Fergie should save some of his ‘wise’ words for Wayne
Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, reacted as objectively as ever to the controversy around Wayne Rooney’s elbow on James McCarthy of Wigan Athletic at the weekend.
‘The press will raise a campaign to get him hung by Tuesday, or electrocuted,’ he said.
No, they won’t. The press do not as a rule want players to be executed for disciplinary offences, but they are quite keen on the Football Association coming down hard on the use of the elbow, as it has the potential to cause extreme injury, such as brain damage.
In the instance of Rooney, however, referee Mark Clattenburg saw the incident and gave a foul against United, but no more. Looking at the replays, he was probably right. Rooney was dashing across the field to help provide defensive cover against a Wigan attack and, seeing that, McCarthy stopped and changed direction, taking a step back to block his path. In doing so, he also raised his shoulder to provide more of a physical impediment and Rooney responded by giving him a clump as he went past.
He used an elbow, which should have merited a booking, but did not seem to bring it back at McCarthy, more use it as payment in kind as he passed. It was not the sort of elbow incident that rearranged Gary Mabbutt’s face or left Iain Hume fighting for life.
These are nuances, however, and very much open to individual interpretation. The bottom line is Rooney committed an offence worthy of a yellow card, but got away with it because Clattenburg judged McCarthy to be partly responsible.
Nobody needs to be hung, electrocuted or even charged but, with the season coming to the boil, a quiet word with his striker rather than the standard outbreak of baseless suspicion and false accusation would seem Ferguson’s best course of action.
Wasn't Martin Samuel supposed to be one of the more decent journalists? Yeah right.
