Bad Boycotting Behaviour.

This afternoon I was procrastinating on Twitter when I saw that someone had retweeted a tweet from The Sun about how overweight people could consume the Earth’s supply of food rendering us all to wallow in what they dubbed an ‘armaglutton’.

Pretty standard stuff from The Sun and the word armaglutton is pretty funny so why not retweet it, you’re well within your rights as a free citizen to do so.

This person did just that and was quickly told off by someone for retweeting the ‘vile’ newspaper that is The Sun asking them in no uncertain terms what was wrong with them. You may have already guessed but this person was indeed a Liverpool fan…

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

Racism has reared its ugly head in the footballing world on a few occasions this year. Most notably with Luis Suarez and England captain John Terry.

Last week Suarez was charged by the FA for using “insulting words in reference to Manchester United defender Patrice Evra's colour” and was given an 8 match ban alongside a £40,000 fine.

This has caused people to react in two different ways. Many people are glad he’s been given such a severe ban as there really is no place for it in society let alone football. But there have been certain sections who’ve reacted in support of Suarez, obviously the majority of them are Liverpool fans.

35 years.

So today is the big day: the FA Cup final! I don’t know about you but this year’s final just isn’t doing it for me. I honestly don’t care, and that’s really quite sad as it’s a competition with such great memories for me.

I know I’m a Manchester United fan, and Manchester City are in the final, but that isn’t the reason I’m not interested, heck I couldn’t actually care less if City won it or not. What the hell is wrong with me!? I am letting the red half of Manchester down big time.

Sepp's pointless tea party.

The International Football Association Board met up earlier this week to focus on the pressing issues currently occupying the minds of everyone in football. No issue is bigger at the moment that that of snoods. Are they okay, or are they made of a terrible evil?

Well it’s of the opinion of Sepp Blatter and his henchmen that they can't make any money out of this fad so I’m afraid it’s going to be banned. That’s not the official reason of course, apparently it’s too dangerous to be wearing them. Expect our lads to be donning the old American football gear from next season then, as if safety is an issue perhaps they should just ban the likes of Wayne Rooney, Jamie Carragher, and Mathieu Flamini from playing football full stop.

Eleventh hour bargain deals/rip-offs.

Well the end of January was one to remember wasn’t it? Egyptians took to the streets in order to remove president Mubarak from power, Nelson Mandela was released from hospital after a long illness, and back home Gideon Osborne told us all a story about how the weather is becoming a terrorist threat, contracting the economy by 0.5%. Sorry, but if a bit of snow caused our economy to contract then Australia is about to fold indefinitely.

But let’s face it, no one knows anything about any of that, because who has been watching BBC News 24? Nobody. Everyone was glued to Sky Sports News watching as they slowly and ever so painfully ticked down the nanoseconds until the end of the world, or the closing of a window, one of the two.

Ryan Babel #idiot

Upon watching the FA Cup match between Manchester United and Liverpool at the weekend you may have heard the commentator say the following when Ryan Babel came onto the pitch:

“Here’s a real chance for Ryan Babel to impress his new manager, all be it they’re down to ten men and a goal down, but it’s still a great chance for him.”

I’m sure he’s impressed his new manager no end! Because yes, as you might have heard, after the match, in which Liverpool lost 1-0 thanks to a dubious penalty and a stone-wall sending off, Ryan Babel decided to log in to Twitter and take his frustrations out on referee Howard Webb.

“And they call him one of the best referees? That's a joke. SMH”

Along with this outburst he posted a link to a mock-up photo of Howard Webb in an old United kit clearly stating he felt the experienced official was a biased referee. He couldn’t even be bothered to Photoshop the latest kit onto him, what a muppet.

What went through his head? What imbecile writes that on Twitter and goes into enough thought for a picture and thinks they’ll get away with it scot-free. Ryan Babel apparently.

Obviously he didn’t get away with it and the FA have charged him with improper conduct, and rightly so. If you ever find yourself on Ryan Babel’s twitter page you’ll see that he’s been banging on about being sent to Twitter jail. Maybe it will do him some good, if he spent more time actually training than tweeting nonsense all day long he might actually become an average player yet!

But that’s not even the worst thing, what’s annoyed me the most is the fact that the PFA have actually defended him! No! You just don’t do it! Gordon Taylor, a man so out of touch with the game he still thinks managers are allowed to smoke in the dug-out, has come out and said Babel shouldn’t be reprimanded:

“So long as it's not vitriolic, so long as it's taken in the right way and it's a little bit of fun then we've got to be able to smile at these things.”

This guy’s a bigger idiot than Babel. First of all Gordon, a quick definition of the word vitriolic from Chamber’s dictionary: extremely bitter or hateful, especially with reference to speech or criticism. Yeah, I think we can just about say that Mr. Babel had a slight bitterness to his apparently innocuous tweet.

I highly doubt Howard Webb will see the funny side to it to be honest Gordon. He’s a professional referee and calling him biased is pretty much the worse thing you can say about him! That would be like calling a fireman a secret arsonist! I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if someone questioned your professionalism Gordon, how would you feel if someone said you took a bung from a multi-national news corporation? You wouldn’t be seeing the funny side to it would you?

Football is currently the worst sport for showing disrespect to officials. Referees in football get nothing but abuse from fans, players, managers, and journalists, and yet funnily enough without them we’d have no game to play at all. Players show no respect for match officials, swearing at them, surrounding them, slating them before and after games. What message does that send to the young kids out there? It’s alright kids, abusing the referees is just part of the game, according to Gordon Taylor it’s all a bit of fun!

In rugby the referee stands at about half the size of the cauli-eared behemoths running around the field and yet they command more respect than a football referee could ever dream of! Players address him as Sir, listen to what he has to say, and take decisions on the chin, whether they’re right or wrong. So why is football so different? Well youngsters playing football aren’t being taught to respect the referees while young rugby players are. That’s where it has to start, at a young age. Teach them to respect officials no matter what, their decision is final. If it’s gone against you, man up and get on with it. But that’s easier said than done when every Match of the Day interview is filled with one manager praising his team whilst the other bemoans the referee.

Ryan Babel’s tweeting is but a drop in the ocean. But that ocean is made of tiny droplets that over the years have created a mass of water so big it will probably never be able to be drained.

Babel’s not the one to blame here, he obviously thought it was okay to do what he did. He has since apologised on Twitter, it’s unknown if he has apologised to Howard Webb directly though. The people to blame for all this are the FA, who year in year out allow this to happen, and the morons like Gordon Taylor who apparently say it‘s alright.

And they call him chief executive of the PFA? That's a joke. SMH

Hodgson sacking: Who's to blame?

Liverpool are terrible. A simple statement of the obvious, but true nonetheless. In the past two seasons they’ve looked so poor, with two players at most providing any input whatsoever. So who is to blame for all this?

The previous owners have done their fair share towards the demise of the club, Hicks and Gillett brought down the axe on them for sure, but they are thankfully gone now and Liverpool have new owners. New owners who probably didn’t know what they were in for!

There is a long long road back to the top for Liverpool. The owners, and the fans, are going to have to be very patient as they wait for Liverpool to even get into contention for European places, never mind the Premier League.

However, since Liverpool have been saved by their new baseballing owners, they’ve still been as poor on the pitch as they were with Hicks and Gillett. So who’s to blame for it?

At this moment in time all of it is being placed at the door of manager Roy Hodgson, and literally as I’ve been writing this, he has been sacked. Fair or unfair, this is just what happens when you’re manager of one of the biggest clubs in Europe and your team isn‘t performing. I personally think blaming Hodgson for it all is unfair. Obviously he was under extreme pressure by the fans, but maybe they were expecting a little too much from him. Liverpool are not an elite club in the Premier League anymore, their team isn’t even good enough for a Europe berth. It’s been the biggest fall from grace in Premier League history, and in such a short time too. Two seasons ago Liverpool looked like they would win the title for the first time in their history, United pipped them, and they’ve been in freefall ever since.

They’re just not a good side, take three players out of it, Reina, Gerrard and Torres, and Liverpool are no better than West Ham. Exaggeration? I don’t think so. Liverpool’s current squad are so under-par they almost don’t deserve to be playing in the Premier League at all.

You do feel for Roy Hodgson, he had a tough job in getting this bunch of second-rate superstars to perform like a top side and it just was not happening. You can't blame Hodgson for all of it. It’s the players who should have to answer for the recent plummet in form. Think about it, Liverpool have been poor now for a couple of years, they were poor under Hicks and Gillett, they’ve been poor under the new ownership; they’ve been poor under Rafa Benitez, they’ve been poor under Roy Hodgson. Who’s been there the whole time? The players. Someone needs to tell them that Liverpool Football Club is not a retirement home! It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world!

It must be so frustrating to be a Liverpool fan, especially a Liverpool fan who spends their good money to go and watch their side at Anfield, and God have mercy on their poor away fans. Every game I’ve watched with them involved, all I’ve seen has been a complete lack of effort by the players, they don’t even care. Some of them have been sat in cruise control, waiting for the inevitable moment when Hodgson gets the sack and someone else takes the reigns.

Remember when putting on a Liverpool shirt meant something? Apparently those days are gone. None of the players this season have even pretended to make an effort, with the exception of Pepe Reina. Steven Gerrard is a great player but I’ve only seen glimpses of him putting in a shift, and he’s the captain! Fernando Torres started to show some of the form that Liverpool fans remember early on this year, but he has fallen right back into his rut. Joe Cole has done nothing since signing, the whole defence might as well be made of origami, Max Rodriguez is capable of much more, same goes for Glen Johnson and Lucas. Paul Konchesky is the only woeful player you can blame on Hodgson.

Liverpool are in the FA Cup against Manchester United this weekend and you just can't see them getting a result, not when you have players who just aren’t earning their wages. When you put on that shirt, you give your all, not necessarily for the manager but for the fans. When these players first sign for Liverpool all you hear from them is how big a club Liverpool is and how proud they are to be playing for them. Here’s an idea: show it!

If Liverpool are going to get out of this mess they’re going to have to do some work. The fans don’t deserve to watch this, I think the recent Anfield attendance says it all really. It’s not fair on them, it’s not fair on the owners, it’s not fair on the now sacked manager. Go out there and make an effort, for your self respect if nothing else.

Dear Britain: Get a grip!

What a week it has been. Ed Miliband chose his front benchers set to fight to the death with their Tory-Liberal counterparts; Nato troops were deprived of fuel supplies as Pakistani Taliban fighters destroyed tankers headed for Afghanistan; the Commonwealth games kicked off in Delhi; and the Chilean miners look close to being released from their underground prison.

Of course nobody cares. Because they’re far too busy protesting radically about the goings on at their football club. I am of course talking about the sale, or non-sale, depending on how you look at it, of Liverpool football club. They’ve been bought by another American firm, NESV, owners of the Boston Red Sox. And of course current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett like the idea of making money, so they’re attempting to block the sale.

Now, it’s fair to say Liverpool fans don’t quite like them two. So I wasn’t really surprised to find a video on YouTube of Liverpool fans addressing Tom Hicks, telling him and his mate George to get out. Of course the video is given a bit more clout and publicity by having a few celebs pop in to give their two cents on the matter. I say celebs, there’s Ricky Tomlinson, Sue Johnston and John Bishop. There are others, you can tell who the celebs are as they act like they’re important, but I don’t know who they are from Adam.

This is all well and good but they manage to go way, way over the top. One bloke (maybe a celeb) says: “The only way you‘d understand it, how much we feel about this club, is if someone came to your house and burnt it down.” Really? You bloody idiot, so you’re telling me what they’ve done to a business is the equivalent of someone burning your house down?

Then Ricky T comes along half way through to say that they’ve not just stolen their club, but they’ve stolen the game from them. Now, I love Ricky Tomlinson, but that’s just stupid. How can you steal the game of football from someone? Apparently the football fields in Liverpool are deserted, you won’t find kids running around the streets kicking a football about, and Sky Sports is only available to Everton fans. Thanks Hicks I hope you’re happy.

But the one thing that really annoyed me after watching this video is the inconsiderate moron who stands there with his hood up, wearing sunglasses indoors, and spouting: “Imagine if your family, which is what Liverpool Football Club is to most people, especially the real fans who go home and away, it‘s like you‘re raping all of them at once.”

This needs to end now. People need to stop the use of the word rape to mean ‘casually attacked’. It’s one of my big hates, when someone substitutes words like attack, tackle, beat et al, with rape. I mean, how offensive is that? To even imply that rape is just a casual act of violence or offence is just down-right wrong. Yes Hicks has run Liverpool into the ground, but you can’t come out and say he’s a rapist. It’s ridiculous. Rape actually happens, and I’d hardly think those women would liken what they went through with Liverpool Football Club losing money and being unsuccessful. Such an idiot. Anyone wearing sunglasses indoors is, but this guy is something else.

And what was all that about the “real fans who go home and away”? Some real fans would give their left arm to get to watch their football club at home, never mind home AND away! See, the ‘real fans’ are priced out of watching their own team they once supported from the stands, just as their parents did, and their grandparents and their great-grandparents. All because football, since it’s a business, got greedy. Now your average supporter drives a Merc and drinks fine wines as he watches on. Football clubs don’t care who supports them, as long as they have money. Who cares if Liverpool aren’t successful on the pitch? The real fans, once the lifeblood of the team, don’t get to see that pitch anyway.

So yes, I’d like it very much if these melodramatic fools would stop moaning about Liverpool's situation. I think John Bishop put it best when he said “jog on.”

However, these protests have been dwarfed by the backlash that was found after the weekend’s reality TV show evictions. Sigh. This week it's the plight of Gamu, yet another girl shot into a week’s worth of fame by the juggernaut of light-hearted entertainment that is the X-Factor. Now, I first caught wind of this on Monday morning when someone told me how ‘insane’ it was for Cheryl to reject Gamu and choose two other generic cyborgs instead. Of course I brushed off this ‘news’ story and went about my day.

But it didn’t go away. A couple of days passed and Gamu’s face is up on ITV News with the shocking headline ‘Gamu to be deported’. Wow is this what it’s come to? Sorry, you’re not worthy of half-arsed fame brought by the X-factor, please get out of this country and don’t come back (unless you bring money). But no, it turns out the reasoning behind it is the fact that Gamu’s mother’s visa application was turned down. Seriously that’s why it was on ITV News.

Now the country is up in arms! There are people stood outside her house in Scotland, presumably to protest, although they’re not so much protesting but trying to get themselves on TV which is why this whole story even exists in the first place. Then we have a reporter, who must be dismayed that she went to university for this, waving a microphone at the closed door of Gamu’s house interviewing the mother about paper-work.

Okay, first of all, people need to stop complaining about Gamu’s rejection. The show is called X-Factor, it is not a talent show for crying out loud! I mean, Cheryl Cole is one of the judges! She couldn’t find a haystack if you placed one on top of a needle, so why do you think she’ll be able to pick someone talented from a bunch of clowns? Obviously I’ve heard Gamu sing in the last week as I haven’t been living underneath a rock for seven days, and yes, she can sing. But so what? A lot of people can sing. She hasn’t exactly made Cheryl’s water turn to wine has she? Will.I.Am did that. Annoyed.I.Am

Secondly, just because you have a Facebook group it doesn’t mean you can change the law in the UK to allow her to stay here. This must happen to hundreds of people every week. But do people care about them? No. But Gamu was on X-Factor, she’s a national treasure just like Joe McElderry and Kerry McGregor (yes, I just did a Google search). It actually got to the point where new Labour leader Ed Miliband was actually asked his opinion on the matter. Of course he stated the bleeding obvious saying that they can’t make exceptions for X-Factor contestants. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting that question when he was elected.

Scotland's Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop has actually written to the Home Secretary regarding Gamu’s situation stating the following:

“As you will also no doubt be aware, Ms Ngazana's daughter, Gamu Nhengu, has been participating in the X Factor television show. Gamu has demonstrated that she is a hugely talented singer, and potentially a great asset to Scotland's cultural community… I would strongly urge you to take a personal interest in the family's circumstances, to ensure that all relevant factors are properly and fully considered, so that any options which would allow them to stay in Scotland are fully explored.”

You hear that immigrants? Want to stay in the UK? Get yourself on the X-Factor. You want to know the real winner in all this? Simon Cowell, who “really feels for Gamu's situation.”

People need to stop for a minute to look at what they’re bothered about. Aid worker Linda Norgrove, who was taken hostage by terrorists in Afghanistan, was killed this week in a rescue attempt. She had dedicated her life trying to help others who desperately needed aid. If you interviewed the population of Britain and asked them if they knew who Linda Norgrove was, very few would know. But ask the same people who Gamu Nhengu is and a heck of a lot more would be able to tell you. I certainly didn’t see a massively publicised Facebook group campaigning for the release of Linda Norgrove.

***

The full video of the whining Liverpool supporters is below. See how far you can get through it before stopping it.