I have been predicting Dalglish’s departure from Anfield ever since his comments about the cups being more important than the league just before the FA Cup final which Liverpool lost 2 – 1 against Chelsea at Wembley. ‘King’ Kenny’s departure was mostly due to Liverpool’s poor form in the league, more specifically home form, in which the Reds won six, drew nine and lost four games, gaining only 27 points from a possible 57 scoring only 24 goals in 19 games in-front of the Kop!

I have never been one to call for the head of the manager but in this case I believe it was time for Dalglish to leave. His comments prior to the FA Cup final about cups being more important than fighting for fifth place in the league was the straw that broke the camels back for me. Liverpool ended the season with only 52 points out of a possible 114, which is a hit-rate of only 45.6%, and a massive 37 points or the equivalent of 12 wins off league leaders Manchester City and United!

Three other members of staff have left Anfield this season; director of football Damien Comolli and head of sports medicine Peter Brukner left the club earlier in the year, first team coach Steve Clarke also resigned after the announcement of Dalglish’s removal as manager yesterday.

Now the hunt for a replacement for Dalglish is on; with former Reds manager Rafael Benitez and current Wigan manager Roberto Martinez installed as early favourites for the vacant managers position. There is an old adage about bringing back a former manager being a bad idea and in the case of Dalglish; that is true, same was true for Plymouth Argyle when stepping back in time re-employing Paul Sturrock. So I’d rather not have Benitez back at Anfield, personally I wouldn’t have Martinez either, he only has a win rate of 26.77% in three seasons at Wigan Athletic.

Kenny Dalglish is; and always will be a Liverpool legend but at this time, the Scot is not the right person to push the club forward. He has made some questionable signings with Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll not representing good value for money, costing the club a total of £70m, only scoring 13 goals in the 2011/12 season, that’s £5.4m per goal; which is piss poor!

Although I don’t think Dalglish is ultimately the man to push Liverpool onto league glory, I would have given him another season to prove me wrong! What baffled me is that when Dalglish took over from Roy Hodgson as caretaker manager in January 2011, he dragged Liverpool upto sixth place from 12th, just five points off relegation. But after spending millions on new players in the off season; Dalglish guided Liverpool to their worst league performance since their 1993/94 season.

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I read this article about how Carl Fletcher backs the James Brent approach and it got me thinking about the similarities between Brent and former Argyle chairman and owner Paul Stapleton. A lot of younger fans won’t remember back to the dark days under Dan McCauley, in which Argyle found themselves in the old Div. 3 (currently League 2) with no hope of doing anything, then Paul Stapleton bought the club in 2001 and in his first year in charge, Argyle were promoted to Div. 2

Paul Stapleton, an accountant ran the club with tight controls on spending, very much like James Brent is doing today, gaining two promotions in three seasons under the stewardship of Stapleton and Paul Sturrock, until the Scot left Home Park for Southampton in 2003 as the Pilgrims were on the cusp of gaining promotion to the Championship (former Div. 2). Bobby Williamson took over from Sturrock guiding the Pilgrims to promotion, although Sturrock had done all the hard work. Williamson only lasted 17 months at Home Park before being dismissed due to a poor run of form at the start of the 2005/06 season. Then came Tony Pulis who had just been sacked by Stoke City! Pulis only stayed one season at Home Park before making a return to former club, Stoke!

Stapleton was keeping a tight reign on finances as attendances at Home Park started to fall; maybe because the lack of progress into the Premier League? This is when Ian Holloway came in; and Argyle started to see some success; sitting in the play-off places before Holloway left Argyle for Leicester City in November 2007 stating his reason for leaving as “Plymouth Argyle lacking ambition”. Which is where it all started going wrong, Stapleton came under pressure from fans who had nicknamed the chairman as “Staplewallet” because he wasn’t willing to go spending crazy, started spending beyond the clubs means, also looking for outside investment, this was also when the ill-fated return of Paul Sturrock as manager took place and investment from Japanese businessman Yasuaki Kagami, who we never really saw very much of; financially or physically after several attempts to bring Japanese players into the English game through Argyle fell-through.

Then came Sir Roy Gardner and Keith Todd, along with George Synan and Kagami as board members, and despite big words from Gardner and Todd about becoming a Premier League club in five years, very little was fulfilled with the club slowly declining until relegated to League One in 2010/11 with a series of managers passing through Home Park including Paul Mariner and Peter Reid. Argyle were heading for relegation in successive seasons when Gardner and Todd jumped ship; leaving the club in a massive black hole of debt, having to fight off winding up orders from the HMRC. And this is where administrators P&A Partnership came in and the whole administration debacle ensued before Brent eventually bought the club in October 2011 and the rest we know.

My point is that I don’t believe that Stapleton was such a bad man, he did a lot for the club before the pressure from fans for promotion forced him into spending more money than the club had on a bunch of signings that failed miserably, throwing good money after bad. If Stapleton stuck to his laurels and kept a tight reign on spending, maybe Argyle would still be a mid-table Championship club and not fighting for their football league survival. I don’t expect many will agree with my comments here but I believe that Stapleton was doing what he thought was best for the club!

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Manchester have become Premiership champions after a dramatic five minutes of second half injury time. Manchester rivals United’s game had already finished with Fergie’s side having won 0 – 1 against Sunderland while City were 1 – 2 down at the Etihad Stadium after former Argyle striker Jamie Mackie put QPR into the lead, meaning the multi-million pound City squad had to score twice to lift the league trophy! At this point I am thinking that United will walk away with a 20th league title but goals from Edin Dzeko two minutes into added time and Sergio Aguero in the fourth minute of added time snatched the title from under Sir Alex Fergusons’ nose, City taking the title on goal difference after the crucial derby win two weeks back! To be honest I don’t support either team, but being a Liverpool supporter, I can not bring myself to support Manchester United.

Liverpool ended their dismal league campaign with the 14th loss of their 2011/12 season, the tally stands at 14 wins, 14 losses and 10 draws. The gulf in the league is massive, 37 points is the difference between Liverpool and Manchester City / United at the top of the table. @SunnyMidnight summed up the Reds season perfectly with her Tweet “Can’t believe we beat Chelsea 4-1 and lose to Swansea 1-0 in the same week. Sums up our season.” I don’t advocate sacking managers before given a chance to prove their worth, but given Kenny Dalglish’s “cups are more important than the league” comments, I question whether he is the man to take the club forward. Given the rumour that FSG and John W Henry offered Dalglish a position “upstairs”, I do wonder whether he will still be Liverpool manager come the start of the 2012/13 season! This season has been the worse season in 19 years, it can’t get much worse can it? Liverpool have to improve on this season, 14W, 14L and 10D is not good enough for a team that used to be one of the big four in English football, I feel Dalglish will need to win a European place to remain manager!

Bolton join Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship next season after failing to secure a win at Stoke on Sunday, Blackburn and Wolves were relegated before the final round of Premiership games. Queens Park Rangers stayed up despite losing to Manchester City as Bolton needed a win to overhaul Rangers, finishing the season two points off safety.

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Most predicted that Pastor Maldonado would fall back at the start and he did by one place as Fernando Alonso charged up the inside; but when it counts, at the chequered flag; Maldonado was the first to cross the line. Great drive from the Venezuelan and great strategy from the Williams F1 Team, I really couldn’t be happier for Sir Frank Williams and his team after last seasons low point and the 8 years since the last win for Williams F1, Juan Pablo Montoya in Brazil back in 2004.

After initially leading; Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso fell back to second during the second round of pitstops, Ferrari being out-thought by Williams. The Spaniard being held up by the Marussia of Charles Pic also helped Maldonado leapfrog the Ferrari. Alonso closed right up onto Maldonado’s gearbox in the final stint of the race but couldn’t manage to get past the Venezuelan despite having the advantage of DRS down the main straight, the Williams FW34 looked really quick in today’s race! Alonso’s challenge faltered in the final four laps as his Ferrari’s tyres faded.

Kimi Raikkonen claimed the final podium spot in a fairly anonymous manner, despite leading the race on two occasions. The Finn really didn’t come to the fore until near the end of the race when he was closing in on Alonso’s Ferrari on newer rubber. Another couple of laps and Raikkonen may well have claimed second place as Alonso struggled to get the power down out of the corners.

Raikkonen’s Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean completed a Lotus 3 – 4 with another solid, if unspectacular performance. Kamui Kobayashi had a battling race banging wheels with Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg to claim fifth place for Sauber, up four places for ninth, really happy to see Sauber at the sharp end of the grid, I have a soft spot for the privateer teams like Sauber and Williams. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel came home in sixth place passing Button and Rosberg in the closing laps after serving a drive-through penalty for failing to slow for waved yellow flags.

Mercedes’ Rosberg took the chequered flag in seventh place, holding off the hard charging Lewis Hamilton who came from stone last after being excluded from the qualifying session for stopping out on track because of a fueling mix-up in the McLaren garage. Hamilton made up 16 places during the course of the race, although there were still problems in his second pit stop, the Briton losing 3.5 seconds as he ran over one of the tyres just taken off the car, which could have made the difference between seventh and eighth places, all-in-all, a good day for Hamilton; finishing ahead of his team mate Jenson Button who started 14 places ahead. It was a poor show from Button, he started in 10th and finished ninth, pretty poor given Hamilton’s achievements in this race!

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg claimed the final points paying position ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber who just seemed to struggle with tyres all race long. I don’t know what happened to Hulkenberg’s team mate Paul di Resta who started ahead of the German, the Scot went backwards as the German went forward into the points, a day to forget for the Brits in F1 I would say!

Michael Schumacher has been handed a five place grid penalty for Monaco after he was judged to have caused an avoidable collision that took himself and Williams’ Bruno Senna out on lap 12. The German seemingly failed to slow down enough and ploughed into the back of Senna’s Williams.

The only dark cloud today was the one coming from the Williams pit garage about 80 minutes after Maldonado lifted the winners trophy on the podium. The entire Williams garage was set ablaze after a suspected KERS malfunction sparked a fuel fire leaving the Williams garage gutted and five people, four Williams and one Force India employees needing treatment for smoke inhalation. It looks like there was no serious injuries and I am surprised how quickly the F1 ‘community’ reacted, mechanics from all teams ran with fire extinguishers to fight the fire, these guys are real heroes running into a burning garage to help out a fellow team. It’s just a shame that this had to happen today of all days, as Williams celebrated their first win since Interlagos, Brazil 2004.

Extended and updated: Williams & FIA release statements as 31 treated after fire @GPFocus

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Pastor Maldonado will start from pole position for the first time in his Formula 1 career ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Lewis Hamilton who qualified in pole, half a second faster than Maldonado, was disqualified from qualifying after he ran out of fuel on his in-lap which breaches the rules, which was compounded by McLaren being very cagy about the fuel issue; Hamilton will start from last on the grid, which some may consider harsh but rules are rules!

Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen, Saubers’ Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg will start in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively and were the last three drivers to set a time in Q3, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel elected to not set a fast time, pulling into the pits twice before crossing the line to set a time while Michael Schumacher didn’t take to the track at all. the second Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi didn’t take part in Q3 at all after stopping out of the track at the end of Q2 with a hydraulic failure. Vettel, Schumacher and Kobayashi will start from 7th, 8th and 9th respectively!

Jenson Button benefited from his team mates disqualification moving into the top 10 after being knocked out in Q2 as he coasted back to the pits after setting his fast lap, Button consistently complained of oversteer and later complained of understeer at the end of Q2. Mark Webber will start in 11th place after being knocked out in Q2 in a last minute reshuffled of positions as he sat in the pit garage. Paul di Resta will start from 12th place right behind Jenson Button; ahead of his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg. Williams’ Bruno Senna was massively disappointing getting knocked out in Q1 while his team mate finished Q1 in third place. Senna has a lot to prove in the race especially with reserve driver, Valtteri Bottas eager and ready to jump into a race seat!

Given the way this season has panned out thusfar, it’s so hard to predict what will happen in the race, I think that Fernando Alonso has a good chance of claiming a second victory this season, I don’t see Maldonado winning the race, the Williams car isn’t capable of winning a race just yet, a big improvement over last season but I believe wins are out of the question this season, but I’d love to be proved wrong! Lotus have a good chance of winning the race, the Lotus car has great speed this season as proven last race, I suspect that Raikkonen will edge his less experienced team mate. I think that Jenson Button has a great chance of finishing in the top six, his race pace has been much better than qualification pace. Despite starting from stone last, I believe Lewis Hamilton will manage to claim some points because of the McLaren’s inherent speed at this track!

You can read my friend Ewan Marshall‘s view of the Spanish GP Qualifying over at GPFocus.com

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Recently I have taken the plunge and shelled out $500 ($536.50 inc tax) for Digital SLR camera to replace my aging Fuji Finepix S5500 digital camera. The model of choice is the Canon EOS Rebel T3 (or EOS 1100D as it’s known in Europe), I did my research before purchasing this DSLR camera and the Rebel T3 came top in many lists of cameras in the $400 – $600 price bracket and thusfar I have no real complaints about my purchase, a huge improvement over the Fuji it replaced!

I was amazed how easy it was to pick up and start taking photos; the full auto mode allows you to start snapping great pictures immediately, it worked out what type of photo I wanted and produced the goods in the first couple of shots, a picture of my daughter on the playground, produced nice tones and set the aperture perfectly to blur the background while keeping sharp focus on the subject. The Rebel T3 has a host of semi-automatic modes for just about every type of shot, including landscape, portrait, close up, sports, night portrait and video mode, which records upto 720p HD resolution. The camera also has a creative auto mode, which allows you to change settings such as whether you want an in-focus or blurred background behind your subject, continuous shooting, whether you want to the flash to fire or not and ambiance settings, including monochrome, sepia and blue, which can produce great results.

There are even more semi-manual modes to play with, Program AE allows automatic setting of focus and aperture, while allowing for all other settings to be tweaked. Shutter Priority AE allows for adjustment of shutter speed to create the feeling of movement or for use in low light situations, although a tripod is advised to avoid camera shake, all settings expect aperture are changeable in this mode. Aperture Priority AE does the same as Shutter Priority AE, except that Aperture is changeable, setting how blurred you want the background, basically setting the depth of focus. Auto depth of field AE makes it easy to set a blurred background/foreground or both, having a subject in the middle with items in the foreground and background blurred. And of course there is a full manual mode which allows you to make an infinite amount of changes to the settings!

Overall, I would say that the Canon EOS Rebel T3 is a great camera for the money, producing much better results with very little effort than a point and shoot camera and for not too much more money than a high end point and shoot camera. It can produce upto 12.2 megapixel photographs (4272 x 2848) which should be more than enough for most. The supplied lens is an 18mm – 55mm telephoto lens, but the focal range isn’t very long so don’t expect to be taking close up photos of distance objects. You’ll need to upgrade to a longer focal length lens, which can be costly. The lens does come as standard with image stabilisation and auto/manual focus switches, so it’s a decent starter lens but focal length will disappoint some, just be aware of this when you buy!

I do have one criticism; the viewfinder, I find it a little too recessed to be able to use comfortably, you need to have your face pressed hard against the camera body to be able to see the whole of the image in the viewfinder, which is a problem if like myself you wear eyeglasses. You can use ‘live view’ which displays the viewfinder image on the 2.7in screen on the rear on the camera, but that kinda takes away the fun of owning a SLR camera, but that’s a minor gripe!

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Just three days after Liverpool were defeated 2 – 1 by Chelsea at Wembley Stadium in the FA Cup final, the Reds hit back beating the Londoners 4 – 1 at Anfield. This loss means that Chelsea can no longer finish any higher than sixth meaning no European football for the Blues this season!

Chelsea interim manager Roberto Di Matteo elected to field a weakened side, omitting many of the players that help defeat Liverpool at Wembley; but that doesn’t take away from the Liverpool performance, but probably contributed to the scoreline. Liverpool’s first goal was a fortuitous one; Michael Essien deflecting Luis Suarez’ cross into his own net in the 19th minute. Jordan Henderson doubled the lead in the 25th minute from the edge of the 18 yard box. Daniel Agger made it 3 – 0 in the 28th minute with a close range header while Stewart Downing missed from the penalty spot in first half added time, Liverpool’s fifth penalty miss, the first Premiership team to miss five!

Ramires did pull one back for Chelsea five minutes after half time, but any hopes of a fightback were dashed in the 61st minute when Jonjo Shelvey unleashed a 30 yard rocket after Ross Turnbull’s mishit clearance landed at his feet. It could have been six if it weren’t for Downing hitting the woodwork twice, once from the penalty spot and again with a dipping 20-yard shot.

Despite this win, it has still been a poor season by Liverpool’s own standards; let’s hope that the Reds can secure a win at Swansea on Sunday, which hopefully will push Liverpool above the blue side of Merseyside in the league, Everton face the in-form Newcastle United on the same day.

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From 10am Thursday morning until 7pm Sunday evening, my wife and I were officially child free, the mother-in-law and aunt took the kids over the extended weekend while we took an effective honeymoon in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, making sure we made maximum use of our alone time. It’s the first time we have been on vacation alone since we got married, we did go to Arkansas last May but we were tied up with our friends wedding most of the time, so weren’t really alone much!

Much of the first day was taken up by the six hour drive from Wichita to Arlington, arriving at the hotel about 5pm, before going out for a meal at Pappadeaux Seafood Restaurant, which was very good, great service and food and my wife got the Swamp-Thing she had been craving! A little later, we met up with Erin’s friends, Jenice and Maria to hit up some bars, firstly JR Bentley’s, followed by Sunshine Bar and finally Ozzie Rabbit Lodge before getting back to the hotel at 3am.

On day two, we grabbed breakfast from the free buffet in the hotel before heading into Fort Worth and the Botanical Gardens, more specifically the Japanese Garden, which was worth every penny of the $4 entrance fee. I took a whole bunch of photos, which can be found on my Facebook profile. Later we visited the Kimble Art Museum, where we believe we got a little food poisoning in their cafe. In the evening we went to Deep Ellum, Dallas for something to eat at Buzzbrews Kitchen before retiring to the hotel early feeling tired and a little sick, suspected food poisoning from the Kimble, the feeling of unsettled stomach didn’t leave us until we got back to Wichita.

On day three, we visited the Scarborough Fair renaissance festival, which was about 50 minutes drive outside of Dallas. It’s not something that I’m very interested in, but it was an experience I’ve never had before. We went for my wife and her friend Natalie but I did enjoy the falconry and the jousting, photo’s can be found on my Facebook page. In the evening, we went back to Deep Ellum with Erin’s friend Jenice for another try, my wife got another ear piercing and we went to the Black Swan Saloon, which was an odd experience, the only beer they had was in 330ml cans, and were charging $4 for said cans. We stayed there until 2am before retiring back to the hotel.

Then it was back to Wichita the next day, our little adventure in Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth was over, although we did stop at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in mid Oklahoma, which was very well done, I was expecting some teepees but it was a well built complex with a theatre, an indoor forest and an exhibit of native American history, well worth the diversion from the I-35!

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I didn’t see the game as I was on vacation when the game was played; but Liverpool were beaten by Chelsea 2 – 1 in the FA Cup final at Wembley. To be honest I am kinda happy that Liverpool lost; especially after the revelations in recent days from Kenny Dalglish about cups being more important than the league. Which indicates to me that Dalglish put all his eggs in one basket, banking on winning cups instead of playing for fifth place and European football next season, suffice to say I don’t like this attitude from Dalglish, not an outlook that I want from a manager.

I really can’t be bothered to talk about the game, you can read about it elsewhere, but I hope that there is a rethink at Anfield for next season, because this season has been piss poor considering the amount of money spent and talent brought into the squad over the last 18 months. All Liverpool have to show for this season is a second rate cup e.g. the Carling Cup and probably will finish eighth in the league with two games remaining, the club sitting in ninth, three points behind Fulham with a game in hand over everyone except Chelsea; who the Reds play this evening at Anfield!

The Reds have only won 13 out of 36 games so far this season, lost 13 and drew 10; nine of which were at Anfield, I hope that lessons are learned from this season, I’m not one for sacking managers over a few bad results but Dalglish can hardly claim his first full season in charge has been a success, can he? I believe that if next season is another washout then ‘King’ Kenny’s position will become untenable. I wouldn’t think that John W Henry will be happy with anything less than fourth place during 2012/13; there will be no excuses if results don’t come next season!

Plymouth Argyle ended their season with a whimper being defeated 1 – 2 by promotion chasing Cheltenham Town at Home Park; a disappointing end to the season after securing league survival with two games to spare! I was really hoping to see Argyle finish the season on a high after the pressure of avoiding the drop was taken away, but it didn’t materialise salvaging a 2 – 2 draw at Morecambe and being beaten by Cheltenham at Home Park, Carl Fletcher’s managerial future is hanging in the balance! Fletcher himself has admitted he is unsure of his future! As much as I appreciate all the work that Fletcher has done to secure league survival, I still don’t think he is the man to take the club forward, I believe that Argyle need a more experienced manager to push the club forward, that’s not a reflection on Fletcher, he just lacks general managerial experience!

Romain Larrieu announced on Saturday morning that he is retiring from playing after 318 games in 12 years. The Frenchman has been through two promotions, two relegations, and six managers, it’s safe to say he has seen it all at Argyle. I sincerely thank Romain for all his years of service between the sticks, he is; and always will be an Argyle legend! A Green through and through!

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Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish yesterday said “the performance and the attitude was very poor” after Liverpool were defeated by Fulham at Anfield, and today it comes out that cup competition is more important than the league, Dalglish said “there’s satisfaction from winning a cup that you don’t get from finishing fifth in the league.” – a piss poor attitude to have in my opinion!

First of all, let’s tackle the piss poor effort on the field, for which Dalglish said he has to take part of the blame. Too right, with an attitude that the league isn’t as important as winning cups; that attitude will filter down to the players and they won’t put in 100% in league games when the big cup game is coming up! One goal separated the teams and that was scored by Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel who’s attempted clearance flew into the back of his own net as keeper Doni watched on.

Liverpool had plenty of shots on goal but yet again couldn’t hit a barn door from six feet out, which has been the story of the season! I say cut the players wages to minimum wage and give them goal bonuses, they’ll play better when there is money on the line, given the disgraceful performance in the Fulham game, I would sack the whole fucking squad, playing like that; they don’t deserve to wear an Liverpool crest on their chest! Which is compounded by the manager’s poor attitude towards league football, just like Benitez who’s was obsessed with the Champions League at the cost of league form! Dalglish’s obsession is domestic cups, to hell with the league and Europe!

I know that what I am about to say will get a negative reaction but maybe it’s time for Dalglish to depart from Anfield to bring in someone that can focus on all competitions? With the amount of talent in the Liverpool squad, eighth in the league is disgraceful. I wonder how long John W Henry will tolerate such poor league form, top four finishes in the league should be a given for a team like Liverpool! Hell, local Merseyside rivals Everton are above the Reds on a fraction of the budget!

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