A new LFC low was reached last night as a small minority of rabid Liverpool 'fans' burned the American flag outside Anfield. Led like sheep by the divisive, agenda-driven extremists of 'Spirit of Shankly', a series of flags were burned in an embarrassing display of misguided loyalty (to Rafa Benitez) and irrational hatred towards the club's owners.
What a fantastic advert for Liverpool fans. What next, an assassination attempt on Hicks and/or Gillett?! Spirit of Shankly and the brainwashed fanatics who blindly follow them are increasingly turning Liverpool fans - and the club - into a laughing stock.
In my view, Liverpool fans everywhere should condemn this cheap, classless, childish stunt. Fans should also continue to shun Spirit of Shankly, who keep fanning the flames of discontent with their incessant misinformation/smear campaign against the club, its owners and anyone in the hierarchy who doesn't share their agenda.
With help from its supporters in the media (like Paul Tomkins and Tony Barrett) SOS is hell-bent on manufacturing a Liverpool FC 'doomsday scenario' in an attempt to convince fans that the club is on the verge of the apocalypse. They don't care how much damage they need to do to achieve that, or how badly their 'efforts' reflect on the club. SOS also don't care how the reputation of Liverpool fans is being irreparably tarnished.
SOS and its supporters care only about one thing: removing Hicks and Gillett, and if that means trashing the good name of the club in the process, they will do it without hesitation.
In my experience, Liverpool-based superfans (many of whom hang out on 'Red and White Kop - the home of LFC extremism, where this protest was planned) generally believe that anyone who doesn't live within a mile of Anfield is not a real fan. I have no doubt these superfans were the orchestrators of the protest, and they proved once again that they don't give a damn about the worldwide fanbase.
The burning of the US flag outside Anfield is the antithesis of everything the club stands for. Not only was it a gigantic insult to all American Liverpool fans, it was a slap in the face to ALL non-UK fans, and a slight upon the superb achievements of players and staff of many nationalities who helped build Liverpool's success over the years.
I don't know about anyone else, but images of narrow-minded Liverpool 'fans' behaving in a disgracefully xenophobic manner doesn't make me feel proud; or empowered.
It makes me feel ashamed.
And every fan who cares about the club above any individual should also feel ashamed, and condemn this pitiful display of undignified extremism.
EDIT: SOS claim that they had nothing to do with the protest. Right. Just like they had nothing to do with the Munich chants at their end of season party last year.
The fact is, SOS peddled their xenophobic 'Yanks Out' campaign for ages before being forced (by this site and many outraged *sensible* fans) to scrap it.
You reap what you sow: SOS created the anti-American hatred against the Owners that inexorably led to last night's action. They may or may not not have been the main organisers of the protest, but they are clearly still responsible.
Jaimie Kanwar
What a fantastic advert for Liverpool fans. What next, an assassination attempt on Hicks and/or Gillett?! Spirit of Shankly and the brainwashed fanatics who blindly follow them are increasingly turning Liverpool fans - and the club - into a laughing stock.
In my view, Liverpool fans everywhere should condemn this cheap, classless, childish stunt. Fans should also continue to shun Spirit of Shankly, who keep fanning the flames of discontent with their incessant misinformation/smear campaign against the club, its owners and anyone in the hierarchy who doesn't share their agenda.
With help from its supporters in the media (like Paul Tomkins and Tony Barrett) SOS is hell-bent on manufacturing a Liverpool FC 'doomsday scenario' in an attempt to convince fans that the club is on the verge of the apocalypse. They don't care how much damage they need to do to achieve that, or how badly their 'efforts' reflect on the club. SOS also don't care how the reputation of Liverpool fans is being irreparably tarnished.
SOS and its supporters care only about one thing: removing Hicks and Gillett, and if that means trashing the good name of the club in the process, they will do it without hesitation.
In my experience, Liverpool-based superfans (many of whom hang out on 'Red and White Kop - the home of LFC extremism, where this protest was planned) generally believe that anyone who doesn't live within a mile of Anfield is not a real fan. I have no doubt these superfans were the orchestrators of the protest, and they proved once again that they don't give a damn about the worldwide fanbase.
The burning of the US flag outside Anfield is the antithesis of everything the club stands for. Not only was it a gigantic insult to all American Liverpool fans, it was a slap in the face to ALL non-UK fans, and a slight upon the superb achievements of players and staff of many nationalities who helped build Liverpool's success over the years.
I don't know about anyone else, but images of narrow-minded Liverpool 'fans' behaving in a disgracefully xenophobic manner doesn't make me feel proud; or empowered.
It makes me feel ashamed.
And every fan who cares about the club above any individual should also feel ashamed, and condemn this pitiful display of undignified extremism.
EDIT: SOS claim that they had nothing to do with the protest. Right. Just like they had nothing to do with the Munich chants at their end of season party last year.
The fact is, SOS peddled their xenophobic 'Yanks Out' campaign for ages before being forced (by this site and many outraged *sensible* fans) to scrap it.
You reap what you sow: SOS created the anti-American hatred against the Owners that inexorably led to last night's action. They may or may not not have been the main organisers of the protest, but they are clearly still responsible.
Jaimie Kanwar
TURN IT IN KANWAR.
ReplyDeletezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
This is preposterous. Im truly ashamed that you support my club.
ReplyDeleteThe athlestico madrid manager E Sánchez Flores would get a vote from me,
ReplyDeleteset his team up well against us in the semi, wud keep our spainsh staff on board, and maintain things, good contacts and eye for talent also.
Throught the Wind and the Rain was a literary flourish, namechecking the fanzine, rather than a key part of the argument.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that you are not getting it. Liverpool Football Club is part of the fabric of a unique city. You cannot divorce the club from the city. Once you start doing that, you end up with the plastic flags of Chelsea. Fans from all around the world have always been welcome - but they have to get "it"...
Ok Jamie. You make a fair point about certain managers not have experience. Although I would question your comment on Ferguson coming from the SPL which at that time were a far better standard than now as he proved in winning a European trophy. Also regarding paisley, Fagan etc, they followed on from a winning tradition & had years of Liverpool experience before taking over the hot seat. As for O'Neill as a great motivator, is that all is required? Does the fact that you have critised Rafa for boring football yet you would be happy to play HOOF footie up to the frontman or for the wide men to chase not worry you? It seems to me that you wanted rid of a manager that came with a reputation of winning the Spanish League & European Trophies to a manager that has won the 2 team SPL & a poor European record. Maybe it is what fans expect is a superstar manager & that might be wrong but it is a massive leap of faith to give the job to a manager who has not earned the right to manager the greatest club in the world. As for Hodgson, Malmo, Finland, Grasshoppers, UAE, Inter ( poor team), Blackburn & several other weird & wonderful teams ( Vikings?) enough said!! Fulham might have done well this season, but just as Rafa shouldn't have got sacked for one poor season, Hodgson should get a top job after one good season.
ReplyDeleteYour views on O'Neill are generalisation. His teams do not play boring football. have you watched his teams regularly to be able to reach that conclusion? As I've argued over and over: O'Neill's teams play the type of football that fits the quality of player he's able to attract. And all this nonsense about 'poor European recrd' - Be fair; look at things in context: Villa had been out of Europe for over 20 years before having a crack at the UEFA Cup. How can you expect a team with no Euro experience to suddely be amazing in the competition?!
ReplyDeleteO'Neill got Celtic to the UEFA Cup Final - does that not count for anything? That is the most Celtic could probably achieve in Europe.
Liverpool were banned from Europe from 85-91 - How did we do in Europe when the ban was lifted/ CRAP. It took 10 years for the club to get back to kind of form in Europe, and you expect O'Neill to dazzle in Europe with a team that hasn't been in European competition for over 20 years?! Let's get real here.
Re Hodgson - he is not my first choice, or even in my top 5 preferred candidates. You make a good point about not being rewarded for one good season. However, if Hodgson got the job, I would not be devastated. He's infinitely preferable to the likes of Mark Hughes.
So because other fans agree with you, the hysteria is justified? Seems to me that you set this site up to rail against just this type of thinking. I do understand why a certain type of American 'patriot' would be upset by seeing a flag burnt, but I wouldn't criticise fellow Liverpool supporters in such a ridiculously hyperbolic way for doing it.
ReplyDeleteWhat does 'in the context of his reign it was a very lucky win' even mean? I can understand (but disagree with) why people might argue that the win on the day was lucky, but you seem to be suggesting that everything that was good that happened under Rafa was nothing more than lucky because he was (in your view) a poor manager. I think that weakens your argument. Was Rome 84 a 'lucky win'? It took penalties to win that. The route to the 2005 final was pretty special as was the route to the both the 2006 FA Cup Win and the 2007 Cl final.
Would you concede that we were unlucky to lose the 2007 CL Final? We bossed Milan until they scored just before ht (without Crouch on the pitch, a player who I'm a big fan of) from a lucky deflection and were then chasing the game, which led directly to their second goal. We were clearly the better team that day.
The world record transfer fee illustrates the market conditions & the amount of money in the game at a particular time. Another example could be Alonso, in 2004 a player off his quality cost £10.7 Million, by 2009 a player of that quality was worth £24.3 million. Inflation in the real economy is not 74% (world record transfer fee increase) or 127% (Alonso fee increase). You may as well comapre Rafa's spending with that of Don Welsh if you're not going to take in to account the context of the prevailing market conditions.
Were the signs there in 2004/05 of us finishing 2nd in 2008/09 with our highest points total in 22 years? 09/10 was a poor season, and a t the risk of repeating myself, some of the blame for this can be laid at Rafa's door, he made mistakes, but other factors around the club also contributed to the poor performance in 2009/10.
As metioned (again) above 2009/10 was a bad season, but in my opinion Rafa has left us in a better state than that which he inherited and we've had some great times over the intervening years. I take your point that in 03/04 we did qualify for the CL, but I would argue that the league was more competitive in 09/10. Neither season was good for us.
Re the CL Knockoout Stage in 05/06. We played fairly well in Lisbon only to be undone by an unfortunate late goal. We had an off night in the home leg and were finished off by a great goal from a player we'd almost signed the previous summer (Simao) only for the deal to collapse due to 'administrative' issues.
SOS are doing a great job, If you don't like it when the yank liars go back I am sure all of us at SOS will chip in and get you a flight ticket to go back with them you clown
ReplyDeletewell said atsg! I wouldn't change a word
ReplyDelete44 fans of Sick Of Spirit Of Shankly on facebook.
ReplyDelete28,280 fans of Spirirt Of Shankly on facebook.
Lunatic minority, please stand up!
Sick Of Spirit Of Shankly - 45 fans on Facebook
ReplyDeleteSpirirt Of Shankly -28,280 fans on Facebook
Who mentioned the Lunatic Minority?
Give it time...I haven'e even started publicising the group yet.
ReplyDeleteBurning the american flag is never a bad idea, no matter your reasoning. FK the stars and stripes.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of JACKASSES!
ReplyDeleteTwo owners does note equate to disrespecting a whole country. Their country has nothing to do with their professional acumen. Fellow liverpool supporters have reached a new low.
The U.S. is full of British expats. Can you imagine if for every crime they did the hundreds of Americans marched down the streets with banners and pissed on on images of the princess diana? That's the level of disrespect.
This "Yanks", anti-American crap needs to stop. The country of the United States has nothing to do with Hicks or Gillette. Hell there are hundreds of thousands of liverpool supporters that are U.S. citizens. And you'd lump them all with HIcks and Gillette Foolish. And an utter shame. They don't do that to Brits.
Thank you to the idiots who are responsible for this....
ReplyDeleteWe need some good bulletin board material for the US national teams locker room. I hope they pin those pictures up in every US players locker....
Can't wait for June 12th.....
I am a liverpool fan in the US and seeing this is making me have serious doubts about continuing to support the club.
ReplyDeleteif not for the United States of America you crooked teath idiots would all be speaking german and upset about Ballack being hurt instead of Reo right now.
So you don't want the fans to invest in Share Liverpool then? They would be your co-investors...
ReplyDeleteWhat did you get banned for?
ReplyDeleteIf you do not abuse other posters, you can take any position on RAWK and not be banned.
There are only 2 editorial positions that lead to summary bans. One is Hillsborough and the Sun boycott. The other is supporting the BNP.
There are a large number of people on RAWK who felt that Rafa's time was up. Only those that became abusive to other posters got banned.
RAWK is not a regime. It is 30,000 people. With 30,000 different viewpoints and consensus on nothing at all.
I must have imagined that banner ad on every page of this site then. :-P
ReplyDeleteRight, not one Brit may be upset about the burning of the American flag, nor have any real opinion about it. However, we should not forget that if it wasn't for what the flag represented, that entire nation would be speaking German at the moment. It's along the same lines as racism in football. Racist fans love to hate, but if that 'hate' allows their club to prosper, then there is no mention.
ReplyDeleteSo happy that we have new owners now, can get on with playing decent football and get ready for a good shake-up in January!
ReplyDeletePaul
Trampolines
New takeover is great for the club, exactly what we need!
ReplyDeleteTrampolines
could you please tell me who wrote this artical.thank you.
ReplyDelete