This may not come as a popular view amongst the fans but I could not help but see how the end-season targets for both Liverpool and Watford have changed over the course of last few weeks.
Less than 48 hours ago, Watford fired Quique Sanchez Flores after the Spaniard delivered the best season in Watford’s history. Watford were one of the promoted teams and tipped to go down this season.
However, The Hornets are set to finish at 13th place and attain their highest ever Premier League finish. Add to that Watford reached the FA Cup semifinal and had it not been for some poor finishing, Watford would be playing against Manchester United in the FA Cup final.
So where exactly Quique Sanchez Flores falter in delivering what was asked of him at the beginning of this season? Or was it the case of Watford owners getting greedy after seeing Leicester go on to win the Premier League? No one knows what happened there, but the treatment Watford gave to their manager was really uncalled for.
Now we come to our second team in question – Liverpool, who take on Sevilla on 18th May in this season’s Europa League final. Fair to say, every single Liverpool fan is gunning for their team to win on that night as Europa League triumph would see them playing in Champions League next season.
Having said that, at the same time Liverpool supporters are wishing for their team to not be a part of Europa League next season if they fail to beat Sevilla in a weeks’ time from now. The equation is simple and it states that in case Liverpool fail to win the Europa Cup and finish 7th or higher in the league, The Reds will qualify for the Europa League next season.
However, with the renewed boost in confidence under Jurgen Klopp, Anfield faithfulls are quietly confident of a title push next season. In that case, Europa League will just become a distraction while at present the same competition is their only ticket back amongst Europe’s elites.
The pace at which Modern Football changes its dynamics is really hard to keep a track of. Teams alter their goals pending on the outcome of their next game which is not always fair on the fans, manager or the club itself. Regardless of what one thinks, this will be the trend in times to come and all we as fans can do is to try and cope up with the sheer irony of modern football.
Image Credit: Getty
