The Trials and Tribulations of a Hillsborough Survivor, and What Life is Like

Ten Hag said: “The rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool is one of the greatest in world football. We all love the passion of the fans when our teams meet, but there are lines that should not be crossed.

“It is unacceptable to use the loss of life — in relation to any tragedy — to score points, and it is time for it to stop. Those responsible tarnish not only the reputation of our clubs but also, importantly, the reputation of themselves, the fans, and our great cities.

“On behalf of myself, our players, and our staff, we ask our fans to focus on supporting the team on Sunday and representing our club in the right way.”

Despite the disaster being over three decades ago Lee and his fellow Liverpool supporters have finally received an apology from the police.

Andy Marsh said, “Policing has profoundly failed those bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster over many years and we are sorry that the service got it so wrong.

“Police failures were the main cause of the tragedy and have continued to blight the lives of family members ever since.

“When leadership was most needed, the bereaved were often treated insensitively and the response lacked coordination and oversight.”

Despite the seemingly heartfelt apology Lee rejects its significance,

“I don’t accept the apology at all.

If those lot were sorry, they would have done it 30 years ago and not now when it has no change in my life whatsoever. If they didn’t apologise, then they should have just left it.”

by Ella Percy

There’s a resurgence of footballing quality coming out of Norway, and there’s two young Premier League stars leading the charge...

You don’t have to look very far to see the impact Erling Haaland has had on Manchester City’s attack since his £60 million move from Germany. The 22 year old striker has already notched 42 goals in all competitions, with 28 coming in the premier league, and he had provided six assists in the process – two more than the supposedly more creative Harry Kane. The combination of Haaland’s instinctive finishing along with the heat seeking missile passes of Kevin De Bruyne have resulted in six goals so far in the Prem this term. Even when ignoring numbers the striker’s style of play is clear – minimal touches of the ball, bullying centre halves and getting into the right position to tap the ball into the net. City are now starting to look like a complete team, with quality in all areas of the pitch able to exploit and abuse rival teams all just to find the Norwegian ready to put the icing on the cake in front of goal.

However, despite all of this, it’s not Manchester City sitting at the top of English football – it’s Martin Odegaard’s Arsenal. Promoted to club captain in July of last year and now spearheading the most dominant team in England to a potential Premier League title. Odegaard’s rise hasn’t perhaps been as meteoric as his compatriot’s, and could even be considered as more of a revival, but the pairs’ respective influence on a football pitch are more than comparable. Despite playing in a deeper role than Erling Haaland, it’s clear that Odegaard knows just how to find the net, as well as how to put the ball on a silver platter for his teammates.

It would be easy to forget that Odegaard is only two years Haaland’s senior as, while he may still look only 13, even casual football fans remember the hype surrounding this player when he came on for La Liga giants Real Madrid at just 16 years and 156 days old, replacing the Cristiano Ronaldo way back in 2015. We’ve been hearing about this kid for nearly 10 years, but for the majority of that time it seemed he was starting to slip away into mediocrity – another player destroyed by the pressure of such huge expectation. Madrid shipped him away to the Netherlands in 2017 for a loan at Heerenveen, where he failed to impress – scoring just two goals all season. The following season he continued his Dutch tour with a loan at Vitesse, this time managing eight goals in seven less games, but still only showing glimpses of his talent. Still only 20 years old, Madrid decided to test the youngster on home soil, sending him to Real Sociedad for the season. 31 games and just four goals later he returned to Real Madrid – looking condemned to fall in and out of the squad before being released and picked up on a free. It wasn’t until Arsenal decided to take a chance on him that he came back into the public eye.

A struggling Arsenal team were able to offer him first team football and that, as well as Mikel Arteta’s vision with the club, was enough to convince the Norwegian to England in January of 2021. 2 years later, with the loan move being made permanent to the tune of £35 million, and he’s one of the league’s best players with consistently brilliant performances coming with every game week. If it is Arsenal perched at the top of the table come May, it will be him lifting the trophy and bringing it back to North London.

Erling Haaland, however, has always been familiar with life in England. Born in Leeds to a Norwegian mother and father (more on him soon), Erling spent the first three years of his life up north as dad Alfie turned out for Manchester City. City’s current quality is a far cry from the team Alfie was part of, which yoyo’d between the Championship and the Prem during his three seasons at the club. City paid just around £4 million for the midfielder, but it never would’ve been known that the knock on effect of this move would result in the club signing the worlds best number nine 22 years later.

Erling burst on to the scene akin only to a young Micah Richards. He was the top goal scorer of the U-20 World Cup for Norway in 2019, despite only playing three games and not scoring until the third (Which probably had something to do with putting nine in the back of the net in that game). Ever since then there’s been eyes on him from every one involved in football and his stock has rose astronomically. His stint at RB Salzburg showed he was capable of playing at the highest level in Europe and his season and a half at Dortmund made him the most highly sought out player on the planet. A release clause put into his contract when he signed meant he was going on the cheap too. It was eventually Manchester City that got the signature, a club with obvious ties to his family and upbringing.

It’s not overly clear what is happening in Norway for two of football’s brightest young stars to have hailed from their academy’s. Perhaps there is something in the water, or perhaps they’re both some kind of experiment, but one thing is clear – a Norwegian player will be holding the Premier League trophy at the end of the season.

by Matt Groom

The red half of Merseyside beat Manchester United 7-0 at Anfield on Sunday evening in a record-breaking match that the reds won’t soon forget in a hurry.

Goals from Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino sealed an unexpected thrashing on The Red Devils.

Liverpool were looking to gain on their top four rivals as the pursuit for a Champions League spot intensifies with Fulham, Tottenham and Newcastle all losing away from home over the weekend.

A recent pick up in form for the Kopites injected a glimmer of hope that Manchester United would not get their first win at Anfield since the scouser Wayne Rooney got the winner back in early 2016.

United started off brightly with Diogo Dalot whipping a ball into the box for Bruno Fernandes, who headed it across goal and narrowly missed making the visitors go 1-0 up.

As it was looking like the first half was going to end in a stalemate, Gakpo had other ideas. From 40 yards out Andy Robertson cleverly passed the ball through several players to reach the number 18, who patiently waited to put the ball away to make it 1-0.

The red side of Manchester were barely able to get accustomed to the second half before Núñez doubled Liverpool’s lead. Fabinho dinked the ball to Salah, who tried to cross the ball in, but he was blocked by Luke Shaw. The Red Devils unlucky streak would continue as it rebounded to Harvey Elliot, who passed it to Núñez to smartly head it away for their second.

The magicians from Merseyside gave the mancunians no rest as a mere three minutes later Salah left Lisandro Martinez feeling dizzy after taking him for a spin. He was clear through on the right-hand side and passed it to Gakpo who scored from a very tight angle to make it 3-0 to Liverpool.

With the momentum clearly blowing towards the kop end the scousers were desperate for their team to take advantage and the players were determined to deliver even more. A poor Manchester United corner gave the reds the opportunity to do just that. The on-form Núñez slid in Salah who hit a booming shot from inside the box that rattled off of the crossbar and into the net.

It only took the reds nine minutes to dampen the away team’s spirit even more as Jordan Henderson crossed the ball in for Núñez, who headed it in to make it five.

The Egyptian king couldn’t resist getting down on the scoresheet again to make it eleven for the season so far. It was a scramble for the ball inside the box, but it bounced of Firmino to Salah, who made it six.

It was all smiles for Mo Salah this week as he broke yet another Liverpool record by becoming the highest all time premier league goal scorer for the club in the Premier League with 129 goals in 205 appearances.

Just when they thought the torture was over and it couldn’t get any worse, Firmino added insult to injury by slotting away a clever ball from Salah with his signature no look style to make it a record breaking 7-0 in this fixture.

After it was announced this week that Firmino will leave at the end of the season, Liverpool fans will hope that he will score many more before the Brazilian that joined back when Brendan Rogers was at the front of the helm departs.

The boys in red yet again have left Manchester United red in the face after two hours of utter humiliation that they can only hope is forgotten about quickly.