With Liverpool closing in the time has come for Fergie to show his Cloughieness

YOU can’t turn on the telly or open a paper this week in England without seeing Brian Clough’s face smirking at you. ‘The Damned United’ has just opened here.

Naturally Fergie has been dragged into many an article as the supposedly obvious modern comparator to the old tyrant and, for once, such media glibness isn’t completely unfounded.

Both liked a drink and, umm, both won two European Cups.

What they also had, in abundant spades, was sheer personal charisma.

They terrified and inspired; they ranted and raved but also subtly cajoled; they marked players for life, for good and ill; they dominated their contemporary scenes like none of their rivals could.

So it’s in a week like this that you expect to see Fergie step up and give us a bit of Cloughieness.

After all, what an opportunity to show that he can lift these players and put them back on track, having been spared the ordeal of what could have been up to three games in quick succession after Fulham.

It must be just about the first time we’ve been glad of the international hiatus — anything’s welcome that helps take Liverpool off the boil too. Thankfully, Villa come to us Sunday on the back of some abysmal displays, although I suppose it should be admitted that they, too, have a Cloughieness Factor which might be expected to raise their morale and commitment in the shape of old Brian student, O’Neill.

I mentioned last week the raised eyebrows at Fergie’s decision not to bring forward Sunday’s game 24 hours, as the club had promised it would be doing if we had a European game on the Tuesday.

My original suspicion was that the Glazers had insisted on the Sunday kick-off so as to ensure they got the £500,000 (e540,000) TV fee they so desperately need, but that has been formally denied by all.

To those thinking the Glazers couldn’t be so desperate as to resort to such pressure, even hypothetically, I simply mention that ... “discussions about refinancing loans via securitisation have been shelved as the market for such deals is effectively closed.” Judgement Day marches ever closer.

A few days later, news ‘broke’ that AIG were in discussions about cancelling the shirt deal with immediate effect. I inverted-comma’d ‘broke’, as you may recall that I predicted this here a good six months ago, thanks to my US Treasury source, when I also initially revealed that the deal would not be renewed in 2010 no matter what.

And those of you who go to Old Trafford will know we are approaching a crunch moment when next season’s prices are determined, just as the UK recession begins to bite — and what a bite: whole limbs are coming off.

Thus with apt timing, the News of the World authoritatively announced via their well-regarded Ronaldo-case expert David Harrison that Real’s summer campaign to buy Ronnie has begun in earnest. Seemingly we can keep either Tevez or Ronaldo, but we can’t afford both. An absurd dilemma for the World’s Biggest Club (TM)?

Go ask the shamefaced Glazers why, and don’t say I didn’t tell you what their answer would be a long time ago.

* Richard Kurt’s ‘Red Army Years’ is only available via [e-mail]