We now have eye-witness reports and statements from Hicks jnr and the Sandon management so we know that the initial picture painted by The Sunday Times and posters on these boards of Hicks jnr running from the pub in a hail of spit and ale was OTT. Someone spat in his direction, someone else threw the contents of his glass at the departing Hicks party, who were not fleeing but leaving normally to attend another appointment.
Over the weekend, before the truth came out there were posters on here doubting the seriousness of the incident, others questioned Hicks jnrs’ motives in going there. A minority of wilder fans thought he got off lightly.
The overwhelming majority of the response,though was of the sanctimonious, holier than thou kind, attacking other posters who did not outrightly condemn the reds in the pub for not letting Hicks jnr enjoy a quiet drink with his minders and ‘fellow fans”. We were told we should hang our heads in shame - we were dragging our club and the city through the mud , the club should identify them and ban them, blah blah blah... ... ...
Liverpool Football Club’s fanbase has within it representatives of every creed, nationality, social and ethnic group. We also have bigots and xenophobes of every stripe and all of the criminal classes from murderers to pickpockets, BUT and it is big but, so does every other Major football club in the land and every city, town, village and hamlet. The behaviour of the two cretins who showed violence towards Hicks jnr last Saturday is not defined by their accents, nor by the club they support. It is defined by their actions end of. If the government, local authorities and police forces of the country can’t control such mindless idiots nor limit the bully culture we live under, why should our football club have to do it?
If all 40,000 of us who attend the match were to walk on our knees from Anfield to the cathedral steps singing mea culpa and wringing our hands in shame, it would not affect the typecasted image we have. I feel for the members of the scouse diaspora who have to live with the shell suit jokes and all sorts of criticism when these incidents happen. The answer is not to come on these boards half cock attacking fellow supporters who are only suggesting calm thinking and a sense of proportion. The answer is to stand up : our club is going through difficult times at the moment but that is only temporary - our class however is permanent so stand up for your club. Similarly, our city has, for once in a long time, more positives going for it than negatives so stand up for your city.
Unfortunately such incidents will happen from time to time, but ashamed, not me, I didn’t do it, I abhor violence of any kind and to the extent that it is condusive to my teeth remaining in my mouth I would remonstrate with anyone acting like those two. Hicks had no right to expect a quiet dialogue with fans in that particular pub on that particular day in the tense circumstances that prevailed. The least he could have expected was to be asked some searching and pointed questions about his family’s involvement with the club, he is a director his own right after all, and be left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling there is on the issue. The violence he received was unacceptable.
Next time I hope we allow the dust to settle and the facts to be established before turning on fellow fans.
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