by jonnymac1979 » Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:47 am
I've said it all on this subject in the past, and here I am again. Welcome to my world.
Ciggy summed it up the way I would have. I've got loads of mates and relatives who are Blueshites. There's no talking to them about football though, and they know they can't bait me with it. I won't get into heated discussions with them because it's exactly what they want and you'd be there all night rattling off all the arguments and statistics to them in the World, leaving no stone unturned and they still would let it go in one ear and out the other, refusing to budge that Liverpool are merderin' redshites lar and Everton are clearly the greatest side ever to play football. It's utterly pointless talking to them about Liverpool Football Club. One of my mates wont pick any Liverpool players for his Fantasy Premier League side on principal, even though me and the lads have a weekly bet between four of us (only for a fiver) who will score the most points in any given week. Also, a lad in my office seriously enquired about getting a filter put on his Outlook e-mail client in work so he receives no accidental e-mails about Liverpool. They fucking despise us.
Sorry Dawson, but friendly it is not as far as I'm concerned. You don't know what they can be like if you don't spend time with them day-in, day-out.
Only last weekend, I was in the boozer with FIVE of them, and I was the only Red, and after a bit when we'd all had a few pints they all started trying to gang up on me saying "Have you seen the way we are playing though, you've gotta admit we're better than you's at the moment, you must know you're not gonna win the Derby next week, you've gotta admit it though...." and more shit like that. I've learned to not react to it now except to stand there with a big shit-eating grin on my face and to pull my European Cup keyring out of my pocket.
And that's when they hit you with "Stop living in the past..... What about Benfica...... Yeah, but that was last season" It's not even worth pointing out the irony though, you'd be wasting your breath.
That's a favourite of mine that one by the way, when they start a conversation by saying "You've gotta admit though....." and then they give an argument. That's when you know they're getting desperate, asking for an agreement or a compliment from a hated Reds*i*e. I'm serious, if you don't mix with them, you can't understand what they're really like. Fucking deluded pricks. They think hitting me with all the Scandinavian shouts is going to get me angry, I can't help but laugh, but I'm actually laughing at them, not with them.
I'm not being funny, but to me it's not the end of the world when we lose to them. Of course I don't like it at all, don't get me wrong, but I genuinely couldn't understand it last season when they went absolutely mental when they beat us at Goodison when Carsley scored. I hadn't seen them react like that EVER, and I've seen Everton beat us a few times over the years believe it or not. Last season was different though, their bitterness reached a new high. I was gutted about how poorly we played that day, not necessarily losing 1 - 0. I was half-used to being let down last season in the Premier League. I was gutted about our performance that day. Having said that, when we beat them at Anfield in the follow-up, they got everything they deserved after the match when our players made a meal out of the celebrations. Why not? I say I'm not bothered but revenge did taste sweet that day at Anfield. I recall Steve Watson criticising us because we went over the top. I suppose he was the only Evertonian in Liverpool sat on his arse whistling when they beat us at Goodison though. My point? To them, beating Liverpool is everything. To me, it will be another three points at the end of the day, look to the next game. To them, it's their Cup Final.
And to go back a point, when somebody mentioned that we used to travel down on trains singing Merseyside etc.... and the players were all great friends back in the Eighties when both teams were successful, that is true.
The players were all friends, go back through the archives if you really want to. I have on video cassette an episode of Granada Reports from when we beat Everton in the FA Cup final 20 years ago this year. All kinds of players were getting interviewed and there was not really any kind of traces of bitterness at all. Steve McMahon can be found sitting with Graeme Sharp and Adrian Heath reading the Sunday papers over breakfast. Ian Rush and Kevin Ratcliffe enjoying a few drinks together with their wives, Jim Beglin chatting with Alan Harper, Howard Kendall actually acknowledging Dalglish's achievements.
Fast forward twenty years and it is this group of players who are now responsible for a lot of the bitterness. You can't even hear Andy Gray, Graeme Sharp, Howard Kendall, Derek Mountfield, Kevin Ratcliffe or countless others be interviewed without somehow attributing the blame for every single bad thing that has happened to Everton since their side was at it's peak in the Eighties at Liverpool Football Club's door.
Think about it, we call our players legends when they say or do stuff we want to see or hear. Robbie Fowler's blatant demonstrations of hatred for Everton, Ian Rush's phenomenal goalscoring record against them, Jamie Carraghers "Who's bigger than Liverpool?" interview last season, all of them legends forever. We as fans love all that.
So when you hear the likes of Howard Kendall repeatedly coming out with the old story of how their greatest ever side was broken because Liverpool were responsible for English sides being banned from Europe (Sorry, but who won the League in 1987 again, a full two years afterwards AND THEN sank without trace....), that Graeme Sharp also says it's all Liverpool's fault, Andy Gray's blatant disregard of anything special we achieve without it sounding like he's saying it through clenched teeth if he does compliment us, Everton fans will also follow this propaganda, just as any other fan of any other team would do.
Maybe if they spent more time celebrating how good they were than moaning about what might have been, this irreversible bitterness which has has spawned in Evertonians wouldn't exist.
I've wasted enough of my time this morning taking about the dickheads anyway. Bring this game on and let's all go home afterwards after we've shut them up once and for all, at leat until next season when we'll just go through it all again.
Oh, for them to be relegated one of these seasons........
i nearly swung for him) and cheering for man u just to get at me has led to out and out hatred on my part now... so feck them i can wait to see them crying in there beers when they think they have been playing so well lately....
by 