Y!kes

Fixtures released. Liverpool away on the opening day followed by the derby at home. Two football clubs I can't stand, it's shaping up to be a good season.

BRUCEY, SIGN HIM UP. In other news, Nolan's now completed his move to West Ham - a 5-year contract. As a Sunderland fan it's pleasing, I don't have to see that fucking chicken dance for a whole season. Also, apparently Wes Brown won't be coming here as he doesn't want to move to the North East. Oh well.

Like I said, give him regular games and then judge him. Also, ripped off for £5m? I had no idea it was 1995 again. £5m is hardly a fortune in today's market. I mean, it's not like Bruce is forking out £35m for a striker with a handful of Premier League games to his name... Shearer's appointment was a PR stunt by the Newcastle board to take the flack away from Mike Ashley, even the fans knew that. He was never going to do anything at Newcastle, they were well on their way down long before he was appointed.

Haven't seen much of Gibson apart from what i've seen of him on Sky (Same as 95% of Man United fans, then), reserving judgement until he at least plays a few games for us. We're signing Ji Dong Won as well, 20 year old striker highly thought of in South Korea. £800k fee apparently, hardly a huge risk.

I disagree. I think he did well at Swansea but has been out of his depth in the Premier League. Playing pretty, entertaining football is all fine and well but for all the plaudits Tony Mowbray (At West Brom) and Ian Holloway recieved for their style of play, it still got them relegated. And I stand by what I say about him moving from a small club to a bigger club and the expectations that come with it, time will tell if he'll be able to handle it and make the step up but personally I don't think he will and if he does end up at Villa he'd be one of my favourites to get the sack before Christmas.

Eh? :mellow: he did alright at Swansea but in his time at Wigan he's been nothing more than average, and has really struggled at times. I think i'm right in saying his win percentage at Wigan is only 26% or so? Hardly a very good record, and that was with more or less the same team Steve Bruce had when he finished in the top half with them. His signings haven't exactly set the world alight either. He's young and learning, which is a bonus I suppose but it's a bit of a step up from Wigan (A small club with little to no expectations and a tiny fanbase) to Aston Villa, a much larger club with a proud history and a fanbase that will be expecting them to finish comfortably in the top half and challenge for silverware. They'd be much better off going in for someone like Hughes or Ancelotti, I don't think you can say either are out of Villa's reach.

Wes Brown isn't what we need, another crocked defender. He's also getting on a bit, which isn't ideal. Really, if the money's now available I can't see why we wouldn't just go in for Hutton instead, seeing as how his price tag was supposedly the stumbling block in a permament deal being done last summer. Right back is hardly a priority for us either, but meh. O'Shea isn't great but he's at least versatile which could prove useful but is also getting on. And Gibson seems to have split opinions between our fans. The price for Henderson is also now being reported at £16m + N'Gog, which isn't as bad as paying £7m for him I suppose but then 9 goals in 3 years speaks for itself really, he's hardly got a glowing reputation at Liverpool as an impact sub and I can't really see things changing here. All in all, very uninspiring.

Yes, if a club came in with a ridiculous offer for one of our worst players i'd be saying the same thing.

If he does come here I want him to prove me wrong and want him to chip in with a few vital goals and do well but I really, really cannot see it happening. Urghhh, in other news we've enquired about Darron Gibson, Seb Larsson is reportedly on his way and we're being heavily linked with Crouch (Again), N'Zgobia (Again) and Pavlyuchenko.

I wouldn't rate him at £7, he's terrible. I'm usually not one for disregarding players before they've even pulled on a shirt, I even gave Chopra a chance but Jesus tapdancing Christ. A lot of our fans have caught wind of this now and are going mental about it. Not that I can blame them, bafflingly poor business on our part if it goes ahead, even if it's just to get the lad to keep our bench warm.

If it's £13m + N'Gog i'll have lost all faith in Bruce. He is shit, absolutely terrible. Awful, awful deal for us if true.

£20m, fucking hell :lol: Bit gutted to see him leave, local lad and he's got talent but he's frustratingly inconsistent. When he's good he's very good but when he has an off day he's absolutely terrible. Best of luck to him like, he's still young and should develop nicely at Liverpool. Although currently he's nowhere near Liverpool standard.

Two Championship teams in Europe next season :lol: haha But in seriousness I must be the only person around who couldn't give a fuck that Blackpool have gone down. I'm not arsed about the "wonderful attacking football" they play or how much of a "breath of fresh air" they've been (People were saying the same thing about Hull in their first season), and on top of that Holloway just annoys me more than anything. Not arsed in the slightest.

10th, not a bad season all things considered. Two new strikers, a centre back and a couple of new fullbacks and N'Zogbia from Wigan this summer please Brucey.

Anybody can support a team that wins everything, that's why United have so many plastics. It's the ability to stick with a club through thick and thin that makes a fan, and I don't mean "oh noez we haven't finished top 4 this year ;;", I mean clubs who have suffered back-to-back (Or more) relegations and been on the verge of extinction. What irks me is how many Liverpool supporters look for sympathy from people when there are a million clubs that would give anything to be of Liverpool's stature. Spot on about Chelsea, but I think you've been harsh on City, they were still turning in decent attendances when they were a couple of divisions below where they are now. I can't speak for fans of any other team but Liverpool's away support has never been any more than just above average any time they've ever been to the Stadium of Light. They don't sell out their allocations, even on Saturday 3 o clocks, they stay silent until they're winning, and even then they're not exactly vociferous, and the only thing you'll hear from them is in the final 5 minutes of the match when they start with YNWA and their upside down scarves. I'm not going to say Liverpool's away support is poor as such as they're certainly an improvement over the likes of Fulham and Wigan, but for a team of their stature it isn't great and there are clubs with far better away followings. A vastly overrated set of supporters imo.

I'm just sick of Sky going on and on about how great Liverpool's fans are and how incredible Anfield is. The couple of times i've been to Anfield the fans have had their little bit sing-song to that godawful 'walk alone' rubbish while waving their scarves around before kickoff, but then during the game itself the atmosphere has been shit. And they're the same at the SoL, they don't sing unless they're a goal up and there's just no banter between their fans and ours at all, awful. Still, as annoying as they are, fair play to the ones that turn up to matches. Liverpool are right up there with United and Chelsea for having armchair "Sky TV" fans who are happy to parade around in replica shirts and kiss badges when their club wins but make absolutely no effort whatsoever to even go to a single game a season, home or away. And tbh Roo Liverpool are more than just 5 or 6 players from winning a title imo. There has to be a certain type of player at the club as well, there's a huge difference between being simple contenders and champions and the difference is mettle. Say what you like about how poor United have been this season but they've dug in and ground out results. And as the old cliché goes, playing badly but picking up points is the hallmark of champions.

That's because like Newcastle, Liverpool fans are rather tragically stuck in the past. I really hoped they'd kept Hodgson and been taken down, not because I don't like Liverpool, just because Sky would have been gutted and seeing annoying Liverpool fans in tears would have been almost as hilarious as watching the fat Geordies at Aston Villa, crying into their replica tops and scarves.

Aye, if you're a Sky club. Not if your us. We had Howard Webb as ref today, enough said.

I've no sympathy whatsoever with Liverpool. If you've got a referee giving everything against you and blatantly favouring the other team all I can say to that is good. Welcome to our world.

I totally agree Roo, I hate it when you get referees and officials who favour one team during a whole match, spoiling any chance your team had of getting a result by giving every decision the way of the other team: http://i54.tinypic.com/ne6t55.png

I don't think i've ever celebrated a goal against England like I did Gyan's last night, such a quality goal and a fully deserved equaliser. The fact it cancelled out an Andy Carroll goal just made it all the sweeter. Also good to see Welbeck getting some game time, he's got a bright future ahead of him imo.

Blackpool.

Was that the Suarez goal whereby our entire back line stood still and watched him walk past before firing it in? Good finish, but he wouldn't have scored that against a competent defence. A young keeper playing his first season in English football making a mistake in an important game? Best ship him back off to Belgium then, he's useless. It's just unfortunate that his most nervous performances have came in front of the Sky cameras, for the most part this season he's done very well and looks like he'll develop into a very solid keeper.

Yeah.. I kind of can't hear the commentators from where I sit. Y'know, actually at the match.. Liverpool defended competently but were never put under a great deal of pressure, which for a home team and playing against a Liverpool side (Which, let's be honest here, really aren't anything special), is very, very disappointing. It took us 85 minutes to register our single shot on target. 85 minutes, and it was a shot by Cattermole from about 30 yards out. And straight at Reina. We basically passed it up the pitch, got to a point and then either tried to walk it through your defence or spent a few minutes passing it sideways to absolutely no effect. We did exactly the same thing against Spurs and similarly got what we deserved from the match: nothing. It was shit. Totally dire, ineffectual shit against honestly (Barring a couple of players) one of the poorest Liverpool squads i've seen at the SoL. And when you're at home in front of a full house it's unacceptable. I've said it before and i'll say it again, it's not who you lose to it's how you lose and today we were pathetic.

No. No. No. He was poor, though he looked like he was struggling with an injury and we'd already lost two players to injuries. You know things are bad when Bardo has a shocker :mellow: