Why Fergie Is Right To Block Heinze’s Move To Anfield…
Does it matter if Heinze goes to Liverpool?
United don’t want him. The player’s had enough of playing second fiddle to Patrice Evra and Rafa Benitez has money to spend and looks intent on giving United a decent price for a 29 year old who may never recover the form which made his first year in Red such a success.
United can’t have their cake and eat it. The player, with no more than a few years left of his career has a right to get the best possible deal for himself. United should just grow up. After all, it’s not as if Heinze was raised in Urmston. Let him play where he wants.
All of the above arguments are probably true and eminently sensible to the neutral but football is not always about reason. Thank goodness too, that the game is still the preserve of the partisan.
For a start, what is Heinze doing giving Liverpool any encouragement? He’s captained United! Doesn’t he know the history of the club - the long years of watching Liverpool turn the league into an annual coronation whilst United went nowhere. Then, the relief of ’93 and the ecstasy of ’99, which no amount of Scouse Euro triumphs can ever equal! He might be Argentine but doesn’t Heinze understand the mindset of United and what the responsibilities are of a United player? Where’s Gary Neville when you need him?:whatever:
United and Liverpool can do business with any other club but not with each other. United bought Stapleton from Arsenal and Jordan, McQueen and Cantona from Leeds. Juan Veron was flogged to Chelsea when they were Hoovering up talent not so long ago but United and Liverpool selling to each other - no, no no!
Its the same rule that normally precludes commercial relations between Marseille and PSG and between Barcelona and Real Madrid, until Luis Figo became more vilified than Osama when swapping Catalonia for the capital.
Perhaps, £47 million is the price of ruptured tradition. Maybe United should ask Liverpool for a similar fee for Heinze?
Fergie spoke lovingly about capturing Steven Gerrard some years ago when the England midfielder looked the only man fit to step in for Roy Keane. It would have been a perfect marriage but no-one thought Sir Alex had a ghost of a chance with the Liver lad. Gerrard would rather have chosen the football equivalent of the dentist’s drill - playing alongside Frank Lampard at Chelsea - than a move to United that would have improved him as a player.
The clubs understand why. So do the players, Heinze and Paul Ince notwithstanding, as Gerrard confirmed in his autobiography. The fans have no doubts either. Many of football’s traditions have fallen victim to the professional game’s rush to embrace free-market economics but this is one tradition likely to endure.
The intense and bitter competition between the two clubs and their fans sometimes goes off the deep end, as a stony-faced Alan Smith in his ambulance in February 2006 may well remember. But mostly, this is one of sport’s great rivalries – like Ali versus Frazier or Brazil versus Argentina – titanic struggles to be the best and to lord it over a determined opponent.
The intensity of the rivalry is a benchmark of sincerity and the antidote to cynicism and fraud. It is this quality that makes English football such a great spectacle. Fans know that when Manchester meets Merseyside, it will be a red meat occasion. There will be no prisoners. The match and the result will matter. There might be the odd handshake at the end but definitely no swapping of shirts. And football is all the better for it too. Who wants to watch bloodless contests between teams who don’t give a damn? The infamous 1982 World Cup match in which Germany and Austria played out a draw that had been all but decided over drinks beforehand, is the antithesis of all that United versus Liverpool has come to represent.
Rivalry spiced by a visceral loathing makes for spectacle. That’s why boxing fans still talk about the fight between Marvin ‘Marvellous’ Hagler and Tommy ‘The Hitman’ Hearns which took place 22 years ago. These warriors were not playing. They really detested each other and entered the ring with an appetite for destruction that produced three thrilling rounds of unforgettable savagery. It wasn’t for the faint hearted but it was the stuff of competition. That’s what United and Liverpool bring to any contest between them and explains why their contests are compelling far beyond these shores. It’s the gripping entertainment that has foreign speculators desperate to lay a hand on the top clubs, the great sporting attraction that unites Manchester with Mumbai and the Wirral with Ouagadougou.
Manchester United versus Liverpool cannot be repackaged American football-style into a homogenised, made-for-television encounter between the Manchester Devils and the Liverpool Red Sox. It isn’t an agreeable lunch before polite applause and Mexican waves, with the result secondary to the occasion.
United versus Liverpool means something. It matters. Gore Vidal wrote that when a friend succeeds a little part of him dies. It was the same for United fans during the 70’s and 80’s when Liverpool were collecting trophies. It’s the same for the Scousers now.
Long live irrationality. The Guardian reports that “United would not be happy selling the Argentinian full-back to one of their biggest rivals.”
Quite right too. Heinze goes to Liverpool over Fergie’s dead body!
Does it matter if Heinze goes to Liverpool?
United don’t want him. The player’s had enough of playing second fiddle to Patrice Evra and Rafa Benitez has money to spend and looks intent on giving United a decent price for a 29 year old who may never recover the form which made his first year in Red such a success.
United can’t have their cake and eat it. The player, with no more than a few years left of his career has a right to get the best possible deal for himself. United should just grow up. After all, it’s not as if Heinze was raised in Urmston. Let him play where he wants.
All of the above arguments are probably true and eminently sensible to the neutral but football is not always about reason. Thank goodness too, that the game is still the preserve of the partisan.
For a start, what is Heinze doing giving Liverpool any encouragement? He’s captained United! Doesn’t he know the history of the club - the long years of watching Liverpool turn the league into an annual coronation whilst United went nowhere. Then, the relief of ’93 and the ecstasy of ’99, which no amount of Scouse Euro triumphs can ever equal! He might be Argentine but doesn’t Heinze understand the mindset of United and what the responsibilities are of a United player? Where’s Gary Neville when you need him?:whatever:
United and Liverpool can do business with any other club but not with each other. United bought Stapleton from Arsenal and Jordan, McQueen and Cantona from Leeds. Juan Veron was flogged to Chelsea when they were Hoovering up talent not so long ago but United and Liverpool selling to each other - no, no no!
Its the same rule that normally precludes commercial relations between Marseille and PSG and between Barcelona and Real Madrid, until Luis Figo became more vilified than Osama when swapping Catalonia for the capital.
Perhaps, £47 million is the price of ruptured tradition. Maybe United should ask Liverpool for a similar fee for Heinze?
Fergie spoke lovingly about capturing Steven Gerrard some years ago when the England midfielder looked the only man fit to step in for Roy Keane. It would have been a perfect marriage but no-one thought Sir Alex had a ghost of a chance with the Liver lad. Gerrard would rather have chosen the football equivalent of the dentist’s drill - playing alongside Frank Lampard at Chelsea - than a move to United that would have improved him as a player.
The clubs understand why. So do the players, Heinze and Paul Ince notwithstanding, as Gerrard confirmed in his autobiography. The fans have no doubts either. Many of football’s traditions have fallen victim to the professional game’s rush to embrace free-market economics but this is one tradition likely to endure.
The intense and bitter competition between the two clubs and their fans sometimes goes off the deep end, as a stony-faced Alan Smith in his ambulance in February 2006 may well remember. But mostly, this is one of sport’s great rivalries – like Ali versus Frazier or Brazil versus Argentina – titanic struggles to be the best and to lord it over a determined opponent.
The intensity of the rivalry is a benchmark of sincerity and the antidote to cynicism and fraud. It is this quality that makes English football such a great spectacle. Fans know that when Manchester meets Merseyside, it will be a red meat occasion. There will be no prisoners. The match and the result will matter. There might be the odd handshake at the end but definitely no swapping of shirts. And football is all the better for it too. Who wants to watch bloodless contests between teams who don’t give a damn? The infamous 1982 World Cup match in which Germany and Austria played out a draw that had been all but decided over drinks beforehand, is the antithesis of all that United versus Liverpool has come to represent.
Rivalry spiced by a visceral loathing makes for spectacle. That’s why boxing fans still talk about the fight between Marvin ‘Marvellous’ Hagler and Tommy ‘The Hitman’ Hearns which took place 22 years ago. These warriors were not playing. They really detested each other and entered the ring with an appetite for destruction that produced three thrilling rounds of unforgettable savagery. It wasn’t for the faint hearted but it was the stuff of competition. That’s what United and Liverpool bring to any contest between them and explains why their contests are compelling far beyond these shores. It’s the gripping entertainment that has foreign speculators desperate to lay a hand on the top clubs, the great sporting attraction that unites Manchester with Mumbai and the Wirral with Ouagadougou.
Manchester United versus Liverpool cannot be repackaged American football-style into a homogenised, made-for-television encounter between the Manchester Devils and the Liverpool Red Sox. It isn’t an agreeable lunch before polite applause and Mexican waves, with the result secondary to the occasion.
United versus Liverpool means something. It matters. Gore Vidal wrote that when a friend succeeds a little part of him dies. It was the same for United fans during the 70’s and 80’s when Liverpool were collecting trophies. It’s the same for the Scousers now.
Long live irrationality. The Guardian reports that “United would not be happy selling the Argentinian full-back to one of their biggest rivals.”
Quite right too. Heinze goes to Liverpool over Fergie’s dead body!
G & H really are taking their 'soccer franchise' seriously...
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