This just won’t go away.
Ah, manager feuds. The good old days.
You remember in the Rafa Benitez era, how he would fall out with
everyone? Remember the arguments over a straightforward hand
gesture that Sam Allardyce decided was a huge sleight against him,
and Alex Ferguson decided to join in? That sort of thing? Those
were the days.
It’s been far too calm for a long time. But now Chris Wilder has
apparently been elected the voice of the “anti-five subs” managers,
and has set his sights directly on Klopp. The Liverpool boss had
been pretty stinging early yesterday.
“Ask Chris Wilder how we can avoid that [injuries],” BBC Sport
report him as saying.
“We had a talk between managers – a week ago now, I think – it
was 15-5 if not 16-4 for five subs.
“Chris Wilder says constantly that I’m selfish. I think the
things he’s said shows that he’s selfish. I was in a similar
position at Mainz, all about staying in the league.
“Today, if we had five subs, I take off Andy Robertson and bring
on Konstantinos Tsimikas. To save Robbo. Not to make our game
better, just to save him. It’s not about changing tactics and
systems, it’s just to save the players.”
It was always going to be mere hours before Wilder hit back, of
course, and he did so with a vengeance.
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“Everybody has that right to do [defend their own club’s view]”,
the Liverpool Echo report Wilder as saying. “There is 20 votes in
this league and everybody looks after himself right the way
through.
“Nobody is looking after Sheffield United the right way now, so
we have to look after ourselves. I am not really going into the
nuts and bolts of what was said.
“I have got a huge amount of respect for Liverpool Football
Club, as I always have done. I also have a huge amount of respect
for Jurgen.
“Whether it is looking after the football club, whether it is
selfish or another word. By the way, there are a few more managers
in there as well that have looked after their own club. I will
always look after Sheffield United.”
Look, I want five substitutes. Maybe it’s because I support
Liverpool, though I’d like to believe myself less tribal than that.
Wilder and others will kick up a fuss about it, but come on, guys.
Let’s get something sorted.