Sunday Jul 18:
Further evidence of social media being an absolute cesspit. Gylfi Sigurdsson was trending on twitter tonight because it was awash with rumours he’d been arrested. No big deal, except that wasn’t the entirety of the rumour. He was arrested for noncing 'they' say. It’s probably bollocks but even if it’s not there’s absolutely nothing credible at this stage, but it still ran like wildfire and caused enough of a storm that his missus closed down her instagram page.
Fucking mental. No idea where it started or if it has any legs, but 90% of the time these things turn out to be… ha! I almost said nonsense there…. a load of old shite. Still, some of the comments on it from Blues were fucking hilarious though, not least because other rumours today have them signing Andros Townsend. They were more upset about that than the idea their vice captain had been fiddling kids. It made for some hilarious tweets and I have to say Evertonian gallows humour is class.
They’re also signing Demarai Gray, who I’d completely forgotten even existed until I saw this news. Apparently he left Leicester in January to go to Leverkusen and now they’re moving him on for £1.5m. Obviously made a favourable impression over there. He always seemed like a bit of a headless chicken to me. Pace, the odd bit of brilliance but generally a whole heap of ‘meh’ and about three goals a season. Basically he was Callum Hudson-Odoi because Callum Hudson-Odoi was.
That being said, three goals a season is still more than the Blues get out of Bernard and Iwobi though so this is an improvement and Rafa already has them better than they were before he arrived. It’s hilarious seeing so many of them offended by the notion of signing Andros Townsend when the fact is he walks straight into their starting eleven because he’s better than virtually any wide player they have and because there is not a cat in hell’s chase Rafa indulges “Hamez” and his lack of tracking back.
Some of those players (the forwards) are going to fucking hate Rafa within days, while others (the defenders) will love him. Calvert-Lewin’s head is going to be spinning when he has Big Dunc continuing Carlo’s work by telling him to get in the box and stay within the width of the 18 yard box, and then Rafa giving him instructions on how he is to man to mark the opposition’s defensive midfield player.
If he needs advice on that he can always call Robbie Keane. Remember when his head was frazzled because Rafa spent ages showing him videos of Hayden Mullins and giving him specific instructions on how to stop him playing? Jesus.
Monday Jul 19:
Fucking hell the summer is just shit when it comes to being a Red. If we aren’t stressing about the lack of incomings, we’re having to deal with the kind of shit thrown at us today about Hendo’s future. Not just that they haven’t been able to agree on a contract extension, but you’ve even got Paul Joyce actually suggesting it’s a real possibility he could leave THIS summer.
Firstly, I don’t believe it. You can’t allow him to leave because he’s the captain and the standard setter that everyone else follows. There’s a discussion to be had about how much we should be offering him considering he does miss a fair bit of playing time and that's unlikely to improve as he gets older, but if there is even the tiniest shred of truth in this notion he might be allowed to leave now while he’ll still ‘fetch a good fee’, then whoever is contemplating that needs the sense slapping back into them.
It’s bad enough we allowed the Gini situation to develop and then end the way it did, but if they pull the same penny pinching shit with Hendo too then we should fucking riot. Top clubs just don’t act like this. I tell you what is probably happening here though. They think they can take advantage of Hendo’s professionalism and love for the club by low balling him. It happened with Stevie towards the end as well didn’t it? Or am I remembering that wrong?
The point is, Henderson is not going to be taking the piss with his demands and if this doesn’t get done (I still think it will) I’d be laying it at the door of the club rather than Hendo.
Like I say though, the summer is fucking shit for us. Every year it’s the same and I hate it. Could be worse though, we could be Everton.
Tuesday Jul 20:
Holy shit, that Sigurdsson stuff actually has substance. Everton release a statement saying a player has been suspended pending a police inquiry, while the Mirror report a 31 year old PL player is being investigated for noncing. There's only Sigurdsson and Delph in that age group at Everton and Delph is apparently furious at how he's been implicated. Don't blame him either.
This is like that vampire situation last week though. On the face of it there’s nothing funny at all. These are disturbing, sickening crimes and not a laughing matter. We all agree on that and ordinarily I wouldn't dream of making light of either of these heinous acts. But stick an Everton shirt on the perpetrator and I dunno, somehow it just becomes slapstick.
I hope there’s nothing to this though, for Sigurdsson’s family’s sake as much as anything else. And because I don't want the Blues to be able to wiggle out of the massive contract he's on, but mostly for his family.
Meanwhile, Taiwo Awoniyi has signed for Union Berlin for £6.5m. I said years ago we’d never see him play for us but I can’t take a victory lap on that because let’s be honest here, it was obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense.
We’ve started making some signings purely for the purpose of selling them on for profit. That’s an observation rather than a criticism. Chelsea have been doing it for ten years and it’s a nice little earner. It makes sense to do it, although morally I'm not sure it's right.
Marko Grujic is another one, although I think they genuinely did have hopes for him. So did I, he was my boy. There’s a really fucking good player in there somewhere, but if he ever emerges he won’t be wearing our shirt as he’s just signed for Porto.
The outgoings look to be building up now and Brighton are after big Nat. He’s very much in the mould of the defenders they have so I’m a little surprised at that. Ben White was different to Dunk and Webster but Nat is like a clone of Webster. Whatever he does and wherever he goes he’ll always be a fucking hero to me.
We may see movement on Wilson, Shaq, Minamino and Origi too. Ok, not Origi. He’s got Bosman written all over him as he clearly does not want to go anywhere. Maybe Neco will go as well. Which is all well and good, but only if we actually spend some fucking money on a boss midfielder and another forward. Common sense tells me we will, but why does it feel like we won’t? Because it’s the summer and it’s fucking shit that’s why.
Wednesday Jul 21:
The Spectator has a go at Marcus Rashford. Don’t know what they wrote, some tenuous shit about him using his charity work to raise his profile and land bigger endorsement deals for himself. Considering the out and out evil, selfish, good for nothing cunts that are sat on lofty perches in this country, why the fuck would you go targeting this lad?
He’s not allowed to make any money for himself because he’s also trying to feed hungry kids but it’s ok for Richard Branson to look for government bail outs while spending billions on travelling into space? This country. Fucking hell.
The good thing is there’s been a big backlash over this and it clearly hasn’t gone the way the Spectator intended. Most of the endorsement money Rashford has earned has been used for good causes but even if it hadn’t, so fucking what? He’s a Manchester United and England footballer. He’s supposed to be making fucking millions because it comes with the job. If he can do that as well as help hungry kids then good for him.
I hope he gets a standing ovation at Anfield and even gets his name chanted. Mostly because he deserves it, but if I’m being completely honest here there’s also a part of me wants to do it because of how much it will infuriate the United fans and because it gives us more moral high ground over them. “The difference between us and you is that you sing songs mocking poverty while we sing the name of one of your players for fighting it”.
But mostly because he deserves it.
Meanwhile, we had a couple of televised training sessions today. I’m not being facetious either, that’s literally all they were. You can’t call a half hour kick about a friendly game because it’s not even that. We had two of them and drew both 1-1. I didn’t see the first one but I watched the second. The only takeaway I had from it was Ox looked like he was playing a proper game and everyone else was training. He seemed to have more zip and desire than anyone else on the pitch.
I didn’t like Konate’s part in the Stuttgart goal so I think I’ll just write him off now rather than waste any more time. My dad did that with Skrtel after the Havant & Waterlooville game. He’d go quiet whenever Skrtel had a decent run but then any time he had a ropey game or made a mistake he’d pipe up “I never liked right from his first game. I told you he was crap”.
I’m gonna do that with Konate I think, especially if we sell big Nat to accommodate him. And let me state for the record here and now, I’m not referring to him as “Ibou” no matter how many other people do it. I railed against ‘Bobby’ for a long while and only relented when the Brazilian lads were also calling him it, but “Ibou” just ain’t happening. He fucking better not have that on his shirt either.
Tell you what else I hope ain’t happening; Jarrod Bowen. I’m not saying he’s shit as I think he’d a tidy little player, but we’ve moved well beyond that now surely? We’ve won the league and been Champions of Europe. “Tidy little player” just doesn’t cut it now as the bar has been raised so high. I’ve seen some comparing him to a Jota type signing but Jota was clearly better and also younger. The price would be similar though, and I just feel we can get more quality for £35m than Bowen.
The ONLY reason this deal would make any sense is the homegrown quota, but surely there are better English players we could sign? He can only play in Mo’s spot and we don’t need that because currently we’ve got Jota, Sadio, Shaq and Elliott who could all fill in there if Mo wasn’t available. Any forward we sign should be able to play through the middle - and be better than Jarrod Bowen.
Thursday Jul 22:
Latest on Sigurdsson is he’s reportedly been put in a secure location by the police. Somewhere no-one would think of looking for him. Has to be Everton’s trophy room, which would actually be a fitting punishment for him if he turns out to be guilty. The cuckoo clock would drive him fucking loopy.
Also today, the mancs are trying to sign Varane now. This is fucking shit. They’re collecting so many good players that pretty soon it’s not even going to matter that the manager is a bum. I don’t like this at all, especially as we’re doing fuck all. If they ever wake up to the fact their manager is holding them back then we're looking at a potential Chelsea situation. They went from 9th or something to top four and Champions of Europe just by replacing Lampard with a fell who knows what he's doing.
I don’t want to get too bogged down in all this but everything coming out of the LFC connected media is depressing as fuck isn’t it? We’re hearing now that the wage bill is massive because we’ve had to pay out all the incentivised clauses put in contracts. Isn’t that the whole fucking point? You can’t put those clauses in and then moan about having to pay them when you’ve won the biggest prizes.
It’s obvious that we need to sell to buy and virtually all the transfer talk is based around outgoings rather than incomings. Neco is reportedly going to be sold if we can find a buyer but there are no plans to replace him and that will leave Gomez and Bradley as the back up options. FUCK THAT. Gomez is nowhere near good enough to play right back in our set up and the physical exertions of it are hardly likely to help him stay fit either.
Bradley has looked good at youth level but let’s not forget that Neco was fucking tremendous at that level. It’s a big stretch to say Bradley is a better option than Williams at this point. Everything that’s being put out by the club suggests we’re completely fucking skint, which surely can’t be the case. Where’s the Billy Bean money for a start?
Maybe the problems are real though? We have lost a shitload of money due to Covid and while we’re not the only ones, both Manc clubs can cope with that and Chelsea could too if Abramovich wanted to throw some cash their way. We’re acting like we don’t have a pot to piss in. I hope we’re playing possum to drive prices down on potential targets, but we’ll see.
One thing that has niggled away in the back of my mind but I don’t think I’ve voiced it out loud until now is that I think maybe top flight footballers should have taken pay cuts during Covid. I know a lot of them were reluctant to do that because it would have just put money in the pockets of the owners, but that’s not really the case for us is it? A 25% pay cut wouldn’t have made much difference to the players and despite what a lot of fans would have you believe it’s not like Henry would use to buy another yacht. It would have helped the club’s finances though.
I’m not saying they definitely should have taken pay cuts but I can’t deny it’s something I’ve thought about and I could probably be talked into that notion quite easily. I see the other side of it though, especially when you have Sadio using his wages to build schools and hospitals back home. I don’t know, I guess what I’m saying here is that it just doesn’t really sit right that the club is having to pay players £150k a week or more despite them losing £100m in revenue because of the pandemic.
Friday Jul 23:
We beat Mainz today. It doesn’t mean much but considering we usually get royally bummed by them it was a nice change to actually win. The first half team was more experienced but the second half group of mostly kids got the result. I was going to watch this and then when the time came I realised I really couldn’t be arsed devoting an hour and a half to it.
I wonder if that’s an age thing. I don’t ever remember my dad being arsed about pre-season games at all but I’ve always been of the view that its a Liverpool game and therefore I want to watch it. This summer though I don’t have any appetite for it. Maybe I’m losing a bit of enthusiasm with age but I don’t think that’s it. I reckon this is about signings. We haven’t made any, other than a centre back, and frankly I have no interest in what Konate does. That’s nothing personal, it’s purely positional.
Centre backs are important when the real thing starts but it’s probably the one position where I have zero interest in seeing how a new boy does in pre-season. If we’d signed a striker or a midfielder I’d want to watch these games, but we haven’t, and to make it even less appealing we’ve still got half a squad unavailable for various reasons. Watching Origi and Minamino just doesn’t grab my attention, but I’m not the least bit eager to see Sadio and Mo either, because I know what they can do and I've seen them hundreds of times in games that mean more than these ones do. Pre-season without new signings is dull as fuck.
Harry Wilson is off to Fulham for £10m which is a third of what we wanted for him not so long ago. We’re bringing in a 16 year old winger from Newcastle though. I’m not going to scoff at that because I’m all in favour of hoovering up whatever wonder kids are available. I do this in footy manager all the time because you only one of them to really fulfil his potential and it’s worth while. Think Raheem Sterling for example. Jordon Ibe as well to some extent.
This kid’s dad is Lee Clark but I’m not going to hold that against him. Not yet anyway. Can’t say the same for my mum though. She hated Lee Clark back in the day. I don’t even remember why now, but she couldn’t stand him and always used to say he had a face like a plate of beans. The only thing I remember about him was that time he went to watch Newcastle play at Wembley wearing a “Sad Mackem Bastards” t-shirt. While he was actually playing for Sunderland! Hopefully his lad has his mum’s brains or he’s got no chance.
We keep hearing about how the squad are all ageing together and that’s going to be a problem and it will be expensive to replace them all, but it’s not if you plan ahead properly. Hypothetically, if Salah and Mané stay until they’re 35 and we get nothing for them when they leave, that would be a problem. But not if Elliott, Gordon or this kid from Newcastle turn out to be ace. Not to mention you’d still have Jota plus anyone else we might buy in the meantime.
Not so long ago I was buying into all that “too many players are the same age and it needs freshening up” but the more I think about it the more I reckon it’s a load of old bollocks and this letting Gini go and haggling with Hendo is all about keeping the wage bill down and nothing else. Age has fuck all to do with these decisions other than when players are in the 28-33 age bracket their earning power is at its highest.
Finally, Guardiola says there’s more chance of City NOT signing a striker than of them signing one because of the current financial climate in football. Meanwhile, Harry Kane is apparently telling guests at a wedding that he’s joining City for £160m. Here’s what I think. City want Kane, Kane wants City, but Daniel Levy is like “£160m and I might consider it”. And if they offer £160m, he’ll ask for £180m. Won’t happen. But then City will go and sign someone else as there’s no way they aren’t going to take the piss now that FFP has been relaxed.
Unless…. these reports that the PL are still investigating them might actually be significant. The suggestion is that City’s lawyers have done everything they can to bully the PL into backing down but it hasn’t worked and the PL is still coming after them. Maybe that explains their lack of spending so far? Apparently one of those football leaks fellas who hacked the emails and gathered evidence against City and other clubs is in some kind of witness protection thing and he has loads of incriminating stuff. Don’t be surprised if he ends up mysteriously found in the weeds or something though.
....and that was the week that was
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