On Monday night, it probably would have been beneficial for all concerned if Luis Suarez had slipped quietly back into action after his eight game ban was completed.
But it didn’t happen, did it?
And it didn’t happen for two reasons. First he was booked – and in the view of many in the Football Business office he was lucky not to get sent off – for kicking Scott Parker, and second, because Kenny Dalglish decided that a matter that should have had a line drawn under it was not, in fact, closed. Instead he decided that everyone – yet again – needed to hear his opinions on what did or didn’t happen between his player and Patrice Evra that day at Anfield.
The Liverpool boss has been widely quoted as saying in his post match interview: "It's fantastic to have him back. He should never have been out in the first place.”
Leaving aside whether the Uruguayan should or shouldn’t have been suspended for his comments that day (and lest we forget the words he used to Evra are not in dispute, merely whether they were intended in a racist way) surely Dalglish is a clever enough individual to know that what he was saying was potentially inflammatory given that the two sides meet this weekend, for the first time at Old Trafford since it happened in October.
When the giants clashed the other week in the FA Cup The FA (in, it must be said, a rare attack of good sense) wrote to both clubs and asked them to refrain from talking about the incident, but unfortunately no one seems to issued such an edict this time around.
And yet, this is no ordinary rivalry. Liverpool v Manchester Utd is perhaps the bitterest antipathy in English football, it is a game that can always have the potential for trouble, even before Suarez and Evra is added into proceedings and certainly it didn’t need the rather unfortunate input of the Liverpool boss.
But should we be surprised? Everything that Liverpool FC have done recently has made a bad situation worse. The stupid t-shirts the squad (including Suarez) and the Manager wore at Wigan before Christmas outraged anti-racism campaigners and according to reports even insiders at Anfield think they were a mistake.
Then there was the bluster about their appeal against the ban – one which they backed down on, when, lets be honest, it became expedient for them to do so. This was topped off with a rather daft statement they made on their website which insinuated Evra was guilty of all manner of things. The whole unedifying escapade shows the club in a bad light.
It is tempting to suggest that they should have showed some humility, but the time for that has passed. What they should have now done was nothing at all, but unfortunately no one told their manager.
Someone who was famously shy and distrustful of the Media when he was a player and reticent to speak to them in his first spell as boss, now can’t stop making statements – and football is all the poorer for it.
But it didn’t happen, did it?
And it didn’t happen for two reasons. First he was booked – and in the view of many in the Football Business office he was lucky not to get sent off – for kicking Scott Parker, and second, because Kenny Dalglish decided that a matter that should have had a line drawn under it was not, in fact, closed. Instead he decided that everyone – yet again – needed to hear his opinions on what did or didn’t happen between his player and Patrice Evra that day at Anfield.
The Liverpool boss has been widely quoted as saying in his post match interview: "It's fantastic to have him back. He should never have been out in the first place.”
Leaving aside whether the Uruguayan should or shouldn’t have been suspended for his comments that day (and lest we forget the words he used to Evra are not in dispute, merely whether they were intended in a racist way) surely Dalglish is a clever enough individual to know that what he was saying was potentially inflammatory given that the two sides meet this weekend, for the first time at Old Trafford since it happened in October.
When the giants clashed the other week in the FA Cup The FA (in, it must be said, a rare attack of good sense) wrote to both clubs and asked them to refrain from talking about the incident, but unfortunately no one seems to issued such an edict this time around.
And yet, this is no ordinary rivalry. Liverpool v Manchester Utd is perhaps the bitterest antipathy in English football, it is a game that can always have the potential for trouble, even before Suarez and Evra is added into proceedings and certainly it didn’t need the rather unfortunate input of the Liverpool boss.
But should we be surprised? Everything that Liverpool FC have done recently has made a bad situation worse. The stupid t-shirts the squad (including Suarez) and the Manager wore at Wigan before Christmas outraged anti-racism campaigners and according to reports even insiders at Anfield think they were a mistake.
Then there was the bluster about their appeal against the ban – one which they backed down on, when, lets be honest, it became expedient for them to do so. This was topped off with a rather daft statement they made on their website which insinuated Evra was guilty of all manner of things. The whole unedifying escapade shows the club in a bad light.
It is tempting to suggest that they should have showed some humility, but the time for that has passed. What they should have now done was nothing at all, but unfortunately no one told their manager.
Someone who was famously shy and distrustful of the Media when he was a player and reticent to speak to them in his first spell as boss, now can’t stop making statements – and football is all the poorer for it.
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