THE THURSDAY BLOG Vol 3 No 2

Good afternoon gentlemen and welcome to another Thursday blog. I know it's Friday but that probably fits in with how my life is going at the moment. This blog is going to get emotional today as I have made a huge decision for me. On paper it looks an easy move but trust me, this wasn't and I have used a whole range of emotions before coming to what I know is the right decision for everyone involved but I am going to get started with the recent happenings in the Kinnear household and particularly last weekend which seen me being Mr Angry. Last weekend seen the annual Royal Highland Show at Ingliston in Edinburgh, not to be confused with the Ingliston where we keep one of the horses. On the Friday, my wife, Alison, asked if I fancied going this year. Now, I have never went as I left it to Alison and the girls to go enjoy the stuff that they like. It is all about livestock and the likes but there are other things that would suit almost everybody. Lots of stalls and competitions etc and I believe it is a thing worth experiencing.

I said to Alison that I would go for a change and she was happy at that. That night both the girls came home from work and said they wouldn't be going to the Show because, basically, they could not afford it. At £27 entry per person, I could sympathise with that. So I thought about the different scenarios and on the Saturday night I said that I wouldn't go because, to be honest, it's not my kind of thing while the girls love it. This would also give Alison some more money to spend on the shit they buy for the horses. I could go for a while on the things leading up to the show but to get to the point, it was agreed that Alison would go with Elise. I had to make them promise that they would get on well together and there wouldn't be any of the arguing that they have grown accustomed to. Janene, by the way, had managed to get going with her job as a show groom as the professional at Ingliston (stables) had decided to enter a couple of show jumping competitions at the last minute. This meant Janene was needed as his groom. To help them along I gave Alison £130 to help them enjoy it a bit more. Off they went on the Sunday while I stayed at home and happily waited for the EURO2016 games to come on. I always like to tidy up when I am in the house so I got plenty done and had the house looking good. When they came back just around 5pm they looked quite happy and had not argued once. 'Do you want to see what we got?' asking the question as if I had a choice of answers. Well, since they always brought me back something, whether it was even just some rum and raisin fudge (mmmmm better than sex) or a sweetie, I of course said yeah ok. A nice rug for one of the horses, some other horse thing and a couple of other things that I nodded approvingly at without actually known what they were. Great I said, you done quite well, while I wait to see what they got me. The bags were put away and they sat down. I am not one for holding any thoughts in so naturally I asked what they brought me back. 'Oh, we didn't get you anything. The fudge and sweet stall was over the other side and we were too knackered to go over'. I actually coped with that quite well. Never said anything. They said they were going to just have a lie down on the couches and I said that was fine and I would go upstairs and watch the Northern Ireland v Ukraine game. After that game the Germany game was coming on but I must have dozed off, waking up with the game at half time. Just at that, I got a text from Alison. It said 'Are you making the dinner?' I stared at that for a couple of minutes before I thought 'Are you fucking kidding me'. Now I was like Vesuvius on the edge of blowing and spouting the deadly lava.

 I remained calm and sent a text back saying ' I suppose. I will be down in a minute.' I waited a minute before going down and still managed to stay remarkably calm. In the living room, Alison was lying on one couch and Elise on the other. It had obviously been a hard day having a good time. I snapped, will someone peel the potatoes please and headed for the kitchen. The text came 'Whats wrong with you?'. That was all I needed to get on my high horse, the only horse I actually like. So I let rip saying how they had been out all day, how I had given her money to help enjoy, how I stayed at home and tidied the house and then she had the bloody cheek to ask if I was making the dinner!!! That was me now blowing my top. She said to leave the dinner but that was a non starter. I wasn't giving her a chance to water down my argument. I ended my text with 'can someone peel the potatoes!!' That was twice I asked. She continued with her excuses about the fudge but I wasn't interested. Did she not realise she was talking to a Diva!! Elise shouted on me to come through. Obviously couldn't be bothered moving her fat ass off the couch. I just shouted through, if it's an excuse you have then I am not interested. That was her input finished. At this point, Janene comes in from her day at the show. She looks completely shattered and could do with her bed. Meanwhile, for the third time I send, 'Can someone peel the potatoes?' I am putting my masterpiece of a mince pie in the oven when Janene comes into the kitchen. I asked her what she was doing and she said mum sent her in to do the potatoes. I always thought that steam coming out of someone's ears was just a thing to say someone is angry but I can swear that there was steam coming out of mine. Well, Janene said she did see steam but I think I was standing in front of the kettle that I had put on to boil. I sent her away and peeled the potatoes myself along with sending a text saying how fucking dare she send Janene in to do the potatoes after she has just done a days hard work. That was more or less the end as it went quiet after that. I continued in angry mode and completed the dinner. Every bit was eaten, not one bit of mince pie or mashed potato remained and that is because I am a fucking awesome cook but I wont be taken advantage of.

Janene loves a pout

Recently it was noticed that Janene had been very protective of her phone. Now, I can't really say much about it as I am very protective of mine for reasons that should be known. However, any time Elise went near Janenes phone she freaked out just a bit too much so it doesn't take Sherlock to work out that she had something to hide. A new boy was the obvious choice but she wasn't for giving anything up, saying she didn't like anyone looking through her phone. Again, I can identify with that. The truth would eventually come out and a few days later Alison told me that it, indeed was a boy she was texting. She had met him in a nighclub and they were texting each other. I had my sensible head on and said to Alison that she was 19 and it was perfectly normal to be texting a boy. She had already had Shrek as a boyfriend so it was time to et her do her own thing. I couldn't believe I was saying that considering how protective I am of her. So no big deal? There is no such thing in this house as 'no big deal'. There is always something that causes some sort of disagreement shall we say. So the bombshell was about to come. I could feel it in my urine but what would it be? Alison gave me the answer to that. She tells me that Janene didn't want to tell me about the boy because she thought I would do my usual 'wanting to kill' act. I asked why she wouldn't tell me as she was only texting. Then it came. Alison says to me, the boy is 26. Boy? Fucking boy??? No boy I know is 26. A 26yo old is a man and what the fuck was he doing texting a 19yo!!! Get a grip son and go for a woman, not a wee lassie. Alison told me that she was meant to go out with him the previous Sunday but her bottle crashed and she never went. I have said on here before that she is 19 in age but is not mature. She is like 15 or 16 in her head. I kept a lid on it as I had said to Janene I would take her to work the next morning. When I took her it was obviously like question time. I stayed calm and asked about him. I said she was 19 and I couldn't stop her doing what she wanted. I asked how they met and she told me about the nightclub and then I asked what happened, as in kissing etc. She said they had kissed a few times, no doubt snogged would be a better description. I said nothing and instead looked out the side window as we waited on the traffic lights to go green. She asked if I was angry. In a quiet tone I just answered yes. We never spoke the rest of the journey. The next day at home I gave her a big hug and told her I hadn't fallen out with her and I didn't blame her but did say I thought he was bang out of order. I believe she has stopped texting now coz she loves her daddy and doesn't like when he is upset. She is my baby girl and I will have to eventually let her go and I will do so as long as the boy is around her age for now.

That little story takes me nicely on to my state of mind right now, today. I was angry at Janene texting a boy of 26. I am the biggest fucking hypocrite alive. As you know, Gemma, my girlfriend is 31 years my junior so what right do I have to be annoyed with my daughter. Well, this played on my mind and this morning I ended my relationship with Gemma. It was one of the hardest things I had to do and I hated the fact that I was doing it by MSN messenger but I couldn't do it face to face as I would fail. It was difficult writing it out and I must admit my emotions were high. Tears in my eyes as I wrote it because she might be 31 years young than me but she is an amazing girl and I love her a lot but I have to look at the future and although she was quite willing for us to find somewhere to live together, I think it would be madness. Her family would have disowned her and there would have been so many obstacles that there is a chance it could all fall apart and where would that leave us.

Gemma(left) with her pal. Heartbroken.

 I think I have done the right thing and this is where I have to thank you guys because this blog gives me the opportunity to tell it as it is. Everyone in the house has someone to talk to if they need to pour their heart out and it is always me that they come to because they know that whatever they tell me stays with me and I will give them advice if it is what they want. So who do I go to? Well, no one. There is not one person I can go to or trust enough to spill out my heart on things. I have to bottle up everything that affects me. I am glad I can therefore use this blog to do it and I know that the guys that read this will be only to happy to help. I have to sort my head out and choose a path and that path is going to be right here with my family. I know they all love me and in return I go and shag a young lassie for the past 4 or 5 years. So, today is the start of a new attitude and hopefully I can get my head on straight and enjoy what I have right in front of my nose. As for Gemma, her reaction to my message was to block me. I am not condemning her decision to block me as she will have her reason for it. It could be her way of telling me to fuck off then or she could be so upset that she thinks that's the best way to deal with it. One thing I know is that she will appear at some point. That may be when she goes to her mum's as my bus route stops right outside her mum's door or she could appear online. This time I know I have to be strong and stick by my decision and tell her I am happy to be friends with her and talk to her but that's all it can be.

Well here we are at July 1st and we are still able to use the old SM interface. I am more than happy about that but I do notice that the new UI has changed quite a lot. It seems to be vastly improved and I am beginning to think that they are listening to the people and are trying to make the new UI more attractive to us older players. I have been using the new UI on my phone when I am a work and I am getting used to it but I do still think there is a lot of room for improvement. On the phone app there is not enough information on the pages. The squad list tells you nothing except the players age and rating. I couldn't look at it and see instantly who is on transfer ban. I have to click on the player to get his details up and I find that time consuming and irritating. I can't move around my clubs without having to go to the home page first which again is time consuming and irritating. I am slowly getting to know my way around but I am still not convinced that it will ever be as good as the old UI.

I currently have 8 clubs on SM and although I would like to cut that by one or two, there are none that I would want to quit. Top100 is obviously the top world that I check first all the time and that's followed by the Ash. Coming up on the rails now though is Jason Hines' Brookfield Premier League. I am not sure where he got the title from but I find it pretty cool that Brookfield is a small village just outside Johnstone and a village that I drive through quite a lot. Anyway, I have always enjoyed that set up from my early days of taking on Hibernian and getting them promoted to Division 2 to now being manager of Borussia Dortmund. Transfers at the top end are not easy but there have been plentiful recently and there was a huge boost when some successful promoting by Rahul brought many players to the set up and that has seen it rise from about 50% full to just 1 club short of a full house. The new season is just about to start (Sunday) and it looks as though it is going to be very competitive. As I write this, RC Deportivo are the only club left unmanaged and although they would need a lot of work it would be great if someone was willing to take up that challenge and give Jason a full house. He works well with the world and although we have had a couple of varying views on things, I still think he is a good owner.

At Liverpool, things are going reasonably well so far. The first team are lying 7th in the table after 8 games and I can't complain about that. 3 wins and 3 draws gives us 12 points and I thought we were unlucky not to steal a point last night against one of the title favourites, Bayern Munich. As expected they had most of the game, being at home but we defended well and restricted them on chances while trying to sneak one at the other end. Eventually we went down 1-0 but we have shown that we are ready to compete in the top half of the table this season and I am delighted with the effort and commitment from the boys. Lacazette has responded brilliantly to my criticism of him and grabbed the goal that gave us the win at Fiorentina. His contribution has improved overall and he seems to be enjoying his new position on the right hand side.

Lacazette has improved by leaps and bounds

Szczesny is another one that I have to give praise to. He had a poor season last year and I am sure he will hold his hands up to that but this season has seen a big improvement and the fact that we have conceded just 7 goals in the 8 games is proof of that. We are working hard as a team and they are playing for each other. We have some star names but not one player thinks he is better than the rest and that is doing only good things for the team. We have a big test coming up over the next three games with Rafael being suspended and Luis being injured. This means our two full backs are out at the same time and I need to decide who I can depend on to fill they places. Maksimovic seems the sensible answer to the right back position but the left back one is a bit more tricky with Mendy and De Bock both having a case to be picked. Hopefully we can keep the form going despite this setback and I am confident that I will still be the Liverpool boss next season as my own target of beating 38 points and not being relegated looks like succeeding.

The youths are doing well in their own Youth Cup competition and are joint top of the group with Atletico Madrid. A 2-1 win over Stuttgart was a good one to get under the belts especially since we picked up the other win by default after Atletico Madrid fielded the biggest hairy arsed boys you will ever see in your life. The Captain, Benjamin Mendy is doing a great job on the pitch and it is easy to see why he may get a run in the big team. Inaki Williams is another big influence in the team and if they can keep the good work up and qualify for the knock out stages then anything can happen. The Youth Cup would look good in the trophy room.

The same can't be said for the World Club Cup as we sit joint bottom of our group with just one point from three games. We were unlucky not to get anything from the trip to Fenerbahce, going down 2-1, but on the bright side, we are going to be able to experiment in the rest of the games and try and give the likes of Williams and Lucas Vazquez some first team experience. All in all though, the team spirit and the mood around the club is excellent and we are looking forward to the rest of the season and hopefully we can gain a European place when it's all done and dusted.

Well that is it for another Thursday blog. It's been fun writing it and it's been a big help to be able to get some things off my chest and put them down in print.

Next blog thing for me is at the beginning of next week when I plan to do a quarterly report on Division 1 as a follow up to my season preview. I will offer my thoughts on how each side has performed and will also compare it to my predicted finish for each club and good or bad I feel my predictions are looking.

Until then, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Time for me to go and do some housework since no other fucker does it.

Ciao