Capital One Cup Night. Liverpool playing Middlesborough. Sad predicament they are in. After having twice gone into the lead, they allow the visitors to equalize, the second in the last minute of extra time. Kolo Toure gave away a penalty after slack passing from Sterling. Poor attitude from Liverpool.
Penalties now...Supermario scores. Mignolet saves! Lucas now - he scores! Clayton scores for Midsboro. Now Lallana, and he puts it in. 3-2 now. Suso, can he add to his goal? Yes! If Mignolet saves this Livepool win. No he can't. So it's up to Raheem. Oh no! He misses. So, back to Simon. The equalizer.
It's sudden death. Jordan Williams scores for Pool. And Friend makes it 5-5. Up steps Kolo Toure. I don't like this.. he does well. Mignolet's turn to be the hero. Ayala saves Midsboro. Sakho - does his job! Midsboro equalize. Down to Manquillo - glorious chip! Still they live. Enriquez! No 9 for Midsboro. Goalkeepers - Simon yey! And we go around again! Never seen this before! Mario does it again. Equalizer. Lucas yeay! No 13 kick and it goes in. Adam scores. 13-12 now. 13-13. Suso up again. Midsboro miss!! The mother of all penalty sessions is won by Liverpool!!
R

Racism, John Barnes Says It As It Is

This is a powerful article by John Barnes on the state of racism in the UK and elsewhere. the background to this article is that Manchester City's Yaya Touré was subjected to racial abuse by CSKA Moscow fans during a Champion's League tie a fortnight prior. There was the usual attendant fall out and say so from all those people who felt it was imperative for them to be involved. Among all the noise, I think John Barnes says something very valid, something others are afraid to voice. Only a person like him, one with the prerequisites, can get away saying this. Well, done John!

I'm not interested in what happened to Yaya Touré at CSKA Moscow – as far as I'm concerned their supporters can abuse who they want because, for me, what happened in Russia is the tip of a wider issue and, quite frankly, something of a smokescreen. For instance, how many black coaches are there in this country? Very few, yet all we're focusing on is CSKA Moscow, and the more we push for clubs like them to get banned or have their stadiums shut down the more we don't need to look at what is going on here.

The truth is that those at the top of British football do not care about getting rid of racism, they just don't want to hear it or see it. As soon as someone like Touré or Danny Rose gets abused in Eastern Europe there is shock and outrage from players, clubs and the authorities, yet no one is speaking about the people living in inner cities like Brixton who, because of their appearance and their background, have become completely disenfranchised from society. Why don't they care? Because the powers-that-be have enough wealth to not worry about these people.

Black players, in particular, should be tackling these issues because ultimately it will affect them when they retire. There are so many intelligent former black players, guys like Luther Blissett and Cyrille Regis, who never got a chance to become a top manager or a top coach because of the perception that surrounds people who look like them. They are black – which, for many, means they are good athletes but incapable of being anything above and beyond that.

To a large extent this is down to unconscious racism and probably 99% of us are guilty of that – I know I am. We all have preconceptions of people based on what we have been told about them and their race and ethnicity.

I still come across managers of a certain generation, those in their fifties and older, who say to me: "I don't see you as black", and think that is a compliment. So what, I don't walk around with my jeans down by my arse, smoking a spliff, so that means I'm not black? These are the attitudes we need to change if black people as a whole are going to progress, and the only way we can achieve that is through education.

This is what footballers have to do – they cannot directly affect society but what they can do is use their standing in this country to make a wider audience aware of the wider issues surrounding race and stress the importance of understanding that what they have been told about a certain group of people is, in the main, wrong.

That, for instance, the best occupations black people can aspire to is being a footballer, or a runner, or a singer. People look at Barack Obama and say: "See, black people can be President" – no they can't. Any black person who has been successful, particularly Obama, has been lifted out of blackness and stands as the exception.

We need to talk openly about perceptions and not be afraid of the fact that we all have different views about different people based on how they look. There is nothing racist about an open, honest dialogue and it is certainly more productive then pointing the finger at the CSKA Moscow fans, or at Luis Suárez or John Terry, and demanding they are punished.

Personally, I don't blame Suárez or Terry for what they did – they are simply products of a society and environment that allows them to think it is OK to speak about certain people in a certain way. It would be far better if instead of banning them and demonising them, the Football Association aimed to educate them and make them see that black people are undeserving of racial abuse.

The truth is that Anton Ferdinand has more in common with Terry than he does with someone from Africa. They're wealthy guys from western culture who both drive Bentleys, both drink champagne and both listen to Tinie Tempah, yet Ferdinand is told he is different, that he is part of a race open to insults? That is ridiculous and, again, is the product of historically incorrect preconceptions.

Racism is never personal – it's about someone saying the group I am part of is superior to the group you are part of. How, for instance, can a handsome, talented, beautiful black footballer be personally affected by a fat, ugly, unemployed fan calling them a black this or a black that? I used to get that when I was playing and I used to just look at the people doing it and think: 'You're abusing me? Look at you, how can you even dare abuse me?!'

That is why it is pointless, and pretty ridiculous, to be worrying about a footballer getting racially abused – in no way are they the biggest sufferers, and, quite frankly, if I was someone like Touré or Rose I'd feel embarrassed if I had to look at someone who was suffering genuine racism and take their sympathy. A millionaire getting booed in Russia is nothing compared with generations of people never getting the chance to better their lives and those of their children.

Physically we are different – east Africans, for instance, are genetically inclined to run long distances in shorter spaces of time – but intellectually and morally we all have the potential to be the same. That is the type of equality I am interested in and is the message I give when speaking at universities and other public forums. And that is what more people involved in football, black players in particular should be doing. Because unless you get rid of racism in society, you can never get rid of it in football and as things stand there will always be these one-off moments when a player is abused or booed purely because of the colour of their skin.

Everyone goes into shock because they thought racism had disappeared from the game but how can it have done when it continues to exist in every other part of society at a more deep-seated, depressing level? Just because someone keeps their mouth shut for 90 minutes doesn't mean that for the rest of the week he isn't a racist, or hold unconsciously racist views, and until that is addressed, there will always be a problem.

Tackling racism is a long and complicated process but one thing's for sure; it cannot be solved by banning a player or closing part of a stadium. The problem is wider than that and if football really cared those involved in the game, players in particular, would worry less about one-off incidents like what happened to Touré when he played for Manchester City in Moscow and more about what is going on around them. Perceptions need to change and for that to happen, education needs to be pushed as the only way forward.

'Racist abuse of Yaya Touré is a smokescreen, real problem is at home. A millionaire getting booed in Moscow is nothing compared with people at home never getting the chance to better their lives'. John Barnes

John Barnes has donated his fee for this column to charity

The Guardian, Monday 4 November 2013 21.18 GMT. All rights reserved.

Stacking Deckchairs

Ray Clemence retires after 47 years in a game he graced as a world-renowned goalkeeper and top-class coach - Telegraph
The earliest impression I had of Ray Clemence was this photo, which I'm still trying to locate, of him stacking deck chairs by the seaside. This was during his time at Scunthorpe United, making ends meet. How everything changed when Bill Shankly brought him over in 1967.

Ray Clemence unwell

Ray Clemence in remission from cancer - Liverpool Echo
I wasn't aware Ray had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, so it was a shock to find out of the recurrence. Sounds like Stage 4 with metastasis to the spine. So sad. One of the original good guys, I only wish I can meet him soon. Get well Ray.

Joe Fagan, Anfield Legend

Joe Fagan, along with Bob Paisley, was one of the most unassuming and least understood figures in football. Uncle Joe has also never been given full credit for his achievements. This article tries to correct  all those misunderstandings, and at the same time trying to educate the later generations of Reds on the this particular bedrock of Anfield legend.

On Second Thoughts: Joe Fagan

The one-time Liverpool manager deserves more acclaim having won three major honours in his first season in charge of the club.

Joe Fagan remains the last English manager to have won the European Cup, landing the trophy with Liverpool in 1984. Photograph: Popperfoto.com

In a week when the Champions League group stages kicked off again amid a backdrop of reprisals and recriminations regarding the state of the national game – initiated by Greg Dyke's call to arms and hardened by England's recent dour draw in Kiev – it feels appropriate to pose this teaser: Who was the last English manager to win the European Cup? Answer: Joe Fagan. Cue, one suspects, a raising of eyebrows by some and a shrugging of shoulders by others.

It is a curiosity of this country's footballing back story that Fagan, who managed Liverpool between 1983-1985, remains such an unheralded figure. Rarely, if ever, spoken of as one of the greats and practically unheard of by many supporters under the age of 30. This, after all, is a man who 15 years before Sir Alex Ferguson's greatest moment became the first British manager in English football to win three major honours in one season – the old First Division title, the Milk Cup and the European Cup. Even more remarkably, the triumph occurred in Fagan's debut season in charge at Anfield, and with "old big ears" captured against Roma in Rome. "Football, bloody hell" as somebody once said.

The 1983-84 season can justifiably be judged to be the finest in Liverpool's history, yet even at the club itself there is minimum recognition of the man who led the glory charge. No statue, no gate, not even a plaque in Fagan's name. In fairness, there are tributes to his achievements at the club's museum, as well as a Joe Fagan meeting room at Liverpool's offices in Chapel Street, and having found himself sandwiched between Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley on one side and Kenny Dalglish on the other in Liverpool's roll-call of managers, it is perhaps not a great surprise that Fagan's achievements are not more obviously celebrated at Anfield, especially given the brief nature of his reign.

At practically any other club Fagan would continue to be hailed as a king among princes but on Merseyside he is generally remembered with fondness rather than pulsating adoration. Fagan probably would have preferred it that way given his modest, humble nature, with his only major regret most likely being the nature of his departure from the Anfield hotseat – the end coming amid the tragedy and cruelty of the Heysel Stadium disaster. "He lived with it all his life," said Andrew Fagan, Joe's grandson and co-author of Joe Fagan: Reluctant Champion. "He had served in the Royal Navy during the war, he understood what was a game and what was not. From what I am told he never really talked about it at home, he simply carried it with him."

If the end was bleak then the rest of Fagan's time at Liverpool was tinged with a golden hue. The born-and-bred Scouser joined the club as a coach on 30 June 1958 and, following Bill Shankly's arrival as manager 18 months later, was put in charge of the reserves. Having caught the eye of the Scot, Fagan was made first-team coach in July 1971 and following Shankly's shock resignation three years later, became Bob Paisley's assistant.

Paisley's spell in charge was glorious – he led Liverpool to 14 major honours in nine seasons – and it only enhanced Fagan's reputation as a coach and potential successor despite his only previous managerial experience coming with non-league Nelson in the early-1950s. "To Kopites, Fagan's appointment [as manager] felt like an obvious promotion after the successful in-house succession from Shankly to Paisley," says writer and long-time Anfield season-ticket holder Mike Nevin. "In Papal terms, white smoke from the chimneys on the roofs of Back Rockfield Road filled the Anfield skies in no time once Paisley's decision to retire was known."

Bob Paisley, left and Joe Fagan on the bench at Anfield. Photograph: Pa/PA Archive/PA Photos

But as the title of the book Andrew Fagan wrote alongside author and LFC TV senior producer Mark Platt suggests, Joe Fagan did not himself deem his elevation from assistant to manager as an obvious step. "He was very reluctant to take the job," says Platt. "Joe's feeling was that he was so ingrained in the club's rise to champions of Europe that he was almost duty-bound to take the job, especially as he was next in line to the throne. He also felt that if an outsider came in there was a strong chance he'd destroy the bootroom ethos that was behind Liverpool's success. Joe pretty much told Roy Evans, Ronnie Moran and the rest of the staff that he took the manager's job so they would keep theirs.

"The club's long-term plan was to give the manager's job to one of the senior players – Phil Neal and Kenny Dalglish were both in the frame – but they still had much to offer as players so Joe was seen as a more than worthy short-term appointment. And given he was 62 when he took the job, just two years younger than Paisley, that was all it was ever going to be, short term."

It it no surprise Fagan was so protective of Liverpool's bootroom given he essentially founded the fabled inner sanctuary. It was he, after all, who took delivery of the crates of Guinness given as a thank you from the brewery's team, which Fagan sometimes coached. With no obvious place to put the gifts Fagan ended up storing them in the same room as the boots which, holding a consistent and increasing supply of alcohol, became an obvious place for the backroom staff to gather, relax and share their thoughts.

Fagan officially became Liverpool manager on 1 July 1983 and soon two contradictory charges were thrown at him – that he was too soft to be the manager of a team that had to compete for major honours having won three of the last four league championships and three of the last seven European Cups, and that he was bound to succeed given the strength of the side Paisley had left him. Put another way, Fagan could not win or lose.

The soft-touch charge in particular was a myth. The laconic Fagan was anything but, with a host of players and coaches who worked with "Uncle Joe" testifying to his steely, no-nonsense attitude. Neal, who Fagan made Liverpool captain following Graeme Souness's departure to Sampdoria in the summer of 1984, tells a story of how the then assistant manager took it upon himself to hold the players to account after they found themselves 12th in the First Division following a 3-1 home defeat to Manchester City on Boxing Day 1981 . "One morning we came into training and Joe Fagan said to Bob Paisley: 'Boss, you go down to Melwood. I'm going to have the lads,'" remembers Neal.

"Joe sat us all down and had a go at every single player, to Souness, to Dalglish, to me. He said: 'We've had more meetings in the last month at this club than I've had in 17 years. [Alan] Hansen, start heading the ball, Souness, you haven't won a tackle, Dalglish, you should have twice as many goals by now'. Joe was such a strong man that no one would doubt what he was saying. His finishing words were: 'I've said my piece. You're all playing like individuals, start playing as a team. I'm not having another meeting from now 'till the end of the season'. We went on to win the league."

Souness also remembers Fagan as a man who could get his message across "with a single look", a device he may well have used when telling Dalglish in October 1984 that he had been dropped for the upcoming league visit to Tottenham, a close-to-unthinkable decision at the time and one that stunned John Smith and Peter Robinson, the club's chairman and chief executive, when they heard the news upon landing in London for the game having been in Germany securing a new kit deal with Adidas. Liverpool lost 1-0 and Fagan admitted afterwards that he had made a mistake in dropping Dalglish, yet his reason for doing so was sound. The Scot had lost some of the spark that made him the key creative cog of a winning machine and, as Fagan saw it, when Dalglish played badly so did Liverpool.

Kenny Dalglish vies for possession with Bryan Robson during Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United in April 1985. The match came near the end of a difficult season for the Scot. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Bob Thomas/Getty Images

This touches on the other charge laid against Fagan – that success as manager was inevitable given Liverpool's strength at the time. There is no doubt he was taking over an awesome side, but therein also lay a problem. "Liverpool were so far in front of everyone else, domestically at least, that complacency had begun to set in," says Platt. "They won the title in '83 at a canter and, if anything, it had been too easy. The team failed to win any of their last seven games, losing five, and it was obvious that the players had taken their foot of the pedal. The danger was this attitude carried into the following season, and so Joe's main task was to remotivate the squad and stop them thinking winning was easy."

It helped Fagan that the squad he inherited from Paisley was not only talented but also fully accepting of his rise from No2 to No1, no one more so than the captain. "Souey was a big fan of Joe's," recalls Mark Lawrenson in Reluctant Champion. "That pre-season he called a meeting just for the players. He came in and said: 'Right, we think the world of this fella and this year we are absolutely determined to be successful for him.' To a man everyone said: 'Yep, you're right.'"

The squad of 1983-84 contained seven players – Neal, Hansen, Lawrenson, Alan Kennedy, Souness, Dalglish and Ian Rush – who would walk into many Kopites' "greatest Liverpool XI" and would have been strengthened to an even greater degree had Fagan been able to secure his key summer transfer targets: Charlie Nicholas of Celtic and Brondby's Michael Laudrup. For different reasons neither were signed, leaving Fagan instead to wrap up deals for the young Scottish defender Gary Gillespie from Coventry and the Brighton forward Michael Robinson. Gillespie did not feature until February, in a 2-2 draw with Walsall in the semi-finals of the Milk Cup, but Robinson was prominent straightaway, starting in the opening-day draw with Wolves as the manager opted for a three-man attack that also contained Dalglish and Rush.

It was a tactic Fagan turned to regularly during that season and contradicted the perception of him being an orthodox British coach and of the Liverpool team of that time being less than imaginative. Nevin describes them as "seldom fluent", while in a tribute to Fagan on the club's own website the side of 83-84 is deemed to have operated with "cool, calculating efficiency".

In fairness, the stats back up those assertions. In Fagan's first season, Liverpool won 22 league games, scoring 73 goals and conceding 32, which compares to 24 games won, 87 goals scored and 37 conceded in Paisley's final campaign in charge. In other words, they appeared to have become tighter at the back and less rampant up front. But it should be noted that under Fagan, Liverpool beat Luton and West Ham 6-0 and Notts County and Coventry 5-0 en route to winning their 15th league title and won every European away game prior to Rome, including a 4-1 victory over Benfica in Lisbon. The Milk Cup, meanwhile, was secured with a 1-0 win against Everton in a final that to be replayed at Maine Road after the initial tie at Wembley had ended goalless.

The European Cup final was, as Nevin puts it, "more absorbing than thrilling". Liverpool took the lead through Neal's 14th-minute strike before Roberto Pruzzo headed in an equaliser just before half-time. There were no more goals, leaving the visitors from Merseyside with the daunting prospect of having to beat Roma in a penalty shootout in front of a largely partisan crowd at the Stadio Olimpico. Here, though, came an opportunity for the manager to shape his own crowning moment.

"With exhausted, limp players preparing for a shootout, Fagan played his trump psychological card, explaining to his team that he didn't care if they prevailed on penalties or not after such an epic season-long effort," recollects Nevin. "The pressure removed, enter stage left Bruce Grobbelaar's jelly legs to cause Roman mental implosion."

With Grobbelaar having done his bit to put off the home side, Kennedy tucked away the decisive penalty to crown Liverpool kings of Europe for the fourth time since 1977. Fagan, in turn, joined Jock Stein, Matt Busby, Paisley, Brian Clough and Tony Barton as part of the select group of British managers to have landed club football's greatest prize.

Joe Fagan celebrates winning the 1984 European Cup with his Liverpool players. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Bob Thomas/Getty Images

Souness collected the trophy and it was to be his final act as a Liverpool player ahead of his departure to Sampdoria. Platt describes losing the Scot as a "massive blow" for Fagan, the man who was not only his captain but also the driving force of an all conquering side. The manager reacted by signing Jan Molby from Ajax, but the 21-year-old was a different player to Souness and not yet ready to become an influential member of the Liverpool side (that would come a season later when he inspired Dalglish's team to the league and FA Cup double). Soon realising this, Fagan then deployed Lawrenson in centre-midfield before also using Kevin MacDonald after he arrived from Leicester in November '84.

None of them, however, came close to filling the void left by Souness, and with Dalglish suffering a dip in form and Rush out injured until October, the 1984-85 campaign proved a gruelling affair for Liverpool. They found themselves 17th after a 1-0 home defeat to Everton on 20 October, and while Fagan's men were able eventually to string some wins together they could not maintain their grasp on the title and finished second to Howard Kendall's side. Liverpool also lost to another rival, Manchester United, in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Another European Cup final was reached, however, but this, prior to Hillsborough, was to be the darkest moment in the club's history. Rioting by Liverpool supporters in Brussels led to the death of 39 Italian and Belgian fans and a subsequent five-year ban from European football for all English clubs. Juventus's victory was something of an afterthought, especially for Fagan who had told his players before the game that, afterwards, they could call him Joe instead of boss having taken the decision some months earlier to retire. He returned from Belgium a broken man, seen crying on the shoulder of Evans as he stepped off the plane and barely able to comprehend what he had witnessed the previous evening.

The aftermath of crowd rioting at Heysel in 1985 which left 39 Italian and Belgium fans dead. Photograph: David Cannon/Getty Images

It was an awful way for Fagan's spell as Liverpool manager to end and it is further credit to the then 64-year-old that he took it upon himself to speak for the club at a memorial service at Liverpool's Catholic cathedral. "We pray for the families and friends who have suffered through bereavement," he told the congregation. "We pray that the sporting spirit, so treasured on Merseyside, may never be lost to violence or bitterness."

The address characterised Fagan's warmth as a man, a quality Liverpool's all-time record-appearance holder Ian Callaghan saw from the time they first worked together at reserve level.

"Joe was a lovely man, someone who was always around to give you advice and help in any he could," says Callaghan. "I remember once, we were at the Daresbury hotel, where we always stayed before a home game, and I was injured and needed to get to Anfield for some treatment if I was to stand any chance of playing that afternoon. Nobody was around to take me so Joe said he would. We got in his car and, on the way, he asked if I was hungry and wanted to eat something before my treatment. I said I wouldn't mind so he drove me to his house where his wife Lil made me scrambled eggs. That was typical not just of Joe but of his entire family – they were lovely, down-to-earth people."

Joe, Lil and their six children lived in a semi-detached house in Lynholme Road, a short walk from Anfield, and it was where they remained even after Fagan, upon becoming Liverpool manager, was offered a larger place by the club in Southport, Formby and the Wirral. The property became Fagan's sanctuary after retirement, offering him a quiet, family-orientated existence which suited him perfectly. Eventually he became a source of advice and encouragement to Evans after he took the manager's job in the mid-1990s and who looked upon Fagan as a mentor, describing him in later years as the "glue that held everything together" during Liverpool's golden era.

Fagan died following a battle with cancer on 30 June 2001, aged 80. It was perhaps apt given how his managerial achievements were overshadowed by those of Shankly and Paisley that his passing should occur in the same week as the Liverpool legend Billy Liddell and his fellow bootroom disciple Tom Saunders. Once again Fagan did not have the spotlight to himself but the fact that hundreds of Everton as well as Liverpool fans lined the streets as his funeral procession made its way to Anfield Crematorium showed Fagan had left his mark on the city of his birth.

"When you look at the all-time greats of Liverpool, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, you have to have Joe up there," said Hansen shortly after Fagan's death, while Dalglish described his contribution to the club as "immense".

From Souness, who attributes much of his success as a player to Fagan, came perhaps the greatest tribute. "Joe was Mr Liverpool," he said. "His contribution should never be allowed to fade from the memory."

From an article in The Guardian.

Up and Running

Liverpool 1-0 Stoke City | Premier League match report | Football | The Observer
A relief, that was what it was. For long periods, it seemed this game was a continuation of last season, with statistics displaying Liverpool predominance, but with little else to show. I'd say this was a Stoke City loss rather than a Liverpool win, if you know what I mean. The good thing is that this is early season and the rough edges can't help but be sand-papered out. I hope.

Jamie's farewell

Liverpool 1-0 QPR | Premier League match report | Football | The Guardian

This post is in honour of Jamie Carragher. I suppose after all the time he's been at Liverpool and the commitment he's given, he deserves a few special words. Lucky to have met him a couple of years ago, his best quality seemed to be his conscientiousness. I think this drives him to excel in whatever he sets out to do. He has his ups-and-downs just like everyone else but what sets him apart is that he keeps coming back. He seemed to be able to carry on some more, but I suppose he's the best person to know when the time is up. Thanks Jamie, hope to see you on Merseyside.