Man U v AFC

Everyone knows the spat between M Wenger and Ferguson, but way in which the events evolved is rarely told as a unified story.  And when it is, something quite odd emerges.

When Wenger joined Arsenal, Arsenal were in ruins.   George Graham became the only man to be found guilty of bung taking (at least the only one for the next 11 years) and left the club.   Arsenal sank – we don’t hear much about that following season but it was really awful.

And then suddenly a new manager – a supposedly unknown manager – came along and started to turn the club around.

But just as we forget how terrible the interregnum was, so it is easy to forget Ferguson’s reaction to this unknown.  He said, “what’s he going to know about English football, coming from Japan?”

The question we have to ask is why did he say that – why did he feel moved to say anything at all in response to a journalist’s question other than, “My focus is on Man U”.   If this new man had gone to Newcastle or Tottenham would there have been any speaking of the matter at all?

It seems unlikely – but although Graham’s team had won a couple of championships, the rivalry between the two sides was at that point nothing like the rivalry that would emerge much later.

So what made Ferguson speak out?

The answer can only be that he was firing out at anyone he could think of – which actually wasn’t the case at the time – or that he already knew that Arsenal was re-working itself behind the scenes, and could become a bigger side.

As such the comment by Ferguson, although less racist and less obnoxious than Sir Alan Sugar (then chairperson of Tottenham) calling Dennis Berkgamp “Johnny Foreigner”.  Whereas Sugar made few pronouncements on football after that, and seemed to lose all interest in football, Ferguson made this opening attack the start of a campaign.

We need only highlight a few such outbursts to show just how orchestrated it has been.

For example…

“No team gets more red cards than Arsenal” 2000.   This seemingly pointless, and completely untrue comment has a huge significance, because it was taken up by the media who then counted (wrongly) the number of reds under Wenger.  As it got into the 40s they kept totting each one, but never compared the number with the number of reds achieved by other teams in the same era.   In fact Newcastle, Blackburn, Bolton, Tottenham and Leeds all had more reds than Arsenal through this period.

“Arsenal players surrounded the referee and argued with him.   You won’t see Manchester United players ever doing that,” (2002.  The first half of the statement was true.  The second half was laughable as Man U had been warned the season earlier about their player’s behaviour.

“Arsenal always get home games after a European game, while we always have to play away”.  2004.   It was in  fact not just untrue, the figures showed than Man U played more games at home after European mid-week games than Arsenal, and Arsenal, among the big clubs had the worst record of having to play away after a European game. 

“The semi-finals [of the FA Cup] are being played in Wales because Arsenal insisted on it.”  (2004/5 season when both semis were in Cardiff and Arsenal beat Man U in the final.  The comment was denied by the FA).

What is interesting throughout is that the FA has resolutely refused to act on these comments which all clearly bring the game into disrepute.