Many people admire Alex Ferguson. He is undoubtedly one of the best managers ever to have been involved in the game, and his record with Manchester United speaks for itself.
Unfortunately, Fergie himself also speaks; predominantly about referees. An unofficial (and made up) record to add to Fergie’s glimmering collection is that he is the first person in history to have complained about the referee over 300 matches in a row when Manchester United fail to take all three points.
That’s not even lose mind- just not win. Yesterday it was the referee’s fault when Wayne Rooney acted like a petulant child too- granted, the yellow card was harsh, but only a very naïve manager could blame the ref for Wayne’s reaction. Sir Alex, please learn some grace when things don’t go your way- the rest of use are used to much worse results. And remember the penalty you got against Bolton before you claim refs are biased against your team.
Spurs took the seemingly inevitable step this morning and got rid of Juande “the Thunderbirds Puppet” Ramos, although it is still not known if the news forced him to change his expression. Spurs have ploughed over £60 million into the team this year alone, and have previously bragged about signing the “new Zidane” (Adel Taarabt- 19 years old, 8 appearences, no goals) and splashing £4.5 million on “teenage sensation” Kevin-Prince Boateng (21 years old, a handful of appearances, recently rejected by Birmingham City).
As more and more people realise that going to Spurs can be less than healthy for your career (David Bentley take note), will ‘Arry still be able to work his magic? Personally I believe he can. Spurs should have a really good season from now on, and being such a big club, I genuinely think they should be able to avoid the drop. If they’re lucky.
UEFA President Michel Platini has once again proved he has the awareness of an ostrich with its head in the sand, after comments on England’s chances of ever winning the World Cup again. Whatever you may think of his overall view, there are obvious holes in his argument that there are “hardly any [English] players in the final stages of the Champions League”. Just to clarify Mr Platini, in last season’s Champions League final there were ten English players playing (compared with 3 Frenchmen). If you add super striker Emile Heskey to that, you’ve got a whole team. Isn’t that chip on you shoulder getting a bit heavy now?
It’s very easy to have a pop at Joey Barton. So I guess I may as well.
Literally days after promising Newcastle fans he wanted to start “earning his transfer fee” and that he wanted to become a role model for young people, Barton was seen kissing his badge to deliberately provoke Sunderland fans.
Don’t get me wrong; I think fans’ treatment of players can be disgusting, and there should be no place in football for missiles or even merciless verbal abuse. Just because fans pay money to be there, they shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever they want. However, after stating his grand intention, to immediately regress to the childish Joey we all know so fast does rather make you want to slap him round the face with a wet fish and tell him to grow up. On those sort of wages, it shouldn’t be too hard to ignore a bit of abuse without responding.
Finally, congratulations to title challengers Hull City, who have to be one of the best stories in football over the last five years or so. Allegedly Ronaldo is now hankering for a move there next summer, but that may very well just be a complete lie.
The Armchair Fan promises to bring you all the stories from the football world which you will have missed in the regular press – check them out at his website.
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