Welcome to Issue 255 of Red All Over The Land.
Just start with some sad news; one of our regular contributors, a lady known as KADJ07 died after a battle with illness. We have a small tribute to her in this issue. Those of us whom knew Anita will miss her, she was a wonderful person.
It’s been a long time since we published Issue 254 and a lot of things have been happening both on and away from the football front. We’re in the process of moving house which could impact on a few things but hopefully we’ll soon be back on track.
So, on to football. There’s a question being asked, “Is this the best Liverpool side ever”? In truth, hard to say especially when you look back and try to compare this team with those compiled by previous legendary managers. Most Reds point to Kenny’s team of 87/88 as arguably the best but the circumstances then were totally different to those of now. If you look at Kenny’s squad it did have International influences such as Bruce Grobbelaar, Craig Johnston and Jan Molby but the team was mainly of UK and Irish based players. The sides Liverpool played back then were of similar status with the rules governing overseas players totally different. The current squad is not just multi-national but multi-cultural as well; as are the majority of sides we compete with, both at home and in Europe. Therefore comparisons are difficult and although I thought the team of last season was the best I’ve seen others may disagree, which is fine.
The opening four league games have been won. A Cup Final has been lost and a Cup Final has been won and we’ve had drama as well – especially on the goalkeeper front. The League Cup draw threw up an interesting game with MK Dons or whatever they’re officially called and the Champions League group could have been significantly harder but that’s not saying it will be easy. At least there won’t be the need to jet to far off destinations just yet. In December, however, there will be the World Club Championship in Qatar which will be different, but if you want to be Champions of Europe, there’s a price to pay. If we return from Qatar as World Champions…well there will be even more T-shirts on offer. Let’s enjoy it all.
The Transfer Window hardly concerned Liverpool this time around. As is always the case, time will tell whether we adopted the right policy or not. There’s no need to go and spend £50m on a player just because you can. It’s not that long ago when we bought expensive players and got our fingers burnt. I trust those involved in our transfer matters and that’s not always been the case – remember Christian Purslow?
Jürgen has had a lot to say about the demands on players and the timing of the start of the season. I can agree with him. There should be some uniformity throughout the game but so far removed from reality are those who govern the game in this country, they would expect the rest of Europe to fall in line with us and not the other way round. On the other hand when we look back at our chaotic pre-season schedule maybe there are a few in-house issues which need looking at? Is there anybody out there who still believes pre-season is about fitness and football?
JJP: Feeling like a rolling stone, with no direction home.