`This Means More`
The McDonald’s Kop "means more". What Liverpool do
"means more".
We are told that most of what Liverpool does apparently has a deeper meaning than the achievements of others. We are constantly drip fed through the media and LFC`s marketing that somehow their feelings are more intense and stronger than those of fans at every other club - Everton, City, Utd, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Galatasaray, Boca Juniors and so on. No matter how much you feel for your club, it means more for Liverpool fans.
Just as it means more, according to today`s club official statement, for their relegated Women`s team. This side were bottom of the league, had only won one game the entire season and had demonstrated that they were simply not good enough. Yet the headlines run with their "disappointment" and the inference that had the season resumed they would have embarked upon a climb up the table to avoid the drop. Apparently because they were part of the original members of the new Women`s league back in their day this was relevant to performances in 2020.
It means more and it is this superior attitude and arrogance that permeates the entire club. Their followers in the media are little better.
Turning to Liverpool`s friends in the press, much of what The Guardian`s writer, Jonathan Liew, has said in his piece about sports brand insincerity, which applies to many clubs and organisations, is accurate -
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/b...uch-for-corporate-sports-on-brand-insincerity
Liew is intelligent and a gifted writer when the mood takes him. It makes it all the more surprising, or maybe not, that there is no mention in his article, just like the absence of the 35th Anniversary of Heysel this week, of the high profile league leaders, Champions League winners and Club World Cup holders, Liverpool, about their taking of the knee. Here we had a glaring example that he could have better used to convey some of his valid points. With LFC`s sponsors logo clearly visible, a photographer who just happened to be on hand to capture the far from spontaneous gesture, an empty stadium, and players and staff all posed in evenly fixed positions around the centre circle, the supportive picture was quickly distributed to media outlets.
Was this yet another act of
`This Means More` self promotion, one worthy of critical yet fair observation especially given that it was an English paper, written for a English audience and this was an `English` club, even though there are elements who describe themselves as "Scouse not English". This is the club that gave wide and much publicised backing to Suárez. This is not mentioned though. Instead it is a foreign club Barca that are singled out for criticism, not the untouchables in red.
How do we explain why, on a national platform, The Guardian`s writer eschewed the opportunity to make really meaningful comments relating to the Premier League and somehow avoided using the profile of the team at the top? His comments could have resonated with a much wider audience had he done so.
Many more should question why,
`This Means More` ?
(I acknowledge, with thanks, the comments of others in the media thread).
