Leaderboard

Wednesday Aug 26: I knew it!!! I said didn’t I? I said I’d bet everything I owned that Maguire used the words “do you know who I am?” during the incident with the Greek coppers, and lo and behold, it’s being reported that he did (doesn’t mean it’s true of course, but I’m still claiming this small victory). He also allegedly said “I’m the captain of Manchester United. I’m very rich. I can pay you. Please let us go”. This whole story gets funnier each day though. His defence is that he thought he was being kidnapped by the plain clothes coppers. Jesus, that’s his worst bit of defending since the Sevilla game a couple of weeks back. Not as bad as old Hank Winter though. Mr England had this to say: “‘Those with any familiarity with Greek tragedy will recall the story of Achilles, who avoided the fighting until a loved one was injured and his subsequent actions ultimately caused his own downfall. Few will wish to paint Maguire in a heroic light, although his desire to protect Daisy, whom his legal team claimed was attacked by Albanian gangsters, is admirable and typical of the man.’ Jesus Christ. Few would want to paint him in a heroic light, yet you compare him to fucking Achilles and call him admirable!!!! He wasn’t done there though; ‘at the very least, and pending any new evidence provided during the resumption of the legal process, Maguire is guilty of folly’. “Folly” hahaha I don’t even know where to start, other than to say I think Winter might just be the only man connected with football to ever use that word. Posh cunt. Fucking hell. For the record, he was also found guilty of assault, four counts of bribery and resisting arrest. Does all that come under “folly” then? Winter is almost as out of touch with reality as Maguire’s lawyers, who actually claimed he was in Mykonos because he is “keen on the ancient Greek culture”. He ran up a bar bill of 63 grand!! He’s hardly Michael Palin is he? This whole story is fucking hilarious, but the funniest part of all is the big hitters from the English press all falling over themselves to defend him and write articles that are little more than character references for Maguire while hammering the Greek police. You have to wonder what they’ve been promised. Probably guaranteed exclusive interviews with him and any other United players they choose. United’s PR advisor is Neil Ashton, formerly of the Mail and no doubt good buddies with all these bootlickers expressing their outrage at how Saint Harry has been treated. Also today, reports that Gini isn’t being offered a new deal and may well be ‘sacrificed’ this summer so we can get Thiago in. It makes sense in some ways but not in others. Firstly, why is he not being offered a new deal? Milner got one and much as that made me happy, I can’t say that it made more sense to extend him and not Gini. Secondly, how come Gini seems completely relaxed about the whole thing and is still doing interviews talking about the upcoming season as though everything is normal? Until today though all the Thiago talk had been coming from the German end and seemingly out of the Bayern dressing room. This is the first time one of the LFC beat writers has given it any real credence and because of that I’m going to have to finally start taking this seriously I guess. Thiago is nothing like Gini as a player, so if Klopp is planing on swapping one for the other it surely means a tweaking - or an evolving - of our style. It’s going to be interesting to see how all this plays out, but I’ll be honest, I really don’t want to see Gini go. More on this Messi thing. Yesterday he told Barca he wants to quit and apparently it’s because Koeman told him “no more privileges”. I assume he means no more walking around and not bothering to close anyone down, as well as no more picking which players they buy and sell. Messi and Suarez were instrumental in tapping up Coutinho don’t forget. From reading up on all this a bit more today I now think he’s staying put and this whole thing is a political move to force the president out. And if the president goes, Koeman will too. He’s only been there a couple of days and he’s under fire by the press already for alienating Suarez and Messi. Nothing he can’t handle though, it’s not like when he had that red Crimbo tree for example. Thursday Aug 27: Operation ‘Clear Harry’ is in full force. He did a sit down interview with BBC today talking about his ‘ordeal’ and how he thought he was being kidnapped. He’s nailed on for a knighthood next year. It’s incredible how this has now been spun around to make him look like a hero who was merely protecting his sister. Are we really expected to believe that some bent Greek copper kicked him in the knees and said “I’ll end your career” (or words to that effect) but he wasn’t bent enough to take the massive bribe that was offered? I don’t believe Maguire and I don’t believe the Greek police. They’ll both be twisting things to make themselves look less guilty but the truth will be somewhere in the middle. Still, don’t let that get in the way of all this jingoism about an English hero sticking it to nasty old Johnny Foreigner. So it seems the reason Gini isn’t getting a new deal is because when talks started he wanted a big pay rise and the club wouldn’t agree to it. Assuming this is correct, then I’d side with the player here because everyone else got new deals when they outperformed their existing one, and considering he’s never injured, he’s Mr Reliable and he’s played a fucking massive part in the success we’ve had these last three years, I’d say he’s earned a big pay rise. Of course it depends what he’s asking, but can you really see Gini being completely unreasonable and asking to be the top paid player or something like that? I expect he wants parity with the likes of Henderson and Milner, which is fair enough, surely? If Thiago comes in he’s going to be on top dollar and I can’t say the notion of giving him the money they won’t give Gini sits especially well with me to be honest, not after the big contribution he has made. Still, this will all be driven by what Klopp wants and I’m not going to question his judgement. Well not too much anyway. Also today, Sky Sports have cleaned house and got rid of all of the Soccer Saturday panel except Merson. Firstly, I’m glad Merson has kept his job as he’s a troubled fella and he needs this. I also think he’s by far the most likeable fella on that show. Yeah he’s thick, but there’s nothing snide about him. Obviously I love Thommo but if I supported anyone else I’d hate him almost as much as I do Nicholas and (especially) that cunt Le Tissier. The reaction to it has been mad though. It’s the same kind of nonsensical outrage being spouted about Last Night of the Proms. They haven’t been replaced by “women and blacks” (or, God forbid, black women) and poor old Micah Richards had to make a statement that it’s nothing to do with him because he was trending on Twitter. That was the first reaction a lot of people had. “Oh they’re being moved out of the way to give that token black Micah Richards a job”. It is a complex issue and people do need to be given these jobs on merit and not just to fill quotas. Times change though and the demographic of viewers changes too. There’ll be loads of under 35s who aren’t going to relate to Thommo or Nicholas so these kind of shows often need to freshen things up every ten years or so anyway, regardless of the other reasons they need to do it. But the bottom line is that there’s no way Sky could just continue on with a panel made up exclusively of old white guys, especially in light of the steps being taken elsewhere to level the playing field. And if you look at the BT equivalent they’ve got a much more diverse group, which will have shone a spotlight on Soccer Saturday even more. I didn’t watch it much before and I doubt I’ll watch it much from now on either, regardless of who they bring in. Friday Aug 28: It’s the Charity Shield tomorrow and we’ve got a few injuries. Virg should be ok but Trent won’t play and Ox, Matip, Hendo, Shaqiri and Wilson are all still out. Can’t believe Shaq is injured again. Might as well just sell him if he’s never going to be available. And Wilson couldn’t have picked a worse time to be out. A good pre-season might just have earned him one season to try and prove himself, but instead he’s on the treatment table at Melwood. Whether he stays or not will probably depend on who we get the best offer for - him or Shaq. Meanwhile, Klopp says he’d be interested in Messi but the ‘numbers’ mean there’s no chance. Interesting he didn’t just say the money or the price. The numbers could mean anything. Like his lack of sprints or the total distance he covers (probably less than Alisson). Or the amount of times he’s stood still in a strop as his team is getting embarrassed. Probably is just the money though. 900k a week is beyond any football club really and even if he takes a 50% cut it’s way beyond us. It’s beyond City too, if they were playing by the rules anyway. Don’t be surprised to see him announced as an ambassador for the Abu Dhabi tourism board with a salary of 800k a week, while the other 100k goes through City’s books. I think I actually want him to go to Juve as it would be fascinating to see if him and Ronaldo could co-exist. The latest speculation is he wants to join City but Barca are saying he only way he leaves is if someone matches his buyout clause of €700m. I think I hate everyone involved in this. Barca can fuck off, City are the absolute worst and Messi is a scheming little tax avoiding tit. I dislike him the least, but reserve the right to change that if he joins City. I still think the most likely outcome is that he stays put and the President is ousted instead though. Oh yeah, I almost forgot but there was something else today. An interview with Robbo and Klopp where Klopp put Robbo right on the spot about something none of us had any idea about. Robbo was being a little bit chesty about his goal at Villa and Klopp goes “no-one expected that. Are you going to tell them what happened at half time with you and Sadio?”. Turns out they had a bust up over something, but then they both went out and scored in a 2-1 win. We’ve seen that movie before, only this time there was no golf club involved. And Villa aren’t exactly Barcelona. Saturday Aug 29: Arsenal 1 L 1. Shite that, but we’re in the middle of a shortened pre-season so there was never any chance we’d be at full steam and as Ljinders likes to say “our identity is our intensity”. Take that away and we’re not really anything special, but when it’s there we’re pretty much unstoppable. We dominated the game, created some chances (not enough though) but only had the one goal to show for it. Happy for Minamino to score as that should boost his confidence. He played quite well, as did Keita when he came on. Brewster was on a hiding to nothing being sent on solely to take a pen. At least give him five minutes to get a couple of touches and a feel for the game before putting him in that spot. Arsenal though. Absolute fucking bums. Carrying on like they’d won the world cup. Bellerin actually tweeted that he’s going to need a bigger trophy cabinet. This loser probably counts the Emirates Trophy and all their other pre-season pots as legit silverware as well. Their keeper acted like a right twat in the shoot out too. He didn’t save one but was trash talking like he was Michael Jordan. Mind you, better that than what we saw from Alisson. He’s shite on pens and he made no attempt to unsettle their takers either. Probably because it’s not what Jesus would do. Should have brought Adrian on, he’s a right cunt and would have been up to all sorts to get in their heads. The only manager I can ever remember who did that kind of thing though was Van Goal when he’d bring Tim Krul on any time the Dutch were in a shoot out. Most managers shy away from it as it’s seen as being a bit demeaning for the number one keeper. Actually, wait. Didn’t Sarri try and do it for Chelsea only Kepa told him to fuck off and wouldn’t leave the pitch? I remember that happening but can’t recall whether it was for a shoot out or not. I think it was because pens is the only thing that Caballero is any good at. Don’t know where I’m even going with any of this as I’ve been completely sidetracked. It’s because the game was shit and I don’t have much to say about it. It shouldn’t have even been played, as what’s the point? Fair enough if there was going to be a crowd there, but playing this game in an empty Wembley, slap bang in the middle of a shortened pre-season, it’s just stupid really. Sunday Aug 30: Messi doesn’t show up for Barca’s compulsory Covid testing ahead of pre-season. This is great. For years these cunts have unsettled players at other clubs by telling them to pull shit like this, and now they’re finally on the receiving end. Suarez is digging his heels in too and saying he won’t leave unless they pay up his contract. I love this. It’s been a long time coming but it’s just fucking ace seeing them suffer in the way they’ve made others suffer for decades. La Liga is backing them and saying the only way Messi can go is if someone meets his buy out clause value, but then they would do wouldn’t they, as Ronaldo has gone and if they lose Messi too the Spanish league is going to lose a lot of it’s global appeal. Hopefully their case is water tight because otherwise City will have their team of lawyers swooping in there faster than you can say “CAS”. They’ve apparently decided they want Messi and are prepared to pay him £450m as part of a five-year plan that would eventually see him join New York City FC. Translation, Man City will pay Messi £10m over three years and then New York City will give him £440m for the other two. It’s dodgy as fuck and so transparent but it’s galling how most of the media ignore it. Instead it’s all “hey wouldn’t it be great for the Premier League to have Messi over here”. Nah, it wouldn’t. Fuck Messi and fuck City. And fuck Barcelona. In fact, just fuck everyone who isn’t us. Monday Aug 31: Everyone talking about that BBC show on the 30 year wait. Haven’t seen it yet but it sounds good so I’ll get around to it eventually. What made me laugh was all the kicking off on twitter about it from fans of other clubs (specifically City, and of course their new BFFs Everton). “Why was there no programme when City ended their long wait?”. “How come Leicester didn’t get one when they won it?” “Where was Chelsea’s tribute show?” They’re so fucking thick aren’t they? Completely missing the point. It isn’t about favouritism to Liverpool. It’s about the bottom line. If they’re spending money to put a programme together, it has to be something that will get a lot of viewers. A show about Leicester winning the title is generally only going to be watched by Leicester fans. And there aren’t THAT many of them to make it worthwhile. A show about City winning it is only going to be watched by Evertonians. City fans can’t even be arsed to show up for a parade when they win the trophy, so what makes people think they’ll watch a documentary about it? It’s really simple. The BBC don’t favour Liverpool over other clubs, they just know that we’re fucking massive and any show made about us is going to get a shitload of viewers. All these conspiracy theorist City and Everton fans are just showing a lack of basic intelligence. I saw some Spurs fans complaining too, but if Spurs were to ever win it (don’t laugh) I reckon they’d get a documentary made about it too. They’re probably just about big enough to justify it, but it’s a coin toss really. They do have their own show on Amazon though, which is available from today. From the clips I’ve seen it looks fairly standard stuff, except whenever Mourinho is on and then it immediately goes into ‘must see’ mode. I definitely wouldn’t go as far as to say I’ve grown to like him, as it will only take one comment or touchline tantrum against us to make me remember why I hated so much for so long, but I’ve got to say that he’s become quite entertaining since he stopped winning things. I’ll probably watch this and just skip the parts he isn’t in. More Thiago rumours today. This time some overseas journo who is meant to be very reliable (don’t they say that about all of them? Except those two Italian clowns Romano and Palmeri) says United have made a move for him but his wage demands are too high. I smell bullshit. If his wages are too rich for United’s blood then he’d be well out of our reach. Of course, he might have a “United price” and a “Liverpool price”. The United price being excessively high on the basis that he doesn’t want to go there but if they are stupid enough to pay the excessively high demand then he might consider it. To be honest I’m sick of this one already, but I suspect it’s got weeks and weeks to run yet. And if it doesn’t happen, I’m staying off twitter for at least a month. and that was the week that was….