Music <\/p>\n
Andoni Iraola and his penchant for a two-year contract \u2018dovetails\u2019 nicely with what seems to be a short-term grand plan at Liverpool<\/a>.<\/p>\n A necessary part of that process is to laugh at Trent Alexander-Arnold, of course.<\/p>\n Send your thoughts to th*******<\/span>@*********<\/span>65.com<\/span>.<\/p>\n Read Tickner\u2019s take on Scholes\u2019 aversion to music<\/strong><\/a> and thought: the World Cup really needs to start now. Immediately.<\/p>\n This is the sort of thing people write when they\u2019ve run out of ideas. Who cares what music someone likes? Or whether they have any interest in music at all?<\/p>\n Scholes is a dull pundit. He\u2019s often overly negative, and his \u201canalysis\u201d tends to lack joy, enthusiasm, or genuine insight. But his interest (or lack of interest) in music has absolutely nothing to do with that. If he\u2019d said he listens to music every waking minute, would that suddenly make his punditry more engaging or his personality more appealing? Of course not.<\/p>\n So this isn\u2019t really about Scholes, and it isn\u2019t really about music either. It\u2019s about a writer searching for something to say when there isn\u2019t much worth saying. More broadly, it\u2019s about what I see as a certain arrogance of mindset: the inability to comprehend, never mind accept, that someone else might not enjoy the things you enjoy, no matter how important those things are to you.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the assumption that your tastes, views, and interests are the benchmark against which everyone else should be measured. If someone doesn\u2019t share them, there must be something wrong with them.<\/p>\n That mindset sits at the heart of countless arguments and prejudices. How dare you love someone I don\u2019t think you should love? How dare you worship a god I don\u2019t believe in? How can you not worship a god at all when I\u2019ve decided one exists and deserves worship? You don\u2019t think Player X is the GOAT? You don\u2019t agree that this sport, film, food, band, or whatever else I happen to adore is the greatest thing ever? Then clearly you\u2019re the problem.<\/p>\n But none of those reactions are really about the sport, the music, the religion, or the player. They\u2019re about ego. They\u2019re about people who need others to validate their preferences in order to feel secure in them. Any disagreement feels like a challenge to their judgement, and any differing opinion feels strangely personal.<\/p>\n To me, that\u2019s quite sad.<\/p>\n A person should be able to enjoy what they enjoy, believe what they believe, and hold whatever harmless preferences they hold without needing the rest of the world to nod along in agreement. Diversity of thought (or interest) isn\u2019t something to be feared or corrected. It\u2019s simply part of being human. (MC \u2013 It is a bit weird though)<\/em><\/p>\n As PSG have shown in the Champions League this season, having players who are fit, not over-played and fresh, makes a big difference to on the pitch performance.<\/p>\n This World Cup looks set to be the most gruelling ever<\/strong><\/a>. The extra round, the long travelling distances, the heat, and the fact that most leagues only finished 3 weeks before it starts.<\/p>\n As a result, who can manage the squad best will probably win. In many ways this is England\u2019s advantage. We don\u2019t have the absolute best first XI but we do have amazing depth (just look at who missed out). The key will be lots of rotation throughout the first 3 (maybe 4) games and fine tune the players for the Last 16 onwards.<\/p>\n As a result, I think the squad picked is pretty sensible. You have a relatively easy to pick first XI and then lots of plug (ish) and play replacements. Foden doesn\u2019t have an equivalent in the starting XI so he\u2019s out, Palmer the same and so on.<\/p>\n The key is going to be rotating well and effectively \u2013 whichever manager gets that right amongst the big teams will go far \u2013 hopefully the Three Lions. Dear F365,<\/p>\n Footballers are forever telling us they \u201clove the club\u201d, \u201cowe everything to the supporters\u201d, and \u201cwant to stay for many years to come\u201d. It\u2019s become the football equivalent of a politician promising to fix potholes or a bloke on Tinder claiming he\u2019s \u201cjust looking for a genuine connection\u201d.<\/p>\n Which brings us neatly to Trent.<\/p>\n Liverpool gave him everything. Academy graduate. Local lad. European Cup winner. Premier League winner. The city adored him. The Kop practically adopted him. Yet after years of noises suggesting he wanted to stay and build a legacy, he walked away for nothing.<\/p>\n Not \u00a3100 million. Not \u00a380 million. Not even enough to buy a replacement and a decent packet of crisps.<\/p>\n Nothing.<\/p>\n The suspicion was always that this wasn\u2019t just about football. When your agent is your brother and the move involves contracts worth astronomical sums, it doesn\u2019t take Sherlock Holmes, Columbo and Inspector Clouseau working together to figure out where some of the motivation may have come from.<\/p>\n The romantic story sold to supporters was that Madrid was simply too big an opportunity to turn down. The reality is football has a funny way of reminding people that the queue is always longer than it looks from the outside.<\/p>\n Now Madrid have brought in Dumfries, a proven international right-back who doesn\u2019t arrive carrying a documentary series about his passing range. Suddenly the dream move doesn\u2019t look quite as straightforward<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Trent may have imagined himself arriving like a conquering emperor. Instead he risks discovering he\u2019s just another suitcase in Madrid\u2019s overcrowded spare room.<\/p>\n Football history is littered with players who left stable, successful clubs believing paradise awaited. It\u2019s like divorcing Margot Robbie because you\u2019ve convinced yourself Scarlett Johansson is waiting outside your house with flowers and a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n Sometimes you open the door and find you\u2019ve actually moved into a studio flat above a kebab shop.<\/p>\n Liverpool supporters aren\u2019t angry because players leave. Players leave all the time.<\/p>\n They\u2019re angry because they were sold one story while another was being written behind the scenes.<\/p>\n If Trent goes on to dominate Europe for the next decade, fair play. He\u2019ll have earned it.<\/p>\n But if he\u2019s spending next season wondering why he\u2019s watching league matches from the bench while some bloke from Rotterdam, Milan or Munich is starting ahead of him, Liverpool fans may permit themselves a small smile.<\/p>\n Not bitterness.<\/p>\n Just appreciation for football\u2019s enduring sense of humour.<\/p>\n Because sometimes the grass isn\u2019t greener.<\/p>\n Sometimes it\u2019s AstroTurf painted green by an agent.<\/p>\n Regards, Interesting mails recently on Liverpool, including some expressing empathy to Slot, which I too am starting to feel (I\u2019m aware of my hypocrisy in light of previous unjustifiably personal attacks, I will do better in future). With Hughes and Edwards presumably off next summer, it\u2019s starting to look they are in full arse-covering \/ reputation-preserving mode before they feck off, rather than doing anything with Pool\u2019s best interests at heart.<\/p>\n I remember the briefing from Anfield around the time of Slot\u2019s arrival that they were happy with him as the continuity candidate<\/strong><\/a>, i.e. he would stick to Klopp\u2019s (mostly) winning formula) but also that he would calm the chaos a little it in order to preserve the player\u2019s fitness. This would in turn prevent the burnout that the squad and Klopp suffered under his leadership.<\/p>\n In Slot\u2019s first year this worked perfectly, I remember (could be wrong) that we had an enviably low injury rate \u2013 rival fans saying that this luck, and the rest of the league being sh*t, is the only reason we won the Title (I don\u2019t take it personally, it was just our time in the sun so other fans were p*ssing on the Pool parade \u2013 it goes with the territory \u2013 take note Arse fans). Last season, and I again stand to be corrected, the injuries were of the more calamitous and season-ending variety, rather than muscle injuries due to over-exertion. They also tended to occur in the same position.<\/p>\n So there is a view that Slot fulfilled his brief perfectly, and it was injuries and an unbalanced, irrational, vanity project squad that did for him. More specifically, Hughes and Edwards asked him to produce the more pedestrian football that ultimately got him hounded out of Anfield, his last memory sitting alone in the dugout watching Salah (et tu, Brute?) and Robbo get their hero\u2019s send-off.<\/p>\n Iraola could, and did, go hell for leather at Bournemouth because they only have one game a week, but also because, as a selling club, they can offload their players before they break down \u2013 the same does not apply at Liverpool. Is Hughes just pandering to the Salah-incited crowd baying for the return of heavy metal football, not caring whether the squad is suited to it, or fit enough for it, as he is leaving next summer for the sunnier climes where it literally rains money? Given the pursuit of shiny new wingers like Diomande<\/strong><\/a> (\u201cI love Liverpool, no wait I meant PSG\u201d) instead of the desperately needed cover at centre back, its looking like long-term planning isn\u2019t top of the agenda (Iraola\u2019s preferred two year contract dovetailing nicely).<\/p>\n As previous mailers have noted, Pool simply don\u2019t have the pace or durability in the squad for Iraola\u2019s all-gas-no-brakes style. We don\u2019t have the PSR headroom to make the necessary signings. The performances last season were so abject that it\u2019s hard to see how any of the hilariously over-priced powder puff attackers can be sold for anything but a huge loss \u2013 and these aren\u2019t the players for Iraola\u2019s system if they are retained.<\/p>\n On this basis, maybe the more prudent thing to do would have been to retain Slot, to see if his methods could have worked for the second year in three, without the injuries and some new signings to plug the clear gaps that needed to be filled for his system (which was duller by the Anfield suits\u2019 design) to work as it did in year one. The alternative that is unfolding in front of us, is a new manager with a new approach with none of the players that he needs<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Along with the constant stream of players leaving on a free, players turning us down for rivals, and ongoing targeting of the wrong players, not to mention losing Alonso (no guarantee of success, but a better fit for the squad) \u2013 it\u2019s fair to ask wtf are Hughes and Edwards actually doing, and since they are buggering off \u2013 do they really care? I\u2019ve always flirted with gentler music. Every few months I convince myself I\u2019ve matured. I\u2019ll put on something soothing, nod thoughtfully, and tell myself I\u2019ve moved beyond angry guitars and shouted choruses. Then, inevitably, I find myself crawling back to the toxic relationship I have with heavy riffs, bizarre song structures, political themes and irresistible hooks.<\/p>\n Which is why, 25 years later, Toxicity by System of a Down remains the album that best captures my musical soul. It makes absolutely no sense, changes direction every 30 seconds, occasionally sounds like four people playing different songs at once, and somehow ends up being glorious.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also why I completely understand Liverpool\u2019s apparent interest in Andoni Iraola.<\/p>\n Pep Guardiola\u2019s football is beautiful. It\u2019s sophisticated, controlled and technically flawless. It\u2019s the musical equivalent of a perfectly composed classical piece. Every note is in the right place. Every movement is deliberate. The ball is cherished like a family heirloom.<\/p>\n But once you\u2019ve experienced Heavy Metal football, the quiet life can feel a little dull.<\/p>\n Liverpool under J\u00fcrgen Klopp were football\u2019s version of Toxicity. The pressing was relentless, the transitions chaotic, and there were moments when you genuinely wondered whether everyone involved had lost their minds. Yet somehow it all came together. The noise, the aggression and the sheer emotional force were the point.<\/p>\n Iraola\u2019s Bournemouth have carried some of that spirit. Only Liverpool won possession in the final third more often than Bournemouth in the Premier League last season, while Bournemouth ranked among the league\u2019s most aggressive pressing sides. They don\u2019t just want the ball; they want it back immediately, preferably before you\u2019ve finished deciding what to do with it.<\/p>\n Watching them is a bit like being punched in the face by a very well-organised orchestra.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say Iraola is Klopp 2.0, nor that Liverpool should simply try to recreate 2019. Football evolves. Managers evolve. Nostalgia is usually a terrible recruitment strategy, as Manchester United\u2019s post-Ferguson years have repeatedly demonstrated with the enthusiasm of a PSA.<\/p>\n But clubs have identities, and supporters have preferences. Liverpool fans spent nearly a decade falling in love with football played at maximum volume. Asking them to swap that entirely for a more measured, possession-heavy approach is a bit like asking a lifelong metalhead to spend Saturday night listening to whale sounds and ambient jazz.<\/p>\n Some will embrace it. Others will spend the entire time wondering when the guitars are coming back.<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s why the Iraola links feel so logical. Not because he is the best manager available, or because he is guaranteed to succeed, but because stylistically he speaks a language Liverpool supporters instinctively understand. High energy, high intensity, occasional chaos and the belief that football should sometimes feel like a rollercoaster designed by someone who lost the safety instructions.<\/p>\n Pep\u2019s football may be the safer relationship. More stable. More sensible. Better for your blood pressure.<\/p>\n But nobody ever wrote a great album about being sensible. I enjoyed the \u2018Arsenal as Obi-wan Kinobi and City , United , Chelsea\u00a0 and Liverpool as Darth Vader<\/strong><\/a>\u2019 quote and it got me thinking which of these new coach lead clubs could challenge the Gunners next season .<\/p>\n First off the bat , Britain\u2019s two biggest clubs : Liverpool and Man United do not look serious threats yet . One could argue that United\u2019s re-build is further along than Liverpool\u2019s but that \u2018fewer games\u2019 really did paint United in a really favourable light. Then so much to fix in that Liverpool team so I\u2019d put them fourth and fifth .<\/p>\n On the other side of the coin the lack of Europe will surely aid Xavi Alonso\u2019s bedding in period , Colwill will be back , a new decent goalie and I can see them leaping up to third.<\/p>\n City\u2019s second half of the season really did show us that Guardiola has left a mighty fine squad for Enzo Maresca to to take advantage of . Nevertheless , as long as the coaching team in north London can properly learn how to rotate and forget the domestic cups by prioritizing the league I reckon they are the team to beat .<\/p>\n All these predictions will be muddied by the sensational signings \/ transfer window sagas. All of the above will re arm and spend eye watering amounts compared to the other european leagues.<\/p>\n Yet I\u2019m sticking to my guns and going for a tight one and two between Arsenal & City ,<\/p>\n Chelsea ahead of Liverpool and United but all five of these behemoths getting the necessary Champions league money come the end of next season .<\/p>\n Another mailboxer wrote about Vinicius Junior moving to Arsenal which I suppose is more likely than Kylian Mbappe . He\u2019d certainly upgrade all the squads except possibly City\u2019s . Alonso probably wouldn\u2019t want him so I expect Gabriel may be coaxing him a little during the Brazil squad get togethers .<\/p>\n Overall,\u00a0 I hope Yamal, Nico O\u2019Reilly and Musiala will shine at the World Cup and there won\u2019t be too many horrible injuries on the back of so much football .<\/p>\nMusic Own Scholes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nAY<\/strong><\/p>\nMusic The conditioning World Cup<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nJames, Sussex.<\/strong><\/p>\nMusic The grass isn\u2019t always greener<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nA Liverpool supporter who has seen enough football to know that karma often is a female dog<\/strong><\/p>\nMusic Iraola *is* the answer, but not to Liverpool\u2019s question<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nGofezo (Arse fans seeing the start of a dynasty \u2013 have you learned nothing from our lot last summer?)<\/strong><\/p>\nMusic Heavy metal football<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nGaptoothfreak, Man Utd, New York (Slipknot\u2019s Iowa is a close 2nd)<\/strong><\/p>\nMusic The challengers<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nOf course losing the master will affect everyone though Maresca\u2019s modus operandi won\u2019t be a million miles away from what the players are used to and I see them as the major threat to Arsenal defending their title.<\/p>\n