OzzieMandias

Possibly top 5 in terms of global support? Man Utd, Chelsea, Real and Barca perhaps more popular. That's just an educated guess though, it's hard to measure like. Yeah, that's probably right, though I'm not sure about Chelsea, who are a fairly recent arrival and haven't yet won the CL. The big Italian teams are pretty popular too; I've seen a lot of Juve shirts on my travels (though maybe I just notice them because they're black and white). In Morocco, which is the only country I know well where people don't care that much about their national league (only Raja Casablanca have a big local support), most people seem to be Real or Barca fans.

Liverpool have loads of fans abroad. One of my best friends in Morocco is a Liverpool fan, and has been since he was a kid and saw them winning the European Cup on TV. There are people like him all over the fucking world, and only a handful of other clubs have that kind of global popularity. Liverpool getting relegated would unarguably reduce the popularity of the Premier League. Not that I think it's a reason it shouldn't happen, like.

£256 for a season ticket!

Sadly an example of someone who was never again the same player. OK, he reinvented his game afterwards, but it took him a couple of seasons. Pretty sure that injury was worse then Ben Arfa's. Didn't Shearer also tear his ankle ligaments? Cliche time - but Shearer was a bit different. He was mentally as strong as anyone who ever played the game imo. I don't know how strong HBA is mentally but he is still a kid and if you get taken out like he was by a hitman like DeJong its not going to be an easy process to get your confidence back even if you make a full physical recovery. I agree re Shearer's mental strength, but HBA hasn't exactly struck me as lacking in confidence.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mouthbreather

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/miss-match-of-the-day/ Mouthbreathing? It's like saying "slack-jawed" – ie stupid.

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/miss-match-of-the-day/

What's your father ever done for Liverpool ? He wrote the song Ferry across the Mersey. Really? I bet he hated the Frankie Goes to Hollywood version. As FGTH put it not only on a hit album but also on the b-side of a single that was number one for several weeks, Gerry Marsden, the man collecting the publishing royalties, was undoubtedly very happy about the Frankie version. Frankie, of course, just like the Beatles, moved straight out of Liverpool as soon as they were successful.

Liverpool sale may collapse if nine points are deducted http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/oct/09/liverpool-john-w-henry

Sadly an example of someone who was never again the same player. OK, he reinvented his game afterwards, but it took him a couple of seasons.

They do have this weird thing, scousers, that the world owes them something simply because they're scousers. Like that bit about the Beatles at the beginning of that YouTube cringe-fest. I remember the scouse screenwriter Frank Clarke (Margi Clarke's brother) phoning a Newcastle friend of mine some years ago to try to persuade him to work on his latest project. In the course of the conversation, Clarke was ranting on about this person or that person. "What has he ever done for Liverpool?" he apparently kept asking. As my friend remarked when he reported all this to me, "Can you imagine us saying, 'What has he ever done for Newcastle?'"

I wonder if they'll change their banner now. "Built by Shanks, broken by Yanks, bought by more Yanks."

I don't normally like James Lawton, but... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-de-jong-has-crossed-the-line-this-time-ndash-the-fa-must-now-kick-danger-men-off-the-park-2097669.html

NSFW I thought that was going to be an "it is a fact that" joke.

Never mind Christmas, Hodgson will be gone before the end of October if they lose at Everton. Then it'll be the Second Coming of Kenny Dalglish, which hopefully will be another kind of disaster.

I browse to OM forums a few times a week (it's unreadable in French or English. Messy place) and the attachment some fans have to HBA is frankly disturbing. They actually physically and emotionally love him. Marseille had a massive match at the weekend, and the biggest topic of discussion is hatred for a random player on Man City. They "physically" love him?

No he hasn't but if you think we are going to sign players of this ability every week you are living in cloud cuckoo land. IIRC it was you who was in tears when Keggy Keegan walked out. Ironically he left because he wasn't going to be able to sign players like Ben Arfa who make a season ticket worth paying for. Aye, and instead got work as a pundit making light of career-threatening tackles by players at one of his other former clubs.

Every club/team, to a certain extent, has a siege mentality. It's always "us and them".

The absolute best-case scenario won't see him back until, like, March. We'll have to pay his wages but obviously there's now no way he'll play 25 games and trigger the buy-for-£5 million (or whatever) clause. He could still end up staying, if he comes back from this well and Marseille offer us a few quid off. But it'll basically be for next season.

Sky blue twats. I wonder how many barrels of Abu Dhabi crude it cost to buy the referee. No shame in that defeat. We should have had it 2-1.

Feeling quite proud of the lads after that. We get one of our players' legs broken, go one down from a penalty that should never have been, yet pull it all together, dominate possession for most of the rest of the half, and score a beaut of an equaliser. They're all putting in a good shift, but Jonas has been outstanding.

You would need to supply a lot more examples than that to justify that conclusion. Are you old enough to remember the fiasco of some of the decisions affecting S.Korea in 2002 ? I am sure the Spaniards & Italians would have great pleasure in reminding you... Then we have Blatter's pig-headed insistence that Video technology cannot be used in the WC despite both Tennis and Rugby using it.. The match-fixing scandals of Germany and Italy, the latter getting Juve relegated by the Italian FA... You probably aren't old enough to remember Trelford Mills, ref at our FA Cup game back in 83....denied us 2 clear-cut pens... Etc., Etc...... Is that enough for you ? As a case that "international football is based on cheating" it is, frankly, laughable.