Hoddy

Good point. I was thinking about this at the Fulham game the other day when their fans were 'sssshhhh'ing our support (I do hate that by the way - and what the hell was their clap routine supposed to be? It sounded like the intro. to 'Lollipop', featured on the excellent 'Stand By Me' film). Anyway, I digress. Basically, I was wondering to myself whether I should feel guilty for not singing and not encouraging, and so did a mental check in my head: a) The players get to do something that every Liverpool fan in that stadium can only dream of... b) ...and get paid insane amounts to do it... c) ...from the pockets of the fans whose only want for their money is to see some desire and (wishful thinking) entertainment played out in front of them. So when people say that it's the fans' function to get the players going, I thought 'Is it balls the job of the fans.' If this thing's supposed to be a reciprocating relationship, and the fans turn up and do their bit of the bargain and find themselves short-changed by the people whose wages they are helping to pay, then why should the fans have to go that extra mile? At the minute at Anfield (and anywhere else that Liverpool fans go) the players are gaining everything while the fans gain fuck all.

The thing about Wright-Phillips is that he's still a surprise player, and by this I mean that teams are still not completely used to playing against him. And as players such as Marcus Stewart and the like could attest to, it's a lot easier to be good when the opposition haven't the foggiest who you are. The real test for Shaun Wright-Phillips is next season, both in the Premiership and, if he gets there, for England. In both cases he'll be stepping up in stature, for England because international games are another class, and for whichever Premiership club he's at, because now teams know who he is. From what I've seen of him this year he's been quality, but £10million's a lot to spend on a guy who we've not seen man-marked yet. I hope I'm wrong, and that he progresses, if anything else for England's sake. But we'll see.

To be honest you can't blame the guy for supporting his boss in public.

I have to say that the Treble-winning shirt sticks out. It's always nicer to recall a shirt tied up in good memory, but it was a shirt that just looked good.

I've been arguing for ages with anyone who'll listen that he's England's most important player by far. If you look at nearly all of England's best performances, he's been the best player in each. And don't get me wrong, I do respect David Beckham, but am sick of hearing how he single-handedly dragged England into the World Cup, when there's no mention of Stevie's MOM performance in Germany, and there'll be no talking about how he was the best player in both Turkey games. England have not lost in 21 games that he's played. But knowing his luck this season, they'll lose tonight, and make me look like a fool. On a related note, I do feel sorry for the guy, because I feel he's going to have a minging Euro Championships. The burden of carrying a team of underachievers will catch up with him in the summer and he won't get the chance to prove how good he is on the stage that deserves to see it.

Very very true. I remember sitting and listening to him and Trevor Brooking absolutely slate Liverpool at the first opportunity. Listen to Trev's delight when Alaves scored the free-kick for 3-3. ("Through the wall!") Also, I lost all respect for Barry Davies for his blatantly anti-Liverpool commentary in the Yeovil game this year. Yelping like a little girl whenever a Liverpool player made a foul, almost coming in his pants during the first half, and then saying something along the lines of 'Oh this is not in the spirit of the game', when we were knocking it around in defence 1-0 up. If that would have been Arsenal/Man Utd he wouldn't have dared say that. In fact, the BBC's presentation of that game was a disgrace. They say that the FA Cup's great drama on the BBC, and it was evident that we'd been set up for the fall, and then when we'd bored the shit out of everyone, Lineker, Schmeicel and even Hansen were going on about how the match had been all about Yeovil. Why? Because they lost 2-0, were out of the cup and have done fuck all ever since?

Are our current batch of young players really this bad that we have to go abroad to get us back on track? One of my most memorable tactical decisions that Houllier made during the Treble-winning season was when he played about 8 or so British players against Tranmere, because they understood what a local FA Cup Quarter final meant. Whatever people say against Chelsea's signings earlier in the season, the scary thing about it was the number of young, exceptional English players that they're now carrying in their squad. This is one of the scariest things I've noticed (or not, as the case may be) about our team these last couple of months.

Personally I could forgive that, as for me that was the first real backwards step that his team had taken since his reign started. I kept reiterating that last season was an anomally, and I was willing to believe that the team would use the bad run "and become stronger for it", or whatever it was he said. However, when he says it again and again this season, it starts to make you wonder. Portsmouth in the FA Cup was so galling because it rendered the wonderful Newcastle result/performance absolutely pointless. This was a Pompey team with no Berger, no Stone (at least in the first match), no Sheringham, and for all that the players said about getting behind their manager, they went and completely falsified that by their performance. One season of not making the Champions League because of a dire run can easily be an anomally, but the struggle that they're going through to get 4th place in front of a Newcastle team that can't stop shooting themselves in the foot and cost a damn sight less than ours, is completely unacceptable.

That's a really good point. If you kill a game off and win by a few goals (something that should have happened against Fulham, Man City, even Arsenal at home), then these sort of things become moot... to most people. However, he really proved how insecure and irrational he is right now, still complaining about a) Alan Wiley, and b) Harry Redknapp after the Wolves game that his team had won.

There's a phrase used in the US by those who claim to be TV-savvy. It's called 'Jumping the Shark' and it denotes the moment in which you as a viewer lost interest in a particular programme. For example, in the first series of '24', when Terri got amnesia, many people got sick of the show; they jumped the shark. The reason I'm posting this (and there is a reason), is because it seems that a massive majority of posters are for Houllier to be sacked/to walk away/to stop talking complete balls/to stop making Ferguson look gracious. I was simply wondering when each of you actually 'Jumped the Shark' in terms of wanting Gerard to go. I think I was a late jumper. I was on the fence for ages, but Fratton Park in the FA Cup was my final straw. Cheers for listening to a first-time poster.