be bothered to roll out a song for them that is on a par with 'Steve Gerrard Gerrard' or 'Luis Garcia, he drinks sangria'. And while performances and a lack of charisma on the field may have a lot to do with that, FSG's PR and engagement strategy to whore these players out to advertisers galore, trot out pre prepared media statements and generally put them on a pedestal which they haven't deserved has probably contributed to this distance than anything else. And we wonder why the atmosphere at Anfield has been so funereal of late?
Just because these guys 'play for Liverpool' they continue to think that that is good enough for us. We are essentially 'thickos', an ever present sample of guinea pigs to conduct market research on and feed us the latest sh*te because after all we're just 'consumers' aren't we?
This isn't a f**king Simon Cowell manufactured boy band. We're not brain dead idiots who will buy into and believe any old sh*t. This is Liverpool FC. We deserve better and FSG could make a start by not insulting our intelligence and love of the club by sledgehammering it's ghastly and cringeworthy PR on us.
