12/18/24
January 09, 2009
Rafa does a Keegan?: Sir Alex gets under the skin of yet another title contender, as Benitez lashes out against perceived favourable treatment of Fergie and Man Utd in terms of the fixture list, disciplinary action and criticism of referees. No comment on whether Rafa would love it if they beat 'em.
These Spaniards are hot blooded, so I'm not throwing the season under the train just yet. Ferguson has to get his boys past Chelsea this weekend and lets see how things stand after that--he was the one claiming how important the World Club Cup trophy was to him and the team, so have your piece of silverware and keep to your tucker.
posted by billsaysthis at 01:32 AM on January 10, 2009
From everything I've read about this, Rafa was looking for an opening to put this out in the media. Maybe he's trying to play the mind game-game? A lot will become clear with the United-Chelsea tie, but there are plenty of matches left to be played.
posted by boredom_08 at 02:40 AM on January 10, 2009
An update here says that Rafa had "contemplated this outburst for several months." Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (cough) I mean Anfield?
posted by boredom_08 at 02:45 AM on January 10, 2009
Ferguson suggests Liverpool will get nervous, so Rafa responds by nervously fuming. Brilliant.
On a semantic level, can one contemplate an outburst? I thought an outburst was something that just, you know, burst out. It's somehow even worse that this therefore wasn't actually an outburst at all, but a reading out of a list of complaints about his rival that he has been compiling for months, if not years. It's the sort of thing my 5 year-old sister used to petition my mother with when I was annoying her.
I threw this season under the train on a Sunday afternoon. A friend gave me one of his tickets to Chelsea Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. I had to sit quietly amongst the Chelsea faithful and try not to jump around with glee when Van Persie scored twice for the Gunners in the second half to overturn Chelsea's 1-0 lead. I jokingly said on the way out of the ground afterwards "Watch now as Liverpool only manage a 0-0 draw at home to West Ham on Monday night!"
All of which is nonsense really - I'm somehow demonstrating my support with negativity.
posted by JJ at 08:27 AM on January 10, 2009
0-0 today doesn't help "you" either.
The woodwork saved Stoke a couple of times, but Liverpool seemed devoid of ideas to break down a team who stayed organised and defended their 18 yard line.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:35 PM on January 10, 2009
I saw the Stoke match on TV and that was a WTF 90 minutes for sure.
posted by billsaysthis at 10:20 PM on January 12, 2009
I saw the headline this afternoon and didn't even need to read the story to hear Keegan's rant in my head. I was fairly sure our season was going to implode at some stage - every time we have stumbled so far, everyone else has too - but I was fairly sure we'd at least do it on the pitch instead of in the tabloids. The skipper's turned into Lee Bowyer and the coach has turned into Kevin Keegan. We should do this in style; there's probably still time to sign Joey Barton, David Beckham and Ali Dia before the transfer window closes.
Still, at least I'm calling it "our" season for the first time in ten years.