Alex Ferguson is a very clever man. We saw clear evidence of that at the weekend after his team's clash against Wigan, with the United boss shrewdly putting the media in a tricky position following his prediction of the tirade he sensed would, quite rightly, be sent in Wayne Rooney's direction after his fierce elbow in the face of James McCarthy.
By criticising the English press so vocally so quickly after the game, the press were placed in a difficult position when it came to their post-match analysis. Expected by the United manager to unleash fury on the striker, some of the reactions from the largest newspapers in the country were somewhat more subdued than would perhaps be the norm.
However, last night Ferguson showed that the emotion of the game sometimes clouds the judgement and intelligence of even the finest managers in the modern game today. With the FA clearly attempting to stamp out disrespect towards match officials from both players and managers, Ferguson's comments after his side's defeat at the hands of Chelsea were ill-judged to say the least and you can bet he won't be making the same mistake again.
With referee Martin Atkinson making a couple of dodgy decisions, but nothing approaching as outrageous a judgment as Mark Clattenburg made at the weekend when he decided to keep Wayne Rooney on the pitch and reward him for his actions with a quick hug, Ferguson stated after the game: "You hope you get a really strong referee in games like this". The United manager went on to claim that he had feared the worst when the identity of the match referee was revealed in an attack that turned into a personal judgement towards one of the most experienced referees in the country.
Whether Fergie will end up being punished for his remarks remains to be seen, but you can bet that if those words had been uttered by Ian Holloway or Mick McCarthy, the reaction would have been far different.
No comments:
Post a Comment