For the second time this week, paper talk dominates the blog following Wayne Rooney's comments about his hatred of Liverpool Football Club.
His own club Manchester United pulled the comments from their official website claiming, "The comments are open to wilful mis-reporting and neither the club, nor Wayne wanted that to happen."
However, the quotes were given to the club's in-house TV channel MUTV as part of an interview but were not broadcast. In the interview following United's victory over Inter Milan, Rooney said: "I'm very excited about the game because I grew up as an Everton fan hating Liverpool, that hasn't changed." Sir Alex Ferguson tried to defend Rooney's comments further by saying, "Hate's an easy word to say, easier than dislike. Maybe it is not the right word. He's had lots of stick from their fans over the years so it's understandable."
Whilst some Evertonians may revel in their former hero's comments, it has painted the tabloid darling in an even poorer light. Rooney has not won many fans on Merseyside following his decision to take a big-money move to Old Trafford despite having the ideal place to ply his trade at Goodison under the guidance of David Moyes. The 'hating' of Liverpool is understandable but not really for the public eyes and ears.
That said, Jamie Carragher was clearly seen shouting "Manc tw*ts" after the final whistle of the game between the two sides at Anfield in September so it is not as if the Red half of Merseyside is wholly innocent in the whole war of words but it could be argued that at least Carragher's comments were only lip-readable by the TV cameras and not published by the club's official website. If the veteran defender had said to LFC TV, "I cannot wait for Saturday cos I hate those f*****g Mancs", there would have been absolute outrage. It seems that England's glamour club are exempt from scrutiny and mischievous stirring ahead of this big game. Likewise with certain chanting that goes on between both sets of fans but that is another subject for another time.
If past events are anything to go by, pre-match talk usually comes back to bite those who make the comments well and truly on the backside. Mourinho's 99.99% comments about Liverpool fans, Clinton Morrison's taunts to the Reds' strikeforce in 2001, even Benitez's scathing attack on 'diving' Didier Drogba last season, those words have all come back to haunt them. Hopefully Rooney will be eating his words come 3pm tomorrow afternoon.
