Monday, August 12, 2013

Round object kicked by non-rounded individuals


Passions can leave us blind to the most obvious of injustices.  Spain kicks up a stink while tacitly ignoring their equivalent outposts of Ceuta and Melilla that gets up Morocco’s nose.  The USA criticises Russia and China for their intrusive security surveillance but itself runs the biggest one in the world, with security completely prioritised over liberty – when Edward Snowden reveals this, it brands him a traitor and goes to extraordinary lengths to apprehend him.
Jamie Carragher’s continued defence of Luis Suarez is despicable.  Of course, Carragher is Liverpool through and through and, in terms of ability with his feet, Suarez is The Reds’ best player.  Yet he is absolutely toxic.  He makes racial slurs, he refuses to shake hands with his victim, he admits to diving, he bites opponents (on more than one occasion), he refuses loyalty to a club that has backed him at such reputational cost.  When he bit Branislav Ivanovic, the match was preceded by a memorial to Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams who died that week.  When Carragher said, in the wake of the match, that he had rather be bitten than have a broken leg.  This is the kind of warped logic that pervades Liverpool and was the moment I lost all respect for Carragher, given that defending Suarez was more important than the disrespect he had done on such a day.  In fact, Anne Williams seems to have completely slipped his mind, proving that Justice for the 96 is on a lower par than Suarez, irrespective of the bad example it sets (the very next day a schoolkid bit his friend in a game of football as he did ‘a Suarez).  For me, Carragher is just as much scum as Suarez.
Adopting a Millwall posture of ‘no-one likes us, we don’t care’, may build a siege mentality but is incredibly ugly and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Really, the defence of Suarez is incredible.  When Emre was accused of making racial slurs, whilst playing for Newcastle United, I hoped he would be cleared but would have accepted a ban.  If Loic Remy, a recent loan signing, is found guilty of the rape with which he has been charged, he should do the time, even if it hurts the Magpies in terms of league performance.  One gets the feeling that if Suarez committed a rape, Carragher would find a way of blaming the victim (as Liverpool, did with Patrice Evra).  No doubt, if Bashar al-Assad rolled back the years, displayed scintillating skills and signed for Liverpool, you would find Carragher talking about what a glorious Syrian leader he was.
I remember a report by The Independent in late December 2001, which hailed the ‘good guys’ of Newcastle Utd beating the ‘bad guys’ of Leeds Utd.  Then as Leeds declined, first Jonathan Woodgate was signed (who had been convicted of affray outside a nightclub against a person of an ethnic minority).  There was mutterings but it was reasoned that he was a young lad who had been led astray by bad apples and, to be fair, he was a model professional thereafter, despite his injuries.  Then Lee Bowyer was also signed from Leeds, which was even more contentious as he had been accused by a judge at the same trial of telling a series of lies, though he was acquitted.  He was regarded as a far nastier piece of work (he was banned in Europe for many matches for stamping on an opponent’s head) and it was a matter of some disappointment that he was signed for the black-and-whites (talk about Sir Bobby placing a grandfatherly arm round him was a half-hearted attempt at rehabilitation).  Under the combustible regime of Graeme Souness, he ruined Alan Shearer’s big reveal of signing a one-year extension to his contract to take him to a round 10 years at the club and brought huge shame to all at St. James Park by attacking his own teammate, Kieron Dyer, getting them both sent off.  It would be the same effect if Arsenal signed Suarez.  Brendan Rogers may want to give Suarez another chance if he apologises for publicly criticising the club for not letting him leave, but it seems anger was only forthcoming about his behaviour when he signalled his desire to no longer be at Liverpool.  Sometimes a break clause is inserted about a player’s moral turpitude, but it must be a first for a player to pursue that case (Liverpool would never agree to such a clause because they no longer have morals).  Let him rot at Liverpool and the Reds rot with him.

On another note, the traditional curtain-raiser to the season, the Community Shield, wasn’t a curtain-raiser for one side at all as Wigan Athletic had already played the previous weekend.  Manchester United polished them off with minimum fuss but the lack of tension in the game was palpable.  I saw a family with their two daughters wearing Man Utd shirts) as I made my way to Church, as it was scheduled on a Sunday purely for television commercial deals, especially in the Far East with Man Utd’s immense following there.  There was no other reason it couldn’t be on a traditional Saturday.  It adds to the drip-drip of disillusionment that is feeding into me.  Tribal loyalty among fans still matters (this should not extend to mercenary players) but with all the negative coverage of so many things football, the actual substance under scrutiny – 22 men kicking a ball around - seems increasingly pointless.  I doubt that this malaise will be reversed anytime soon.

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