I hope both sets of fans behave themselves, ditto the players, and that we give United a good spanking and finally get ths season started. Had a **** few weeks, could really do with a lift.
He will need video evidence. Part of his delusion relies on denial, so unless there is absolute proof he will try to deny it, despite the fact we all know it goes on.
As someone who'd willingly nail Slurgy to a cross at any given opportunity, I've got to ask what is so bad about him worrying about United's reputation? Isn't personal responsibility a good thing? If he came out and said "I don't really give a sh!t about Hillsborough, or our fans singing about it, despite me being one of the first to offer my support over the years, and despite me making anonymous personal contributions to the victims support fund", or if he just said nothing, would you not be more infuriated? Bit like saying that when United, along with everyone else, offered sympathy and support for Muamba last season they were doing it purely out of personal interest. Which is partly true - it's that voice that tells you to try and do the decent thing if you were brought up properly: something I suspect the dirtbags of all clubs who thrive on singing about disasters and death never had.
Can't see the point in this thread but it was written! I don't know for sure what Fergie' motives were for writing the letter, I could hazard a guess but fair play to him (Or a PR god at OT anyway) for writing it anyway (Or a PR god at OT anyway). The fact is, the letter NEEDED writing. Why? because unfortunately there are still fans of every side who still don't accept the innocence confirmed in the report, these people still lay the blame firmly at the door of the LFC fans. These are the people who should be receiving this letter but you can bet your bottom dollar they won't! It's a brilliant piece of PR and one I hope (for the simple reason SAF called immediately following the incident in 1989 to offer his support) works. Do I think it will? No! I work with a bunch of united fans and all I can say is, I am glad they are work colleagues and not friends! The things they have said this week, refusing to read the report or pay any attention to it, are sickening and I have had to bite my tongue to save me from losing my temper. It's not just the united fans either, a Sheff Weds fan asked if we wanted them to 'Apologies for Heysel' But these are the things we have had to live with since I was a lad! So will the letter work? No! Will anything become of the 'minority' who chant those songs that repulse us all, from both the Liverpool and United said? Yes! But you can put your house on it being blamed on the Liverpool fans for initiating the singing and hear how the United fans only sang in retaliatgion. My post is not to score points, jusy my opinion - Let's all prove what I have said wrong. Let's enjoy the game for what it is, a game of football between Englands most decorated clubs. The fans at the game don't matter - It should all be about the coming together of two rivals. If we can make tomorrow memorable for all the right reasons, we may make some headway on breakign down the barriers!
Spirit of Shankly were caught doing it a few years back on video, as were some ****ers after the 4-1 defeat at OT 3 years ago. Also seen and heard gobshite individuals shout "Munich scum" occassionally. And each time they all use the excuse, I'm sure, that "they started it!"....
DD pretty much sums it up here. Sure I don't think Ferguson is doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He is probably is looking to a) deflect criticism a bit from the "always the victims chants were about Suarez" thing and b) make United look a bit better. But so what? He could have not done anything at all. He could have shut his mouth and just let those (a small minority) fans sing their vile chants. Doing so would have wrecked the atmosphere and let the match be marred in controversy. His actions will prevent unnecessary violence after the game as well, and that can't be a bad thing. But he didn't and for once I can say that he did what most of us would do in the same situation.
"I work with a bunch of united fans and all I can say is, I am glad they are work colleagues and not friends! The things they have said this week, refusing to read the report or pay any attention to it, are sickening and I have had to bite my tongue to save me from losing my temper. It's not just the united fans either, a Sheff Weds fan asked if we wanted them to 'Apologies for Heysel'" I started a thread the day before the report speculating that as the myths and lies were demolished one-by-one, who'd be the first to deny it and mention Heysel as a deflection? Turned out, on these boards anyway, it was Forest fans! Look, the argument's been won now, without any doubt from anyone except a half-wit who is clinging on simply for the offence value. They're more interested in it's wind-up factor now rather than any tenuous grasp they ever had upon he truth.
Very unfair sentiments IMO. You can discredit and question a lot of what ferguson says ( i certainly do so myself) but I dont think he can be criticised on this occasion. Im not entirely sure I understand the point about 'why is he only saying it now?' - surely the fact that he is choosing to say it now is because it is a day of extreme emotional poignancy to the families and friends of the 96? For all his faults every ridiculous, unfair, hypocritical and outragoues comment he has made over the years has been made with the sole objective of improving man utd's chance of winning a football match. Ive never, ever heard him say anything disrespectful about an issue that isnt directly attributable to their on field success. There is an entire generation of fans - myself included - who will never fully understand the grief that the community of liverpool went through post hillsborough. Ive read all the articles, Ive paid my respects and Ive seen the documentaries but all I am seeing is 20 years of history condensed into a 2 page article or 1 hour program. No tv program or article can completely represent the extent of the cover ups, the conspiracies and the anger that the city and club of liverpool must have felt in the years following hillsborough. Similarly, fans of my age will never fully understand the 'but for the grace of god' argument as stadiums were all seater by the time I started regularly attending matches. Now combine the relative lack of understanding with the total lack of respect, empathy and decency that is sadly prevalent in a small minority of fans in every single football stadium and there was serious potential for the image of the game to be damaged by a few hundred idiots on sunday. What Ferguson has actually done is provided the decent man utd fans the perfect stick to beat the idiots with, and hopefully gone a long way to promoting a respectful atmosphere on sunday. As a neutral to this game I love how much your two clubs hate each other, but no decent fan wants to hear chants that mock the true suffering of others. I think credit must go out to every premier league club for their responses to the findings of the last week or so - and heres hoping the idiots get drowned out tomorrow
anyone with even half a heart would feel for the Hillsborough families and LFC. I have no time for Fergie as Utd manager but he is expressing his personal feelings concerning the matter. He accepts that there will always be a strong rivalry between the two clubs. Anyone with any human feelings would agree that singing songs about the dead to score brownie points is sick whether it is about Munich or Hillsborough. I stood on the Kop in the seventies and eighties and always felt the songs about Munich were in bad taste and gave the impression LFC fans were sick and I always felt embarrassed.
I would like to add to the vast majority disagreeing with the OP about his message. I don't like United or Fergie but to castigate him for offering his support for Liverpool and for a match to go without vile chanting which would upset many people is really not serious. The OP is totally wrong. Ferguson could have stayed quiet about tomorrow as he has already condemned previous chanting at OT. It seems that he has also no need to court popularity nor does he himself need to maintain the clubs multinational image. Like many fellow fans, my estimation of him has gone up. Yes to rivalry but hatred that goes beyond football is unacceptable. Very disappointing post at the wrong time...:-(
This is really disappointing. Would we want the bitterness and the vile chanting to continue? I honestly do not understand where you are coming from and why you have posted this OP? Would you have wanted him to stay silent and let the chanting happen tomorrow without doing anything to prevent it? From what we know of ferguson he has never given a lot of attention t what the media thinks of him.
Great to see the overwhelming majority disagreeing with the OP but as soon as i saw the thread title, i knew it would be this particular user who made it as he seems to like using tragedies to score points. If a small minority of United fans do sing any bad songs tomorrow before being drowned out by the majority of our fans, expect this poster to make a new thread on this.
Still disagree sorry - if it was all about media uproar hed do what he normally does to protect his players - wait until the game has finished then make some absolutely outrageous, mourinho-esque accusation or comment to take the headlines for himself. This sort of thing is not in his nature Think about it - he puts pressure on referees, hes puts pressure on opposing players and managers, he throws his managerial weight around and he instils an 'us vs them' attitude in his players. He knows that half the british footballing public hates him and his club and he doesnt care. Everything he says he says to improve the long term success of his club. This is nothing to do with the long term success of his club. It is to do with respecting the families and friends of the 96 innocent sufferers. It is not in his interest to say something like this unless he means it. I dont recall him ever being any thing but publically respectful for hillsborough or indeed anything else that goes beyond footballing matters. Irrespective, his motives are irrelevant. What he did was, in the circumstances, 100% right. The haters will just choose to hate,
100% agree. So true The OP's hatred is not typical of true Liverpool fans. We have to respect the families of the 96, their welfare and rejoice that they at last maybe on the road to getting some justice. It is simply not right to use them to score points here.
This whole thread is flawed. Ferguson has said his piece for all the right reasons. As other posters have said, he talks bollocks and plays mind games most if the time, but not on this occasion. Love him or hate him(as I do) his 'letter' has nothing to do with PR or image. It's about what a decent human being would do. End of.
