The call from a Sportingo writer for Liverpool fans to give their Merseyside neighbours more credit for their achievements this season brought no sympathy whatsoever from at least one Reds supporter.
'Liverpool don’t respect Everton’s history because it is a drop in the ocean compared to their own - and they don’t respect Everton’s current success because it is non-existent'
Terry Scanlon wrote an article on Sportingo recently asking “Why Can’t Liverpool fans respect Everton’s top-four aspirations?” I wonder if he doesn’t already know the answer. Terry’s question is naïve, akin to asking: “Why can’t cats and dogs just be friends.”
Everton and Liverpool are two sides of the same coin, fierce local rivals – but in the '90s and into this decade, too, the Toffees have represented a pitiful challenge to the boys across Stanley Park. You can only get so far through hard graft, but Everton already know this – witness the last time they ‘hit the jackpot’ and finished fourth, crashing out to Villarreal and then leaping out of the UEFA Cup, too.
And whilst the Everton are still ahead in the league table, it is only by a hair’s breadth. They are three points in front but Liverpool have a game in hand. And David Moyes's men still have to face Liverpool at Anfield; they call this counting your chickens before they’ve hatched Evertonians.
Terry rails against Liverpool fans not respecting Everton’s current success, but my answer is, what success? Success is winning something, a cup, a league, or in Everton’s case winning the right to play in a Champions League qualifier. Liverpool don’t respect Everton’s history because it is a drop in the ocean compared to their own - and they don’t respect Everton’s current success because it is non-existent. Ask Jimmy Page why he doesn’t respect Take That and you’ll get the same answer.
Evertonians have been eager to point to the supposed avalanche of unfair decisions going against their side but this is an excuse that can be raised by almost any team – just look at the daylight robbery Chelsea got away with at Anfield earlier this season.
Terry wants the red half of the city to “be magnanimous”, and “hold their hands up” and respect Everton’s success. But how can they if they don’t regard fourth place as a success themselves? Liverpool fans will regard fourth place in the league as a consolation prize (admittedly better than the unmitigated disaster that not finishing in the Champions League places would be). And to heap praise on their rivals for doing this is never going to happen.
Win the league, a European trophy, or something tangible like that and the Red half will – grudgingly – praise the Blues. Everton fans shouldn’t force Liverpool supporters to stoop to their levels of perceived success.
Toffees supporters, pride comes before the fall…
Is Joe right? Have Everton earned the right to respect from Liverpool fans? Post your comments below or contribute an article of your own to Sportingo.