Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish plays dumb to leave his dignity in tatters[
Outraged by everything and ashamed of nothing, Kenny Dalglish's response over Luis Suárez sums up the paranoia enveloping Liverpool
In the end, it was difficult to know what was the more depressing and shocking: that moment when Luis Suárez walked past Patrice Evra, refused to shake his hand and reminded us this is a man whose brains are all in his feet, or afterwards when Kenny Dalglish tried to stare down the questions before coming up with a response that was so outlandishly flawed it made you wonder where he was storing all the qualities which we once associated with him?
What Suárez did was callous, premeditated and dimwitted to the point that, if Liverpool had any sense, they would have condemned it on the spot and at least salvaged a semblance of dignity. Instead, they reverted to their default setting whenever Suárez comes under scrutiny: this half-baked conspiracy that everyone is against them and that the only way to combat this is to go on the attack themselves. Outraged by everything, ashamed of nothing.
Perhaps we should be used to it by now but it was still shocking to see Dalglish, one of the giants of our game, eyeballing his interviewer and tell him that it was "bang out of order" to suggest that Suárez had done anything even remotely wrong.
At least Sir Alex Ferguson, so aggrieved he said Suárez should never be allowed to wear Liverpool's colours again, could step out of his own anger to acknowledge that Patrice Evra should have resisted his post-match victory dance.
This was the moment when Dalglish should have taken a deep breath and admitted that, yes, it was wrong of Suárez, unhelpful and immature, and he would be pointing this out to his player. Instead, he played dumb. He had no idea what had happened in the fair-play handshake and, in the absence of a polygraph, Robert De Niro would have been proud of his dramatic pose.
Then he realised the questions were not going to end there and it was here the paranoia, the blind bias and pigheaded denials all merged into one.
At one point he switched the subject to blame Sky. "When we had the FA Cup tie, because there was no 24-hour news channel, nothing happened." He cited the fact there were only two bookings in this game, ignoring that there were two separate flash points when police and fluorescent-jacketed security guards had to separate the players. Most pathetically of all, there were suggestions later on it was actually Evra who withdrew his hand. It was claptrap and, wisely, nobody from Anfield dared say it on the record.
Perhaps Suárez felt he had to corroborate the line that he has peddled all along, namely that it was all a bunch of spiteful lies on Evra's behalf. Plainly, he still maintains that calling someone "negro" during an argument is fine for a Spanish speaker, even if one of the best QCs in the country had deemed parts of his defence were "unsustainable and simply incredible". It is difficult, to be honest, to know what was going on between his ears.
"I couldn't believe it," Ferguson said. "I just could not believe it. We had a chat this morning and Patrice said: 'I'm going to shake his hand, I have nothing to be ashamed of, I'm going to keep my dignity.' And he [Suárez] refuses. The history that club has got … and he does that. It could have caused a riot. I was really disappointed in that guy."
Evra had grabbed Suárez's arm to remonstrate but it was just as quickly pulled it away again. Rio Ferdinand looked at Suárez with contempt. "I lost all respect for the guy," Ferdinand said later. "After seeing what he did, I decided I couldn't shake his hand." From Danny Welbeck, there was only the briefest touch of flesh on flesh. These players had agonised this week about whether they should conform and, in the end, they decided they had to do it because the alternative would be that they kept the racism issue going. "The referee didn't know what to do," Ferguson said. "It was a terrible start to the game, a terrible atmosphere it created."
Ferguson had written in his programme notes that his "biggest regret is the way Patrice has been castigated in some quarters for standing up to racism". Now he let it all out. "For a club with their history, I'd get rid of him, I really would," he said. "Liverpool Football Club have a player banned for eight matches, and they've tried to blame Patrice Evra? It's him they should be bloody blaming. He could have cost them a European place. He is a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club. That player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again."
When the dust settles Evra may reflect it was silly to celebrate so provocatively at the end but, by that stage, he was probably entitled to a little triumphalism. He has been abused, demonised, booed and jeered since reporting Suárez to the referee at Anfield last October. Here was his chance to indulge in some schadenfreude and he took it, celebrating as though this were the last football match of his life.
He had been wrong, as well, to hunt out Suárez at half-time but, for those of us in the press box, the abiding memory of that point was the clutch of former Liverpool players stood around, shaking their heads and concluding with a mixture of embarrassment and horror that Dalglish would have to remove Suárez.
It had become clear very quickly that the Uruguayan was dangerously wound up but, seriously, was there any realistic prospect Dalglish would withdraw him? As far as the Scot is concerned, Suárez is beyond reproach. That, quite possibly, is the most alarming thing of all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/11/liverpool-kenny-dalglish-luis-suarez
Another Ugly Incident Mars Liverpool’s Good Name
If the Fenway Sports Group is to be the responsible team owner in soccer that it has proved to be in baseball, it needs to get hold of Liverpool, its club in England’s Premier League, and repair its global image fast.
Kerim Okten/European Pressphoto Agency
Liverpool's Luis Suárez, left, refused to shake the hand of United's Patrice Evra, second from right, before Saturday's game.
On Saturday, Liverpool lost at Manchester United, 2-1, allowing United to temporarily move into first place in the Premier League. There is no disgrace in such a loss; United, the defending English champion, is vying to keep that title this season, and it very rarely loses at home.
But there was disgrace, witnessed by television viewers around the world, in the refusal of Liverpool’s Luis Suárez to shake the hand of United’s Patrice Evra before kickoff.
The hand might not always be offered with sincerity. It might often be less than the noble sign of pregame respect between opponents that FIFA would like to have us believe it is. But in this case it was important to show a global audience that Suárez and Evra were man enough to touch palms and bury the enmity between them.
This was the first time that Suárez had started a game since he was barred for eight matches for repeatedly calling Evra racist names when they competed against each other last October. Suárez claimed that the words he uttered, as used in his Uruguayan hometown, were not racist but could be affectionate. Evra, who is black and French, but understands Spanish well, said he was deeply offended.
Both players are feisty, provocative, volatile characters, as their records for their clubs, and their national teams, have long shown. Evra led the French team that mutinied against its coach and refused to train during the 2010 World Cup. Suárez was the player who made no apology for deliberately handling the ball that led to Ghana’s elimination from that tournament, and he was purchased by Liverpool after he was suspended in the Dutch league for biting an opponent.
It would seem that each of them would wish to show that, for the sake of their team if not their own reputation, they could abide by the rules and rituals of the game that makes their fortune.
Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson began the week by publicly asking his players to rise above any bitter feelings they had and display sportsmanship on the field. He said he spoke with Evra on Saturday morning.
“Patrice and I had a chat,” Ferguson said, “and he said: ‘I’m going to shake his hand. I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. I want to keep my dignity.’ ” When the moment arrived, it was beyond Evra’s grasp.
Suárez shook hands with the referee, and then with the child who was United’s mascot for the day. He then stared at the ground, ignoring the hand extended by Evra and walking toward the next man in line, goalkeeper David de Gea.
Evra grabbed the arm of Suárez, who shrugged him off. De Gea seemed to try to ask Suárez to shake Evra’s hand, and he again refused. The next United player in line, Rio Ferdinand, then withdrew his hand as Suárez passed.
“After seeing what happened, I decided not to shake his hand,” Ferdinand said after the game. “I lost all respect for the guy.”
Ugly repercussions followed. The United crowd booed Suárez, as the Liverpool crowd had booed Evra in its stadium when the teams met in the F.A. Cup two weeks ago.
In the tunnel as the teams headed to halftime Saturday, the teams scuffled after Evra attempted to say something to Suárez. The police and stewards intervened to separate the players.
The Suárez-Evra feud overshadowed the top-class soccer these teams are capable of. United quickly took a 2-0 lead on two goals by the Liverpool-born Wayne Rooney.
The first was from a corner by Ryan Giggs, when Rooney’s sharp anticipation and reflexes led to a short-range volley in a poorly defended penalty area. The second started when Antonio Valencia preyed on an error from Jay Spearing and with split-second vision teed up Rooney, who put a shot between the legs of goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
A late consolation goal by Liverpool, with Suárez reacting like lightning to Ferdinand’s failure to control a deflection, highlighted Suárez’s immense talent. It is that talent that everyone should be talking about, and not racism, especially in a game in which 11 nationalities were represented.
Long after the lights were switched off at Old Trafford, Suárez wrote on Twitter that he was “sad” because of the loss and “disappointed because everything is not that it seems.”
Liverpool Manager Kenny Dalglish claimed he did not see Suárez refuse the handshake, or the shoving in the tunnel at halftime. He had said earlier in the week that Suárez should not have been barred for what he said about Evra, but that he had spoken to Suárez and he knew that Suárez would shake the hand of Evra.
When he was asked on Sky TV after the game why Suárez had not, Dalglish avoided directly answering the question.
“I think you are bang out of order to blame Luis Suárez for whatever happened today,” Dalglish said.
Shortly before that, Evra was whooping to all corners of the stadium. The referee, Phil Dowd, who had managed the game commendably, at that point physically restrained Evra and asked him not to further inflame the players or the supporters.
Ferguson was less charitable. “He is a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club,” he said of Suárez. “That certain player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again.”
It is time for John Henry and Tom Werner, leaders of the Fenway Group that controls Liverpool, to state clearly the direction the team will take on this issue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sports/soccer/liverpools-luis-suarez-refuses-to-shake-the-hand-of-uniteds-patrice-evra.html?_r=2&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nyt%2Frss%2FSports+%28NYT+%3E+Sports%29
Last edited by ResurrectionRooney on Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:46 pm; edited 2 times in total
