Hi Folks,
First post here although I have been reading from this site for more than 10 years now (yes, I am extremely laid back and passive, preferring to let my more well-read and informed fellow Reds do the talking instead).
Just a random thought after reading the 'Premier League players who would improve us' article...
We all know that over the last 2 decades or so, the Mancs (pre-Moyes) became the darlings of the press with the advent of the Premier League and the all-invading influence of the likes of Sky etc... It is also fair to say that English national team over the same period more often than not consisted of Manc players (especially during the 90s'). This was in spite of how rightly rubbish some of them were and (in my opinion) were there because of they played for i.e. the Mancs. Good examples would be Phil Neville, Wes Brown and Nicky Butt.
It also helped the Mancs when Ferguson boycotted the BBC, thus resulting in the subsequent grovelling from the media as a result of not wanting to miss out juicy exclusives from the most successful English club during this period. As such, almost everyone in the press and the FA treaded ever so carefully for fear of upsetting their press favourite.
All these in turn helped the Mancs bit by bit with getting away with murder week in and out e.g. their foreign players getting work permits easily, Respect campaign etc.
And then this evil cycle repeated itself every year since i.e. the press loves them, the FA loves them, they get unfair advantages, they get more players into the national team, which makes the press and FA love them more and so on...
Now the following is going to be bit of a stretch, but be patient with me...
1. Ferguson is obviously 'gone' and possibly doesn't wield as much influence as he used to with the press.
2. The English press loves to build their heroes up and tear them down when the going gets tough. Moyes is now starting to receive flak from all sides after the 3-0 mauling from us.
3. The English press is subtlely/not-so-subtlely xenophobic, often criticising evil Johnny foreigners for diving etc, but usually blind to the obvious flaws of their own English heroes... perhaps explaining their love for the Mancs (in the past at least).
4. We are now the biggest provider of English national team players.
So considering all the above... Liverpool managed to provide 5 players in England's starting line up most recently, plus the slow decline at Old Trafford, plus the English press' and the FA's failings, plus how the press is now slamming Moyes' United and waxing lyrical over Rodgers' Liverpool, is Liverpool about to overtake the Mancs as the English press' and FA's favourite?
Could we possibly see a twist of fate for us?