Liverpool were involved in a feisty Merseyside Derby recently in their 2-2 draw with Everton. A late James Tarkowski goal ensued chaos in the final derby at Goodison Park and heated scuffles between the two sets of players.
Curtis Jones and Abdoulaye Doucoure were both sent off for almost starting a brawl. Arne Slot was also shown red for aggravating referee Michael Oliver. Doucoure has faced a lot heat on social media for his actions, and that includes getting a passive-aggressive threat from infamous Liverpool fan Sean Astley.
Astley is a devoted Red who has been born and raised in Liverpool. His passion for the club has him ready to risk it all for the players’ well-being and ready to fight their battles off-the-field if necessary. A few days after the 2-2 draw against Everton, Sean sent a threatening message to Doucoure because of what he did with Jones in the derby.
He wrote on his Facebook: “I made a promise to Jurgen that in his absence I will protect these players like they r my children. Curtis Jones, since I met you in the restaurant on Wednesday the 17th July 2019 I have thought of u as my son and no one touches my kids but me so If I ever see Doucoure walking around here in St. Helens (place in Liverpool) I will be telling him to keep his hands off my family. Mongrel b*******, rats.”
This is directly in reference to a post he made in 2024 right after Klopp’s departure. In this, he promised to take care and protect his players, despite not getting enough time to visit matches anymore because of his ‘busy lifestyle’. Interestingly, Astley has pictures with many Liverpool players including Virgil van Dijk.
It was actually a post he made on his Instagram (where he has over 2,700 followers) after Van Dijk got injured in 2020 after a nasty tackle from Jordan Pickford in the their 2-2 draw at the Merseyside stadium.
In that post, probably taken in celebrations of Liverpool’s 2019/20 Premier League title win, Astley wrote: “Get well soon big fella…and don’t you worry. Liverpool is a small city I bump into footballers all the time, that little dinosaur arm spaz is going to have to bump into me soon. Anyone knows me knows a Sean Promise is a real promise.’
This ‘Sean Promise is a real promise’ bit helped him become popular among football fans, especially Liverpool’s rival teams’ supporters. He’s had a lot of mockery for trying to act tough with his posts on social media and making himself look foolish in the process.
Astley is actually a blue collar working man with two children. He recently celebrated his youngest child’s first birthday in a getaway trip in Majorca (Spain). Astley has been working blue collar jobs since 2004, with his first job being as a crane operator whose role was to load and discharge steel containers from ships. He also worked as a telehandler who loaded and unloaded wagons.
Sean worked for the ‘Network Rail High Speed’ company, a subsidiary of the Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd – which manages UK”s high speed train line. He worked as a site supervisor on any building or construction work on train tracks. Astley has been working with international infrastructure company Balfour Beatty since 2023, as a supervisor for their construction services.
Despite being a proud family man and father of two, Astley’s passion for Liverpool hasn’t dialled down. He’s still passionate enough to defend his teams’ players like his own, with his emotional antics on social media showing how wicked some supporters can be with their love for football clubs.
