No Celebrations for Finishing Second

Friday, May 22, 2009 by Paul Grech

The highest ever Premier league points total, a sustained title challenge that lasted till mid-May, significant wins at both Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge: as this season comes to a close there seems to be much to celebrate.

Only that's not the case.

Barring any convoluted results Liverpool should finish second next Sunday which, for all the undoubted improvement, still isn't good enough for this club. As Bill Shankly once famously said, "first is first, second is nothing."

Which is not to say that there's a need to feel downcast. Clearly this has been a positive year that has witnessed just five defeats across all competitions, one where the team finally matured and started expressing the kind of football that Benitez has been aiming for all along.

Yet that by itself isn't enough to make it a successful season. In a few years' time people will look at the record books and see that Liverpool won nothing. And that is the real marker for success.

So no, when the league season comes to a close on Sunday I don't want to celebrate and much less do I wish to see any of the players looking satisfied with their achievements.

Indeed, I want them to spend the summer months agonising over what went wrong, mulling over the awful feeling that they could have won the league this time round.

That way they'll return to Anfield eager to kick-off the new season and, more pertinently, determined avoid having to spend such a depressing few weeks. Something that they'll only achieve by going out and winning the league.

For the only way that the current season will ever be considered as having been a truly positive one is if everyone - players and coaching staff - learn to avoid the mistakes that have been made and build on the good that has come out of these past ten months.

2 comments »

ken said...: Sorry Paul i cant agree,two or three matches that should have been ours,two poorly defended corners in the CL and this could have been a great season!For two or three years now we have punched above our weight but with our squad and new inclusions we will now prove to be quite a handfull even for Mike Tyson,with everyone aware of us as a real threat from staff and players alike.
i cant wait for us to start,and in Rafa i trust; 3:44 PM
Anonymous said...: For all the articles that have been written in the wake of The Scum winning an 11th Prem title, I find it interesting that a number of Liverpool fans don't seems to accept or believe that this season HAS been a MASSIVE improvement. Looking back over the past 17 Prem seasons, the four teams to actually win the Prem had all made runner-up position the season prior to winning the league. So what LFC has achieved this season is significant in its quest to win the Prem & its positioning against its rivals in the top four. It was only three seasons ago that the so-called top four was more like a top three (accorinding to a number of pundits and fans alike) and even though LFC has come 3rd twice to Arsenal's 4th, last season was a very different story. (As it happens, I always believed Arsenal over-achieved last season and still believe they will gain no higher than 4th position for at least the next 2 seasons). However, breaking into that top two - a position LFC has enjoyed only once in the history of the Prem and even then it was a poor 2nd to Arsenal that season - is what it's really all about. Looking back over the last 10 Prem campaigns, there have never been more that 2 clubs fighting for the title come May and now LFC is one of those clubs. Not only has LFC put up a proper title challenge this season, but has won more points from the top four than the other three teams, has scored more goals and can boast a better goal difference. Furthermore, I do not believe there is any die-hard LFC fan who at the outset of this season truly believed that would all actually happen. So let's take a step back and truly absorb what strides have been taken this season.

FYI: Shankly's comment of 'first is first, second is nothing' must be put into context. By the time that comment had been made, LFC had already won the league twice in '64 & '66. If my sources are correct, Shankly's comment was directed at Ian St John in the wake of losing the league to Leeds in 1969, when LFC had won 2 championships of the 3 previous seasons. I don't believe Houllier had the right to make the same comment in 2002, nor Benitez this season.

As much as I hate to admit this, we aren't the force we once were, but this season has shown it's beginning to look like we can become that force once again! However, in order to make and standby such a statement (as is your headline) without having come close until this season in winning the league for almost 20yrs, is irrational and unfair.

So even though you don't get anything for finishing second, there HAS to be a feeling of great pride amongst the LFC squad, club and fans in taking such a major step towards a position reminiscent of the halcyon days where LFC either won the title or came runners-up, challenging to almost the last game of the season.

If we win the Prem next season and then lose it the following season (coming runners-up), then we can afford to say 'first is first, second is nothing'.......but until then, let's dwell on the positives not the negatives.

YNWA; 5:59 PM