Ferguson Distances Himself From Rumours
Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson has let it be known that, contrary to an apparently well sourced report at the weekend, he is not involved with the group of bankers, hedge-fund managers and other businessmen attempting to wrest Manchester United out of the hands of the Glazer family.
To those on the side of the Red Knights, that may be just as well.
Remember what happened the last time Ferguson’s actions affected the club’s ownership? It was in the early part of the decade, when just under 30% of the club’s shares had fallen into the hands of the Irish horse-racing partnership of John Magnier and JP McManus, who got on so well with the United manager that he was presented with a half-share in one of their star horses, Rock of Gibraltar.
The Rock went on to win seven Group 1 races in a row, but it was when the horse was retired to stud that Ferguson suddenly discovered the limits to his Irish friends’ idea of co-ownership, on being told that he was not entitled to a proportion of the horse’s stud fees. The rupture led to the Irishmen selling their United shareholding to Malcolm Glazer, thus providing the American with the key to his total takeover of the club.
For United, the consequences were double-edged. In order to bring off the deal, the Glazers loaded a previously solvent club with £700m of debts; the consequent rise in season ticket prices fuelled the dissatisfaction which has grown into the current campaign against the American family.
On the other hand, Ferguson’s altercation with the Irish seemed to renew his energy and his commitment to the job of managing the team, and since the Glazers’ arrival he has led his players to three consecutivePremier League titles, the European Cup and three League Cups, probably with more to come.
Not surprisingly, Ferguson is keeping his distance from the current insurgency. In public he is firm in his support for the Glazers. But his friendship with Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who is leading the new initiative, means that he would undoubtedly give a cheerful greeting to a takeover by the Red Knights. In that sense, he can’t lose.
There is widespread admiration for the organisers of the green-and-gold movement, a stirring example of grass-roots activism. Despite proclaiming their intention to restore democracy to football, however, the Red Knights hardly resemble a populist movement.
O’Neill, for example, is the chief economist of an investment banking and securities firm that is not exactly unfamiliar with the terms “sub-prime mortgage” and “credit default swap”, and which acted for AIG, United’s shirt sponsor, which had to be bailed out to the tune of $180bn (£119bn) by the US government.
Do United’s supporters really want their club to be run by the sort of casino bankers and hedge-fund managers who brought the world economy close to collapse less than two years ago, and who are now living high on the hog once again while so many are staring in horror at their devalued pension funds? It’s tempting, in fact, to think that the Glazers may have organised the whole thing as a kind of PR coup, in order to make themselves look acceptable by comparison.
No one knows what sort of a future 60 or so rich investors, plus the smattering of fans allowed to buy shares, would provide. Since there is no way on earth that it can be made to resemble the sort of electoral democracies holding sway at Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, it sounds like a recipe for strife and chaos.
Anyway, let’s face it: the Glazers aren’t going to sell.
They didn’t buy into United without forethought, and they know that if they can hang on for a few more years, raising prices and taking out money to meet their debt-repayment obligations as they go, coming advances in digital technology will mean that they will no longer have to share the vast income from broadcasting rights with lesser clubs.
Meanwhile, sitting more than 4,000 miles away in Florida, they can’t even hear the protests.
Courtesy of The Guardian
HAVE YOUR SAY: Is this the smart thing to do?
Wembley Pitch To Be Replaced For 10th Time
Wembley’s controversial pitch is to be replaced for the 10th time since the new stadium was opened three years ago due to the combined effects of a harsh winter and freak weather conditions.
The decision to change the surface once more was taken on Wednesday night after the England match against Egypt, and the Football Association insist it is not a knee-jerk reaction to negative comments from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his Aston Villa counterpart Martin O’Neill after the Carling Cup final last Sunday.
Ferguson claimed the pitch played a part in ending Michael Owen’s season after he suffered a hamstring injury in the final, as well as leaving Wayne Rooney vulnerable to injury following two tiring games in four days on the energy-sapping surface.
The Wembley ground staff battled hard against the elements to get the pitch in good condition ahead of the final and Wednesday’s England international, with 80 millimetres of rain in the week leading up to the Carling Cup final and a further 40mm the night before the game.
A Wembley spokesman said: “The ground staff did very well to stage the Carling Cup despite conditions in the build-up and employed the use of a canopy to shield the pitch from the rain on Saturday night and Sunday before kick-off.
“They worked round the clock and could not have done more. Conditions were better ahead of the England match but the pitch was still not good enough for our liking.
“A decision was made on Wednesday night to replace the pitch and this will take place this weekend ahead of Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (JPT) on March 28.
“Ultimately, this pitch has not fared well through what has been an extremely harsh winter and it needs to be replaced.
“This will be the 10th pitch since opening but the stadium caters for football and non-football events so replacing the pitch more than once during the course of a year is a reality of a multi-purpose venue.”
The use of Wembley as a multi-purpose arena rules out a seeded pitch, which football clubs use.
The spokesman added: “We used a different type of pitch, sand-based soil, following the complaints after last year’s FA Cup semi-finals and this fared much better in 2009 as per the various comments from managers around the FA Cup final and England matches.
“But, over the course of this winter and the freak weather last week, it now needs to be replaced. It will take a few days to take up the old turf and prepare the surface, a few more days to put the new turf down and up to a week to bed in. This can be done ahead of the JPT.”
With thanks to the telegraph.co.uk
Giggs Out With Broken Arm
Ryan Giggs will miss the Carling Cup final after breaking his elbow against Aston Villa.
The Manchester United veteran, 36, faces a month on the sidelines which could rule him out of three Premier League games, the Champions League clash with AC Milan and the Wembley date with Villa on February 28.
Giggs was injured in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Villa Park after clashing with Steve Sidwell.
It is a further blow to United with Nani banned for three games after his red card against Villa.
Boss Alex Ferguson said: “Ryan’s had a plate put in his arm which will stay there for 2½ weeks.
“He will still be able to train and he might be available for the second leg against Milan but it’s a long haul.”
Have your say: Will Giggs be missed?
Thanks to the Sun.co.uk
Time For Liverpool and Man United To Work Together
Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benitez
On Sunday, March 21, a year and a week after Liverpool’s supporters crowed long and loud over Rafael Benitez’s side’s storming of Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson will have his chance for vengeance in front of a baying Stretford End.
No doubt it will be a clash cast in the long tradition of this fixture: a pitched battle played out in an atmosphere brimming with poison.
Few rivalries in the world are as intense as Manchester United and Liverpool. The derbies in Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Glasgow and Belgrade, as well as Real Madrid and Barcelona, but to separate them is to rank gradations of spite. Manchester United and Liverpool hate each other.
Both take almost as much pleasure in seeing the other lose as they do in watching their team win.
Perhaps it is so intense because the two sides have so much in common. They are the two most successful teams in English football, with the richest histories and the most fans.
And now both find themselves ridden with doubts over what the future may hold. English football’s two greatest, grandest instituions are laden with debt, the property of owners whose primary concern is the balance sheet, not the trophy cabinet.
There is little point outlining the issues facing the Liverpool of Tom Hicks and George Gillett and United under the Glazer family. Both sets of supporters are all too well aware of the precarious financial situation they find themselves in, thanks in no small part to the unstinting work of their respective fans’ groups.
Liverpool have Spirit of Shankly, of course, planners of countless marches and demonstrations and United IMUSA and MUST, initiators of the green-and-gold protests which grow in fervour by the week. Their methods are not flawless, but their intentions are honourable.
Both aim to perpetuate the idea that football is not business. It is more than that.
And yet, in isolation, they find themselves on the fringes. SoS leaflets and flyers are binned by disinterested fans, IMUSA’s banners removed by over-zealous stewards. It is here where both may find strength in unity. By putting aside their mutual loathing at Old Trafford in six weeks’ time, both sets of fans could highlight just how worrying the plight of their clubs is.
The very idea of working with their eternal rivals has been laughed off by all concerned. Such narrow-mindedness is a shame. A joint march is clearly a bad idea. But shared chants, or mutually turning their backs on the game, or the swapping of banners less so.
It would not detract from their support for their team, or their joy in seeing their on-pitch rivals beaten, but it would serve as a powerful depiction of the battle both are waging against a common enemy: the corporatisation of football, the mortgaging of institutions which are more heart and soul than profit and loss.
Such things should supercede local hostility.
With thanks to The Telegraph
Terry Buries Week From Hell
Terry Shows His Class On The Pitch
John Terry put the most difficult week of his career behind him with an impressive Chelsea performance in a 2-0 victory that virtually ended Arsenal’s title ambitions.
The Chelsea captain took eight minutes to make his mark, heading the game’s opening corner across the box for Didier Drogba to score the first of his two goals. Terry allowed himself a muted celebration, clenching his fists in evident relief before embracing the corner taker, Florent Malouda.
When victory was assured, however, he made up for that low-key response in more flamboyant fashion, stripping off his shirt at the end of the game and throwing it into the crowd before running towards Carlo Ancelotti. He subjected the Chelsea manager to a ferocious bear hug before disappearing down the tunnel.
Drogba became the first senior player to break silence over the outcry that followed disclosure of Terry’s alleged affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the one-time girlfriend of his former team-mate Wayne Bridge, when he offered his captain his unqualified backing. “We offered him [Terry] as much support as we can,” said the Ivory Coast striker. “The best thing for him is to play. All his team-mates have to do everything for him.”
He continued: “It has been a difficult week for us, for Chelsea, for all the club. We tried to stay together and focus on the game. It is a matter of time but we will stick together and keep looking forward. The most important thing is we are top of the league,” he added having scored his 12th goal in 12 matches against Arsenal.
Ancelotti echoed his forward’s support for Terry. “John is the perfect captain for Chelsea,” said the manager. “My captain has a fantastic attitude, he’s doing very well every game. For the team it is very important to have his leadership, he is always in control of the game, he has a very strong mentality.”
Ancelotti refused to be drawn on whether he was disappointed with his compatriot Fabio Capello for taking the England armband from Terry. He said: “He’s working for his club and we’re happy. I’m not disappointed because its not my decision, I don’t want to judge this decision. I knew that John met Capello [on Friday at Wembley] but I didn’t speak [with him] after that.”
Ancelotti denied that Terry’s woes had been an extra spur for his team. “No, I don’t think so, I don’t think it was good motivation because we wanted to win the Premiership, we want to win the other trophies. For this we have a good motivation, nothing else.”
Asked if the championship was now only between Chelsea and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United who are two points behind, Ancelotti did not completely rule out Arsène Wenger’s team. “I don’t know, I’m not sure. I think for Arsenal it’s very difficult to return to the top of the table but they have an opportunity because they are a good team. It depends on the performances of Manchester United and Chelsea. I am not sure it will be a race with two horses.”
He was, though, clear that, despite Wenger’s assertion that the “better team” lost, Chelsea deserved the three points.
Of his side’s second goal he said: “It was fantastic movement, fantastic passing and a fantastic shot from Didier. This is football. Didier did very well and he is in a good moment. Maybe they had more possession than us but this is not football. Football is attack, defence and results also. We deserved to win.”
For Terry the blessing of victory was mixed. The captain finished the game with his left thigh strapped after suffering a dead leg. He will have it examined by the club’s medical staff at Chelsea’s training ground but it is not thought to be too serious as Ancelotti spoke of the central defender playing against Everton in two days’ time.
The club said that no decision has yet been made regarding whether Terry will be given compassionate leave to miss the weekend’s FA Cup fifth-round tie with Cardiff City, so that he can be with his wife, Toni, to repair their relationship. It is thought that may well be made after the visit to Goodison Park, possibly on Thursday.
With thanks to The Guardian
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