Knight Of 1000 Games

This week "Sir" Alex Ferguson will lead his Red charges into a Champions League game against Lyon for his 1000th time in charge. A mammoth achievement in a job where 200 games is considered as a "good knock". What do I remember about any of those 1000 games? I remember watching Sparky Hughes smash one in from a tight angle to win the Cup Winners Cup. Fantastic. I remember Cantona popping one through a crowd of Liverpool players to secure an FA Cup Final win. As a Liverpool fan I have been able to blame the entire FA Cup debacle on the dodgy cream suits the Spice Boys wore on the day. I remember Cantona flying through the air into the front row at Selhurst Park. I remember the dramatic European Cup victory at the Camp Nou, secured in the dying minutes of a game where he had witnessed his team being totally outplayed by Bayern Munich. Who could forget the Beckham goal, also at Selhurst, surely the moment that captured the birth of "the kids" of whom Alan Hansen famously claimed "would win nothing". These are significant landmarks of the Ferguson era at Manchester United.
Ferguson is named alongside the mangerial greats of the game: Ramsey, Shankley, Paisley, Clough, Stein, Busby et al. In my opinion his name should never be uttered in the same sentence as any of the aforementioned legends. On his success and trophy haul with United, not to mention Aberdeen, he deserves credit but all of the credit bestowed is besmirched by the cantankerous, bad sport, who's team, according to him, have never lost a match to a better side. A decade littered with "we didn't play well today", "the referee has had a bad game", "we allowed them to play", I don't need to list more, we have heard them all.
The "Sour Grapes War" he has waged with Arsene Wenger in recent seasons has grown into a tabloid monster. Even when the last encounter was won by his team he could not leave it alone. Taking the war to new levels by complaining that Arsenal's Ashley Cole had "stolen nearly ten yards" when taking a throw in. Outside Anfield there is a statue of Bill Shankley with his arms held out in a salute to the people approaching the ground, copied from a famous photograph of him in front of The Kop. If they ever erect a statue to Ferguson outside Old trafford then he will surely have veins bursting out of his neck with his face contorted in rage and his right hand pointing at his left wrist. The game ain't over until Alex says so.
What I find staggering is that a man whom he mentored into management, Steve McLaren, is one of the most gracious, reasonable, uncomplaining managers I have ever seen on telly. How could this paragon of good sportsmanship have grown in the shadow of the poisonous Ferguson. Bad refereeing decisions are greeted with "Well, sometimes they go for you and sometimes they don't". Poor team performances are delivered with "We didn't play well today but we will be working to improve on today's performance". Never 0ver-the-top in his praise of his own side or the opposition. Basically, a man who calls it how he sees it and doesn't get carried away with himself.
For all his glorious triumphs and achievements at "The Biggest Club In The World", I will remember "Sir" Alex for the day he kept his mouth shut and said nothing. I can still see it now, a packed St James' Park, the Great Dane is a bit too far away from his line, the majestic Belgian casually approaches the edge of the D, and dinks a little looping shot clean over his head. Phillipe Albert!!! Newcastle 5 Manchester United 0.

Mutu

So another over-paid professional falls victim to the lure of cocaine. He doesn't get caught in Stringfellows chopping one out on the cistern, no, much better to ingest your drug from the flat stomach of your porno star girlfriend and get caught by a cameraman in a flat over the road with a long lens. If you are going to go down (pun intended) then best to go down in flames. He gets sacked by his football club who terminate his contract and kiss goodbye to a £16,000,000 asset (not to worry though, the owner of the club drops that down the back of his sofa). They think that he will not see the green of a football pitch for a good year or so and visualise a very large, very hefty book being thrown at their former charge by the FA. He gets seven months and his former club issue a statement saying the punishment is to lenient. Maybe they were ruing the decision to tear up his contract so quickly. The swiftness with which the club claimed the moral high ground made me a little suspicious. They had called for Mutu to be target-tested by the FA because they thought he was using recreational drugs. I would like to know how long they sat on their suspicions before grassing him up to the authorities and the dope-testers? Does this make them guilty also. He must have played some games, even for the reserves, whilst under suspicion? Should they have not acted immediately on the suspicions they had and got him tested pronto?
So we have the radio phone-ins and there is always one who will ring up and trot out the old "role-model" chesnut. I find this staggering. If footballers are role-models to the youth of today then we will be in a sorry state in about twenty years. Even the most literate of footballers, for example Michael Owen, cannot string a sentence together without every sentence being littered with "you know...eeer...you know" and the England captain is a mumbling, semi-illiterate who throws the usual cliches out of the side of his mouth. I think that the players are role-models whilst they are on the pitch. As soon as they are off it I don't think kids are interested. They can aspire to do a few Joe Cole tricks or a Thierry Henry back heel and even a Robert Pires tumble in the box. The more impressionable kids may even aspire to the flash car, Prada suit and stupid haircut but developing an interest in drugs because one or two footballers have been caught at it?? Don't make me laugh. I reckon you could interview every under-12 going to a game at Stamford Bridge and ask them what they think of Mr Mutu's nocturnal habits and I reckon 99% will tell you that taking drugs is a bad thing if you want to be a footballer. I believe the other 1% will be future candidates for the England captaincy.