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Saturday Feb 8: The wives of Hendo and Mo both gave birth in the last day or so, pretty much exactly nine months since we beat Barca at Anfield. The first thing that came to my mind was fair play to Hendo considering the absolute state he was in at the end of that game. Mo had the night off so obviously he was full of beans, but Hendo collapsed in a heap at full time, his knee was in bits and he’d been pumped full of pain killers, so that’s a proper captain’s knock that. Milner took to social media to congratulate Hendo and quipped “assist by Origi” and hash tagged it #cornertakenquickly. What a man. Meanwhile, the investigation into our supposed ‘hacking’ of Man City’s scouting database has been closed. City will be livid but there’s fuck all they can say, publicly at least, because they accepted a £1m pay off with a legal binding agreement on both sides to make no comment on it. City weren’t arsed at the time because we were shite and posed no threat. Then, a few days after a meeting of the PL clubs in which some, including us, asked the PL just what they were doing about City’s blatant breaching of FFP rules, this story resurfaced in the Times, six years after the actual incident. Some co-incidence that, eh? The investigation was dropped by the FA because of the amount of time that has passed and because City had already accepted a settlement. Liverpool admitted no wrong doing, but because they coughed up a million quid that sort of implies guilt. From what I’ve been told, there was no ‘hacking’ and that’s a proper disingenuous way of putting it. The way these scouting systems are set up, the higher up the chain you are the more access you have. So, if you’re Michael Edwards for example, you’d be able to log in and you’d have access to all the scouting reports from everyone beneath you. If you’re one of the scouts on the lower rung of the ladder, you only have your own reports. Dave Fallows left City but he never ‘hacked’ anything to get back in. If he could still see the reports from the scouts who worked under him, it’s clearly because they never revoked his access. It’s claimed that he was looking at the reports for players they were scouting, and I’m sure he was because why the fuck wouldn’t you? It’s unethical and you can argue it’s poor form, but it’s not exactly crime of the century is it? Which is why we gave them a million quid by way of apology. The only reason it even reared it’s head again is because we became dead good and also because City were wanting to deflect from their own cheating. Classic case of ‘whataboutery’. Sunday Feb 9: Man City’s game is postponed due to the weather, meaning we might have to wait a bit longer to wrap up the title, depending on when that game is rescheduled for. Be funny if they stick in the middle of their winter break. It’d be even funnier if they were actually in a title race and could cry ‘conspiracy’. Difficult to do that from 22 points behind, although I’m sure that won’t stop the loons on Blue Moon. Saw a tweet today from Pedro Chirivella in response to something the clubs official account had put out about him. I had a little look at the replies and saw some fella saying he’s not going to make it here because he doesn’t have the physicality and he’s a yard slower than the other midfielders. That’s probably true, but what possesses someone to be tagging the player in on something like that? If I ruled the world, I’d find out who he was and I’d send the boys around to give him a kicking. It winds me right up. If he wants to tweet his opinion on Pedro and say he won’t make it here that’s fine. No problem at all as we all have opinions and social media gives us a platform to express them. When you tag the player in though, seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? Not just any player either. A young lad who has been sensational for us when he’s been drafted in for these cup games. I had a look through his account and Pedro often replies to fans who message him, so that tells me he reads his mentions and will have seen what this goon was saying. I’m sure it won’t have bothered him, but it bothers me as there’s just no need for it. So many people in this world are just fucking turds. Monday Feb 10: Bernardo Silva says Man City gave up on the title too soon. "I think we got to a point one month ago where we gave up a bit too soon and that's why we're twenty-something points behind now. We shouldn't have done that and it was not on purpose. It was in our head, everyone was disappointed to be already ten or 15 points behind and our heads went a bit down. It's difficult because we're a team used to winning and last season we won everything in England.” First thing I thought when reading that was “Mentality Midgets”. "In the important moments we’ve not been as lucky as in past seasons,” he said. “We always concede in the last minute, Liverpool always score in the last minute. These little details in football make the difference." They’ve let in a couple of late ones and we’ve scored a few late ones, but it doesn’t account for 22 points worth of difference. You keep telling yourself it’s just bad luck though. Another day, another bullshit transfer rumour. Bayern want to sign Bobby for £75m. That would barely even pay for his teeth. Even if they doubled that I reckon Klopp would tell them to fuck off. Tuesday Feb 11: Published an article from my mate Chris on the site last night. It was a piece inspired by the Owen interview on Carra’s podcast last week and it was very much pro-Owen. As soon as I tweeted out the link for it I decided I wasn’t going to look at my mentions as I knew what to expect, especially when Carra and Owen both put it on their Twitter too, which always attracts way more of the lunatic fringe. Not liking him is fine, but it always makes me squirm when I see the words “Judas” and “Rat” thrown around. It’s what I expect from United fans. It’s the same mentality that has them booing anyone who has had any connection to us, no matter how small. If you don’t like Owen, that’s your prerogative, but the whole “once a manc never a red” thing just makes me cringe. Leave that bitterness to them. I said my piece on all of that last week so I’m not going to go over it again, but there was one point made by Chris that I hadn’t really thought too much about and now that I have it’s really pissed me off. How come the club’s social media account acts as though Michael Owen doesn’t exist? As I say, it’s not something I’d paid any attention to but Chris took issue that they’re more than happy to tweet Happy Birthday to Suarez or Torres or do one of those “on this day (insert number) years ago (insert player) scored this incredible goal” posts, but they never do anything like that for Owen. It’s actually fucking weird when you think about it. I mean look at today for example. They were posting “Happy Birthday to Steve McManaman” which is fine, as whatever people think of Macca and how he left, he was a great player for us and gave us some great memories. He also won two trophies for us, almost single handedly. Just like Michael Owen in fact, but where were his birthday wishes from the club? I’ve heard people saying Owen is a bit of a whiner and seems to feel sorry for himself. I agree, he is occasionally coming across like that when he talks about Liverpool and his legacy, but can you really blame him when he’s seeing the club try to airbrush him out of their history? Why not go the whole hog and remove some of those trophies he won for us from the trophy wall they’re so keen to keep showing us all? I get why some people don’t like him. I get why a lot of people are completely indifferent to him. What I don’t get is why the club are treating him differently to other ex players who left. If it’s because he played for Manchester United then that’s utterly embarrassing, smalltime, manc behaviour. We should be better than that. Wednesday Feb 12: Timo Werner rumours are really gathering pace. He’s been lighting it up in Germany this year apparently, averaging a goal a game and looking like a superstar. He’s a good age (24) and by all accounts is seen as a good fit for how we play. So why am I not excited by this in the least? Mbappe, that’s why. I’m setting myself up for one big disappointment this summer when he ends up going to fucking Chelsea or somewhere. Still, you just know Jurgen will end up bringing someone in who ends up being fucking incredible. It might even be Werner. Thursday Feb 13: Or maybe it will be Sancho? We’re said to be one of the teams to have contacted Dortmund to express an interest. I think I’ve written before that I’ve seen virtually nothing of him as I don’t watch England or Dortmund. I can’t actually remember ever watching him play at all in fact, although I’ve seen some highlights posted on social media. The price for him seems like something we wouldn’t pay. I could see us pushing the boat out for Mbappe, but going over £100m for Sancho when Werner is available at half that isn’t really our style. We’ll go big when it’s a hole that desperately needs filling (Virg and Alisson) but when you’ve got the best front three in the world it seems a bit silly spending that much on a player who isn’t better than what we have. Of course Sancho is really young and might soon become better than what we have, which is why I wouldn’t rule it out entirely. Friday Feb 14: Oh my God, this season is just too good to be true. City being banned from Europe for two years would be the biggest game changer I can ever remember. It would finish them. They’d lose Guardiola, half the players would fuck off, no top stars would want to join them and they’d just be damaged goods. And it would be 100% deserved, the arrogant cheating cunts. Still, it’s not all bad for them, as when everyone fucks off then at least boy wonder Phil Foden might actually get to start the occasional league game. And of course Raheem will still be there, as he’s always shown such incredible loyalty to his previous clubs. Seriously, as soon as this news broke I bet Aidy Ward was on the phone to potential new clubs. You know where I reckon Sterling is going to eventually end up? Old Trafford. Don’t ask me why, I just have a gut feeling. He’d have no qualms about going there and I don’t think anyone else would pay the asking price. A two year ban from the CL would be fucking catastrophic for City. They’d lose around £150m, which is a problem when you’re already struggling to comply with FFP rules. If they’re £150m down, they have to make that up somehow, and they can’t just concoct some fake sponsorship that comes out of the Sheikh’s pockets. And that’s even without the PL and FA getting involved. They may have sanctions of their own yet. I’ve said all along that it’s up to the clubs really. If everyone puts pressure on the PL to do something about it, they’ll have to. The thing that’s done my head in is that City’s cheating is seen by many as being ok because it only impacts the other big clubs. It doesn’t though, it’s fucked it for everyone. City have hoovered up all the domestic cups, meaning no-one else has had a chance. Look at what happened to Watford in the cup final. They were humiliated. Or Burton Albion in the League Cup semi. Had City played by the same rules everyone else is playing by then maybe some of the smaller teams would have stood a chance at winning a cup. This shit affects every club, not just the ones like us and United that have missed out on titles because of their cheating. It’s hard to shake the feeling that they’ll somehow wriggle out of it because money and power always wins. It wouldn’t shock me but then I think if UEFA didn’t believe they had a watertight case why would they come down so hard on City? If this decision isn’t upheld, then FFP may as well be fucked off completely as it’s utterly pointless. And if that happens, City will spend double, treble, what they did before because there’ll be nothing to stop them. The funny thing is though we’ll still be better than them as long as Klopp is here. and that was the week that was….