Liverpool

Sunderland v Liverpool: a turn-up for the books

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The Anfield dressing room, home of Liverpool FC, and the shirts of Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia, Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, Fabio Aurelio and Andrea DossenaBen Sutherland

In which Niall Quinn gets close to an apology for the D for Despise outburst …

Sunderland will play Liverpool to a packed house of almost 49,000 a week on Sunday, a terrific piece of news made better because the match is live on television.

The response to the lingering attraction of Kenny Dalglish’s club, and our own hugely encouraging season (for all the blips), is so much more welcome because of the recent controversy caused by Niall Quinn’s attack on supporters who watch games on illegal pub broadcasts.

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Unwise to talk about backing the other side? You bet …

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Our shadowy Birflatt Boy is quick to respond to the rotten question of whether it is ever Ok to bet on your team losing …

M Salut’s article on betting against your team – click here – prompted Birflatt to think of other dilemmas that anyone could potentially face by doing nothing worse than supporting their team.

Now Birflatt wouldn’t condone anyone betting against Sunderland in any circumstances other than those where the wager is intended to cover the costs of an away trip down to London, for example, and where the bitter taste of defeat is accentuated by the trip costing half a week’s wages.

A few seasons back when Peter Crouch was playing for Liverpool, they were drawn to play Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

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Andy Carroll, Torres and Bent: good business or desperate human trafficking?

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So it ended without that extra striker coming our way. That leaves some of us feeling a little nervous, but Steve Bruce seems content with the business he’s done and with his resistance to the idea of panic measures to fill a temporary gap up front. Jeremy Robson looks at events elsewhere in the climax to one of the world’s craziest trade fairs …

The transfer window has always been controversial.

Whoever it serves hadn’t quite been figured out until this one.  Most managers seemed to hold the view that it didn’t  help anyone much as the prices demanded for players during January was artificially high and that the clubs’ finances would face less of a strain during the summer months.

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West Ham, Darren Bent or snow can brighten our lives

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Image: addict_tedKevin


Always look on the bright side of life – even when hubcap thieves in Liverpool are casing the joint, intent on stealing our star striker, and our next opponents suddenly start winning. Monsieur Salut, off to Zurich to report (but not for the British media) on the Fifa decision on 2018/2022 World Cup venues, tries to keep smiling …

The Reserves’ great win at Chelsea aside – and we’re still waiting to hear from the much-praised Louis Laing with a photo we can post – it has not been a week for good news.

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Everton fans in Ulster: good-is-on each side

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An appalling play on words, and surely more than enough to make Peter Cross*. I always thought, because Catholic friends in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry told me so, that Everton was predominantly their club, Liverpool the Protestants’. Peter, who leads Northern Ireland’s branch of the Everton Supporters’ Club, knows better; ahead of Monday’s SAFC v Everton clash at the Stadium of Light, he offers a brief but scholarly history of the two clubs. And yes, talks about football, too …

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Soapbox: a changing Premier amid the Liverpool/Man Utd shambles

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Change, says Pete Sixsmith with what he terms “apologies to the late, great Sam Cooke”, is gonna come. Dylan had similar thoughts (“Come gather round people …”). Pete’s belief is that the obscene spectacle of Liverpool FC’s disintegration, and the unsavoury air over Old Trafford, may be symptoms of a malaise that will lead to an overdue Premier League revolution …

Is it just me, or do I detect a change coming in the Premier League this year? Are we seeing the end of the Big Four period of domination? Are some of the middle ranking clubs ready to take over the mantle of European contenders from the perpetual participants?

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Soapbox in Liverpool: not a fair Kop

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Pete Sixsmith had a good day out on Merseyside, watching Sunderland play their best football of the season, enjoying some decent ale and admiring the fine sportsmanship of Kuyt and Torres …

The Brucester made the point last night that all the talk would be about Stuart (“Winifred”) Attwell’s performance and/or the looming crisis in Anfield Road, L4 0TH and not about the excellent performance that Sunderland had put in.

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Liverpool v Sunderland Observed: simply our best

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Things have reached such a state at Anfield that Liverpool fans now hail as a “good start” an extremely dodgy early goal, in which the spirit of fair play was singularly absent whatever the letter of the law may say (and always leaving aside how far Torres was from the ball when the “free kick” was “taken”). On the other hand, Turner may just have been a prat! …

In any case, Stephanie Jones, an Observer-reading Red, saw it in a positive light – her team’s start, that is, not their overall performance – in her fan’s report for her Sunday newspaper of choice.

Salut! Sunderland was again called upon to give its own verdict, but let Stephanie speak first:

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