Monday Nov 11:
Ohhhhhh boy. This was the not the start to the international break any of us were expecting. I thought I’d be writing today about the potential severity of Trent’s hamstring injury or Harvey’s return to training with the u21s, but no. We got the bombshell Coote video. This is really difficult to write about because I don’t know where to even start.
I’ll deal with what he said first. Not surprised he thinks Klopp is a cunt. He won’t be alone in that, because Klopp had no time for referees, especially those who blatantly fucked him over. Coote was whining about how Klopp spoke to him when we played Burnley. That was the 1-1 draw in lockdown when he didn’t give a penalty for a foul on Robbo. That was the only home game we didn’t win that entire season and at full time Robbo, Trent and Klopp absolutely tore strips off him.
So I do get why he hates Klopp but it’s chicken and the egg. Did he fuck us over because of how Klopp spoke to him, or did Klopp speak to him like that because he fucked us over? It doesn’t really matter either way to me, as this video confirms exactly what I’ve been saying for years about these fellas. They aren’t impartial as they’re human beings, not robots.
It’s amazing to me how so many people in football can’t see it. They put these refs on a pedestal and convince themselves they are better people than the rest of us and they aren’t subject to the same human emotions that we are. Convincing yourself that referees call everything as they see it and not based on what outcome they want is naive as fuck. Most decisions are entirely subjective and you can give them either way. And referees know that whatever they choose to do, there will be people arguing both sides of it because often there is no “right or wrong” it’s purely about opinion.
The idea then that a referee in this position will not allow his own personal bias to play a part - either consciously or subconsciously - is just so fucking naive. Of course they are. City are never on the wrong end of it, yet those competing with City have had some proper fucking awful things go against them, let alone the 50-50 calls. Why is that?
I was struggling to comprehend how Coote saw that challenge on Mo on Saturday yet waved play on. I mentioned it in the match report and on the pod that it was staying with me even though we won, because it was just so difficult to process how a top referee could not see that as a foul. Then today that video comes out which puts it in a whole new perspective. Yet here’s the thing, if he really wanted to fuck us he could have given one of the bullshit penalties that Villa wanted. He didn’t do that though? Why?
Could just be that he’s a shit ref. I mean he definitely is, but then even a shit ref has to see that foul on Mo, surely? Is it just a case of picking your moments and trying not to make it too obvious? Having not given the foul on Mo if he then gives a penalty for a nothing incident at the other end it shines too big a light on him. He’s given some horrific VAR calls against us but he hasn’t done it on all them, there are a fair view where he’s called it on our favour too. Tierney is probably the most anti-LFC ref on the circuit but even he doesn’t give EVERYTHING against us. They aren’t on a mission to give every single decision against us, as you can’t be that obvious, not even when Webb is the boss.
It’s so easy to fuck teams over and influence the outcome of a game without making it glaringly obvious though. Anthony Taylor clearly wanted to teach Klopp a lesson after he celebrated in the 4th officials face the week before, but he didn’t do it with red cards or penalties or disallowing goals. He did it by awarding the most free-kicks against us since they started keeping records.
It doesn’t mean that Taylor wants to fuck us every time and it doesn’t mean he hates Liverpool. He definitely doesn’t as there have been some games where he’s been excellent (often at Old Trafford), and I remember reading something a while back from a woman who sits near where the 4th officials are and she said something about Taylor being friendly and always passing the sweets around to the fans who sat near him. Probably doesn’t do that anymore, but he used to do it so he wasn’t acting like someone who hates scousers!
On that particular day though against Brentford he went out there wanting to punish Klopp for what happened the week before, and I actually understand that to some degree, because these are human beings with human emotions and Klopp had been well out of order the week before. The refs circled the wagons there and it’s not surprising. It’s actually not even that big a problem if it’s a one off rather than a referee with a permanent agenda.
I’ve referenced this before, but there’s a Netflix documentary about a bent NBA ref who was fixing games because he was in with bookies. Before he got that deep into it though he was just passing them information, and that was even more disturbing to me than some rogue official taking money to fix games. It was worse because he’d be telling the bookies about how a certain ref hates Pat Riley so he’ll be giving calls against him. I’ve pointed this out a few times on here and on the pod because if that’s happening in the NBA it’s sure as shit happening in football too. And lo and behold we now have proof of exactly that.
Coote did not referee a Liverpool game for four years after that Burnley game. Why would that be? Not for the Burnley performance, as Tierney has done far worse and at one point was doing our games every other week, even though Klopp hated him. So why was Coote kept away from our games? Did they know about the video? Maybe it was because he “missed” the Pickford red card at Goodison when on VAR?
That game was not long after this video was recorded. Remember the ‘offside’ goal at the end of that game when we didn’t see the lines until afterwards, and then when we did it looked dodgy as fuck? That was Coote too. So it’s either incompetence or bias, and while many fans said it was the latter, the wider football world as usual refused to comprehend that these fellas could be anything other than honest, stand up guys whose integrity is beyond question. Then we see this video which shines a completely different light on some of those high profile decisions he made against us over the years, especially when he was on VAR.
I’m not remotely surprised by what he said or the fact he thinks Klopp is a cunt. Not just any cunt, but a “German cunt”. I am staggered that he said while knowing he was being filmed, seemingly by someone he doesn’t even know particularly well. This wasn’t a secret hidden camera catching him out, he knew was being recorded yet said it anyway. He might be the most stupid man alive.
He wasn’t drunk as there’s no slurring of his words, but there may well have been something else at play here as this is not something you just do when you have all of your wits about you. Does he know the people he was with and trust them? Or had he just met them? If they’re his mates and they’re talking about Liverpool fans being bellends and them hating scousers, that makes it even more damning. If he doesn’t know them that well (which is how it seems), then what the fuck is he even doing saying shit like that in front of them, let alone having them record it!!
There are a lot of layers to this though, including the reaction to it and the sad sight of people rushing to defend him because of “the human element”. People want to show compassion to him and don’t want him to lose his job or “be cancelled”. Sorry, that doesn’t come into it. This isn’t a fella who works in a bank calling Jurgen Klopp a cunt. No-one would be saying he needs to lose his job or “be cancelled” if that were the case.
This is someone who - along with his mates, many of whom no doubt feel the same way - is out there in the middle expected to show impartiality in a game when he hates the manager of a particular team and may or may not hate that particular team and city. He didn’t call Liverpool fans bellends and say he hates scousers, but the lad next to him did and there was no objection to it from Coote. It’s mind blowing to me how so many people are missing that point.
While I’ve always said that this happens and that refs are just as petty and biased as the rest of us, they have to at least maintain the pretence that they are above that sort of thing. You can’t let that mask slip. We know Tierney fucking hates us while Chelsea fans know Anthony Taylor hates their club. We don’t actually have physical proof of it though, because they aren’t stupid enough to say it in front of a camera.
Liverpool fans have said for years that David Coote hates us. No-one took it seriously because football fans always think this kind of thing about certain referees. This shows we were right though, and it also shines a light on the rest of the referees because Coote is absolutely not some rogue bad apple. He’s just the only one stupid enough to say it while being filmed.
“He shouldn’t lose his job over this”. Get the fuck out of here with that snowflake bullshit. As I said, if he was in any other profession he could call Klopp whatever he likes and it’s fair game. I’ve said far worse about other managers but then I’m not going to be put in any kind of position where I can influence the outcome of that manager’s games. Unfortunately.
A referee can’t be seen to be saying the stuff Coote said. It’s as simple as that. Once that happens, the trust element has gone and you can’t get that back. He’s compromised to the point of no return, because even if he no longer thinks that way and he’s been doing his best to call things down the middle and promises to always do that in future, it doesn’t matter.
Referees have to make subjective decisions, decisions that can go either way and they have to make a choice which way they go. If he gives one against us everyone will scream about the video and how he’s biased. If he gives one for us, it will be because he’s trying too hard to show he isn’t biased. Either way, it doesn’t work. He can’t be a top flight referee anymore, and it isn’t a solution to let him carry on but not to do Liverpool games. Because unless you’re keeping him away from all games that can effect us in some way it still doesn’t work.
“This is a man’s livelihood” “Everyone deserves a second chance” and all that nonsense just doesn’t apply here. There has to be consequences for actions. Decisions that have been made by this man have impacted title races and have completely altered the history of football, and now we are left to wonder if those were honest decisions. The integrity of the game is much bigger than one man and the impact it might have on his life if he’s sacked.
People lose their jobs all the time. Guess what, you go out and try to get another job. His life isn’t over if he gets the sack, he just has to find something else to do. You can’t let him continue to be a referee because referees are supposed to be above the petty bullshit and prejudices that the rest of us carry around with us. We know they aren’t, but you have to at least maintain the pretence of it. They have to be held to a higher standard otherwise the integrity of the game dies. It’s already on life support, but if you allow Coote to carry on refereeing then what’s the point anymore?
The entire sport will be seen as being corrupt and we won’t be able to trust the outcome of any game because we won’t know if a referee has deliberately influenced it. I already think that anyway, I have for some time, but now there is actual proof of it so the question is what are they going to do about it? He has to go, but at the same time Coote isn’t the problem. He’s like one of the spots you see when there is chickenpox.
Coote needs to go but there also now needs to be a complete overhaul with PGMOL, starting with the removal of that bald SYP cunt Webb. I’ll tell you exactly what the problem is with PGMOL, and it isn’t that most of the refs are shite. It’s that fans don’t trust their impartiality anymore. Football has always been like that of course, but we’re in a situation now where a big chunk of refs are from the Manchester area and yet we are told that not one of them is a City or United fan.
This means they get to referee City and United games, as well as games involving whoever they might be challenging for titles with, whether it’s us, Arsenal or Chelsea. Arsenal fans think everyone has it in for them, but that’s not the case. There’s no anti-Arsenal agenda with officials, but there is a pro-Manchester one and Arsenal are in the same situation we’ve been in with that.
The notion that none of those many refs support City or United is fucking ridiculous, but let’s play along with it for a second. Let’s say they do support Wigan, Altrincham or whoever the fuck. That doesn’t even matter. Who do their wives support? What about their parents, or siblings? Best mates? All of this is a factor that compromises their position.
Yet Webb appoints them for whatever matches he wants them to do, hiding behind all the ex pros like Danny Murphy (not just him, but he’s one of the worst for this) who “refuse to believe” that referees can allow these things to influence how they officiate games. Or journalists like that fat cunt Samuel, who’s initial thought in any given situation is “what can I write to help out City?”
They may or may not support City or United, but you can be as sure as anything they are surrounded by people in their personal lives who do, and for that reason alone they should never be allowed to do games that have an impact on those clubs. This is common sense, yet for some reason it’s widely accepted as being ok and the only people who object are fans who are told they are conspiracy theorists who can’t be objective about anything. No, we’re fucking right and this video proves it.
This isn’t a Liverpool thing either. I bet Coote has said similar about other managers and clubs, and the same applies to other refs. Arsenal fans have been going way overboard recently about refs and the whole ‘boy who cried wolf’ thing has done them no favours. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a point. I’d be scarred too if I’d witnessed that Mike Riley performance at Old Trafford, which was the most obvious case of match fixing I’ve seen in my entire life.
They also had to witness that Michael Oliver performance against City last season when he was fresh off his little lucrative jolly arranged by the City chairman, so is it any wonder they’ve lost all perspective on this and are now swinging at ghosts?
This shouldn’t end with Coote’s head on a platter. He has to go, but the clubs should be using this to demand change. PGMOL either needs to completely shake up how they vet refs to see who they support (plus their family and friends) and then take a much more careful approach in who is allocated each game, or they need fucking off and replaced by an independent body who can do it, preferably by recruiting foreign refs.
It’s not hard to find out who Anthony Taylor and Chris Kavanagh support. Go and speak to lads who went to school with them, or speak to people who know them now. It’s easy if you actually want to do it. Get full transparency from all of them about who they support, who their closest friends and family members support, and document it all and then factor that it when allocating the games. And if there’s a ref who clearly has a beef with a specific manager (as in this case) then that needs to be considered too. It’s staggering that this doesn’t already happen to be honest.
Webb 100% knew what Coote thought of Klopp and Liverpool. All the other refs will know too, because they’ll talk about it amongst themselves. If the refs WhatsApp chat ever gets leaked football in this country will die, because everything that fans think is going on will actually be confirmed for all to see. And we’ll still have SuperDan, Gary Neville and the rest burying their heads in the sand and refusing to believe it because it ruins the naive, overly romantic view they have of it. “Refs make mistakes but they’re genuine mistakes”. Ok, sound. Can I interest you in some magic beans?
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