Fergie: A tiger won’t change it’s stripes, he’ll put on a fancier coat
Had this scheduled for saturday but seeing as Cristiano handed in a transfer request today, thought I’d better publish this before half my points get rendered invalid. That Ronaldo. What a dick.
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Sir Alex Ferguson surrounded by his players. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Europe
‘This is one of the biggest disappointments of my career, I cannot explain it. We, the players, were not well, the tactics were not good. Everything went wrong. - Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is not a man who is known for his off the pitch opinion nor is he revered for his post match analytical nous and as my colleague pointed out, his taste in the arts is somewhat questionable Van Damme? Ricky Martin? yet his comments after United were undeniably stripped down in Rome did, as the old adage goes, hit the spot.
Many a united fan will undoubtedly tell themselves that the team on the pitch that night was not the team that steamrolled to a hat trick of Premier League wins. They might also seek consolation by telling themselves that the team on the pitch was not the same team which had been on an undefeated streak in the champions league for twenty five games prior.
The Premiership title was won by sheer dominance, yes. But United’s dominance was a shadow which cast itself over the minnows. The champion’s record against the top four this season is nothing to be proud of; Two defeats to Rafacht’s rejuvenated Liverpool, a loss and a win against Arsenal, topped off with a draw and a 3-nil win over a Chelsea team who were shamelessly conspiring to oust their own manager.
While a fraction of the blame should by right, fall on the players’ shoulders, the fact that they looked collectively as D’oh stricken as Homer Simpson at the power plant implies that the remainder nay majority of the blame should fall on the shoulders of Sir Alex Ferguson if not for his tactical error in judgement then for the misplaced over confidence in the abilities of his charges.
Fear not faithful reader, I’m not going to take the team-isnt-doing-well-so-its-out-with-the-manager route that a section of fans from certain clubs have taken. Im just here to do what all pundits do – present you with facts that you already (or didn’t really care to) know about your favorite sport and try to form (or borrow someone else’s ideas and pass it off as) my own opinion.
Twenty two years is a long time to be in football management, especially when all that time is spent at one club. To most of us Sir Alex Ferguson is Manchester United. His reign has brought back the glory days to the only team in Manchester but in recent years it seems like he has been riding on the success of his own reputation.
The media and some of his peers seem to go on about his unwavering desire and the unquenchable fire burning within etcetera etcetera. Far be it for me to argue with proven professionals but there have been some instances where I thought that a younger Alex Ferguson would have done things differently.
In 1995, Alan Hanson, former liverpool player and current tele pundit aimed a scalding yet completely honest comment at Fergie. You can’t win anything with kids. Too bad no one told him how much of a bitch karma can be as United won the league that same season with an average age of 24. Ferguson was so dedicated to bringing in young raw british talents that there were reports that he personally drove down to Leytonstone to pick up a very young David Beckham from his home to take him to the training ground.
Last summer United had the chance to sign another young highly rated british talent in Aaron Ramsey. Yet instead of greeting the boy and giving him a personal tour of all things United, Sir Alex decided to stay on whatever beach he was on and let David Gill do the honours. Sure you can argue that 90% of these kids who come with the tag “highly” – rated end up being “over”- rated but anyone who has seen Ramsey in action will surely testify that this boy is a gamble worth taking.
What everyone will find most perplexing is Fergie’s new policy of handling gigantor egos. Jaap Stam, in his autobiography head to head, had some less than flattering comments aimed at the manager and the club. In the blink of an eye hes shipped off to Lazio. Becks (among a host of other indescrepancies) made a media spectacle of a little scratch he got after Fergie kicked a boot in his direction and he’s booted off to Real.
Paul Ince, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane, all these players had to learn the hard way that there in no player bigger than Manchester United. And since Sir Alex Ferguson is Manchester United, that simply that implies no player gets the better of Sir Alex Ferguson. Well no player that is until Cristiano Ronaldo.
I’m certain that Fergie has a few good years left and will most likely bow out after he betters Liverpool’s record of 18 league wins further cementing his status in English Football. As for the inevitable question of his successor? Well we’ll leave that for another post.
On a personal note, I just hope that I will be able to put the events in Rome behind me and look forward to next season. Inconsistencies in policies aside, the one trait that has been consistent from Fergie and his teams through the years is that once they take a beating they’ll just regroup, get up and come back stronger.
jaap stam’s situation is a funny one. after criticising sir alex ferguson and his team-mates in his autobiography (there was reports that saf illegally approached him in a bid to sign the defender), and years later in an interview with the sun he warned rooney and ronaldo to not trust saf too much. it is a huge surprise to see jaap stam back working with the scot earlier last season, albeit in the position of a talent scout for the south american region.
it makes me wonder what the story behind their rekindled friendship when their relationship looked irreconcilable after the lazio switch.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1076167/Jaap-Stam-makes-Sir-Alex-signs-United-South-American-talent-scout.html
ps. just in case you didnt catch that, i was just thinking out loud that stam might be employed by saf because of the alleged knowledge that he was signed up illegally. like getting paid to put on a mouth gag during a bondage session.
Well I did mention that the look of Ronaldo’s face after he got that yellow card in Rome told me that he was internally saying in his head “fook this shit I’m headed to Madrid”
And so it proves!
Ronaldo knew sooner or later United would have to bow and accept his transfer request, he just gave it a push with those comments after the CL final. Remember SAF said he wouldnt sell a virus to r.madrid, i think ronaldo’s more of a ‘bacteria’ type in the end :D
Im poised to agree with you Will but im going to take the ignorant stance and pretend that Jaap and Fergie are grown men who have worked out their differences hehehe
True that Glams, and i think guardian did a whole photo compilation of Ronaldo’s United career right after the CL final labeling his depature as ‘imminent’.
And nice play of words from the only reader whos not a member of team wdkf! Ronaldo = Bacteria. Why didnt i think of that.
other than jaap, fergie’s been pretty flawless when it comes to letting players go. i loved ronaldo but, i hope fergies record stays intact. utd now have a lot of cash, and the fans now have a lot to be excited about for the summer and next season…see what’s next for utd here:
(also published on soccerlens)
http://thebleacherbums.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/ronaldo-to-real…finally-now-what/#more-191
OK PEOPLE, EVERYONE LISTEN UP!!!
fergie employed just the right tactic, vindicated by the semi barca-chelsea and the semi utd-barca the year before.
in order to crowd the midfield he deployed a single striker and with fletcher in the team it might have worked.
but the thing that psssssSs me off is that the only reason for him to use ronaldo as a forward was that if he had put him in midfield he still would have put in as much defensive work as the original brazilian ronaldo used to.
so instead of using a willingly defending striker (rooney) plus a not so willingly defending midfielder he chose to put c7 upfront where he would have ended up anyway.
apart from that, utd were the far better team til they went one down, until then barca didn’t manage a proper string of passes and everyone who has some history with (at least watching) football knows that you can’t judge a team’s performance when the gods rule against it.
talking about tactics is always easy when you know the outcome, but last year barca looked very limited against these exact tactics.
I’m listening but it still doesnt change anything.
Right tactics + wrong personel = Wrong tactics.
During both the barca-chelsea and the previous year’s semi, the barcelona midfield were nullified by very capable opposing midfield.
Better for 10 minutes out of 90?
Yes of course it is =) Just as its easy to say “but it worked before”
If you want to compare last years and this years man utd – barcelona games you will have to factor in alot of other variables.
i.e games running into the ties, Injuries, players on form and lets not forget that last year barca were coming to an end of the Rijkaard era and this year morale was high with peps in the hot seat.