According to beloved ex-Manchester United defender Gary Neville, Liverpool deliberately tried to ‘deprive’ Man United of the title in 2010 by ‘easing off’ against Chelsea at the tail-end of Premier league season.
At the time, Liverpool and Man United both had 18 league titles apiece, and a victory over Chelsea would’ve handed United the advantage in the race for the title. Alas, Liverpool sadly lost the game, and Chelsea went on to deny Alex Ferguson's team a record-breaking 19th title.
In his Column for the Mail on Sunday, Neville argued:
"Some thought it would be a big test for them playing at Anfield with a couple of games to go and the title still up for grabs, but at United we knew that Liverpool would ease off if that meant depriving us of the championship, especially a 19th championship that would take us past their record.
"We'd heard rumours during the week that some Liverpool players had turned round to one of their young lads and said: 'There's not a f****** chance we're going to let United win this league'. I've no idea whether that rumour was true or not, but you could see the game was a nice end-of-season stroll for Liverpool”.
Neville is very clear with his allegation here: Liverpool deliberately conspired to underperform against Chelsea in a bid to stop United winning the title.
Neville is very clear with his allegation here: Liverpool deliberately conspired to underperform against Chelsea in a bid to stop United winning the title.
It’s a scandalous, nefarious accusation, and being a fan of good conscience and a passionate proponent of fair play and sportsmanship, I can only say with all sincerity that I hope this detestable behaviour DID take place, and the rumour is 100% TRUE.
As Liverpool fan, there is arguably nothing sweeter than seeing Man United deprived of trophies. In the words of Steven Taylor:
"It’s one of life’s legitimately sublime experiences; it’s so utterly…complete".
Amen.
I also have it on good authority that the rumour to which Neville referred is true. (Well said, Carra!). And who can forget Steven Gerrard's sublime, inch-perfect assist for Didier Drogba's goal?
Beautiful football on so many levels.
A clearly wounded Neville further added:
"It didn't say much for Liverpool."
No, but it felt damn good!
Here's to many more years of depriving United of trophies.
Jaimie Kanwar