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Monday Dec 25: Oh my God, that video with Daire. That’d bring tears to a glass eye. What a fucking fantastic kid he is. So mature for his age and what a great attitude he’s got. The older I get the more of an emotional mess I am, I’m choking up at all kinds of shit these days, but I make no apologies for getting all choked up watching this. I’ve been a bit mad at Kloppo the last few days after the daft shit he said last week, but what a man he is. When he said to Daire that he enjoyed meeting him as much as Daire enjoyed being there, you know he meant it. It was also heart warming when Diaz and Nunez came in to see him and they both just hugged him and Diaz gave him a kiss on the head. Great lads, that kid will never forget that moment and how affectionate they were with him. The club’s social media team have been sitting on this for weeks and waited until Christmas morning to release it. Meanwhile, good stuff today from Virg on Konate (and Quansah). “I speak a lot with him about certain things because it’s my duty to share experiences with him. He’s still learning and he can be even better than he is. Same goes with Jarell. I’ve been in the game for quite a while now and been quite successful. I try to give that to the young players. “These players at this age are even better than I was. But obviously it’s about doing it in the long run. I’m pleased for how he is now but he can be even better, he can progress. It’s nice to see the progression and development, it’s nice to see that they listen. Let’s see what it brings.” It’s a good point and people probably don’t think too much about it. Konate is light years ahead of where Virgil was at the same age, but Quansah is too. Much better at 20 than Virgil was. Doesn’t really mean anything in terms of what he’ll be like when he’s 25, but it’s encouraging, especially as he’s being tutored by the man himself. Virgil is the best I’ve ever seen though and I doubt we’ll see another like him. If either of them can get close then we’re very lucky.

Loads to get through here due to the busy fixture list over Christmas. It feels like last weekend’s games were about a month ago as so much has happened since, but I’ll pick up where I left off last time. First up was “El Kitmanshittingonthedressing roomfloorico” as Brighton and Palace played out a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park on the Thursday night. That Michael Olise is really fucking good. So silky and that left foot of his is as good as any in the league. He’s so good he actually produced a ball so perfect that not even Jordan Ayew could fail to score. That’s his one goal for the season anyway, so opponents need not worry about him again. Brighton brought that on themselves by getting caught playing out from the back. That does my head in and I see it every week, but it’s hard to criticise Brighton for it when they’re so good at it and hardly ever caught. This was just a bad mistake by the keeper more than anything else. Brighton equalised with a header from the Harrods Jordan Ayew, Danny Welcrap. Fucking brilliant header that though, just lovely. Right in the top corner. Onto Friday now and Aston Villa had the chance to go top. All they had to do was beat bottom club Sheffield United, who had only taken one point away from home all season. Villa have been getting so much slurping lately from the media and out of nowhere they were now being talked about as title contenders. I can’t take them seriously, partly because of how bad they were at Anfield, partly because of that stupid high line they play even when they have no pressure on the ball, partly because I don’t think they’re anywhere near the level of us, City and Arsenal and partly because, well, they’re Aston Villa. You can never trust Villa. In fairness they’ve bucked that trend this season and beat both Arsenal and City recently, but I just think maybe there was some sort of collective amnesia thing going on. As soon as they remembered they were Aston Villa normal service was resumed. They’re the Midlands equivalent of Spurs. They needed a 98th minute equaliser to even get a point against the Blades. That sums Villa up. Could have gone top, instead they shit down their own leg. Villa thought they’d gone ahead through Bailey but VAR spotted a foul on the keeper in the build up. The question here is how did Anthony Taylor not see that at the time? The keeper tries to punch it with his wrong hand and gets nowhere near it, but you could tell he must have been being held as it was so weird looking. It’s an easy take for him but a Villa player had hooked his right arm to stop him catching it. Taylor somehow missed it, and needed VAR to tell him. Bet he’d have seen it if it had been a Manc goalkeeper or a Liverpool forward. Chris Wilder’s side went ahead with a lovely goal, as Hamer ran in behind the Villa backline and sent Konsah for the Echo before picking out Archer who buried it against his old club. Unfortunately they couldn’t hold out and Zaniolo headed in the equaliser right at the death. Isn’t he meant to be banned for betting on matches? Or did I dream that? *just googled and he’s still being investigated, but reckons he only used illegal gambling platforms for poker and blackjack, and didn’t bet on footy. Saturday now, and the Mancs went down to defeat at West Ham despite completely controlling the game and creating chances against Moyes’ side. At least so Eric Ten Jarg says. I didn’t watch the game so I’ll take his word for it as I’m sure he’s got no reason to lie. Bowen got West Ham’s first when he latched onto a wonderful pass by Paqueta and got a bit lucky with the finish. Minutes later Kudus added a second. Another blank for the Mancs and I was shocked when MOTD revealed that after this result only Sheffield United have scored fewer league goals than them. That’s an incredible stat I think. Imagine scoring fewer goals than Luton and Burnley after 18 games! How much have they spent on forwards? Scandalous that, it’s astonishing that he’s still ion a job, but I’m not complaining. Goldbridge has been complaining for months that when United concede a goal they shit themselves and usually concede again soon after, and when this happened he went off on one and described them as “panicking like a nonce in a prison riot”. Sensational.

When Darwin gave us that early lead, of all of the possible ways this game could have played out, us hanging on and needing to wait until stoppage time to get the vital second goal to make the game safe seemed just about the least likely. I could put that down to some sloppy finishing and us not really showing the urgency needed to put them away, but I think that would be unfair. We did put them away, twice, but when you’re having perfectly good goals ruled out for no reason then it makes life much more difficult. If Gakpo’s goal stands, I reckon we go on to score five or six. If Harvey’s goals stands, we probably score three or four. So as much as I was frustrated at the time at our inability to kill the game, on reflection I’m giving the lads a pass here as they scored four goals and I’m sure it would have been more if the PGMOL mafia had done their job properly. I’ll get to that though. I’ll start with the line up, which was mostly as expected but with one notable exception. The back four picked itself as Konate doesn’t play twice a week so Quansah was always coming in for this one. The only decision to be made up front was Gakpo or Diaz. Nunez was always starting after being given a rest against Arsenal, but Diaz got a knock against Arsenal and even though it was just an impact injury, it would have been a surprise if he started. So midfield was the area where the biggest decisions needed to be made. Szoboszlai was rested so Elliott could start, which I was totally on board with. Good game for Harvey to play in given the way Burnley play. He deserved his chance to start so I liked that. I was shocked to see Curtis on the bench though. Not because of how bad Gravenberh’s cameo against Arsenal was, that’s just one of those things and means nothing, but because Jones was brought off early against Arsenal and has been in great form this past week. Why would he not be starting? It’s a weird one. Either there are fitness things going on or maybe it was something about how Burnley play that made Klopp think Ryan’s attributes would be well suited to it. I’m really surprised Jones wasn’t in that team though and hopefully that changes next week against Newcastle. Not because Gravenberch played badly, he was fine. I just think we’re a better balanced team when Curtis plays. Against Burnley though we should have been able to play anyone and still win the game. They aren’t a Premier League team. They ran away with the Championship playing their style of football, but it doesn’t translate to the top flight when you’re up against better quality teams. Luton aren’t a Premier League standard team either, but their style at least makes them difficult to play against. Burnley are easy to play against, I can see them conceding six, seven or eight to one of the top teams this season. It should have been us, especially after we started the way we did.

Monday Dec 3: Still no word on Joel but it’s not going to be good is it? We need to buy someone now. I was ok with the notion of giving Joel another contract and putting on hold the plans for another centre back, but we can’t do that now. Joel can’t get a long term deal (by that I mean two or more years) as this is a tough one to come back from at his age. We have to accept he’s done here now, and while we’re ok with the four we have, one of them is made of glass, one is a kid and the other is spending a lot of time covering the full back spots. We have to buy in January now. Bet we don’t though. Hopefully Endo remembers how to play there as he’ll defo be called upon at some stage. Meanwhile, Heckingbottom is getting sacked and Wilder is replacing him. Shouldn’t make any difference for Wednesday night but that fella is a victim of his own success. If he’d finished in the playoff spots and missed out in the final last season, he’d still be in a job now. He had them punch well above their weight and when they got promoted his owner sold his two best players and then sacked him when they couldn’t get any results. And now that same owner is bringing back a fella he sacked for criticising him. Modern football is so fucked up, so many clubs are owned by absolute bellends.

Monday Nov 27: More craziness from the Blues. They’ve got major beef with Sky now as well as the “Corrupt Premier League”. They’re going mad because Sky didn’t show their plane during our game with City. What did they think was going to happen? There are so many reasons why Sky were never going to show it, and every one of them is valid. Firstly, it was City and Liverpool playing. Who gives a fuck that some knobheads with an unjustified beef are making a protest? If Sky show that then they’re opening the door for anyone else who wants to get publicity for themselves. Just because you fly a plane over doesn’t mean Sky have an obligation to show it. Secondly, it’s City v Liverpool. The biggest game of the season. People are tuning in for that, why would you take eyeballs away from that to show a fucking plane making a false claim about the Premier League? Thirdly, the PL and Sky are business partners. There’s no industry in the world that is going to promote slander of a business partner. The whole thing is hilarious, you could hear on TV the plane circling the stadium as the game was going on but nothing was said about it and they sure as shit didn’t show it. Maybe Everton can claim the cost of the plane and use it to help offset some of their losses on their next set of accounts? Meanwhile, staggeringly bad officiating fucked Wolves again tonight. Wolves fans piss me off but I’ll happily stand with them against Howard Webb and his band of knobheads. What happened tonight was a fucking joke, yet again. Poor Gary O’Neil, he’s a top fella and the way he’s handled all of the incompetence he’s been hit with this season is admirable. It wasn’t the on-field ref tonight who was the problem, it was the clown on VAR, Stuart Atwell. He’s awful isn’t he? Some of them I think are biased and have agendas. Him? I just think he’s truly awful. He massively favoured Fulham tonight though and Wolves have every reason to feel victimised again. Newcastle fans were attacked in Paris tonight and it’s lucky that nobody was seriously hurt as it looked pretty bad. The Geordies who travelled are almost certainly not the bellends who attacked the PSG fans the other week though. Everyone said at the time that those pricks were just ensuring that things were going to be really dangerous for the ones travelling over and that’s what we’re seeing now. It’s the kind of thing you often get from Italians or Turks. They kick off in their home leg and then it’s the fans who go to the away game who pay the price. We’re in 2023 and you’ve still got wankers carrying on like this at footy. Hopefully no-one gets seriously hurt.

Monday Nov 20: Just when I thought I couldn't respect him any less, Gerrard calls Ronaldo 'the GOAT'. Firstly, him using that term at all is irritating and its bad wool behaviour. Secondly, using it to describe Ronaldo is even worse. And thirdly, his fucking kid is named "Lio" after Lionel Fucking Messi!!! But because he's doing the Saudi PR thing he's now declaring himself "Team Ronaldo". What a knob. This Everton stuff is batshit mental. I feel like I’m living in some kind of bizarro world. I keep hearing people - not just Blues - talking about how harsh and unfair it is but nobody is saying why. It’s like they haven’t been bothered to read up on any of it and have just gone “10 points? Seems over the top” but that’s just not the case at all. It’s incredibly frustrating listening to this ignorance from people who are paid to talk about football. But then there’s the Blues themselves. I saw someone saying today that they’d lost the plot, but that implies they ever had the plot to begin with. The mental ones have gone even further off the reservation, but even the normally rational ones seem to have got swept along with all this. “Corrupt Premier League” they scream. Well, yeah. There is corruption and cheating in the Premier League but you are part of it and your club actually admitted it. They pleaded guilty, so the only decision to be made was whether there were mitigating circumstances for the staggeringly huge losses made. And the answer to that was “was there fuck”. They scream about it being unfair, about the PL being corrupt, about this conspiracy against their club but when you ask them why it isn’t fair they’ve got nothing. Just a shitload of irrelevant whataboutery. Whatabout Man City? Whatabout Chelsea? Whatabout when the Sky Six tried to leave the Premier League? I mean fucking hell, I know one who actually said “what about when Liverpool wore those t-shirts for Suarez”. And he’s one of the sound ones! Like I say, this has caused them to lose their fucking minds and lose all perspective about the situation. I get the feeling of injustice where City is concerned. I’d be pissed off if my club was punished when someone else has quite literally done things over a hundred times worse, but surely they can see that the City thing is way more complex and will take time, not least because unlike Everton City have not pleaded guilty. I’m really trying to see it from their point of view and understand why they’re so aggrieved, but as of yet I haven’t seen a single valid argument for it. I’m willing to listen if anyone can tell me why this is unfair, but all I’m seeing from Blues at the moment is this….

Monday Nov 13: It’s been over a week now and there’s been no mention about any charges for Arteta after his outburst against refs. That was as strong as I can remember anybody going after them, and he did it in about four separate post match interviews so it wasn’t just one heat of the moment comment. His club then put a statement out backing everything he said, and absolutely fuck all has been done about it. He repeatedly used words like “disgrace” and “ashamed” yet nothing has happened yet. What are they waiting for? I don’t even care if he had a point or not (he did) because loads of managers (and players for that matter) have had just cause to go after refs, but you still have to face consequences when you do. Except Arteta it seems. Let me just remind you that Van Dijk was suspended for one match and fined 100k for simply saying “that’s a fucking joke”. Nowhere near enough of a stink was made of that when I look back. In other news, Ederson is out of the Brazil squad which means Alisson will play their two games in this break. If I’m Alisson I’d pull out too, because fuck that coach for not picking him. Alisson is a man of God though and probably prays for that coach rather than bear a grudge against him. The easy conclusion to draw here is that Ederson will be fine for the game with us and this is City pulling their usual shit, but I don’t think that’s it. He may well play against us but that doesn’t mean he isn’t legitimately injured now. Ederson probably never thought he’d be Brazil’s first choice and he won’t want to give that up lightly. If he’s out of the squad he’s definitely injured because he’s not going to miss two important qualifiers and allow Alisson back in just because Guardiola wants him to rest. Hopefully it’s bad enough that he loses his foot, but failing that I’ll settle for him missing the game in a fortnight. Ok ok, I’m joking, I don’t really want him to lose his foot, that would be awful. The only City player I’d genuinely wish harm on is that cunt Bernardo Silva.

Monday Nov 6: I’ve fixed the statement that Luton put out today. “Luton Town Football Club is saddened by reports of inappropriate chanting towards Liverpool supporters during yesterday’s Premier League fixture at Kenilworth Road. The atmosphere inside the stadium was electric for the most part of a pulsating game, in which Rob Edwards’ side came close to pulling off one of the results of the season. While we do not wish to dampen the atmosphere at our home ground in any way, we are extremely disappointed that a small number of supporters soured the occasion with chants that may be interpreted as being in relation to tragedies that have affected Liverpool FC in the past. The Club condemns any kind of chanting that knowingly seeks to divide, and our safety and security team launched an internal investigation at the earliest opportunity. What has quickly become evident is that a number of people may have taken part without knowledge that the words used were in relation to the Hillsborough and Heysel tragedies, and we see the route to persuading supporters not to repeat these chants in future is through communication and education. On this basis we are reviewing CCTV and media footage from the match, and will speak to witnesses to identify individuals who may have taken part. Any perpetrators could (will) face stadium bans and potential criminal prosecutions. If anyone has information and video evidence that will support the investigation, please email myvoice@lutontown.co.uk with the subject ‘Inappropriate Chanting’. The eyes of the world are upon us in the Premier League, which we are all learning quickly to adapt to, and we have to remind our supporters that you are all ambassadors of the Club and it is your responsibility to behave according to the rules of the ground. This includes understanding the songs that cannot be sung in line with the Love Football, Protect The Game campaign. On behalf of all at Luton Town, we would like to wholeheartedly apologise to anyone offended by the chants heard during yesterday’s match, and will continue to work with supporter groups to educate fans on chants that are classed as tragedy abuse by football authorities, the police and CPS.” All that extra shit in there makes them look like fucking knobheads. Then you’ve got their fans, acting all indignant about how the chant “isn’t about Hillsborough, it’s about Heysel” as though that somehow makes it ok. Everyone knows it’s a Hillsborough song and regardless of what tragedy they might claim to be referencing, the fact it’s seen by us as being about Hillsborough is the only thing that matters. Luton’s fans were a disgrace yesterday. Some were even chanting about Diaz’s dad apparently. Nothing like the same numbers that sang “Always the victim” but even so, what the fuck is their beef with us? They’ve been in the lower leagues for 30 odd years yet they’re acting like we’re their big rivals. Weirdos. Meanwhile, the reaction of the media to Arteta and Arsenal’s statement isn’t what they probably thought it would be. They’[re being mostly hammered for it. If they’d been paying attention to what happened after our statement they would have known what to expect. We were on the receiving end of the worst officiating disgrace in the history of this country and we had universal support. Until we put out a statement sand then the football world bizarrely went “fuck you for complaining” and sided with PGMOL.

Monday Oct 30: In one of the more unlikely bits of news I thought I’d ever read, Torres and Arbeloa have a continuing feud that seems to boil over every time their teams meet. One coaches Real Madrid youth, the coaches Atletico’s youth, and whenever they meet there’s murder. Torres refused to shake Arbeloa’s hand at the end of the game and then the players had a mass brawl this weekend. This comes off the back of a confrontation they had in their last meeting when Torres yelled at Arbeloa “I’ll blow your head off!”. This is amazing stuff, I hope they both make it at senior level so we can see this play out. Meanwhile, Vincent Kompany a few weeks ago after the Spurs debacle: “Mistakes are human. I like the fact there’s transparency and that people come forward, own their mistakes, that we get access to the footage. For him personally, we all make mistakes.” Vincent Kompany this weekend after HE was on the receiving end….. Basically four minutes of wah wah wah. Bulb headed, baseball cap with a suit wearing Man City twat. Still no word on Diaz’s dad. This is getting concerning now as the longer it goes the less likely it’s going to have a happy ending. I blame Everton for this. Remember when they signed “Hammez” and were telling anyone who’d listen how they now had "millions of new fans in Colombia"? And now our player’s parents are being kidnapped?? Don’t tell me that’s a co-incidence. They’ll probably post the ransom demands on Grand Old Team.

Monday Oct 23: Fucking hell, this Konate / Beto thing is still rumbling on. It’s mental how much airtime it’s getting. A lot of you won’t even know about this if you don’t watch MOTD, but in the last round of fixtures two weeks ago Bruno Guimares was booked for a foul and then a couple of minutes later he did pretty much the same thing and the ref bottled it and didn’t send him off. That was MUCH worse than the Konate one (which was not a definite yellow) but hardly anyone knows about it? Why? Because decisions like that happen in most games, and sometimes they happen when a player is already on a yellow. It’s completely normal, yet this one has gone viral because these bitter fucks are piggy backing on the recent officiating controversies and trying to put this in the same ball park. It’s pathetic and it undermines the actual problems there are with officiating. You can’t be castigating a referee for THAT performance. Compared to what we usually see, Pawson’s display was very good. Yet these fucking paranoid cranks are crying conspiracy against a referee who didn’t give us a penalty for the foul on Diaz and needed VAR to tell him about the handball he missed. If he was trying to fuck Everton then he did a pretty poor job of it. Sean Dyche is a crying cunt. Always has been, always will be. Now he’s found the perfect home for his small time, everyone hates us, little club, paranoid, chip on the shoulder whiney bullshit. The sooner these go out of business the better for everyone, including their own fans who need saving from themselves. As long as Everton exists they’ll be miserable.