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| SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT Ian Agass  Our next Supporter Spotlight falls upon Ian Agass, who tells us about why he thinks he is the next Shakespeare, being called Bigfoot by his mates and scoring one-yard screamers!For the supporters, tell us more about your background. I’m from sunny Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Not particularly close to Merseyside as my accent will testify to, but I was an avid M1/M6 traveller to games before I moved out to Hong Kong about 8 months ago now. Cut me in half, and I’ll bleed red - straight up! How did you find out about the OLSC Hong Kong? When I first came out to Hong Kong, it was the week before the Champions League final so naturally I had to find the local Reds to watch the game with. I was at Anfield for the semi against Chelsea two days before flying out and was desperate to see the game with a big atmosphere again. The noise in Amici that night was fantastic and was like being on our own mini terrace. It was just a shame the better team lost on the night! What do you like about the Supporters’ Club? It’s a really good way to meet fellow fans, and there’s a really great crowd of people in the club. With the Forum and banter that goes on it’s a really good way to stay in touch properly with the footy back home as well. Oobviously I miss going up to Anfield but being in Hong Kong, watching the game with other Reds fans is the next best thing. We heard you scored on your debut for the Hong Kong Reds football team? Explain how you felt when you scored. Was it screamer? I think I’d probably liken it to a classic Morientes strike! It was an absolute screamer and almost broke the back of the net - even though it was from all of 1 yard... Still it’s all about being in the right place at the right time! So have you always been bald then? I think it all went wrong after I sported my Robbie Fowler-esque blonde hair. Bloody cheap Superdrug bleach! Anyone else in your family a Red? My Mum and Dad are both Reds, although my Mum refuses to watch the games because the last time she did we lost. She’ll hide in the kitchen and run out whenever the game sounds like it’s getting exciting though. Got any nicknames? Not really, people just call me Agass. A couple of people back home call me Bigfoot but that’s about it really. Any hobbies? As well as playing footy, I like to play golf, tennis and cricket although never really enough. My new years resolution is to get round finally to doing some writing this year too, so look out for my sitcom in 2010! (I wouldn’t hold your breath just in case though!) What’s your day job? I work in Marketing for The Royal Bank of Scotland. Liverpool FC Favourite Liverpool goal? Gerrard versus West Ham in the FA Cup Final - it just doesn’t get any better than that. I was sat in one of the fairly mixed parts of the stadium close to a West Ham fan who’d been giving it fairly large for most of the match…you could say I went a bit mad when it hit the back of the net! A close second has to be Gerrard vs Olympiakos too - "You Beauty!". Heroes? Ian Rush and John Barnes - absolute legends! How many of the Liverpool songs can you sing? Which is the best? I think pretty much all of them, although I may be lost with any new ones having only been to one game this season. My favourite has to be ‘Fields of Anfield Road’, although the ‘Greatest Midfield in the World’ song is a cracker too. Ugliest player? In the current squad it probably has to be Yossi – but lets be honest, he doesn’t have a patch on the Neville brothers when it comes to the ugliest in the league! Tell us more about meeting the Liverpool team in July and particularly Rafa. Meeting the team was fantastic and as you’d expect Rafa was a legend and a really top guy. He did ask me to sign after seeing some of my skills on the sideline, but being contracted to Legal Head, Ken wouldn’t release me from my contract! Carra and Agger both came across really well too - Carra has to be the nicest and most grounded guy in football. Will Liverpool win the Premiership finally this season? No, unfortunately not. I think there’s too much going on off the field this year and that has to be getting to the players. Until the manager receives unequivocal backing from the board and all this current nonsense is cleared up, I just don’t think we have the right focus. The most worrying thing is that if Rafa goes and we have to start building again, we can probably kiss goodbye to the title for another few years - and probably a lot of the current squad too. One positive though is that I think we are definitely back to having the best striker in the league and that’s a big step in the right direction. Torres is pure class! What do you think of Rafa’s rotation policy? In the modern game I don’t think there’s any getting away from it. You need to rotate if you’re going to challenge on numerous fronts and since Rafa has been here we’ve genuinely done that in most seasons - just unfortunately not the league yet. Ferguson does it and Mourinho did it - in fact last year, until we rested half the squad for two games before the Champions League final, Ferguson had actually rotated more, and look what United achieved. The press just seem to be more interested in questioning what Rafa and Liverpool do. They’re like a dog with a bone and until we win a league title, they’ll question everything we do. They still go on about bloody zonal marking! The only thing I’d prefer Rafa didn’t do is switch the formation as much. It works in Europe but I don’t think it really benefits us in the league. The Important Stuff What’s the last CD you bought? The Hoosiers - The Trick to Life. What’s your favourite TV show? At the moment it’s The Mighty Boosh. The last film you saw at the cinema with a hot girl? 30 Days of Night…and there were two of them! Won ton mein or congee? Congee with a bit of chilli sauce. What’s your tipple? And when were you last exceedingly drunk? Lager or JD and Coke. The last time I was exceedingly drunk was probably my birthday in December - a round of pub golf followed by Dusk ’til Dawn. Very, very messy! Favourite holiday destination? New Zealand. If you were stuck in a lift with one other person, who would it be? Scarlett Johansson would be nice! Who would win in a fight between Ian McAlan and Ken Abela? How many rounds do you think it would go? That would depend on what kind of fight - if it was a verbal one, then Ken hands down. But real fisticuffs? I think Ian would have a couple of tricks up his sleeve and take Ken down to Chinatown... It’d last about one round in the verbal contest, about three in the real fight. What do you like about Hong Kong? What’s not to like? It’s a great place with pretty much everything you could want here. Jesscia Alba or J-Lo? Jessica Alba. |
| Features and Submissions Original writing by Club members Peter Thompson - On a Wing and a Slayer 50,000 and Counting! A Greek Odyssey! We welcome submissions from our members. Send your contribution to: info@hongkongreds.com The Big Red Quiz All the questions and answers from our previous quizzes Chelsea v Liverpool - 17.09.06 Everton v Liverpool - 09.09.06 Sheff Utd v Liverpool - 19.08.06 Supporter Spotlight Find out more about our members Roger Shuttleworth Jon Wharton Ken Abela Meko Oh Lily Lam Chin Ian Agass Jason Li Rob Kelly Simon Betterton David Thomas Legend Spotlight Interviews with LFC heroes Mark Walters Alan Kennedy John Barnes Steve McMahon Referee Spotlight Focusing on the men in the middle Mike Riley Hong Kong Reds Around the World Our members in glorious technicolour Kiki Hon |
