All is Said...

Now it is Time To Do

I hope it doesn't matter what football team you support, or if you even like football, but what happened on the 15th of April 1989 at Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday, should shock you to the core.

That the truth about what happened on that day has finally come out, a massive 23 years after the event, should not lead one to care less but in fact to care more- now there is truth next there should be justice.

Last week, after the results of the inquest by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, I decided not to write a blog post; little else in football mattered that week and I didn't have enough insight or intelligence to add to the proper debate, with Liverpool due to play against rivals Manchester United I have decided to throw in my comments.

Sir Alex Ferguson has once again asked for United fans to respect the 96 who died as a result of that tragedy and their families after some idiotic fans chanted, with ambiguity, about Luis Suarez at the match at Old Trafford against Wigan. With Sunday being Liverpool's first home game since the findings emotion will be running high.

'SAF' has written to those fans attending on Sunday to remind them the rivalry with their Scouse neighbours is built on "a determination to come out on top – a wish to see us crowned the best against a team that held that honour for so long" rather than the hatred and vitriol that usually surrounds these matches. Football is no doubt all about passion and rivalry but it does not need to lead to idiocy, tribalism and heartlessness that has led to songs about Hillsborough, Hysel and Munich- none of these tragedies are footballing, they are all human and horrible and we should not laugh at those involved but empathise with them.


Any one who does now not believe the truth is a moron, anyone who does not respect the dead should not constitute a human being. I, for one, believe that Sunday will go off without a hitch and we'll just have a moving tribute and hopefully some fantastic football to talk about.

We have done the talking, now is time for the action.

Has Too Much Been Said?

I wrote in this blog on Tuesday about Joe Hart's performance and that of the defence in front of him. Furthermore I mentioned how Hart should pick his words wisely in regards to teams winning 3-2 from 2-1 down with 5 minutes to go, it was all very ironic.

However to concentrate on that one line would be too miss the point, Hart was actually incredulous with rage at losing and the performance of the team- he told us as much. Hart blamed City as a whole team for losing the match, whilst at no point blaming himself he never said he wasn't to blame. This, along with Hart making a mistake for the winning goal, led to Roberto Mancini to criticise his goalkeeper.

Mancini said in his press conference "Joe Hart should stay in goal and make saves. If anyone should criticise the team it should be me, not Joe Hart. I am the judge, not Joe Hart", which may have been okay as criticism but it is not as if Mancini did not agree with the England 'number 1' after also suggesting that the defence was too deep at the end of the game.

Since then both Vincent Kompany, the club captain, and Gareth Barry have come out in defence of Hart with Kompany further backing his 'keeper' by admitting he was at fault for the important goal. 

Hart was harsh but honest about the team and that included himself. It would surely be more worrying if both he and the rest of the players failed to see their own failings.

It's Never Enough

Some may argue that Joe Hart said too much. Some have even argued that, by not paying Real Madrid enough respect for their win, he didn't quite say enough.

On the other hand one man who was extremely happy with himself was Jose Mourinho, the Madrid manager, whose words after his teams loss last weekend inspired them to victory over City.

Of course Mourinho can't take full praise for the victory, after all it is the players who go out and play the football and score the goals...Actually scratch that, if any manager can ever take full credit for victory it would be the 'Special One'. Once upon a time the former Barcelona interpreter graced the Premier League as manager of Chelsea and wowed us with his arrogance, tactical brilliance and on camera personality and ever since leaving we have missed him. 
Mourinho's jump from the bench and slide across the turf as Ronaldo scored reminded us of his most famous moment, sliding down the sidelines at Old Trafford as his Porto side beat Manchester United, but more poignantly it reminded us that Jose is the master puppeteer who never wastes a word- that goal was as much his as it was Ronaldo's.

He is one man who can never say enough!

Only 140 Characters To Say it All 

In the past I have Tweeted about football and written about Twitter. I have discussed Joey Barton and his use of Twitter, mainly to try and make him seem more intelligent whilst really making himself ridiculously conceited.

Many have damned the use of Twitter, Sir Alex Ferguson said he did not understand how someone would have time to bother with it  whilst answering questions about Rio Ferdinand's Tweets.

Twitter though has proved its worth with all sorts of campaigns and charities but one major campaign Twitter has helped with was in getting #JFT96 (Justice for the 96). And one main character to help this campaign was in fact Barton himself. 

Like him or not, Tweet or not, sometimes we have to doff our caps to the power of celebrity and the power of social media, especially when there's only 140 characters to get the message across.