Issue 72, Spring 2006
By Steve Kelly
Welcome to issue 72, just to prove I can get my arse in gear when it suits me. I’d marked the Bolton weekend down as semi final week, and had to move pretty sharpish when I realised it wasn’t and that it was one of only two home games I’d get to sell at after going out of Europe. This means a lot of the articles have not been given the usual once-over so all brickbats, spelling lectures and legal papers will be forwarded to the writers in question!
We still have a chance to win a trophy, but it’ll be a good day out at Old Trafford win or lose. My advice? Don’t go to Manchester in 2’s or 3’s, something tells me the petty little smack rats will be out for revenge. Have you ever tried to wash excrement out of a 3-star jumper? It’s bloody difficult (er, so I’m told!)
We had a rocky old month or so in the Premiership, invoking memories of 1999 when the Mancs stitched us up in the final moments at Old Trafford and sent our season into freefall. We’re one and a half years into Project Benitez and thankfully we’ve a little more resolve than Gerard’s fledglings had back then. The diary reflects my own schizophrenia regarding the manager; I sat in the Flattie before the Fulham game and pretty much ripped into the great man. “O ye of little faith” did you say? Well okay, guilty as charged.
The perennial speech about “controlling games” was getting me down a bit I must admit. It could be put down to his unease with the language (is it me or is Rafa’s English actually getting worse?) so he sticks to clichés and rehearsed speeches then tries to get out of there as fast as possible. I just don’t accept how anyone can be present at the Ataturk and still talk about controlling any football match. Defensive solidity is important of course, but the ability to create and score goals at any time is vital too. It was beginning to look like those snidey Everton digs about him being the Spanish Houllier weren’t a million miles wide of the mark.
Given the wins and goals in the last few weeks, it may be the optimism talking BUT (!) I’ve got a bit more faith in Rafa than I had in his predecessor, even in those moments of glory back in 2001. Houllier to me was an obsessive, determined to prove his way was the right way even if it was eventually at great cost to himself. At least Benitez saw one up front wasn’t working and changed it around last autumn. He still has his odd moment of inflexibility but I now believe he is a true Pragmatic. Benfica was very disappointing, but let’s hope Benitez will be more focussed on getting the away goal when we (hopefully) reach a similar stage next season. He is developing a decent track record for learning from his mistakes.
He got burned about the FA Cup after Burnley last year, so here we are in the semi final. We were appalling away from home, now we’re getting more wins. We had loads of injuries, now fitness doesn’t seem to be that much of a problem. He wimped out of his first derby then won the next three. The guy learns lessons, we’ve already got more points than last season and it would appear he’s also won his little game of cat & mouse with Moores. I’ll believe he’s won the mind games if he’s still here in August and three £10m-rated new players are lining up in the opening game. The Real job has always hung over us since he came here and we’d always hoped the ephemeral nature of the job and all that Galactico toss would put him off. He may have indulged in a spot of emotional blackmail, and it’s not like hasn’t had significant funds already. I can understand the board’s caution about investment; look at that loon at Hearts and various stories about Shinawatra if you need to know why investment has to be 100% correct.
We can’t buy success, and we never did it that way anyway. We need some funds though and if Alonso can keep getting better even a £10m player can become a sound investment. It’s quite simple: we need more Hyypia’s and less Diouf’s, and that all comes down to one thing – the manager’s judgment. There isn’t total confidence in that, but we’re obviously improving so there’s a sense of contentment around the old place. I may be writing in a post-derby glow, but Everton aren’t our yardstick. They haven’t been for well over 30 years. They’re just a cheap laugh (Rafa Beneath-us, CL, Bucharest, Wyness blaming G14 and poor deluded Stubbsy) but this summer we’ll have to be looking upwards and onwards. Then it gets really tense.
There are a couple of mentions in this issue about my moment of national infamy. I made a joke about lynching Neville on the website, I even wrote it in that Deliverance-style “squeal, boy” dialect. This dick from the Guardian reported it as a genuine threat. I’m a mate of John Williams, he of the Reds book once every two years fame, and he gave my number to the Standard when Gerrard was Chelsea’s bitch (or so we thought). I wasn’t too pleased and it was John’s assertion that not all journalists are truth-twisting twats. We’ll have to agree to disagree I guess! I’d expect that sort of sly nonsense from the Scum or even the Mirror, but the Guardian? That whole catalogue of deception following our cup victory stemmed from the United scumzine, and this hack was pretty much taking his lead from them. Anyone who looks at Red Issue then TTW&R and decides that WE are the loonies definitely has an agenda. I did treat it as a joke on the forum, but secretly it still pisses me off a little bit.
With a few games to go it would be a massive letdown if we don’t qualify for the Champions League again. I’m not too bothered about Arsenal’s campaign but I must admit Wenger’s remarks from last season are still doing my head in. I know a few Arsenal fans who are sound people and I’d be happy for them, but the words “Millwall” and “Coventry” keep popping into my head. The more fans we can sing “Where’s your European Cups?” to, the better!
Anyway, to hell with all that. We’ve got more points and maybe Cardiff to look forward to. By the next issue it’ll be August, there should be new players in place and raised expectations because 70 points will not be good enough for 2006/07. That’s what you get for following the Reds: resting on laurels is for losers. Anyone, if/they know/their history, will tell you that. Have a good summer. It won’t be as good as the previous one, of course!
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