FanPost

Meeting Ronnie

Never thought I would see the day an LFC legend stopped through ATL and actually spent time talking with supporters. The whole thing was a bit surreal, quite frankly.

I'm sure it's the same at all talks, but he led off the night w/ about 45 minutes of just telling stories, which were hilarious and likely told many, many times, given the smooth delivery. The best ones: (a) Souneness was a shit shit manager but the best player he ever played with; (b) playing for Ireland and drinking their faces off on the reg (mgr when asked why he let them drink said that no one would show up otherwise); (c) being a united fan growing up and scoring a goal at the stretford end just as he imagined as a kid (an OG, but digger saved the day later); and a couple other good ones I'm blanking on. Great delivery. Man knows how to tell a story.

They took a smoke / drink break - which I did both of - and it appeared he stayed and chatted w/ folks and signed autographs. Took the time to look everyone in the eye and have a chat with them. Very, very genuine and cool.

Second part was Q&A. There were two pre-submitted questions, then he answered form the floor for another hour (it was supposed to go only 15-30 minutes. I asked two questions over the course of the evening: (a) did he think we would see another internal hire (e.g., Stevie, Carra, Hyypia, Gary Mac (when I mentioned Gary Mac he said it didn't seem to be going to well at the moment, which I thought was pointed); and (b) was grobbelaar as crazy in real life as he was on the pitch. To the former - in addition to the first point mentioned - he thought perhaps, maybe, after cutting their chops somewhere else - and to the latter: yes. Then told a story where Grobbelaar n them were out [and presumably getting hammered, as you'll see] and a dude was showing how he could hold his hands behind his back and fall to the ground, pulling out his hands at the last minute to catch himself before face planting. Grobbelaar immediately said: I could do that. He could not, he smacked his face on the ground and needed six stitches in his chin. Speaking of Grobbelaar, he thought he wasn't much better than Migs and that the defenders needed to just accept that migs would fuck up and be ready on the line to block shots, which is what they did for Bruce.

Someone else asked my first question, which was what he thought of the loan system vs. reserve system (long time he was in the reserves just waiting for the first team (1.5 years; then a game in which he scored, then another 7 months; think about that). He thought loanps were beneficial, but that players should go w/in England. He thought reserve system would be impossible w/ today's salaries.

He thinks Costa is brilliant; I agree with him on that.

He thinks raheem is....[what my mom told me growing up]

He thinks we shoulda found room for stevie and blamed BR for his departure in that he was told to handle the stevie situation and couldn't.

He does not care for lallana one bit.

He clearly does not believe most of today's footballers give a shit about much more than money.

He fucking loves the club. Had a jab for evans for putting him out.

I'll remember more, but gonna post this for now.

Oh, I also won an autographed LFC ATL supporters club t-shirt. However, I got my 86 jersey autographed so I don't care all that much about the t-shirt. AM, you're the irishman, do you want the T for the autograph? You get first dibs. I'm happy to give it to one of y'all that would like it but do not already have one of his (seriously, don't be asshole; let someone that doesn't have one get one).

The thing was at the W downtown, which is one of three in ATL. First, it makes me sick we have 3 of those fucking chain hotels in ATL. Second, the W sucks: rich people strip mall.

Will post pictures in a little bit.

Please make any posts here geared towards creating discussion. Any works that are copied and pasted from other sites will be deleted. This isn't a place to advertise services or your blog, it's an extension of our site. Please treat it as such.