Alex Ferguson

[DJ Leon]

Shreeves had just implied to a young Cristiano Ronaldo (who could barely speak english) that he went down too easily. A totally inappropriate question to ask someone so shortly after a match has finished in my opinion, when there are tens of players you could say the same thing about. Ferguson was right to stick up for his player.

It wasn't last season by the way, it was in Ronaldo's first season in England.

That's one wafer-thin argument. There's a cheat and the bully boy and you side with them against the person who suggests (politely) that perhaps the cheat's behavour wasn't totally appropriate. Actually wafer-thin would be generous.

 

[DJ Leon]

So?

That's what he does in the workplace. Agreed, absolute MONSTER, for sure. That's why none of his reserve team players will rape a shopgirl at next year's ManU Xmas party. Not cos they see it's wrong, but cos they don't fancy having their career nipped in the bud by Sir Alex.

I for one have total respect for the guy.

So do I - as a football manager. As a man, he's unpleasant. And a gentleman? Not unless they've radically redefined it since I last looked.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

So do I - as a football manager. As a man, he's unpleasant. And a gentleman? Not unless they've radically redefined it since I last looked.

Sorry. Disagree. The only time me or thee get a glimpse of Sir Alex, or Wenger or Holloway or Warnock or Wilkins or the rest of 'em is at their place of work, at the time when they're under maximum stress.

Reckon we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, but I'd be more than happy to vote for Sir Alex as a gentleman in real life - cantankerous old git that he is

 

[DJ Leon]

But I would put it to you that:

1) It is up to referees to punish 'cheating,' not sky reporters.
2) There are players in every team of the premier league who 'cheat' as much as Ronaldo.
3) If he was playing for ANY other team, they wouldn't have done it.

I know Ronaldo goes down easily, or used to at least, I don't deny that, but there's no way that was an acceptable situation for him to be put in.

I am a Ronaldo fan so have no drum to bang here. However, in his first season he did cheat outrageously. And no I don't think that there was a bigger cheater (no need for inverted commas, surely) than him in the Premiership.

Now are you suggesting that journalists shouldn't report about cheating? Should they not comment on bad performances or poor decisions either? It's their job and Shreeves was doing his pretty politely too. Remember Ronaldo offered himself up for the interview and was not phased by the question, he answered (or perhaps defected it) well. The problem was entirely Ferguson's.

And please, point 3 is as ironic as Ferguson complaining (with zero dignity) yesterday about time added on. Are you really suggesting that Man U get a rough deal from Sky?

 

[Happy Seagull]

Fouled? I assumed it was a sniper in the crowd

It might have been the keepers face that made contact, but that doesn't make it any less of a foul.

 

[DJ Leon]

Sorry. Disagree. The only time me or thee get a glimpse of Sir Alex, or Wenger or Holloway or Warnock or Wilkins or the rest of 'em is at their place of work, at the time when they're under maximum stress.

Reckon we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, but I'd be more than happy to vote for Sir Alex as a gentleman in real life - cantankerous old git that he is

Fairy nuff. We won't agree on this one. I could just have a lot more respect for him if he behaved like a gentleman more often. I am by no means alone.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It might have been the keepers face that made contact, but that doesn't make it any less of a foul.

Speaking of which, anybody else catch Rooney trying a crafty one on David James, just pulling his boot back when it was about an inch from the keeper's face and the keeper already had the ball. Snide cuunnnt.

 

[Hiney]

Speaking of which, anybody else catch Rooney trying a crafty one on David James, just pulling his boot back when it was about an inch from the keeper's face and the keeper already had the ball. Snide cuunnnt.

I think that was just a 'pretend' kick at his head - James was laughing about it afterwards.

I don't think there have been too many more single-minded individuals than Alex Ferguson in the modern game. He's what, 66 years old, and he still gets into work at 6.30am and works his bollocks off at a job that he clearly loves, is unbelievably good at, and one that very FEW people would even take on, let alone do well at.

There are plenty of books around that show a different side to Ferguson than the TWAT he is sometimes portrayed as, even allowing for the rose-tinted view of things from some of the authors.

I think he is BRILLIANT and there are loads of people who need to take a step back from their hatred of Manchester United and recognise his genius.

 

[Spunk Bubble]

Ferguson is a prick

 

[Mr Everyone]

Alex Ferguson? Yuck! I have no time for him.

He appears odious, arrogant, uncharming and extremly petulant. Looking at how he refuses to speak to Match of the Day or anybody related to the BBC, gives weight to my description of the man.

I look forward to when this particularly reprehinsible character retires.

To end on a positive note, Paul Jewell, is a man who cannot do wrong, in my opinion of course.

 

[Gazwag]

Sir Alex Ferguson has a lot to be angry about, the referee was a disgrace. If we want to see the best players in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo then we need to give them more protection, otherwise they'll go abroad where they get protection.

Good, we dont need diving cheats over here. What goes around comes around, for every penalty Ronaldo cons the ref the others refs will hopefully not allow him others.

Get him and Drogba back overseas.

 

[Easy 10]

Well being as TLO's poll is dying on its arse, I might as well regurgitate what I said there.

The kneejerk reaction is to declare him a ruddyfaced scottish gimp with a chip on his shoulder the size of the McCains overchip warehouse just outside of Corby. And in fairness, he regularly lives up to that.

However, I am mindful of his hand-written letter to the Albion in their final throwes at the Goldstone hoping for a resolution to our troubles and wishing us well for the future. He strikes me as a man who does not forget his own humble roots, and is not oblivious to the plight of the smaller clubs in this league.

Publically he is an easy man to dislike, and he does himself no favours with outbursts like the one yesterday. But any football fan who doesn't harbour even the slightest grudging admiration for him as a manager is a blinkered fool. Like him or not, the man IS a living legend. Can't say I really like him, but I can't help but admire him.

 

[pasty]

Sir Alex Ferguson has a lot to be angry about, the referee was a disgrace. If we want to see the best players in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo then we need to give them more protection, otherwise they'll go abroad where they get protection.

You know I was just about to quote this post and say what an utter load of old bollocks. Then I read on and saw that TLO had saved me the bother and put it so much more eloquantly.

Why on earth should players be given be given referres protection just because they happen to bo more skilfull than anyone else on the pitch?

Talking to someone who is clearly a corporate apologist, I can't but feel that that statement is bollocks.

Ronaldo doesn't need 'protecting'. He is a professional footballer - albeit a highly talented footballer, whose skills can be a joy to watch, but whose attitude to fairness and sportsmanship leave a lot to be desired - who, if he is fouled, will be awarded a free-kick. If, in the opinion of the referee, he isn't fouled, he won't. It's the same rules for everyone. EVERYONE.

Bearing in mind that the referee is, of course, human and therefore is prone to making mistakes, one still has to consider the number of times Ronaldo hasn't been touched and he has been awarded a free-kick vastly outweighs the number of times he has been fouled and not awarded free-kicks. It happens. It does not necessarily make the referee a 'disgrace' (a phrase which is, incidentally, an vastly over-used exaggeration).

To single someone out as someone who 'needs protecting' is a product of lazy journalistic, media-snappy phrase invented on behalf of someone who can't cope the physical demands of what was, is and always will be a contact sport.

The fact he threw Eduardo's situation into the comments after the game was a disgusting cowardly, low, cheap shot using someone else's horrific misfortune to justify his own inadequacies. Comments like that are just dirt.

 

[fatbadger]

This bollocks about 'protection' ... ffs. There was an Arsenal player who, earlier this season, complained after one game that he had never been tackled so much, as if it was a crime. Tackling is part of the game, and should remain so. What's this 'protection' Ferguson et al talk of? Are defenders supposed to just stand back, marvel at the silky genius of Ronaldo and then applaud when he scores?

Watch some footage of George Best sometime. He could dribble the ball over an awful mudbath of a pitch, past four or five players trying to take him out (without any interest in getting the ball). and still keep possession and play the pass. Pele was the same. Ronaldo (and Rooney's the same) couldn't do that if he tried. These modern players want to play on a snooker table with tackling banned. Apparently, only then will their true talent stand out. What rot.

 

[chez]

How on earth are they one of our biggest enemies? They've got nothing in common with us whatsoever, play 250 miles away, compete in totally different leagues and tournaments, and we haven't met for decades. Enemies? I see them more as a second team if anything.

I would have thought that anyone who was supporting The Albion back in 1983 would hate ManUre. They will be my most hated team for as long as I can see.

Yes they do play in a different league but that doesn't stop other Brighton fans hating Crystal Palace does it.