Monday Jul 4:
The lads are back in training and I’m just not ready for this yet. Last season was just constant stress as the stakes were so high and every single game felt like it had everything riding on it, usually because it kind of did. The knock out games were, well, knock out, and the league games were too. It was relentless and then it ended on a downer in that last seven days. So yeah, I’m not ready for it to be back so soon but it is what it is I guess and we just have to suck it up and go again.
Lot of rumours yesterday that we’d made a move on Bellingham. As far as I can tell it was a hoax that fooled a lot of people but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a possibility that something is afoot. I speculated about it in last week’s diary when Mo extended. Not having to sign a replacement for Mo is a game changer financially. It frees up money for other deals and we really only need one more player. One more midfielder and we’re set. If that midfielder is someone who could be here for 15 years then all the better.
The £100m plus fee Bellingham will command is steep but if they are convinced he’s a fit for us then because of his age the fee isn’t that important. If we have the money (which we probably do after our success last season) then just pay what it takes to get him. Ordinarily Dortmund only sell one player each summer, but they got fuck all for Haaland really so maybe they’ll be tempted by the cash?
Meanwhile, Ronaldo wants out at United. Surely that means City will be at the front of the queue then, after all, they wanted to sign him last summer didn’t they? And if you believe that you’ll believe anything. Hell of a job by Ronaldo, Mendes and probably even City themselves to concoct that whole thing to force United into making that deal happen. Now he’s had enough of how shit they are and wants out. I bet that new manager is made up though, as the last thing you want when trying to make your mark at a new club is someone like Ronaldo undermining your every move.
You know where he’s meant to be going? Chelsea! I’m not having that. There’s no way Chelsea are that stupid. They’ve just had to offload one big money striker who didn’t fit the way they want to play, why would they bring in someone who is an even worse fit? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing Ronaldo, he’s still fucking brilliant at what he does. But it’s the baggage isn’t it? He’s such a massive star but he’s not 27 anymore so you can’t build a team around him and let him have free rein to do what he likes. He’s old, doesn’t have much time left at the top and really should be tailoring his demands and expectations to that reality. Except he’s too arrogant to do that. So he’s a problem.
You’d have to be thick as fuck to sign him now. Or you’d just do it for the attention and spotlight it would bring. So Newcastle then. They tick both of them boxes.
Fair play to United though, they’ve managed to convince their local beat reporters to write - with a straight face - that United are annoyed with Ronaldo because he told them he was staying which was why they ‘let’ us sign Nunez. Yeah, THAT is why Nunez didn’t sign for them. Kinell.
Tuesday Jul 5:
Harvey has switched from 67 to 19. Not sure why he’s done that and not just gone all the way to the number 10 shirt vacated by Sadio. Maybe the club told him he needs to earn the right to that shirt, which would be pretty fucking rich considering they let Keita take Stevie’s number.
Maybe Harvey wanted 19 because it’s his age. Or the number of titles we have. Or maybe it’s just because it was the average age of soldiers in Vietnam. Whatever the reason, I expect another change in 12 months because he looks like a future number ten for me. Unless Carvalho beats him to it. Really looking forward to seeing what both of them can do this year, and Curtis as well. He’ll need to step up now and I think he will.
In the early rounds of the cup we’ll probably see a midfield of Milner, Jones and Elliott with Carvalho and Gordon in the forward line with one of the experienced lads, Bobby maybe. Unless we get really unlucky and draw City or Chelsea of course.
Still no fee agreed for Neco but it looks like Forest have now moved into pole position as Fulham have dropped out. Surprising that, Neco was amazing for Fulham so you’d think they’d have wanted to get that done. Similar to Big Nat at Bournemouth. Why have they not signed him yet? It upsets me that Phillips doesn’t have loads of clubs beating down his door because he deserves it, the big fucking hero.
Meanwhile, presented without comment
Frank Lampard decided to show the Everton squad, some of the positive content on social media, from the last few weeks of the season, on there walk to the training pitch today. It shows the impact fans can have on a club and how the players can have an impact on the fans pic.twitter.com/4EJ2S1tNeo
— The Bobble (@ElBobble) July 4, 2022
Wednesday Jul 6:
Sterling has actually signed for Chelsea. Weird that, because when it was mooted I didn’t really take it seriously. Just couldn’t see it happening. Not even sure why, I suppose I just see Sterling as a City player now and can’t picture him playing anywhere else. Now that he’s left them it’s probably a good time to reflect on that career move he made and whether it was the “no brainer” it seemed for him at the time and for a whle afterwards. It's not so clear cut now.
He’s won a lot of trophies there and made a shitload more money than he would have got here. But since he left, we won every single trophy there is to win. He has no Champions League, no Super Cup and no World Club Cup. And what he has won, he’s won at a club that no-one gives a fuck about. Not even their own fans. He isn't loved by City fans either. He's just another one of the many expensive signings they've had and it always felt like he was under-appreciated by them. The only time they sang about him was to try and taunt us ("Raheem Sterling he's top of the league")
Chelsea fans won't love him either. He may end up like Michael Owen the way it's going. I wonder if he has any regrets and if he could do it all over would he hang on here until Klopp arrived? Probably not, but I’d be interested to know what he thinks privately.
City have lost Jesus and Sterling now from their forward line. They’ve brought in Haaland and some South American kid, and they may be stronger as a result. They might not be though. Sterling has played a huge part in their success and Jesus contributed a fair bit too. It’s similar to us, we lost Mané as well as Origi and Minamino, and we’re relying on Nunez and Carvalho to fill the gap. The title might be decided by who hits the ground running first.
On the subject of Carvalho though, I’m just watching the stuff on the club website from yesterday. His interview was good, is like so many of these young players we bring in where they come across as supremely confident yet not in the least bit arrogant. Maybe that’s a sign of the type of personalities we look for, or maybe it's just a sign of the times whereby these kids have been well schooled from a really young age about doing interviews. Either way, he seems like a good lad.
There’s something about him that really reminds me of Coutinho. He’s got a look of him but even on his highlights video there’s something Coutinho-esque about him. Hopefully he doesn’t share the Magician’s penchant for doing a disappearing act away from home.
Also today, Newcastle are said to have “made contact” with Anthony Gordon. We’ll need slow motion replays to be sure as you can never tell with that cunt.
Seriously though, they’re mentioning a £35m fee, which is insane. He’s been booked more times for diving than he’s scored goals. He’s a Championship player and it amazes me that people think he’s good. He can run fast and fall over. That’s it. I really hope Newcastle do sign him because that’s a win win. They overpay for a shit player and Everton lose their latest “one of their own” local heroes. Jeffers, Rooney, Rodwell, Barkley and now this turd. What's that expression of theirs... “Once a Blue but never for long”. Something like that anyway, I forget.
Meanwhile, I’ve loosely been trying to keep abreast of what’s been happening in France but it’s hard to follow. The lying ministers are no longer blaming us but they haven’t apologised for their lies either. Now it seems they’re pointing the finger at local youths, which is bollocks. Those feral cunts were a symptom of the problem, not the cause. Easy target for rich politicians though eh? It's the same the world over.
It's no co-incidence that no cunt from our government fought our corner on this. Twats. They’re as bad as French ministers who blamed us. Given the way politics is these days these fuckers will fail upwards and one of them will eventually end up running France in a few years.
Thursday Jul 7:
New deal for Joey G. Made up. I was told a couple of months ago he’d sign and that he had no interest in joining Villa or anyone else. Initially I thought that was a little hard to believe as he’s hardly had any opportunities here and he’s far too good to not play, but his view is that he knows he’s good enough to be a regular and he just needs to wait until the opportunity comes for him to show it. The other factor in his thinking is that he’s six years younger than Virg and Joel so he’s the natural successor if he bides his time.
I love that attitude; he’s backing himself and refusing to take a step down. He knows this is the best place to be and he wants to to fight to stay here. At the moment he’s fourth choice but that can change with a couple of injuries or just from performance levels in training and pre-season. If he’s the best in pre-season then maybe he gets the nod for the opening game. It’s a clean slate for everyone at centre back now. Except Virgil, obviously he’s going to play.
Joe Gomez is fucking boss and losing him would have been proper shit. Obviously this isn’t as significant an extension as Mo staying, but it’s still really great news.
I don’t know what the fuck is going on with Twitter lately but for some reason it keeps throwing Arsenal shit at me. The algorithm is fucked up somewhere if it thinks I’m liking anything to do with Arsenal. Although I do follow Arsenal Simpsons as it’s really funny, so maybe that’s why I’m getting bombarded with ‘recommended’ tweets from Arsenal loons.
Our twitter fanbase is mental too, I know this as well as anyone, but Arsenal are next level deluded. I’m not getting into all that again as I need to keep some powder dry for when the round ups start again in a few weeks, but all week it’s been crazy because they signed Gabriel Jesus. They’re talking like they’ve signed peak Messi rather than a lad who has been a squad player at City.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good player and he’ll do alright for them (for a few months until that Arsenal stink gets on him) but these loons are posting shit like “Prem defenders ain’t ready for these two” with a picture of Jesus and Martinelli. Kinell, they don’t even have the best strike force in North London, let alone the entire league.
No-one prematurely smells themselves quite like Arsenal fans though. But when the player and club are doing shit like this is it any wonder?
I haven’t seen Milner on any of the training videos even though he’s back. He posted a pic on Monday of him in the gym with Hendo but he’s not been on any of the outside videos. Either he’s injured or he’s in some Rocky 4 style training regime getting ready for the lactate test. If he is, we defo need a montage.
Friday July 8:
“I met only a few (people) who were lucky. All the rest I met – my family included – had massive struggles outside. I think it is clear it was massively mis-organised. Whoever was responsible was not prepared for that. I heard first hand from my family because they were in the middle of everything. I didn’t hear about it properly until the next morning. My family sent me messages before the game, ‘We are in the stadium, good luck’ and all these kinds of things – but they were not. These kind of necessary lies you receive. Then after the game we had this little party. My missus was not ready to party, still exhausted from all the things around.
“It was obviously really difficult. I was not outside but so many people told me the true story and they were all the same story pretty much, so I know what happened.” I think I knew 50 people inside the stadium; 47 people told me exactly the same story. That is what I heard. That is obviously not how it should be.”
“It says it all. It’s why everyone, the authorities, have to make sure this does not happen again. It was clear where it was (held) was a problem. I think in Paris, the authorities would have known about the regional issues there. UEFA decided pretty quick that it will be in Paris. There were other cities, obviously, where it could have been held. I understand that they got the information pretty late.
“So how to organise it? You need somewhere it is easy to organise – and UEFA and Paris, this is not the first time they have worked together, all these kind of things. I’m 100 per cent sure that nobody made a mistake intentionally. It’s not that everyone thought: “ah, pfft, who cares how supporters get in!” But the mistakes still happened and now we have to sort it.”
He’s right, no-one deliberately made mistakes but that’s not really my biggest gripe anymore (easy for me to say and I wasn’t there and didn’t get pepper sprayed). Maybe it’s just me, but it isn’t just the fuck ups that were made that I have the biggest problem with. It’s the lies that were peddled in the immediate aftermath in an attempt to put the blame onto our fans. That angered me more than anything. Same with Hillsborough really. Mistakes happen and admitting them isn’t going to make those mistakes ok or any more forgivable. But lying about it and blaming the victims definitely makes it way fucking worse.
I’m a little disappointed Jurgen didn’t mention that really but maybe it’s because of this ‘independent’ inquiry UEFA are conducting. Maybe Kloppo is holding on savaging them for blaming us until the results of that are announced and we get the apology that is coming to us. So far UEFA and French authorities have sort of apologised for making a mess of the organisation, but we are yet to get a “sorry we blamed Liverpool fans, that was wrong and not only were the fans not to blame, but their impeccable behaviour undoubtedly saved lives”.
Thankfully a lot of people in France have pointed that out, but not the ones who really should be saying it. That Darmanin cunt reluctantly (and it was very low key) apologised to our fans who “suffered from this poor management” but he didn’t apologise for lying about us, the slippery cunt. That bitch sidekick of his didn’t either. And nor have UEFA, who let’s not forget put it on the fucking stadium big screen that we were the reason the kick off was delayed.
The club (specifically Billy Hogan) have been really good over this though in fairness and I feel like that needs pointing out. Klopp going after them is going to attract a lot more headlines than Billy Hogan doing it though, so this seems like a missed opportunity but let’s see how it plays out with the inquiry I guess.
Meanwhile, Milner was in the videos posted today. We haven’t seen the lactate test though so what’s up with that? They must have done it as it’s usually the first day back isn’t it? Maybe Millie didn’t win so they’re keeping it under wraps. One thing that was on the training vids though was Joel weaving his way through three challenges before scoring and sending everyone wild, especially Kloppo who was fucking loving it.
Joel might be the biggest character in the squad despite being the most quiet and private. He doesn’t need to bounce around like a loony to have all eyes in the room drawn to him. He just has to be there. Everyone is drawn to him and fascinated by him. Imagine being invisible and being able to just walk around the training ground and the match day dressing room undetected. I might just follow Joel around the whole time.
….and that was the week that was
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