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  • TLW
    The breakthrough season of Curtis Jones has continued with the 19 year-old midfielder winning the PL2 player of the season award.

    The PL2 competition was launched a couple of years ago and is for players 23 years of age or younger.

    As well as his elite performances at the under-age level, Jones made 12 appearances for the Liverpool senior side in all competitions scoring three goals and picking up a Premier League medal in the process.

    Jones claimed the award ahead of Billy Gilmour (Chelsea), Jahmal Hector-Ingram (Derby County), Liam Cullen (Swansea City), Rayhaan Tulloch (West Bromwich Albion) and Nathan Holland (West Ham United).

    Speaking to the Official site after claiming the award, it was clear how honoured he was:

    “For me it’s huge. I’ve enjoyed a great season with the first team so any time I’ve come down to play for the U23s I’ve always tried to give it 100 per cent. 

    "I’ve got to thank my teammates and give them credit as well. I’m buzzing.

    Goal scoring midfielders are worth their weight in gold in modern football and Jones discuss that quality that he has developed from the junior ranks and displayed on the senior stage.

    “II was always talking about wanting to score more goals and when I was in training I was always working on that. I had that season with Steven Gerrard when I scored a few then, and then I came into the U23s. 

    “At first I didn’t play as many games as I would have liked but I’ve got to be respectful to the gaffer and the staff and I’ve got to thank them for keeping me around the team.
     
    "Last season I got plenty of games and I also felt there was a bigger role on me because there were games when the boys looked at me to see if I could pop up with something, and I think the stats showed I did it when it was needed and I hope there’s many more to come.

    Jones said he couldn’t ask for better coaches in Neil Critchley, Barry Lewtas and Alex Inglethorpe to keep driving him on and help him achieve his goals.
     


    “I think they were the perfect three I could have had at the Academy in terms of keeping me humble and grounded, telling me when I’m doing well and when I need to have a bit of a boost or a kick up the bum! 

    “It’s been perfect for me to have those three around me and to then know when it was right to push me up through the different age groups. It’s been perfect.”

    On the senior level, working with one of the best nurturers of young talent in Jurgen Klopp is a dream come true for the youngster.

    And he described the moment when he graced the Anfield turf last Wednesday night knowing that he was guaranteed a winners medal at the final whistle.

    “This season we knew we had a massive chance to win the Premier League. I was hoping and praying to get some game time.
     
    "I think the medal was more in the back of my head at that time and I was thinking more about just playing and getting experience and showing what I’m capable of doing. 

    We then boxed off the league and I think at the time I needed three or four games [to qualify]. I know what the manager and the staff are like, though, and if they can give you game time and give you a medal then they will. 

    “When I’ve played for the first team I’ve scored and played well and when I’ve played for the U23s my attitude has been good, so I’ve been lucky enough to get the Premier League 2 Player of the Year. 

    “It just goes to show that all the hard work, determination and good attitude pays off in the end. I’m just so grateful to the manager and his staff for giving me that opportunity and I look forward to many more.”

    Jones said it was a massive shame that the fans were not there to share the moment but said it was something he will always remember. 

    “We would have loved for the fans to have been there because it’s their support that keeps us going but I think in a difficult time it’s only right that we obey the rules and the fans and ourselves stay as safe as we can, so we did it the right way. 

    “But it was just unbelievable! Words just can’t say exactly how I feel.”

    Not just are Liverpool focussed on the present, by developing the likes of Jones, Neco Williams and Harvey Elliott through they are casting one eye to the future.

    You cannot ask for more than that.


     
  • The longest season in history is finally over, and for the first time I'm able to write one of these final day recaps without having to mention another club being Champions. Feels good.
     
    It wasn't the most dramatic of final days was it? Leicester, Watford and Bournemouth were the biggest losers, with Villa, Chelsea and United the ones left celebrating (much to the annoyance of Roy Keane, I'll get to that later).
     
    Watford are so shit that they couldn’t even get a result against an Arsenal side with both eyes on next week’s FA Cup Final. Arsenal had nothing to play for, Watford had everything to play for. And Arsenal still won. Watford would have probably gone down even if they’d kept Nigel Pearson but getting rid of him ended any slim hope they had.
     
    The Gunners went ahead after just five minutes with a VAR awarded penalty after Dawson clumsily barged into the back of Lacazette. Notorious Arsenal hater Mike Dean didn’t give it initially but VAR corrected that mistake and Dean’s face was a picture as he got the message through his ear piece. You could see him thinking “Ok, if that’s how you want it, but I still say I was right”.
     
    Aubamayeng converted from the spot to edge closer to Vardy in the race for the Golden Boot. He then teed up Tierney for the second, which came immediately after Watford had wasted a glorious chance to equalise. Soon it was 3-0 as Aubamayeng produced a brilliant overhead kick to get himself within one of Vardy. That’s as close as he would get as Watford dominated the rest of the game and Arsenal almost went the full Arsenal.
     
    Dean confirmed his true colours by awarding a penalty AGAINST Arsenal when Luiz caught Welbeck. The striker got his shot away, it was saved, and Luiz arrived a fraction late and kicked him. There is no way on earth though that Dean gives that at the other end.
     
    I read somewhere that Luiz set a Premier League record for penalties conceded with that. At least this time he didn’t also pick up a red card. Money well spent that new contract. I'm glad he's staying as he's one of the most entertaining players in the league. He's like the golfer who goes birdie, eagle, quadruple bogey right the way through his round. He's the one you want to follow around as you never know what he's going to do next. That's David Luiz that.
     
    Deeney tucked the penalty away and he didn’t go down the middle this time. Must have read what I said last week. That sparked a Watford flourish and Welbeck’s close range strike made it 3-2. They peppered the Arsenal goal after that but couldn’t force an equaliser.
     
    So off you fuck, Watford. Hopefully the newly promoted teams will fare better against Man City than you did. Let’s face it, they can hardly do worse.
     
    I’ll miss my boy Troy though, unless he gets picked up by another top flight club of course. He was asked by an interviewer after the game if he was planning on retiring and replied: “I’m not that old. You cheeky bastard. Sorry, shouldn’t swear. Sorry!”. Like I say, I’ll miss him, he’s good entertainment.
     
    Is there anything worth scavenging from the Watford carcass? Sarr seems to be a player who a lot of Reds would take. I liked him before he even joined Watford as I remember him excelling as an attacking right back in the World Cup or Senegal. I wouldn’t want us to sign him though. Maybe in a couple of years he might reach the required standard but right now he’s nowhere near. Doesn’t score enough goals, misses too many chances and still has a lot of developing to do.
     
    Doucoure will be in demand and Deulefeu would be getting a lot of attention too if he hadn’t picked up that bad injury against us. Neither would be of interest to us but both are good Premier League players. On his day, Deulefeu is brilliant. That ‘day’ used to be two or three times a season but over the past year or so he’s improved his consistency. Danny Welcrap is finally about to find his level though, at long last.
     
    There is one player from Watford I’d probably take though depending on the circumstances and cost. Ben Foster. Now hear me out. He’s not someone I’d be looking at if we didn’t already have Alisson. He’s not number one at a top club material but name me a better number two in this league. I don’t think there is one.
     
    Foster has easily been a top ten keeper in the Premier League these last few seasons. He’s got the occasional howler in him but every week on MOTD he seems to be making miracle saves. I don’t know what’s happening with Adrian and whether we’ll be in the market for a new number two, but if we are I’d defo be kicking the tyres on Foster (I'd consider Joe Hart too, although I'm pretty sure I'm in a minority on that). He’s English too which helps on the home grown quota, although I think we’re fine on that anyway.
     
    So Watford can fuck off, they have no complaints, but I can see why Bournemouth will be looking angrily at that failed hawkeye incident that gave Villa a point against Sheffield United. They’re talking about legal action but it won’t get them anywhere. Not unless they can borrow Man City’s lawyers.
     
    They have a legitimate beef about that but they also need to be looking in the mirror because ultimately Bournemouth just left it too late to start showing some form. They comfortably beat Everton at the Pit but it counted for nothing as Villa picked up the point they needed at West Ham.
     
    Richarlison’s handball allowed King to open the scoring from the spot but Moise Kean equalised with a tap in. Goals from him are rarer than rocking horse shit. The same could have been said about Dom Solanke until recently, but he’s doing alright now and he restored Bournemouth’s lead with a great header. I hope he tears up it in the Championship next year.
     
    Stanislas made it 3-1 as Pickford yet again made a fool of himself. Proper shit him. Just mistake after mistake after mistake. Him and De Gea seem to be trying to out-clown each other and Pickford is winning by a distance. What makes it worse is he's an arrogant little cunt with it, always shouting at people and being an aggressive, cocky little prick. His team-mate probably fucking hate him.
     
    I see Richarlison has pledged his future to the Blues this week. Kind of. Sort of. Ok, so what he said was if an offer comes in then I’m off, but if it doesn’t then “I guess I could hold on for another year”. Maybe he thinks Barcelona will come back in for him? Actually they might, as they seem pretty fucking clueless of late. Anyone on the planet with a Brazilian passport probably has a shot at a move to Camp Nou these days.
     
    I see that Bilbo Baines retired after this game. Can’t say I blame him. Playing in that team has to have taken a heavy toll. Even more of a toll than when he was carrying the ring around all those years before palming it off on poor unsuspecting Frodo. What is it they like to say? When Everton touches you you’ll never be the same.
     
    Funny thing is he left Wigan 13 years ago to give himself a better chance of success and in that period Wigan have won more than Everton. You can't write this shit, that's why I stopped years ago. Everton's reality is funnier than any piss take I can come up with.
     
    The result left the Blues languishing in 12th. Ancelotti has been in management for 25 years and had never finished in the bottom half until now. Again, when Everton touches you…
     
    So despite Bournemouth winning it was Villa who survived thanks to a draw at West Ham. They took the lead late on through Grealish but were pegged back immediately through a deflected Yarmolenko shot that looped over a desperately back-pedalling Reina (he’d have saved that easily back in his prime). 
     
    They were never going to lose it in the closing minutes though because West Ham had no incentive to score. The players probably felt arlarse on Villa, knowing that if they scored they’d be relegating them. Maybe with a crowd in there it might have been different but with an empty stadium there was nothing to push West Ham into trying to score. If I’d have been a Villa player I’d have been in the ear of the Hammers lads telling them to just chill and take the draw. 
     
    It was the perfect final day fixture for Villa really. They looked dead and buried when footy restarted, especially as they continued to lose. But the shitness of Watford and Bournemouth kept them in it and then they rallied to save themselves with two wins and two draws from their last four games. 
     
    There were scenes of jubilant celebrations afterwards, much to the contempt of Roy Keane. The look of complete disgust on his face was great, as was Micah Richards’ hysterical laughter in reaction to it. Great TV that.
     
    My take before I saw it was that I wouldn’t begrudge the Villa players celebrating as an outpouring of relief is completely understandable. When I actually saw it though, the singing of “Sweet Caroline” and all the dancing and bouncing around, yeah I’m leaning more towards Keane’s take on it. I understand that any team in that position is going to celebrate but it doesn’t sit well with me at all when I watch it. Just makes me look at them and think ‘you fucking losers, next year you won’t be so lucky’.
     
    So I completely get why someone who thinks the way Keane does would be appalled by it. I reckon Souness probably had the same reaction when he saw it. Say what you like about Keane but it’s that single minded, win at all costs and anything else is failure mentality that made him the great player he was. 
     
    And he was a great player. I have no qualms about admitting that. United had several genuinely world class players during that era and I fucking hated them all (Schmeichel, Hughes, Ronaldo, Cantona etc). Yet all of the United greats were seen as being greats while they were playing. Only one of them has become a great since hanging up his boots. Only one has seen his reputation grow with each year since he stopped playing. It’s a mystery even Colombo couldn’t solve. 
     
    At the current rate of progression in ten years time Paul Scholes is going be sandwiched in between Messi and Maradona on the all time greats list. It’s fucking ridiculous. Seems like every other week there’s some slapdick or other who was selected for one England squad, coming out of the woodwork and trying to make himself seem like some sort of football sage by waffling on about how under-rated he was and “no-one could get near Scholes in training" or “he was always three moves ahead of everyone else”. 
     
    Fuck off with that shit. If he was that great then people would have said it at the time and we’d have all seen it with our own eyes. He was never even in the top three players at United in the entire time he played there. I’ll fight anyone to the death before I’ll ever concede that Scholes was world class. Over-rated miserable little manc ballbag.  
     
    I have absolutely no idea how I ended up talking about Paul fucking Scholes but clearly it must have been festering away and I needed to get it out, so there you have it.
     
    So anyway, Villa live to bore another day while Nice Guy Eddie now has to face the prospect of life back in the Championship. Assuming he stays there of course, which he might not. What would be the point really? He’s taken them to heights they’ll surely never scale again. He should look for a new challenge now. 
     
    Maybe Grealish will too? It was fitting that he scored the goal to ultimately keep Villa up as they’ve been almost a one man team at times this year. Mings has done alright too but it’s mostly just Grealish isn’t it? He might stay now they’ve survived, but it probably depends who comes in for him and how much Villa demand. Early reports suggest £80m. Anyone who pays that is utterly fucking mental and has more money than sense. So United it is then.
     
    If we were flush with cash and in the market for a player like that, I’d be all over him (but not anywhere close to that price) even if it was just to see my mum’s reaction. We aren’t flush with cash and we aren’t in for a player like that, because if we were I’d much prefer we brought Coutinho back.
     
    Is there anyone from Bournemouth worth cherry picking (see what I did there? They’re the cherries, and I said cherry picking, because we’d be picking from the cherries. This is what you pay your subscription for)? City are taking Ake (they’re welcome to him) and there will be quite a few other players in demand. Wilson, King and Stanislas are all mid level Premier League players, while a lot of people seem to like Lewis Cook.
     
    I don’t think there’s anyone who would be of interest to us other than maybe the kid at left back who turned us down to go there. I didn’t want Bournemouth to go down but now that they have I can’t say I want them to come back up. I’d rather a team with a bigger stadium came up, just because it makes it easier for our travelling fans to get a ticket.
     
    Onto the top four ‘race’ now. Initially I felt bad for Leicester as I believed they deserved top four having been there all year right up until the final week. Then I saw their record since Christmas. Fucking hell, it’s not far off relegation form. The only reason they were able to hang on for so long is because of the flaws of everyone else other than us and City.
     
    I do have sympathy for them over what’s happened since lockdown as they’ve just been killed by injuries. They don’t have a big enough squad to cope with that and nor should they. They’ve done well to build such an impressive first eleven but you can’t expect a team with their resources to have a star studded bench too.
     
    The last few games they’ve been without the two full backs, Ndidi, Maddison and Soyuncu and it’s completely killed them. Here’s the thing with Brendan. When things are going well he’s great. He can set up a team to play a certain way and when he has his best players it can be really effective. When the going gets tough though, he just doesn’t have it in him to just dig in and grind out some results. 
     
    With all of those injuries Leicester should have just reverted back to the old “sit back and hit Vardy on the break” tactic that won them a league title. Instead they just continued trying to play 'Rodgeball' and the end result is the soft cunts have allowed United to sneak into the Champions League. I find that hard to forgive so I hope they go down next year.
     
    They had their fate in their own hands but lost 2-0 to United. It was so predictable too. They even let Jesse fucking Lingard score. They needed to win so Brendan went all gung ho instead of playing patiently and waiting for an opening. There was nothing more certain than them getting done on the counter, as that’s pretty much the only thing United are good at.
     
    Of course United were also awarded a penalty. Their 20th of the season and 14th in the league, which is a new record. Nothing dodgy about that though, no sir.
     
    Johnny Evans was sent off for an over the ball tackle. Soft get must have forgotten he wasn’t playing for United anymore. You can only get away with that when you play for them, not against them. Jonjo Shelvey was unavailable for comment, he’s probably still busy calling Ferguson a cunt. Yeah, I’ve got a long memory when it comes to holding grudges. Fuck Johnny Evans.
     
    I expected Leicester to lose but I also thought there was a reasonable chance Chelsea would too as Wolves are the kind of side that could go there with nothing to play for and completely spoil the party. I don’t trust Chelsea at all as they’re flakey bastards. You could even argue that there’s a touch of the Arsenals about them, although Chelsea have more attacking talent and aren’t quite as gutless as Arsenal. Still, they’ve conceded six more goals than Arsenal this year and next week’s cup final could end up 6-5 if both sides turn up. It’s more likely that we’ll see both of them shitting themselves and it going to pens after a 0-0 draw though.
     
    Wolves can feel aggrieved about this though as Chelsea’s opener came from a free-kick that never was in first half stoppage time. Neto pulled out of his challenge and was nowhere near Alonso, who took a dive. Mount scored from the free-kick and Wolves lost their heads, then allowing my boy Giroud to score a minute later after being played in by Mount.
     
    Mount has had a good season and he might be worth picking up on the cheap when he finds himself cast aside for all these new players Chelsea are buying now that their ban has been lifted. We’ll see how much “Fwank” believes in youth when next season starts and Mount, Abraham, James and Tomori are all watching from the bench or from Vitesse.
     
    Not sure who I want to win the FA Cup Final. Ordinarily I’d want both of them to lose but seeing as these two ensured that there’d be no Mancs in the final I don’t begrudge either of them winning it. I can’t actively root for either, but I think I’d rather Arsenal won it because they beat City and because Lampard is getting too much praise for not really doing anything. The same is true of Arteta actually, but he didn’t act like a cunt on our touchline so there is that. On the flip side, Arsenal Fan TV is shit when they win.
     
    Speaking of cunts though, Harry Kane was on the scoresheet again as Spurs drew at Palace. Schlupp got the Palace equaliser and they probably should have won. Mourinho and his coaches celebrated at full time because the result saw them qualify for the Europa. How the mighty have fallen eh? Bit embarrassing really (and his coaches seemed to realise it as they were a bit half arsed). I’d love to get Roy Keane’s take on it.
     
    Zaha wants to leave but where’s he gonna go? The Blueshite were the only ones who wanted him and that might be the case again. He’s too good for them but if no-one better wants him then what can he do? I’d happily have him here as we never get pens anymore and he’s the master at winning them. Seriously though, if he was available on the cheap I’d defo take a punt on him but he won’t be, so it’s all moot. I've said this before, but Zaha is worth £80m to Palace but half that to anyone else.
     
    Sheffield United’s excellent season ended on a bit of a downer as they lost to Southampton. The Blades went ahead through Lundstrom but a brace from Che Adams against his old club and an Ings pen won it for the Saints, who look well equipped to be next season’s Leicester (hopefully without the manc enabling choke job). They’re really tough to play against and they improved massively over the course of the season. 
     
    A screamer from Bissouma put Brighton up at Burnley. This was his first ever goal in what was his 50th game. Mad that really, he’s played 50 games in the Premier League and I genuinely have no idea who he is or what position he plays. There are so many nondescript player in the league these days it’s impossible to keep up. Most of them seem to play for Watford, Brighton and Villa.
     
    Burnley equalised with a brilliantly taken goal by Wood. I’ve said plenty of disparaging things about him over the years but this was a lovely goal. Connolly then won it for Brighton with a nice individual goal. Can’t decide if he’s good or shite. He’s mostly shite but there are times when he looks really promising.  
     
    Burnley should have had a blatant penalty when Rodriguez got across his marker and went down but ‘Mossy’ was having none of it. Bear in mind this is the same fat cunt who’s been handing out penalties to the Mancs whenever a defender so much as farts in the direction of one of them. Check his bank account for fucks sake. Then again, he’s probably being paid in Pizza Hut vouchers. Twat.
     
    Burnley also had a goal disallowed for offside, which was quite fitting really. Rodriguez (who headed it) was fine but they had a player impeding the keeper from the corner (as they do on every corner) and he was correctly adjudged to have been offside and interfering with play. 
     
    Dyche didn’t entirely agree with it but said he’d have wanted it disallowing if it had been against his team. He’s been alright this season you know. There have been one or two times in the past when he’s seemed like a bit of a knob but for the most part I reckon he’s a decent enough fella.
     
    As is Graham Potter, I like him and because of that I’m glad Brighton stayed up. 
     
    Finally, Man City did what they do best. Beat up on some poor saps in the bottom half. Them beating Norwich 5-0 was the most predictable result of the day. I said in the Newcastle report that City seem to win 5-0 four out of five games, and then lose the fifth. The biggest upset of this entire season was them losing at Norwich, so this was always going to be a big win for them.
     
    I didn’t even watch the highlights, I just forwarded it to the post match and then wished I hadn’t, as it was yet more ball licking of the 'Spanish Paul Scholes'. 
     
    Ok, that’s harsh as, unlike Scholes, David Silva has genuinely been a great player. I wouldn’t dispute that, he's brilliant and if you can put your dislike of City to one side (I can't) then you'd say he's a joy to watch. My beef here is that he’s just not as great as so many people seem to be bigging him up to be. Again, let me point this out for the sake of clarity; he’s a great player and he’s had a brilliant career. 
     
    All I’m saying is that it’s doing my head in seeing all this over the top praise for him. Just say he was a great player, really talented and fun to watch and leave it at that. Don't go overboard to prove a point. There are people who are genuinely trying to claim he’s been the best foreign import to the Premier League. He’s not even the best foreign import on his own fucking team.
     
    Again, just to be clear, he’s been a great player. I’m not telling you otherwise, but the amount of fawning over him is doing my head in. Loads of Reds are doing it too, which I’m pretty sure is in no small part being done to wind up City fans by showing how magnanimous we can be about their players while they do nothing but pour scorn on ours.
     
    Nevertheless, I’m irritated by all this “one of the greatest” nonsense. That’s where the Scholes comparison comes in. Silva has never been Footballer of the Year (never really been close to it either) and how many times has he even made the “Team of the Season”?? Just checked and the answer is twice. So in all the time he’s been here (ten years) he’s made the team of the season twice and never been close to being named the best player in the league. And now he’s leaving "Scholes Syndrome" seems to be kicking in.
     
    So yeah, say it with me. O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D.
     
    Good riddance to the little cunt. Can’t wait until Aguero fucks off next. In short, fuck each and every person at Manchester City who isn’t named Kevin De Bruyne.
     
    And thats another season in the can. Thankfully we don't have to wait long for the next one as I'm ready for it right now.
     
    Finally then, some awards:
     
    Player of the Season (non LFC)
     
    1 Kevin De Bruyne
    2 Danny Ings
    3 Mateo Kovacic
     
    Goal of the Season (non LFC)
     
    1 Son v Burnley (sorry Mum!)
    2 Harry Wilson v Man City
    3 De Bruyne v Newcastle
     
    Wish he played for us:
     
    1 Kevin De Bruyne
    2 Mason Greenwood
    3 Adama Traore
     
    Best opposition fans:
     
    1 Sheffield United
    2 Ermmm….
    3 Yeah I got nothin’
     
    Cunt of the Season
     
    1 Pep Guardiola
    2 Pep Guardiola
    3 Pep Guardiola
     
    Team of the Season (non LFC):
     
    Pope; Ricardo, Soyuncu, Tarkowski, Chilwell; Moutinho, De Bruyne, Kovacic; Sterling, Jimenez, Ings:
     
    My Boys XI (all players selected are either current, past or potentially future ‘my boys’):
     
    Hart, Lamptey, Dunk, Soyuncu, Van Aanholt; Traore, Fleck, Snodgrass; Ings, Deeney, Giroud:
     
    subs: O’Connell, Antonio, Noble, Doherty, Saint-Maximin, Pukki.
  • Adam Lallana has opened up on his emotional last week as a Liverpool player as he looked ahead to his future with Brighton.

    Lallana made 15 appearances for the Reds in their league winning season but none since the restart.

    In that time he has had time to reflect over his rollercoaster six season journey and it is fair to say he has lived through it all.

    From the soulless performances at the end of the Brendan Rodgers era, playing a major part in the early evolution of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, the heartbreak of losing major European finals, to the moment where it all clicked and the Reds became not just the best team on the continent, but in the world.

    And his time culminated in a terrific moment on Friday, when his best friend at the club Jordan Henderson was named the Football writers player of the year.

    He paid a touching tribute to Henderson at the end of last week, a player just like Henderson who has had plenty of dark times throughout his career, but managed to ride them out and come out the other side as one of the most respected players in the game.

    He told Talksport why it meant so much to him.
     
     


    “It’s obviously very apparent that we are best mates and our wives are best mates, our kids are best friends and go to the same schools. So as a whole package it was an emotional few days last week.

    “I think from winning the Premier League on the Wednesday night to Thursday and having my last day on Friday, they were three difficult emotional days.

    “Me and Jordan will be in contact forever.

    “I'll have to introduce him to the south coast so when we are both retired maybe he’ll have a little place down there, who knows.”

    It had been speculated that Lallana may sign with Leicester to be reunited with his old manager, but instead he joined Brighton and the humble midfielder said it is the perfect fit and offers a fresh start. 

    “For me in my life now, if you know me as a person, I don’t think I’m ever in my comfort zone. I’m always looking to push myself and improve myself.

    “One thing I have learnt over the last year is that there is no limit to whatever you want to achieve. You can always better yourself everyday. I’ve seen the best players in the world living with that attitude.

    “People might see it as a brave move but I see it as a very calculated but perfect move. The perfect fit. It will probably go down as a big signing for Brighton but I don’t see it as that. 

    “I see it as a big move for myself coming to a fantastic club with huge ambition. I’m looking forward to being part of a great journey that lies ahead.

    The 32 year-old who came through the ranks at Bournemouth and captained Southampton says that there are only bright days ahead for the Seagulls.

    “I see the qualities of Brighton. I’ve seen the infrastructure. I’ve spoken to the manager. Spoken with the chairman and Dan Ashworth, the technical director. There’s a plan there and a vision and a project.

    “I’m so excited to be part of that. Add to what they’ve already got and hopefully improve every aspect. 

    “Willingness to learn and keep improving as a player and person and I think we can achieve good things moving forward.”


     
  • Tuesday Jul 21:
     
    This trophy lift is gonna be shit. The lightshow and the pyro is a necessary evil as they’re just over-compensating for no fans being there. I get that, as you need to do something to cover up for the fact there’s no atmosphere and it’s all a massive damp squib compared to what it should be. But Coldplay? Getthefuckouttahere.
     
    I’m not thrilled about Kanye West either but if that’s what the players want then fine, they’ve earned the right to choose whatever they like and I’m good with it. Coldplay though? No-one is choosing that, except maybe Hendo. I could see him having lots of Coldplay on his play list and that’s fine because it’s Hendo. Anyone else and I’d be disappointed in them though.
     
    There’s a thing on the BBC website where you can pick your greatest ever LFC XI. I always struggle with these things, mainly because I overthink it. What formation are you meant to choose, because that has a huge bearing on which players you select. If it’s two up front then you’ll go Kenny and Rushy, but if it’s a three that changes things completely. What about the midfield? Wingers or a narrow three? 
     
    There’s also the grey area between ‘greatest’ and ‘best’. For example, Luis Suarez walks into a ‘best’ selection for me but he’s nowhere near a ‘greatest’ one. Similarly, Alisson is undoubtedly ‘best’ but he isn’t yet ‘greatest’.
     
    So, for what it’s worth, here’s my ‘greatest’ eleven…
     

     
    Emlyn Hughes was probably the unluckiest not to get in considering everything he achieved (Tommy Smith would also be a strong contender). It came down to Emlyn or Carra but recency bias comes into it, plus the fact Carragher is second on the all time appearance list and that in itself is justification enough for selection. Same with Callaghan who gets in on appearances as well as being a great player and all round fucking legendary fella. There may have been greater players than him but no-one played more games for the two greatest managers ever so how could he not go in?
     
    As for the ‘best’ eleven….
     

     
    This one is much more difficult I think, as medals and longevity don’t really come into it. It’s just about the best players. Right back was the toughest call. I actually think Trent will end up as the best we’ve had by a massive distance but I won’t argue too much with anyone who says that right now Nicol was better, so it’s a toss up there. 
     
    There’s loads of other truly great players who didn’t get in too. Fowler, Owen, Alonso, Mascherano, Molby, Whelan, Carragher, Hyypia, Mané, Salah and loads of others. I could have put some of them in depending on what formation I went with. Plus, the team you pick as the ‘best’ isn’t necessarily the one you’d choose if you needed to win a game. I’d back our current eleven to win a game against any combination of great players from the past because they are a slick unit and not just a load of randomly chosen talented individuals.
     
    That’s why these things are so hard, because they are so arbitrary and there are all manner of different formations to choose from and each one opens up different options in terms of players. Yeah I know, I’m way overthinking this but I can’t just throw a load of names at it and say ‘that’s the best’. It requires more thought than that. 
     
    One thing I would say is that our best eleven would smash the best eleven of anyone else other than maybe United. No-one else comes close.
     
    Wednesday Jul 22:
     
    L 5 Chelsea 3  I was wrong. The trophy lift was great, all things considered. It was never going to be how we’ve dreamed of it for all these years as none of us could be there, but I thought it was brilliant. I loved it and I didn’t even notice whether Coldplay was played or not. I’d say this was as good as it could possibly have been without fans, so great job by everyone involved.
     
    As for the game, it was a cracker. We haven’t defined particularly well since the restart but at least we remembered where the net was tonight. Some thrilling football and memorable goals, not least the fifth that clinched the game. Andy Robbo is incredible. I could actually make a strong argument for him as Footballer of the Year because he’s brilliant virtually every week. 
     
    He’ll never win anything like that because he’s a left back, but if I was arguing his corner the question I’d ask the naysayers is this: Who is better at their job in this league than Andy Robertson? Very few are even in the discussion, but he’ll never even make a shortlist of six because of the position he plays and because so many of his team-mates are also great and receive more recognition than he does.
     
    I’m not even saying Robbo has been our best player this season (Hendo shades it for me) but just as he was last season he’s right up there with everyone else, whether he gets that public recognition or not.
     
    Meanwhile, Mbappe says he’s staying at PSG for another year. Great news as maybe in 12 months time his value will be lower and we’ll actually have a pot to piss in. Maybe.
     
    Thursday Jul 23:
     
    I was thinking about last night and soaking up all the different coverage of it and one thing really jumped out at me. Graeme Souness, a man who is notoriously difficult to please, is just in absolute awe of Klopp and this team. He is. Every time he’s on Sky he’s raving about what this team is doing and singing the praises of Klopp. He’s actually like a broken record, he keeps going on about the consistency and how he can’t get over it, and when he had a chance to speak to Klopp that’s what he asked him about. 
     
    I think it’s hilarious. Souness the pundit goes out of the window when he’s covering the Reds these days. And when he got to speak to Virgil he never even bothered asking him anything, he just told him how fucking great he is. This is Graeme Souness, a man who played in some of our greatest ever sides and who won everything. He’s notoriously hard to impress, yet look at him these days, he’s as much of a fanboy as any of us. It’s great and it’s as big a compliment to Klopp and his players as you’ll find because Souness is second only to Roy Keane when it comes to “everything now is shit, it was much better in my day”.
     
    Another thing I noticed from the celebrations was how Klopp stood there with each individual player, cheering them as they took turns to lift the trophy. He lifted it himself with Lallana, which was a nice moment for both of them I’m sure. It’s when you see him right in the thick of it all that you realise just how different he is to other managers.
     
    Footage emerged today of the spat between him and Lampard and it really didn’t portray Lampard in a flattering light at all. I was embarrassed for him to be honest, although we didn’t see exactly what it was that caused him to start kicking off. It was obviously something Ljinders did, which doesn’t surprise me as he’s a yappy little bastard on that bench and is often getting under the skin of rival managers. He’s like Scrappy Do, constantly yapping away and then being held back while Klopp has to sort it out. I love him though, he’s funny as fuck.
     
    Lampard was telling him to sit down and Klopp was saying “he is sat down” trying to calm the situation. Then Trent scores and Ljinders is virtually on the pitch bouncing around and rubbing it in Lampard’s face again. Klopp had to tell him to get back in his seat!
     
    The funniest part of it all was the reaction of our subs when Lampard says “first title you’ve won and you’re giving it the big ‘un”. You can just hear a collective, sarcastic “ooooooooh!” led by Milner and Ox. If Lampard was directing that at Klopp then it makes him look like an absolute clown. If it was Ljinders (which I assume it was) then I’m actually ok with that as this type of thing happens all the time on the touchline and it’s mostly fair game I’d say.
     
    Not sure I’d be taking lectures from Lampard on TV afterwards though about winning with class and not being arrogant. One thing you can’t level at Klopp, his staff and the team is that they’re arrogant, because they’re the polar opposite of that. Can Lampard say the same about the Chelsea team he was so successful with?
     
    Something else I was thinking about today was an interview with Pete Krawietz I read earlier this week where he was talking about what he did during lockdown. Basically he went through all of our games this season with a fine tooth comb looking at ways we can improve. He said he spotted some things and that they’ve been working on them ahead of next season. 
     
    It’s this kind of thing that gives encouragement that we can still keep improving even without new signings. There’s room for improvement within this squad but nothing will change my mind that if we bring in one more top forward we’d be unstoppable.
     
    Meanwhile, Birmingham have sold 17 year old Jude Bellingham to Dortmund and have retired his number 22 shirt. Apparently their reason for it is because he could have left for peanuts but he knew the club was skint so he signed a new contract to ensure they got a good fee for him.
     
    I did wonder why we weren’t in for him and that might explain why. Clubs in England were probably in his ear telling him not to sign so they could get him for compensation set by a tribunal. For him to do that and ensure Birmingham got much needed cash for him is actually a class move from the kid.
     
    So while I think retiring his shirt number is daft, I understand that they want to make a gesture to show their appreciation and I’d also say there are a lot more things to be riled up about than this.
     
    Like Pep Guardiola for example. Crying again about the Player of the Year awards and saying that Liverpool players win it when Man City win the league, so a Liverpool player will definitely win it now that we have won the league. Apparently this is “an award for Liverpool players”.
     
    We’ll just gloss over Raheem Sterling being awarded it ahead of Big Virg last year then shall we? Even though our man was in the top three for the Balon D’or he didn’t get the best player in his own league because a City player got it. They only finished one point ahead of us, whereas this year we’re about six weeks worth of fixtures ahead of City. Just sayin’ like.
     
    This is just part of a wider issue with Guardiola and City. It gnaws away at them that no matter what they do people generally just aren’t that arsed because everyone knows they’ve cheated and it means very little. Like when they beat Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup Final and thought everyone would be singing their praises. No-one cared because they’re a nothing club outside of Manchester and their achievements carry no weight because of how they’ve gone about it.
     
    De Bruyne will probably get it just because the LFC vote will be split between Hendo, Virg, Sadio and maybe even Trent, and if he does then you won’t get anyone from Liverpool crying about it as I doubt any of them really give much of a fuck about individual awards anyway (except Mo, he loves all that!).
     
    Friday Jul 24:
     
    Or maybe not! Hendo is indeed the FWA Player of the Season and no-one is more deserving. Made up for him because - in my opinion anyway - he’s been our Player of the Season and seeing as how we’ve been the best team by a mile, that makes him deserving. And that’s BEFORE you factor in all the other off the field stuff that seems have been taken into account. 
     
    Clearly that counts for a lot because Marcus Rashford came third, and he’s not even been the third best player on his own bang average team. Focussing on what a top fella Hendo is and all that other stuff is actually deflecting away from the fact he’s been brilliant on the pitch. Not enough is being made of that.
     
    Going back to the Guardiola comments though. I was irked by them but I wasn’t particularly angry. Today though a mate expressed a completely different take on why he was pissed off about them and it was something I hadn’t even really considered.
     
    “Guardiola’s Hendo slight might be the thing he’s done that’s pissed me off the most. What kind of a cunt have you gotta be to be that disrespectful. Not to say “well done” to him and instead just deride him by saying Liverpool players always win these awards. Little prick.”
     
    He’s right isn’t he? Anyone else, literally anyone else I can think of, would have just said “personally I think my player should win it but Jordan Henderson has been brilliant. He’s a fantastic professional and role model, so he’d be a worthy winner too”.
     
    Imagine Klopp saying something that petty and snide if De Bruyne won it. Wouldn’t happen. He’d just say “Wow, what a player. Well deserved. My boys would have deserved it too but I love Kevin De Bruyne so congratulations to him”.
     
    It’s perfectly fine that he thinks De Bruyne has been the best player in the league this year. He might be right, De Bruyne has been sensational, but don’t disrespect Henderson by being so petty and dismissive, you spoilt little cunt.
     
    I’ve said it a lot recently but Guardiola is by far the worst twat in this league. It’s not even close. You can say Mourinho if you like but 50% of the shit he says and does is him playing a character. With Guardiola, he’s just a childish, petty, entitled, cheating, whiny little fucking bitch.
     
    So yeah now I’m proper angry about what he said. Disrespectful, classless bald, platform heel wearing, short arse, CAS appealing nonce. Fucking hate him and his cunt club.
     
    Also today, Klopp hit back at Lampard by saying “that’s not how to behave you big fat fuck”. I’m paraphrasing slightly. The jist of it was more “say what you like in the heat of battle and it’s fine, but if you continue it after the whistle then you’re being a cunt.” Which is fair I’d say, as I have no doubt Jurgen has come out with all sorts of shite during a game when his emotions are high. He never carries it on afterwards though. 
     
    I hated Lampard for years and then for some reason I relented and started thinking he was alright. Seeing how he carried on the other night in that spat with our bench though, it was pretty revealing I thought. He’s one of those fake nice guys. Most of the time he comes across as a top fella but occasionally the mask slips and you realise it’s a front and that he’s actually a bellend.
      
    In yet more news today, what about that interview with Lallana where he spoke about Hendo. Fucking hell that was powerful stuff. Really emotional. Genuinely choked me up it did. I was thinking “I defy anyone to watch that without getting emotional”. Then I sent the video to my mum, who regular readers will know is not a fan of Adam.
     
    I won’t share the full response but needless to say she wasn’t moved by it at all and she ended her withering reply with “I was just surprised they didn’t get him a stair lift to go and get his medal”. Jeez. Let it go, Mum, for fucks sake!
     
    Saturday Jul 25:
     
    There was so much going on yesterday I forgot to mention that Lovren is joining Zenit for £11m. Good price that in today’s market. My gut feeling is we won’t replace him with a signing and that Hoever will be promoted into the squad, with Fabinho also providing extra cover there, so those funds might be used elsewhere. 
     
    I’m just thinking aloud here, but with Lovren and Lallana off the wage bill and that cash from Zenit, that would surely be enough to cover a deal for someone such as Willian for example. I get that we don’t have money to go out and buy Havertz or Sancho, but I can’t see us going into next season without ANY new faces.
     
    I’d also be well in favour of another Harvey Elliott type signing if that were possible. Bellingham would have fitted the bill nicely but for him helping Birmingham out, but there might be one or two other wonder kids out there we could look at bringing in, because the culture here now is absolutely perfect for talented young players.
     
    Of course one of the people who played a huge part in creating that culture won’t be here. Lallana looks like he’s joining Brighton, and not Leicester. He seems like a good fit for how they play these days and Klopp has been effusive in his praise for Brighton this year. I’m sure I saw an interview with one of his staff recently too when they singled out Graham Potter and the brilliant coaching job he’s done there.
     
    Meanwhile, Andreas Pereira says he doesn’t like Milner and Van Dijk. Pereira, for those of you who don’t know (I’m guessing 50% of you) is one of numerous little nomark scrotes that currently plays for Manchester United. This is what he said "I don't really like that guy, Milner. And to tell you the truth, I don't like that guy, the defender, Van Dijk. He is Marrento, man (this means cocky, apparently). Even the way he plays is kind of arrogant."
     
    The way Virg plays IS arrogant, because all great players play with arrogance. It’s because they’re better than everyone else and can do things no-one else can. So yeah, when Virg is heading the ball to himself and leaving the hapless striker wondering what happened, it is arrogant.
     
    I don’t know why he singled out Milner though. Probably because he’s been crunched by him a few times.
     
    There was a report in the Guardian today about a fella being found guilty of the attack on Owen Jones. The reason I bring this up is because of the headline, which read “Far right Chelsea fan jailed for attack on Owen Jones”. Now far be it for me to defend Chelsea fans, but just what the fuck does who he supports have to do with anything in this case? It’s not an act of football hooliganism, it’s just a cunt doing something cunty.
     
    Even if he lived on the doorstep of Stamford Bridge it would still be irrelevant who he supports, but the guy is from Portsmouth. It’s a bad shithouse move mentioning what football team he supports. Why does football have to be brought into everything? I’m sure he likes other things too, but “far right Eastenders fan” or “far right pasta lover” won’t get as many clicks, will it?
     
    It’s easy to dismiss this just because it’s Chelsea and they do have a number of right wing loons that follow them, but it’s still grossly unfair and it could just as easily be Liverpool being dragged into the next grisly story they report. 
     
    Finally today, I read Lampard’s explanation of what happened the other night and I’m mostly in agreement with him. It’s clear his only real issue was with Ljinders and he’s not backing down from his annoyance with him, which I’m fine with. He denied he has any issue with Klopp (he was very complimentary about him) and he dismissed suggestions that he was unhappy about any of the celebrations.
     
    It’s pretty much what I thought the other night. That ‘giving it the big ‘un’ comment was defo directed at Ljinders and I’m fine with that because I have no idea what Pep did to elicit that kind of response, but I’m sure he defo did something because he is a spiky little bastard. Like I said, he’s Scrappy Do.
     
    So I’m gonna go back to not hating Lampard. Until next time anyway.
     
    Sunday Jul 26:
     
    Newcastle 1 L 3. Boss that. Made up with how we played under the circumstances. It was always going to be a bit of a slog with the front three all on the bench but in fairness to the replacements we were 2-1 up by the time the cavalry arrived.
     
    Divock was brutal but then he scored. Ox did fuck all but still had an assist. I thought Minamino was lively enough and the big regret I have with him so far is he's never really had a chance to play the false nine with Sadio and Mo flanking him. That's the only way to judge him properly I think.
     
    Speaking of Minamino though, how awkward was he at the celebrations the other night? I felt sorry for him as the language barrier is obviously a bit of a problem for him. He speaks German so he can converse with Matip, Shaq, Lovren and Keita but it ust be really hard to get involved in the dressing room banter when you've got no idea what's going on.
     
    My cousin Al said it reminded him of the episode of Only Fools when 'Gary' went to live with Del and Rodney and didn't have a fucking clue what was going on. He's nailed it there. Taki had the same confused look on his face, and 'Gary Minamino' has a nice ring to it. Might start calling him 'Gary' from now on.
     
    Elsewhere today Villa stayed up and Leicester choked away a top four spot. Not going into any of this in too much detail because it will be covered in the round up, but Villa staying up has opened up a whole can of worms now because of that Hawkeye incident against Sheffield United. I don't think Watford have much of a claim as they'd still be down even if that goal had stood (although that one goal may have led to another and another, we'll never know), but Bournemouth aren't going to just accept this with so much money at stake.
     
    It's a legitimate beef but this is why that whole thing should have been sorted out at the time during that particular game. The technology wasn't working, everyone could see it was a goal and had the VAR official stepped in and just given the goal then this situation would never have arisen. Now it'll get messy and the Premier League only have themselves to blame, as they should have addressed it at the time, even if that meant replaying the game.
     
    Monday Jul 27:
     
    Kloppo wins Manager of the Year and Ferguson reveals that he was woken up at 3.30am by Klopp telling him "we've won the league". This is one of the greatest things ever. Just imagine how that went down. We all saw how shitfaced the gaffer was that night when the title was clinched. We saw the video of him dancing in his little white hotpants! Eventually he must have reached a stage where he thought "I'm gonna ring Ferguson for a laugh".
     
    I have questions though. How does he have Ferguson's number? He must have got it from Kenny, right? What did he say to him? Did he just sing "We are the Champions"? Did he put any of the players on? Did Kenny also have something to say? What did Ferguson say? Was he more pissed off than when Mike Phelan popped that balloon and scared the bejesus out of him? 
     
    Sadly I doubt we'll ever get that answers I want.
     
    And sure enough Bournemouth are considering legal action about the hawkeye incident. I don't blame them but this is a case they can't win.
     
    Meanwhile... goodnight, sweet prince. Dejan officially leaves and Mo gives him a nice touching tribute on LFCTV. I’m a little surprised as Mo usually completely downplays their friendship just to bust Lovren’s balls. I fully expected him to respond to “do you have a farewell message for Dejan” with “bye then”. But he didn’t, and it was nice. Then he went on instagram and said to him “don’t text me too much, I’m on vacation”. Classic Mo. 
     
    It was time for Dejan to go. Definitely. He could have gone this time last year but I wasn’t in favour of that and was glad it didn’t happen. Now though the time is obviously right for everyone. He leaves with a Premier League winners medal, we got a good fee for him and everybody is happy. 
     
    The best part about him leaving is I won’t get riled up reading the abuse sent to him from the “LFC fam” on social media. They’ll have to find someone else to pick on now, especially as Hendo has made himself virtually untouchable. It’ll be Milner next. “You’re too old, fuck off out of my club and back to Leeds”.
     
    Telling yer, if I ever see that then I’m rounding up a posse and going after them. 
     
     
    …..and that was the week that was
  • Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to another departing member of the squad with Dejan Lovren signing for Russian club Zenit St Petersburg a permanent deal.

    While the Croatian has often been a figure of criticism among sections of the Liverpool fanbase, it is clear within the walls of Melwood, there would not be many more respected members of the playing squad.

    As is his way, the LMA manager of the year was effusive in his praise of the 31 year-old as the Official website reported.

    “Another Liverpool legend who leaves the club, because he was absolutely a very, very important part of this team from the first day since I was in.

    “I remember when we played with Dortmund against Liverpool in the pre-season friendly and Dejan scored with a header with incredible power. 

    “That was the image I had in my mind when I came here and I thought about the defenders we had at the time.

    “He played super games and scored one of the most important goals of our history in the 4-3 against Borussia Dortmund; a really wonderful moment to share.

    One game that Lovren would like to erase from his 185 appearances for the Reds was when he was hooked against Tottenham in 2017 after just 30 minutes.
     


    Klopp recalled that moment, but says his response was the measure of the individual.

    “Yes, I think he will not like the Tottenham game when I took him off in the first half, but it is part of football and part of development – and he always came back.

    “When he was fit, he was very, very, very often in the team.

    He is a model athlete, has everything you need and now he goes to Russia, but he can come back always – he will be always welcome because he is a really nice guy.”

    “Yesterday we said, ‘Who is now the best friend of Mo?’ because they were really real, real bezzies. They were really close and that’s the thing, we will miss him.

    The Egyptian superstar filmed a touching tribute for Lovren in which he said:

    “I don’t know how to say, my friend. You don’t know my feeling right now. We’re really going to miss you a lot, especially me.

    “You’ve been an unbelievable player and a great friend for me. We’re going to miss you a lot. I miss you a lot, I love you so much. You’ve been fantastic outside the field and inside the field.

    “So, thank you for everything you did for the club, thank you for everything you did for me. I wish you all the best in the future and I wish you to have a great career as well, enjoying the new club with your family.

    “Thank you very much and see you soon.”
  • What a nice way to finish. You have to give this team massive credit for being able to dominate a potentially tricky game like this when there was nothing really at stake. 
     
    I’m not saying it was a vintage performance by any means but they completely strangled the life out of Newcastle. Apart from their goal did they even get near our box? I don’t actually remember Alisson having to do anything. Just complete and utter dominance of the ball and the only thing that saved the Geordies from a cricket score was Klopp’s initial team selection.
     
    With the front three all left on the bench it was always going to be difficult for us in the final third. We know how big the drop off is to the replacements so what we saw in the first half was hardly surprising. It was also completely understandable as I don’t think those three have ever played together before, have they? Maybe in the cup.
     
    The task was made a lot tougher by the way we were caught napping in the first minute and fell behind. Schoolboy stuff that.
     
    That’s the last thing you need against a team that only wants to sit in and frustrate. You give them a led to protect and it could be a long day. For a while it looked like it would be but by the end Newcastle were probably relieved to have only lost 3-1.
     
    The opening goal was just daft and I just can’t ever envisage that happening if there was something riding on the game. It goes back to what I’ve been saying ever since the title was won. There’s no lack of effort, *Brendan Rodgers voice* they've just lost that wee bit of focus.
     
    That goal was a perfect example of it. Van Dijk commits a sloppy foul and then throws the ball back towards the direction of where the free-kick would be taken. He didn’t throw it straight to Shelvey though because he wanted to get back into position.
     
    Gini catches the ball, which he shouldn’t have done. Then he gives it straight to Shelvey, which again, he just shouldn’t be doing. Let them get the ball themselves. Don’t be helping them catch us flat footed. You’re not a fucking ballboy, Gini! 
     
    This is basic stuff. It’s why players will often stand over the ball to prevent quick free-kicks being taken. Funnily enough, thinking about it, I can’t really ever remember our lads standing over a free-kick. Robbo and Milner would probably do it but I’m not sure any of the others would. 
     
    I’m not saying they haven’t done it but I can’t recall it. Not really our style is it? It happens to us all the time though, because most managers drill it into their players.
     
    I’m not saying Klopp should do that as we’ve done pretty well so far doing it our own way. But there’s good sportsmanship and then there is having our players fetch the ball and give it to the opposition to take a quick free-kick! Too much, Gini. Too much.
     
    The biggest problem was probably how early in the game it happened. We just weren’t switched on yet. Gini isn’t thinking and the back four just weren’t expecting what followed. 
     
    Credit to Gayle and Shelvey for their quick thinking but Gomez was half asleep and Williams had dropped a fraction deeper than the rest, apparently playing Gayle onside.
     
    I say apparently because we only saw one angle of it and that wasn’t conclusive. What went on there? Seemed a bit weird to me. The VAR took over two minutes to give the goal but we didn’t see any replays or clips with the lines on or anything. Did something malfunction? Was that why it took two minutes, because they were trying to get it working?
     
    It looked extremely tight and while in theory I’m more than happy for attackers to get the benefit when it’s that close, something just didn’t feel right about this did it? Has this happened before where we didn’t get to see the freeze-frame with the lines on it? 
     
    No matter, the goal was given and we now had to come from behind with a front three of Ox, Origi and Minamino. I can’t say my expectations were especially high when I saw the team sheet and nothing I saw in the first hour makes me feel like I was overly harsh.
     
    And yet, Ox had an assist and Big Div scored, so you could easily say I was wrong. It doesn’t feel that way though. I was still extremely frustrated watching Origi, and other than the run and cross for the equaliser I thought this was just standard “Ox on the wing” mediocrity.
     
    The reason he plays there as often as he does can only be down to what he does without the ball. His pressing and the angles he makes when doing so and general positioning. All shit that I don’t really understand but the coaches look for. Because what the untrained eye sees when he plays on the wing just isn’t very good and you wouldn’t select him based solely on that. 
     
    It’s not even his fault so don’t take this as a criticism of Ox. I like him. Just not in the front three. He’s a completely different type of player to Salah and Mané. He wants to go outside and cross, they want go inside and shoot. I’d have liked to see Shaqiri given a run out (or even young Harvey), and the fact he wasn’t leads me to believe he may well be sacrificed this summer to bring in funds.
     
    Minamino is a totally different player to Salah and Mané. He’s much more similar to Bobby than the other two, yet he started the game on the left. I can’t complain too much about that given how often I’ve complained at Div not being given a chance in the middle.
     
    I thought Minamino did alright actually, especially after he switched with Origi. He was involved a lot and had a couple of shots from the edge of the box. It’s not been easy for him so far for a lot of reasons, one of which is that he’s never had a chance in his best position with Salah and Mané either side of him. 
     
    So it’s hard for Ox and Minamino and to a lesser extent Origi, but the fact is when any of these players come in the whole dynamic of the forward line changes. When all three of them are starting it’s always going to be difficult, especially for them. 
     
    Divock though. He drives me mad. He should be so much better than he is and in theory he should be able to play any of the positions in the three and play them well. And occasionally he has. Just not very often.
     
    In this game he’d done the square root of fuck all until out of nowhere he scored a trademark Origi goal. One thing I have to say about Div is he’s a really good finisher. It’s not like he misses many chances is it? 
     
    He’s clinical as fuck actually, it’s all the other stuff that has me tearing my hair out. Thankfully I have plenty of it otherwise I’d be looking like Uncle Fester, especially this season. Derby Divock is great. Regular Divock just leaves me perplexed. 
     
    Maybe I’m just expecting too much. I don’t want a massive drop off from the first choice three and that impacts on how I judge the replacements. They played their part in this win so I feel like I should be praising rather than criticising. But look at how different we were when the big three came on. It was night and day.
     
    Nevertheless, that terrific goal from Div had put us ahead and Ox had contributed to us getting level, so credit is due I guess. Ox does this kind of thing a lot when he’s in midfield but not so much when he’s in the forward line. We’ve seen it loads, he just suddenly injects a bit of pace into the game and explodes past somebody. Usually it ends with a shot but because he was in a wide position this time he drove to the line and clipped a ball into the middle.
     
    It wasn’t the greatest of crosses as Virgil couldn’t attack it. It was behind him so all he could do was get his head on it and try to direct it. And he did. What a header that was. I’ve seen a lot of people questioning whether he meant it, but that was the only way he could score. 
     
    What else was he trying to do? He couldn’t power it in, the only thing he could do was try to get enough on it to loop it into the far corner.
     
    That goal was key really as once we’d wiped out Newcastle’s lead this was only ever going one way, especially as we knew we had the big three to bring on. 
     
    They had been waiting to get on a while but the ball wouldn’t go out of play so the other lads had a few more minutes than intended. It was 1-1 at that point and Div must have known he was getting hooked, but he lashed in a great goal and I’d probably have left him on for another five or ten minutes to see how it played out as he had a real spring in his step then. 
     
    Ironic as I’d spent the previous five or ten minutes screaming for him to be taken off! I always hate myself for getting too down on Origi. He’s a top lad and I love him for the massive contribution he’s made. I’m rooting for him and badly want him to do well so when it doesn’t happen it’s so frustrating. 
     
    If he was shit it’d be easy to just write him off and say get rid but he’s shown what he is capable of. That just makes it worse though when he isn’t doing himself justice. He frustrates me more than any player we’ve had since…. I don’t know actually. Luis Garcia maybe? Emile Heskey? Players who you know have it in them to be brilliant but just don’t produce it often enough.
     
    The difference when the changes up front were made was massive. Mo hit the post within seconds of coming on and then ran clear on goal soon after (from a brilliant Firmino pass). He should have done better but as usual he tried to run around to get onto his left foot and the defender got back to make a block. Why does he do this??
     
    I wrote about this in the last report because he did it in that game too. If he wasn’t so pre-occupied with getting onto his left foot and trying to bend it into the far corner he’d make life so much more difficult for the defenders. Of course there are times when this works, but more often than not he seems to get tackled because there isn’t enough time to do it.
     
    Keep it on your right side and they can’t tackle without committing a foul. He just needs to have more faith in his right foot and less faith in his speed. He’s quick but he’s not THAT quick where he can afford to run around the ball to get onto his strong foot. You know who was quick enough to do that and did it all the time? Michael Owen. He was the master at it.
     
    Then he lost a yard of pace and couldn’t do that anymore. So what did he do? He worked on his weaker foot and became proficient at finishing from that side too. Mo is a world class forward and he’s done as much as anybody to secure these trophies that we’ve won. I’m grateful to have him, he’s fucking great, but there’s still room for him to get even greater.
     
    With Sadio I’m not sure we can say the same. What areas can he improve in? He’s just brilliant at everything and is probably at his peak right now. Can he get better? I don’t really see how. There’s not much between Sadio and Mo currently but if Salah improved his finishing (and there is plenty of room for that) then he’d be top dog like he was in his first season here.
     
    Sadio curled one into the far corner in the last minute to get within one goal of Mo. He hasn’t taken any pens, although I’m not sure Mo has many either since the Premier League brought in that legislation that all the penalties Liverpool would have should now be awarded to Manchester United instead.
     
    For the second season in a row Sadio and Mo have finished almost neck and neck. The only reason their tallies are so close is because Mo misses so many chances. Yet it’s his greatness that means he gets so many chances, which makes it hard to be too critical.
     
    You could see how desperate Mo was to get goal number 20 but it was never going to happen was it? Not since I jinxed him the other week when I said I could see him going on a run and pipping Vardy for the Golden Boot. I don’t think he’s scored since. Me and big mouth.
     
    In the end he finished with 19 Premier League goals, with Sadio on 18 and Bobby on 9. Is it just me or is that actually pretty underwhelming for those three? Sadio is roughly where I’d expect him to be but the other two should have more (25, 20 & 15 would be about par). Yet here we are, on 99 points and light years ahead of everyone else.
     
    So maybe I’m becoming a little too fixated on these numbers. Man City scored over a hundred goals this season and their goal difference pisses all over ours. Where did it get them though? They’re the ultimate flat track bullies now, beating up on the likes of Watford and Brighton and racking up the goals in easy wins. It feels like they win 5-0 four games out of every five, but then they lose the fifth. They lost nine fucking games this season. 
     
    Baldiola is the only manager in the world that could spend a billion pounds, lose nine games and still have everyone tonguing his balls as the best coach in the world. Anyone else would be getting pelters from the media. Gets away with murder that prick.
     
    While City were losing nine games we’d only lost one right up until the point the league was won and then we got a little sloppy and dropped another couple (not sure I’ll ever not be pissed off about that Arsenal game!). So while ideally I’d like a few more goals from the front three it almost seems churlish to be pointing that out given everything we’ve achieved. 
     
    What we’ve seen these last couple of years is unprecedented, not just in our history but in the history of English football. This is all time, historical stuff we’re witnessing right now. We’ve averaged 98 points, won a title and won a European Cup. Yes we’ve got the Super Cup and Club World Club too, which is nice, but you only get to play for those if you’ve taken care of the main business.
     
    I don’t know if we can keep this up but Milner is the only player in the squad past his prime so in theory there’s no reason why it can’t continue a little while longer at least. And Milner was probably our best player in this game for me. Plenty of life left in that old dog yet.
     
    At the other end of the age scale is young Neco, who was given a start at right back. It wasn’t his best game of the season by a long way. He got off to a bad start and it took him probably until the second half to really settle into the game.
     
    That doesn’t concern me at all though. In fact it’s a good thing. Games like this speed up the development far more than coming in and playing great in a cup game. Neco will have learned more from this game, and the Brighton one, than he did in any of the others in which he excelled.
     
    It’s all money in the bank ahead of next season and it’s for that reason I’d have liked to have seen more minutes for Jones too. And at least some for young Harvey, who has been on the bench in every game bar one since the restart but only got on the field once I think.
     
    Williams and Jones are going to be important players next season. I’m not sure how many opportunities Harvey is going to get though, but he’s two years younger which is a lot at that age. To put in perspective how young Elliott is, he’s got six more years in which he’ll be eligible for the u23 side. For him to be as close as he is is quite the achievement really.
     
    So that’s that then, the longest season of all time is finally over. Reaching 100 points would have been nice and you know how irritated I was when it became clear we wouldn’t do it, but now that its done and dusted and we ended on 99, I’m not as frustrated by that as I thought I would be. 
     
    I’m not sure we’ll ever be in that situation again as what we did this year was probably once in a lifetime shit. What was it, 27 wins and one draw from our first 28 games? When you actually think about that now, looking back, it’s fucking nuts. At the time it didn’t feel that strange because we were living through it, but winning 27 out of 28 at the start of the season is something we’ll probably never see again from anybody.
     
    Then we lost to Watford and soon after Covid hit and everything was on hold. We’ll never know what would have happened if we’d played right through but nothing will convince me that we wouldn’t have shattered the points record. Still, it is what it is and 99 points is nothing to be sniffed at like, especially as it bettered last season’s total which was inexplicably important to me.
     
    I’m guessing it was important to the lads too given the way they bounced back from the Arsenal loss to win the final two games. The desire to win games and to never allow standards to slip is one of the main things that separates this team from the rest, and to be able to go to Newcastle and play like this on the final day, just a few days after the title celebrations, I just think it says it all about this squad.
     
    Their standards won’t slip so for this success to not continue it’s going to take significant improvement from the chasing pack and some bad luck on the injury front from our side of things.
     
    Star man is Milner, just ahead of Keita (good once again) and the imperious Van Dijk.
     
     
    Team: Alisson; Williams (Alexander-Arnold), Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Keita (Jones), Milner; Oxlade-Chamberlain (Salah), Origi (Firmino), Minamino (Mané):
  • Virgil Van Dijk has praised his teammates for their ability to stay focused despite wrapping up the title in comprehensive fashion.

    The Reds finished their stellar season in style on the final day of the season defeating Newcastle 3-1 at St James Park on Sunday.

    After falling behind to a Dwight Gayle strike barely a minute after kickoff, it would have been completely understandable for the champions to go through the motions and head off for their break knowing the hard work had been well and truly done.

    However, that is not the way that this Liverpool team has been built or operates and the Dutchman who set the team in the road to victory with his fifth league goal of the season told BT Sport (via the Official site) that he not in any doubt how the team would respond.

    “We all wanted to play today, we all want to show why we are the champions, we wanted to win the game. We knew it was going to be tough and I think we made it even more difficult for ourselves [after] I don’t know how many seconds! 

    “But we played well, second half was outstanding I think, and it’s good to finish off the season on a high and now we have a little break.

    While Liverpool as a team has made and broken records aplenty over the last two seasons, one incredible statistic was that the talismanic Dutchman played every minute of the Reds title winning season, only the fifth outfield player in the Premier League era to do so after Garry Pallister (1992/93), John Terry( 2014/15), Wes Morgan (15/16) and Cesar Azpilicueta (16/17).

    It is another sign of the true dedication and professionalism of the elite defender and something that he takes to heart.

    “I’m very proud for that and I won’t take that for granted. It’s never easy to keep yourself fit, you have to also be a bit lucky and obviously I try to look after myself in the best way possible. It’s an incredible feeling and I think it’s the second season in a row that I’ve been playing 38 games so I’m proud of that and hopefully I can keep that going.

    In a season of ultimate highlights, Van Dijk did not want to pinpoint one thing in particular.
     


    “I think the personal highlight is winning the Premier League!
     
    "It’s been a big dream of mine coming through and I think for all of us, for this beautiful club, it’s outstanding and it should spur us on to try even harder to retain the title.

    As for defending the title, Virgil knows it is going to be a significant challenge, but he is more than ready for it.

    “If I’m talking personally I don’t think I need any more motivation.

    “It’s going to be very tough, teams are going to improve, they’ll want to beat us even more. 

    "But we will focus on each game at a time, that’s what we did already this season, and hopefully we can be as consistent as we have this season. It’s going to be a new challenge but we should all look forward to it as well."


     
  • Rhian Brewster has all the potential to make it at the top level according to his current Teammate Andre Ayew.

    The young striker has spent the second half of the season on loan at the Welsh outfit and the move has been beneficial for both parties.

    Brewster has scored 10 goals while the Swans have ended up in the playoffs after a dramatic last day in the Championship and loom as a real dark horse. 

    Brewster has found his best form after linking up again with Steve Cooper who was his coach for junior England teams and where he put everyone on notice of his talent by being the top scorer at the U/17 World Cup.

    His fellow forward Ayew has struck up a fine relationship with the 20 year-old and believes he has plenty of strengths.

    The Echo reported the Ghanaian international as saying:

    “He is still young, and he has a few things to learn and improve on, but when we are talking about a pure finisher and talent in front of the goal, he has it all.

    “He has everything a striker needs to get, and that is very important.

    “When you are 19 or 20, and you see the season he has had. If he continues to work hard, he is going to be a top, top player."

    “Like every player he’s had ups and downs, but he’s scoring goals and playing well. 

    “I’m happy for him. He has big ambitions and I pray for him to be able to get this club up by his goals."

    The development in senior ranks for Brewster has been cruelly interrupted by serious knee and ankle injuries and Jurgen Klopp knows that his developed cannot be rushed due to this factor.
     


    However he is thrilled by the progress he is making.

    “The plan with Rhian is that we will talk to him (about the next step).

    “It (the loan) was unbelievably important and I'm really happy we had the opportunity to do so.

    “In his first proper senior year he had an awful injury.

    “He needed a long time and that's why we said immediately when he came back it made no sense to be here as third striker. It was a lot different to other situations.

    “He was really happy that he could go to his former coach who knew him from the youth national team.

    “They really wanted him and it's really important for a young striker, because they cannot score every week but they still should stay on the pitch.

    “He played a good season and Rhian showed his talent.

    “For the moment it's nearly perfect but how it will be next year we will talk with him and his representatives."

    If he continues to impress in the Championship playoffs, don’t be surprised if he returns and provides an striking extra option off the bench, especially with the manager signalling that transfer activity will be minimal in the summer.



     
  • Raul Jimenez is the latest striker being linked with a summer move to Liverpool according to reports.

    The Mexican international has been in superb form for the Midlands club during this season scoring 26 goals in all competitions including 17 in the league.

    Coming to the end of his second season for Nuno Espírito Santo’s top six side, Jimenez has a very impressive rate of 43 goals in just 96 appearances.

    Wolves initially had the 29 year-old on loan, but turned that into a permanent deal last summer paying Benfica around £30million.

    Jimenez who can cause defenders all sorts of problems with his physicality and ability to being teammates into play as well as his finishing is a hot property across Europe.

    The Express (via The Transfer window podcast) signalled that there is an interest by Liverpool but that Wolves are a very difficult team to deal with and would want top dollar.

    Duncan Castles from the podcast is reported as saying:
     


    “I can see why there would be interest from Liverpool and the player because of the way he has performed for Wolves.

    “There is a lot of competition there, he is first-choice for Juventus if they manage to dump Gonzalo Higuain in the current market pace and raise sufficient revenue from transfers.

    “This will not be a cheap deal, Wolves paid a lot of money for Raul Jimenez to get him from Benfica. He is paid a very good salary there.

    "They know his value, they're a tough club to buy players from and I'm not sure whether Fenway Sports Group are prepared to back Klopp in the manner which would be required financially to get Jimenez from Wolves.

    “While there is an interest, an undertsandable interest, it will be an interesting test of how much support FSG are prepared to give Klopp going into this next season to defend that Premier League title."

    After rejecting the chance to sign a younger player in Timo Werner, it is hard to see the club forking out big coin to sign a player close to 30.

    While the form of Roberto Firmino has been questioned by some, he is instrumental in what Liverpool do so well and beloved by coaches, players and fans alike.

    Jimenez would be absolutely ideal as a complimentary player, but as someone who is at the peak of their powers, he certainly wouldn’t join a club to be second fiddle.

    So mark this rumour as unlikely in the extreme.
     
  • A reflective Adam Lallana has discussed his Liverpool journey as he prepares for his final game for the European and Premier League champions against Newcastle on Sunday.

    It is common knowledge that the veteran midfielder will depart at the end of this season in his quest for more playing time with Leicester and a reunion with Brendan Rodgers a likely destination.

    It has been quite a ride for the Bournemouth academy graduate who went on to captain Southampton and from there sign on with Liverpool in the summer of 2014.

    In that time the 32 year-old has made 178 appearances and scored 22 goals and he told the Official site having experienced some hard times, that he couldn’t think of a better time to be leaving with the club in such good shape.

    “I think I’ve lost three finals here, they were all one after the other, so to be leaving having won four trophies is somewhat remarkable really, I still can’t believe it. 

    “So, I think it’s kind of a fitting time to leave and end my chapter here. 

    “There has been plenty of highs but also plenty of lows as well that have been difficult. So, to leave with the trophies and with the amazing memories, with so many friends as well that I’d probably class as family, makes it special and fitting I think.”

    The England international discussed that difficult first season which eventually led to a change of management and a steady evolution which has lead to where the club is today.

    “We obviously lost Suarez and Sturridge was injured and I think we had seven or eight new signings and everyone found it difficult to settle. I remember the three or four players that were probably the best for us that season where the lads who had been here for three or four years - Henderson, Raheem [Sterling], Coutinho, Gerrard - so it was really tough that first year. But we all had to kind of ride the wave. 

    “The last game of the season was that 6-1 defeat away at Stoke City, Stevie’s last game, it was very difficult, but obviously since Jürgen came in… and that’s not forgetting the job that Brendan done because although we had a difficult season, we all had a difficult season and I think the infrastructure he began to create here in his tenure as Liverpool manager was fantastic and gave Jürgen something to build on. 

    “But during Jürgen’s five years so far it’s not all been plain sailing, it’s been one step back to move two forward and that was [for] two or three years we faced them difficulties. 

    “There were always signs that we were going in the right direction, getting to finals, beating City at the Etihad a couple of times, but then we’d always take that step back I felt. Listen, it’s been a journey but one that I’m privileged and honoured to be a part of.

    The bromance between Lallana and Klopp is well known, a relationship that blossomed when the veteran played his best and most consistent football in the German’s first season, a fact that the manager has not forgotten.

    Klopp recently called Lallana a legend of the club, a tag that he shrugs off instantly referencing the whole squad instead.  

    “Maybe he has gone a bit over the top there! 

    But we are a group of legends, I can definitely see that. It’s not due to one or two individuals as why we have been so successful - it really is the infrastructure and the manager has created that. 

    “He’s recruited, he’s let people go when he’s saw fit or necessary, he’s moulded and created the culture that breeds throughout Melwood now. 

    “You only need to look at the young lads who are coming through. Neco Williams, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Sepp [Van den Berg], Ki-Jana [Hoever], I’ve trained a lot with them over the last two years, so I know what a good place Liverpool is in at the moment. I know how talented the young crop are that are coming through are going to be and how successful the Academy is going to be the future.

    Understandably there will be a great deal of emotion when the final whistle blows at St James’ Park tomorrow afternoon but he is more than ready for the next step and feels he has more to give in the latter stages of his career.

    “My six years have gone in a flash. My two kids have grown up in Liverpool, it’s all they know.
     
    "I’ve not just built friends and teammates here, I’ve built friends that I see as family forever and that’s where the sadness comes from. 

    "I’m not leaving Liverpool because you know, I [just] want to continue to play here and I’m sad about leaving, because it’s the right time for me to leave. I’m desperate for a new challenge, I’m desperate to play a bit more.
     
    "I still feel like I’ve got two or three years left at the top. It’s more of the relationships that you create and in a week’s time I could be, I will be somewhere else and not seeing these people that I’ve fought for and fought with over the last six years. 

    "So that’s where the element of sadness comes, but I’m thoroughly excited by next challenge and what that will bring. Listen, I’m still going to be in communication with the majority of the boys and the boss, Carole and Caroline the sweet dinner ladies that we’ve got here that have looked after me for the past six years.
     
    "There are good and bad sides of being a footballer and moving away, but it’s never nice to say goodbye is it really?
     


    Every time the name Lallana comes up in a news piece it sparks discussion among the fanbase. 

    Some of that has to do with his inability to put consistent performances together due to injury which has in turn led to a lack of confidence.

    But as a long standing player who has been through so much at the club, he is going out in the right way as a Premier League champion.

    And he has a message for the Reds faithful.

    “Thank you so much for accepting me, especially in my first year when we all had quite difficult moments - the players, fans - but I really did feel straight away that the type of player I was – and am - they warmed to me. I always feel that if you show a good attitude and you work hard, they will always give you time and after the first tough season it felt like I improved the more I settled. 

    When Jürgen came in we had a couple of great seasons to get us back to the Champions League. 

    They’ve obviously stayed patient with me through my injuries and although I wish I could of on a personal note maybe contributed a little bit more, the end goal was always to come here to win medals and be part of a special group. 

    “That’s what we’ve done and we’ve achieved that together. It’s going to be unfortunate I won’t get a chance to properly say goodbye but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back at Anfield and hunting for three points against them, but I’m sure they’ll give me a nice welcome and it’ll be nice to say goodbye properly and I’m sure that will happen next season at some point.”




     
  • The first game of this round of fixtures saw Norwich lose yet again. This time Burnley were the ones benefitting from the Canaries’ generosity. Norwich had two players sent off in the first half and scored an own goal in the second.
     
    Buendia was a little unfortunate as although he did leave a gentle elbow on Westwood, he was needled into it and the Burnley man made a huge meal of it. And here was me thinking Burnley’s players weren’t allowed to do that because it goes against the moral code of St Sean.
     
    Some other bum then saw red for an over the ball tackle and then Wood opened the scoring with an overhead kick. Godfrey put one in his own net and a season that started so promisingly (remember them beating City?) is ending pathetically.
     
    Bournemouth look like they’ll be joining them in the Championship now after a home loss to Southampton on Tuesday. They started the game really well and had their chances before falling behind to goal number 21 on the season for Ingsy.
     
    Goal number 22 should have followed soon after but he missed a pen after Harry Wilson had handled. Harry just hasn’t got going since the restart has he?
     
    He missed two good chances to equalise as did fellow sub Solanke, but it looked like a third sub, Sam Surridge, had equalised in the fourth minute of stoppage time. VAR ruled it out for offside against Callum Wilson, and Southampton rubbed salt in the wounds when Che Adams made it 2-0 with the last kick of the game. They need a miracle now.
     
    Spurs’ win over Leicester was a weird one. 3-0 suggests they were comfortably the better side but Leicester had 71% possession, 24 shots to 7 and 13 corners versus just four from Spurs. You wonder how that’s possible, then you look at who the two managers are and those numbers all make perfect sense. Will Brendan ever figure out how to beat this negative cunt?
     
    The goals all came from counter attacks against the run of pay, but you get the feeling that’s exactly how Mourinho drew it up. Still, 29% in a home game is not going to fly when fans are back in the stadium. Mourinho must be loving this as he can be as negative as he likes and there’s no-one there to complain.
     
    Son’s off target shot was deflected in by young Leicester full back James Justin and then two brilliantly taken goals by Kane finished them off. Had Leicester managed a goal of their own they may have been able to appeal this result as you could make a strong argument that Kane’s goals shouldn’t count due to this social media post made by him this week.
     
     
     
    Honestly, what the fuck?? Surely some sort of points deduction is justified here?
     
    Leicester looked to have it sewn up prior to lockdown but since the restart they’ve found it difficult due to injuries. The lack of squad depth has really hurt them. They’ve really missed Ricardo while recently Chilwell has also been out. Now Soyuncu is suspended and they’ve got some bum who was out of his depth at Norwich playing in a back three with 92 year old Wes Morgan. 
     
    It’s easy to criticise Rodgers but in fairness we wouldn’t be the same without Trent and Robbo. Leicester’s full backs are a huge part of how they play and that’s as big a reason as any why they go into the last game of the season in 5th place and in danger of losing the Champions League spot they had done so well to be in for virtually the whole season.
     
    I think I speak for everyone when I say I hope they fucking smash the mancs everywhere this Sunday.
     
    There could have been another top four head to head game this weekend too if only Wolves had picked up just one more point. They’d have been facing Chelsea this weekend knowing that victory would secure a place in the Champions League. But they didn’t pick up that one extra point so fuck them. Yeah I haven’t forgotten their fans being massive knobheads on the final day of last season.
     
    That being said, they might still get in via the Europa League, which I’m ok with as it would mean United not winning it. Ideally Stevie will pull off a miracle with Rangers. Yeah I know, no chance, but just imagine if he beat United. It’d be one of the funniest things ever.
     
    Wolves beat Palace 2-0 with goals from Podence and Johnny. My boy Adama was in scintillating form and Palace couldn’t cope with him. They aren’t the first and they won’t be the last.
     
    Palace had gotten themselves within smelling distance of a European spot a few weeks back and they’ve since lost seven on the spin. I have a sneaky feeling Hodgson will call it a day now. He should do, because he’s done a top job there all things considered but it’s only heading in one direction now.
     
    No doubt Zaha will be angling for a move and it will be interesting to see if anyone other than Everton wants him this year. All depends on the price tag really, and with most teams likely to be skint this summer it seems likely that he’ll have to stay put.
     
    Elsewhere, Brighton and Newcastle played out a goalless draw at the Amex. I have nothing else to say about that, because why would I?
     
    Amazon Prime had Sheffield United v Everton. They tried to plug it as though they’d actually got something worth watching. It’s pathetic really. Like getting the rights to Wimbledon, making a big song and dance about it and then having to show a 1st round mixed doubles match that no-one gives a fuck about. 
     
    I can’t understand why anyone other than Sheffield United and Everton fans would watch that. The viewing figures must have been miniscule. For anyone who’s interested, the Blues won 1-0 with a goal from Richarlison who managed to stay off the floor just long enough to head in a free-kick from the original Bruno Fernandez, Gylfi Sigurdsson.
     
    I totally called Villa beating Arsenal. Admittedly I said it would be coming off the back of Arsenal getting spanked by City in the cup, which incredibly didn’t happen, but I looked at Villa’s remaining fixtures in comparison to Watford’s and I liked Villa’s chances of staying up. I like them much more after what happened this week.
     
    Trezeguet got the only goal of the game and Villa were just about good value for it. They’ve been playing alright since the restart even if results weren’t great. Recently they’ve been scrambling some points together and incredibly they go into the final game having moved out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
     
    That was such a huge win for Villa and they’ve got all the momentum now for their last game against West Ham. I wouldn’t bet on them winning it but they might not need to. They’ve given themselves a great chance to stay up now and you know what, I hope they do. 
     
    Because as much as I’ve wanted Villa down since the moment they came back up, I have to say right now, fuck Watford, the manager sacking whoppers. If anyone truly deserves to go down it’s them. Sacking Pearson with two games left is just bonkers. No other word for it.
     
    They haven’t been on a great run but what benefit is there in doing this now? Pearson’s record is better than any of his recent predecessors and they had more chance of surviving with him than without him.
     
    If they wanted to fuck him off at the end of the season that would have been fine, but doing it now is just stupid and irresponsible and deserves relegation. One rumour was that he had some sort of confrontation with the players after they lost to West Ham last week. Another was that he had a bust up with the sporting director.
     
    Given that all of the players and the sporting director are still alive and haven’t been gutted like fish with Pearson’s hunting knife, I think we can safely dismiss those rumours. If there was any truth in them at all then the Watford dressing room would have looked like a scene from First Blood.
     
    It’s genuinely one of the most ridiculous moves I can ever remember a club making. When Pearson took over they were virtually dead and buried. The fact they even have a chance to stay up is because of him. Marco Silva, Javi Gracia and Quique Sanchez Flores are all no doubt sitting by the phone with a list of wage demands at the ready.
     
    If Watford go I certainly won’t miss them. City hammering Watford is as close to a guaranteed result as you’ll ever get, which is another reason to want the fuckers relegated. I mean, these clowns gave us a beatdown to (deservedly) ruin our unbeaten season but look what happens whenever they face City. Since they were promoted the aggregate score in games they’ve had with City is 46-4!! 
     
    It’s 18-0 for the last three games alone. It’s incredible. So hopefully in a few days time I’m writing “off you fuck, Watford”.
     
    I see that Sterling took a penalty in that game because “it would be massive for a winger to score 20 goals in the Premier League”. Newsflash pal, Salah is on the brink of doing it for the third year in a row and Mané has done it as well. In fairness, I doubt that is on Sterling’s mind. It’ll be the off the books bonus he’ll be getting for it. 
     
    He missed the pen which will have surprised nobody but he scored the rebound so got away with it. Honestly, he’d be the last player in the league I’d want taking a penalty for me. I’m not exaggerating. He’s a top player and I’m not going to deny that just because I don’t like him, but when it comes to penalties he’s quite literally the last player I’d want taking one.
     
    Speaking of penalties, United didn’t get one this week and they didn’t win. Co-incidence? I think not. 
     
    They did concede one though, in the most hilarious of circumstances. Imagine your star player doing that? Isn’t he the captain too? Or did they take it off him and give it to Maguire? Doesn’t really matter because when you watch the video of it Maguire is doing the exact same thing as Pogba, he’s just fortunate that Pogba got in the way. 
     
    The free frame of the incident shows that three United players are fucking petrified of getting hit with the ball. It’s times like these when Roy Keane is badly missed. I don’t mean on the pitch, I don’t give a fuck about that. No, I mean in the studio. I’d have loved to have seen his live reaction to that. In fact, imagine if Souness was there alongside him?
     
    I think the only way to ensure this doesn’t happen again is for Sky to have both of them in studio for every single game that Pogba is playing in.
     
    West Ham weren’t even taking the game seriously, as shown when regular spot kick specialist Noble let Antonio take the pen. Antonio later revealed that Noble said before the game “you’re on nine goals and I want you to reach double figures because of how well you’ve played, so you can have any pen we get”. In fairness he put it away very well, but it just shows that West Ham weren’t really too arsed.
     
    Yet despise this, United were in serious danger of losing to David Moyes before Greenwood equalised. For all the eulogising over Pogba, Martial and Fernandez, Greenwood is the one genuine superstar talent they have over there. 
     
    The two points dropped meant that we could beat Chelsea without helping United too much in the process. For them it all comes down to a one off game at Leicester now. Win or draw and they’re in, lose and they’re down to fifth as long as Chelsea don’t fuck it up against Wolves (which I wouldn’t rule out).
     
    Really want United to miss out for so many reasons, but mainly so I can see @RobbieOR bust out his regular “United are back lads. Back in fifth place” tweet.
     
    Final point on this week. You may have missed this but I couldn’t let it go as it wound me right up. Jon Moss actually has ‘Mossy’ inscribed on his boots. This is worse than that time Michael Oliver had tramlines shaved into his head. There’s nothing more cringey than a referee trying to be cool.
     
    You’re not cool. If you were cool you’d be playing. Referees aren’t cool so just accept that. 
     
    Here’s the thing, I often chastise myself for slating refs because it really is an incredibly tough job and I couldn’t do it. It’s the easiest thing in the world to sag off referees and we all do it to some degree, but it really is an incredibly tough job.
     
    As a rule I try not to be too insulting towards them unless there’s good reason (I’m not saying I succeed at this, just that I do try), which is usually related to them being arrogant in some way shape or form, or if they show a clear bias towards one team or against ours.
     
    Despite him repeatedly awarding penalties to United I’ve occasionally felt bad about constantly ripping Moss and calling him “Fat Jon Moss”, but when I saw ‘Mossy’ on his boots my reaction was….
     

     
     
     
     
     
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