The Week of Weeks???

Well what a week,

It all started on Monday with our amazing dismantling of one of the best home sides in the League. I have been going to Fulham for 3 seasons now and can only think of 1 other game where they were completely thumped out of sight and that was Man City this season.

I think that really puts our performace in perspective especially when you think that in the last 2 seasons we have won narrowly when Yossi scored in the last minute and took a deserved hiding at the Cottage last year. Fulham made some defensive errors but that was down to the pressure we put them under.

Suarez is something else, he is not the tallest or strongest striker but Hangeland and Hughes did not get a minute's peace. He competed for absolutely everything. He does have that South American streak in him and does throw himself to the ground a lot however his pace, movement and close ball control is exceptional. What a signing he is going to be!!! An interesting fact about Aaron Hughes if he gets to end of the season without getting booked he will have completed 2 full PL seasons without a booking! Amazing for a centrehalf!

Maxi was clinical everything that left his boot went in the net. He has picked up the midfield scoring mantle from Miereles, while Dirk has become the new Stevie G! Fulham could not live with the pace we played the game at. If that is what we are looking to do going forward the the PL should be afraid....very afraid. 5-2 did not flatter us. Fulham re-organised at halftime and mirrored our 4-2-3-1 they were more of a threat with Zamora up front.

I was really impressed with Flanaghan in the 2nd half. Zamora kept peeling on to him for goalkicks and long balls and he more than held his own. Its not often Danny Murphy gets outplayed and Lucas and Spearing totally dominated things. On the whole a great performance and fair result.

With this group of players and formation I really dont see how Carroll and Gerrard fit in! Nice players to have on the bench! Obviously if we get a couple of decent wingers we can have 2 different ways of playing which will cause the opposition nightmares. 4-2-3-1 away and flatter 4-4-2 at home using width and Carroll.


As a aside I was further entertained on Wedesday ight at teh Conference Play-off Semi between Wimbeldon and Fleetwood. Another 7 goal thriller 6-1 to the Wombles! 14 goals in 2 games cant complain. I was suprised by the quality at that level. I went to watch St Mirren v ICT in Feb and AFC Wimbeldon would have given them both a run for their money.

Tuesday night Man City did us favour and put Spurs to the sword setting up todays crucial decider for 5th. On Thursday we finally had confirmation of what we have been waiting for King Kenny's magnificent 6 month reign will continue for another 3 years. Its the news we have all been waiting for. That will surely quash any rumours about the likes of Reina moving etc and a result today will put us in really good position for next season.

Only dampener was that ManUre Marketing Inc won their 19th title. It really galls me, I would say well done but everyone in the top 6 has been poor this year. So they were the best of a bad bunch. ManUre are not a football club, like Real Madrid, they are a brand that happens to have a football team attached. Other than fans of the Munich air disaster era, I have no idea why anyone not from Manchester supports them, they have no soul. They have always had more money than most. Just a bunch of glory hunting clowns with little or no football knowledge. Most ManUre fans cant even tell you the starting 11 most weekends. 2 paragraphs on my Blog is enough about the Legions of Doom.

Strangely I think Man City and us are in the best position to challenge. There is too much meddling from Abromovich at Chelski and they have an ageing squad. Wenger has seen his dream of a bunch of under 23's winning everything shattered for the 6th season. Will he change, can he change? The renewal of Pat Rice's contract suggests not. Look for an exodus at the Emirates over the summer.

I think is obvious where we need to strenghten, left back, another fit centre-half (Agger is not the answer) and some decent wingers and maybe another striker. I dont think we need to bring in much more than that. Kenny will be given a 50 mill war chest for the summer and considering how many players we need to get rid of (10-15) that is probably closer to 70 million. We can easily get 5 of 6 quality player for that amount of money, plus the better ones from the academy and we are in good shape.

Like Kenny I wouldn't change too much as far as personnel goes for today's game.
Might give Robinson a run instead of Flanno purely from a pace perspective as he will be up against Lennon. If Meireles hasn't recovered from his hammy pull on Monday then move Dirk inside and play Shelvey wide or vice versa.

Come on you Reds!

The future is bright the future is Dalglish!


P.S. Lucas has won the fans player of the year. I know we have been poor ad he has improved but I think Dirk has done more than enough. He has taken on the role of penalty taker, is our leading scorer, unless Maxi get another hat-trick! He leads by example on and off the pitch. He has also been key to Suarez settling in so quickly communicating in Dutch with him.

Dirk the Gurkha - if you feed him he will score!

P.S.S. My new personalised away kit arrived on Friday, its marvelous except they sent me a large instead of the XL that I ordered. So I look like Jan Molby in it. That will be going back!

Sunday Stroll Aboot the Toon

Well the momentum is certainly with us on the run-in.

Since our defeat against the Baggies we have scored 12 goals and conceded just 1 if we can keep that going we can get this Europa League spot. I for one would not have believed we would be in a position to claim it. In October it was imposssible, in January it was pipe dream and now its almost a reality. Thankfully Spurs are now paying for a long season of CL involvement and the fact that they have quite a tough run-in against all the teams above and around them.

Spurs are showing that what Liverpool hae been able to do over the last 6 or 7 seasons of constantly being in the latter stages of the CL and maintaining a top 4 position is in itself an achievement. Especially with the donkey squad we have had!!

It will become increasingly harder to finish in the top 4 and clubs who need it year-on-year are going to have to spend bigger and bigger. Man U, Chelski and Man City have to keep up their spending trend. Arsenal are slighty different they only have couple of more seasons and their staduim debt is paid and then perhaps they will use the money they take off their fans every week. £890 is the cheapest adult season ticket! Thats double Fulham so you are paying £40 a game for Arsenal with season ticket. Madness.

We also have to spend to catch up however we have to be sensible. There are 6 teams in the PL currently vying for Top4 so 2 teams are going to miss out every year and now that the FA Cup Final is guarenteed one of the Europa League spots there could be more seasons like this where only 1 Europa League spot is avalable from the League table. I think its better, after all getting to a Cup Final is more of an achievement than finishing 6th (sometimes 30 points - 10 wins behind the Champions).

If QPR get their act together with Ecclestone's and Briatore's billions we could be looking at 7 teams. I dont think we can realistically challenge for the League next season. We have to revamp the squad considerably with the addition of 5 quality players at least and possibly a couple of squad players. We need to get about 13players off our wage bill. From the League table we dont look that far away but lets be honest, none of the teams above us have had a very good season and they cant all be that bad agan next season.

So it will take time to integrate new players. Thats why my additions for next season are players already playing in the PL. It takes too long with foreign players, they either hit the ground running (Suarez) or take a season or two (Alonso). Or they are just crap (Biscan,Babel,Diao,Traore, Morientes,Jovanovic,Degen,Insua,Poulsen,Intandje,El Zhar) Christ if you fielded that 11 every week you would get relegated - from the Conference!

During yesterdays game the commetators mentioned that the Oxygen Thief that is Joey Barton is on our shopping list. Why would we waste our time with that piece of shit?
Hopefully that is nonsense. Baines seems to be out of reach Mr Moyes getting very upset and Baines himself poo-pooing the idea. That leaves us Luis Enrique of Newcastle or Gael Clichy. Cant really see the latter he hasnt won fuck all at Arsenal in 5 years he isnt going to come to us for another re-building exercise.

Sylvian Marveaux looks like being on his way from Rennes, currently groin strained, which isnt a good sign for a winger but it is a free transfer, so if he is crap or injured we can get rid of him and make some money. I would still like to see N'Zogbia in our Red shirt. He can play either wing or just off striker.Oh yes and Chung-Yong Lee from Bolton to keep Standard Chartered happy. Its all about the sponsors!

Yesterday's performance was a bit stop-starty but we got there in the end, as usual Dirk was brilliant and Spearing too. Nice to see Flanno get tested by Guitierrez and Kenny swapping him over to left-back in 2nd half rather than subbing the boy. Newcastle looked like they were on their holidays already.

If Man City can beat Spurs in their game in hand we will have 5th place sown up. Just 3 more wins please. Never thought I would be so happy to see Europa League football!

I see Torres' career at Chelski continues to flourish, outshone by Drogba again and subbed after an hour. I hope he has a great game next week and scores 3 before Vidic (if he is still on the field) breaks his leg and ends his career. Mersonometer looking good at 5-1 to us.

Give Kenny the Job already!!!

YNWA

P.S. New away kit ordered, nice!