On February 29, Liverpool FC players, the manager, owners and hundreds of thousands of the club’s fans will match to the Wembley stadium to collect the League Cup trophy. I say collect because I don’t expect Cardiff to do a Birmingham on Liverpool. Seriously.
This is after one Craig Bellamy fired the Reds past Manchester City and into their first major, and minor, cup final since 2006 when they lost to AC Milan in the Champions League final.
Born in Cardiff, Wales, the 32-year-old grew up playing street football in the Welsh capital and had his first stint with Bristol Rovers as a nine-year-old before making a move to Norwich City. He debuted for the Canaries against Arsenal on 15 March 1997 and went on to score 32 goals in 84 matches for them.
Since then, the winger-cum-striker has played for six different clubs including Newcastle, Celtic, Blackburn Rovers, West Ham, Manchester City and Liverpool.
On Thursday night, he was the cream of King Kenny’s crop who proved to all the doubters and naysayers that Liverpool is still one of the best clubs in world football. The summer free transfer was menacing at best and it’s hard to argue whether Vincent Kompany could have had any better day in office than his understudy Stefan Savic who experienced a torrid time against the Welshman.
Bellamy was the only infield player over the age of 30 years that Damien Comolli and Kenny Dalglish brought into the club in a busy summer transfer window which saw Liverpool flex and stretch their financial muscle to the limit. Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam, Jose Enrique and Andy Caroll are some of the big-money signings that the Anfield club have purchased recently.
And while the No 39 has been impressive in his 16 appearances for the KOPS scoring five goals in his last five matches, his younger colleagues have only faltered to deceive.
Aside from Jose Enrique, the other players have struggled to impress the Anfield crowd. Downing is yet to find the back of the net, Charlie Adam has been inconsistent while Hendo is showing signs of improvement but hasn’t provided any spark yet.
And what can you say of Andrew Thomas? Oh, that’s Andy Caroll. Four goals in 25 appearances says everything. Young, err… talented, British and has the potential to improve. Very befitting of FSG’s transfer policy. But ask any Kopite who they would rather have; a 32-year-old who is a pure amalgam of speed, a cool head finisher and a tenacious runner, or a gangly 23-year-old light weight with a poor first touch?
You know the answer. I don’t mean to say Liverpool should buy old players. But should they need young , talented British players, the LFC Academy is awash with young talent. Push the lads to the first team already.
And That's thesteifmastertake!!
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