There is a story, now glorified in myth, that on Bobby Robson’s 70th birthday some years ago, Sir Alex Ferguson claimed there would be “no bloody chance” he would still be working at the same age. It was an assertion the Manchester United manager repeated in 2008. Now, nearly a decade after Ferguson announced his retirement in 2002, the Scot has broken that promise. Indeed, the manager’s avowal may well be breached by years, with Ferguson seeking three more campaigns in charge at Old Trafford, according to the Scot’s programme notes on Saturday.
Ferguson remains one of football’s most enduringly complex characters, and with no pressure to bring forward retirement, the manager can effectively stay at Old Trafford as long as he wants. That Ferguson will remain in charge until his health fails him is now the accepted party line.
“As long as my health stays up, and as long as I’m still enjoying it and still getting the satisfaction of the team doing its best,” admitted Ferguson on Saturday. Smokescreen or otherwise, it is undoubtedly Ferguson who will choose the timing and manner of his departure.
Ferguson’s bank of credit is more extensive than any other manager in the game, and the Scot’s achievements were rightly celebrated both on these pages and elsewhere when he reached 25 years at Old Trafford earlier this season. But with Ferguson reaching 70 on Saturday there is little need to repeat November’s exercise in lionisation, when the plaudits flowed, and supporters, media and players were drawn to heartfelt praise of the Scot’s achievements. Old Trafford’s North Stand now proudly lauds Ferguson’s achievements forever more.
Yet, Ferguson’s 70th birthday also marks an opportunity to reflect on the man, and the fascinating drive that ensures a pensioner continues working in the most pressurised atmosphere. Despite previous promises of retirement, Ferguson’s impact on the club is enduring.
The answer to this is, of course, far more nuanced than the simplified legend. Ferguson is stubborn, driven, ruthless, arrogant, selfish, and a megalomaniac; all traits that lie at the heart of both the Scot’s longevity and huge success. Underpinning the septuagenarian’s endurance well beyond pensionable age is the fearsome control exerted over almost every aspect of the club. From the players, whose every movement may no longer be tracked but is dictated by the United manager-cum-polymath, to the club’s staff, who are unquestioning in every aspect of United’s management.
Yet, these are also traits that have brought Ferguson into repeated conflict with his players, staff, and at times fans, investors and executive management. It has not always been to the club’s benefit, says former player Roy Keane, who dramatically fell out with Ferguson in 2005. “I don’t think Ferguson does what is right for Manchester United. I think he does what is right for him,” said Keane. “The two words he always used were “power” and “control”.”
Indeed, the manager’s belief that he can never – must never – lose an argument with a player, sometimes no matter who is actually right, has brought conflict not only with Keane, but David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam and others. The conflict du jour, if Sunday’s media reports have any credibility, is with star striker Wayne Rooney, apparently dropped for United’s fixture with Blackburn because of a late night out. Whether the latest reports are correct or not, Ferguson’s word is still law at Old Trafford, and more often than not even the most serious arguments with players have neither permanently damaged team nor club.
Yet, the Scot has also picked one fight too many at times, being drawn into an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle with former shareholders John Magnier and J. P. McManus in 2004. The conflict, catalysed by Ferguson’s desire for financial gain when the horse Rock of Gibraltar was put out to stud, drew in every aspect of the club. While Magnier and McManus’ now infamous ’99 questions’ placed Ferguson under an uncomfortable spotlight, the conflict enabled the Glazer family’s leveraged takeover the following year according to many observers.
Ferguson’s failure to acknowledge his role in driving McManus and Magnier away, and subsequent vocal support for the Glazer regime, has divided fans. For many, the manager’s legacy is now tainted. Others, bank of credit firmly in the forefront, brook no question with the Ferguson’s strategy, even if it is seemingly born out of self-interest.
“People say Ferguson always does what’s right for Man United. I don’t think he does. I think he does what’s right for him,” adds Keane.
“The Irish thing, I was speaking to the manager about it. This didn’t help the club, the manager going to law against its leading shareholder. How could it be of benefit to Man United? ‘They’ve used me, they’ve treated me badly’, Ferguson told me in his office. I said, ‘You’re not going to win’, and he said, ‘I don’t care, no-one does that to me’.”
This is just one aspect of Ferguson’s enduring stubbornness: the total belief that not only he is right, but fans, media, pundits, players and fellow managers are almost always in error. It is this belief that drew the United manager into battle once again last week, with the Scot claiming that he “will not be swayed by the endless tweets and blogs urging the club to get busy in the transfer market next month.” As far as Ferguson is concerned, he is “marching perfectly in step, true to [his] beliefs and principles.”
Another principle unchanged is Ferguson’s bizarre tendency to over-rotate, deploy players out of position and tinker with his team. The United manager effectively invented the squad game, and has now taken the policy to it’s zenith. Ferguson’s team selection against Blackburn, for example, included a right-back, in his first game for six months, and a left-winger, each deployed in central midfield. Whether it is principled in total football, or a complete mess, depends on one’s assessment of ‘Tinkerbell’s’ priorities.
Whatever Ferguson’s personality failings, they are also the same qualities that has brought United 36 major trophies during the past quarter century. No matter the hugely frustrating and aggressive support for United’s carpetbagging owners – “f*ck off and support Chelsea if you dont like it – Ferguson has built modern United and is largely responsible for the club’s recent glories. It is a juxtaposition not easily reconciled.
And the Scot is in no mood to draw his glorious run to an end, seemingly not downbeat by the owners’ financial restrictions, but reenergised by younger players that have joined the Reds’ squad this season.
“There are new players that have come in, like [Phil] Jones, [Chris] Smalling, Ashley Young, [Danny] Welbeck – and they haven’t won any league medals yet. We have to continue the dominance of winning leagues and, without question, winning a European Cup is important at this club. We should have been in at least another three finals.
“But you can’t be greedy, I suppose, and having won two in my time is an achievement. They were special, it was terrific to win them. I think I’d be very keen to do that [again]. You don’t win every time. People maybe say we’re great winners and all that type of thing, but I think we’re great losers. You know why? Because we don’t let it happen too many times and we’ve a certain attitude about that.”
Yet at 70, with at most three and a half more seasons in charge at Old Trafford if the manager’s word holds true, Ferguson’s greatest challenge may lie ahead. Despite the repeated insistence that money is available if required, logic dictates that the 70-year-old is being liberal with the truth. After al,l the assertions that there ‘is no value in the market’ and now that ‘there is nobody good enough for United’, simply do not ring true. That rivals at home and abroad have no such restrictions only exacerbate the challenge.
But if the manager’s greatest challenges lie ahead, then so too could be Ferguson’s finest glory, well past his 71st year. There is nobody else with the force of nature to take a limited squad to domestic and European glory. In the context of the current season, a 19th domestic title and European final last time out was among Ferguson’s very finest achievements.
Sorry, but Fergie is now past tense.
He’s been a sensation. Despite being a pig-headed stubborn mule last summer and this season, taking his whole career at United, he is as close to management perfection as you are ever going to get.
A genius – and a living legend.
and who would you have replace him then?
I think that OGS is going to replace him – after Ole-G gets some experience under his belt. His performance with the reserves and in his first season managing in Norway seems to suggest that all the compliments SAF gave him when he was a player betray a long-standing vision of the great man’s succession. That’s a three-to-five year vision. IF SAF has to be replaced sooner than that then Mourinho seems the likely lad.
Of course, Fergy is soooooo stubborn that he might just confound all speculation and stay on for another decade. He’s defied most expectations before and I don’t see why he can’t do it again.
It’s not as simple as let’s just get mourinho short term. Despite the noises coming from the special ones camp about a return to england do you really see him taking over after saf without any real spending power to compete with city and his old boss down south? I for one don’t. Let’s stick with fergie, I think he’s earned our trust by now. You can’t sack the manager every time you have a shit result. The problem is he has us spoilt rotten and we feel a divine right to steamroller every team we play. Can’t win em all but we do win most!!
The Rock of Gibralrar led to the Glzers takeover theory never made sense to me. As if Patrick Barclay putting something in a book somehow makes it true. The people that sold their shares to Magnier and McManus after their row with Fergie was made public to increase their stake wouldn’t also have sold to the Glazers for a profit? Also, these hard nosed businessmen would somehow not have sold their (initially smaller) stake to the Glazers for a healthy profit had there not been a row? Fergie feuded under the prevous ownership structure with Edwards family incessantly over transfer funds and other financial matters. So is it also Fergie’s fault the Edwards family sold their stake?
As the article deftly shows, Fergie is a firebrand. He tangles with the BBC, Keano or investors without a thought. He’s also the best manager ever with balls the size of… Despite previous assertions to the contrary, neither his past squabbles nor his failure to squabble with the current oweners in any way tarnish SAF’s legacy. (But he did get lucky this week with Citeh dropping points)
Unless one (or probably even both) of those things are true, the Glazers would have bought the club regardless.
I agree that the Glazers could have just bought the Magnier and McManus parcel irrespective of the R of G issue, but it didn’t help. M & M wanted out because they were in litigation with the key man at the club that they owned 30% of – they probably wanted to stick it to him as well. Had M & M not been in litigation with Fergie, it’s possible that their asking price for the shares might have been too rich for the Glazers, as they may have been willing to hold out for another bidder to come in (or take the risk that no better offer materialised). They were not desperate sellers but the Glazers knew they were keen, which would have affected the price.
I’m not convinced that the Glazers would have been happy to buy 70% and to have kept M & M on the share register. Particularly if Fergie and M & M were still good mates – right now Fergie gets whatever info the Glazers want him to know about the club’s finances etc, whereas if M & M were on the register as 30% minority shareholders, they’d have access to the accounts and in the scenario where Fergie was still their mate, he’d have an inside line on what was happening at board level.
fucking hell
who’s talking about sacking him ffs
Well said. The notion that Fergal owes a duty to tangle with the owners as some sort of champion of the fans is utterly ridiculous.
Happy birthday sir Alex please can you tell me how we were European Champions 3 years ago and now all the reserves from that team are in the first team.
Spoken like a proper capitalist knob.
Fuck the fans… money rules… make ’em pay…
face it Alf
that’s life…the rich shit on the poor, the big guys usually win etc
Really hard to accept han.
You know what though?
You are absolutely right.
I like matthew rileys post
none of this team would get into the champions league winning 11
its called progress by SAF no doubt
ps LC’pnHK 2012
Long live Ferguson! Seriously cannot think of anyone better than Fergie to lead United. We have doubted and criticized Fergie many times but he has proved us wrong and won championships and championships in the past 25 years. Stay longer and help United win loads more!!
A side topic, what the heck is wrong with Rooney. Honestly, he is an over-rated player despite he can do something special eg. the overhead kick against City, the Scholesy cross-field passes…etc. but more often than not, he doesn’t play up to expectations. Then his on/off-fields problems are really a distraction to United. Contract saga, swearing into the TV camera, England’s red card and now going out late with Gibson…. Rooney not being able to play against Blackburn seriously cost us 3 Fxxxxx points. Seriously, he needs a big bashing and concentrate on his football. He’s only got 5-7 years left as a top footballer and if he really wants to be a superstar then please focus on your priorities. If not, sell him and let Fergie build another champions team for years with the likes of Jones, Smalling and Welbeck as the backbone. Losing patience and faith in Rooney…!
Ferguson still in charge at 90 (which some of you appear to hope for) =
1. hairdryer treatment for players before the match starts
2. team assistant specially appointed to wake him up during the game
3. team assistant employed to count the goals we have scored (if any) during the game and constantly remind him thereof (after him being woken up)
4. team assistant employed to count the goals the opposition have scored ditto ditto point 4
5. team official employed to do the additon, subtraction and tell him whether we are winning, losing, drawing
6. team official to make sure he does not get lost in the tunnel
7. team official to constantly remind him of current values of players, so he doesn’t offer Inter (say) three hundred grand for their 20 year old leading goalscorer in Serie A
8. team official to remind him of the names of players
9. United to wear shirt with zig-zag stripes for easier visual identification
10. secret taperecorder with pre-recorded `classic’ Fergusonisms concealed about his person, so he can just replay the `football,bloody hell’ (1999) or `no value in the market’, (2008-2032 ) to satisfy the press and fans in desperate need to get the inside track in what is happening with Man Utd and at OT.
etc etc
the man is already showing signs of losing it: stay till he’s 90? Maybe the Premier League needs a bit of comic relief, but why would it have to be us?
4. Team offical employed
You’re an idiot.
Yeah,, but one with a Ph D — so its Dr Idiot to you my little friend
He’s not perfect, but he’s probably the best manager in the world and certainly the best for United. Anyone saying he should be sacked is an idiot.
Ed: why do you keep bringing up the ‘no value/no-one good enough for United’ lines? I thought it was common knowledge that we tried to sign midfielders in the summer? So isn’t this a simple case of the manager trying to galvanise his players?
I doubt it would do us any good for him to come out and say “we are clearly weak in midfield, Carrick and Anderson are too inconsistent and not United quality, I honestly have no idea if Ravel will ever stop being a criminal thug and Pogba should sign a contract or fuck off… and if he thinks his parents can keep the house he’s more of a daft cunt than his hair suggests.”
Ph D???
You have to be clever to get one of those Mate…
I don’t know why we are arguig : I think that it would be insane for Fergie to leave until things are in place, but there is something in the man that seems to want to go on forever, and he is not the man he once was, by a long chalk. Age takes its toll.
All I was doing was having a go at those posters here (and certainly not you) who think he can carry on forever, that he never makes mistakes and that we are have a God-given right to win the championship this year, even if we start out with Park and Raphael as our central midfield. I was also a bit pissed off, because I felt if we got our noses ahead of City over the New Year, then we could really put pressure. Now it is starting to look after City’s loss that the title can be won by default not by a team really winning it with style, authoity and conviction.
For the record, I agreed with you in your clash with RobDiablo on the Suarez racism issue a couplke of weeks back. Take care.
Did we? Let’s examine this for a moment and ask whether we really tried to sign some midfielders…
Exhibit 1: Wesley Sneijder. Inter wanted £35m. Sneijder wanted £250k. We offered Inter less and asked Sneijder to take a pay cut
Exhbit 2: Samir Nasri. Arsenal wanted £25m. Nasri wanted £180k. We got nowhere near.
Interest in a player and not being able to come up with the numbers doesn’t mean we had the money. There’s more (although not all midfielders…)
Exhibit 3: £8m bid for Romelu Lukaka last season. Rightly laughed out by Anderlecht.
Exhibit 4: Erikson being touted around Europe to highest bidder. United discounted by all parties.
Truth is United saved around £17m/year when Neville, VDS, Hargreaves, Scholes, Brown, O’Shea all left. Amortise the £50m-ish spent in the summer across 4 years and you get….
Don’t expect much to be spent in January or the summer unless the IPO happens
Haven’t you just confirmed what I said? :/
We did try to sign players but probably wisely decided not to pay absurd money in an inflated market.
Nasri has been shit, as I predicted he would be away from Arsenal. And Sneijder has hardly sparkled this season. 35MIL + huge wages for someone his age is laughable.
So why are you blaming Ferguson for something which is, at worst, the fault of our owners?
Say what you like about Ferguson and this team, if it wasn’t for an horrific injury list we would be top of the table.
DeadRevel – If I’m “blaming” Fergie for anything its making excuses on the owners behalf. The money’s there, there’s no value, there’s nobody available, there’s nobody good enough…..
I agree with you Ed – up to a point.
We clearly don’t have money (or are not willing) to go to town on a player with big wages and a big fee – but we are willing to spend money when we consider that it is warranted. If United were really penny pinching we would’nt have signed the players we did this summer. Adler, Stekelenburg or even just sticking with Lindegaard would have been far cheaper than £18M on De Gea. Equally, although we’re struggling defensively now, few thought we needed a new CB this summer or that another winger was a priority.
Surely the new contracts offered to the likes of Vidic, Rooney, Carrick, Evra, Fletch, Ando and maybe a few others, offset the savings United have made when the old guard left in the summer?
I accept that United are frugal with transfers and that this is due to the Glazers, but I also think that the decision not to pay Nasri and Sneijder what they and their clubs wanted was the right decision – as I don’t think either wage was warranted – provided we had looked elsewhere and bought in other cheaper midfield targets that were an improvement on G-Bomb and an ill Fletch. The problem is of course that we didn’t and our rivals at home and abroad are willing to pay the ridiculous fees and wages for the best now – not tomorrow.
I think just as much a problem as United’s tight purse strings is Fergie’s own shortcomings. He’s failed to identify a midfield player that fits the Hernandez/Smalling/Jones/De Gea model, i.e. young, highly talented, keen to play for United and available at a decent price. We know that there have been numerous players that have been available since Ronaldo has left that have fitted this model, but we’ve not gone for them or waited too long and been gazumped by teams who don’t care how much they spend. Many have put this down to being skint, but it’s also Fergie’s incompetence. I don’t know why but he can’t spot midfield talent.
He’s still in fine form now, but I don’t know if he’s got 3 years. I hope so and I also hope he goes out at the top. I don’t want to see him leaving the job looking old and tired – I thought Sir Bobby Robson looked a bit tired at the end of his time in management although I guess the way he got dumped quite unfairly didn’t help.
Quite right that we didn’t bid that much for Wesley and nasri, lukaku is now on loan and jury is out on his quality and isn’t he a forward – where would he fit in with hernandez Berbatov rooney wellbeck?
as for eriksen who has made a bid in europe for him and how much have we tabled?
Sorry it’s katkuta on loan. Lukaku is a childhood Chelsea fan loved hasselbaink and drogba – little chance of that ever happening
I agree with the point you’re making but your arguments supporting that is poor.
1) 27yr old Sneijder isn’t worth £35-40m and 250k wages. One prima donna with those wages is enough and at least he’s much more marketable than Sneijder. Also he’s a better player.
2) 180k for Nasri is again too much.
3) Lukaku so far from what I’ve seen is worth zero + all the eats they have to feed him.
4) Eriksen, doesn’t he play on the right wing? We have good players there, perhaps our strongest position in the 11.
You’ll need to include wages for Young, Jones and De Gea + 50m.
Sir Ryan Giggs? No no no. Sir Paul Scholes say.
Dozer – none of the players may be ‘worth it’ but what’s value? You’re stating your belief that they’re not worth it but if the market supports the fees and the wages then the market says otherwise. Fact: Ferguson wanted one of Sneijder and Nasri and couldn’t afford either. The point being football is very competitive. Transfer fees are not a superb indicators of success – statistically speaking – but wages are a very good indicator. If United can’t afford the top level players, how long before that filters down? Just look at the stand-off with Pogba. If he does go elsewhere, will it be because he’s “greedy” or the fact somebody else (the market!) is prepared to pay more than United.
I agree with Dozer. I believe that Sneijder, while a class player who would surely upgrade the squad, was not worth his fee and wages at his age and injury situation. (I thought I saw that same argument made on this site last summer.) I’m not sure if WS’s demand that the club buy his house in Italy was genuine ot not but it smaacked of Ronaldinho’s helicopters which also turned me off. Nasri again fit the bill but while Ferguson has shown a willingness to pay top wages for proven United performers (Keane, Roons), he usually balks at making this leap for a newcomer. Alexis Sanchez and Ozil were also the subject of inquiries by United but from what I read they were only ever going to go to Spain. So with regard to the above, does Fergie want to upset chemistry (al la Veron) with a top-notch, high wage player who doesn’t necessarily fancy playing for United and could become easily disgruntled/homesick/a cancer? It’s a risk I believe he doesn’t think is worth taking.
Eriksen, is he good enough? No one else seems to think so. I always thought United should shore up the defensive midfield role esp. with Fletch out and sign Rodwell for 20 mil. Then he could afford to try Ando/Cleverly/Morrison/Carrick or even Roon in the creative CM slot. Obviously Fergie disagrees.
nasri has stunk the place out at city, being outperformed by milner and barry
Fuck Liverpool, fuck Dalglish and fuck Suarez.
This is not a partisan or “tribal” issue. I’d say the same whatever club behaved this way.
One wonders what the hell is going on with them. I just read the Guardian article on their recent condemnation of the FA report as `subjective’, glossing over how their players and officials changed their stories midstream in order to fit in with Suarez’s changing tale. That’s lying. One is almosat glad that they lost 3-0 last night to our Manchester rivals: kind of shows them just how far they have fallen from the standard setting team of the late 70s and 80s. Shame on you Liverpool Football Club– your only excuse is your stupidity in not seeing what damage you are doing to the issue of racial equality.
Putting to one side the impact on our title challenge, Damian, the other negative about Liverpool getting raped by Citeh last night is that it will only add to the myth of Suarez: “if only our little Luis could have played for us last night, we’d have beat Citeh 10-nil, lah”.
Call me cynical but I’ve no doubt at all that Dalglish didn’t fancy it at Wastelands which is why LFC let the ban kick in, what, an hour before kick-off?
I was praying for a nil-all draw but this is Liverpool we’re talking about here – remember how they folded like a deck of cards 2 seasons ago against Chelsea when we were looking good for 19?
I watched the game and they didn’t deserve to lose 3-0 by any means. In fact they outperformed City for much of the game and had about 66% possession I believe. City fluked 2 goals out of nowhere and that knocked the fight out of the Scousers.
But yes, Liverpool FC are racist.
Football’s funny. If we had fluked 2 goals out of nowhere to beat Blackburn 4-3, City would probably have struggled to a 0-0 draw. That would have left us with an edge over them going into the match against Newcastle. Now we have to win to stay just behind them on goal difference. To me that seems a very different proposition from the player morale and motivation point of view.
That’s why Fergie experimenting with selection when we were on a run, looks to me like being very stupid, strategically speaking.
Cheers
Damian @ 2:54: ” Fergie experimenting with selection when we were on a run, looks to me like being very stupid, strategically speaking.”
What ? SAF didn’t “experiment with selection” – he had no available/healthy central defender other than MrJones (who is actually a better midfielder). ThreeLungPark has played in central midfield for Korea countless times – and he played there for PSV before he came to UTD. I suppose that you could argue that he played Rafael/Valencia out-of-position in the first half but, really, how “out of position” was Rafael against TheArse last year ? how “out of position” has Valencia been over the past month when there were no healthy right backs ?
When a whole first-eleven are injured – and two other guys had turned up at training drunk “and disorderly” according to numerous press reports – what’s the manager supposed to do. Wave a magic wand and get CaptainVidic and Chris Smalling and Tom Cleverley out onto the pitch ? ignore TheWayneBoy’s insubordination ?
Managing this team, at this point-in-time, with these absences, is clearly a juggling act. As it was, Blackburn had three chances and put all three into the back of the net – it was just one of those days. I wouldn’t read much into it – like the old saying goes, they could play that match again 99 times and the result would have been different. Shit happens.
Damian – it wasn’t a matter of UTD “fluking two goals out of nowhere” so much as their rookie-keeper stopping two shots with his feet when his body was going in the other direction. IF those two shots had gone in, IF Grant Hanley was called for “goalkeeper interference” and IF no penalty was given for the Samba/Berbatov tussle when they were both clutching-and-grabbing, then the final score would have been 4-1 and the post-match reports would have said that that was a fair reflection. But, of course, if horses had wings …… Like I said, shit happens.
shit has happened again: 3-0 to NewcastleL that’s diarrhea,
is he making excuses on the owners behalf though ed? what do you mean by that?
could it be that the cash, or a substantial amount of cash is there but fergie is just doing a wenger, and refuses to acnknowledge that the world has changed because of chelsea and citeh, and there is now a min, price in terms of wages and salary?
in relation to whether or not the cash is there, i respect all your work on the subject over the past few years but the simple fact is that you don’t know, and neither do i. you can spectulate, and use reason and common sense but you don’t know for sure, only gill, fergie and the rest of the board do.
so when fergie says – he has the cash and he will not be badgered into buying anyone – and he has no problem with the owners, do you think he is lying to himself or the rest of the world?
if so, why do that? you have to admit that a 70 year old who has defined a generation, past, current and future, will become a leading figure in British history, sporting and otherwise, why would he bullshit himself, club and the world? i say he has no reason to bullshit himself or anyone, I say he has cash – or rather, the problem is not the cash – but that he simply will not spend it in today’s market – and incur the salary costs. this is primarily due to his own now seemingly old-fashioned perceptions of talent and value. i say fergie had the opportunity to up the anti in the summer but he wrongly thought that the squad was sufficient – i say that he underestimated injuries and the effect it would have on the squad. he misjudged fletcher and he has wholly misplaced trust in anderson. his overreliance on his own skill / overestaimation of resources mean’t that he could not push the extra millions for the deal or the extra thousands on salary. also, i have said before, philisophically and by any rationale manner is makes zero sense for the glazers to run united at cost – they need united to be successful in whole or in part in order to strip it for profit / increase value to raise its IPO valuation. it just doesn;t make any sense to deprive fergie of resources – bankrupt united and for the banks to take the keys. the IPO may be the key for more chunky money but will fergie have the guts to spend it?
With Cahill wanting 120k a week you can see why SAF say there’s no value in the market. It is a complete joke and that is why we don’t buy the top end players as they want silly money and aren’t guaranteed to make a difference. Hence buy the next big thing young and relatively cheap.
He may decide not to buy on principle plus Hargreaves and Berbatov were two marquee big money buys that haven’t worked out. Anderson could be the next. 20 mill doesn’t get you guaranteed results these days, Young and De Gea are hardly setting the world alight either.
I’m with you, carrol 30m, torres 50m – result? fuck all. yet we’ve be bummed up by an inspired newcastle midfield which is cheap as chick shit. why is it that we cannot identify talent?
why is it that fergie constantly bums up pogba and morrison, yet refuses to play them?
can fergus really justify playing a 38 year old in midfield? destroying the confidence of Jones who was at directly / indirectly at fault for all 3 goals tonight? pushing rooney into midfield? why do our medics always end up messing up a player?
Fergie is fucking up big time!He is getting it all wrong, Play the young boys we have fuck all to lose.
Stick Jones and Rooney in CM with orders to bully the oppo – Ravel attacking midfield at home, Carrick in dm when we play away. Welbeck up top. Giggs left wing, Valencia right – Nani on the bench.
I’ve said before that, whilst I accept the Glazers have hurt our ability to spend, I think the manager also has a lot to answer for with some of the decisions he himself has made.
In any event, let’s suppose that our situation re being able to invest in the squad is so bad that we are virtually stuck with what we have (as many on here argue), Fergie should have retired at the end of last season with his head held high instead of witness the painful decline of his football team.
Some people use the word ‘transition’, I think we’re witnessing a decline. That is my strong fear.
Fergie’s a proud man and, IMO, it doesn’t stand up to logic that he would stay on just for the sake of it. He wants to stay on for another 3 years. Why would anyone stay on to manage this shite? If he can’t improve the team, why would he stay on to watch all the good work he has invested for the last 25 years come undone?
Something doesn’t add up.
sheeshy that’s what i’ve been saying for years. why would the greatest manager of all times stand for a situation taht he has no $$$ when he can see the Chavs and Citeh, I mean CITEH spending like cunts and positioning themselves. i’m sure he would rather walk, yet he wants to stay on – for what exactly – so he can play with his race horses and drink his 100 quid bottles of wine.
honestly, this is Fergies “win” and if for one moment he thought that he lost his power and control and his access to cash he would punch someone or simply walk. he has done neither. he has the power and control just like keane says – and i tell you what it is not unreasonable to assume that the glazers said – that’s 20m you’ve lost us going out of the UCL, you go out and fucking invest because in the long term our investment is contingent on us winning.
its as is he wants to prove everyone wrong just like wenger the old duffers but its getting silly
barcodes kicked the fuck out of us
Fergie at 70 : P2L2GD-4.
I hate cliches about sell-by dates but…
danniitronix… “I’m not saying the Glazers are innocent, but Ferguson is daft old cunt, who wouldn’t know a quality midfielder if it kicked him in the nuts”.
danniitronix… “I’m not saying the Glazers are honest, but they’re not the ones telling United fans that our midfield is good enough… it’s Ferguson, and he is full of shit”.
danniitronix… “I’m not saying the Glazers are good owners but, the money’s obviously there… Ferguson said so, and he wouldn’t lie”.
…
I’m not saying danniitronix sucks cock… but his breath stinks like a Liverpool whores’ nickers.