That’s it then.
The sight of competitive football is coming over the hill as our heroes completed pre-season (I’m discounting the game against Royal Madrid) with a draw against Inter Milan. If we play them against this season then we have done our job over the next few weeks.
The aim for August is still to be in Europe by the end of it.
The game wore the clothes of a celebration of 125 YEARS OF UNBROKEN EXISTENCE, of 50 years of competing in Europe and a celebration of winning the European Cup. That didn’t seem to fool those who stayed away for seeing it as a glorified training session.
The low crowd had me wondering the reasons why we no longer ‘do’ friendlies. In the years proceeding blanket Tv coverage a home friendly was the first chance of the new season to see the team and have a look at any new signings. We can now see our team play anytime, anywhere and new signings are judged before they have kicked a ball for us due to the rise of Football Manager.
Are the days of these games being money makers over? The Nerazzurri are a shadow of the Mourinho halcyon Serie A and Champs League winning days. Drastic cost cutting – something that is common in Italy now – of a wage bill that topped 191m Euros in 2010/11 has seen them promote a youth coach and scrape Europa League qualification.
Were they not an attractive opposition? Nostalgic, yes. Top drawer enough to the attract the kids in their droves? Nah. Madrid or Barca are the only two I can think that would see CP bursting out the seams like an over populated couch.
As I sit tonight and watch Liverpool v Spurs in Baltimore I can’t help thinking that we would be better letting others bare the cost of organising and hosting these games. At least we would then get a fee.
To the game.
Kris Commons scored a cracker. A Victor Wayama challenge saw an Inter player fly through the air like he had been hit by a car and it was great to see us wearing white socks. We looked fit and if that was our best pre-season performance I’m glad I have ignored most of them.
One word rating of my top three performers.
The goals.
