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Dalglish out of touch
Dalglish out of touch
Marc Fox
Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool manager, has risked damaging the famous club's reputation even further by trivialising the abuse targeted towards Manchester United captain Patrice Evra during the clubs' fourth round FA Cup tie over the weekend.
Following a series of calamitous PR exercises in the weeks following Luis Suarez's independently proven racist abuse towards Evra in the previous meeting between the sides in October, Dalglish was angered by questioning about Liverpool fans booing the Frenchman throughout the Reds 2-1 win, before claiming that the vitriol was simply "banter" between supporters.
The Scot even attempted to equate the treatment received by Evra - who was found to have been continuously racially abused by Suarez after complaining to the referee directly after the match at Anfield earlier this season - with the jeering he received during his playing career.
"Have you ever played football?" Dalglish first snapped at reporters who opened the traditional post-match press conference by asking about the responses of Liverpool fans to Evra's account of Suarez's taunting. "I used to get booed."
"Why would I be disappointed for Evra? I can't believe you have asked that question before anything else.
"The behaviour of both sets of players on the pitch was a credit to the game. There was banter between the two sets of fans but it was friendly. There may not have been a lot of respect, but both sets of supporters were brilliant. I don't think there was anything there that was untoward."
In fairness to Dalglish, he would not have been aware of the arrest made by police after a man was pictured directing monkey chants at Evra, who was at fault for Dirk Kuyt's last-gasp winner to book Liverpool a fifth-round tie against Brighton and Hove Albion.
However, the continued chorus of "There's only one lying bastard" by the Kop whenever Evra came close to the ball was obvious, as was the distress on Oldham defender Tom Adeyemi's face after comments directed towards him from Liverpool supporters during a third round replay earlier this year.
The TV footage of the suspended Suarez celebrating Kuyt's winner in the stands only served to reinforce the feeling around Liverpool Football Club that it is they that have somehow been wronged throughout the whole unsavoury episode.
The club's unflinching support of their Uruguayan striker has bordered on bringing the game into disrepute, and in truth it is only Evra, his Manchester United colleagues and the club's travelling fans who came out of the loss at Anfield with any respect.
Far from drawing a line under the affair, Dalglish's passionate yet constantly ill-conceived defence of his club has inflamed the tension between the bitter rivals ahead of their Premier League meeting on February 11 - when Suarez will be free to play after serving out his eight-match ban.
However, you also have to wonder why the club's 60-year-old manager is being promoted as the club's official spokesman on such delicate matters.
The fact that a player found guilty of receiving racist abuse can be so blatantly barracked is of course a worrying trend from fans.
But, surely, any club is responsible for containing rather than igniting fan unrest - and neutrals can only now hope that a spokesperson that is less myopic than Dalglish steps forward over the forthcoming weeks.
© Marc Fox & Soccerphile.com
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