Monday Jun 13:
Apparently Richarlison is off to Spurs, meaning the three biggest cunts in the entire league will all be playing in the same forward line. The Blues are basically selling him for the same amount they bought him for from Watford, which just highlights how fucking woeful they are at transfers. I also can’t help but laugh at the thought of them all singing for Spurs a few years back ahead of the Champions League Final, only to know lose their best player to them. And now “Richy lad” is posting pictures on Insta of him wearing a San Antonio Spurs jersey. Life sure comes at you fast when you’re an Evertonian.
As for us, still no Nunez deal but it’s edging closer and he’s had a medical today so unless there’s a Fekir style incident he’ll be unveiled tomorrow probably. We are also close to signing the kid from Aberdeen, but the price has gone up now apparently (probably because Aberdeen have been reading twitter and think we’re the new Man City). He must be really good because we don’t really need him. Gomez is a capable back up for Trent and we also have Connor Bradley, who is the same age as this Scottish kid. So we wouldn’t be signing him unless he’s boss.
Meanwhile, I don’t follow Curtis Woodhouse on twitter but for some reason loads of his stuff pops up on my timeline. The last day or so has been some top notch trolling of United fans, who are going fucking nuts about it. What's he said? Well it all started with a reply to a tweet asking “when you hear the term over-rated who do you think of”. Woodhouse said “Paul Scholes” and triggered United twitter in a big way. He could have left it at that, but the more United fans went after him, the more he started talking about Gerrard and how he was miles better than Scholes....
Every word he said was true and what makes it even better is he isn’t even a Liverpool fan. I’ve said this before but I’ll repeat myself because I like saying it. Paul Scholes was a very good player who nobody outside of United gave much of a fuck about, until out of absolutely nowhere Xavi said he was the best player he ever came up against, and suddenly people started talking him up to make themselves sound more knowledgeable. *strokes chin* “Oh Paul Scholes was definitely the best English midfielder of his generation, it’s just that not everyone is knowledgeable enough about the game to see the incredible things he did”.
Yeah, no cunt saw it while he was actually playing. Funny that isn’t it? The myth of Scholes has grown year on year since he retired and it’s all because of people who know nothing trying to make themselves look like some kind of wise football sage. Paul Scholes was never, at any time in his career, one of the top three players at his own fucking club, let alone anything else. There, I feel better having got that off my chest.
Tuesday Jun 14:
Nunez is announced. The unveiling video was disappointing but we’ve set a high bar with those recently and there was always going to be a letdown at some point. His interview was dull as fuck too. He kept saying the same bland soundbites about ‘great club’ ‘fantastic atmosphere’ etc and when he was asked what he would bring to the side he completely avoided it like a LIV golfer being asked about human rights in Saudi Arabia. In fairness, that is probably a sign of humility and him not wanting to say “yeah I’m a fucking boss finisher, great in the air and I’m fast as fuck”.
The only significant thing to come from that interview really was when he was talking about the brilliant forwards we have and he listed Bobby first (and didn’t mention Sadio, for obvious reasons) and then later when he spoke about learning from his new team-mates, Bobby was the only one he mentioned as he spoke about how much he can learn from him and how excited he is to play with him.
This jumped out at me for two reasons. Firstly, it’s clear Bobby must still be an important part of Klopp’s plans because these comments are obviously the result of conversations with the boss. Secondly, we’re all expecting Nunez to be replacing Bobby, not playing with him. Does this mean we’re going to see Nunez playing wide more than we think, or is it going to be a change in formation? It feels like we are going to see some fairly significant changes this coming season.
Meanwhile, Robbo is injured with Scotland, Jota was injured yesterday with Portugal while Mo and Thiago have both been forced to miss games with their countries after picking up knocks after the season ended. This is why Klopp complains so much about the strain on players. They’re being run into the ground and these injuries are the inevitable result of it.
I don’t know what the solution is because there’s no way FIFA or UEFA are going to ease up on the fixture list because they make too much money from it. All we can do as a club is strengthen the squad to a point where we can rotate regularly without it hurting us too much. In fairness, we’ve done that and have two players for more or less every position now. Some are more important than others, but that’s always going to be the case as how can you have a like for like with Van Dijk, Alisson, Thiago or Salah?
Staying with the internationals though, we recorded a pod tonight while the Nations League games were being played, so when we finished I logged into the group chat and saw the updates posted by some of the lads during the England game. This was me as I read them….
Wednesday Jun 15:
We’re being linked with Bellingham. Not Jude though. His kid brother, Jobe. He’s 16 and meant to be really fucking good, and if we can get him now before he signs pro that would make a ton of sense, and not just because it might help us get big brother in 12 months, although obviously that’s a big bonus. We’re also in for some kid from Arsenal too. I did a little twitter search to see if I could find anything on him, and this came up. The goal is class, but the comment underneath is fucking amazing!
Good player. But we need the next messi from our academy. Any player can strike the ball and end up top cotner. This is arsenal. We need special. And it is no dig to the kid here.
— maska (@maska2316) May 5, 2021
Classic “Arsenal fan who has never been to a game in his life” vibes about that. Every word of it is gold. “We need the next Messi” as though they grow on trees and he isn’t a once in a lifetime talent. “Any player can strike the ball and end up top corner” Come on, now, it’s a 14 year old kid making his debut against lads four years older than him! “This is Arsenal” Yeah ok mate. Same club that has had Xaka in its midfield for five years. “We need special”. Oh you’re “special” alright.
I’ve seen so much shit on twitter since the season finished and a lot of it has got me angry. This was great though, it genuinely made me smile. So many footy fans are absolutely fucking loopy, and loads of them seem to follow Arsenal.
Meanwhile, he's still at it....
Thursday Jun 16:
So the French say they reacted the way they did because they’d been briefed about our fans and our “history of turning up without tickets and forcing gates”. They referenced Hillsborough. I’m just beyond angry at this point. You hear something like that and your heart just sinks. The lies that were told back then (and have been clearly debunked) still retain power now. The lies that were told now will still have power in years to come. While most sane and rational people who take any interest in what’s going on will know exactly what happened and who is to blame, there will still be so fucking many who don’t. They see the initial lie and don’t follow the story beyond that, so the lie takes root and this is what happens.
You know the worst part about all this though? After a week or two passes, any Red or journalist who keeps highlighting the shit that continues to be spouted is told to “stop going on about it” or worse “stop wallowing”. Si Hughes did something in the Athletic on it and I saw him arguing with an Arsenal fan who told him that any other set of fans would have moved on by now and he wanted to read about something else. Si said something like “would you rather we just allow the lies to go unchallenged and just accept the mistreatment of fans?” and the cunt just replied “yes”.
This is how they win. Look at how little coverage the war in Ukraine gets now compared to when it started. Look at how much shit the tories are pulling and how little news coverage it gets now. Look at how no-one gives a fuck about the Saudis buying Newcastle and now the story has switched to “who will they buy this summer with all of their cash?”. This is what happens. There’s an initial outrage and once you ride out that storm you’re home free because people get bored and move on.
On a lighter note, there was a nice little exchange on instagram between Nunez and Suarez today. Got me right in the feels that did, as you all know I still love Suarez and always will. I was also a little emotional when I saw Nunez walking into the training ground with one of those little flask / cup things Suarez used to have for that tea the South Americans all drink. Took me back that did. You what else had me emotional today? A video someone posted with some Sturridge highlights. That lad was fucking incredible for a spell until injuries started to fuck with him. Him and Suarez in that 2013/14 season were something else. Absolute fucking dynamite. Studge has flopped massively in Australia and since leaving here he’s done fuck all. It’s a real shame the toll all the injuries took on him, because he was a special talent. I only have love for Sturridge.
The Calvin Ramsay deal is done now and it’s being reported that we won’t do anything else now. The plan is to get a midfielder in 2023, which obviously means “we’re keeping our powder dry for Jude Bellingham”. I’m fine with that. I don’t want another midfielder coming in this summer unless it’s to replace Keita, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem likely so I’m happy to stick with what we have rather than bloat the ranks further and reduce the opportunities for Harvey, Curtis and maybe Carvalho if he’s seen as a midfield option.
Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a smokescreen though and we do bring someone in when Ox leaves. If we don’t, then it just makes me suspect even more than we’re going to see a fair bit of 4-2-3-1 this season. Hendo, Fabinho and Thiago are all comfortable in the two, but none of the others really are. It won’t matter though as long as we have two of those available. I think we’ll see that quite a bit this year and we might see Carvalho and Harvey getting some minutes as the 10 in that set up.
Friday June 17:
So much for us not signing a midfielder then. The pocket rocket is back! 32 year old Jay Spearing signs for the Reds on a free transfer after leaving Tranmere. The club missed a trick here by allowing the press lads to report the story first and explain that he’s going to be an Academy coach and turn out occasionally as an overage player for the u21s. Personally I’d have gone big on the unveiling video, given him a squad number and really trolled the Veruca Salt element in our fanbase who are stamping their feet because Madrid outbid us for the Monaco lad.
I’m happy to see Speo back as I watched him come through right from u16 level to the first team and back in the day I knew his dad quite well from watching so many academy games with him and the other dads from that team. Jay has done the journey that the current academy kids are hoping to do and he’s been doing his badges so he should be a great addition to the staff there. I still think if he’d been 6ft 2 he’d have made it at the top level and not had to go into the lower leagues. He was one hell of a centre half and was Steve Heighway's favourite player. As a midfielder he just wasn’t really quick enough and as a defender he wasn’t tall enough. But he was a leader and had a good football brain, two things that should translate well to coaching.
Meanwhile, Sadio is closer to the exit door now after a fee was agreed with Bayern. It’s not much more than the offer that we laughed them out of town with last week. What happened to “don’t get on the plane unless you have a serious offer” then? It feels like we’ve let him go on the cheap here and if we’d dragged this out we could have got more money. Maybe Bayern gave us a final take it or leave it, or we just wanted to get it done and didn’t drag it out just out of respect and gratitude to Sadio. If that’s the case I’m fine with with it, I just thought we’d get more.
It's definitely the end of an era though now. For a few years, as a combination that front three were as good as anything we've ever had and in years to come when we look back, whenever we think of one of them we'll always immediately think of the other two as well. Salah, Firmino and Mané. What a trio.
....and that was the week that was
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