Is it just me or does anybody else get easily annoyed by the man, every time i see him he makes me cringe.
And after some recent outbursts in the media i hate the man even more.
Anyways i just wanted to see the opinion amongst us reds and see if you people share the same opinion as me i.e. "shut up and go away, you waste of time big time charlie wannabe" or do you class him as a legend.
Obviously the way he left this fantastic club of ours wasn't the best, however when he was here i'll be honest and say i never thought much of him them.
I totally agree.
When Steve McManaman first started playing for Liverpool I was delighted. I thought he was going to be an exciting and talented player. How wrong I was. I only ever remember him dribbling the ball then losing possession. One famous manager once said, In football the only things that mater are how well you take the ball and how well you pass it on, what happened in between doesn't matter. McManaman was all ‘in between’.
I also think that McManaman became a very disruptive influence during his time at Liverpool and squad discipline suffered as a consequence. When he refused to renew his contract, so that he could have a free transfer to what he said was the best club in the world, i.e. Real Madrid, I was appalled. How can any Liverpool player regard any other club as better - even worse say so in public?
If all this wasn’t bad enough, McManaman was also responsible for Liverpool not signing Cristiano Ronaldo. I understand that as a boy and teenager, Ronaldo was a very keen Liverpool fan (that’s after his support for his own country's Benfica) and desperately wanted to play for us. At the time Houllier asked the then chief scout to check the young Ronaldo out. When he reported back to Houllier, the scout compared Ronaldo to the departing McManaman, saying ‘he’s just another dancer’. The result, Ronaldo ended up at Manchester. So, if it wasn’t for the bad experience with McManaman we would have signed Ronaldo and he would be playing for the team he originally loved.
Bruce Grobbelaar once had a famous bust up with McManaman - I think he actually hit him. At the time Bruce said he had got mad with McManaman because he showed absolutely no desire or commitment to play well for the club. I wish Bruce had knocked him out!
So to me, McManaman is certainly no Liverpool legend. Just a very average over opinionated player with a monster ego. His comments on Setanta the other night are typical of him.
McManaman is currently Executive Director of Grandtop International Holdings, a company owned by the billionaire Carson Yeung and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange but based in the Cayman Islands. The company recently tried to buy out Birmingham City and I understand that it was the main reason Steve Bruce left the club - apparently it caused Birmingham to renege on Bruce's contract extension. Grandtop Holdings also has extensive operations in the USA. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the company has some tie up with one of Hick’s operations and that McManaman has been recruited as part of Hick’s PR drive.
