Dubai tripped

I think there should be some kind of inquest into what happened in Dubai. Several key players got sick with what looked like food poisoning. Gini was so sick that he had to stay away from the team, Van Dijk lost 4-5 pounds, Milner played through it at West Ham, but was noticeably below par – he was back to his best vs Bournemouth. There is no way they could have been served anything unsafe from LFC’s kitchen, so it must have been that time in Dubai when the players booked the whole restaurant and also had a few nights out with friends.

Then we come back short-handed by all these illnesses on top of the injuries and drop 4 points in very winnable games. In a title race as tight as this one against City, these kinds of oversights are inexcusable. I would even go as far as to say this is Spurs level bottlery.

 

I fully agree. Dubai sound like a place cunts go to appear flash. I get why they’d go warm weather training instead of being here but not why go to the middle of the desert.

I don’t get the bottlery comment though because we haven’t bottled anything yet and it’s not connected to the rest of your post.

 

For me Dubai is a bit too far to be travelling to during the season. How long is the flying time from Liverpool to Dubai (assuming the team were on a direct flight)? Athens to London is a 3-3.5 hours flight. It must be at least 6 hours. That seems like a long journey to make for a short break.

 

It just reminded me of the Spurs team getting food poisoning before a crucial game for CL place.

 

I get that. My view of a bottle job is losing your nerve. Agreeing to go to Dubai is just incompetent.

 

The Middle East does have form for this sort of thing - the assassins being maybe the best known example.

 

Yep, I didn't write it, but that thought did enter my mind.

 

I wonder if there's some sort of commercial commitment to go there

 

I went the match in great nick yesterday. Since I came home I've had the shits

Not sitting that close to the pitch again

 

I know things have changed since Bob Paisley insisted we travel everywhere with our own chef and a case of baked beans, but don't we travel these days with Mona and Co who monitor everything the players eat? I don't think anyone got food poisoning. One player caught an infection, and it spread through part of the squad before it was spotted and acted upon. The infectious players, like Wini, were kept away from the rest when we came back.

 

Probably more to do with the air travel (always pick up crap with air con etc), different time zone, different climate rather than food. What is wrong with just staying in UK and just training or having few days off at home?

Anyway, they're on their way to warm weather training again by all accounts

 

Article:

Andy Robertson believes Liverpool's forthcoming training camp arrives at a good time to re-energise the squad for the season's run-in.

The Reds returned to winning ways on Saturday with a comprehensive 3-0 defeat of Bournemouth at Anfield but are not in action again until Bayern Munich visit in the Champions League on February 19.

Jürgen Klopp, his staff and the players will use the gap between fixtures for a series of training sessions in warmer conditions abroad this week.

And after a period of troublesome injuries and illnesses, Robertson feels it is a timely opportunity to build up fitness levels for the challenges to come.

He told Liverpoolfc.com after the victory over Bournemouth: “We are a bit of a wounded squad at the minute, but the lads are coming back. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] came back, which was fantastic to see.

“Gini has been struggling all week. He came in and was unbelievable for someone who has been unwell all week. And it was nice to see Hendo back on the bench as well.

“We have got a good 10 days now until Bayern Munich. We go off for the training camp and hopefully we will welcome a few more back because the stronger the squad we have got then the better chance we have got of winning games.

“That’s key to it. We have got a nice 10-day break and I’m sure Trent will be up to speed, and Hendo and Gini. And hopefully we have a couple more come back and then we have got an exciting run-in.”

The left-back added: “It’s good to go away. It’s going to be hard week, we already know that – full of training and things like that.

“But it’s what we enjoy doing. Hopefully the weather is nice, it’s always a bit nicer training in the sun than it is the rain.

“It will be good to get away, then we come back fully fired into the Bayern Munich game, which will hopefully be another special night here.”

From the offal.

 

First game of the season 1999, Chelsea beat newly promoted Sunderland 4-0. Peter Reid said there was no communication on the pitch and it was as if the lads had never spoken to each other. He got the bus to stop at the first pub out of London on the way home and got his whole team completely shitfaced drunk. New signing from Everton, young and tiny John Oster, infamously got so fucked he shat his pants.

On the Wednesday they won 2-0, and they went on to finish 7th, Kevin Phillips was the top scorer across the European leagues. Amazing from a promoted side who'd been spanked in their first match.

I hope Jürgen thinks on this and decides against travelling to some foreign frightmare where the chef is out to kill us, and takes them all to Popworld instead.

 

He used to take his squad out for drinks back in Germany I think. Or did I imagine that?

 

Just wondered what became of John Oster. He got fucked off from Sunderland for shooting a team mate in the eye with an air gun and went to Leeds on loan. That's where it gets good:

Eye witnesses said the incident was sparked off when the Leeds players, who were having a 'Stars in Their Eyes' party, booed Oster when he did a very poor Ozzie Osborne version of 'Paranoid' and he responded by driving his quad bike off stage directly at McMaster, who had previously wowed the audience with a note perfect rendition of 'Green Door' by Shakin' Stevens.

 

Here's some current Oster wisdom