Fergie rants and raves but tactics still spot on

PREEN, PREEN. Another good shout from me last week: “A 2-2 draw would be fine, thanks. Though Fergie will be demanding a lot more, such is his mood.”

And I must say the €300 I won backing my hunch made up somewhat for the disappointment of the last-minute equaliser.

Context is all, as many a shamefaced footballer has argued when trying to squirm their way out of ill-judged quotes. (You will probably hear Drogba trying this in days to come after his latest outburst).

Four years ago, a 2-2 draw at Arsenal was a cue for Fergie to wave his fist on the pitch in champions-elect delight mode; on Saturday, the same result merely had him waving his fist like an angry drunk. Such is the power of the last-minute goal in football, which can make a draw feel like a defeat. It was no classic but still enthralled, and a draw was obviously a fair result.

One could be charitable and thus excuse Fergie’s absurd postmatch comments as being understandable heat-of-the-moment rage but in fact he was already veering off his trolley the day before as he launched an extraordinary rant when asked about the British Sports Minister’s excellent comments about ticket prices and wages.

This controversy has run and run for days all over the British media and Fergie scored a spectacular own goal by banning the minister from Old Trafford for daring to raise the issue, and then compounded his error by adding “he can go and watch that mob at FC United all year instead”.

I can already hear the T-shirts being printed up with sallies based on that as we speak. So this is managerial policy, is it?

The Govan shipyard socialist has travelled a long way from his roots, hasn’t he? As for the permission — nay, order — to go watch FC instead, well, what a propaganda gift for the rebel club. This, after all, has been one of their main selling points for the past two years — “come watch us if you have been priced out of OT” — and here is Fergie giving it the stamp of authority! Comic. Chief executive David Gill was typically deceitfully disingenuous in response, quibbling over a 2% difference in the figures being bandied about — as if €1.50 on a €70 ticket makes any odds — and then claiming, like Fergie, that we compare well with London clubs. Given the minister was specifically talking about grassroots fans, this was utterly irrelevant: Mancunian grassroots aren’t comparing prices with Chelsea and Arsenal, but Bolton and City. The whole episode has been hugely entertaining and satisfyingly revealing; if any fans were still labouring under the illusion that Fergie is “one of them” and understands their concerns, this might have disabused them.

What Alex still is, however, is a bravura manager. Despite his laughable comments — the Emirates “an absolute danger”?! That antiseptic library?! Give over! — he still emerged from Saturday with huge credit. United’s original variant of 4-3-3 was a thing of beauty, full of canny interplay and dazzling positional interchange. Anderson was used superbly in particular and is now overshadowing Hargreaves in every way — and Carrick too, in a larger sense. His occasional cheating and theatrics aside — which must be stamped out pronto — he is the real turn-up of this autumn. A serendipitous discovery, as I have noted, given he wasn’t supposed to be in the team yet, but thank goodness: surely there is no way he can be loaned out in January. Saha filled the supersub prescription I talked about a few weeks ago to perfection and together with Evra partially restored my patriotic faith in our French connection. Still, wouldn’t want to risk him for 90 against the hard men of Hughesy’s Blackburn on Sunday — he’d be in a coma within minutes. Kiev tonight — apparently a stroll, given the opponents’ abject status as displayed in the first leg — could be more his cup of tea. With which he’d still manage to scald himself, no doubt...

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