Andy Gray: "For the first time in the last ten years, I think this is the best opportunity Liverpool have of winning it [the Premier League title]. I really mean that."
So that is Reason Number 1...
When a shady talking head with links to a bookmaking organisation tells you to Buy A, contrarian Reality suggests that a Sell of A might be more in your interest.
And I really mean that too...
Continuing in Grayspeak, to be honest, we lied to you the other day.
We told you that the early Xmas Freebie Bet opposing Liverpool's chances in this years' title race would feature 10 solid reasons.
Hyperreal inflation has resulted in an absolute minimum of fifteen reasons.
Moving on...
Reason Number 2, inevitably, is Laurel and Hardy, the strange comedians who are involved in leeching a living off their highly leveraged and grossly indebted financial vehicle, formerly known as Liverpool FC.
In the world of private equity, our twosome's financial chicanery is seen as gaining a slick slice of the action - excessive personal aggrandisement at the expense of what was once a viable organisation prior to the rigours of asset stripping being imposed.
There is no higher executive hands-on management.
And these are just not the sort of people that should be involved in our game - loan officers at Wachovia, one of the banks involved in this scam, have recently been exposed as referring to Black customers as "Mud People".
Management issues bring us onto Reason Number 3 - Rafa With the Strange Satanic Beard.
His team selection is ropey, his transfer policy is totally disastrous, his public pronouncements are counter-productive, his squad size is unmanageable, he is unable to judge a goalkeeper and he allows cliques to develop in his squad, even siding with one against the other.
As Robbie Keane pointedly said when joining Tottenham after Rafa With The Strange Satanic Beard had managed to lose £10.3 million on the striker in six months: "It is always good when you have got a manager you can understand."
£55,000 per day...
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Whatever.
Liverpool are by some distance not as good as Chelsea, Man Utd or Arsenal.
Reason Number 5 is the ousting of Rick Parry.
Liverpool will not be Liverpool without Parry, a reasonably decent man in a criminalised world.
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Reason Number 7 was the reaction to Charles Itandje and his laughter during the Hillsbrough Memorial.
After being initially threatened with instant dismissal, Liverpool backtracked and merely fined the man two weeks wages.
This respect to Itandje showed no respect whatsoever to the 96 victims.
Reason Number 8 is the formation of AFC Liverpool. When disillusionment reaches the level where supporters are breaking away to form their own entity, something smells.
And, unlike Manchester United, Liverpool cannot pack 75,000 into Anfield to offset this drift.
Reason Number 9 is that Pepe Reina simply isn't up to it.
Reason Number 10 concerns the Spanish players and staff at the club. Not only are these individuals paying twice as much tax as they would back in Spain, but also they are suffering from the deliberate devaluation of the pound against the euro.
As stories come though about the feelgood factor as Spain takes over the Premier League after the latters' brief stay at the summit, players will judge their strategies and incentives accordingly.
Liverpool are very heavily laden with Spaniards.
Reason Number 11 is the World Cup. Having won Euro 2008 and in possession of their first trophy since the era when bookmakers used to allow England to occasionally win things, Spain have their best chance ever of winning the World Cup next summer in South Africa.
If Liverpool think that they are going to get 100% out of their Spanish players this season, they are in Cloud Cuckoo Land, otherwise known as Barnsley.
Reason Number 12 is the lack of quality at the top or in depth in the squad.
The entire Liverpool transfer policy studiously avoids the bits of science in the pseudoscience that is Sabermetrics.
Reason Number 13 are the burglaries.
Organisations have their culture demolished by leaks.
Insider knowledge leading to burglaries of one's personal possessions doesn't rank too highly on the old motivation chart...
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Reason Number 15 is that the summer transfers leave Liverpool weaker than before the window opened.
So who is to win the title then?
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Incidentally, an indication of the recent financial losses in the Murdochracy is that you can get a better price with William Hill than SkyBet on ALL of the Top Four!
And is it about to become the Big 5?
Or, as Über-Idiotic-Hack, Paul Wilson reckons, are Abu Dhabi United to replace Chelsea in the Top Four?
Despite no European distractions, the City squad is largely devoid of anybody who has won anything of consequence anywhere.
How will they react when they are put under?
Or what if the oil price were to plummet?
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In ScudamoreWorld, it will be whatever they wish for it to be.
Even so, Liverpool will not finish top.
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© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
