‘Unique’ Liverpool have invented the concept of ‘backing the manager’ now
This means more when it’s Liverpool, whose fans are the only ones to back their managers, according to Jamie Carragher.
Manchester United fans might want a word. As might everybody else in the whole world.
This means more nonsense about special Liverpool
We have a lot of time for Jamie Carragher but the Liverpool exceptionalism on display in his latest tweet for his latest Daily Telegraph column is, well, exceptional:
The love affair the hardcore Liverpool support has with their managers.
What fanbase chooses a guy who’s been at the club 18 months & won 1 trophy over a guy who’s been there 8yrs & won everything 🤷🏻♂️
Liverpool.
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) December 12, 2025
They never walk alone. This means more. And now they have invented the concept of backing the manager. Except when it’s Roy Hodgson or, eventually, Brendan Rodgers. So just backing the good managers then, right?
To be fair, Carragher realises this and writes in his column:
The chief reason for Salah’s miscalculation is his failure to fully understand the psychology of the club’s hardcore fanbase.
In a choice between a title-winning Anfield manager and a multi-title-winning footballer, the coach wins every time.
Not every time, but certainly when the ‘multi-title-winning footballer’ has gone a bit sh*t. And that’s not about the ‘psychology of the club’s hardcore fanbase’ but the psychology of almost all of the people in the world. The ‘hardcore fans’ are backing Slot over Salah because Salah has a) been rubbish and b) behaved appallingly. Had Salah scored 10 goals this season, the ‘hardcore fanbase’ would have acted like everybody else and backed player over manager.
The relationship between a successful Liverpool boss and the Kop is, through my eyes at least, unique. The fans have a banner that displays the faces of all the most revered managers in the club’s history. Slot’s face was added this year.
Because of course Manchester United do not have statues of Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby outside Old Trafford and there are no statues of Arsene Wenger or Brian Clough outside ordinary football grounds of ordinary football clubs that have not invented loving their manager.
What other fanbase would back a manager who has only been at the club 18 months over a superstar who has delivered every honour in the game for eight years?
We literally do not know because this exact situation has not happened anywhere else, though we would argue that Manchester United fans largely backed the not-that-successful Erik ten Hag in his battle with actual bona fide superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
It is a valid argument that Liverpool are the current Premier League champions because of Salah more than Slot. The Egyptian’s goals propelled the team to glory last May.
The Kop will never see it in such individual terms.
Bill Shankly left such an imprint that they will mobilise and rally to protect their head coach from any attacks they perceive unfair, whether they be internal or external. Misgivings about form and results are cast aside, temporarily at least, to back the manager.
Are we really pretending that Liverpool fans largely backing their manager rather than Salah is absolutely nothing to do with Salah being useless this season? ‘Misgivings about form’ have not been cast aside, but rather directed towards the Egyptian.
This issue was never going to be just about Slot versus Salah, or even Salah versus Liverpool’s executives. To those who understand Liverpool, it is about their perception of what the club stands for and how those representing it should behave.
They see the manager as the embodiment of their values. Once that connection is established – and Slot secured his in his first year – the bond is reinforced when someone threatens it.
‘To those who understand Liverpool’? Really? What you are talking about is understanding people…and people generally do not like it when other people act like a bell-end. And Salah has absolutely acted like a bell-end.
Shankly’s true legacy is extra time for successors who replicate his triumphs. There has been a deep sense of discomfort from supporters whenever the prospect of Slot losing his job has been raised. You do not get this to the same extent at other football clubs, certainly not in England, where title-winning managers have been sacked or found themselves under immense pressure to leave regardless of what they achieved.
Basically, what you’re saying is that Liverpool are not Chelsea, while simultaneously ignoring the fact that Liverpool sacked the legend that is Kenny Dalglish, who had won three titles with the Reds.
Unique.
I wish it could be Christmas every day…
The Sun have the inside track on the goings-on at Arsenal and declare in an ‘EXCLUSIVE’:
Arsenal files: Arteta cancels Christmas and why bizarre Wolves kick-off time is Jurgen Klopp’s fault
Has Mikel Arteta ‘cancelled Christmas’ or will Arsenal be training on Christmas Day just like they do pretty much every year? You decide. And then claim an exclusive either way.
As the BBC confirmed last year: ‘Yes, most professional footballers will be training on Christmas Day.’
And yet here we are a year later in The Sun, claiming that ‘the manager has decided that the club’s first-team squad should all report to training on December 25 even though the team does not have a game on Boxing Day’.
Just like they did last year, when Bukayo Saka said: “We’re playing at home on the 27th so I haven’t got to travel anywhere so it’s perfect, I couldn’t have asked for more from Santa.”
But why let facts, history and the views of actual footballers get in the way of rolling out the Grinch picture?
