Zip it, Zlatan and respect the ‘circle of Ferguson’
ZlATAN Ibrahimovic played 53 games for Manchester United; one more than Michael Owen, three short of les Sealey and Fabio Da Silva.
Many of those matches were good ones, too. He scored the winning goal in a league Cup final; his efforts helped propel the club through the rounds to their Europa league victory.
Not 13 league titles, though, is it? Not two Champions league wins, four FA Cups, three league Cups, the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, either. And not 963 appearances. Fifty-three.
Ryan Giggs played 104 games more than that for Manchester United in Europe alone. So it is hardly surprising he took umbrage at being as good as told to shut up by a man who featured in as many games for United as Memphis Depay.
‘ The circle of Ferguson,’ is Ibrahimovic’s name for the former players he claims have too much to say. They would include Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand — and Giggs. Between them they have 38 league titles and 2,738 Manchester United appearances.
‘They are not there any more,’ said Ibrahimovic (below). ‘ They are on TV, always complaining and criticising. Yeah, OK, you’ve had your time, we know it.’
Actually, they had a little more than their time. Ibrahimovic’s brief time — the fortune he commanded at the tailend of his career — was only made possible by the circle of Ferguson and what they achieved. They elevated United as a financial powerhouse even among the elite, created one of the biggest clubs in the world, and because of this United could afford transfer fees and wages beyond anything it had paid previously.
No circle, no Paul Pogba for £90million. Certainly, no circle no Jose Mourinho, so no Ibrahimovic at Old Trafford, too.
So a little respect is due. A little respect for those who count games not in tens but hundreds. They hold the club back, according to Ibrahimovic. Yet why shouldn’t they have their say? And if their conclusion is that it was better under Ferguson, well, that’s fine — because it was. Nothing wrong with the truth.
Ibrahimovic is mistaken if he thinks these players revel in United’s misfortune since their era.
The idea that Giggs, a player who put the club ahead of his own country on countless occasions, would wish failure on a succession of United managers, is preposterous. And while the verdicts of Scholes, Neville or Ferdinand can be brutal, they are rarely unjustified. They were right; Manchester United were underperforming, they were playing a style in conflict with the ideals of the club. That much has been plain since the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. If the results, and the football, had not changed and the former players were still talking up their old team- mate, then the circle of Ferguson jibe might be justified. The fact is, performances have improved, the Mourinho regime has been shown in a poor light and the criticism was vindicated. Those who have represented Manchester United across decades know exactly what it represents.
Whenever Manchester United play we are bombarded with reaction. Those who were at the game, those who were not, those who have never missed a match at Old Trafford, those who have never invested in anything more taxing than a laptop stream.
So why should we be deprived of the views of those who know the game and know the club? Above the clamour, their voices deserve to be heard.
‘They stayed all their life under Ferguson, they never moved and they didn’t even talk if Ferguson didn’t tell them to open their mouth,’ Ibrahimovic sneered.
He probably sees his own career as more adventurous. It was certainly more lucrative. And maybe that’s another reason why when these players speak, people listen: because for a great many of them, Manchester United was not just another place they passed through en route to the next signing-on fee.
It was a club they served and an empire they built, and it is theirs to own, in a way it will never belong to Ibrahimovic — or any player like him.