SOCCER UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:ONCE AGAIN, Alex Ferguson decided to adhere to what Leo Durocher, the old baseball coach, used to say about "show me a good loser and I'll show you an idiot".
This time it was a Stan Boardman moment, deriding Bayern Munich as “typical Germans” for surrounding the referee to campaign for Rafael da Silva’s red card on Wednesday. Typical Ferguson, you could say. The habit of trying to influence, or deceive, match officials is practised in every country – even Scotland, judging by the way Darren Fletcher was flailing his arms at Mike Dean and beseeching him for a non-existent penalty against Chelsea last Saturday.
By now, we have grown accustomed to this kind of response from Ferguson, whether it be questioning whether Italians can be trusted or calling the Dutch “arrogant”, as he did after a 3-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in 2000.
Nobody works the levers of the media better than Ferguson and these little outbursts can succeed in misdirecting his audience from his own team’s shortcomings. Those Germans: they bombed our chippie, you know.
What Ferguson did not want to consider was the notion that his team had come up short. Bayern, he said, were “lucky”. He used that word half a dozen times and, in fairness, with justification on the basis that, 11 versus 11, United did look the more likely winners.
It has been a galling week for United but there were mitigating circumstances, among them Wayne Rooney’s injury, and the lesson of history is that we should desist from the kind of knee-jerk reaction that had another newspaper’s website asking: “Has time got the better of Ferguson?”
There are legitimate concerns for United supporters. One is Michael Carrick’s regression. Rio Ferdinand is 31 and troubled by back problems. Rafael da Silva, while talented, is very raw. Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and particularly Gary Neville are in decline. Edwin van der Sar will retire at the end of next season. And the replacements for this illustrious cast do not inspire confidence.
French winger Gabriel Obertan has vanished almost without trace. Darron Gibson is a splendid striker of the ball but lacks the mobility and passing range of a really top midfielder. An €11.40 million deal is in place for Fulham defender Chris Smalling but, since then, he has looked error-prone.
Then there is the issue of Dimitar Berbatov and the overwhelming sense that Wednesday demonstrated he has not worked.
Berbatov was on the bench despite Rooney’s lack of fitness. After Rooney was withdrawn, with the team needing another goal, there were 25 minutes when Ferguson moved Nani, a winger, into the centre-forward’s role. Berbatov has started only six out of 22 Champions League games since becoming United’s most expensive player at €35 million from Tottenham Hotspur in 2008. He was introduced with 10 minutes to go.
Ferguson will deny it, of course, but even the most trusting disciple may wonder whether the manager can ever be believed again after the Peculiar Case of Wayne Rooney’s Right Ankle. Ferguson also denies the ruling Glazer family have kept from him the €91 million United received from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo but, again, can we take his word for it?
This is the true problem for United: they need a better class of replacement for their older players and that will require their owners to flex some financial muscle. Everyone in football knows that is not going to happen.
Guardian Service
