JRC

Had a fanatical Liverpool supporting Dad, but so did my best mate, and he became a Manc, the other option then in the 60's in the North Cheshire hinterlands (pre-New Town Runcorn). Because my Dad was a Football League linesman, we couldn't get to many Liverpool games until he finished in the late 60's ( I went as a kid to LOTS of games at most grounds throughout the North & Midlands though, as he had a game every Saturday - but he wasn't allowed to run the line at Anfield or Goodison; and rightly so - he would never have given anything against us or for them). He did bunk me over the turnstiles at Wembley '65, though, and danced drunkenly with me in Trafalgar Square afterwards. Even with that provenance, though, a defining moment - Age 5, in 1964, in full kit, I was asked by Eric Hughes, Chip Shop King of Runcorn, if I supported Liverpool or ManU (The kit still had White Shorts in those days, so not a stupid question). When I said Liverpool, he gave me sixpence. So - I'm a mercenary, worse even than a glory hunter.

The interplay in the Villa away game was as good as anything we have produced since - all one touch, pass and move, unexpected angles. But just one of too small a selection of examples of Litmanen at his best. Nice to see some realism here - in the Dark Days, Litmanen's failure was placed squarely on Houllier's shoulder, part of the indictment. Whilst Ged is not without culpability, truth always was that Jari never quite cut it in the Premier League as much as we would hoped, for a number of reasons.

Clearly never went on the web forums or listened to the Main Stand Miserabilists then. tbh I loved the fact that he was so infuriating, those crucial and signifcant flashes of genius were always a real 2 fingers up to those that always find it easier to have a moan at anyone who isn't 100% perfect. Good luck, Luis, and thanks for everything

The 'Spanish Temperment' thing could easily apply to the post-CL outburst. And no-one could claim that when it comes to LFC - or Football generally - that Rafa is anything other than intense. Nothing to see hear, folks. Apart from Smithdown's sister, maybe.

Tough run in, which is a change - for the last few seasons we've had an easy run-in, for it not to matter by the time we got to it. The overall start is OK, but be prepared for some whinging and doom-mongering in case of a not unlikely failure to take all 6 points from Villa and Chelsea (with the WH game postponed), as all the others we would look at have easy first games - Chelsea, a***, ManU and Everton have v winnable Home games on the first day; and may see us mid-table or below on the 2nd weekend.....Although an early win against the Chavs would set us nicely for the subsequent run of games.

So it's transparent then. Isn't that what the protest was about? Or am I suffering Cross-Forum confusion?

So currently, two of the strongest and most praiseworthy responses to UEFA have come from Michael Howard and The Daily Mail. Have I slipped into some bizarre parallel universe? Not sure I can handle this, tbh.

This is supposed to be their response, remember, to Athens. A report, not into what went wrong that night but into the past 4 years of 'incidents' involving us. Produced in less than 2 weeks, as well. It is nothing other than crass, naked ad hominem politics - and technically irrelevant to the issue apparently under review (Athens). If a political party, or UK institution (Network Rail, The Police etc.) tried to be this blatant and simplistic in it's own defence, the press would rip it to shreds. The fact that they are using this tactic - even if the accusations are 'true' (which begs the question why they didn't act on them earlier) - shreds what scant vestiges of credibility this corrupt, bloated, incompetent, self-serving organization has left. Think so. So how do they know he abandoned the match? Perhaps he just decided to blow up with a minute left........

Dalglish had plenty of 'those' games, but I remember one against Man City when he was simply unplayable, even by his imperious standards - scored a direct Free Kick, if I recall, a rarity for the King, Rush in the 0-5 Derby, yes, but also away at Aston Villa on an Ice Rink. Hamann vs Roma 2001 - but the Home Leg. Tackled everything in sight, all night.

As far as I know, we make No Profit on Shir sales other than those via the club. The agreement with Adidas gives full rights to these sales to them directly - that's what they pay up front for (and I believe all shirt deals are like this, not just ours.) Of course, the clubs with the biggest fan base gat the biggest deals, so it's still beneficial to sell mor, but not simply on an incremental basis. Of course, I may be wrong, there may be some volume-dependant bonuses, or individual shirt sales licence payment, but that's not how it has been explained to me in the past

or trust your left foot...

To be fair to Kuyt, he had 2 chances last night and put one away (the other was well, if a little fortuitously, blocked) - not unlike Inzaghi, if you don't credit the in-off as 'taking a chance'. Maybe he doesn't get into enough 'chance' positions, but nor do we create a plethora of quality chances anyway. If we had had, say, Owen last night, then we would not have had the control we did, as Kuyt helped counter the effectiveness of Pirlo and Gattuso. Now Rush, that would hve been different - he did the Kuyt stuff AND scored for fun. But not being Rush is a failing for just about any striker you care to mention.

Crouch was ready to come on about 5 minutes earlier, but the ball didn't go out of play, and then they had a corner, so Rafa stalled. Part of the reason re Crouch not getting much game time may be that the Euro Refs seem to punish him for simply being tall, and that happened to an extent last night; hence his efectiveness was limited, and only worth bringing on as things got more desperate.

After he booked Gattuso, he scarcely gave a foul against him, even though he was perpetrating the kind of blocking/hip-throwing fouls that were getting punished elsewhere. Poor Referee, but not overly an influence, more an irritation. Howevr, whoever wants to claim that Milan were clinical in taking their 2 chances is a WUM. The 2nd maybe, but there is nothing clinical about an involuntary in-off. That we didn't take advantage of our superiority is a fact we have to accept (again), but it doesn't follow that Milan 'deserved' to win.

Don't try posting anything this sensible on some other sites, as it means you are 'Rick Parry's Bitch', or even the Devil, Old Rick, himself, apparently.

Taibi did make a howler against us - came out way too far for a coss he was never going to get, Sami nodded it into an empty net - but had a stormer after that. Our telex address (kids - ask your Grandad) used to be Goalkeeper, and we have revered fine Keepers and Keeper performances as far back as I can recall. Banks was cheered louder than our own keeper, and Jennings - who once saved 2 penalties in front of the Kop in 1 game - was treated like a legend, cheered on and off. One of our finer traditions we should not lose. It still warms me to see the oppo keeper clap back; we shouldn't even boo if he doesn't respond, it's a respect we should offer to all visiting keepers, even Mancs, irrespective of if they give it back or not.

As a matter of interest, this seasons results against the top clubs - usually cited as a key failing, and mentioned again today by Rafa - does NOT seem to have been as significant this year. Whilst we only got 6 points in the match-ups, Chelsea only got 7 and ManU 8 - Arsenal were the big winners in these games, with 11 points. Didn't do them much good did it? As often before, it's our record against inferior oppostion that let us down, not the other Top 4 clubs.

And I bet some b*stard who only went to every Home game plus Kiev, Gala and Eindhoven away got a ticket ahead of you. How fair is that? This club sh*ts on the true fans - we should burn the place down. SACK PARRY!

Thank God for that, I was wondering how to fill that spare 30 seconds.

Great post, unfortunately I don't think rational thought has a place in this debate any more. Re the quote above - of course the club had to put FCH in, seeing as how that's how they said it would work at the start of the season, apparently. BTW, I love ACS as a STH who works away a lot - it's a genuinely fan-friendly service, the kind many always argue we don't do-, but I accepted that ticking a box didn't guarantee me a Final ticket. I did it because I wanted to go to the games, end of. There are (at least) 2 dangers with some of these loyalty schemes; firstly, next year, the bar will be 6+1, so 6+2 will be the guarantee. Fine, except more people will know they need to 'play the game' - in fact, maybe it will take '6+3' to avoid a ballot. That could end up with more unwanted tickets for the earlier games (possibly making their way to touts), and those who genuinely want to go may struggle to get tickets. Secondly, extended loyalty schemes can become self-perpetuating - classic Catch-22; need credits to get tickets, need tickets to get credits. It will prove more and more difficult for newer fans - not necessarily johnny-come-latelys, maybe kids starting to travel away, or old gits like me now free and financially stable enough to relive my younger jaunts - to get on the ride; those who already have sufficient credits will perpetuate them as long as possible; we'll see FC credits being passed through generations like ST's traditionally have. The scheme this year is not obviously better or worse than any others, and those who want to argue the toss should examine the club scheme and complain at the START of next season, not when (if) we get to a Final. Perhaps YNWA should post a sticky with the exact details of how the loyalty scheme will work next year as soon as it is made public.

Are the people complaining about the 'Corporate' cut the same who complained about us not gettig a big enough deal with Carlsberg? Maybe if the deal were bigger, they would expect even more tickets in the event of us reaching a Final? Or do we just think they pay the money and don't expect anything other than the name on the shirt and some ads around the ground? Sad thing is, the reaction to these numbers proves a point made by others - even if the allocation details were now given out by the club, rather than the sadly typical random generation of numbers based on hearsay and anecdote which has constituted most of the basis for peoples ire, it wouldn't matter; because assuming fyds' analysis is accurate, which points to a not unreasonable split (85% going to Fans), the frenzy that has been whipped up means people are still incapable of reading them as anything other than us being shafted, or being treated with contempt, and so falling out of Love witht club, protesting and all that cr*p.

None for me and my lad - once mine was out, almost relieved the second was too, so as not to have to tell him he couldn't skip school, and I was having his ticket...

I assumed everyone would be in the scheme; after missing out on Final Tickets over the past few years, I made sure I was. But on Tuesday, not many STH were in their specs around me, and it wasn't a game where you'd get a ticket and then sell it.

At the heart of the Final, a real South American battle - Mascherano to nullify Kaka. It is his destiny.

Xabi's form has dipped as Pennant has begun to show his worth - a pity, as I remember saying in the first couple of games that Pennant must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven as Xabi picked him out time and time again; get better movement up front and quality in the wide positions, and Xabi will have a field day; especially with Monster Masch alongside him.