Angry fans
In his place substitute ALLAN PROSSER gets his third run-out of the season as we enter the crucial Chritmas fixtures.
This week there’s dispute over the form of Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney; a call for ball boys to stop cheating; our correspondent Alan Green continues to win the popularity stakes; there’s a warning that Liverpool should beware of what they wish for; Arsenal fans bite back over last week’s comments on Ashley Cole and a response to Eamon Dunphy’s prediction on football’s death .
Letter of the week goes to ABU Forever for lack of seasonal goodwill towards Manchester United. Let’s have an address ABU and we’ll despatch your Christmas present.
MICHAEL Carrick! He’s beginning to look like a real embarrassment. €27.6m for someone who can’t shoot and fades out of the game. He’s no better than Darren Fletcher.
CRASH! Bang. Wallop! Mind the gap United. It’s getting smaller by the minute. And while we’re at it can something be done to stop gamesmanship by the ball boys in crucial games. We had it with Watford and Sheffield United, and now again at Goodison on Sunday.
ACCORDING to Alan Green , Nigel Reo-Coker has “an inflated notion of his own ability”. Where did this idiot (Green) get this from? When has Reo-Coker ever said anything that might be construed as this? I would say, never! If anyone has “an inflated notion of his own ability” it is Alan Green. His rantings are a waste of newspaper space. I hope the Examiner is not paying him too much for the dribble that is printed every Monday. Let Green write for some Liverpool fanzine, where he belongs, along with his obvious allegiance. Green is a conceited, self-opinionated commentator and should not be asked for his opinions.
He also makes out Sven Goran Eriksson is a “buddy” of the new West Ham owner. Where does he get this nugget from? Is it because Sweden is near Iceland? I didn’t bother to read anything else in the column today, I only read that far as the newspaper was on the table to stop me spilling my coffee. (It nearly caused a spillage!!!!)
Tell you what Peter — never judge a player by their first season, whether it is brilliant or dire. Two recent examples . . . Drogba and Essien. Have a yellow card for impatience. There’s your usual red for you, Cork Blue, for gloating beyond the call of duty. And your first yellow of the season for you Mr Lynch, partly for failing to see that it’s Alan Green’s job to provoke a response and partly for insinuating that the Irish Examiner is a coffee table newspaper. Fair point about the ball boys CB, but it’s one of the older tricks of the trade.
HAVING a billionaire owner isn’t going to solve all of Liverpools problems.They have money to spend but who are they going to spend it on? They can’t buy the best British players as they are already playing for clubs that are owned by billonaires.The South Americans prefer to play in Spain where the style of football is more to their liking, and does all this talk of Europe’s top players wanting to come to the Premiership really stand up. When Juventus went in to meltdown last summer their big names either stayed in Italy or went to Spain. None ended up in the Premiership. They hear all the hype about the Premiership being the best and most exciting league in Europe but unlike the billionaire business men they don’t buy it.
Looked pretty exciting this weekend Mike but the test will be in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Another thought . . . how much faith do you have in Rafa’s ability to spend his windfall, when it comes, wisely?
WATCHING United at West Ham on Sunday I thought . . . Keano was right. Rooney hasn’t done much yet, and despite what people like Eamon Dunphy say about him, he’s had a mediocre year. He’s scored 17 goals in 57 games in 2006, the sort of strike rate you would expect from a midfielder; he’s failed to impress in Europe and he doesn’t terrorise the opposition. He’s going backwards, not forwards, and unless that is turned around and quick, we have no chance.
Excellent letter Nick. You can’t be “off form” for a full calendar year. Perhaps it’s a combination of World Cup expectation and, think about this, the fact that United frequently don’t play him in the correct formation.
SO LIAM reckons Arsenal fans should “get a life” and leave poor Cashley Cole alone because he heard no complaints from us when we signed Sol Campbell. Wakey wakey Liam, Sol was a free agent and could join any club he wanted. How you can compare this to Cole who, while under contract at Arsenal, went behind our club and manager’s backs to meet with Mourinho and Kenyon is beyond me. Give yourself a red card and maybe even “get a life”?
Two yellows for you Whitegate, making one red. The first for blaming Liam when the comments were made by his substitute. The second for perpetuating the myth that Sol Campbell just dropped off the Christmas tree straight into Arsenal’s hands. That’s not what Spurs supporters think, is it? Are we seeing an action replay over Reo-Coker? Incidentally, can you tell me another single job in the world where an employee is not allowed to talk to a potential employer? Move on.
LIAM, when will referees take the game by the scruff of the neck and bring some pride back into the game. We need to get rid of the kind of antics we witnessed between Jens Lehmann and Didier Drogba. Two red cards, end of story. A plethora of red cards for diving, unsporting behaviour or back chat to the referee over a couple of weeks would see the end of the cancer running through the game.
Matches are generally ruined by too many dismissals. But I would rather see more attention paid to these issues, and to imaginary card waving, than the ludicrous and inconsistent yellow cards for “excessive celebration.”
SO Alex Ferguson reckons United are the “neutrals” choice? Presumably this is because of the vast millions spent by Chelsea on assembling their squad while United was put together for next to nothing. Although, hold on a minute. Rooney, Ferdinand, Carrick, Ronaldo, Saha . . . not exactly graduates of the United academy or plucked from the depths of the Conference and groomed to greatness. These “neutrals” need to picture this: Ferdinand and Ronaldo trotting around Old Trafford with the Premiership trophy, loathsome sneery grins on their faces. Gary Neville leading the celebrations with a face like, well, Gary Neville. And all the while Satan smiling gleefully while chewing on his Wrigley’s and dancing up and down with his Madrid-reject side-kick. Think again neutrals!
For sheer seasonal ill-will and malevolence worthy of a Tim Burton or Terry Pratchett film . . . have the letter of the week ABU.
SO Eamon Dunphy (RTÉ Sports Personality of the Year show, Saturday night) reckons “football” is dead in Europe. Looks like a pretty healthy corpse to me.
Five Brit teams in the knockout stages of the Champions League; the biggest ever TV deal in the game’s history just round the corner; a proper Premiership race. It’s a total disaster.
WHAT’S football come to when fans aren’t allowed to take national flags into the Emirates Stadium? I understand that it’s because someone wants to display a Greek Cypriot flag and that this gives offence to Turkish supporters. It would mean, I suppose, that people who wanted to support Kevin Doyle or, say, Roy Keane in the old days, wouldn’t be able to emblazon their name on an Irish flag. Political correctness gone mad.
Yes, it’s a pity. But at Arsenal a supporter is trying to make a political point. There’s enough to argue about in football as it is already without that.
