NICK FEINBERG: WHY THE REDS’ WIN IS HOLLOW

Unfortunately for all you Scousers, it’s similar to the Covid-19 edition that you won. Then, the reason was that during the pandemic, football just wasn’t football… empty stadiums coupled with a different kind of energy and commitment on the field, and of course people dying left right and centre…

Lifting the trophy on a stage built in the stand at an empty and echoing Anfield was just weird… yeah, just strike that one off. 

This time around, it’s all about the lack of quality of football and standard of the opposition. 

Arne Slot took over, changed things up a bit, relaxed the “heavy metal” mentality and got the team working smoothly and much more efficiently. They were great for just over half the season. 

Then it all started going a bit wonky. Winning games often became a scrap and the aesthetic of the well-structured, pleasing-on-the-eye game went out the window. 

At the same time, City, Chelsea and United were nowhere to be seen, with Arsenal the only viable threat, until they choked a couple of months early, leaving Slot’s average team jogging slowly to the finish line with four games (12 points) to play for. 

How boring was that? I know you Reds will argue that it was a great season, but getting dumped out of the domestic Cups and more devastatingly, brutally shown up in Europe says different. I think most importantly, and I kind of contradict myself a bit, no one will look back in years and say: “Naaah, that wasn’t a proper title”. 

Of course it’s important. And the big plus of course means United’s record (and favourite chant) 20 times 20 times Man Utd is over! As for Slot, you have to admire the way he conducts himself. After the dismantling of Spurs, he took the mic on the centre circle and led the whole stadium to acknowledge his predecessor with the famous “Jurgen Klopp” song. 

As they say… “classy”. The singing of You’ll Never Walk Alone by players and staff arm in arm along with the Kop was a great moment, as was the welcome thousands of fans gave the team outside the stadium. It was interesting to see Trent Alexander-Arnold fist beating his badge as he celebrated, but kept quiet as his team sang with fans. 

I guess he is full of mixed emotions, given his imminent transfer.  

Following Mo Salah’s goal, there was a great moment as he grabbed a cellphone out of the crowd and took a selfie with the Kop – later posting it to 65 million fans on his Instagram page!

Meanwhile, the race for top five isn’t getting any easier to predict, with Chelsea and Newcastle both picking up full points, It’s going down to the wire! Unfortunately for me, Liverpool will be given a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge this Sunday as the champions play Chelsea. Hopefully they won’t be at 100 percent now that business has been concluded!

Tuesday and Wednesday we hit the business-end of the Champions League. Arsenal host Paris Saint-Germain, while Inter Milan go to Barcelona in semi-final first league blockbusters. I’ve got PSG meeting Barca in the final.

Finishing on a bit of trivia, in recent research it was revealed that Liverpool are the most “searched” football club on Google in South Africa. Does that help solve the “who’s the best supported club in SA” debate?

Chat next week... bye bye.    

HELLO my good football people and especially all you Liverpool fans… 

Before we get into it, congratulations, you deserved it, 20 league titles in the bag has a lot of significance, so whatever I, or anyone else says, hope you enjoy it! But! It has to be said (and explained a bit) why the rest of us don’t really care about you lot winning it.

Let me first say, usually, Liverpool winning the title would dig hard, as would Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea. I’m not including Manchester City as the amount of money they spent was so stupid, winning was kind of anticipated... 

It was like “f**k it, they’ve done it again but what do you expect”. 

Chelsea were/are so disliked, that even when they started winning league titles (with Russian money), everyone hated it. 

It was also a new phenomenon (billionaire owners spending mad money on squads). That’s basic English football politics. When Leicester City won it, or Blackburn Rovers back in the day, they didn’t face the loathing of the rest of us. So Liverpool winning it and no one really giving a s**t is interesting to look at. And ask why?