Sometimes it just strikes you what this club is about and how one man can embody an idea.
Has there any been doubt that Kenny Dalglish is the living embodiment of this club? Throughout this period which has been one of the darkest periods in our history, Kenny has stuck by the right, which is to say, the most honourable course of action. All throughout, we have backed our player despite a combined onslaught from our bitterest rivals, the media, the Football Association and even the Player’s Union.
Despite all our hopes that things would right themselves, at each step things seem to have lurched from bad to worse and it seemed that our club would be buried under a sea of opprobrium. And almost as bad it seemed that the person who accused us of racist behaviour had gotten away with exaggerating his account and of deliberating goading and inflaming the situation to make things worse. It seemed that the game was up and that all hope had been extinguished; that doing the right thing was sometimes not the best strategy in an unjust world.
But look at the reaction of the Uruguay crowd last night. To a man backing Suarez with constant chants, waving of banners, wearing masks and singing songs to be seen and heard by a worldwide audience. One sign says "Wash your mouth Ferguson before talking about Suarez", another "Uruguay is with you Suarez", another 'Suárez is from Nacional. Evra must be from Peñarol’.
In response from Suarez,
Quiero agradecer enormemente el gran apoyo en estos dÃas que me han dado los fans de el Liverpool que es increÃble, con el permiso de ellos quiero agradecer a los hinchas de el Ajax por lo que hicieron hoy y como saben soy uruguayo y defiendo a la selección, pero quiero agradecer a la hinchada, jugadores y directivos de NACIONAL por su gran apoyo hoy!!! A todos un millón de GRACIAS !!!!
(I want to say thanks for the great support that the Liverpool's fans have given me in these last days. I would like to say thanks again to fans of Ajax for what did today. As you know I am Uruguayan, and I defend the selection team, so I want to say thanks to the fans, players and managers of NACIONAL for their great support today! A million THANKS for everybody!)
And it strikes you that Liverpool Football Club have probably become the favourite European team for most Uruguyans, a nation that is the coming power in South American football and has an exciting new generation about to arrive on the world football stage in front of their passionate and honourable fans. Thus the Liverpool football family has grown by a significant degree and the effect of an eight match ban, the opinions of stupid know-nothing pundits and the actions of our underhanded rivals matter much less. If you were an exciting new Uruguyan prospect breaking through in the next few years which club would you most want to play for abroad right now?
It proves what we knew all along.
Our club is bigger than our rivals, it’s bigger than our national Football Association and it’s bigger than the combined forces of the media. And that’s because it represents an idea - that if you walk on, with hope in your heart, you’ll never walk alone.
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