Suarez Let Liverpool Down

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Suarez Let Liverpool Down

I was shocked and disappointed with Luis Suarez on Saturday by his decision to not shake Patrice Evra’s hand. I was more disappointed by his actions because he had the chance to put this sorry episode to bed, and I knew the vultures that are the British media would tear this latest episode of controversy to pieces, and lead to further bad publicity for Liverpool Football Club.

Liverpool have not handled this affair very well as they have showed a siege mentality in their defensive attitude. Liverpool has shown obvious disappointment and anger towards the decision to ban Suarez for a lengthy period. Personally I thought the punishment and the handling of the case was wrong and I was disappointed to see Liverpool accept the resulting ban without appeal. If Liverpool felt aggrieved by the decision then they should have appealed, but on their decision to accept the ban, then they should have just moved on. But there have been constant comments of displeasure from the club concerning Suarez’s ban which should not have happened. Like Dalglish’s comments after the Spurs’ match last Monday.

I was worried when I saw Suarez was named in the team on Saturday, in case something happened. Dalglish should have left the striker out of this game to avoid any kind of controversy, but also his team had been playing well without him and he can’t be match fit after missing so long. Dalglish could have even have named Suarez as a substitute and this would have at least avoided the mandatory handshake before the game.

Rightly or wrongly Liverpool Football Club has backed Suarez during this whole sorry episode and he was out of order and let the whole club down by refusing to shake Evra’s hand. To be fair to Suarez his conduct during the game was first class as he refused to get involved in any shenanigans, but the damage was done and the fallout has been massive. Any news programme on the TV or the radio has been about Suarez and racism, it has been unbelievable, the news has even reached America, prompting an apology from Liverpool Football Club to Manchester United, no doubt from their American owners.

Dalglish looked shocked when told during the post-match interview that Suarez had not made the handshake with Evra and he did the right thing to not get involved with the subject until he knew more. But Dalglish must have felt betrayed by the man he has protected since his arrival to Anfield just over a year ago. I think Liverpool should punish Suarez for his conduct and embarrassment to the club, but I’m not sure they will, however I’m sure he will be well warned over his future conduct as a Liverpool player.

Suarez has made a rod for his own back now and he will be constantly scrutinised by his every move and life will be more difficult for him now playing in this country. It is a great shame because he is such a great talent and a very important player for Liverpool.

I have commented plenty about Suarez and Liverpool Football Club just like the media has, but not mentioned Manchester United. To start with Evra and his actions should see him receive punishment for his apparent role in a tunnel bust up at half-time, but for more seriously for his celebrations at the end of the match, where he deliberately tried to provoke Luis Suarez, this could have caused trouble and Suarez showed great restraint in avoiding retaliation.

But far worse was United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments after the match where he told Liverpool Football Club that Suarez should never play again for them and that they should sell him, he also stated that Suarez has tarnished the history of this great club. Ferguson has no right to tell Liverpool Football Club what they should do with any of their players and he should just concentrate on his own.

I never saw Ferguson kicking Cantona out of Old Trafford after he attacked a supporter, or Ferdinand when he missed a drugs test, or Giggs and Rooney when they brought bad publicity to his club. He did not kick them out because they were important players for him and he protected them. I can’t remember an opposing manager telling him to get rid of any the players mentioned, so why should he instruct Liverpool to do so.

Ferguson just tried to stoke the fire that was already burning and he knew it would ignite the media. Ferguson knows Liverpool are a sitting duck for the media and his comments has worked perfectly too, with every newspaper at the weekend highlighting his comments to get rid of Suarez. The FA should hammer him for this, but we all know this won’t happen. He can do as he pleases and say what he wants, where other managers get punished for their comments.

To end this article I really feel the whole episode has been blown out of proportion by the media, just because a player refused to shake hands with someone he doesn’t like. Suarez was ignorant to think his actions on Saturday would not be highlighted. But the media have overwhelmed their coverage on this incident and they are not helping things. Liverpool is an easy target right now and they are really being savaged by the media, although a lot of the attention could have been avoided. Hopefully the media can start to report on matters on the park now after Liverpool’s recent apology.

website at www.anfieldnews.com

35 Comments

  1. Suarez is not an hypocrite, he will never be.
    Shake a hand to a fu^%$ guy that put your name down, you must have no personality at all to shake his hands. Well done Luis

  2. Liverppol fans should look a for the video that says
    this, Keane and Viera fight in the tunnel,WE have video proof of both Keane and Scholes refusing to shake Patrick Vieira’s hand before the match, I guess he say a different tune that day? or did he believe those two should never have played for Manchester United again?
    So Sir Alex, worry about your own club and their actions before you worry about our’s ynwa saurez

  3. I don’t think suarez has let liverpool down in anyway, he served his punishment, so why shake hands with a guy you dont get on with,evra didnt even offer his hand out until suarez was going past and then persisted to act like a baby, evra should be charged with mis-conduct, as for the club apologizing claiming to be the bigger man, it was a pharse, the only reason they had to was because you cant side with an alledged “racist” so suarez was never going to win any points with anyone, and the media need to focus on terry getting locked up not liverpool any more

  4. I am rather disappointed that Luis Suarez has been let down by everyone. The man is still seething for being labelled a racist by practically every media outlet. To compound the problem Liverpool conspired to make matters worst for him by their lack of objection to the handshake arrangement.
    To feed the media circus that congregated at Old Trafford, the Premier League switched the norm where the home team goes to the away side to offer their handshakes. If this hand been observed it wouldve been Evra that would have offered his hand to Suarez. The xenophobic attitude and the mass hysteria of this common handshakes makes mockery of the English claim to be a fair minded society.
    As for Liverpool I’m beginning to think there’s actually no one in charge of that esteemed club. The hang Suarez to dry from the onset by employee poor representation at the kangaroo tribunal. Look at Chelsea, they were able to force Her Majesty’s Crown Court to postpone their players trial until after the Euros. How did they do that? Answer is good representation. Suarez must be thinking he’s made a big mistake coming to Liverpool because I would. Man U have had their fair share of bad boys and not once did their shirt sponsor or the chairman saw it fit to castigate them in public.
    Everyone is telling Suarez to move on. How can he? Being accused of something and being labelled a racist must be hard to take. Every week he plays in front of thousands of people calling him racist, so how can he move on? I’ll be surprised if he stays after this season. As if playing alongside rubbish players is not bad enough, now he’s been forced to apologise thus stripping him of his pride and dignity.
    I hope his agent is not as incompetent as the people running Liverpool football club and get him a decent move to country where his enthusiasm and footballing skills would be appreciated. Then Fergie would’ve achieved his ultimate ambition of controlling Liverpool as well as Man U before finally calling it a day.

  5. This episode has brought disgrace to our club. Deep down, we all know that Suarez did use racist language to wind Evra up. It doesn’t necessarily make him a racist but his (and the club’s) refusal to accept that it could be even construed as offensive is what’s wrong. An apology for any misunderstanding caused would have nipped this in the bud 120 days ago. He’d have had half the ban or maybe just a warning and this latest shame wouldn’t have been heaped on us.

    The arrogance of the player backed by a naive manager has cost us dearly. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the fallout yet.

    And if someone ever said “I don’t talk to blacks” to me I’d have reacted with a bit more force and immediacy than Evra did.

    Let’s stop kidding ourselves that Suarez is the victim. He’s a nasty piece of work, by any standards. He needs to shape up if he’s to be a true Kop hero.

    1. Adrian, no. You are wrong. I believe what was in the FA report because they went to great lengths to understand both sides and I know what Suarez admitted to and I know that the FA didn’t trust his evidence and that now the club say he lied to them. That’s enough to know that what he did he should have apologised for. Even if you believe that he accidentally insulted Evra he should have apologised for the misunderstanding. He didn’t and the club didn’t because of arrogance and because it was ManU. You cannot suspend your judgement on racist behaviour just because the victim plays for our big rivals. Even Evra deserves to be free of racism.

      I’m so disappointed in the club’s stupid mixed messages that I don’t know what to think. They haven’t condemned racist abuse. Do they approve of the offence that Suarez’s words COULD and did cause? How do you think that feels for an English lad of Nigerian heritage? Do Liverpool even want me as a fan now? The racist chanting against ManU at Anfield was bad enough, then this and how many black players do we have left? Johnson? Ibe? Both for sale, I hear.

      This may be just coincidence but how do you think it looks? How do you think it feels when a club sells most of the black players, makes the remainder available for sale and then backs someone convicted of racist abuse.

      I’m disillusioned.

  6. Alex, people like you are the reason this subject hasn’t moved on. Don’t you realise Suarez made a racist comment. The club have handled this episode completely wrongly from start to finish. The T-Shirt episode was a complete mistake.The biggest mistake I have seen from our football club in 45 years of supporting them. The worlds press are against us on this subject but what is more disturbing is fellow Liverpudlians supporting such behaviour. Have a word with yourselves and I include “King Kenny” in that too.

  7. We always had the ire of the refs, media, and all others before this episode and it is like adding fuel to an already raging fire.
    Everyone loves taking potshots at a club like Liverpool which enjoyed such success but now is struggling. As fans we can keep supporting the club but it feels bad to see when someone like Alex Ferguson deliberately gives material to the media. Suarez did not help the matters as well. But I am sure Suarez will be punished again and some other players from LFC will be punished too but no player from MUFC is ever gonna get any punishment and the blame will again be put upon LFC for starting the half-time bust up. The media is projecting Evra as a victim and no sense of righteousness will make them think against him.

    A disappointing and sad turn of events to another unsuccessful fight for the championship.

  8. Personally I am hughly disappointed in our club at the moment. I put myself in Luis’s position and I think the club should have appealed the FA verdict even though it would have almost certainly meant that Luis’s ban would have been increased. The club said they would support him but by not appealing they were accepting the FA decision. Surely Luis’s name, reputation and honour is worth more than the loss of the player for the extra games. I expect more from our club than this.

    This was a huge mistake in my eyes as how will we attract the best players to our club in future if they know they will not receive the full support from the club in similar incidences?

    If we had appealed, and whatever the outcome, we could have stood up and held our heads high knowing that we hadn’t kowtowed to the ridiculous FA and their dubious decision knowing that we had done the best for our man.

    As for the hand shake, I fully appreciate why Luis didn’t shake as I would find it hard to stop myself from shaking Evra by the throat nevermind his hand after the lies and damage he did to his name, reputation and honour.

    Luis was let down by the club before he let the club down. Maybe he would have respected the request for him to shake hands if they had of supported him to the end instead of being selfish?

    1. TKP, we could have unequivocally condemned racism, said Suarez had been misunderstood and apologised to Evra for any offence that may have been caused by Suarez’s naivety and lack of language skills. But we decided to call Evra a liar, defend language that most people construe as racist abuse and act as though we are above the law.

      What message is this sending? Racism is OK if it’s directed at your rivals? The FA rules don’t apply to us? Normal common decency doesn’t apply to us?

      It’s a total cockup.

  9. To the people sanctimoniously demanding an apology from Liverpool fans. Look to the plank in your own eye and stop trying to extend the Suarez-Evra row for your own political gain. There is no moral high ground here – so stop trying to find it. This issue is not racial and Suarez is not a racist. The whole thing for Evra and Fergie has become political and machiavellian to the point of being discriminatory itself. The media appears to favour the views of Man Utd fans but perhaps they will at least listen to John Barnes, who is the only pundit making any sense on this issue. As Barnes insists – what you propose does not fight racism – it just reduces a complex issue to black and white and actually encourages racism. Suarez has been foolish and petulant – but he is alo a south American immigrant with a poor command of English. The finding of his “lesser character” by the FA in their kangaroo court of “probability” could be said to be racially motivated. The following and ongoing media witchhunt has now become a form of racial profiling and cultural defamation. No one is covering themselves with glory here!

    Evra is a dubious character with a sordid past and there is ample video documentation of his own epithets and slurs, including the full N word that he wrongfully accused Suarez of using in his initial charge. He is known for winding up players and exacerbating situations. His antics on Saturday were despicable – as is the fact that the FA didn’t address his own insults to Suarez in the first place. Fergie has no moral authority whatsoever either – so you won’t get any righteous traction by echoing his sentiments. He is perhaps the most hypocritical person in the history of the game after continually defending the awful antics of Cantona, Keane, Rooney and others. How dare he tell another club to sell their player! The fact that the FA didn’t find this unconscionable just shows how inequitable and uneven they are – and that unfairness was what started and prolonged this whole thing. As for his comments on racism – he is obviously so detached and hasn’t got a clue. Racism exists in all forms on every ground in the country and the recent self-righteousness of the FA and media does nothing at the root level. John Barnes is eloquent on this point. If you put a club under a microscope, as you have done with Liverpool, you will find it everywhere. But it exists in many forms – not just black and white – many immigrants and minorities suffer too. The reductive and reactionary actions of players like Rio Ferdinand do not equate to an “anti-racist” effort – they amount to retaliation and counter-racism.

    So I ask people to please stop being so reductive and blinkered and consider all the complexities of this issue before making your demands. Liverpool, whether you accept it or not, have apologised. Manchester United have not. Suarez paid for his “probable” crime. Evra did not. Dalglish has been vilified. Ferguson has not. Please don’t repeat the folly of the FA and hand out uneven judgement.

  10. hello, please do not jump on me but i am a Manchester united fan. i am of mixed race which in its turn saddens me that i have to mention it but i need to make my point and i would like readers to know this about me. i forgive suarez and understand why he did not want to shake evras hand even if i think he should have. suarez was found guilty of a racial comment. all it shows was he was slightly ignorant but being a working class lad from Uruguay i can understand. its like me saying to gerrard your a typical white man. i am not saying he is one thing or the other. i heard stan collymoore last night say on the radio he does not care if someone is white, black or yellow. well this could be insulting to some people as many asians find it really insulting to be called yellow. but stan is not being racist he just is slightly thick for saying it. now there is one thing in this country to be branded a racist even when you are found innocence of this crime. which suarrez was is almost a persecution of his character. the way the press and everyone has jumped on him i feel very sorry for him. many people are idiots, or say idiot things but we should understand there back ground and forgive if they say sorry which i remember suarez doing the day after it happened. no one else seems to remember this now.
    my real point is that i would like mr fergie i wont call him sir anymore. to step down as manger with immediate effect. i know this wont happen. and i am a manchester untied fan. but what he did repulsed me. when a person is ignorant it is forgivable. some of the nicest people i know are ignorant and i try not to hold it against them. where as what he did after a match. comparing what suarez did to throwing bananas at john barnes was calculated. he was clever with his words but he mentioned it in the same interview basically to Heep pressure on his rival club. he makes a moccory of the subject matter, and there is one thing worse than racism and that is someone who uses it for personal gain. i was disgusted by what he did because he is an intelligent man and knew what he was doing.
    as a man of mixed race i can forgive ignorance some people are and its not their fault they are stupid the same way its no ones fault they are of what ever color. there was a road sweeper in my local town, doing the lowest of the low jobs. doing it well for 15 years. one day he was sitting having a cup of tea. a well to do lady walked past him, heard him say a racial comment and complained to the council. he was sacked soon after. this is so not fair the guy was just an idiot. this incident is so like the press in this country just dying to take the moral high ground when really they just do not get it at all. to be honest with you all i am a glory supporter i live in northants and support man utd. i am not a real supporter but i do feel strongly enough about this to never support utd again till fergie has gone. the man is a disgrace.

  11. i have followed the reds since 1965 and i am ashamed of my beloved club. try to remember what our club used to stand for suarez is a disgrace to us all. put a devil on horse back and he will ride straight to hell.

  12. This has been blown out of all proportion and is not a good look or read for the hundreds of young children watching.I have 5 grandchildren watching the game every week here in New Zealand.Personally I am VERY disappointed with the Media and Ferguson. Suarez has taken his punishment now leave him alone! The focus should have been on the game not on a handshake! I think Suarez conducted himself well throughout the game and walked off afterwards with dignity. LEAVE HIM ALONE. He has his faults, paid his due, NOW lets get back to football.

  13. far as I can tell the only real screw-up with most recent events is that (if) luis told KD that he would shake his hand then he most definetely should have. Somehow I get the feeling that it wasn’t really addressed properly, which would be insane, but that is the feeling I get…could be wrong. The disappointment for me is LFC’s inability to control the situation better. Suarez and KD need(ed) to be on the very same page and with no mistake about consequences of not moving forward properly…but I doubt the “talk” happened or happened properly.

    1. Get real lad. The whole episode has done nothing but bring total disrespect to our club. I despair,I really do.Don’t you get it? This has gone global and the whole of the world have lost a lot of respect for Liverpool Football Club.Until people like you realise what has happened and the consequences in the long term,it won’t be put to bed.The whole thing has been a calamity and I have to say,by our own doing. You can’t defend the indefensible.

      1. You will notice Barrie that I was commenting on the handshake incident alone… hence the “most recent events” part of my comment. Try to focus. Can you argue my point…so far you haven’t

    2. Same here mate, I also wonder if Kenny and Suarez had talked properly about the shake hand issue before match. And KD should really not started Suarez to avoid any ill-feeling Suarez had. Starting Suarez was also tactically wrong. He should have played Bellamy and Carroll, and let Suarez came in for 30mins in 2nd half, there wouldn’t have hand shake issue and tunnel turmoil :(

  14. only men with a pair of balls can see suarez is innocent!!!! everyone else and media who accused him not shaking hand with evra are the real racist manipulative idiots who live in dillusion!!!

    1. Only people with balls where their brains should be can take that sort of attitude to racism. It’s no wonder that the media and the football world have it in for us when you see crass stupidity like this. Maybe it will need the FA or FIFA to take further action against the club for some numbskulls to realise what this is about. I despair, I really do.

    2. yeah, Suarez is innocent… read the report dude. he stated himself that he used the words “por que negro” to Evra. if you still sit on the side of the fence that says thats ok, i suggest you go and say it to a black gentleman and see how long you last.

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