Fans Comment
Paul Traill

Media Sickener
22/03/05

To say I�m a little annoyed at the moment would be nothing short of an understatement — but I�m not annoyed with Everton.

It�s been a fantastic season and, whatever happens from now, we know that the players have tried their best; we can�t ask for any more than that.  Lest we forget, at the start of the season, all we were asking for was to stay in the Premiership (that, and for Rooney to stay, of course!).

I�ve lost my rag now with, well, the rags and the farcical public bashing the media dish out to Everton at every conceivable opportunity.  It�s nothing short of a disgrace and I�m trying to figure out exactly what it is we�ve done to annoy these �experts� so much.  I�m referring mostly to the absolute bashing we�ve received after the Man Utd game but it does go beyond that. 

Now this is just one example of Scouser-bashing I�ve come across and I�m disappointed to say I read this in the paper I usually read.  I would boycott it now but I�m seriously running out of newspapers to boycott.  Anyway it reads:

�If David Moyes confirms his promise and becomes one of the big managers - and English football ever has the courage to speak out against a sickening descent into the great maw of yob culture - he might just look back on the last few days with some embarrassment.

�They have not been his finest.  First, before some vital revisionism, he told the world that Chelsea's William Gallas was the real culprit for going down when butted in the back of his head by James Beattie.

�Now, after a night of malignant spirit and some criminality on the terraces he was declaring: "I thought the crowd were great for the team and I'm going to need them in the next few weeks." Great?  Needed?  At such moments it is hard not to cringe for what has happened to the values of the national game.

�There was one telling micro-picture of this "great" following nominated by the club manager as a vital element in Everton's attempt to beat the odds and qualify for a place in the Champions' League.  It was of proud parents sitting with their young son in the expensive seats.  He was wearing a blue shirt with Wayne Rooney's old number and across it was scrawled the legend "Traitor".  The child could have been no more than eight years old.  Did he pick the shirt out of his own mature appraisal of what is right or wrong?  Or was it given to him as an early careless lesson in how easy it is to hate?

�In its way it was as disturbing as the lawlessness that saw United's goalkeeper Roy Carroll going down after being hit by a coin, and the collecting by stewards and police of mobile phones which lay on the terraces after failing to reach the pitch.  And the golf ball that bounced around without the courtesy of a cry of "four" and the other missiles which sailed on to the field when United, as they did almost effortlessly at times, took the play to Everton.  There was the graffiti "Rooney Die".  There was the relentless booing whenever he was near the ball.  Carroll was reported to have told stewards that he feared for his safety.  It is an understandable concern when mob feeling is on a high, unchecked tide.

�Rooney handled himself very well indeed.  He snapped back, it is true, when plainly dealt a gratuitous insult by a well-dressed couple on the touchline, who it turned out were match sponsors.  What were they sponsoring?  A football match or Merseyside's version of a hate rally?  You couldn't blame Rooney for his flash of indignation, and certainly there was not a hint of the misguided, vengeful arrogance which persuaded him to taunt the Kop recently.

�What did Rooney do so wrong to make himself such a pariah?  He prosecuted his career, as any free-born young Englishman is entitled to do, and he came home, in his case out of professional obligation, but as so many do from time to time after making a success of their lives - and often to a fever of resentment.  With Rooney's exit he left a club enriched by �27 million. 

�Yes, he behaved well, kept his head up and played with moments of sweet brilliance.  He didn't have to engulf Goodison, as he did when shattering Arsenal with his first, unforgettable goal in the big time, because Cristiano Ronaldo, Quinton Fortune and Roy Keane all did that in their different ways.

�For the second time in a week, Everton, the brave and unlikely challengers to membership of the �lite, were essentially outclassed by their superiors, Chelsea and United.  After Moyes had given his anodyne verdict on the scabrous demeanour of Goodison, he did say something sensible enough to make it a possible source of regret if he makes good on his jokey but clearly implied threat to follow Sir Alex Ferguson's refusal to meet the press after a game.  He said it would probably take four or five years of "realistic spending" for Everton to hope to bridge the gap of class that now exists between his battlers and the top three.

�Indeed, it will take all of that.  You couldn't escape this conclusion after United produced a victory that seemed like a thousand cuts, so easy was their running, so smooth and acute their passing.  Everton went with Gary Naysmith at left-back rather than the experienced and defensively knowing Italian Alessandro Pistone, something which Moyes may have regretted when the former gave Ronaldo half an acre to beautifully cross on to the head of Fortune for the opening goal.  Here another Everton problem was revealed. 

�The normally dogged Kevin Kilbane, who was suffering from a virus, was left standing before Ronaldo so easily bypassed Naysmith.  That was the match settled, so commanding was Keane at the heart of the United effort.  This may have been their most coherent performance of the season, which was a happy augury for the visit of Milan and the sense that Chelsea's run to the finish line of the Premiership may not yet be beyond the possibility of an ambush or two.

�Ronaldo's second-half goal flowed from an authority that was challenged only once, when Marcus Bent failed to convert a beautifully delivered through pass by Mikel Arteta, and, in the end, it was control so profound that no dramatic intervention was required by the most talented player on the field.

�Rooney simply got through his game and kept his dignity.  It was more, much more, than you could say for the baying representatives of half of what likes to think of itself as a warm-hearted city.�

If anyone would like to contact The Independent then James Lawton is the man responsible for this public slaying but it�s not the first and you can bet your mortgage won�t be the last article to have an unnecessary pop at the people of Liverpool.  He ignores the fact that David Moyes rescinded his original comments about James Beattie and actually lambasted him in his programme notes if he�d have cared to look. 

He didn�t just stop there though.  If he�d have listened to BOTH post-match interviews with the managers he�d have noted that Sir Alex Ferguson also said that the Everton fans were �quite good�, but that doesn�t matter.  I guess it�s just as well that Ferguson didn�t take a harsher tone than that because then we really would be in the dock. 

For goodness sake, what did we do wrong?  Sure a few idiots slipped through but what are we supposed to do, take all their change off them upon entry into the ground?  Actually, why stop there?  Why not take boots, belts and scarves off supporters as well?  Anything that can be deemed as any sort of weapon.  Oh, but we�ve still got our fists, why didn�t they handcuff the lot of us?  Those Scouse bastards will only cause trouble. 

While what did happen to Roy Carroll was completely indefensible, it�s not the first time such an incident has ever occurred.  You�d be surprised by this if you listen to the media.  It seems to me that only Scousers are capable of such a horrific act.  A few years ago a Scottish ref got his head cut open in an Old Firm clash, and on this same weekend rumoured Everton target Ricksen got hit by a cigarette lighter while playing for Rangers.  I guess that must have been an Evertonian who didn�t want him to come here then... 

I don�t remember three people running onto the pitch when Burnley played Blackburn Rovers on Sunday.  One in particular was going after Robbie Savage before swinging punches at Police and Stewards.  Oh yeah, the game was 0-0 and a 13:30pm kick off and the supporter already had a lifetime ban.  Do you?

I don�t remember David Beckham being hit on the back of the head with a coin by a Manchester City fan in a Manchester derby.  Do you?

I don�t remember Kezman getting his head split open by a coin this season in the Carling Cup after he�d just scored his first goal for the club against West Ham Utd.  Do you?

I don�t remember Jamie Carragher getting hit with a coin when playing at Arsenal.  Do you?  Actually, shouldn�t say that, he�s a Scouser and he threw it back and was an Evertonian originally. 

Now as for a golf ball and mobile phones swamping the pitch.  I don�t remember all that, and Roy Carroll looked absolutely terrified catching the ball behind his back and juggling the ball about in the penalty box didn�t he?  I�m just surprised nobody�s come out with a cheap shot at Everton�s supporters by stating that the coin thrown was probably robbed anyway. 

As for the trouble afterwards.  It was inevitable and happens up and down the country every week.  I�m not saying it�s right but there will always be that hooligan element in the game and there�s not a lot you can do about it (although a 12:45pm kick off would have been a good start).  I�m surprised how quickly the CCTV pictures have been on the news considering the fact you can barely make a thing out from them.  Or am I just being paranoid thinking they want to drag our names through the mud? 

To them we're just bad people who don�t deserve a chance.  Look at the ridiculing the deceased Ken Bigley received.  Can you honestly imagine such politicians writing such an article about anywhere else in the country?  Well I can�t.  Lest we forget, he left a mother, three brothers, a son and a wife.

Now Liverpool FC have received much more Scouse-bashing than we have in the aftermath of the tragedy of the Hillsborough disaster.  Maybe this is why they don�t get as much stick now?  Maybe it�s because they're the most successful club in the country?  Maybe it�s because they are much more corporate?  For me it�s a bit of all three, which leaves it to us to take the crap from the press.  We get it because we are The People�s Club.  We represent the people of Liverpool, and you know what, were going to finish fourth.  Everton in the Champions League!

Swallow that one James Lawton.  Go and eat your humble pie.  Like Colm�s article says, five wins should do it.  We have to do it.  Both for ourselves and for THEM �cos you know what, I don�t think they�ll like it very much. 

Paul  Traill

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