Oct 19
FA charge Ferguson over conduct
It’s been what, two weeks now since the Sunderland game? In the intervening period we had an international break, during which tortoises completed two marathons. The normally proud Ferguson tended two apologies and, as the anticipation over the FA’s inevitable punishment grew, the officials came crawling out of their secret chamber and announced that Ferguson will be charged of ‘improper conduct’.
The Premier League fraternity were stunned. And out of their collective mouths escaped the words: ‘No shit, Sherlock!’
But it didn’t stop there. Apparently, Ferguson has another two weeks to respond. This is after tending two apologies (one in public and one to the FA).
Great work, FA!
At this rate they’ll take until next summer to decide to punish Ferguson with a fine/touchline ban/being forced to read Jeff Winter’s columns for a week etc.
Not that I’m complaining…
Related items from Red Rants:
- Evra’s Ban Smacks of Inconsistency | Sunderland Preview
- Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Manchester United: The Defence Wins Through
- Fergie Charged With Improper Conduct And Ivanvic Admits Chelsea Shouldn’t Have Had A Penalty
- Dear Ben Foster
- How to Buy a Player From Spurs: A Primer
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Opti (541)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Stephen (454)
Craig Mc (344)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Messi will cake-walk the ballon d’or because of last year’s performances (and fair play).I still think that Ronaldo is the better overall player by a cat’s whisker, it’s just he’s done it in the Premier League which is still a disadvantage to foreign voters.
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@Phoenix Red: I believe Fergie was very foolish to attack Wiley because by now you would think he would know that the FA does not tolerate any criticism of it’s officials. So other than deflecting the criticism for the poor performance vs Sunderland, he accomplished nothing but hurt his team with a future ban. This kind of thing was fine when he had a Roy Keane on the pitch to be a general and a Carlos Queiroz as #2 but now he is going to be upstairs while Mike Phelan is in charge down below. Not a smart move whatsoever and I really fail to see how this act of stupidity on his part will help us during his ban and even after. No referee will ever look at him with respect and he might have caused them to all band against United due to his disrespect of Wiley. And what of Wiley himself? Will he ever call a fair game involving United again or will he be bent on sticking it to Fergie?
Making enemies of the officials is not a tried and true proven way to guarantee success in this game. This was a massive mistake on Fergie’s part and I am still trying to understand what the Hell he was thinking? If I was him and I truly believed that Wiley was overweight and out of shape, I do not try to humiliate the man through the media. I write a purposeful letter and address it to the head of officials at the FA. Clean, professional and to the point and something that is done behind closed doors and does not publicly humiliate the man as well as the FA.
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@Johnsom33: I didn’t really wanna compare the two players, these two players are the best in the world. But, when people say thigs like “comparing Roanldo’s skill to Messi’s is like an insult to Messi”, it gets ridiculous…
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@Jay wire: “I found it an insult to his talent to compare him with Ronaldo” You have got to be kidding.
I have been on this blog for near three years now and that without a doubt has to be the stupidist and most idiotic thing I have ever read from a fellow poster. And to think that I wasted my time debating with a man so filled with bias and bitterness, that he cannot see two feet in front of him because of the delusional fog that has affected his brain and common sense. I may not have agreed with you mate but that comment just made me lose all respect for you to. 
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@AndyCR7: Wasn’t that just the most ridiculous statement ever?
What gets me is that he compares the two like one Messi is a god and Ronaldo is Fred Flinstone. I at least was able to concede certain things to Messi and praise him for his many skills and call it a close race, but Jay Wire is completely hay wire with his thought process at it positively stinks with bias and bitterness. I seriously doubt he would be saying these things about Ronaldo had Ronaldo stayed with Man Utd. What bitterness.
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@Jay wire: Possibly because what you wrote bordered on complete lunacy.
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@Red Ranter: Well said mate but the fact remains is that it is a North American saying. It’s used in all the sports here by the media and sports announcers as well as the fans. Can you recall it ever being used in British football? I certainly can’t. And I do not know of any other english speaking continent where it is used other than the US and Canada.
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: Messi will easily win the award because for the entire year he was the best player and the most consistent. He was on the best team that won it all and his goal tally was impressive. Ronaldo ended with a flurry but his first half of last season was destroyed due to injuries and his struggle to find his form and fitness. Once he found it though he was as good if not better than Messi as he single handedly lifted United to win after win it seemed at times. But it was to little too late and so the award this season goes to Messi and I congratulate him ahead of time. A truly magnificent player. Let him enjoy his moment because come next season, Ronaldo will win back the award should he return from his injury and not get injured again. His goal tally and skill already has paid dividends for Madrid. Lets see who performs the best between the two at the World Cup. Portugal should get there and if they do, I think Ronaldo will have something to prove. Messi on the other hand is invisible on Argentina and both he and Aguero seem to be in Maradona’s doghouse. 2009/10 will be the year of Ronaldo.
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@Grognard: In England, we(I maybe wrong??) refer to a go-to-player only as a Mr. Stevie G who happens to play for Scouse Tw@ts.
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@Red Ranter: I never ever said that about Messi. I have praised him for his skills and compared him very favorably to Ronaldo but I find Ronaldo the better player. I gave the reasons and broke down the skill sets and showed where each player is better so I fail to understand your criticism about my argument. Once again I debate by putting all my cards on the table and making a clear and concise case for my argument only for others to simplify things by not reading my comments fully. I have nothing but praise for Messi and consider him the second best player on the planet. But it is no crime and I certainly do not think I am wrong by making the valid argument that Ronaldo is the better player. Unlike my opponent, I backed it up with hard evidence, not emotional rants that offered silly and unfounded arguments that were based on nothing more than personal bias and a whole lot of bitterness.
I find it a little insulting mate that my efforts are belittled this way. I do not enter a debate unless I feel I have a case or the ammunition to win it. Therefore you won’t see me debate on anything regarding French football or what’s happening in Brazil these days. So I think that my arguments were well thought out and had plenty of hard evidence to make my case.
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@AndyCR7: This was one of my major arguments. Although I feel Messi is more creative than Ronaldo, my opponent in this debate seems to think Ronaldo is incapable of stringing a successful pass to anyone. On the contrary, Ronaldo may be selfish, but he is also capable of making great plays and setting up others with great passes and superior vision. It’s his prolific goal scoring that blinds many of the fact that he also set up a lot of goals for United. And those statistics are a good show of how great Ronaldo is at play making but they do not tell the whole story for Mssi though. Lets not forget that Messi has missed an awful lot of games before last season due to injury.
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@Grognard: I haven’t belittled anything you said. But I honestly feel that whilst you brought valid points to the table you also got carried away in your attempts to prove Ronaldo is the better player. It’s not a slight on you. Most people get carried away at some point or the other. And it’s alright, because a lot of people tend to highlight the contrast in order to draw a distinction. It’s a classic skill used in debating. All I was doing is, just pointing it out.
It’s not like I labeled what you said is the “stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” That would feel more insulting than anything I’ve said. And you know I’ve never said something like that to you nor anyone here ever.
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@Grognard: Messi might have missed many games. But, those stats are not for proving that “Messi is not creative”. These stats prove that Ronaldo is also/can also be as creative… I still think Messi is more creative but, it’s not a point for Messi supporters to rave about.
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@Grognard: I’ve actually heard go-to-guy (phrased more like go-to-person/player) in the British media. But anyone with no prior knowledge of this phrase, would still come to the same conclusion
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@grognard I’didn’t mean to take the “piss” about your comment regarding the “go-to-guy” comments you made. I was being sarcastic but not directly about the phrase you made, because as RR stated it’s not an everyday “British” phrase. I was directing my vitriol against Liverpool, a cheap shot I know,(sometimes necessary) so if there is a misunderstanding it wasn’t intentional nor personal. Apologies if it sounded that way.
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KRAP-Keep rafa at pool
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lol liverpool lost, i hope we dont make them look good again we have a habit of making crappy teams look like gods
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@Dan:
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My Liverpool mate is practically crying here…
Me, Im just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fired up for Sunday!!! 
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@Dan: I really love Fachtman, gonna dress up like him at the Halloween party.
Eat lots of candy, wear a tux, grow a goatee beard and move around like a waitor with some plates on your arms! 
This is what my mate predicts will be the Scousers team on Sunday.
Reina
Johnson Carragher Skrtl Insua
Kuyt Lucas Mascherano Benayoun
Voronin Ngog
If we cant beat that team, then…
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@ Grognards
Grognard, Jaywire asked a question and i want to know too. im not attacking you or anything like that. But you said messi disappears in games, and accoriding to you , you always base your arguments on facts. So tell us what games hes disappeared in other than the chelsea game?
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Yeah we need to crush Liverpool on Sunday. They are staggering right now and if we go to anfield and repay them for the asswhooping they gave us.
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Ronaldo and Messi are very different players. Its like comparing Zidane to Keane! Okey, that may be a much bigger difference in play, but its kinda like that. While Ronaldo bases his play on power and speed, Messi bases his on tecnique and team-play. They are different player, and while Messi may have the better close-control Ronaldo is still equally good at getting away from his marker, just in a less elegant way. In my opinion Ronaldo is better than Messi, for many different reasons. Messi has had the best season, and the best year, but all in all Ronaldo is the better football player. And you know what else? He was ours…
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Forget Messi v Ronaldo. Neither player belongs to us. None of our players will even be in contention for that award. Rooney is world class for England but for us he doesn’t score enough, has zero chemistry with Berbatov, and in Europe our system means he just fades completely. Our defenders have looked dodgy ever since the Liverpool game last season. Giggs is the only world class midfielder we have and at his age I do not think he can keep playing at that level week in and week out. The rest of our team is just mediocre.
It won’t cost us in the league because everyone else seems to be in self-destruct mode and all the English teams are on the decline, as the balance of power shifts to Spain.
But in Europe Fergie’s scaredy cat tactics will not work because you get very few chances in Europe and all our strikers need five chances to score a goal, and now Ronaldo is gone we do not have any matchwinners who can win games through moments of genius.
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Dan — I’m almost inspired to initiate a petition titled KRAP.
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@Footy4Eddy: Aren’t Torres/Gerrard supposed to return?
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@Footy4Eddy: i guess the ronaldo v messi debate ranks higher than the fact that pool and barca loose while inter and le arse draw their opponents.
seeing off cska tomorrow could go a long way towards building our team confidence… unexpectedly
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Tomorrow’s game could be quite scary. No Rooney, Giggs, Fletcher, Evra or Park and possibly no Berbatov or Vidic.
Could be a Carling Cup line up for us, hang on to your seats guys, it may be a horror show!!
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@Red Ranter: Better to keep Gillette and Hicks IMO.
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@Redrich:
YIKES!
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@Redrich: I couldn’t care less about tomorrow’s result to be honest. We can always get the job done to go through the group stage. My eyes are already trained on the weekend.
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@Red Ranter: You may be right, but I never like to count my chickens, mate!
A good showing by the reserves would certainly be encouraging though!!
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@Redrich: I like to speculatively count my chickens. I guess 99/100 times we should qualify from this group.
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@Red Ranter: A win at Anfield may put a premature end to the KRAP campaign.
Rafa will be under intense pressure, if they loose again, and I’m sure SAF is just dying to apply it!!
This will be a tremendous side show to the game itself, and I just can’t wait to watch this spectacle unravel.
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@Red Ranter: I couldn’t care less about tomorrow. Anything we get out of playing our reserves on that stupid plastic pitch is a bonus. I’d rather get the team prepared for Liverpool away on Sunday. We’ve already got 6 points in the Champs League, win our other 2 home games and we’re through. Stuff Moscow, killing of Liverpool’s season in OCTOBER is worth playing the reserves in their trainers…..
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@Redrich: I hope we win. The problem with Liverpool being written off left-right-centre, as is being done already right now, is it serves to galvanise them. They would do fuck-all before and after playing us, but will be fired up enough during the game to do us in.
After all they beat us last time without Torres and Gerrard. I hope we don’t repeat our trend of starting the match with all guns blazing and then all of a sudden sitting on our backsides letting the opposition dominate us. I’ve seen us do this a lot against big four opposition (and especially some sides this season)
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@Grognard- I think you’re just being unnecessarily paranoid. Just because I strongly disagree with you doesn’t mean I’m being petty. Nor does it mean I’m trying to make a fool of you. What’s wrong with you? No honestly. You always have to attack the person when someone persistently disagrees with you. You are actually the one who was trying to make a fool of me. I’ve not attacked you, I just supported my opinions with facts. Something you didn’t do as often. I showed him to be more prolific and you couldn’t answer to it. I showed him to be more creative and you had no answer to that either. Or when I asked you to name any game in which he faded. And you failed. I just argued with facts and you have to go on and say I’m trying to make you look foolish. How? By inserting stats with my arguements? What animosity are you talking about? Because none was coming from my side that’s for sure.
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@Red Ranter: Bold indeed. You wont mind if I hold you to that in the event of team malfunction.
Finishing as runners-up in the group would put us behind the 8 ball as far as the knock-out staged are concerned, so winning tomorrow and then the group itself, would be of concern to me!
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@Redrich: You can hold me to it. I think we will win the group.
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@RedRanter- By your definition of go to guy it’s simply another way of saying “striker”. So who is the go to guy at a club like Barca?
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@Traverse: We don’t have a choice but to play the reserves, everyone is apparently injured!
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Anybody else think that Carragher looks poor this season. To me he clearly seems to have lost an edge and half a step.
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@Redrich: It’s a ruse. Rooney possibly, but only to make sure he is 100% for the dippers. Giggs and Fletcher are being rested, so there is no point in bringing them all the way out to Moscow. They will both start on Sunday. Also, don’t be surprised if we start Owen and Berbatov at Anfield with Rooney on the bench.
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@Red Ranter: They did it against Bolton too, and almost paid the price.
You would think that with enough veterans on the team they would have the maturity to play the full 90 mins, but it is apparent that this current squad lacks a true leader!!
I do think, though, that SAF will want to win this one, BIG TIME, and he may well bully the team into victory.
I’ll take take it anyway it comes!!
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@Traverse: I hope you’re right, mate.
I agree with you about Owen starting. The filth have looked very square at the back and if he can beat their OS trap, I think he’s in for a couple!!
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@Redrich: He’s already said in an interview he would celebrate like any other goal… I hope he fucking scores.
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@Traverse: This is yet another side note to this game.
If he does, and then kisses the emblem in front of the Kop, I will literally adopt him as my own!!
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@Jay wire: Not really. Ronaldo redefined that. He was a winger who scored a ridiculously large number of goals. For Liverpool it is Torres and Gerrard — both scored a ton of crucial goals to bail them out. For Chelsea it’s mostly been Drogba and Lampard to a lesser extent.
Barcelona have never really relied on one player as such. They have several go to guys — Messi, Eto’o, Xavi, Iniesta even Dani Alves. But it all has to do with players who deliver in the crunch situations with goals. Your definition of a go to guy is a creator. Mine is of a goal scorer expected to bail the side out when most things go wrong. Ronaldo has done it for us. Gerrard/Torres have done it repeatedly for Liverpool plenty of times.
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My definition is a creative goal scorer. And I said that from the beginning. All my examples are players who score and create at the same time. Not just that, but the guy you would “go to” when ideas have run out. The Urban Dictionary defines a go to guy as “someone who can solve a difficult situation or problem another person is facing”. That’s what I’m kinda getting at. Perhaps the Zidane analogy/illustration I made earlier explained what I meant. I don’t mean he shouldn’t score, that’s one of the main requirements, but he should also create in the final third. His job is to make sure somehow the ball gets in the net either thru him or by finding and “putting” someone in the right position. He more often than not bails you out of sticky situations. Right now I’d point out Ryan Giggs as our man for that. But I’m of the opinion that Berbatov should be that man as I have been pointing out in many of my previous posts.
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@Grognard: jay wire is completely hay wire
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