……….”Now there's several things you never do in life - dump on your own doorstep, sell out or throw a hissy fit when the team's not playing well”…………..
Sitting in Anfield on Sunday afternoon was a bit like Back to the Future. It was almost like we'd gone back in time to the late 1990s and, at times, the latter days of Houllier's reign. I was half expecting to see Michael J. Fox parking the DeLorean on Walton Breck Road.
The atmosphere was completely flat, not helped by the day-tripping glory hunters (most of which hail from the Irish Republic) that have infested Anfield since 2001 and even more so since the European Cup triumph in Istanbul. One of the prime examples of this on Sunday was the idiot who threw his scarf on the pitch (thrown like "gayest of the gay pianists" according to one supporter) in frustration at the result. Now there's several things you never do in life - dump on your own doorstep, sell out or throw a hissy fit when the team's not playing well.
The majority of the club's seasoned supporters have been championing the Reclaim The Kop campaign, started in October 2006 after several uneducated one-game wonders started chanting "who are ya" at the travelling Bordeaux fans during the Champions League group stage game at Anfield.
The campaign has gone from strength to strength with the creation of Block 1892 at the back of the Kop and it is refreshing to hear songs from days gone by being aired without fail at every game but when the atmosphere goes flat like it did on Sunday, the cynics believe that the culpability lies with Reclaim The Kop - it shouldn't and it doesn't.
Here are a series of rules set out by RTK that people simply aren't following:
"Liverpool F.C exists as a source of pride for its supporters. It has no other purpose." If that is the club's pledge to us, here's ours to the team. "The Kop exists as a bastion of support. We will get behind the team through thick and thin. We will, always, give them strength."
This isn't happening at all and the blame for this is being shifted onto RTK. Instead of expecting Block 1892 to generate atmosphere, the owness should be on every individual entering Anfield, not just the Kop.
"Liverpool F.C. Supporters All Over The World." We don't tolerate racism. Everyone knows LFC, all around the globe. From Nairobi to Ngoya, we have fans, people who love us because we do things The Liverpool Way. We have style, we have honour, we have principles. We are a global force with a local pulse - truly, a club of the people."
This too isn't happening either. People wearing jester hats and putting daft names on the back of replica shirts is not a reflection of the style or principles that most of our supporters have been brought up on. Our local pulse is severely depleted due to the club's Priority Ticket Scheme (PTS) which allows all manner of people to obtain tickets - the majority of which are completely uneducated to the traditions and matchday culture that surrounds Liverpool Football Club.
"Our own icon, the symbol that makes The Kop a legend all over the world, is our anthem: You'll Never Walk Alone. If there is one thing that sets us apart as fans, it's this pre-match ritual, this war cry, our hymn of triumph, and occasional pain. We're custodians of the anthem, and we have to maintain it and pass it on to the next generation, in pristine condition. We can never dilute the song, its message and its impact with half-measures and bursts of applause half way through.
Let's respect the anthem and do it proud, sing it slowly and with heartfelt emotion, right to the end, scarves held high."
Once again, this isn't happening at all. There are people queueing at the turnstiles as YNWA is being sung, right up until the first five to ten minutes of the match. Some of those who do get in in time for YNWA are clapping halfway through and the fast-paced renditions of the 'Walk On' verse near the end of games is not how our anthem should be sung. In the closing stages of the Toulouse game in August, the Kop sung You'll Never Walk Alone from start to finish in the same way that they did before the game. It was the way that it should be sung. With all the bandwagon jumpers now following our club, there's absolutely no chance.
The current situation requires bigger action and it's just about reclaiming the Kop any more. The aways and Euro aways have become infested with idiots who don't know a single thing about our heritage, listen to the gospel according to Tim Lovejoy and his Soccer AM cronies and openly read the only publication reviled by Liverpool supporters the world over.
Enough is enough - it's now time to reclaim Liverpool Football Club.
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*Are you RED enough? We will be planning a SPECIAL EVENT FOR ALL LIVERPOOL FANS FROM NEAR AND AFAR for the Everton V Liverpool match on OCT 20th at the M Bar (no cover charge).
There will be something special for everyone that comes in LFC shirt, so listen and watch out for more information on this. You'll Never Walk Alone!
Its Time To Reclaim Our Club, Our Beloved Liverpool Football Club*
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