ToffeeWeb - Season 2009-10

The Mail Bag

FourFourTwo magazine — The Merseyside fury

I have been a subscriber to this magazine for a few years but recently I have been considering cancelling the order as it has gone from being a good football mag to just another mouthpiece for the Sky era and a sycophant of the top three and Liverpoool.

This month's edition, however, has made up my mind for me. They have done a 4-page article on how the Merseyside derby is no longer the friendly derby it once was and how summers aren't as hot as they were in the 70's etc etc.... The article is unbelievably biased and paints us to be the constant villians of the piece.

The pictures used for the article all show action shots of Liverpool players being tackled from behind by our boys and not one of the Kuyt assaults or the Carragher (who has a column in this mag) drag of Lescott to earth in the box.

I am not for one moment saying we do not have our unsavoury elements but this piece reeks of lazy journalism of the redtop kind. It is also completely representative of the football media's coverage of anything that may stop them from glorifying their cash-cow teams.

So Haymarket publications you can take your magazine and place it firmly up the arse of this month's cover star.

For what its worth I also subscribe to When Saturday Comes, a cracking football mag and probably the only one left that isn't in awe of the football megalomaniacs.
Chris Lawlor, New Mills Posted 30/12/2009 at 06:49:47

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Damian Halligan
1 Posted 30/12/2009 at 16:02:35

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I’m in complete agreement with you. As a lad the rivalry did seem more friendly and that has now changed. If anything the RS have been the instigators of this problem. For example Emlyn Hughes with his "tragic" remarks has always stuck in my throat. Similarly, Raphael Beneathus's "small team" comment. Not to mention any apology for the effect Heysel had on our European ambitions. The media and refereeing bias towards the RS makes me sick.

Gavin Ramejkis
2 Posted 30/12/2009 at 16:53:24

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The club from top down is full of contempt and nasty folk, the media suck up to them as they think the world revolves around those Sky kiss arse already to. Any publication which would glorify Dirty Cunt, Twattagher, Creasehead and Ladyboy and ignore history such as Dirty Cunt’s assaults after his film career ended after playing himself (Sloth in the Goonies), creasehead’s twin footed career ending effort against Naysmith not to mention smackhead Fowler sniffing the white lines or Twattenburk who ruined a derby game after a pre-season tour with the RS and picture getting a signed top from creasehead isn’t worth buying. You should publish your own anyway called 4-5-1 and put the record straight.

Andy Hegan
3 Posted 30/12/2009 at 17:05:20

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Chris, please copy your letter to the vermin that publish this rag.

Chris Lawlor
4 Posted 30/12/2009 at 17:08:23

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Not a bad idea Andy and I think i’ll have Gavin deliver it by hand!

Karl Masters
5 Posted 30/12/2009 at 17:37:53

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Vote with your feet.

Don’t buy it.

I haven’t for over 15 years and I don’t miss it.

You’ll get a better balanced commentary in Nuts magazine and a far more enjoyable selection of photos...

Alasdair Mackay
6 Posted 30/12/2009 at 19:23:53

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My Mrs subscribes, so I don’t pay for it and I don’t think I could convince her to cancel her subscription - she is an Aberdeen fan and has long since accepted that some clubs don’t get the coverage that their fanbases deserve.

I don’t think the article was that bad. It did mention Heysel’s affect on our ambitions, the chanting that their lot aimed at Lescott and Neville getting punched and spat at. It describes Liverpool fans as having a superiroity complex. The pictures were a bit biased and the only quote that is blown up is a very demeaning quote from Shankly, but the actual article was okay and included quotes from Reverand Harry Ross and George Orr.

The reality is that Liverpool FC have a bigger worldwide fanbase than us. They may have less in Liverpool and the ones they have may well be clueless, but the reality is that they represent a bigger potential market, so keeping them happy is more important to than keeping us happy.

Matteo Rosingana
7 Posted 31/12/2009 at 00:22:01

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Chris, I agree with your view of WSC. I get the feeling that the writers are as pissed off with the state of football as we are on here, but they always manage to write fair, balanced and very informative pieces. I also subscribe and would recommend the magazine to all Toffeewebbers.

Neal Sutherland
8 Posted 31/12/2009 at 08:32:48

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Haven’t seen the latest issue but to be fair there was a great article on Moyes a couple of months back, and Peter Reid was answering the Q&A recently as well, and he went into how Heysel ruined our chances of leaving a major imprint on Europe.

Tony Williams
9 Posted 31/12/2009 at 11:01:21

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We have always been pretty much ignored by the "meeedja", a little off on a tangent but in the theme of things:

I came home from work yesterday and put on Sky Sports 1 and it was the Premiership Years for the 2004-05 season. It had already started but I though it would be a good watch seeing as we finished 4th.

What a pile of wank. From 6:15 until 7:00 they showed us 4 times, the two-all draw with Southampton and the defeats by West Brom, Liverpool and the mauling by Arsenal.

They showed the RedShite game against Arsenal showing them "losing" their Top 4 status but nothing of the Duncan- Man U game, nothing of the trouncing of Villa, and nothing of one of my favourite games, the Newcastle game just some 24 hours prior to the Shite "losing" their race for 4th.

So you have a team that has been the only one to break into the Top 4 of the Premiership for so long and we don’t even get any minutes on the show unless they are showing us getting beat. Conspiracy theory, you betcha!

Chris Lawlor
10 Posted 31/12/2009 at 11:26:46

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Couldnt agree more, Tony, I now only use Sky sports for the scores on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon. Other than this, their football coverage is pathetic. The likes of Merson, Tony Gale, Le Tissier, Thompson, Redknapp etc cannot speak basic English not to mind analyse a game coherently.

We are switching to BT Openworld in the new year due to it being cheaper than Sky and having better broadband but I will not miss their myopic vision of football for one minute.

Chris Butler
11 Posted 31/12/2009 at 12:09:24

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Alright mate, I’m also an avid reader. Is this on sale this month as I got the one about Luis Fabiano and the previous one about Steven Gerrard.

Ian Edwards
12 Posted 31/12/2009 at 18:09:33

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Sorry Chris but I have read the article in FourFourTwo and found it very fair. It covers Heysel and its effects on Everton and our subsequent decline. It covers the behaviour of Liverpool supporters in spitting at and hitting Neville. It also deals with the bias of Liverpool City Council towards Liverpool with its planning decisions and the Bellefield refusal.

A well balanced article and in my view catalogues the unfairness that we Everton fans quite rightly perceive.

John Williams
13 Posted 01/01/2010 at 02:01:52

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Tony - totally agree. I watched the 2004-5 season of Premiership Years up to January. At that point I got pissed off seeing more Bolton goals/games while they were in fourth place than of Everton who were in third. At least they showed Lee Carsley’s goal against the RS but I switched off before the end of the programme. Usual ignorant reporting.

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