Much has been written, both by RTG and other parts of the media, about how modern footballers no longer seem able to relate to the supporters who come to watch them each week and, effectively, pay their wages. RTG could offer up a great deal of evidence of events in recent times that would back this up and you’d probably have heard most of it all before. But what of managers? As the corporate animal slowly but surely devours the game of football are we now beginning to see the inevitable loss of respect for supporters from the team bosses themselves?
Sir Alex Ferguson, November 2004
When the Glazers arrived, United fans protested at the huge debts that they heaped on the club where once there were reasonable profits—profits that were spent on the team and facilities for supporters. Supporters looked to their talisman to come out and state his own disapproval regarding what was happening to the club. Surely, Sir Alex himself would be concerned at the impending money squeeze that would inevitably occur. But he remained diplomatically silent other than to state his disregard for the fans who formed FC United of Manchester, claiming they were self-publicists and had no real interest in saving Manchester United. It was, he said, more an act in their own self-interests.
"I've got close friends who've been working with me here for 15 years. They come first in all of this….If you don't like it, go and watch Chelsea."
And then, disappointingly, two seasons ago, to the chagrin of the United faithful, he came out in support of the Glazers management of the club. “They've been great owners”, he said. 'They have supported me every way I've asked them.”Supporters traditionally have always treated the manager as custodian of the team’s interests. He has always been a figurehead who fights the chairman for more money to boost the squad and, when their club was successful, you could hear no wrong said from the fans on the terraces.
The relationship between club chairmen and managers was always an uneasy one. Brian Clough was famous for criticising chairmen and it was indeed the breakdown of his relationship with Sam Longson at Derby County that led to his resignation in 1973. It is now well documented that Clough himself was no saint but he was adamant that he had deserved better treatment for what he had done for the club and its supporters.
Clough’s battles, of course, were in the days when the club chairman was usually a local successful businessman. The huge sums of money involved in football today have changed club governance immeasurably and, in RTG’s opinion, the relationship between manager and supporter is therefore beginning to look very different.
Ask any Manchester United fan and Sir Alex Ferguson is, quite rightly, a legend. He has built a dynasty at United turning them from a there-or-thereabouts team into perennial winners. And he has done it through building new team after new team.
Sir Alex Ferguson, November 2004
When the Glazers arrived, United fans protested at the huge debts that they heaped on the club where once there were reasonable profits—profits that were spent on the team and facilities for supporters. Supporters looked to their talisman to come out and state his own disapproval regarding what was happening to the club. Surely, Sir Alex himself would be concerned at the impending money squeeze that would inevitably occur. But he remained diplomatically silent other than to state his disregard for the fans who formed FC United of Manchester, claiming they were self-publicists and had no real interest in saving Manchester United. It was, he said, more an act in their own self-interests.
"I've got close friends who've been working with me here for 15 years. They come first in all of this….If you don't like it, go and watch Chelsea."
Sir Alex Ferguson, August 2005,
Last season, following the departure of Christiano Ronaldo for a record £80M, saw the rise of the green and old campaign, a campaign that RTG wholeheartedly supports for its stance against the use of a football club as a cash cow to prop up their ailing business interests in a foreign country after having used the club’s own money to buy it in the first place. Surely now, Sir Alex would at least express some degree of concern about lack of spending money and perhaps some sympathy for supporters who had seen their star player sold for a record transfer fee with very little coming back in the way of class players to strengthen the squad.
But no. Sir Alex continued to maintain that his squad was good enough and he came out and, earlier this year, criticised the green and gold campaign. He effectively dismissed those behind, what is a worthy and heartfelt campaign, as idiots. United did, in fact, secure second in the Premier League last season but the signs were there that some cracks were beginning to appear.
Before you start to think, where is RTG going with this? That you’d be more than happy if your club were to finish second in the Premier League! That is not the issue. The point is that, what should be a fantastic football legacy left not only to the club by Sir Alex, but also to English football itself, is in danger of being slowly but surely squandered away. And why? So a few American businessmen can pay off their debts back home and continue to draw funds from what is their only cash generating concern. The objective of the business has clearly changed to a distinctly non-footballing agenda.
Sir Alex was reputedly paid upwards of £3.6M in 2008. RTG can only assume it is more than that now. If he comes out and criticises the Glazers, where does that leave him? He seems to be one of these people that supports socialism right up to the point that it leaves him worse off. He’ll be OK. He’ll retire, when he chooses to do so, in a more than comfortable state. United supporters, and yes, English football as a whole, will be left with the Glazers and the mess.
If this sounds like a direct attack on Sir Alex Ferguson, it is not meant to be. RTG just wishes to illustrate that he is the most successful manager and United are the biggest supported club in the world. You could equally take the case of Arsenal who, since moving to a bigger stadium in order to supposedly ‘compete’, have won nothing since. Yet, Arsene Wenger continues to claim transfer fees are there if he wants them. Nobody really knows the truth. No, the corporate interests and wealthy billionaire owners have seen to it that our managers are now well and truly at the mercy of the money god.
We already have alienation of the players and the supporters. Signs are that we may soon have managers and supporters alienated too. What next? Complete alienation of the clubs and its supporters? We don’t like you lot anymore. We can survive with our TV money and the supporters abroad. Season ticket to Dubai United anyone?
Sir Alex was reputedly paid upwards of £3.6M in 2008. RTG can only assume it is more than that now. If he comes out and criticises the Glazers, where does that leave him? He seems to be one of these people that supports socialism right up to the point that it leaves him worse off. He’ll be OK. He’ll retire, when he chooses to do so, in a more than comfortable state. United supporters, and yes, English football as a whole, will be left with the Glazers and the mess.
If this sounds like a direct attack on Sir Alex Ferguson, it is not meant to be. RTG just wishes to illustrate that he is the most successful manager and United are the biggest supported club in the world. You could equally take the case of Arsenal who, since moving to a bigger stadium in order to supposedly ‘compete’, have won nothing since. Yet, Arsene Wenger continues to claim transfer fees are there if he wants them. Nobody really knows the truth. No, the corporate interests and wealthy billionaire owners have seen to it that our managers are now well and truly at the mercy of the money god.
We already have alienation of the players and the supporters. Signs are that we may soon have managers and supporters alienated too. What next? Complete alienation of the clubs and its supporters? We don’t like you lot anymore. We can survive with our TV money and the supporters abroad. Season ticket to Dubai United anyone?
The Keeper
...he's punching above his weight
...he's punching above his weight
News of an almighty row from the American National Football League (NFL) has reached the Keeper. Apparently a former Miss Universe was subjected to ‘abuse’ by male players when doing the post match (sorry “game”) round of interviews in the changing (sorry “locker”) room on behalf of an obscure sports channel. The NFL has long prided itself on having equal access for all reporters of either gender or sexual orientation to players – extending to ignoring any issues arising from naked men running around flicking wet towels at each other, or for that matter, the “qualification” of said reporters. The Keeper is thankful that no such access exists here. No, not because the Keeper is loathe to flash women (after all, it’s legal!). But the spectre of Madams Balding, Barker, Irvine et al chasing naked men around with a large microphone would leave both parties, well…not worthy of fantasy. Anyway, if rumours are to be believed, they’d be a lot happier hanging around in female professional tennis changing rooms. However, it did make the Keeper wonder if the NFL’s politically correct approach extended the same privileges to males in female locker rooms?
Talking of being thankful, or not in this case, the Keeper was d
isappointed to see Alan Shearer back on the MOTD couch last Saturday. However, the Keeper was thankful to be distracted from his tiresome repetition of clichés, masquerading as analysis, by being mesmerised by his patchy bald pate, resembling something like a football pitch from the 1960’s. So mesmerised in fact, that he even missed Alan’s uninformed remark: “Ben Arfa – whoever ‘eard of ‘im”; referring to Newcastle United’s France International, Hatem Ben Arfa – five times French League Champion, with two different clubs, and regular on the Champions League scene over the last five years. Certainly contradicts the old saying that goes “grass doesn’t grow on a busy thoroughfare”! Not busy, just lazy.
Now that the England team establishment have stated that the next England manager will be English, jockeying for position in the role has been initiated, with several managers putting themselves forward. Sam Allardyce made his intentions clear by telling the media that he would win all the domestic honours, at least, if he was in charge at either Inter or Real Madrid. Knowing his predilection for the technical side of the game – through lap top analysis and blue tooth earpiece communications, the Keeper wonders if he has been drawing the wrong conclusions from playing too much with his EA Sports Champions League play station game. Besides which Sam, modern European managers usually have a command of several languages, not just a poor command of one!
On a serious note, the Keeper’s least favourite rogue administrator, the less than honourable Jack Warner, FIFA vice President and President of CONCACAF, is still managing to cock a snook to both the Trinidad & Tobago Players and the country’s legal system. Despite the fact that the T & T courts have ordered him to release the funds to pay players who participated in the 2006 world cup, he’s still refusing to do so. This from a man who was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by FIFA for touting tickets and for enriching his own relative’s travel company at that tournament. The fact that Sepp Blatter keeps insisting that “Jack” is a paragon of virtue and all round top bloke, says more about Blatter than it does about Warner.
Talking of being thankful, or not in this case, the Keeper was d
isappointed to see Alan Shearer back on the MOTD couch last Saturday. However, the Keeper was thankful to be distracted from his tiresome repetition of clichés, masquerading as analysis, by being mesmerised by his patchy bald pate, resembling something like a football pitch from the 1960’s. So mesmerised in fact, that he even missed Alan’s uninformed remark: “Ben Arfa – whoever ‘eard of ‘im”; referring to Newcastle United’s France International, Hatem Ben Arfa – five times French League Champion, with two different clubs, and regular on the Champions League scene over the last five years. Certainly contradicts the old saying that goes “grass doesn’t grow on a busy thoroughfare”! Not busy, just lazy.Now that the England team establishment have stated that the next England manager will be English, jockeying for position in the role has been initiated, with several managers putting themselves forward. Sam Allardyce made his intentions clear by telling the media that he would win all the domestic honours, at least, if he was in charge at either Inter or Real Madrid. Knowing his predilection for the technical side of the game – through lap top analysis and blue tooth earpiece communications, the Keeper wonders if he has been drawing the wrong conclusions from playing too much with his EA Sports Champions League play station game. Besides which Sam, modern European managers usually have a command of several languages, not just a poor command of one!
On a serious note, the Keeper’s least favourite rogue administrator, the less than honourable Jack Warner, FIFA vice President and President of CONCACAF, is still managing to cock a snook to both the Trinidad & Tobago Players and the country’s legal system. Despite the fact that the T & T courts have ordered him to release the funds to pay players who participated in the 2006 world cup, he’s still refusing to do so. This from a man who was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by FIFA for touting tickets and for enriching his own relative’s travel company at that tournament. The fact that Sepp Blatter keeps insisting that “Jack” is a paragon of virtue and all round top bloke, says more about Blatter than it does about Warner.
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