Gerard Houllier hit out at the English Football Association last night after claiming that Steven Gerrard had been tried and convicted long before a disciplinary panel found him guilty of violent conduct and imposed a three-match ban on the Liverpool midfielder.
The suspension was imposed after a 3½-hour hearing at Bolton's Reebok Stadium yesterday, some seven weeks after Gerrard's two-footed lunge on Everton's Gary Naysmith left the Scot nursing a gash on his upper thigh.
The suspension rules him out of England's friendly with Australia next week with Sven-Goran Eriksson barred from selecting players serving violent conduct bans.
He will also miss tomorrow's FA Cup fourth-round replay with Crystal Palace, along with Premiership games at home to Middlesbrough and away to Birmingham City. The ugly incident, 10 minutes before the end of December's goalless Merseyside derby, was not spotted by the referee Graham Poll. The 22-year-old thus escaped any punishment at the time although he was moved to issue a post-match public apology for the challenge in the wake of television replays.
That act of appeasement clearly fell on deaf ears at the FA and, though Liverpool said they did not intend to appeal, Houllier left the hearing perplexed and sporting a face like thunder.
"In my view we were definitely hard done by," said the Frenchman. "I don't want to comment about whether it was going against us during the hearing because I could go over the top. But Steven was condemned in the media before he was even judged and that probably put pressure on the panel.
"The truth was that it was a mistimed tackle with no malicious intent. Even (the Everton manager) David Moyes admitted that at the time. I'm disappointed. It was practically an accident. If I had the slightest hint he was guilty of something, I wouldn't have come here to defend him."
Gerrard, flanked by his agent Struan Marshall, his manager and the Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry, had arrived at the stadium during a blizzard but, with his defence frozen out, left without comment as he contemplated an untimely spell on the sidelines just when form and fitness had returned to his game.
His omission from Eriksson's England squad to be announced this Saturday is another blow, though his enforced absence is likely to prove more critical for Liverpool's season.
Despite Sunday's 3-0 success at West Ham, during which Gerrard scored his second league goal of the campaign, the Merseysiders are 14 points behind Arsenal at the Premiership's summit and, more significantly, three off Chelsea in the fourth Champions League qualifying place.
In the circumstances, the FA's decision not to impose a fine on the midfielder - dismissed and banned for a similar challenge on Aston Villa's George Boateng in September 2001 - was scant consolation.
"I don't want to refer to other cases where the same sanctions haven't been imposed," Houllier added, hinting at the FA's decision to merely fine Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp for stamping on the Blackburn Rovers defender Nils-Eric Johansson during their 2-1 win at Highbury in October.
"Steven's only had one booking all season so you can imagine how I feel about it but we will help Steven through this."
Darren Huckerby, bumped further down the Manchester City pecking order after the £6 million signing of Robbie Fowler, has turned down a move to join Celtic in order to sign for Nottingham Forest on loan but with a view to a £1.5 million transfer if they are promoted. Huckerby (26), will put pen to paper on February 24th so that his three-month loan will end the day after the First Division play-off final.
City's manager Kevin Keegan has given the forward permission to arrive at the City Ground a week earlier, to enable him to prepare with his new team-mates.
Tottenham's Darren Anderton is set to hold talks about a new White Hart Lane contract at the end of the season. Anderton is looking for an extension to his existing deal, which expires in the summer of 2004.
The Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe admits the club has to cut its costs. The latest results of Southampton Leisure Holdings plc, the club's parent company, reveal losses of over £3.5 million for the six months up to the end of November.
