The Truth.... Finally

THE TRUTH..... Finally. The survivors, the families of the 96 who lost their lives, the loved ones, the friends, the people of the city of Liverpool and all supporters of Liverpool FC saw the Truth finally made public to the rest of the world. Finally there has been acknowledgment from the government of the cover up and finally the names of the 96 victims as well as all Liverpool supporters who attended Hillsborough on April 15th 1989 have been cleared of ANY wrong doing whatsoever. David Cameron said “On behalf of the Government – and indeed our country – I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.” It is a travesty that it has taken this long for the truth to come out, but finally, FINALLY, it has come out. 

People who have watched any decent documentary, the TV dramatization by Jimmy McGovern or read any of the true stories of what happened that day will have already been fully aware that there was injustice to fight against. Those who asked the question of "why will they not just let it go" will hopefully have finally received their answer today too. I can only hope that small minded idiots who let petty club, city or personal rivalries make excuses for their disgusting chants of "Murderers" or "You killed your own fans" will take a long, hard look at themselves today. I am aware that this is only a minority in any club but I wont need to remind Liverpool fans that it was only this year that fans of a certain blue London club interrupted the anniversary's minute silence with their disgusting chants. The mind-set for people outside of Liverpool to believe the un-true version events was orchestrated by the Police Service and facilitated by the media in particular The S*n. The report has shown that there was a conscious police effort “to develop and publicise a version of events that focused on…allegations of drunkenness, ticketlessness and violence.” This clearly shows exactly what has lead to the widely accepted myth that it was the Liverpool supporters themselves to blame. Many media outlets reported the lies, however, The S*n (which was the most read newspaper in England at the time sensationalized this further with a banner headline "The Truth" which lead a story containing nothing but lies. It is known that this headline was written by Kelvin McKenzie, the rag's editor at the time. McKenzie today issued an apology which was described by leader of the HFSG as "too little too late". Hopefully, the fact that the report has proven and the Prime minister himself has stated that these stories are complete lies will force people to forget the lies they were fed back then and adjust their minds to the actual truth. 

This report is of course only the start. The reports findings have proven that the verdict of Accidental Death in all cases is a farce and a thundering disgrace. The 3.15 cut off point robbed a number of the families of justice and meant that any evidence after this time has never been considered by any court. Speaking at the vigil this evening, Anne Williams made clear that she will now be submitting the evidence she has collected to the Attorney General, for the 6th time and the 6th Attorney General, in the hope that the verdict in relation to her own son will be reversed and a new inquest can begin.

The Truth has finally come out, but this is just the beginning. The fight for justice will continue...

I've put some of the reaction from some of the important people from today below as well as links to the full report and access to the fully disclosed documents.

Sheila Coleman, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign: "Of course [the apology] is welcome, because it is an acknowledgement that Liverpool, the bereaved families and the fans have been telling the truth for years and yet have been considered liars. Without doubt the inquest verdicts have to be quashed. David Cameron batted this back to the attorney general. The attorney general needs to surely, with the evidence presented to him today and the evidence previously presented to him, must quash the inquest verdicts in all cases. With the clear evidence that fans could have been saved - and the evidence is there - he needs to give all of those 96 victims their right under law, the right to a fair hearing. It needs a full inquiry into how they died."

Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, whose son James died, told the AP news agency: "This is what the families and the fans have been fighting for 23 years. Without the truth, you cannot grieve and where there is deceit, you get no justice."

Trevor Hicks, who lost two daughters in the disaster: "The truth is out today, justice starts tomorrow." He added that the families will pursue "any avenue" in their search for "accountability". Mr Hicks said that three people fainted when relatives saw the report. During a press conference with victims' relatives, he said the families "knew nothing about the incompetencies of the ambulance service until today", and that while they had been "staggered" by the level of incompetencies, he did not blame "the guys on the shop floor". Mr Hicks also rejected former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie's apology over the newspaper's coverage of the disaster as "too little, too late".

Anne Williams lost her son Kevin at Hillsborough. She has campaigned tirelessly for justice, forming the Hope for Hillsborough campaign. Previous requests for a second inquest into her son's death have been refused. Speaking at a vigil on Wednesday in Liverpool, Mrs Williams said that her lawyers would be submitting papers to the attorney general demanding a second inquest into the death of Kevin and insisted "they can't refuse me this time". She warned the establishment she "will never go away", adding: "I want justice for the 96."

The Right Reverend James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool and chairman of the panel: "The documents disclosed to and analysed by the panel show that the tragedy should never have happened. There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath their were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame on to the fans. The panel's detailed report shows how vulnerable victims, survivors and their families are when transparency and accountability are compromised. My colleagues and I were from the start of our work impressed by the dignified determination of the families."

Tom Werne, Liverpool FC chairman said: "On behalf of myself, John (Henry, club owner) and everyone at the club, I would like to extend our thoughts and prayers on this hugely significant and deeply emotional day to everyone affected by the Hillsborough disaster. Today, the world has heard the real truth about what happened at Hillsborough. As a football club, we will continue to remember those who died and support the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day. We hope that today's findings will give some comfort to the families and survivors, and go some way to addressing some of the key questions that have hung over the Hillsborough tragedy for the last 23 years."

Liverpool Football Club said in a statement: "Liverpool commends the Hillsborough Independent Panel report which acknowledges the avoidable catastrophic failures before, during and after the disaster. The club also welcomes the prime minister's apology to the families and survivors on behalf of the government and await the attorney general's pending review of the report. After 23 long and painful years, our fans have finally been fully exonerated of all blame. Today, the world knows what we have always known, that Liverpool fans were not just innocent on that terrible day, but that there was reprehensible and hurtful misrepresentation of the truth. Liverpool Football Club would like to thank the Hillsborough Independent Panel for its rigorous work over the past two-and-a-half years and for publishing a comprehensive report based on the in-depth research and analysis into hundreds of thousands of documents."

LINK TO THE PANELS FULL REPORT 

(to download a copy, right click and choose "Save As")

Q&A for the Season Ahead

A lot of websites and forums run Q&A sessions with their members/writers at this time of year which focuses on the year ahead. Well as this is a one man operation I decided to write my most schizophrenic article to date.

The idea of this really is to show what my thinking is and put my hopes and expectations on record so we can look back on this, maybe mid season and, at the end of the season to show how woefully incorrect I have been on all fronts

Liverpool

How many points can Liverpool get this season?

Well last seasons paltry total was 52 points, it seems we have a lot of work ahead to improve. In saying that though we were unlucky on many occasions last season. I think it wont take that much to improve that total by 10 or more points. I’ll stick my neck on the line and say 68.

What would your starting 11 be as of right now?

Same as Rodgers’ against Gomel with Joe Allen coming in for Shelvey.

Reina, Johnno, Enrique, Agger, Skrtel, Lucas, Allen, Gerrard, Downing, Suarez, Borini

What position do we need to strengthen before window closes?

I still think we may still be short up from (especially if big Andy leaves). The links with the loan signing of Barcelona youngster Christian Tello look promising. I think we may also be short a skilful wide forward who can beat a man, but that may not be so important with the full-backs bombing on and certainly capable of beating a man. I would like to see us add another striker, whether or not big Andy stays.

Who would you be happy to see leave before the window closes?

We’ve already allowed more to leave than we have had join so far so I wouldn’t want to deplete the numbers too much. Having seaid that, I dont think it would be in anyway detrimental to see Charlie Adam and Joe Cole leave the club.

Which Youngsters can make the breakthrough this year?

I think everybody is excited by the prospect of Raheem Sterling finally making the breakthough. I can see him getting some more game time but I wouldn’t expect him to make the jump to starting a lot of games just yet. I think maybe 10 appearances or so will help his progress greatly. I think that without a back-up left back to Jose Enrique this could be a really big year for Jack Robinson. I think he looks a real prospect and should at least find a regular spot on the bench this season.

How Many games will Danny Agger play?

Providing he stays with the club, I think his fitness issues are now behind him. Hopefully he wont be asked to play 2 games in a week unless it is extremely important. Once he is managed right I see no reason why he cant improve on last years record and play in appx 30 league games.

 

How many goals will Borini score?

From the limited sample size we have had so far it seems he knows where the back of the net is. He has played in England before so hopefully it wont take him long to get used to the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. I wouldn’t like to put too much pressure on him. I think everyone would be more than satisfied to see him score 10/12 league goals this campaign. If anything happens to Suarez meaning he ends up playing a more central role he may even achieve more.

How many goals will Suarez score?

I am convinced that the team will be better set up this year to provide chances for Luis. Last season it seemed at times that he was trying too hard. He was required to make his own chances mostly and it seemed that by the time it came to get a shot away he was tired this resulted in a tame, or off target, shot. This season he will hopefully be able to play a lot of games with Stevie G, there were roots of a partnership starting to take hold in pre-season. Realistacally we probably shouldn’t hope for more than 15 goals, which would be an improvement on last year. However, I’m going to be bold and predict that our Uruguayan will break the 20 goal mark.

Will Andy Carroll stay this season (If so, how many games will he start)?

Its looking more and more likely that Andy will stay at the club. I dont think that Rodgers’was as desperate to get rid as many have said, I think its more a case that he was a saleable asset and so he would have cashed in. Without a concrete offer though I think he will stay. If he does, I dont think Rodgers is the kind of man who will ignore him purely because his supposed inability to fit the system. I think if he stays he will get a decent chance to prove himself. Not that this will be easy, barring injury to others his appearances will be sporadic and he showed last season that he usually needs a run to hit his full potential. There is a theory that all this transfer news has simply been orchestrated by Rodgers as a motivational tool for Andy. I think he will get 8/10 league starts plus a fair few sub appearances. He will get a lot of games in Europe and the cups too.

Premier League Overall

Who will win the League?

I think it will be between Utd and City again with City using the experience they picked up last season to eventually win the title

Who will make up the top 4?

I think its most likely to be City, Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea though not necessarily in that order. If Brendan Rodgers gets his ideas across quickly and we pick up some strong early results it may be possible for us to challenge but I think its too early to realistically expect top 4. Spurs are in a similar situation right now with AVB.

Who will be relegated?

I would love to see Fat Sam fail, but I think he probably has too much experience for that. I hope things work out for Steve Clarke at West Brom but I’m afraid they may be in danger. Other than that, Southampton look quite weak and I think Wigan could this time fail in their usual bid for late survival.

Which team will be the surprise package?

I think Villa should improve a lot under Lambert. But I am confident Reading will be very strong under Brian McDermott, maybe not top half but i'm sure they will be safe from relegation with a few weeks to spare.

Who will win Player of the Year?

Steven Gerrard now that he’s been returned to the advanced position he was so successful in under Rafa Benitez he will score a lot, create a lot and he’s liked by the general public in a way Luis Suarez can never be.

Who will be the first manager to be sacked?

I think its between Roberto Di Matteo, Mark Hughes and Steve Clarke...... I’m going to go with RDM.

Fantasy Premier League 2012/13

With the new season almost set to get underway, and along with that a lot more blogging from me. I thought I would start off the season by creating another league for the readers of The Red Article. We'll have periodic updates on the site which will hopefully keep it competitive throughout the season.

If you were in the league last year all you need to do is set up a team and you'll be added automatically

If not, its quick and easy to set up:

Just click on this link http://fantasy.premierleague.com and create your team. once you've created your team click on "Leagues", then click on "Join League", select "Private League and click next. Next, enter the League Code 529590-287546

This Year I have also set up a Head-to-Head league the code for this is 537744-281033

Once thats done your all set up! Feel free to pass the league code to anyone who wants to join.

Brendan Rodgers

Well, following the quotes from the Swansea board it seems inevitable that Irishman Brendan Rogers will soon be announced as Liverpool FCs new manager. Its an appointment that will disappoint many, mainly due to his name being quite low profile,  but its one which seems to make some sense when you look at it more closely. I would just like to make clear at this point (i dont think it is any secret) that my preference would have been the return of Rafa, but I can understand the reasons why FSG would have avoided this. I’m disappointed that they decided to not even discuss the role, or seek any discussions with him, but I don't think this is the correct time to discuss that in full. In the same way that we had to accept the exit of Kenny, I will have to accept this and look forward with this new appointment,

Over the last few weeks as the number of names bandied about increased daily, I must admit that one name which i paid very little attention to was that of the (then) Swansea manager. In fact that may have had a lot to do with statements released very soon into the search process which stated that he had declined the opportunity to speak to the Liverpool Owners. After this statement, the odds fluctuated between candidates with Roberto Martinez, Rafa Benitez, Louis Van Gaal and Jurgen Klopp all featuring as the favourite at one time or another. My attention has only turned back to the man who (it seems) is set to be appointed over the last day or two. What I will say is that the more I read about him, the more I like him.

Here’s a description of his early life from Wiki: Rodgers was born in Carnlough to parents Malachy and Christina,the eldest of five brothers.He was educated at St. Patrick's College in Ballymena. He played gaelic football and hurling in Carnlough before taking up football when he was 13. He grew up as a supporter of Celtic.

His career as a player was brief due him being forced to retire at the age of 20 due to injury. From that point on he focused on coaching, first with the youth teams of Reading. He then moved to Chelsea under Jose Mourinho where he also looked after their youth teams. His first managerial role was with Watford, where he failed to make many waves guiding them to a 13th place finish in the Championship. He then re-joined Reading as their manager, but he left the club by mutual consent following a poor run of results after just 7 months in charge.  

In his time out of work his spent his time studying football in Holland and Spain, what he learned was that possession is the key. He built his football principles on possession, the ethos being that if we have the ball they cant score. If we lose the ball we get it back quickly and high up the pitch and build again. Hi style of play is very much in the mould of the Barcelona and Spain brand of Tiki-Taka passing. He resolved to commit completely to these beliefs.

QUOTE: “My philosophy is to play creative attacking football with tactical discipline, but you have to validate that with success. I like to control games. I like to be responsible for our own destiny. If you are better than your opponent with the ball you have a 79 per cent chance of winning the game. For me it is quite logical. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, if you don’t have the ball you can’t score.”

QUOTE: “My idea coming into this club [Swansea] was to play very attractive attacking football but always with tactical discipline,” he said. “People see the possession and they see the penetration, the imagination and the creativity, but we’ve had 23 clean sheets this year. So in nearly 50 per cent of our games we haven’t conceded a goal.”

QUOTE: “The example of the Barcelona model was a great influence and inspiration to me. When I was at the Chelsea academy, that was how my players would play, with that high, aggressive press, combined with the ability to keep the ball.”

He was next appointed to the manager’s seat at Swansea City where he lead them to become the first ever Welsh team promoted to the Premier League. He certainly implemented his philosophy to the Swans, this is evidenced by their statistics this season where they completed 17,881 passes, a figure much higher than Liverpool’s.... or Man Utd’s... or even Arsenal! In fact the only team with a higher number of passes this season were Champions Man City. His team also managed to keep 13 clean sheets in their first top flight season too, this is 2 more than Liverpool managed.

As I said earlier, its not the most high profile appointment and at the beginning of this search its not the one I was calling for, but as I’ve found out more about him the more I get on board. As it seems that we have not got the resources to compete with Man City et al with regard to investment it's going to take a different approach if we are to to reach the summit. I quite like the idea of the new structure of our club, its a forward thinking idea and a fresh new start for the club and the team. If you're doubting Rodger’s credentials, it's not hard to identify other managers who have had huge success when appointed to their first job at a big club, Guardiola at Barca, Rafa at Valencia, Mourinho at Porto, hell even Kenny at Liverpool (first time of course). The appointment is definitely a gamble, but to be fair every one of the linked managers represented a gamble in one way or the other. This may also sound strange, but i've got to be honest here, there is something about this appointment which just feels right. There is no guarantee of success for Rodger’s, but I can guarantee one thing. I am prepared to offer my full support upon his appointment and I believe he has the tools necessary to succeed, whether that happens or not time will tell, but I think we can at least expect to see some beautiful football on the way to finding out.

Brendan Rodgers.... Welcome to L4!

Well Done Red Men!

Well thats it, its all turned around now. Kenny is the best manager we’ve had since... well.. Kenny. The glory days have returned and Liverpool are gonna win the league next year. If your sarcasm alarms haven't gone off yet, you might want to get them repaired. While we’ve not exactly achieved that, we certainly have improved, we've had a very difficult season in the league in which I accept we have under achieved, but in the cups, we've just been great. The bookies may have made us favourites for this game, but they were about the only ones who did. According to David Moyes the whole of England was behind his boys in blue, well if that was true I’m delighted we managed to disappoint the whole country. This one was certainly a game of 2 halves. I thought we started stronger, but Everton took control of the first half after 10 minutes and held that control through to the break. We came out the much stronger side in the second half though and eventually made our superiority tell to win the game late on. There was much to be happy about in this result, and performance. I’m going to try and look at some of them now.

We reminded the blues whats what.
It must be hard to be a blue. Even when they think they get the upper hand were always able to pull them back in some way. Its only 7 years ago when they finished above us in the league to qualify for the Champions League at our expense... or so they thought. We of course went and won Europe's premier competition that year and qualify by doing so. We also got the added joy of watching them fail to make it through to the their qualifier. They overtook us in the league a few weeks too, so we felt we better knock them out of the FA Cup. All I can say is thank god I’m red!

An important comeback
Of course Everton’s confidence coming into this game was only heightened by them taking the lead, I’m sure this moment seemed sweeter because it resulted from a mistake by our own ex Evertonian Jamie Carragher. I’ve got to be honest, I felt we still had a chance even when behind. It took a lot of patience and pressure to get back into the game. Where others may have panicked, we kept our cool to, in the end, force the win.

The Management.
It's clear Kenny has taken a lot of stick this season, and as I have admitted before he’s made mistakes. I was fearful that he had made another one in some of his selections to start this game but in the end he was vindicated and I was delighted to be proved wrong. Our shape was good and he made good decisions during the game to regain control when behind. If I doubted the initial selection of some I was in complete agreement with every substitution made. On the eve of the anniversary of Hillsborough it was a great feeling to see a man who has been, and continues to be, so instrumental in helping the families and the city and the city cope with such tragedy with that great big smile on his face. His face may have aged but that smile still defies his years.

Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll!
As every journo and commentator delighted in pointing out, our strike partnership for the game have taken a lot of stick this season. The reasons may differ, but they each, im sure, wanted to prove points. Well they certainly did that. Both had strong games and linked up to decent effect during the match. Andy got his second late headed winner in a week. I enjoyed Carra saying that this goal was worth 35 million on its own, but in fairness only time will tell if he ever proves to be worth the kind of money we spent. This was a decent place to start. At the very least he has secured a place in the folklore of the club and for that he should be proud. He has enough time to make some impact through the rest of the season and if he stays injury free over the summer, who knows how next season will turn out for him.

Wembley.
We waited a while before making our first appearance in new Wembley, but like the busses we've now been there twice in just a few weeks. We've secured 2 victories and who would bet against us securing a third in 3 weeks time? Anfield south, is proving to be a good hunting ground once more.