johny

fans tending to the injured whilst dozens of police, all trained in first aid, stand with their backs to them. http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/306862_10150428821684622_517444621_10885643_7909938_n.jpg http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00089/hills9_89195s.jpg football fans were the shit on their shoes that day.

the police for: 1. insisting all 24,000 liverpool fans had to enter the ground through the end with the smallest number of turnstyles 2. refusing to put the kick off time back despite thousands being delayed in roadworks and still being outside the ground at 3pm 3. opening the exit gate and allowing thousands to walk straight into the tunnel into the already overcrowded central pens despite being told 7 times by the head steward not to. 4. standing feet away from dead bodies pushed up against the fence, hearing people, children screaming for help, and doing nothing. 5. pushing people back in to the crush from the top of the fences. 6. lining up along the halfway line to protect the forrest fans from the dead scousers whilst untrained fans provided CPR and manned stretchers. 7. refusing the dozens of ambulences that turned up access to the stadium "for their own safety". Most people could've been saved if given oxygen before brain death. 8. Telling the FA, whilst people were still lying there dying that fans forced the gate open. 9. Treating the families of the dead like shit in the immediate aftermath 10. Leaking lies to the press about fans pissing on dead bodies, theiving from dead bodies, attacking paramedics, and SEXUALLY ABUSING dead bodies. 11. Changing Police statements to remove anything that apportioned blame to the police or the decision making of the officers in charge. 12. Destroying the CCTV tapes from the grounds control tower. 13. Pensioning off the Officer in charge on the day of the game, who ordered the gate opened, and who in the words of Lord Taylor "froze" when the disaster was unfolding. would be a start. don't be fooled by their talk of "hundreds of drunk ticketless fans rioting", even at 3.06 video evidence has proven that the total number of people across all pens in the leppings lane was at or just under full capacity. also, there is CCTV of the moment the gate is opened from inside the ground, people can be seen walking calmly through, a few jogging, and straight down the unguarded tunnel. there were no rioting mobs, and the number of bunkers was minimal, no more than any normal match. it was gross negligence, not an accident.

united no longer have a backlog of seasies, they just about sell them out each season now. The year after the Glazers introduced the automatic cup ticket scheme, 27,000 people didn't renew, now anyone on their ticket database are getting called and offered them. I work in St Helens and there are a lot of United supporters there, apparently it's pretty easy to get tickets for their games nowadays.

Of course it's not right, people make up bollocks about football every 6 seconds. Charlie Adam for Blackpool last season was the latest, I think.

http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/liverpool-chief-denies-agreement-for-arsenal-targe gah.

Sterling looks a genuine talent, the only worry I have over him is his size. Now I know it's a bit of a myth about small players not making it, but he is TINY. Lots of skill and pace though, not afraid to use it either and he has a good eye for goal. Reminds me of Shaun Wright-Phillips when he broke through at city all those years back. It's almost certainly rubbish about Hazard anyway, just people putting 2 and 2 together with Cole going there, but it can't do us any harm, depending of course on how long Lille take to figure that all Cole's good for these days is getting puffed out after 15mins and back-healing the ball to the opposition.

I can see what you did there, subtle. I can also see why that Michael Thomas goal would seem significant looking in from the outside, but I promise you most of us there that night were just glad to see the back of that season, quite a few have never been back since. It was nice pipping them to it the next year anyway, but of course we'd had plenty of practice in '86

gerrards goal vs olympiakos me mate got his nose accidentally broken in the melee after mellors winner and I went down to the bogs with him when he went to clean himself up. we were jogging back up the steps 'cos we could tell we were attacking, when all hell broke loose. bodies and bits of chairs flying everywhere, we went nuts in the stairwell and got back into the aisle as quick as we could. brilliant moment but my one and only memory of that goal is forever tainted by andy fkin gray.

churinga what is your opinion of Edin Hazard? are we talking the next ronaldo, or the next quaresma here? What little of him I've seen looks very impressive, I'm a little suprised nobody made a serious move for him this summer. The reason I ask is there is a whisper that our (liverpool) loan deal with Joe Cole to Lille may have included a first refusal clause for Hazard. It's probably a load of rubbish anyway but this is the internet so anything is possible.... sorry for butting in...

I will be made up if the scheme is scrapped. The day they take a bulldozer to Anfield for the sake of a few extra corporate seats is the day I stop going the match.

Bloody hell if I was arsed enough about friendlies to get bitter about the results I'd have topped myself years ago by now, we're rubbish at them! I remember as a kid one year we lost every pre-season game save for one draw I think... and went on to win a league, league cup, and european cup treble that season. I was practically supporting Hull.

He was crap, erm..probably. (I was v.drunk by the time I got round to watching it) It was, injuries and internationals aside, our entire 1st team squad used so hardly a full strength XI. Oh aye, Reina was missing too. So would 1st choice XI playing 90 mins including our best holding midfielder, attacking midfielder, goalkeeper, and striker have made a difference....? Not if Northampton was anything to go by arsed though really, it's a run out, nothing more.

No Lucas, Suarez, or Gerrard. 22 players got 45mins each. Had most of the ball but created naff all. Hull took their chances well. Our best player, in my opinion, was Aquilani who is apparently going to Fiori on loan Downing looked boss as well.

happy with adam, £7.5m rising to £8m according to the guardian. Decent price. We will be bringing in a left back as well, that is almost certain. £6.5m now according to sky. at this rate he'll be a free transfer by Tuesday.

another UEFA conspiracy theory?...we didn't qualify

Kenny is good like but that would be some coup!

great move for his agent though, he won't be there more than 24 months. 2 transfers for the price of one.

Both teams wage bills are very responsible in the context of the league as a whole, these figures show wage bills as a percentage of total turnover for all last seasons premiership clubs. 1. Arsenal - 29% 2. Man United - 46% 3. Wolves - 49% 4. Spurs - 56% 5. Fulham - 63% 6. Liverpool - 65% 7. Birmingham - 68% 8. Everton - 69% 9. Bolton - 74% 10. West Ham - 75% 11. Stoke - 76% 12. Blackburn - 81% 13. Chelsea - 82% =. West Brom - 82% 15. Sunderland - 83% 16. Villa - 88% 17. Newcastle - 90% 18. Wigan - 91% 19 Man City - 106% 20 Blackpool - 144% from http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/19/premier-league-finances-black-hole here. No surprise with the top 2, they are both able to generate massive amounts of matchday revenue. Chelsea make a lot too, but their wage bill is enormous. Both them and city are currently able to opperate pretty much in a state of their own at the moment but it will be interesting to see what effect the 2013 UEFA Financial Fair Play rules has on them. Marco - I guess you can tell I'm a big fan of Lucas, I've always valued attitude and application above everything else, get them right and the rest tends to eventually fall into place. Unless they're a complete donkey obviously

Lucas was brought in as a 4th choice, young midfielder. Through a combination of injuries and sales he was thrown pretty much in the deep end. He struggled at first, and got dogs abuse from a lot of reds, pretty unfairly in my opinion. He's never shook the 'crap' tag in some peoples eyes, you know what it's like. Anyway, he's improved season upon season, and the last 2 years he's been excellent, always looking for the ball, getting his head up and looking to play progressive passes, but rarely wastes posession. He works his balls off for the team, and breaks opposition play up brilliantly, statistically he was the most successful tackler in the league last season. Add to that his general attitude and the way he encourages and protects our young fullbacks on the pitch and you've got an all round fantastic player. Seems to be Brazil's 1st chioce no.5 now as well.

everton still didn't make a european spot though I see The club that stands out for me on that list though is West Ham. They're in pretty deep shit at the moment.

our wage bill comes in at 65% of our total turnover (121m / 185m), nowhere near the worst in the league, and even lower than yourselves percentage wise (yours being 69%). Merlelles (can't spell it!) deffo comes behind the 3 I mentioned above plus Reina, Johnson, Kelly before his injury, and probably Flannagan who replaced him as well in terms of our Player of the Season. Pretty underwhelming player and won't be missed by those who don't take their opinions from sky sports news.

Lucas was our best player last season by a country mile. Kuyt and Suarez would probably come next. Save for a brief spell of about a month around January when he scored in about 5 games in a row, Merelles was pretty average. His passing was hit and miss, he drifted in and out of games and he shit out of practically every tackle and 50/50 he faced all season. £13.5m would be a good deal for us, especially if we replace him with Adam for £5m less. I must have seen him live about 25 times last season, this is the source of my information.

the wiki list has the prices adjusted for inflation, hence the apparent discrepancy. It actually makes it pretty obvious on the page. Not sure what method they use for adding inflation as transfer values have increased well above normal, everyday inflation in the last 10 years. Prime example being Zidane, the £45m he went for in 2001 would be somewhere up and above the £80m paid for Ronaldo in todays (football) money, can you imagine what teams like chelsea, city, real etc. would be bidding for him in his prime today??

yes. we were never going to get a bargain though, the whole world knew we had £50m burning a hole in our pockets. still, quite excited at the prospect of seeing this lad playing for us. he's got massive potential, just needs to stop punching people!