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Dalglish to fans: don’t watch Liverpool-Chelsea League match!

Comment: 0 November 11th, 2011 by: admin

RESPECTED Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish advised supporters to think twice before purchasing tickets to the Reds’ Carling Cup showdown at Chelsea later this month.

The surprising statement was due to King Kenny’s plan to field instead the youth team for the crucial quarterfinals game as a way to protest the Football League’s imposed match schedule.

The current schedule sees the Reds facing Chelsea on the road for a Premier League match on the 20^th, and then hosting League leaders Manchester City seven days after.

This is then followed by the League cup quarterfinals at Chelsea, set to take place only 2 days after the Reds face City.

According to reports, Dalglish has approached League officials to request that their second match at Stamford Bridge be rescheduled to a later date.  The request was denied.

‘When we ask the Football League to move our game to a later date, we’re told it’s impossible.  Where’s the logic in that?’ fumed Dalglish.

‘If the Football League want to devalue their own competition, that’s up to them,’ he continued. ‘But they shouldn’t then be upset if people use these games to help in the development of young players.’

It was while making these statements that Kenny warned Liverpool fans to reconsider plans of purchasing tickets for the Stamford Bridge quarterfinals match.

‘The one thing I will say to our fans is to think carefully before buying tickets for the League Cup game,’ he said.  ‘We do not want them spending their money and then we decide there is no option but to use only young players.’

Dalglish continued, accusing the authorities for their lack of effort in prioritising the players above all else.

‘It’s surely the duty of the football authorities to think of other solutions which consider the welfare of the players,’ he argued.  ‘And this clearly hasn’t happened.’

Like the Reds, City have also been allotted a mere 2-day window between their Liverpool match and their League Cup competition with Arsenal.

‘Here you have two clubs [Liverpool and City] who have treated this competition with the utmost respect over the years and they are being treated like this.

‘I’d be interested to know what the sponsors think of the situation and what it does for the reputation of the competition.’

Dalglish said that Liverpool, along with City, were denied a request to move the League Cup match ‘either for TV reasons.’

Speaking about the same issue, a spokesman of the Football League insisted that the set schedule could not be changed, even after a number of considerations.

‘Despite extensive efforts, no alternative solution acceptable to all parties could be found,’ said the spokesman.

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