Monday May 30:
Fucking hell, the fallout from Paris is mental. Horror stories from fans, brilliant reporting by journalists on the scene and outrageous lies from those trying to cover up their failings. It’s genuinely incredible what the French government is trying to do here. At least make your story a little bit believable. Initially the authorities tried to say the fans arrived late. That was quickly proven to be nonsense. Now they’re saying it was 30-40,000 fans without tickets or with forgeries that was the problem.
Just think about that for a second. The capacity is 80k. If you add 40k onto that you have 120k fans at the stadium. So if the stadium was full you’d have 40k outside. The stadium wasn’t even full, as loads of Reds have shown by taking photos of empty rows of seats when the game kicked off. There weren’t 40k outside though, so how do they expect these lies to stand up?
Then there’s the logistics of the whole thing. 40k forged tickets? How would they know that? Where are those forgeries? Are they including all of the genuine tickets that failed to scan because their system was fucking shit? Robbo has already told us about his brother being told his ticket was fake even though it came from the club. Loads of fans have said similar too. There are also tales of fans having genuine tickets taken off them by stewards at the gate and then being turned away.
And while all of this was going on, local rats were climbing fences and running into the stadium unopposed. The security risk there is scary as fuck. Any one of them could have had a fucking bomb or some kind of weapon and none of them were searched. The ones who didn’t bunk in were outside robbing and slashing fans (not just ours either, Madrid fans suffered exactly the same treatment by police, stewards and local gangs, just on a smaller scale).
There were potentially deadly crushes on the way to the stadium as well as outside the gates, and the police made that even worse by throwing tear gas canisters that caused panic in an already dangerously crowded area. Then they were randomly pepper spraying people as they just stood there doing nothing. This time it isn’t just our word that it was happening. In this modern era everyone has access to video so it’s easy to get the message out.
It helped that basically every big hitter in the English sports media were there witnessing it, and some of them were right in the middle of it. Jason Burt from the Telegraph got pepper sprayed, while Henry Winter was there handing out water to fans who had been tear gassed. He’s a pompous, annoying arse but I’ve always been told by people who have had dealings with him that he’s a really nice, genuine guy and he showed that here. He was also fighting our corner on Talksport this morning too. This time the lies won’t stick.
Not just over here either. The French media are fucking slaughtering their government for the lies. The Spanish press aren’t blaming our fans either. In fact, there’s been a lot of media coverage praising the behaviour of our crowd under the extreme provocation they were under. Our own media are 100% in our corner too. It’s a weird feeling really, we’re not used to this.
I spent most of today reading about all this and watching horrific videos and it’s just so depressing. I needed a palate cleanser so watched the footage of the parade. What a day that was. It started off a bit subdued but by the end of it everyone was having the time of their life. Hendo even described it as one of the best days of his life.
You could see how much some of the others were loving it too. Konate was dragged over for an interview and he wanted no part of it because he wanted to be hanging over the side of the bus interacting with the crowds. He was buzzing off it. Diaz at the front of the bus was having a blast too.
Days like this will stay with these lads and spur them on in the future. It was mad that they had Calvin Harris DJ’ing too. Apparently that was Robbo’s doing. Imagine that conversation in the group chat. Hendo: “Ok, the gaffer says he’s bringing the ale, we need someone to sort a DJ.” Robbo “I’ve got a mate who says he doesn’t mind helping out”.
Tuesday May 31:
Similar to yesterday really. More likes from the French authorities but no-one of any note is believing a word of it. Unsurprisingly, the only people refusing to accept what really happened are rival fans desperate to be able to score points by blaming our fans. There’s fucking loads of the cunts too, which is just depressing as we’re all in the same boat here and should be standing as one on this.
Don’t get me wrong, if they want us to lose 10-0 to Madrid because they fucking despise us, that’s fine. I don't want their support when it comes to football. But this isn’t that. It’s an entirely separate thing that effects us all. Or at least, it effects anyone that has to go abroad for a football match. The Blues have short memories considering what happened to them a few years ago in Lille. All of a sudden that's forgotten and this must be our own fault.
Staying with the Blues, “Richy lad” has shown his true colours now that he’s back home in Brazil. He wasted no time talking about how he’s told Everton he wants a big pay rise if he has to stay, but that ideally he wants out. He’s a fucking cunt and I don’t even have the words to articulate my hatred for him. After the final he was on Insta mocking fans who’s coach left them stranded and who didn’t get to the game. He’s the fucking worst. He belongs at Everton as he’s made for them.
The most disappointing thing he said today was that Alisson and Fabinho are his rivals but when they’re together for Brazil they’re friends and they will talk. I know Ali is the world’s nicest man but even so, I don’t want him having anything to do with this fucking scumbag. I reckon Fabinho probably fucking hates him though. Bobby too.
Speaking of Fabinho, I forgot to mention this yesterday but his missus tweeted out a picture of the trade and said something like “there are some things oil can’t buy”. That kind of shocked me. She’s pretty outspoken so I’m shocked she had a dig at City, but the nature of it was surprising because I wasn’t sure that the players (and by definition their families) saw things the same way we do.
There’s two levels to this. One is the thing that they’re well and truly aware of the difference in the passion of the fans and the parades, the other is the reference to ‘oil’ which tells me they’re resentful as fuck about City’s cheating. I’d love to see what gets said in the players’ group chat.
Meanwhile, PSG are rumoured to want Naby and could pay £50m. That’s too good to be true. Getting our money back on him? I can’t see that, especially with one year left. If they’re willing to pay £30m that’s a great deal for us and we should snatch their hands off. Hell, I’d do a straight swap for Gini and feel pretty damn good about that. The club won’t, they don’t look back and will have a list of younger targets, such as the lad from Monaco and Bellingham, although he's not expected to be available for another 12 months.
Wednesday Jun 1:
Holy fuck, those two French ministers didn’t just double down on the lies, they quadrupled down. What they said today was far worse than anything that’s been said Saturday. I’m beyond angry. I felt sick reading those comments. Sick, disgusted, furious, upset, sad, you name it. I’m shocked too, although I shouldn’t be as politicians will do and say anything to save their own skins. This is so fucking bad though. Just outrageous lies with zero evidence to back any of it up. Whatsmore, there’s a fucking mountain of footage out there which completely disproves every single thing they’ve said.
The rest of the senate weren’t buying their lies and gave them a hard time about it, and the French media aren’t swallowing it either. Our fans’ behaviour saved lives. There’s no denying that. Had they reacted the way normal people would then there would have been fatalities. The French are lucky it was us and not another English club, because it’s only our experience of these situations that saw fans remain calm and ensure the safety of themselves and those around them.
Most other fans would have laid into the riot police or tried to force the gates to get out of the dangerous situation they were in, and I wouldn’t even blame them for doing so. That’s a natural human response in that situation. As I say, because we know about the dangers our fans were able to act in a way that ensured things did not escalate. The behaviour of fans all over Paris was exemplary and loads of French people are pointing that out.
What those two ministers have said though, fucking hell. There must be something we can do. It’s slander for one thing. Can we sue the cunts? I want the club to come out firing again on this. They’ve been great so far but I want Henry and Werner going after these two rats with everything we have. I also want to hear from UEFA. They were quick to blame the kick off delay on “Liverpool fans arriving late” but we’ve heard fuck all since.
They need to distance themselves from the lies being peddled by the French government and they need to apologise for their mistake, while publicly absolving our fans of any blame. Anything less than that is unacceptable. I know one thing, if UEFA don’t back us how can we possibly play in their showpiece tournament next season? We’d have to boycott it, and I’d be asking Real Madrid to stand with us and threaten the same, as their fans were treated similarly. Naive of me, probably. Money talks and therefore nobody will boycott anything.
Elsewhere today, reports in Germany say Sadio wanted £390k a week to stay here. I’m calling bullshit on that. Mo is asking for that kind of money, but I doubt Mané is, although if he can get that then good luck to him because he gives most of it away to help his people back home and we’ve been underpaying him for years, relatively speaking.
Speaking of Mo though, the local beat writers are saying if he doesn’t get what he wants he’ll see out of his deal and is even prepared to stay in the Premier League. Sound, enjoy yourself at Newcastle then. See how many trophies you win there. It's "not about the money though" remember. The fans know what it's about, apparently. *shrugs shoulders*
Meanwhile, Richarlison is charged by the FA for throwing a flare into the crowd in the Chelsea game. Un-fucking-believable this. Burnley should be all over this shit. Why was he not charged and (potentially) suspended immediately? Leaving this until after the season is outrageous. Is there a precedent for this, because I don’t remember anyone being charged so long after the actual event. Harvey got pulled up almost immediately after the League Cup Final and all he did was pick the thing up. He didn't lash it into the stands.
Richarlison's response? To post a picture of himself holding the flare. Massive fucking cunt. The next logical step here is for him to sign for United. Let’s face it, he belongs there doesn’t he? They’ve got a vacancy for a massive cunt too because they need a replacement for Greenwood. Hard to believe they could find someone worse than a woman beating rapist, but Richarlison is. Ok, ok, in all seriousness if you ask me which one of the two I’d send to jail, it’s obviously Greenwood. Ask me who I’d most like to punch in the face though and it’s Richarlison.
Thursday June 2:
It’s been tough this week. Social media is a cesspit but it’s also a necessary evil. I’ve been on there constantly this week just keeping up with what’s been going on with regards to Paris. It’s weird though, my timeline is brilliant. All the people I follow and all the things they retweet is just highlighting the heroics of our fans (I don’t use that term lightly either, their behaviour was fucking heroic and I’m incredibly proud of the restraint and common sense they showed) and the rank incompetence of UEFA, as well as the brutality and lies of the French police and government. It’s almost enough to restore your faith in people. I’m not seeing any of the nasty, ignorant shit we’re always subjected to. Until that is, I venture into the dark underbelly of Twitter - the fucking replies.
They aren’t so bad when it’s an LFC account that has tweeted the initial post as most of the followers are fellow LFC fans and the replies reflect that. When it’s a national journalist or someone like Carragher or Lineker (not Gary Neville, that little cunt hasn’t said a fucking word all week) who have a more varied following across clubs from all over the country, you see what’s being said in response and it’s fucking soul destroying. In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they’re still in there peddling the “turned up late” and “ticketless scousers again” bullshit. In some cases they know the truth but don’t care, they just want to try and cause shit. In other cases, they’ve already made their minds up as to what happened and will just ignore anything that contradicts it.
It’s fans from all over the country and you just know that “always the victim” chant is going to be ramped right up next season. The shit I’m seeing isn’t limited to just one fanbase but the most upsetting to me is when it’s Evertonians. I have no problem with them hating us. I don’t blame them for that in the slightest. Their existence is miserable as fuck and a big part of that is because we’ve always been better and, let’s be honest, we love rubbing their noses in it. When it comes to shit like this though, they should have our backs. Every football fan should, but Everton most of all because they know what we’ve had to deal with since 1989. Frankly it’s pretty devastating seeing other scousers shitting all over us like that.
I have to say though that with at least half of the shit I’ve seen in the replies, when I click on the profile they’ve been Man City fans. There’s more of the cunts up in our mentions than there were at their parade last week. They’re actually worse than United fans for this shit now, which has really caught me off guard. The whole thing is so depressing though, we shouldn’t be having to fight against these kind of slurs again. We’re still fighting from the last time, but now we have to deal with it again? At least this time the media are on our side and are fighting our corner. That won’t last though as the news cycle will move on and we’ll be left to deal with the fucking slurs, insults and falsehoods due to UEFA and the French government slandering us.
Friday Jun 3:
Some weird quotes from Sadio again. They looked really bad initially (especially as some of the quotes circulating were completely false) but then a more exact translation came out that was nowhere near as disappointing. He’s trying to be light hearted and sarcastic about it but it doesn’t translate well when written down. The proper translation with context isn’t really anything out of line but it still didn’t really clarify anything though because everything he’s said could still just as easily point to him staying as leaving.
Not sure why “60-70% of Senegalese people want him to leave though”. If that’s true, FUCK THE SENAGALESE PEOPLE, the ungrateful twats. Could really do without Sadio being a dick though, I’ve always had him down as one of the last players to pull shit like this so hopefully he knocks it off.
Meanwhile, UEFA finally issued an apology. Of sorts. It’s still nowhere near acceptable as they didn’t show any remorse for initially blaming the fans for the delay in kick off. And let’s not kid ourselves here, that apology wasn’t aimed at us anyway. We were included in it but the only reason they said anything remotely apologetic is because Real Madrid put a statement out this morning expressing their unhappiness at the way their fans were treated.
Fucking hell, we’ve been fighting this shit since Saturday night and Madrid waited six days to get involved. And when they did, UEFA immediately shit themselves. We should give UEFA the Gillett & Hicks treatment now. Target the sponsors, give them hell and tell them they’re getting it in the neck because UEFA fucked with the wrong set of fans. I also think every fan with a ticket for that game should be able to sue UEFA for damages. It’s not something that ever happens, but if you pay to attend an event and the event organisers are so negligible that you are subjected to the kind of terrifying ordeals that so many of our fans went through, it’s an open and shut case. I don’t know how the logistics of that would work, but UEFA should be fucking sued for this shit.
In 1989 we went to Wembley on a Barnes Travel coach. The coach broke down and the replacement they sent just fucking drove past us as we stood on the side of the motorway at the entrance to services. They didn't come back for us either, just left us to fend for ourselves. All the passengers on the coach had a whip round and we hired a coach from a local company in the Midlands. We got to Wembley at half time and everyone agreed that we’d sue the arse off Branes Travel.
My Dad collected everyone’s number and that week he went to a solicitor. It was a cast iron case that we would have won, but Barnes Travel offered a refund on the coach ticket and all the knob heads took it. My Dad was the only one who said fuck that, we want our match tickets refunded and we want compensation for the day being ruined. He ended up going to the small claims court and got a few hundred quid, but the solicitor said if everyone had stuck together they would have all got more than that.
What the fans in Paris went through was far worse than we experienced at the 1989 final, and there should be legal action on a fucking massive scale. For too long footy fans have been treated like dog shit. This wouldn’t have happened at the theatre or at fucking Wimbledon. It’s footy fans though so everyone just shrugs as though it’s the risk you take.
You know something interesting? I referenced it above but it’s been almost a week now and Gary Neville has said fuck all. The man who has an opinion on literally everything hasn’t said a fucking word about this. It doesn’t reflect well on him at all and I’m surprised to be honest. I thought he had more about him but I guess not. Next time he pipes up on something he needs pulling up about why he ignored this.
Meanwhile, the FA put a video out from England training where ‘Kev’ Abraham goes up to Trent and tells him “I’m joining you guys next season”. Probably just messing around, but Trent looked a little confused by it and clearly didn’t get the joke if it was one. I like Abraham, I thought he was good at Chelsea and got a raw deal when they jibbed him off to sign Lukaku. I wouldn't sign him though unless we’re tweaking our style.
I’m not against a bit of a tweak just to mix things up a bit though. We put loads of crosses in and having a penalty box finisher on the end of them isn’t a bad thing. He’s more Origi than Firmino though, and Origi barely ever played. Abraham would cost a fortune too unless there’s a release clause we don’t know about. Speaking of release clauses, can't we just go and rub Arsenal’s noses in it by taking Saka off them if Sadio is going?
We've also been linked with Pulisic today among many others. Fuck that. He misses too many chances and he's always fucking injured. I do think he's a really good player but losing Sadio, who is fucking Iron Man, and replacing him with "Captain Papier Mache" would be stupid beyond belief. If we're shopping at Chelsea then test their resolve on keeping Conor Gallagher.
…..and that was the week that was
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