The Liverpool Echo has picked up on an article in the media accusing Sky Sports of almost being LFCTV ahead of the game against Southampton last week at St Mary's with their use of footage from that channel featuring Thiago Alcantara.
In fairness to the Liverpool Echo who of course will be biased towards their local teams, Liverpool as well as Marine, Ok Everton too, they have picked up on this piece and highlighted it.
Writing in his Sports Agenda column for the Daily Mail, Mike Keegan declared:
"Those who tuned into Sky's coverage of Liverpool's Monday night trip to Southampton could be forgiven for believing they were watching the Merseyside club's in-house channel - because they were.
"A gushing homage to Thiago Alcantara, who made his first start since October 17 in the 1-0 defeat, was lifted straight from LFCTV and broadcast to the nation, leading some to question the broadcaster's wisdom and impartiality.”
The Liverpool Echo pointed out that the use of the LFCTV clip — complete with their logo remaining intact on the top-right corner of the screen - was picked up on Twitter by some viewers with one Sunderland fan saying: "They’re singing LFC songs on Sky now! Unbelievable,” as Thiago himself was shown to be toe-tapping and whistling along to the Reds terrace anthem dedicated to him based to the tune of the Gibson Brothers’ 1978 disco hit Cuba .
There was of course great anticipation amongst Liverpool fans to see Thiago who had barely featured this season due to injury after arriving at Anfield back in September.
But there was also anticipation amongst Saints fans about the full home debut of Ibrahima Diallo who was replacing Oriel Romeu in the midfield and would be directly up against Thiago.
The irony is that for all the hype generated by Sky for their global audience of Liverpool fans who took to twitter from all corners of the World to say how much they were buzzing in anticipation after seeing this clip, it was Diallo who took the plaudits and bossed Thiago from the very start, so much so that the Liverpool man was booked in only the 3rd minute and came close to being sent off for a couple of tackles after that would probably have seen the yellow card produced if he was not already in the book.
The excitement was all around Thiago pre match but within minutes it was an ex Liverpool player in Danny Ings who was bringing the Liverpool back down to earth.
Personally I don't get het up about the likes of Sky Sports focusing on the big clubs, after all that is where their audience is, I get excited about what happens on the field and last Monday night it was one of those games that reminds us just why we still love going to football, however much Sky Sports try to make it all about the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and the others in the Big Six.
All of those clubs have fans who have followed the clubs for years and are the same as Saints fans or for that matter just about any other football club in England, they are just as hacked off at seeing their football clubs hijacked by idiots on twitter "buzzing with anticipation" at every snippet.
The Premier League is an awful place to be sometimes, but let's not tar all Liverpool, Manchester United or even Spurs fans with the same brush, not all of them think football was invented in 1992.