Chapter 3
Tuesday 18th August 2009
Just a mere 3 days after the disastrous start to the season at Villa Park, the Anfield faithful got their first taste of 2009/2010 season as Hull City made the relatively short trip to Liverpool.
Usually the Sunday after a game, would be a day off. But not for us, not this week. Instead our Sunday afternoon was spent at Melwood, watching the DVD of the game from Villa game, and frankly we were embarrassing. And I told the boys that, I told them that whilst I was new, I still understood what Liverpool Football club was about, the rich heritage, the unrivalled history and more importantly I understood what those fans who come week in week out to see them perform, they live and die for the club and so we should. And if any single one of them didn’t live and die for this club then they would be gone. It didn’t matter if they were a trainee, or one of the bigger names, if I felt they weren’t committed enough then they were gone.
And that commitment had to start against Hull. I wanted the team to go out and prove they deserved to wear that shirt. I made 2 changes from the team that started against Villa, replacing Insua and Babel with Aurelio and Assulin respectfully.
We lined up in the tunnel, the wall of noise awaiting us, and suddenly I felt the nerves. I sudeenly realised that that day was the first time I would be in charge of Liverpool Football Club in front of the Anfield faithful. As the crowd finished the usual rendition of “You’ll Never Walk alone”, I was introduced to the crowd. I walked out of the tunnel, a red and white scalf around my neck. The noise was electric, a sold out Anfield greeted me and I can honestly say walking out of that tunnel was the best feeling I had ever had. I stood on the edge of the pitch my hand aloft saluting the crowd, before finally the 2 teams came out of the tunnel. I shook hands with Phil Brown and finally we could put the disappointment of Villa behind us.
Unfortunately Phil Brown’s team didnt see it that way. Hull kicked off. Zaki sprayed the ball out to the right wing where Stephen Hunt calmly knocked the ball past Assulin. Zaki himself was running straight down the middle of the pitch and as Mascherano and Aurelio closed down Hunt, he put a cross in from deep. It floated over the head of Carragher and towards Zaki and Kyrgiakos. Zaki was up first and as he leap on the penalty spot, our Greek defender slipped, gifting Zaki an free header, he connected perfectly in front of the Kop, and flew past Reina. The crowd was stunned into silence, as we went 1-0 down after just 39 seconds. I had barely taken my seat in the dug out and we were already losing.
But instead of sitting back like we did against Villa, the goal seemed to spark us in to life. Lucas struck the post, Gerrard narrowly put one over the bar, and Torres forced Myhill to save twice.
But still after 24 minutes we were 1-0 down. Zaki’s header went straight at Reina, The Spaniard quickly dispatched the ball to the left, to Assulin who controlled instantly. He took it past 2 of the Hull players, and came one on one with Anthony Gardner, Assulin knocked the ball past him with ease, and was through on goal, he dropped his shoulder and just simply passed the abll into the net. 1-1! The Anfield crowd went wild as I jumped out of the dugout my thist in the air in celebration. Right in front of the Hull fans, no less than 6 Liverpool players heaped on top of Assulin, who had just scored on his Anfield debut.
Assulin’s confidence grew following his goal and it looked like he could take on anyone in a Hull shirt, and he did. He picked the ball up and knocked it past Hunt, and then tried to get past Mendy, but the Hull right back bought him down. Aurelio crossed the resulting free kick, it was headed away by Gardner, but fell straight to Gerrard, who struck it perfectly on the volley, the ball looked destine to go in, swerving past Myhill. But whilst it was curling it was also rising and the ball cannoned off the under side of the bar. Torres and Rodriguez adamant it had crossed the line, but the ref didn’t give it and as we headed to towards half time, we were 1-1.
With just seconds to go before half time we won a corner, Gerrard rushed top take it, he crossed it toward the awaiting pack of players, Carragher got up first and headed it towards the goal, it hit the post and rebounded into the back of Kevin Kilbane. The Hull payers were helpless as the ball hit the back of the net. Carragher ran away claiming the goal, but it was obvious it was an own goal. But I didn’t care, all I cared about was that for the first time that season we led! 2-1 at half time!
The second half kicked off and we looked in complete control. Gerrard played a beautiful ball trhoguh to Torres, who held the ball up and rolled it back to Gerrard. He hit it first time and the ball flew into the bottom right corner. Gerrard wheeled away in front of the Kop. 3-1!
Lucas, Mascharno and Assulin all went close before Torres once again forced Myhill to save. Aurelio put the ball into the box from the corner. Greek defender Kyrgiakos met the ball with his head and the ball flew into the net. 4-1! The crowd going wild as I stood and watched from the edge of the technical area.
With a comfortable lead and 20 minutes remaining, I took off Torres and Gerrard replacing them with N’Gog and Pacheco respectfully. N’Gog had the best chance of the remaining 20 minutes, striking the ball against the post. But we couldn’t get a fifth, and ran out 4-1 winners. We looked confident, we showed we could bounce back from set backs and more importantly we looked like a team, we looked together and we looked like a team able of competing with anyone.
---------- Post added at 05:13 PM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 12:56 PM ----------
Chapter 4
Tuesday 1st September 2009
I'm finished making sense, Done pleading ignorance, That whole defense, Spinning infinity, but
The wheel is spinning me, It's never ending, never ending, Same old story.......
What if I say I'm not like the others? What if I say I'm not just another one. You're the pretender
What if I say that I'll never surrender?
As The Foo Fighters blared out of my iPod acting as my alarm clock, I woke up. I was still alone, the same way I had been since I had left Australia now 3 months ago. But that day I couldn’t worry about, I hadn’t time to thin about it. That day was going to be one of busiest days of my life. Transfer deadline day.
We had gotten over our bad start at Villa, not only by beating Hull 4-1, but by carrying on some form with a 2-2 draw away at Sunderland (Aurelio 44, Pacheco 89) and a 2-0 win at home to Portsmouth (Gerrard 19, Torres 62). The results left us in 5th place at the end of August on 7 points.
I showered and positioned my hair, knowing for well that later that day I would be hounded by the press as rumours circled and deals were struck. I looked at my phone no calls, yet but that would change, I ate breakfast and headed to Melwood, my base for the day.
“With the sale of Ryan Babel and Alberto Riera, Liverpool boos Steven Curtis has an estimated £15m to spend on transfer deadline day, with The left back, left midfield and striker positions all requiring cover for the long season ahead. Rumours going round are that Curtis is set to raid Aston Villa, for either Ashley Young or Gabby Agbonlahor. Amongst other rumours in today’s papers are that Curtis wants a young goalkeeper, in the form of either Scott Loach from Watford or maybe a more expreinnced keeper in the form of West Ham and England’s Robert Green.
Now John what about the other top four clubs?....................”
The rumours were already circulating on Five Live as I pulled into the carpark of our training complex. The one about Scott Loach had some truth. But little did they know the deal for him was almost complete with only the medical to complete.
As I got out of my car, and instantly noticed the red Ford KA, looking out of place amongst the few remaining cars. With this being an International break, getting hold of player and getting them to Liverpool would be harder than thought, but due to the lateness of the sale of Babel, only 2 day prior, I had very little time to strike deals. The Ford KA belonged to Kate, the reporter from The Sun.
As I walked in to the office, and placed my mug of tea on the desk my phone rang. It was Stuart Webber, my scout based in the Midlands.
“Villa have said no to selling Agbonlahor, but there is talk that Emile Heskey wants to leave for a bigger club to cemment his world cup place, interested?”
I told him I’d get back to him, I had made a bid for a striker, the day before. Giampaolo Pazzini from Sampdoria, the only trouble was, he was in Italy on International duty and that morning, reports were coming out of Italt that he had a broken his arm in training. The last thing I wanted to do, was sign a player who wasn’t going to play for a month, thanks to my predecessor Rafa Benitez I already 1 of those, Alberto Aquilani.
I sat back in my chair and sipped my tea, as once again my phone rang. This time the landline on my desk.
“Sir, Scott Loach is here”
I took a big gulp of my tea and went out to meet the young keeper. At 21, Loach had recently broken into the England Under 21 squad, and after a string of impressive displays for Watford last season, I saw him as the ideal keeper for the future of this club. It took no longer than 45 minutes for the fine details of his contract to be worked out and for him to pass the medical with flying colours. Scott Loach became my first signing of the day, my second of the season along with Assulin.
I still wanted to add some experience though, and ideally a left winger after the sale of Riera and Babel. But the market was seemingly dry of top left wingers. And after the £2.5m price tag Watford had slapped on Loach, funds were once again short.
My next attempt was to try and lure Riise away from Roma, but they continually refused our bids. So I tried to bid for Jermaine Defoe, but spurs wanted a whooping £25m for him. With options running out I made the offer for Heskey, Villa wanted £8m and Dalla Valle, I accepted their counter and started proceedings to get Emile Heskey back to Liverpool.
With Heskey down at the St Albans training camp with England, I couldn’t do the contract negotiations personally, so what ensued, after Stuart Webber had driven down to the camp, was a 2 hour long conference call between myself, Webber (representing the club), Emile and his agent. But after 2 hours and the F.A had kindly allowed us use their facilities and doctor to perform the medical, the paper worl was faxed to me, I signed it and sent it off to the F.A.
Whilst this wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to do transfers, but due to the timing it was the only way. But at least I had managed to sign some reinforcements. And finally it was time to meet the media. At 8pm I was live on Sky Sports news, unveiling Scott Loach and revealing the signing of Emile Heskey. Then came the press conference flashing lights and pointless questions about
whether or not I was happy with the days signings? Of course I was happy with the signings, and whilst they weren’t exactly going to blow the world away, they both could do a job. Heskey might not be an out and out goal scorer, but he can create so many chance and support Torres, Kuyt, N’Gog or who ever he plays with. And as Scott Loach, he may not be my new number one keeper, and he may not play week in, week out but, he has the potential to be England’s future keeper, and should Reina pick up an injury, I had faith that Scott could step up and step in for the Spaniard.
Would I have I liked to of signed more players? Sure, unfortunately I couldn’t tempt the likes of Messi, Kaka, Rooney and Villa away from their clubs with only a starting transfer budget of £8m. So I got the players I thought would strengthen the team with in the budget I had at my disposal.
"And finally one more question. Yes Kate Taylor of the Sun"
Mr Curtis, with your inexperience in English football management, realistically how well do you think you can do this season?
Miss Taylor, This is Liverpool football club, and my aim is to take it back to where it belongs, sure it would be hard but then again, for any team to even finish in the top 4 is hard. The team I have is more than capable of finishing above most of the other teams in this league, and with some luck and true grit we could turn over the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. We are wary of Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa but they too face the same difficult task we did, and lets not forget the team I’ve got is pretty much the same team that finished 2nd last season, and with the additions and finally the freedom and flare they lacked under my predecessor, we could finally end the years of hurt that the Liverpool fans have endured. Thank you that is all.
I got up and left the press conference and headed back to my office, the cup of tea I started earlier still there half empty and now stone cold. I shut the door, and went over to my desk, behind it a fridge containing chilled water, I routed around in the back and pulled out a bottle of well hidden vodka. Cracked open the top and poured out a big glass, mixing it with the chilled water. I sat back in my chair and took a long sip. The vodka felt so good against back of my throat. I could have sat there and finished the entire 2 litre bottle in one sitting, had I not of been interrupted by the cleaning lady want to hoover my office. I slipped the bottle of vodka, half full by that point, in to my bag so the cleaning lady didn’t see it and headed outside. I was feeling slightly tipsy, but none the less I decided to get in my car, and drive home. I knew I was well over the limit, but I didn’t care. Vodka was the only way I could relax now days.
I arrived home, not exactly sure how I’d done it. But somehow the drive from West Derby to the Princes Dock area had seemingly been trouble and incident free. I opened the door to my 2 bedroom penthouse suite to find a pile of mail, in which was a letter with the Australian postal stamp and her hand writing on the envelope.
I pulled the bottle of Vodka out of my bag and headed to the kitchen, dumping the pile of letters on the work top as I went. Poured myself a big glass of vodka and coke and slumped on the sofa. I turned the TV
I'm on the outside, And I'm looking in. I can see through you, See your true colors. 'Cause inside you're ugly, You're ugly like me. I can see through you, See to the real you!
The Tv was still on the Q music channel from the night before, as I ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter from inside.
“Dear Steven
I’m sorry, I really am. It was selfish of me to want to stay here in Australia, but you have to realise it was for the best. My career is more important to me than anything, as I know your is to you. Had you of stayed then who’s knows what could have happened, but my decision is final. I won’t be coming to England, not now, not ever.
I have found somebody else, and I’m happier than I have been in years. We had our good times, but honestly it was never going to work. I will send your stuff to you, but after that I think it’s better for both of us, that we don’t see or speak to each other again.
Jennifer”
I looked at the letter, and screwed it up threw as far away from me as possible and grabbed the bottle of vodka, now with a new determination to finish it. And I did a whole 2 litre bottle, gone. I hunted around the penthouse suite for some more, forgetting I had finished the last bottle last night. Drunk, I slumped back on to the sofa, and dually drifted in to sleepless restless sleep.
---------- Post added at 04:18 PM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 05:13 PM ----------
August Round up
15-8-09 Aston Villa (a) L 0-2
18-8-09 Hull (h) W 4-1
22-8-09 Sunderland (a) D 2-2
29-8-09 Portsmouth (h) W 2-0
Poistion- 5th (7pts)
Top goal scorer- Gerrard (2)
Signings
Gai Assulin (Barcelona) £1.2m
Scott Loach (Watford) £2.5m
Emile Heskey (Aston Villa) £8m (+ Dalla Valle)
Chapter 5
Saturday 12th September 2009
I left the team hotel in North London, and embarked on the coach trip to our opponents. I will admit I was nervous, I faced the biggest challenge to date, and despite being 5th in the league at the end of August, people were already questioning my ability.
We pulled under the bridge next to the stadium and into the car park under the Emrites. In front of the Sky Sports cameras we faced Arsenal. We left the coach, and entered the stadium, past the Arsenal mascot and into the changing rooms.
With the warm up done and m final team talk over, it was time to start my biggest test as Liverpool manager to date.
“Welcome to The Emrites where today, Steven Curtis’ Liverpool side come to prove they are a force to be reckoned with, as they face Arsenal.
Team news today, seven years after he last pulled on a Liverpool shirt Emile Heskey returns, fresh from scoring twice in England’s 3-2 victory over Croatia at Wembley during the week. Heskey starts today up front along side Fernando Torres. He replaces Lucas who drops to the bench. With the absence of Lucas, Gerrard drops back into the center of Midfield alongside Mascherano. In defence Martin Skertel comes back in for Kyrgiakos. Pepe Reina starts in goal, with new signing Scott Loach on the bench.”
After failing to secure cover for left midfield during the transfer window the last thing I wanted was any injuries, but sure enough just 10 minutes into the match, Gai Assulin picked up a knock. He carried on for another 5 minutes, before it became apparent he had to go off. So I replaced him with Yossi Benayoun. The change took 5 minutes to take any real effect, but eventually Benayoun changed things.
“Here’s Agger, he sprays the ball out to the left where Benayoun controls instantly. Benayoun looks up, he sees Heskey onside, what a great ball over the Heskey! Here’s Heskey with the shot! Oh what a save by Almunia. He done well to get down to his left so quickly to save from the big man!”
I was up out of my seat encouraging my team to do much the same, When Heskey had a header which just went over, and then linked well with Torres, but the Spaniard was squeezed out, just as he was about to shoot.
“In comes the Liverpool corner, headed away by Gallas and here’s Song. Inside to Fabregas, lovely ball by the Spaniard to the right to Sagna. He goes past Benayoun with ease and that’s a beautiful cross. Met well by Carragher who clears as far as Fabregas, he shapes to shoot, oh that’***** the bar! Reina was strandard, it just didn’t dip enough.”
That was Arsenal’s first chance of the first half and we were 38 minutes in. And that was it, 0-0 at half time. I have to say i was pleased with our performance. Arsenal were struggling to create anything and my new forward, Emile was already showing he could link up with Torres well.
The second half, started much as the first had ended, with the odd chance but nothing really meaningful. Arsenal had a shoot from distance from Sagna and we had a corner from which Carragher clipped the out side of the post. It wasn’t until the 58th minute we had a real chance.
“Here’s Torres, he goes past Gallas with ease, he’s through on goal. He must score! Oh Almunia’s done brilliantaly to get out that quickly saving smartly with at Torres’ feet.”
With an hour gone, I took Heskey off, which was greeted by a standing ovation from our fans, welcoming him back. I replaced him with N’Gog. Van Persie went close in the 70th minute, from a corner.
“Here’s N’Gog, he’s don’t brilliantly to hold the ball up. Torres on the over lap, but instead he rolls it back to Gerrard, 30 yards out. It’s GERRARD! Liverpool Lead! 1-0. It’s taken 73 minutes to get the break through but finally Liverpool get it!
I jumped out of my racing style seat I the Emrites dugout and ran out into the technical area, my hand aloft in celebration. The Liverpool fans were going wild. They were still celebrating 3 minutes later when.....
“Here’s Van Persie with the corner, header from Gallas. Off the line by Carragher but there’s Bendtner to put in the rebound! 1-1!”
I looked at the heavens as the Emrites erupted, more than in relief than in celebration. Van Persie should have scored for Arsenal and Kuyt (on for Rodriguez) should have scored for us, but the final whistle went before either side had a chance to win it. 1-1 at the Emrites.
I was happy, despite still not having got a win away from home.
Thinking of starting one myself - just wondering, do you type most of it and then upload bit by bit or do you start the next update once you've uploaded the previous one?
