Curtis Jones posted a simple photograph on his Instagram page this week showing himself celebrating Mohamed Salah’s goal in the Champions League by sitting next to him on an advertising hoarding.
Many of the comments posted beneath were pleasant and many were not.
‘You should learn to respect our legend’. ‘Don’t talk too much kid’. ‘Stay humble’. ‘Salah’s left foot is better than your whole career’.
That was just a sample taken from the first dozen of more than 500 comments left by Thursday morning. More will come, for sure.
The origins of the discourse lay in an interview Jones, the Liverpool midfielder, did with Rio Ferdinand in the run up the game against Lille in which he suggested that the former Chelsea and Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard may have been more talented than Salah, his team-mate.
In the real world, this is called an opinion. It is called being a human being. It is called being honest and real in a sport occupied by too many fakes and bluffers.
Cutis Jones posted a photograph of himself on his Instagram, celebrating Mohamed Salah’s goal against Lille, which attracted an unreasonable amount of fan ire
Jones joined Liverpool as a nine-year-old and has gone on to make 160 appearances for them
Jones has had to work hard and be patient and respectful in order to build his career
But in the world of modern football fandom and particularly social media, it is treacherous and disloyal. That is a point that has been rammed home to Jones all week.
Last season when asked about criticism of his play in general, Jones replied: ‘I could not care. It doesn’t faze me. I am a Scouser. We are used to the bad parts of things.’
One wonders if Jones still feels that today. Because some of what he has had to endure this week has been unacceptable.
And aren’t Liverpudlians supposed to be proud of their natural tendency and instinct to stick together? Us against the world and all that. What has happened to that this week? It’s on the wind for a minority, it seems.
Because here is the irony of all this. Jones is the 23-year-old footballer who has been at the club since he was nine years old.
He is the one who played for Liverpool through the boyhood ranks only to get to first team level and find international talent standing in his way. He is the one who has had to work hard and be patient and be respectful and hope that in the end his ability would take him to where he needed to be.
There was never any big incoming transfer fee on Jones’ head. Never any pressure for Jurgen Klopp or Arne Slot to select him to justify the outlay. No, Jones was just one of Liverpool’s own who had to wait for a chance that sometimes comes and sometimes doesn’t.
Yet here he is, having done all that, having to clarify and justify entirely innocent comments made about one of his team-mates who just so happens to be in the process of holding a very public gun to Liverpool’s head over a new contract almost entirely without comment or criticism.
Jones was an Anfield favourite from his very first game, scoring the winner against Everton
Jones has also been here before this season. He was hammered for suggesting he may be more suited to Slot than Klopp while old videos of him missing a big chance in a game lost to Crystal Palace last season have resurfaced on X.
They say it’s a dream to play for a boyhood club. Whether it’s Liverpool or Manchester United or Tottenham or Arsenal. But the truth is that it isn’t, not always.
They love when you first burst through, for sure. I was there the night Jones scored his first Liverpool goal just over five years ago.
It came from 20 yards at Anfield and was enough to knock Everton out of the FA Cup. It was a beautiful thing, curled from Jones’ instep from 20 yards. He was 18 years old.
So yes they loved him then alright. He’s one of our own. But the truth is that as time goes on, they expect more from you if you’re local. They expect more effort, more consistency, more loyalty.
But it’s a loyalty that only works one way because if you don’t show yourself to be good enough they will soon want rid of you, soon want you replaced by the next shiny toy on the shelf in the European marketplace.
This is one of the reasons why Trent Alexander-Arnold is currently getting more stick from Liverpool supporters over his contract stand-off than Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk are over theirs.
That is why Jones is taking flack for what he said about Hazard when, for example, a team-mate like Ibrahima Konate or Luis Diaz would not have to. Had Diaz said this, it would have been cheeky or irreverent and would have passed by unnoticed. Jones is simply not granted that liberty.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (left) will inevitably receive more stick in his contract battle than Salah
As it happened, Jones clarified his comments, saying he would still rather have Salah in his team than Hazard.
That is undoubtedly why he joined Salah on that advertising hoarding. That is undoubtedly why he posted the picture on his Instagram. Solidarity with a team-mate and all that.
But how sad that he felt he had to do all of that. And what about some solidarity with a kid who has only ever wanted to play for Liverpool? What about leeway for a young player whose only crime was to say what he honestly felt?
That’s not the way it works in football, it seems. You’re one of our own, son. At least until you’re on your own, that is.
UEFA give City chance to succeed even though they failed
Manchester City are currently 25th in a 36-team Champions League table yet feasibly could still win the competition.
The dice are loaded against them, for sure. If they beat Club Bruges in their eighth group-stage game on Wednesday they will face a two-legged play-off to make the last 16, and from that point on their poor performance thus far will count against them in the way that section is seeded.
Nevertheless, they will still be alive and they will still be Manchester City.
But City have lost three and drawn two of their seven games so far. They have conceded four goals away to Sporting Lisbon and PSG and three to Feyenoord at home. The only teams they have beaten have been Slovan Bratislava – who have lost all seven of their games – and Sparta Prague, who have lost five.
Manchester City were blown away in Paris to leave them on the brink of an early exit
Whatever you make of Uefa’s new format for their blue riband competition and however much you welcome the jeopardy that now hangs over some of next week’s final group games, it’s hard to escape the notion that it’s just another way to give Europe’s big clubs exactly what they want.
Namely the opportunity to succeed even when they fail.
Zaha’s fans left wanting more
Wilfried Zaha is to join Charlotte in MLS on loan from Galatasaray in Turkey and a career that once promised so much now threatens to peter out in comfort at the age of 32.
He was a real talent, Zaha, and it feels though we only really saw a fraction of it.
His move to Manchester United was strange. It was arranged by Sir Alex Ferguson before he stepped away in 2013, leaving David Moyes to work with a 20-year-old who emotionally was just not ready.
From there he went back to Crystal Palace and stayed until it was quite possibly too late. Palace fans love him and he gave them all he could. It’s just the rest of us left feeling as though we could have had a little more.
Spurs have nothing to lose – they should give Ange more time
Tottenham will not get relegated and their hopes of qualifying for Europe through the Premier League placings have gone.
So though recent results have been dismal, giving Ange Postecoglou more time to implement his ideas when players return from injury actually makes sense.
Spurs have nothing to lose. Apart from more games, of course.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have won five and lost 10 of their last 18 matches in all competitions
