A friend, who is a United fan, tweeted: “The whole Suarez Evra thing would never happen if Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish had kept their peace after ruling” after the match and it made me really mad.
My reply to him was, “might as well say this whole thing could have been avoided if Evra wasn’t black”.
It was misconstrued. I was in no way trying to be a racist. Rather, i was trying to get the point across that his statement was as ludicrous as mine.
Let’s face it.
Liverpool fans will inevitably take Luis Suarez’s side. Manchester United fans will say Patrice Evra was the victim.
I’m a Liverpool fan, a fierce one at that, but I say snubbing a pre-match handshake was just unsporting and childish. If I were Dalglish i’d smack that Uruguayan on the back of head and tell him to go face the wall. Just shake the hand and get on with the damn match. He didn’t even have to look Evra in the eyes. Just shake, move along and warm up. It’s as simple as that. But of course if it really were as straightforward, the sporting pages today wouldn’t be filled with pictures of Evra looking irritated after the snub, or of those with him celebrating like the result won them the Champions League. Conflict makes for good reading, and unfortunately bad news is always good news.
News aside, I see no wrong in Liverpool defending Suarez. They believe he never meant for his remark to be racist. They believe what the independent commission don’t. They believe what they want to believe, as do all of us when it comes to religion or magic stones.
I will not fault Kenny Dalglish for his unwavering support for his player whom he believes was maligned. The point is that there will always be a dichotomy within conflict, and even though you may say Dalglish and Liverpool have gone about their defence of Suarez rather blindly, it would be naive to think they will one day openly admit that Suarez was the villain in this whole fiasco, even if he actually was.
There was no chance that Liverpool would take the ruling sitting down, even more so when the other party is Man United. The person in question was their best player in a team that needed about 6 more such talents. Losing Suarez for eight matches hasn’t proved to be a complete disaster, seeing how Craig Bellamy is enjoying his second wind as a striker, but the club was simply doing what it had to do – protect their most prized possession.
Liverpool have done enough defending. It’s time to let it go. What they really need to do now is to get on with their football and let this racism row fizzle out because there’s a lot of work to be done.
The quality in the squad is poor, with last summer’s signings looking more and more like counterfeit Birkins made in sweatshops in China. Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson have all turned out to be cheaper versions of Fernando Torres. Their performances this season simply do not justify their massive price tags. That’s life. People demand value for their money. At this point in time, I won’t even fork out a dime for any of them. Liverpool need to get players with flair, and fast.
I don’t think John Henry will be too pleased to know that the club missed out on Champions League qualification after all those millions of dollars were splashed out.
I understand why Dalglish may feel he has to defend Suarez. But of Carroll’s inability to score?
The striker may have been all sorts of awesome at Newcastle, but seriously, when a giant as tall as him (1.91 m) cannot out-jump a dwarf like Rafael (1.72m), any support for him is just silly.
COMMENTS