THERE’S a line in the film Shadowlands which has always stuck with me. The film concerns the friendship between the writer C.S Lewis and the American poet Joy Davidman Grisham. While Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins) is the model of repressed and proper Oxford...
LAST week, The Anfield Wrap opened nominations for our ‘Embodiment of Liverpool FC’ award. This accolade goes to the player or staff member who represents the ideals of the club and performs them at every available opportunity. In short, it’s someone who ‘gets us’ and...
IT’S been quite a week. While the heavy City defeat was written off through face-saving indifference and outraged fury (ours being the most bipolar of all clubs), talk soon turned to the cheery possibility of the Premier League Champions signing Thiago Alcantara from...
FOLLOWING Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United in 1992, an ITV reporter tentatively interviewed Alex Ferguson somewhere in the bowels of Anfield. Leeds United had done for Sheffield United at Bramall Lane earlier that day and, thanks to goals from Ian Rush...
I SUPPOSE you can’t have everything. It wasn’t the best derby performance ever and that might have been down to rustiness, unusual playing conditions or simply a case of ‘too many cooks’. It wasn’t just the Liverpool team that played on Sunday night, but the Liverpool...
YOU don’t miss it till it’s gone. That’s what they always say. There comes a time when a healthy interest develops into an obsession and then, ultimately, into an addiction. I’m lucky, I can hide my own folly in plain sight, even from myself if I must, but take it...
TIMO said no. Ti-no? Ah well. If there’s anything football fans like it’s idle transfer speculation. What’s more, it doesn’t even have to have any basis in truth to hold out attention. As the summer begins, names are dredged up and added to the words ‘linked with’ to...
MOST of us wanted to play Ajax. That could have been for any number of reasons. Maybe it was because of their name and the European pedigree that saw them net a hat trick of European Cups before we were even on the board. There’s always been a healthy regard between...
BOXING Day football is a staple of every English season. Your guts may be stuffed to overflowing and your head might be a bit fuzzy or throbbing, but the Boxing Day programme will usually sort all that out. It’s even better if we’re at home. You simply stumble to the...
LAST week I was stood queuing outside my local Sainsbury’s being all socially responsible. I tried gamely not to be one of those people who frowns when someone moves a centimetre inside their exclusion zones. I failed. My best Steven Gerrard withering look was...
To take stock of the week just gone and look ahead to Liverpool v Southampton, John Gibbons hosts Andy Heaton, Sian Bennett and Craig Hannan.
Also on the show, we go back to what was a busy weekend for the city with three pilot events taking place in the form of ‘The First Dance’ presented by Circus at Bramley Moore Dock on the Friday and Saturday, as well as a concert in Sefton Park on the Sunday, as Liverpool gears up for life after lockdown.
To reflect on all of that and discuss what is next for the city as COVID restrictions continue to ease, John speaks to Claire McColgan, the Director of Culture Liverpool; Matt Ashton, the Director of Public Health; and DJ Lauren Lo Sung who was the first performer at the event on the Friday.
