I see in todays papers that Ferguson is planning to rest his big guns tonight against Chelsea but bring them back against the Spammers on Sunday because, he says, it would not be fair to the clubs in the relegation zone for him not to do so.
Now, in all good conscience (although I know he could not give a shit) how can Benitez justify what he did against Fulham now?
Don't get me wrong, we deserve to go down, but it is so unfair that Fulham got handed three points against a Liverpool reserve XI (they even played Fowler!) which gave them safety whilst West Ham will have to play a full strength Man United.
How lucky must Fulham be? They had that huge bit of luck against us at The Valley and then they get that game at the weekend handed to them on a bloody plate to guarantee them safety and 30 million quid. I hope they go down next year.
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We have put ourselves in this position and we can't expect any favors from anybody.
ORMISTON YOU ARE FULL OF IT
When I put a quote about "scousers" - and you can search under that heading - I said the self same thing and the above text was your reply....
So tell me what has changed then
We're going down due to our failure to beat the other teams around us this season. Fulham - 1 point from 2 games, Sheff utd - 1 point, West ham 3 points, Watford 2 points, Wigan 3 points. 30 points up for grabs and we took 10.
explains it all really.
Ledge I'm with you on this. The Premier League is a private club that has rules so that each team gets a fair crack. Those rules should (and certainly used to) require teams not to play weakened sides but to put out their strongest available. This is so that, for example, "gentlemens agreements" which may influence the outcome of individual games cannot succeed. It means that your own fans are not cheated by the club putting out "reserve" team when you have paid good money to watch the first team. Its about results being determined and thus league positions being based upon who's got the best team.
There has always been opportunities to rest players. What has happened in recent years is that clubs have argued that they have a "squad" and that their "squad" is their strongest team in any order. This is total nonsense but the authorities (yes the same ones who have fucked up the West Ham situation) go along with it.
Against Fulham, Liverpool dropped 9 players who played in their previous game including their two main strkers. They should be censured. They wont be because the big clubs have won the day. They can do what they like because they are successful and have far too much influence in the running of football for their own benefit.
Fergusson is claiming the moral high ground over the Hamsters game but he has been one of the architects of this policy. If they needed to beat Chelski tonight, he would have played his strongest side and then rested up a load on Sunday. It's total hypocracy.
I stand by my original comments but they now need to be viewed in a different light if Ferguson DOES put out his strongest side against West Ham because that will make a mockery of what Benitez did against Fulham.
It would seem crazy if West Ham face a full strength United side in a nothing game for United whilst Fulham face a reserve side in a crucial game.
My point was that we could not expect favors from Liverpool because we got ourselves into our own mess and they have their own priorities to deal with and I stand by that. Also, in all honesty, over the season Fulham probably deserve to stay up more than we do even with their large helpings of luck.
Besides of which, you just can't force people to play their strongest sides, they will make up all manner of bullshit to get players out (look how players get out of international duty when they really need to) and how do you prove someone does not have a tight hammy or sore groin?
Now, go and have a wank.
Its a case of
1. scale - two or three players maybe who could be falsely declared as "injured" but not nine, surely
2.risk of punishment. In the good old days before money and influence ruled the roost, clubs knew they would be heavily censured including the loss of points of they did this so they would be extremely reluctant to make people out to be injured. Now it doesn't even matter if their not injured.
make your mind up
i am not forcing anyone I just think it is wrong now you either agree or you don't -
I also said in my post we fully deserve to go down absolutely unequivocally definitely deserve it. We have been the 2nd worst team this season.
I would enforce my point by saying, if for arguments sake, Liverpool are in the CL group stage and say Madrid are top by a country mile by the last game and REST 9 PLAYERS against the team vying for 2nd place with Liverpool (and qualification for next stage) there would be uproar, this goes for CHELSEA MAN U ARSENAL as well. Liverpool would be screaming blue murder - it is exactly the same.
Weakened teams in the league should be punished because of the implications on the bottom 6.
There was a time when Leeds were punished for doing this.
But then it WAS Leeds