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Thursday, 03 July 2008

A NORTHSIDE man’s dedication to his favourite football team has landed him a major award in the UK.
Gerry Ormonde, from Killester Park, a diehard supporter of Liverpool Football Club, writes and runs a popular blog site called ‘Kopblog’.
Gerry has been running ‘Kopblog’, a sister site to the extremely popular ‘This Is Anfield’ website, since early 2005, the year Liverpool won the Champions League.
After receiving a large number of votes from football fans to make it onto their shortlist, the judging panel for the New Football Pools Fanzine Awards, named his site Best Football Blog.
“Needless to say, I am delighted with the news and proud of my achievement,” Gerry told Northside People.
“There were thousands of sites. My name was put forward on this massive list and then they asked people to vote for the best ones.
“The ones with the most votes got onto a shortlist of 10 and mine was one of those.
“I had to submit three pieces and won the Best Football Blog category.”
Although Gerry didn’t receive a prize, he said it was about the prestige of winning the award.
“The Blog is a time consuming hobby (he spends two to three days a week working on it) but I enjoy it and I’ve been doing it for so long now.
“The Blog is about my opinions on the latest issues surrounding the club.
“People can come on and make comments. When I write up a piece I can get 150 to 200 emails. I get emails from all over the world. People have got used to it now and it’s very enjoyable.”
As Liverpool is one of the biggest football clubs in the world, there is always a lot to talk about for any knowledgeable fan, and for Gerry it’s no different.
“I could be talking about a particular player or match or I might have an interview with someone,” he stated.
As Gerry was previously active on the ‘This Is Anfield’ website, he was invited to do the Blog three years ago and took on the challenge with great enthusiasm.
Liverpool’s trophy-less 2007/2008 season was marred by a huge amount of off the field squabbling from the very top and was certainly one of the biggest talking points among fans last year.
Indeed, there was even talk of Liverpool supporters from all over the world coming together and buying the club from its much-maligned American owners.
According to Gerry, who started supporting Liverpool after they lost the 1971 FA Cup final to Arsenal, this would be the “dream scenario”.
“Realistically, I can’t see that happening,” he said.
“It’s great that so many people care enough that they want to buy the club.
“Dubai International Capital (DIC) would probably be the best option.”
Although Liverpool haven’t won the league title since 1990, Gerry feels that progress has been made under current manager, Rafael Benitez.
“It’s not as bad as it’s sometimes made out,” he added.
“The spine of the team is as good as you’ll get but they haven’t got the strength in depth. They can put out an 11 that will match anybody.
“Benitez doesn’t have millions to throw at the team. Chelsea can buy a squad player for e25 million, but Liverpool can’t do that. The pressure is on this year, though.”

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