Relegation Fodder?

...as opposed to you lot. Relegation fodder!

That was the way the United fan who I happen to share a work space with, ended his sentence. Ah, nothing beats a bit of morning football banter to brighten up one’s day. The odd thing was, I could actually smile and brushed away his comments as if it were some Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Well, not today though.

To put things into perspective, the comment was made a couple of weeks ago, after matches against Arsenal, Manchester City, WBA and Birmingham left Liverpool languishing in the bottom half of the league. Not actually relegation candidates at that stage. After all, a couple wins at home in the next few weeks and Liverpool would easily shoot up the league table (hindsight is a great thing isn’t it?). Surely...

Unfortunately, things don’t seem to be going as planned and it’s looking even worse. By mid-October, the club could be rooted to the bottom of the Premiership with negative three points (one of the gifts of administration) and the possibility of being further anchored there after a visit across Stanley Park a few days later. I’m not being pessimistic but if Liverpool lost against Blackpool at Anfield, we just don’t stand a chance against Everton do we?

Anyway, if there is some light at the end of the tunnel, I don’t seem to be blinded by its glare just yet. The fact that the manager conceded that the club are in a relegation battle don’t help either. Yes, it might be the case of stating the blindingly obvious but it still didn’t sound good coming from the man in charge.

The only logical explanation (read: conspiracy theory) that comes to mind is that this is some sort of elaborate master plan by the wily old Hodgson to drive Liverpool’s selling price even further down with the aim of making Liverpool Football Club even more attractive to potential buyers and rid ourselves of the current American owners for good.

But in reality, that's just not the case, is it?

The reality of it can be summed up in Hodgson's own words:

How many clubs have I had in 35 years? What do you mean, do my methods translate? They translated from Halmstads to Malmo to Orebro to Neuchâtel Xamax to the Swiss national team.

With all due respect to the clubs and one country mentioned, does anyone see any household names in that list?