Bob Paisley a great & humble man
There are four words you will never hear from todays Liverpool hierarchy: “Sorry I was wrong”. Of course, I’m referring to the American owners, Liverpool Executive and Rafa Benitez.
Some of the most successful days at Anfield were led by a wonderful man called Bob Paisley who was likely the most self-effacing manager in the history of the club. There was no arrogance to be found even at the executive level. You never heard from them. They just went quietly about their business and let the team do the talking on the pitch.
There’s a book called ‘Good to Great’. It looks at all the factors why good companies have become great companies and one of the keys is a great CEO and leader. The most successful CEO’s had one thing in common, humility. They went about their business efficiently & quietly and when things went well they looked to place the responsibility with someone else, never themselves and if they couldn’t find someone else to give credit to they attributed it to luck. Conversely, if things went wrong they looked in the mirror and blamed themselves for the failure, not someone else. This kind of great leadership is totally missing at Liverpool. It’s been replaced by arrogance and it’s killing the club.
When Hicks & Gillett first ‘bought’ Liverpool they had the arrogance to promise new investment in the club in order to build a new stadium and give Rafa the funds he needed to buy the best players and compete with the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd. They then turned around and borrowed the money and place the debt entirely on the club. They’ve also had the arrogance never to speak to the supporters in an open and honest manner, they’ve blamed the economy for once again delaying the building of the stadium but their biggest arrogance is that they are only in it for the money. They will only sell Liverpool if they can make a massive profit. They are the worst example of leadership we could have been cursed with.
Benitez is another one who suffers from immense arrogance. Never has Rafa admitted being wrong. When his tactics aren’t right, buys a poor player or treats players badly he is never at fault. And when he talks to the media after yet another poor result he never mentions his responsibility but blames the result on outside factors such as bad refereeing decisions, injuries, a poor pitch and so on. You get my drift.
Arrogance is now a plague at Anfield. Great leaders admit their mistakes, learn from them and get better. It’s time for the Liverpool Owners, Executive and Manager to become true leaders and take a good, long, hard look in the mirror.
