I know that you're supposed to get behind the team and the manager and all that's associated with them when you support a football club; God knows I did that for over forty five years traipsing to Anfield at whatever ridiculous hour our masters at Sky deemed necessary, putting up with rip off food, uncomfortable surroundings, loutish behaviour (on and off the pitch) and all because I loved Liverpool. Those occasional wonderful, glorious nights like St Etienne and Chelsea somehow made everything worthwhile and made us forget being knocked out of the cup by the likes of Barnsley. But last year I made the decision that it was no longer worthwhile; I hated the way that the club was being run. The board sacrificed Hodgson and appointed King Kenny like some latter day Pontius Pilates bowing to the will of the mob and I resigned my allegiance.
Have I missed it? Not for a second. "But you must have" I hear you say. Rest assured I have missed absolutely nothing. How can I continue to love a sport that pays such scant attention to the paying customers? Last night 40,000 people put themselves out at great cost (at least £30 each) to get to Anfield to watch a reserve team play. That means that the club will have taken over a million quid in gate receipts alone (ignoring the sales of pies, programmes, beers, hospitality and everything else that's now involved). "But they're playing in the Cup Final on Saturday, they can't afford to risk injury to their key players". Okay I see that point and if the eleven players selected had run themselves into the ground in a brave attempt to offer the crowd some sort of recompense or entertainment for their time (and money) or even in a brave attempt to win themselves the chance of a seat on the bench for the final, I could reluctantly accept your argument. That didn't happen; by all accounts the team merely went through the motions. Liverpool FC took millions of pounds with little regard for their fans; their loyal supporters deserve better. On Saturday thousands of them will go through hell and high water to watch the team play at Wembley. I just wish some of them would ask themselves why they bother and realise that they are being taken for mugs.
Oh well, that's off my chest now but on the subject of football I was fascinated to see the reaction to Roy Hodgson's appointment as England boss. The general consensus seems to be that he's not good enough - mediocre, mid table, uninspiring - that could be a description of the players he has at his disposal so maybe the FA got the right man for the job. I notice that Roy's WBA have won only 13 times this season. Good job Liverpool sacked him as they've won er 13 times.
The following photo came courtesy of @Andrewbloch on Twitter. I love it.
Got to go now. It's Orange Wednesday and we're off to the matinee performance of Marvel Avengers Alliance. A good time to see it before the iphone wielding mob of kids turn up to the evening showing and spend the whole time talking or on their phones or both.
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