Well, this is a first. For the first time in recorded history, a Liverpool player has confessed to being a boyhood Manchester United fan. Say it isn't so!
In an interview today with the Westmeath Examiner today, Anfield legend Ronnie Whelan - who won thirteen major trophies during his fifteen year LFC career - admitted that George Best is his favourite ever player, adding:
"I was a diehard Manchester United fan.
"When I was about six, my dad brought me to see them play a friendly in Dublin [and] he was able to bring me into the dressing room before the match.
"That’s when I met Georgie [Best] for the first time. My biggest dream after that was to score a goal for Man Utd".
Whelan achieved his ambition in 1990, when he scored this fantastic, inch-perfect own-goal during Liverpool's 2-1 Old Trafford victory over United (skip to 0:50 for the goal)
Ugh. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that one of LFC's legends has revealed such a heinous secret. Plenty of ex-Reds were boyhood Everton fans, but an affinity for Man United is (arguably) even worse ;-)
Whelan also gave his view on Liverpool's final game of the season, and seemed to suggest that some of the club's players bottled the game. He noted:
"They weren’t great. There was a touch of 'worldcupitis' when players didn’t go for tackles that they would normally go for in case they got injured and missed out on the world cup"
Whelan is probably right here. LFC's players probably knew that Man City were 2-0 up against West Ham, and it's just human nature to subconsciously ease of the throttle in that situation.
What I personally found disappointing is how the team just stopped trying to score the third goal. About 10 minutes before the end, the players just started knocking the ball around as it they were engaged in a training game, and that was frustrating. The team had nothing to lose, so why not just go for it?
Author: Jaimie K
In an interview today with the Westmeath Examiner today, Anfield legend Ronnie Whelan - who won thirteen major trophies during his fifteen year LFC career - admitted that George Best is his favourite ever player, adding:
"I was a diehard Manchester United fan.
"When I was about six, my dad brought me to see them play a friendly in Dublin [and] he was able to bring me into the dressing room before the match.
"That’s when I met Georgie [Best] for the first time. My biggest dream after that was to score a goal for Man Utd".
Whelan achieved his ambition in 1990, when he scored this fantastic, inch-perfect own-goal during Liverpool's 2-1 Old Trafford victory over United (skip to 0:50 for the goal)
Ugh. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that one of LFC's legends has revealed such a heinous secret. Plenty of ex-Reds were boyhood Everton fans, but an affinity for Man United is (arguably) even worse ;-)
Whelan also gave his view on Liverpool's final game of the season, and seemed to suggest that some of the club's players bottled the game. He noted:
"They weren’t great. There was a touch of 'worldcupitis' when players didn’t go for tackles that they would normally go for in case they got injured and missed out on the world cup"
Whelan is probably right here. LFC's players probably knew that Man City were 2-0 up against West Ham, and it's just human nature to subconsciously ease of the throttle in that situation.
What I personally found disappointing is how the team just stopped trying to score the third goal. About 10 minutes before the end, the players just started knocking the ball around as it they were engaged in a training game, and that was frustrating. The team had nothing to lose, so why not just go for it?
Author: Jaimie K
Yes, it would have been nice. I could see Suarez up front constantly calling for the ball. It was frustrating to watch especially since we were only up one goal and our counter-attack defense has been (and I'm being charitable here) terrible of late.
ReplyDeleteThere was a second place up for grabs and a few millions along with it.Hence they eased off.
ReplyDeleteNot a first. Alan Hansen was also a Man Utd fan. He joined Liverpool prior to the 1977 FA cup final and has said that he was in fact supporting United that day.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that Ronnie was blessed with a little more upstairs than the run of the mill Liverpool players and supporters . Thanks Ronnie for the confirmation that my thoughts had foundation and were correct.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe this is true. Do you have some evidence to back it up?
ReplyDeletewell known that Hansen was a United fan and supported us as a match going fan in the 77 final...Charlie Adams also a big United match going Red
ReplyDeleteHave to back him up there, am sure I heard that he used to follow united, most probably from childhood....have not got the great man's number so can't confirm. Not a problem for me who our former players have followed, both are legends. We have also have had greats who were everton fans growing up and the current one we are linked to, lallana, apparently has a soft spot for them.
ReplyDeleteIf you didn't know Ronnie was a Manc fan, then you have no idea about LFC.
ReplyDeleteand colleen rooney is a liverpool fan, did not know that until last weekend!! ;)
ReplyDeleteUnless there's some concrete evidence of Hansen supporting Man United, it's just hearsay.
ReplyDeleteold news like 20 years old!!
ReplyDeleteOf course he is not daft he chose to play for Liverpool.......
ReplyDeleteI have no time at all for Manu but George Best is my favourite all time player too.
ReplyDeleteYou stopped the clip a bit early after that he took his shirt off and ran to celebrate with the utd supporters. Bit of a give away really.
Off-topic but it always gives me a smile about when Dalglish was asked to become player manager for LFC after the European Cup final, he confided in Ronnie on the bus saying, "They've asked me to be the manager" and Ronnie said, "Brilliant, Can I be captain?". Hope its true, I love it.
ReplyDeleteAfter the Crystal Palace result, I think they were obliged to take their foot off the gas and make sure they held the result. No issue with that.
ReplyDeleteI'll back him.
ReplyDeleteSo what the big fuss! There is enough hate in the world without football fans preaching more in the name of supporting their team. Man Utd players and fans are as human as ours and any other, Get over it, stupid article
ReplyDeleteLast 10 minute was right how you control a game especially when you're winning 2-1 and they got a red card. Shows how the team learning their premier league title lessons already.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been fantastic for Suarez to get on the scoresheet, but I think the burn from the Palace game meant the team didn't want to concede and possibly be pipped by Chelsea for second place. The boys looked exhausted and the news from the Ethiad must've brought the acute sense of disappointment (no fairy tale finish!) to bare. I think they were stuffed. Well done, lads!
ReplyDeleteHow can you be disappointed that they didn't go on and try to score another goal or two in the last minutes? That's incredibly naive thinking, especially after what happened against Palace.
ReplyDeleteWith the way our defence has been recently, we were at risk of a dangerous newcastle counter attack, whether they had 11 or 9 players. Can you imagine the embarrassment if we quickly condeded 2 goals and gave up second place to Chelsea?
Like Puga said, they're learning their lessons. It may have been the 'philosophy' this year (which we all happily bought into), to just attack attack attack, but in hindsight now, that philsophy probably needs some marginal fine tuning that pays greater attention to defensive solditiy and ball retention.
Next season, not only do I want to see a Liverpool with more quality players, but I also want to see a smarter Liverpool. Hubris won't win us titles. Intelligence will.
When you grow up in Ireland there are really only 2 teams in English football: Liverpool and Manchester United. It's basically a 50/50 call as to which way a football fan might lean, so it's not a big surprise that Whelan liked United. He was young and impressionable so we can forgive him, he obviously changed his allegiance.
ReplyDeleteAs for the last 10 minutes of the season ... this is a team that was devastated against Palace, their conservative approach to the end of the season is understandable. Giving up a 1 goal lead at home in the final game of the season having just missed out on the title would have been horrific. They did everyone, fans included, a favour, by making sure it was a good result. I'm sure they were all nervous as hell, even thought the title was lost. The last thing we needed was another late game calamity.