barrheadbear
Well-Known Member
STEVEN GERRARD was a threat to every team he played against.
He was the embodiment of the guy you hated in the other lot’s colours but would have given anything to see wearing yours.
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Bill Leckie reckons Rangers star Morelos is his own worst enemyCredit: Getty Images - Getty
Across 17 years, 504 games, 120 goals and nine trophies for Liverpool, plus 114 caps and 21 goals for England, he must have been an absolute swine to face across that white line.
Yet all he ever got from the opposition was respect.
And why? Because he was honest. Because he gave his lot. Because his first responsibility was always to his mates.
Because he radiated a love for his club, his city, his country and for the game.
So it’s baffling that a man who’s an ideal role model for every young pro should put himself out on a limb for a waster like Alfredo Morelos.
A waster? Yes, for me that’s what the Rangers striker is.
Someone blessed with wonderful talent, yet who spoils so much of the good work he does by slouching around like a spoiled, angry brat who hates his job.
He dives, he cheats, he lashes out at the kind of provocation 99 per cent around him laugh off, he celebrates in front of rival team’s fans, though he knows it’ll get him in trouble.
Then, when it all comes back to haunt him, he plays the victim. Or rather, he gets his manager to play it for him.
Morelos was given extra time off last week while Gerrard launched an attack on the mysterious forces he says want to drive the lad out of Scotland.
Sorry, Steven, but this is nonsense.
You’re an intelligent man, you’re a straight-talker and you’ve the potential to be a top, top gaffer, but you’re way off the mark on this one.
Because while you’re right that Morelos is a threat to these mysterious forces — aka Celtic — so were Ally McCoist, Brian Laudrup, Mark Hateley and plenty more, but no one tried to drive THEM out of the game.
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Rangers star Morelos likes to play the victim says our man BillCredit: Reuters
Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, John Hartson were a pain in the backside for Rangers and Alan Shearer, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dennis Bergkamp were all threats to your ambitions at Anfield, but no one tried to drive any of them out.
Why? Because, like you, they were decent guys who played the game the right way.
Like you, they were hard but fair, they could take a kick and come back for more.
Like you, they’d go to war for 90 minutes then shake hands at time up.
Morelos doesn’t tick any of these boxes. Neither did Luis Suarez, who you brought up as another example of someone who had no friends outside his club and who was railroaded to another country.
Suarez racially abused an opponent. He serially bit man-markers.
He always looked as if playing football was a chore rather than a pleasure — and that’s why he was so disliked — not because he scored goals.
Guys like Suarez get little respect from opponents because they don’t try to earn it.
Guys like him blame their own bad behaviour on the pressure others put them under.
And guys like him are not missed when they finally trudge away grumbling under their breath.
Sadly, that’s the way Morelos is headed.
With his Resting Bitch Face pout, his flailing elbows and snide off-the-ball kicks, the way he’d rather fall over to get a fellow player sent off than take a shot at goal, he seems hell-bent on making as few friends as possible in our game.
He’s not alone in this last one, of course. Roy Keane didn’t try to win popularity contests either, nor did the likes of Eric Cantona or Graeme Souness.
But what separates them from a Morelos is that they backed up the snarl with success. They led from the front, they were serial winners.
In real terms, meanwhile, this moody blue has done the square root of hee-haw.
He doesn’t have a winner’s medal, he hasn’t scored in an Old Firm game.
He has, however, let his team down through the antics which have seen him pick up seven red and 39 yellow cards in just over 100 starts.
When they come back from Dubai to reboot their season, he’ll be missing yet again.
It’s three games this time thanks to the stupidest sending-off yet — that dive when through on goal at Parkhead.
That moment, for me, said everything about him.
FOOTIE TRIBUTE Celtic and Rangers legends battle it out in charity game in memory of Glasgow rocker
It cemented him as everything the average fan hates about a certain type of modern player — the cynicism, the deviousness, the absence of joy.
Only he can change this. Only he can turn around the image the world outside Ibrox has of him.
Only he can put a smile on his coupon and learn to count to ten when he’s being wound up, only he can work out why he’d rather cheat than score.
Only he can earn the mega-money move we keep hearing big clubs are queueing up to offer.
That’s what Gerrard should be concentrating on right now, getting his goal machine’s head right, because that could end up being the difference between stopping nine in a row and facing up to stopping ten.
He should be pointing at Jermain Defoe as someone who’s been a threat wherever he’s gone for 20 years, yet who’s universally liked and admired.
He should be working overtime to turn a manchild into a man.
The fact that he would rather turn him into a martyr does neither of them any credit.
Enough is enough, Rangers and especially SG must come out and respond to this article. Morelos is no angel, the majority of his bookings are deserved, as are a couple of his sending offs. However his last two, Motherwell and Celtic are for double bookings, nothing violent. However it is also plain to see that Alfie is reffed to a different standard to other players and there are definitely some refs who just cannot wait to show a card.
Alfie no more dives than any other striker in this country, however it is fair to say the one at Scumdome was pathetic and he could definitely ask the biggest cheat in the country, Ryan Christie for some lessons. Strange how I have never read any article from Leckie, or indeed any other Scottish journalist, decrying Christie for his ridiculous antics.
The press want to crucify Alfie, they want to ensure his transfer value is diminished by painting him as "trouble". He is our most valuable asset and to protect that asset we cannot allow these attacks to go unanswered.
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