Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL: Retire? Let Sir Alex go out in a Co-op overcoat
There is one sure sign that Sir Alex Ferguson has mellowed with age. He has resisted the temptation to cuff the impertinent inquisitors who persist in asking if he will celebrate his latest success by packing it in.
It is a national characteristic, this desire to talk people into retirement, as if the country needs more midweek golfers.
Tony Blair served three terms while being asked if he was going to make way for noted financial genius Gordon Brown, while the Queen is clearly puffed out from all that waving, judging by the number of times it is suggested she should step aside and give Charles a go.
David Beckham would have shuffled off after 100 England caps had he listened to those instructing him to use a milestone as a millstone and go jump in a lake with it tied around his neck.
We could never have fostered the Renaissance in Britain because some bright spark would have persuaded Dante to take up crown green bowling after the first of the Divine Comedies.
'Look, mate, you're never going to top Inferno, so best go now before you make a fool of yourself. Club matches are Tuesday and Friday and we usually go for a Chinese after, how about it?'
Donatello, meanwhile, would be responsible for two good statues and the best-kept dogwood hedges in Florence. It is the most rampant senselessness, this pestering of a great man for his retirement plans.
'Is it going to be a year, will it be two?' asked an excitable chatterer on the radio in the immediate aftermath of Manchester United's 11th league title under Ferguson. The manager was hit by the same question in a post-match interview before he had even seen Gary Neville lift the trophy. So here is the newly-revised timescale.
Never.
In fact, how about a moratorium on all questions relating to Ferguson's dotage? How about establishing that while the man continues to produce teams that rewrite record books and set the standards for others to follow, if he chooses to leave Old Trafford in a Co-op overcoat many years from now, that is his prerogative, good luck to him and we should not have it any other way?
'I like being around young people,' Ferguson said, simply, when asked for the secret of his longevity. He has a clever way of making very ordinary statements seem profound (remember, 'Football, bloody hell' at the Nou Camp in 1999), yet there is also great truth in this unpretentious sentiment.
What would the retired football man Ferguson do with his Saturday afternoons?Go to Old Trafford and stand around in the directors' box, nibbling on dainty sandwiches and making small talk with visiting directors? He would be dead in a year; spiritually, that is.
Every fibre in Ferguson's being belongs on that touchline when Manchester United are playing. He did not get to celebrate a goal on Saturday against Arsenal but when he does, and when it is important, that little jig of joy and pent-up nervous energy is almost coltish in its enthusiasm.
He never behaves like an old man, never stumbles over names in his post-match interviews, every thought sharp as a tack. This weekend he said his body will tell him when to retire; that, and results. This is the one factor that is mysteriously overlooked when talk of Ferguson's departure surfaces. Who would do it better?
Who would you rather trust to send a Manchester United team out to win a football match?
He has seen them all off. Russian billionaires, Gallic geniuses, mouthy Liverpudlians with their taunts of 18 titles from a different age, the old European order who treated the Champions League as if it were theirs to own by right. Ferguson has beaten the lot.
When Real Madrid come calling for Cristiano Ronaldo again, as they surely will this summer, is there any man better equipped to keep the best footballer in the world at Old Trafford than Ferguson?
When he sits the player down to map out the future, he is no mere employee, no caretaker or hired hand passing through on his way to the next super club and super pay-off. He is the man who turned Manchester United into the greatest in the world, who has maintained a level of achievement unsurpassed in management, who has built at least four truly exceptional teams in his time in English football.
In lieu of a resignation letter on this occasion, talk has now turned to the point in the future at which Ferguson will quit.
After winning another title to overtake, rather than just equal, Liverpool's record; if Manchester United become the first team to retain the Champions League title in Rome next week; in 12 months' time if United are the first to win four league titles in a row. Yet why cease, artificially?
Why peter out at any of those points?
'Musicians don't retire,' said Louis Armstrong. 'They stop when there is no more music in them.'
Ferguson will know when his song is over. Not yet, that is for certain.
You should give Jimmy a call, PaulJimmy Greaves has stayed sober for more than 30 years now because he knows what is best for him. Since the very early days of confronting his addiction he has rarely been a presence at meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, preferring to handle his problems his way.
When he speaks on the after-dinner circuit, he does not hang around after the work is done. He avoids situations in which the company adjourns to the bar.
In 1994, when I used to ghost-write Jimmy's newspaper column, we were offered the chance to cover the World Cup in America together. I jumped at it. Jimmy backed off immediately.
I tried to persuade him to change his mind. He explained, without any bitterness, why it was not an option.
We would go to the games and that would be fine, he said, but after, when we got back to the hotel, the journalists, the football people, his old mates in television would all adjourn to the bar to watch the next match and pick over the last one.
And there would be arguments, banter and jokes, and that would be very enjoyable, too. But he would have choices to make. He could stand there sipping soft drinks all night, while the company got livelier and lubricated, or he could break off and retire to his room, alone, knowing the real fun was to be had downstairs. Option three was to get involved. And he could not afford to get involved.
I did not think that was sad. At that moment, I saw Jim as a man who was completely in control of his life and utterly self-aware. And I thought of him last week when I read of another attempt to persuade Paul Gascoigne to join a parade of no marks on the reality show I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here later this year.
Paul is just beginning to make steps towards recovery and if he cannot see for himself the pitfalls of joining the modern freak shows, he needs people around him to ensure he resists.He could do worse than give Jim a call.
On the night that Chelsea played Barcelona, a lavish reception was held by the Bavarian government featuring prominent members of Bayern Munich in Brussels, home of the European Parliament.
Its purpose was to lobby for the FIFA six-plus-five proposal, which has already been backed by the German football federation.
Munich support it, no doubt, for the same reason that Manchester United have been more open-minded than many in England: as the richest clubs, they know they will be able to outbid domestic rivals for the best native players and grow stronger.
What is interesting, however, is how, while looking to place restrictions elsewhere, the Germans exploit nationality for their own ends when it comes to international football.
A central position in Western Europe helps, as does a tradition of migrant labour from neighbouring countries. The last German squad selected for competitive matches included Andreas Beck (born in Kemerovo, Russia), Marko Marin (Gradiska, Bosnia), Piotr Trochowski (Tczew, Poland) and Lukas Podolski (Gliwice, Poland). Miroslav Klose (Opole, Poland) was injured.
Handy for them that there will be no six-plus-five at the World Cup.
According to Sir John Madejski, the Reading chairman, the man who succeeds Steve Coppell as manager must win promotion in his first season.
It remains doubtful whether a significant transfer fund will be available and key players are unlikely to hang around for a second year in the Championship.
'The coming season will be the last when we receive parachute payments and we are going to have to cut our coat according to the cloth,' said Madejski. We wish the new man all the luck he is going to need.
In the past three months, six elite British sportsmen have tested positive for drugs, with four suspended from their sport for up to two years. Another eight have missed tests or failed to comply with the whereabouts rule. Who are these people? We do not know.
UK Sport's anti-doping programme director Andy Parkinson is not allowed to name names.'We are talking about athletes using extremely sophisticated global programmes,' he warned, sagely.
'And the UK is not immune to that as the case of Dwain Chambers has proved.
'Is it not remarkable, though, that more than five years after his positive test for THG, the name of Chambers is still bandied about while other cheats can hide behind this cloak of anonymity?
Unless Chambers was one of those caught this time, why mention him at all, and why mention him alone? It would appear that athletics has its bogeyman and, beyond that, cosy complacency still pervades.
After selling out for three straight years at Wembley, the NFL are planning to hold two games annually in Britain. And no doubt then they will add another, then another, milking the market until they kill it, which is the way of modern sport as the England and Wales Cricket Board have discovered in Durham.
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, did not take Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester this weekend. A minor groin problem was the official explanation, although some are interpreting it as
the next step in a summer parting of the ways.
Adebayor is a saleable asset now and Wenger is clearly tiring of his antics and the fuelling of speculation over his future.
Wenger says he would not even be averse to selling him to a major rival, with Chelsea an obvious candidate if Didier Drogba moves in the summer.
Wenger's attitude is adult if he does not want a player why should he be worried that he plays for a rival and he may also share the opinion of many that Adebayor is not in the class of Drogba at his best.
He may feel he is selling Chelsea a pup, and a troublesome one at that. What he might just be selling them, though, is a solution, which is why sanctioning this particular transfer would be madness.
Adebayor is not up there with Drogba, but he is still very good and would enable Chelsea to continue playing to their midfield strengths by operating as a powerful spearhead, holding the ball up and presenting a physical challenge to defenders.
Chelsea need to be moved out of this comfort zone, as should happen if Drogba leaves.
Why make life easier for them?
Martin O'Neill, the Aston Villa manager, is correct in his criticism of next season's Europa League. The chance to revamp the UEFA Cup has been wasted by continuing to treat it as a dumping ground for third-placed failures from the Champions League.
This means that after the group games, there will be two knock-out rounds before a team even reaches the last eight. The finalists will have played 17 matches. Too many games, too many poor teams.
Further to last week's column concerning the abuse of the loan system, here is the strange case of Liam Dickinson of Huddersfield Town (August 19, 2008 to November 2, 2008), Blackpool (November 27, 2008 to January 2, 2009) and Leeds United (March 13, 2009 to present day), who, despite playing for three clubs this season remains the property of Derby County.
FIFA rules state a player cannot represent more than two clubs in one season, but as Dickinson's movement was within a domestic league he does not fall under their jurisdiction.
There is actually a two-tier classification in England, and all of Dickinson's loans were within the short-term 'emergency' system.
These cases are considered on their merits and can be turned down, although a Football League spokesman gave the distinct impression that this was increasingly unlikely.
Indeed, last season Dickinson probably attended more emergencies than his local fire brigade. No wonder football is up the pole.
