Is winning trophies important? Sunday Supplement debates who has the happier fans
Sunday 16 December 2018 11:46, UK
Jurgen Klopp has yet to win a trophy as Liverpool manager but the club's supporters will still be far happier than those of rivals Manchester United, according to Oliver Kay.
Speaking on Sunday Supplement, Kay said the style of football makes up for the lack of silverware at Anfield and, despite Jose Mourinho winning three trophies since he arrived at Old Trafford in 2016, it is the Liverpool fans who have more reason to feel optimistic.
The feeling should be similar for Tottenham fans, Kay says, as despite winning a trophy under Mauricio Pochettino they have enjoyed two third-place and a second-place finish in the Premier League.
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Kay said: "If we were, in some way, able to measure enjoyment, if you're a Manchester United fan, how much have you enjoyed the last three years versus how much Tottenham's fans have enjoyed the last three or four years? How much have Liverpool fans enjoyed the last three or four years? Liverpool are having a whale of a time and this is a club whose history is all about winning trophies.
"I did a piece in August about Liverpool and I was speaking to fans and one of them said: 'We've had as much fun as it's possible to have without winning a trophy. Would it have made a vast difference to the fun we've had if we had won the League Cup in 2016 when we got to the final? Would it have really registered two-and-a-half years later?'
"I think if you look at the fun Liverpool have had, the fun Spurs have had and the misery Manchester United have had, I don't think winning trophies has had the desired effect."
Mourinho does have the silverware in his trophy cabinet, having won the Community Shield, EFL Cup and Europa League during his first season in charge at Manchester United, but Kay feels this does not make up for his perceived preferred style of football at Old Trafford.
"Mourinho would point to winning trophies as the ultimate sign of how you're performing as a manager and generally it is, but would you say Mourinho having won two trophies in his first season that he has performed better as Manchester United manager than Klopp has performed as Liverpool manager or Pochettino has as Tottenham manager?" he said.
"I certainly wouldn't."
On the other side of the argument, Neil Custis says the victories in finals are what people remember rather than the style of play or league positions.
"I think they do matter. Manchester United have been in chaos for five years and won three trophies; Liverpool have won one since 2006," Custis told Sunday Supplement.
"Do fans remember the night in Stockholm or getting into the top four? Do they remember an FA Cup final? Do the kids remember a Wembley FA Cup final or do they remember finishing third and getting in the Champions League, despite it being financially actually better?
"You're in it to win trophies and he's [Mourinho] a serial trophy winner. He does it season in season out."
