During the course of my working week I discuss football with lots of people, of various persuasions in terms of who they support. Mostly there's a bias towards the London teams, but there's also a fairly hard core of Manc supporters as well, with the odd Citeh fan still having sawdust on his shoulders from crawling out of the woodwork. During this bolloxy fortnight where we have to endure seeing Hodgson trying to get England to qualify, most fans are discussing other issues, the main one which is the return of our best player.
It's only when you really listen to fans of other teams that you realise just how much they hate Luis. When you ask them why? They tell it's because he's a racist and they hate racists (he isn't obviously), they tell you it's because he dives and they hate divers (even though their own team inevitably has divers) or they tell it's because he's a "greedy b***ard" (even though their own players earn more), or because he "completely disrespected you lot" as if they care about us. The real reason they hate him of course is because not only is he a fantastic player, he's got the will to win of a warrior and because of that he's box office. They'd all love to have him in their team, and THAT'S why they hate him (along with obviously a fully orchestrated establishment campaign against him, led by the prime minister).
So why should we forget that Luis flashed his knickers at other clubs, if indeed we should? Well, firstly although it got loads of publicity (back to the media campaign against him again) he did no worse than many have done before him. Secondly, his frustration with our owners and the clubs lack of progress was hardly remarkable given most peoples opinions on the forums. Thirdly though, and this is the clincher for me, he and our manager have obviously sorted things out and they clearly have a pact that neither will discuss the terms of the agreement. I'd expect Brendan to stick to it, but Luis has surprised a few and disappointed even more in the media by keeping schtum too.
This is the crux for me. Cameron, the papers, the SKY tossers and the football establishment would love nothing more than the Liverpool fans to turn on him, or even for the Liverpool fans to display indifference towards him. It kills two birds with one stone, it demoralises our best player and it allows them to puff their cheeks out and say they were right all along about the "racist", the "disgrace to the game". How silly were we to back him in the first place they'll tell us, they'll laugh at our fan base for bothering to previously support a guy who simply wants to shaft the club.
Well not for me. I don't believe for one second the verdict of Fergies Kangaroo court, I don't believe for one second that lying c*** Evra. Yes Luis shouldn't have bitten Ivanovic, but I don't believe for one second anyone else in the game would have got a 10 game ban. He's given the club 110% every single time he's pulled on the shirt (aside from pre season this time) and I've no doubt when he comes back he will again. He's our best player, and when he pulls on the shirt he's a red, he's one of us. Others can suit themselves, but I won't be doing the bidding of the FA and filling up the forums with messages telling Luis to f*ck off, nor will I get aboard the bandwagon of fans who refuse to back him as they did previously. Everyone does stupid things sometimes, Luis has done stupid things sometimes, but I think he deserves our support. I'd absolutely love it if after the most concerted media campaign against a player in history, and after some frankly sh!te behaviour in the summer from the player himself, our fans refused to play ball and turn their backs on him. I'll be listening out to the crowd when we play Swansea, and Luis's song booming out would fill me with pride about our supporters. It's time, get behind Luis.
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