The Soccer Blog: Wrap

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Sunday, 13 March 2011

Youth Cup Wrap, A Deal for Dalglish, and Other Sunday Notes

By: Ed | March 13th, 2011
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timechange Those observing daylight savings time over the past seven (or six, or eight) hours likely find themselves in a similar predicament as I—overly tired, trying to convince yourself that it’s actually 9:00 am when you’re used to it being 8:00am, and mostly irritated as you wrap your head around the justifications for an antiquated ritual that’s based on one adult child’s tantrum that he couldn’t stay out later in his big boy clothes and play with bugs some more. It’s possible that that’s a slightly altered version of how things happened, but I’d argue the core of the argument remains the same, and I’d be okay if we just left the clocks alone.

Or maybe I’m just bitter about waking up an hour early to watch Liverpool v. Manchester United in the FA Youth Cup and then “waiting” for kickoff by sleeping through most of the first half. There was plenty of action left, however, and the 3-2 loss for the young Reds leads the day’s news:

** The build up to today’s quarterfinal was almost like a senior squad match, and the final product came pretty close to delivering. Liverpool took a 2-0 lead through two goals from striker Adam Morgan and looked to be continuing a run of form that’s seen them nab a fair bit of the spotlight. Morgan’s goals were buttressed by confident displays from the usual characters—Suso, Raheem Sterling, and Conor Coady all put in quality shifts in their own right, and John Flanagan was likewise impressive.

Things got a bit nutty shortly after Morgan’s second, though, as a double sending off for Stephen Sama and Paul Pogba gave way to a three-goal second half for United. Larnell Cole got the visitor’s first, and two goals from Ravel Morrison proved to be the difference. Despite the loss, the second half was plenty exciting, and the atmosphere for the entire match was phenomenal (bar a few unfortunate chants from a small section of United fans). A few late incidents, including another double sending off for Conor Coady and Tyler Blackett, dampened things a bit, but all in all a match worth watching. Exciting to see what happens over the next few years for those involved, particularly the names mentioned above.

** Late last night there were a few reports that Kenny Dalglish had been offered a two-year contract—Yann mentioned it in the comments of Noel’s post yesterday around the same time that I was reading something similar over at the Daily Express:

The 60-year-old Kop legend, who has transformed the club’s fortunes since replacing the sacked Roy Hodgson in January, had asked American owners John W Henry and Tom Werner for a four-year deal. Henry and Werner were reluctant to look beyond two years but have promised a review if progress continues to be made under Dalglish.

Sunday Express Sport can reveal that Steve Clarke, who was brought in as a coach to work alongside Dalglish by Damien Comolli, Liverpool’s director of football strategy, is on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

It is understood that Dalglish wants a lucrative financial package to compensate for a lack of long-term security. Those negotiations are still going on.

Without anything coming from the club (which likely wouldn’t come until something was finalized anyway) we can’t pop the cork just yet, but I think we can all hope that there’s some truth to the reports for both Dalglish and Clarke. At this point you’d have to say that it would be a massive mistake for the owners not to be working towards this sort of deal—Dalglish’s return, aided by the signing of Clarke, has gone far beyond sentimentalism. They’ve got Liverpool headed towards brighter days, and it’s a necessity that everything’s done to keep them around.

** Lastly, there’s been growing transfer rumblings about pre-contract agreements in the works, and two of the more commonly associated names are Sylvain Marveaux and Taye Taiwo. Nothing in the past week or so regarding the latter, but the former is apparently edging closer to an Anfield move:

The Reds and Premier League rivals Newcastle have been linked with a move for the 24-year-old, but Kenny Dalglish is believed to be leading the way for his services.

Marveaux himself seems ready to commit to the Anfield club, despite having spent his entire professional career with Rennes. Speaking to The People, he said: “I am very close to reaching agreement with Liverpool about joining them next season.”

It’s all well and good until you realize that the source is the People, a paper which also produced this still-steaming pile of shit. So I guess there’s actually no transfer news worth discussing. Go figure, it being March and all.

That about does it for what turned out to be an unexpectedly exciting Sunday morning, unless you’re just waking up to face the harsh reality of a world that needlessly catapulted itself an hour into the future. Enjoy what’s left of your weekend, at least what time will allow. Just don’t fall wanking to the floor…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:FA Youth Cup, Poll Wrap, and Other Monday NotesGerrard on Dalglish, Approaching Wolves, and Other NotesHappy Birthday Kenny Dalglish, Redeveloping Anfield, and Other Friday NotesA Fenway Friendly, Contract Renewals, and Other Sunday NotesPurslow Piñatas, Poll Wrap, and Other Friday Notes

Category: Miscellaneous, Team News, Transfer News

Tags: Conor Coady, Dave Kidd is the Idiot King, Daylight Savings Time is a Conspiracy, FA Youth Cup, FSG, John Flanagan, John Henry, Kenny Dalglish, Miscellaneous, Raheem Sterling, Steve Clarke, Suso, Team News, Transfer News
Tweet « February! Winning! Substance Abuse! | Home | Eddiefa youth cup was dissapointing because of the result. I watched the game and liverpool were dominant throughout and man utd didnt really have a chance of getting back in it untill the sending off. it will be brilliant if kenny could bring through these players for next season once the dead wood of poulson/koncheskey/jovanovic etc have finally left the club.

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Monday, 14 February 2011

FA Youth Cup, Poll Wrap, and Other Monday Notes

By: Noel | February 14th, 2011
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You stay classy, blogoland.

Polls polls polls, poley poley polls, I love polls…

No, wait, that could be taken the wrong way. Unless it being taken the wrong way doubles our traffic. Because I’m a real whore when it comes to hits…

Wait, no, that sounds pretty bad, too. Whatever, let’s get to the numbers and see if we can smoke last Thursday’s poll: 58% of respondents helped raise the 4-3-3 to a turgid victory. I’m not certain turgid actually works there, but there may never be a better time for me to say turgid. So: Turgid. Meanwhile the 3-6-1 came off half-cocked at 26%, and 13% must have had a hotter, harder, firmer grasp on the situation than I did when they picked “other,” which if I were them I would claim was a vote for the vaguely 4-3-1-2 we saw on Saturday. Then again, Saturday was a rather underwhelming performance, so perhaps it’s a little premature to think anybody would want to claim it.

Oh, and like 3% wanted Roy Hodgson back. But have you seen some of the freaky stuff people like? I mean, I can just imagine them watching video of the match against Man City all done up in a gimp outfit and begging for ol’ Roy to do even worse to them. Or something. In any case, I think I’ve about drowned this bit like a burlap sack full of kittens tossed into the river, so I’ll let it drop. And no, that thing about the burlap sack and kittens wasn’t some freaky sex act. Frankly, I’m disgusted you’d even ask…

* Monday got you down? Can’t stand looking ahead to a week-long slog? Staring out into space, vacant, wondering–wondering why can’t somebody else do it and just leave you to alternate between nap time and killing your liver time? Well, now somebody else can. At least if you write a blog where you seem to spend half your time singing the praises of Lucas Leiva. Which kinda works out great for me since that’s something I kind of do.

In any case, Kopsource has done away with my need to talk about Lucas this Monday, as with him playing his 100th Premier League match against Wigan on Saturday they decided to take a look at the player who has grown from a goat to something not completely unlike, well, at least the sort of player a certain portion of the fanbase quite admires. Here’s to a few hundred more, then, and some silverware along the way.

* In player news, with Danny Wilson not getting a lot of playing time so far this season after having previously seen plenty for Rangers, including starting in the Old Firm, some might have wondered if heading out on loan–perhaps even to his old club–might have made sense. What wouldn’t have made much sense to anybody, one would think, would be for him to go on loan to rival Celtic, who appear to be the club that was actively looking to take him on in January.

Unsurprisingly, Wilson wasn’t a big fan of the idea, though it was never likely to happen in any case as Dalglish is reported to feel Wilson is still part of his first team plans for the remainder of the season. Still, it’s one to file under “Strange but true.”

* Meanwhile, if you just can’t wait until Thursday for a bit of Liverpool football–or if you just want to get a peek at the likes of Suso, Conor Coady, and Raheem Sterling–the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup runs later today at 7PM GMT/2PM EST on LFCtv for those of you in the UK and LFCtv Online for those of you with a season pass elsewhere in the world. Though these sorts of games can certainly be hit or miss in streamland, MYP2P has the match in their Monday listings, so some working options might even show up there closer to kick-off.

In the meantime, while the official site moves from running any transfer rumour they can get their hands on to trying to play a role in developing a song for Suarez and I take solace in the small comfort that even if people do tell me to bugger off now and again I probably couldn’t embarrass myself worse than that if I tried…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Hodgson Rumours, Poll Wrap, and Other Monday NotesFriday Whatsit and Poll Wrap-UpTactics, Spanish Goalkeepers, and Other Friday NotesMonday News and NotesXabi is Classy and Other Monday Notes

Category: Premier League, Team News

Tags: Blog Pollin', Conor Coady, Danny Wilson, FA Youth Cup, Formations, Lucas Leiva, Luis Suarez, Premier League, Raheem Sterling, Suso, Team News, Turgid Victory
Tweet « Video: Safe Standing | Home | Justin BonebrakeUgh, Monday. *punches self in liver and passes out*blog comments powered by Disqus