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Briane Reade today

Randy Marsh

By Randy Marsh,
in FF - Football Forum

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Randy Marsh Veteran

Randy Marsh

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Nailed a few cracking points in his column today

 

 

Fergie's victory in the Rooney battle is a laughable distraction from the greedy truth

 

 

There have been worse weeks than this to be an Evertonian.

 

Seeing takeover-happy Liverpudlians knocked to the canvas at Goodison felt good. Seeing Manchester United fans distraught at Wayne Rooney’s announcement he was jilting them for a club with bigger ambitions felt, for the few days it lasted, even better.

 

Back in 2004 the feelings of Evertonians were trampled underfoot in the nation’s rush to hail the elevation of England’s new wonderkid to a stage befitting his talent.

 

Their anger at one of their own, arguably the best prospect in world football, leaving them after two years for two £10million instalments, and some performance-related add-ons ran deep.

 

 

They were by told by pundits that their club was in decline, the boy had outgrown them, so take the money and accept the reality. Sir Alex Ferguson couldn’t have been more patronising if he’d offered them all a tour of the Old Trafford museum and a can of Pepsi to compensate. “If a player such as Wayne had escaped our clutches when he is only 30 miles up the road it would have been a terrible shame,” he said.

 

Implying Everton (who had won two more titles than United when Fergie took over) were now a local feeder club for the neighbourhood’s big boys.

 

Sean Bones of Shareholders United, said: “We have come to expect the best and Old Trafford will be a perfect arena for Wayne to display his talents. Players like him don’t come along very often.”

 

Oh dear. No wonder Evertonians struggled for bladder control this week seeing banners labelling Rooney a whore, phone-in fans blasting his greed, and the excruciating balaclava-clad Manchester Education Committee threatening to burn down his house.

 

All because he declined a new contract.

 

Rooney has rightly had a word with himself, and is now staying. Maybe the death-threat issuers should have one too.

 

What made them believe that after six years’ loyal service, Rooney owed it to them to stay for life?

 

Unlike Gary Neville, he didn’t come through United’s ranks and has never been a fan. It was Everton, the team he supported, who turned him into an England international. Indeed, his best tournament to date, Euro 2004, was as an Everton player.

 

All Rooney was doing was looking after No.1. The same as Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith did when they ditched Leeds for a better pay day at Old Trafford. The pain United fans felt when their main man was linked to Manchester City is the same one Leeds and Everton fans felt when their top players joined them.

 

As for Fergie’s heart-tugging press conference, in which he portrayed himself as a kindly old gent who’d been mugged by his favourite grandson – what a masterful piece of deceit and delusion.

 

“These days players live in their agents’ pockets. It’s a very different world,” he said, implying Paul Stretford had turned Rooney’s head.

 

That would be the same Stretford, who in the months before Rooney left Everton was constantly spotted in Fergie’s company. Stretford, who earned himself £1.5m for delivering the precious cargo down the M62.

 

The world has not become very different in half-a-dozen years, Fergie, but Old Trafford has.

 

Suffocating under a huge debt imposed by absentee sharks, which has stopped United competing at the top end of a market they used to dominate.

 

And Ferguson’s unflinching support for these sharks has been pivotal. Which makes the Oscar-winning portrayal of himself as not just a victim, but an opponent of modern greed, a laughable distraction from the truth.

 

The only inaccuracy in United fans chanting “one greedy b**tard” at Rooney is that there’s more than one.

 

If they want to vent anger at the real greedy b**tards, aim it at the men who steal the profits from their club that used to buy £30m players like Rooney.

 

And at the manager who has never said a word against them.

 

 

 

How Harry is having a laugh if he thinks he can get away with attacking football in Europe

 

 

When Harry Redknapp was asked before the Inter Milan game if his team would “start like an express train”, he gave a look that asked if the Pope lived in Italy.

 

“We won’t just look to sit back and soak up pressure for 90 minutes; that’s not the way we play,” he said.

 

Half-an-hour into the game, after starting like a hedgehog caught in the lights of an express train, Spurs were 4-0 down.

 

Might be an idea before you next cross the Channel Harry, to learn how to sit back and soak up pressure.

 

 

It’s called European football.

 

I’m sure one of those over-rated foreign managers who shouldn’t be in England will explain that.

 

***

 

So it looks like FIFA are finally going to enter the modern era by embracing the use of goal-line technology.

 

Sepp Blatter would have us believe this is due to love of fair play.

 

But it’s more to do with him being unable to stop the inevitable introduction of technology – and wanting to show the world of football that he’s ahead of the game. Let’s face it, after the latest revelations about FIFA delegates selling votes for bribes, it’s surely a matter of time before they are forced to put CCTV cameras and phone bugs on their executive’s homes.

 

And body scanners on the doors of FIFA hotels which can detect thick brown bags stashed with used dollars could be a good idea too.

 

 

 

 

Has defeatist Hodgson got grand delusions at Liverpool?

 

 

Roy Hodgson has been batting away criticism of his tough start at Anfield by arguing a man of his experience doesn’t become a poor manager overnight.

 

Which may be true. But it has to be asked how a manager of his experience can sound so much like a naive defeatist overawed by the size of the club he now manages.

 

Take the quote that he wouldn’t be surprised if Manchester United came in for Fernando Torres because when a club of that size lose a player like Wayne Rooney they want a world-class replacement.

 

Roy, this isn’t Fulham you’re managing here, where it’s compulsory to doff your cap to the big boys.

 

 

Imagine what Alex Ferguson would have said if he’d been Hodgson: “Are youse having a ****ing laugh. Torres is under contract and going nowhere. Especially not to a man who a month ago called him a cheat.

 

“Our clubs don’t do business with each other? Do you not remember Gabriel Heinze? United said they’d put him on gardening leave and go to court before they sold him to us.

 

“That’s how it works up here. Besides, if United’s not good enough for Rooney why should it be good enough for Torres?

 

“Now away and write your s***e.”

 

And he’d be spot-on. Hodgson may feel he has excuses for his players’ defeats on the pitch.

 

But he has none for his own defeatist performances off it.

 

 

Pretty much spot on with everything he has said to me there.

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Red Banjo Grand Master

Red Banjo

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Quality stuff there. All bang on. The more i hear about this Torres shite spouted by roy, the more it irk's me. I think this subject alone is enough to get rid. I won't even start with the other 2,712 reasons why he shouldn't be the manager. The time has come roy. Do the right thing eh lad.

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Mojo Collaborator

Mojo

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Quality stuff there. All bang on. The more i hear about this Torres shite spouted by roy, the more it irk's me. I think this subject alone is enough to get rid. I won't even start with the other 2,712 reasons why he shouldn't be the manager. The time has come roy. Do the right thing eh lad.

 

Haven't you heard? He will never resign. We just have to hope NESV see sense sooner rather than later. Still would never want us to lose to achieve that..

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me1 Enthusiast

me1

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And don't forget the disgusting comment made - that Benitez and not the owners was to blame for the mess at Liverpool.

Ferguson has benefitted from too much sycophancy from the press.

He failed time and again to get rid of certain players whe the time was right yet getting shut of others when the club would have benefitted from them staying. Who ever pulled him up?

I don't give a toss for what's coming to Utd - because it's all deserved.

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goatboy59 Mentor

goatboy59

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That is excellent writing from Reade. He's my favourite LFC writer out there

 

And that goes back to his Echo days, he put the boot into 'Suness' before anyone else, when the paper actually had the guts to tell it as it is.

 

18 years at the top, that's quite a staggering achievement given the latent disrespect for journalists in general.

 

Agree, don't agree - but always read. No higher praise.

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Einch Mentor

Einch

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I wonder if Harry Harris will appear on Sunday Supplement and utter similar words to when Gerrard stayed with Liverpool.

l

Come on Harry, lets hear: "He only stayed because those lovely Mancunians threatened to kill him".

 

Harry Harris...fuck me sideways that guy is full of horse shit. My dad used to buy the Sunday Mirror when he wrote in it - must be almost 20years ago now. After reading his stuff then me and my brother knew he was an uber cunt.

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