READE
IT was fascinating to hear Sir Alex Ferguson tell a BBC documentary crew the secrets behind his success.
How a leader always needs to show he’s boss, understand when to put an arm around someone and know the names of everyone in the company, down to the cleaners.
Although I was puzzled when he said you shouldn’t hold grudges. Because, as Fergie’s proved, holding such a huge grudge against the BBC that you refuse to speak to them for seven years, then letting their bosses beg for forgiveness surely works to your advantage.
As we saw on Sunday, they will eventually produce the kind of fawning tribute Vladimir Putin would expect from Russian TV.
THIS was Terry Butcher, 56, writing before the latest England games: “Dele Alli reminds me of Paul Gascoigne’s sensational arrival on the international scene in 1990.”
And this was Antony Martial, 19, speaking before the last French game: “I think Manchester United can win the Premier League and the Champions League this season. Both of them.”
Which just goes to show that age is no barrier to coming out with a load of tosh that jinxes whatever it is you’re wishing for.
CARLO ANCELOTTI is letting it be known he’s bored with his sabbatical now and wants someone’s job.
Not just anyone’s, mind. Only a top Premier League manager’s job, where the successful set-up is in place and the salary is north of £7million a year. And why not?
Why would the sought-after Carlo go to Italy or Spain and live a little, when he can come over here and live an Ancelotto?
His declaration means, from now on, when Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Louis van Gaal or Manuel Pellegrini suffer a couple of defeats his ghost will haunt them.
Although there may be another Italian ghost on the scene, with jobless Fabio Capello emerging from his own brief hibernation to pour petrol on under- f ire Mourinho by saying he burns-out his players. And we can guess where he’d like to pick up his next Hollywood salary as a couple of years ago he knocked back AC Milan by saying he had one unfulfilled ambition left: “I love London. I’d prefer to coach in the Premier League.”
But then it’s not just foreign bosses eyeing up potential job vacancies over here. Tim Sherwood’s increasingly perilous grip on the Aston Villa job has alerted David Moyes’ advisers, as Randy Lerner is said to have a soft- spot for him. And with Real Sociedad growing disillusioned with the Moyesiah, a Villa Park switch might suits all parties.
Me Meanwhile, Fireman Sam Allar Allardyce is back, offering to res rescue Sunderland from a trapped basement, claiming he was “put on Earth” for jobs like this. As though God realised there was one last thing he needed to do before resting on the seventh day: create a 1950s National Service drill sergeant who could teach ’orrible little men how to hoof their way to safety.
Allardyce flew back from the Spanish villa bought with his juicy Newcastle pay- off to say football management is “a drug, an addiction”. And there’s clearly I’M looking forward to seeing the film about Brian Clough’s double European Cup winners, I Believe In Miracles.
But I’m more looking forward to the inevitable decrying of CloughC (left) and Nottingham Forest’sFo achievement from a certaince type of modern football fan whowh argues it was easy for English teamste to conquer Europe in the ’70s’70 and ’80s because there were no decent foreign sides around. no shortage of users out there, ready to kill a fellow junkie to get their cash injection, as we can read in Big Sam’s new book where he slags off fellow managers and says he’s desperate for Roy Hodgson’s job. Talkin Talking of Newcastle pay-offs, how long before Brendan Ro Rodgers ( left) is linked with S Steve McClaren’s job?
He’ll surely be back in work soon, cheering up Hodgson, who felt “really sorry for him”, and Arsene Wenger, who was “very sad” at Liverpool’s “i“irrational decision” to sack him. Sorr Sorrow? Really? If you factor in his redundancy, Rodgers earned £ 14.5m at Anfield for just over three years work in which he won nothing.
How sobering is that for those workers who’ll be shown the door this week, having succeeded in The implication being that Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Roma, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Benfica were all formed, like the Premier League, in 1992.
But they weren’t. All those sides were very much around and dominant in their own leagues. It’s just that in 1979 and 1980 none of them was as good or as dominant as Cloughie’s men. End of.
FOOTBALL suits everywhere finally have a two-word response to those who say the sport is crying out for men who have played the game at the highest level to be put in charge of making key decisions instead of these know-nothing, careerist, money men: Michel Platini (above). everything that was asked of them, with just the statutory few months’ pay-off ?
Managing a Premier League club has become the gold standard pension at a time when most workers’ retirement plans have been stolen from them.
Signing a contract is like joining a pyramid scheme that is guaranteed not to fail.
So the next time you hear a high- profile manager bleating about the 24/7 pressure he’s under in the most precarious job on Earth, please don’t waste your sympathy on him.
Because the chances are, if he’s sacked, he’ll soon be jostling for the car-parking space of another colleague who’s a defeat away from his own compo cheque.
Always remember there’s more chance of the Prince of Wales losing his several houses than a sacked Premier League boss losing any of his.
Talking of pay-offs, how long before Rodgers is linked with McClaren’s job at Newcastle?
WHAT a genredefining line that was from Glenn Hoddle, summarising for ITV on England’s victory in Lithuania, when asked how Roy Hodgson would be feeling after the di disappointment of Brazil: “If someone had told Roy he’d win 10 out o of 10 he’d have settled fo for that.”
That’s why they earn th the big money folks. Insight. Pure, original, unscripted, cliche-free insight.