Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

baz2009 wrote: »

With..?

me-skywalker wrote: »

Typical Germans....
Had to look away when Fergie went on that rant cant defend his indignity and petulance

Is Sir Alex Ferguson: a) absurd, b) pathetic or c) right?

Simon Barnes, Chief Sports Writer April 9, 2010

It was the referee’s fault that Manchester United went out of the Champions League on Wednesday night. Nicola Rizzoli showed insufficient resolve when surrounded by the Bayern Munich players. “Typical Germans. The referee has got to handle it.”

Rafael Da Silva was sent off for two obvious fouls. “With 11 men, no problem, we would have won the game. They got him sent off. Everyone sprinted towards the referee.”

But come, let us ignore the breathtaking hypocrisy of a manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, whose team perpetrated the finest massed, bulging-veined referee harangues of all time, with Andy D’Urso their victim in January 2000. Let us keep our minds on those naughty referees.

When was the last time the referee cost United the result they so clearly deserved? Last weekend, actually. Mike Dean turned down two appeals for penalties as they lost 2-1 to Chelsea and Simon Beck, one of the assistants, ruled that Didier Drogba was onside for Chelsea’s second goal. “A game of that magnitude, you really need quality officials and we didn’t get them today. It was a poor, poor performance.”

Referees have done many other terrible things this season. Alan Wiley was “unfit” when United drew 2-2 with Sunderland in October. The same month, when United lost 2-0 against Liverpool, it was because the referee, Andre Marriner, did not “have the experience”.

When Chelsea beat United 1-0 in November, it was Martin Atkinson’s fault. “The referee’s position to make the decision was absolutely ridiculous. The goal shouldn’t have been allowed. You lose faith in refereeing sometimes.”

And on, and on, back into history. Atkinson’s performance was “unacceptable” when Portsmouth put United out of the FA Cup in 2008. That sort of thing “should not be accepted in our game”. Against Hull City that same year, Dean “failed in his duty”. And United actually won that one 4-3.

In 2007 Howard Webb “at times favoured Arsenal” in a 2-2 draw. That same year, Ferguson was sent to the stands for a half-time rant at Mark Clattenburg: “I told him how bad he was and he didn’t like it.”

In his consistency, Ferguson is absurd, pathetic, a figure of fun. But he carries on doing it. Some believe there is method in it — over the course of time he intimidates referees into giving pro-United decisions and, anyway, ref-bashing takes attention away from his players’ — and his own — failings. Without the latest rants, we might all be talking about the unprofessional behaviour of Rafael or United’s overreliance on Wayne Rooney.

But we’re talking about those things anyway. Meanwhile, referees continue to make decisions that go against United as well as decisions that go in their favour. So if referee-ranting is a Cunning Plan, it isn’t one that actually works.

We must consider, then, the possibility that Ferguson says these things because he honestly believes them. I think he does. He really believes that one of the most powerful and successful clubs in the world are singularly ill favoured by match officials and are consistently and unfairly discriminated against.

This sense of persecution has always been a part of Ferguson’s technique. He sees United as a group of good men besieged by the unfairness of a cruel world. That has been a potent source of their success and it is based on a strange illusion.

Manchester United are not more persecuted by referees or by anyone else. They’re on top, so there are plenty of opponents trying to take them down; that’s the nature of sport. But it’s the nature of sport that pushes Ferguson into his default state of persecution.

Just as a batsman knows that there are 11 people on the pitch out to get him, Ferguson knows that there are 19 clubs in the Premier League out to get him — and many more waiting for him the other side of the Channel. This is not a situation he deals with philosophically. Instead, he uses his sense of persecution as inspiration.

It works because it is mixed with a sense of entitlement. Ferguson knows that his teams deserve to win. Anyone who tries to deny United their just deserts is obviously wrong. It is a referee’s job to dispense justice; a referee’s sense of justice is never going to coincide with Ferguson’s.

But let us consider another option. Hold your breath, because this is a pretty outrageous concept. Perhaps the point is that Ferguson is right.

Referees do make mistakes. Refereeing is a subjective art. Decisions also depend on a referee’s position — a tackle can look fair from one side, malicious from another. A referee can’t be on both sides at once.

No referee is capable of being in the right place to make correct decisions with every incident in a match. It’s not physically possible. The most that can be said is that the best referees are the least imperfect. Perfection in refereeing is simply unattainable.

This is a problem for two reasons. The first is that in football, the value of the currency is uniquely high. A goal changes a match from top to bottom. One refereeing decision — correct or incorrect — can, and often does, change a game.

The second is that football is now contested for ludicrously high stakes. Matches are often played for millions. To make or fail to make the Champions League, to make or fail to make the knockout stages, to get to the Coca-Cola Championship play-off final with a place in the Premier League at stake — these matches are worth incomprehensible sums of money.

And yet the refereeing of them is based on the system used for amateur games, when everyone was there for fun. Fairly serious fun, but fun nonetheless, and at the end of the match you all shake hands and go back to real life. You take bad luck with the decisions in your stride. Part of the game. Character-building.

But professional sport is real life for professional footballers and their managers. The problem is not just Ferguson’s sense of persecution and entitlement. It is also that football was not designed to be played for millions of quid.

Fifa, notoriously conservative, maintains that human error is an essential part of the game. That implies an endorsement of the lesson Ferguson teaches us: that the best way to deal with personal misfortune is to find the person least capable of defending himself and heap the blame on him.

There are changes that can be made to the way matches are officiated. Goalline technology is the most obvious one. Additional officials were posted behind the goal this season in the Europa League, which is a promising development if accurate decision-making is your aim. Needless to say, Fifa rejected the possibility of its use at the World Cup.

Errors by officials are inescapable, and errors cannot help but have a huge impact on matches. It’s not referees that are at fault here. They are being used in a system that is inadequate for dealing with modern football. The problem is not referees but football.

Bloody hell, eh?

Are the troubles affecting Manchester United a warning of bigger problems ahead?
James Ducker, Northern Football Correspondent April 9, 2010

It was, as Sir Alex Ferguson conceded, a defining period in Manchester United’s season, one from which he had hoped to emerge boasting a four-point lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League and a place in the Champions League semi-finals for the fourth consecutive campaign.

Instead, United are fighting to prevent their season from ending in one of profound disappointment.

Having handed Chelsea the initiative in the title race last weekend, a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford moving Carlo Ancelotti’s team two points clear with five games remaining, United were eliminated at the quarter-final stage of Europe’s leading club competition by Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

United could still finish the season with an unprecedented fourth successive league title, and record nineteenth in all, to their name, in addition to the Carling Cup. But the chastening events of the past nine days have laid bare many of the weaknesses that have raised their head this season, not least an apparent over-dependence on Wayne Rooney.

Here, The Times looks at the issues facing Ferguson and United for the rest of the season and, more pertinently, in the summer.

Can United still win the title?
Yes, but even if they win all their remaining games, which is a tall order, they are reliant on Chelsea, who have a kinder run-in, tripping up. United have lost five of the nine league matches that have directly followed Champions League assignments this season and with Rooney a doubt for the game against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Sunday, it promises to be a tough test.

Is the present squad good enough or too dependent on Rooney?
United are not quite the one-man team some believe they are, but as the Chelsea game proved, they are an inferior proposition without Rooney in their ranks. The England striker cannot be expected to continue to carry the team. Seven league defeats tell its own story. United are easier to beat than they have been for a long time.

So is major surgery required in the summer?
According to Ferguson, no. The United manager said this week that there will be no “wholesale buying” and that a “very good squad just needs tweaking here and there”, but in addition to Chris Smalling, the England Under-21 defender, and Javier Hernández, the Mexico striker, who will arrive from Fulham and Chivas respectively in July, a world-class goalkeeper, midfield player and striker should be the base requirements.

With Paul Scholes and Gary Neville not certain of getting new deals, Ryan Giggs and Edwin van der Sar possibly entering the final year of their United careers and uncertainty over the fitness of Owen Hargreaves and Rio Ferdinand and the futures of Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick and Ben Foster, more reinforcements could be needed.

And what about Dimitar Berbatov?
Unless Ferguson decides to take a huge hit on his club-record £30.75 million signing, it is hard to see the Bulgaria striker leaving Old Trafford in the summer, even if the manager’s lack of faith in him is obvious. Ferguson picking a half-fit Rooney ahead of him for the Bayern game will have done nothing to improve already fragile confidence.

Who will United sign?
Ferguson covets Hugo Lloris, the Lyons and France goalkeeper, but has had little joy trying to wrestle players away from the French club down the years. He could revive a move for Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid and France striker, and admires Wolfsburg’s Edin Dzeko, Luis Suárez, of Ajax, and Marek Hamsik, the Napoli and Slovakia midfield player.

But is there money to spend?
David Gill, the United chief executive, said there is £140 million in the bank, but until Ferguson spends a chunk of it, fears will persist that the his hands are tied by the club’s £716.5 million debt.

Packing their bags?
Nemanja Vidic The Serbia defender seems less certain to leave than he did before Christmas, but he is coveted by Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan and unless he can be persuaded to sign a new deal, United may opt to cash in on him.

Dimitar Berbatov United would have to take a hefty hit on the Bulgaria striker if he was to leave, but he has yet to get close to justifying his £30.75 million transfer fee.

Ben Foster Sir Alex Ferguson seemed convinced he had England’s future No 1 on his hands, but Foster has fallen off the radar and is expected to be sacrificed.

Zoran Tosic Packed off to Cologne on loan in January, the Serbia winger has not made a single league start for United since his £6.3 million move from Partizan Belgrade.

Gary Neville and Paul Scholes Ferguson has suggested that both will be offered new one-year deals, but neither is guaranteed to stay.