‘YESTERDAY I got so old I thought that I would die…’ (In Between Days – The Cure, 1985) There are abiding clichés in football about “regret”. Usually trotted about before cup finals by managers and pundits. There’s always talk of “leaving nothing in...
WE take the name of our opponents for granted. A touch of context is all we require. Red Star Belgrade have been a background presence in my European football consciousness since as long as I can recall. But I’ve never once paused for thought to consider their name....
THERE are good times to play teams. When they’ve won 10 on the spin isn’t one of them. When they’ve ended that run, regardless of the manner in which it ground to halt, that is the sweet spot moment. Arsenal conceded late and drew at Crystal Palace last weekend. They...
“I COULD hear the distant drums, “The sounds of bugles were coming from afar, “Can you hear the drums, Fernando?” (Andersson, 1975) Mo Salah could hear them. Sadio Mane could hear them. Bobby Firmino too. Three hearts beating as one. Once...
IT’S turning out to be a strange old season, this one. I genuinely don’t know how I feel about it. I mean, I’m happy, I think. Yeah, I must be. A good barometer of my football contentedness is my inclination to watch other teams play football. I’m watching any old...
IT’S been an age since Liverpool played some football, in what was a taut match against Manchester City that seemed to last forever. Time is passing and we have the third waypoint of the league season already in site. By the time we pause again for the next...
I DON’T take defeat well. I don’t take not winning well. Three games of only this makes me blue. Like a Blue. They’re calling Liverpool v Manchester City a “title decider in October”. Actually, I might be the first to have dubbed it this, but what the heck. The...
THE celebrations in those closing minutes at Stamford Bridge on Saturday tea time, were full blooded, defiant and maybe will come to be seen as disproportionate. We are apt to do this. I was part of an away end at Villa Park in Brendan Rogers last season that properly...
IT’S something of a shame that we had to dilute the anticipation of this titanic contest by prefacing it with that midweek rumble in the League Cup. Wednesday night’s was a decent game, even if we were ultimately left utterly frustrated by it. It would have been nice...
LIVERPOOL v Chelsea in the third round of the League Cup. An unwanted and destined to be unloved child of a game. We all want to win a trophy, this one even, but we don’t want to have to win it now. Neither ourselves or Chelsea are in the frame of mind to be viewing...
