Title Race

[ChesterDave]

I've sent a holiday request through to provisionally book May 12th off in case we are in it going into the last day! :-D

I got a bit dreamy eyed in work today - put in a request for June 2015 to make sure I can go to Berlin for our CL final winning weekend

[G]

[Montana]

This is an incredible title race, the best in years and not just because we're In it.

I genuinely believe we will win it. It's just a feeling, can't explain why. It's like the 80s, you could sense it. We just seem destined to finish top of the league.

The team spirit, the belief amongst players and fans is clear to see. The class, the quality is there even with the defensive mishaps.

Chelsea and City will surely drop some points apart from Anfield and then its purely down to us and if we can perform and beat both of them to get in pole position.

Their fixture list is not easy. I remember when we ruled and still always used to struggle against Coventry, Leicester, Southampton etc. Our rivals will drop points and we need to ensure we drop less and beat them at home.

Do that and we are champs.

[Roboklopp]

Thing is, I believed it in 09 too.

[G]

I didn't cos it was never in our hands. It isn't now either but City aren't bashing out the wins relentlessly like United were then, they aren't as convincing.

[Roboklopp]

Scum got bull**** decisions to help them- most noticably against Spurs. The scabberous cunts.

[Alex]

Chelsea don't have the easiest run-in, we do. Chelsea must come to Anfield. No, we have to play the best 2 teams statistically in the country still

Arsenal have zero chance of finishing above us. I dont think you understand what Zero means.

Why am I explaining this, unless everyone else is a moron? We alll must be the ones who are wrong. I can see the logic there.

[magicalbarnes]

Man City have to play both ManU & Arsenal away over the next 6 days. If they only get 4 points out of those next two tough games - then the title is in our hands.

[RedReet]

Bit long winded, but posted purely because I like the idea of other fans getting carried away and singing along to YNWA. I had it blaring out a load of times yesterday and was actually think other fans must be jealous that we have such a great and emotional anthem.

In Praise Of Liverpool Football Club: Through Gritted Teeth

It happened without me even noticing on Friday afternoon. Gerry and the Pacemakers’, You’ll Never Walk Alone came on the car stereo and before I had time to adjust the dial, I was belting it out at the top of my lungs and with the knobs turned up to eleven. Maybe I’d been deluding myself all season but I couldn’t do it any longer. My subconscious was telling me in no uncertain terms that it was time to give Liverpool their dues. What follows is by no means a love-in but it is an acknowledgement of sorts. And to all those Evertonians whose club I have celebrated for so long in these posts, I am truly sorry. However, my sense of fairness dictates that I do this. Some might call it an affliction.

Here goes. Deep breath. Liverpool have been absolutely sensational for so long this season that I wouldn’t begrudge them winning the title. Hold on a second, let me explain. For illustration’s sake, I see the current top four as resembling something akin to football’s version of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Unless you support them, they’re hardly an appealing bunch. Chelsea are classless in every sense of the word, Manchester City are hollow to their very core and Arsenal are for obvious tribal reasons, never going to feature highly in my ‘support for a day’ stakes. So it leaves me with Liverpool.

Regular readers will know that Liverpool have been a club that I have parodied and criticised on a routine basis. This reached its golden moment earlier this season when I wrote a piece lampooning David Peace’s Red Or Dead in which I highlighted the self-delusion of Liverpool supporters by speaking as a self-deluded Liverpool supporter. I naturally prepared myself for an avalanche of threats and insults but as it transpired, I’d accidently managed to dupe many of them who read it with the earnestness with which it wasn’t written. United fans in particular, liked that one.

However, to add balance I have also always been a staunch supporter of the club when matters beyond the gentle teasing of the keyboard have called for it. I never much believed the Old Lie that decreed football being more important than life or death.

Regardless, I’ve never liked the continued grasping onto those five European Cups as some kind of assertion of superiority over the rest of English football. I’ve never forgiven them the arrogance that allowed Michael Thomas to become immortalised with that toddler-like wriggle of a celebration in ’89. As for Steve McMahon’s wink to the television cameras after he’d elbowed Gazza in a League match in 1990, well, I think some things are best left unsaid and to the pictures of my twisted imagination.

These are all mitigating factors that I continue to stand by. What cannot be denied is the expressive fluency that has characterised Liverpool’s performances as the season has progressed. They’re irresistible. They’re exciting. They play as if they’re a team. In short, they’re everything I wish Spurs were.

I don’t draw the comparison to Spurs to engage in another round of ENIC/Sherwood bashing – they’ve finally crushed me into weary, resigned submission on that front – but to highlight the significance of Brendan Rodgers’ successes and potential glories since he took over the club at a similar time to the doomed Andre Villas-Boas at White Hart Lane.

I’ve referred to his propensity for slipping into David Brent-like aphorisms during post-match interviews once before. In fact, his wholehearted belief in his ‘philosophy’ has at times been even funnier than Ricky Gervais’ ‘chilled-out entertainer’ because the words are coming out of a living, breathing, actual person. Nevertheless, it can’t be denied that he stands by these principles of aesthetically beautiful, intricate football played at pace and this unswerving belief is exactly what has gained him so many plaudits this season. More importantly, he has been afforded time by the club’s owners to mould a squad according to these principles, with a genuine awareness of the ethos running through Anfield’s corridors. Liverpool stayed resolute in their refusal to sell their star player and acquisitions have been made with both forethought and a clear system in mind. Mr Levy should take note and shift uncomfortably in his heated seat at White Hart Lane every time Liverpool rip apart another defence whilst our club stutter and splutter towards the finish. Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.

This is not about Spurs, though. There’s a bigger narrative at play and it can’t be lost on Manchester United supporters that in the year that Sir Alex Ferguson retired and with an ex-Evertonian at the Old Trafford helm, Liverpool could potentially set the clock back a couple of decades and actually reclaim that fabled perch. I quite like the cyclical nature of that.

Liverpool Football Club, like King Lear, once powerful but now left discarded and alone. Raging and howling through the wind with nobody listening. Suffering the humiliations and heartaches of decrepit ownership and doddery managers who couldn’t quite usurp the bitter old Scot. And finally, once everything has been lost, the titles overtaken (except those European Cups, of course), they gain wisdom. They invest in a young manager. He invests in young talent. They play with freedom. That kind of thing is almost poetic, right? Or me just doing an impression of Brendan Rodgers doing an impression of David Brent. Probably the latter. And besides, however great Liverpool have been, we all know that Mourinho’s Macbeth has one final twist of villainy to unveil upon an unsuspecting referee or linesman that will ultimately take the Premier League trophy to Stamford Bridge. It is written.

Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, I can at least say I’ve finally written an (almost) positive piece about Liverpool. Cats and dogs have been reported as moving in together. Satan is hurling snowballs at his minions. Porky Pig has gained a pilot’s licence. But you know what, when a team is this good, the truth, however painful, is the truth. Altogether now: When you walk, through the storm…

http://dispatchesfromafootballsofa.com/2014/03/24/liverpool-football-club-through-gritted-teeth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=liverpool-football-club-through-gritted-teeth

[jono]

Bit long winded, but posted purely because I like the idea of other fans getting carried away and singing along to YNWA. I had it blaring out a load of times yesterday and was actually think other fans must be jealous that we have such a great and emotional anthem.

Interesting article. By the way I saw you signature. How much do you stand to win?

[RedReet]

Whoever loses donates £20 to the site.

When I offered the bet out pre-season there were a lot of takers, I could have made a fortune if I'd wanted to.

[ChesterDave]

Its nice that other fans give us praise but to take a swipe at us living in the past while not forgiving McMahon for a wink 24 years ago...

[john316]

Thing is, I believed it in 09 too.

That Villa game at Old Trafford had me believing and then ending my belief thanks to that turd Macheda. This time it feels different as we could be the ones in the driving seat if City drops points tomorrow and we beat Sunderland.

[Vermilion]

Heard a utd fan on Talk Spite the other day saying he would rather we won the title than Citeh or Chavski, his reason, for the families of the 96 and the 25 Long years they've waited for justice.

Now would be a very good time.

He's not wrong.

[Fosterbloke]

Heard a utd fan on Talk Spite the other day saying he would rather we won the title than Citeh or Chavski, his reason, for the families of the 96 and the 25 Long years they've waited for justice.

Now would be a very good time.

He's not wrong.

That's a nice thing to say.