Source: Daily_Mail
Charles Sale: Ferguson jibes fit the bill for Hughes
Manager Mark Hughes, who has kept quiet in public about rival Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson’s constant jibes about Manchester City’s big spending, chose a private meeting with his squad to have his say about the Old Trafford goading.
The City players were greeted behind closed doors with placards on which some of Fergie’s choicest quotes about City, during an acrimonious close season, had been displayed.
Manchester City manager Mark Hughes
Motivational tactic: Hughes
These included:
● A small club with a small mentality.
● All they can talk about is Manchester United, that’s all they’ve done and they can’t get away from it.
● It will not be easy for City and, to me, they don’t even come into the equation for the top four.
● For all the buying they’ve done, they still have to pick a team with balance and that won’t be easy for Mark Hughes — what’s he got, 10 strikers?
Hughes’ motivational message to his players was to study what had been said and then make Fergie eat his words during the upcoming season.
Relationships between the two Manchester clubs are at a particular low following the controversial Carlos Tevez summer switch to City after United could not agree a fee.
The giant city centre poster that followed welcoming Tevez to the real Manchester irritated Ferguson and was described by Hughes as ‘just a bit of fun’.
The seriously poor standard of umpiring throughout the Ashes makes it all the more surprising that the elite officials, who threatened strike action on the eve of the World Twenty20, are chasing extravagant pay increases this summer.
They were not immediately forthcoming from their ICC paymasters, who are currently reviewing their £65,000-a-year salaries.
However, every Ashes decision is being logged and analysed back in Dubai as part of the review, which should not bode well for Billy Bowden and Co.
Chairman of the Football Association Lord Triesman
It must have been the revenge of the Institute of Groundsmanship, who have seen head groundsman Steve Welch sacked and not replaced following the Wembley pitch fiasco, that FA chairman Lord Triesman (right), just back from five weeks in the south of France, got soaked by the sprinkler system while inspecting the pitch before Sunday’s Community Shield.
Jose Maria Olazabal, assistant to Nick Faldo at the last Ryder Cup, angrily lost the plot with the media in the post-match press conference in Louisville despite entirely valid criticisms about losing captain Faldo.
But this is all the more bizarre in the light of the Spaniard’s revelation in the new issue of Golf International magazine.
He describes how Faldo didn’t even tell his deputy the names of his two captain’s picks for the European side before informing the media.
The Draconian fall-out since the Harlequins fake blood controversy, including the resignation of Dean Richards and a year-long ban for Tom Williams, suggests such cheating has never been attempted before in rugby union.
Yet, England icon Lawrence Dallaglio’s autobiography casually describes how Bath used the same scam with the aid of tomato ketchup for a blood substitution to ensure kicker Jon Callard got on the field in a league match to kick conversion points against Dallaglio’s Wasps in 1997.
Dallaglio described the incident as ‘fair play to Bath, they bent the rules. But hey-ho, you do what you have to do to win’.
BBC Sport have decided to search for a replacement for Mihir Bose, who quit last week as sports editor with immediate effect, despite the role not working in the two-and-a-half years he was in the job.
However, the Beeb top brass will take their time finding the right person, with London 2012 the most important subject on the job spec.
