This Could Be Our Year

I'm with my sister's Fujitsu laptop now, and we're out in the living room. The Olympic highlights are playing out on Channel 5 right now. I don't like Jade Seah, she doesn't look like a nice woman. Crap, Nadal's playing Djokovic in the men's tennis semi-final right now, but I can't watch it because I don't have the subscription to the Games channels on cable. =(

I can't concentrate with the tv set in front of me, you'd see that I'm writing in choppy, disjointed sentences.


So, it's the same old rhetoric that's coming out from the Liverpool camp pre-season, 08/09.

Now that we've gotten hold of Spurs' prized possession and charismatic talismanic captain, we've got the final piece of the title-winning jigsaw that we've been wanting to fit together since 1989. Or have we?

07/08, and all we needed it seemed was a prolific frontman. Enter a certain Fernando Torres, a 20 odd million quid signing slated to be the 20 goals/season striker we've never had since Mickey Owen.

El Nino was that, and more. 24 goals (in the league) from the Spanish hotshot later, we were... fourth in the Barclays Premier League come May (And it pains me to insert here that we only achieved Champions' League qualification fending away an Everton side that kept clawing at us through the season).

It's about time Liverpool got a winger, and not a left-sided/right-sided midfielder. Kewell was the last decent (decent, as in able to fight for a first-team place... when fit) left winger we had at the club, and that's just... miserable for the best team in the land. I rate Benayoun, but he certainly isn't heavyweight enough to start, he's best used as an impact substitute. But the fellow's a natural footballer. No, seriously. Babel on the left is rubbish, and Kuyt on the right is... incinerated rubbish. As much as Babel's claimed to be an unpolished diamond, I just don't see him as the next Henry. His first touch is woeful at times, control is mediocre. Much has been made about his speed, and he IS fast, but so's everyone else in the league. He's not blindingly fast like say, a certain Portugese from the Mancs. All he has I feel is his hammer shot which he hasn't quite used to great effect too. Oh yeah, and he looks intellectually challenged. Maybe he just lacks confidence, he could be great in training and all, which is why Rafa's still sticking with him. But Babel on the left is certainly not a long-term solution, and the fella himself wants to play upfront too ala Henry, so there's the problem. He doesn't relish the position. Kuyt is... a filial son, and an average footballer. And there's Pennant too, but he's not the winger we're looking for if we're to mount a sustained title challenge against the likes of the Mans and the Chelskis. Sebastian Leto's been denied his work permit, but who cares really.

Unfortunately, we're short on cash this year. So besides Keane, Rafa's looking for a left-sided player who can play in the centre as well. And that about spells G-A-R-E-T-H B-A-R-R-Y. Well yeah, I mean the Villan's good-looking and all, but 18 million quid? As sweet as his left foot is, no way we're gonna spend that amount of money on an above-average player like Barry. There had been talks of the likes of David Silva being drafted in, but they've all but evaporated (Silva, anyway, looks a fair bit too willowy to play in a man's league like the BPL. He'll make fine Spanish cuisine for any full-blooded fullback!).

Looking at the squad we've got right now, I'd rule out a title challenge in 08/09 much as it gnaws at me to state this. It looks like the Mancs will be sharing the mantle of being the best English team with us when next May comes around, especially with the imminent capture of Berby. Now that's tragic. What could be worse?

Being retained.


This could be our year.

While it's not going to be LFC's where the BPL is concerned, it's the year where China has announced her arrival on the world stage with Beijing '08, Singapore has broken her 48 year medal-less duck, numerous RJC sports teams have clinched championships and Nadal has wrested the No.1 spot with unrelenting top-spin forehands biting into the dirt of Roland Garros. Sporting achievements aside, it's the year 09A01A have come together, friendships have been forged, last minute cramming has been done. School aside, it's the year I've looked at life from various perspectives, cherish my family even more than ever, treasure my friends at church.


2008 could be our year. All of the one-third of it that's left!