So it seems the end is drawing close for Rafa Benitez at Anfield, with reports all over the place pointing to the Liverpool owners offering Benitez £3 million to leave immediately. Quite what has happened to bring Liverpool lurching in to another crisis so soon after the season has ended is unsure, but for me, he’s been under pressure ever since he guaranteed the club would finish 4th back in January.

That at the time looked a long shot as Liverpool huffed and puffed there way through turgid performance after turgid performance. Even the most biased Liverpool fans were unsure if it was attainable but come the May 9th, the club had crashed from almost winning the Premiership in 2008-2009, to almost not qualifying for Europe in 12 months. No doubt it was all Sir Alex Ferguson or referee’s fault. At the moment the Daily Mirror are claiming he’s actually been sacked, most of the other stories are saying he’s been asked to leave.

Now, I’ll be honest, I simply didn’t think the club would see sense and try to get rid of him. I’m sick of the apologists blaming the board for Liverpool’s problems. It’s a phony war, it doesn’t cover the fact that Benitez has spent so badly, so consistently over the 6 years he’s been at Anfield. Yes, the board are culpable for some of the problems, but it doesn’t cover the fact he has sold 34 of the 77 players he has signed. Almost half, that is a frightening amount, that is probably the worst turn over of a manager at a club in the modern era.

The club are not in a position to sack him due to the financial situation, Gerrard and Torres are being linked with clubs, Mascherano wants to leave for family reasons, Benayoun is on the verge of joining Chelsea. Transfer targets have now had to be downgraded from Champions League players to Europe League targets. Yet for all that, people still go on about that night in Istanbul. 5 years ago. Or winning the F.A. Cup on penalties against a newly promoted West Ham side. 4 years ago.

This is a club on the edge of the precipice, financially and football wise. Last summer I wrote that Aston Villa had more chance of winning the Premiership than Liverpool and was roundly castigated by Reds fans who thought I meant Villa would win the league. I didn’t, I meant Aston Villa had more chance of winning the Premiership than Liverpool. As it turned out, they finished higher in the table but neither of them had a chance of troubling the top end of the table.I just thought Liverpool had no chance of winning the title.

This is a manager who sold Liverpool’s best prospect in years, Stephen Warnock to Blackburn and then replaced him with abysmal left back after abysmal left back. Warnock’s career has continued to blossom since his departure and is developing in to one of the leagues best left backs. This is a manager who spent the summer of 2008 trying to flog Xabi Alonso and then whined all summer 2009 when Alonso told him he wanted to leave. Then replaced him with an injury prone midfielder who he then seemed to fall out with. Outstanding.

The only people I imagine who will be sad to see Benitez go are anyone who supports anyone else in the top eight. Of course there will be plenty of Liverpool fans, still blinded by the amazing comeback in 2005, unable to see just how far the club have fallen since that night who will be distraught. I don’t understand it. If Liverpool had won the league in 2008-2009, for me they would have been the worst Premiership title winners since the league started in 1992 and probably the worst league winners in nearly 30 years since Villa won it in 1981.

I won’t fall into this trap of speculating who’ll replace him, but I don’t doubt CV’s will be whizzing themselves to Anfield as we speak. I doubt anyone else, apart from Graeme Souness, could make a worse job of it than Benitez has the last 4 seasons, 2008-09′s second place excluded. The added bonus is the club have Kenny Dalglish there to steady the ship in the current climate and that alone will make sure the club will move onwards away from Benitez’s dire tactics and referee baiting.

Leave me your comments below and you can always find me on http://twitter.com/paulbestall

All great relationships come to an end, the natural course having run as far as it can. Sometimes they start passionately and brightly and quickly burn away to nothingness. Sometimes, they are a slowly burning and taut affair that consumes all within them in a supernova of passion oblivious to all around them. Occasionally, despite saying the opposite, things simply aren’t working. The public face presents a lie, when everything behind the scenes falls apart.

Of course, finishing 7th is no insult and 6th is not out of the question but this is Liverpool. European Champions on 5 occasions, runners up twice. League Champions 18 times and runners up on 12 other occasions. The most decorated club in English League history can end up qualifying for the Europa League because Portsmouth are not allowed to enter. Is it good enough to be surviving on scraps thrown by clubs imploding financially? Simply put, no it isn’t.

I saw Benitez’s post match comments on Sunday and was astounded. You can’t position yourself as a champions of the fans and then refuse to commit yourself to confirming whether you intend to be at the club next season. Benitez owes that to the Anfield faithful at the very least. They have backed him 100% throughout his consistent battles with the owners and the boardroom and now he throws it back in their faces. I think most fans of other clubs would be hard pressed to have kept the patience with a manager like the Liverpool fans have with Rafa Benitez.

Of course, his supporters will always point to the 2005 Champions League final victory and to a lesser extent, the F.A. Cup victory the following season over West Ham United. Last season saw Liverpool come within a whisker of winning the title but ultimately missed out due to the points dropped against “lesser” sides. The beginning of the season saw them lose as many leagues games in 8 days as all of last year. Complaints about Real Madrid tapping up Xabi Alonso were treated with the contempt they deserved after Benitez had spent most of the summer of 2008 trying to flog him.

He claims the club needs 4 or 5 great players, unlike the majority of the 77 he’s signed. With the exception of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, every single player at Liverpool is a Benitez signing. Incredibly, of the 77 players he’s signed, 30 of them have been sold on. His supporters claim the board have tied his hands in regards to the money he’s had to spend, but looking at his transfer record, honestly, can you blame them? A scatter gun transfer policy that currently sees Liverpool using Mascherano as a right back and a £7 million left back in the reserves. A depth of striking talent after Torres that a Championship club would be embarrassed to have at its disposal.

This refusal to commit himself to Liverpool next season surely treats the fans like idiots. He has more support from them and delivered probably less than any Liverpool manager since Graeme Souness’ dreadful tenure in the early nineties. He eventually fell on his sword and resigned after they were beaten by Bristol City at home in the F.A.Cup in January 1994.Yet the 3 seasons he’d spent there were littered with dreadful signings, arguments and badly judged media interviews, such as with the Sun newspaper on the 3rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Yet even he won the F.A. Cup in 1992.

Souness finished 6th, 6th and 8th and the club were at the weakest they’d ever been in the modern era. Liverpool have finished outside the top 6 twice in the last 20 years and only 4 times in the 47 seasons they spent in the top flight since winning promotion back to the top division in 1962. Of course, they may still finish 6th but that’ not Benitez’s weakness for me, it’s his refusal to treat his supporters with the respect they deserve after all the support they’ve given him and tell them if he’s staying.

Perhaps of course, he’s playing the protection card, asking the board for the moon and then quitting when they quite rightly tell him to get stuffed. Only then will he consider the offer from Juventus that is on the table and has been for weeks. Added to this the fact that he absurdly claims he’s trying to meet up with the new chairman after canceling two scheduled meetings in the last fortnight weakens his position even further.

Liverpool’s fans deserve better, the club deserve better and no-one is happy. Rafa looks fed up and coming from a family of Liverpool fans, they’re fed up. The relationship has run its course and if Rafa Benitez really cared about Liverpool he’d do the right thing and quit. When you get to a point in a season where you want your team to lose to stop a rival club winning the title, I think that’s all you need to say and that’s a fact Rafa. It can only get worse from here.

Imagine that you, as a fan, decided to drop your club an e-mail asking about potential signings. You wrote the e-mail in good faith and asked questions about the amount of money the manager had, would it be bolstered by additional monies raised by selling deadwood and the long term investment. You then copy an article from the Liverpool Echo arguing that Benitez shouldn’t have to manage the debts brought on to him.

Imagine your surprise to the receive a response to that e-mail from Tom Hicks Jr, who launches in to a foul mouthed tirade with the fan and invites him to “Blow Me F@@@-face. I’m sick of you.” The e-mail was also addressed to “Idiot”. This story broke on Saturday evening, but had been doing the rounds all day until the British media picked it up and ran with the story.

Suddenly and shockingly, Liverpool fans had finally managed to pin down the arrogance that they have had to deal with over the last 34 months since Hicks and Gillett saddled the club with £350 million worth of debt. Cue all manner of critical articles began to appear and the Spirit of Shankly fans group rode in to quite rightly demand that Tom Hicks Jr resign with immediate effect. They correctly pointed out that Hicks Jr’s position had now become untenable.

So this afternoon, he finally resigned with this statement by numbers: “I am very sorry for my harmful words. To the fans and club, please accept my sincerest apologies,I have great respect for Liverpool Football Club, especially the club’s supporters. I do not want my actions to take away from the club’s future, therefore I am resigning from the board.”

Now this for me makes things even worse, because he’d denied it for nearly 48 hours, so can anyone actually take a word he says as honest? He abused a fan, who made a valid query and then denied it calling the fan a liar. Only when the criticism became so vocal and major newspapers began to cover it did the story change to the truth. Yes, sometimes fans can give as much abuse but the e-mail was polite and simply wanted some points answering.

At no point did that justify Hicks Jr’s actions, which if anything simply smack of deluded arrogance. The spoutings of someone who has spent too long living in an ivory tower with nothing but disdain for the fans of the club his father and business partner have crippled with debts.I have a lot of sympathy with the fans over the way the club has been weighed down with so much negative equity.

Yet this mess has now come back to haunt the Spirit of Shankly group as this footage of their end of season party has now surfaced.Now at some point someone, somewhere has to get a grip of this situation. The last 48 hours were bad enough for Liverpool Football Club, but this video could complete unravel all the good work that S.O.S are doing to try and fight the Hicks and Gillett regime at Anfield.

If anything it’s all so depressing to see the same level of vitriol celebrated over something a hell of a lot more offensive than an e-mail from a silly little man. Celebrating the deaths of anyone is beyond reproach. Now is anyone from Spirit of Shankly going to make a statement or resign over this? Can Liverpool’s name be dragged through the mud anymore?

The government’s rejection of Everton’s plans to move the club from Goodison Park to a stadium outside Liverpool, in Kirkby, is the best thing that could have happened for Everton FC and its supporters.

Financially speaking, the rejection of the Kirkby plans is a massive blow to Everton. The club has allegedly spent millions to pay consultants to champion the move. And the long-term financial implications are even greater as the club continues to suffer from not having modern matchday facilities to generate massive streams of money from corporations.

The reason why the Kirkby rejection is good news for Everton is because of fate. The blue half of Merseyside has a proud history which has been deeply intertwined with their rivals across the park at Anfield. In fact, Everton’s home used to be Anfield before a dispute forced the club to move down the road. The owner of Anfield then created Liverpool FC.

Even before Everton played at Goodison, Stanley Park was their home. The irony is that where Everton played is now near the site where Liverpool planned to build their new stadium.

The logical choice for both Everton and Liverpool is to build one world-class stadium that all of the people of Merseyside can be proud of. The two clubs aren’t as close as they once were, but it seems like fate that the two clubs should work together and create a legacy that will be remembered in the city for hundreds of years.

With the current economic crisis, it only makes sense from a financial perspective for both clubs to share a ground. In fact, just this morning Everton’s chief executive has said that Everton would consider a ground-sharing agreement with Liverpool. The ball is now in Liverpool’s court to make a wise choice and to realize that by the two clubs working together they’ll both benefit. The time is now. Let’s trust they’ll make the right decision.

Fittingly, Everton plays Liverpool in the Merseyside derby in the early Sunday kickoff at 1:30pm GMT/8:30am ET. The game will be shown on Setanta Sports in the United States.

“It is difficult for us to qualify, but not impossible,We have to win our game and see what happens with Fiorentina and Lyon. Then we will approach the last game.” Benitez has certainly fought his corner today after the galling last minute equaliser Liverpool conceded in the Stade Gerland last night. Of course, the nay sayers and doom merchants are already drafting Rafa’s last rites as the promise of last season seems already consigned to the dustbin by mid November.

Even Liverpool’s most feverish critics must be surprised how quickly the wheels have fallen off this season. 5 league defeats, knocked out of the League Cup and facing demotion to the Europa League have seen Benitez under the most pressure he’s ever faced during his tenure at Anfield. With the financial situation at Liverpool as tight as it can be, the key achievement for Liverpool to aim for this season is to finish in the top 4 in the Premier League.

Of course, Lyon may win in Florence in 3 weeks time and Liverpool could win the last two games, making sure they beat Fiorentina by 3 clear goals to finish second, but it’s a straw that is swaying away from Benitez. With Torres still carrying a groin injury, Gerrard injured for who knows how long and Carragher having his ropiest period in a Liverpool shirt, the Reds 3 key players are all suffering in one form or another.

During the summer, all the predictions pointed to that it would be Arsenal who would be the one side in the big four that would be the most nervous about retaining their place at the Premiership’s top table. With Manchester City, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton all waiting to pounce, no-one considered that Liverpool would be the one with the most to lose.

Without the stadium revenue that Manchester United and Arsenal can pull and without the billionaire sugar daddies that Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham can call on, the financial rewards that the Champions League has to offer is crucial to Liverpool’s continued success. They NEED to be in Champions League to continue progressing, regardless of reputation, Manchester City have already shown money can attract players above their current station.

Yet Liverpool will not find it any easier and by December 13th they could be staring up at the top four and hoping that they can find a vein of form that has so far eluded them this season. They’ve failed to beat every decent side they’ve played this season, with the exception of Manchester United two weeks ago and that in itself is a worrying trend. With massive matches against Manchester City, Everton, Fiorentina and Arsenal in the next five weeks, something needs to sorted and quickly.

Of course, Benitez has a position of strength in the fact that he signed a 5 year contract in March this year and Liverpool’s finances would tend to support the argument that the club can’t afford to sack him. Liverpool fans tend to support their manager through thick or thin, only Graeme Souness lost the fans in the last 30 years and at the moment the attention for the fans frustration is the owners.

Chelsea sacked Scolari when the club were fourth, 7 points behind Manchester United. Liverpool are currently 6th, 9 points behind and whilst we may assume what Hicks and Gillett do, would it surprised anyone if they pressed the panic button? Unfortunately not.  Trouble is, they may call on Jurgen Klinsmann, which shows just how little about club football they actually know.

February 2007, the dawning of a great new era in Liverpool’s history as Tom Hicks and George Gillett bought the club from the Moore’s family. Promising massive investment and the funds for the construction for the new stadium that Liverpool needed, it seemed as if Liverpool were finally about to catch up with Manchester United financially under the stewardship of Kop Football Holdings.

Now, almost two and half years down the line, after their most successful Premiership season in 8 years, you would think that the owners would allow Benitez the money he needs to increase the strength of the side to allow them to push on and keep competing with United and Chelsea. Unfortunately, the accounts that were released last week and the missing out of Gareth Barry, last summers top target, will not be filling Liverpool fans with hope.

Added to that rumours continue that Real Madrid continue to circle above Xabi Alonso to add the defensive screen to their newly acquired attacking foils and Javier Mascherano’s wife is apparently pining for a return to a Spanish speaking nation with Barcelona more than happy to accommodate them in Catalonia. Liverpool issued a statement yesterday advising that neither player was for sale nor had they received any offers for the duo.

To some fans that means they’re both going to be sold, but with us unsure of the financial situation at Liverpool, it would be unfair to comment on pure speculation. By all accounts, they’re in the driving seat for Glen Johnson’s move from Portsmouth, but the price being bandied about is touching £18 million. Portsmouth have given Johnson their blessing that he can move if a side in the Champions League come in for him and United and Arsenal don’t need another right back. I doubt he’ll want to return to Chelsea for a second stint.

Of course if Liverpool do sign Johnson, which would by all accounts use the transfer budget unless it was bolstered by signings and releasing players that simply haven’t made the grade, such as Jermaine Pennant or Ryan Babel. Selling established first team players does not come in to Benitez’s thinking and for them to challenge United and Chelsea they have to keep hold of their best players and add more quality to the full back positions.

Whilst I have been critical of Benitez in the past, you have to feel sorry for him. He’s working for a pair of guys who haven’t held a promise they made back in February 2007 and he’s seen off two potential replacements and a Chief Executive to be able to sign a new contract that runs until 2014. He now just needs Gillett and Hicks to finally deliver the £200 million player investment they promised him when they took over. They know that Benitez has the support of 99.9% of Liverpool fans and they’d risk everything if they undercut the manager by selling first team regulars.

The big test for Benitez for the 2009-2010 season is to build on what last years excellent season offered Liverpool fans and push for a consistent title challenge throughout the year. For them to continue and progress, the manager has to receive the financial backing to progress. He knows that United now have a war chest of £100 million and it’s likely that Chelsea will have even more to spend and that’s without taking into consideration Manchester City or Arsenal’s forays in to the market over the summer.

Without that backing, Liverpool could go backwards and Benitez doesn’t deserve that!

When did it come to this?

As I watch Bolton’s Reebok Hunt slide tackle Liverpool’s Xabi Carlsberg at Carlsberg Lite Stadium in Liverpool on an overcast Saturday in April, I am filled with an unbearable nostalgia for the past.

As Fly Emirates Bennett holds the red card aloft in Hunt’s face who begins his long walk of shame, (brought to you by Reebok), I can’t help but long for the days before players, refs and stadia started adopting the names of massive corporate sponsors.

Liverpool supporters were griping in 2009 when Carlsberg first sealed the deal to change the name of Anfield, Liverpool FC’s historic venue, to Carlsberg Stadium, even changing the name of Anfield Road to Carslberg Road. But the precident had already been set in the Premier League with Bolton’s Reebok Stadium, Wigan’s JJB Stadium and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium replacing the traditional venues of Burnden Ground, Springfield Park and Highbury.

The strangest turn in the history of sport sponsorship was when players began taking the names of the sponsors. This began with Newcastle’s Obafemi Northern Rock in early 2010. Many players quickly followed suit. Samsung Lampard, Gareth Acorns, OKI Crouch, Nationwide Rooney and Shaun Wright-Thomas Cook all became household names of English Football.

Liverpool were hesitant to go along with this trend, since the stadium name change was still a point of bitter contention amongst supporters. But when intense pressure from Carlsberg combined with Liverpool’s inability to compete with the increased spending of the other clubs, the Merseyside giants relented.

Xabi Carlsberg, Steven Carlsberg, Pepe Carslberg and Carlsberg Lite Leiva were the first to legally change their names for increased corporate funding.

When the players filed out with ‘Carlsberg’ written across the backs of their shirts in place of Alonso, Gerrard, Reina and Lucas, supporters wondered if they were watching football or a Ramones cover band. But with the extra funding, Liverpool were soon able to secure the transfers of Bastien Carlsberg, Daniel Alves da Carlsberg and Arjen Carlsberg. These were all pivotal players in the campaign that saw Liverpool win their 19th Premier League Title in 2011, the year before the trophy became simply known as The Barclay.

As victory came, the groans of supporters subsided.

And while manager Rafael Adidas led Liverpool to win three more titles in a row, Manchester United, Liverpool’s traditional rivals, plummeted into financial trouble due to their increased involvement with the doomed investment firm, AIG. United had to sell off many top players like Nationwide Rooney and Cristiano International Group, Inc. just to stay afloat. The club narrowly avoided relegation to The Diet Coke Championship last season.

But United’s fortunes may be turning as they complete a renewed deal with an old sponsor. Now, Sir Alex Vodafone feels confident his side will be able to climb back to the top of the League next season after a fruitful transfer window.

Back at the brand new Carlsberg Lite Stadium in Liverpool, I watch Fernando Carlsberg hit a hat-trick against a ten-man Bolton side. The young kids around me, who probably couldn’t tell you El Niño’s birth name, start to sing:

His armband said he was a Red! (Carlsberg! Carlsberg!)

‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ it said! (Carlsberg! Carlsberg!)

The older supporter sitting between them and me shakes his head and rolls his eyes. He had corrected the lads in the first half when they began to sing: Around the Fields of Carlsberg Road… But now you can see he just doesn’t have the energy. Neither do I, as I long for the days of Anfield, Highbury and St James Park. The days when tradition and history won out over sponsorship and the corporate agenda.

Do any of us have the energy to fight the changing times? I decide not to think about it as I ponder what to drink when I visit the pub after the match.

What on earth is happening at Liverpool this week? There seems to some major leaking going on behind the scenes that seem to point to two camps eager to try and score points against each other. News has begun to circulate this morning that the chief executive, Rick Parry is to leave his position at Liverpool this afternoon after 12 years at Anfield. A statement is expected this morning to clarify matters. That sounds like he’s going to me.

After the Benitez leaving debacle on Wednesday, today the focus has shifted to Parry’s position in the Liverpool hierarchy. It’s an open secret that Parry and Benitez don’t get on at all, but once again, Liverpool’s dirty washing is being aired in public. After the news about Robbie Keane leaving Liverpool was revealed by the BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson in an interview with Irish Radio over Christmas, it’s been a constant stream of negativity leaking out of Liverpool.

Lawrenson made the cardinal sin of bragging about going for a drink with Steven Gerrard and that Gerrard had told him that Keane would be sold in the transfer window. Most of the British media picked this up and had a go at Lawrenson, though oddly the BBC ignored the story, and Lawrenson probably has been advised to keep things to himself in future by his Liverpool contacts.  The decision to sell Keane was seen by many as a sign of strength for Benitez, he’d wanted Gareth Barry and David Villa. Instead Parry went after neither target and signed Keane, against Benitez’s wishes. Once Keane had been sold back to Tottenham, the battle lines were drawn. The relationship has steadily gone down hill and Benitez may have made the point that if they’d signed who he wanted in the summer, they’d still be top. That alone makes Parry’s position weaker.

Now 4 weeks later, it begins to seem as if Benitez has won out but it also makes you wonder, just who was behind the stories about Rafa leaving on Wednesday. Surely it wasn’t a deliberate act by someone either at Liverpool or working on information supplied to them by a Liverpool employee was to try and destabilise the team ahead of the crucial Champions League game at the Bernabeu? Defeat for Liverpool would have made things very difficulty for Rafa to salvage anything from a season that promised so much but has run out of steam. It would have made the owners consider if it was worth offering him a new contract, or looking at other options.

Overall though, whoever has in charge of Liverpools public relations this week has had their work cut out dealing with all the misinformation flying around. Is Parry really going to be let go this afternoon or has the Benitez camp begun some mischief making of their own? Ferguson will be loving this, Hiddink will probably think Liverpool have the implosion abilities of Ajax in his native Holland, O’Neill and Wenger will see cracks they could possible exploit. The Blue half of Liverpool will be revelling in the continuing soap opera developing across Stanley Park.

Parry isn’t exactly Mr Popular with Liverpool fans, or the owners though he has always counted on George Gillette’s support. By all accounts though, that support has begun to evaporate leaving Parry isolated and alone at Anfield. The fans in general, have nothing but loathing for him, blaming him missing out on Villa and Barry in the Summer and seem to have no respect for him at all. If anything positive was to come out of this season for the Reds, Parry announcing he was leaving would probably placate a lot of them.

Can anyone remember the last time Hull City won a Premier League game? December 6th at home to Middlesbrough was the last time. Since then, they have been very much in freefall.  When Hull first arrived in the Premiership, they were tipped to go straight back down but decided to tear up the script and go to well established top flight sides like Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle United and win. How dare they!

 Since then however, Hull have had a bit of a reality check. Despite two very credible draws at Anfield and Stamford Bridge, a couple of resounding batterings from Manchester City and Sunderland, accompanied with some less humiliating defeats and the odd draw have seen Hull fall into thirteenth. By all means this is a respectable position but the worrying thing for Phil Brown’s side is that they are looking over their shoulder now, rather than towards the dizzy heights of Europe that their early season form suggested.

The run of form that they are in at the moment suggests only one thing; a relegation scrap. This is the last thing that they would have wanted or expected at the time of their last league win but have struggled to maintain the kind of form that shocked the world before Christmas. Credit to Brown, he acknowledged their slump and tried to shake things up by bringing in some new faces, most notably Manucho on loan from Manchester United (to replace the outgoing Marlon King) and record signing Jimmy Bullard from Fulham. The latter however seems to have backfired for the time being as Bullard required further surgery to his troublesome knee and is out for the remainder of the season having only made one substitute appearance for the Tigers.

A problem that is still rectifiable this season though is their home form. The KC Stadium has hardly been a fortress having picked up just three wins in the league there all season. Perhaps this is because it is a welcoming venue for travelling teams with nice facilities and doesn’t boast the most hostile of atmospheres. If a team is to avoid the drop, it is often their home form that will decide it. Stoke City are a good example of a side who are making the most of their home territory and in turn made themselves very difficult to beat there. Hull’s next three home games all come against sides who are in the relegation mix and the phrase ‘six pointer’ starts to take on some real meaning. Sunday’s match against a rejuvenated Blackburn Rovers is a crucial match and a win for Hull could spark a run that results in a comfortable finish to the season and doesn’t require the need for a positive result against Manchester United on the final day. Newcastle United and Portsmouth are the following home games for Hull while upcoming trips to Fulham, Wigan, Middlesbrough and Sunderland suggest that Hull should pick up enough points to survive.

Most neutrals would like to see Hull stay up, purely because of the way they shook things up in the opening weeks of the season and think it would be a waste to then throw it all away. Hull have achieved a lot in a short space of time and sending them back to the drawing board now would be harsh. However, you only stay up if you’re good enough and time will tell.

If, like me, you’re always looking around the Internet for those hard to find football shirts from your past, frustrated as someone gazumps on you on e-bay for the classic 1987 Tottenham away kit with 3 seconds to go, then there has to be only one website for you to visit: www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk

To say it’s extensive doesn’t do it justice, this is a site that has kits from the 1970′s up to the 2004-2005 season, all originals, no fakes and no re-issues. It’s a football fans dream, a real goldmine of memories for people like me who were placed as the football boom really returned in the late 1980′s in the UK.  The 1980′s were when the kits got trendier, sponsors names started appearing all over the place and away and third kits began to appear for the first time.

It also saw the boom period for when people actually wanted to buy replica kits, a strange concept to us these days that football merchandise at the beginning of the decade seemed to consist of bland scarfs, hats, rosettes and gloves in your teams colours.Between 1987 and 1990, the football shirt fashion came from out of nowhere, now its seen as normal.

I just love browsing the site, clicking here and there on link after link after link, each one reminding me of certain moments of my footballing life, like a polyester time capsule, bursting with memories about the girls I kissed at the time, the music I was listening to, the great players and the world around me. So, I thought I’d ask the Doug, one the guys  behind this wonderful website a few questions:

Paul : First of all, thanks for taking the time to talk about the website with me, I really appreciate it. So, to anyone out there who doesn’t know about you, what can you tell us about www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk?

Doug : We are essentially an online shop which sells original and official replica shirts for a wide selection of clubs and national teams from all around the world, from the late 1970′s through to the 2000′s. For the big teams, we stock quite large quantities of home, away and third shirts from many different seasons in a range of sizes. But we try to offer something for everyone from Manchester United to Accrington Stanley, AC Milan to Bari, Boca Juniors to Chicago Fire, England to the USA.

Paul : I’m amazed at some of the kits you’ve got on the site, what gave you the idea to start?

Doug : The two directors of the site were both students when the idea came about and to make ends meet, realised there was money to be made in original, vintage football shirts. The company has grown from this very small base to a relatively large online store stocking close to 10,000 shirts!

Paul : I’m a bit of a football shirt collector, with probably about 80 to 100 myself, but what are the site’s top sellers?

Doug : The most popular shirts are the Holland home shirt from their famous triumph at Euro 88, the Manchester United Newton Heath design away kit from 1992-1994, Liverpool shirts from the time of their last league title, the Arsenal kit worn on that glorious night at Anfield in 1989, the England home shirt from Spain 82 and generally anything that has a great design, sparks memories of great victories or shirts that are very obscure.

Paul : How do price the kits that you sell on the site?

Doug : The shirts are priced first and foremost on the rarity. If it will take us a year to source another one then we have to charge a price for it that takes that into consideration. After that, it goes down to size and condition. Shirts have to be suitable for an adult to fit into really and the most popular sizes are M, L and XL. We try to stock shirts in excellent condition, this means that they may have been worn in the time between when they were first purchased in the shop in whatever year and when they arrive with us, but don’t really show any real signs of this and are great examples for their age.

Paul : Do you just sell replica kits?

Doug : We also sell shirts that have been worn by players. These bear a number of different features that set them apart from the replica kits that you could buy in the shop. We have people who have had the shirt thrown to them in the crowd, handed to them at the training ground or passed on from a family friend etc, selling these type of shirts to us. In the past we’ve had some great items worn by quite a few legendary players.

Paul : So what are your personal favourites and what are the fashion disasters?

Doug : A favourite of mine are the tiger skin pattern design shirts worn by Hull City between 1992 and 1995, but they are only for the brave to wear them really! All of the Italian club and national kits from the late 80′s and early 90′s have a great style and class to them. As for a design that’s pretty shocking, look no further than the infamous grey Manchester United away shirt from the 1995-96 season. Ferguson blamed the shirt for United trailing 3-0 at half time against Southampton at the Dell and they were never seen again!!

Well Doug, thank you very much for spending some time talking about your fantastic website with me and the readers of epltalk.com. All the best for the future and if I can recommend one website out there for fans, collectors or just curious  fans who want to get a feel about how kits have moved on in the last 30 years, www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk certainly ticks all the boxes.