Angry Fans
You may agree with him or then again you may not. This week Football Writers bias; Media is bias against United with selection of team of the year; Rafa is right not to congratulate Fergie; Nice send off for Hiddink; The Great Lie; Hughes spent £133m on City failures; Wenger is annoyed with fans; Six titles for Mourinho in last eight years; Airlines ripping off United fans going to Rome; Kyle Lafferty’s bad behaviour; Tevez good but not for £32m.
The Letter of the Week goes to Dolan Ferguson, Carlow. Get in touch with your postal address and our magnificent prize will be winging its way to you before you know it.
LIAM, the decision of the Football Writers Association to award the Footballer of the Year award to Stephen Gerrard tells you all you need to know about the inherent bias in football journalism in England.
In the period between 1972 and 1990 Liverpool won 11 championships and in that period (as you might expect) ten of their players were awarded the Player of the Year award from the FWA. In the current era (from 1992 to date) United have replicated that achievement, also winning 11 titles. How many United players received the Football Writers' distinction? Five.
Manchester United are in the process of re-writing the record books this season and the hacks have chosen the badge-kisser from Anfield who has won precisely nothing (again) this year. When United people mention this bias they are accused of being paranoid. The records give the lie to that accusation.
'That's a fact' - as the truly paranoid might put it.
Liam, is it yet another example of the Liverpool-centric bias of the media that Manchester United are on course for a quadruple yet one of their players — let’s say Wayne Rooney for the sake of argument — is not chosen ahead of the captain of a team which went out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the fourth round of the FA Cup and the Carling Cup and came second in the League. Does that make sense to you?
I THINK Rafa got it right after the West Brom game. Congratulate United, say nothing about Ferguson. Fergie has been chipping away all season with the most ridiculous example being his ganging up with “Big Sam” Allardyce over the Benitez body language which was meant to be an attempt to humiliate the Blackburn manager. Ferguson doesn’t behave with dignity, so he deserves no respect. The man thinks he’s a law unto himself.
Peter Doyle, Cork, by email
All over bar the whinging, eh? As it happens, I would probably have given my own vote to Wayne Rooney but it is a player, not a team, of the year award and Steven Gerrard, a legitimate claimant, has been magnificent again this season. Anyway, this column prides itself on its scrupulous impartiality so it's red cards all 'round for reds of both hues.
NICE send off by Chelsea fans for Guüs Hiddink at Stamford Bridge, particularly the banner which proclaimed “A Special One Two.” One defeat in 21 games, and a points per game ratio of 2.89. If the Dutchman had been at Stamford Bridge at the start of the season Chelsea would have been looking at a return of 98 points for the season, beating Mourinho’s record of 97, and sufficient to have won the title at a canter. Not bad for a 62-year-old Dutchie. He will be missed, not least for his modesty. And anyone who can make Florent Malouda look like a world-beater has got to have extraordinary qualities.
A couple of big 'ifs' there Steven but, yeah, he's not bad for an old caretaker, is he?
ONE of the great football truths which has been well and truly nailed this season is the argument that titles are won by the matches between “The Big Four.” Manchester United gathered only five points from this mini-tournament (four against Scolari’s Chelsea, and one against Arsenal). Liverpool got 14 (their best return for years), Arsenal nine and Chelsea four. It’s seeing off the middle and lower ranking teams efficiently that counts, and Manchester United were by far the superior outfit in doing that.
No argument here - but that 'big four' record hardly suggests, as some have claimed, that this is the best United side ever. (Cue the letters).
IS THERE any manager who can be considered luckier than Mark Hughes? Having spent €16m on Craig Bellamy, €14m on Wayne Bridge, €7m on Felipe Caicedo, €18m on Nigel de Jong, and €10m on Shay Given to add to the €68m he frittered away on Robinho, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Kompany and Zabaleta in the summer. I make that €133m for a team that couldn’t even limp its way into the Europa Cup. Now he imagines that the world’s biggest stars are going to join a “project” that can’t even offer second tier European football. Claudio Ranieri spent less than that, on better players, and was runner-up in the Premier League and reached the semi-final of the Champions League. Ranieri for Eastlands.
I wouldn't be entirely convinced by the owners' backing for Hughes but I do think he's a developing managerial talent and, in this era of disposable gaffers, I think it's actually refreshing that he might be given time to try to get things right.
CAN’T really see a leopard changing its spots, and Arsène Wenger swapping the hair coat of Arsenal for the diamante leotard he would have to don to run Real Madrid. But there’s no doubt that there are serious problems at the Emirates with a lack of patience from the fans and, more crucially, a lack of investment by the board. The apparent tensions between Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov don’t seem to provide the best background for a manager as Wenger. My shout for a replacement . . . Laurent Blanc of Bordeaux. Got them playing well, has prised Lyon’s grasp off Ligue 1, knows the English game, and has encouraged the right type of football. Won’t stop the journalists saying “Laurent Who?”
You haven't dealt with the big question: whose head would he kiss before kick-off?
THAT makes six league titles in eight years in three different countries for José Mourinho. Still special then. He will be the last person that Barcelona fans want to see pitching up at the Bernabeu to rebuild the world’s most spendthrift team.
Apart from Pep Guaridola, presumably.
LIAM, I don’t know whether you’ve done any research into the prices which face Manchester United supporters trying to get to Rome. All the airlines have racked up their prices as usual; tickets from online agencies (just how do they get hold of these ‘packages’?) are around €1,500-€2,000 for a pair. It’s about time this scandal was exposed with fans getting screwed right, left and centre. From next season on, starting with Madrid, the final is going to be played on Saturday evening. It would be a good idea to book the flights now, or make alternative travel arrangements. Even if you don’t get there the cost of cancellation will be much less painful.
Letter of the week prize-winner.
FORGET football stars swearing at TV cameras in the heat at the moment. The real scandal of football is cheating, as we saw from Kyle Lafferty’s horrible behavior in the match against Aberdeen at Ibrox at the weekend. This sort of thing goes on throughout the season but is rarely punished. Easier to concentrate on the other things I suppose.
Pretty pathetic, right enough. (Always nice to hear from Celtic fans, by the way).
GOOD player Carlos Tevez. But not worth £€32m to United. And for that reason he’s got to go. Hopefully not to another Premier League rival. Italy or Spain is a more natural home for his latin temperament. Thanks and adios Carlos.
And, of course, always nice to hear from Alex Ferguson.
