The end of it should have been after the game.

Crouch did worse vs Man City and they laughed it off.

With respect, from a United perspective that isn't how it came across. Perhaps I misinterpreted, I'm not having a go, but I just don't see the purpose of listing past United misdemeanors. It came across as something similar to this - 'I'm not condoning Suarez, but United have had more in the past", it is entirely possible that I have got it wrong.

Jay it seems the incident itself has just raised the past events and that's what I am disappointed about. This time he's done little wrong (especially if it was not meant) and he's being castigated.

Everybody is as bas as eachother

ffs bad*

Indeed, he's done only what any other footballer would have done, rightly or wrongly. The thing is, what happens if RvP does the same thing at the weekend to score the winner. Does it then get put down as one of those things? RvP wouldn't get nearly the same amount of media attention, that is for sure. Maybe the media will eventually get bored of Suarez. At the start I don't think he helped himself, but now every little thing is blown out of proportion and it is snowballing. For now it looks like he's just shrugging it off and seeing a funny side, but just how much more will he put up with?

Jay MUFC (U16498)

Exactly what I thought. L'pool fans know they have players who dive...but does that stop them from having a go when say a United/Tottenham/Arsenal etc. player dives? If this article is supposed to "...stop the fans who have come on here giving it large..." then I think it is a massive fail on the OP's part. Why you ask? because threads like this isn't going to stop it, it is just going to cause a rival fan to go and create a thread about L'pool's players past misendeamors and guess what...the whole cycle starts again. I find that there are certain rival fans who have no problems dishing out WUMS at other clubs when they make headlines, but the minute their club gets noticed, they whine that everyone and their dog is a hypocrite and no one has a right to have a go at their club/player. If you want change to occur, start in your home first and then tell your neighbor about theirs.

That's a great point and as a fan i'm annoyed that the media are fuelling the flames so much.

You can't silence the media and you can't rely on people making their own mind up. Too many people are influenced by the Star, Sun, Mirror etc.

I'm fed up of it but I don't know how Suarez feels. He wouldnt get half of this in Spain. Messi did worse and it was forgotten in a week.

If you want change to occur, start in your home first and then tell your neighbor about theirs.

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It'll never happen like that though, they could no more stop their fans being a certain way than we could change ours.

Messi can do no wrong He's a fantastic player no doubt, and even if he were to leave, the media would be on to the next player the week later and the circle will start again.

Day 3 of headlines because of a handball.

The amount of omelettes who buy into the media image of modern day footballers is frightening.

Given the situation, stick is to be expected, but the media driven, false morale outrage is repugnant. I have read comments on here by kleenex holding united fans, and pubescent Arsenal supporters demanding he apologises for his handball.

It's laughable.

PPD

The fact that scores of journalists are still harping on about it (after nobody really cared about other handball-goals such as Lambert, Ba and Crouch) was bad enough, but that two-bob dolt Lawton from The Independent took the biscuit with his article about how Messi puts Suarez to shame and wouldn't resort to that.

That'd be Messi who replicated Maradona's Hand Of God and celebrated like a lunatic. Succinctly indicates how much of Suarez's reputation comes from the media giving everything he does the boogeyman treatment, when they wouldn't bat an eyelid when it's another player involved.

I remember when Messi did that; the overwhelming reaction seemed to be that he was a cheeky scamp (like Scholes when he careers feet-first into someone several days after the ball is gone).

5

#Standard

Suarez has a reputation. That's why it happens. Such as Young with his diving. If Surarez can go without incident for a few months, or until the end of the season now, BR could come out and say how Suarez has changed or worked hard and so forth. He can still change his image as long as he tries to avoid controvosy. But it will take time.

I completely agree Poppin', I think Suarez could do with keeping his head down and trying his best not give the sharks in the media a scent of blood. That would be the best thing for him and then maybe the people who dislike him will actually see that beyond that he is a good footballer.

Standard is right doc.

Finally on this, wouldnt it be good for the media to write a 'fantastic Suarez' article and maybe then the sheep can start to see that too.

Yeah, he has a reputation, he probably deserves one.

But the reaction has been absolutely risible by anyone's standards. A handball that looks accidental is no cause for the lack of common sense and perspective that he has been subjected to in the past few days.

There's viewing an incident through the lens of a player's reputation, and then there are unjustified, nonsensical witch-hunts, one of which we've seen over the past few days.

Yes, Suarez has a reputation and what he does will always been blown up to generate hits and create headlines, Liverpool fans know this. If it was a dive or he'd play-acted to get someone sent off, you could probably understand a journalist saying "He's got history, he's a disgrace" or whatever. THAT would be a case of Suarez's reputation meaning he gets more flak for doing something that others would do. Others would get criticised (although not some English players), but Suarez would get it worse because he's the pantomime villain. It wouldn't exactly be right, but it would be mildly understandable.

But the fact that so many have taken an accidental handball, played it up as one of the most malevolent acts in the history of football, and moralised at length about Suarez as a person just isn't on. It can't be acceptable, surely, for respected journalists to take absolute leave of their senses and indulge in such misrepresentation on the back of Suarez's reputation.

That handball is different from diving, because it looked accidental, and it's not something that would cause a second thought about the moral fibre of another player (there have been a few incidents in the PL this season), seemingly until Suarez was involved. Now, we're being told that Suarez should apologize, he shouldn't have scored, he should have told the ref he handballed it, and because he didn't, he's a disgrace.

That's not overhyping an incident because of a player's reputation, it's a blatant double standard and it is also outright lying. It's not going harder on one player than you would another player, it's a complete misrepresentation of what happened and what's expected of players who benefit from handballs.

That's why Liverpool fans are up in arms. Suarez dived against Stoke and got pilloried, Phil Neville dived against Liverpool and it was a source of amusement for pundits. That's an example of one player being treated more harshly for the same crime because of his reputation. That's understandable even if it is hypocritical (after all, if diving is such a cancer on the game, it's a cancer when Neville does it too. It can't suddenly be viewed with a sort of affection). That's not an awfully big deal.

The Mansfield handball is different though, because practically everything that's been said about it - from what actually happened, to the moral standard that we expect from people in the same situation - has been a crock of utter büllshît, and the subsequent stuff written about Suarez has been incorrigible muck. You can forgive it from football fans, because they just clamour to have a pop at each other anyway.

You can even forgive the "CHEAT" headlines from the red-tops because that's their job. But when the delusion and misplaced moral outrage penetrates throughout the whole media, even intelligent football analysts, you have to wonder.

I agree with pretty much everything you wrote there, especially the comparison to Neville. Even if you switched Suarez for Gerrard in the current situation you would have heard almost nothing about it. Any footballer would have done the same in that situation, accidental or not really makes little difference. The referee missed it, it happens in exactly the same way the officials missed the goal against Everton. It's football, it happens. But next week is a new game, who knows, RvP might score in the same way and you can almost guarantee that those defending/justifying Suarez's actions this week, will show the other side. That is the nature of football fans.

you can almost guarantee that those defending/justifying Suarez's actions this week, will show the other side. That is the nature of football fans.
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If it's the same situation then I wont be moaning.

If he catches the ball and kisses it befroe rolling it in then I'll be peed off.

Doc i read everything you said and I agree. It's a complete over reaction to something that very nearly happened in the Bradford Villa game last night (both by an attacker and a defender).

Jav, I've noticed you've had the Xab-man back in your name, when'd that happen?

Xabi

Jav