by Daisy Cutter
There is a suspicion amongst many that had Sergio Aguero’s 94th minute shot against QPR on May 13th struck the post or side-netting then Sir Alex Ferguson would have retired as a champion. After a quarter of a century spent knocking a liver bird off its perch and mostly besting Le Professor of North London this would have represented arguably his greatest achievement yet – the shushing of his ‘noisy neighbours’ – but the canny dark Lord would have been acutely aware that on this occasion it had taken every reserve of experience and manipulation at his disposal to hold back the inevitable blue tidal wave engulfing the English game. Even Moses only attempted a similar nature-defying trick the once (and he wasn’t forced to coerce a geriatric ginger out of pasture to do so) and I share the belief that Ferguson would have revelled in the immense pain dished out to his Manchester rivals and got out while the going was good with records smashed and a point duly proven.
Furthermore, as the champagne sprayed around the Sunderland dressing room, a 70 year old with one eye now on his legacy would have spied an opportunity not to be wasted, a chance to corrupt reality through the means of success.
Let us imagine for one moment how this summer would have differed had that one strike from an Argentinean’s boot been scuffed inches to the right. Ferguson would have justifiably been venerated from the media rooftops for hauling and cajoling what was – by United’s imperious standards – an average side to their twentieth league title while City spent their close season licking wounds in hibernation. This would have allowed Ferguson free rein in the press to further propagate the myth that it was all achieved with youthful esprit in comparison to City’s moneybags mercenaries and with a vast number of their readers casual reds the newspapers would have opted not to question the validity of this. Thereupon the ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’ fallacy would have taken flight forever.
Following United’s Champion’s League exit to Basle last season I debunked this myth that was fast gaining momentum by an apologist media and United fans who were desperate to seek solace in their then failing team. I pointed out that the average age of the Manchester United squad of 2011/12 was 25.20 while City’s was a slightly more acne-troubled 25.04. Additionally the notion that here was another batch of talented homegrown kids coming through the youth system in a similar vein to Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and the Nevilles was fanciful in the extreme. Of the few young players United did possess most – namely De Gea, Smalling and Jones – were purchased at a substantial cost.
Yet the fiction would have soon mutated into an unchecked truth because the history books are always written by the winners and any text that subsequently follows is usually penned by those wanting to be associated with the winners. This is an axiom that has served Ferguson very well down the years. It has given him carte blanche to propagate any number of untruths through the media from referees persecuting his team to papering over the cracks during the rare lean spells. It has also seen him bestowed with the entirely false reputation of being an arch Machiavellian figure; a master of the mind games.
Success gives you the microphone and sometimes the truth can barely be heard from the cheap seats.
This week the United manager gave an interview in which he made several ludicrous comments that has seen him ridiculed in many quarters. It was a stream of nonsensical claims that was supposed to illustrate that here was a man and club back on the offensive after the extreme shell-shock that inevitably followed City winning the league not only in his lifetime but in his time. Fergie-time. The main thrust of his claim was that United ‘buy the right way’ by investing in youth and the long-term whereas City does not. He also stated that he could play a Premier League team of under-23s if he so wished. Rather fabulously he then laid out this side including a player in Jesse Lingard who has not yet made a first-team appearance nor is likely to in the near future (‘He will become a player when he’s 22’) and best of all three players who are older than his self-imposed age bar. Johnny Evans isn’t young Fergie; he just plays like he is.
Now I could pick gaping holes in these claims all day long – and believe me I’m very tempted – but what I found particularly interesting about the interview was not what was said but how it was received. There is nothing remotely new or newsworthy about Ferguson making outlandish, falsified claims. Far from it. The media and United supporters not swallowing them wholesale however is a novel development that has potentially far-reaching implications.
The Sun for one took great glee is picking out the erroneous ages attributed to his examples of youth and when that organisation calls you a liar you really are in trouble.
As regards to his comparisons to City there was also this on a well respected website yesterday –
“We can play 18-year-olds because it’s part of our history. City won’t do it. They definitely won’t play any young players who have come up through the system. Their buys are all 25, 26, 27-year-old established players with a good maturity, experience and good ages.”
It’s an argument that would, of course, have more weight had City’s average player age not been two years lower during the Manchester derby last April. Or if the young United players that started the game – the ones who ‘came through the system’ – weren’t Ryan Giggs, 38, and Paul Scholes, 37.
Was this published on a City or Liverpool forum? No, it was the superb and very red United Rant.
To a large extent Ferguson brought this in-house criticism on himself by also stating in the interview that ‘real fans’ will view the Glazer’s debt-crippled ownership of Manchester United since 2005 fairly and conclude that it ‘has not effected the team’.
So now we have the bizarre intimation that United are somehow an ethical Crewe Alexandra of the Premier League (thereby making Ferguson himself a Dario Gradi figure which, considering the regularity United have poached the talent from such nurturing clubs over the past decade in order to compensate for a failing youth system is quite frankly insulting) and needlessly alienating a large portion of the club’s loyal fan-base all in one short interview alone. Impressive work and perhaps it’s no surprise then that Manchester City fans responded with a collective and gleeful suggestion that the aging Glaswegian is indeed ‘cracking up’ after all.
But of course he’s not and the twaddle he’s currently peddling is born out of necessity with Ferguson merely toeing the new party line. With $500m of shares to flog in New York and United desperately trying to rustle up investors a large amount of smoke and mirrors is required to hide the true stricken state of their finances brought about by the Americans saddling the club with a £425m net debt. Just like their forlorn chase of Sneijder last summer United must be seen to be pursuing the world’s elite so they make unrealistic bids that have no chance of getting through. They then utilise every media contact they have under their influence to make it appear as if they’re seriously in the running then, once reality strikes and the player signs elsewhere, they ‘pull out’ claiming ethical reasons.
It’s all quite sad really; like a bankrupt millionaire pawing a Ferrari in a car showroom he can no longer afford feigning disgust at the emissions it churns out before loudly declaring to anyone who’ll listen ‘Well I’m going down the road to buy a Prius instead because I value this planet of ours’.
The erroneous Hazard hunt is a perfect case in point. In Ferguson’s own words – “The agent’s fees are getting ridiculous now. I mean Hazard, Chelsea paid the agent £6m. Seems absolutely ridiculous doesn’t it?’
Yes it does Fergie, but no more ridiculous – in fact significantly less so – than your £34m capture of Rio Ferdinand in 2002, of which £5m was pocketed by the player’s agent. Using football inflation we can conservatively double that for today.
But those were pre-Glazer days when United could afford to pay such ‘ridiculous’ figures.
It really does take some front to attempt to disguise your failings as a moral crusade and though some degree of hoodwinking is necessary for the reasons I’ve stated above where Ferguson has erred is mistakenly thinking he can still show blatant disregard for the truth and expect the media and fans to suitably fall into line.
When City snatched the title in May they also grabbed hold of the microphone and for a supposed master of media manipulation to fail to realise he is currently dwelling in the proverbial cheap seats is a serious misjudgement on his part. The aura of success that has afforded him the opportunity to bully, spin, and accuse with little-to-no scrutiny is fast fading and there are sections of the press – and swathes of his own club’s supporters – who are no longer seeing an intimidating manager of the biggest and best club in Europe but rather an old man telling porkies.
Will he realise his propaganda days are over before it’s too late? Or will be become a noisy neighbour banging on the wall demanding that the celebrations are toned down because his kids are trying to sleep?
Great article
Great article and so true ,the smoke and mirrors are fading .
For all abu dhabi fc’s billions and uniteds weakness they couldnt even win the title by a single point, if vidic was fit last season united would have walked the title. Write them off at your peril, its proven betting agaisnt united will make you look foolish.
If this, if that… The truth is that City won the league by drubbing United 6-1 on their own turf. Swallow it you bitter biff.
What about some other ‘if’s’? If Anelka could take a penalty, if Bayern would have scored more goals that they richly deserved, if Ferguson hadn’t had a row with Magnier over some horse spunk…
Dream on son, give it a couple of seasons and more of you clowns will be watching the two bob splitters on Lightbowne Road, FCuM.
CHAMP16NS.
Well, I bet against them last season and I won, so that nixes that theory, doesn’t it? But I notice you don’t refute or even contest any of the points made in the article, you just bluster.
Well if tevez play the games he went A.W.O.L. JUST THINK HOW MANY POINTS. WE WOULD HAVE CLEARED IT BY….
And if Kompany wasn’t suspended twice (one for a nothing challenge on Nani). And if Yaya didn’t go to AFCON. It’s easy to cherry pick bad events. We won the league and deserved it, even up against a United team that blatantly cheated in the latter days of the season (Ashley Young).
Its easy to throw cheap jibes and sarcasm toward Old Trafford, particularly after a season like last, however behind the jokes, deep down at the roots of such humour lies a untelling truth, and you sir have articulated it in a way that only the most blindly loyal reds could even try to argue otherwise.
I salute you.
Maybe this should accompany all the desperate begging letters currently circulating that claim to be an invitation to join the Man Utd season ticket priority list.
Good work!
Moston, I’m certainly not writing off United at title contenders for next season and I’ve written elsewhere that what Ferguson has achieved over the past two seasons outstrips all his other incalculable achievements. This is absolutely not a piece aimed at his managerial abilities which, to my mind, are unparalleled.
correct – if he’d won the title last season it would have been his greatest achievement by some distance.
that squad managed by any other man would have been lucky to get europa league football.
all true, read similar on ‘view from a blue’ this morning, but the question is why has it taken so long for journalists to start pointing out this MUFC propaganda for what it is?
no offence intended to manU fans; I’m convinced most sensible reds can see how laughable this looks to the outside world and have asked themselves the same question because ultimately, when suraligs has retired and the football world has moved on, it’ll be the fans that have to ‘front up’ to this kind of embarrassing bollocks.
Excellent article.
Enjoyed reading that, cheers.
Which figures are you using? Ive checked BM and utd had an average age of 25 with city at 26, same with th Pl site. Giggs and scholes also have the effect of 4×30 year olds each when the average age is 25, esp with the former becoming less and less important. The team id see as our strongest would be; de gea; evra, vidic, evans, rafael; carrick, scholes; nani, kagawa, valencia; rooney. Thats a forward line that can proudly compete against city’s and has 5 years ahead of itself too.
You betray your lack of knowledge about us by your comment about evans playing like a kid, and who are you to say X player is stupid to include as part of the team? Saf obv means this coming season, how do you know hes not going to feature?
Carrick, scholes and evra still going in 5 years? OH OK. lol
excellent read, Nick-AKA…..ctid
Comedy gold, green and gold and factually correct, what more could you need?
Heh, you blues really do have delusions of grandeur, almost like reading something from RAWK.
Seriously, I nearly fell off the chair reading that if the rags won the title this year by 2 points would have been..”his greatest achievement yet?”
Seriously??
And who could forget the “blue tidal wave” which in reality was goal difference in the final seconds of the last game of the season.
My definition of a “tidal wave” is winning the league undefeated for the season and head and shoulders above everyone else.
City fans are like the mouthy kid in the playground, about to get knocked on their arse.
Come back when you’re cock of the school on merit, not by default.
And give it a rest with the rag-like posturing, it’s very un-City like.
Aye, the double european cup winner, and most successful club manager in European history was considering that last seasons goal difference run in, would be his greatest achievement???
If you honestly believe that, then you must have sand for brains!
There’s so much bitterness in this article, I fear that the author is fully engrossed in a diet of nettles soaked in urine.
It’s funny, but you could scan every Manchester United forum the world over, and you won’t find one article about Manchester City. But when you go on any City forum, the majority of articles are about Manchester United??
The thing is, the name ‘Manchester United’ is worth billions on it’s own. Whereas Man City’s entire existence is completely reliant on the depth and will of an arab’s pocket. It’s a circus trick, a flash in the pan, a shallow puddle with no depth…United will always be there or there abouts, because it’s what the people demand..an army couldn’t stop the coonts…City will be shit again, just keep yer humility and keep the songs going
Danny, Danny , Danny (said whilst shaking head) What a bulb you are, ikcle ol City is all that stretford forums are talking about!
Next you’ll be telling me your signing Snijder, oh no that didnt come off. Well Modric then, oh sorry that appears to be dead. How about RVP, whoops many apologies you pitched that a little low (wouldnt want one of these bids actually accepted now would we). Surely you can get someone from Sau Paulo, no another RVP moment, though it would be very amusing if you spent £30m on him. Still it keeps you interested doesnt it.
How about a share issue, the names worth a billion eh Dan, oh no thats gone down the pan as well.
You’ve not always been there or therabouts throughout your ‘istory. You’ve been pretty shit in my lifetime and you will be again and the way its going it’ll be sooner than you think won’t it Dan? Dan………….Dan……………………………………………Dan…………………….Dan, he’s to far away………..Dan,Dan,Dan……..Ddddddaaaaaaannnnnnn, no he’s gone!
Worst article I’ve read online in years. City fans can keep pretending they actually achieved something last season and it wasn’t to do with financial doping. But everyone knows the truth. Just a hollow shell of a football club filled with a rich mans purchases, no soul, no respect earned.
Actually Smith it’s an excellent article and most United fans worth their salt will be in agreement as much as it would pain them to admit it.
As for “financial doping”, don’t get me started. United have been reliant on the money of rich owners more times in their history than City have. Not to mention being reliant on the goodwill of Manchester City at various points too. You begged us for our help in seeing off Manchester Central at a time when your were a struggling second division club and we duly obliged. Without that help, it’s quite possible that Central would’ve duly flourished, James Gibson may not have bought your club, and United may well have gone out of business.
Oh, and if everyone in football knows that City have no soul or respect how come so many neutrals celebrated us winning the league almost as much as we did?
Your bitterness and jealousy is palpable and you need to get over yourself.