'I will eat humble pie if Liverpool win'

Recently I have been under considerable threat from a couple of die-hard Liverpool fanatics to stop having a go at their heroes or else they'd not be responsible for the consequences.

Now some of these Anfield disciples can be found laying into chunks of meat with band-saws and other weaponry at a local butcher down Salt River way where owner Reaz Ahmed drives the Liverpool fanfare to extremes.

This man loves his family to bits, but mention Liverpool and his eyes light up, a beaming smile smothers his face and he appears as excited as when his late dad bought him his first tricycle.

I can't quite recall in which order of importance he rated his mother, wife and offspring, but I do know for sure that he had Liverpool on top of the standings.

That's loyalty for you, so you don't want to mess with him and his henchmen when they're busy cutting up meat. In fact, I'm made to feel like the enemy whenever I set foot on their premises.

But at the risk of being banned from the place, I have to be honest in my assessment of Liverpool's play of late.

And I offer no apologies for not praising the manner in which Rafa Benitez and his inconsistent charges survived the chop in the Champions League.

Given the quality at Anfield, they should never have found themselves in such a precarious position in the first place.

As things panned out, they won in Europe, then lost to Reading, then won in Europe and lost to Manchester United, then boasted about their exploits in Europe and lost to Chelsea.

So, in the name of sanity, when was I supposed to wax lyrical about them?

So I promised the threatening butcher boys that I would eat humble pie to the value of about R100 (sponsored by their butcher, of course) if Liverpool won the English Premiership this season.

Reaz, as confident as ever on Liverpool issues, boldly suggested that he would eat one edition of this particular newspaper if they failed to break their league championship drought. Sportsman that I always strive to be, I thought it better that he restricted his deal to the sports pages rather than run the risk of tucking into some of the political drivel or crime-infested sections.

I wonder which ketch-up goes best with paper, though. I must have some at hand, just in case.

Something I really appreciated the other day was the assumption by a top media personality in the English game that the majority of Liverpool fans would give up another medal in the Champions League for that of the domestic crown.

As I have previously stated much to the annoyance of the butcher boys, the league trophy - and not the one Liverpool chase after - is the one most coveted and cherished by football's top mentors.

Yes, they would give their eye-teeth to lift the European title, but, hey, the ultimate crowning glory for these warriors lies in beating the rivals on the home front week in and week out, and then holding aloft the big prize.

Anyway, this is my final column for the year and, if God wills it, I will return at the end of January when hopefully Bafana Bafana would have already made it through to the knockout stages of the African Nations Cup in Ghana.

To Reaz and his boys and all those who follow Liverpool and arch-rivals Manchester United and local clubs with such passion and unwavering loyalty, let me wish you guys a safe festive season and a happy and prosperous 2008 and, of course, Eid Mubarak to the Muslim community.

Remember, though, that when the cheering has died down and the vuvuzelas fell quiet and the terraces stand empty once more, that it was, after all, only a game.

Someone has to lose for there to be winner. That in recent times Liverpool ended on the losing side more often than the butcher boys would have liked was of their own doing, and that of Rafa.