United's skulduggery brings shame on Ferguson

The acts of petulance continually committed by Manchester United on the football fields of this country and the Continent never cease to amaze.

The fact that a team with talent and quality to animate the football Gods in their prime seats cheerfully continues to stoop to such lowly antics as diving in pursuit of cheap free kicks or penalties, undermines so much of what Sir Alex Ferguson has achieved at England’s most famous club.

That Ferguson tolerates the kind of theatrical, pathetic diving by the likes of Wayne Rooney in a childish hunt for spurious awards from a referee, is bewildering. Do not such acts suggest Ferguson himself countenances these absurdities? For sure, a man of his presence and apparently strong Glaswegian values could eradicate this kind of nonsense with one blast of the renowned hairdryer treatment.

Instead, as Rooney showed in each half at Villareal on Tuesday night in the Champions League tie, United go on seeking unjustified advantages at the expense of inferior opponents and harassed referees. Perhaps those who support such skulduggery would argue that this base behaviour on the football fields of Europe is no more than par for the course. They might, with some justification, reason that the Continentals are past masters at such antics and the need to match them is paramount when you cross the English Channel in a southerly direction.

But such a philosophy means clubs like United must surrender the moral high ground. Yet is not Ferguson himself a vehement critic of any opponent who goes down as though hit by a sniper at Stalingrad? Is it not therefore the case that Ferguson’s judgement (and eyesight) is proven highly flawed when it comes to such antics?

For the life of me, I find it hard to understand why a team of such ability, such mouth watering talent needs to resort to these low-life antics. Surely, such behaviour is for the inferior, the team unable to progress by dint of its own quality and class. If diving and attempting to mislead a referee is its only likely route to a goal, then you can perhaps write off such behaviour as that of the desperate, sub-standard outfit. Manchester United hardly qualifies for such a category.

Beyond dispute, a figure as widely respected in Europe as Ferguson could lead a charge to repel this kind of acting. And what is equally certain is that Ferguson’s teams possess a breathtaking style that ought to render any such ways irrelevant. Of course, that is not to say they will always win; life itself never guarantees that.

But where would lie the satisfaction had one of Rooney’s palpable dives at Villareal this week been erroneously classified as a foul, and a penalty awarded? Could Ferguson and his players hold their heads high at victory procured in such disingenuous circumstances? Most crucially, would such behaviour, even if it had transformed a single point into three, befitted a club of Manchester United’s stature?

You have to say that if a club like United were to condone such football skulduggery, which it surely does not, then it would not be the organisation so esteemed by football lovers the world over.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...n-1035842.html
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Words fail me. Fair enoogh pointing out in a paragraph that Rooney dived a couple of times last night but to devote a whole article to it and to use it to rip on the club is just classic ABU behaviour.

Love it. Peter Bills, another name to mark down.

Would that £#%&!ing @#%&! have wrote that piece were Rooney to dive in a vital international to secure a win from a resulting penalty?

No he £#%&!ing wouldn't. Rooney's 'craftiness' would be congratulated instead.

I take it he is writing a similar one about that £#%&!ing hunchback gerrard as I type?

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&lang=uk&code=34328c8bc848e262addec9466bbaff25

Originally Posted by Stone Monkey

Bombay TV

It embeds too.

Originally Posted by Sloppy

It embeds too.

Get to work Pal

What a @#%&! - Glad folk like that exist though makes my cheer all the more intense when we score.

got to channel that shit into something positive.

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&lang=uk&code=743da1cbce6b1e54aae480b9d755000c

So Arsenal invented attacking football and now United have invented diving.

Excellent.

i missed bombay tv. where's that thread with a shit load of them on?

Originally Posted by Chorlton74

i missed bombay tv. where's that thread with a shit load of them on?

http://www.utdforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80104

It's amazing what you can find if you stick the word "bombay" into the forum search

Manchester United are a bunch of spoiled brats
Posted by peter_bills

Monday, 23 March 2009 at 10:36 am

Sir Alex Ferguson claims this is the best Manchester United squad he has ever worked with in his time at Old Trafford. It's a pity Fergie didn't specify what he meant by the best.

They're multi-talented, for sure. But they're also a bunch of spoiled brats who lose the plot when they lose a game. They can't handle defeat and so they can't call themselves great.

The best teams, the greatest of all, have a composure, a calm about them. Ryan Giggs epitomises such qualities; even in defeat at Fulham on Saturday, he went calmly about his business, trying to soothe the furrowed brows and petulant brats around him.

It is said that Ferguson was incensed with Rooney after the Liverpool defeat, hence his decision to drop him for the Fulham match. What he really thought about the child-like Rooney after his two stupid bookings which brought a red card at Craven Cottage, remains a secret.

Rooney completely lost the plot because United were losing the match. When they're winning, he's a bundle of joy, smiling, running, linking and jinking. But when things are going against United, he's like a dirty bomb waiting to explode. That's not the hallmark of a great player. He needs only to glance at Giggs to see what greatness is all about.

To have one player like that might seem an expensive luxury but Ferguson has two. Cristiano Ronaldo never fancied it from the start at Fulham, waving his arms petulantly, getting booked for a wild lunge at Danny Murphy and then arguing with the referee so repeatedly that he could also have got a second yellow.

Frankly, it was all so unnecessary. For the fact was, United responded in the right way to the Liverpool setback, in the second half at least. Only some brilliant defending kept them out but the flaw was their inability to handle the frustration.

Teams of true stature don't react like a pack of yobs, a team of immature schoolboys who aren't man enough to accept a defeat with good grace. They take it on the chin and move on. Again, that was what Ryan Giggs was doing late in the game at Craven Cottage and afterwards. "We had a good week but it wasn't to be" he said with a maturity that quite eluded most of his colleagues.

"Even though we had 10 men, we were the better team in the second half."

But Ronaldo and Rooney aren't like that. They can't handle any setback in their pampered lives. So the flur flies and the team suffers.

Rooney's furious assault on the corner flag could see further charges being laid. His behaviour was a disgrace to a great club and to the game. He needs a lengthy spell in the cooler to calm him down.

It might well be that United will be better off without him for the moment. I still think they'll end up Champions. The trouble is, Rooney and Ronaldo seem to be doing their best to sabotage that ambition.
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Peter Bills again, well aren't they just lining up eh... Its relentless...

i've got more sense than to assault my eyes reading such ill-written bilious tripe tbh. is it news to anyone that the london media is infested with abus? a @#%&! acts the @#%&! in a @#%&!ingly @#%&!ish way. hardly news.

haha brilliant article that.

that is overstated %@#$&!s right enough - United's players didn't so much harangue the referee as laugh in the @#%&!'s stupid £#%&!ing face

but i'd agree that United's frustrations allowed the incredible homer referee wind them up to the point of distraction

more journos on feries naughty list...

siege mentality ahoy!

You can't bracket Rooney with Ronaldo.

Rooney's passion get's the better of him. He loses the rag. Particularly with the sort of pompous, incompetent @#%&! he'd in charge of him on Saturday.

Ronaldo, in contrast, is just an egotistical @#%&!.

I see they're all queueing up to kick us when we're down as per usual.

£#%&! them.

Originally Posted by celtbion

You can't bracket Rooney with Ronaldo.

Rooney's passion get's the better of him. He loses the rag. Particularly with the sort of pompous, incompetent @#%&! he'd in charge of him on Saturday.

Ronaldo, in contrast, is just an egotistical @#%&!.

oh but you can

allowing for their different backgrounds they react very similarly to injustice, perceived or genuine