Sunday Apr 18:
What the fuck? This Super League stuff is mental. Where did it come from? Usually when something like this happens (not that there’s been anything like THIS, but you know what I mean) there’s at least some sort of rumours and whispers beforehand. This was just BOOM, “we’re joining a super league. There’s a dozen of us and we’re trying to get three more. As you were.”
Of course it’s been mooted for a while and there have been reports about talks taking place, but no-one actually thought THIS was going to happen and this announcement came right out of the blue. Something was amiss about it. It’s like they rushed it through without having it properly prepared. In fact, it’s almost as though the plans were still at the draft stage because there was no way in a million years this was going to get anyone on side and I can’t believe all of these owners were stupid and arrogant enough to think it would get a good response.
The idea itself of a breakaway Champions League doesn’t bother me that much as anything that cuts those corrupt fuckers UEFA out of the picture is fine by me, but the format of this is a joke and was never going to get backing from anyone. No relegation, only five ‘invitational spots’ each season, Spurs and Arsenal getting a guaranteed spot?!?! This just looks like it was drawn up by a bunch of kids, or… actually yeah, American ‘Sports Franchise’ owners.
It sort of makes sense when you look at the people who came up with it. Barca and Real are in the CL every season without fail (Juve too) so the ‘no relegation’ thing won’t have even been a consideration for them as unlike the rest they pretty much do have a divine right to be in it anyway. When was the last time either of them weren’t in it? They take their spot for granted and justifiably so I guess.
It’s the American owners who will have been rubbing their hands at the guaranteed spot because that’s what they’re used to. US sports are so fucked up with the lack of relegation, rewarding teams for being absolutely fucking shit and owners just raking in cash regardless of how terribly run their ‘franchises’ are. Believe me, I know, because the teams I follow in US Sports are a laughing stock and haven’t been serious about winning since Michael Jordan and the Fridge left town.
Nothing would suit FSG, Kroenke and the Glazers more than to have a closed shop league where the money is distributed equally among the chosen few because that’s what they’re used to. It goes against everything we stand for though. By we, I mean the rest of the world. Sporting competitions basically everywhere else don’t run like that and in Europe it’s seen as abhorrent.
Leicester have won the league more recently than Spurs and Arsenal (United too) and they are currently third. But they don’t get in because…. I’m not actually sure. I think it’s because they are regarded as not having as many fans, or they have a smaller stadium or something. I don’t really know. But do Spurs have a huge worldwide fanbase?
The point is, you can’t set up a breakaway league with guaranteed spots for 15 teams no matter how shit they perform. I’m amazed that those involved even thought for a second they could push it through in this format but I’m more amazed at how the announcement was just sort of rushed out there. That’s not how these things are usually done.
There’d usually be press briefings beforehand about how shit UEFA are and about how the big clubs are ‘concerned’. It’d be so easy to drum up hatred against UEFA and support for a breakaway league if it was done right, but they didn’t do that. You’d also have expected some big fancy presentation as to what the aims of the new league are and why it would be good for the game. There was none of that either. It almost feels like they weren’t ready to go public with this but then that loon Perez started running his mouth and the others then had to show their hand too.
The backlash has been furious but it’s just the start. This is going to get ugly as fuck. Speaking of which, Gary Neville seems to have everyone kissing his arse after his impassioned rant about it all today. Please. Do me a fucking favour. Sure, a lot of what he said was spot on but the mask slipped towards the end. “You go on the streets of Liverpool, I mean I don’t have a great relationship with them at all, I don’t like them and they don’t like me. But do you know one thing I always thought about them? They were honest, they had integrity, they would look after their people, they’d look after their own. That’s gone, forget that.”
Last time I checked, Boston wasn’t ‘the streets of Liverpool’ and in fact, no-one on the streets of Liverpool is wanting this. The fan reaction has been overwhelming against it and we’re as pissed off about it as anyone. But now we have ‘no integrity’ and we ‘don’t look after our own’. Fuck off you sanctimonious little cunt.
Liverpool fans have kept FSG in check. We stopped the ticket price hike, we stopped them furloughing staff. We’ll stop this too, make no mistake. Whereas this little rat faced fuck has sat by and said FUCK ALL as the Glazers piled debt on his club. Busy little gobshite is always up in everyone else’s business but hasn’t said a word about what’s going on at his own club.
Monday Apr 19:
We had a game tonight and fucking bottled it. Didn’t take our chances when we were on top and then played like shit in the second half and deservedly conceded. It’s hard to even muster up any feelings about that though given everything else that’s going on.
Fuck me this is so bad. We’re pariahs now. We thought everyone hated us already but FSG have now ensured that we’re public enemy number one. There are five other clubs in this situation too but somehow it’s us in the spotlight (along with United too, they’re also getting a load of heat for this). City and Chelsea are being portrayed as reluctant participants being dragged along without much of a choice and nobody gives a shit about Arsenal and Spurs other than to wonder how the hell they are even involved.
City are one of the main reasons why this is even a thing. Chelsea too, albeit to a lesser extent. This proposed Saudi takeover of Newcastle has got the big clubs in a panic, not wanting another City or PSG to emerge from nowhere. UEFA have been unable to enforce FFP properly and City have basically made the English game non-competitive now. But for Klopp’s miracle working they’d have won virtually everything for the last four or five years.
Now we have to hear about how “City don’t need this”. Yeah, that’s actually true. They don’t need it because they’ve cheated their way into a position where they’re almost untouchable. The Super League would be a bad thing for them but they can’t not be in it if everyone else is. But spare me the “look at what they’ve done for that area of Manchester” bollocks. It’s called Sportswashing, Gary. That little cunt has annoyed me almost as much as the owners of the six.
The spat between Klopp and him was uncomfortable to watch though and I didn’t like it at all. I understand why Jurgen felt he had to say something but he was never going to get the better of that because he was emotional and not able to make his points with enough clarity in a brief interview. Neville then has the platform to say whatever he likes in his own defence and he’s always going to come out of that looking like he’s in the right. He wasn’t in the right though and he was completely disingenuous about what he said.
“When I was initially reacting last night, I mentioned ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. It wasn’t in a disrespectful way to Liverpool and maybe in the past I’ve done that, but not last night. My intentions last night were around the fact that the two most successful football clubs in this country should have high standards of integrity. There was no sort of point scoring for me last night when I mentioned Liverpool and if I came across that way to Jurgen Klopp I apologise.
The YNWA comment wasn’t anything like as big a deal as the other shit I quoted above. It’s the fans he should be apologising too, not Jurgen. If he’d have said “I should have made the distinction between the owners and the fans. The people of Liverpool don’t want this and what I said was wrong” then I’d have actually been ok with it as he was emotional, angry and probably not thinking as clearly as he should have. Even fucking hinting that this shit has anything to do with scousers was a disgrace and for him to not take that back just means he can fuck right off.
On the other hand, Carragher was brilliant tonight and even brought up the role Sky have played in how football has become all about money. Whereas you had Neville billing tonight’s game as “greed v good” Carra made sure to hammer the six but also highlight just how hypocritical everyone is being here in taking the moral high ground.
And that’s the other thing here. Somehow we’re seeing some of the organisations that have had the worst influences on football over the last thirty years position themselves as the moral guardians of the game. Sky, BT, the Premier League, UEFA, FIFA, ‘the 14’…. even fucking Amazon (the greediest bastard company on earth). Just fuck each and every one of them too. They’re just as bad as the big six. Everyone is acting in their own interests and not one of those organisations gives a flying fuck about the good of the game or the fans who pay to watch it.
I’m fully aware of how wrong FSG and the other owners are here, but it’s galling as fuck seeing the scramble to the moral high ground from people and companies who are no better themselves.
Klopp being put in this position is unforgivable though. He knew nothing about any of it until we did. Again, that suggests to me that FSG and the rest were caught on the hop by the news getting out on Sunday. They weren’t ready for it because they would definitely have told Klopp about it before making it public. Guardiola knew nothing either. Same with Solskjaer. Mourinho apparently refused to take training today and was promptly sacked.
What a huge clusterfuck. Perhaps the biggest clusterfuck football has ever seen. It’s sickening that LFC is caught right up in all this because the owners are not the club. That’s a distinction that needs making. It isn’t Liverpool. It isn’t United. It isn’t Chelsea…. it’s ownership. Fans, players, staff and managers are all against it.
Tuesday Apr 20:
Well this is just horrible. We’re under fire from everyone. It should be just FSG (and the owners of the other five) getting it in the neck because the fans, managers and players overwhelmingly want no part of it. Yet we’re having to hear shit about “who do those scouser think they are?” and “typical big club arrogance” etc. It’s not the fucking clubs, it’s the billionaires who own them. Still, for some of these pricks it’s just any excuse to put the boot in
Everton pulling the usual High Horse FC act and putting out a statement. And everything they said was justified but it’s the fucking glee you know the cunts got from rushing to put that out before any of the other PL clubs. Everyone is chucking stones at us because of the antics of these fucking owners but FUCK EVERTON the two faced cunts. You think they’d have turned down the chance to be in it? Maybe Kenwright would have had the morals to do it but you know Moshiri and the fucking shady oligarch who he’s a front for would have been straight in there.
Then you’ve got the Bantz merchants. Wolves changed their Twitter profile to declare themselves Premier League Champions 2018/19 because they finished 7th behind the ‘breakaway six’. That’s not funny because it doesn’t make any sense. The six are pulling out of the CL, not the fucking domestic league you tits and even if they were to be thrown out by the PL (which would never happen as you don’t bite the hand that feeds you) it doesn’t mean they’d be erased from history. This is the same kind of midlands wit that’s normally coming out of away ends at Anfield. Sign on and you nicked our stereos etc.
Get used to it though because other club’s social media accounts are going to be pulling shit like this forever now any time they play us or any of the others.
As if it isn’t all bad enough as it is, you’ve got that absolute fucking lunatic Perez at Madrid coming out with all sorts of crazy shite and now we’re guilty by association. All the mental shit he’s coming out reflects on everyone else in his greedy little band. It’s not like any of these other clubs are going to say “he doesn’t speak for us” because he’s the ring leader and they can’t break rank.
I’m dead set against this thing but the danger here though is it’s almost a natural reaction to rail against some of the shit being thrown against the Super League and the clubs involved simply because of who is throwing the shit. Boris Johnson sticking his oar in. So NOW he has a problem with pulling out of a long established European coalition to ‘take back control’ of ones finances. Cunt. My instinct is always to jump onto the opposite side of any argument he’s involved in so this is conflicting.
Then you’ve got that utter that fuckwit Ian Holloway saying this is “an insult to the memory of Prince Phillip”. No really, he did. That kind of shit also makes me want to reach for the nearest pen to sign up for it.
And this is the difficulty of it. We have to overlook all this fucking noise from bellends and stay focused on the big picture, which is that this is a terrible idea that can’t be allowed to go through. It’s still really unpalatable having to side with so many fucking snakes though.
PM: And lo and behold, City and Chelsea scramble over each other to be the first ones to pull out and try to save some face, and then by late tonight the clubs all announce that it has collapsed. LFC’s statement was a fucking disgrace. Two paragraphs, no contrition whatsoever, just an absolutely dreadful look. Even Arsenal managed to get the word ‘sorry’ into their statement. Somehow we’ve managed to come out of this looking like the worst (or joint worse wit the equally contemptible United) of the bunch. Thankfully we’ve at least had the fans, manager, captain, vice captain and entire playing squad speak out against it.
Wednesday Apr 21:
Ok so I’ll backtrack a little on what I said about the statement. I now don’t think we’ve handled this worse than the other five. In fact, I’d say the opposite. In terms of optics, none of the other clubs have gone as far as John Henry did today. It doesn’t make what he tried to do any less dreadful, but he couldn’t have done much more than he did with that video apology. There is no making this right, but that went further than I would have expected.
So I assume that brief ‘club’ statement last night was just about making the official announcement while distancing ‘the club’ from ‘the owners’ ahead of Henry’s personal apology today. Call me soft, but I think his apology was sincere. It doesn’t excuse his actions in any way, but I do think the man looked genuinely upset (and not just because he’s made himself look like a complete arse). I’m not defending what he did but American billionaires aren’t prone to backing down and issuing grovelling apologies so this does say something about him.
He didn’t NEED to do what he did today but he did it. He took sole responsibility (which I’m not actually buying for a second, but it was an honourable thing to do), apologised and (once again) spoke of the need to do better. It’s just yet another example of them seeing a chance to make money and going for it, before then having to back down when the fans (and in this case Klopp, the players and the rest of the football world) tell them how wrong they are.
One distinction I’d make is that despite all this FSG are not Gillett and Hicks or the Glazers. Whatever mistakes they have made (and there have been plenty) they haven’t saddled the club with debt and they didn’t borrow money to buy us and then use the club to pay for the ‘privilege’ of being owned by them. We’re actually in a great financial position (Covid losses notwithstanding) so these fellas are not the devils that the Glazers are.
While what FSG did was clearly wrong and motivated by making money for themselves, in their own way they were also thinking this was best for LFC too. They weren’t acting in a “who gives a fuck about the club, lets line our own pockets” manner. There are so many different layers to this. You have to understand something about these fellas. They are billionaires who come from a completely different sports culture to what we have. American sports ‘franchises’ don’t have the consequences of relegation and in fact they are rewarded for being shit.
This goes completely against how we do things here and although they know that, I’d be willing to bet they still don’t understand it and almost certainly think it makes no sense. If you’ve been brought up to see things one way and then you find yourself in a situation that’s the complete opposite you are generally going to struggle with it. They are used to looking after number one, and in this case ‘number one’ isn’t just themselves, it’s also LFC.
John Henry and the rest of FSG won’t understand why Liverpool fans didn’t want this. After all, we’d be guaranteed our seat at the big table, coining in shitloads of money every year with no risk of ever not being in the biggest competition in club football. We’d suddenly be in a position where we would be able to sign the likes of Mbappe if he became available and the sponsorships would be rolling in like never before. That’s how they’ll have seen this. They don’t give a fuck how it effects the Premier League or the rest of the clubs being left behind and they won’t understand why playing Madrid twice a year every year is not a good thing and would make it less special. They don’t get it because that’s not how US Sports work.
Of course a Super League would mean that the value of their investment would sky rocket and I’m not suggesting that wasn’t their prime motivation for it. I’m just saying it wasn’t the only motivation and in their own way they will have believed this was best for LFC. The fact that it wasn’t for the best just shows yet again that they don’t get it. There’s a difference between not understanding and not caring though. The Glazers don’t care. I think, in their own way, FSG do.
This is why Klopp gives them the benefit of the doubt and says they are ‘good people’. If they weren’t, he’d see through it in a second.
The one thing I’d like to know is were FSG just on this private jet for the ride or were they sat up front in the cockpit with Joel Glazer and Florentino Perez flying the fucking thing? If it’s the latter then I see that as a lot more worthy of criticism than if it’s the former. Because if it wasn’t ‘their idea’ then they were in a difficult spot here. If the leading clubs in Europe are having discussions about something then LFC have to take a seat at the table otherwise they’d be negligent and would be seen as falling behind.
And when something like a Super League is suggested and some of those big clubs say they’re in, that then puts the rest of them in a really difficult situation. Do you say no and risk them going ahead without you and suddenly you become a second class citizen? Or do you agree to it with the view that ‘everyone else is doing it’ and that there is safety in numbers? Let’s say this thing was announced and LFC weren’t in it. How would we be reacting to that if this league actually went ahead and we were left behind? It’s a complex issue in a lot of ways.
If they were a driving force then that’s really not good. If they felt like they had to be along for the ride then that’s kind of understandable, because if you think that any other club in the Premier League would have refused to be involved with this then you’re in dreamland.
My gut feeling is they probably were one of the driving forces behind it but like I said, it wasn’t just motivated by personal greed and I bet Henry and Werner will still be wondering just why on earth the fans weren’t on board with it, because people involved in American sports just think a completely different way to us. You only had to look at some of the views on it from US journalists and pundits like Alexi Lalas. Nearly all in favour and couldn’t understand what people’s problem was with it.
Thursday Apr 22:
I stopped off at the driving range this morning after dropping Adrianna at school. It’s usually deserted at this time of day but this morning there was just me and some arl fella a few bays along from me. So I’m just hitting some shots, minding my own business, and then he shouts over “You a red or a blue?”. Fucks sake. The only people who ever randomly do that are blues. “I’m a red” I replied, bracing myself for what was coming.
First thing he says is “So what punishment do you reckon you should get then?”. Not “do you think you should get punished?”. No, he skipped the trial and went straight to the sentencing. “None.” I said. “What do you mean ‘none’?” he asked incredulously. “I don’t agree with what they did but they didn’t break any rules and even if they did there’s no way there’ll be any punishment” I replied.
He then proceeded to tell me the exact number and sub section of the law that was apparently broken and he even quoted the clause to me word for word!! I kept saying there will be no punishment and he insisted that none of the six will be playing in Europe next season. I told him there’s no way UEFA’s sponsors would pay all that money for the likes of West Ham and Everton because no-one would want to watch them, but apparently “UEFA want you all out to teach you a lesson. It just suits them if the Premier League do the punishing by docking points”.
He then said he’d be willing to bet that there’ll be massive points deductions for everyone. 15 points for Spurs and Arsenal because they were the last ones to leave the ESL. 10 points apiece for City and Chelsea because they pulled out first and 20 points for us and United because we were “the ring leaders”.
It was amazing listening to the absolute fucking shite he was coming out with mainly because of the way he spoke with such authority about it. This fella, in his 60s, well dressed, seemingly well educated (retired and obviously has a few bob as he’s a full member at the course and that’s not cheap) and he’s just spouting the most horrendous bollocks.
Some other highlights were that the other 14 clubs were all made up and they wanted us all gone. How did he come to that conclusion? You’ll love this. Because other than “a handful” of Leeds fans no-one else protested against it. “You didn’t see at anyone outside Goodison or Burnley protesting. That’s because we’re all sick of the big six and want you gone”.
The best though was when he spent 10 minutes arguing with me about how UEFA’s new format means that if West Ham and Leicester finish in the top four and us and Chelsea were 7th and 8th that we would be given their places and West Ham and Leicester would miss out. I told him that wasn’t true and he was like “Oh but it is. I’ve read up on it”. I was trying to be polite about and didn’t want to just tell him he was talking bollocks and the top four would be in no matter what, but this went on and on and he wouldn’t have it. “If they had, say, 32 places and they give five extra ones to big clubs who failed to qualify that would be 37 teams and that wouldn’t work. So someone has to miss out.”
Eventually when I spelled it out that the five ‘extra’ spots have already been factored in and nobody misses out he realised he was wrong and changed tack. “Well if you finished seventh why should you get in ahead of the team in fifth?” “We shouldn’t” I said. “Neither of us should get in, but I told you, it’s about the sponsors wanting the teams that will get the biggest viewing figures” He scoffed at that and then dropped this bomb “I thought it was going to be like when you didn’t get in the top four and they let you in instead of Everton because you’d won it”.
Amazing. He even called it “the Liverpool rule”. I pointed out that the rule wasn’t changed for ‘Liverpool’ it was changed for ‘the holders’ who just so happened to be us. He kept banging the drum about us preventing them getting in because we were given a spot. I thought I must have been mishearing him but I wasn’t. “Everton weren’t affected by us at all mate. You just didn’t get through the qualifiers.” “Yeah but they let you in”. “No. We had to go through the qualifiers and we went in from the very first round, you came in two rounds later”. “Yeah but who did you play? I bet they were pub teams”.
Fucking hell it was exhausting. By the end of it I’d completely changed my mind and I’m now pro Super League. Can we do another u-turn?
I’m only half joking.
Friday Apr 23:
So now the narrative on Sky is what kind of punishment will the clubs face. They must have been listening to that tit at the driving range yesterday. I’ll answer this for you now. There will be FUCK ALL punishment other than maybe some suspended fines as a token gesture to pacify cunts like Everton. Because there isn’t any justification for it and because this is a delicate situation for the league.
Are they powerful enough to take on the teams who are basically their meal ticket? Nope. Are they fuck. Without the big six the Premier League is NOTHING. Put it this way, let’s say the PL kicked the six out. What would happen? The big six would pick up the phone to Celtic, Rangers, Sunderland, Forest, Cardiff, Swansea, Watford, Blackburn, Derby, Birmingham and a couple of others and before you know it, 18 team division that would shit all over whatever the Premier League could come up with and then the rest of the football league would want promotion places to the new league instead. And watch the ’14’ then beg to be let in.
So even though some of the other 14 *cough* Everton *cough* will be pushing hard for sanctions, especially those who see a potential avenue into the Champions League, they can all fuck off, the opportunist self serving cunts. Whatever accusations of greed and self interest you want to level at the big six (rightly so), you can just as easily make the same accusations at most (not all) of these other cunts too.
Football is rotten to the fucking core isn’t it?
…and that was the week that was…..
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