You’ve got to love Scousers’ hypocrisy

IT’S not been a bad week; the game against Reading may have been dull but we racked up another three points. Also we supporters amused ourselves by abusing Stephen Hunt for the duration of the match.

Although, allegedly, that wasn’t the final humiliation. Apparently after the game, if players do not swap shirts on the pitch, they can be swapped after, and sometimes kit-men are used to liaise between the two dressing-rooms.

The story leaked was that Hunt sent his shirt via one of the aforementioned kit men, with a request to receive Ballack’s shirt in return. Minutes passed and finally the kit man returned to tell Hunt that not one of the Chelsea players would swap. Really? What did he expect?

Harry Redknapp has assembled a good side at Pompey and they play football rather than defend for 90 minutes. The point against us last Saturday was deserved. Both teams had occasion to win the game, with Wright-Phillips being most culpable from our side. I hope the recent run of form we have seen from him wasn’t just a one-off.

Portsmouth away is always a popular game with our supporters with never enough tickets to go round. This isn’t just because it’s a fairly short trip, but Chelsea fans are a sentimental bunch and going to Fratton Park takes you back 25 years.

Old fashioned floodlights, two toilets for 3,000 people, some old dear selling pies, Mars bars and Bovril and everyone standing (because the seats are so packed its impossible for everyone to sit at the same time).

Such basic surroundings do not encourage the corporate clients that many other clubs have to endure — everyone is there for the love of the club — and that shows.

Even the atrocious mural on the wall outside of the ground is kind of cool. It’s not some branded professionally painted thinly disguised advert trying to flog more shirts — it’s an homage for the fans by the fans of their heroes (even if you do have to check the names to work out who the players are).

This week the circus comes to the capital as we host Liverpool in a game that is important to both clubs.

They continue to provide much amusement to the rest of us. I have to admit to sniggering when Deadly Doug revealed that Hicks and Gillett had previously tried to buy Aston Villa.

I can’t have been the only one who had to listen to innumerable (plastic) Scousers droning on about how they had been chosen because of their history and tradition, their great support blah blah blah — to then discover that you were sloppy seconds is bad enough, but sloppy seconds to Villa must smart a bit eh?

And going out cap in hand asking for 100,000 people to stump up £5,000 — am I the only person that sees the irony in that?

And someone please explain to me how this taking money from whoever wherever works with the “reclaim the Kop” scheme? Hypocrisy — you got to love it eh? We have played two of the top four this season and lost — we cannot afford to lose to Liverpool.

We will have Mikel back from Africa (unless he goes AWOL as Babayaro used to do) but we will still be way short of what we might call our first XI so big performances required by all — especially to keep Torres quiet.

We also need to start feeding Anelka the kind of balls that he can capitalise on as at the moment these seem few and far between and he is having to go wide, win the ball, beat a few defenders and then take a shot.

Rafa is a dead man walking anyway — I don’t think any amount of demonstrations, banners and songs will prevent the Yanks giving Benitez the old Spanish archer.

However, he will want to go with his head held high; the Liverpool players, too, are aware that the club cannot afford not to qualify for the Champions League so they will be going all out.

Grant too still has Mourinho’s ghost to contend with and only success on the pitch will banish him. Victory over Liverpool will go someway to achieving that

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