The Guardian Online lot love to wind up Liverpool fans. Take their weekly email, The Fiver, and it's end-of year-awards.
THE JOHN DARWIN AWARD
$tevie Mbe, for going missing in any Premier League match in which Liverpool came up against any other team from the Big Four, or any England game against Croatia.
THE TIMOTHY P LOVEJOY AWARD FOR EXCEPTIONAL AMUSEMENT
The burglars who continue to do their bit to reinforce lazy regional stereotypes by breaking into the houses of various Liverpool players whenever they're pencilled in to play away from home in Europe. The current tally of victims: six. And counting.
THE MARK THOMAS AWARD FOR MOST POINTLESS DEMONSTRATION AGAINST "THE MAN"
The 1,000 or so Liverpool fans who organised a 200m "march" from a pub they would have been drinking in anyway to a football stadium they were going to anyway, in a demonstration of support for their beleagu ... sorry, bemused manager Rafael Benitez.
THE JOSE MOURINHO AWARD FOR FLICKING THE Vs
While his supporters embarked on their protest meander, Benitez was actually addressing the problem in hand. Responding to tightwad owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks's order to keep his neb out of transfer policy, Rafa announced he was simply focused on training and coaching his team, focused on training and coaching his team, focused on training and coaching his team, focused on training and coaching his team, focused on training and coaching his team, focused on training and coaching his team, focused on training and coaching his team, and focused on training and coaching his team. Then he rocked up to the Newcastle game wearing not a suit but a trackie for the first time in his Anfield career. The first international protest made through the medium of bespoke tailoring, it was needlessly petulant posturing of the highest order. And therefore worthy of our utmost respect.
That penultimate sentence reveals where they're coming from. They're looking for a rise and they invariably get it. It's really not worth bothering about., They take the piss out of everyone, but will wind up Liverpool fans because they react the most fervently. The more thin-skinned we are, the more they enjoy the wind up and so on. Ignore them.