After a string of poor performances by Liverpool, the pitchforks are out and the torches are being lit. Questions are being asked in some media circles about the purchases made by manager Kenny Dalglish with most of the attention being poured on and almost daily basis via some article or another, onto the shoulders of £35-million man, Andy Carroll. Despite the fact that no player sets his own fee, the likes of Carroll has been joined by Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson as players being hailed as ‘transfer busts’ by the club. Rightly neither of the three have panned out, but for each of them there has been a Luis Enrique, Charlie Adam, Craig Bellamy and Luis Suarez; not to mention the money brought in by the sale of Fernando Torres.

Under Kenny Dalglish’s tenure let’s take a look at his purchases, sales and analyse them by the player age, position, the price paid, whether I’d make the deal again and a reason to be positive about that player going forward.

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This blog is chronocalling my observation of sport throughout my 30′s. Now I know I’m not even a month into my 30′s so it you’d think it would be a little premature to be thinking about turning 40, but I figured it might be fun to speculate what the sporting world might be like come that time. The following is a selection of sports I’ve choosen to give my analysis on, looking at what will have changed, what achievemnts may have occurred and how different the sport may appear in the media. All for fun, though sometimes I do wonder…

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Tomorrow afternoon the media will bill the afternoon’s games between Arsenal v Manchester United and Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur as “Revenge Sunday” as both London based sides look to avenge thumping defeats by the two Manchester sides on the same day early this season. United beat Arsenal at home on August 28th 8-2 while City went down to North London and put 5 past Spurs who managed just 1 in reply.

In today’s Times iPad edition there was an article about how teams in the past have responded to a thumping defeat by an opponent in their next game against that team:  Read more»

Dalglish didn’t like what he seen from his team, but deserves the chance to put it right

If there is to be a worse performance by Liverpool this season then I hope I am unable to be in front of a television to watch it. Today’s 3-1 away defeat to Bolton had better be the low point of the season and certainly the last time I have to watch a Liverpool side put forward such a lack of effort or willingness to be in the game. Only Craig Bellamy, Steven Gerrard and the ever dependable Pepe Reina can hold their heads high on the club bus ride back up to Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish knows it having threatened after the game to wield the axe of change on anyone not properly focused.

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FEVER PITCH IS FOOTBALL WRITING AT ITS VERY BEST

As the cover says: “In America, it is soccer. But in Great Britain, it is the real football. No pads, no prayers, no prisoners. And that is before the players even take the field.” Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch is probably the best football book I have ever read. The book is basically an autobiography of Hornby’s life based around his memories of Arsenal gamesóthe team he supports to an obsessive levelófrom the late 60′s all the way to Arsenal’s dramatic league win over Liverpool in May ’89 thanks to that Michael Thomas goal, and into the early 90′s. Read more»

Adidas have long been associated with Liverpool. They were there at the tail end of the glory days in the mid-late 80′s and baring a short hiatus when the club went with Reebok, they have been with them through the last several years. But now it would seem their loss of support for, and faith in the club is Liverpool’s gain after it was announced the club had signed a £25-million kit deal with Warrior Sports.

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Welcome to a new series called Always Next Year, in which I take a lighthearted, satarical, none-to-serious look at the always optimistic world of Toronto sports. I mean if you cannot laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? Saying that, there is nothing factually incorrect about the name of this series, for I would be willing to bet the sentence, “Well, there’s always next year,” or “Maybe we’ll do it next year” are spoken more in this city, than any other city on the planet combined.

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