He was shit at first when he arrived at Liverpool. I recall us laughing about what a waste of money it was. He then had a couple of seasons where he was excellent, and then he nosedived after the injury. When he was at his peak, I still don't think he was any better than the slew of other great defenders that the PL has seen (Rio, Vidic, Kompany, Terry, etc.), and since he was only any good for a couple of years, it'd be completely absurd to call him anything remotely like the best defender the league has seen. If he had played for a decade straight the way he did for those two years, you could rank him alongside the aforementioned legends, though no higher. But he didn't. At Liverpool he has been awful for longer than he's been good.
It's only because he's a Liverpool player that this conversation even exists. Dozens of players have had a couple of great years, only to wane when their form dissipated, the likes of Papis Cissé and so on. The media's desperation to glorify everything to do with Liverpool is why there continues to be these inane discussions about whether or not this two-season merchant might inexplicably have been the best defender in the history of the universe. It's so stupid and really just highlights how dishonest and self-serving the English football media is. Time and time again, anyone who plays well for Liverpool is heralded as the greatest whatever that the Prem has seen, and anyone with any sense can see through that masturbatory nonsense.
It's honestly getting tiresome to follow a league that functions much like a boarding school where the headmaster's son is treated like a prince while the rest have rules to follow and are rewarded only when they actually do something right. The amount of shameless fellating of Liverpool that goes on amongst journos and pundits is nothing short of sickening. And - I'll say it - it also affects refereeing decisions, disciplinary practices, etc. You can be absolutely certain that Liverpool will not be made to answer for mobbing the ref yesterday. All that to say that the only reason we're even talking about whether VvD is one of the PL greats is because English football media desperately wants that to be the case, based not on merit but sheer bias.
It's only because he's a Liverpool player that this conversation even exists. Dozens of players have had a couple of great years, only to wane when their form dissipated, the likes of Papis Cissé and so on. The media's desperation to glorify everything to do with Liverpool is why there continues to be these inane discussions about whether or not this two-season merchant might inexplicably have been the best defender in the history of the universe. It's so stupid and really just highlights how dishonest and self-serving the English football media is. Time and time again, anyone who plays well for Liverpool is heralded as the greatest whatever that the Prem has seen, and anyone with any sense can see through that masturbatory nonsense.
It's honestly getting tiresome to follow a league that functions much like a boarding school where the headmaster's son is treated like a prince while the rest have rules to follow and are rewarded only when they actually do something right. The amount of shameless fellating of Liverpool that goes on amongst journos and pundits is nothing short of sickening. And - I'll say it - it also affects refereeing decisions, disciplinary practices, etc. You can be absolutely certain that Liverpool will not be made to answer for mobbing the ref yesterday. All that to say that the only reason we're even talking about whether VvD is one of the PL greats is because English football media desperately wants that to be the case, based not on merit but sheer bias.
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