That was the week that was (Jul 7-13 2020)

Tuesday Jul 7:

There’s some talk today that the club are looking at ways of getting fans back into Anfield asap. I expect this to happen sooner rather than later as there are countries around Europe that are playing in front of reduced crowds. I’m desperate to go the game again but don’t know if I’d go yet to be honest.

Currently I’m fine as I’ve had the virus and have the antibodies, but no-one seems to know how long those antibodies will keep you protected. I caught the thing at the Atletico match and passed it on to my wife and daughter. Not sure I can really justify going back and putting us all at risk again until we know it’s 100% safe.

Realistically there’s no way it can be 100% safe as there are so many variables involved. It has to happen though because clubs need the money. Even the big clubs can’t go on indefinitely like this, but the smaller ones simply have to get fans back in or they’ll go under. Such a fucked up situation this and it’s scary really when you think about it. I mean what’s to stop something like this happening again, only next time it might be an even more severe virus.

My Dad has already decided he’s giving it up so the days of us going the game together are over now. I don’t blame him and at least he’s going out with us on top, but it’s pretty fucking upsetting really. All because some dirty bastard ate some bat soup.

If you believe that’s what caused it of course. I’m not convinced but ultimately what the fuck do I know about it? Joe Public will never know what caused it. All I know is the people in power throughout the world are generally all unscrupulous, untrustworthy cunts so with that in mind I wouldn’t rule anything out.

Anyway, back to footy and Klopp is asked about Brewster’s future and whether he’ll be a part of the squad next season. Typically he gave nothing away and said that any decision would be discussed with Brewster first rather than in a press conference. He’d done alright at Swansea but is he anywhere near at a level where he’s a viable option for our front three? Not for me, Clive.

Put it this way, he’s no Mason Greenwood is he? That’s not to say he won’t be a top player in the future but he’s definitely not the prodigy that he was billed as a couple of years ago. I think he’ll be loaned out again but if we were to sell Origi then maybe he’d be kept around. The only thing is, you couldn’t play him wide as it wouldn’t be fair. He’s a centre forward, pure and simple. Mind you, it hasn’t stopped Klopp from shoehorning Divock out there has it?

Also today, PSG are said be willing to pay £100m for Rashford. It’s probably bollocks but don’t be surprised to see PSG, City and Chelsea throwing the cash around this summer like Harry and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber when they got the briefcase open.

Wednesday Jul 8:

Brighton 1 L 3 Bit of a weird game this. We started like an express train and it looked like we might run away with it. Then it just sort of fizzled out and Brighton got on top. When they equalised it wasn’t a shock. They could have equalised too but Burn fluffed his lines. We tend to be good at weathering the storms though and we cam through it comfortably enough in the end.

Keita’s performance was a delight. Very encouraging. Mo was brilliant too. Mixed night for Neco though. I thought he played well but he was left isolated with the lively Lamptey (my boy) too often and a couple of times he got done. The yellow card was really harsh but as soon as that happened he was always getting subbed as Klopp often errs on the side of caution in these situations, and rightly so. Still, he did alright and it's encouraging that he can be an option on the left as well as the right.

Didn't look good for Hendo though. Worrying seeing him go off like that, and apparently the dressing room was really subdued afterwards. Klopp said he went in and was saying to them that it's hard winning away from home and they should be enjoying it. Then he saw Hendo and realised why the lads were so down.

Thursday Jul 9:

Ah bollocks. Hendo is out for the season and maybe the start of the next one. What that means for the shuffle remains to be seen but you’d have to think it’s in serious doubt now. If it’s not one thing it’s another. It’s almost like the football gods are saying ‘fine, you’ve won the title but we’ll be fucked if we’re letting you enjoy it”. Games behind closed doors, no parade, no proper celebrations and now no shuffle? Just fuck off.

Meanwhile, Houllier has some big words of praise for Keita and compares him with…. *deep breath* Steven Gerrard. “Keita was playing for a ‘championship’ team in France,” Houllier told the Liverpool Echo. “They were struggling but he was playing everyone off the park. Like when I saw Steven Gerrard; he was practically everywhere and his maturity was impressive, even under pressure. I recommended Salzburg buy him and they followed me. “He has a good attitude. Once he fits in the [ Liverpool ] team, he will stay there.”

Actually I’m not sure if he’s praising Keita there or just begging up his own talent spotting. GH loves telling everyone he discovered Gerrard doesn’t he? I’m more on board with Carragher’s take on Keita to be honest: “Keita’s statistics show a top player, but I don’t feel like I see that with my eyes”.

Friday Jul 10:

John Stones says that Man City believe they’re still the best team in the country. To quote a washed up musician with a arg Paul Weller haircut, this is too funny. They’re 23 points behind us. TWENTY THREE!!! Even if you still believe you’re the best you can’t say it when you’re 23 points behind the Champions as it makes you look like a deluded tit. Honestly, I can’t even put into words how stupid a thing that was to say. but I’ll try!

I played golf last night and I played like absolute shit. Genuinely awful. I shot 95. That’s 23 over par, which is ironic because it’s also the number of points City are behind us. What Stones said is the equivalent of me saying I’m a boss golfer.

I could have said it two years ago when I shot 73 on Kirkby, and Stones could have said what he said two years ago when they got 100 points and finished miles ahead of everyone else. To say it now, when you’re the Premier League equivalent of me shooting 23 over par? Well it’s just embarrassing, but then that’s Man City isn’t it?

I guess it’s easier for Stones to tell himself that though. After all, a big reason they are no longer the best is because they are hugely vulnerable in the position he plays in, yet he can’t even get in the team and this week he was linked with a move back to Everton.

Not sure there’s any chance of that considering “money can’t buy you Stones”. Any excuse to post this….

Saturday Jul 11:

L 1 Burnley 1. For fuck’s sake. I really wanted that perfect home record and losing it like this feels so frustrating. I’ve just got a real sense of injustice after this. It’s partly our own fault for not taking our chances, but I’m mostly pissed off at the ref and VAR for not giving that clear pen. It’s just a fucking farce.

Every week we’re seeing ridiculously bad decisions that aren’t corrected by VAR. I can’t stand it and would like it fucked off, but my view on it has changed over the course of the season. Initially I just hated it because I didn’t want it. I didn’t like the delays and the way it could take the emotion out of celebrating goals because you’re worried it’s going to be chalked off.

As it’s turned out, that’s not really been the worst thing about it and I’ve almost got used to it. The reason it’s so shit is because while the technology is great it’s got fucking clowns using it. Refs often aren’t making decisions because they have the safety net of VAR. Sometimes they are making them and they’re thinking “its ok because if I’m wrong VAR will sort it”.

Yeah, in theory that’s sound, except VAR isn’t sorting shit because most of the time the gimp in Stockley Park won’t over-rule the ref on the field. In the last few days alone there have been four or five astonishingly bad decisions that either haven’t been overturned or have been allowed to stand. The Robbo penalty today wasn’t even the worst of them.

So yeah I still hate VAR and want it scrapped, but my reasons for it are different. I actually now think it could be a good thing in theory, but in reality it’s shit because you’ve still got the same fucking morons making bad calls even when they have the benefit of 40 different camera angles and slow motion replays.

I’ve heard some pundits saying that ex players should be involved in the decision making process. No thanks, I’ve seen enough of Shearer and Murphy talking absolute bollocks about penalty decisions to know that won’t work. Besides, who would decide which ex players are covering which games? Knowing our luck we’d have Michael Ball and Paul Scholes making the decisions on our games.

So the perfect record is gone and the reaction to it hasn’t been great. A lot of whining and complaining on social media. I’m as pissed off about the result as anyone (except maybe Robbo and Trent based on their ranting at full time!) and there’s nothing wrong with being upset we didn’t win. Keep it in perspective though for fucks sake.

It’s fine to want to win every game and to be in a bad mood when we don’t. I’ve got the proper hump here and will have for a few days, but there’s a difference between being pissed off for the players and being pissed off with them. How anyone can be pissed off with a group of lads that ended our 30 year wait for the title is beyond me. That’s social media for you though I suppose. They’re like forums on steroids.

Also today, Jack Charlton died. I always liked him until I found out he was into blood sports and enjoyed seeing hounds tear apart defenceless wild animals. So while I’m certainly not glad he’s dead, I can’t say I’m arsed either, which is a shame as I had a lot of time for him once.

Any time I hear his name mentioned the first thing I always think of is a story my Dad always tells about going to Elland Road in the 70s. My Dad’s sister lives up there so my Dad was up there visiting one weekend when the Reds were playing Leeds. Him and my uncle went to the game but they were in with the Leeds fans.

So anyway, my Dad being my Dad opens his big mouth doesn’t he, calling the Leeds centre half a “big yard dog”. Next thing this big hand is on his shoulder and some bruiser Leeds fan is asking my Dad to repeat what he just said. “I said he’s a big yard dog”. The guy gives my Dad one last chance to take it back and my Dad asks him “who was the greatest centre half ever?” The guy replies “Jackie Charlton”. My Dad says “that’s right. He was brilliant. So who’s this fella you’ve got now?”. The guy pauses for a second and then goes “he’s a yard dog”. They watched the rest of the game together and had a great time.

Moral of the story is my Dad’s mouth can often land him in trouble but it can usually get him out of it too.

Sunday Jul 12:

Still pissed off about yesterday. It’s easier dropping points when we’ve been shite because you can rationalise that. It’s a different kind of pissed off. I was pissed off when we lost at Watford but equally I knew we got exactly what we deserved that day. We didn’t deserve to drop points yesterday but if you’re not clinical that can happen.

Bigger picture wise it brings up a slight concern. Not because of yesterday as such, that can happen to anyone. City lost at Southampton the other day despite absolutely peppering the Saints goal and generally playing very well. That’s football sometimes. The concern I have is that we’ve won a shitload of close games this year (and last, actually) and so many of them could easily have turned out like yesterday.

On the one hand it’s great how resolute this team is and how they’ve become a winning machine. On the other, I do think we make life more difficult for ourselves than need be because we aren’t as clinical as we were a couple of year ago. I’d like to think that the front three could recapture that magic from 2018 but it’s beginning to look like that was the exception rather than the norm.

The norm is still pretty fucking boss like, but the combined goal tally is dropping year on year now so maybe it needs freshening up? I don’t want anyone replaced but a new face to shake up the status quo and raise everyone’s game can’t do any harm, can it? Unfortunately the pot is empty so I’m not expecting us to address is this summer. It’s disappointing but I can live with it, mainly because I always said that when we finally win the league I’ll be so grateful and so relieved that whatever happens the season after is fine.

I’d love this to continue but if it doesn’t then so be it. The 30 year wait is over and a massive weight has been lifted from us. Now the spotlight will be on other teams who haven’t won it in a while. Like Arsenal. They look like they’re well on their way to a 30 year wait and then some.

Meanwhile, Wilf Zaha revealed a series of vile racist messages sent to him on instagram before Palace played Villa today. Sickening shit it was, and it turns out it was from a fucking 12 year old kid. Jesus Christ, where does that come from? The kid was arrested but who puts that kind of shit in a child’s head? He didn’t come up with it on his own, so he’s had that instilled in him somewhere. Can’t shake the feeling that he really shouldn’t be the only one getting nicked here.

David McGoldrick from Sheffield United shared a similar abusive message that was sent to him, and a number of black players have said that this happens regularly. Stopping the cunts from thinking the way they do isn’t easy, but banning them from platforms that are allowing them to spew their hate should be.

Yet when people reported the Zaha abuse to instagram they were told that it wasn’t a serious enough breach of their rules to justify removing the account. Incredible. I genuinely don’t understand how that can happen and someone from instagram should be made to publicly answer for it. Tell us why that isn’t a serious enough breach of policy, because I’m sure we’d all love to know.

Personally I’d love to hear someone try and justify it because there is literally no way you can without saying that racially abusing people is no big deal. Social media platforms really need to get their shit together as they’re enabling this shit.

Monday Jul 13:

Man City's ban is overturned. Of course it is. I knew that a couple of days ago when a journo with strong connections to City was running his mouth on Twitter saying he’d ‘heard’ that the result was going to be favourable. How did he hear that? Because City obviously knew they’d won and they couldn’t wait to brief people.

What’s interesting to me is that even though they are guilty as sin and the evidence against them couldn’t have been stronger, City said all along this would get thrown out and they were right. Ultimately they’ve either paid someone off or they just have better lawyers than UEFA. Possibly both. They were not found not guilty because they were guilty.

As far as I can recall they never even bothered trying to deny the claims against them, they just cried ‘persecution’ and moaned that they were hacked. This is a tough one to fix now. UEFA actually tried to do the right thing and punish them but they were over-ruled by a body with more power than them (I talking about CAS, not City, although that’s true as well). So UEFA are pretty much powerless to ever do anything about FFP now.

What does it mean for FFP? What is there to stop City just going out this summer and inventing a new sponsorship deal with a billion pounds and completely rebuilding their defence? The other clubs will complain and ask UEFA to do something but what can they do now? This will have cost them a fortune and for what? They were made to look like City’s bitches.

I’ll tell you what UEFA should do though. Something that is within their power. They should appoint a ‘friendly’ ref to ensure that City lose any time they get to the knockout stages, starting with the 2nd leg against Madrid. Normally I wouldn’t condone that but if City are going to cheat the system and flaunt it then why shouldn’t UEFA respond in kind?

Personally I’d let Raul referee that game with Casillas and Figo running the line. The VAR feed should go directly to the HQ of UEFA’s top brass, let them handle those decisions….

“We’ve got a possible penalty for Man City, can you take a look at it please”

What this has shown though is that you can cheat as much as like and you don’t need to cover it up particularly well because if you can delay it five years then they can’t do anything about it. This is basically what I did to get out of a speeding fine about twelve years ago. I was told by a mate that if it drags on for six months they can’t do anything and it goes away.

So I delayed it using various methods that he suggested and sure enough six months passed and it went away. I wasn’t fined and I escaped the three points on my licence, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t speeding. Just like this doesn’t mean City didn’t cheat.

From what I hear they’ve closed that speeding loophole now so it no longer works. Don’t bet on UEFA being able to do the same though. Money talks. Always has, always will.

…..and that was the week that was