Paper slagging off ferguson

There was an arrogance about Alex Ferguson in Basel which was, even for him, unusually pronounced.
"It
is another big game. But we have a strong squad and that squad will see
us through without question," was his emphatic dismissal of a side
which had previously drawn at Old Trafford.
Without question. A withering put-down which implied he does not get knocked out of Europe by Alpine pub teams.
The
comments, no doubt intended to boost his players' confidence, were
picked up by his Swiss opponents and the pep-talk had been delivered. To
the wrong dressing-room.

Fergie's inability to publicly accept the reality of how dismal
United have been in this year's Champions League, was summed up by his
petulant walk-out from a press conference, after the draw with Benfica,
when a reporter suggested his team was struggling.
He wore a big
smile and shook his head, but the remark had clearly struck a nerve.
Maybe he feared his squad were short. Maybe he knew he hadn't done
enough in the aftermath of a second out-classing by Barcelona in May, to
keep United at the top of European football.
He made three
potentially great signings this summer, David De Gea, Phil Jones and
Ashley Young. But with an average age of 22 and no Champions League
experience, all were taking a big step up. He needed at least two
fully-developed, world-class talents to get closer to Barcelona,
especially with the retirement of exceptional leaders in Edwin Van der
Saar, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes.
Which is why Roy Keane is
wrong to blame the youngsters for United's Thursday nights on Channel 5.
It's not their fault that a gushing media, desperate for a new English
golden generation, shamelessly over-hyped them.
It's not their
fault that senior pros like Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra,
and Ji Sung Park failed to show composure and leadership in Basel.
Last
year Rooney demanded to leave a club he claimed weren't satisfying his
ambitions. On Wednesday he didn't satisfy the first criteria of a
professional footballer – when you lose the ball you try to win it back.
The
constant Twittering and showbiz distractions surrounding Ferdinand
suggest his mind is too often elsewhere. And once again Evra is doing
what he does best: Talking a good game about a failure he's just helped
ensure.
Is it Phil Jones' and Ashley Young's fault that Fergie has
shown too much faith in peripheral squad players who are past it? Or
that twice in seven days he has been eliminated from competitions by
arrogantly looking gift horses in the mouth?
United had the
easiest draw of all the big teams in the Carling Cup quarter-finals
(home to Crystal Palace) and blew it. They had the easiest Champions
League group of all the big teams in Europe and blew it.
It wasn't
Chris Smalling or Danny Welbeck who bizarrely stated, six weeks ago,
that United were "making great strides towards Barcelona." It was
Fergie.
I wouldn't blame the kids, Roy. I'd blame the manager and his senior players.
Without question.