24 May 2009

Today marks the end of the 2008/2009 season of the English Premier League. This year is the first time I get to watch all of my beloved Liverpool FC games live on TV since I subscribed to Astro and the Sports package and I got to tell you, it's worth every cent. Watching Gerrard, Torres and co playing top class football week in and week out is truly a joy to behold.

The season ended with Man U winning the league title yet again. I have to give credits where it's due. Man U is the better team in the league having been trailing to Liverpool and Chelsea for the first half of the season, they've come back strongly to mount a serious title challenge and end up winning it as well. The rest of them (Liverpool included) is simply not good enough. That said, I'm sure save for Man U fans, everybody else is sick and tired of watching the Devils winning title after title. Chelsea winning the title twice in a row a few years ago was a breath of fresh but as you can see, money alone cannot guarantee success, at least in the long run. You need the right manager to steer the team to success and success, they don't come overnight that's for sure.

That's why I got the feeling that Liverpool will mount an even stronger challenge for the first title in 20 long years next season. They've got the right spine in place in terms of a title-winning team, they've got the right manager in Rafael Benitez and hopefully the board will give the backing that the manager surely needs. Alex Ferguson took 7 years to win his first premiership title with Man U, 13 years to win his first European Cup. Rafa came in and won his first European Cup in no time and finishing 2nd after 5 seasons is surely a sign of great things to come!

Although I've said this like for the last 2 years already, I think next year could finally be our year. The year we end our league title drought. With a few more quality signings and a Torres & Gerrard injury free season, I don't see why not? This season we've definitely been over-reliant on both of them and I don't think that's healthy. Winning titles and cups is a team effort and we need to have one that can win as much as games as possible with or without our star players. Everybody in the team need to give the 100% in every match and not loose so many points in draws again. This year we lost only 2 games but since we've drawn like a dozen games, we lost the title by the slimmest of margin. So until next season, congrats again to Man U for winning the league title. Next season, we won't be so generous to you punks ha ha!