Source: Telegraph
Roberto Martinez joins Rafa BenÃtez's cause as Sir Alex Ferguson faces a Spanish Armada
Follow thedailybung on twitter and tweet us your thoughts. All the cool kids are doing it, apparently... [LNB]THE DAILY BUNG LUNCHTIME HEADLINES [LNB]Barnsley's fans used to claim that watching their team was akin to watching Brazil. Unfortunately for Michael Owen's World Cup chances, they were only being ironic. And scoring an admittedly terrific goal against a side much worse than even that particularly sour vintage is unlikely to move Fabio Capello to changing his stance on the Manchester United benchwarmer. [LNB]-- [LNB]Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has taken the 'for sale' sign down from St James' Park and replaced it with another reading 'advertise here' after no one was willing to meet his asking price for the club he now envisages playing at the McDonalds/Panasonic/Coca-Cola/Pizza Hut Arena. [LNB]-- [LNB]And another of Owen's former clubs, Real Madrid, are currently nursing bruised egos after they lost 4-0 in the first leg of a Copa del Rey match with Spain's equivalent of Leyton Orient. [LNB]--- [LNB]AND THE THERE WERE TWO[LNB]This is turning in to a very good week for Rafa Benítez. After holding his recent hex in head-to-head meetings over his bête noir, Sir Alex Ferguson, the permanently agitated Spaniard has found himself an erudite corner man for his playground scraps with all those other nasty Premier League managers. [LNB]Roberto Martinez's slight frame may not be one you would chose to hide behind if faced in a dark ally by Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce. But in the verbal jousting conducted in newsprint Benítez's compatriot brings respect, thoughtfulness and an articulate swagger that may yet come in handy. [LNB]Benítez didn't ask for the help but Martinez, an intelligent man with strong principles, felt he couldn't stand by and let his countryman take a beating from a gang of bullies and decided to act. [LNB]'[Sir Alex Ferguson] has his group of loyalists among other coaches,' said Martinez to Spanish sports paper AS, when asked if the Manchester United manager wielded too much power in the English game. [LNB]'Steve Bruce, a former player of his, and Sam Allardyce, who thinks he will be his successor at Old Trafford, among others. On the other hand, there is only Benítez and they get at him from all sides.' [LNB]Like a freshly incarcerated inmate in one of those prisons that feature in Channel Five documentaries and make you vow never, ever to commit a crime in Venezuela or the deep south of America, then, Martinez has gone for the linchpin. [LNB]Take on the biggest, baddest bloke in here and the rest will have to respect you, even if you get a bloodied nose for your troubles. [LNB]The thought of Bruce and Allardyce as Fergie's attack dogs, straining at the leash waiting for the chance to go at Benítez to please their master is, of course, a laughable one. But not perhaps as laughable as the notion of Allardyce ever succeeding Ferguson at Old Trafford. [LNB]But maybe Martinez, a man who was once linked with the assistant coach's spot under Ferguson, is on to something in a wider sense. [LNB]Benítez radiates warmth like an Eskimo's outhouse and isn't afraid to start the fight himself. As such he brings a lot of bother to his own doorstep. But he is also an easy target, not just because of his generous waistline and insistence on wearing a beard bought from a joke shop in 1999. [LNB]Allardyce and Bruce have both had heated run-ins with the Liverpool manager and Ferguson enjoys the sport of their exchanges. Perhaps it is time to even up the sides a bit. If nothing else it will make a few press conferences more interesting. [LNB]Martinez really is hoisting a flag for Benítez to see and in the process making life a little more bumpy for himself. It's hardly Edward Norton showcasing his Nazi body art while doing bench presses in between members of the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan - but as provocations go he surely understood what he was doing when he talked at length about Ferguson's standing in the English game. [LNB]'At the moment, they have charged him for saying the referee was not good enough in terms of his fitness but the reality is that they have almost begged his forgiveness for fining him. They would have hammered anyone else. He has a lot of control in this country.'[LNB]The Bloods and the Crips it is not but the Premier League's own Latin Kings have today joined forces and are ready to finish what they started. [LNB]Fight, fight, fight, fight... etc... and so on. [LNB]--- [LNB]MUST READ: Duncan White reckons Joe Cole has done in 90 minutes what Michael Owen hasn't been able to do in 18 months and already played his way in to Fabio Capello's World Cup squad. [LNB]MUST WATCH: Ever wondered what the Japanese version of 'Soccer AM' looks like and if Dragan Stojkovic can lob a goalkeeper from 50 yards while wearing proper shoes? Wonder no more... [LNB]Follow thedailybung on twitter and tweet us your thoughts. All the cool kids are doing it, apparently... [LNB]
