Category: Liverpool
King Kenny: Were They Being Harsh to Him? Or His Time Has Come?
I have a problem, I mentioned it before: I am a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist is supposed to be a good thing, not me I guess. I’d rather write nothing at all, than writing half-baked posts. But actually I have a lot in my mind I would like to spill it to the world; unfortunately, I’m too lazy. Yes, I can’t give excuses that I don’t have time. I just as much time as many other successful and productive people, but I produce far less. As of now, writing a blog post is a success for me already.
I wanted to write about Mother’s Day, about the unthinkable Hollywood-written Premier League final day, and many others that I have forgotten now. But one particular topic made me write today: King Kenny sacked.
Just a few hours after his dismissal, a simple Google search on Dalglish yielded a long list of fresh news articles. In general, the school of thought divided at whether Kenny deserves the axe or he should have been given another season.
I have to admit, I am a romantic. I would love to see the King win the Premier League with Liverpool. He had won the title numerous times with his beloved club, both as player and as manager, but then, all those titles weren’t the Premier League medals. He did, though, won a Premier League title, the first manager to break the Ferguson domination, with Blackburn Rovers. Couple of years later, he steered a Newcastle United side – inherited from his counterpart Kevin Keegan halfway though the season – to second place. He was voted the greatest player ever to shook the Kop. He took the managerial position out of ‘debt’ to Liverpool, because he thinks he still owes a lot to the club.
2011/12 hasn’t been too kind for him. I don’t watch all Liverpool matches nowadays, but in most of them, Liverpool dominated possession and made more attempts than their opponents. No club has hit the woodwork more than Liverpool, and no player achieved that more than Suarez. Liverpool won against United, Everton, City, and came on top of Champions League finalist Chelsea three out of four times (twice at Stamford Bridge), the only defeat was the one that mattered, the FA Cup final at Wembley. The fans chanted his name in the final home game of the season, a 4-1 revenge to the FA Cup champions.
It was vintage performance, but Liverpool had been horribly inconsistent. A week after, they would lose 1-0 to Swansea, a club that nobody would expect to finish just five points behind Liverpool. The club ended their dreadful league campaign with losses as many as their wins. Their dominating possession might have been full of backpasses. Their woodwork misfortune might have been a product of inefficient shooting practice. And targeting the goalframe is not Suarez’s only crime, his racist row with Evra made Kenny’s situation even more complicated.
The Americans are certainly no romantics. The longest lasting sponsorship in English top flight by Carlsberg was not renewed and changed to Standard Chartered. Just very recently, Adidas had to make way to the previously-unheard sports brand of Warrior Sports. The logo was simplified and the eternal flames of Hillsborough was given a fresh look. Some things have to change for the good. An interesting though painful article showed how Liverpool might have been crushed by their own history. People moved on and embraced the present – City played ‘Wonderwall’ when they celebrated their Premier League victory the other day – but Liverpool still clinging on their history, and Kenny is a huge part of that history, a living legend.
Winning the first silverware in six years was a good start, but in today’s footballing terms, getting into Champions League is more crucial than the League Cup. And the dismal league performance could not convince the John Henry that Kenny still has what it takes to get back into Champions League, let alone win the Premier League title. Dalglish still is very much loved at the Kop, and the owner is very much aware of that fact. The dismissal was done in a professional and – most importantly – sensitive manner. Just as Dalglish relegated Carragher – the man that everyone wants a whole team of him – to the bench, Henry had to put away the romance as he had to let go of the King.
Managing a huge club (Liverpool is still a very huge club, 8th most valuable football club, 8th biggest revenue, 7th most likes in Facebook) with an even bigger expectations is never going to be easy. Taking the short-cut might not make it. Villas-Boas boasted an unbeaten season in the Portuguese league, winning three silverwares along the way, but his days were short-lived at Chelsea. Mancini, with a fifth of a billion pounds to spend every year, still had to wait three seasons to finally land the title back to the blue half of Manchester. Ferguson himself, the most successful British manager in history (he’s not English, in case you didn’t know), had to wait until his seventh season in charge to win his first league title. But these days, will global takeovers on Premier League clubs and the amount of money flowing in, they want to see their investment fruit, and no, waiting for three seasons to get back into Champions League is not the return of investment they’re expecting. Somebody needs to do it quicker.
Change can be for the better. Standard Chartered gave Liverpool joint-biggest sponsorship in England, the Warrior Sports deal might be even bigger (probably they deserved a bigger logo on the kit, too). The fantasy owner game (if there is any) will be played by all Liverpool fans as who they will appoint as the next manager, and lets hope he’ll bring magic, something slightly more than what Pardew had managed at Tyneside.
Till then, lets enjoy the Olympics and the Euros.
Liverpool and Manchester United
Liverpool 2-0 Manchester United: YEAH!
Sunderland 1-0 Liverpool: Beachball 5′
How to Go to Anfield (or Any of the Stadiums for that Matter)
Earlier, I went to Liverpool for the sole purpose of watching Liverpool play at Anfield. This has been a plan for me for like I don’t know how many years, but since the start of last season, I knew I can’t just keep on dreaming; I had to realized it. And so does another friend of mine, so we took it seriously – very seriously. (I knew I won’t be having the money for the trip, so I planned to make a loan from my Dad, but he sponsored me anyway, haha.)
I’m not going to talk about what I did there (OK maybe a little), I’m going to write here on how others can fulfill their dreams just like me.
(Oh by the way, this step-by-step guide is if you wish to do everything by your own, which can cut you considerable cost with great planning. There are travel agents which offers stadium packages, but it might be more costly.)
0. Have a credit card
Things are much easier to plan from far away, thanks to online services. But you need a credit card to make transactions. So have one. If you don’t have one, make one. Or borrow one. And another thing, print out every single transaction that has been completed (confirmation slip) and bring it with you there.
1. Stadium tickets
The most important thing (and also the most difficult thing) is to obtain the stadium ticket. First of all, you surely want to watch your first match at home (unless it’s a cup final, which would be a near impossibility). Note which fixture you want to go, and plan everything else around it. However, tickets are usually only opened for sale around three weeks before the match, so you would probably want to settle other things first.
2. Passport (and visa)
Make your passport. Can’t elaborate much here. Just find a passport centre and make your passport. Be ready to queue for the whole day (I don’t know if things are much more efficient nowadays, but just be mentally prepared if it requires you to be extra patient). It should cost you RM 300.
To enter a some countries, you need a visa (entry permit). For short stays, UK allows entry without visa. If you wish to stay longer (say, probably you decide to work there after the match) then you need to obtain a visa. I’m not sure how to obtain it, but I believe you need to ask from their embassy here in Malaysia.
3. Flight tickets
The next important thing (and should be the most expensive) is the flight ticket. Flying is very affordable right now, that’s the main reason why now we can dream (and more importantly realize our dream) to watch live footballs. Airlines now sell tickets at usually very cheap price if booked very early ahead of schedule, like around 3 months or even earlier. So if you plan to watch the match in late spring (which is the warmest part of the season – football season that is) like I did, book before January or February.
You need to book for the return tickets, too, so be sure how long you are going to stay there. Make sure you can get your off-days approved by your boss (and do include the flight days).
And take note where you airlines will take you. MAS lands at Heathrow while AirAsia lands at Stansted (neither of which is exactly in London – it is like KLIA is to KL although the name is KLIA). You can also consider other airlines that might get you even closer to your destination; for example, KLM lands at Liverpool while Etihad lands at Manchester (but at the time of my trip, none was cheaper than AirAsia). (Probably you might be a non-English club fan, so the same applies. Otherwise, take AirAsia to UK and from there take RyanAir to whatever it is, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan etc.) From then on you will need the next thing:
3. Transportation tickets
Once you arrive in UK, you need to get to your destination. Probably you can wander around London if you wish, but I do recommend you to sleep in the city of your destination at least the night before matchday. There are two methods: train or coach (bus). I find the train to be far more comfy than coach (and much less travel time), but you probably want to consider the cost as top priority. Go online to find the best promotions on the cheapest trains or coaches. Try National Rail or National Express, feel free to try other lines if you find any. Once transaction is completed, you’ll get a confirmation number. For train tickets, you can get them once you arrive there using their machines. Just put in the credit card you used to make the online purchase and they’ll print out the ticket for you. For coaches, just print out the confirmation slip. In any case, just print them out and bring them.
4. Accommodation
I would highly recommend you to find hostels to stay, as they are way cheaper than hotels. Remember, we need to convert their pound to our ringgit, and we are approaching 6 on that. Or even better, if you have friends still studying there, stay at their place if they don’t mind. Again, do everything here first. You can search for hostels at hostels.com (or just google it) and in Europe it’s abundant.
Be extra cautious on security, though. You might be sharing rooms with other people, so take care of your belongings and try not to leave your valuables while going out.
5. Muslim preparation
To live as a Muslim in a non-Islamic country, I believe you only need to take care two major things: solah and eating. For prayers, you’ll need what I call as the praying kit: a bottle, a praying mat and a compass. The bottle is for the ablution (wudhu’); you can wet your face, hands and head at the sink, but it would be less pleasing to be seen wetting your feet at the sink, too. And they don’t have water pipes in their toilets, so fill up your bottle and wet your feet at the toilet bowl. Use the compass to find the qiblah (together with the knowledge of where the qiblah direction is – you can download the Azan software here, from IslamicFinder). Then lay out the praying mat and pray. It might be, at first, a little awkward to pray outside an enclosed place as we used to, but don’t worry, Europeans are very respectful to other people’s practices, plus, there are much more Muslims out there than what you might expect, so it won’t be a very special thing for them to observe. Still, try to find a secluded corner, though. Don’t pray in the middle of a busy pathway.
And eat halal food. If you wish to eat outside, just eat vegetarian food (and to be even more cautious, make sure the vegetarian meal was not cooked with alcohol). Seafood should be okay, too, provided, again, cooked without alcohol or any animal-based oil. The safest would be to cook yourself, and if you’re going to UK (I’m not sure about the rest of Europe) there are plentiful of halal stores selling halal meat and meat products like hotdogs and burgers. If not, eating bake beans, scrambled eggs and toast are good enough for me. If you’re lucky enough to find a Muslim community, probably they have a restaurant where you can satisfy all your savage meat cravings there.
1. Stadium tickets
OK those should cover everything. But even if you can settle everything 3 months before the trip, you would still have one thing to do: buy the stadium tickets. First, be aware of your club’s policy on ticketing. For example, Liverpool only open league ticket sales to members, and Champions League home ticket sales to season ticket holders and regular attendees (cup and exhibition matches are open to everyone, though). Note which fixture you want to go (of course you have done that, that should be the ultimate number one thing on the planning).
Take note on the date and time of the sales launch. UK uses GMT in winter (-8 from Malaysia) and BST during summer (-7 from Malaysia). Save the ticket sales office number in your phone. Be ready around half an hour before the sales launch. If there are online sales, be ready with a decent internet connection. Log in half an hour before the sales launch, and keep on refreshing the page. Be ready for some relentless engaged and busy lines for hours.
However, it is sad to dash your hopes and say it might be very unlikely for you to obtain the tickets through the proper channels. So, next resort would be to buy from the ‘ulat-ulat’. These tickets might cost you around a hundred to a couple of hundred pounds, so for security reasons, try to opt for cash-on-delivery deal. There are websites offering these tickets (again, you can easily google them), if you trust these websites, you can give them a try. Or, if you’re willing to take the risk (of being empty-handed) go to the stadium on matchday without a ticket, and find these illegal ticket sellers on site. If you find them, you might get much cheaper than making a pre-deal online, because the closer it is to kickoff, the more desperate they get to sell off their tickets. However, if you don’t find these sellers, you might have to settle watching at their local pub (after all you’ve been through).
And I almost forgot, most stadiums have stadium tours, so do check that out, too. Probably it is more suitable to tour the stadium before the matchday, so that the matchday is your ultimate climax of your experience.
OK that’s all I guess. If any of you have anything to add, I would be glad to include it. Anfield was one of my greatest experiences in life, so I hope I could share it with others, so that one day you’ll get your chance, too. Good luck.
2008/09 Season Review
This season is quite good I would say, from a Liverpool fan point of view. Yeap, we didn’t win anything, but to challenge the title right until the second last match of the league season is a great leap from the previous seasons. 86 points is a club record in the Premier League era; in fact, 86 points would win the title in the last seven seasons, but United showed up with 90 (even with two defeats to Liverpool) which must be said an astonishing accomplishment.
United strolled with I-don’t-know-how-many consecutive wins (with a slight hiccup of two consecutive defeats, but they continued that winning streak then) and broke the record for the longest clean sheet in English top-flight history. They were seemingly invincible. Even after the humiliating defeat at home, they still continue to win even if unimpressive. They were the best team, according to the man that made it all happen, Alex Ferguson. This best team of his will write the history of the only team to accomplish the unprecedented quintuple.
Then came Rome and they got a huge slap of reality. Came Barcelona – who might have been lucky to be there in the first place, but showed no luck was needed when they conquered Europe – and wrote their own history to become the only club from Spain to achieve the historic treble. If there is any team that is too good not to win everything, it is Barcelona. United were good for 10 minutes, then Eto’o came out with the seemingly smash-and-grab goal. It turned out not to be exactly a smash-and-grab goal. Barca took procession from then on and United made to look mediocre. Their passing was mesmerizing, I have never seen a team stringing more passes through the middle than them. Puyol was a makeshift fullback, I would expect the most defensive-minded player to be defensive. Turned out, he was asking the ball from the flanks, even had a couple of really good shots on target himself. One of them was built from a string of thirty or even forty passes that left United watching. Messi, with all his dribbling prowess, scored with a header. Credits to Iniesta and Xavi, their exquisite darting runs and the most outstanding cross (the cross had to evade Ferdinand – who was probably twice as tall as Messi – and reach his shorter teammate) bossed the midfield. The media revelled at the winner, citing art had won. True enough, art was victorious. When Arsenal went unbeaten a whole season, that was the brand of football played, and it proved, with enough class, that brand of football is irresistable (yup, you need class, that’s why Mowbray couldn’t keep WBA afloat, too bad).
The FA Cup came later, almost like an anti-climax, but by no mean inferior. FA Cup is still a silverware, and teams like Liverpool and Manchester United got beaten because they were second best against their opponents. Unfortunately, their conquerors, Everton, couldn’t find the extra mile to beat their fellow Blues, Chelsea. It was a fitting farewell to Guus Hiddink, an incredible professional who sticks with his job to bring Russia to South Africa (unlike Scolari who told Ronaldo not to bother about club transfers and then himself signing a contract with Chelsea while managing Portugal). Everyone who has worked with Hiddink would know how incredible a manager he is. Yeah, probably they’re some helping hands here and there, Essien being fit and all, but no credit should be taken away from him.
So who’s the manager of the year? Hiddink did an amazing job boosting the morale of a depleted Chelsea into finishing with a silverware, but he only managed something like 22 games. Pulis did an amazing job to avoid relegation (he did more than just avoid). I don’t want anyone to get relegated, but if there is one team that I want to be relegated, it would be Stoke City, because of their frustrating defence, their setpieces and the throw-ins. But hey, he did the job, and Stoke finished a very respectable mid-table, unlike his counterpart Mowbray who insisted in playing beautiful and got relegated. I still like him though for the mentality, if only he had better players to convert the chances. Moyes and O’Neill made a magnificent job to finish the best outside the so-called ‘Big Four’ but obviously lacked the squad to go the distance, but it was Roy Hodgson who stole the limelight, bringing Fulham from the brink of relegation last season to Europa League this season. Redknapp did outstanding himself, taking Spurs off the bottom to almost Europe. I think Zola did incredibly well himself in his first season, fighting off financial problems and playing out the famed West Ham academy players with some flair to finish top half.
But the one that stands out the tallest to me is Pep Guardiola. Yeah, he has Henry, Messi, Eto’o, Xavi, Iniesta, Krkic at his disposal, but to dish out 150+ goals in one season and a thrashing at the Bernabeu in his maiden season as manager at only 38, you run out of superlatives to describe that. Fact is, nobody scores three digits of goals in a 38-game top flight football season in an elite European league, except Barcelona. Their passes are irresistable, and the possession is tremendous. They make their opponents chase the ball, tiring them – physically and mentally. Even if they lose possession, they have the tenacity to win it back almost instantly. Chelsea were the only team to comprehensively shut them down, and had they got a good ref, they probably would have won against Barca, but it was almost scripted that Europe wants the most entertaining team to win. I still adore Hiddink very much for his tactical triumph against the young Guardiola (although a lot of neutrals hate the defensive approach of Chelsea, but Hiddink knew what it takes to beat Barca and he almost executed it, and defensive play is just as artful as attacking), but throughout the course of the season, Guardiola’s team played far more mesmerizing football, and in the future, everyone how comprehensively the final was won and no one will remember how lucky they even got through the semis. Too bad, but that’s the truth. Some say, Guardiola never has a plan B, but with that football, he might say, “Who needs?”
In every competition, the best teams have won. There are arguments here and there, controversies everywhere, ongoing debates as to who is better, but that is football, and that is why it is the most celebrated sports in the world. Everything is anti-climax from now on, you probably get to watch highlights and reviews of the season together with some reruns of insignificant matches you already know the results. Come August and everything starts all over again, the rollercoaster ride of emotions as we eagerly wait some bunch of people who don’t even know us to lift trophies. For now, there’s international football to keep us occupied.
Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal
Accepting Defeat
Unbelievable. Again, hats off to Chelsea. But wow, unbelievable.
Mohd Najmie 