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You know that story about the tortoise and the hare? Well this was it played out in the form of a football match. Literally the only way Arsenal could win this game is if we took them too lightly and allowed it to happen, and sure enough we did. They couldn’t beat us any other way. That’s just a stone cold fact. The gulf between us and Arsenal is the biggest it’s been in my lifetime. This is arguably the best side we’ve ever had and it’s without the question the worst Arsenal side I've seen. I’m actually offended that we lost to them. I’m steaming about it in fact. It’s partly about the points record, but it’s mostly that we lost to an Arsenal side that I couldn’t possibly have a lower opinion of. They’re a fucking disgrace. A cowardly, spineless, and yet somehow irrationally deluded and smug, disgrace. If there’s one team I can’t stand losing to it’s this Arsenal side because I’ve got less respect for them than I have any other side in the league. Arsenal have had some great sides in the past and as a club I've always respected them. Now though I actually get wound up by how shit and gutless they are. I don't even take pleasure from them losing these days, I just get irrationally pissed off by what they've become. They’re pathetic, weak and spineless and we should never be losing to them in a million years. Some of our players clearly felt the same way. How else can you explain Virgil and Alisson taking the liberties they did? Others did too only they weren’t punished as severely. Like I said, classic tale of “the Tortoise and the Hare”. Arsenal only got near our goal three times all night, and two of those only happened because we passed the ball straight to them in our own box. They created next to nothing of their own and were so inferior it was embarrassing. Not as embarrassing as actually losing to these wastrels though. Look, I know it doesn’t matter and that next week when Hendo is lifting the trophy this result will be an irrelevant footnote on a glorious season. I get it, and if this game doesn’t bother you that’s sound. I respect your right to not give a shit and I hope you respect mine to be annoyed as fuck about it. Fucking Arsenal? Jesus Christ lads. There was always a danger that results would suffer once the title was won and maybe I was naive to think any different. It’s happened before - Graeme Souness doesn’t seem to be able to go five minutes without mentioning it - and it isn’t about a lack of effort. You can see in all the games we’ve had since the restart that the effort and commitment is there. There’s no slacking off and you can tell that the lads desperately want to win every game and are pissed off when they don’t. Effort isn’t the problem, but focus definitely is. Stupid little errors have crept in that simply weren’t there when we were still trying to secure the title. Souness describes it as losing “one or two percent” and that no matter how much the team he played in wanted to win they were powerless to do anything about it. That’s what we’re seeing now and while it’s completely understandable it’s still a real shame that the season is petering out like this. It’s like a long distance runner who knows the race is already won. Does he sprint for the line and get the world record, or slow down because he’s won and knows no-one can catch him? We could have been the greatest champions this country has ever seen. Now we won’t be. The City ‘Centurions’ were in a similar situation to us but they didn’t let points slip at the end, they kept grinding away amassing as many points as they could. That’s why they can claim to be the best ever (despite the big asterisk due to the arl illegal spending) and we can’t. Well, we can, but there’s not really any statistical basis in it really. Not now. We could have kept sprinting flat out to the finish line but instead we stopped to wave at friends and family, to sign a few autographs and to chat up the hot girl standing my the finish line. And while we were doing that the fucking Arsenal tortoise crawled past us. I’m not taking this one very well at all because it’s Arsenal. After the Burnley result I was pissed off for the players, not pissed off with them. Against Burnley they were unlucky and I felt bad for them. Against Arsenal they got exactly what they deserved, which seems a strange thing to say when you see the massive disparity in possession and shots. Statistically we battered Arsenal and if you didn’t see the game you’d think that we were just massively unlucky and it was a freak result. It was a freak result but we were anything but unlucky. We got what this rank complacency deserved. It all started so well too. We were in complete control and Arsenal looked scared stiff. We took the lead when Robbo crossed for Mané to finish. Those two were our best players on the night and couldn’t have done much more than they did. Everything was fine up until the drinks break though. For the third time since the restart we gave up a goal almost immediately after one of these breaks. Focus, you see. I can’t believe Virg did that you know. But then on the other hand I sort of can. The only weakness he has is that the game is often so easy for him that he can get a little too relaxed occasionally. This was beyond relaxed, he was almost comatose when he played that backpass. What made it even worse was his desperate appealing for a free-kick. Yeah Pepe did pull him a little and that might have impacted the pass, but even if the VAR feed was hooked up to my living room and the ref asked my opinion, even I wouldn’t have given a free-kick for that. There is nothing in this world that will convince me that Virgil would have done that if we were still chasing the title. As I keep saying, it’s not that the lads aren’t putting in the effort or that they aren’t desperate to win, but they’ve just mentally switched off a fraction and at this level that is fatal, even against bums like Arsenal. Alisson’s mistake soon after wasn’t anything like as glaring as Virgil’s, but in some ways it was even worse. Having seen us give away such a sloppy goal everybody’s senses should have been heightened and their concentration levels off the scale. So for Alisson to then do what he did is really fucking irresponsible. Fabinho also presented the ball to Arsenal in our final third too but he got away with it. What the fuck was going on? You know what we missed here?Hendo. He’s the one that keeps everyone on point and his absence was glaring. On the touchline as all of this was unfolding Klopp looked like he wanted to kill someone. Him and me both. I was hoping he’d get stuck right into them at half time because for one of only a handful of occasions in recent years they genuinely needed a rocket up them. Who knows whether he did or not, but if he did the second half performance certainly didn’t reflect it. The stupid mistakes were gone but by that point the damage had been done. The horse had bolted. Now it was up to the forwards to show their worth and help out the lads at the back. Predictably they failed to do it. I say predictably because my faith in our forward line has just steadily diminished over the course of the season. We’ve gone from a team that a couple of years ago could score at will but who conceded too many to one that’s generally very secure at the back but doesn’t score anywhere near as many as before. We used to be involved in far too many shoot outs but we usually just about edged them because of the firepower we have. Now when the defence has a rare off day the forwards don’t bail them out much. We've done brilliantly these last two years but what can I say, I'm greedy and I want the prolific goalscoring of a couple of years back to accompany the maturity and resilience we now have. I’m largely exonerating Sadio from these all too frequent concerns I’m airing about the forwards as he’s been on a steady upwards curve since he arrived. He gets better every year and he’s gone from being the number three to the number one and it’s not even close anymore. He's great. Salah’s finishing is so up and down though that he can go from Ian Rush to Stuart Barlow in the blink of an eye. He was shite against Arsenal. Just fucking shite. There’s no other way of putting it. As for Bobby, he was what he’s been far too many times this season. Ineffective. He was subbed yet again. Feels like that happens every week now. Firmino actually looks better when he doesn’t play because when he isn’t there we definitely miss him. That’s more down to the lack of quality in those who replace him than it is about what he’s been bringing to the side though. It’s easy to defend Bobby because of all the little things he does that aren’t always appreciated. I get that, I’m fully aware of his worth to the team and I’ve often said I wouldn’t swap him for any number nine in the world. This season’s Bobby though, yeah there’s quite a few I’d swap him for. Here’s the thing. All those great unselfish things he does with and without the ball that allow his fellow forwards to shine? They’re great and I love him for it. Guess what though, he was doing them two years ago while also scoring 26 goals himself. I want that Bobby back, but maybe that was his equivalent of Salah’s 44 goals season and that it doesn’t reflect who either of them actually are? I hope not, but look at the numbers since and it’s definitely trending that way. Even without the numbers you can see it with your own eyes anyway. Both of them need a bounce back year, which I realise sounds an incredibly spoilt and entitled thing to say considering the season the team has had. I’m not wrong though. They set ridiculously high standards for themselves and they are now failing to live up to them. If we are to sustain the success we’ve had these last couple of years then we’re going to need more from Salah and Firmino than we’ve had this season, because the number of narrow margin victories we’ve had isn’t sustainable in the long term. We dominate most games but we often don't have the goals to show for it. That’s just obvious to me, we need more from those two, especially as it seems clear that we won’t be shaking things up by adding a fourth forward to the mix. Competition brings out the best in people but the front three have none and it’s beginning to show. It’s not just them though. We need more from players like Ox, not to mention Origi and Minamino. Ox got the start in this game and did absolutely nothing to suggest he should be in the side for the next game. I like Ox, we all do, he’s a top lad and he’s had bad luck with injuries. We need to see more from him though. This was a real chance for him to do something and lay down a marker for a place. Instead he did very little and was rightly subbed for Keita, who in turn did nothing. I’m genuinely now thinking that Jones should be ahead of both of them. Am I kidding myself there? Put it this way, I have far more faith and confidence in Jones getting us a goal or making something happen than I do in either Ox or Naby. Arsenal’s defence is as weak as a new born kitten yet I knew early in that second half there was no way we were scoring again. You could just tell. We might have gotten something from a set-piece but I knew we weren’t going to break them down because it was obvious that we were running out of ideas. It was basically just get it to Trent and let him cross it. I had no issue with Klopp taking off Firmino and Salah as I’d had it with both of them by that point. The problem is when you see Origi loping on with his stupid blonde hair you know he’s going to do fuck all. I think it’s clear now that Divock's power was in the dreadlocks. Without them he’s been shite. Tell me I'm wrong? Minamino was kind of spritely and was more involved than Bobby, but he doesn’t inspire any confidence either. I’m hoping for him to do something but I’m never expecting it. That being said he deserves a chance to show what he can do and personally I’d be playing him in Firmino’s role in the final two games as we need to see what he is. He had a penalty shout when he was bundled into by Tierney but I wouldn’t have given that as there wasn’t much in it. He needs to be stronger and he’d have been able to take the chance. I’m trying to think of a defeat that has pissed me off more than this one and I’d have to go back a long time. It’s my own fault as I set myself up for this disappointment due to the complete and utter contempt I’ve got for this Arsenal team. Defeat here was always going to hit me harder than most. It’s not a hatred based on rivalry, it’s based entirely on how offended I am by what Arsenal have become. They fold like a deck of cards any time they face anyone decent and the points they pick up invariably come from beating up on the weak and out of form. They’re a playground bully. I despise how pitiful and meek they have become while still maintaining the arrogance they had when they were good and I see losing to them as probably the most unacceptable thing we can do. I’d have been less angry if we’d lost at Norwich. Losing to this Arsenal team is just completely unacceptable to me, especially when it’s the double whammy of screwing up the chance to beat the points record. Some of you never cared about the record to begin with so there’s no sense of disappointment there. I understand that. At the beginning of the season it wasn’t on my radar either. All that mattered to me was winning the title and anything else was just a nice little extra. When you get into the position we did though, with results that had exceeded literally anything we’d seen before in this country (at one stage it exceeded anything that’s been done in the five major European leagues), you realise that there is an opportunity to do something that will live on for generations. I honestly don’t think we’ll ever get the chance to do this again. We were on course for well over a hundred points up until a couple of weeks ago and now the best we can do is 99, which in itself is still great obviously. You have to seize these opportunities though because chances are you’ll never have it again. Let me tell you a little story. About three years ago I was playing golf and was one under par after 14 holes. Now you have to understand that I’m not actually that good and this was just one of those rare times when everything fell into place. I couldn’t even enjoy how I was playing because the pressure I’d put on myself was fucking huge. I knew I’d probably never be in this position ever again. The chance to finish a round under par? I’d dreamed of it since I first started playing but I’d never gotten remotely close to it. The 15th hole was a tough bastard (in this analogy you can say it’s the away game at the Etihad the other week) and I knew there was a good chance I’d drop something there. And I did. A bogey put me back to level par. But still, if I finished strongly I could still be under par which would be incredible. I’d have killed for three pars and an even par round because I knew it was a once in a lifetime chance. I blew it though. I got through 16 and 17 unscathed and then dropped a shot on the last. It was still the best round I’ve ever had (and ever will have, although I do still live in hope) and I’m proud of what I did. But because of how it ended I still have a slight sense of disappointment. That’s how I’m feeling now about this season. Great, the best I’ve ever seen and overall I’m over the moon about it. But it could have been something for the ages and now it won’t be because we were two over for the last four holes. I’m not arsed about rival fans celebrating us not getting to 100 points. That’s embarrassing for them more than anything if that’s all they have to cling to. I didn’t want to break the record to rub their noses in it, I wanted us to break the record so that these lads would go down in history as the greatest champions ever. I’m not sad for me that they didn’t do it. I’m sad for them. And also angry at them for LOSING TO FUCKING ARSENAL! As for what happens next, I’m past caring now. I’m now in the place some of you were from the moment the title was won. If you didn’t care about records then the season was over as soon as the title was secured. I did care about records and now in the space of three days we’ve blown two of them. So yeah I don’t give a fuck about the last two games now. I have zero interest in them as it means nothing anymore. In fact a tiny part of me will actually be annoyed now if we win them both and end up on 99 points. I want to see Jones, Elliott, Minamino and Williams. Klopp did the right thing by trying to honour the competition and take every game as seriously as if we were still going for the title. He’s picked his strongest team for the most part but they aren’t getting the results so let’s have a look at some players with next season in mind now. Star man is Robbo by the way. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Origi), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Keita); Salah (Shaqiri), Firmino (Minamino), Mané:

Tuesday Jul 7: There’s some talk today that the club are looking at ways of getting fans back into Anfield asap. I expect this to happen sooner rather than later as there are countries around Europe that are playing in front of reduced crowds. I’m desperate to go the game again but don’t know if I’d go yet to be honest. Currently I’m fine as I’ve had the virus and have the antibodies, but no-one seems to know how long those antibodies will keep you protected. I caught the thing at the Atletico match and passed it on to my wife and daughter. Not sure I can really justify going back and putting us all at risk again until we know it’s 100% safe. Realistically there’s no way it can be 100% safe as there are so many variables involved. It has to happen though because clubs need the money. Even the big clubs can’t go on indefinitely like this, but the smaller ones simply have to get fans back in or they’ll go under. Such a fucked up situation this and it’s scary really when you think about it. I mean what’s to stop something like this happening again, only next time it might be an even more severe virus. My Dad has already decided he’s giving it up so the days of us going the game together are over now. I don’t blame him and at least he’s going out with us on top, but it’s pretty fucking upsetting really. All because some dirty bastard ate some bat soup. If you believe that’s what caused it of course. I’m not convinced but ultimately what the fuck do I know about it? Joe Public will never know what caused it. All I know is the people in power throughout the world are generally all unscrupulous, untrustworthy cunts so with that in mind I wouldn’t rule anything out. Anyway, back to footy and Klopp is asked about Brewster’s future and whether he’ll be a part of the squad next season. Typically he gave nothing away and said that any decision would be discussed with Brewster first rather than in a press conference. He’d done alright at Swansea but is he anywhere near at a level where he’s a viable option for our front three? Not for me, Clive. Put it this way, he’s no Mason Greenwood is he? That’s not to say he won’t be a top player in the future but he’s definitely not the prodigy that he was billed as a couple of years ago. I think he’ll be loaned out again but if we were to sell Origi then maybe he’d be kept around. The only thing is, you couldn’t play him wide as it wouldn’t be fair. He’s a centre forward, pure and simple. Mind you, it hasn’t stopped Klopp from shoehorning Divock out there has it? Also today, PSG are said be willing to pay £100m for Rashford. It’s probably bollocks but don’t be surprised to see PSG, City and Chelsea throwing the cash around this summer like Harry and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber when they got the briefcase open. Wednesday Jul 8: Brighton 1 L 3 Bit of a weird game this. We started like an express train and it looked like we might run away with it. Then it just sort of fizzled out and Brighton got on top. When they equalised it wasn’t a shock. They could have equalised too but Burn fluffed his lines. We tend to be good at weathering the storms though and we cam through it comfortably enough in the end. Keita’s performance was a delight. Very encouraging. Mo was brilliant too. Mixed night for Neco though. I thought he played well but he was left isolated with the lively Lamptey (my boy) too often and a couple of times he got done. The yellow card was really harsh but as soon as that happened he was always getting subbed as Klopp often errs on the side of caution in these situations, and rightly so. Still, he did alright and it's encouraging that he can be an option on the left as well as the right. Didn't look good for Hendo though. Worrying seeing him go off like that, and apparently the dressing room was really subdued afterwards. Klopp said he went in and was saying to them that it's hard winning away from home and they should be enjoying it. Then he saw Hendo and realised why the lads were so down. Thursday Jul 9: Ah bollocks. Hendo is out for the season and maybe the start of the next one. What that means for the shuffle remains to be seen but you’d have to think it’s in serious doubt now. If it’s not one thing it’s another. It’s almost like the football gods are saying ‘fine, you’ve won the title but we’ll be fucked if we’re letting you enjoy it”. Games behind closed doors, no parade, no proper celebrations and now no shuffle? Just fuck off. Meanwhile, Houllier has some big words of praise for Keita and compares him with…. *deep breath* Steven Gerrard. “Keita was playing for a ‘championship’ team in France,” Houllier told the Liverpool Echo. “They were struggling but he was playing everyone off the park. Like when I saw Steven Gerrard; he was practically everywhere and his maturity was impressive, even under pressure. I recommended Salzburg buy him and they followed me. “He has a good attitude. Once he fits in the [ Liverpool ] team, he will stay there.” Actually I’m not sure if he’s praising Keita there or just begging up his own talent spotting. GH loves telling everyone he discovered Gerrard doesn’t he? I’m more on board with Carragher’s take on Keita to be honest: “Keita’s statistics show a top player, but I don’t feel like I see that with my eyes”. Friday Jul 10: John Stones says that Man City believe they’re still the best team in the country. To quote a washed up musician with a arg Paul Weller haircut, this is too funny. They’re 23 points behind us. TWENTY THREE!!! Even if you still believe you’re the best you can’t say it when you’re 23 points behind the Champions as it makes you look like a deluded tit. Honestly, I can’t even put into words how stupid a thing that was to say. but I’ll try! I played golf last night and I played like absolute shit. Genuinely awful. I shot 95. That’s 23 over par, which is ironic because it’s also the number of points City are behind us. What Stones said is the equivalent of me saying I’m a boss golfer. I could have said it two years ago when I shot 73 on Kirkby, and Stones could have said what he said two years ago when they got 100 points and finished miles ahead of everyone else. To say it now, when you’re the Premier League equivalent of me shooting 23 over par? Well it’s just embarrassing, but then that’s Man City isn’t it? I guess it’s easier for Stones to tell himself that though. After all, a big reason they are no longer the best is because they are hugely vulnerable in the position he plays in, yet he can’t even get in the team and this week he was linked with a move back to Everton. Not sure there’s any chance of that considering “money can’t buy you Stones”. Any excuse to post this…. Saturday Jul 11: L 1 Burnley 1. For fuck’s sake. I really wanted that perfect home record and losing it like this feels so frustrating. I’ve just got a real sense of injustice after this. It’s partly our own fault for not taking our chances, but I’m mostly pissed off at the ref and VAR for not giving that clear pen. It’s just a fucking farce. Every week we’re seeing ridiculously bad decisions that aren’t corrected by VAR. I can’t stand it and would like it fucked off, but my view on it has changed over the course of the season. Initially I just hated it because I didn’t want it. I didn’t like the delays and the way it could take the emotion out of celebrating goals because you’re worried it’s going to be chalked off. As it’s turned out, that’s not really been the worst thing about it and I’ve almost got used to it. The reason it’s so shit is because while the technology is great it’s got fucking clowns using it. Refs often aren’t making decisions because they have the safety net of VAR. Sometimes they are making them and they’re thinking “its ok because if I’m wrong VAR will sort it”. Yeah, in theory that’s sound, except VAR isn’t sorting shit because most of the time the gimp in Stockley Park won’t over-rule the ref on the field. In the last few days alone there have been four or five astonishingly bad decisions that either haven’t been overturned or have been allowed to stand. The Robbo penalty today wasn’t even the worst of them. So yeah I still hate VAR and want it scrapped, but my reasons for it are different. I actually now think it could be a good thing in theory, but in reality it’s shit because you’ve still got the same fucking morons making bad calls even when they have the benefit of 40 different camera angles and slow motion replays. I’ve heard some pundits saying that ex players should be involved in the decision making process. No thanks, I’ve seen enough of Shearer and Murphy talking absolute bollocks about penalty decisions to know that won’t work. Besides, who would decide which ex players are covering which games? Knowing our luck we’d have Michael Ball and Paul Scholes making the decisions on our games. So the perfect record is gone and the reaction to it hasn’t been great. A lot of whining and complaining on social media. I’m as pissed off about the result as anyone (except maybe Robbo and Trent based on their ranting at full time!) and there’s nothing wrong with being upset we didn’t win. Keep it in perspective though for fucks sake. It’s fine to want to win every game and to be in a bad mood when we don’t. I’ve got the proper hump here and will have for a few days, but there’s a difference between being pissed off for the players and being pissed off with them. How anyone can be pissed off with a group of lads that ended our 30 year wait for the title is beyond me. That’s social media for you though I suppose. They’re like forums on steroids. Also today, Jack Charlton died. I always liked him until I found out he was into blood sports and enjoyed seeing hounds tear apart defenceless wild animals. So while I’m certainly not glad he’s dead, I can’t say I’m arsed either, which is a shame as I had a lot of time for him once. Any time I hear his name mentioned the first thing I always think of is a story my Dad always tells about going to Elland Road in the 70s. My Dad’s sister lives up there so my Dad was up there visiting one weekend when the Reds were playing Leeds. Him and my uncle went to the game but they were in with the Leeds fans. So anyway, my Dad being my Dad opens his big mouth doesn’t he, calling the Leeds centre half a “big yard dog”. Next thing this big hand is on his shoulder and some bruiser Leeds fan is asking my Dad to repeat what he just said. “I said he’s a big yard dog”. The guy gives my Dad one last chance to take it back and my Dad asks him “who was the greatest centre half ever?” The guy replies “Jackie Charlton”. My Dad says “that’s right. He was brilliant. So who’s this fella you’ve got now?”. The guy pauses for a second and then goes “he’s a yard dog”. They watched the rest of the game together and had a great time. Moral of the story is my Dad’s mouth can often land him in trouble but it can usually get him out of it too. Sunday Jul 12: Still pissed off about yesterday. It’s easier dropping points when we’ve been shite because you can rationalise that. It’s a different kind of pissed off. I was pissed off when we lost at Watford but equally I knew we got exactly what we deserved that day. We didn’t deserve to drop points yesterday but if you’re not clinical that can happen. Bigger picture wise it brings up a slight concern. Not because of yesterday as such, that can happen to anyone. City lost at Southampton the other day despite absolutely peppering the Saints goal and generally playing very well. That’s football sometimes. The concern I have is that we’ve won a shitload of close games this year (and last, actually) and so many of them could easily have turned out like yesterday. On the one hand it’s great how resolute this team is and how they’ve become a winning machine. On the other, I do think we make life more difficult for ourselves than need be because we aren’t as clinical as we were a couple of year ago. I’d like to think that the front three could recapture that magic from 2018 but it’s beginning to look like that was the exception rather than the norm. The norm is still pretty fucking boss like, but the combined goal tally is dropping year on year now so maybe it needs freshening up? I don’t want anyone replaced but a new face to shake up the status quo and raise everyone’s game can’t do any harm, can it? Unfortunately the pot is empty so I’m not expecting us to address is this summer. It’s disappointing but I can live with it, mainly because I always said that when we finally win the league I’ll be so grateful and so relieved that whatever happens the season after is fine. I’d love this to continue but if it doesn’t then so be it. The 30 year wait is over and a massive weight has been lifted from us. Now the spotlight will be on other teams who haven’t won it in a while. Like Arsenal. They look like they’re well on their way to a 30 year wait and then some. Meanwhile, Wilf Zaha revealed a series of vile racist messages sent to him on instagram before Palace played Villa today. Sickening shit it was, and it turns out it was from a fucking 12 year old kid. Jesus Christ, where does that come from? The kid was arrested but who puts that kind of shit in a child’s head? He didn’t come up with it on his own, so he’s had that instilled in him somewhere. Can’t shake the feeling that he really shouldn’t be the only one getting nicked here. David McGoldrick from Sheffield United shared a similar abusive message that was sent to him, and a number of black players have said that this happens regularly. Stopping the cunts from thinking the way they do isn’t easy, but banning them from platforms that are allowing them to spew their hate should be. Yet when people reported the Zaha abuse to instagram they were told that it wasn’t a serious enough breach of their rules to justify removing the account. Incredible. I genuinely don’t understand how that can happen and someone from instagram should be made to publicly answer for it. Tell us why that isn’t a serious enough breach of policy, because I’m sure we’d all love to know. Personally I’d love to hear someone try and justify it because there is literally no way you can without saying that racially abusing people is no big deal. Social media platforms really need to get their shit together as they’re enabling this shit. Monday Jul 13: Man City's ban is overturned. Of course it is. I knew that a couple of days ago when a journo with strong connections to City was running his mouth on Twitter saying he’d ‘heard’ that the result was going to be favourable. How did he hear that? Because City obviously knew they’d won and they couldn’t wait to brief people. What’s interesting to me is that even though they are guilty as sin and the evidence against them couldn’t have been stronger, City said all along this would get thrown out and they were right. Ultimately they’ve either paid someone off or they just have better lawyers than UEFA. Possibly both. They were not found not guilty because they were guilty. As far as I can recall they never even bothered trying to deny the claims against them, they just cried ‘persecution’ and moaned that they were hacked. This is a tough one to fix now. UEFA actually tried to do the right thing and punish them but they were over-ruled by a body with more power than them (I talking about CAS, not City, although that’s true as well). So UEFA are pretty much powerless to ever do anything about FFP now. What does it mean for FFP? What is there to stop City just going out this summer and inventing a new sponsorship deal with a billion pounds and completely rebuilding their defence? The other clubs will complain and ask UEFA to do something but what can they do now? This will have cost them a fortune and for what? They were made to look like City’s bitches. I’ll tell you what UEFA should do though. Something that is within their power. They should appoint a ‘friendly’ ref to ensure that City lose any time they get to the knockout stages, starting with the 2nd leg against Madrid. Normally I wouldn’t condone that but if City are going to cheat the system and flaunt it then why shouldn’t UEFA respond in kind? Personally I’d let Raul referee that game with Casillas and Figo running the line. The VAR feed should go directly to the HQ of UEFA’s top brass, let them handle those decisions…. “We’ve got a possible penalty for Man City, can you take a look at it please” What this has shown though is that you can cheat as much as like and you don’t need to cover it up particularly well because if you can delay it five years then they can’t do anything about it. This is basically what I did to get out of a speeding fine about twelve years ago. I was told by a mate that if it drags on for six months they can’t do anything and it goes away. So I delayed it using various methods that he suggested and sure enough six months passed and it went away. I wasn’t fined and I escaped the three points on my licence, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t speeding. Just like this doesn’t mean City didn’t cheat. From what I hear they’ve closed that speeding loophole now so it no longer works. Don’t bet on UEFA being able to do the same though. Money talks. Always has, always will. …..and that was the week that was