FIRST things first. I’m struggling to accept it was 40 years ago today that Liverpool won the first leg of this final at Anfield. Sorry, but it’s not possible. It just isn’t. Because that means I am hurtling through middle age at a rate Mo Farah would struggle to keep...
THEY said it would never happen again. A once-in-a-lifetime event. An opportunity for a public display of civic unity. A chance for an entire city to stand together and say, “You know what? This is us. You can knock us down, you can walk all over us. But you won’t...
HERE’S how this starts: In football, as in life, you’re surrounded by hindsight. It’s everywhere, colouring your outlook, shaping your views. You can’t move for the stuff. All the opinions, all the analysis, all the outrage. All formed with hindsight. All the...
I DON’T want to be that fella, you know. I don’t want to be the miserable old sod sat in the Kemlyn (old habits die hard) howling about Dejan Lovren’s defensive shortcomings, Divock Origi’s bluntness, Adam Lallana’s sixth-form common room bumfluff, or Joe...
WE should really have hated Howard Kendall. We should have resented the way he took over a disjointed, demoralised Everton and led them to the pinnacle of the game, at home and abroad. We should have begrudged how he galvanised a fan base that had been crying out for...
AS anyone with a cursory knowledge of the football landscape will tell you, the transfer window has its own unique lexicon. “Sources close to the player…”, “…buy-out clause…”, “…clock is ticking…”, “…widely reported to be undergoing a medical…”, “…discussions at an...
REMEMBER the Burnley game on Boxing Day? Remember when Simon Mignolet played chicken with a backpass heading out for a corner and lost? Remember how everyone’s head exploded because the only other credible alternative for the position of Liverpool goalkeeper was a man...
THERE’S an argument in football that certain players belong at certain clubs. It’s a bold concept. I’m not sure but I think it’s something to do with a synchronicity of values, an alignment of shared characteristics. It’s not just about performances or goals or...
AND so, after all the tearful goodbyes, the mutual appreciation and the predictable, crushing disappointment, the Steven Gerrard farewell tour reaches its final destination. The Britannia Stadium, Stoke. Of all the magnificent arenas Gerrard has graced in a Liverpool...
IT seems like something’s been triggered by yesterday’s game. Buckets of pent-up frustration, simmering nicely since August, have been kicked over and the consequences are thrashing around like fish dumped on the pavement. It feels like a tipping point. I’m in...
