It’s fair to say Liverpool supporters weren’t too sure what to expect when news broke that former Barcelona captain and Uruguayan national Araujo was coming to join the Reds on a loan deal with an option to buy. Araujo’s fall from grace with his parent club and it’s supporters didn’t really tell the personal story and even his public statements about his struggles with mental health weren’t embraced with compassion from them.
Football is where millions of people around the world put hopes of experiencing
joy while their own personal lives may be far from such a feeling. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this fact as football was about entertaining the crowds and hopefully bring that escape from the mundane (or worse) to the supporters and community.
There is a problem, for this writer, when the sport reaches a point where supporters lose sight of the humanness and only have room for winning something. This is the point when players aren’t afforded the same ups and downs in life that those same supporters will protect about themselves as they navigate life but rather the players become disposable if they are not playing to the standard the supporters set.
In the case of Araujo the hesitancy from the Reds supporters was more to do with frustration at how our squad was being dismantled of depth over the past two seasons even though some big names (and transfer fees) had joined the squad. We were down to Virgil van Dijk, Jeremy Jacquet (unproven) an injury prone Joe Gomez and injured Giovanni Leoni plus a fragile looking right back situation. What could be expected from a loan that happened to be a discarded former captain of Barca and, as with any loanee, will they be committed to the cause and therefore bring any quality to a squad which was desperate for more than warm bodies to make up the numbers.
Those concerns have been vanquished thanks to the incredible performances by Araujo who firstly swapped minutes with new center-back signing Jacquet (what a star this kid is) as both were still working towards full match fitness. Even beyond those initial performances was when head coach Andoni Iraola put Araujo in as our right-back and things really took off from there.
After the League Cup victory over Spurs last Tuesday Araujo offered some of the most encouraging and heart warming insights about where he is now as a player, as a Red and most importantly as himself.
“This club is so amazing, I’m loving it in a Liverpool red now. Anytime I step onto the pitch, there’s always a feeling that I have to win, my confidence keeps going higher than ever.”
He went on
“When you have a team that does everything together on the pitch, correct their mistakes and recover for other teammates when they’re out of position, there’s nothing more beautiful than that.”
“I’m experincing the best version of my career now and it’s just beginning, we can go harder and win something this season. I can feel it in the games.”
I can’t speak for everyone but this writer was moved by hearing these words from Araujo and then I remembered back to his celebration when his best impression of Roberto ‘Bobby Dazzler’ Firmino with the no look assist flick to Dominik Szoboszlai, against Atletico, led to Liverpool’s victory. While Dom got the applause Araujo was running to the crowd celebrating with shear joy and it wasn’t all about him which he went on to prove when Dom struck that worldie rocket against Spurs in the League Cup. While every player, supporter (even Spurs supporters) and pundits were in awe and teammates ran to him there was Araujo doing a knee slide at the halfway line and that for me says everything about him and the joy he’s feeling again (and yes Big Ron did run to the others after the knee slide).
Maybe such a story wouldn’t be written if Araujo wasn’t putting in the effort and great performances but from where this writer is standing it doesn’t feel like any other version of Araujo exists and all he needed was a place where people were willing to give him a chance and embrace him without judgement but rather with encouragement (we all need this at one time or another).
Head coach Iraola spoke about Araujo during the Pre-match presser against Bournemouth
“I’m very happy for him.” adding “I think he needed this kind of change. [He] has come with humility, is coming from also a big club, experienced player.”
“I like his spirit. Now I’m pushing him to learn a little bit the language because a good way for us to use his experience is if he could communicate better with the teammates and use all the experience he has, but I suppose it will take some time.”
It makes complete sense for Iraola to want Ronald to be able to communicate with his teammates but it also suggests to this writer that it’s a sign that a permanent move could already be a consideration and I don’t feel any of the Reds or supporters would be against that.
A final observation was an incident during Bradley Barcola’s debut appearance for Liverpool when Barcola went down amongst grasps and panic that our big signing of the summer could be injured already. It wasn’t just Araujo, it was pretty much all the players that went to check on him, but seeing the genuine concern from the Uruguayan was another indicator of the type of person he is and that Araujo really has embraced his place in the squad and club rather than merely a temporary member. This writer was happily surprised to see all the concerned players because it actually felt like a sign of the team spirit which was lacking last season because normally teammates use the moment to hydrate rather than actually check on the player (unless a very serious incident).
With the match against Bournemouth resulting in a much needed win with the extended international break following we got another opportunity to watch a person expressing their love for the game and if Araujo manages to score at some point during the season we all better be prepared for a very passionate celebration.
