Saturday Apr 6:
Another week another City goal inside the opening ten minutes. At least this time it wasn’t in the league. Brighton did alright and kept the score at 1-0. They might have done even better if the ref (and VAR) had sent that tit Kyle Walker off for a headbutt.
Not only is he shite, he’s fucking thick. I’m glad he didn’t get sent off because he’s our best chance of them dropping points, so I don’t want him suspended. I guarantee he’ll do something shit and braindead between now and the end of the season. The only question is whether they score enough goals for it to not matter. Hopefully not. Maybe Wilf will tear him a new one next weekend?
Two goals for Harry Wilson today. He hasn’t done much of late and Derby have been struggling, so it’s nice to see him back among the goals. His mate Ben Woodburn scored today too, a penalty in the u23s 3-2 win over Chelsea. Curtis Jones got a late winner as the lads came from 2-0 down to win it late.
Chelsea had a young lad playing right back who looked fucking dynamite. Tariq Lamptey, he plays for England at youth level and he looks brilliant. Defo worth keeping an eye on him and maybe snapping him up when he gets fed up of never getting a chance.
Staying at youth level, our u18s still have an outside shot at the title after they won 2-1 at home to Wolves. Bobby Duncan scored again, goal number 29 of the season (he has 21 assists too), and the other was a belter by Jake Cain. Like Molby’s goal against Norwich back in the day, only a bit closer in and from the opposite side of the bench. Lovely hit though.
Sunday Apr 7:
My Boy Troy is in the FA Cup Final. Good for him, he deserves it as he’s done it the hard way. Everything he’s got he’s had to scrap for, and this will mean the world to him because he’s an 80s throwback and the FA Cup actually meant something back then.
The interview he gave afterwards was great, it genuinely brought a lump to my throat. He doesn’t take himself too seriously and there’s a self deprecating charm about Deeney. I’d love to see him lifting the FA Cup, and not just because it would mean he’s beaten City. Ok, it’s mostly because it would mean he’d beaten City, but I’d be genuinely happy for him too.
The downside to Watford winning is that Wolves are not in the final. Not that I care about Wolves or have any preference for them over Watford, but if Wolves had gotten there they’d have rested everyone when they come to Anfield on the last day. Now they’ll be full strength and we know they’re dangerous against the better sides. Not ideal.
Monday Apr 8:
Hazard warmed up for the weekend by destroying West Ham with one of the best individual performances of the season. Can’t wait until he fucks off, although knowing our luck we’ll get Real Madrid next year and he’ll knock us out single handedly. To be fair, I can live with that if he goes easy on us this Sunday.
Some talk today that Origi may be in line for a new contract. I was told last week that the club expect him to still be here next season, which surprised me a little. I’ve flip-flopped on Origi so many times. He’s boss, he’s shit, he’s alright, he’s shit, he’s not bad, he’s shit, he’s decent…
Where I am right now is that I wouldn’t be against him staying, and I’m really rooting for him because I love the attitude he’s shown this season. He was completely out in the cold but trained his arse off and waited for an opportunity, and whenever he’s had that opportunity he’s given everything he had to try and make the most of it.
I think back to Wolves in the cup. Not a great game from him, but his attitude was fucking great and put some others (notably Sturridge) to shame. He plays like a lad who is determined to make the most of every second he gets on the pitch and I appreciate that.
If we don’t plan on signing another top forward this summer though I worry for us a little next year. The plan seems to be to keep Origi and bring Brewster through, which seems risky to me. They absolutely love Brewster. I just hope the faith they have in him is justified.
Tuesday Apr 9:
L 2 Porto 0 Good result, so so performance. I liked the first half, although we were a little bit too open at times and I think that probably influenced how the second half went, as Jurgen is more pragmatic these days and no doubt wanted to avoid a repeat of Roma bagging a couple of away goals.
Hendo and Naby were really god and there was a nice balance to the midfield. I’d be tempted to go with them again on Sunday but I reckon Gini will get the nod. He’s usually boss in the big games so that’s fair enough.
Tell you what was fucking weird tonight though. Sturridge getting on for the last ten. Why? What’s the point? It basically puts us down to ten men and I’d love to know what he’s done to deserve that when poor little Shaq can’t get on. Shaq almost got ten seconds at the end but the ref blew the whistle before he got the chance to come on. All very odd.
In the other game tonight, Spurs deservedly beat City in an incident packed game. Aguero missed a pen, Kane and Alli both went off injured and Fernandinho showed that it’s not just PL refs that he’s got incriminating photos of by once again getting away with fucking murder.
Good for Spurs, I hope they can see it through now (even if it means less games for City) but I expect they’ll go out in the most heartbreaking manner possible, because they’re Spurs.
It was funny seeing some Spurs fans on social media now talking about how they want us to win the league. Bet they weren’t saying that before tonight. I get it though. Familiarity breeds contempt and by the time they’ve played that third game against City I suspect most Spurs fans will be wanting us to do it because they’ll despise City after that.
Wednesday Apr 3:
That United / Barca game was funny, not least because of the coverage from BT. I sat and watched most of it but couldn’t reconcile the commentary with what I was actually seeing on the pitch. I saw Barca win the game without getting out of second gear. They were sloppy, barely threatened at all and did not play well by any stretch of the imagination. But they were in total command of the game and never, at any stage, ever, looked like conceding.
Yet the BT commentary was all about how well United were doing, how poor Barca looked and how Scott McTominay was playing like some kind of Bryan Robson / Roy Keane hybrid. It was utterly fucking mental. Normally I’d suggest that the commentators were blinded by their desire to see United do well, but one of them was McManaman so that’s not the case.
It was so weird that I began to question my own judgement. Was I misreading it so badly? No, because everyone else other than the BT commentators seemed to see it the same way. I mean fucking hell, they even completely brushed off Smalling’s assault on Messi that left poor little Leo with a bloody nose and a shiner. That was a clear red card and they dismissed it as nothing.
Suarez was in full on wind up mode though. He was mocked and jeered when the goal had initially been ruled out for offside, but when VAR over-ruled it he was giving it loads to the fans behind the goal. Brought a tear to my eye it did.
All the Suarez trademark scamp behaviour was on show. The highlights were:
The old kick the ball at an opponents hand and then repeatedly slap the palm of his right hand against his left wrist while screaming ‘handball’.
The late in the game collapse to the floor holding the back of his head after an aerial duel even though replays show there was no contact.
As always, that was followed by the grimace and constant rubbing the back of the head, then examining the hands for blood.
God I miss him. He best not pull any of that shit when we play them in the semis though, or I shall be most cross.
Yeah yeah, I know, neither of us are in the semis yet and there’s a chance we could still go out, but there’s absolutely no way United are turning this around. They used up ten years worth of luck against PSG.
They do have the players to hurt Barca win the break, but Messi and Suarez will tear them apart. I just hope Phil Jones plays in the second leg, just to add to the comedy value of it all.
What’s that now, five defeats in six?
Ole’s at the wheel….
Thursday Apr 4:
Chelsea were away in Europe tonight which means there was always going to be some sort of video circulating to embarrass them. Every club has it’s dickheads, but Chelsea have far more than most. They’re like Diet Millwall.
The video of those lowlifes, pissed in a bar and singing about Mo says more about this country as a whole than it does Chelsea in my opinion. The country is full of cunts like them, and they don’t all follow Chelsea. Some of them are in fucking parliament. It’s not just a Chelsea problem, it’s more of an English problem.
It takes a special breed of pond life to dislike Salah, who is widely regarded as a genuinely lovely fella. He’s a former Chelsea player too, which makes this even more cunty because it isn’t even like he left them under a cloud. Mo is a muslim playing for the scousers though. Two things the far right in this country despise most.
While these pricks don’t represent all Chelsea fans, it’s a safe bet that Mo will be booed by the away end on Sunday, and if that happens it will be explained away as him being a former Chelsea player. So presumably Kevin De Bruyne gets the same level of animosity then?
Meanwhile, there’s talk today of a record breaking kit deal and that it won’t be with New Balance. While our last couple of home kits have actually been really nice, I can’t say I’m a fan of NB in general, especially their trainers which all scream out “Hi-Tech Silver Shadow” to me.
Nike are the front runners at this point but I’d happily take a few quid less from Adidas, if only because they could then release the old retro shirts and have them look authentic, rather than what we have now, which is the same shirt but without the three stripes and Adidas logo.
I’d quite like the 85/86 home and away shirts with the Adidas logo on. In fact, they should just make that the new home and away shirts. Tell Nike to do one, let’s keep it old school.
Friday Apr 12:
How sad was it seeing Sean Cox at that benefit game? Utterly heartbreaking, it’s a fucking scandal what happened to that poor fella and his family. It’s great to see how football has rallied around him and hopefully all this makes it a bit easier for his family, but it’s still just incredibly sad.
More sad news then came when we learned that Tommy Smith passed away today. I know he splits opinion and Tommy Smith the person rightly isn’t held in the same regard as Tommy Smith the player. His treatment of Howard Gayle was abhorrent, and there are countless other examples of him being a thoroughly unpleasant individual at times (an disgusting interview in the late 80s was a particular low point).
The Tommy Smith of that time had some pretty vile views, but maybe he moved with the times and realised the error of his ways? I’d like to think he looked back on some of the things he said and the views he had and was ashamed by them, and I doubt he felt the same way in his later years that he did in the 80s, but I don’t know if he did or not.
I’m just a little bit uneasy about judging a person’s character by views they held in the 70s and 80s, especially on the night that he died and his family are grieving. I saw one prominent journalist bringing all that up within minutes of the announcement and taking issue with people calling him a ‘legend’.
Frankly that’s bollocks. Football is littered with ‘legends’ who were not nice people. Smith was no Kenny Dalglish, but then few are. He is unquestionably a football legend though, massive sweaty, puss filled warts and all. Just like George Best, Paul Gascoigne, Ryan Giggs, Bryan Robson, John Terry etc
It put LFC in a somewhat awkward spot though, just one day after they put out that statement condemning all racism. Now they’re having to pay tribute to a club legend who has said some pretty horrendous things about black people. Were they supposed to ignore Tommy’s passing, or were they meant to reference his racism in their tribute to him? It's a no win situation but by not doing so they were giving an open goal to anyone who wants to point out the hypocrisy of it all.
In terms of what he gave to LFC, few can match Smith. He made an immense contribution to the success of our club. That doesn’t mean his racist views were any less reprehensible, but equally it shouldn’t prevent people from mourning his passing and acknowledging the heroic things he did on the field.
If you think “fuck him, he was a racist prick” and you don’t care that he’s dead, that’s perfectly fine. What isn’t fine is telling others they’re wrong for not feeling the same way. I guess it all comes down to whether you can separate Smith the man from Smith the footballer.
It’s worth remembering that the fella had all manner of health issues in later life as a result of playing games after taking pain killing injections. He quite literally gave his body for LFC and he wasn’t ever suitably compensated for that. For years he was living on invalidity benefit until some blue grassed him up and got it stopped after he took a half time penalty at Wembley.
So many bums have left this club as millionaires over the past 20 years, so it never sat well with me that dedicated servants like Smith had to sell his medals just so he had some cash to leave to his family. So yeah, RIP Tommy.
On a lighter note, I saw an interview today with the fella who does all the teeth whitening for the stars. He did Jurgen, as well as Coutinho and Bobby. He said that when Bobby came in, he looked at the chart with the colours, picked out the whitest one (number one on the chart) and then said he wanted “Maximo! Beyond one”. They had to create a new colour just for him, the fucking loon.
That was the week that was….
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