It was the right thing for Suarez, Kenny and Ayre to apologize for the handshake saga. It wasn’t a good move by Suarez, refusing to shake hands. I can understand him feeling hard done by when he has been globally branded a racist. He maintains his innocence. But as a professional footballer he should have shook Evra’s hand, put the matter to bed once and for all and got on with the game. Likewise, Evra shouldn’t have tried to provoke him at the final whistle and Ferguson shouldn’t have made his comment that ‘Liverpool should sell Suarez’ as that’s got nothing to do with him.
Nobody at Liverpool told Ferguson he should sack Cantona when he kicked a fan. Or that he should get rid of Ferdinand when he was found guilty of deliberately missing a drug test. Or that Keane should be shown the door when he went out to injure Alf-Inge Haaland. You didn’t hear Benitez, our manager at the time, calling for Rooney to be sacked when he was proved to have once again cheated on his wife when he paid for prostitutes. And Kenny didn’t call for Giggs to get cast aside when it came out that he had been having an affair with his brother’s wife for years. Fair enough, Ferguson had a right to say he thought Suarez was wrong not to shake Patrice Evra’s hand but he shouldn’t start telling Liverpool Football club which players they should sack.
I was glad that the apologies were subsequently issued and accepted. Hopefully this goes some way to repairing the image of our great club. I also hope that we can all move forward and concentrate on football. Obviously there’s no love lost between Liverpool and Manchester United. We just don’t like each other. But that’s been the case for years. Fowler and Neville were never best friends. In fact it’s fair to say they despised each other. But the best way Liverpool or United can hurt each other is by winning matches. Knock each other out of cups. Beat each other to titles.
Personally, I would love Liverpool to keep Suarez. He’s one of our best players. He scored against United on Saturday and continually caused their defence problems. I’m just a bit worried that he won’t be allowed to get on with his career without discrimination. Liverpool won’t sell Suarez because Ferguson thinks we should. But if referees and the FA treat Suarez harshly and give decisions against him in the future then the club might have no choice but to sell him. I already think there are decisions that haven’t gone in his favour because of his reputation. There have been times when he has genuinely been fouled and referees have automatically assumed that he’s dived. Decisions like this will cost us trophies if they continually go against us and we lose games as a result.
Suarez has to try his best to repay the fans, Kenny and everyone else at the club for their unequivocal support throughout the racial allegations and his ban. He has to stop doing silly things like sticking two fingers up to Fulham fans and do his talking on the pitch. But the authorities have to allow him the opportunity to do so. Anyone can make a mistake. It’s what Suarez does next and how he is treated in return that will dictate whether he is able to move forward or forced to move on.
Well said.
For me the only thing I am sure that Suarez did wrong is that he didn’t try hard enough to keep his word to LFC. I’ve seen the video of his hand outstretched and Evra’s withdrawn. So for me his apology shows a willingness to ‘suck-it-up’ for the club.
My hope is that he’ll get the help he’ll need to continue to do so, that he can take the learnings and work at improving his game.
The absolute travesty is basically that the real crime and crook is getting away scot free. Why does everyone want to crucify someone for something that has no proof to substantiate that he did anything wrong. I mean even the ruling didn’t say he did anything he was supposed to. But that didn’t end there. Everyone were appalled that Liverpool & Suarez didn’t not offer an apology for a lie? Who heard him say anything racist throw the first stone? Ban him for 8 games for? Fine him for? No seriously all you saints out there. Did he say anything racist in the first place and ten times? Even if he did where is the proof? Do you hang someone on just a person’s statement with absolutely no proof to back it? Why is everyone so adamant that Suarez is the guilty party. To me the Frencheat was third time lucky. He is after all the same trusty victim who tried to accuse the Chelsea groundsmen and Steve Finnan too. And was found ummm…. wanting in providing evidence that it happened. He was taken to task for both cases wasn’t he? And now he does the same thing about a player who was running circles around him and the poor guy get’s his life destroyed? Would a man who is so sensitive to racial mishappenings behave the way he did after the game? Did you see the ‘hahaha I got you sucker’ smile on his face when he went on to taunt Suarez? This guy was looking to get Suarez into more trouble and it was so clear. Will he get charged for bringing the game into disrepute? No. Will red nose be put in place for his comments that Suarez should not ever play for Liverpool again? Who the fuck is he to get involved in other club’s going ons? He’s already got his hands in the FA…. Wake Up dudes… Suarez is a Red. He’s passionate and brilliant and a player we have been waiting a long time for. Now suddenly every other team wants him out? Are the rest fearing that a slumbering giant might be awakening and where the fuck will that leave them? I’ll only believe he’s guilty when someone shows the proof that he did what he’s accused of doing. To me. Without proof, the case should have been dropped or banned that Frencheat once and for all. This case would not hold any water in any court anywhere in the world. You can’t just condemn without proof. I hope he stays. And I know the values of Liverpool FC.
I have tried to maintain an objective view on the Suarez media frenzy but fear the dye is now cast. It is clear that the debate around racism in football has been re ignited by a potential cultural difference.Suarez’s refusal to shake Evra’s hand was niaive but no more than that. It does not add weight to the tag of being a racist person. I can only imagine John Terry is glad the heat is currently away from him. His position is indefensible with televised evidence of his racist language.
Suarez may never recover in British football. All Liverpool fans must now unite,support the player,support the team and demonstrate why we are the greatest club in the world.
precisely ron, precisely. exactly my thinking. what evra did ater the game was more embarassing and pathethic; celebrating as if he just won the champions league or world cup. everyone who is honest enough would agree; regardless of which team you support, evra purposely tried to provoke suarez. suarez refused to shake hand is not really a big issue. this is not the first time we saw such incident. scholes, keane, ferdinand did the same thing. we can’t have two set of values. just because suarez is a liverpool player, everybody wants to attack him and blow this out of proportion. what do we expect? honestly. he was banned for eight games, accused of being a racist and his image is tarnished; big time… and yet we wanted him SO MUCH to shake hand with the guy who is responsible to put him (and liverpool) in this mess. for what??? was is it such a big issue not to shake hand with someone that you don’t like? we have seen many times players refused to shake hand during or after the game. how come nobody said anything about that? you can be accused of not being a gentleman, not professional, sore loser, not showing the spirit of sportsmanship and etc. but that’s about it. trying to provoke a player and asking the fans to join in is also not an act of a gentleman and true professional as well. another two things – first, why is it so important for evra to shake hand with suarez, and why is it so important for so many people out there to see suarez shakes hand with evra?
As a neutral …firstly, nobody should have to shake anyones hand if they don’t want to, equality an all.
Secondly, Evra and Ferdinand are brainless bully’s who under Fergie’s banner, think they can get away with anything, they provoked what could have been a volatile situation at the end of the game, luckily the away fans and players were un-provoked, probably because they would be blamed and not Manchester United.
The FA and officials are still afraid of Man Utd, they will never declare it though.
On recent events the FA should ban Evra for provoking a situation which could cause harm, the ref must have thought that or he would not have sprinted 40 yards to intervene.
We all know one thing about Fergie, his got away with it for years, he will provoke and disrupt anything that could affect his team from winning, which means provoking players and managers.
Double Standards.
First of all I feel that it wrong for Saurez to react to Evra in October by using the word “Negro”. I don’t buy it was a cultral thing – that was a dumb and silly thing to do. However on the other hand it’s got to be said Evra is known trouble maker and I’m pretty sure what goes around comes around and Man Utd better beware a potential fire fighting episode involving Evra in the future.
It was blantanly clear to me that Evra did not exactly put out his hand and I’m pretty sure both players didn’t want to shake. So it’s unfair to solely lay the blame on Saurez.
That said Ferdinand does not come out of it good again.
Ferguson really has double standards here for me.
He has been known not to shake with managers in the past.
Dalglish did not tell him to sell Cantona and that was closer to causing a riot with fans involved as well.
I know this sounds biased but that’s it this whole episode is biased to where your allegances lie.
I still feel Evra is a nasty piece of work.