The Anfield Wrap gives its listenership the choice of three subjects for discussion prior to every Wildcards show. The listeners choose one of three options for matters on the current LFC, the historical view, the game of football as a whole and, lastly, a non-football related topic.
Gareth Roberts hosts Neil Docking, Oli Fell, Andy Heaton and Stu Wright for the latest edition of our popular Wildcards show, on the board for debate this week:
– Divock Origi
– Overrated Liverpool player?
– Favourite non Liverpool player?
– Akinwale Arobieke
I may be biased because I’m Australian but Kewell was a beacon for Australian Football but he was cursed with injuries. On and off . Maybe he was a 1 in 10 because he was injured a fair amount of the time and constantly trying to come back to form and much more dynamic then Downing. He did put Australian football on the map. Played well in all world cups for Australia. Now, he’s given back a fair bit to Australian Football and an assistant manager at Watford. A shame his diet was being attacked.
Wot 7? Won’t even use his name. Ran around causing a draught but never saw him put his foot in. Ran at players only fast enough to stop safely and say “boo”! Flattered to deceive all over the pitch to occasionally pop up with an assist or goal. Pride of Australia? Rather the opposite if shirker is your choice of word? Rather push his face in a camera than get his brain to do original thinking and do something different rather than the mock run forward to fool opposition and teammates alike or go wide when the ball was clearly intended to go down the other wing. Put Craig Johnson up front of your nations good footballers, sure no problem. Never heard his name on the media except for the match commentary. Heres a quote fom the great Chris Bascombe who wrote in the Echo, ” When H K allergy to fixtures which don’t end in a trophy presentation struck… ” he and Benayoun left Benitez without an attacking midfielder. Of all the clubs in all the world, he had to walk into mind. Delighted when he left.
I posted the below of Tony’s TAW piece about him. I’m posting it again because it reiterates what one of the panel said. I feel all this about Aki has got out of all proportion. Again, I’ll say I’ve not seen the other side of him but I certainly know one side of him. My son asked me the other night if I’d seen the documentary. He couldn’t believe it when I said I knew him fairly well although I couldn’t tell him where I knew him from. His bogeyman status has reached far and wide and I don’t think it’s fair to his real personality.
Copied for Tony’s piece.
I got to know him pretty well about 5 years ago. The first time I met him is one of those stories like we all have and probably tell too often. He was about 15 metres away from me pounding towards me at speed looking seriously angry and shouting ‘is this him’. I was kind of concerned that he appeared to heading for me but thought I must be mistaken. Anyway, he was getting closer and angrier till he was almost on top of me and I thought ‘my god, this guy’s gonna pulverise me. I said, e-aargh mate what’s up and he laughed and said ‘nothing mate, only joking’ and all the lads burst out laughing. Basically, a mutual friend had asked him to do it for a laugh to see my reaction. I saw the funny side too.
Anyway, I got to know him fairly well over the next few months and I couldn’t believe how we was. The person didn’t match the stories. I found him very clever and articulate. Has an excellent knowledge of the law and actually very gentle. One of those who’ll do anything to help you and I did ask him to do something for me and he gave up a lot of his time try and get the answers. Obviously, he’s still a sex offender and they come in all guises so I shouldn’t be surprised.
Just one more thing, we had a party recently, for my daughters 16th and the kids were all talking about him. One said he’d had his muscles felt by him on the train but I wouldn’t know if there’s any truth in it. I was just surprised that even in Chester the kids of today all tell stories of Aki. Facebook hasn’t helped him.