Today I find myself in the highly unusual position of feeling compelled to stick up for that grand old knight of English football, Sir Alex Ferguson.
With my prior history of being more than a little ABU (that’s Anyone But United just in case you were wondering) you might think my new found affection for both the man and his team is a little weird.
But, as I have said previously, I think this year’s United is a more humble and likable package. And Sir Alex, in comparison to his opposite number on Wednesday night, is downright cuddly.
Jose Mourinho, the man with the ability to make teeth itch, complained after the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge that Sir Alex had had been chatting to the referee during the half time break. “I see one referee in the first half and another in the second,” Jose whined, “maybe when I turn 60 and have been managing in the same league for 20 years and have the respect of everybody, I will have the power to speak to people and make them tremble a bit.”
Harsh and accusing words indeed. And ones that should have got him in trouble with the FA. But, more importantly, Mourinho was right on one count the game was reffed in entirely different ways in each half.
In the first half the man in the middle was heavily biased towards Chelsea, turning down at least one and half very decent penalty claims by United. In the second half he officiated the match with a more even hand.
You cannot condone Sir Alex if he genuinely intimidated the ref but, as a neutral watching the game, you can certainly understand why he felt the need to have a few words with the official during the interval.
Mourinho is the new kid on the block in terms of big boy managers in the Premiership. And he has a lot to learn about a lot of things, not least of which is when to keep his mouth shut.
Having said that, he did have one good point to utter during his post-match interview, referring to the goal that never was at Old Trafford last week: “Manchester United should not be allowed to speak about referees for another year after that,” he said.
The man may have a confident smugness about him that makes you want to give him a good slapping, but he is not backwards at coming forward with his opinion. I¹ll give him that much. Oh, yeah, and he is darned good manager as well. Damn it.
Chelsea flavour
Meanwhile, in another episode with a slight Chelsea flavour, Adrian Mutu has been given a five year deal by Juventus in a move which must have left Peter Kenyon and Roman Abramovich gutted.
Having been fired by Chelsea it was only a matter of time before a player of his calibre found another team who were willing to take a gamble on the Romanian international.
I can’t think of many other businesses in the world that would a) fire an employee for making a single mistake, no matter how large or b) be prepared to write off a multi-million pound asset in the blink of an eye.
Then again, there are many other businesses in the world for whom money is absolutely not an issue. Mutu deserves his second chance. But maybe Juventus and the player would have been a little more tasteful by keeping their deal under wraps until the ban had expired.
Spanish FA Finally a big pat on the back to the Spanish FA. After publicly declaring they were determined to stamp out racism in football and get tough on those clubs involved, they moved swiftly to punish Atletico Madrid.
The club’s fans spent the derby with Real chanting racist abuse at Roberto Carlos, prompting the referee to ask for an announcement over the PA system asking for people to stop. It just made it louder.
So, I thought, if the Spanish FA are promising to stamp out racism this would be a fine time to set an example. A game behind closed doors maybe? What about a point deduction? Nope. Just a pathetic, insulting and ridiculous 600 Euro fine.
Not enough to buy you dinner in some of Madrid¹s better eateries. Possibly not even enough to cover the paperwork, postage and phonecalls that went into handing out the fine in the first place. That’ll teach Oem, eh?
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