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TheBombardier

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  1. Before I start I make no secret of the fact that I am actually a Red. However, I have many bluenose friends who, apart from being very bitter towards LFC and their fans, are usually great lads. I am writing on here not to gloat or mock or antagonise but to try and understand the source of all of the blue bitterness. If you are the "thinking" fans then you must have thought about how such anti-red (and in many cases pure vitriolic and hateful) bitterness arose. I am lucky enough to remember the great Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s as well as the great Everton team of the mid-80s. In those days there was always great rivalry but it mostly took the form of friendly banter. Who remembers the 1984 League Cup Final or the 1986 FA Cup Final with both Liverpool and Everton fans singing "Merseyside" and "Are you watching Manchester"? Red and blue fans stood shoulder to shoulder and travelled in the same cars and trains to Wembley. We would often jibe at the opposite team but there was none of the personal venomous animosity that you now get aimed at reds supporters. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the current bitterness has its origins with the Heysel disaster and the subsequent banning of English clubs from Europe. Of course this could not have come at a worse time for Everton who had probably their greatest ever team at the time, as good as Liverpool during the period 1985 to 1987 and surely destined to make an impact on Europe had the ban not been implemented. But wait. Do you "thinking" Evertonians honestly believe that this was the fault of Liverpool FC and/or its fans? Wasn't the Heysel disaster merely the last straw, the culmination of a decade of English hooliganism (which until Heysel had never involved Liverpool or Everton fans)? Wasn't the stadium itself decrepit, a disaster waiting to happen? Wasn't the overall policing and the segregation of the fans woefully inadequate? Could it be that a viscious right-wing Tory working-class hating and city of Liverpool loathing regime led by Thatcher and cheered on by Murdoch's media machine, was only too willing to use the disaster to blacken the city and its people. People who had a proud tradition of standing up in solidarity and fighting for the rights of the working class? Thatcher and the powers that be were only too pleased to see English clubs banished from Europe especially as the two clubs most effected heralded from our great defiant city. Oh but most thinking Evertonians can't seem to see past the headlines in the Sun newspaper. Don't forget, it wasn't just Everton who suffered as a result of Heysel. Liverpool had no heart to contest the 1985 final itself following the disaster. They could have won the cup for a fifth time in 85 had it been contested under normal circumstances. During the years when the ban was in place Liverpool won the League three times in 1986, 1988 and 1990. Like Everton they were unable to contest the European Cup in each of the following seasons. Many reds fans believe that the 1988 team of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and John Aldridge was possibly our greatest ever. We were not able to see this team in action against the best in Europe. So Liverpool fans have as much right to be bitter following the Heysel disaster as you bluenoses. But our bitterness is against UEFA for staging the showpiece final of European competition in a clapped out stadium. Against the Belgian police and authorities for their inept organisation. Against the so-called English fans who had established our reputation for hooliganism during the preceding decade. Against the Thatcher government and English FA who jumped at the chance to ban English clubs from Europe. And yes some Liverpool fans are also partly to blame. But not for their outright violent hooliganism. They are to blame for pushing and eventually charging at Italian fans positioned too close to them and thereby causing a crumbling wall to collapse. But hey, isn't this what football fans do? Shouldn't the authorities have anticipated some pushing, shoving and charging? And let us not forget that Italian fans themselves were not without blame for contributing to the ugly atmosphere of animosity and violence that existed prior to the disaster. Anyway my point is that a lot of your bitterness is misguided and misdirected. You use Heysel as a convenient excuse for the failings of your own team. You Evertonians are too preoccupied with the team across the park. You judge success by whether or not you finish above us. If Liverpool finished 20th in the Vauxhall Conference League and Everton finished 19th you would judge this to be a successful season. Such is the petty small-mindedness of the "thinking" supporters.
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