Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.
the interview that finally exposed the arse wipes for what they are also had some crackin comments about tons of other stuff:
from the independent
full interview located @
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/man_united/story.jsp?story=601025
on rooney:
"As soon as he became available I knew we had to sign him. I spoke to David Moyes several times. I said: 'If he ever becomes available don't let me down.' The word came back to me when he was 14, 'There's a boy at Everton.' We could have got him then but he wouldn't leave, and he wouldn't leave at 16 either. I can understand that, he is a local boy. But the European Championship changed his mind. Once they decided to sell him we couldn't afford not to get him."
"He's been doing well. He's had been some quiet games but he is 19. Ronaldo was the same last year, but he can explode in games. Once they get maturity they'll get consistency and they'll get better. In three or four years' time they'll be very good."
Rooney, of course, has been involved in some scrapes, most recently the incident with Bolton's Tal Ben Haim, which cost him a three-match ban. "He's like any 19-year-old. Obviously he's a winner. He doesn't like losing. He has a temper. You can't put a 30-year-old head on him. Unfortunately, unlike every other 19-year-old he is being assessed differently. Violent conduct? Do me a favour.
"He's actually a quiet boy with great enthusiasm in training. He loves training. I used to just have one problem on the training ground, which was Scholes. Now there are two of them. They get on early and you can't get them off after. They batter balls all over the place and one of them will hit me one day and kill me. That Scholes sends them inches by my head. Then all they hear is me bellowing 'Scholes!' 'What?' he says, looking up like an angel. And they hit the ball hard. Gary Neville was having a piss one day, 45 yards
away by the fence. Scholes whacked him right in the arse."
QUALITY!!!!!
On learning from the scousers mistakes:
He is aware, though, that if he drops his guard it could all end overnight. In proof were needed, Ferguson need do no more than stop by the trophy room when United visit Anfield this lunchtime. Who would have thought, after Liverpool had won their 10th title in 15 years in 1990, that the next 14 seasons would be barren? One of Ferguson's staff did.
"I always remember Jim Ryan saying to me just after he joined us: 'Liverpool have massive problems.' I said: 'What makes you think that?' He said: 'It's the age of their team. They are bringing in players like [David] Speedie, aged 31, [Ronny] Rosenthal, in his late twenties, Jimmy Carter.' They were not bringing in young kids, like Arsenal and myself have done, to give them a future. I looked at the age of their team and said 'Christ, where are the young players?' It was just Steve Staunton. Not until Graeme [Souness] arrived did it change. They were buying short-term fixes.
"I always remember Jimmy Sirrell [the former Notts County manager] saying to me when I first became a coach, back in '73, at a coaching school ... He said: "Never let your players all come to the end of their contract, or ages. Always make sure there is a balance." For us that means having one or two midfield players whose contracts are up in 2003, two in 2004, two in 2005, so they can't come to you at the same time, so they don't have you by the balls. David Gill [the chairman] and I have been looking at that this morning * when contracts are finishing.
"I could easily have stuck with the same players for my last two or three years and said to the next man: 'It's up to you.' But you can't work that way. This is a fantastic club and it deserves everyone paying attention to the future. I recognised that I had a string of midfield players all coming to their thirties at the same time: Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Butt, Beckham."
Read the full interview, you wont see a more frank talk with The Boss anywhere else. Funnily enough the stuff regarding the goons was first "off the record" only for fergie to change his mind, stroke of genius, maybe, its seems to have done the trick, wenger lost the plot and bolton beat the goons....
do the math!
you never know. anyway, i think fergie may be commenting about 19 year old magic footballers like rooney himself. 19 is an age where they're not fully adults yet, and in the football world, they're piled with pressure to perform or to carry themselves accordingly. these same teens won't want to be restricted within rules, and if they're a "winner" like rooney, then its even worse when they lose
