The psychological warfare between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger is meant to be one of the Premiership’s intriguing features. This time, however, there has been no battle of wits. A stupid conflict has been allowed to go on too long and both men are losers.
Their reputations have certainly suffered. A public who might initially have been intrigued by the allegations are now contemptuous of these managers. There has been no psychological swordsmanship, just the blunt wrangling of two individuals who descended into squealing and squabbling.
‘It’s of no interest any more,†Wenger said, making that judgement at least a week too late. The Arsenal manager added that he was ‘fed up†with the story, reaching that jaded state of mind long after the rest of the country. The sheer exasperating longevity of this dispute is the really regrettable factor.
No one should try to suppress genuine anger. It does at least introduce sincerity to a sport crammed with cliché and stonewalling. Even if the FA fine men for candour, no one else ought to deny Wenger the liberty to claim that Manchester United gave Jose Antonio Reyes a kicking while the referee Mike Riley was giving Arsenal the treatment.
Wenger may have exaggerated his case and, for that matter, ignored Arsenal’s failings, but at least he displayed his passionate concern. The over-reaction of the moment can be forgiven and even if Ferguson’s club blazer was tarnished, at least it was pizza slices rather than punches that were thrown in the tunnel.
With luck, the FA might have been able to turn a blind eye to the allegedly tawdry behaviour by Arsenal. It bore little resemblance, after all, to the sort of post-match fracas that saw Joe Cole fined £15 000 and banned for two matches after throwing a punch at Bernard Mendy when West Ham were beaten at Bolton in April 2003.
With the search for its new chief executive, the crowd trouble at Millwall’s match with Liverpool and the throwing of objects from the Stamford Bridge stands as Chelsea beat West Ham, the FA should not have had to waste energy on tantrums at Old Trafford.
When it was time to forget the whole affair, however, Arsenal revived it. Despite having had time to calm himself, Wenger still could not resist the temptation to add some more observations.
Ferguson was being provoked. When the remarks that the Arsenal midfielder Edu had made to a South American journalist eventually made their way back to England, the Manchester United manager could contain himself no longer.
Infuriated as he might have been, Ferguson did not act in the best interests of his club. Long after the FA’s 48-hour notice period, he came up with incidents involving Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp that he claimed to be as grave as the challenge that got Ruud van Nistelrooy a three-game ban. What took him so long? Was his video recorder broken?
When the FA sought information on the tunnel incident it was not asking him to reappraise the entire match. Ferguson was stung because he believed the arguments had all but obliterated respect for United’s achievement in ending Arsenal’s 49-match unbeaten run.
His annoyance was understandable, but it was folly for him then to protest as he did about Wenger’s team. Both highly paid men are supposed to be shrewd when gauging where the best interests of their sides lie, but they each made botched decisions last week.
Ferguson, hoping to keep Arsenal under pressure with some new allegations, conferred an unnatural prominence on the whole topic. If the United side knew of the briefing he was giving journalists at the end of last week it may be that they were distracted when their minds should have been solely on the trip to Portsmouth.
It would have been an awkward enough venture under any circumstances, but the side’s lifelessness in the closing stages of a 2-0 defeat at Fratton Park was surprising. Ferguson was scathing about the performance and, deep down, he must question his own effect on the team’s mentality last week.
Life was little better at Highbury. The Arsenal players, trying to make a fresh start, had to put up with a manager who could not let go of the loss to United. They could do no more than snatch a late draw with Southampton.
Whatever the initial wrongs, United and Arsenal have punished themselves severely. Suddenly, people may even be shunning them both and taking a shine to grown-up Chelsea. —