On a day where everything seemed to be falling apart, with a penalty in the final moments of Stamford Bridge and Rio Ferdinand kicking off, the last thing we needed to hear was a selection of our players had been in a fight with the rent boy groundstaff.
The pictures showed a beefy Chelsea worker swinging for Patrice Evra, who was being held back by United players and stewards.
Today, the United players have spoken out, pointing the finger at the Chelsea staff, and claiming the CCTV footage will prove them right.
“Patrice received a grave insult from a member of Chelsea’s staff,” said Carlos Tevez, who was one of the seven United players present. “He demanded an explanation and, from that moment, these men just wanted to attack Patrice. Obviously it’s normal that we tried to defend our team-mate but within a few seconds all of the United players were surrounded by stewards.”
This story was backed up by Gerard Pique, who again said that Patrice Evra was the target for this attack. “Basically, this came about because of the provocation of somebody who works for Chelsea,” he said. “Patrice wanted an explanation but these men were very aggressive. All we were doing was finishing our work-out after the game. Even now, I just do not understand the reaction of these people. I have seen the photos and, if the images are stored in the CCTV cameras then it will be impossible for them to say that the players were not provoked.”
However, the fan seen trying to punch Evra claims that the situation looked worse than it actually was. “It was handbags really,” he said. “I’ve been told not to say anything about what actually happened.”
I can only hope that this Chelsea thug isn’t confirming the stereotype of a racist NF rent boy. Either way, I hope the FA finally have the balls to deal with CFC properly…although I won’t hold my breath for anything more than a pitiful 5k fine, which is like loose change for Roman.
*Sigh* I think the only thing the spineless FA will do is charge both teams for improper conduct.
Our players will be publicly abused while they’ll probably let Chelsea deal with their groundstaff “internally”, which they’ll probably do by giving them a raise.
Very likely there was a provocation, but most people will overlook that because they want to believe that United are soar losers and are cracking up under pressure and since they couldn’t take it out on the Chelsea players on the pitch, they’re roughing up the “innocent” groundstaff after everyone’s left the field.
It’s still our title to throw away, but I’d like United to take this talk of pressure & crisis and stuff down Barca’s throat like we did with Roma last year!