I hear David Gill’s son is going to play. Not bad for the CV and a baptism of fire being thrown into your debut in the Champions league rather than the Carling Cup.

It would be interesting what great players the Reds have had and which type of environment they made their debuts in – and whether there is any real correlation between the two.

Thanks Stretty

And I agree with the positive vibe regarding where we finish in the group though I did hear finishing second means we have a 50/50 chance of facing Barcelona and Real Madrid. If we knock either of them out then great but if not then a second round exit looks like a disaster.

Having said that even though our flaws were there to see in Rome against Barca I’d still fancy us over two legs. Fergie has shown he can stifle their midfield over two legs, we didn’t have the resources in Rome which is fair enough, but we dealt with Ibrahimovic in last years competition with relative ease.

And come to think of it, so what if we do get Real or Barca? Big European night at Old Trafford? No point playing in this kind of competition, dreaming of playing in it then hoping we avoid the illustrious names, we’re not Liverpool hoping to play Crusaders or Total Network Solutions.

Thinking back to that 98 group of death it is true to say we would have been eliminated if results had gone against us but I think I’m right in thinking that we were winning, Bayern scored and then neither team put their back into it with about 30 minutes to go because it became clear the results were going very favourably?

Only reason I can remember this so well is because the ITV commentator kept going on about it!