Football dressing room walls are full of motivational catchphrases rubbishing the runner-up.
You know the sort.
“Winning is everything, second is nowhere.”
“Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.”
“You get nothing for finishing second.” etc. etc.
Except in all but one glaring case, you do get something for finishing second.
Win the five matches it takes to get to the FA Cup final, and you're guaranteed a loser's medal.
Miss a penalty kick in a Champions League final and your chief executive can go up first to have a trinket placed around his neck.
Losing League Cup finalists used to receive a commemorative tankard – presumably to drown their sorrows – nowadays they're guaranteed a handsome medallion.
While on the greatest football stage of all, the World Cup, even the third and fourth placed finishers are rewarded with a memento.
In fact every Cup competition in world football recognises the achievement of finishing second . . . except the toughest one.
Advocates of the English Premier League insist it is the hardest and the best football tournament in the world – but the runners-up receive nothing.
After nine-and-a-half months of gruelling action, after 38 matches in the heat of August and the snow of January, after rotating squad resources to the absolute limit – the Premier League runners-up are left with nothing bar the memory of having pushed the champions to the wire.
For Liverpool it's a particularly galling situation.
Beat Spurs on Sunday and they'll have racked up 86 Premier League points this season.
In 12 of their 18 title winning seasons, that would have been enough for the ultimate glory.
The parameters have changed in the era of the big-four.
Since the Champions League has allowed the rich to get richer, you now need totals like 87 points, 89, 91, 95 and 90 to claim the ultimate prize.
Which should make finishing second in the modern era even more meritorious.
But instead, Liverpool have been reduced to scrambling around in the pursuit of records rather than medals.
It does seem to be a curious oversight.
Surely the introduction of runners-up medals would add greater significance to second place.
As soon as a team clinches the title, the teams immediately below are usually involved in a series of dead rubbers.
Introduce a medal and second place may become slightly more highly regarded.
And if a player still believed it was a meaningless bauble, he could always follow the great Neville Southall's lead in 1991.
While his team-mates trooped up the Wembley steps to collect their Zenith Data Systems Cup loser's medals . . . he remained rooted to his goalpost.
“What do I want one of them for?” he muttered. The Premier League agrees.
You know the sort.
“Winning is everything, second is nowhere.”
“Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.”
“You get nothing for finishing second.” etc. etc.
Except in all but one glaring case, you do get something for finishing second.
Win the five matches it takes to get to the FA Cup final, and you're guaranteed a loser's medal.
Miss a penalty kick in a Champions League final and your chief executive can go up first to have a trinket placed around his neck.
Losing League Cup finalists used to receive a commemorative tankard – presumably to drown their sorrows – nowadays they're guaranteed a handsome medallion.
While on the greatest football stage of all, the World Cup, even the third and fourth placed finishers are rewarded with a memento.
In fact every Cup competition in world football recognises the achievement of finishing second . . . except the toughest one.
Advocates of the English Premier League insist it is the hardest and the best football tournament in the world – but the runners-up receive nothing.
After nine-and-a-half months of gruelling action, after 38 matches in the heat of August and the snow of January, after rotating squad resources to the absolute limit – the Premier League runners-up are left with nothing bar the memory of having pushed the champions to the wire.
For Liverpool it's a particularly galling situation.
Beat Spurs on Sunday and they'll have racked up 86 Premier League points this season.
In 12 of their 18 title winning seasons, that would have been enough for the ultimate glory.
The parameters have changed in the era of the big-four.
Since the Champions League has allowed the rich to get richer, you now need totals like 87 points, 89, 91, 95 and 90 to claim the ultimate prize.
Which should make finishing second in the modern era even more meritorious.
But instead, Liverpool have been reduced to scrambling around in the pursuit of records rather than medals.
It does seem to be a curious oversight.
Surely the introduction of runners-up medals would add greater significance to second place.
As soon as a team clinches the title, the teams immediately below are usually involved in a series of dead rubbers.
Introduce a medal and second place may become slightly more highly regarded.
And if a player still believed it was a meaningless bauble, he could always follow the great Neville Southall's lead in 1991.
While his team-mates trooped up the Wembley steps to collect their Zenith Data Systems Cup loser's medals . . . he remained rooted to his goalpost.
“What do I want one of them for?” he muttered. The Premier League agrees.
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