Liver-cesspool

As we approach Sunday's cup tie with the filthy manc cunts, Bokolis will reflect on the state of Liverpool LC. More pointedly, I will examine what it took for us to get to this sorry state, where the fmc are on course to overtake 'Pool with a 19th League while Liverpool are on course to miss out on Europe next season.

Fans often blame the coach when the players look shyte. But, as people call for Hodgson's job, have they not considered that this squad looked shyte from the beginning and was put together by prior regimes? By that rationale, Hodgson must have worked magic when they ran Chelski, especially since Chelski have since gone into a tailspin.

It is the coach's fault when the team always looks awful, even when the team is awful. But, when you have an awful team, blaming the coach is sort of like blaming Obama for running the debt to $14T without regard to how the first $13T was racked up.

Unfortunately, Liverpool is suffering the combined effects of two terrible courses of action. Half of the team was owned by a man dumb enough to buy something from Goerge W Bush. Tom Hicks, having fallen ass-backwards into the Texas real estate boom, together with his partner in bungling, George Gillett, had (a la Fred Wilpon) pressed his luck in the hopes of cashing in on the new stadium payday. When that well dried up, it disastrously affected their ability to bring in top tier talent. The brink of bankrupcy has ousted Hicks and Gillett, at the expense of misfortune and mediocrity.

Of course, that's only half the problem. The other half came in the form of the fat Spanish waiter, Rafa Benitez. Benitez gutted the youth system, failing to develop a single player from within. It was one thing to bring in quality like Luis García and Xavi Alonso. It's another to start bringing in the third tier Riera and Arbeloa and third tier Brazilians Fábio Aurélio and Lucas...that fucking Lucas...he must have been Benitez' mistress or something. They brought him Keane, Benitez shunned him and they sold Keane for 60% of what they bought him after 6 months. They brought Benitez Aquilani- Benitez treated him as though he found out Aquilani was banging Lucas on the side.

Hey, Hodgson isn't the answer (neither is Obama, for that matter). But, like Obama, he didn't create the problems. Moreover, having this team overachieve and get to, say, 6th place would only further delude those who think a top four spot is merely a few tweaks away.

Watching Liverpool pull Champions League victories (Benitez won it in 2005 with Houllier's team) out of the hat while struggling to stay top four in the League (while clinging to its history) pulled the wool over most people's eyes. Bokolis could sense this coming for a few years. As the stadium deal soured, I knew there would be a day of reckoning.

Having never been to Liverpool, I imagine that, at its best, it is sort of like Pittsburgh; at it's worst, Detroit, and can probably be categorized as somewhere between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. All three of those are dying cities, with Pittsburgh having done the best job of re-inventing itself. I feared the team was dying in the same way.

With fuck-ups of this scale, they will be lucky to avoid relegation. The current cycle hasn't even hit rock bottom. Rock bottom will be when Stevie G, who has got about one solid season left in him, which he will surely look to convert into 4 years of salary somewhere else, leaves and no one is there as he was when Macca left and Owen was when Fowler left. Torres - well, he only plays about a half season anyway, what's it matter if he leaves?

So, it doesn't matter who they bring in. Liverpool will be feeling the effects of the mis-management- both by the fat Spanish waiter and the two dumbshits- for at least a few years...and, that assumes the current regime can both rebuild the youth system AND go on a City-esque spending spree to hold over the fans.

What will hold Bokolis over is putting one over on the fmc. As it is, asking what took so long to get to 18 will lose its effect once the fmc get to 19.