Two weeks to go in the season

And Liverpool are still top.  Though not favourites, and we won't be top when we next play.  But time to appreciate our best season for a long time. It's not we could have been contenders. We were contenders. That will have to do.

Man City move for Suarez

How many strikers do they want?  We've only got one. 

Justice for the 96.

Thatcher's Britain was a different one to now. It's taken a long time, but at last we can start to have a reckoning for hillsborough. At the memorial at anfield it is clear how many of the victims were the old and young, so should never have been accused of hooliganism. Those days many people loathed football fans - now it is mainstream. It took so long because people doubled up on the lies. Without that it would have been seen as a terrible tragedy caused by some errors of judgement. A few people would have been disciplined and maybe lost their jobs. Instead some face gaol and the families have had a generation of undue pain. Oh so avoidable.

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.

Against the odds

Good luck to Chelsea in the Champion's League Final.  Hopefully it will put them off their stride for the FA Cup Final.  However, given the number of them that will be suspended for that Final and therefore will have a point to prove in the FA Cup final...  maybe it would have been better if Barcelona had won.

Barca look like they have run out of steam.

Liverpool however look like a team that dont have the exact change necessary to buy luck from a vending machine.   We shall see.

Silverware

The League Cup was our first silverware for 6 years - but great to have.  However, I think it will not be enough for the owners.  Champions League has got to be their priority, and I think that it is now beyond us - which may mean the end of King Kenny's reign.

Meanwhile, finally recovering from 3 months of chest infection to discover that I appear to have put on 3kg.  How does that work?

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.

Film reviews

Been watching movies recently.

Some good ones - 4 Lions, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, All that Jazz.

All that Jazz is a classic. They dont make them like that anymore. Hadnt seen it in a couple of decades, but it is still great. Off the wall, and for me the best film about showbusiness outside of the Producers.

Scott Pilgrim did not dissappoint. My GLW hated it and turned off. For me, steeped in comics, it was brilliant. Extremely funny, visually inventive, and generally wizzbang. I can see why it bombed though. It veered between comic book and realism far too much for anyone but geeks. Can't wait to see it again.

4 Lions is a work of genius. Anyone with an interest in islamic terrorism should see this film. As the director Chris Morris said, it does for Al Queda what Dad's Army did for the Home Guard. Should win an Oscar. Funny, empathic, surreal, satirical, grounded, sad. Everything you need.

One that was disappointing was Inception. Very Pretty but no emotional content, and the twist is only a twist if you dont watch a lot of SF.

And this early in the season Liverpool vs Spurs is going to be pretty important. If Spurs lose it will be easier for us to finish above them.

3 years of King Kenny

Which he deserves. But the whalloping at home by Spurs shows how far we have to go. As KD himself said there is a bigger gap between 6th and 4th in the Premiership than between 12th and 6th. We were outplayed, and their bench was way better than ours. Here's to next season.

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

Change in the weather

So, business is still grim - but I am still in business. Mrs. Breadcrumb's new job is going well, which is a relief.
And the cherry blossom is begining to come though. Always my favourite sign of Spring.

Funny how, although times remain hard, the coming of spring makes things seem just that little bit brighter and that little bit more possible.
We live to fight another month.

Though the mighty reds only now have the battle for 5th to fight for. And it seems too much in too little time. I have to say I didn't think we could even get into the position where it was possible. King Kenny has made a big difference. Suarez and Carroll have real potential, but the rest of the squad looks thin. Roll on next season. And come on whoever is playing MUFC in any competition. (mean spirited I know, but still...)

A year of change

I thought it was going to be a year of change. Looks like I had no idea how much.
Mrs Breadcrumb has just one more week in her current job, and is trying to work out whether here new home is the fire or somewhere cooler than the frying pan. At least during the jump there is cooling down.
I am trying to work out whether I want to change what I do - which is largely driven by the fact that this year I am not making any money doing it.
We have a house move to plan. The breadcrumbs little helper has a marriage to finally face up to. The godparents have two breadcrumbs of their own to adopt.
The economy is on the fritz, the environment is on the fritz, and the middle east (source of much of my income) is on the turn.

Year of change indeed.

Meanwhile Liverpool beat Sparta Prague. All together now - "We are Sparta FC"!

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?