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We hate to say this but last week’s prediction from Preview Percy to the effect that the result up at Anfield would depend on the mood of the match officials was right. I bet he mentions it in this, his take on Saturday’s visit of Southampton...

Next up we play host to Southampton. It’s a lovely 3pm Saturday kick-off and, it appears to be another quiet weekend for Pudding Mill Lane with the DLR shut between Stratford and West India Quay.




So Southampton then. The words that leap to mind are “oh dear”. They are in severe danger of breaking all sorts of records for being the worst team ever in the Premier League era.

Their relegation after 31 games is already a Premier League record and, although they have six games left to amass the two points that would take them to 12 and make them officially “not as bad as that Derby team that year” such has been their season it would be no surprise to see them come up short in that respect.

They’ve won just the twice all season, at home to Everton back in November and away at Ipswich at the beginning of February. Since beating Ipswich, the only point they have gained was in a 1-1 draw at home to Palace at the start of this month. Apart from that it’s been red ink all the way, with the 3-1 defeat to Spurs on 6 April being enough to seal their fate.

That defeat was also enough to seal the fate of manager Ivan Juric, who had taken over in December after the dismissal of Russell Martin. His 18-month contract was clearly not enough to cover the twin embarrassments of being relegated and losing to Tottenham and he was sent on his way.

They are currently in the caretaker hands of Simon Rusk who is running the show with the assistance of Adam Lallana. It’s Rusk’s second spell with the brown coat, having taken charge for a week or two after the sacking of Martin in December.

They did some business during the recent window but most of the deals appear to have been aimed at bringing in young talent who might be useful in next season’s Championship. All of which nevertheless means that Daisy has had to take time out from watching her racehorse (which amazingly came second last week) and do some work for a change.

In all the shuffling of the deck at least the arrival of Brazilian full-back, Wellington Santos didn’t cost them anything. It is the norm for Brazilian players to go by a single-word nickname but one has to question the lack of imagination that prompted them to go for “Wellington” but there you go. He arrived on the expiry of his contract with Sao Paulo and after a month or so to acclimatise he made his debut in the win over Ipswich, which is about as good as it’s been for him.

They definitely had one eye on the future in bringing in French Under 18 defender Joachim Kayi Sanda, paying €5m to French third division outfit Valenciennes in the process. He has yet to make an appearance, perhaps understandably given the gulf there must be between the French third tier and the Premier League.

Incidentally Daisy tells me that Valenciennes play in the Stade du Hainaut, meaning that in the unlikely event that he gets selected this weekend his family will have a quick journey along the Central Line to come and watch him. I wonder about that girl, sometimes.




Another who went straight to the academy set-up was Nigerian winger/striker Victor Udoh who arrived from Royal Antwerp for an undisclosed fee which, unusually appears to have remained undisclosed. Again don’t expect to see him this weekend.

The prize for the most unusual signing must go to Japanese 18 year-old striker Rento Takaoka. Despite his name suggesting a loan deal, he’s arrived on a permanent deal - his last team being Nissho Gakuen High School, who wouldn’t actually let him go to Southampton until he had finished his homework.

There were a couple of loan signings. They went back to France to bring in Danish international Albert Groenbaek. The 23 year-old midfielder was another who made his debut in the away win at Ipswich but his progress has been hindered by a tendon problem and he is listed as unavailable until further notice.

Given Daisy’s propensity for playing practical jokes on me, I did do a bit of my own research when she submitted the name Izzet Furkan Malak as a loan signing. But yes he is real. Again we won’t be seen on Saturday as he has arrived from sister-club Goztepe in Turkey so they can run the rule over him with a view to him moving permanently in the summer.

On the absence front, former Hammer Flynn Downes will be available once more after a 10x yellow card ban. There is a doubt over striker Paul Onuachu whose ankle problem means he is only 50/50 for selection whilst Charlie Taylor is also ruled out with a groin problem.

And on we move to the Wild and Wacky World Of Association Football. And whenever I am short of a story for this section I can always rely on the authorities to come up with something daft.

Whilst everyone is getting ready for next year’s World Cup, a row is already beginning to brew over the 2030 tournament. Although nominally to be held in Spain, Morocco and Portugal, the opening games of the tournament will be played in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Whilst that itself is a little daft, there is at least an underlying reason - that being the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first tournament in Uruguay back in 1930. And no, I wasn’t there.

Now that’s not good enough for the South American Federation CONMEBOL. They have decided that having the odd game over there is not enough and are arguing for an increase in the number of teams in the tournament to a whopping – and ridiculous – 64. I mean next year’s 48 team tournament will be bad enough, but 64!?

The thing about the World Cup is that it’s special - or at least supposed to be. A competition that takes forever to finish is likely to induce tournament fever in even the most ardent of watchers, something that the TV companies bankrolling the whole thing will note with interest.




Neighbouring federation CONCACACACACAF have already opposed the idea publicly, muttering some stuff about damage to football’s ecosystem, whatever that is. Still there is one thing of which we can be sure: If they do increase the number of teams Scotland still won’t qualify.

And so to us. Well I did say that there was no way that PGMOL were going to allow anything other than a home win last weekend and my prediction was spot-on. We were right – ed. (Though frankly, “Liverpool get advantage from suspicious refereeing” is never going to be the hardest prediction in the world for anyone to make is it?)

Having watched the recording of the match back again though what struck me was how breathtakingly one-sided the commentary is for their games. I mean at the best of times Jamie Carragher shows all the signs of possession of a room-temperature IQ, but stick him in front of a Liverpool match (and WHY would you do that?) and you start to become embarrassed for him.

What was more disconcerting is the TV companies’ (and it’s not just Sky) strange reluctance to look too closely at anything that might reflect poorly on their beloved team. Their first goal, for example.

Now whilst the scorer was in the clear, there was a player in the middle who appeared to have a leg offside as the ball was played in. Since the player took Todibo away from the eventual goalscorer, there was a clear case of the move requiring a VAR review. However, mysteriously, VAR looked the other way. Now of course it may not have been offside but a quick check would have proved the matter one way or another.

As for why there wasn’t a check, well you’ll have to draw your own conclusions on that one. As ever at Anfield you just need to ask one question: What would have happened had it occurred at the other end? And we all know the answer to that.

As ever the home side were employing the full range of gamesmanship in order to protect their lead, the best one being Van Dijk throwing a second ball back onto the pitch in order to delay a restart. If only the laws of the game allowed for a referee to caution a player for such an offence.

Their winner came - of course - from a corner that shouldn’t have been given and in the aftermath of a two-handed shove from Van Dijk which became in the “Yes Minister” style of irregular verbs utilised by the media to avoid criticising this most bent of clubs “a little nudge”.

Even Carragher was eventually forced to acknowledge a spot of wrongdoing. It was noticeable that back in the studio Roy Keane expressed surprise that the matter hadn’t been referred to VAR – though he was quickly shushed lest anyone notice.




It was a decent performance requiring only the efforts of an honest set of match officials to bring back a point or three, which makes it all the more annoying. As for Liverpool? Well it speaks volumes that, even in a season without any real competition, they still had need of PGMOL assistance.

On the injury front, it’s the same three stuck back in the infirmary In the form of Michail Antonio, Crysencio Summerville and Aaron Cresswell with everyone else available. There has been much speculation over whether it’s time to give the BFG a start.

Received wisdom is that the medical guys don’t think he has a full 90 in him as yet and that starting him from the bench would be the wisest move for the time being - though one might also think that if you’re going to start him against anyone this weekend’s opponents are as good as any.

Which brings us to the prediction. Well with relegation confirmed there was a thought that they might get their act together and gird their loins in a bid to avoid breaking that unwanted points record. What followed was a 3-0 home reverse to Villa.

Yes, there is always our traditional reputation as the team you want to play when you have an unwanted sequence to end, however, my view is that they have just about had it up to here with this season and just want to get to the end of it as soon as possible.

So with that in mind, and if the match officials can find it within themselves to apply the laws of the game rather than concentrating on game manipulation, I would think that this one will go to form with three points coming our way.

On that basis the £2.50 I was going to use to buy Carragher a brain cell to keep his existing one company will instead be going on a wager for a home win. Let’s not get carried away. Call it 2-0 to us Mr Winstone, shall we?

Enjoy the game!




When Last We met At The Olympic: Won 1-0 (Premier League April 2023)

Aguerd opened his account for the club with a header that took the usual four-and-a-half hours to check on VAR. Otherwise it was a game that will live long in the memories only of those who had been selected for mascot duties for the day.

Referee: Andrew Kitchen

This will be his first ever Premier League game. One might think that to be a good thing. Unfortunately, they have pared him with Anthony Taylor who, as fourth official, will no doubt prevent the rookie from doing anything sensible like applying the laws of the game honestly.

Danger Man: Paul Onuachu

Although he is an injury doubt he was an awkward customer in the reverse fixture at Christmas.

Percy and Daisy’s Southampton Fact Of The Week Type Thing

In 1620 a load of religious nutters fed up with not being legally allowed to make lives a misery for anyone who didn’t agree with their particular brand of mediaeval oppression hooped on a boat called the Mayflower at Southampton to set off to found a colony in America. 405 years later look at the resulting mess. It’s all your fault Southampton.

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