Source: Telegraph
Keeping Liverpool at bay is Sir Alex Ferguson's real concern
It was almost preferable to lose in the final than a semi, at least you had your day at Wembley. [LNB]Now it simply slots into place, reduced in importance and meaning by the omnipotence of the Premier League and the Champions League. [LNB] Related ArticlesFA Cup team newsMilan let lead slip once moreClubs help set up January breakProtesters vainly pursue window of opportunityManchester Uniteds Sir Alex Ferguson is cautious despite Carling Cup final successThe weekends TV & radio choicesAnd so this once glorious showpiece is subsumed into the routine scheme of things, no more than a weekend platform for rival managers duelling for more significant crowns to take strategic pot-shots at each other. [LNB]Thus, instead of assessing the relative threat posed by Everton to Manchester United's FA Cup aspirations tomorrow, Sir Alex Ferguson used the opportunity to manage the real business at hand, keeping Liverpool behind in the Premier League.[LNB]Winding up Rafael Benitez ranks alongside wine and horses as his favourite pastimes. Liverpool do not have an engagement until Tuesday's Premier League headliner at home to Arsenal. [LNB]No matter. In the endless struggle for control of the playground that simply allows Ferguson more time to burrow beneath the Benitez dermis with a variation of "my dad's bigger than your dad".[LNB]The context shifts by the week. On the Carrington agenda yesterday was the ancient jibe by Benitez with which he once classified Everton as a "small" club. [LNB]Sunday's engagement justified the reference by Ferguson, whose appreciation of the history of Everton Football Club was not widely known, enabling him to detonate a charge of arrogance towards the Spaniard.[LNB]Ferguson did not stop there. Widening his assault to include a discussion of Rafa's haughty treatment of Sam Allardyce during Blackburn's league encounter at Liverpool last week – he folded his arms apparently when the second goal went in - Ferguson added the accusation of contempt. [LNB]"You cannot forgive contempt, which is what he showed Sam Allardyce last weekend. When Liverpool scored their second goal he signalled as if the game was finished. I do not think Sam deserved that.[LNB]"Sam has worked so hard for the LMA [League Managers' Association] and he's had a weakened team. I just thought it showed contempt. In my experience no Liverpool manager has ever done that."[LNB]Curiously, Allardyce jumped on the same pulpit to berate Benitez about the issue ahead of Blackburn's game against Stoke. Allardyce claimed to be speaking in the interest of management ethics by bringing the behaviour of Benitez to the fore a week after the perceived slight.[LNB]Another interpretation might point to the warm relationship Ferguson and Allardyce share and infer from that that Benitez and his cultural proclivities were the subject of a conversation between the two this week. Alternatively it could be nothing more than coincidence.[LNB]As Ferguson would readily acknowledge, he does not concern himself with the foibles of managers in charge of teams that present no threat. He has every right to be concerned. Liverpool have recovered in full since the collapse that followed the Benitez facts tirade.[LNB]A cursory glance at the fixture list reveals that Tuesday's match against Arsenal is arguably the only one remaining for which a case can be made for Liverpool dropping points. United also face Arsenal at home in their penultimate game, and this after two monumental thrashes in the Champions League.[LNB]The pain of their European exit at Chelsea is already easing for a Liverpool side wired to the idea of a first league title for 19 years. In defeat at Stamford Bridge Rafa and his team enhanced reputations. [LNB]The following day at Anfield the sense of togetherness binding the club was reinforced at an emotional memorial service for the victims of Hillsborough.[LNB]Those were the days when the FA Cup meant something, of course. The memory of that tragic afternoon is playing heavily in the minds of all connected with Liverpool, contributing to a sense of destiny on this the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.[LNB]These are the kind of folk rhythms that mean something in football. Ferguson, who felt the power of that a year ago when United won the European Cup on the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster, knows this better than any. Hence the ongoing barbs at Benitez. [LNB]
