NO STOOLIES ON UNITED BENCHES

Last Updated : 18-Feb-2003 by Editor
United were initially rightly aggrieved that the 'dressing room code' had
apparently been broken when The Sun's Neil Custis filled the front page with
the story on Monday. As he is The Sun's man in Manchester, it was widely
assumed that a Red player had dropped the dime, or at least negligently let it
slip to a mouthy friend.

However, RedIssue's snouts have learned that the tale was sold to the Sun by
an Arsenal character on the Sun tipster payroll, whose name is known to us;
he travels with the team and has access to dressing rooms and tunnels.

Via a circuitous route inside gulag Wapping, the story eventually ended up
under Custis's byline, which had the convenient effect of disguising the story's
true source.

It remains to be seen whether Sir Alex, like us, will view this as a bit of an
Arsenal 'dirty trick'; certainly, however, we feel Richard Nixon would've done a
rather better job of covering his tracks than the Gooner in question, whom we
uncovered within 24 hours. It'll be interesting to see if the chap is allowed into
OT at next season's fixture anyhow.

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