So Sir Alex Ferguson breaks his seven-year vow of silence and agrees to chat to the BBC, nobly ending the famous seven year rift. Hats off to Mark Thompson. According to The Guardian, the BBC Director-General went to Manchester in person to seek an audience with the great man. Wonderful father, husband and trophy-winner he may be, but Ferguson is notoriously thin-skinned and prickly with the wrong sections of the media. The BBC, in his book, goofed inexcusably in 2004 with the screening of Fergie and Son, a documentary looking at transfer shenanigans and pointing the finger at his boy Jason in what was “a horrible attack on my son’s honour”. No post-match MOTD utterances since, the nation and football’s loss, having to make do with the mighty Mike Phelan.
It’s difficult to get too excited about Thompson’s coup. Man who presides over era of cutbacks and dumbing down at temple of broadcasting cuts deal with bolshy, tantrum-prone football boss who is, frankly, old enough to know better. Can Thompson now sort out Syria?
With nervous MOTD hacks now in line to quiz the maestro, can we expectsome probing off-pitch stuff about bedroom antics that went wrong? "The lad Giggs is stilll a champion shagger..." Methinks not. I for one would like to know what Sir Alex, the man from Clydeside who backed the Miner’s Strike, makes of the disturbing, stratospheric salaries on offer at rivals Manchester City. But Ferguson, like others, has been disappointingly supine in confronting football’s culture of excess and selfishness. Perhaps someone out there could set up ‘Fergie nd Fergie’, handing over interview duties to the Duchess of York, another public figure much-maligned by the media who could bring out her namesake’s more cuddly side.
In a perfect world, Ferguson would have gone before the BBC’s intrepid mike-wielder after a humbling home defeat. But life isn’t like that. In fairness, there was no crowing or hurling of pizzas afterthe 8-2 demolition of Arsenal's Second XI, , but some quite kind and gracious stuff about injuries and Arsene Wenger being a worthy adversary. But what odds another bad mood Fergie moment before Xmas?
It’s difficult to get too excited about Thompson’s coup. Man who presides over era of cutbacks and dumbing down at temple of broadcasting cuts deal with bolshy, tantrum-prone football boss who is, frankly, old enough to know better. Can Thompson now sort out Syria?
With nervous MOTD hacks now in line to quiz the maestro, can we expectsome probing off-pitch stuff about bedroom antics that went wrong? "The lad Giggs is stilll a champion shagger..." Methinks not. I for one would like to know what Sir Alex, the man from Clydeside who backed the Miner’s Strike, makes of the disturbing, stratospheric salaries on offer at rivals Manchester City. But Ferguson, like others, has been disappointingly supine in confronting football’s culture of excess and selfishness. Perhaps someone out there could set up ‘Fergie nd Fergie’, handing over interview duties to the Duchess of York, another public figure much-maligned by the media who could bring out her namesake’s more cuddly side.
In a perfect world, Ferguson would have gone before the BBC’s intrepid mike-wielder after a humbling home defeat. But life isn’t like that. In fairness, there was no crowing or hurling of pizzas afterthe 8-2 demolition of Arsenal's Second XI, , but some quite kind and gracious stuff about injuries and Arsene Wenger being a worthy adversary. But what odds another bad mood Fergie moment before Xmas?
I have greeted previous Arsenal disasters with smug relish. Particularly fun were the shaming FA Cup exits at York City (1985) and Wrexham (1992), ‘Nayim from the half-way line’ and the League Cup meltdown against Luton in 1988. I meanly punched the air in celebration after Tony Adams was sent down for drink-driving. Then again, I did see Crystal Palace go in 1-4 down at Highbury on the first day ofthe 1990s. Those days of Arsenl-baiting and hating are long gone. It would be unseemly now to empty the salt cellar into open wounds . Sort it out, Arsene.
No comments:
Post a Comment