Ferguson looks into a rose tinted mirror
The sad decline of Gazza tells you all you need to know about life after football - it can be pretty traumatic. Now that the limelight has gone off him, and with nowhere to channel his demons, he appears to be in the grip of depression and - apparently - total mental breakdown. It could have been so different, or so says Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Man United boss famously tried to sign Gazza before he went off to Spurs, and has reportedly told the people of Sky Sports that it was his doomed trip to London that eventually frazzled his mind. A career at Man United, he claims, could have rescued the dynamite midfielder from his demons. What utter tosh.
In the modern age, footballers are much more disciplined, but, even so, problematic players - Barton, Ronaldo, Pennant etc - still struggle away from the pitch. Even under the strict regime of Barcelona, Ronaldinho has supposedly gone skidding off the rails.
Ferguson has little in the way of proof that he can control the wild players. Quite the opposite, in fact. With the exception of Cantona - whom he dealt with by showering with love - he ships them out to other clubs. He couldn’t tame the likes of Norman Whiteside and Paul McGrath, casting both aside because of their drinking problems. And when Stam and Beckham started to wobble under the media glare, he got rid of them too.
Yes, he has done a fantastic job of guiding Ryan Giggs through the hazardous course to greatness, but for every Giggs there is a wasted talent like Lee Sharpe languishing by the roadside.
Perhaps the great man should stop believing his own press?
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21 responses so far
1 dave // Jun 3, 2008 at 1:43 pm
and maybe you should get a life
2 mustard // Jun 3, 2008 at 1:48 pm
no, maybe YOU should get a life “dave”
3 Ronaldo Cristiano // Jun 3, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Think Fergie would have had more success than Terry Venables. I also believe you really have no idea what your on about…heh
4 rafas go tee // Jun 3, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The purple nosed one is losing the plot. He has always had a too high opinion of himself ( I’m not talking about his talent as a football coach) but he used to be able to keep his ego in check and mumble about something inane (the sheepress would congratulate him on his use of “mind games”) . This is no longer the case and as his already sozzled mind starts to deteriorate further, he is letting the old guard down and we are getting a more accurate (and scarey) glimpse of fergiepsyche. Fascinating to see the process played out on sky sports for our enjoyment tho, keep it up.
5 Simmo // Jun 3, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Just wasted 2 minutes of my life reading this nonsense. It just a piece written by a bitter twisted fool. The many inaccuracies in this piece are unforgivable.
6 Ian // Jun 3, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Come on, everyone in football says Fergie is the best man manager. Even Gazza now says he should have joined Man Utd. It was so much going to London as going to Italy. He is not the right character to have been in a foreign country at such a young age with no support. Maradona had drug problems in Italy under similar conditions. Fergie acts as a father figure to young players and helps keep their feet on the ground. He’s even had Rooney doing his GCSEs. He’s regularly telling young players to settle down and get married. In fact I bet Rooney could have followed the Gazza path if he had been transferred abroad.
7 kings of europe // Jun 3, 2008 at 2:09 pm
What a disgusting article..get a life
8 Avram Magic // Jun 3, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Yeah Ian, because Wayne Rooney is such a role model for club and country these days - he’s never a vile, bad-tempered, swear word-a-second thug is he?
9 Avram Tragic // Jun 3, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I suppose Rooney should be like spitting blubbering Terry or the cowardly Drogba?
10 Avram Magic // Jun 3, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Did I say our players were perfect? I’m not the one arguing that my manager has turned Wayne Rooney into a wonderful human being.
11 Dusty // Jun 3, 2008 at 3:21 pm
ferguson is a cunt, the sooner he fucks off the better, great man wake up! get carlos queerboy to take over asap
12 Gene // Jun 3, 2008 at 3:48 pm
“but for every Giggs there is a wasted talent like Lee Sharpe languishing by the roadside” what a load of crock! Lee Sharpe himself once said that he screwed himself and did not put football as his priority! Giggs had his downs, but he was always so focused and was able to lean on Ferguson. Those that have left after having “outs” with Fergie still respect the father figure in him. If every manager has half of what Fergie has to offer, football would be a clean sport!
13 Josh Burt // Jun 3, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Gene, that is exactly the point I’m making. If Ferguson couldn’t keep Sharpe focused on football as a priority, what makes him think he could have kept a far looser cannon like Gazza on the straight and narrow?
14 Gene // Jun 3, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Josh, one has to have the desire to receive help in order to be helped. Lee Sharpe was too focused on being a “star” like Beckham was and both have regrets leaving!
15 YSB // Jun 3, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hey look, the author of this article confused himself with a journalist!
16 Steve // Jun 3, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Nice to see you didn’t attach your real name to this article. . . think i can understand why. Evedently you have the football knowledge & journalistic talent of a goldfish. A managers job is to talk up his club, which he is the figure head of. Part of this is making their club and by default themselves look better than that of their rivals so that they can sign the best players. Do you not think any of the other successful managers of our time dont smell their own farts? Did Mourinho not call himself the “special one”? does Wenger not think that Arsenal can never, ever do anything wrong? Its Fergusons job to say that Man Utd would have been good for Gazza especially as its the start of the transfer window.
Also to say:
“Yes, he has done a fantastic job of guiding Ryan Giggs through the hazardous course to greatness, but for every Giggs there is a wasted talent like Lee Sharpe languishing by the roadside.”
Just goes to show how much you know. Lee Sharpe had no where near the potential of Giggs and if he was still playing now he would prob be playing for Fulham or Wigan. Ferguson identified the one who had talent and as they played in the same position allowed Sharpe to continue his career away from OT. Besides if you had listened\read Ferguson’s interview properly you would have realised that he said Man Utd would have been good for Gazza because of the players we had at the time, not because of Ferguson himself. So to sum up, Writing Style 1\10, Journalistic talent, 1\10, Factual quality 2\10 (you actually managed to mention 7 current or ex- united players) ‘Mr. Big Head’ was obviously using “Rose Tinted” glasses when he read his article back and thought it was anything more than a waste of 2kb of disk space
17 Jean // Jun 3, 2008 at 10:35 pm
The sale of Beckham took a piece out of Ferguson’s heart. He loved that boy and nurtured him. Beckham was a great player at the prime of his game but life with Posh was affecting his football and Ferguson was just trying to keep him focused but to no avail because Beckham lost his ways. Ronny has to thank Beckham for opening up the position for him. Otherwise he would have been 2nd fiddle to Beckham.
18 Josh Burt // Jun 4, 2008 at 10:50 am
Thanks for the comments Steve - my name is attached to the piece, and proudly so I might add.
19 Avram Magic // Jun 4, 2008 at 10:58 am
Steve, Fergie mentioned players like Pallister in his ‘list of guys to help Gazza settle in’ when he wasn’t even there at that time - I’m sure as such a fact-hound like yourself you realised that Fergie was chatting out of his backside in saying this.
The point I think the author is making is that Fergie, and his supporters in this article, claims to be the best man manager but he couldn’t even get Lee Sharpe interested in playing - pretty poor for someone with supposed super human management skills.
20 RedbyDawn // Jun 4, 2008 at 12:10 pm
All this from the cunt who had Keith Gillespie put bets on for him.
What a wanker.
21 John Swaine // Jun 4, 2008 at 12:28 pm
It seems everyone disagreeing with this article and calling into question the commentary provided therein is of the firmly held belief that the sun shines out of SAF’s backside.
I think he’s a great manager but honestly, thinking you can cure a serious mental condition like alcoholism with your superior training regime is total and utter codswallop.
Alcoholics don’t just turn into Alcoholics because they move to London. Something was there in his life that cause Gazza to go off the rails before he went to Tottenham.
Only the Alcoholic himself can make the changes necessary in his life to treat his condition.