Rod Liddle - Sunday Times article

[TTMeysh]

I wouldn't read too much into the use of 'hilarious' - he hates the Hammers, like all Millwall, and was one of the few media types to call out the disgraceful performance of the authorities over Tevez.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

Much as I have time for Winters scribbling sin general,got to disagree with him on this,I don't want to see our neighbours anywhere near the Premier league

Short sighted parochialism. It would be an incredible boost to the city to have both teams thriving in the premier league.

 

[Tunstall Fred]

Short sighted parochialism. It would be an incredible boost to the city to have both teams thriving in the premier league.

We will have to disagree on this,I want United in the Premier league and Wednesday in the 3rd Division that would be an incredible boost for me

 

[Stretch]

He's had a column in the sports section of ST for a number of years. Well known as a Millwall fan. Not sure if he does now but used to follow them home and away. Not a "celebrity fan" like some.

Cheers, shows how much I know

 

[bornandbred]

We will have to disagree on this,I want United in the Premier league and Wednesday in the 3rd Division that would be an incredible boost for me

Agree completely. Never understood anyone wanting that lot to do well.Hence my still having a soft spot for Everton.

 

[vas borbokis]

This made me smile..
...''because they are singularly disinclined ever to let the opposition have the ball.''
Nailed it.

 

[Trigger Blade]

Much as I have time for Winters scribbling sin general

Blimey, does he do porn?

Short sighted parochialism. It would be an incredible boost to the city to have both teams thriving in the premier league.

Pinchy, is that you?

This made me smile..
...''because they are singularly disinclined ever to let the opposition have the ball.''
Nailed it.

Yes, when I read that, it reminded me of an old manager's quote, can't remember who or even who he was talking about, but it was along the lines of "they don't give you the ball, they lend it to you for a while"

 

[1980]

Never even knew Liddle was bothered about football, or any sport, never mind writing about it.

Rod still goes and watches Millwall home and away. He even posts regularly on Millwall online under the name 'Monkey'.

 

[1980]

Praise from the wife beating racist tosser. Can’t wait to read that one..

Not sure on the 'racist' bit. He certainly thinks mass immigration is a bad thing, is that racist?

On Millwall online he has always been very vocal against any racism on the forum or in the wider world. And is certainly always beating the drum for social justice - as you'd expect from a socialist.

Wife beater - I won't mention you said that. As I think he may take you to court!!

Anyways, Rod doesnt need me defending him.

 

[1980]

He spoils it by describing the Tevez affair as “hilarious”!

Perhaps he has predictive text on and he meant to say “heinous” or “hideous”?

Hilarious as a massive piss take by the FA he means.

Like all us Wall fans, he was fuming the fruit chucking cunts got away with that one.

 

[FYT]

This is the article:

"Something is stirring in Yorkshire, for a long while a bastion of footballing underachievement. There were 35,000 fans crammed into Elland Road on Friday night for Leeds’ top-six local derby fixture against Sheffield United.

It is many years since the supporters of either club were able to view promotion to the top flight from anything approaching a realistic perspective. On recent showing, it may still be a bit premature for the Leeds fans, frankly.

They have lost five of their past seven games in all competitions and were fairly comfortably beaten by the Blades. Only the excellence of their goalkeeper, Andy Lonergan, kept the score down to a respectable 2-1 and for long patches of the match they seemed disjointed, unaware of what they were supposed to be doing and strangely threatless going forward.

Well, I say strangely threatless — they are clearly missing their top scorer Chris Wood, who was flogged in late August to Burnley for a surprisingly cheap £15m. I am not sure why Premier League teams were hitherto reluctant to take a punt on the New Zealander — he was easily the best finisher outside the top division and has adjusted with consummate ease to playing at a higher level.

But anyway, given Leeds United’s decade of travails and humiliations, now is a time for guarded optimism. They remain in the top six despite that defeat. In the end, however, their own inconsistency might undo them.

Sheffield United, however, are something else entirely. They won the League One title last season at a canter, with 100 points, having spent the previous five seasons in this lowly berth flattering to deceive, always falling away when the hounds of spring were on winter’s traces.

And yet somehow manager Chris Wilder has instilled in them a resilience that was hitherto missing.

The Blades spent comparatively lightly in the summer, largely shoring up a sometimes dilatory defence with former Championship or League One arrivals for less than a million quid each.

Up front, Ched Evans is back at the club where he forged his reputation before that charge of rape was imposed upon him, but he has yet to put his name on the scoresheet.

The Blades look for their goals from hometown boy Billy Sharp — who always notches up better than one goal in two games when he is given a run in a settled team. But he is also 31 years old now.

The other forwards, Leon Clarke and Clayton Donaldson — both of them well past their 30th birthdays – contribute a few goals too. But on paper it is an ageing forward line that should not, in truth, strike the fear of God into Championship defences.

It is instead the sort of forward line that appears to be equipped to hoist a club out of the third tier. And yet the Blades are advancing with a certain imperious grandeur — Friday night’s win was their eighth in their past 10 games and yesterday they sat at the very top of the league.

They have become terribly difficult to beat, not as the consequence of the usual third-tier agricultural obduracy, but because they are singularly disinclined ever to let the opposition have the ball.

Sheffield United were less than usually effective at this possession business in the game against Leeds, which thoroughly annoyed Wilder. He was not exultant in his victory. “We were quite loose today . . . we usually keep the ball much better than that,” he said, before further castigating his team for having turned in the worst performance of the season so far.

Wilder, 50, is a Sheffield man himself, a former unremarkable journeyman pro player whose managerial track record in the lower leagues — with the likes of Northampton Town, Oxford United and Halifax Town — is kind of decent-ish, but in all honesty it is not much more than that.

He guided the Cobblers to promotion, having succeeded in saving them from relegation the season before. He is well regarded in the football world, a world which, nonetheless, he has not quite set alight — yet.

The last steel city derby in the Premier League took place more than 20 years ago, but given that Sheffield Wednesday appear to be sinking like a stone again, don’t pin your hopes on a recurrence in 2018-19.

In any case, three Yorkshire teams in the top tier is almost unheard of these days and more usually there is just one per season. Huddersfield Town are carrying the white rose banner at the moment, of course. Hell, even Sheffield’s most famous club — Sheffield FC, the oldest football club in the world — no longer ply their trade in Yorkshire, having decamped over the border to Dronfield in Derbyshire at the turn of the present century.

Sheffield United, meanwhile, last spent consecutive seasons in the top tier way back in 1994 and since then have had only one fleeting Premier League appearance, and that finished in rancour and legal action when West Ham United avoided the drop at their expense in 2006-7.

You may well remember all that hilarious business with Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano playing for West Ham when, perhaps, they should not have been playing for West Ham, and securing an unlikely win against Manchester United at Old Trafford on the very last day of the season.

The relegation battle between these two foes might well be reprised next season."

Is it only me that doesn't see this as praise. It's more like a begrudging slant at praise with this garbage one eyed journalist's typical dig at what he dislikes. Had to get the Shammers sarcastic dig in didn't he. The bloke is a first rate tosser!

 

[Highbury_Blade]

Not sure on the 'racist' bit. He certainly thinks mass immigration is a bad thing, is that racist?

On Millwall online he has always been very vocal against any racism on the forum or in the wider world. And is certainly always beating the drum for social justice - as you'd expect from a socialist.

Wife beater - I won't mention you said that. As I think he may take you to court!!

Anyways, Rod doesnt need me defending him.

He accepted a police caution for pushing his pregnant girlfriend down the stairs.

 

[super_pig]

whose managerial track record in the lower leagues — with the likes of Northampton Town, Oxford United and Halifax Town — is kind of decent-ish

kind of decent-ish.. didn't he get promotion with the first two and play off final with the other in consecutive seasons.. that's outstanding! do your research Rod ffs

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Fair play to him though, he knows his onions...

'The last steel city derby in the Premier League took place more than 20 years ago, but given that Sheffield Wednesday appear to be sinking like a stone again, don’t pin your hopes on a recurrence in 2018-19.'

There will be Grandads in 2028 telling their scrotes on T'Cross that they remember the weekend SWFC were only 14 points behind SUFC.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Is it only me that doesn't see this as praise. It's more like a begrudging slant at praise with this garbage one eyed journalist's typical dig at what he dislikes. Had to get the Shammers sarcastic dig in didn't he. The bloke is a first rate tosser!

You've missed the point on the West Ham comment so maybe you've done similar on the rest of it.

 

[1980]

He accepted a police caution for pushing his pregnant girlfriend down the stairs.

Have you read the details?

I'm not taking a view either way, as Rod can defend himself, but I think he would have a good case against someone calling him a 'wife beater'.

If anyone would like to call him out directly, he is always on Millwall Online under the moniker 'Monkey'. I would just make sure you've got £250 an hour spare.

 

[1980]

Is it only me that doesn't see this as praise. It's more like a begrudging slant at praise with this garbage one eyed journalist's typical dig at what he dislikes. Had to get the Shammers sarcastic dig in didn't he. The bloke is a first rate tosser!

That 'hilarious' is a dig at the FA. How many times do you need this explaining to you?

It is like saying 'remember when the US hilariously dropped the bomb on all those women and children'...to shame the Americans, not to say it was literally hilarious.

 

[Canterbury Blade]

I believe one of his sons is called Wilder... a portent for many nowadays..

And that he lives in a village down here somewhere.. certainly, he is often at Canterbury West heading to London. I will now chat to him next time and get the low down on his Blades views.

Small world ..

 

[FYT]

You've missed the point on the West Ham comment so maybe you've done similar on the rest of it.

OK, the point being?

 

[FYT]

That 'hilarious' is a dig at the FA. How many times do you need this explaining to you?

It is like saying 'remember when the US hilariously dropped the bomb on all those women and children'...to shame the Americans, not to say it was literally hilarious.

Just the once will do finr, being as though you asked.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Hilarious as a massive piss take by the FA he means.

Like all us Wall fans, he was fuming the fruit chucking cunts got away with that one.

Exactly . His use of the word 'hilarious' is not intended to indicate that the behaviour of The Old Men in Suits, ably persuaded by 'Sir' Trevor Fooking Brooking was anything to laugh about, but rather that their behaviour and decision making over the matter was beneath contempt and beyond satire.

 

[Revolution]

Short sighted parochialism. It would be an incredible boost to the city to have both teams thriving in the premier league.

It would be an incredible boost to Sheffield United if Sheffield Wednesday went out of business, and it's a good thing to have a one team City.

One club saps the strength of the other. We haven't both finished in the top 10 of the top division since 1991-2. Before that? 1962-3.

The theory that it would be great for the City for both teams to be doing well is just that - a theory.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

It would be an incredible boost to Sheffield United if Sheffield Wednesday went out of business, and it's a good thing to have a one team City.

One club saps the strength of the other. We haven't both finished in the top 10 of the top division since 1991-2. Before that? 1962-3.

The theory that it would be great for the City for both teams to be doing well is just that - a theory.

Given who we beat the other night*, the theory that we'd be up there competing at the top of the league if only we were a one club city is also just that, a theory.

*yes yes, champions league semi-finals and all that. Anyone who suggests the manner in which they achieved that is some sort of template to follow, has probably got a screw loose..

 

[Revolution]

Given who we beat the other night*, the theory that we'd be up there competing at the top of the league if only we were a one club city is also just that, a theory.

*yes yes, champions league semi-finals and all that. Anyone who suggests the manner in which they achieved that is some sort of template to follow, has probably got a screw loose..

I vaguely recall that they did alright as the one club in their city between 1964 and 1975, winning the odd trophy, and they've also won the league in living memory.

There is no doubt in my mind that we'd be better off without the Pigs.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

That 'hilarious' is a dig at the FA. How many times do you need this explaining to you?

It is like saying 'remember when the US hilariously dropped the bomb on all those women and children'...to shame the Americans, not to say it was literally hilarious.

Has anybody ever said that sentence before?

If so, you’re right it’s even more inappropriate in that context.

 

[Harrisblade]

Exactly . His use of the word 'hilarious' is not intended to indicate that the behaviour of The Old Men in Suits, ably persuaded by 'Sir' Trevor Fooking Brooking was anything to laugh about, but rather that their behaviour and decision making over the matter was beneath contempt and beyond satire.

It's still nothing to do with the FA
It was Scudamore in his capacity of CEO of the FA Premier League bending the rules for the Premier Leagues (and West Ham's) benefit.