and that's the season

once again by the start of August we are out of the Premiership running.  Attractive though Brendan Roger's style of play is, and difficult though the early fixtures are, this is not good enough.  We have offloaded a bunch of players, so the wages bill will be reduced.  But we have bought sparingly, and the team is basically not good enough.  Promising though some of the youngsters may be, we are now down to one world class player in Suarez.

I suspect that the owners are playing a long game and waiting for FIFA rules to impose a level playing field on finances.  But that is still years away, and we wait to see whether it will actually happen.  In the meantime, we are restricted to playing for cups again this season.

It is now a long time since under Rafa Benitez we were pipped at the post for the Premiership.  This will be 4 uncompetitive seasons in a row.  We are now a (top of ) mid table club playing on our history, and no longer real contenders.

Summer's gone

It feels like autumn already. Apparently the coldest summer for nearly 20 years.

Still the breadcrumbs are off to tennis camp.

a week or so ago I couldn't face the thought of football - England were still beating India at Cricket. Now it feels right. The reggae CDs are coming out of the car until next April - they just don't sound right.

The black dog is still prowling the garden, but I'm trying to keep it at bay.

The cat is dying and that is not a good thing for the family, or the poor brave warrior himself.

Times are hard. It is the strain that kills

Still, at least Liverpool's season has extended past August. Which is not always the case. And for once Arsenal and Spurs are the teams suffering. Which means there is a chance we can make the Champion's league again. The two Manc teams look too strong for us to have a chance of the title. But you never know.

1-1

What an attitude. One nil down after 97 minutes, Liverpool managed to draw 1-1 at Arsenal with another (rather soft) penalty as the last kick of the game.
That is a major change - there would have been no blame for having lost to Arsenal, away from home, having lost 3 players to injury. Under Roy Hodgson that would have been seen as a reasonable excuse. Under Dalgleish the excuse was not needed.

I feel sorry for Arsenal, who I would prefer to win the Premiership, but they did not really deserve to win.

So now we have 5 games left - one against Spurs - to catch Spurs or Man City for the last European place. 6 points behind, 15 to play for... I think we need to beat Spurs at Anfield, and then take 9 or the remaining 12. Doable given that it is Fulham, Birmingham and Villa. An amazing turnaround from Christmas

odds and ends

Mrs Breadcrumb is away for the week wrapping up odds and ends with her old job. So, I am at something of a loose end in the evenings. Saw Spurs beat AC Milan - great goal by Crouchie - still don't know why we sold him.

Then finished off the Millenium trilogy for the second time. It's rare I re-read books - especially within 12 months. It may be something like comfort food - you know you are going to like it. But great books.

And tonight will be Arsenal vs Barcelona - which should be good. They are the 2 teams I would choose to watch if Liverpool were not involved. According to my principles I should support Arsenal, but my heart wants Barcelona to be brilliant and win again.

Meanwhile, there is sunlight during the day and I am going to the gym. Although realistically our finances are still perilous, it is easier to be positive. Or at least ignore the situation. Some paid work would be nice though.

Fernando who?

Well, to be serious, Torres is a great player and will get better at Chelsea. However, beating Chelsea in London was more than I could have hoped for. Despite my reservations about the potential damage to King Kenny if he should fail, it seems that (so far) he is succeeding. Liverpool again look like a Liverpool team. They seem to have confidence that they can actually beat anyone (personally I am pretty pleased this is not going to be tested against Barcelona). A cause for (cautious) optimism.

On that tack though, if Arsenal can conceed 4 to Newcastle, what is going to happen when they play Barcelona and Lionel Messi?