A quick look at the internet versions of today’s papers confirmed to me that there was no point whatsoever in going out and paying for them. Sunday’s papers always seem to bring out the worst in the journalists in this country, I really don’t see why. Liverpool aren’t the only victims of the clamour to make the big news that will be spoken about all week. If there’s nothing true to sensationalise then it’s just made up.

The Mirror had a go at us on Friday through their interview with the cowardly traitor off the Liverpool board, their sister papers are determined to join in today.
Take the People. Well, don’t take the People, because if this is an example of the standard of their product then it’s really not worth paying for. They have a story today, by a Mr Bates, saying that Gerrard is off to Madrid. Well, they say Madrid want him. They want him so much that they let it slip to a tacky Sunday paper in the UK before they told their own contacts in their own press:

People.co.uk - MAD FOR HIM
EXCLUSIVE SPANISH GIANTS TARGET GERRARD Real plot £32Mraid
By Steve Bates

STEVEN GERRARD will find a £32million European bolt-hole at Real Madrid this summer if his fragile relationship with Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez reaches breaking point.

That was the word emerging from Spain last night with Madrid ready to part company with one English legend - David Beckham - and welcome another in Gerrard next summer.

I understand Madrid chief Fabio Capello is a huge fan of Gerrard and the Spanish giants are reported to be willing to pay the £32m it would cost topers uade Liverpool to part with the Kop king. Gerrard revealed after the disappointment of the World Cup how he hoped Liverpool would finally end 16 years of misery by lifting the Premiership title for the first time since 1990 this season.

But after a poor start they are in turmoil with dissent in the boardroom being compounded by fan anger and frustration to give Benitez his first full-blown crisis since taking over from Gerrard Houllier.

“Fan anger and frustration”? People were fed up I’ll grant you that after last weekend’s victory, but they were far from acting angry with Rafa yesterday. Not that Mr Bates would have checked this out anyway. He goes on…

Last night Benitez insisted Gerrard was happy despite being played on the wide right of midfield and he doesn’t want to sell his inspirational skipper - who feels he’s wasted in an isolated role.

But senior members of Liverpool’s hierarchy are concerned a substantial bid from Madrid for the Anfield skipper is in the pipeline - and this time the 26-year-old England star will go.

Well there’s only one “senior member” of Liverpool’s hierchary who’d go to the likes of Bates with his views in this way, and he picked the People’s sister paper the Daily Mirror for his moment of back-stabbing. The next paragraph from Mr Bates was sensationalist nonsense, because Gerrard still does not want to leave Anfield, no matter how many reporters and pundits try to make it seem that way:

He knows his only realistic escape from Anfield next summer is to Spain to either Madrid or Barcelona.

Chelsea no longer need him, while Arsenal couldn’t afford his fee or £120,000-a-week wages and he wouldn’t go to Manchester United.

Meanwhile the Sunday Mirror are just as bad:

SundayMirror.co.uk - WORLD EXCLUSIVE: GERRARD’S RAFA RIFT
29 October 2006
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: GERRARD’S RAFA RIFT
Skipper’s future in the balance
By Simon Mullock

STEVEN GERRARD’S future at Liverpool is hanging in the balance, with the Anfield captain growing increasingly unhappy with life under Rafa Benitez.

Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal the strained relationship between Gerrard and Benitez is now close to breaking point.

Gerrard publicly insists that he is happy to play anywhere in Benitez’s tactical system.

But privately, he feels his poor form this season is down to the Spaniard’s insistence that he plays wide on the right of midfield, while Xabi Alonso and Momo Sissoko play in his favourite central position. Gerrard is prepared to put his preference to one side for England - but feels his talent is going to waste at Anfield.

Benitez, who has insisted he will not quit Liverpool, now faces a third fight to keep the £30m-rated midfielder at his home-town club. Gerrard looked destined for Chelsea after Euro 2004, but was persuaded by Benitez when the Spaniard arrived at Anfield from Valencia.

Twelve months later he asked for a transfer after becoming frustrated by the lack of progress regarding new contract talks - but changed he mind again.

“World Exclusive”? You made it up! Sorry Mullock, but you aren’t one of Gerrard’s confidantes! He’s probably not even heard of you, let alone spent any time chatting with you. “Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal the strained relationship between Gerrard and Benitez is now close to breaking point” - I think you mean that Sunday Mirror sport’s lazy reporter made this story up on Friday afternoon, after Lipton printed the story in the Daily version of your paper from the idiot on the Liverpool board.

Some of the stuff being spread about Stevie around Liverpool is even worse than this, and equally fake. All kinds of stories about personal issues for Stevie, all kinds of stories about how one paper or other will have it printed soon, yet not a shred of evidence. No photo, no video, in this day of camera phones. No “someone close to the couple” quotes. Nothing. Why? Because none of it is true.

I don’t know how they live with themselves making stuff up like this, when they know that it can only cause hurt. Stevie hurt a lot of us when he said he was leaving - but he made up for that in other ways. We’d not have won the FA Cup without him for example and we certainly wouldn’t have finished third last season without him. All the players have started off badly this season, Stevie included, but yesterday they showed that they are determined to stop the rot. If Stevie comes out in the papers himself and says he’s leaving, that’s the time to slate him. Until that happens - and all the real evidence points to it not happening - then button it.
It’s time that Liverpool supporters (not all of you, just some of you) started to remember that Steven Gerrard is a life-long Red and a human being, just like you. Ignore the stories the mancs and bluenoses are trying to spread. And stop spreading them yourselves too - especially those of you who’ve sent emails to us with this nonsense. The press are already having a good go at ruining Steven Gerrard and Liverpool’s season, and I really don’t know why. Don’t give them that bit of help they need to finish the job off.

People who are close to the players know that these stories are nonsense, especially the rumours that no paper would dare to print because they are so fake they’d be sued. The rumours are so wide-ranging that eventually they might actually get one right, but there’s no way all of them could be right, they contradict each other. And if just one of them did turn out to be true, don’t Liverpool supporters owe it to Steven to allow him to sort it out in his own way?
As for what the papers can print, well between Friday’s Mirror and today’s two Sunday versions of that paper, it’s clear that someone in that group - at least the southern-based part of that group - has some kind of an agenda against Liverpool FC and maybe that’ll be clearer soon. In the meantime I think most Reds would be better finding something else to read instead.

When we saw this headline Mirror.co.uk - News - REDS GET CRICKET KIT we feared that the Liverpool squad were ready to treat us to another “White Suit” final. Back in 1996 Liverpool faced Manchester United in the final, which was held on the site where this season’s final was meant to be held. Liverpool’s so-called “Spice Boys” turned up at Wembley for the FA Cup final wearing suits that were not quite white. Close enough to white though, and close enough to get ridicule for the team and the club.

That final has to go down as one of the worst final in history. Neither side deserved to win, the game was heading for a replay which might at least have allowed for some entertainment, until an over-rated Frenchman got lucky with a shot. That’s how I saw it, and I’m not changing my mind 10 years later.

The fact neither side deserved to win, that until that point neither side had any control over the game is of course lost in the history of the FA Cup. The scoreline was 1-0. The photos of the cup being presented to the winners don’t feature any Liverpool players. The losers, Liverpool, are only pictured arriving in their white suits, and those suits are blamed for all that went wrong with Liverpool at that time. If Liverpool had turned up in black or dark grey suits they would still have lost the final, but the suits wouldn’t be blamed.

We thought the lesson had been learned. No white suits for Liverpool squads. Any player found buying his own to be given a fine of one-week’s wages and extra press ups. So why all of a sudden are the squad gearing up to be walking around on the pitch pre-game wearing cricket gear? White trousers, whites shirts, white pullovers? Or as near to white as matters. White shoes too? No this can’t be right.

Thankfully, it wasn’t. Cricket is actually the name of a fancy shop in Liverpool. A lot of the player’s wives go there, reportedly. So, we might be safe after all. It’s just a coincidence. At least we hope it is. And although we’ve long since given up hope for him over his hair, we also hope Djibs isn’t in charge of his own wardrobe that day.

Whatever he’s wearing, wherever he might be going as the summer goes on, we’d be very happy indeed if Djibs became the latest Frenchman to score the winner in the FA Cup final

So it all goes down to the wire for Liverpool in the hunt for second place. Saturday saw Manchester United lose 3-0 to Chelsea and Liverpool beat Aston Villa 3-1. That meant Liverpool had closed the gap on United to level-pegging, and the goal difference advantage United had was cut to just four goals. United had a game in hand at that stage.

Tonight United went out against Boro hoping for three points but managed only one in what had been their game in hand. Now both sides have one game left each. This is at the weekend with both matches kicking off at 3pm on Sunday. Liverpool travel to Portsmouth, who are now safe from relegation. United play host to Charlton, whose manager Alan Curbishley will be taking charge for the last time.
If United win their game on Saturday they take 2nd place. There’s nothing at all Liverpool can do about that, other than reflecting on how they should have won against United at Old Trafford in January. United would have 83 points, the most Liverpool could get is 82.

If United draw then Liverpool need to win. United would then finish on 81 points, Liverpool on 82.

If United lose then Liverpool need to win. United would then finish on 80 points, Liverpool on 82.

If United lose 5-0 then Liverpool need to draw. United and Liverpool would then finish on 80 points, but Liverpool’s goal difference would be +30 compared to United’s +29.

In other words, Liverpool need to win, United must not win. If the Reds win and the Mancs don’t, Liverpool get second place. Could Charlton hold United to a draw? It’s possible if unlikely. Portsmouth may have been heading for relegation until they were saved at the weekend, but they are no pushovers. Still, it means there’s something to play for in the league for the Reds right up until the last day of the season, which keeps the players in competitive frame of mind ready for the FA Cup final the following weekend. It would be nice if the Reds were playing that game knowing they’d avoided the qualfying stage of the Champions League for next season.

Remaining fixtures, Sunday 7th May, 3pm BST:
Man Utd v Charlton
Portsmouth v Liverpool

Current Table:
2nd Man Utd Pld: 37 GD: 34 Pts: 80
3rd Liverpool Pld: 37 GD: 30 Pts: 79

Congratulations to Arsenal on reaching the Champions League Final. Well, congratulations in part. We got a lot of nice email fans last season after the semi-final and final congratulating us on our Champions League success. A lot of those emails came from Arsenal fans. For those Arsenal fans, and many more like them, we are very pleased. We are also pleased for Arsenal’s captain Thierry Henry. Almost certain to leave the Premiership after the Champions League final, he took time to pay tribute to our captain, straight after last night’s match: “I just want to say to Stevie Gerrard, if he is watching, he has been an inspiration for us all. I really admire the guy.” Gerrard himself had pointed out on Sunday as he picked up his PFA award that his own vote had gone to Henry.

Arsenal and Liverpool are rivals, have been for as long as I can remember, but the two sides have more respect for each other than they do for Chelsea or Manchester United. Would Roy Keane and Patrick Vierra have made compliments like that to each other in those circumstances? Not likely. There is one major problem in the relationship between Arsenal and Liverpool. Not the old rivalries going back to the fifties that might upset some Liverpool fans. Not the north-south divide or the 1989 last-ditch theft by Arsenal of our league title. These things are part and parcel of football and although uncomfortable can be ignored. The problem, right now, with Arsenal from a Liverpool fan’s perspective is their boss. Arsene Wenger is upsetting everyone in his path lately, especially North London’s equivalent of Everton, Tottenham. He’s having a go at everyone, and if Jose Mourinho had kept all of his previous promises open not to speak to the media then Wenger would be getting even more of the headlines. It’s not what he’s saying now though that bothers us as such; it’s what he said last year.

Just before Liverpool played Arsenal in the league at Highbury, Liverpool had qualified for the Champions League final, and Wenger was probably quite jealous. He decided to belittle Liverpool’s achievements by belittling the Champions League itself as a competition. He said that whoever finishes fourth in the league should go into Europe the following year, something I don’t think he’ll be volunteering for this season. Worse than that, in our eyes, he said we were lucky; that us getting to Istanbul was like Millwall getting to the FA Cup Final.

I’m sure he’d have said none of this had he known the way Arsenal’s season was likely to go, but reading these words again made us chuckle to some extent, and made it hard for us to wish Wenger luck in Paris. For the fans and Henry - good luck. For Wenger - you’re being sent to Coventry. The team you compared this year’s finalists to.

Here’s the article that was sent around the world via the press wires last year.

Liverpool ‘lucky’ to be in final: Wenger
May 7, 2005

Arsene Wenger raised the temperature ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Liverpool by saying the Anfield club were “lucky” to be in this season’s Champions League final against AC Milan.

UEFA are set to dash Liverpool’s hopes of defending the trophy should they beat the Italian giants in Istanbul on May 25 but finish outside the Premiership top four.

But Arsenal’s French manager - who has yet to guide the north London club to a European trophy since arriving at Highbury in 1996 - said Liverpool were fortunate to be in this season’s Champions League at all after only finishing fourth in the Premiership last term.

“Normally they should not have played in this cup. They are already lucky to be in it because of the advantage this country has in having four qualifying places,” Wenger said.

“Most countries have only three places, so they already had an advantage in qualifying last season after finishing fourth,” he added on Friday.

Chelsea may have dethroned Arsenal as Premiership champions but the Gunners, like Liverpool - who beat Jose Mourinho’s men, still have European ambitions dependent upon the final few league games of the season.

Wenger’s men are currently second, four points ahead of Manchester United, and if they stay there will go straight into the Champions League proper rather than having to play a qualifying round.

Liverpool, who beat Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Champions League earlier this week, meanwhile are involved in a manic scrap for fourth with city rivals Everton and fellow north-west side Bolton.

Everton currently hold the coveted spot, just three points ahead of Liverpool and four clear of Bolton but they do have a game in hand on both their rivals.

And Wenger was adamant that if Everton finished fourth they should be allowed to compete in the Champions League and not be ‘knocked out’ by Liverpool.

“I feel the rules were clear at the beginning of the season so it was very difficult to change. You cannot knock Everton out of it,” he said.

“You could argue that four places in the Champions League is already quite a big share - and that if you are good enough to win the Champions League, you should be in the top four of your country.

“Normally I’d agree with the premise that if you win the cup you should be allowed to defend it but changing the rules for next season, so the winners qualify, would perhaps be the best solution.”

He added: “If you call it the Champions League, basically you should only have the league champions there.”

Wenger cited Barcelona, only beaten in the quarter-finals by Chelsea after the referee missed a foul by Ricardo Carvalho on keeper Victor Valdes in the build-up to the Blues’ winning goal, as the best side in Europe this season.

And he said Arsenal’s last 16 conquerors, Bayern Munich, as the “best European team we have played in the past four or five years”.

Wenger said the Champions League, which in the days of the European Cup was restricted to the holders and the continent’s national champions alone, was becoming more of a lottery than a test of excellence.

His view appeared to be backed up by the fact that last season underdogs Porto and Monaco contested the Champions League with Porto, then managed by current Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, winning.

Meanwhile Liverpool, despite being 33 points behind Chelsea in the league, now find themselves in the final of Europe’s leading club football tournament.

Wenger praised Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez but said nothing had altered his view that the Premier League had to be a priority for a leading English club.

“The championship has to be our absolute priority as you cannot make the Champions League as the priority,” he insisted.

“Why would we change our style? Liverpool were one minute away from going out (before Steven Gerrard’s winner against Olympiakos) and who knows if the ball was in or not against Chelsea?

“Liverpool deserve a lot of credit and have shown a lot of courage, but the championship is the only competition where the quality of the team is reflected after 38 games.

“The Champions League has now completely become a cup competition (without a second group stage),” added Wenger, whose side face holders United in the FA Cup final on May 21.

“Everybody can win it. Last year you had Porto and Monaco. Every year you will have two different teams in the final because it is so open.

“It’s like last year, when Millwall were in the FA Cup final. Next year, you could have Coventry.

“Liverpool deserve all the congratulations but it’s difficult to draw the conclusion that they are dominating European football.”

There’s a lot of fuss right now in football about how bad a manager is if he doesn’t shake hands with his opposite number at the end of a game. In some cases I am sure it is a deliberate act from either a poor loser or from a loser that has genuinely seen his side cheated. Poor loser springs to mind on Sunday - Benitez shrugs off Mourinho snub but to be honest I for one expect little else from Jose.

As for other managers, how would it look if Bobby Robson took another job on, but forgot to shake hands at the end? Well at his age I don’t think anyone would be too bothered. He forgets players names, and no doubt forgetting to shake hands would be another spot of age-related amnesia.

What if David Moyes didn’t shake hands with Rafa at the end of a derby? A snub? No, not really. Everton truly believe they are the people’s club, the club of the people of the city of Liverpool, the club that are above Liverpool. Like the queen doesn’t carry money and always wears gloves, they probably believe that they should not have to shake hands with an ungloved manager. And they certainly have no money.

Alex Ferguson (emphasis on the missing “Sir”) does not have to shake hands. He is allowed under Premiership rules to do pretty much as he likes. If shaking hands went into the rule books, he’d get an exemption. Although I don’t think I want to shake hands with someone who has a bad bowel problem. And in case it’s something that is passed on through a lot of contact, I’d steer clear of shaking hands with the managers of Blackburn, West Brom and Birmingham too.
Anyone playing against Spurs would be excused not to shake hands - Martin Jol reminds me of Jaws off James Bond movies, and gives me the impression you’d have broken hands should you follow the manager’s traditions. Arsene Wenger’s eyesight problems (which come and go, sometimes he has excellent vision) mean he’s not going to always see his opposite number. He may shake hands with a steward and assume it was the manager.

So although the press and TV media like to make a big issue of it, I don’t think the handshake means as much as they like to make out. Jose had no excuse on Sunday - after all who wouldn’t want to shake Rafa’s hands - but maybe some of the others have. As long as they don’t start kissing - that would raise some eyebrows.

This time last season Liverpool were trying to get themselves into fourth place in the league as a disappointing league season came towards its conclusion. In the end they had to settle for fifth, and UEFA had to change the rules because of the FA’s refusal to stick to the spirit of the Champions League rules. The rules were changed to make sure stubborn FAs can’t do that again in the future.

This season Liverpool still have that aim to try and finish fourth or higher in the league, and that has now been attained. The lowest Liverpool can now finish after yesterday’s 1-0 win over Blackburn is 4th. For that to happen, Spurs need to win all their games, with Liverpool losing all theirs. This would leave the two sides level on points, so this amazing sequence of results would need to also see the gap in goal difference between the two sides reduced sufficiently in the process. Liverpool are currently 11 goals better off in that respect.

Liverpool have achieved that goal of finishing at least fourth now, an improvement on last season, but it might not be enough. If the above scenario happens and the Reds do finish in fourth, Arsenal will could scupper Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League football in season 2006/07. The new rules mean that if Arsenal won the competition they would go into next season’s group stages, with the league’s fourth-placed team taking a UEFA Cup place instead. So it’s important the Reds get at least one point from their last three games - then it can remain a North London matter over who gets the fourth English place in the competition next season.

The Reds want more than that though. Although the current holders of the European Cup are in charge of their own destiny in terms of ensuring at least a place in the qualifying stages next season, they have a chance of getting into the group stages if Manchester United slip up enough in their last four games. Liverpool are six points and nine goals behind United in the league table. If Liverpool won all of their remaining three games they’d have 82 points, six more than United have currently. Two wins from four from United would ensure Liverpool could only catch them if they reduced the goal difference gap, and that’s not really likely to happen. One win and three draws would be much the same.  So Liverpool’s outside chance of finishing second depends on United winning no more than one of their remaining four games, and losing at least one of the others. Seems unlikely.

At least it seems unlikely until you look at the remaining fixtures for United. Their next two fixtures are potentially their hardest two of what they’ve got left. First of all they are away to Tottenham today, and Tottenham will be desperate to try and get three points to put the pressure on Liverpool for third place, and to keep Arsenal from catching them in fourth place. United then get to rest for twelve days, a gap that could be a help or a hindrance depending on how things go. The next game is also away, against Chelsea. By then Chelsea will be confirmed Champions and in a mood to celebrate - which could mean either a lot of rested players and a half-hearted performance, or a desire to prove to United that they didn’t win the league just by cheating. In between those two fixtures Liverpool will have paid a visit to West Ham an evening kick-off in the city they never seem to do well in.

By the time Liverpool kick off against Aston Villa at Anfield half an hour after the Chelsea-United game has ended they’ll have a pretty good idea one way or another whether they’ve any hopes left of grabbing second place. By then they’ll have played Chelsea themselves in the FA Cup semi-final and will know whether a trip to Cardiff is on. If it is then Villa will have a game on their hands as the Reds players stake a claim for a cup final place. If things have also gone Liverpool’s way in the league and United have only managed a point from those two difficult games, with the Reds picking up six from their two games, then Liverpool would be in second, two points above United. Trouble is, Liverpool would have played one more game than United by then.

United’s extra game comes on May Day against Middlesborough. Steve McClaren’s team are pretty unpredictable, and McLaren will be relishing playing against his old boss, possibly for the last time if he does get that England job. Another draw in that game would see the table on the final day of the season with Liverpool on 79 in second and United on 78 in third. Then it all goes down to those final games. Charlton visit Old Trafford, where another England candidate will be trying to show his credentials off. Liverpool travel south to one of their bogey teams, Portsmouth. With Pompey still trying to stave off relegation and Harry Redknapp trying to avoid making it two seasons in a row that he’s sent a team down, Liverpool will have the toughest game of what they have left. It would be a dream for Sky Television if it went down to the wire, but a nightmare for the coronary departments of the hospitals in the North West.

So Liverpool have got a chance of that second place. If they could then follow that with an FA Cup final win (assuming they can get past Chelsea in the semis first) then it will bring to an end in style a season that started way back in July when the Reds played in the first qualifying round of the Champions League. It would also mean they needn’t worry about any qualifying rounds for the Champions League next season.

Remaining fixtures:
Mon 17 Apr, Tottenham v Man Utd, 12:45
Wed 26 Apr, West Ham v Liverpool, 19:45
Sat 29 Apr, Chelsea v Man Utd, 12:30 and Liverpool v Aston Villa, 15:00
Mon 01 May, Man Utd v Middlesbrough, 20:00
Sun 07 May, Man Utd v Charlton, 15:00 and Portsmouth v Liverpool, 15:00