From The Times:
Sir Alex Ferguson went shopping in France yesterday and is in the market for a new band of midfield warriors.
The hardest thing a father figure can attempt is to dice up the brood that has been his lifetime’s creation. There are signs that Sir Alex Ferguson is embarking on that mission with immediate effect. Last Sunday, his wrath in the dressing room after Manchester United’s surrender to Liverpool in the Worthington Cup final apparently reached decibels not even heard last October after the defeat by Manchester City at Maine Road, or last month during the infamous flying boot incident following the FA Cup elimination by Arsenal.
Some elements of those two previous outbursts had seemed uncontrolled, and some apparently contrived. But in the Millennium stadium, Ferguson’s words bore a cold finality. If the team he had mostly hand-reared over a decade, and topped up with multi-million- pound talents, had needed three old-fashioned Firebrand Fergie rollickings to remind them of their class and the expected commitment, they are beyond trusting over the long term.
Within days, the manager had summoned his scouting staff to begin the search for summer replacements. By yesterday, he had used his first available Saturday to journey to France to run his eye over a player on each side of the Stade Rennes-Auxerre League match. And by this season’s end, even if United somehow got lucky and repeated the European Cup triumph that ensured his knighthood four years ago, the break-up of that team and the replacements intended to give it back the competitive desire and hunger that is the hallmark of Ferguson’s United will be irreversibly under way.
Some say the French-African line that produced Patrick Vieira is completely sealed up by the contacts of Arsène Wenger, and there is no such colossus on the open market.
Maybe not, but Ferguson’s history should remind him that physique is not everything, and that men of his own background — Billy Bremner, Bobby Collins, even the Irishman John Giles — could enforce way beyond their apparent physical limitations. With that in mind, Ferguson took a personal look yesterday at Teemu Tainio, the Finn who instills passion and perpetual motion into Auxerre. Tainio is small, but he possibly possesses what the Finns call sisu, a warrior-like mentality.
Think back to the World Cup in 2002, and think not of Oliver Kahn, who was pronounced the Fifa player of the tournament, but to Rüstü Reçber, the Turk who simply never gave up. Taller than Barthez, lithe and fit, and with the mentality of a fighter, Reçber prefers the delights of his homeland and has stayed with Fenerbahçe. Yet if United call, if he is offered the chance to be in the world’s most marketable team and to aspire to global recognition, would this 29-year-old Turk decline? I think not.
Then there is the running mate Ferguson has long sought for Van Nistelrooy. A week ago, admittedly through word of the media, Jermain Defoe could hardly avoid the story that he was Ferguson’s new favourite target. Either spurred by the speculation, or simply able to switch his mind to the job in hand, Defoe produced a bewitching and a sustained performance for West Ham.
The latest Red Issue magazine will be on sale against Basel. Buy your copy from all good sellers from around the ground. However if you cannot face the ugly mugs of our sellers (and let's face it, who could blame you?) then why not subscribe to the Red Issue magazine on-line:
http://www.edirectory.co.uk/pf/Pages/moreinfoa.asp?RecordID=GDBGJI&CompanyID=880
Telephone Orders:
Phone: 0870 8720200 quoting Product Ref: 1065/631698
Lines open Monday to Friday 09-00 to 17-30 hrs
Why not have a bet on one of today's FA Cup matches to make them a bit more interesting. What about Denis Irwin to get the first goal for Wolves?
Bet365 will give all new customers a FREE £20 bet.
http://www.qksrv.net/click-893862-9129230
You still want more? Then why not check out the odds with Blue Square?
They offer a FREE £10 bet for all new customers
https://www.bluesq.com/bet?AFF_ID=271