BY ROBBIE FOWLER
Liverpool shouldn't celebrate finishing fourth - they must spend big to fight for the title next season
I’m the biggest Liverpool fan on the planet but I’m old school. I don’t celebrate finishing fourth.
It won’t be a triumph if they win on Sunday. It won’t be a miraculous achievement. They shouldn’t be celebrating like they’ve won something...unless they actually win something.
Don’t get me wrong, it will be an achievement to have qualified for the Champions’ League, and of course I’ll be rooting for them to finish the job against Boro, but c’mon. With these clubs, the Liverpools, Arsenals, Man Uniteds, their history is about trophies.
I’ll be delighted if they win mind, and gutted if they don’t, because Liverpool have been outside the Champions’ League for far too long. And not being there hurts a club massively. It can even cripple them (as I discovered painfully at Leeds).
At the start of the season if you’d said they finish above Arsena l and Manchester United, and go into the final day of the season still in with a real chance of getting past Manchester City, I’d have snapped your hand off. Jürgen Klopp too.
I actually thought it would be a tough ask to finish ahead of those clubs, even if Liverpool have not had Europe and basically just the one competition to concentrate on. City and United had new managers, so too Chelsea. All spent big money, as did Arsenal.
Liverpool broke even in the transfer market and had little depth in their squad, so that’s why getting in the top four will be an achievement, even if being a proper Liverpool fan with my biased head on, I always think they should finish in the top four. Just not a proper one (achievement, not fan!).
You look at the money United have spent, the size of their squad, and to finish ahead of them IS an achievement, even if the lack of any real adventure at Old Trafford has been a self-inflicted shot in the foot.
I really can’t see Liverpool messing it up now either, even if their home record in the past month will probably make a few fans break out in cold sweats at 3am on Sunday morning.
If they do cock it up, then first of all, they’ll have that walk of shame around the pitch at Anfield in front of 56,000 murderous fans. And I’ve been there. You really, really don’t want to do that.
It’s one of the most humiliating experiences you can get as a footballer...that, and being put on your backside in front of 60,000 of your own Old Trafford fans by a cheeky Scouse imp, before he goes on and smashes one into the roof of the net. Eh Gary?
Anyway. I digress. If they finish fifth, then it will mean Liverpool will have dropped at least nine points - possibly 10 - from their last 12 at Anfield. And against three struggling sides in the bottom half of the table, and one that’s been relegated.
If that happens, then they have no one to blame but themselves, and they’ll have to hold their hands up and say they don’t deserve to be in the Champions’ League. Jürgen Klopp has already come out and said as much.
He’ll know, if you can’t win a single game against poor teams at home in your final four matches, then you’re not ready for Europe’s biggest competition.
Again, that happened to us back in 1997, when we had to win at Sheffield Wednesday on the final day to qualify for the Champions’ League. In fact, I remember we’d been in a two-horse race for the title that season...and drew the last match to finish fourth.
I was actually injured, so you can’t blame me, and you also can’t blame Stan, because he didn’t play that day either. His celebrity lookalike did.
If they do win - and Boro will be in Ibiza after all - then they’ll need to spend some serious money in the summer to allow them to compete for the Premier League next season and hold their heads up in Europe.
It’s a tricky balance. Under Brendan Rodgers when they qualified for the Champions’ League the last time, I don’t think they had the squad after selling Suarez, and they were a bit embarrassed in Europe, which had a big impact on the league form. You could argue it got Rodgers the sack, ultimately.
They can’t afford that again. Not after being out of the big money stuff for eight years, bar one. I think they’ll need a minimum of 4-5 signings, and not young players to develop either, as has been the trend over the past few years.
They’ve got a fantastic first XI, first 13 or 14 in fact, but beyond that, there are some talented kids who are simply not ready for that level. They need to keep those 14 and add another five, who can all be comfortable on that stage.
It will cost. No doubt. Big, big money. But if it means they can have a run at Europe while being consolidating their position in the Premier League top four, it will be worth it in the long run for where they want to go financially.
And who knows, maybe there will be a real celebration at Anfield soon.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpool-shouldnt-celebrate-finishing-fourth-10462940God, bang on the money.
