YOU can’t pretend that losing Javier Mascherano will not hurt.
But when a player so outrageously refuses to turn out while he’s still on the pay roll, he has to be sent packing – however much he wants to go in the first place.
The Argentinean should have been professional enough to put his personal situation and desires aside on Monday, then pulled on that red shirt and given his all for it.
I was massively disappointed and angered by his refusal to do so.
But Liverpool Football Club is far bigger than Mascherano, whose abilities I admired very much myself. I just wish his family had tried harder to make more of a go of it here in England than seems to have been the case.
It’s hardly the back of beyond round here, is it?
It’s crucial now that Roy Hodgson is allowed to use the money received to replace him.
Time is tight with the transfer window shutting on Tuesday but we’ve known for a while that Mascherano wanted away so hopefully Hodgson has something up his sleeve which he can pull off.
