Shadow Puppets

Haven’t posted since the game… wanted to collect my thoughts into something relatively coherent. I was there with my 10 year-old lad and a couple of friends, and my wife and 7 year-old daughter had tickets with their friends a few blocks across. All week leading up to the game I had pretty much no confidence. All I wanted to see was commitment, and win or lose, to have no regrets. But I only gave us maybe a 10% chance. So I was relatively emotionless. Add into that, a bunch of my Liverpool supporting mates were saying how little the League Cup meant to them, and couldn’t quite grasp why it would mean much to me / NUFC fans, which had a dampening effect on the build up. But walking into the ground, taking in the atmosphere as it built, something changed. Watching our fans rise to the occasion pre-match… and then watching the first 10 minutes unfold… I turned to one of my mates and said “we’re going to do this”. It just felt like the players were never going to allow Liverpool to win. And after that… it was just a stream of incredible memories made between me and my lad and friends, and wife and daughter. Dan Burn 1-0… the crowd went absolutely wild, I looked down at my boy and he was crying full blown tears of joy… I picked him up, hugged him with all my heart, and from that point onwards I was an emotional wreck. I was getting texts from my little girl a few blocks along, beaming with joy. Isak 2-0… Tears, singing, hugging strangers, more exited 7-year old texts… 2-1… absolutely shitting it… and then… The final whistle… I didn’t hear it… I just saw players, wearing our shirts, do “that” run… the run I’ve never seen our players do before… the “winners” run… Me and my lad and mates burst into tears, grabbed each other and clinged on as the stadium erupted… catching only tiny glimpses of the scenes on the pitch. In that moment, my 40 years of hurt vanished, and all that was left was pure joy… pure pride… pure love… … And a lifetime of memories with my kids, wife and friends. That’s what it meant!

I absolutely adore the bloke like, limited in his ability or not… him and Dan Burn are the two I want to succeed the most.

You what? He’s comfortably been in our top 3-4 players of the season… Isak, Tonali, Hall and Burn.

Take it with a pinch of salt, but I was speaking to one of the players yesterday, and they think it's going to be 10-12 years before a new stadium is complete.

🤷‍♂️ I’ve asked He definitely has an injury to his other knee like… that much is true. But I was told on Sunday that they expected him to play vs Brighton (or be involved) and it was a relatively last minute decision for him not to be because he didn’t quite feel his best.

He wasn’t match fit for Spurs and Arsenal away but did alright there 🤷‍♂️

Been nowhere near as bad as this forum is making out like.

I believe there was a small allocation set aside for corporate clients, and that’s all.

Home strip could be controversial this year. Third strip is the best. Inspired by a classic but not a literal remake (not like this year). Just same / similar colour scheme as a 90s kit, with trefoil 👍🏻 Away kit is super boring.

Without wanting to rain on your parade, last I heard there was basically no hospitality left.

Add into that the fact that you have to buy the box (that you already have the yearly contract for) for every cup game separately (minimum of £3500 per game depending on box size), under the proviso that buying the box for cup games will secure you tickets to the final / semi finals at Wembley should we get there... then yeah... I can absolutely see why they'd be pissed off.

It's not as simple as that, actually. The tickets have been dished out on a "per contract" basis. Some local companies/families have multiple boxes / hospitality tickets... I can think of one off the top of my head who has a 22 seater box + 16 seater + 8 other seats in hospitality elsewhere, and they've been given an allocation of 4 tickets in total for Wembley as it's under one contract. Which is fucking stupid to be honest. There's a lot of genuine, long term, loyal fans in amongst that who will miss out. I've said it before and I'll say it again, as many of you know I work for a company and manage one of the boxes at St James, and the company I manage it for are just a family for the most part... a family who had season tickets for the best part of 30 years before their company became successful enough to move over to a box. A 12 seater box, 8 seats of which are filled every week by previous long term season ticket holders who gave up their seats to move into a box after becoming more successful... why wouldn't they deserve tickets to Wembley? I would hazard a guess that the comfortable majority of boxes are taken up by people in similar situations. The real crime amongst all of that is that the allocation that hospitality clients should have isn't going back to the general fanbase... but is instead going to sponsors... Adidas, SportsBet, Sela etc... as if they need them.

😜

Seat Unique have it listed as a 16:30 kick off.

Agreed it seems like an odd choice. In my opinion, if you're going to take allocation away from seasonal hospitality clients (who are, in the vast majority, proper NUFC fans who just happen to have a bit more money / a business), that allocation should be going to the general match going public. What's the benefit at all of giving a load (over half) to sponsors?