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Tuesday May 26: Ok so you know I said yesterday that I’m over all the Istanbul stuff and it does nothing for me these days? Turns out I was wrong. LFCTV had Carra and Xabi doing a watch along of the game together so I thought “I’ll give it a little watch for 5 minutes”. 45 minutes later I’m sat there thinking “that was fucking boss”. The thing that I didn’t really appreciate at the time but it stands out massively now is just how much better than Milan side was than ours. I mean I knew they were better, but not to the extent that I see it now. Not only did I go into that game thinking we could win it, but at half time at 3-0 down I was STILL telling people it wasn’t over and if we got an early goal etc Now fair enough, I was shitfaced and I’m sure without the benefit of alcohol I wouldn’t have been so full of bravado, but it’s only really now when I look back that I realise we shouldn’t have had any chance. They were better than us in virtually every position and some of the all time greats of the modern era in their side. I didn’t see it that way back then because I was in the moment and had a vastly inflated opinion of just how good some of our lads were. Classic example being Baros. He was my boy, I loved him and at that time I wouldn’t have swapped him for Shevchenko or Crespo. I look back now and just have to laugh. Gerrard is probably the only player we had that would have got into Milan’s starting eleven. Xabi was great but he was only 22 back then don’t forget. Carra and Sami were top players but Milan had Stam and Nesta. I thought Carra summed it up perfectly when he said that apart from that six minute spell Milan played brilliantly all night and we were barely able to lay a glove on them. Those six minutes though. Fucking hell. Meanwhile, Mbappe is praising us again. I don’t know if the financial side of it could ever be sorted (especially now), but this lad would come and play for us in a heartbeat I reckon. I think he’s part of the reason I’m so underwhelmed by Werner you know. That and the fact that any time I’ve watched Werner he’s looked like he couldn’t trap a bag of cement. We’re being linked with my boy Adama Traore today too. Another player I’d take over Werner all day (which I'm fully aware that in time might make me look like a massive fool). He’s developed hugely over the last 12 months but is still really raw. Imagine what he could be though after Klopp worked his magic on him. I get that there are a lot of you reading this who aren’t sold on Traore, but look at it this way. Even his critics would surely agree that there are days when Traore is completely unplayable, right? Shit, we’ve seen it against us, Robbo even spoke about it recently. Well Klopp would make those days much more frequent, like he's done with Salah and Mané. So what’s not to love about that? If we signed Adama, I wouldn't just be posting the dancing Van Damme gifs, I'd be acting them out. Wednesday May 27: Liverpool and Cheltenham were among the worst hit areas when Covid descended upon us in March. Can’t think why that would be, can you? The government isn’t buying it, of course. “There are many factors that could influence the number of cases in a particular area, including population density, age, general health, and the position of an area on the pandemic curve.” Yeah, I’m sure allowing 250k race goers to congregate together in a confined space and then go off to spread it into all the local bars, coffee shops and restaurants had nothing to do with it. Or allowing 3,000 fans from Madrid to fly in to attend a footy match, even though in their own country that was no longer allowed because of the escalating rate of infection. I’m 99% sure I caught it at that Madrid game. I know without any question that I passed it onto to my wife and daughter but thankfully we’re all ok (although my wife still isn’t fully recovered and has had various other issues as a result of it), but for all I know though I’ve passed it on to someone else who may have died, or who spread it to someone else who did. There’s no way of knowing, so I try not to think about it too much but it is in the back of my mind. I tell myself I probably didn’t because I work from home and don’t often come into contact with others, but maybe I’ve been in a shop and touched something and passed it on that way? I didn’t show symptoms until five days afterwards so who knows what may have happened in those five days. Thankfully I’d already decided the week previously that we were all staying away from my parents, or I would have passed it on to them too. How many others like me got it that night and then spread it around? People died as a result of that game being played and because of the decision not to ban the away fans. There have been so many bad decisions taken by those in authority that this isn't even the worst of them, but no-one will ever be held accountable for any of it. They never are. Onto lighter things now, and Newcastle reportedly want Shaqiri. He’s better than that, although if he did go there he’d be a massive cult hero and they’d worship him because he’d be their best player. Maybe that would appeal to him, rather than being a little fish in a big pond? Wait, I’ve just realised something. I haven’t seen him in any of the training videos. Is he still injured? *sends message to journo mate* Yes, he is. This has to be the longest lay off with a calf injury since Pat Van Den Hauwe back in the day. Has Shaq been messing around with the Bennetts too? Random rumour of the day. We’re in for PSG right back Thomas Meunier. Not having that at all. We’ve got the best right back in the world and behind him we’ve got a kid who looks like he’s got everything it takes to be a great fill in any time Trent needs a rest. If you ignore his age and the fact he’s a kid that’s come through the Academy, and just judge Neco Williams on the performances he’s put in when he’s played in the first team, I reckon he’s not been spoken about anywhere near enough. He’s been man of the match in at least half of those appearances, and you can make a case for it in all but one of the others too. Neco is going to be a top player, so no, we don’t need an expensive, highly paid established international to act as cover for Trent. This is uncannily like a situation I found myself in as Portsmouth boss on Footy manager last week. I’ve got a brilliant young Danish right back (you won’t know him, he’s a regen as I’m into my 12th season now) and I had Brazil’s first choice right back rotating with him. It was a perfect set up, except I had a home grown kid coming through who was class so I reluctantly sold the Brazilian to clear a path for him. These are the tough decisions us top managers need to make, and I’m sure Klopp is cut from the same cloth as me so Neco’s path will be clear and we won’t be signing Meunier or anyone else for that matter. Now onto your 'weekly Chico'. Today it's not Stevie Nicol talking bollocks, it's someone talking bollocks about Stevie Nicol. Tony Evans says Nicol was better than Maldini. Fucking hell is it any wonder we get so much shit from other fans? Maldini is widely regarded as the greatest left back of all time. Stevie Nicol was brilliant and massively under-rated by many, but just stop it, please. Now if he'd said that Andy Robbo was better than Maldini, I think that's something we could all get on board with. Thursday May 28: “I believe that when it comes to the integrity of this season anyway, it’s already gone. I feel sorry for Liverpool because no matter how it plays out, they deserve to win the league. They deserve to get the trophy. “But no matter how it plays out, even if we play all the games, it’s still going to be the year spoiled by the pandemic. It’s not going to be that year that Liverpool won the league being the best team and, you know, it’s 30 years they haven’t won for. “So I do feel sorry for Liverpool and their players and Jordan [Henderson], but in terms of integrity, there’s no way you could say that this is a viable competition. “It’s like running a marathon, 20 odd miles, stopping for two months and then sprinting the last bit and going: ‘Ah, that was a good time that.'” Eh? It’s not like that at all. That’s a terrible analogy that, Troy. You’re still my boy and that (although you’re skating on thin ice), but maybe stop talking for a bit, yeah? Not sure you should be talking about integrity either, given that you’ve gone back to training only a few days after saying nothing would make you come back because your son’s safety is more important than anything. He was right up until he got to the bit about it not being a viable competition. It will always be remembered as the year when footy was stopped because of a global pandemic, and some historical records might even use an asterisk to indicate that, but it’s a bit of a leap to go from that to saying it wasn’t a viable competition. 38 games will have been played by every team, and the results will determine where everyone finishes. Yes it's not a normal situation, but it's literally the same for every team in the league so how is it not 'viable'? Don't make me go back to hating you and bringing out the 'bee sting face' insults, Troy. We don't want to go back to those dark days. Meanwhile, the lads were back in ‘normal’ training today. By that I mean it’s back to being one large group. Looking forward to the video tomorrow. Friday May 29: What the fuck? Some games are supposed to be played behind closed doors on police orders. The derby is one of those and both clubs have objected. This is scandalous really. Every game that’s meant to be switched to neutral grounds involves northern teams. Not one London team is affected by it. How the fuck can they justify that? It’s not even the local police that are making the decision, it’s a national thing. So, Merseyside police have no problem with it, but the decision is taken over their heads. Honestly, it’s an outrage. How is Newcastle v Man City in need of being moved to a neutral ground? Or Sheffield United v Man United? It seems completely random, like they’ve just said “right, let’s make these northern monkeys play at a neutral ground. Show them who runs the show here.” Honestly, this fucking country. There’s no way this can stand. It’s insulting in the extreme. I understand to a degree why they’d want to move our games because they’re worried about us winning the title and people celebrating. I don’t agree with it because I have more faith in our ability to do the right thing than they have. I’m utterly baffled why they want to fuck over the likes of Sheffield United and Newcastle though. As for us, I’ve said before that all it would take was Jurgen doing a video telling everyone to not be dickheads and to stay at home and it’d be fine. Yeah you’d get the odd over exuberant knobhead not following the rules, but you wouldn’t have huge numbers that the police aren’t able to control. Also today, the video from training was great. Salah and Lovren re-united at last and it was just brilliant seeing them all in a normal training environment again. I say normal, but there are still some things you wouldn’t normally see. For example, they all have their own chair which is distanced from everyone else and I doubt we’ll see much in the way of high fives and hugging. Some contact is inevitable once they start ‘full’ training but I imagine a lot of these measures will be in place for the foreseeable future now. To be honest, right now it’s difficult to see an end to any of it, as we’ve seen that whenever the government relaxes any measure you get a load of knobheads going down the beaches and sitting right on top of each other (which is probably the government's plan anyway, so they can shift the blame onto the public). This isn’t going away any time soon is it? Saturday May 30: So there was a load of testing done on PL players and staff over the last couple of days, and not one positive case was reported. That’s brilliant news and shows that the measures taken by clubs is working. If this continues and players stick to the rules and don’t go all Jack Grealish / Callum Hudson-Odoi on us, then this season should be played out without any real problems. I’m half expecting some cunts like West Ham to go and deliberately get their entire playing staff infected just to put a stop to it. I can just see Sullivan, Gold and Brady dragging the squad into the nearest Covid ward demanding patients cough on the players. Ok, so that’s a tad melodramatic, but they are tories so can you honestly rule anything out? Actually that’s just reminded me of something I read a couple of months ago. After the Atletico game Diego Costa was walking through the mixed zone at Anfield and was coughing at journalists to amuse himself. That might be the most Diego Costa thing ever. He’s just an out and out villain. He’s the bad guy in the old westerns, dressed in black and sat in the corner of the saloon with his hat over his face, chewing on a toothpick. He’s lucky he wasn’t arrested. But then again, the authorities weren’t exactly taking it seriously back in March were they? I'd like to think that knowing what he does now, Costa wouldn't do the same thing again, but it's Diego Costa so who knows. In other news today, it’s Stevie’s 40th birthday and Klopp had the squad sing happy birthday to him at training today. Not gonna lie, I got emotional. Don’t even know why as it’s ridiculous when you think about it, but for whatever reason it gave me a massive lump in my throat. Speaking of Stevie, he wants Brewster for next season. Not sure whether Klopp will go for that as the standard isn’t great up there. Would he be better off at a leading Championship club or Rangers? I see both sides of the argument but I’d probably let him go to Rangers because there’s a pressure to perform there that won’t necessarily be there at Derby or Swansea or whoever. It’s a goldfish bowl and he’ll be playing in front of big crowds with a pressure to win virtually every game. And he’d be playing for Gerrard. What better preparation to try and forge a career at Liverpool than that? Brewster is a strange one really. He’s so highly rated by Klopp and the staff and his youth pedigree is top drawer. The problem is he’s miles away from the level of the current front three, and he’s not really suited to playing wide, which further limits his chances of breaking in. He’s so good that you wouldn’t want to give up on him so he might be a Harry Wilson type, who will be loaned out until he’s about 23 or so and then a decision will need to made. I'd like to see him make it here but it's going to be really tough for him I think, especially when we sign Mbappe who's virtually the same age as him. On the subject of Wilson though, he is staying at Bournemouth until the end of the season by the way. Probably the best thing to do. He’s been there all season and he’s done well. Let him try and finish the job by helping them stay up. There is a part of me would have liked to have seen him get a chance in some of our remaining games, but those minutes will probably go to Elliott which is no bad thing. Sunday May 31: And speaking of our 'Divine Ponytail', this is great. Turns out that before we signed Harvey, Real Madrid were trying to land him and they invited him and his family on a tour of the Bernebeu. While in the trophy room they stopped to look at a shirt worn by Sergio Ramos. Madrid thought he was admiring it and offered to arrange for him to meet Ramos. Harvey said “No thanks, I don’t like him after what he did to Mo Salah”. How great is that? We all knew he was a red but this story was just brilliant. Him and his Dad were in Kiev apparently, so he clearly harbours the same resentment towards Ramos that the rest of us do. I love this kid. Almost every young footy player in his situation - Red or not - would have been made up to meet Ramos. For him to deliver a snub like that is great. Kid after my own heart. Also today, there was an interview on Sky with Robbo where he was asked about different quotes people have made about him. It was great, he choked up when they read out a quote from Klopp about how great he is and that there are no negatives. He kept it together but you see he was really emotional about it. Fucking love Andy Robbo you know, I think he’s probably my favourite player even though there are plenty of others who run him close. Also saw an interview with Trent today on LFCTV, and his hair is getting out of control now. He’s starting to look like Fellaini! I hope he keeps growing it just to see how it goes. Bobby too. His new look is fucking boss, he needs to keep that and not get his barber around as soon as it’s allowed. I fear he won't though. He loves his haircuts too much. This new 'Little Richard' vibe he's got going is ace though. More Koulibaly bullshit today. £50m plus Origi is the latest rumour. If we needed him I’d do that deal in an instant as he’s worth it. As I keep saying though, I don’t see any way KLopp is going to make that kind of outlay on a player who will force Joe Gomez onto the bench. It’s just not how he operates. You could splash out on a top forward because you could still play him with the other three as well as rotating them all. You can do that to some degree with centre halves too of course, but Van Dijk plays every game and Koulibaly is very much in that mould too. So no, I can’t see it, although I wouldn’t complain about it as Koulibaly is fucking ace. Coutinho is looking for a Premier League return. You know how I feel. I’d defo have him back if the price was right, but I understand why plenty wouldn’t. I think part of the reason I would is because I don’t want to see him playing for Chelsea or Arsenal or whoever. Not because I think he’d make a huge difference to them, but just because it would just make me sad. Part of me wishes he’d never left but then if he hadn’t would we still have signed Van Dijk, Fabinho and Alisson? Highly unlikely, so it all worked out for the best. For us anyway. It’s been shite for Phil. Klopp did warn him though and he never listened. Monday Jun 1: Happy Number Six day! Doesn’t feel like a year does it? Mind you, I’ve noticed that since I turned forty everything seems to be in fast forward mode. My daughter is 13. Where the fuck did thirteen years go? It’s quite scary really, I wish things would just slow down a bit but that’s not happening. I mean we’re halfway through 2020 already. Where the fuck have these six months gone? I watched a few videos today on LFCTV showing the celebrations and it all came flooding back. Not memories from the time, as when the whistle went everyone was going mad in the Echo Arena and I didn’t really see anything on the screen. I remember getting back home and watching it all though. And then the next day soaking up everything. It’s weird that one of the things that really stuck with me was on the final whistle Klopp was dived on by Lovren and Moreno. Two players who were left out of the team (and in Moreno’s case who hardly played at all), yet the first thing they did when the whistle blew was to run to him. They could have ran to anyone, but they dived on Kloppo. That speaks volumes about him I think. Then there was the celebration with Klopp and Hendo. I saw that today and it’s as emotional as it was then. Just a great night. Nothing like Istanbul of course, but in its own way just as special. Barcelona was Istanbul for this generation. After that the final was always going to be something of an anti-climax but frankly who’s arsed? Meanwhile, the players all took a knee in the centre circle at Anfield today as a show of solidarity to the anti racism protests in America. It provided the perfect opportunity for Man United twitter to go into meltdown about the Suarez t-shirts. So fucking tedious but so predictable. Sportsmen and women can’t really win in these situations. If they take a stand some will say they need to just do their jobs and stay out of politics. If they do nothing, others will accuse them of hiding from their responsibilities. In terms of what they did today, I say good for them although it does leave them open to potential criticism in the future if they don’t take a stand over something else of great importance. Let’s say for example, China kills a load of it’s own citizens again and we don’t see footy players throughout Europe making a stand about it. You’ll get all the whataboutery dicks kicking off about it. There’s nothing the club can do about it though. In certain situations maybe they can advise players what to do and what not to do, but given their track record of decision making I’d say the players have better judgement than they do anyway! When you look at the replies to social media posts showing the photo from today, it’s full of negativity and whataboutery and calls for the club to not get involved in politics. Somehow a gesture of solidarity with the 'Black Lives Matter' movement has been turned into a stick to beat the club with again by its detractors. This isn’t a club thing though, it’s the players. The club have got on board with it too because what choice did they have? Imagine a group of white American billionaires telling Virgil and Gini that they don’t approve of their stance. I have no idea whether Henry, Werner and Gordon et al support this or not (I like to think they do, as they seem like decent enough people), but I do know that it was something they could not interfere with in any way shape or form regardless of what they think. The reason the players were at Anfield was because they were having an 11 v 11 game to help prepare for the resumption of the season. LFCTV should defo show extensive highlights of it as who wouldn’t want to watch that? Doesn’t matter if its only training, we’ve been starved for months and I’d actually be willing to pay to watch this training game. Finally today, it’s reported that City have failed to convince Werner to join them and that Guardiola think he’s going to us or Chelsea. You wouldn’t turn down City to join Chelsea, surely? So if he moves it looks like we’re the only realistic destination. He’s scored 30 goals and has 12 assists in 39 games this season, which is an incredible record. I should be more excited about this but my keep telling my brain “never mind the stats, he’s a headless chicken”. Hopefully my eyes are talking shite. Wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last. …..and that was the week that was