Fanhood

If you didn't already know it, I'm a Liverpool fan (A red of the non-mancunian breed). I kept up with our 4-nil thumping while returning from a road trip with my wife soberly passing on the scores as I drove (more on her Man U delight later). The result got me thinking about what fans go through, the office derision after your team's loss, the heartache, the pain and occasionally the sweet taste of victory or success. 
I've got a bit of practice, ask anyone who knows me. False dawns with Roy Evans, the French renaissance with Houllier that never was, the Rafalution that almost was, to the dark day's under Hodgson last season so I have some sympathies for Arsenal fans (Goners anyone).
This season they have had their worst start since the '50's with the worst goal difference in the division but they should take respite from knowing that next weekend at kickoff they'll start nil-nil against Bolton. I keep telling my missus who's a Man Utd fan (save this for another day hey!) that being a fan is more about keeping your head up when your team is losing and the chips are down than when you're beating everyone left right and center and top of the league. I've got a colleague in the office who's a Leeds fan and is in no hurry to see them in the Prem, a dawg who is a Fulham fan but I truly doff my hat to the lower league fans (the paying kind). I caught an NASL (US lower league game) the other day and was surprised at how there where no empty seats and then they're all those non-league travelling fans. So to all the suffering fans out there your "Istanbul" moment will come and trust me it's much sweeter when it's rarer.


Footie Seer
My wife's a bit of a seer when it comes to footie, she can watch 5 mins of a game and predict who'll win. She has a history of calling games I'm watching and rarely gets it wrong, she's also anti-Torres and keeps  telling me the best thing that happened to LFC was getting 50 mill for El Nino in January. Apparently her "hex" on him is  the reason why he had only 1 prem goal for Chelsea so imagine her horror when today she calls "Torres can never score against Utd" and he goes and does (his miss seems to be getting more attention than his goal though). So for all those willing punters or if you just need some help in picking your fantasy team, you can get in touch and I can consult her on your behalf so you can be a witness to the full force of her "footie zen" except you plan to pick/bet on Torres.


In Closing ...
So I caught up with the scores of my Sunday league team (MFC)and the lads got beaten away so we stand on 1W and 2L from out first 3 games. First home game is next week hopefully we'll get a home win and push on. 


I have to pick out my result/performance of the week - Napoli beating Milan 3-1 and Cavani's hat-trick (should give my Inter pals something to smile about)


For anyone who's looking for some footie to listen to (footie audio is a dying art form, I remember live audio commentaries growing up and that was raw tension, drama, adrenalin pumping stuff) I do have two recommendations.


BBC's 5 live Football Daily
Soccernet's podcast


The advantage of podcasts is you can subscribe to them via iTunes, stream online or download the MP3 file to listen to later. Happy listening.