Saturday Jun 30…
Lucas Vasquez? Presumably he has the same agent as his fellow bench warmer Asensio, because I reckon there’s as little truth in this rumour as the laughable “£160m bid” we put in for Asensio last week. We do need another wide forward but it’s not going to be either of these two, not when Shaqiri is available for a pittance.
Celtic want Harry Wilson but the word is we aren’t keen on letting anyone go there because Brendan bullshitted Chelsea and City over loan players last year and then didn’t pick them, so now nobody wants to do business with him. I suspect our relationship with the new Rangers boss will also make it more difficult for Celtic to get any of our kids, especially when Gerrard is keen on the ‘Welsh Salah’ too.
There’s no point letting Wilson go up there though, he’d score eighty goals in that league as he’s fucking boss. He’d get 25 in the Championship providing he was at a decent team. I’m not sure he’s ready to compete for a spot here yet, but he might be and I really hope he is. Whether he stays here or not depends on if we sign Shaqiri I reckon. No room for both of them in the squad.
Sunday Jul 1…
Pre-season starts tomorrow and Buvac won’t be there, which tells us what we knew already. He’s not coming back. Nor should he really. Whatever his reasons, he walked out at the worst possible time for us and that’s got to be difficult for Klopp to get past. I’d love to know what their relationship is now, whether they’ve even spoken since he left. It’s all very sad really. Leaving the ramifications to LFC out of it, they’ve been mates for years so this is a shitty situation for them both.
Southampton are the latest club linked with Ings. It’s going to be interesting to see how much we get for him if he leaves. If it’s Southampton the price needs to go up given how hard a bargain they’ve always driven with us. The only time we didn’t get shafted was with Clyne. There was a ‘Liverpool tax’ on every other deal we’ve struck with them so hopefully we take that into account if they want Ings or anyone else.
Meanwhile, in Egypt… someone posted Mo’s home address on Facebook and hundreds of fans showed up outside his house. What did Mo do? Came out and posed for photos and chatted with them of course. This world doesn’t deserve Mo Salah. More to the point, Mo Salah deserves better than this world. What kind of fucked up world allows that Ramos / Salah thing to go down the way it did. If fans turned up outside Ramos’ house he’d set the dogs on them.
RK: "Paper beats rock. You're rooming with Karius!"
DO: "Wait, best of three?"
Monday Jul 2…
New deal for Mo. Great news, but it’s clearly softening us up for whatever shitty revelation is coming in the next day or two. New contracts aren’t really significant these days as players can often be on their way to another club before the ink has even dried. This one is significant though, because there is no release clause and having sold Coutinho for £140m, getting Mo tied down for five years basically means no-one can afford him as the Coutinho price has set the market now.
I don't want to speak too soon, but I think finally we might actually be able to hold onto our best player regardless of who comes in for him. We haven't had that since Gerrard, but that doesn't really count as he was a local lad.
The lads are back in training and LFC TV were there to cover it. Have to say the behind the scenes footage we get these days is boss, I love it. Klopp coming down the stairs and bumping into Naby and giving him a big bear hug was great. Imagine not wanting to play for Klopp for your whole career! *looks sideways at Coutinho*
Tuesday Jul 3…
Footage emerges from yesterday’s endurance training and it’s no surprise that Milner outlasted everyone. Naby will probably have been used to being the best specimen at previous clubs, but he’s never been a team-mate of Big Games James before. I fucking love Milner, he’s boss. He’d already won the test and was like “get out the way, I’m doing one more”. Fucking hero.
Interesting that the only man who even ran him close was Lallana. The only surprising thing about that was he didn’t pull a hamstring halfway around. His stamina is not in question and neither is his talent. Just his durability. He deserves an injury free run though after the nightmare he had last year. I’m not holding my breath but I’m rooting for him as he’s one of my favourite players.
Meanwhile, just when I thought I couldn’t love Diego Armando Maradona any more than I already do, he says that Ramos should have been banned for two years for what he did to Salah. What a man.
Wednesday Jul 4…
Shaqiri says he’s joining a PL side and it will be announced in the next couple of days. Naturally the ITK’s take a punt on saying there’s a medical booked in tomorrow and it’s probably Shaqiri. Fucking phoneys the lot of them. Even if that turns out to be true it’s purely guesswork. What does these knobheads get out of it other than followers? Such a strange and sad existence, being a ‘Twitter ITK’.
There’s some talk that United are trying to hijack our deal for Shaqiri. Couldn’t really be less arsed about this one way or the other. I like Shaqiri but if he ended up at United instead I’d feel more sorry for him than us. There’s also talk of them wanting Fekir, which is a whole different kettle of fish and would devastate me to be honest with you. Desperately want that deal to be revived.
Meanwhile the local reporters are all saying that Klopp is likely to stick with Karius. At least now we know what the Salah contract announcement was preparing us for. This is all going to end in tears. We’ll have to buy a new keeper eventually, but how much damage will have been done in the meantime? It doesn’t even matter if Karius comes back and plays great, because even keepers who play great still make mistakes but as soon as Karius does it’s going to be meme central on social media and World War 3 in our fanbase.
Apparently we’re signing some wonderkid from Ajax. The days of me getting excited over these type of signings are long gone. Football has changed to the point where it’s almost impossible for kids to get a regular game at a big club, and in the last 15 years I reckon we’ve signed at least a hundred, virtually none of whom have done anything. Also, he’s a full back. Not sure it’s allowed to call a full back a ‘wonderkid’ is it? Hot prospect maybe, but wonderkid? I need to consult footy manager on this.
Reports today that Juve have made a big offer for Ronaldo and Madrid are considering it. I don’t believe it. This is classic Ronaldo. Every summer he gets himself linked with other clubs because he craves the attention. Neymar is exactly the same, that’s why I never thought he’d end up at PSG, but it turned out that rumour was true.
I can’t see Ronaldo leaving Madrid but if he did go to Italy he could play until his 50 given the shape he’s in. Hell, I’m 45 and I still harbour hopes of maybe having a season in Italy before I’m no longer able.
AR: "...so I takes a bite of it and it's like magic, so I says, 'What's the name o this
grub wee man", an' he says..."Fruit, Andy...it's called fruit".
Thursday Jul 5…
Fuck me, that Karius instagram video. I felt so sorry for the lad after Kiev but he’s clearly learnt fucking nothing from that chastening experience. Where’s his humility? His self awareness? He should be lying low and letting his football do the talking for him, instead he’s put a giant bullseye on his back with this. Tone deaf cunt. No doubt he paid someone to do that, the massive whopper.
If Klopp is, as reported, seriously thinking about starting the season with him in goal then someone needs to slap some sense into him. This ‘Alisson or no-one’ stance is fucking bonkers unless Klopp knows he can actually get him and the delay is because of the World Cup. If that deal is too complicated then find someone else, because going into next season with Karius in goal should not be an option because it will become a circus.
If it means signing someone who isn’t necessarily as good as Alisson then so be it. Beggars cant be choosers, and if the plan is to start the season with Karius then we're beggars. In fact, we're in Matthew Street strumming a fucking cardboard banjo.
Friday Jul 6…
Klopp speaks out on ‘the concussion’ and I agree with every word of it. I’ve said repeatedly that I believe the knock on the head caused the mistakes. It won’t change Klopp’s opinion on Karius’ ability and nor should it. His ability isn’t the issue anymore though. It’s gone way beyond that.
Put it this way. Prior to Kiev I would have said there was no point signing someone like Butland for example, because he’s not a significant enough upgrade (if at all) on Karius. In terms of ability there’s probably not much in it either way. So why spend a load of money for a minimal upgrade? Maybe Klopp is still thinking that way, but if he is someone needs to have a word with him.
There’s a major difference now because of Kiev. Not because Karius is any better or worse in comparison to Butland than he was before, but because if he starts next season he’s going to have every set of opposing fans slaughtering him and sarcastically cheering any time he clears the ball or catches a cross.
He’s also going to have no trust from his own fans who will be nervous whenever he does anything. The pressure will be enormous. Social media will be full of it every time he lets a goal in, he'll be the subject of every footy podcast out there, the phone ins will be dissecting his every move, SSN will be showing his mistakes on a loop, it will be impossible to get away from it.
A new keeper wouldn’t have any of that. He’d only have the same kind of pressure any new signing has. Virtually no media exposure and very little interest in him unless he's either great or shite. So if there’s little to choose in terms of ability, the situation tips the balance massively in favour of a new keeper for me and it’s far easier for them to perform than it will be for Karius. Seriously, every little thing he does is going to be magnified beyond belief. Every goal he concedes will spark a debate about whether he should have saved it.
It's like that anyway, I don't think any other team scrutinises their keepers as much as we do, but that's going to be magnified by a hundred if Karius stays in the team. He's not going to get a second's peace. I mean fucking hell, the Uruguay keeper threw one in today and what was everyone saying? "He's done a Karius". He can't outrun this thing, best thing to do is for Jurgen to hide him somewhere and sneak him back out for a league cup tie against some lower league bums and hope he doesn't fuck up again.
Meanwhile, some talk today of us being in for Dybala. I’d get excited except it seems like it would be dependant on Juve getting Ronaldo, and as I’ve said I don’t believe any of that stuff for a second.
Until next time then…
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