What a load of **** this is, when i saw Rafa make those arm movements the first thing i thought was Rafa's told them to do something with the free kick but they went ahead and did their own thing and scored, Fergie getting involved in this proves BEYOND DOUBT imo that Rafa has got right under his skin.
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Paul Tomkins' LFC Blog
Intermittent musings on Liverpool Football Club by bald man.
April 17, 2009
Ferguson and Allardyce: Grow Up
I am still in shock at the reaction of Sam Allardyce and Alex Ferguson to a gesture made by Rafa Benítez after the second goal against Blackburn Rovers last week.
I’ve never heard anything more pathetic in my life. The gesture that has led both men to publicly attack Rafa is so vague that he may as well have blown his nose or belched and been labelled as ‘disrespectful’ towards the Blackburn manager.
I’ve watched the incident in question over and over, and for the life of me I cannot see what they are getting at.
For anyone to suggest Rafa thought it was game over with a two goal lead and 60 minutes to play is outrageous.
How can they infer he meant this from one movement of Benítez’s hands? After all, I can’t understand 99.9% of the strange semaphore he comes out with, so how the **** can people get uppity about this?
A goal is scored, and for once Rafa smiles. He does not pump his fists, or turn to the Blackburn bench. He does not drop his trousers and moon Big Sam.
His action of crossing his hands, made in the direction of the Liverpool players, could have meant anything; most likely, it meant ‘forget my previous instructions’ over the free-kick. He’s used the same gesture before to say “no, no, no” to his players to stop what they’re doing; never “game over”.
My guess would be that he told Xabi Alonso to hit it towards the far post, as most managers request, but that the midfielder went for the near post. If anything, Rafa looks embarrassed.
However, if Rafa thought it was game over, why didn’t he take off Torres there and then? Or any other players? It’s patronising to suggest he would have thought that.
After all, this is a man who never sees any game as over until the final whistle; a man who was incredibly pissed off that his team only beat Aston Villa 5-0 having eased off in the last 20 minutes.
How it can be interpreted as anything more is alarming, and indicative of two managers ganging up on another like a pair of classless bullies.
[As has since been pointed out to me, Allardyce had no problem at the time, no problem after the match when shaking hands, but as soon as he mentions it in a press conference six days later his good friend Ferguson is doing the same thing at the same time. Collusion? I think so. The Guardian's Fiver sums it up perfectly, even pointing out that Ferguson backed up Allardyce even before Allardyce had said anything publicly! - FIVER ]
Ferguson has allies at numerous clubs, including several ex-players who have worked under him. In this case he is getting into a battle that is not his own, and yet again, for a man who never talks about Rafa Benítez, he’s talking about Rafa Benítez.
Rafa has brought on a fair amount of the Ferguson media storm himself, notably by responding in January to Ferguson talking about Liverpool with a list of what he saw as facts about United, but there is this very alarming collective amnesia when it comes to acknowledging that Ferguson has never been slow to rise to the bait, or indeed, launch his own verbal attacks.
After all, Ferguson spent a press conference after the defeat by Liverpool stating woefully wayward figures [which were laughed at by some Fleet Street journos] about Rafa’s spending. How has that been so quickly forgotten? He spent the week before they lost at Fulham consulting with people at his own club about money spent by Liverpool, which is very bizarre behaviour.
And look at this equally bizarre reporting on Football365:
“And while Ferguson has tried to resist the temptation to respond, this time he felt he needed to make a stand against the Liverpool manager.”
This time?
To me it’s been constant [and tiresome] tit-for-tat between the two men, with the media acting as the tell-tale. One says something, the press goes to the other and says “he’s talking about you”, to which he replies with his own comeback. And repeat.
But this is starting to seem a bit more sinister. This is some kind of witch hunt, focusing in on Benítez; finding him guilty of something “beyond the pale” that, frankly, is not even remotely clear-cut.
Listen to this pathetic drivel from Allardyce:
“I wanted to clarify his gestures. I think you'll see them as pretty dismissive to me and to Blackburn Rovers' team as a whole.”
How? Because some paranoid manager thinks so, it is so?
“I think they are disrespectful and quite humiliating.”
The only humiliation was from the way your team was outclassed, Sam, after you left a top-class striker, Benni McCarthy, on the bench, despite his good record against Liverpool, and played a lumbering centre-back up front.
“I waited to have a word with Rafa Benitez in his room after the game but as usual, and unfortunately, he didn't turn up.”
Why not just go and wait in Rafa’s house, Sam? Camp out in his shrubbery? Stalk the man?
It’s his room, and up to him where he is after the match; presumably he has better things to do that deal with some pathetic gripes from a man sounding like a two-year-old girl.
But even though Sam didn’t get his clarification, he’s attacked Rafa all the same. Tried by the kangaroo court of Ferguson and Allardyce, Rafa has been found guilty of something any normal court would laugh out on the grounds of it being utterly inconclusive.
"I was hugely disappointed by those gestures and having re-looked at them this week I think I'm right and I think everyone will see why I'm complaining."
Everyone? I know I’m biased, but Jesus Christ, I can’t see a single thing wrong with Rafa’s gestures. They were made in the direction of Liverpool’s players; not Allardyce, not the Kop.
"The game is hard enough as it is without a fellow manager trying to do, what seemed to be, an undermining gesture."
Ah, ****ing diddums. “What seemed to be...” basically means “what I interpreted it to be, as a very, very paranoid man”.
Then Ferguson wades in.
“... arrogance is one thing. You cannot forgive contempt, which is what he showed Sam Allardyce last weekend. When Liverpool scored their second goal he signalled as if the game was finished. I do not think Sam deserved that.”
"Sam has worked so hard for the LMA (League Managers' Association) and he's had a weakened team. I just thought it showed contempt.”
Again, how can the gesture Rafa made be interpreted this way by any sane individual? It’s all a case of reading far too much into a tiny little gesture that could mean a million and one different things.
"In my experience no Liverpool manager has ever done that. It was beyond the pale."
Beyond the pale? Did he piss on someone’s grave? Call someone’s mum a whore? Microwave someone’s goldfish?
No. He made one simple gesture. To his players. And he looked happy that his team had scored – the disrespectful sod.
The whole thing is pathetic. The next time Alex Ferguson spits out his chewing gum after a goal, or waves his fists in the air in celebration, will we get such a load of old nonsense?Comment
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Spot on Tomkins... I'd love to print that out and shove it in Allardyce's face
Allardyce for England?! Yeah right...
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On Ferguscums comments the BBC said..Liverpool FC have made no comment, but the bbc understands Rafael Benitez LAUGHED OFF THE COMMENTS.
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A near perfect reconstruction of the pair of em that...
Can't believe the Red nosed cunt actually demonstrated the gesture Rafa made at a press conference, with the words "did you see it, he went like that",, this is ****in hilarious, Rafa has truly truly got to the aul cunt. 
If Rafa comes out with a perfectly reasonable explanation for his gesture, and i'm sure there is one, an obvious one, then Ferguscum will look even more stupid.
Last edited by Vermilion; 17-04-09, 10:28 PM.Comment
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Another thing that was disrespectful Fat Sam was the the way in which your old Bolton team played boring, ****e hoof it up the park and kick the **** out of the opposition football week in and week out you fat belend.Originally posted by Chris View Post
You should think of that before you come out mouthing off into the press......prick.Klopp on LFC vs MUFC (March 9th 2016) - "This is why I love football. This is why we watched it when we were young. I can still not have enough of it."
Always, keep your face to the sun, and shadows will fall behind you.Comment
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Sir Alex Ferguson launches new attack on Rafael Benitez
James Ducker
The bitter feud between Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benítez spiralled out of control yesterday when the Manchester United manager launched his most vitriolic attack yet on his Liverpool counterpart, accusing the Spaniard of being arrogant, contemptuous and lacking in humility.
In what has become the most hostile rivalry in English football, Ferguson used the build-up to United’s FA Cup semi-final against Everton at Wembley Stadium tomorrow to condemn Benítez’s claims that their Merseyside rivals were a “small club”. The Scot then embarked on a sustained and unprovoked assault on the Liverpool manager’s behaviour during their match against Blackburn Rovers at Anfield a week ago.
When Fernando Torres, the Spain striker, scored his second goal to put Liverpool 2-0 up, Benítez responded by making a theatrical “cut” gesture — the kind a boxing referee makes when a fighter is ruled out for the count — as if to suggest that the match was finished as a contest.
Although Benítez was smiling when he made the gesture and there was little evidence to suggest it was malicious or even directed at Sam Allardyce, Ferguson claimed yesterday that it was a deliberate attempt to spite the Blackburn manager.
“There’s one thing with his [Benitez] arrogance that he showed that you can’t forgive and that is his contempt for Sam Allardyce last week when Liverpool scored their second goal,” Ferguson said. “Did you see it? It was absolute contempt. He went like that [Ferguson repeats the gesture] . . . game finished. I don’t think Sam Allardyce deserved that. A guy who has worked so hard for the LMA [the League Managers' Association], looking after young managers, he didn’t deserve that with a team that was weakened. I don’t think any other Liverpool manager would ever have done that. But he [Benitez] is beyond the pale.”
Allardyce agreed, although given the friendship between the Blackburn manager and Ferguson, and the dislike both have for Benítez, there were whispers last night of their respective outbursts having been pre-coordinated. The questions that loomed largest included:
Had Ferguson and Allardyce collaborated in their attack on Benítez?
Ferguson denied that he had discussed the matter with Allardyce, who branded the gesture “disrespectful and humiliating” yesterday, but the United manager would not let it rest, despite the attempts of a club press officer to intervene. “I’m surprised nobody picked it up, actually,” said Ferguson, who believed that Benítez could have been provoked by Allardyce’s claims that the Liverpool manager was “a whinger and a moaner”. “I don’t think you’d ever get me doing something like that — you won’t. You have to have humility. He [Benitez] has played himself into a powerful position [at Liverpool]. He wants control of all the transfers — for whatever reason, I don’t know, but that’s the last thing I’d want. Crikey. I don’t know what he does in his spare time, but he’s certainly not using it in the right way.”
Why did the United manager choose the eve of an FA Cup semi-final against Everton to reopen his war of words with Benítez?
Ferguson had suggested last week that Benítez made an error of judgment by talking about him in the build-up to the first leg of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea at Anfield, which they lost 3-1, although the United manager will doubtless argue that he was not guilty of making the same mistake yesterday, even if his team lose to Everton.
On the one hand, Ferguson’s staunch defence of Everton and David Moyes, their manager, could be construed as an attempt to lull the Merseyside club into a false sense of security — “Benítez called Everton a small club, which just points to his arrogance, but David Moyes is building a big club,” Ferguson said yesterday. On the other hand, maybe Benítez is right, the United manager’s preoccupation with Liverpool is reflective of the fact that he is running “a bit scared”.
Benítez was accused of cracking up after his calculated attack on Ferguson in January, which served as the catalyst for the ensuing bad blood between the pair. So can the same now be said of the United manager?
Since United won the first of their ten Barclays Premier League titles in 1993, Liverpool have failed to mount a credible challenge — until now, in the year when United hope to draw level with their rival’s record of 18 championships. Ferguson has claimed publicly that he is unconcerned by equalling Liverpool’s haul, but that could not be farther from the truth.
By making repeated references to Chelsea being “buoyed up” after their Champions League victory against Liverpool and by insinuating that the West London club could now be United’s main rivals for the title, Ferguson is merely trying to divert attention away from the fact that he is fearful of the threat the Merseyside club pose.
Does Ferguson really “hate” Benítez?
The reality is that Ferguson probably sees a lot of himself in Benítez — they are both ruthless, single-minded and dictatorial — and is struggling to accept that and worried that the Liverpool manager may be in the process of acquiring precisely the same kind of power the Scot exerts at Old Trafford.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6115799.eceThanks very much for being ‘This Mornings’ Farmer’Comment
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Originally posted by ShaggyAlonso View PostSir Alex Ferguson launches new attack on Rafael Benitez
James Ducker
The bitter feud between Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benítez spiralled out of control yesterday when the Manchester United manager launched his most vitriolic attack yet on his Liverpool counterpart, accusing the Spaniard of being arrogant, contemptuous and lacking in humility.
In what has become the most hostile rivalry in English football, Ferguson used the build-up to United’s FA Cup semi-final against Everton at Wembley Stadium tomorrow to condemn Benítez’s claims that their Merseyside rivals were a “small club”. The Scot then embarked on a sustained and unprovoked assault on the Liverpool manager’s behaviour during their match against Blackburn Rovers at Anfield a week ago.
When Fernando Torres, the Spain striker, scored his second goal to put Liverpool 2-0 up, Benítez responded by making a theatrical “cut” gesture — the kind a boxing referee makes when a fighter is ruled out for the count — as if to suggest that the match was finished as a contest.
Although Benítez was smiling when he made the gesture and there was little evidence to suggest it was malicious or even directed at Sam Allardyce, Ferguson claimed yesterday that it was a deliberate attempt to spite the Blackburn manager.
“There’s one thing with his [Benitez] arrogance that he showed that you can’t forgive and that is his contempt for Sam Allardyce last week when Liverpool scored their second goal,” Ferguson said. “Did you see it? It was absolute contempt. He went like that [Ferguson repeats the gesture] . . . game finished. I don’t think Sam Allardyce deserved that. A guy who has worked so hard for the LMA [the League Managers' Association], looking after young managers, he didn’t deserve that with a team that was weakened. I don’t think any other Liverpool manager would ever have done that. But he [Benitez] is beyond the pale.”
Allardyce agreed, although given the friendship between the Blackburn manager and Ferguson, and the dislike both have for Benítez, there were whispers last night of their respective outbursts having been pre-coordinated. The questions that loomed largest included:
Had Ferguson and Allardyce collaborated in their attack on Benítez?
Ferguson denied that he had discussed the matter with Allardyce, who branded the gesture “disrespectful and humiliating” yesterday, but the United manager would not let it rest, despite the attempts of a club press officer to intervene. “I’m surprised nobody picked it up, actually,” said Ferguson, who believed that Benítez could have been provoked by Allardyce’s claims that the Liverpool manager was “a whinger and a moaner”. “I don’t think you’d ever get me doing something like that — you won’t. You have to have humility. He [Benitez] has played himself into a powerful position [at Liverpool]. He wants control of all the transfers — for whatever reason, I don’t know, but that’s the last thing I’d want. Crikey. I don’t know what he does in his spare time, but he’s certainly not using it in the right way.”
Why did the United manager choose the eve of an FA Cup semi-final against Everton to reopen his war of words with Benítez?
Ferguson had suggested last week that Benítez made an error of judgment by talking about him in the build-up to the first leg of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea at Anfield, which they lost 3-1, although the United manager will doubtless argue that he was not guilty of making the same mistake yesterday, even if his team lose to Everton.
On the one hand, Ferguson’s staunch defence of Everton and David Moyes, their manager, could be construed as an attempt to lull the Merseyside club into a false sense of security — “Benítez called Everton a small club, which just points to his arrogance, but David Moyes is building a big club,” Ferguson said yesterday. On the other hand, maybe Benítez is right, the United manager’s preoccupation with Liverpool is reflective of the fact that he is running “a bit scared”.
Benítez was accused of cracking up after his calculated attack on Ferguson in January, which served as the catalyst for the ensuing bad blood between the pair. So can the same now be said of the United manager?
Since United won the first of their ten Barclays Premier League titles in 1993, Liverpool have failed to mount a credible challenge — until now, in the year when United hope to draw level with their rival’s record of 18 championships. Ferguson has claimed publicly that he is unconcerned by equalling Liverpool’s haul, but that could not be farther from the truth.
By making repeated references to Chelsea being “buoyed up” after their Champions League victory against Liverpool and by insinuating that the West London club could now be United’s main rivals for the title, Ferguson is merely trying to divert attention away from the fact that he is fearful of the threat the Merseyside club pose.
Does Ferguson really “hate” Benítez?
The reality is that Ferguson probably sees a lot of himself in Benítez — they are both ruthless, single-minded and dictatorial — and is struggling to accept that and worried that the Liverpool manager may be in the process of acquiring precisely the same kind of power the Scot exerts at Old Trafford.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6115799.ece_____________________________________
Weak willed, Wank or do they have a masterplan?
Think we have the answer..Slot!!Comment
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Looking after young players? Everyone he's ever signed is foreign, over 30 and on a Bosman.
Fergie's cracking up...Comment
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That's plainly not true, is it?Comment
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Looking after young managers..............Originally posted by tsb View Post
To be fair to Allardyce, by all accounts he does do alot to help young managers, but if he feels he has the time and need to do that then fair enough.
Personally I'd rather Rafa concentrated on people at Liverpool football club than bothered about the rest of the LMA. He does not owe anyone in England anything other than Liverpool Football Club.
Why he should run around trying to be friends with everyone else is beyond me, because that is what Ferguson and Allardyce expect. It's why Ferguson never liked Wenger, he didn't buy into all that rubbish of having a drink together after the game.Forwards.......Comment
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I keep thinking back to the comments Rafa made about whiskynose always talking about other clubs instead of focusing on his own team.
Here we go again,all of a sudden he's defending the honour of Everton and is best pals with fat ****!
Raf must be breaking his ****e laughing, I know am!
I love SarahComment
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