Source: Liverpool_Echo
DOMINIC KING: Sympathy from Alex Ferguson is the last thing Liverpool FC need
IT'S easy to be magnanimous from a position of total power and speak compassionately about those who you know are never likely to cause you any trouble.[LNB]With that in mind, then, Alex Ferguson's programme notes ahead of last Sunday's showdown between Manchester United and Liverpool made for interesting - and enlightening - reading.[LNB]Having bared his teeth in a press conference 48 hours earlier, accusing the FA of being 'dysfunctional' and claiming Liverpool get away with controversial disciplinary incidents, United's manager showed his more considered side.[LNB]For the record, Ferguson's programme notes are invariably the best in the Premier League; they are ghosted by David Meek, a vastly-experienced journalist who was the former Manchester United correspondent of the Manchester Evening News.[LNB]They are free of glib statements like 'we will take every game as it comes' that are commonplace elsewhere and are genuinely entertaining and informative.[LNB]Now Ferguson is never, ever going to enjoy any kind of popularity on the Red half of Merseyside but his achievements as a manager command the utmost respect and, clearly, the feelings are mutual.[LNB]'Starting with Bill Shankly and carried on through Bob Paisley and a few more from the famed Anfield Boot Room, they had a grip on the English game (when he arrived from Aberdeen) and also flew the flag with great success in Europe,' said Ferguson.[LNB]'I have never lost my respect for the Anfield club, all that they achieved and what I am sure they will achieve in the future. Liverpool are a big club and in football success usually comes in cycles.[LNB]'Looking back, I suppose I put it rather bluntly, and perhaps crudely, when I said that my aim was to knock them off their perch!'[LNB]And there was the giveaway; clearly Ferguson was in convivial mood when reflecting on that infamous quote but that should be a source of enormous frustration for every Liverpool fan in the country.
