Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Send In The Clowns

"Sir" Alex Ferguson is an unlucky man. If only a few appalling refereeing decisions had not gone against him, his team, Manchester United, would have been unbeaten for 26 years.

But seriously, he has had his share of luck, including winning one last trophy in his last two years as manager, albeit through landing a single player who made all the difference to his aging team, with a bit of help from Fergie-time as well as some of the decisions he forgot to complain about. So he was able to go out as a champion, and to avoid having to decide, year after year, whether to hang on for just one more season or to go out as not-a-champion.

But he has  gone, or has he? He remains with MU as a director and as their "Ambassador". One would assume that this was to keep his experience in the club and to provide a wise head when needed. If so, it is not working as MU's humiliation in the transfer market has shown.

Much fanfare heralded David Moyes's arrival, with brash talk about the big signings MU would be making. Luring Ronaldo back, buying Cesc Fabregas, attracting Robert Lewandowski; all these projects were yelled from the mountain tops, yet none were achieved. The full sorry story is here: the upshot of the transfer season is that MU bought one 20-year old, paid four and a half million pounds more than they needed to for the only one of the two Everton players they were after, and made a laughing stock of themselves by referring to some well-known Spanish sports lawyers as impostors. They are left with the almost-sole achievement of not having lost their injury-prone and moody striker, Wayne Loony, to Chelsea, whose bids for the fat has-been were surely only designed to wind up MU anyway.

How strange that this chapter of accidents could occur with the wisdom of Fergie still in the club. Did he say nothing to the hapless Moyes and Woodward to suggest that they might, perhaps, think about trying this or that instead of blundering around?

Talking of Rooney, what a poisoned chalice Sir Alice has left there, with his claim when he (Alice) was leaving, that Rooney had asked for a transfer. In what possible way could this have helped his successor? And there we have it; I believe, far from helping behind the scenes, Alice is revelling in the contrast between his reign and his successor's. How long before MU's fans tumble to it?

2 comments:

  1. Do you reckon it was Fergie who gave Rooney that gash in "training"?

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  2. Yes, right after Rooney said "I like a bit of gash".

    ReplyDelete