Matt Monaghan looks at the history of this most heated of English rivalries, the 'North West Derby' between the Reds of Liverpool and the Red Devils of Manchester United.
For all those who believe that the passion and high emotion that made football great in the past has been callously removed from the modern game by the unscrupulous corporate giants that have bought in to the sport, this Saturday’s encounter between Liverpool and Manchester United should act as an example of how bitter local rivalries still circumvent the more sedate environment of today.
Indeed, a quick look at the faces on the terraces at Anfield will show two of football’s more vociferous tribes hurling hatred and rancour at each other with the type of venom normally reserved exclusively for a person’s most hated enemy.
This regional rivalry itself has festered within the populations of Manchester and Liverpool from the time of the industrial revolution, through the Busby Babes era to the glorious years enjoyed under the stewardship of Bill Shankly, and until the present day where Rafa Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson will act as the standard-bearers as they take their players in to this North West battlefield once again.
Remarkably, in recent years the sort of sniping that emits from the clubs’ supporters has not exactly been matched by the managers of the sides in question.
For the Machiavellian Sir Alex Ferguson this has been the more surprising when one considers the constant digs he has taken at Arsene Wenger and Kevin Keegan in the past. Against Benitez and his troops he says nary a peep - amazing when one considers his highly-publicised desire in his autobiography to knock Liverpool “off their f****** perch” when he came to Manchester in 1986.
Rafa Benitez has also hardly been reticent to speak when it involved his greatest irritant Jose Mourinho, with the meetings between Liverpool and Chelsea in the Premier League and Champions League often being surrounded by the trading of unflattering remarks between this embittered Iberian pair. United? "No comment."
Considering these events, it is almost unbelievable to see that the only real moment of any major public disagreement between the current stewards of Liverpool and Manchester United occurred in the summer of 2007 with Rafa Benitez’s failed chase for the signature of then-Red Devils left back Gabriel Heinze.
During this time, Sir Alex Ferguson questioned Rafa Benitez’s grasp of the intricacies of British football, whilst Benitez used United’s firm stance on Heinze’s future as a chance to attack the Red Devil’s perceived “preferential treatment” over the fixture list and the ease of the clubs move for Carlos Tevez.
This brought an instant rebuttal from Ferguson, with the Scottish manager stating to the Guardian that "I am really disappointed with Rafa. He is going on about Saturday fixtures after European games. Well, he wants to look at our fixture list over the last two or three years. Maybe then he would have something to complain about. As for Carlos Tevez, it took about three months."
However, as the build up for this Saturday’s clash between these two clubs starts to intensify, the peaceful accord enjoyed between Ferguson and Benitez is starting to show signs of cracking once more.
The source of this apparent freezing of relations between managers comes from Sir Alex Ferguson stating in The Sun when asked if any pre-season moves impressed him that “The big surprise was Liverpool paying £20million for [Robbie] Keane.”
Whilst Ferguson may have previously made similar comments in relation to Robbie Keane’s transfer value when the player was at Wolverhampton Wanderers, his undoubtedly acute sense of how the written press can be used to work to his advantage leads to the conclusion that a remark of this nature could only have been made in the full knowledge that this would have a negative effect on the Liverpool camp.
For some, this comment can only exist as an example of a sea change in Ferguson’s view of Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool, with the fact that the Merseyside club has faced the wrath of the United manager’s tongue being a firm sign that they are now considered a genuine title threat to the current Premier League champions.
This viewpoint is also granted further standing as Robbie Keane is likely to be Liverpool’s main attacking threat when the teams meet on Saturday due to the fitness doubts surrounding star pair Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, and thus Ferguson has sensed the time to strike and put as many doubts as possible in the mind of the Republic of Ireland hot shot.
Also, the disrupting effect that such comments can have could also have been in Ferguson’s mind when he made the remark, with Robbie Keane’s preparation for this Saturday’s game now being dominated by questions from journalists to such an extent that Keane has had to state that "I am very surprised that John O'Shea doesn't play [for Manchester United] every week.
"Football is about opinions. Everyone has their opinions and I respect everyone's opinion," he shrugged
However, to hark back to Ferguson’s previously stated professional dislike of Liverpool, these words could also be construed as nothing more than mischief making from a man who has bought fully in to the local rivalry enjoyed between the two sides, with his low opinion of Robbie Keane being used as a form of ‘oneupmanship’ against a club he believes to have made a categorical mistake in paying too much for a player he sees as nothing more than of average ability.
Thus, whilst the arguments may continue over the true intention of Ferguson’s words, there can however be no doubt that if Keane does crack and Liverpool fail to respond to the challenge set out then the crafty United manager will have succeeded yet again in his clever use of the press. For Rafa Benitez though, he must instead use such remarks to galvanise his players to set a firm benchmark that Liverpool are here to stay in the title race, and to inspire Robbie Keane to prove one of his greatest doubters wrong come Saturday afternoon.
For all those who believe that the passion and high emotion that made football great in the past has been callously removed from the modern game by the unscrupulous corporate giants that have bought in to the sport, this Saturday’s encounter between Liverpool and Manchester United should act as an example of how bitter local rivalries still circumvent the more sedate environment of today.
Indeed, a quick look at the faces on the terraces at Anfield will show two of football’s more vociferous tribes hurling hatred and rancour at each other with the type of venom normally reserved exclusively for a person’s most hated enemy.
This regional rivalry itself has festered within the populations of Manchester and Liverpool from the time of the industrial revolution, through the Busby Babes era to the glorious years enjoyed under the stewardship of Bill Shankly, and until the present day where Rafa Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson will act as the standard-bearers as they take their players in to this North West battlefield once again.
Remarkably, in recent years the sort of sniping that emits from the clubs’ supporters has not exactly been matched by the managers of the sides in question.
For the Machiavellian Sir Alex Ferguson this has been the more surprising when one considers the constant digs he has taken at Arsene Wenger and Kevin Keegan in the past. Against Benitez and his troops he says nary a peep - amazing when one considers his highly-publicised desire in his autobiography to knock Liverpool “off their f****** perch” when he came to Manchester in 1986.
Rafa Benitez has also hardly been reticent to speak when it involved his greatest irritant Jose Mourinho, with the meetings between Liverpool and Chelsea in the Premier League and Champions League often being surrounded by the trading of unflattering remarks between this embittered Iberian pair. United? "No comment."
Considering these events, it is almost unbelievable to see that the only real moment of any major public disagreement between the current stewards of Liverpool and Manchester United occurred in the summer of 2007 with Rafa Benitez’s failed chase for the signature of then-Red Devils left back Gabriel Heinze.
During this time, Sir Alex Ferguson questioned Rafa Benitez’s grasp of the intricacies of British football, whilst Benitez used United’s firm stance on Heinze’s future as a chance to attack the Red Devil’s perceived “preferential treatment” over the fixture list and the ease of the clubs move for Carlos Tevez.
This brought an instant rebuttal from Ferguson, with the Scottish manager stating to the Guardian that "I am really disappointed with Rafa. He is going on about Saturday fixtures after European games. Well, he wants to look at our fixture list over the last two or three years. Maybe then he would have something to complain about. As for Carlos Tevez, it took about three months."
However, as the build up for this Saturday’s clash between these two clubs starts to intensify, the peaceful accord enjoyed between Ferguson and Benitez is starting to show signs of cracking once more.
The source of this apparent freezing of relations between managers comes from Sir Alex Ferguson stating in The Sun when asked if any pre-season moves impressed him that “The big surprise was Liverpool paying £20million for [Robbie] Keane.”
Whilst Ferguson may have previously made similar comments in relation to Robbie Keane’s transfer value when the player was at Wolverhampton Wanderers, his undoubtedly acute sense of how the written press can be used to work to his advantage leads to the conclusion that a remark of this nature could only have been made in the full knowledge that this would have a negative effect on the Liverpool camp.
For some, this comment can only exist as an example of a sea change in Ferguson’s view of Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool, with the fact that the Merseyside club has faced the wrath of the United manager’s tongue being a firm sign that they are now considered a genuine title threat to the current Premier League champions.
This viewpoint is also granted further standing as Robbie Keane is likely to be Liverpool’s main attacking threat when the teams meet on Saturday due to the fitness doubts surrounding star pair Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, and thus Ferguson has sensed the time to strike and put as many doubts as possible in the mind of the Republic of Ireland hot shot.
Also, the disrupting effect that such comments can have could also have been in Ferguson’s mind when he made the remark, with Robbie Keane’s preparation for this Saturday’s game now being dominated by questions from journalists to such an extent that Keane has had to state that "I am very surprised that John O'Shea doesn't play [for Manchester United] every week.
"Football is about opinions. Everyone has their opinions and I respect everyone's opinion," he shrugged
However, to hark back to Ferguson’s previously stated professional dislike of Liverpool, these words could also be construed as nothing more than mischief making from a man who has bought fully in to the local rivalry enjoyed between the two sides, with his low opinion of Robbie Keane being used as a form of ‘oneupmanship’ against a club he believes to have made a categorical mistake in paying too much for a player he sees as nothing more than of average ability.
Thus, whilst the arguments may continue over the true intention of Ferguson’s words, there can however be no doubt that if Keane does crack and Liverpool fail to respond to the challenge set out then the crafty United manager will have succeeded yet again in his clever use of the press. For Rafa Benitez though, he must instead use such remarks to galvanise his players to set a firm benchmark that Liverpool are here to stay in the title race, and to inspire Robbie Keane to prove one of his greatest doubters wrong come Saturday afternoon.
