Crerand a little out of the loop on departure

Paddy Crerand knows more than most when it comes to Manchester United — but was a little out of the loop when it came to the biggest bombshell to hit the club in almost 30 years.

The former player and now MUTV pundit became increasingly irate with Newstalk presenter Oisín Langan yesterday morning, when he had the temerity to speculate Alex Ferguson was to about to step down.

Mr Crerand said it was “crazy season” and this meant sports writers were awake all night inventing stories about the club.

“I’m just laughing, in actual fact. All of a sudden, the flotation in New York… oh God almighty! I think people must sit up at night and think: ‘Now, what can I do to make a sensational story’? The manager at Manchester United is going in for an operation and it’s: ‘Yeah let’s get round to that’.”

The Scot said he “didn’t believe it” and that it was “a load of rubbish”.

“I was up at Manchester United yesterday for about three hours, maybe longer than that, four hours. I was with lots of people at Old Trafford. Then somebody came in and said the bookmakers are seeing a lot of money of David Moyes to become the next manager of Manchester United. I said... they must be short of a few quid or there is not enough racing going on so we’ll speculate on this and Manchester United is a big story. I think it’s a load of rubbish.”

The more the presenter probed, the more Mr Crerand got annoyed. To hammer the point home, he used the impending threat of the apocalypse.

“The world is going to end next week. Do you believe me? … A newspaper reporter can write anything. Bloody hell, newspaper reporters have been reporting lies since the year dot.”

His thoughts on Ferguson’s retirement have not been made public.