Red and White Kop – The Shame of Liverpool
Throughout a season when Liverpool have been consistently crap on the field, their fans have been consistently mental off the field. More specifically, on an internet forum called Red and White Kop (RAWK).
For the members of of RAWK, their season has been dire for a combination of reasons, the most ludicrous being that there’s a conspiracy within the FA and Premier League to stop them from winning anything.
Quite how this is possible is beyond me, but the ‘RAWKITES’ as they call themselves, or ‘SPASTICS’ as others refer to them, are convinced that Sir Alex Ferguson is involved in the plot and regularly bribes referees to make them lose and help Manchester United win.
Apparently they’re a much better team than us and if not for the corrupt officiating they would have finished higher than us in the table. Without Rooney we’re just a mid table team, although they said the same about Ronaldo. I dread to think where they would finish without Fernando Torres.
One of the amazing things about RAWK is its members blind faith in Rafael Benitez. The man has taken a Champions League winning team and turned them into 7th placed team with no Champions League football for next season. The squad they have now is actually worse than the squad that he inherited from Gerard Houllier, despite spending (wasting) over £200 million on new signings, considerably more than we’ve spent during the same period I might add.
While he was busy fucking up their squad he was also negotiating a very cushy contract for himself. He had them bent over a barrel at the end. They couldn’t afford to keep him and risk sliding further down the table next season, and they couldn’t afford to sack him because they’d have to pay him around £16 million. In the end they negotiated a deal with Benitez and it’s thought that he walked away with a cool £6 million in his back pocket. Not bad for a 7th placed finish I’m sure you’ll agree.
But while the rest of the country was busy laughing at Liverpool and their manager who was at times a fully fledged mentalist, RAWK was busy writing poems about him and making slushy youtube videos about how great he is. Readers of RAWK are led to believe that he was a brave martyr who stood up for the fans against the nasty American owners who haven’t backed him in the transfer market.
Ironically enough, facts are met with derision and cries of conspiracy when posted on there. If anyone dares post anything remotely logical regarding the amount of money Benitez has spent or how he’s used it to buy average players like Kuyt, Lucas and Babel, they’re quickly shot down by “diehard” members or indeed the moderators themselves. That’s right, the delusion isn’t confined to a few members, it’s actually promoted by the forum staff.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to back your manager, particularly in this day and age, but what RAWKITES don’t understand is that they’ve gone way beyond supporting him. They’ve turned him into a figure of worship beyond any form of criticism or objective debate.
Their blind support of a man who has played them like a violin is bordering on insanity. Every time he made mistakes all he had to do was say ‘You’ll never walk alone’ and the fans lapped it up and shifted all blame onto the owners, onto the referees, onto the corrupt FA, onto anybody but Benitez.
Now I wish I could say that RAWK was representative of Liverpool fans in general, but it really isn’t. Other Liverpool sites are embarrassed by RAWK, and the Manchester United forum Red Cafe has a 150 page, 6,000 post thread, just to laugh at their deluded ramblings. They’ve taken supporting their team to a new level of idiocy. Their staunch support of Benitez and their refusal to accept that he could be blame for anything has almost turned them into a cult. They’re living inside an internet bubble where the ‘best club in the world’ is being ruined by outside forces with agendas against them. They epitomize the modern day conspiracy theorist and give us plenty to laugh at on a daily basis.
They regularly assert that the media is against Liverpool, completely ignoring the massive amount of supporters and ex Liverpool players on the TV and in newspapers. Brian Reade, Derek McGovern, Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson, Phil Thompson to name just a few. There is probably a bigger Liverpool supporting contingent in the newspapers and on TV than any other club in the league, but logical reasoning like that is ignored on RAWK in favour of an ‘everybody is against us’ tin foil hat wearing band of idiots who make a mockery of their once great club.
Managerial legends like Paisley and Shankly would be rolling in their graves if they saw what Benitez has done to Liverpool. And the supporters on RAWK should hang their heads in shame for putting Benitez on the same pedestal as those two men who brought so much glory to Anfield in years gone by.
The Fat Spanish Waiter has done nothing for Liverpool. On the contrary, he’s wasted hundreds of millions of pounds, alienated some of their best players who were then sold, bought terrible players and ruined their entire squad. Without Torres and Mascherano they’d most likely be in the bottom half of the table, battling it out with the likes of Bolton and Sunderland. So instead of worshipping Benitez like some dignified Martyr, they should start facing facts and analyzing just how he has managed to spend £250 million and still manage to take them backwards.
Only then will they start to regain some form of reality on that cesspit of hatred and bitterness.
June 6th, 2010
It was not 250 mill include sales in that and dont stretch the truth there is nothing worse.
I found your articles to be from someone who is secretly jealous of the club and its great fans!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 6th, 2010
“Other Liverpool sites are embarrassed by RAWK, and the Manchester United forum Red Cafe has a 150 page, 6,000 post thread, just to laugh at their deluded ramblings”
Obsessed with us aren’t you…….
June 6th, 2010
Agree with lots of what you say but your use of the word spastic is outrageous. You should be ashamed you dirty munich cunt.
June 6th, 2010
There’s nothing like a bit of irony eh Steven?
June 6th, 2010
I’m a season ticket holder at Anfield and have been for nearly 30 years. This is an excellent article.
June 6th, 2010
I cannot believe how stupid you can be. Rafa is a god and if it wasn’t for all the bent referees we would have won the league for the last two years. I’m literally shaking here reading this.
June 6th, 2010
This article is an outrage, I am a great man, a great Manager, and if you don’t believe me you can read Guillem Balague regaulr blog. He to is a great football man.
June 6th, 2010
Agree with everything you’ve said here, except obviously referring to RAWK as spastics. Not very fair on the spastics really, is it?
Anyway, I’m sure the Liverpool fans with any intellectual ability will realise that the players didn’t perform last season at all. It was, to be frank, shameful. Rafa Benitez has a lot to answer for, but you have to remember, every pass that went wayward from Lucas, Kuyt and everybody else this season was out of Rafa’s control and even further out of the owners control. However, you come to realise, Rafa’s actually bought these players and persisted with playing them.
Nothing that us, the fans, can do about it really. We’re just ants viewed from a great height. So to be honest, I’ve stopped worrying about it and simply aiming for fourth place next season would be a step forward. Not sure who our next manager is going to be though….. I’d put money on Dalglish if the odds weren’t so crap.
Everything aside, your article is well structured and your argument stands. It doesn’t matter if Rafa has made sales to buy new players because he’s used that money to buy crap players. End of story.
Not sure why everybody insists on arguing and swearing at eachother. Sure, we support different football teams and live in different cities, but all it is, is fans casting their opinions. You should all respect that.
June 6th, 2010
Are you Jaimie Kanwar in disguise
June 6th, 2010
In response to ‘Steven Ireland’ – You’re no Liverpool fan you absolute, brain dead, pathetic waste of space. What gives you the right to mock the dead? Those people had families. If your Mother died and I mocked her and made chants and sang it at a football ground how would you feel?
June 6th, 2010
me a Lfc fan and you man u, let’s be honest, we don’t give a toss about each other! you were jealous of us way back then (waaaaay back) and we’re jealous of you now, fact! but i never thought i could agree with a manc, guess what? i do! i hate all this gross and net spend bollocks, it’s irrelevent, besides, most of the money bungling benny recouped was from failures HE had already bought! taking huge hits on most of them! the bottom line is he spent the guts of £250m on mostly shite! yes, we now have some world-class individuals such as pepe, agger, SG, masch and torres but we never had the manager to turn them into a consistant team or the balls to let them off the leash!
but let’s not get all pally manc! with a couple of additions and the right man at the helm, we could remain on our perch, it may not be for long but we are STILL the most successful english team and hopefully better days lie ahead now we’ve got shot of this clown!
June 6th, 2010
jordan, couldn’t agree more, what an absolute moron! to come out with that sort of crap not only shows unforgiveable contempt for your loss but for ours too! SORRY
June 6th, 2010
Born and bred in Manchester, a United fan since I can remember – my first game attended as a 4 year old against Everton in 1966 – of course I have my opinions about Liverpool. But those opinions have always been based on football and not hate.
The working class man of Britain always falls into the same traps and mistakes. Hating each other for reasons we don’t even understand, for reasons that were and still are often the fault of money grabbing fat cats who just let the decent and hard working folk of the major cities and conurbations suffer from their greed and indifference to human suffering. It is from here the so called hatred between Liverpool and Manchester stems. Nothing to do with football and nothing to do with the great people of each city who share exactly the same Anglo-Irish roots and family values.
If we want to talk football then let’s do it with respect for the great teams both cities have produced and without the hate and malice that a history based on the greed and power of a class, that is far removed from the world in which most of us have to exist in, has imposed on us.
How encouraging it would be to see people breaking free of this false and flawed rivalry and instead honouring the suffering and sacrifices our ancestors from both great cities endured to make this very special part of Britain. The North West, the most unique and significant area of these isles in terms of history, culture and achievement.
Let’s build a rivalry based on the excellence of our achievements and the respect and understanding of our mutual roots. Stop putting each other down and let’s build our wonderful football heritage up. How fantastic it would be to be able to share a football discussion with a Scouser over a pie and a pint instead of hate and abuse. And what a wealth of football experiences, knowledge and special moments we all have to discuss.
June 6th, 2010
‘Sup Caftards.
June 6th, 2010
I just love how deluded pool fans are. First they need remenber the fact that man utd are actually this countries biggest side (lp just like a vulture pounced on mu perch aft we feel, lp were nothing until 75), secondly outside trophies pool have no history (mu are covered in legendary history), and third is the most obvious, pool have always lived in our shadows and were crying during the whole 80′s about the world just waiting for utd’s rebirth and not them. pool are a laughing stock.
June 6th, 2010
I just love how bitter you mancs are that we are still the most successful club in England. You are still obsessed with Liverpool Football Club, even though our team is abysmal at the moment. Is the irony of the article really lost on the author? If so, it proves just how stupid he really is.
June 6th, 2010
a.s?……………..That must stand for an…….ARSEHOLE SUPREME!!!!!!
YNWA
June 6th, 2010
Sup Uncle Junior.
June 6th, 2010
there are football fans like michael cope, then there is a.s. enough said!
June 6th, 2010
“outside trophies pool have no history”
Brilliant.
June 6th, 2010
axel f………what is football all about then, if not winning trophy’s???, …MORON……go play comotosies and, you wake-up someday!!!
June 6th, 2010
axel f…….you MAY wake-up oneday!!!
June 6th, 2010
a.s……….man utd this countries biggest side??, who has been telling you lies than???, THE most succesful club in this country is, wait forit,…………..>>>>LIVERPOOL, and that’s a Fact.
YNWA
June 7th, 2010
You mean facht! wake up to reality and look around you to see what success is.
June 7th, 2010
It’s a conspiracy, LOL, a lot of bitterness on here..
June 7th, 2010
Michael Cope: Kudos.
June 8th, 2010
Wow.. I pity you guys – you are completely obsessed.
June 11th, 2010
I think more are laughing at you, you twisted plank
August 11th, 2010
I stumbled upon this article because red and white kop is momentarily down. I used to be a member but was kicked out for exactly the kind of things this article talks about. I occasionally check the site to see what people are putting up there… only to walk away thinking what a bunch of f**kin idiots.
There are some great posters on RAWK but the whole mentality is being policed by moderators that do things such as give people shithead titles “forra laff” and lock threads as soon as they start if someone dares question the logic of a sacred cow.
As for my time there, I didn’t get a bad custom title, I did however irk many people questioning Rafa and saying such unthinkable things as ‘maybe you guys are wrong occasionally’
At the end of the day I’m happy to have been banned. I no longer waste time frequenting forums. RAWK’s relationship to Rafa was like Motorola’s relationship to the ‘satellite phone’ – they invested so much money into the idea when there was no market and better technology was just around the corner. It almost bankrupt the company. To many RAWK minded people there unwilling to question the logic of a ruinous plan simply because the investment level was so deep.
I am personally delighted with the progress Liverpool FC have made since regaining control from Rafa. The boardroom are making great progress with marketing, public relations, appointments and the all important sale to investors with real money. Go to RAWK however and all the talk is of ‘don’t let these b**tards grind us down’… Despite signing Joe Cole, retaining Torres + Gerrard, Getting Roy as manager and being about to complete the sale to new owners. – They truly are an embarrassment to the club. – Although they are also deluded enough to think they practically own LFC.
Basically if you log onto RAWK with your own thoughts, prepare to walk alone.
August 31st, 2010
This is typical article by uninformed United fan.
You match “The Sun” though…..not gonna waste my time replying to this bollocks….