Scouse Football Side Not Quite As Good As They Were!

Oh God. Liverpool are in crisis. Crisis I tell you. Perhaps even Crises. Certainly feels like that if you can read and happen to glace at any form of media. Soon the whole of the red side of the city will be sucked into a Rafa shaped vortex leaving a desolate wasteland prowled only by the ghost of Roy Evans.

But wait. It's not that bad. Its just a football team that have declined slightly. But y'know, they have declined a bit, and should probs do something about it sometime soon. So, in a rare bit of comment on an actual, currently in the news story, here is Radetto's 2 euro cents on The Slight Decline Of Liverpool FC.

I can't be the only one who thinks that El Reds 09 don't have that 'woah, good squad there' presence of yore. Rafa does seem a bit hit and miss on the old transfer situation. No man could turn down £30,000,000 for Xabi Alonso (Zero's for emphasis there), but Beardy Raf was going to flog him for half of that last year. On top of that, I am super pro Italian football and not even I can see Aquilani succeeding in the youkay. I hope I am wrong, and Aquilani unleashes both a sensational scouse 'tasche and an edge of the box goal rampage. They should have kept Riise, despite the occasional massive, massive, ginger tinged gaffe and everyone knew Hypia was well hard, and actually good at football, which would have been a plus against Lyon. And he can score goals for Liverpool, not the opposition, another advantage over Jimmy Carrageh.

The fact that Jimmy C just ain't the player he used to be is probably worth a paragraph. So here it is. The Carragaffe paragraph. But seriously, he really doesn't look capable week in, week out anymore. Sometimes awesome, ie. United games, sometimes crap, ie. Fulham et al.

And the players coming in are all a bit Quantity Mart. There have been some gudduns, but a lot of the time at least a third of the red XI look like mid table Spaniards to me. If they put a bit more thought in surely things would be much more rosy. Liverpool have signed a lot, I mean a lot of duds, and missed out on some diamonds. They really should have made more of the Dutch exodus of Real Madrid. Schneider or Robben would have been a sensational, yet realistic signature . I reckon Chelski's transfer ban is a blessing for the 'Pool aswell and they reallly need to take advantage of that. But yeah, recent signings records reads over priced or over ratted in my humble, Pierpaolo Marino esque, opinion. Infact, getting Pierpaolo onboard would be genius. This is the man that built Napoli's current first team, aka the most highly rated young team in Italy right now. They should totally get Transfer Pat on board. That would rule.

And another thing. If they do go out of the Champions League, the Europa League ain't that bad is it? They would be up there amongst the contenders, and a good run would bring a bit of a feelgood factor to the fields of Anfeild Road no? And lets speculate here, Bayern Munchen/Valencia/HSV/Sporting/Villareal vs. Liverpool would a glorious tie, whatever competition it is in. Remember those nights against Roma and Barcelona many moons ago. An exact repeat wouldn't be so bad?

So yeah, if Evans came back, that would be a crisis. All Liverpool need to do is win a but of Europa glory, poach a few from Chelsea, get Pat Marino onside and Anfield is smelling of roses eh? That ain't to much to ask is it now Rafa lad?

Sympathy For The Devils

So you may have gathered that I am not generally a supporter of English teams in Europe, unless it is the Toon or Fulham (I lived opposite the Cottage for a year), but having just watched the United game, if a British team has to win, I would like it to be them.

But this shocks even me. My earliest football memory was of United being the bad guys, they where responsible for 'I would love it'. They ruined the glorious dream time and time again. Loosing the league to them was probably a bit early for me, but in the 1999 FA Cup final those bastards reduced me to tears. My controversial among ten year olds decsision to support Bayern Munich in the Champions League final seemed fully justified. I remember a glorius Shearer inspired 4-3 a few seasons later, still that win is up there in terms of my favourite Newcastle memories. Jose Mourinho's touchline run brought joy to my heart.

But something changed. I think it was Arsenal and Chelsea that did it. United didn't win the league for a few seasons, went out of Europe early a few times. My viewpoint definately softened. During the Moscow final i suprised myself. I genuinely wanted United to win, and the fact that they did so during a game in which Ronaldo missed a penalty and then cried lots was perfect.

Now Ronaldo and Kenyon are gone really am struggling to find an acceptable hate figure. So Fergie is an obvious one, but I can't do it. I don't know why, I just can't. And besides, a man who took Aberdeen to European glory would be a hero if he hadn't done those things to Kev.

No hate figures is one thing, but I like, actually like the fact that here is a team that can take on the best in the world, but that features on a regular basis Ferdinand, O'Shea, Carrick, Fletcher, Neville, Hargreaves (God rest his sole), Rooney, Giggs and now Owen. It feels like a British team, unlike Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. And i can't help but love Nemanja Vidic, what with my natural soft spot for eastern european talent, Ji Sung Park was a favourite since the glory days of Mr Ahn and co. in 2002, and if Ji Sung loves Patrice Evra which he clearly does (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br25EVIx8RA), then I can too.

See what I mean, i just used 'love' when talking about United. Still hope they loose at the weekend mind.