I was nine when Kevin Keegan announced he was leaving Liverpool for pastures new in Germany. I was devastated. How would my home city club ever recover? He’d sat on my mum’s desk at ‘Jays’ on Bold Street. His picture, and other heroes in red, adjourned my bedroom wall. Then along came Kenny Dalglish.
Of course, Keegan wasn’t ‘our scouser in the team’. To some, that’s what hurts about Trent’s imminent departure. How could one of our own abandon ‘his club’ after twenty years, especially on a free? To others, it must be about money. It must be about this, or that, or the other.
Liverpool is an emotional city, as is our club. Some might say we’re over-sentimental. To many Liverpudlians, we’re scousers first and English second. I tend to agree, even if others are offended by it. None of which means I wish Trent ill, as he embarks on what appears near certain to be his next chapter at Real Madrid.
Is he not entitled to make his own decision about his future? Is he not entitled to widen his horizons beyond the confines of a club to which he’s given the majority of his life. Might not we all, if offered the chance to take up our career, our life, and that of our family elsewhere, be just a little curious as to what may be on offer? Even if we, you or I decided against it, must that mean others should too?
The Beatles left Liverpool, and some never forgave them for it. Yet, look at the legacy they left behind. Would that legacy be the same had they stayed? Now, that might be pushing the analogy a little far, but the point is that it’s not our decision to make. Thankfully, we’re not all alike. We have different motivations, ambitions, dreams and desires.
As far as I’m concerned, I wish Trent well (apart from if he comes up against Liverpool). I hope it works out for him. Yet, whether it does or it doesn’t, our club will go on. As Kenny once said, ‘the most important people at the football club are those who want to be here’. Quite. We support those in red. We support the team, not the individual.
Bigger and better players than Trent have left Liverpool and we’ve done fine without them. We’ve even lost players who’ve won more than Trent, though it shouldn’t be forgotten how integral he’s been to the Premiership titles, Champions League success and domestic cup victories in the last decade. Of course, it’s because of that success that Trent should surely want to stay, so the story goes. Yet, perhaps it’s precisely because he’s already experienced that success, that he’s more open to playing elsewhere. Had Steven Gerrard, to my mind Liverpool’s greatest ever player, won more, and specifically a league title, then maybe the lure of another club, would have been greater?
Like hundreds of thousands of others, I’ll be at the parade at the end of May. Every single player who has contributed to this season’s title success is worthy of being celebrated, and to those who say Trent shouldn’t be on the bus, grow up. Really, unless you’re a child, let’s be a bit more grown up and mature about it. He’s been a brilliant player for Liverpool. Maybe even in the ultimate all-time Liverpool eleven. He cost us nothing and owes us nothing. Let’s celebrate his contribution to our ongoing success, and let’s get behind those who will be playing in red next season, whoever they are and where ever they’re from. It’s what we do.
