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Interesting snippet from the Guardian

honourablegeorge

By honourablegeorge
in Liverpool FC

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honourablegeorge

honourablegeorge

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Number six on their list of six "Terrible Transfers"

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...tball-transfers

 

6) Ian Rush (£2.8m, Juventus to Liverpool, 1988)

 

Coming back to Liverpool after that spell at Juventus – which wasn't the total disaster it's usually painted as, but that's an argument for another time – Ian Rush would win a league championship, two FA Cups (scoring four goals in two finals) and a League Cup. Scoring 90 times during his eight-year second stint at Anfield, he became the club's leading goalscorer; you can hardly finger the man as a waste of space.

 

But context is everything. And the wider picture tarnishes this transfer. The season Rush spent in Italy, 1987-88, coincided with the emergence of Liverpool's greatest-ever footballing side. Yet coincidence it most assuredly wasn't. Rush's replacement, John Aldridge, was a different sort of player: a poacher too, but better at bringing others into the attack. In a much more fluid, attacking side, this was a crucial difference. The return of Rush unbalanced the famous and wildly successful triumvirate of Aldo, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley. It didn't happen immediately, as Aldridge and Rush took turns to spearhead the side – but something had to give eventually, and with Rush the younger man by nearly three years, he was always going to win that particular battle.

 

Aldridge had no option but to move, leaving for Real Sociedad, where he would score 33 goals in 63 games. An impressive stat, but not quite as impressive as the one he'd totted up at Anfield, where he scored 50 times in 83 matches (0.60 goals per game). By comparison, Rush's legendary first stint at the club – unquestionably his peak – had produced 139 in 224 (0.62 goals per game). It's an instructive comparison, and a startling insight into what Liverpool lost – no, threw away.

 

It's worth reiterating: poor Rushie didn't do much wrong after his return – check that CV again – but Liverpool were never quite the same, Rush's transfer symbolic of the management's penchant for looking backwards rather than forwards. If anything else, it was this transfer, rather than anything your Grahams or Fergusons did, which began to make Liverpool look a tad unsteady up there on that old perch.

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JonShar

JonShar

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Some journos are brain dead - I bet at the bottom of that article there's a "Leave your comment if you disagree with our choices" link. They're just trying to get as many hits as possible so they can drive up ad-space, it's lame.

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fred

fred

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The snippet is part of the Guardian's "Joy of Six" series, written by Rob Smyth, who's a ManU supporter and in my experience rarely misses an opportunity to stick it to Liverpool. He included O'Shea's late winner against us in his "Joy of Six late goals" a couple of weeks ago, I suppose the reason being that he meant "the six late goals that gave me the most joy".

 

My favorite Smyth moment is still his minute-by-minute commentary of the 06 cup final: now there's a great late goal for you Robbie...

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Guy_Incognito

Guy_Incognito

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The snippet is part of the Guardian's "Joy of Six" series, written by Rob Smyth, who's a ManU supporter and in my experience rarely misses an opportunity to stick it to Liverpool. He included O'Shea's late winner against us in his "Joy of Six late goals" a couple of weeks ago, I suppose the reason being that he meant "the six late goals that gave me the most joy".

 

My favorite Smyth moment is still his minute-by-minute commentary of the 06 cup final: now there's a great late goal for you Robbie...

 

Fecking hell, he's not even pretending!

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psl

psl

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NO THEY EFFING DIDN'T! THEY PROVED THEY CAN RUN A LOAD OF WHEEZING GERIATRICS RAGGED FOR 5 MINUTES IN 120 AND RAG THE REST!

 

107 mins "Liverpool have won eight out of nine penalty shoot-outs since they started. They'll be favourites," says John Motson. Why, is Grobbelaar going in goal? Dudek? Get some sleep, Motty.

 

Great stuff.

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takanohana

takanohana

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Think there's something in what he's saying. Not to the extent he makes out, and Rush coming back by no means a terrible transfer, but I remember at the time worrying if it would disturb the side trying to fit him in again. Can be argued it did and we'd have been better sticking with Aldo.

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fred

fred

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My second favorite btw is the preview he did for the 06/07 season (see here, journos must really hate the way everything they ever wrote is archived on t'internet) in which he basically wrote an obituary on the Ferguson era at United. If he was a footballer, that article would be the equivalent of the worst miss in front of an open goal you've ever seen in your life - think Babel away to Pompey and multiply by at least 10...

 

Having said that, I quite like him as a journo - if nothing else, his stuff is usually well written and entertaining.

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