Emmo’s Blog

This week’s Nuggets Of Ear Candy are:

Black Rain – Enuff Z’ Nuff

We Weren’t Born To Follow – Bon Jovi

The Snake, The Lion, The Monkey & The Spider – The Wildhearts

Inside Out (Acoustic Version) – Ginger             

Switchblade Serenade – Spread Eagle                                                                  

Nuggets Of Ear Candy returns in a fortnight.

Liverpool got their season back on track with a 4-0 demolition of Stoke City at Anfield last night.

Tony Pulis’s men who frustrated Liverpool twice last season were undone after just four minutes when a low cross by Steven Gerrard was smashed home by Fernando Torres.

Liverpool continued to dominate the game and the match was finally put beyond Stoke just before half time when Glen Johnson acrobatically made it 2-0 on his home debut.

Pepe Riena made an outstanding save early in the second half as the hosts tried to make a fight of it. But in the 78Th minute Dirk Kuyt slid in to make 3-0 after glorious piece skill on the right wing by Steven Gerrard left Etherington dazed and confused. 

With the game over as a competition Benitez withdrew Gerrard, Torres & Kuyt from the action and replaced them with Voronin, Reira & Ngog.

In the final attack of the game Johnson whipped over a teasing cross that Keeper Sorenson could only push onto the bar. The ball fell nicely onto Ngogs head who nodded home for number four.

Next up for Liverpool sees Martin O’Neill bring his Aston Villa to Anfield on 24.08.09 K/O is 8pm.

  Liverpool started of the season with a 1-2 defeat away to Tottenham Hostspur.
A disjointed LFC never got going and were punished with two set pieces.
Pepe Riena kept the reds in the game with a string of fine saves but was eventually beaten by a thunderous drive after Huddlestones free kick hit the wall and rebounded straight to the path of a player’s name I can’t even remember.

In the 2nd half Liverpool got back into a game they were never in when Glen Johnsons surging run into the box came to an end when he was chopped down by keeper Gomez for a penalty. Gerrard smacked the ball down the middle to level the scores.

Liverpool would surely kick on from here? They didn’t. Within two minutes they were behind. Another needless foul was given away this time by Carragher who had already had a dreadful afternoon. The resulting free kick was headed home by debutant Bassong.

Liverpool never looked like getting back into the game after that and although they had weak claims for a penalty after Voronin was bundled down in the box they got what they deserved from this game, nothing.

With Utd, Cheslea and Arsenal all winning over the weekend Liverpool are already playing catch up. Not the best of starts.

Next up for LFC is Stoke at Anfield on Wednesday 19 Aug.

US Rockers Bon Jovi have announced details of their new album.
 
The new album, Circle will be released on 09/11/09 and it will be the bands 11th studio album.
We Weren’t Born To Follow will be the first single lifted from the album and is scheduled to be released on 31/08/09.

Tour dates are to be announced later in the year around the time the album is released.

Bon Jovi have sold over 120,000,000 albums worldwide.

Stan Collymore, Daily Mirror, June 2009….

‘Chelsea are the new FA Cup holders but their fans should be worried as Carlo Ancelotti becomes the new manager of their ageing team,

Chelsea need rejuvenating and a better balance throughout the squad…To become Premier League champions, the Stamford Bridge outfit spent a lot of money over several seasons. And they still couldn’t become European champions. But to renew their challenge now, they need more considerable investment. And that’s why I question whether Ancelotti is the man to perform this job.’

‘If Chelsea fail to shake-up their squad this summer, I see them struggling to finish in the top four. In Serie A you can get away with the old guard. But that will get found out in the Prem. “

So let’s fast forward 2 months and with Chelsea having only added Ross Turnbull (a third choice keeper), Daniel Sturridge (a third choice striker) and Zhirkov who will more than likely be 2nd choice if Bosingwa is fit, what does Collymore now make of Chelsea’s title chances?

‘Move over United, your time as champions is up. A year ago I had no hesitation in plumping for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men for the title because they looked by far the strongest of the Big Four. This time around, though, I fear they will be found wanting – and Chelsea are the side I’ll be backing to take advantage.’

What a moron.

This week’s Nuggets Of Ear Candy picked from only the ripest IPod are:

Somethin’ To Believe In – Poison

We’ll Grind That Axe For A Long Time – Pantera

The Gift – Seether

She’s A Knock Out – Social Distortion

Stop The Bus -Terrorvision                                                                

More top tunes coming next week on………….Nuggets Of Ear Candy….

The Wildhearts have won the “Spirit Of Independence” award at this year’s Kerrang! Awards

It’s nice to see the boys have finally won something after more than 15 years without hardly any recognition at all.
Could this mean that Kerrang! have finally forgiven Gingers crew for trashing their offices back in the mid-nineties??

The award comes a few weeks before the release of the bands 9th studio album. Chutzpah! is released in all good record stores (and some rubbish ones!) on August 31st.

Here are the winners in full:

Best British Newcomer: In Case Of Fire
Best International Newcomer: The Gaslight Anthem
Best Single: The Prodigy – Omen
Best Video: Mastodon – Oblivion
Classic Songwriter: Linkin Park
Spirit Of Independence: The Wildhearts
Icon: Alice In Chains
Best Album: Metallica – Death Magnetic
Best Live Band: Slipknot
Inspiration: Machine Head
Hall Of Fame: Limp Bizkit
Best British Band: Bullet For My Valentine
Best International Band: Slipknot

So it’s finally happened. The transfer saga of the summer is over. Madrid have put their hands in their ever deep pockets and bought Xabi Alonso for £30m.

Rafa Benitez stuck to his guns and didn’t accept a penny less and for that he deserves loads of credit. If Rick Parry had still been at the club Alonso would have been sold for £12m. Benitez took on Madrid and won. Simple as that.

Madrid have tried to bully LFC into selling one of our prized assets by starting the bidding at £16m then adding £2m more each time and then stopping at £24m. Even though Madrid had spent well over £190m on Arbeloa (£3.5m), Raul Abidol (£13m), Kaka (£65m), Ronaldo (£80m) and Benzema (£35m) they thought and assumed they could get Alonso on the cheap. They were wrong.

Madrid had told everyone that although £190m had been spent on flair players they needed Alonso to knit it all together. Straight away that put Alonso’s price up a bit more.

It was a win win situation for LFC who if they didn’t sell Alonso they would be keeping a world class player. A player who still perform on the pitch especially as its World Cup year. If Liverpool did sell Alonso at the price they wanted then Rafa would have £30m burning a hole in his pocket and adding that to existing funds that’s nearly £50m to spend.

In the end Madrid buckled. LFC had got the money they wanted. Rafa 1-0 Madrid.

Alonso has been 100% professional in his attitude towards LFC even after the debacle of last summer when Rafa touted him to all and sundry when he thought Gareth Barry was on the way to Anfield. After a unsettling summer Alonso produced his finest performances for LFC and was arguably our best player last season.

After 5 years you can’t blame Alonso for wanting to go home. To a Spanish player if Madrid come knocking it’s the equivalent of an English player being wanted by LFC or Utd.

So who will replace Alonso? There have been the usual glut of names banded around including the likes of Poulsen and Lee Cattermole.
I personally don’t think it will be any of these. Roma’s Aquilani seems to be the player Rafa wants to fill the Alonso gap and with the extra money I think Rafa will make a bid for long term target David Silva of Valencia.

There is talk of a bid for Valencia forward David Villa but I think he may be out of our price range unless we sell Dossena, Voronin and Degan then blow the entire budget on one player. Torres and Gerrard play so well together that we don’t need to break the bank for a forward. We do need another forward as cover for Torres but not a £50m one. The only way I see Villa coming (funds permitting) is if we drop Gerrard back to the middle and Villa goes up top with Torres ala Spain.

But who knows what Rafa is up to as he is keeping his cards firmly close to his chest as usual. One thing’s for sure the next few weeks will be interesting as the big KO is just around the corner.

So with that we say goodbye and good luck to Xabi Alonso. He will always have a place in our hearts. Thanks for the memories (Istanbul and goals from the halfway line!) and YNWA.