coachpotato

Dutch Engineer turned up at our work today. He’d flown in to Manchester yesterday. Before he left Holland he checked us out for tickets as he knew we were playing Milan. No chance he said. Landed in Manchester, asked in his hotel about City Tickets, got one for £30 and went last night. “Quiet” was how he described it.

The Leeds player tackled from behind Elliot, trying to hook the ball away I suspect, but his trailing leg tangled with Elliot’s and his weight twisted the kid around while pinning his ankle, hence the dislocation. You’d like to think that injury wasn’t in Struijk’s head as he made the challenge, but it was still a reckless challenge where he stood little chance of winning the ball, so a red was correct and should have been even without the injury. What’s with the sky prick interviewing Klopp after the game? He’s tried to rile him on a few occasions now. Klopp was definitely in turmoil when that sky interviewer poked at him for a reaction, and he did really well not to bite, but it won’t be the last we hear from him I suspect on this new “freedom” to tackle and I hope that the club let sky know, in no uncertain terms, that if they continue with their confrontational and inflammatory attempts to get a reaction from Klopp then they’ll be talking to the physio from now and can fuck off.

It’d be brilliant if Newcastle beat them, but sadly, I expect him to score and likely with a penalty given for fuck all in the last 5 minutes to win the game. We should have put our foot on their throat when Ferguson left and kept it there.

Tough ask, but here goes:- Pink Floyd - Coming Back To Life Robbie Robertson - Somewhere Down The Crazy River Propaganda - Duel You’d get a different three on another day probably, very much as the mood takes.

Sturridge was a very good striker, and scored some fabulous goals for us, before something in his head, and other parts of his body, changed/broke and that meant he was rarely deemed fit enough to play afterwards. His partnership with Luis Suarez was electric but too short lived. It’s a crying shame he didn’t have more of a career than he has, but his best days are gone, and even if he were to play on a pay per game basis, I doubt he’d add to the squad we have currently, sadly.

And the fucking rest! Over two and a half hours yesterday. My daughter, who’s had to change her email and phone number, has been trying to create a new password to access her Membership page for the last four days, so she could download the NFC pass and on the odd occasion she gets an email through to do this, she keeps getting told her passwords, despite using the criteria the club requires, are rejected. I joined the memberships “chat” queue to get this sorted and was told, eventually, this password change problem was known and was an issue they’re working on, but because it affected the ticketing, I was then put in the queue for ticketing, for over two hours. Eventually the girl there said if I transferred my ticket to my daughter from my F&F list, she’d get it anyway as she’s a registered member. Seriously felt as though I was being fobbed off, not the operators fault I know as they’re at the front end of this shit show, but I’m seriously thinking of just giving my daughter my phone to take over as I’ve got little confidence of any transfer working currently and I don’t want to transfer the ticket away from me if it’s not going to get to her.

I think he’s sitting on his log under a bridge thinking “Every time I cast one out I get a bite! Hehehehe”

The United and Chelsea fanciers can’t contain themselves, they all fear City’s spending power and so we end up as fourth favourites, probably because, in the recent past, the big spenders finish top of the pile and they’ve all spent more. We therefore have the least expectation from everyone else to win the league, despite having the best manager by far. It will come down to how we do with injuries, and if we only have a few, we’ll win the league.

Not good to base anything on one game, particularly as some players will be assessed for their efforts in the Euros, or on injuries carried into the closed season and played accordingly, but if that’s how city will play this season, without de Bruyne, they will struggle to be top. They were much more threatening when he came on and he was everywhere, Grealish didn’t impress me at all and Sterling was thankfully back to the show pony who can’t shoot to save his life. By comparison, we appeared to be back at it against Norwich and have 3 points more than them, so a good weekend for us. But, still early days.

Fabulous goal scorer, another legend departs. Sad.

That visit home will be so cathartic for him, being as spiritually committed as he is. Same for Klopp I would think, being able to actually share their grief with their families after being stuck here when their loved ones passed.

Or our dear neighbours.

So they’re top of the League for Realism then?

Nothing there that has been said by Klopp that hasn’t been said in previous closed season breaks. It’s manager speak for “we’re not showing our hand to anyone before we play our cards”. I’ve no doubt if the right player, at the right price, became available then we’d be in for that player. We might already be for all we know. We all know the script now though, where FSG are concerned, that we have to sell before we buy. We have a squad of players and if Klopp wants to add to that squad then he has to get rid, because our business model doesn’t run to that of City or Chelsea for instance, where you can stock pile players and loan them out or just have masses of cash to keep them sweet. We won’t be arsed about winning the domestic trophies because that allows us to concentrate on the two big prizes that carry the highest financial and reputational kudos, and so this season won’t be that much different from previous seasons in our priorities on the pitch. As far as the players go then, Klopp has to place his faith in his medical and fitness staff and their opinion of who can perform at the highest level, when and for how long. He will know that certain players are likely to break down more than others and who those players are. Last season was spectacularly bad in terms of injuries and this closed season break is the first some have had in three years, so, in the absence of enough cash to buy a really big player, Klopp is gambling on us having fewer injuries and fresher players to mount a challenge on the two competitions most important to any club in the top six of the PL. He must believe that the gamble is worth taking and that we can take off at the start while others bed in their new players, he must believe we have the talent and level required to be top of the pile at the end of the season, and we must believe he trusts the players to deliver. It’s a risky strategy to me, and likely many on here, but we have to trust Klopp knows best and that perhaps it isn’t as risky as we think, and that he continues to show why he’s the best coach in the world, and the only coach that could walk into any other club in the world. It certainly won’t be dull.

What I meant there Pidge was that, generally, American customer service is supposed to be so important to owners of leisure and entertainment providers, so I agree that many of the previous ticketing issues has predated them, but they’ve been here over 10 years now and while some aspects of ticketing has improved, we still find ourselves in a less than ideal situation with just over a week to go before the first home game.

Fucking yippee. 10 days in which to get a system implemented that can’t be tested properly before it’s in use. My lad was 35 minutes in the queue for the Athletic Bilbao game, reckon the Burnley game will be very “interesting” trying to get in.

Grundig radios were boss back in the day.

This club has always, and I mean always, had issues where the selling or distribution of match tickets is concerned. It’s an absolute farce and has been for years and, given it’s one of the most important aspects of supporters lives, actually being able to access the ground to see the team playing, it should be at the top of the clubs agenda for things to be done properly. One of the most decorated and storied clubs in the world and yet the ticketing is always ham fisted and amateurish. I wonder if the Red Sox supporters have the same problems.

Despite us currently not adding to the squad greatly, we have the best Coach, we will have fans back which will make the biggest difference than at any other club, and we are Liverpool, which is the biggest cause for any optimism.

Oh errr, non-LFC. Hmmm. Marco Tardelli then.

Makelele was the epitome of a DM. Souness had pretty much everything. Arie Haan DM for THE Ajax team.

He was brought in to win the Champions League because Mancini and Pellegrini couldn’t/didn’t. Given the resources all three have had, it’s been an epic fail so far, but it’ll happen one day and all the previous failure will be conveniently forgotten about.

Fair. Maybe triple time for MNF?

Any notions that football at the highest level is a sport is a bit fanciful. It’s a business and has been for decades now. On that basis then, footballers should be allowed to earn as much as they can get for their skills, in the same way as any Electrician, Plumber or Doctor can do. Of course, Club Owners (Employers) will try to get those skills as cheap as they can to maximise their own profits, or they’ll pay a premium for the highest skilled to try and ensure their product is more attractive (successful) and sells more than their competitors, thus giving them more profits that way. For Employers and Employees it’s all about getting as much as you can. The fans (customers) can buy if they like, or not. All very cold and calculating. Welcome to modern football.

So it looks as though Messi might be being used as a (willing?) pawn in a power play between Real Madrid/Barcelona and La Liga over how they can run their respective finances. La Liga look as though they are trying to keep some form of FFP and regulation to, presumably, make things more equal between the clubs in a financial sense. Real/Barca want to be able to spend what they want, when they want and on who they want to maintain their grip over the whole of La Liga. The threat from Barca is that Messi could be off if La Liga win, taking arguably the biggest draw in the league away and no doubt causing consternation to the leagues sponsors and partners. And Barcelona’s too of course. Could this also play out here if City/United/Chelsea find the FA Premier League telling them they can’t spend as they wish? La Liga will drop their kecks over this won’t they.