Give Kenny A Harumph

It must be an international break when this is pretty much all we have to talk about. Such is the football calendar.

As you've probably seen by now, our King Kenny isn't exactly chuffed about the scheduling of Liverpool's Carling Cup Quarterfinal. It has been set for Tuesday, November 29th, which is just two days after Liverpool host Shiek City at Anfield in what's looking a pretty vital league match. Strangely, City are put in the same position, as they will travel to the Emirates on the same interval after their visit to Anfield for their quarterfinal against Arsenal.

It's easy to understand Kenny's complaint. Liverpool have taken the League Cup very seriously this year, and seem intent on guaranteeing some form of European football next season at the first hurdle. Their chances are severely hampered by having to play two games in 48 hours, especially when they were likely to field their full-strength lineup in both matches. Meanwhile, Chelsea play on the Saturday before, at home against Wolves. Not only do they not travel at all, but with a club that hangs around with the pilot fish in the bottom of the Premier League sea being the opponent for the Cup tie, Chelski get to choose which match they want to choose a weakened lineup for. Most likely, the Blues can get by Wolves with some pretty strong rotation.

But to be honest, I don't know what else there is to do. If the Metro Police don't want the match on Wednesday due to a Trade Unions March, that's their duty to say so. So where do you move it? To the Thursday? Chelsea have a trip to St. James (or whatever it's called now) two days after that, and would probably howl at the juxtaposition of two such fixtures as well. The following week Chelsea have Champions League concerns. Is it even possible to delay the match two weeks? Of course it isn't.

This is just shouting at the rain basically. It's a bad situation, but sometimes there are just bad situations you can't get out of. That's where Kenny finds himself.

Maybe we should just think about how sweet victories over City and Chelsea would be in the span of 48 hours.