Liverpool must be ‘brave’ and avoid Rashford mistake as Salah ‘cannot be trusted’

Jamie Carragher is right. Mo Salah ‘cannot be trusted’ with a three-year deal and this past week has given Liverpool all the negotiating power again.

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Winningest teams?
Perhaps the phrase Paul McDevitt is looking for is ‘most successful’ rather than ‘most winningest’.

Also, just to point out that Manchester United (presuming it is who he is referring to) do not have a monopoly on the suffix ‘United’ just as Manchester City do not have any claim to ‘City’ and so on. It’s presumptive and ignorant.
A, LFC, Montreal

The birds and the Bees
I’ve heard/read in many places (including in the mood rankings on here) bewilderment at Brentford’s weird ‘all the points at home in the first half of the season, and now all the points away in the second half’. This site commented ‘We’re plebs and don’t really understand what wider point Brentford are trying to make with this season-long masterpiece, but we know deep down it is something very profound that speaks to the sheer futility of the human condition and the cruel indifference of the natural world’.

Here are their first 8 home games; Crystal Palace, Southampton, West Ham, Wolves, Ipswich, Bournemouth, Leicester, and Newcastle. (They started with Liverpool, Man City, Spurs, Man Utd away…). It’s almost like in the second half of the season those fixtures have been reversed, and Brentford are very good against teams similar to or worse than them, and not so good against teams a bit better than them.

Next up from me; who shot JFK?!
Gary AVFC, Oxford

Would you rather?
…”So again I ask, would Arsenal fans trade their last 4 trophyless years, for 1 FA & 1 Carling cup”

And again, my mind doesn’t change. If you’re asking me if I would swap Arsenal’s last 4 years for United’s, then there’s no chance. United are an absolute mess. They’re the biggest failure in football history in terms of money spent over the last decade.

I keep having to point this out to you but here we go again. We won the FA Cup twice while finishing 5th and 8th. It was not enjoyable. I would’ve still been fairly miserable last season if I were a United fan after winning the FA Cup because I would be smart enough to know how sh*t we would be next season. I forgot though United fans are not like this. They are delusional and thought they would improve. I remember they had an amazing record this season like one win in 10 games and they kept talking about how Amorim has changed them haha. Plucky underdogs, just keep spending stupid money and you’ll manage to come 17th.
Dion

Carragher is right
Liverpool should be worried about giving hefty 3 year contracts to two  34 year olds who failed to cut it against the best in the world.

Salah can not be trusted with a 3 year contract if they want to win the Champions league.

The only reason for keeping him is to fight for PSL again. He is still good but the only way is downhill from here. Imagine in 3 years time Liverpool playing Barcelona or PSG again with Salah in the team. He will definitely be a passenger again. Right now he is even low on confidence because even Newcastle managed to shut him out.

Next season teams will be better and he won’t be able to put up the  numbers he has managed this year.

It is a catch 22 situation of cause but everything is worth a rethink now after the team choked in the 2 cups.

Maybe investing in proper players now and letting one of Salah or Virgil stay is the best option. Of which i feel Virgil is harder to replace and his leadership qualities are very important.

I’d also argue a Liverpool striker whether it’s Darwin or a newcomer cannot put up big numbers as long as Salah remains in the team. Same reason why our midfielders struggle with assists and goals as well.

Fortune favours the brave. The decision has to be made and it is the best time now for Liverpool because contract negotiations are a matter of timing and momentum.

Salah had momentum all along but now it has swung back to the club.

Rashford was lucky with his season of 30+ goals and he renewed, if it wasn’t for that he’d probably be earning a £100k less. Unfortunately Man U blinked first and they lost the game.
Labson, Plk, Zw

READ MORE: Carragher reveals his Salah, Van Dijk contract ‘worry’ in ‘sign of things to come’ for Liverpool

Is there anything right with the Nations League?
Call me old – fashioned, but in my mind, the point of competitive sport is that teams that are good at sport should get rewarded more handsomely than teams that aren’t as good.I’m sure most fans know, but for those who don’t, the Nations League rankings for World Cup play-off spots automatically puts the 16 group winners in the top 16 spots. Group winners from every level – be they high or low.

That means San Marino, who triumphed in League D1, ahead of Gibraltar & Liechtenstein, are ranked than higher than Italy, who, humiliatingly, were beaten out to second by France in Group A2 – by goal difference.

What makes this farce even worse is that the knockout stages have no bearing on it- so Italy can win the Nations league and still get outranked by San Marino.

Teams ranked 5-16 are just skipped over-  as are teams ranked 21-32 & 37-48. Just ignored.

This is a)rewarding teams for not being good, and b) incentivising relegation.

This anti-meritocracy policy has been around since the Nations League began, with the lower leagues allowed their own path to the Euros in both 2021 & 2024.

I’ve nothing against minnows having their day in the sun, but this system is horrendously unfair to every team bar the one lucky one or two that benefit.

Why on earth should teams who aren’t as good qualify ahead of teams that are better??

This is a far from the Nation’s League only sin- changing up the rules every time, confusing the hell out of everybody, having two leg knockouts,having a 3rd/4th play off & generally being much more of a nuisance than it’s worth.

I’m looking forward to the next installment, which no doubt will introduce a 3rd leg for the knockouts & relegation play-offs, with the neutral third legs all taking simultaneously in Riyadh- halftime show presented by Mastercard.

There has to be a better system out there- cos there just can’t be a worse one.
Bryan

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More peeves
Following on from my email yesterday, and also partly due to finishing Yellowstone and there being no football I care to watch on the TV this week, my miserable old brain got me back to my current list of peeves with football last night so thought I’d share a few more;

1. Squad numbers.
Not so much your Quansah 87’s or Foden 47’s, but players who pick a first 11 number when it’s clearly not even close to their position. Remember William Gallas in the Arsenal 10? And that Wolves goalie (his name escapes me and my Google is broken) who was allowed to wear 11 a couple of seasons ago? No, just no. Stop it. Oh, and while I’m here, full backs wearing the opposite number, i.e. RB in 3 and LB in 2. It’s wrong and it needs to be stopped (I can just about accept 4 at CB and 6 at CDM, but we all know it should be the other way round).

2. Club statements when a manager is sacked.
If I have to read another “The club would like to thank Joe Bloggs for his efforts, blah blah blah” press release, I fear I could be pushed over the edge and into something ridiculous like veganism, or going to the gym. Now I’m not saying clubs should be cruel and refer to said departing individual as “every useless c*** under the sun” or similar (although if any club press officers are reading this, go on, I dare you), but surely the club individuals responsible for these announcements could find a little bit of individuality, rather than just trotting out the same old b*llocks again and again.

3. TV pundits wearing black trainers with white souls.
They literally all wear them don’t they, but why? I can only think TNT/Sky etc issue you a pair on your first day in the gig.

4. Micah Richards and those f**king nauseating We Buy Any Car adverts.
I know it rhymes with We Buy Any Car, but no football crowd ANYWHERE EVER has chanted “you’re offside by far” at a game. And while I’m on Micah, can anyone confirm how he managed to keep his hair so immaculately trimmed during lock down when the rest of us ended up looking like Frank Gallagher from Shameless? It’s almost like he decided because he’s rich and famous, the rules for us little people didn’t apply to him.
Andy FTM (genuinely not bothered about what it says on Tommy T’s passport because I’m a grown up. But Jordan f*ckin Henderson? Really? Conor Gallagher must be crying into his paella)