Rafa coming back to Liverpool.

Interesting one on Sunday.. well before the interesting one anyway. Rafa Benitez comes back to Liverpool, or more specifcally goes to Everton with his new probably quite temporary project.

But a thought occurred to me earlier.. would Rafa winning the league be such a bad thing?

Chelsea, after a wobbly start under Benitez seem to be getting a bit of form together, and the other main 'Not Man United' contender is City, who have wobbled a bit

Personally, the thought of Rafa's hands on the title in May is better than the thought of Whiskey Chops paws on it again.

.. this bit, less so.

There is another level to this scenario thought.. it is this. Chelsea fans clearly were disgusted at the thought of Di Matteo being binned - with some justification - but, they didn't seem to grasp why Liverpool fans were quite so horrified as well at the thought of Rafa being in charge.

This bit was fun...

Part of the reason is that we know he knows what he's doing (now bear with me). Rafa Benitez is responsible for the more recent glory in Liverpool's history. Doing, well doing effectively what Di Matteo has just done for Chelsea and won the European Cup when there really were more likely alternatives.

Now the likelihood of Benitez winning the Champions League with Chelsea appears slim as his "Interim Coach" title suggests, but what if he won the league.

INTERACTIVE PARAGRAPH GAME

Now I appreciate that the thought of Chelsea winning the league isn't great. They do seem to be a bunch of ****ing ****s. < This is the interactive portion. Spend hours of fun thinking of abuse for Chelsea. Will it be the twatting cockmunch of a Captain that inspires you, or their fucking bizarre rent-a-fan, were the best cos we're all got the same plastic flag bollocks.

"Yes, we are all individuals."

Distribute points for abuse out of 10 amongst yourselves to see whose won.

But the main thing that Chelsea have in their favour is that they are irrelevant. They have no history.. there is a song confirming this.

In terms of title wins OUR perch, I would like to think is just that. Now it seems like it's going to be a little while before we're at the pointy end again - but when we do I would prefer it if we didn't have to win twelve titles to get back in front of a potentially cyborg Alex Ferguson , which was what they have just had to do. With less cyborg involvement obviously.

To help us while we get our shit together is the irrelevant teams in the "title race" - or the bigger picture one anyway.

Manchester City and Chelsea have won between them the same number of titles as Aston Villa (7). They can quite happily get in the way for a while - and after a long while we can get our shit together.

Yes it's not ideal, but when Rafa comes back to Liverpool on Sunday, I think the thought of Everton losing  might have more potential plus points than usual.

Don't panic!!!!

My last post was entitled.. "Is top 4 realistic for Liverpool?" - Yeah, sorry about that.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say at that it isn't. 8 points off 4th at the turn of the year and bobbling around in mid-table isn't too great.

In the last 3 games, 1 decent performance (at home against Fulham) and 2 not so good. A horrendous result against Villa, which has even got worse when you consider their next 2 games have resulted in an aggregate 12-0 loss.

I was never very hopeful going into the game against Stoke, but I was very briefly given a glimmer with an actual penalty.. I was almost in shock when we got an actual penalty, from one of the weekly assaults on Suarez as well which I thought the FA had now allowed, but apparently not.

If we could have actually held on to this advantage for more than a minute then the game may have turned out differently. If we had been able to stretch the game with Stoke needing to get back into it, we could have exploited the space. Unfortunately none of this happened and we just collapsed instead.

The Stoke game did look like the hardest of the 5 we had around Xmas, which sadly was how it proved. But we still have a couple of reasonable games coming up. QPR away and Sunderland at home, although they are going to be buzzing after beating Man City which isn't ideal.. although they have got Spurs between then and now so that might bring them down a bit.

I now have to think of reasons why I titled this blog "Don't Panic!!"

Well for once it looks like we might have actually lined some transfers up before the January transfer window opens again. Daniel Sturridge of Chelsea could be a good signing.. I can't help thinking though that it would have saved a lot of problems all round if we'd just got him as part of the Torres deal.

If we'd got say £35m plus Sturridge then we'd be in so much better shape.. So would everyone else. Andy Carroll would most likely still be happily banging him in for Newcastle without any of the pressure of having a laughable price-tag hanging over him. It would be a similar story with Torres, I think he suffered in a similar way to Carroll with the pressure of ridiculous money flying around.

The main difference for Liverpool would have been that we'd still have had £35m to spend, although given the way we were throwing money around at that point (Downing / Henderson etc.) we'd have probably ended up with Lee Cattermole for £20m.

Tom Ince - Why?

We also seem to be lining up Tom Ince back from Blackpool - Why? This is a player, as I understand it, we sold for £250k on 16 months ago after he'd run down his contract because initially he wasn't getting a look in  under Hodgson and when this situation changed, well he didn't fancy it much under Dalglish and decided to do one and we had little choice but to let him go for virtually nothing.

Now I'm not saying he's not a decent player, but I don't think he offers much different to what we already have (Sterling) and he's already shown his commitment to the club and personally I will  be shocked if we do sign him and he doesn't do exactly the same 4 years down the line and run his contract down.

But I do think Sturridge would be a good acquisition.. I remember seeing him playing against us for City in the Youth Cup Final a few years back and being impressed then. He will give us more threat and someone for Suarez to actually pass the ball to will be a significant step forward. It also gives us reinforcements going into a very sticky few fixtures round the corner. Two trips to Manchester and also to Arsenal in January /  Feb aren't going to be easy, but having said that we were wildly unfortunate not to already have 6 points off Manchester from the games early in the season. And against Arsenal... look over there, is that a badger?

Moving on.. well, if we can get a couple of decent results out of the next two games then hopefully the form of a few players can pick up. Shelvey is looking a bit sloppy and Allen, before his injury, was starting to look  a bit lightweight. But on the plus side even Downing is showing signs of turning it round.. it is this kind of imbalance that is one of the reasons for out somewhat erratic form.

I think though that Rodgers does seem to have an idea of where he wants to take the team, but one things for certain is that it will take more than 2 or 3 transfer windows for this to take shape. If things haven't improved by this time next year, or more into February / March next season then we need to start having a look at things but idiots who want to sack the manager after 6 months.. well frankly need to concentrate on ripping off other Russian billionaires with underhand deals and other things they do best.

Is top 4 realistic for #LFC?

With reports today following an inteview with Brendan Rodgers quoting him as saying "For me the ambition is to grow higher. We are 11 points off second and that can all turn around very quickly." - which was translated on the BBC website as Rodgers is targeting a top 2 finish, well it set me thinking.

Well this is a lie of sorts. I was probably thinking about it anyway as you were to probably to some degree... where can Liverpool finish this season?

This is a question that usually gets asked with less and less optimism as the season progresses if recent history is anything to go by.. and following our - well, stuttering start - and bobbing around mid-table halfway through the season.. well it's not looking great, is it?

Let's look at the next 5 games..a) because I quite like doing this kind of crap and b) I think they will be pretty vital in terms of where we end up (and who ends up in a red shirt from January).

Aston Villa (H)	Sat 15 Dec
Fulham (H)	Sat 22 Dec
Stoke (A)	Wed 26 Dec
QPR (A)	Sun 30 Dec
Sunderland (H)	Wed 2 Jan

Now to me they all look pretty winnable - the trickiest out of those 5 being Stoke away - on paper anyway.

I think, given our recent improvement and with the return and increasing fitness of Lucas to knit everything together that 13 points is achievable out of that lot - which would move us on to 35 points. More important for Lucas' return is the effect he has on other players and their responsibilities - a problem that we suffered from last season as well.

With Lucas back playing, he frees up the likes of Gerrard and Allen to be more progressive if they don't need to keep an eye on shoring things up quite so much. A similar problem to that last season. Charlie Adam has many qualities as a footballer, but he learnt to tackle by watching Paul Scholes - if he'd paid more attention to the rest of Scholes' game then he wouldn't be playing for Stoke now.

So Lucas is going to save the day - what about the competition.

Everton

Stoke (A)	Sat 15 Dec
West Ham (A)	Sat 22 Dec
Wigan (H)	Wed 26 Dec
Chelsea (H)	Sun 30 Dec
Newcastle (A)	Wed 2 Jan

Way trickier than our next 5 games - maybe 5 or 6 points out of that lot, which would move them on to 32. A point from the first two, beat Wigan and 2 more points from Chelsea and Newcastle.

Arsenal

Reading (A) Mon 17 Dec Wigan (A) Sat 22 Dec West Ham (H) Wed 26 Dec Newcastle (H) Sat 29 Dec Southampton (A) Tue 1 Jan

Again, not straightforward. Especially as they are wobbling at the moment. An embarrassing League Cup defeat against Bradford (with the full first team out as well) cannot have helped confidence. Maybe 8 points.
Can see them losing one of the first 2, not sure which and probably win the other. 4 points from the home games and maybe another point at Southampton. 32 points.

Chelsea

You can always tell die-hard supporters by their matching flags.

Aston Villa (H)    Sun 23 Dec
Norwich (A)       Wed 26 Dec
Everton (A)        Sun 30 Dec
QPR (H)            Wed 2 Jan

What with the faffing around in Japan, Chelsea will be playing catch-up in terms of games, so they will have played a game less by the time we get to the FA Cup games. Win the home games, draw the away. 8 points moves them onto 37. Now it could be argued that it isn't fair to only base this on 4 games for Chelsea, but whoever said that life had to be fair - it's a cruel world.

Spurs Swansea (H)	Sun 16 Dec
Stoke (H)	Sat 22 Dec
Aston Villa (A)	Wed 26 Dec
Sunderland (A)	Sat 29 Dec
Reading (H)	Tue 1 Jan

15 points.. this is where this sort of thing falls down a little. 41 points.

Now you may have noticed I've missed a few teams out that are currently between where Liverpool currently sit and 4th place.. but if West Brom, Swansea or Stoke are still knocking about at the pointy end come April then I'll eat my trousers.

So where does all this leave us? Well if my predictions are even close, and lets face it they're usually fucking miles off the table will look something like this at the start of January.

I have left a few teams out of the equation so it is possible that Everton could be further down the league than this, but the point being that Liverpool have a real chance to get in the mix for fourth and if we can get a proper run going then we will be much better placed at the start of January - which by the way is when we are talking about here - and when the transfer window opens again and we give all our money to Newcastle for some reason.

If we fuck up the next few games, we are screwed. If we are still stuttering then the desperately needed striker is going to be a lot harder to get hold of.

We need to take advantage in this "easier" run of games while we've got a little break from the UEFA Cup which I think has been making life a bit trickier. Plus I think we're starting to get something like our first XI on the pitch.

With Lucas back (I proper love Lucas, can you tell) and even Suarez having had a little rest now is the time for Liverpool to kick on.. Because if we don't we are screwed - and also the next 4 fixtures after these include 2 trips to Manchester and one to the Emirates, but we'll worry about those at a later date.

Rafa Benitez to Chelsea? Nooooooooo!!!!!!

Rafa Benitez taking over at Chelsea makes sense from a number of angles.

• He's not employed by anyone else (apart from occasionally Sky Sports) at the moment, so he's freed up waiting for the next one.
• The revolving door at Chelsea has just spat out it's latest victim.
• Benitez is just the kind of manager Abramovich needs, good track record, especially in Europe.
• The last 3 jobs Benitez has had he has left complaining of not being backed in the transfer market, which should be less of an issue for any suspicious billionaires knocking about the place.

However there are a number of reasons why I feel that Benitez should not be the next Chelsea boss.

• He's not really suited to Chelsea. Because he seems like quite a nice chap, and all the other people involved there are a bunch of twats.
• He is going to upset a lot of people (Liverpool fans) if he goes to Chelsea.
• He knows what he's doing and if he does go there Chelsea will start to challenge properly.

Now you may notice that the reasons for him not being the next Chelsea boss are a little less well constructed. But you cannot disagree with the first one at least - they do have there and most other people's share of twats.

Luis Garcia - after scoring one of the loudest goals in history.

The main reason being though - I, and I suspect most of the people reading this would be sickened by the thought of Benitez taking charge of Chelsea. Because lets not forget, there was a certain degree of antagonism going on between Benitez and Chelsea (well Mourinho) when he was in charge at Liverpool - largely because we kept beating the in Champions League semi's and they didn't like it very much (left).

And that's part of it. You don't want to see your heroes from the admittedly quite recent past rock up at your rivals (quite how big of a rival we are to Chelsea at the moment is arguable) but it's the same as Torres going there, although that was a bit more brutal and in a roundabout way Michael Owen turning up at Man Utd - although he did have the good grace to be shit, although you can probably give Torres that as well.

I suppose that the main reason that we don't want to see him go there is really the point I made earlier.
Chelsea, to a man, are a bunch of twats. Now I appreciate that this isn't the most intelligent of arguments, but given the massive weight of evidence, I believe it is pretty relevant.

Roman Abramovich : Represents all that is wrong with the game today. Indeed it was our need to try and keep up with these billionaires that nearly crippled us in the first place.

Ashley Cole : I think this one speaks for itself.

John Terry : see above. Seriously, I'm not going to start going into the reasons why John Terry is a twat, because I don't think the internet is big enough.

From a completely objective point of view it makes perfect sense.. He needs a job, they've got one going.

But please... ANYONE BUT CHELSEA.

and Man United

or Everton.

(sort of) Match report : Everton 2 - 3 Liverpool

Everton 2 - 3 Liverpool

Well that was about as annoying as it is feasible to be.. not only did we manage to blow a 2-0 lead about as quickly as we gained it in the first place, but the injury time random flapping about by the linesman made it pretty hideous.

It would have been a perfect end to the game (from my admittedly biased perspective). For Luis Suarez to complete his sort of hat-trick and win the derby at Goodison.. thus requiring a new statue outside the Kop, probably of him diving onto the floor in front of a quite angry David Moyes... well that would have been pretty special.

The grim reality of what actually happened was well a bit shit. Not only we did go jumping about the pub after witnessing a perfectly good goal.. but by this time there were more than a few Man Utd fans in for their game which didn't really help matters.

Quite how he could have given offside in that situation is beyond me. This is quite handily demonstrated by this picture, with the completely unnecessary red line along the actual line on the actual fucking pitch.

And if that wasn't bad enough we then had to watch the same game again more or less in the bunch of cunts derby.. Freakishly the same game in fact. The away team in red go 2-0 up, it gets pulled back to 2-2 to the home team in blue only for the linesman to fuck up the decision at the end. Only in that instance Man Utd get the points (seriously how much help do they need). Admittedly it was quite funny to see Torres face when he go sent off, but there is no way hwe should have got another booking.

After the curious decisions that Man Utd have had in their favour on their 'trickier' away trips I'm thinking of having a few quid on them for the Manchester derby at the start of December, possibly including the sending off of Kompany for being just a bit too Belgian.

Actually sending off the Belgians would have done us a few favours yesterday, but I'm reasonably confident that FIFA regulations don't have a specific Belgian rule as yet.

I think I've had enough ranting now.. this is probably due to me being quite hungry rather than any lack of bile rising in my stomach - maybe it's both, who can say.

I think though we can claim the moral victory yesterday.. in lieu of an actual 3 points kind of victory and with that celebration Luis Suarez has made us love him that little bit more and I suspect the opposite is true of our friends across Stanley Park.

Oh and Phil Neville got booked for diving instead.. now that was funny.

The New Anfield

Before you start reading my ramblings, please check out this link to my Just Giving page.

Ever since those two cowboys Hicks and Gillett rode into town, promising the earth - or rather a spade in the earth - and delivering nothing, the prospect of Liverpool FC's new premisis has never been too far away from discussion.

In fairness to them their timing was about as diabolical as everything else about them. Millions was spent on producing fancy new pictures of the "New Anfield" but as the financial crisis was beginning to bite in 2008 in meant that if they were going to do this they were going to have to spend their own money, rather than borrow more money that no-one was going to lend them that they couldn't afford. So in the end they spent millions on planning and designing what a new stadium might look like, but it never became anything more than a figment of someone's imagination.

One of the most expensive pieces of "art" in history

I don't really want to rake over the whole Hicks & Gillett saga again, because frankly we all know the story and it's really quite depressing.

It seems that John Henry and Co are now thinking more in terms of redeveloping Anfield, or rather two sides of it and personally I feel that this is a far better proposition.

This is where I get all misty eyed, but as Liverpool fans banging on about history is something we do rather well as there is plenty of it worth banging on about.

Anfield has been the home of Liverpool FC since day one in 1892 when John Houlding told Everton to do one, started his new team to show that they probably should have done as they were told in the first place. I suppose were all quite glad he did as we might all be Everton fans now and there wouldn't be any such thing as Liverpool FC and Everton would be on about 27 league titles by now.

I don't like the idea of Liverpool just getting a new ground, although admittedly it would have just been a couple of hundred yards from the 'old' one.

If you look what that means these days you end up loads of grounds that all look the same.. Derby, Southampton, Middlesbrough.. the only way you can tell the difference is by what colour the seats are. Or in the case of Boro if there's anybody sat in them.

The case of Southampton is interesting actually. They had one of the most distinctive grounds in the country actually at The Dell (largely because it was made up of bits of grounds borrowed from other clubs) and as soon as they moved to their new rent-a-box after spending years in Premier League and Division 1 they dropped down two divisions and ended up in.. well Division 1. Didn't you prefer it when counting made sense.. I blame George Lucas.

Spot the difference.

Even the Emirates, which by Premier League is pretty distinctive is virtually identical to the Stadium of Light in Lisbon - although admittedly the seats at the Emirates are comfier and they don't have riot police breathalyzing you on the way in after you've spent the previous several hours drinking around Lisbon. As a point of reference it's not a good idea at this point to try and run away as you will only get about 3 yards, they will take your ticket off you and you end up sneaking in the home end trying to not let on you're English.. and to top it off we lost 1-0.

I'm getting off topic slightly.

Personally - I don't want us to move from Anfield so I am happy that it seems that this will now happen. However, I would like us to sort out the things that are wrong with it, because some bits of it are a bit rubbish. Now if you're a season ticket holder you perhaps don't have to put up with such things, but if like me you end up scrabbling for tickets wherever you can get you will know that there are certain parts of Anfield that are to be avoided. Anywhere near the back of the lower tier of the Anfield Road end is to be avoided. When everyone stands up it is like watching football through a letterbox because the roof slopes down too much.

Sitting in the main stand is also a bit of a lottery when it comes to your restricted view seats.. this was a particular favourite from the Spurs game last season (left). Although this picture doesn't actually show how bad it was.

Luckily though nothing much happened in that game so I didn't actually miss much. Best part of £50 well spent I thought.

That is another thought actually. How much is all this  going to cost? You see, seamless. You might think this is all just thrown together, but it is all planned out.

It is already hideously expensive going to watch the football. Especially if we are not going to be in the Champions League regularly to help pay for it. Just look at Arsenal. They have managed themselves reasonably well financially, with the benefit of playing Champions League football every year. But they still lose all their best players because they've not won anything for years because they don't compete on the transfer market.

How will this translate to Liverpool? It's not clear how much money FSG are willing to throw at Liverpool. But if they spend on a new ground you can bet there isn't going to be a lot to be spent on new players. That was even the case this summer after they got there fingers pretty much burnt off throwing money around when Kenny Dalglish was in charge.

And you can bet that we will be the ones paying for it. It is already almost £50 a ticket. I can see that by the time we get our comfy new seats, with hopefully no posts in the way, well I wouldn't like to guess but in say 5 years time we could be talking about when it was ONLY £50 a ticket.

Are the Reds about to turn the corner?

A Sky Sports News Presenter.

Well, I say turn the corner, it's more starting to climb the ladder... metaphorically speaking anyway. 5 games in and we're still flapping about in the relegation zone for some reason.

This is clearly not a brilliant state of affairs... but happily it is still only September (just) and the league table at this stage is only relevant because Talk Sport / Sky Sports News have to fill up their air time talking about something.

If we are still flapping about in another 5 games then I think it will actually be time to start worrying, but not yet.

We've yet to win in the league.. but we have been unlucky. This seems like a poor excuse, but we should really have had 6 points off the various shades of Manchester and we would have if hadn't been for the professional lapses from Martin Skrtel and Mark Halsey.

Enough of what's happened already.. The next 5 league games look a a bit easier than the ones we've had so far. But considering that our first 3 home games have been against the top 3 from last season, that was always going to be the case.

Norwich City (A), Stoke City (H), Reading (H), Everton (A), Newcastle (H).

The 3 games before the trip to Goodison have become must win games. I know it's stupid to talk about 'must win' games in October, but considering our start, that's what they've turned into.

Norwich tomorrow will be interesting, mainly for the team that Brendan Rodgers selects. I went to game on Wednesday at West Brom and was impressed with what I saw, apart from the first 10 minutes obviously. The kids we put out, did well after an iffy start, and showed real character after going behind to take control of the game over a much more experienced side.

I especially like the stat that Jamie Carragher had 555 more Liverpool appearances than the rest of the side combined.

Quite how many figure in the side remains to be seen, but considering how many players didn't finish vs Man Utd for varying reasons we will see a bit of a shake up from what was turning into a settled side.

Oussama Assaidi - Defender on his arse.

Sahin for Shelvey seems certain. Coates for Agger depending on fitness - personally I think Coates could probably do with a few League games anyway.

The main revelation for me on Wednesday was Assaidi.. it's been a while since I've seen Liverpool player with a proper winger. He's quick, skilful and gave their full-back all kinds of problems as well as setting up the winner.

Now all we need is some kind of large, possibly Northern, centre-forward for him to land crosses on.

That combined with the other kids that are getting their chance in the first team - Sterling obviously, Suso is looking good. The more that Rodgers puts out the youngsters, the more our lack of activity in the transfer window seems to make perfect sense.

Our chances tomorrow look pretty good.. if Suarez can put in a performance like he did last year then perhaps people will start to get off his back, although 3 goals in 5 games doesn't seem too shabby. Another Carrow Road hat-trick and 6 goals in 6 games would do just nicely.

Liverpool v Man United... Here we go again.

The dirty mancs are coming on Sunday.. Apologies if referring to them as 'Mancs' offends some readers, but if I call them rags, no-one knows what I'm talking about.

A foreigner.

For a change, the attention is upon whether two of the players will shake hands with each other. This apparently is vital. I'm not particularly interested.. this was the same situation in the QPR v Chelsea game last week, when Anton Ferdinand refused to shake the hand of Olympic gold medal winner, John Terry, after Terry was caught of camera screaming racial obscenities at Ferdinand... but apparently the courts and FA thought this is OK as long as you do it ironically and you're not foreign.

Moving on..

Far bigger issues surround this game than whether players are civil to each other. It is the first home game since the release of documents last week which showed unsurprisingly that the police had attempted to cover up their incompetence which caused the Hillborough disaster. Football has taken a back seat over the past few days because it  pales into insignificance when you remember those events. I suspect the majority of people reading this don't actually remember Hillsborough as it has taken 23 years just to get to this point.

Fans all around the country showed solidarity last week.. fans across Europe. And the next home fixture we have is against a team whose fans (a small, but still noisy section) still see fit to sing songs about it and their own manager has felt the need to ask their fans to show a bit of respect and decency.

Inter Milan banner at San Siro

I have got into an argument (a twitter argument, but with someone I know in the real world) last week with someone who was defending the Man Utd fans who thought it was OK for fans to be singing about Hillsborough because Liverpool fans sing songs about Munich apparently. Personally I can't remember having heard it, but I'm not denying it it's ever happened. But the point is that is also wrong. A line should be drawn, and if we can just get back to screaming abuse for football related issues, or possibly shagging grannies. I hope that they behave themselves, but I am not hopeful (I'm not still talking about shagging grannies)  

If I could actually get on to the football around this point it would probably be helpful. It's been a bit of a struggle in the League for us so far. Admittedly not a particularly easy start to the season, but 2 points from the first 4 games is historically bad. Yes, we were unlucky against City and it was a better performance against Sunderland last week.. but the less said about the other 2 games the better.

Celebration needs work, hopefully he will get plenty of practice.

There have been positives to take from the season so far. Not least the performances of 12 year old child Raheem Sterling.. he may be a bit older, but I bet he could still get away with not paying full fare on the bus. Joe Allen has come in and done well, and Jonjo Shelvey is developing fast despite sounding more like a jockey than a footballer. His performance last night against Young Boys at the presumably made up Wankdorf Stadium was pretty special.

We need to turn a corner, and do this quickly. Hopefully those who played last night will help spread a bit of confidence in the squad, or at least get a few of them looking over their shoulder. Rodgers has shown that he isn't afraid to use kids if they're good enough.

Although it seems unlikely that too many (with the exception of Sterling) will feature on Sunday. Indeed the first XI is looking reasonably settled and we are gradually getting the hang of how Rodgers wants us to be playing. Whether this will get us a result against Man Utd remains to be seen.

We beat them at home in the FA Cup last season, and whilst we have lost the match winner that day as Dirk has gone to Turkey, they have gained Robin Van Persie who did OK at Anfield last season in the game which effectively dismantled our league season. We are going to have our work cut out keeping him quiet if my rather elaborate voodoo plan fails.

We've done pretty well though at Anfield against them recently. 4 wins out of the last 5 and we weren't too far off winning the one we didn't. I don't hold too much by those kind of statistics though, most recently when they visited Merseyside this season they.. well they lost that as well to a goal from a man with ridiculous hair. Perhaps we shouldn't have let Andy Carroll leave after all.

3 games in.. A bit shit so far.

Following the defeat against Arsenal, the familiar feeling of early season optimism being swiftly swept away is here again..

No matter how you dress it up, 1 point from 3 games is pretty shocking. Admittedly 2 of the games were against stronger teams in the league, but they were both at home - although even that doesn't seem to be the advantage it once was these days.

When the best performance is a home point against Man City which should have been three, but for Martin Skrtel's abberation it would have been, then you have problems.

I'm not even sure that the results are what's contributing to the generally shitty mood surrounding the club and it's supporters at the moment. Granted they've not helped, but the lack of a clear transfer strategy it seems is becoming quite alarming.

Letting Andy Carroll leave on loan to West Ham made more sense if he was surplus to requirements as seemed to be the case, only last Thursday when that deal was struck. And it does make sense to get rid of one player, before you get the next one in if you are trying to balance the books.

Bad idea.

But to let Carroll go and then fail to replace him smacks of incompetence. FSG seem to have gone from one extreme to the other and have somehow fucked up two transfer windows with the same player. Bearing in mind Carroll is still on our books, it seems pretty feasible that further transfer windows are going to be similarly shafted.

I don't want to go over the Carroll nonsense too much, but once we agreed to give away all the Torres money to Newcastle in a blind panic we were always going to cause ourselves problems if we tried to get rid of him and face the impossible task of recouping anything like the truly idiotic fee we paid for him.

We have now lurched in the other direction, partly due to FSG getting their fingers burnt last time and they didn't - or couldn't - go throwing the cash around this time round.

The mess surrounding the potential Clint Dempsey deal didn't make an awful lot of sense. The money Fulham were after seemed pretty reasonable although they wanted more of us than they did anyone else which you can imagine annoying a few round the table. But either way.. sign him, (£7m was cheap considering his recent record). Plus he's only 29 I suspect we would have got our money's worth over a few seasons.. although he is American.

Shit.

It would have actually made sense to offer the £4m if there wasn't anyone else in for him.. if he'd been stuck at Fulham until January then we would have got him for that if he was set on joining Liverpool which he seemed pretty keen on. For Spurs to come in at the last minute just takes the piss a bit.

So where does this leave us. Being linked to every free agent going between now and January presumably. Owen, Del Piero.. fucking Drogba. All pretty weird, especially Drogba. He'd probably want what Fulham wanted for Demspey in wages just till the end of the season.

It doesn't help that we've not exactly been eased into the season fixture list wise.. City, Arsenal and Man United for the first 3 home games is a bit taxing considering we've a new manager in charge. Sunderland away next as well isn't going to be easy either.

On the plus side, the teams were hopefully going to be fighting with are struggling a bit too.. Spurs especially. 2 points only when they would have been expecting more from their home games especially.

I suspect we're going to see a few more youngsters thrown in.. Adam Morgan got a start in the Hearts game which was good to see. He would have scored too, although unfortunately the linesman managed to notice the ball going a yard over the line in the build up.Maybe.. can't exactly see him starting at Old Trafford, although the squads looking a bit thin at that end of the pitch so you never know.

A win or two under our belts and hopefully we'll kick on.. confidence is everything in football. 6 (unlikely) points from our next two games and well be flying. I hope so, because the alternative (kicking round the relegation zone for a bit) would be a little bit hideous. It's just unfortunate that we've got the England nonsense first which just leaves more time to get annoyed by the situation, although reading this probably didn't help.

Liverpool v Hearts... time to experiment?

Liverpool face the return leg of the UEFA Cup (Europa League - what the hell kind of name is that?) qualifier against Hearts in a reasonable position. Whilst eh performance in Scotland wasn't especially inspiring a 1-0 away win in Europe is not bad for starters. Especially when you consider the games that Brendan Rodgers also has to deal with.

With the Hearts games being immediately followed by two of the biggest games of the season, he has had things to chew over in his new job. To be fair it could have been trickier. If Rodgers had been sorting through the balls himself when they were doing the draw you suspect that Hearts would have been one of the preferred choices. When you consider some of the other teams in the draw, it looks as though you would need a wardrobe to travel to the away leg. It also helped that the City and Arsenal games were both at home. A trip to City, followed by a mission to Azerbaijan (I'm pretty sure that's where Baku is), followed by another trip to the Emirates and things would be a little less straight-forward.

In the early stages as well it gives Rodgers a chance to experiment a little. I think it's a fair bet that we wouldn't have seen Raheem Sterling get a full game against City if Rodgers hadn't had the chance to see him properly against Hearts in the first leg when he impressed.

He also got the chance to try Downing at left back in that game which apparently is something Rodgers is considering as an option. Not sure of the wisdom in that one myself, but we shall see.

I suppose I'm glad that tie is still alive tomorrow.. if we'd just crushed Hearts in the first leg, it would have made the second game a little bit dull. It keeps us honest. Especially as it's going to be the first European game I've been to for a little while.. and in my current circumstances I don't think it's going to be that regular Thursday night trip.

The UEFA Cup does provide the opportunity for squad rotation and it will be interesting to see who gets a run out tomorrow. Presumably Agger will play to keep him up to speed following his suspension, I suspect Downing will get the nod tomorrow as well. I can't see Sterling starting his 3rd game in a week, although he will most likely be on the bench.

The main problem as I see it will be the shape of the midfield, more with Sunday's game against Arsenal in mind. With Lucas out for another couple of months, it will be interesting to see how Rodgers brings it together. With the 4-3-3 system, you would have thought he was looking at Gerrard, Allen and Lucas. With that option now removed for the time being, presumably Sahin will given more of a role than he might have expected.

With the likes of Spearing and Adam, players who filled in the holding roll last season, looking like they are on the way out then we will see how Rodgers  intends to bring it together, and which players will be surplus to requirements.

Raheem Sterling with one of the bigger boys.

The UEFA Cup does give him the opportunity to look at players in proper games and shape the squad as he wants.. and it will accelerate the process given the amount of games you have to play in it. It will also accelerate the progress of the kids he seems keen to bring through, again with Sterling being the prime example.

It is a decent tournament, and given Liverpool's history in Europe one we should be looking at seriously. It does make me sick that the likes of Villa and Spurs in recent seasons have not given it the respect it deserves. If for example Barcelona dropped into the competition (quite how this would happen is not clear) but they could be forgiven for not being fully committed - although they would probably win it anyway. Spurs on the other hand  haven't won a European trophy since the UEFA Cup in 1984 and only two League Cups in the past 20 years.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I consider winning big shiny trophies the point of football. Finishing fourth, is handy financially and all of that. But ask yourself this.. In 2001 Liverpool qualified for the Champions League.. was that the best bit of that season?

City at home.. nice easy one to start with.

The opener against West Brom didn't go entirely to plan. As first days go that was about horrendous as gets.. well hopefully anyway.

A tanking off a side who we used to routinely squish wasn't too great. I'm not going to go into the West Brom game much because a) I was getting drunk in a field at the time, and b) it's too depressing frankly.

We lost, but never mind, win against City on Sunday and suddenly we'll think we can win the league. This is the way of things, where every result gets analysed in minute detail by God knows who. Talksport, Sky Sports News .. in infinite and mostly fictious depth on Twitter.

An OK result against Hearts in the week was a step in the right direction, although how many of that side will be lining up against City is unclear.Possibly only  Borini and Carra of the outfield players, maybe Kelly depending on Enrique's fitness.

Whilst the performance wasn't particularly spectacular against Hearts, it was 1-0 away in Europe with a second string side effectively. This competition could prove really effective in blooding some of the players coming through. You only have to look at Sterling's performance. It also gives players on the fringes game time, which also helps with the mood in the squad.

And it's European football again, which whilst it's not the big fancy one, the UEFA cup has always been one worth winning. I know they changed the name, but I haven't.

Moving onto City on Sunday. Now, for too long now Liverpool fans have been celebrating other teams winning the league so long as they weren't Man Utd once our own title challenge has evaporated, usually depressingly early. Particular highlights include beating champions Blackburn in 1995 < yes, younger viewers "Champions Blackburn Rovers".

The actual one.

Now it is a distant consolation for it to be "Anyone But United" but it must be said, the events of last May and City snatching the title with effectively the last kick of the season, was - well I thought it was all rather fun, and it just goes to show what having more money than God can do for you. The imaginary God, not the actual one.

I think it will be the case for a little while yet that were going to have to make do with being happy when one of the irrelevant teams (still in single figures for title wins) winning the league. Whether Brendan Rodgers will be given the time, and indeed the money required given the competition now remains to be seen.

Sunday is going to be tricky, although City haven't exactly been throwing their weight around yet transfer wise, they didn't have too bad of a starting point. Our record against them last season wasn't too shabby. Bit of a kicking at their gaff in the league, but we won there in the League Cup (see UEFA Cup comments) semi. 1-1 last season at Anfield in the league, which was eventful enough. Balotelli going off on one for a change I seem to remember.

After a disappointing result on Saturday it's important that we get on the board tomorrow.. to be honest a point would be acceptable. The minimum acceptable but it wouldn't be a disaster. A win would be the shot in the arm we need at the moment, especially when you consider the next two home games. It will obviously be difficult. City are pretty well drilled and as I mentioned haven't had the influx of players to get used to eash other.

Nigel de Jong - Bit of a twat

You would suspect Borini and Allen would be starting, and whilst that's only 2 players they are in pretty crucial positions, especially Allen. That's the major battle as I see it. How Gerrard, Lucas and Allen fair in the middle against Yaya Toure and De Jong or Rodwell.

If we can win that battle and keep enough pressure on so the likes on Suarez and Borini can pose a threat than we have every chance.. Whether we can keep them quiet at the other end is another story.

Tevez is back playing, and although Aguero will be missing they have plenty of offensive options with the likes of Tevez, Balotelli and Nasri offence is usually not too far away.

With Agger suspended then it's going to be a tricky day for whoever partners him. You would have thought Carragher but these days it's not a shoe-in. Against City's attack that could be an accident waiting to happen, especially as he played 90 minutes on Thursday. But you suspect he has more going for him when you consider the option is Coates who hasn't really been thrown in to any big games as yet. City would be a big one to start with. Probably too big, and therefore unlikely.

Since that 1-1 draw in the league though it's worth considering City's away record (although not our home record as that hurts my argument quite a bit). City's league form away is less than spectacular. 13 away games including that 1-1. 5 defeats - including losing at Sunderland, Swansea and Everton and wining 5 but really only winning at Newcastle stands out as being particularly impressive. Even we battered Wolves and Norwich away last season and that was our worst season ever if you believe the press and ignore getting to two Cup Finals.

Sunday will be tricky, but doable. if we can get on the board first and get everyone pumped up then who knows what can happen. It might even be one for Andy Carroll to have a pop in. His stand out game in a red shirt was arguably when we tanked them 3-0 the season before last. It's worth a shot..actually quite a hard shot from about 25 yards. Be nice to see one of those from him again tomorrow..

What is success this season?

It took a little while but I managed to stop convincing myself every year (around this time usually) that this year will be the year we finally crack it and win the league again.

It's been a while since this has been even vaguely realistic.. certainly not since Benitez left, and we only really came close the one season under him.

Our own financial car crash situation and ownership implosion did not help matters, but the boat may have stopped rocking so much - it's stopped sinking would be more accurate - and we might actually gain a bit more control this season.

Brendan Rodgers seems to be a man with a plan, and with a bit of luck it won't cost the earth to see it through. We certainly can't afford to throw around the money we have been doing for the past couple of seasons.

A lot has been made of his 'new philosophy' which some people seem to have interpreted as we will start playing like Barcelona overnight. This clearly will not happen. Things like that take years to drum into players. But he talks well and I think we will start to move in that direction.

One of the things he said that struck me after the win against Gomel on Thursday was that he liked how we had regained possession quickly. Now this is obviously easier against the likes of Gomel, but if we can start to get that mentally then that will be a massive step.

The Scouse Iniesta

That is the main reason that Barca have been so good over the past few seasons.. (obviously having most of the best players in the world on the same side helps) but one of the main pillars that supports this is their refusal to let the other side have the ball.

If you can win the ball back quickly, preferably when the other side is not in your half yet, then it's game on. And following on from this there are 2 main points as I see it.

1 - It's way easier to defend if you've got the ball.

2 - If you've got the ball, the opposition tires doing the chasing.

Football is a painfully simply game really.

So where does this leave us this season. We have a manager who is familiar with managing in the Premier League and also seems to prefer possession football. He shouldn't need too much time to find his feet and it didn't take him too long with Swansea to figure out the league.

A couple of new players in. Borini got off to a good start. Frankly if he just stands where he did for his goal on Thursday, tidying up any Suarez by-line chaos he'll get at least a dozen goals this season. Probably more if he runs about a bit. You can seen them linking up well.

Also Joe Allen from Swansea - another player Rodgers obviously knows well, so this again should help.

A top 4 finish is possible.. not easy, but doable. I think that on it's own seems to be success these days. It did make me sick when we got to 2 cup finals, winning 1, and all the press could say was, well they're not in the top 4 though.

I remember when football used to be about winning shiny trophies.. not who had the biggest bank balance. That just means whose managed to squeeze their fans out of the most money.

Frankly I'd take that again this season. A Cup.. well The Cup and 5th place, the League Cup is OK but it's not the proper one is it.

The Champions League would be a bonus, it's been a while. But look at Man City and United last season. All the Champions League got them last season (apart from a few quid) was humiliation.

Top 4. yes, but not the be all and end all. Top 5 and a trophy (FA Cup) - also OK. UEFA Cup - I'd take that as well. I know they changed it, but change is bad (see League Cup). If we did progress in that competition, I can see our league form suffering - based on the current squad anyway.

One thing to bear in mind Mr Rodgers. Kenny Dalglish took us to 2 cup finals and that wasn't enough to save his job. You've got a bit of time, but success is expected sooner or later.

Team GB.. Well it's a bit different.

Great Britain progressed through to the knockout stages of the Olympics with relative ease and it's looking promising, well until they have to play Brazil again which probably won't go fantastically well.

I quite like the idea the idea of a British Olympic side.. it would have been a little odd if they had got the Olympics and not put forward a side for our national game. They've even got a side together for Handball as well which I've never been quite able to follow, or rather never actually tried to more accurately.

They've had four games playing together now, a couple of wins, most notably against Uruguay who frankly didn't really get out of the starting blocks, especially when you consider the talent they had at their disposal. Suarez and Cavani are among the top strikers playing in Europe, but Cavani particularly looked like a man in pre-season training.

But never mind about that, Suarez and Coates have had a bit of a run round and seem unscathed so we can get them back for more pressing matters. Whether Coates will get that much game time this season I suspect has more to do with how far Liverpool progress in the UEFA Cup. (I know they changed the name, but I haven't.)

I'm getting a little off topic, I tend to do that especially when I'm not on about Liverpool for some reason.

The Olympics has given the likes of Bellamy and Giggs a chance to play in and admittedly watered down international football tournament, which they were leaving a bit late in the day. Especially since Giggs hasn't played for Wales for years. But you can hardly blame him.. was never likely to lead to anything and he had that hectic social situation to keep on top of.

That is also the reason that I found it suprising that Gareth Bale dipped out to go and play for Spurs. I know he was supposed to be injured and well in a certain irony, he now is thanks to Mr Adam (again). I'm getting back on Liverpool, bear with me. I did hear Adam's agent defending him saying he's "not that kind of player", which taken as he meant it meaning a dirty player then he is correct, but Adam is bordering on "Paul Scholes" clumsy when it comes to tackling.

I hope that they continue with the British Oluympic side.. I suppose with the next one being in Brazil it is somwething of a bigger ask for sides to lend out their players for a tournament right at the start of the season, half way round the world. And the idea of qualification wouldn't sit well with those managers, but on the flip side of that if they do have to qualify they would become a more cohesive side as obviously the more a side plays together and understands each other the more effective it will be. It's a nice idea but I can't see it happening. Maybe if GB win a medal here, a bronze seems reasonably likely at least, then views on this may change.

I think one of the main disappointments with the Olympics is that the BBC didn't get Andy Gray and Richard Keys to present to Womens football.. they would most likely sat there in silence I suppose and if that's not a result then I don't know what is.

Andy Carroll... well that was a cracking idea wasn't it.

It may seem a little premature to be writing the obituary for this young man's Liverpool career just yet (although maybe not as it looks like he might be out of the door already), but it looks on the cards. He seems to morphing into the proverbial square peg in a round hole for the Liverpool first team with Brendan Rodgers in charge.

Emile Ivanhoe Heskey

Personally if it gets us playing football where the grass is, then I am in favour of this development. It turns into an easy of an option to try and pick out Carroll, or prior to him Crouch or Heskey and watch balls skim off the top of his head (Heskey) for a goal kick. Easy option, but also one that didn't work.But Heskey did have the greatest middle name in history and he did have his (occasional) moments.

Much better to keep the ball and progress up the field that way. If you're passing to feet it's easier than pinging the ball up the pitch to let someone fight for it. Don't give the opposition the chance, pass it quick on the floor and you will get results - if you get good at it.The odd long ball can be deadly at the feet of the right person.. If your name starts with an 'X' and you are spanish then this is usually a good sign.

This is part of the reason that I am not keen on the whole Andy Carroll situation. While he is at Liverpool I don't think we will get the best out of him. I do not think Carroll will slot in too easily to Rodgers plans.. and whilst he is a decent plan B if it starts to get desperate, that is a very expensive plan B. Best to cash in £20m-ish and get a couple of players in to decrease the need for a plan B as Plan A is nailing it thank you.(doesn't look like this is happening either).

I was never happy with the original transfer... it was the ultimate panic buy. One of the most ridiculous transfer deals in Liverpool history. Liverpool have historically done things on the cheap.Certainly in terms of goalscorers, we usually end up making a profit on them. Ian Rush bought for £300,000 from Chester, sold for £3.2m and bought back the season after for £2.8m. £100k profit and 346 goals into the deal - that is how you do business. More recently we had God (183 goals) and Michael Owen (158 goals) who we made profits on their transfers by not actually buying them in the first place. Even Torres who we made £30m on still got us 65 goals in 105 games. By my reckoning that's 752 goals with a profit (in transfers) of just under £40m.That's not including Steven Gerrard, but we haven't sold him yet (?) so that doesn't count.

Now this is obviously cherry picking on a grand scale, but I think the point stands. When you consider what we have got out of Carroll for £35m (6 goals) and some decent performances when he tried a bit harder.

Now it seems he's off to West Ham, for £2m with a view to signing him next season for £17m if he keeps them up. A good deal for them if you consider what 2 seasons in the Premier League is worth, considerably more than £17m.

When you look at this deal at the present time.. Liverpool will be £33m down (or £5.5m a goal). If you thought the original deal was crackers, well this one is turning into some kind of farce. And let's not forget the Aquilani saga is rumbling on. Although to be fair it is quite easy to forget as it has been going on for some time now. Not far wrong in saying that's the fat end of £60m wasted, probably more when you consider wages, but if I do that I will probably start crying.

I do hope we get a grip with this squad sooner rather than later. We cannot compete financially with the likes of City, but we certainly won't if we keep giving money away at the rate we have been. And let's not forget, the reason that this upsets me is that this is our money. Edging towards £50 (FIFTY POUNDS) a ticket, which you have to buy all in one go, well two goes.. but it's getting a bit steep.

If we carry on like we have been it will only get steeper.

Brendan Rodgers - A New Dawn at Anfield.. yes another one.

Things have been changing rapidly at Anfield over the past few years.. the turn over of managers is approaching chaotic Chelsea levels of incompetence.

Rodgers is the 4th manager at Anfield in the 2 years since Benitez left in 2010. Obviously the turmoil relating to the owners that's meant Liverpool have been on the front pages of the papers rather than the back during this time hasn't helped.

But hopefully, we can now put that behind us and get a bit of stability. It's worth noting that it took Liverpool 32 years to go through 4 managers between 1959 and 1991. A period that it's fair to say had it's moments of success. You only have to look at Man Utd (as much as it pains me to say) that show that constantly changing your manager, is not the way forward if you want to be successful. In today's demand  for instant success would have meant that Ferguson would have probably been sacked long before they started winning things - so I suppose in that instance, a trigger happy owner would have been more beneficial to Liverpool, but I'm getting off the point slightly.

Rodgers has come in and as always with a new manager (except with Hodgson) there is a new sense of optimism. Swansea were impressive last season. Especially in their performance at Anfield. During the various draws at Anfield last season - it could be argued that that was a point won for Liverpool than 2 lost. They kept the ball well and had the chances to win the game, which they were possibly unlucky not to in the end.

A lot has been made of the new system that Rodgers will bring in. His Spanish connections have made it sound as though he will install a brand of tiki-taka football and we'll suddenly start playing like Barcelona. it's a nice idea, but I wonder how feasible it is.

Player from North-East of England

The reason that Barcelona (and Spain) can play that way is because they have been playing that way since the age of 10. They get taught to play the ball around properly which is why they are so obscenely good at it. Suddenly saying that were now going to play like that when your side is made up of players from all over the place that haven't been brought up like that (especially in the North-East of England).

Hopefully Rodgers can change things round. If we can get playing properly and more importantly - Effectively, then we have a real chance of getting towards the pointy end of the table when April and May come along.

Transfers will obviously play a big part in this and if we learn to negotiate a bit more then we won't have to spend quite the eye-watering sums of money that we have been doing over the past few years.

Hopefully some of the players we signed last year can step up a level. Once they actually get used to the idea of wearing a Liverpool shirt then it is feasible that the likes of Henderson, Downing and especially Carroll can start to deliver. That is of course if Carroll hasn't been sold, because of the face of it he doesn't look like a Brendan Rodgers type of player. Although he could turn out to be a rather expensive plan B on the bench.

We signed Fabio Borini on Friday the 13th, which I understand is also when we signed Ian Rush. If you attach significance to such nonsense this is probably a good thing, so I think we will. To be honest I don't know that much about him but I suppose Rodgers does so we'll have to see how that pans out. we will have to hope that he is a little more successful than our other Italian signings, none of which have covered themselves in glory - apart from the 4th goal at Old Trafford from Dossena which was fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skoafqqLlJk&feature=related < always good to watch this again.

There was also the interesting rumour in the week of Fulham offering us Clint Dempsey and £9m for Andy Carroll which seems like a pretty good deal, even considering Dempsey's age.

To be honest I get a bit tired of all the rumours flying around - we'll see who we've got at the start of the season and with a bit of luck we'll get somewhere near fourth spot, which if Van Persie and Modric both leave their respective clubs will suddenly become a slightly easier prospect, but only slightly.

England v Italy.. Bit nervous? Not really.

Well it's been a while since my last rant on here.. I shall no doubt try to catch up on all the comings and goings at a later date, but first to more imminent matters.

England have almost sneaked into the Quarter-Finals of Euro 2012 - as group winners no less - and now face Italy on Sunday.

The usual hype surrounding England has been noticeable by it's absence this time round and you can't help but think that this has taken the pressure off all concerned. Quite whether this was a masterstroke on behalf of the FA in appointing Roy Hodgson and crushing any pre-tournament optimism remains to be seen.

You suspect that if they had gone with the tabloid clamour for Harry Redknapp then the pressure would have been cranked up a few notches, what with Redknapp's glorous history in European football like that time Spurs got embarrased at the San Siro only for Gareth Bale to score a hat-trick so they didn't lose by quite so many. Or that time they got annihalated at the Bernebeau and, well that was that really.

Roy Hodgson does have a better record, somehow getting Fulham to a European final was impressive and much was made of his ability to speak a number of foreign lanuages when he was appointed. The fact that this is probably the one job in World Football that this is rendered pretty irrelevant was somehow less of an issue.

One of the main advantages that Hodgson has this time for England, rather than his ill-fated time in charge at Liverpool is that England don't have to play Blackpool, which provided something of a blind-spot.

England have actually progressed relatively serenely through the group stages, compared to previous competitions. A creditable draw with France, although there subequent collapse at the hands of Sweden prehaps shows that the French are perhaps not the force they should be considering the players at their disposal.

A bit of a roller-coaster win against Sweden was again unexpected.. it's sometime since I can remember an England side coming from behind to win in a Tournament Finals game, although blowing a lead in the first 2 games is probably not a good sign.

The final group game against Ukraine and the return of Wayne Rooney was actually more straight-forward than I imagined. Rooney was pretty poor on the day, but that is to be expected with a lack of match sharpness following his suspension for the assault on the the chap from the Balkans, Montenegro was it, it was a couple of years ago now so I forget.

So we actually won the group, thanks to the French / Swedish capitulation and avoided Spain. Hurrah - no we only have to beat Italy. Admittedly an easier proposition, than the European and World Champions, but this will not be easy.

They still have the best keeper in the world in Gigi Buffon - a keeper who only allows himself 2 or 3 mistakes a season apparently, although you can probably count on one begloved hand the mistakes he's made in his career. Although the sight of him does generally remind me of Luis Garcia crashing one into his top corner in 2005.

They also have Antonio Di Natale who is something of an awesome finisher and whose name rather delightfully translates as Tony Christmas.

Of course they also have Mario Balotelli who we are all now fully aware of following his antics - there really is no better word for it - this season at City.

But they are not the team that they were then they won the World Cup in Germany, the likes of Totti and Del Piero are no longer around - and this hopefully opens a chink in the door for England.

For once we have a younger looking squad - attacking options with the likes of Carroll, Wellbeck and Walcott all chipping in with goals so far. Hodgson's suprise gamble of taking Oxlade-Chamberlain, has seemed less of a gamble by actually giving him a game - unlike the Walcott fiasco in 2006.

So can we actually knock out one of the top sides in World Football from a tournament for the first time since the 1960's. Actually, we did did beat Spain on penalties in 1996 - but we were VERY lucky that day. But the odd victory over Belgium and Denmark are not the hallmarks of a world class national side.

I would be delighted if we got past Italy, it's not as important as if say Liverpool had a game against.. well anyone really, but it would be a nice suprise.

If we then got through to face Germany - well that will be a story for another day.