AUTHOR: – Bricki
Do you matter?
I mean you buy the shirt, you pay for your tickets (or tv subscription), you cheer the team on through good and bad… so do you matter?
I ask this question because in the last week we have lost two games that could define our season and approach a cup game against the team who are closest to stopping our title push… So why have we heard nothing from our manager?
Granted we heard from him straight after the Chelsea game but that was merely complaining about the referees performance. After the break we got with Rooney staying on the pitch against Wigan it was hard to take the complaints too seriously anyway.
Yet once charged for his comments post match we were denied the opportunity of the Friday morning press conference and any views we could take into the Liverpool game over the weekend. This resulted in the build up for the game being dominated by the journalists having to work with what they had… a silent Sir Alex and the percieved injustice done against the team.
I am not a fan of managers being interviewed moments after the game has finished so this is not a complaint that we didnt see anyone from the club as they left the pitch. To not have anyone attend a press conference before or after the game though is a fairly big message to the fans that they do not matter.
In the immediate aftermath of the game a managers emotions can still be very high, evidenced by the comments about the referee that Sir Alex made after the Chelsea game. A 20 – 30 minute break before sitting down with the press/tv would allow a manager to compose his thoughts, see any replays he may need on certain incidents and prepare himself for the questioning that is to follow.
After the poor results of the last week, down partly to decisions not going our way, poor performances and some general bad luck now is the time i want to hear Sir Alex on how the team will handle it and the approach to be taken.
The ‘siege’ mentality that the team takes on in times of ‘perceived’ injustices has proven useful in the past but to leave the fans out of this situation by even refusing to speak local or in house media is not going to help the fans get behind the team. To not give the fans any sort of comment or news out of the squad smacks of a child taking their ball home because they are not getting what they want.
Dont get me wrong i dont feel we had much ‘luck’ in the decisions of the last two games but we also got a big slice of luck in the Wigan game and in others over the season so to back a referee one week and slaughter one the week after doesnt help the team either.
I am more interested in the approach the manager takes in preparing for a game, the tactics, the style of play and the players who have been doing well or not in training. On his day Sir Alex is a joy to listen to and has many opinions on the game that are relevant but to not allow the fans access to this thought process will back fire in the long run as people tire of the ‘childish’ attitude he takes.
The amount of money, time and devotion that fans put into following and supporting the club should guarantee that we are given the time by the team management to hear their thoughts in the good and bad times.
To deny the the fans access to hearing from their own team/management is like taking a childs favourite toy away from them, eventually they will tire asking for it and move onto something else… Will the fans tire and look elsewhere? it may not happen overnight but its not impossible…
It’s more about denying the media than the fans.
I can’t speak for anybody else, obviously, but I don’t much care whether he speaks to the tabloids or Sky or the BBC or anyone else so long as he’s putting the work in to get the team ready for the next match.
Ferguson veers wildly between coming across as an interesting, thoughtful character and a petulant whiner who throws the toys out of the pram the moment something goes against him. If I thought there was an outside chance that he’d come out and say “You know what? The better team won.” then I might care. If all he’s going to do is complain then he can keep it to himself.
It is a little bit spoilt, but maybe he feels he does not want to predjudace aby appeal to the charges.
I think the MUTV black out is because Sky own 30% so whatever is said will trickle to Sky Sports, the Sun, The Times etc.
In all honesty, how do you explain that the man who has just signed a 200K a week contract looks like he should be plyibng his trade in the Salford Sunday League, or that your captain lost his head and did not think about the next game, or the fact you have just rewarded several players new contracts in the last week for them to just turn up and go through the motions.
TBH I tend not to pay any attention to 99 percent of Fergie’s interviews, he is usually taking a political line – trying to mislead the opposition, boosting a players confidence etc he rarely says anything worth listening to.
It doesn’t bother me one bit if I don’t hear him, I remember Clough had a year or so he refused to speak to the media.
However I do think Fergie is acting like a child. I don’t see why he is doing, he said what he said and I shouldn’t blame any one else he was wrong he should take his punishment like a man.
I was embarrassed by the United fans who complained about the ref against Chelsea, ok he may have made bad decisions but so what Vidic should have been sent off in the league Cup final, Neville should have been sent off a couple of times this season and Rooney and Rafael have also got away with sendings off.
I don’t believe United get more good decisions I think we take advantage more often of good decisions than other teams and bad ones we usually get over and still win.
Everyone remembers the goal that wasn’t for Spurs against United but I went to a game against with the person who runs this site – Portsmouth in the Cup we had a good goal disallowed for Offside and a goal that went over the line and wasn’t given. We won the game the bad decisions are forgotten. I can give countless examples.
Fergie is the most powerful person in football at the moment. He is a multi millionaire possible a 100 times over he can do what he likes at United. I think he is too powerful at the club, he gives total support to the Glazer’s because they let him do what he wants. I doubt Phelan goes against Fergie much.
Too much power isn’t good, and he is embarrassing the club by his childish actions. We all have a rant and get carried away in the moment but he is paid to sell the club and talk to the media. I fully understand his actions against the BBC after their disgraceful documentary on his son but this time he only has himself to blame and no one at the club seems willing to put him in his place.
to be honest i dont listen to fergie when we loose because he tends to blame everyone else apart from the players he put on the pitch, probably to protect them
Although I agree with most of whats been said above lets also look at the other 50% of games we have lost this season – After defeat to West Ham Fergie didnt complain (apart from complaining about our defending) and after defeat to Wolves he was complimentary towards them.
I think he may be simply making a point to the FA in advance of his hearing. SAF keeps the premiership alive with his opinions and generates pages and pages of column space – this is a good example. If, he feels that he cannot speak his mind openly, he has the right to keep his opinions to himself. I also think that comments above re, siege mentality are on the ball, especially with the recent decisions against us and the assault on Nani.
i have to agree with you bricki us united fans put so much into this club and fergie dont even come out to say anything seems to me fergie is throwing his dummy out his pram now normally i would defend him on this and yes decisions didnt go our way blowing the title open for us but fergie should know better then to be like this hes acting like a big kid i think fergie needs to have a look in the mirror see what hes doing to not only himself but the club its clearly affecting us and to blank us out on whats going on with nan is unspeakable sir alex just put it behind you and get on with the game otherwise our title chances are gunna slip through our fingers
I dont agree that SAF is disrespecting the fans by making no comments, as Ian says, it is more about denying the media.
Im not interested in hearing SAF or phealan spouting the same old cliches before, during or after the game.
That said, I would love to see them have 30mins or so to calm down, review incidents and then have a press conference (possibly with the referees and players!) to discuss these incidents which are blown out of all proportion each and every week.
no more ‘i didnt see this or that challenge and if they are still in dispute then the FA should step in and have more power to discipline players for dives, fouls off the ball etc. this is the only way to stop these spoilt kids (players & managers!) acting the way they currently do and start to show some respect for the game.
Referees always will get decisions wrong, as stated by Manc Red we have a fair share against us but also in our favour. The only way to eliminate this would be tv replays (which most fans seem to be against) however even with replays these decisions are not always clear cut so it would prove impossible to always be correct and would change the game. i.e. players fighting for position at corners. penalty given at fulham this wkend.
SAF should IMO have apologised to the fans, on mutv at least, for the heartless performance of many of our players. unfortunately I doubt if he is even giving them the hair-dryer treatment in private anymore.
Very interesting.
I can’t say I was that fussed. My initial reaction was it’s better for the club to take a fine (I presume we’ll get one) than Fergie *probably* talk about the referee and get another FA charge.
I was disappointed that there was no press conference on Friday; I find them interesting and certainly usually full of good information for the match previews.
Post-match; what would we have learnt from him talking to the media? It’s nice to think he’d have come out and apologised to the fans etc for the performance and getting the tactics wrong but that’s not really his style.
I’m certainly pleased we were spared the tones of Phelan though. No need to hear him bore everyone, the fans didn’t deserve any more punishment after the game!
Thank you for the great response so far…
i agree with the comments that what is usually said in post match interviews is rubbish. It is not really the content of these that is the issue for me, more the fact that there has no been nothing out of the club at all in a week.
we have also seen a potentially serious injury to Nani, Ryan Giggs setting a club record and a big game coming up against Arsenal, yet nothing at all. Not even the chance for Giggs to come out about the record…
Thats not the way to approach this all for me.
I think everyones pretty much agreed on this, the pre match press conferences usually give us an interesting insight and I think SAF enjoys courting the media at them, when you watch them he is usually in his element. As for the half time & post match ones I really don’t need to hear about tempo, patience and so on.
=fergie got it wrong against lpool, on the other i understand why he’s not talking to journalists – becausethey r pure scum, if i was footballer i would never talk to them because they r fking rats
besides whats the point of speaking to these journos, if you cannot speak you mind, because fa will be upset, and this country in general is a joke, i mean, that respect campain, if these useless lot called refs cannot make decissions properly or without bias, i mean do you anybody saw how ref( dont remember his name perhaps halsley), on wolves-spurs game dissallowed absolutely corect goal by wolves and he saw it perfectly. i mean what he was thinking then, maybe he dont know rules properly (wich is a scandal in itself) or he just biased towards spurs, and fa asking for respect? iam sorry but this cant be just one way street
i think the comment on referees is harsh in the extreme, being a sunday league ref myself. A human being is just that human, he is therefore going to make errors or judgment calls based on what he sees at the time. With the benefit of replays anyone can give a decision one way or the other but to do it inside of a second is something different.
The issue with Ferguson is that after the Wigan game he was claiming you need to let refs do their job but then hung Atkinson out to dry after the Chelsea game (wrong decisions or not) – this sort of attitude is what is killing the respect campaign, not referees…
Dont think is fair to go against Sir Alex, because of him we are at the top of the table. look at the bright side, with the palyers we have and any other manager we would have been maybe in top 10 but top of the table????- no way.
We all need to know whats going on especially with nani but thats the way it is.
If we win all games from now till the end of the season i dont mind them doing what they doing. Media doesnt deserve to hear from sir alex.
About rooney i do strongly agree he should have been panished,but again, to be fair on sir alex find the news papers from that day to today date and you will find people talking about the incident while no one is talking about nani,s incident or maxi rodrigues on rafael, they are quick to sau that rafael challenge on lucas was bad but had the referee panished maxi…then rafael didnt need to go that far
so as you can see is not that simple and sir alex is trying his best to protect a very fragile team at the moment
as for referees they are rubish, done it to us with chelsea, birmingham, liverpool etc. did you watch arsenal last nite?- then sure you now referee can kill a game before it starts
lets be there for our team as they need us
If he speaks he is put to swords and if he doesn’t the swords come even more sharper!
Move onto something else?! You cannot compare the denial of a toy to a child to wanting your team and manager to appear in the press. When has this ever happended before?! To suggest that fans will tire and look elsewhere is pathetic. Fergie made the right choice in declaring a media blackout to avoid his players making the same mistake he did in speaking out on unfair incidences and injustice during the game, which ultimately led to him being charged for misconduct by the FA for his comments after the Chelsea game. It makes a statment of his fury to the watching world and particularly the FA that they should respect the views and opinions of a man who is ultimately an ambassador of football and to charge him for simply criticising an incapable match offical is scandalous! And I question what kind of so called ‘loyal’ supporter wrote this article.
it isnt the first time that Sir Alex has refused to speak to the media, he hasnt spoken to the BBC in over 4 years. Ive spoken to plenty of fans who have tired of the way the fans have been treated over the years, if you remember it was his falling out with his Irish shareholder friends that led to the Glazers coming in, he came out in support of the glazers over the fans in the Green and Gold campaign and has cancelled his press conferences with the media plenty of times in the last 12 months alone. You can check that with the North West reporters who cover United.
i didnt notice him speaking out against the referee in the Wigan game so i dont see it as an excuse. If you say we have to back Refs and then destroy the next one who makes a ‘human error’ (just like Nani, VDS and others against Liverpool) it is hypocrisy of a very high order from someone who is meant to lead the way in the Respect campaign and is a global head of the club.
i would also like to confirm ive been a season ticket holder for over 15 years and a ‘loyal’ fan but not one who will just follow the club line totally.
Thanks for the opinion though.
I know, poor old Arsenal. If only that referee hadn’t misplaced all those passes for them and prevented them from fashioning any shots for 90 minutes.
I’m being facetious, the van Persie decision was abominable. But an ass-kicking is an ass-kicking.