Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouse Missionary
I quite like O'Neill, and I believe The Echo shouldn't have been running stories about our bid for Barry prior to the last game, but if he stopped to think for a moment, what actually was The Echo's agenda?
O'Neill has assumed it was Liverpool-inspired. But in fact, it came just before a vital game where Everton were favourites to lose to Arsenal, and a Villa win would likely have put them level and in the driving seat for the UEFA Cup place. Who benefitted from that 'disruption'? Certainly not Liverpool, who no longer had anything to play for. If he stopped to think, then surely the beneficiaries of the kick-off were Everton, because if O'Neill and Villa were distracted....
A local paper doing what it could to help out a local (for now) club, at our expense as well as that of Villa? Surely not.....
|
That doesn't make any sense though does it? Why would Tony Barrett write a story for the benefit of Everton, in a roundabout way?
The story was obviously written because Liverpool gave it to Barrett and it was a decent exclusive for him. Liverpool obviously had their reasons for wanting it to be leaked as well otherwise they wouldn't have done so.
I can see why O'Neill is angry about it and Dave's right in the sense that we'd all be up in arms if that was one of our best players. Just look at the reaction Grant got on here for his words about Gerrard before our tie (and quite rightly so).