An Insanely Good Five Years – Pause, and Enjoy

Gratitude makes sense, in this brief moment of calm

Five years ago, Liverpool were still reeling from the 4-1 thumping at Spurs three games earlier, which left the Reds 9th in the table; 3-0 wins against Huddersfield and Maribor at Anfield did not exactly ease all the pressure.

I had to seriously defend Jürgen Klopp at that time, as his record was identical to that of Brendan Rodgers' tenure. I was told he was a fraud, that his methods didn't work. Shut up, was my lofty response.

Liverpool had failed to land Virgil van Dijk that summer, and there was outrage at the "reckless" failure to seek an alternative. Philippe Coutinho was about to leave, and there was outrage at the "reckless" failure to hold onto a player upon whom all succeed hinged.

In time I'm going to write a lot more about what Liverpool should be grateful for from the FSG era – if and when that era potentially comes to an end.

(Of course, expecting perfection is another barrier to gratitude and enjoyment: 'perfect is the enemy of the good', as Voltaire is credited with saying.)

Anyway, I read an 'interesting' tweet that I thought I'd analyse here, for ZenDen subscribers only, to show that some people's weird perspective on the world just surrounds them with darkness; albeit they may get the satisfaction when – finally! – they are proven correct and things go to shit; just like Vincent Aboubakar, washed up in the Saudi league aged 30, gets excited whenever Mo Salah – still world-class, aged 30 – has a slightly barren streak.

("Ex-Porto and Besiktas star Aboubakar has told 90FootballFr of Salah: 'I'm not impressed by him. I can do what he does. I just don't have the opportunity to play in a big club. I understand people's attitudes, he's one of the best goalscorers in the Premier League. It makes sense that when you go on about a player like that, people will talk. But I did say that it was my opinion, my point of view. I don't give a toss if people don't like it'.”)

Anyway, onto another beauty of delusion by a prolific #FSGouter (who attempts to tarnish everything the club as a whole has achieved in recent seasons), which I will take apart using some cunning tools: logic, a grasp of reality, and a dose of common sense.