Guess what...He is stll going on
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock, who was in charge of relegated Sheffield United last season, has launched a scathing attack on Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez.
Warnock is still livid that Liverpool fielded a severely weakened team at Fulham last May, and lost 1-0 to the Cottagers in a result that ultimately kept what was then Lawrie Sanchez's team up by a single point, while Warnock's Blades were controversially relegated.
Warnock still claims that it was Benitez's team selection that played a huge part in Sheffield United's demotion.
His attack on the Spaniard comes with Liverpool due to play their Champions League semi-final first leg against Chelsea on Tuesday. Warnock fully expects Benitez to leave his star players out when the Reds again tackle Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
And he insists that if that happens, it will be a show of contempt for the clubs battling to survive in the top-flight.
"My advice to Reading, Bolton and the rest would be, if you're expecting any favours, don't hold your breath," said the Palace boss. "They will have to do it themselves.
"The fact of the matter is that if Liverpool were already out of the Champions League and needed to win to get fourth spot, they would play their strongest side.
"Instead, I fully expect them to play a weakened team at Fulham.
"It's part of a big club's mentality. They look after themselves and they don't bother about anyone else. The whole story that Sheffield United were going down and me having a pop at them afterwards was just treated like fish and chip paper by them. Liverpool didn't care because they weren't the ones getting hurt by it all.
"I'm still very bitter about it and personally I hope Liverpool never win another trophy under Benitez. I like them as a club but I would be very pleased to see them win nothing."
Quoted in the Daily Mail, Warnock recalled how he reacted when he saw Liverpool's line-up at Craven Cottage last season.
"I felt sick, physically sick, when I found out the team Liverpool were playing," said Warnock.
"We had a late kick-off at Villa Park that day and when we saw who Benitez had picked, we were struggling to even think who they were.
"We hadn't even heard of them and a lot of them haven't played for the club since.
"It was scandalous, really. You don't feel it's fair but it just confirmed that these guys don't give two hoots about clubs like Sheffield United or people like Neil Warnock.
"You can talk about rules being put in place to stop it happening but that's not going to happen.
"The Premier League don't care about smaller clubs like Sheffield United, as they proved with the whole Carlos Tevez affair last season.
"Big clubs look after themselves and the people who run the Premier League will always look after themselves. Nothing will ever change.
"The sad thing is I felt we had done enough last season; we had 38 points, which would have been enough in a normal season.
"For us to get that number of points was an achievement and yet it's gone down in history as a relegation on my CV, not an achievement.
"Nobody got hurt apart from me and Sheffield United. Rafa Benitez certainly didn't."
If he couldput together a winning side then they would never have been in the relegation battle to start with. bloody pr**k, has anyone noticed that his brother stephen who used to play for us has been harsh on his comments about the club. without us he wouldnt of even had a footballing career
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