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http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/markogden/100005712/liverpool-fans-outflanked-by-manchester-uniteds-green-and-gold/?Mark Ogden
Mark Ogden is the Telegraph's Northern Football Correspondent.
Liverpool fans outflanked by Manchester United's green and gold
By Mark Ogden Football Last updated: March 3rd, 2010
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Liverpool have become accustomed to living in Manchester United’s shadow during the two decades that have passed since the league champions’ flag fluttered over Anfield.
United have won the trophies, cashed in on the explosion of the Premier League across the globe and they could even erase Liverpool from the record books by winning a 19th league title this season.
The miracle of Istanbul aside, the red half of Merseyside has had little to throw back in the face of their foes from the other end of the East Lancs Road over the past 20 years.
And as the green-and-gold masses at Old Trafford now find themselves earning global publicity, and the apparent financial support of the Red Knights, in their battle to remove the Glazer family, those Liverpool fans attempting to overthrow their own despised American owners have been outflanked once again by their Mancunian rivals.
Whatever their prospects of success – and the smart money is on the Glazers riding the storm and banking a handsome profit many years down the road – the United supporters have won the publicity battle.
IMUSA and Must, the two groups fronting the campaign, have claimed the front pages, sports pages and news bulletins as a result of their clever campaign.
The Liverpool fans? Apart from the odd march and a couple of posters criticising Tom Hicks and George Gillett, they have slipped beneath the radar.
When Tom Hicks jnr was forced out on the back of an email row with a supporter earlier this year, Liverpool’s fans had the perfect opportunity to accelerate their campaign.
But since then, the focus has shifted firmly to Old Trafford and the movement aimed at overthrowing the Glazers.
The irony, though, is that Liverpool’s supporters have much more reason than the United fans to mount a visible campaign against the club’s owners.
Under the Glazers, whether the United fans like it or not, Mr. Ferguson’s team has enjoyed a period of incredible success.
Three Premier League titles, one European Cup, a World Club Championship and three League Cups.
Meanwhile, under the stewardship of Hicks and Gillett, Liverpool have won precisely nothing.
Rafael Benitez has seen numerous transfer targets slip through his grasp and, although he was able to lure Fernando Torres to Anfield, others have gone elsewhere.
So if any group of fans has reason to be disillusioned it is the Liverpool supporters. They are the ones desperate for a return to the glory days that United are presently enjoying.
United’s followers have gorged on success while Liverpool have starved.
Yet it is the United supporters that appear more determined to enforce regime change when it could be argued that they have never had it so good.
With the success of the green-and-gold campaign, there have been noises emanating from Manchester and Merseyside talking up the prospect of an unholy alliance between Liverpool and United fans aimed at showing their joint opposition to their respective American owners.
That proposal only has the support of a small minority on both sides.
Regardless of their shared ownership issues, United fans would enjoy nothing more than seeing Liverpool run into the ground by Hicks and Gillett.
Equally, the Kop would rejoice if United sank without a trace under the Glazers.
But while the United hordes milk the publicity generated by the green-and-gold campaign, Liverpool’s supporter campaign risks falling behind.
They need to find a trick of their own, a gimmick that will steal the thunder of the green-and-gold masses.
But maybe the moment has passed. Perhaps United have done them again.
