gkmacca

That's just so absurdly against the play, but I guess the cockney 'fans' will start bawling as a consequence.

Imagine all the players...holding hamstrings as one...You-oo-ooh...

I've not read this but I disagree. It's what Bazza prefers.

That header to Nunez was a thing of genius. When he gets in the groove he's an astonishingly ruthless player. Hope he's not out for too long.

The very organisations that pile the pressure on to managers will now be lecturing the rest of the population on the importance of caring about mental health. It's like Nazis taking a pause to warn about discrimination.

The southern anti-LFC attitude in those days was way worse than it is now. England, for example, took ages to come to terms with the fact that he was an essential forward for the national team. Ramsey was ridiculously stubborn about not giving him a proper chance. If he'd played for one of the London clubs he would have been a regular about two years earlier.

Ah, the daily gainsay. You'd have blue cards coming out of your fecking arse every day.

The rumour is the blue card will be mainly for dissent, but this not only begs the question, why is dissent being downgraded from a yellow card offence, it also begs the question, how will the card be used if, like Arsenal and both manc teams amongst others currently do, several players race to the ref at the same time? The whole issue in dealing with teams that encourage about half the team to intimidate the ref at the same time is: why not book them all, and, if not, why book anyone? Those clubs know that there's strength in numbers, so they get away with it, while one player gesturing at the ref will get a card. There really is nothing that a yellow card covers that can be moved over to a blue card without questioning the downgrading, and nothing in the current ineptitude of refs in administering the rules that yet another card will help.

I presume this 'bit of a flu bug' is actually the common cold. You don't play through the flu, nor shake it off within a couple of days. It's as if Covid never happened.

Klopp's presser showed part of why he's fed up with the whole thing. 'Have you forgiven Kompany yet for scoring that goal in 2019?' Is that really the best that these hacks can come up with after 'much thought'? No wonder so many of them have fled to YouTube. What the heck do they expect him to say? It's just mindless stuff they churn out every week.

With VAR's obsessive drawing of coloured lines and now the blue cards, they're heading inexorably towards a stage where they'll do away with players, pitches and footballs and concentrate solely on counting angels on the head of a pin. It'll still have its own TV programme: Metaphysik of the Day.

But seeing as this season they've deemed questioning refs is a yellow card offence, they're now basically suggesting that it's not really a yellow card offence. It's just how officials behave when they realise they're losing control of a situation but want to claim they're taking charge - like suddenly deciding it's fine for cyclists to ride side by side so they can have a good old natter in the road after failing to stop them having a good old natter in the road. I suspect blue cards are mainly being pushed so it's one more TV topic to justify the investment - more stuff to cover and comment on, more debate, more hype.

To clarify: if a player is judged to have made a blue card offence without the time remaining to serve a blue card, he or she will be given a yellow card. If a player is judged to have made a blue card offence because he or she has consciously calculated that, without the requisite time remaining to serve it, a yellow card will be given, a red card will be given. The referee will be given the additional authority, if he or she feels the conditions are right to use it, to give a player a blue, yellow and red card simultaneously for trying to wreck the coherence of the new system, and these cards will be served simultaneously by said player by sitting for six hours in the sin bin with no toilet breaks and only the occasional squirt of water. I trust that clears the matter up.

A typically clear announcement. Yellow and red cards as usual, but one or maybe two blue ones for 'certain offences'. What, pray, are those 'certain offences'? Fouls, perchance? Anything else already covered by yellow and red cards? Or completely new offences, such as 'looking at the ref in a strange way' or 'making a heart shape with your hands after scoring a goal'? Yellow cards were mainly introduced to cover all of those crafty fouls players were getting away with that didn't quite warrant a red. Fine. But a yellow is all you need. Now they'll spend so much time pondering what colour to use the game will probably last another ten minutes. Yet another example of minds that cannot think in even the most vaguely logical fashion.

My guess: she preferred the Culture Club to the Crazy Gang, and it served him right.

The ideal manager would be charismatic enough to attract the big names, but good at working with the home-grown talents as well, with great tactical attacking flair, the right values, and tall enough to keep patting Pep on the head like Bennie Hill used to do that little old bloke. I guess that's either Klopp or Xabi in glam rock boots.

Motty was even weirder than he sounded: Back in the days when John Motson was king, they never had to worry about what the talent was up to. It was only junior employees who did. Such as the younger female colleague who accompanied Motty to lunch one time. Most of the meal passed without incident, but shortly before dessert he retrieved a blue pill from his pocket. He showed it to her and asked if she knew what it was. She did. It was Viagra. He then swallowed it, with the charming line: "You have 20 minutes to make your decision."

Escape goats never work. You always end up back behind baaas. Ayethankyew.

Most of them are pretty odd coves. The BBC's Steve Wilson, for example: LFCTV keep using him, for some odd reason (I think the only connection he has is he went to the local university), and he insists on being filmed via Zoom with a different set of album covers on his wall every time he's on - he actually goes to the trouble of rearranging all of the ones he has framed. What is he - 17? Anyone who moves to Sky quickly acts as though they've just been put through some brain-washing religious experience. Suddenly absolutely everything is so thrilling they can hardly stop screaming, and even the dullest individual is suddenly a charismatic 'character'. I agree about Drury - perfectly fine until Sky 'improved' him.

That's the spirit.

There's a rumour that he told someone 'This doesn't feel like my club anymore'. I'm not inclined to believe that, but I'm certainly astonished he's agreed to them filming his last months in charge - he's been so resistant to that before, it feels more like a shrug of the shoulders at what's happening than a willing agreement. I suppose the initial shock is now wearing off and I'm still wondering what the hell happened. Journalists who saw him in the summer, at the time he said it dawned on him that he was too tired to continue, said how re-energised he seemed. Now they're backtracking and suddenly 'remembering;' he was fatigued. I really still find it very perplexing. And remembering how Shankly was adamant he was finished, and then he wasn't, and how Kenny was adamant and then he wasn't, I feel resigned to seeing Jurgen realise six months or so on that he has plenty more in the tank. I just hope he had a proper chat with Kenny - if anyone could have given him pause for thought, it's him.

Quite ironic. If you treat politics as if it's all about picking a team to support, you can do what the hell you like in London. If you just support a football team, you're a high risk. 'It's a funny old world, Saint'.

Ljinders is an excellent coach. By making him manager, he'll cease to have the time to do what he does best. You'd basically have Brendan Rodgers again.

You've let it out. Take a breath. Let the nurse get on with her business. Night night.

In a desperate attempt, belatedly, to appear even remotely keen to be 'non-partisan,' they've added Robbie Fowler, looking like Pitt the Younger after his last pint of port, to supplement LFC-hating Ferdinand and Joe Cole. How sweet.