Actually Alex, Not a Catastrophe

This past Sunday Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-2 at Old Trafford. Alex Ferguson called it a "catastrophe" for Liverpool. Perhaps he needs to take a look in the mirror because we are rubber and they are glue. To my innocent eyes it was a bad day for Roy Hodgson but in the end points to a bad season for his Scottish buddy.

That conclusion may appear to fly in the face of logic but as a Liverpool fan I have to confess to being surprisingly satisfied with the game. Of course we were awful. The defending was criminal and the attack lacked potency. We are a team in a hideous downward spiral, playing even worse than last season and frankly the gradual downgrade in expectations can be mildly comforting. Liverpool aren't gonna win the league this year. We're almost certainly not gonna qualify for the Champions League. In fact, if Hodgson pulls us kicking and screaming into sixth that'll be a bonus. There's the FA Cup and Europa League to have a go at, whisper it, even the Whichever Beer it is This Season Cup would be a nice piece of silverware on the shelf. This year is all about getting rid of the American owners, and in some kind of ironic twist failure is taking us closer to that goal.

Meanwhile in Manchester their success over the last twenty years is what tempted the Glazers in and being on the cusp of further glory is keeping them entrenched. Torres could've left this summer and it would've been because he needed to play for a team challenging for the title as well as because of the dodgy finances. Rooney was offered to Real Madrid because of a crippling debt which requires players to be sold on for massive profits as often as possible. His injury and lack of form towards the end of the year kept him a Red but doesn't disguise the fact that Alex is having to scrounge around in the bargain basement, taking a chance on young Mickey Owen last year and a little Bebe this. Relying on the still surprisingly fine legs of Scholesy and Giggsy. Hoping Nani doesn't play well enough to turn heads in Spain.

United should have had a cricket score against Liverpool, fact. Dimitar Berbatov got a jolly classy hat trick but happily for the rest of the league apparently there can only be one striker on form in the red half of Manchester, the balding one is increasingly distracted by his own ridiculousness off the field. Liverpool were allowed back into the game because another out of sorts world class forward made a couple of distinctly average defenders very nervous. Two fouls, two strikes, two goals. That Liverpool came anyway near taking anything from this game is a catastrophe on a par with Everton taking two points off United a week previously, the last minute Fulham equaliser in August and the stalemate, at Old Trafford, against Rangers. It's pretty clear that there are blue clouds on the horizon and Fergie's taunting of Liverpool is simply a rather sparse smokescreen to cover his own team inadequacies. Think it's time for retirement.

A Sneaky Look at the Transfer Window Slamming Shut

I make no apologies for the fact that this entry is written from the perspective of a Liverpool fun and thus is largely concerned with the deals that affected the less mighty than they used to be Reds. There are more rounded or insightful looks at the bigger picture elsewhere, there's even a damn list if that floats your boat.

At the end of the day, or at 6pm on 31st August, or maybe a week or so later depending on how long the paperwork takes it struck me as a pretty reasonable transfer window. To be honest I find that you never need massive deals to make it exciting, just plenty of random rumours and sightings and the occasional deal both large and small to provide a suitable climax to the tension.

Starting with the most important points it was a little disappointing on the incoming front for Liverpool. Sometimes the most interesting stories are the just missed out ones, for us they seem to involve Carlton Cole, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Mario Gomez and Ola Toivonen. No cover for young Fernando then. Still did keep hold of Ryan Babel who at one point was in a helicopter destined for West Ham or Tottenham before using a jolly modern rumour rejection device by telling all the kids You'll Never Walk Alone on his twitter page. Hopefully the pace and finishing he demonstrates on very rare occasions will manifest itself a little more often, he's no less consistent or talented then those named above. And the silver lining is Konchesky who is fine as a covering full back, decent in the tackle with decent passing and decent forward running. In this case decent is plenty.

A quick shout out to Mr. Bourne of course, Wolves had already used the window wisely before the World Cup had even kicked off but still snuck Marcus Bent into Molineux on the last day. Feels like a bit of a journeyman who is only really fun when lining up alongside Darren but given that Ebanks-Blake has responded so well to the signing of Fletcher hopefully he'll go even crazier with another striker breathing down his neck. The bad news for Wanderers is that Michael Kightly hasn't made the squad list, the patella tendon is obviously a massive and continuing problem so fingers crossed he sorts himself out so we get the chance to see his pace in the second half of the season.

Continentally speaking AC Milan have laid down an attack minded marker of intent on snatching back Series A from Inter. Ibrahimovic is good enough to make a difference, just not in the big games, while if Robinho rediscovers his Brazilian touch in linking up with Pato and Ronaldinho then all will be right with the Rossoneri.

In the Premiership Birmingham and Stoke are the busy-boy-big winners, each have got a triple whammy of players who should add some extra dimensions. Eidur Gudjohnsen and Alexander Hleb are the pick of each bunch and have the some potential for awesomeness provided they haven't got lazy since their glory days in England. Kudos to Messr Pulis for selling his Potteries vision, it's a tough job and no mistaking. Another tough job is Arsenal No. 1 and it looks like Arsene has made a pretty drastic error in not improving his goalkeeping options. Having recently questioned the skills of Alumnia and been linked with several begloved men it was pretty clear what he needed and wanted. The rumour is that Shay Given was willing to walk to Arsenal which would have been perfect but alas, no offer was forthcoming and Fulham stayed firm over Schwarzer. That may be a detrimental position to take in the long term, it's never good to have a pissed off Aussie in the dressing room, but it's one which will definitely cost the Gunners any chance they had of the title. Prove me wrong Manuel, prove me wrong.

Finally to Harry Redknapp, emphatically not a wheeler dealer but still wheeling and dealing right up to the end on Transfer Deadline Day. The cheekiest story I saw was his offer to swap Robbie Keane for Steven Pienaar and Louis Saha, even the addition of David Bentley wouldn't sway David Moyes. Spurs always seem to be the team with the most buying or selling stories but eventually ended up without many departures or arrivals. However they do win the awards for Last Minute Deal, Most Surprising Transfer and Biggest Bargain. Rafael van der Vaart for £8 million would be awesome if it goes through. I don't particularly like Harry or Tottenham but if Rafe does make it to the Lane it does offer the opportunity to post pictures of the love Sylvie...