Avoiding the Drop

Sir Alex Ferguson engages in his favorite hobby

Manchester United was beaten 1-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Those are the facts. The rest, as is usually the case when Manchester United loses a game, is completely open to the interpretative powers of a half-crazed Scotsman.

See, if there’s one thing that you need to understand about Manchester United, it’s that they never lose. Their record might have losses on it, of course, but those aren’t really losses: those are matches that the dirty lying cheating bastards that officiate the games stole from Manchester United via their complete incompetence and/or unawareness of the rules and/or the overarching conspiracy that’s ended up with them only winning three straight titles.

Case in point: yesterday, manager Sir Alex Ferguson had this to say about the Chelsea loss:

“Clearly, Darren Fletcher’s won the ball – Ashley Cole’s never touched and has jumped up in the air – and then [Didier] Drogba’s pulled Brown to the ground for the goal. The referee’s position to make the decision was absolutely ridiculous – he can’t see anything. He’s got a Chelsea player standing right in front of him – and he doesn’t even move. It was a bad decision, but there’s nothing we can do about it. You lose faith in refereeing sometimes, that’s the way the players are talking in there – it was a bad one.”

If, say, Gary Megson said something like that about a referee, the FA would have him teaching typewrite maintenance at the Rocco Globbo School for Women. Ferguson, however, will not be charged for this rant because he didn’t question the ref’s integrity or bias. That’s right: claiming the ref is completely incompetent is okay per the FA.

This is kind of a trend for Ferguson, too. It’s something that’s usually been brushed aside because Manchester United doesn’t really lose all that often; when they HAVE lost, however, he’s been brutal. Let’s look over the 2007-08 and 2008-09 Manchester United seasons and then ask the question: when a two-match ban fails, what’s the next step up?

Portsmouth 1 – 1 Manchester United (August 12th, 2007): “Steve Bennett has sent him off before and he took great delight in doing it again.” (Link)

The “him” in the above quote is none other than Cristiano Ronaldo, who was sent off for head butting Pompey’s Richard Hughes. That quote’s not terribly bad, actually; Fergie’s real gem came a couple of days later:

“It has been going on for a hundred years where the perpetrator of an incident ends up getting less punishment than the other player and Ronaldo fell into the trap at Portsmouth.”

“It’s a bitter experience for Cristiano. It seems as though referees are now more tolerant of physical contact and lots of challenges are going unpunished these days. I don’t know why that’s the case, but maybe referees have been told to manage situations differently. I always believed that it was black-and-white whereby tackles from behind were outlawed, but Ronaldo continues to be a victim and my worry is that somebody will end up getting a serious injury.” (Link)

So because referees are more tolerant of physical play, Ronaldo’s headbutt was just the obvious end result of an entire game of bad officiating, and it certainly had nothing to do with Ronaldo being a little bit of a dick. Makes sense.

Arsenal 2 – 2 Manchester United (November 3rd, 2007): “I think Howard Webb has a great chance to be the top referee but today was a big game for him and, at times, he favoured Arsenal.Their second goal came from him not giving a free-kick for a foul on Louis Saha on the far side. It should have been a foul for us.” (Link)

Actually, all things considered, that’s not even really that bad, especially not when you consider Mark Clattenburg’s tongue lashing later on in the month.

Bolton 1 – 0 Manchester United (November 24th, 2007): “I told him exactly what I thought and he didn’t like it,” Ferguson said. “Some referees don’t like the truth. I just told him how bad I thought he was in the first half and the game was becoming a shambles. We should have got much more protection from the referee, but we didn’t get that. It was a battle.” (Link)

Okay, so that quote’s not that great. The incident the quote is refering to, however, is a perfect example of Ferguson blaming a ref when blaming his players is perhaps a better answer. At halftime, Ferguson – with his team down by one thanks to an eleventh-minute goal from Nikolas Anelka – approached referee Mark Clattenburg and said…well…something. The specifics weren’t revealed, but it was enough for Clattenburg to send him to the stands for the second half; Ferguson would later receive a two-match ban from the FA over his conduct.

Tottenham 1 – 1 Manchester United (February 2nd, 2008): ‘For Manchester United it’s not right. There is something wrong when Manchester United get seven bookings. For me, the first foul the referee should have acted on, Cristiano Ronaldo in the first half, he was hacked down and for me it was a red card. ‘He’s kicked him from the back. He spent 30 seconds talking to Jenas. Up to that point, up to half-time, I thought the whole game was looking like it was going to go to pieces as a football spectacle. The referee settled down in the second half but nonetheless, for us to get seven bookings something is wrong. ‘Has he been fair to both teams? No he’s not.” (Link)

Hey, guess who the ref for this one was? If you said “Mark Clattenburg”, come on down to collect…well, nothing. Either way, here we are – a month after Ferguson served his ban for getting sent to the stands by Clattenburg – and United’s drawing a crucial match and complaining about the officiating. Seven United players were booked in this one, which meant that the FA imposed a fine for poor behavior.

Manchester United 0 – 1 Portsmouth (March 8th, 2008): “It’s absolutely ridiculous. I just cannot explain that decision. Managers get sacked on the basis of things like that. And he’s going to referee a game next week? It’s ridiculous. We’re out and you could look at a lot of things. We missed a lot of chances for one, but the refereeing performance…Keith Hackett (of Match Officials Board) has got a lot to answer for. He’s not doing his job properly.” (Link)

Translation: I just got knocked out of the FA Cup to freaking Portsmouth. Ferguson escaped reprimand on this one even though he clearly questions the integrity of referee boss Keith Hackett.

March 22nd, 2008: “I think the haranguing of referees we have seen is absolutely atrocious.”(Link)

Really?

Chelsea 2 – 1 Manchester United (April 26th, 2008): “It’s a major decision that’s cost us the game. To give a penalty for that in a game of such importance, on the linesman’s say-so, is absolutely diabolical. Granted, the ball hit Carrick’s hand but he couldn’t get out of the road. The game hinged on major decisions and unfortunately they didn’t go our way.” (Link)

You mean, haranguing like that?

The incident he’s referring to involved a shot that hit Michael Carrick’s hand and was deflected away from goal, resulting in Alan Wiley giving a penalty. “Diabolical” may be a bit harsh; after all, this was the first penalty against United that season. It also dodged the point: United, pursuing a league title, came in very defensively and were opened up by Chelsea. They lost because Ferguson got the result wrong tactically.

This match saw Patrice Evra and Chelsea’s grounds crew engage in their now-famous back and forth. Allegations after the match also claimed that United players had verbally assaulted the fourth official in the tunnel.

Everton 1 – Manchester United 1 (October 25th, 2008): “I don’t think the referee protected our players enough. I don’t know what the game’s coming to with some of the tackles going in. With the ferocity of the challenges, somebody’s going to get a bad injury.” (Link)

The long lay-off between this rant and the previous one is explainable only by the “Respect” campaign and the fact that United didn’t really lose that often (although to his credit, Ferguson was remarkably well behaved after the 2-1 loss to Liverpool in September ’08). By the end of October, however, the veneer had started to come off; two weeks earlier, he’d endured seven bookings at the hand of Rob Styles against Chelsea, and by this point he just wasn’t in the mood anymore.

Part of the problem was that Wayne Rooney, a former Everton product, was enduring a large amount of what the British call “stick” from the crowd. After scoring, Rooney engaged in a make-out session with the Manchester United badge on his shirt, leading to the inevitable booking for riling up the crowd. Fergie had this to say on that booking a week later:

“What damage did he do?’ The abuse he took off the Everton fans, which is always the same, wasn’t very nice at all but nothing can be done about that. [Alan Wiley should] pick up the phone and apologise [for the booking].” (Link)

Manchester United 4 – 3 Hull City (November 1st, 2008): “[A Michael Turner foul on Michael Carrick] should have been at least a yellow card, in which case the player would have been sent off. It made a difference.”

“[The penalty awarded to Bernard Mendy] was very soft. Their lad was going away from goal.” (Link)

Ferguson was wound up over this game by the number of cards his team received as they saw their 4-1 halftime lead become 4-3 by the match’s end. Once again, poor team performance was taken out on the referee. It didn’t happen in the press conference (which is admittedly rather soft), but on the pitch; Ferguson berated Mike Dean and needed Gary Neville to separate him. He was charged with improper conduct by the FA later that week for his behavior and given a two-match ban.

November 14th, 2008: “Training people to make decisions is important. It is the same with any walk of life. It is why you have apprenticeships in engineering or courses in management. You need to hone skills, improve and develop them. Referees have to be the same. Making decisions quickly and accurately is key. It is not about fitness. Referees are full-time. We expect them to be fit. It is their decision making we want to improve.” (Link)

Emphasis added. Draw your own conclusions.

Villareal 0 – 0 Manchester United (November 25th, 2008): “Ronaldo got protection tonight from the referee. The referee was good. He was a very strong referee.” (Link)

This is really the crux of the problem for me. A referee giving additional protection to Ronaldo is not actually a good referee. Players should be players on the field; their salaries, skill level, and level of obnoxiousness shouldn’t matter. If a tackle on Wayne Rooney is fair than that same tackle on Ronaldo is fair; a recurring theme through Ferguson’s rants, however, is this idea that his players need protection beyond what a referee should usually give. They don’t, and that’s a mind game with the referee; he’s steeping the conversation in words that, unintentionally or not, bias the ref.

Think of it this way: if you’re watching my kids, and I tell you that you need to protect them from my cat, you’re going to think that the cat’s going to try to eat them. That’s how I’ve phrased it to you. If my cat does anything to them, now, you’re going to feel even worse because I warned you. On a much bigger scale, that’s the game Ferguson’s playing.

Case in point: Martin O’Neill’s comments on Ashley Young a few days later, which basically amounted to “If Ronaldo gets protection, I want Young to get it too.” Pretty soon EVERYONE will be protected! Yay!

Inter Milan 0 – 0 Manchester United (February 24th, 2009): “The referee was not intimidated and Jose would have been hoping he was. But he was not intimidated. He was first class.” (Link)

Translation: I got away with something and Jose Mourinho didn’t like it.

The season ended with a whimper; United all but clinched by the beginning of May, and Ferguson doesn’t get as worked up when there’s nothing at stake. And yet this season, we’ve seen three different incidents: the “extra time” controversy, the “Alan Wiley fitness” controversy, and now the assertion (parroted by Wayne Rooney) that the referees are taking games from United. If the “Respect” campaign truly has any teeth, than a more serious punishment needs to be imposed before Ferguson makes an even bigger mockery of the rules in place.

And if I’m a United fan, this concerns me too. Where’s the personal accountability on the players part? When Rooney mouths “Twelfth man” to the cameras following a Chelsea goal, what does that say about his mindset? Has he quit? Are they able to dig deeper and come back, or are they content to hold serve and blame the officials later on?

Either way, whatever happens, there’s one thing that can be counted on: it’s never going to be Ferguson’s fault.