Hello lads and lasses,
I rarely post on here but was pointed this way by a mate who'd told me there were a few dubious and quite hurtful comments about me (nothing new, it's the internet FFS) a few pages back.
Having read a few of those lines now, I feel I've got to respond.
Firstly, this business about me being AMF. Loads of things in the game were better "in my day". Like not getting kicked off the ACS scheme because your card fails. We'd just turn up, pay in (when the arl moaners sat at home leaving the Kemlyn empty) to watch the Dynamo Tblisis and Dresdens. No ladders to scale, just loyalty rewarded by a space on the Kop for living near the ground. To the people who say I hate "wools", most of my mates who I go with are from out of town, fantastic fans. And my definition of wool extends to people from Liverpool who wouldn't know a good look or the right mentality if it smacked them in the face.
Equally, the modern game is great and I still go the match with my mates local and from afar, and dad, son and sister, so I can't hate it that much. I don't.
Also saw a few comments about me referring to the Peter Moore fan visit in Napoli as smacking of a PR exercise. Perhaps his intentions were honourable but that was triggered by mates I knew out there who had their own suspicions. I might have got that wrong, and in light of the abuse I got over it on twitter, probably should have kept my own counsel. But, if anyone really thinks FSG and Moore are a philanthropic Godsend, that's your opinion to which you're entitled. But, it goes both ways.
With regard to me not being on TAW these days, I'm busy. I've got a new-ish full time job - I have to earn a living like we all do and am not in the media as such - and TAW is recorded in working hours. I spoke briefly to Andy H at the Norwich game in August about trying to work round that, but haven't heard anything since. Nor have I seen or heard anything from the other TAW lads since last season, besides swapping the odd text with my mate Rob G. I'm also writing a book on the Reds and my daughter has gone to Oxford to do Law (so I have limited hours at weekends) therefore my time is at a premium. Family comes before football, always has, always will.
I still listen occasionally, and in the main it's younger contributors (bar Rob) so I'm not sure where my ideas fit in with the echo chamber. Sometimes you feel your age.
On top of everything I've a had a few MH issues caused by stress, principally started by my involvement with Redsbet/Fansbet which was a very pressurised position, especially so given some of the awful feedback I/we got for promoting betting (despite the core socialist message). It made me feel very uncomfortable and through all manner of things it hurts. Thankfully, that episode is behind me although I'm too decent to say what I really think about that whole thing.
As for the imbecile who said on here I wasn't in control of my faculties - thank you. I can assure you that I am.
Oh, and as for the initial time when people said I was off my rocker for suggesting letting Coutinho go was a bad move; we might have 7 European Cups now (in Kiev Firmino was goosed and Salah injured) and most recently at OT I thought we lacked a bit of guile to break down their massed rearguard.
Bottom line is I miss being on TAW. I've seen quite a few posts on the Facebook TAW subscribers page asking about me and my whereabouts and the same on twitter. No-one from the wrap has replied to any of those posts or tweets so amid that radio silence, I'm not sure where I stand.
Up the Reds,
Mike Nev
PS - You'll see I've refrained from using foul language, which is all too common these days. And if I sound a bit vexed, it's because I'm upset at utter rubbish I've read about me on here today. Pathetic.
