The 'cheapest coach in the UK' taking Liverpool fans to the Champions League final for £1 has been abandoned at an M6 service station - but it's not all bad news.
Liverpool fan and YouTuber Simon Wilson bought a 22-year-old coach to take a bus-load of fans to Paris after being appalled at the extortionate price of ferry and flight fares.
Speaking earlier this week, Simon told the Liverpool Echo : “I bought the cheapest coach in the UK that I could find. I was just Googling ‘cheap coaches’ and I came across this one.
“We’ve wrapped the coach and put stickers on it, for perspective, the stickers have cost more than the coach.
"The guy we bought it off just seemed to be a very nice, helpful guy, so that sort of gave us a bit of confidence, but we’ll let you know if the coach is any decent if we get there.”
However, after setting off from Anfield Stadium for Melwood training ground yesterday, Simon soon encountered several problems.
Simon said: "The coach was a bit ropey, it was like a sauna in there.
"There was no air conditioning, we were sweating just going from Anfield to Melwood and once we started we were like 'this is going to be a long journey' in a coach with 50 people where you can’t open the windows."
The other issue was the age of the coach, Simon added: "We left Anfield at 10.30am, and everything was sorted with the insurance.
"However I was still waiting on confirmation that the bus would be ok to drive in Europe, it was fine in the UK, but it was debatable in Europe, but I was told that it would be fine so that was all good.
"[The insurance] said it would be sorted by the morning we were leaving, so I thought well were not setting off until 10.30am, we’ll be driving all day, so even worst case scenario by the time we get to Dover it will be done.
"But as time was going on I was making calls, it was just looking less likely to happen. So then I started worrying because a lot of people on the coach have tickets, a lot of people are excited to go, so there was no option not to be in Paris."
Simon added: "When we stopped for a tour of Melwood, we just thought let’s just wait here until we get a green light, anyway turns out there is a lot more to it, there is a low emission zone in Paris.
"The coach was over 22-years-old so it doesn’t meet any emissions standards in place in Paris.
"I made the decision that we're going to have to have a Plan B. So I made some calls, but bearing in mind I’m not a coach expert, I’ve never learnt so much about coaches in the last week than in my entire lifetime.
"We managed to find another coach that hit the criteria for Paris so I mini-bussed everyone from Melwood to Lymm services, then the driver went to pick up another coach, came back to the services and we’ve all gone south from there."
However, the drama didn't stop there as following the delays, Simon and the fans missed their ferry. Simon said: "We missed the ferry, but again you just couldn’t write it, thoughts become things.
"I rang the ferry company up to be told there was a cancellation on a ferry a bit later, so they just moved our booking to the later one.
"We just got there and we just managed to get on the ferry and we arrived at this little hotel in the middle of nowhere in France at 4am."
Despite the long journey and the added cost, Simon has stuck to his word and by late afternoon will have taken Liverpool FC fans from Anfield to Paris having still charged them just £1.
Simon joked: "I’m in the process of declaring myself bankrupt after this trip, but every credit to everyone on the bus. They've all been buzzing and even at 3.40am they were still singing Liverpool songs.
"And at the end of the day, the captain goes down with the ship so I won’t abandon the coach that we're on now, even though I wish we were on the other one."
