Nigeria Content Online

Liverpool were on
Monday getting used to the nasty taste of the words “relegation fight”
after the 18-times English champions made their worst start to a season
in more than half a century.

Add in the bitter
off-field controversy over the club’s ownership, out-of-sorts key
players and mounting fan protests and it is clear the once mighty club
have some dark days ahead.

“Things are looking
really, really bleak. It has been said that if you are in the bottom
three, you are in a relegation fight, and I would have to go along with
that,” manager Roy Hodgson said after Sunday’s 2-1 home loss to
promoted Blackpool.

The Merseyside club
have picked up six points from the first seven Premier League games to
sit 18th in the 20-team league and have also suffered an embarrassing
League Cup defeat by League Two (fourth division) Northampton Town.

Hodgson, who took
over from Rafa Benitez in July, shouldered the blame for the Blackpool
defeat by saying “I’m the one responsible because I’m the team manager”
but many fans believe the blame lies with the club’s owners.

Some 7,000
supporters marched to Anfield on Sunday waving banners and chanting in
the latest of many protests against American owners Tom Hicks and
George Gillett, who put the debt-laden club up for sale in April.

“The problems on
the field now are a consequence of what Tom Hicks and George Gillett
have been doing for a number of years now,” James McKenna, a
representative of the Spirit of Shankly supporters group, told Reuters.

“Yes, Tom Hicks and
George Gillett weren’t playing on the pitch yesterday and yes they
didn’t pick the team but they have continually spent Liverpool’s money.

“We could have
spent the extra revenue and income to go towards paying for new star
players and instead the revenue and income that we’ve generated has
gone towards paying off the debt that they burdened the club with.

“We will be
planning further demonstrations for as long as the situation goes on,”
he added. “The situation at Liverpool is one of the darkest in its
history.” Five-time European champions Liverpool owe their major
creditors Royal Bank of Scotland 237 million pounds and servicing that
debt has left little money in the transfer pot.

Terrible outlook

The lack of new
players has meant the responsibility to perform has fallen to a group
of players who were at the heart of a team challenging for the title
only a couple of years ago.

While England
midfielder Steven Gerrard is dependable as ever, Spain striker Fernando
Torres is enduring a terrible season where both his confidence and
scoring touch have vanished and on Sunday his fitness gave up the ghost
too as he limped off early with a groin injury.

The players were
booed off at halftime when they were two goals down against Blackpool
and former Liverpool captain Alan Hansen, writing in the Daily
Telegraph, understood why.

“They were wearing
red shirts at Anfield and produced a totally unacceptable performance
in a defeat that left Liverpool in the relegation zone. It was an
embarrassment,” he wrote.

“Forget about the history and tradition of the club. Pride also
comes into it, but if the pride isn’t there among the players, then
there is not a lot of hope for the club.” Liverpool’s next league game
on October 17 offers a good chance to redeem some pride, locally at
least, when they play the Merseyside derby at Everton, whose season has
been going little better than their neighbours.