wht about this then? From The Times. Matthew Syed 1 minute ago Kenny Dalglish is losing the plot. That much was clear even before the game started, his smirking and grudging answers to anodyne questions from a television reporter reflecting the epic paranoia that he has nurtured in the privacy of his own mind since the FA released its judgment on the Luis Suárez affair and which is now threatening to undermine his reputation. The interaction with Liverpool fans, not to mention the behaviour of Suárez, has been toxic. Dalglish’s sense of victimisation, the notion that the world is against a club that is widely revered (even by many opposition fans, if they looked deep inside), has created a delusional contagion on Merseyside reminiscent of the Salem Witch trials. Even their eyesight has gone. After the match, Dalglish claimed to be the only person in the stadium, possibly in the UK, not to have realised that Suárez had refused to shake the hand of Patrice Evra. Meanwhile, Liverpool fans were posting stills of the incident and attempting to claim that it was Evra, not Suárez, who withdrew his hand. One day, this will feature in a PhD thesis on perceptual distortion. Dalglish issued an apology yesterday afternoon, and stated that he had been led to believe in advance of the game that Suárez would shake hands. It was the first time that the Liverpool manager had entered the terrain of conciliation, although many wondered if it was issued under duress after widespread criticism of Liverpool executives for allowing Dalglish to make the running on the Suárez affair. “Ian Ayre has made the club’s position absolutely clear and it is right that Luis Suárez has now apologised for what happened at Old Trafford . . .”, Dalglish said. “All of us have a responsibility to represent this club in a fit and proper manner and that applies equally to me as Liverpool manager.” But although the apology was welcome, it was notable for what it missed out. There was no apology by Dalglish for his decision to escalate a regrettable incident into a full-blown crisis by sanctioning the risible idea of Liverpool players wearing T-shirts in solidarity with Suárez. And there was no apology for continuing to proclaim a sense of injustice right up until the eve of the match, and beyond. There are, of course, many Liverpool fans who accepted the FA decision on Suárez and, even if they regarded it as one-sided, realised that it was time to move on. They understood that judicial decisions are always contestable, but that this is no reason to question the motives of those who take the other side of the argument. Certainly, they did not blame Evra for being offended by a word (Negro) that Suárez admitted to using in a confrontational situation. But many others, spurred by Dalglish, have convinced themselves that Liverpool are the victims of some deep (possibly calculated) injustice. That is the only way to comprehend their grotesque treatment of Evra, booing a man — as they did in the FA Cup tie last month — whose only crime was to report what he deemed to be a racist slur. Dalglish passed this off, as well as other vindictive chanting from both sets of fans, as “banter” in a post-match interview that, when taken in its totality, set new standards for cognitive dissonance. It was Mr. Ferguson who cut to the heart of the matter: Suárez — a brilliant player, whose skill has illuminated many an afternoon since his arrival on Merseyside — has brought shame on Liverpool FC. To commit a crime is one thing; to compound it with an act of crass discourtesy, on an afternoon already bubbling with tension, was quite another. An apology is not enough. Only a significant fine by Liverpool can send a signal to the world, let alone the player, that he has to change. The scale of delusion on Merseyside can be seen by the way Liverpool fans, taking their lead from Dalglish’s post-match rant, reacted to the snub. Luis didn’t refuse to shake Evra’s hand, they proclaimed. It was Evra who withdrew first: just look at the angle of Evra’s lower arm! They may even have believed what they were saying. Only the rest of us saw the comparison between these toe-curling mitigations and the tortuous attempts after the initial verdict to find anything, however tenuous, to cast doubt upon Suárez’s guilt. Dalglish, for his part, cuts an increasingly absurd figure, something that is sad to report, given his status as one of the greatest of British players. He stands alongside Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley as among the most important figures to have graced Liverpool FC. But it is impossible to escape the conclusion that, with his erratic behaviour and bizarre judgment, he is becoming one of the club’s biggest problems.
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