No Rush to give Liverpool the title: Neil Humphreys
Liverpool legend is right, Klopp's men can't be handed EPL crown, they must win it
Every Liverpool legend has a slightly different version of Ronnie Moran's eccentric medal presentations.
The late Reds coach had no time for pomp and ceremony after another domestic title was acquired, as expected.
For the men of Anfield, the medal itself didn't matter.
Ian Rush remembers a cardboard box. Moran came into the dressing room, dumped a box of medals and walked out. The trinkets were of no consequence.
John Barnes recalls a plastic bag. Moran threw a bag of medals onto a table and said: "Four weeks until pre-season, lads."
Most famously, perhaps, Peter Beardsley tells the cardboard box story, but adds that Moran always dropped in a killer last line.
"If you've earned a medal, take one."
That was always the Anfield way. Titles had to be earned. Winners' medals were not handed out like certificates of participation at a pre-school family fun day.
Liverpool's boot room were in the profession of winning. Entitled types were never indulged. For the Reds, a blue-collar work ethic ran through their DNA. They prevailed through heavy industry, not handouts.
Manager Bob Paisley drove a tank in World War II and fought in the liberation of Rome. His life and career were built on moving forward, inch by inch, victory by victory, until success was assured.
It's impossible to gauge what the late manager would think of those currently suggesting that Liverpool should be handed the title now, but one can hazard a guess.
One of Paisley's most memorable signings is adamant. In a recent interview, Rush insisted that the Reds must wait for the English Premier League to resume and then win it on merit, rather than a grubby technicality. Or they don't win at all.
Football doesn't matter now, obviously. But the sport will matter even less if medals are handed out in an incomplete season to appease rabid Reds fans willing to consider any option that ends the 30-year drought.
The thought of a premature end to the season feels like another, albeit minor, larcenous act of a virus that is taking enough. Who wants a winner's medal that was settled not on a pitch, but in hundreds of devastated intensive care units?
LIVERPOOL'S PHILOSOPHY
Even if the coronavirus didn't exist and a season had to be curtailed prematurely for a different reason, those calling for Liverpool to be handed the title following an incomplete campaign are failing to appreciate the club's philosophy.
Those terrific anecdotes about Moran and his medal dumping capture the spirit of a proud institution and its longstanding belief in collective sacrifice.
The job gets done. The job's completion matters more than the frivolous rewards that follow. And the job gets done together. No slackers. No shortcuts.
Bill Shankly, a proud Scottish socialist, set Liverpool on a course that adhered to the basic principles of commitment, fair play and doing right by the club, sport and community.
(And that's why Liverpool endured such a vociferous backlash to their initial plans to furlough non-playing staff and accept bailout cash from the taxpayer. They had no choice but to reverse the decision.)
From Shankly, Paisley and the incorrigible Moran to Juergen Klopp, the Reds' reputation for "doing the right thing" was forged on those unwavering principles.
Ironically, Liverpool's current marketing motto - "this means more"- is not only ridiculous and offends supporters of every other club, it's also not entirely correct.
If anything, the Reds' popularity derives from "this" meaning less, in terms of the superficial public relations fluff and the omnipresent celebrity circus.
The bells and whistles, the medal presentations and the ticker-tape parades are for the fans. Traditionally, Liverpool were just about the winning.
Rush was nurtured within a unique culture that redefined the expectations of an English club. The final position at the end of the season was the overriding concern.
Anything beyond that was window dressing. Anything less was deemed insufficient.
And that's got to hurt. Just two wins stand between decades of crushing failures and a title-winning rebirth. Just two wins. It's too close, too cruel. It's not fair.
But it's not fair to be handed the trophy as a token of appreciation for a supreme effort after 29 games either, because that's exactly what it would be. Tokenistic.
Liverpool's season deserves a clean title with no caveats. Liverpool's history demands nothing less.
Rush is right. Wait and win a medal the right way or it may just end up where so many of Liverpool's medals started, at the bottom of a cardboard box.
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