Saturday Sep 28:
Sheff Utd 0 L 1 Jeez that was hard going. If we’d taken our chances it would have been comfortable, but that was a really tough game and they’re a much better side than I thought they were. They shut down a lot of the space we like to play in and we never got going at all.
We’ve got so much talent that we’ll create chances even when we’re not playing well and Mo and Sadio both missed sitters, but I’m willing to bet that at the end of the season when we look back at the toughest games we had, this will be top five. There might be games where we have worse results, but few will give us a more difficult game than these.
Not that Chris Wilder was taking any comfort in that. I like him so far. I like how he doesn’t like being patted on the head and told how plucky his team are. He says he expects maximum effort and doesn’t give credit for it. He rightly said this was a missed opportunity as we had an off day and they could have taken advantage of it but didn’t because they missed chances and the keeper fucked up.
In other news today, a complaint has been made about Hillsborough chants from Man United fans - at a women’s match. I’m not even surprised as for years I heard them doing it in reserve games. They’d turn up in their thousands just to sing about scouser, the fucking obsessed weirdos.
Looks like this Nike thing is going to happen and we’ll be taking a lower up front payment because we get a share of the sales. Nike are going to use their big stars like LeBron James and Serena Williams to help promote us.
Interesting. You know who else is a “Nike Athlete”? Mbappe. And you must have seen the video of Klopp with him and his Dad at the FIFA Awards last week. There was a familiarity there between Klopp and Mbappe’s Dad that immediately jumped out at me. You don’t greet someone you hardly know in that manner. Those two know each other, which points to talks having taken place at some point.
I’ve already convinced myself he’ll be playing for us next season and Nike will be helping to finance it.
Sunday Sep 29:
We might be thrown out of the League Cup after fielding an ineligible player. Apparently Chirivela didn’t have international clearance. Not sure why he’d even need it seeing as how he’s been here forever, but the club reckon it’s the FA’s fault. Worst case scenario we get kicked out, best case we get away scot free and middle ground is a significant fine.
I could be wrong, but I don’t see any way we get kicked out because who the hell wants to watch MK Dons v Arsenal in the next round? Money talks and the TV companies and sponsors will want us playing Arsenal.
There is a precedent for this too, Sunderland were fined for doing something similar, so I’m not worried about this at all. Actually, if they did kick is out I wouldn’t be arsed, so that probably explains why I’m not worried.
Meanwhile, last week I said I wondered what Sterling made of all this Bernardo stuff. Well now we know. Or at least we know what he has said publicly about it. I find it hard to believe he thinks this way privately:
"It's a situation between two friends, Bernardo and Mendy, as everyone knows. I can see exactly the point where some people can get touchy-feely on it but I feel in that situation Bernardo made a joke to his friend".
The whole ‘joke to his friend’ thing just doesn’t wash because he did it on social media for the world to see. Send him it via text and its a joke between two friends and the only thing that matters is what Mendy thinks of it. Posting it on twitter takes it into a whole different realm and it’s no longer just about Mendy.
"I feel it's really sad to see someone like Bernardo, the whole week, be kind of down about it because he's not that way inclined. I keep going on about it, they're really good friends, it's really sad to see. He's not in the wrong for me but at the same time I can see where people think it's wrong and we just need to be smarter on social media.
"We understand in this day and age anything you say and anything you do can quickly be judged and it's really just a sad situation in this moment in time. There's not one moment he uses a negative term to speak about his skin colour so that's the most important thing. He tried to make a joke and that joke wasn't the best, but we've got to move on and understand it was not intentional."
All of that is spot on, but this part seems fucking mental to me: "He's not referred to his skin colour, he's not referred to his lips. In both the pictures they've both got small heads, you know. The most important thing for me is he didn't refer to a colour."
He didn't refer to a colour!!! He didn't need to, the fucking cartoon did that for him. Jesus Christ. I wonder how Sterling would have felt if some randomer on twiiter had sent him a message making a similar comparison?
I get that he’s in a difficult spot here as it’s his team-mate who by all accounts is a nice fella liked by everyone. But fucking hell, ‘he’s not referred to skin colour or his lips’ is weak as fuck.
Monday Sep 30:
We’re bringing in some hot shot youth coach from Porto to take over the ‘bridging’ role that Ljinders had before he became assistant manager. I love this. It’s right out the Footy Manager handbook, I used to do this shit all the time when I played it. Bring in different coaches for different roles. Michael Edwards defo used the filter and this guy is nailed on to have 20 for ‘working with youngsters’. More of this type of thing I say.
Interesting story today about Taribo West, who claims he would have joined us but for GH getting ill. I remember this and at the time I was all in on us signing him as I was convinced he’d be great. Mind you, back then I was convinced everyone would be great. You know the player I wanted the most back in the day? Karol Poborski. I was made up we signed Paddy, but I wanted Poborski as well. I was sure he’d be a superstar for us.
The funny thing is that at the time we were playing 3-4-1-2 so fuck knows where he’d even have played. I had him pencilled in for the right wing back role and was gutted when the Mancs got him. As it turned out, they had no idea how to use him either and he was shite for them.
I still wonder what might have been if we’d got him though. Him, Paddy and Vladi running riot, like a Czech version of the three Dutchmen at Milan in the 80s. I’m also glad I didn’t have a fanzine back then as some of my takes were excruciatingly shit and not something I’d want a written record of.
Speaking of Milan though, that brings me back to Taribo West. I remember him playing for Inter but when he was linked with us he was actually playing for AC. I had no idea he played for them. Probably because he basically didn’t. He wasn’t getting a game and he reckons it was because of the mafia. No really.
According to West, they didn’t want an African taking the place of the ageing Italian legends Baresi, Maldini and Costacurta, so they pressured the club not to play him and bribed the doctor to say West was injured when there was fuck all wrong with him. Still, that was 20 years ago, thankfully we’ve moved on from all that vile racist shit now....
Tuesday Oct 1:
Jesus Christ what the fuck is wrong with Spurs? Well, Twitter reckons it’s Vertonghen banging Eriksen’s wife, players taking sides and now everyone hates each other. I didn’t believe it, then I watched them meekly surrender tonight against Bayern and now I’m not so sure. I mean, I’m not saying the Vertonghen / Eriksen thing is true (although this type of thing does occasionally happen), but there’s something fucking wrong there isn’t there?
Maybe it’s just the hangover from losing the final last year or maybe they’re just stale, but it looks like they’re completely fucked. They had a good run but they won nothing, and now it’s over. Poch will leave and most of their best players will follow, and Harry Kane will be left on his own like Trigger in the Jolly Boys Outing when everyone fucks off to try and find somewhere to stay for the night.
That reminds me actually, I have to tell you this. My daughter Adrianna had a footy match with the school yesterday away in North Wales somewhere. She was downloading stuff off Netflix to watch on the bus journey because she said her mates were doing the same. I can guarantee that none of her mates downloaded what she did though - a shitload of Only Fools episodes. She can’t get enough of it. She’s so like me it’s scary sometimes.
The other day a lad in her class asked her who her favourite singer was. She likes loads of different stuff and has much more varied taste than me, but without hesitation she said “Bon Jovi”. The lad didn’t know who they were and said his favourite was Shaun Mendes. “Yeah I like him, but Bon Jovi are better”. That’s my girl. I’m so proud.
Funny seeing Bayern run riot like that tonight though. I thought they were a spent force… not what they once were… over the hill…. in transition. That’s what we heard when we knocked them out last year. Guess maybe the stories of their demise have been greatly exaggerated and maybe it’s just that we’re fucking ace?
Sadio did the pre-match press conference today and was asked about the thing with Mo. He didn’t shy away from it or try and downplay it, which was refreshing. Basically he said that he was frustrated because goal difference is important due to City scoring so many and he wants us to score as many as possible. He’s fucking right too and I’m glad he said it.
He was laughing about it and then said ‘Yesterday I said ‘Gini, tell Mo why Sadio wanted to beat you in the Burnley game’. Gini is so funny, I always say these kind of things”.
Sadio is really hard to understand as his English isn't great (at least he tries though *glares at Bobby*) but unless I've misunderstood, Salah didn't pass to Wijnaldum in training and Sadio told Gini to remind Mo why he wanted to snot him at Burnley, which is pretty fucking funny. I love Sadio, he's ace.
Wednesday Oct 2:
L 4 Salzburg 3 Ok so that’s not really how we envisaged this going down, but there are some positives to come out of how we won this. First, we had a big kick up the arse which will probably ensure we’re a lot more careful from now on, and secondly we didn’t panic after blowing a 3-0 lead and we just went out and won the game all over again.
I don’t think we take these games all that seriously if I’m honest. The stakes aren’t that high because there’s always another chance, it’s not knockout football at this point and we thrive on knockout football. Absolutely no way do we blow a 3-0 lead if this was the knockout stages, but credit to Salzburg for how they played. They’re a good side with some really talented players. Hwang and Minamino were terrific.
In the end it all worked out well for us and to be honest in a perverse way I’d rather have a game like this than if we’d just shut up shop at 3-0 and it ended that way. We won so the comeback didn’t matter, and if we learn from it then it’s a good lesson.
The u19s were also involved in a ding dong battle with Salzburg and won 4-2. They were second best for much of the game but came from behind to get a great win. Curtis Jones was brilliant again and my boy Neco Williams scored a great header.
Thursday Oct 3:
The Mancs went to AZ Alkmaar tonight and didn’t manage a single shot on target. It’s amazing how shit they are. Where they are now is where we’ve been for much of the last 30 years but I’m not sure they realise it yet. They probably still think they’re close and just need a couple of signings to kick start it. They aren’t.
They’re a fucking long way off and unless they get lucky with a genius manager they won’t be challenging any time soon. The one advantage they have though is money, but even they don’t have a bottomless pit of cash. When I look at their starting line up each week I’m always shocked at how awful it is.
It crept up on them, like it did with us. One minute you’re thinking “we’re not that bad, got some good players here and just need to add to them” and then all of a sudden you wake up one day, see the line up and it hits home “oh my god, we’re fucking garbage”. Not only will they not make the top six, I’d say there’s a chance they might end up behind the likes of West Ham or Bournemouth. There’ll be one or two of those sides who have a good season, and that might be enough to leapfrog United.
We never finished lower than 8th, no matter how big our problems were. United might though. In fact at this moment I’d say it’s likely. We go there in a couple of weeks and if we don’t beat them this time we might as well give up. The gap between the two sides has never been greater than it is right now.
Alisson might be fit for the weekend apparently. I wouldn’t play him, there’s no point. There’s an international break after this so let him have the extra two weeks to recover and then if he looks sharp in training bring him back for Old Trafford. Personally I might not even bring him back for that one, as I’d prefer him to have less high profile one for his first game back.
Adrian has been fine so there’s no panic, but as good as he’s been the fact remains that Alisson is regarded by many as the world’s best keeper, so having him back will be big for us.
Friday Oct 4:
Brendan comes back to Anfield tomorrow. I don’t think he’ll get any kind of reception, good or bad. Those around the dugout will probably give him polite applause, but otherwise I imagine it will be no different to any other manager coming here. He doesn’t really deserve stick or praise I’d say.
I couldn’t handle it if he got a result though. He wouldn’t be smug or giving it the big ‘un, he’d be horrendously condescending which is even worse. Fuck that.
We’ve got our hands full with Leicester though. They’re third in the table and that’s probably accurate as other than us and City it’s between them and Chelsea for who is next in line. Klopp loves Vardy almost as much as I do and he was gushing in his praise for him today, as Chilwell was for Andy Robbo. “Best full back in the world” he said. Knows his onions that lad.
Meanwhile, Barcelona are releasing a behind the scenes documentary that will show the scenes in the dressing room after we spanked them. Can’t fucking wait for that if the still photos we saw today are an indication of what it will be like. Really want to see the grid on Suarez. Be ace if they’ve got footage of his dust up with Robbo in the first leg too.
Speaking of behind the scenes footage, everyone seems to be buzzing off that video of the Salzburg coach and his half time speech. Just me who didn’t think it wasn’t all that then? I reckon 90% of the coaches that have been to Anfield said something similar at half time. All he did was tell them they were giving us too much respect and to fucking get stuck in.
No difference in that and the fella who gave the famous “bring yer facking dinner” team talk, but I don’t see people describing that as ‘spine tingling’ and ‘inspirational’.
Meanwhile, we’re still in the league cup after getting away with a fine. I’d probably start Chirivella in the next game just to add to the collective fume around the country.
and that was the week that was….
Recommended Comments