In the tone that an underworld criminal might use to refer to a fellow gangster, ‘We’ll deal with it, don’t you worry,’ were the words Sir Alex Ferguson used when referring to Rio Ferdinand, and his latest cause of controversy. The irate manager has opened a debate on whether his comments were justly or not, on a weekend when other Premier League managers supported their players who opted against promoting the Kick It Out campaign.
Opting Out: Rio choosing to ignore his manager and not wear Kick It Out t-shirt against Stoke City
Throughout his career at Old Trafford, Ferguson has been known for his man-management – the ability to deal with high profile players and the determination not to let any player become bigger than the club. His attitude has not come without trouble in the past. Stories of boots being thrown around the Manchester changing rooms have been well published. Ruud van Nistelrooy soon left United after a training ground row with Ronaldo and Roy Keane was shown the door following his criticism of younger players at the club. On the whole though, players who play for United know the score and they know the manager is not to be disrespected.
So how should, or more importantly, how will Sir Alex Ferguson react to this latest tension around the club?
Rio Ferdinand, one of a number of players who refused to support the Kick It Out campaign this weekend, is perhaps closer to the issue than anyone else. After all it was his younger brother, Anton, who was victim of racial abuse from John Terry twelve months ago, Terry who was given a minimal punishment of a four game ban this week. With recent events in Serbia with Danny Rose experiencing racial abuse when playing for England U21’s, and the cases of Patrice Evra and Anton Ferdninand over the last year, fears that this stain on the game is not completely abolished have been heavily sparked.
Club problems: A red-faced Ferguson shows his anger at Rio’s decision
So Rio’s view, along with players like Jason Roberts and Joleon Lescott, is clear, he does not feel the Kick It Out campaign is doing enough to abolish racism in football. An opinion entitled to him. The problem the defender faces is that Ferguson made it clear to Friday’s press that all players would be wearing the campaign’s t-shirts. Either a break-down in communication between manager and player has occurred, or Mr Ferdinand simply stood by his views and ignored Ferguson, either way it has left Sir Alex red-faced and Ferdinand no doubt facing disciplinary action, formal or not.If this wasn’t enough for the English defender, then a shaky performance in United’s defence would not have helped his situation. The 33-year-old was at fault for Stoke’s second goal in Saturday’s 4-2 win when he let midfielder Michael Kightly ease through the centre of Manchester United’s defence.
As well as all of this, his contact expires at the end of this season; do not expect renewal talks to be imminent.
What’s your view on the Rio/Ferguson saga? Who was right, who was wrong, and what actions should now be taken?
Written by Alfie Long. See more of his work at: pitchsidetalk.wordpress.com or follow him on twitter @pitchsidetalk Edited by Charlie Cook @charlie_cook09 Thoughts and comments welcome, all support appreciated!
In an era when having two managers in a single season is normal, it is remarkable that David Moyes has manged to spend 10 years at Everton. The chairman, Bill Kenwright’s faith in Moyes, and his undoubted ability are the key to Everton’s success so far this season and in the past decade. Moyes has never had much money to spend, in fact he has only had a net spend of £14 million pounds while at Everton. Despite that, he has transformed them from a team battling relegation to one currently sitting in 3rd place in the Premier League.
Liverpool’s bad luck continued on the weekend. Like the Arsenal and Manchester City games previously, they were the better side for much of the game, but on this occasion their inability to score goals was not the sole reason for their downfall. The key decisions of the game went against them. The referee Mark Halsey, in my opinion was very poor. There were two key decisions that changed the game. The first was the red card for Jonjo Shelvey. It is clear from the photo (above) that if Shelvey deserved a red card then Johnny Evans did too. If anything, Evans’ challenge looks worse, it could easily have gone the other way with Man Utd being reduced to 10 men had Shelvey been the one lying on the floor after the challenge. Even after Shelvey’s dismissal Liverpool looked dangerous, but Mark Halsey came to United’s rescue again awarding a very debatable penalty. Glen Johnson was stupid to put his arm across Valencia’s back, but the contact was minimal and not enough to warrant a penalty.
It seems that Arsenal have solved all the problems from last season. They looked shaky at the back, they lacked structure in the midfield and they were almost devoid of creativity. These are all overstatements that were toggled by the media and fans throughout the season. The one thing that everyone agreed on though, was that Arsenal had the best striker in the league.
Words like ‘dynamic’, ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ have been used to describe the top English players in the past. These qualities are vital to the English team, but without some guile and creativity to compliment them they can be wasted. This generation of players lacked a technically accomplished passer of the ball, a Xavi for instance. This may sound like an obvious comment to make considering that Xavi is widely regarded as the best midfielder in the world, but so were Gerrard and Lampard at their best. In his prime Gerrard was the driving force behind any Liverpool success, but it is no surprise that he hasn’t been as potent since Xabi Alonso left. Against Moldova, Frank Lampard reminded us how devastating he could be. His skill was in his ability to time his runs perfectly, and had the enviable knack of always being in the right place at the right time.
Luckily for England it looks like they are starting to produce this type of player. Cleverly was outstanding against Moldova and Alex Ferguson’s refusal to buy a central midfielder suggests he has a lot of faith in the youngster. He is technically astute and an accomplished passer of the ball. Jack Wilshere is another in this mould. He had a brilliant start to his career, including a Man of the Match performance against Barcelona, outplaying Xavi and Iniesta in the process. Wilshere himself said: “Players like Xavi and Iniesta are great players. Who wouldn’t try to model their game on them?” Those role models come as no surprise, considering he has been brought up at Arsenal where they play a possession based game. Wilshere’s technique is superb, he likes to get on the ball and dictate the tempo of the game as much as possible. He can pick holes in the opposition by running with or passing the ball. He is a phenomenal talent. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has also shown his quality over the last year. Although he is currently playing on the wing, Arsene Wenger sees him as a future central midfielder. He is more direct and powerful than Cleverly and Wilshere, but the three of them are all technically superb and together will provide the heart of the future England team. With these three in the engine room the future could be very bright.
Raheem Sterling – Sterling is very similar to Walcott. Lightning quick and a brilliant finisher. He looks dangerous whenever he gets the ball for Liverpool and doesn’t look remotely out of place in the Premier League despite only being 17.
