WE’VE been here before. Perhaps not as poisonousness, perhaps not as omnipresent. But this is a familiar juncture, a well-known walkway. Brendan Rodgers should be sacked to save Liverpool. There are petitions. There are campaigns. There are banners and there are...
THREE at the back. It’s not something that’s particularly popular in football now is it? It’s very 1990s, writes PHIL BLUNDELL. Roy Evans was a big fan of it — it nearly won us a title in the mid 90s and England had a crack at it at Euro 96 and the 1998 World...
I REALLY do not want to be writing this piece. Let me say that first, to get it out of the way. If I had my way — if we all had our way — Liverpool would be cruising at the top of the league and we would all be huddled together talking about the majesty of...
BORDEAUX. Just arrived that bit too early for me this autumn. Can’t justify this Thursday to be in amongst the vineyards. Were we playing it when we go to Kazan, well that could be quite different. Means it’ll be the telly for me watching this, though...
VERSION three. I keep starting this and it comes out all wrong. I’ve tried my usual tricks of starting with a point that seems unrelated to football and then revealing the direction that I was always going in, in a frankly smart-arsed manner. I wrote a whole...
I WATCHED with amusement and frustration as Manchester City’s players, having been beaten by Juventus, avoided speaking to the media in the Etihad Stadium last night. All of the classic tricks were performed. Samir Nasri, refusing to make eye contact, nuzzled his...
I FIRST remember all this back in the Comprehensive days. The scrunched-up face and scowl from a kid who was too cool for school: “You’re an armchair, lad.” At the time, aged about 13, I was. Violins out, but I’ve never been to a match with my...
I REMEMBER the glory days of crowd-funding. Bands allowing you to pay for an album before it is made so they can record it. Young film-makers who can’t get the interest of production companies trying to make their first movie. Giving the public the chance to...
BRENDAN RODGERS: “That was part of my reflection when I left Reading, that I did veer from my philosophy under pressure for results, I wasn’t being true to myself. I can adapt and be pragmatic of course, but I had success all my life as a coach working...
THE sports pages of today’s newspapers don’t make for a great read for Brendan Rodgers. From tactical criticisms to the make-up of a squad that is of the manager’s making, from a defence that isn’t stopping goals and an attack that isn’t scoring them, the...
