Liverpool banter 7

20 Jul 2026 11:24:03
Apparently, the squad flies out to the US today.

Interesting to see that Bradley, Leoni, Hugo, Bajcetic and even Ramsey are joining them whereas last season we chose to leave Chiesa at home (citing injury) and sent Joe Gomez home mid-tour.

Is that because US training facilities are better than Asia or is that just better/more inclusive man management from Iraola? Hmmm.

20 Jul 2026 12:33:50
Really like this, it costs more than a few £, but got to be good from a motivation/management viewpoint, and also tactical preparation, ensuring everyone's on the same page.

20 Jul 2026 12:37:05
I'd say it's to get the tactics across and unity.

20 Jul 2026 12:52:37
Slot was just preparing them for all the time off they was going to get in the season.
🤣

20 Jul 2026 13:01:51
Think this is just good team management, keeping everyone together helps build team unity, think it's a clever idea.

20 Jul 2026 13:25:51
I think that it is widely understood that Slot had very little in the way of personal skills. I think he probably thought that it was more important for them to carry on with their recovery regime, even if it meant leaving them back home.

Iraola is different. He has far more people skills and likely sees the benefit of a squad being together even if some of the players are not fit enough to play. I much prefer that approach. We need a squad that are well bonded and will fight for each other.

20 Jul 2026 13:37:37
It's a full club attitude. As a 15 year old in our academy right now. Are you going to be motivated to push yourself as much when we have a manager who didn't give youth a legitimate chance even when things were completely crap? A manager that never went to any youth games or trainings, allegedly? All while pushing academy prospects out of the club or ostracising them?

I think that is the biggest lesson the club can learn from the last couple of years. I think our academy still needs a bit of a rework overall from what I have read.

But I will take a local talent coming through any day of the week over a 100 mill signing. It just hits different. Obviously would and will celebrate all of Isak's goals this season, but would there be even more emotion if it was a Jaydon Danns or any other youngster that's come through academy? For me it certainly does anyway. But I also think the sport of football for me as a fan is not just about winning. I like to be emotionally invested and entertained which isn't always the case when winning and can be the case even when losing.

20 Jul 2026 14:42:24
Presumably the coaching staff selected the pre-season squad last year and the current coaching staff selected the pre-season squad this year. Trying to compare is pointless - different approaches in place.

20 Jul 2026 08:17:48
Now that soccer is over, can we get into football proper?

20 Jul 2026 11:05:30
What's Soccer????

20 Jul 2026 11:09:23
Amen, brother. Even tho the soccer was pretty good.

20 Jul 2026 11:41:14
Just seen on Sky Sports News, Villa have signed Gomes from Wolves. What happened, thought we had a shout there?

20 Jul 2026 11:56:02
We didn't shout loudly enough? 😉😂

20 Jul 2026 12:02:36
According to some online (i.e. clickbait) reports I saw, we turned down the opportunity to sign him even though he was keen, to go for Wharton instead - a DLP rather than a CDM.

20 Jul 2026 12:01:41
I'm glad that it's over because everything that is good about football, won, in the end. The Argentinians tried hard to dirty up the game even after the whistle, but they got what they deserved. And pumpkin head trying to stay in the photo frame after the presentations was truly cringeworthy.

20 Jul 2026 14:47:28
I thought it was really funny + basically the Argentinians weren't interested in Trump, or anybody else for that matter and the Spanish squad shook his hand and then just disregarded him.

He looked like the embarrassing, old uncle that everybody swerves at a family do. The absolute best way to handle the clown - acknowledge he's there and then ignore him - the best way to deal with his ego.

20 Jul 2026 03:15:46
I live in Brazil, my wife is Brazilian Colombian.

Pretty much all of South America hates Argentina and Argentinians and they have a reputation for being racist. Today's behaviour honestly doesn't surprise me at all.

It only surprises me just how often Argentina escapes punishment.

20 Jul 2026 04:10:04
Okie dokey.

20 Jul 2026 06:24:21
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the game yesterday for exactly this reason. Whilst no nation is perfect or free from bigots there does seem to be a pervasive culture there.
Also loved their reaction to the Rugby defeat 🤣

20 Jul 2026 08:02:32
I'm sure there's a few nice non racist ones out there, but their football team were not classy last night, that's for sure. Glad they lost.

20 Jul 2026 08:58:33
Yeah, let's just brush over how FIFA tried their hardest to not punish them for their behaviour throughout the entire tournament.

They got their comeuppance in the final, but they shouldn't have got past Egypt. A joint worst performance by FIFA and Argentina.

20 Jul 2026 09:13:19
The authorities really believed in cleanliness, didn't they? They even stopped play towards the end of normal play to remove a small turd from the pitch. I will say, however, they should have done it in the semi-final!

20 Jul 2026 09:23:26
Even Messi was at it, trying to get Cuccerella booked for apparently covering his mouth. Got what they deserved, zip. The sight of Fernandez waving his finger in innocence after the attack on Cubarsi says it all. In these games where we have no allegiance, I like to see a penalty shoot-out. On this occasion, just glad Argentina lost.

20 Jul 2026 10:04:12
I'm from Chile (based in Australia) and I can confirm: No South American nation likes Argentina, and I think now a lot of the world (in a football sense) doesn't like them either.

When that first Spain goal was ruled out, I feared the worst, but I'm so glad Spain got another one.

20 Jul 2026 10:09:12
What was worse, half-time show or Fantino's suit with trainers that were so white you would think they came from a Turkish dentist?

20 Jul 2026 11:35:30
I'm on holiday in Mexico currently, and every single person in the theatre at the hotel showing the game, bar a handful of Argentinians, wanted Spain to win and cheered when they scored and did. All nationalities... Brits, French, Mexicans, etc.

20 Jul 2026 11:13:20
Nevada, Argentina has always been hated in SA esp. by the countries that have our melanated brothers and sisters within their population like Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador etc. The hate is real.

And now that their reprehensible history and conduct has been outed to all the world during this WC, a ton of African Americans just hate them now due to their messy history with racism even if, they like Leo Messi as a player, icon and football (or soccer) legen.

20 Jul 2026 13:02:48
One of the reasons is that a lot of Argentineans think of themselves as Europeans, not Latinos (because of their Italian heritage). They've always been quite arrogant and looked down on the rest of South America.

At one point they also had a very strong economy in the 50s if I remember correctly.

They call themselves the Europe of South America. I call them the Europe of Temu lol 😆

19 Jul 2026 23:57:08.
Congratulations to Victor Munoz (And, Iraola, I guess) for the World Cup.

I can tell you now, as an ITK, he was indispensable. Spain would not have won the World Cup, if not for Munoz's heart and dedication throughout the competition. He wasn't tackled once. That is how good he was.

Don't check, believe me. Courtesy, of the new, ground-breaking, ITK, poster.

20 Jul 2026 01:33:28
To be fair, he looked a popular guy in the celebrations. Hoping that's an indicator that he is a good egg.

Looking forward to seeing him play. I was always hoping he would come on for Spain.

20 Jul 2026 07:24:45
The whole of Argentina need to ha g their heads in shame was a total disgrace the dark arts and blatant fouling a thought mobbing meant a yellow card in all fairness the referee should have been stronger from the 1st whistle which would have meant the players were not going to get away with any shenanigans which they did parades should have seen red earlier than he did a hope fernandez tries thay assault this seasons and see where it gets him Madrid should steer well clear of him his behaviour was a disgrace

20 Jul 2026 11:02:04
Had to take a deep breath to complete that sentence, Hunter.

20 Jul 2026 11:14:11
@Hunter, Argentina have never had any shame. Can't shame the shameless, man.

20 Jul 2026 14:42:17
They've had a bad reputation in football since '66. They've always been know as dirty cheats

19 Jul 2026 23:39:14.
Barcola move hotting up!

I think we could see a few ins and outs this week coming.

Also, like to see Macalister move on now too.

Just not good enough.

19 Jul 2026 23:52:22
Macca always throwing himself on the ground again with every little touch in the WC finals. Hope the club sells him, we don't need that in our midfield.

20 Jul 2026 06:30:37
Listen, I get what Macca does on occasions is infuriating, but he ain't on his own in that respect. Hopefully new laws come in that will encourage players to stay on their feet once they know they're not getting a free kick.

20 Jul 2026 07:12:36
Talk of a bid of £85m for Barcola.

20 Jul 2026 07:58:12
Doubt that will be enough.

20 Jul 2026 09:07:56
I'm not sure where this witch hunt for Macca came from Irish, but watching the WC final last night, he was actually one of the better ones for Argentina. Enzo Fernandes was 10 times worse than Macca, but in truth they were all dropping like flies.



I'm not saying he doesn't do it, I just don't understand how anyone could watch that game and pick Macca out for particular criticism for diving. Most of the Argentina players were far worse than him.

20 Jul 2026 09:25:06
The bottom line is, he's a Liverpool player, and in a few weeks' time he'll likely be pulling on a red shirt, so we will need to get behind him.

19 Jul 2026 23:38:18
I'm excited the World Cup is over because it allows the board to move on from complaining about international matches, to almost exclusively complaining about the transfer window and the Liverpool players they support, haha.

20 Jul 2026 09:46:04
I'd like to register my displeasure at people who complain about complaints. Now, where is that complaints form?
Cheers
Mr Irony.

19 Jul 2026 23:20:18
I’ve always thought Argentina were a dirty team but not god that was atrocious tonight by them, a complete shame to the sport the way they played all game no intention to do a thing but play for penalties, their behaviour at full time makes them look beyond petulant and sore losers, I hope FIFA throws the book at them and gives them suspensions and fines.

Thank goodness Spain won tonight not only being a Spanish fan but for football that they won!

They played fantastic against a team that was determined to disrupt and break up play

On a Premier League note, can’t wait for Arteta to not take inspiration from his country’s style of play and instead play like Argentina tonight and make his dark arts football even more dark.

20 Jul 2026 00:02:16
Think Argentina did what they had to in the end as the game evolved.

They could barely keep the ball with 11 men, and had little effect when they did.

If England had 5% of the spirit and fight of Argentina, they may very well be the ones crying in the final.

20 Jul 2026 00:18:44
Argentina did what they had to do. I have no issue with teams playing dirty or using obstructive tactics to win, it is part of professional sport. It is also the referee's job to ensure the game is played fairly.


The issue with Argentina is Messi - the game will simply not be refereed fairly in any game he is on the pitch. Thankfully, this will be his last World Cup.

20 Jul 2026 02:58:45
Ronaldo got criticised for dragging Portugal down, Messi was just as bad. An absolute passenger for the entire tournament.

{Ed078's Note - he scored and assisted in several goals, including the 2 that put England out.

20 Jul 2026 06:41:31
Hang on @78, you just can't start producing facts, mate, it's not the done thing. 😉

{Ed078's Note - it'll never catch on.

20 Jul 2026 07:38:05
I've seen some statements in my time but that's gotta be up there. 🤣

20 Jul 2026 08:47:09
It's either ironic or moronic.

20 Jul 2026 11:00:07
The thing that stood out for me was what an absolute braindead PoS that rat faced cretin Enzo Fernandez is. Imagine being so stupid as to talk your way into a silly needless yellow card then to follow it up with an equally entirely needless yellow for a tackle that wasn't there to be made. Weapons grade dickhead just doesn't do him justice.

20 Jul 2026 11:16:20
Wow, VV, let us know how you really feel about Enzo.

19 Jul 2026 23:11:51
We have another World Cup winner.

20 Jul 2026 03:55:00
Won't be hard to be better than the last one. Also, hope we start the season w one WC winner and not two. He gave more in this WC than he did the whole of last season for us. Despicable team, and thank God the Spanish got it over the line.

20 Jul 2026 09:16:47
How long before Macca takes him out in training?

19 Jul 2026 23:09:49
Shocking game of football! I know there’s a lot riding on it but Argentina are a f****n disgrace to the game!

20 Jul 2026 11:03:59
They're as anti football as you're likely to see. Spain were deserved winners overall and won with a bit of class as well as talent.

20 Jul 2026 11:18:30
Spain dominated, just like they did all WC long. Argentina were always going to lose the game because they simply are not at the level.

It wasn't even a fair fight going new and the Argies knew it hence, the dirty tactics they were deploying. But playing dirty and still losing is nasty work.