The Gaffa Speaks

How many people in this world have been refered to as 'God'. Not even the fans of greats lile maradona, zidane and pele called them 'the almighty'. this will certainly bring a smile on the face of liverpool fans who have followed the club over the years..when a local lad called Robbie Fowler banged in goals left right centre with his gifted left foot. If that was not enough we had players like Jamie Redknapp Ruling the midfield and my favorite Steve Mcmanaman crafting his way passed defender with utmost ease,the ball rolling on the outside line like a line tracking robot. These were the spice boys, young lads with beautiful wives by their side outside of football and gracing the pitch at anfield that was once a fortress in the 70's and 80's thanks to Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. A lot has happened since then.

The most decorated club in England who won the Top Division in England at ease was now only a Cup team thanks to blunders committed at the board and management level. These were the 90's.

In 1998, the club appointed the previous French team manager Gerard Houlier to work alongwith Roy Evans, our legendary manager. Made some controversial exchange of players, like offloading McManaman, Ince, McAteer and so on. And brought in players like Hamann, Traore, Hyypia, Smicer and others. The best of the lot to be Hyypia. Never really took off as a good manager with his managerial skills, but was deeply adored by fans nonetheless.

Fast forward to 2005 an ambitious young manager who had an excellent track record signed for liverpool replacing Gerrard Houllier who had led the club to many a victories in cup competitions but lacked what it took to compete for the league for more reasons than one.

This manager as we all know is indeed Rafael Benitez famous for the excess usage of words like 'Quaaaalitee'(Quality) and 'passibities'(Possibilities).

I thought it was a bit too late now to catch United and Arsenal.The emergence of Chelsea made the task all the more difficult. I don't want to comment on the 2005 season as every football fans knows of our legendary Road to Istanbul.

While the other clubs have taken steps to improve,liverpool have taken strides to catch up and till now its fair to say Rafa has done a splendid Job. Rivals might disagree with that but hey only a fool will not acknowledge his efforts and performance. While Mourinho had the millions of Roman at his disposal, Arsenal with their famed Youth system and the united with all their resources Rafa has managed to transform liverpool from a mere cup team to a team that is getting ready to last the distance.

This Season:

Things have been good so far for us especially away from home. There are a few things i would like to change but hey there are always ups and downs in football. At the beginning of the season if someone had told me that we would top the league and our group in Europe, I would have called him a wackjob.People say its due to the United fixture list and that they come good in the second half of the season, but so do we. and this time we have the players needed although not as much as uniteds to win it. But i don't want to jinx it by saying 'This is our year' and i will not say it till i see Steven Gerrard lift the trophy.(hopefully at anfield).


LMFC.

Geography Sucks. It is the only reason why I am not close to my club. Hence to fill in the void, me along with a few other friends i made on orkut. we decided to form a group which will get all the supporters of the only RED team in the world that matters together. And till now things have been going great for us. There have been Hicupps, infact a lot. The main problem was trust. Nobody would want to be standing on a Sunday morning at Shivaji Park waiting for people who he or she has never met. Lots of attempts were made previously to kick start this organization by various people but we decided its time to take action and we finally met. Started with 6 guys and now though we have higly fluctuating attendances,it is safe to say that there are atleast 40 members actively participating in the activities of the lmfc football team while 10 more who join us during screenings of matches. During screenings we bring the KOP to us. Electric atmosphere is usually associated with the Kopiites but we are no less. We right now have close to 190 members and are steadily increasing. We hope to apply for official status soon although its going to be difficult but hey there is no easy way when it comes Liverpool.