The Liverpool Thread

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It feels like a 6/10 season mate because we had a genuine shot at the title the turn of the year before injuries really hit.

But in reality, it's been much better than that. To make a 4 place/ 16 pont jump with all the injuries, along with nothing like the money spent by our competitiors, and be one of the clubs depriving both Mourinho and Wenger a CL place for the first time in their managerial careers is testament to all involved.
But to be 3 or so points off Chelsea only for a crazy two months to completely derail us and knock us out of the cups aswell is hard to take. For what it's worth we have made progress and I'm looking forward to next season but this time I hope we keep Coutinho and not sell like we did with Suarez. To progress it is imperative you keep the best players at the club and add quality on top of that.
 
But to be 3 or so points off Chelsea only for a crazy two months to completely derail us and knock us out of the cups aswell is hard to take. For what it's worth we have made progress and I'm looking forward to next season but this time I hope we keep Coutinho and not sell like we did with Suarez. To progress it is imperative you keep the best players at the club and add quality on top of that.


Talking of Phil, his numbers Sunday were ridiculous again from deep just like West Ham.

7/7 successful take-ons.
93/108 passes completed.
3 of 5 shots on target with one great goal.

Honestly, I don't think he's ever looked as comfortable as he has the last two games in a red shirt. Even more so than '13/'14 given he's matured and developed into an even better footballer now with the experience. If you'd said to me the last two games we'd play 2 up with a midfield diamond behind, I'd of had Phil at the forefront of that. But playing him 10/15 yards deeper than Lallana is just devastating. He's just gliding around and past people and completely dictating the whole play. How do you defend that? Middlesbrough and West Ham have tried getting tight and kicking him out the game and he's just dropped his shoulder and rode the tackles leaving him with the whole field ahead of him. Even if you do take him out with a couple of players, you're creating more space ahead with players left free. You sit deep and try cut out his passing lanes, and he's got all the space the World to come forward and shoot. It's like a combined Iniesta/ Messi role for Barcelona. Lads just can't get near him.

Coutinho playmaking from deep with the whole field and even more quality options ahead of him ..... Man Europes gonna' be another fun filled ride next year.
 
Liverpool FC in Sydney tonight! Can't wait, hope they wipe the floor with Sydney FC haha
 
Liverpool FC in Sydney tonight! Can't wait, hope they wipe the floor with Sydney FC haha

Hope yers have a boss time if yer there kid.

I know a few lads from Dubai who went out Sunday evening after the 'Boro game instead of going home. (Hardly ever miss a match. More money than sense and a ridiculous amount of holidays nobody can fathem lol.). They looked to be having a brilliant time in Manly yesterday from the photies I seen last night.

Surprised that they were still advertising tickets the match Sunday but it appears all 75K have gone now.

If it's anything like that magical night the MCG a few years back it'll be a great occasion for all you lads out there.

[video=youtube;5iLL57puZPM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iLL57puZPM[/video]
 
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A few personal 'bests' from this season:

Best trip of the Season: Mainz. Jibbing Barca at Wembley and going Saturday- Monday was an inspired move. Brilliant, relaxed weekend under the baking sun in a gorgeously quaint little German City by the Rhine.

Best Home Game: Everton.

Best Away Game: As a game of outstanding pure footie from both sides played at a ridiculous pace throughout, City. And Arsenal or Chelsea is the correct answer. But Palace was a mad day. 4 or 5 hours the Croyden Bear Festival, then rolling into Selhurst, literally, for a mad game of footie in a bouncing atmosphere.

Maddest Celebration: Everton and Mané ruining their Chrimbo in the cruellest but utterly greatest of ways! Best. Celebration EVER!

Best vocal at a Game: Away the League Cup at Burton. That was an old school, throwback night stood up with 90 minutes constant song after song where we went through the whole back catalogue. Boss to see a lot of the younger lads knowing the words to songs that hadn't been sung in years too. A brilliant night that.

Roll on Berlin!
 
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Given Ajax are finally back in a European final tonight for the first time in 21 years, seems a good time to say Giorgino Wijnaldum is my player of the year. The correct answer to that is Mané or Phil of course. But Gini's become one of our biggest cult heroes at the match and I've FULLY bought into that watching him up close haha!

Gini deserves a lot more recognition than he gets from fans and pundits. He's been superb in the main from his first game. And not just weighing in with 6 goals and 10 assits his first season in red either. He does all the grafting to allow players like Phil, Lallana, et all to flourish and do their thing. For someone that came with a reputation of being a typical #10 with the ego's they invariably carry, with Newcastle fans telling us 'he wasn't a team player/ would go missing away from home/ was lazy et all', he's been one of, if not the most selfless player on both sides most every game we've played this year. He's way stronger than I ever imagined he was. His passing and touch are typically Dutch sublime. He's always playing off the front foot and is on the turn when he receives the ball so the space is already created. Get's forward brilliantly to support the attack. And his work rate is absolutely phenomenal. He allows Henderson/ Can and even Milner to bomb forward at times by just dropping in and doing the donkey work protecting them. He's just a real tidy, intelligent, top ability footballer who keeps everything ticking over.

I think the reason he goes under the radar is you probably have to be at the match to fully appreciate what he does. You're not going to get him picked out on MOTD as a focus. He's strong in the tackle, keeps everything ticking over with his passing, his intelligence at always being open to receive and play is brilliant. He is Ronnie Whelan. And just like Ronnie Whelan, he's going under appreciated by many who still say 'I don't know what Gini Wijnaldum does?' because he's not blaming them in from 20 yards or up there topping the assists. (Although his goals and assists, not least in big, difference making games, have steadily increased the longer the years gone on.). But nobody protects the football better in that aesthetically lovely Dutch way. Not just protecting it and keeping it. But protecting it and going forward. This new, deeper role Klopp and co, devised for him this season has suited him completely down to the ground.

He's one of the most vital cogs of all to me in this side and like the aforementioned Whelan, it's when he's not in the side that you suddenly realise and appreciate just what you're missing.

When we add Keita or whomever to the mix of Phil, Lallana, Gini, Can, Henderson and Grujic, with eager quality youngsters like Ejaria and Ben; the midfield rotation and options game-on-game are as strong as anything in this league.

And Gini Wijnaldum is a MASSIVE part of that.
 
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I don't know what the heck 'The Anfield Index' is. But the figures don't lie.

The next evolution of Phil's game to consistently become one of the best players the World over.

[video=youtube;FHD8HKvo6L8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHD8HKvo6L8[/video]
 
Hope yers have a boss time if yer there kid.

I know a few lads from Dubai who went out Sunday evening after the 'Boro game instead of going home. (Hardly ever miss a match. More money than sense and a ridiculous amount of holidays nobody can fathem lol.). They looked to be having a brilliant time in Manly yesterday from the photies I seen last night.

Surprised that they were still advertising tickets the match Sunday but it appears all 75K have gone now.

If it's anything like that magical night the MCG a few years back it'll be a great occasion for all you lads out there.

Yep it was amazing, all three goals were scored down the end I was at, and watching Firmino and Sturridge tie the defenders in knots was so good! Unreal experience

And a minute's silence for Manchester I thought was an important touch too
 
Yep it was amazing, all three goals were scored down the end I was at, and watching Firmino and Sturridge tie the defenders in knots was so good! Unreal experience

And a minute's silence for Manchester I thought was an important touch too

Great stuff. Made up it was so fun for you guys and the Reds treated it respectfully and gave you a game. The support out there is ridiculous with another 73K tipping up. Only seen the highlights as I was working the game (darn time difference), but it looked a fun evening. Particularly first half. Sorry the defo penalty on Stevie wasn't given. Him scoring in front of you would of just rounded iff a perfect night I would imagine. And when Sturridge plays like that, like he has the last two games the league season ..... Man alive if his body wasn't made of biscuits. Sighs.
 
Interesting, and no less great, that L'pool flat out rebuffed Celtic wanting Wilson on any sort of deal. Loan or permanent.

Presumably, that now puts Ryan Kent in line to move on after his great year at Barnsley last term. Which is sound in itself. Turning a profit on what you've put the time into is just as important a part of an Academy conveyer belt as getting the exceptional ones through to your first team squad.

Here's to Wilson having a Ben or Ovie like leap this summer like they did last.
 
For you it would be boss trips lol. Although I'm sure Jurgen wont be sending out the B team to the Nou camp like a certain manager before him did.

Bernabeau. But we knew where you meant.

Walked out of the game as soon as the team come up the video board. I was back down Sol in wine bar before the second half had started. To say I was ****** (figuratively, before more wine) was an understatement. I'm in impulsive, passionate Scouser. Shrugs.

Don't think Gerrard ever forgave him for that either if truth be told. Madrid- Liverpool. At the time the 9 times winners against the 5 times winners. Two of only 4 clubs to actually own a European Cup. European frigging Royalty. No bigger game could you hand pick if you tried. And he put the ressi's out. With the B/S excuse that the first teamers didn't deserve to start due to poor form ..... Who he then brought all but ONE back for the game against Chelsea the weekend after the second string had ironically played so well in Madrid.

That was where Rodgers truly lost me. Insulted wasn't the word.

And yeah, I'm still narked at him for it!
 
For you it would be boss trips lol. Although I'm sure Jurgen wont be sending out the B team to the Nou camp like a certain manager before him did.

Well, yeah, I selfishly look at every European draw in view of the best places to visit. Shrugs.

But that aside, where something like that to transpire, they'd all be as nervous about playing us under Klopp as we would be them. Not least Barcelona who never have been able to beat L'pool for ****. I think it's psychological now with their press and fans haha.
 
[video=youtube;ot_eeIcipfU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_eeIcipfU[/video]

God. 12 years ago today. And the memory's are as fresh as if it was yesterday. You won't think about it for months, then something jogs a memory and you're chuckling away to yourself like a loon at some mad memory.

We almost f-ed it up before we even left L'pool. Short of holidays, we had to go out the day trip. So we're at Speke handy for I think an 8 AM or so flight. And our mate Ste, who had the tickets, is sorting them out and throws this envelope the bin and we go for a bevvie. Two the lads go the bar and me and Ste are sitting down when he's like 'Oh *****!' and shoots past me doing his best Usain Bolt impression ..... The divvy had only gone and webbed the match tickets the bin! Having got over that scare (and ripped the beaut to F!), we're waiting to board the plane and there's L'pool's 'keeper Chris Kirkland in line in front. Turns out he and Rafa weren't even speaking by this point and Benitez had been a complete ***** and barred him from the club flight. So he was paying his own way out on a normal flight! Remember being made up that they stamped the passi at the airport with 'Istanbul Final 2005.' Never throwing that passport out. We landed the Asian side the Bosphorus like so many others. Which I just love. 50,000 or so Scousers all the way to another freaking Continent for a European Cup final! Only Utd and maybe the two Glasgow clubs could match that support the World over.

Fell a kip the long bus ride into Istanbul, to be woken by the bus absolutely rocking as we entered the City with all these Turks dinner time stood in awe at these busses full of mad Scousers banging the bus and singing like loons. Taksim Square was just a sea of red with flags draped everywhere. Ale and songs going. A massive Liverpudlian party the locals were joining the longer the afternoon went and they knocked off work. Remember a couple of BBC Radio guys, Colin Murray and DJ Spoony, there as fans absolutely wrecked with Murray tipping ale over his mates head and Spoony going nuts lol. They had these buses going up the ground which the driver said was 20 minutes ..... 3 ******* hours that took. We'd of got more ale if we'd known lol. They'd just literally finished this one access road to the Ataturk the week before and you'd got what seemed every frigging bus and taxi in Istanbul going there! (Sidenote- Never seen as many yellow cabs outside of New York as every time I've been Istanbul. And you take your life in your hands getting in one! It's madder than driving in Italy!). But it was a singing, dancing carnival all the way up. Lads packed into boots of taxis. No space spared! The driver our bus opening the door passing me his metal ticket box which I thought he just wanted emptying out which I did .... 'No, you bang and start song!' Is rite lad. Seemed impolite to not so as he asked! I remember coming to a stop on a corner, and all these lads piling out this taxi at the side the road and their well ****** up mate getting out with a massive grin ..... and this massive wet patch down the front of his khaki shorts the dirty blert lol. When the lads the video reference it being like the surface of the moon, it literally was. All these hills of red clay. We ended up jumping off the bus and walking the last half hour or so. It must have looked like a heard of locusts coming in the distance to this weird frigging ground in the middle of nowhere lol.

It was bedlam outside and they just opened up these gates and ushered everyone through. To this day my ticket is completely intact and unchecked. We were famished by this point and there's just this one little stand which everyone cramming round and this little Turkish fella' is running backwards and forwards shouting 'No food! No food!' So I'm look 'F this' and I'm hanging over grabbing all these bread rolls and passing them back as me mate pulls me back up as this Turkish guy come charging with a frigging meat cleaver waving above his head. Just surreal madness. Like we only want some ******* scran mate! We was to the left of the goal. Seating only ever really comes into it finals. Most Euro aways it's like an unwritten law that you stand where yers want. Which always amuses me when someone who doesn't know that try's to actually take their allotted seat but I digress .....

Then the match started and the most rollercoaster 120 minutes you could imagine. One minute you're absolutely bouncing, then Maldini puts Milan 1 up in the first minute. Then as you're going nuts at a stonewall handball in front of you and no penalty, Milan break the other end and it's 2. Then you're just stunned silent. Kaka completely and utterly taking the ****. And they add a third before the break and you're fearing a real walloping. Half time we literally never moved. A couple the lads went vainly looking for food in the hope the mad meat clever guy had finally calmed down. But the rest of us just stood there. Nobody spoke. Yer moby going nuts in yer pocket with Blues texting skitting the **** out of yer. All that was running through my mind was all the Evertonians and Utd fans laughing their ***** off back home watching L'pool getting a thorough doing the biggest game of all. Remember the Milan end unfurled this massive flag that covered them all. 'FORZA MILAN' And they literally stayed under it all HT. Then this defiant YNWA started. And it got louder and louder. WE must have had two-thirds that stadium and everyone is belting it out. Not in any expectation of what was to follow. More '**** this! We're L'pool and we're with our lads to the end!'

People like to give Gerrard all the glory for the comeback. But honest to God, when he scored, nobody hardly moved. It was just pure relief that at least the scoreline would be more respectable. Then Vladi scored ..... And ******* bedlam broke out. THAT was when you really believed something was on. When Xabi got the equaliser ..... Just a cacophony of bodies. Arms and legs everywhere in utter joy. 3 down to one of the best defences ever assembled. Milan. The arch professionals. Then within 6 glorious minutes, the Reds had said 'F this ****!' and pulled it level! Absolutely unbelievable. Just unbridled ecstasy and disbelief rolled into one. I don't remember much of the rest of the game save for Dudek's 'save' from Shevchenko. To this day I don't know how he missed that. Then the pens and this tart behind me in hysterics and not being abe to get her head around the fact that I was turned watching her and not the pitch. All the way to Istanbul for the biggest game in footie and not watching the deciding kicks. But that's a long-standing superstition of mine since Rome in 1984 that I just don't watch peno's. (Jurgy knows!). Shrugs. I don't know who she was but I knew when we'd won like as she leapt into my arms and another massive scrum of ecstatic bodies went rolling down the stand. **** of a celebration that as you can imagine. First European Cup in 21 years. And this time it was ours to KEEP! 5 glorious big ones! Liverpudlian heaven.

The utter mad Turkish organisation continued back at the airport. (When we finally got there after another long mad bus and cab convey.). No planes ready. They'd put on some food in this hanger which was rammend. Remember seeing Kenny Dalglish's daughter Kelly and her brother Paul, dancing on a table, drunk as all heck, twirling scarves round their head leading more celebrations. Amazing how she recovered to do the Sky coverage of the bus tour the following evening. She must have felt like utter ***** because I know I did! LOL. Not got a clue what airline I was on coming home but it sure as heck wasn't the Monarch flight I was booked on. They just piled us onto everything. About 7 the following morning we landed back in L'pool. Raiding Smiths at Speke for every newspaper going. Me cousin picked us up and dropping everyone off. Then when he's back at ours, he's like looking at the back at all this red clay in his car like 'WTF?' ..... Yer, let me tell yers about the time all these Scousers went walking over moon rock Davie lad to get to this mad ground in this City by the Bosphorus to see the Reds bring arl Big Ears home for good.....

Istanbul was at the time my 4th European final watching L'pool. 3 of them in the big tourney. And I have no doubt they'll be MANY more European finals with this football club before I'm through. It's what we specialise in like no other in this Country. But they'll never be another as utterly mad and brilliant that will pull your emotions in a million different directions and back as the 25th May, 2005. The single best 24 hour period of my life. The single best European Cup Final of all time.

Memory's like that money just can not buy.

Is it the qualifier yet ..... ?

[video=youtube;mDLSu8VZ8G8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLSu8VZ8G8[/video]
 
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[video=youtube;ot_eeIcipfU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_eeIcipfU[/video]

God. 12 years ago today. And the memory's are as fresh as if it was yesterday. You won't think about it for months, then something jogs a memory and you're chuckling away to yourself like a loon at some mad memory.

We almost f-ed it up before we even left L'pool. Short of holidays, we had to go out the day trip. So we're at Speke handy for I think an 8 AM or so flight. And our mate Ste, who had the tickets, is sorting them out and throws this envelope the bin and we go for a bevvie. Two the lads go the bar and me and Ste are sitting down when he's like 'Oh *****!' and shoots past me doing his best Usain Bolt impression ..... The divvy had only gone and webbed the match tickets the bin! Having got over that scare (and ripped the beaut to F!), we're waiting to board the plane and there's L'pool's 'keeper Chris Kirkland in line in front. Turns out he and Rafa weren't even speaking by this point and Benitez had been a complete ***** and barred him from the club flight. So he was paying his own way out on a normal flight! Remember being made up that they stamped the passi at the airport with 'Istanbul Final 2005.' Never throwing that passport out. We landed the Asian side the Bosphorus like so many others. Which I just love. 50,000 or so Scousers all the way to another freaking Continent for a European Cup final! Only Utd and maybe the two Glasgow clubs could match that support the World over.

Fell a kip the long bus ride into Istanbul, to be woken by the bus absolutely rocking as we entered the City with all these Turks dinner time stood in awe at these busses full of mad Scousers banging the bus and singing like loons. Taksim Square was just a sea of red with flags draped everywhere. Ale and songs going. A massive Liverpudlian party the locals were joining the longer the afternoon went and they knocked off work. Remember a couple of BBC Radio guys, Colin Murray and DJ Spoony, there as fans absolutely wrecked with Murray tipping ale over his mates head and Spoony going nuts lol. They had these buses going up the ground which the driver said was 20 minutes ..... 3 ******* hours that took. We'd of got more ale if we'd known lol. They'd just literally finished this one access road to the Ataturk the week before and you'd got what seemed every frigging bus and taxi in Istanbul going there! (Sidenote- Never seen as many yellow cabs outside of New York as every time I've been Istanbul. And you take your life in your hands getting in one! It's madder than driving in Italy!). But it was a singing, dancing carnival all the way up. Lads packed into boots of taxis. No space spared! The driver our bus opening the door passing me his metal ticket box which I thought he just wanted emptying out .... 'No, you bang and start song!' Is rite lad. Seemed imploite to not so as he asked! I remember coming to a stop on a corner, and all these lads piling out this taxi at the side the road and their well ****** up mate getting out with a massive grin ..... and this massive wet patch down the front of his khaki shorts the dirty blert lol. When the lads the video reference it being like the surface of the moon, it literally was. All these hills of red clay. We ended up jumping off the bus and walking the last half hour or so. It must of looked like a heard of locusts coming in the distance to this weird frigging ground in the middle of nowhere lol.

It was bedlam outside and they just opened up these gates and ushered everyone through. To this day my ticket is completely intact and unchecked. We were famished by this point and there's just this one little stand which everyone cramming round and this little Turkish fella' is running backwards and forwards shouting 'No food! No food!' So I'm look 'F this' and I'm hanging over grabbing all these bread rolls and passing them back as me mate pulls me back up as this Turkish guy come charging with a frigging meat cleaver waving above his head. Just surreal madness. Like we only want some ******* scran mate! We was to the left of the goal. Seating only ever really comes into it finals. Most Euro aways it's like an unwritten law that you stand where yers want. Which always amuses me when someone who doesn't know that try's to actually take their allotted seat but I digress .....

Then the match started and the most rollercoaster 120 minutes you could imagine. One minute you're absolutely bouncing, then Maldini puts Milan 1 up in the first minute. Then as you're going nuts at a stonewall handball in front of you and no penalty, Milan break the other end and it's 2. Then your just stunned silent. Kaka completely and utterly taking the ****. And they add a third before the break and your fearing a real walloping. Half time we litterally never moved. A couple the lads went veinly looking for food in the hope the mad meat clever guy had finally calmed down. But the rest of us just stood there. Nobody spoke. Yer moby going nuts in yer pocket with Blues texting skitting the **** out of yer. All that was running through my mind was all the Evertonians and Utd fans laughing their ***** off back home watching L'pool getting a thorough doing the biggest game of all. Remember the Milan end unfurled this massive flag that covered them all. 'FORZA MILAN' And they literally stayed under it all HT. Then this defiant YNWA started. And it got louder and louder. WE must of had two-thirds that stadium and everyone is belting it out. Not in any expectation of what was to follow. More '**** this! We're L'pool and we're with our lads to the end!'

People like to give Gerrard all the glory for the comeback. But honest to God, when he scored, nobody hardly moved. It was just pure relief that at least the scoreline would be more respectable. Then Vladi scored ..... And ******* bedlam broke out. THAT was when you really believed something was on. When Xabi got the equaliser ..... Just a cacophony of bodies. Arms and legs everywhere in utter joy. 3 down to one of the best defences ever assembled. Milan. The arch professionals. Then within 6 glorious minutes, the Reds had said 'F this ****!' and pulled it level! Absolutely unbelievable. Just unbridled ecstasy and disbelief rolled into one. I don't remember much of the rest of the game save for Dudek's 'save' from Shevchenko. To this day I don't know how he missed that. Then the pens and this tart behind me in hysterics and not being abe to get her head around the fact that I was turned watching her and not the pitch. All the way to Istanbul for the biggest game in footie and not watching the deciding kicks. But that's a long-standing superstition of mine since Rome in 1984 that I just don't watch peno's. (Jurgy knows!). Shrugs. I don't know who she was but I knew when we'd won like as she leapt into my arms and another massive scrum of ecstatic bodies went rolling down the stand. **** of a celebration that as you can imagine. First European Cup in 21 years. And this time it was ours to KEEP! 5 glorious big ones! Liverpudlian heaven.

The utter mad Turkish organisation continued back at the airport. (When we finally got there after another long mad bus and cab convey.). No planes ready. They'd put on some food in this hanger which was rammend. Remember seeing Kenny Dalglish's daughter Kelly and her brother Paul, dancing on a table, drunk as all heck, twirling scarves round there neck leading more celebrations. Amazing how she recovered to do the Sky coverage of the bus tour the following evening. She must have felt like utter ***** because I know I did! LOL. Not got a clue what airline I was on coming home but it sure as heck wasn't the Monarch flight I was booked on. They just piled us onto everything. About 7 the following morning we landed back in L'pool. Raiding Smiths at Speke for every newspaper going. Me cousin picked us up and dropping everyone off. Then when he's back at ours, he's like looking at the back at all this red clay in his car like 'WTF?' ..... Yer, let me tell yers about the time all these Scousers went walking over moon rock Davie lad to get to this mad ground in this City by the Bosphorus .....

Istanbul was at the time my 4th European final watching L'pool. 3 of them in the big tourney. And I have no doubt they'll be MANY more European finals with this football club before I'm through. It's what we specialise in like no other in this Country. But they'll never be another as utterly mad and brilliant that will pull your emotions in a million different directions and back as the 25th May, 2005. The single best 24 hour period of my life. The single best European Cup Final of all time.

Memory's like that money just can not buy.

Is it the qualifier yet ..... ?

[video=youtube;mDLSu8VZ8G8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLSu8VZ8G8[/video]
my god that took some reading good story tho
 
my god that took some reading good story tho

And I deleted some when I quickly read it back for being too long. XD.

There's days. And then there's Istanbul days.

They make everything else worthwhile.

Mad to think that's 12 years ago.
 
And I deleted some when I quickly read it back for being too long. XD.

There's days. And then there's Istanbul days.

They make everything else worthwhile.

Mad to think that's 12 years ago.
should have left it as is mate love your post shows how much you love your club nowt wrong with that
 
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