There are some things that people do that scar our memories of them. Betrayal is one of those things. When you put your trust and belief in someone and that person turns their back on you and goes on to stab you in the back. It is a painful experience that can ruin great relationships built in years. Betrayal is not easy to forgive and can easily turn a hero into a villain.

In 2007 Liverpool FC rescued Javier Mascherano from West Ham, where he was languishing on the bench. We brought him in on loan with the intention of signing him permanently, if he was to impress at Anfield. At the time we already had another good defensive midfielder in Momo Sissoko. We brought him in because Benitez saw something in him that the then West Ham manager, Alan Curbishley did not see. We brought him in even though we knew that he had 3rd party owners (Media Sports Investments).

Thankfully when he managed to establish himself as a quality DMF and he ended up being preferred to Momo Sissoko. The latter had to be sold to Juventus because a new gem had been discovered.

So in 2007 a love affair began between Mascherano and the Liverpool fans, we truly loved him. We bragged about his similarity to Gattuso, we would say “he is a Gattuso that can actually pass the ball”. He could stop the flow of a fast paced team and could distract the rhythm of a passing team like The Gooners or Barcelona. He was a darling to us, even though he is an Argentine. The country that produced Maradona, whose infamous hand of God we all loathe. But that was all forgiven; he was now a proselyte scouser.

But then at the start of the 2010/2011, when Hicks & Gillett were screwing everything up, we had many woes and huge debts that had to be serviced. At the time we were paying 40 million quid to service those debts, hence there was not that much money to invest in players. Things were simply bad! When we thought things could not get worse, Rafa parted ways with the club. That was the worst thing that could happen at the time. What was now needed was for the remaining group to stick together and go through the tough times together.

But someone decided that his time was up, even though he was under a contract. He decided to forfeit the Man City game as a protest for not being allowed to leave. With such a situation, poor Roy Hodgson just had to let the player go. The Man City game resulted in a 3-0 drubbing for us. A game in which we were outplayed and out muscled.

Now since Saturday everyone has been hyping about Mascherano’s dedication. It was very necessary, considering the way he left. But my question to everyone who is hyping about the dedication is “is that dedication enough?”

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18 responses to “Mascherano betrayed Liverpool more than Torres and Owen combined”

  1. art says:

    You do realize there are equal reports that Hodgson had frozen him out of the lineup so that he won’t get injured before the transfer right?

    I don’t trust a single word that came from the Hodgson/Hicks/Gillett regime. They would have said anything to save them a PR backlash.

  2. Urawally says:

    What a joke!

    “Owen betrayed us more than Mascherano and Torres combined” should be you’re headline rather than the piece of crap article you posted.

    We done well with the sale of Torres. Better watching him not scoring goals for Chel$ki than scoring a few for us. And for a cool £50mil, who cares about him now?

    As for Mascherano (Was a fantastic player for LFC!), I don’t care why he left, things weren’t going right for us at the time and he was obviously not happy. No team should keep players that aren’t happy at a club.

    And if you aren’t happy at Liverpool then you can F C U K right off.

    As far as I’m concerned he’s a fookin’ legend for waiting to talk to the reporters and giving us something to smile about, even though the game had already done that for us.

    He didn’t have to do it remember, nobody was paying or threatening him to do it. He done it to clear the air with the supporters thus showing that he does indeed have respect for us at least.

    YNWA

  3. DaveWestAus again says:

    YES his dedication is enough! He,like Torres was promised a lot by LFC,(G&H) in particular! It is about time some of our supporters tried to understand the likes of these players.Mascherano needed to leave a town that he and his family were not happy living in!Merseyside is not suited to everyone!and his wife needed to be able to converse with people of similar nationality!That is the main reason for him wanting to go!
    In the case of Torres,(also promised heaps).The new owners wanted him out because they new his value to Chelsea! Torres hung on as long as possible(minutes in fact.)before the transfer deadline,waiting to see if LFC signed new players,before he actually asked for a transfer! LFC’s new owners knew that also! but ‘they’ wanted the money!And it all worked out their way! ‘DID’N’T IT’. LFC supporters should’n’t knock Torres because he did actually want to STAY!!! AND YES I HAVE SUPPORTED THE ‘REDS’all my life,starting in 1952 !!!

  4. MICHAELNG says:

    DAVE DID YOU EVER READ THE INTERVIEWS OF TORRES AFTERWARDS?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? HE ADMITTED WANTING TO LEAVE LFC AND ACTUALLY DISGRACED OUR NAME BY SAYING HE JOINED A BIGGER CLUB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    LONG LIVE LFC!!!!!!

  5. MrClean says:

    Owen did a deal with the devil and to true Redmen that’s about as bad as it gets. As far as I’m concerned he never played for us. MO only ever cared about MO and his England career.

  6. rick says:

    Yeah mate, nice point.
    I’m totally agree with You.
    This dedication is simply not enough.
    Sometimes Players need to leave a Club because their time is up, and Barca will represent a better option than LFC at that moment, but the way Mascherano left the club was simply sad & embarassing.
    I will never forget Masch’s ammutination before City Of Manchester game in order to get a cut deal with Barca.
    Liverpool did so much for Mascherano, so much.
    I call this “huge ingratitude”.
    Sometimes several ways of conduct embodies the values of a Man.
    Mascherano pictured his human values.
    Look at Rafa’s tears during memorial service when Margaret Aspinall called his name: irregarding of my point of view on Rafa’s management skills, Rafa still is a GREAT MAN and that’s the most important thing in life.
    Mascherano is a traitor and He will remain forever a traitor: fact.
    I do not want his “dedication”.
    Thanks to Messi for stopping United’s rise, but I do not want anything from Masch.

  7. The Fox says:

    Fact is big players leave big clubs for other big clubs all the time.. That’s the way its always been. Time for some people to grow up and accept a fact of football life. Personally, as much as I may like a player, and Masha was one of my favourites, if a player doesn’t want play for LFC any longer,whatever the reasons,then that’s the end of the matter.

    With regards to his dedication on Saturday night, I thought it was a nice gesture, which has been rightly pointed out, he didn’t have to do. Gave an already sweet victory a little cherry on top. The only acceptable time IMO to use the word betrayal in football, is when a player ends up playing for your arch enemy.. and even then I would only apply it to a local lads who grew up in the club and really should know better.. Stand up Michael Owen .

    Of all the clubs in all the world you had to walk into that one !! shame on you..

  8. You are a moron says:

    Absolute garbage, only written with that hilarious headline to drag angered supporters to your sad little blog. Kind of like that piece of shit Carroll “article” you wrote last week.

  9. TomD says:

    Hodgson said Masch wouldn’t play against City. I don’t believe anything that incompetent face rubbing tw*t says. So until the truth is exposed I’ll accept his dedication.

  10. Yes i undastand that big players may have to move, its football, but the way you move is important.
    Yes Michael Owen is also another total twat, joinin ManUre was the last thing we expected from him.
    Torres’ statements after his move make him another twat.
    @u are a fool. I never wrote about Carroll ever.

  11. jim2011 says:

    What a stupid article.

    Maschers was a great find & a great player even under Woy. He asked to leave when rafas sold alonso (not cos alonso left but cos he wanted to go to Barca) last season & the club persuaded him to give it one more season, he did then left under Woy. He paid tribute to us the fans after winning the CL when he didn’t have to.
    Thank him for that & thank Rafa for bringing him to us when he did remaking a wc player find his feet again….

  12. Jay Wright says:

    Torres left and got us a (very!) fair deal.
    Owen ran down his contract and got us £8m for a recent European player of the year.
    Masch forced through a transfer to generate a minimal profit on somebody that had been purchased from a relegation threatened team (although Hodgson should receive a lot of the blame also for his foolish posturing in the market, even after it was made clear that Masch wanted to move on, thereby putting more power in the buying teams hands)

    I don’t really care for talk of ‘betrayal’, but the actions of Masch and Owen were far worse than that of Torres

  13. stev says:

    utter bullshit!

    and who’s that owen lad?

  14. JamesDean says:

    Who give a crap of Maschy dedication. Thats the past –
    Its aint enuff traitor!
    All i care was Man U got burned again. Thanks to Messi and his gang. We salute barcelona.
    Likewise, we need to keep our europe records straights from
    Man U.

    No one is better than King Kenny & Stevie G.
    YNWA

  15. Slimbo says:

    At least Masch gave notice he wanted to go. My understanding was he was told the season before he could go but they needed him to finish the season out, which he did. We then messed him around by trying to keep him around.
    He clearly loves LFC, unlike some other Chelsea twat. 50mill for Torres had nothing to with Torres, he would’ve gone for 10p if we’d let him. His figure was determined by the price we had to pay for Carrol. Only two out of the three betrayed Liverpool & Masch wasn’t one of them.

  16. Cheyenne says:

    What a ridiculous article but it’s the type of thing I come to expect from this site. Owen has had nothing nice to say about the club since he left, Torres openly admits he couldn’t weait to leave. Masch in his moment of glory thinks of Reds……another superb piece of journalism from Our Kop.

  17. Andy says:

    Amazing Masch was promised a lot by us under the Hicks and Gillett regime, it’s not like they made empty promises is it? We stayed because it’s our club but Masch got an opportunity to go the leading team in the world(you can’t deny that, they are at the moment) where his culture fitted in more easily than Merseyside and he’s a bigger traitor than Owen or Torres. I give up, Owen sha^ on us three times, firstly by refusing to give Rafa a chance and going to Real, then he turned us down to go to Newcastle, that should have finished him with every red. Finally he goes there, wise up he’s the ultimate traitor in my eyes. As for Torres he refused to give Kenny 4 months and bad mouths us left right and centre and insists on joining the chavs. Get real will yer Masch slated the owners not the club the other two have shown total comtempt for the club and it’s fans.

  18. TheBean says:

    all 3… fookin knobheads