That was the week that was (Jun 1-7 2019)

Saturday Jun 1:

Virtually everything I wanted to say about today will be in the match report, but there is one thing I probably won’t touch on too much. It goes without saying I was deliriously happy at what went down tonight, but there was another emotion I was feeling more than anything else. Relief. 

For the first time that I can remember, the fear of ending up empty handed was stronger than the desire to just win it for the sake of winning. Not winning this game tonight would have really taken some serious getting over, and not just because we've had so many near misses over recent years.

Losing to Spurs would have been bad enough for all sorts of reasons, but ending THIS season with nothing after all the incredible things this team has done? It would have just been brutal. That's our trophy, it doesn't feel right when another English team gets their grubby paws on it.

Then there’s the piss taking we’d have been subjected to every single fucking week next year. It would have been so hard to deal with, so getting the win tonight was just massive for us. I wish I could have just enjoyed it for the sake of just enjoying it (like Istanbul), but like I say, I think relief was the emotion that trumped everything tonight.

I’m relieved for Klopp that he no longer has to listen to that “serial loser” shite. Now he's just be described as world class manager without the 'but' at the end. That 'but' should not have been there anyway, but for a lot of people it was. Now it's gone.

I’m relieved for Hendo that he’s captained a European Cup winning side and now has validation against all the unfair shit he takes. No-one deserves it more than him.

I’m relieved for Milner that when he eventually leaves us (hopefully no time soon) he can say he won something big, because to me he’s an Anfield great and it wouldn’t have been right for him to have no ‘legacy’ to leave behind. Now he does, even though he didn’t start tonight. He’s the man who smashed into Neymar and Messi and showed he doesn’t give a fuck about reputations. Now he’s a European Champion and his legend will live on for generations.

I’m relieved for us too. Just look at the amount of shit we took this year despite getting 97 points. Not just from the usual suspects either. Everyone seemed to want a laugh at our expense. It started in Kiev and they all got a taste for it. 

What are they gonna say now? Fucking nothing, that’s what. Some will try, but there’s really nothing anyone can throw at us now that won’t be immediately shot down with “We are the Champions, Champions of Europe” chant. Not even City can lord it over us now. Nobody gives a fuck about their treble, not even themselves. That’s why they were singing about us after they won.

They’re obsessed, and seeing us do what they haven’t been able to is only going to fuel that obsession. We’ve boiled everyone’s piss tonight but I’ll enjoy that aspect of it in due course. For now, I’m just breathing a huge sigh relief and looking forward to a summer of basking in the glow of being Kings of Europe once again.

Boss isn't it?

Sunday Jun 2:

Wow. I knew the parade would be incredible, but it was way beyond anything I was expecting. I don’t have the vocabulary to sum it up. All I can say is there are very few places in the world where you would see something like we experienced today, and hardly any outside of South America (or Turkey). Naples could probably pull it off, but there’s nowhere in England that could even come close. 

It’s hard to explain exactly why that is, but it’s definitely true. Who else could even come close? United are the only ones who can match us for the size of support but they could only dream of something like this. The club slogan “This Means More” is cheesy and it’s that kind of thing that contributes to why so many hate us. It’s also 100% true though. It does mean more. We saw that today.

I was in town and I’ve never seen so many people in my life. There were Reds EVERYWHERE. It was mad. I didn’t see a single Everton shirt in town, which surprised me as although most of them understandably locked themselves away or left town for the weekend, you normally get a few who want to pay their respects and a few who just want to show their defiance. I didn’t see any though.

The atmosphere when the bus came into view was electric. It wasn’t like being at the match, it was a different kind of buzz, but it was spine tingling. The bus emerged through a cloud of red smoke and there's Robbo and Milner hanging over the rail and banging on the front, singing Allez Allez Allez. All the players were giving it loads as they went past, it was fucking incredible. I hadn’t seen anything that had happened prior to that but when I got home I was watching the four hour youtube of it until about 3am.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Klopp during that period when he was sat at the back of the bus acting daft. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. This is probably the greatest manager in the world, a fella in his 50s, in a position of authority and who is greatly respected and admired, and he’s sat there, shitfaced, baseball cap on back to front, almost falling off the back of a moving bus.

One of his teenage players even had to ask him if he was ok. Who else would do that? More to the point, who else could do it without looking like a prize tit? As it is, it was mostly just greeted with a laugh and a shrug and a "typical Jurgen, off his head".

He’s completely unique. There’s no-one like him. He commands respect and his players won’t take liberties, but at the same time they all love him and he’s more of a lad than any of them. The counting to six and then the goofy grin, that’s one of the most iconic things you’ll ever see. No-one else would have done anything like that. No-one else would have been able to pour beer on a teenager without having a word of criticism levelled at them. 

I could write all day on this as there were so many moments worthy of mentioning from today, but I’ll leave it at that other than to make the point that even though everyone knew today would be something momentous, it surpassed most, if not all, expectations. And the significance of that could benefit us big time over the next few years. 

I mean, think about it. What player in that squad would even consider leaving after this? Where else would they get a day like this? Combine that with how good the team is, how loved the manager is, and anyone that would even consider going somewhere else would have to be fucking mental. Especially when you see what happened to poor li’l Phil. What must he have been thinking today?

At this moment in time, if you were to do a poll of professional footballers all around the world and ask them if they could play for any team in the world right now, I’d be amazed if Liverpool didn’t come out on top. We could probably sign any player that was on the market this summer if we wanted to (De Ligt is probably the hottest available player, and I bet he’d walk over broken glass to come here if we asked him to), but the way Klopp has been talking I’m getting the feeling he doesn’t want anyone. 

He just wants to keep this entire group together (barring the couple of obvious, out of contract, exceptions). Whatever he wants to do is fine by me though. Fucking hell, he can do whatever he likes as he’s earned the right. It would be a little frustrating if we didn’t take advantage of all this though.

Monday Jun 3:

Absolutely batshit mental story in AS today about Salah wanting out because he can’t stand Klopp (obviously didn't see the YNWA at the end of the Barca game then), and our best hope of keeping him is if his best pal Mané can talk him around. Mané only signed his deal because he had assurances from Mo that he was staying too, according to AS. 

Mo and Sadio aren’t even that close. They’re good mates, yeah, but they’re not in each other’s pockets. Sadio is always with Naby and Mo’s boy is Lovren. AS are talking like they're inseparable like Milner and Robbo.

I’m not going to share the link as it’s a disgrace really. Not a word of truth in any of it, and for such a big publication to be going down this road is sad, and desperate. 

I know we always talk about how much bollocks there is in the press, especially in Spain, but this feels like it’s gone a new level. They’re not even trying to make it seem plausible any more, but it’s completely relentless. 

May as well quickly round up some random stuff from the weekend that got my attention. Lovren posting on Instagram about how different it is from last year, and getting a ‘congratulations mate’ from John Terry was pretty random. I liked it though.

Something else that was a little unexpected but brilliant was the footage of Mourinho and Wenger together doing the game for BeIn Sports. Mad seeing them sat next to each other like that given their history, but it was just as surreal seeing how much they were buzzing off YNWA. Mourinho basically told the presenter to shut up and listen, because this is better than anything they could say. And Wenger was equally gushing. 

I love all that. I’ve said before that since he’s gotten out of the rat race, Mourinho has been brilliant when he’s covered our games. Insightful and really complimentary. It must boil so much piss hearing him and Wenger being so nice about us. I just thought it was great. The Reds eh?

Tuesday Jun 4:

What a fucking day. I put a tweet out with an extract from the final report I did for the site. It was about Spurs, but it wasn’t aimed at them. Carra retweeted it though and the rest of the day I spent being bombarded with tweets about me not being very nice about Harry Kane (I called him an egotistical, slobbering goon). 

The rest of it was really complimentary and friendly towards Spurs, but understandably some of them didn’t like their hero being insulted like that. Tell you what though, pretty much every one of them I engaged with was cordial about it. It’s just that there were a fucking lot of them, and it ate right into my day because I felt that I should be courteous enough to reply.

They were alright though, which is more than can be said for the Wolves fans who also took umbrage at stuff I’d said about them. Fuck them though, the sad, smalltime pricks. Hope we get them first game of the season so we can rub their fucking smalltime noses in it.

In more important news today, the club announce Moreno and Sturridge will be leaving (we knew that anyway), but Shaq insists he’s staying. Yeeerrrrrsssss! I was a little worried about that, because he’s hardly played and I thought he’d be off. Love that little guy.

One thing strikes me though. If Shaq is staying, and Origi is getting a new deal, and Brewster is being promoted to replace Sturridge, that would seem to suggest we aren’t buying another attacking player this summer, wouldn’t it?

With Ox and Keita almost like ‘new signings’, and the defence pretty much sorted for years to come, we might not actually buy ANYONE this summer. Funny thing is, I’m not even that arsed. It would be missing an opportunity though as we’re the hottest ticket in the world right now.

Sturridge said something yesterday that I wanted to touch on actually, as it’s something I haven’t really seen much made of.  "I contributed - even the players who haven't played a single minute but they have been part of it. From training, to acting like the opposition that we have been playing against, doing a job and sacrificing themselves on the training field to prepare themselves the best way they can. Its amazing."

It was noticeable just how involved the squad players were in the celebrations, and some will have taken the piss over it. I mean, it is a bit much when you see Brewster tweeting pictures of him with the trophy and talking as though he’s achieved some kind of lifelong dream! Lovren was giving it the right beans too even though he barely played, same with Lallana.

Previously I’d have taken the piss out of that too (Josemi springs to mind!) but this is different. The reason they’re all acting like they are a big part of it is because that’s how Klopp sees it. It’s drummed into these players every day how important they are, whether they are in the team or not. Training is massively important and therefore they all have a responsibility to each other. 

The best example is Mignolet, who was singled out for huge praise by both Milner and Klopp not so long ago. Milner described him as ‘the best professional I’ve ever seen”. The Mig himself spoke of how hard he trains even though he knows he isn’t going to play. He said he owes it to Alisson to work as hard as he can to keep him on his toes. 

So people can take the piss about Lovren’s seemingly excessive celebrations, but all of this is because that’s how Klopp wants it. It’s part of the key to the success we’ve had. Klopp would have had Carol and Caroline from the canteen out there on the podium too if he could.

There was an interesting article in the Portuguese press today. The Benfica B coach was speaking about their friendly against us last week, and how it wasn’t for fitness purposes. Apparently our nerds knew that their style of play is very similar to Spurs, so we asked them to set themselves up like Spurs so we could work on some things. 

I know we were shite on Saturday, but that was only with the ball. Without it we were great, and that’s probably in part due to the dummy run against Benfica B. We seem to have all bases covered these days don’t we? Just so impressive in all areas.

Wednesday Jun 5:

So apparently Milner got the bus to stop outside the home of a Hillsborough surviver who is confined to a wheelchair, just so he could show him the trophy. It’s a cliché and it’s something Klopp says regularly, but some of these lads are even better people than they are players, and they’re all great players. This is just fucking class from Milner. It’s only a little thing, but he will have made that fella’s day. 

In other news, Virg wants a new contract. I expect they all do after this weekend. No-one will want to leave. Take advantage of it and get everyone signed up!

Also, Lallana follows Shaq's lead and says he's staying too. I understand why he'd want to, but what surprised me about this was he reckons Klopp and his staff have assured him he has an important role to play. We've got six other midfielders and only three spots. I'm all for having depth, but I'd be shocked if Lallana started five games next year, and that's even if he can stay fit, which seems highly unlikely.

Meanwhile, England fans are kicking off in Portugal. Not all of them, obviously, and you have to feel sorry for those who go to all of the games and behave themselves, only to have their reputation ruined by the bad helmets who jump on the bandwagon whenever there’s a big game or a fixture in a nice hot country. 100,000 Reds and Spurs fans went to Madrid and behaved impeccably. Then four days later a few thousand brexit twats are fighting with the police and singing about world war 2. 

Finally today, Maradona wants the United job. Leaving aside the complete lack of respect he’s showing the current manager, this is fucking hilarious. I love Diego, he’s the man, but he’s as mad as a box of frogs and has massive delusions of grandeur. His managerial record is hideous. He’s genuinely fucking terrible, but he can’t seem to see it. Him getting the United job would be the best thing ever, but unfortunately they aren’t that stupid.

Thursday Jun 6:

Interview with Messi today where he revealed that when he plays footy in the garden with his young son, the little scamp tells him he wants to be Liverpool because they beat him. Great that. It’s incredible to think how far we’ve come in such a short space of time under Klopp. The man really is a miracle worker. 

It was England / Holland tonight, and there must have been a shitload of Southampton fans in that crowd as Virgil got booed. Either that or England fans are sad, bitter bastards. If you’re like me, the next time you get asked why you don’t support ‘your’ national team, present this as exhibit 6,398.

The Dutch won 3-1 thanks to two howlers from ‘Money Can’t Buy Me Stones’. Little throwback for you there in case you’d forgotten about that ditty from the Blues (a few months before money did indeed buy Stones). There’s a reason Guardiola didn’t trust him in the run in though, and anyone watching tonight (I wasn’t) will have seen. If England thought tonight was bad though, wait until they get torn apart by Shaq and his fresh tree trunk legs in the 3rd placed playoff. 

Kinell, Sturridge only left yesterday and Ox has already taken his shirt number. At least he’s promised to look after any fans who bought the new kit with his name and 21 on it. Reckon Fabinho might want to change his number too, as he’s always been ‘2’ and is no doubt waiting for Clyney to fuck off so he can grab it. I like having a centre mid wearing 3 though. 2 is ok as well, but I don’t know, there’s just something badass about having a centre midfielder wearing 3. Don’t know why, it just seems cool.

Alisson is getting number 1 too, which seems only right. Probably should have been given it as soon as Karius went out on loan. Or as soon as he joined, depending on how arlarse you wanted to be. Fuck me, I’m actually boring myself here, rambling on about fucking squad numbers. In my defence it’s a fairly slow news day.

Friday Jun 7:

Today’s reported targets are Memphis Depay and Nicolas Pepe. No idea if there’s anything in it, but a wide attacker would be my top priority so I wouldn’t complain about either. Never seen Pepe play but I did watch some youtube clips of him a couple of months back when we were first linked with him. Looks good.

As for Depay, he had a bad time at United and seemed like a bit of a cocky prick, but I think he’s matured a lot in France and he’s been impressive on the few occasions I’ve watched him. I reckon he’s desperate to get a move here. He loves Gini and Virg, and he’ll have a big score to settle with United.

Here’s an interesting one Neil Etheridge from Cardiff is supposedly our number one target to replace the Mig. This would be a hell of a deal if we pulled it off, as he was terrific last season. I’d say he was one of the top half dozen keepers in the league, and for that reason I can’t see us getting him. Why would you come here to not play?

It’s tough getting good back up keepers, because you don’t want the type of players in your squad who are only there for the money, but how do you persuade someone to come and sit on the bench? I guess maybe you can get them for a year at time and then let them move on, and maybe that will be the selling point to Etheridge?

It’s long been a problem when it comes to getting a back up keeper, but we are now in a situation where it’s going to be almost as tough finding a left back to replace Moreno. Klopp may have been stretching the truth a little when he referred to “Albie” as “World Class” but he’s much better than he’s generally given credit for.

But it didn’t really matter. He could have been world class and he still wouldn’t have had a sniff because Robbo is the best in the world and a machine who never misses games. How do we talk a left back into signing for us to just sit and watch Robbo do his stuff? 

Finally, it seems there’s a good chance Virgil is going to win the Balon d’or. He got the PFA award over here, then he helped knock out Messi & Barca before going on to win the Champions League. He was man of the match in the final and now Holland are in the final of that international tournament. If he captains them to success in that, I reckon he’ll win it.

I saw something on twitter today listing all the great players he’s faced over the last 12 months and how none have dribbled past him. Aguero, Messi, Rashford, Hazard, Kane, Vardy, Neymar, Son, Mbappe, Aubameyeng, Lacazette… it is impressive.

The closest anyone has come to it is Kane, but unfortunately for him ‘dribbled on’ isn’t the same as ‘dribbled past’ and Opta don’t keep records for that. Not yet anyway.

If anyone shares that with Spurs fans, I’ll fucking kill you.
 

and that was the week that was…