In a week whereby Brendan Rodgers simply had to achieve two victories over both Carlisle United in the Capital One Cup and Aston Villa in the Premier League yesterday, the Reds boss saved his managerial skin having achieved two victories, albeit a penalty shoot-out triumph over the Cumbrians in midweek.
With the Northern Irish boss claiming there was a certain level of hysteria around the club in the lead up to the game against Villa this weekend, Rodgers knows he is fighting for his Reds career right now but as early ago as April 2014, Brendan Rodgers’ side were within touching distance of the Premier League title, only to throw it away to Manchester City.
Seemingly having set the bar so high in the 2013/14 campaign, this has somewhat proved Rodgers’ undoing ever since with the Reds not being able to match the flair and panache of that campaign where they ultimately could depend on the supreme skills of Luis Suarez.
Having splashed a lot of money in the transfer market since while not seeing an instant return on his investment in the likes of Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic, a section of Liverpool supporters have grown fed up with the Reds’ inconsistencies that eventually leave the club toiling away for a Europa League berth rather than a Champions League one come the final reckoning.
But at least Rodgers has bought some time with the Villa win at the weekend. All of that aside however, we’re taking a step back into yesteryear today while devising a list of the five most outrageous scandals to hit Liverpool in the modern era.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 most outrageous scandals to hit Liverpool in the modern era.
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Luis Suarez’s bite on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic
Nobody will ever be forgetting this incident given the sheer lunacy of Luis Suarez’s actions against Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in a league meeting between the pair at Anfield back in April 2013.
In the latter stages of the game with Chelsea winning 2-1, the controversial Uruguayan got in a skirmish with the Blues’ Serbian defender off the ball while remarkably sinking a bite into the player’s shoulder.
In what was one of the most bizarre moments in Premier League history ever, Ivanovic plunged to the deck before thrusting himself up while protesting that he had just been bitten – not what you’d expect on a football field.
What made it extra worse for Chelsea fans on the day was the fact Suarez went on to score a 97th minute equaliser when in reality, he shouldn’t have been on the pitch and after the game was over, Prime Minister David Cameron called on the FA to retrospectively ban Suarez.
Suarez accepted the ban and sat out 10 games while also being fined by the club. As we all know, the Ivanovic bite was the second in Suarez’s career preceded by the Otman Bakkal incident and then Giorgio Chiellini in the 2014 World Cup.
Steven Gerrard’s transfer request
As we all know, Steven Gerrard departed Anfield for LA Galaxy quite rightly as a Liverpool legend at the end of last season having given a remarkable 17 years of service to his hometown club.
The original midfield marvel, Gerrard’s best ever achievements in his time at Anfield will definitely include his FA Cup Final of 2006 in Cardiff when Liverpool eventually defeated West Ham United while who could forget Istanbul?
But way back in 2005 post-Champions League triumph, his future could’ve panned out very differently with the player handing in a transfer request in order to force through a move to Chelsea.
In what was a crazy turnaround on Gerrard’s part, the request came after Rafael Benitez had won the Champions League in that unforgettable game against AC Milan and later in his autobiography, Gerrard admitted that writing the request was one of the most difficult things he’s ever done in his life.
As we all know, the transfer to Chelsea never came to pass and Gerrard remained one of those players who was forever envied by Blues supporters.
Last season however in one of his last ever performances for the Reds, in rather strange circumstances, Gerrard was awarded a standing ovation from Blues supporters at Stamford Bridge (pictured) for his services to the Premier League in a distinguished association with the English top flight.
Craig Bellamy & the golf club debacle
Craig Bellamy was never one to shy away from controversy in his career; just remember his everybody knows what he’s like-type comments in reference to John Terry for starters!
But Bellamy’s biggest controversy in his first one-year association with Liverpool between 2006 and 2007 was his attack on Reds team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club on a drink-fuelled night away in Portugal that season.
For the most ridiculous of reasons, Riise wasn’t being a sport while volunteering to partake in some karaoke for which the Welsh international took umbrage.
Days after the rather shocking incident took place, Bellamy seemed to mock his own actions by completing a golf swing celebration upon scoring in the Reds’ Champions League fixture away to Barcelona.
An iconic celebration for all the wrong reasons!
The Patrice Evra & Luis Suarez race storm
A scandal which in all honesty had everybody fed up of hearing about it in the end, the Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra race storm of 2011 dominated the headlines for weeks and months after the initial incident took place.
Back in December 2011, both Liverpool and Manchester United battled to a 1-1 draw at Anfield in what was naturally a tense occasion given the fact the game is often described as the biggest rivalry within English football.
With both Suarez and Evra clashing during the encounter, it then materialised that Suarez had aimed a racial slur at the Frenchman with the Uruguayan receiving an eight-match ban while being fined £40,000 in the process.
As fate would have it, Suarez returned after his ban while immediately facing none other than Manchester United and Evra in the other fixture at Old Trafford.
Refusing to shake Evra’s hand, the player for who he was charged with racially abusing, Manchester United supporters were enraged while for Evra himself, he forcibly went to shake Suarez’s hand in a wholly passive aggressive manner.
Snubbed by Rio Ferdinand too out of defence of his team-mate, Suarez was naturally roundly booed during the fixture but as Reds supporters will remember, left Ferdinand on his behind with a great piece of skill when the United defender appeared to want to leave his stamp on the striker.
Hillsborough
A deeply emotive subject for everybody connected with Liverpool Football Club, the whole football world will never forget the tragic events of 1989 that are forever etched in the Reds’ history as one the club’s darkest moments.
Ninety six Liverpool supporters went to a game against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, Sheffield back that year while never returning after an awful crush occurred after too many supporters were permitted entry to the terraces.
Unsurprisingly given it is a tragedy so close to the heart of Liverpool supporters, a series of controversies have ensued following the incident itself, most infamously when The Sun proceeded to blame Reds supporters for issues such as pickpocketing and urination at the fixture.
A boycott of the newspaper was formalised by Liverpool supporters who to this day, refuse to read anything generated by the tabloid.
Following the awful events of Hillsborough in 89, the Taylor Report of 1990 led the way in English football stadia converting to all-seater formats so that the tragic events of that year wouldn’t ever be witnessed again.
