This is a video showing the work that went into some Fernando Torres wallpaper (or desktop background as some people will call it). All in all it took the artist around nine hours to complete, using the Photoshop package.
You can see the finished article here: http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2796/torreswipcopyeo9.jpg
The artist, “Macphisto80″, says:
Liverpool’s record signing painted in photoshop with a Spanish theme. Real time work was 9 hours. Some recording was lost due to PC problems, hence the sudden appearance of the badge on the home shirt, and the corrections to the left hand and details to the flamed Liverbird in background. First use of layers on this one, 6 in total. The timelapse is maybe a bit too fast in parts, but I had to keep the video as short as possible, and for some reason, the video editor wouldn’t stretch the ratio for me.
If you live in England, probably in fact if you live in the UK, you’ll know that England have a friendly tonight. For Liverpool fans it’s probably not worth watching. Jamie Carragher told Steve McLaren he was sick of waiting for his chance. Peter Crouch is suspended for the next competitive match so probably won’t play this friendly. And Steven Gerrard, with his fractured toe, is sitting it out.
That’s great news for Frank Lampard. I won’t say he’s a bad player. That doesn’t mean I think he’s a good player, I just decided not to say he’s a bad player. But more and more people are starting to realise that playing Lampard and Gerrard together for England doesn’t work. Lampard isn’t really able to play the more defensive role in midfield, and that role is considered by most to be a waste of Gerrard’s talents - he can play there, but he’s far better playing the more creative and attacking role. So people are suggesting Lampard be dropped.
Yes - people are saying Lampard should be dropped from England’s squad! It doesn’t particularly bother me, but I know some people do care. So to help, here’s a video someone posted on YouTube. I hope it helps you to choose.
Liverpool’s draw with Chelsea at Anfield yesterday felt like a defeat. Liverpool were the better team for the ninety minutes, created more chances, had more of the ball, actually played to win – but lost.
Referee Rob Styles failed to handle the game. Obviously whenever a referee awards a penalty in a game he’s going to get some stick from some fans – but when someone like Andy Gray is actually taking sides for Liverpool in such a situation you really can tell the referee got it wrong.
Often in football we hear a referee being referred to as a “homer”. Fans often claim that’s how refs work when they officiate at big grounds like Anfield and Old Trafford – any cry of “handball” or “offside” from the home fans actually influences the referee to give the decision to the home side. But that’s not seen as much these days. Nowadays we seem to have referees who over-compensate and actually give the benefit of any doubt to the away side.
However it seems that Rob Styles is a different type of referee again. At Old Trafford last week he sent a Reading player off who’d been on the field for something like seven seconds. Still adjusting to the pace of the first game of the season, his first attempt at winning the ball was an attempted block against United’s Evra. Evra quickly got rid of the ball, the Reading player accidentally caught Evra. It wasn’t two-footed, it wasn’t high, it was a genuine attempt to play the ball. Styles just reached for his red card and sent the player off. Up until that time Reading had been holding on for a draw but were capable of actually causing an upset and getting a breakaway goal, like Manchester City did yesterday. Styles brought the chances of that happening to an end, and probably helped Chelsea too in the process, because those tired Reading players had to face Chelsea a few days later. Chelsea won that match.
Before anyone reads suggestions that aren’t here, I don’t believe Styles is being paid by Chelsea to help them, I don’t believe he’s a secret Chelsea fan, I don’t believe his assistance to Chelsea is due to anything more than the fact that he’s not capable of refereeing Premier League matches. He seems happy to hit the headlines, and fails the test of any good referee in that he’s actually noticeable.
In yesterday’s game he was unbelievably inconsistent. Forget the penalty he awarded to Chelsea’s new Arjen Robben, Florent Malouda, who threw himself at Steve Finnan. He was just yards away from the incident; he knew Malouda had jumped from outside the area to collide with Finnan who was inside the area. He didn’t consult his assistant (I don’t think he ever does), he just awarded the penalty. He allowed persistent fouling from some players to go unpunished; he booked others at the first sign of trouble. Jermaine Pennant and Jamie Carragher got booked for dissent – John Terry touched foreheads with Fernando Torres and got a telling-off. He did book Essien for dissent – but then realised he’d already booked Essien so pretended he hadn’t actually made that second booking.
Just before half-time he saw Mikel Obi jump on the ankle of Fernando Torres. Torres needed treatment and struggled in the second half as a result. Styles saw it because he stopped play to allow Torres to get the treatment. Obi wasn’t punished at all for it.
Sky wanted to speak to him after the game. He refused. He knew he’d performed poorly.
Obviously a referee will make mistakes in every game. It’s part and parcel of the game. The players make mistakes too – any fan can look back at defeats or dropped points and point to one of their own players who caused the problem. A striker missing a sitter, a defender giving away a needless penalty, a German keeper making yet another clanger. When that happens the fans are unhappy but feel it’s something that can be fixed. Drop the player in question, or accept the player in question does far more good than he did bad with that one mistake. But at least your manager can sort it out the way he sees fit. There are also those games where a wonder goal loses you the points – again the supporters accept this, as disappointing as it may be, and in some cases with some clubs that wonder goalscorer may be joining your club next transfer window. But when a ref messes up – it’s an awful feeling of injustice.
It’s time that referees were given help. Technology could be brought in for incidents like yesterday’s penalty. If the referee has any feeling it may have been a penalty he should stop the game, get it checked by a video official, then the game restarts. It won’t work straight away, but given time and a fair trial it will work sooner or later. Red cards can be included in the list of incidents that are checked before being finally being decided. In incidents of diving a retrospective ban should be applied to a player found guilty. Timekeeping is another issue which often causes controversy – there is no consistency at all in the game where timekeeping is concerned, maybe it’s time that a separate official took care of that.
Despite all of this, Liverpool learned a valuable lesson yesterday. At least I hope they did. The lesson is that some days you really are up against 11 opponents and the referee. Some days the referee really does seem to have a vendetta against you, or the idea that any 50-50 decisions should go against you. On those days you need to be able to fight back, keep plugging away and make sure the referee can’t continue to ruin your day. Liverpool’s spirits clearly dropped yesterday after that award, and although they did keep plugging away, against an opponent who clearly wanted to escape with that one point, they didn’t have as much fight as they’d had before. Also a one-nil lead isn’t enough; you need to make it a wider gap as quickly as possible.
Liverpool’s next league game is away to Sunderland. It’s the kind of game that Liverpool would drop points in last season, and with former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane as Sunderland boss there’s perhaps more of an edge than there otherwise would be. Liverpool are capable of beating Sunderland by quite some margin, but they’re hurting after their defeat on Saturday. Following that game is the Toulouse Champions League qualifier second leg, arguably the most important game of this half of the season. Liverpool’s away goal is good, but not enough to relax and again Liverpool need to be ready to fight hard to win through the Champions League itself.
And we need to be ready to fight against eleven opponents and the officials, because the game will always have its bad referees, unless we introduce technology.
It’s time this blog got some entries again, and in the week that Liverpool FC saw their name dragged through the mud by an organisation fighting to hide their own incompetence, there’s hardly a better time.
UEFA messed up. They shouldn’t have messed up, but they messed up. So they looked at who could be blamed in their place. Liverpool fans were an easy target. First of all as a body of people rather than individuals it was easier to lie about them. William Gaillard said there had been a long list of incidents involving Liverpool fans, no other club’s fan had been involved in as many incidents. So we were then labelled the worst in Europe. That mud stuck.
By the time Michel Platini, Gaillard’s boss, had admitted that Liverpool fans were not, after all, the worst fans in Europe, that mud was not going to come off very easily at all.
Some idiot in the Irish press had a great deal of fun stirring up controversy about the reports. He found great pleasure in upsetting supporters but from what I can gather, this is what he does. Pick a subject, find a controversial angle, rant about it. That kind of thing has been successful worldwide for years. People cringing yet laughing at some comment that crosses as close to the line of what is acceptable as it possibly can. But usually the people who do well in this regard are also funny. People will cringe at controversial comments, but will only laugh at the same time if they are actually funny. The fact this guy is unfunny, is probably the reason why nobody in Britain I’d spoken to had actually heard of him. Anyone any good from the Irish media usually crops up at some point in Britain, especially if they’re as interested in Britain as he seems to be. A quick glance at his columns shows he writes mostly about events in this country, including his side-splitting commentary on the latest Big Brother racism row and what Ken Livingstone’s up to in London. I only heard about the article, with its sub-heading of “Filthy Scouse scum”, because it cropped up on some Liverpool fan sites during the week. The idiot who wrote it was full of mock surprise when he got a deluge of complaints in the days that followed. He did it for publicity - he had a go at Cork in his follow up just to drag up a bit more controversy - and that’s what I suppose he’s getting now by my writing this. Except I’ll not bother to mention his name. If you’re an Irish Red (or an Irish Manc for that matter) reading this, I pity you if you have to put up with this loon on a regular basis. If he’s not already had a go at something that you feel is important give him time, because he will. Controversy aside he has nothing to offer, so you can either ignore him, or sit back and wait for him to go that one step too far in his quest for attention. At least then you’ll have something to laugh about in his writings.
Of course the idiots like him thrive on snippets of information they can twist and selectively ignore components of in order to suit their own agenda. That’s why Gaillard should be sacked. He made claims about Liverpool fans he said were backed up with evidence. Yet nobody, not even the British government who met with UEFA during the week, has seen this evidence. It’s like me saying I’ve got evidence in photographic form of a UEFA spokesman caught in a compromising position with his boss, yet not showing anybody the evidence. Except in that case, if I named the individual, I’d be sued for what I’d said unless I could provide that evidence. Having a go at “Liverpool supporters” is easy, because “Liverpool supporters” are not - as far as I know - legally able to sue UEFA.
I personally doubt this list of misdemeanours actually exists. But if it does, why can’t we see it? And why can’t other teams see what their fans have been accused of?
It wasn’t just obese (I’m told) Irish journalists that wanted to have a go at Liverpool as soon as Gaillard had thrown them a bone. In the British press the BBC had already made big headlines over Gaillard’s comments, letting the story drop down the running order by the time the truth was being told by Platini. A Bluto-lookalike journalist was quick to condemn the club too, taking select comments from the week and having a go at us. No mention in his report of how UEFA had glossed over scooters (as in the petrol powered ones) that get dropped from upper tier to lower tier in Italian grounds, where visiting supporters have to risk being stabbed in the arse as they walk through their cities. No doubt he’ll have been one of those journalists calling for the head of the England manager for playing David Beckham, before calling for the head of the England manager for not playing David Beckham. He’s also probably a little too slow to realise that UEFA’s spokesman not only got Liverpool labelled as the worst in Europe, but that he also said this troublemaking was, effectively, typical of British people. Bluto won’t be going to any big tournaments to cover England games if UEFA carry this line of accusations on. England won’t be there.
One columnist who’s been a little more able to see why this has been badly reported is Liverpool supporter and Mirror columnist Brian Reade. Yes, he’s a Red, he’s going to be looking at the story through red-tinted glasses. But just about all those others who have left negative comments about the Gaillard accusations are almost certainly haters of Liverpool FC - not even neutral.
I’M about to leak to you a report which brands UEFA “the most gutless cowards in Europe”.
It follows an investigation into their attempts to cure football of its most deadly cancer, racism. And it’s a tale of pitiful fines and empty gestures, which have led to a generation of black footballers considering walking off pitches across Europe in protest.
For the report I reexamined the many incidents of racial abuse over the past decade and UEFA’s mealy-mouthed response to them.
I won’t make them public as it’s too sensitive. But I’m willing to if UEFA insist, because that’s called being fair and transparent. If you go on record claiming a group is the worst in Europe and that group asks to see the evidence, you show it them.
So why don’t UEFA do the same by giving Liverpudlians their handily prepared report which proved “the worst fans in Europe” were to blame for the organisational anarchy in Athens?
Is it because such a report might make people ask why Europe’s worst fans have never been censured for their supposed actions?
Is it because any list of presumably petty offences, when compared to killing policemen, burning motorbikes on terraces, attacking referees, turning the air putrid with racism, would prove they aren’t Europe’s worst fans?
Or is it simply vindication of my own report’s conclusion. That UEFA are the most spineless, backsliding, buck-passing organisation in Europe?
Our name is mud thanks to William Gaillard, who thought it was a good idea to tell lies about us in an attempt to cover up UEFA’s errors. Was he acting off his own back or was he acting on orders? And why hasn’t he apologised?
There’s a wonderful article in today’s Times, written by Oliver Kay and well worth a read. It’s hard to find from the home page of the Times Online website, but after reading it in the print version I just had to find it to share it. In particular the first couple of paragraphs drew my attention, but click the link to read the whole lot.
The two old men in the directors’ box stood open-mouthed, their eyes glazing over. The Kop in all its glory has the ability to leave even the most hardened visitor spellbound and, just as Roman Abramovich gawped in admiration when his first match as owner of Chelsea took him to Anfield in August 2003, so were George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks gobsmacked by their first taste of the passion they have had the good fortune to buy into.
Two hours later, as the dust settled on a match of high drama and the noise followed the 42,579 crowd on to the streets, Gillett stood alone in the same spot in the directors’ box, watching Liverpool’s players go through their post-match warm-down exercises. Steven Gerrard spotted him and offered a thumbs-up. Gillett smiled down and clasped his hands together almost reverently. “Thank you so much,†he called to the Liverpool captain before telling a handful of reporters near by that the evening had been “like nothing I’ve ever heard or felt beforeâ€.
In fact, apart from some droning nonsense by Tony Cascarino (who?) the Times is full of positives about Liverpool’s win last night. There’s another article about it, from Matt Dickinson - Pleasure in the pain on another great night for BenÃtez:
Liverpool deserved their place in the last eight for the boldness with which they approached both legs
Liverpool’s win, certainly over the 180 minutes, was thoroughly deserved. It’s good to see that our national newspapers are seeing that too, as so often it seems they do little else but criticise.
At 12.30pm today, Tuesday February 6th 2007, an announcement was made that could be described as the most important in Liverpool FC’s 115-year history. The club’s chairman and majority shareholder had sold his shares, and he and his board were recommending that all other shareholders do the same.
The statement read: “Liverpool FC today announced that the Board have agreed the terms of an offer for the Club from Mr George Gillett and Mr Tom Hicks. The Board are unanimously recommending that the Club’s shareholders accept this offer.
Full details of the offer were announced earlier today to the Stock Exchange.â€
A press conference was called for 2pm to discuss it in more detail, but there were some quotes included in the announcement.
The first was from the chairman, Mr Moores. His decision to sell his shares to Gillett and Hicks is believed to have netted him around £80m, and he gets an honorary role allowing him to stay on at the club too: “I believe this is a great step forward for Liverpool, its shareholders and its fans. This Club is my passion and forms a huge part of my life. After much careful consideration, I have agreed to sell my shares to assist in securing the investment needed for the new stadium and for the playing squad.
“I am also delighted to accept the offer from the Hicks and Gillett families to continue my involvement in the Club by becoming Honorary Life President.â€
That job as Honorary Life President was leaked last week and drew some criticism from fans who were wondering why the sudden u-turn had taken place, moving DIC from the people we should all trust to the people we should steer well clear of. Moores has always been painted as being only interested in the good of the club, but explanations are needed – and expected – at this afternoon’s press conference.
Next to be quoted was Chief Executive of the club, Rick Parry. It’s believed that he is to take on the role of Chairman on the new-look board, but this has yet to be announced officially: “This is great for Liverpool, our supporters and the shareholders,†he said, “it is the beginning of a new era for the Club.
“The partnership created by George and Tom is very special. They are bringing to the table tremendous and relevant experience, a passion for sport, real resources and a strong commitment to the traditions of Liverpool. Their approach represents exactly the sort of genuine partnership that Liverpool has been seeking over recent times.
“We know that George and Tom want a long-term relationship with Liverpool and that they also understand the importance of investing in our success both on and off the field. They have made clear their intention to move as quickly as practicable on the financing and construction of our proposed new stadium at Stanley Park and also to support investment in the playing squad.
“This has been an important time for the Club. We now have the right partners for the future. I am absolutely certain we have now ended up in the right place, with owners who will help the Club succeed and prosper.â€
Strangely enough, the comments from Hicks and Gillett were jointly credited to the pair, rather than individual quotes from the clubs new owners: “Liverpool is a fantastic club with a remarkable history and a passionate fanbase,†they said, “We fully acknowledge and appreciate the unique heritage and rich history of Liverpool and intend to respect this heritage in the future. The Hicks family and the Gillett family are extremely excited about continuing the Club’s legacy and tradition.â€
Then a hint that Rick Parry will also be staying on at the club: “We are particularly pleased that David Moores and Rick Parry will have a continuing involvement in the Club. For us continuity and stability are keys to the future.â€
Now we’ve had the announcements, we need to see more of the nitty-gritty of the deal. And we need to see if the promises will be kept. Hicks and Gillett later gave an interview to the official site.
Another rip-off is on the way for Liverpool supporters with kids, and for that matter the parents of any child who supports a top-flight club.
Liverpool FC’s website carried the news that as from next season the names and numbers used by Premier League clubs will be changing. There’s already been talk of the FA Premier League dropping the “FA” from their name, and to coincide with this there’ll be a new logo for those badges the players wear on the sleeves.
Anyone who’s bought the current Reds home kit for themselves or their children will now have to persuade the kids that it’s ok to have “old fashioned” numbers on the back. Chances are that the yellow kit will become next season’s third kit and so there may be a little fight on with the kids over that too.
The statement on the Reds’ website says: “From the start of the 2007/08 season, The F.A. Premier League is introducing a new design for the official letters, numbers and sleeve badges that will be printed on player kits and also produced for replica sale.
“The planned modernisation of the current designs, originally launched a decade ago, aims to further enhance the Barclays Premiership’s professional image, improve player identification and continue to protect against counterfeiting.
“New letters, names and sleeve badges will be available from official licensees for sale in club shops and other authorised retailers prior to the start of the 2007/08 season.”
The sad thing is, the powers-that-be actually believe that they’ll be able to “protect against counterfeiting”. I think they are being a little wishful in their thinking. Not a chance. There’ll be names and numbers on sale on auction websites from sellers in the Far East well before they are available officially. You’ve only got to look at the five-times UEFA badges we wear on our sleeves now in Europe for examples of how the counterfeiters beat the official sellers. Beaten on time and beaten on price.
Due to a kit manufacturer change Liverpool brought out three new kits this season, and to be honest there was little need to bring out three kits. The only team we are close to clashing with in both of our Red and Yellow kits are Watford, who wear yellow shirts and red shorts. For one game I’m sure we could have gone back to a pre-Shanks Red shirts White shorts combo.
So on the back of being under pressure to buy three new kits, Liverpool fans now find that two of them will look “wrong” for the start of the new season. Let’s hope most people went for the European style Adidas numbering rather than the Premiership version, otherwise I can see a lot of counterfeiters getting the money off parents next season, not the club.
A quick look at the internet versions of today’s papers confirmed to me that there was no point whatsoever in going out and paying for them. Sunday’s papers always seem to bring out the worst in the journalists in this country, I really don’t see why. Liverpool aren’t the only victims of the clamour to make the big news that will be spoken about all week. If there’s nothing true to sensationalise then it’s just made up.
The Mirror had a go at us on Friday through their interview with the cowardly traitor off the Liverpool board, their sister papers are determined to join in today.
Take the People. Well, don’t take the People, because if this is an example of the standard of their product then it’s really not worth paying for. They have a story today, by a Mr Bates, saying that Gerrard is off to Madrid. Well, they say Madrid want him. They want him so much that they let it slip to a tacky Sunday paper in the UK before they told their own contacts in their own press:
STEVEN GERRARD will find a £32million European bolt-hole at Real Madrid this summer if his fragile relationship with Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez reaches breaking point.
That was the word emerging from Spain last night with Madrid ready to part company with one English legend - David Beckham - and welcome another in Gerrard next summer.
I understand Madrid chief Fabio Capello is a huge fan of Gerrard and the Spanish giants are reported to be willing to pay the £32m it would cost topers uade Liverpool to part with the Kop king. Gerrard revealed after the disappointment of the World Cup how he hoped Liverpool would finally end 16 years of misery by lifting the Premiership title for the first time since 1990 this season.
But after a poor start they are in turmoil with dissent in the boardroom being compounded by fan anger and frustration to give Benitez his first full-blown crisis since taking over from Gerrard Houllier.
“Fan anger and frustration”? People were fed up I’ll grant you that after last weekend’s victory, but they were far from acting angry with Rafa yesterday. Not that Mr Bates would have checked this out anyway. He goes on…
Last night Benitez insisted Gerrard was happy despite being played on the wide right of midfield and he doesn’t want to sell his inspirational skipper - who feels he’s wasted in an isolated role.
But senior members of Liverpool’s hierarchy are concerned a substantial bid from Madrid for the Anfield skipper is in the pipeline - and this time the 26-year-old England star will go.
Well there’s only one “senior member” of Liverpool’s hierchary who’d go to the likes of Bates with his views in this way, and he picked the People’s sister paper the Daily Mirror for his moment of back-stabbing. The next paragraph from Mr Bates was sensationalist nonsense, because Gerrard still does not want to leave Anfield, no matter how many reporters and pundits try to make it seem that way:
He knows his only realistic escape from Anfield next summer is to Spain to either Madrid or Barcelona.
Chelsea no longer need him, while Arsenal couldn’t afford his fee or £120,000-a-week wages and he wouldn’t go to Manchester United.
STEVEN GERRARD’S future at Liverpool is hanging in the balance, with the Anfield captain growing increasingly unhappy with life under Rafa Benitez.
Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal the strained relationship between Gerrard and Benitez is now close to breaking point.
Gerrard publicly insists that he is happy to play anywhere in Benitez’s tactical system.
But privately, he feels his poor form this season is down to the Spaniard’s insistence that he plays wide on the right of midfield, while Xabi Alonso and Momo Sissoko play in his favourite central position. Gerrard is prepared to put his preference to one side for England - but feels his talent is going to waste at Anfield.
Benitez, who has insisted he will not quit Liverpool, now faces a third fight to keep the £30m-rated midfielder at his home-town club. Gerrard looked destined for Chelsea after Euro 2004, but was persuaded by Benitez when the Spaniard arrived at Anfield from Valencia.
Twelve months later he asked for a transfer after becoming frustrated by the lack of progress regarding new contract talks - but changed he mind again.
“World Exclusive”? You made it up! Sorry Mullock, but you aren’t one of Gerrard’s confidantes! He’s probably not even heard of you, let alone spent any time chatting with you. “Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal the strained relationship between Gerrard and Benitez is now close to breaking point” - I think you mean that Sunday Mirror sport’s lazy reporter made this story up on Friday afternoon, after Lipton printed the story in the Daily version of your paper from the idiot on the Liverpool board.
Some of the stuff being spread about Stevie around Liverpool is even worse than this, and equally fake. All kinds of stories about personal issues for Stevie, all kinds of stories about how one paper or other will have it printed soon, yet not a shred of evidence. No photo, no video, in this day of camera phones. No “someone close to the couple” quotes. Nothing. Why? Because none of it is true.
I don’t know how they live with themselves making stuff up like this, when they know that it can only cause hurt. Stevie hurt a lot of us when he said he was leaving - but he made up for that in other ways. We’d not have won the FA Cup without him for example and we certainly wouldn’t have finished third last season without him. All the players have started off badly this season, Stevie included, but yesterday they showed that they are determined to stop the rot. If Stevie comes out in the papers himself and says he’s leaving, that’s the time to slate him. Until that happens - and all the real evidence points to it not happening - then button it.
It’s time that Liverpool supporters (not all of you, just some of you) started to remember that Steven Gerrard is a life-long Red and a human being, just like you. Ignore the stories the mancs and bluenoses are trying to spread. And stop spreading them yourselves too - especially those of you who’ve sent emails to us with this nonsense. The press are already having a good go at ruining Steven Gerrard and Liverpool’s season, and I really don’t know why. Don’t give them that bit of help they need to finish the job off.
People who are close to the players know that these stories are nonsense, especially the rumours that no paper would dare to print because they are so fake they’d be sued. The rumours are so wide-ranging that eventually they might actually get one right, but there’s no way all of them could be right, they contradict each other. And if just one of them did turn out to be true, don’t Liverpool supporters owe it to Steven to allow him to sort it out in his own way?
As for what the papers can print, well between Friday’s Mirror and today’s two Sunday versions of that paper, it’s clear that someone in that group - at least the southern-based part of that group - has some kind of an agenda against Liverpool FC and maybe that’ll be clearer soon. In the meantime I think most Reds would be better finding something else to read instead.
The classless, faceless, nameless coward who set about destabilising Liverpool is probably feeling quite proud of himself this morning. Just about every Liverpool fan site has condemned his comments, condemnation also coming yesterday from Rick Parry. Rafa BenÃtez also had to defend himself, from someone supposedly part of the same club he works so hard for.
Other newspapers have now had a chance to put their own opinions into the mix. The Guardian starting off by putting Rafa’s views forward, and seemingly being in support of Rafa more than the coward who should (in our view) fall on his own sword today.
Manager reacts angrily to claim his policies have put Liverpool out of title hunt, writes Dominic Fifield
Rafael BenÃtez pleaded for a sense of “perspective” last night in the wake of criticism attributed to an unnamed club director, though the Liverpool manager admitted that he had expected his side to perform more coherently in the Premiership this season after their heady cup successes in his first two years in charge at Anfield.
…
BenÃtez was visibly annoyed by the criticism. “People have short memories,” he said. “I don’t remember people talking about rotation when we were beating Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea or Milan. And last season, when we won 11 games in a row, people were not talking about [Steven] Gerrard playing on the right side, and rotation.
“If you haven’t won the most important trophies for years then there will be expectation. That’s normal. But we won the Champions League [in 2005] and something changed. Because we won that, and the next year we won the Super Cup and the FA Cup, then people - all of us - were waiting for us to become contenders for the Premiership. But we started really badly away from home and now it’s a similar situation to last season. Then we worked hard, changed some things and the team was better. We will try to improve now by working harder and better.
“I hope to see the same things happen this year as last year, but you need to have perspective and analyse the situation. Manchester United went 26 seasons without winning the league, and at Valencia it was 31 years. These things happen in football. You can improve a lot, but if the other teams are improving as well then it is more difficult.”
…Liverpool were sufficiently alarmed by the comments to launch an internal inquiry yesterday in order to unearth their source.
The Independent were also coming down more on Rafa’s side than on the side of the faceless director who despite a fair length of time in office clearly doesn’t understand the Liverpool way. Andy Hunter referred to football losing its marbles.
Proof that football has lost the last of its marbles emerged at Anfield yesterday, when the only Liverpool manager to lift two major trophies in his first two seasons at the club was forced to defend his record against vehement criticism from within his own boardroom.
Liverpool have opened an internal investigation into the attack on the style and transfer policy of Rafael Benitez, from one unnamed director in a tabloid newspaper, and quickly announced that the comments did not mirror the views of chairman David Moores, a staunch ally of the Spaniard whose majority shareholding prevents dissenters from having an influence on the manager’s future.
At a club that prides itself on unity, however, the exposure of a fundamental rift within the Liverpool hierarchy, along with the despondency at the team’s poor start to the Premiership season, has come as a jolt. It was boardroom stability that had a major bearing on Benitez’s decision to resist overtures from Real Madrid and Internazionale earlier this year. With the club now in the third year of its search for new investment to fund a proposed stadium move, as well as the ambition of a manager who has had to sell to buy, the outburst has attracted little support…
The Times meanwhile talk about the sacking of managers in general. Stuart Pearce has been under threat recently, as have Alan Pardew, Iain Dowie and Gareth Southgate. Pearce has spoken of his desire to see the equivalent of transfer windows but applied to managerial appointments and dismissals. The turncoat director who peddled his tripe to the Mirror is probably even prouder today to see that he has managed to get Rafael Benitez pigeon-holed with those four.
STUART PEARCE called for the introduction of a transfer window for managers yesterday in an effort to bring an end to the culture of “farcical†kneejerk reactions that he believes is blighting the game.
The Manchester City manager wants a system similar to that which exists for players that would make it impossible for a club to dismiss a manager outside two “windows†in the winter and summer…
A 4-0 thrashing by Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium last weekend — City’s fourteenth defeat in 17 away games — prompted an angry reaction from John Wardle, the club’s chairman, who gave warning that a repeat performance would not be tolerated, but Pearce is by no means the only Barclays Premiership manager to be feeling the heat.
Alan Pardew, the West Ham United manager, Iain Dowie, in charge of Charlton Athletic, and Gareth Southgate, the Middlesbrough manager, have all come under varying degrees of pressure of late, while Rafael BenÃtez’s position at Liverpool was called into question last night after an astonishing attack from an unnamed Anfield director.
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Having woken to discover an anonymous Liverpool director questioning the direction in which he was taking the club after a poor start to the season that saw them slump to eleventh position in the Premiership after a 2-0 defeat by Manchester United last Sunday, BenÃtez called for a little perspective yesterday.
“Some people have short memories,†the Spaniard, who has won the Champions League, European Super Cup and FA Cup in less than 2½ years at Anfield, said.
The tabloid that got the scoop from the fruit-loop puts Rafa’s views across today. The fact they didn’t ask him for his opinion the night before so they could be added to their article yesterday suggests that perhaps they were worried Liverpool might try to stop the story getting out. Or that it would then be a balanced article. Not all of the journalists at that paper hate Liverpool though, so expect some more interesting articles in the coming days. For now, they’ve stuck with this one:
ANGRY Rafael Benitez last night hit back at his Anfield boardroom sniper when he said that criticism of the club should be kept private.
The Liverpool boss was shocked by the attack on him by an unnamed director in yesterday’s Mirror, who questioned his leadership and transfer dealings after defeat at Manchester United effectively ended their title challenge.
Benitez claims his critics have short memories and pointed to his Champions League and FA Cup successes in his two years at Anfield.
He said: “Everyone is in a hurry for success. But Manchester United did not win the league for 26 years and in Valencia it was 31 years before we won the league.”
It will be interesting today to see how the fans react as a whole. Most Reds are frustrated at the lack of, well, wins this season, but only a very small minority would want Rafa sacked. And of that minority, most would accept that doing so now without a replacement lined up would be absolutely, well, stupid.
Expect to hear Rafa’s name sung loudly and proudly. And if you hear any Christmas carols being sung listen carefully to the words being used!