ALEX FERGUSON begins his two-match ban from the touchline today admitting he has misgivings about whether it will affect his ability to pass on instructions to his Manchester United players.
Ferguson will be wired-up to his assistant, Mike Phelan, for the game against Portsmouth but he is concerned the noise generated by a sell-out crowd at Fratton Park may reduce him to the role of a helpless spectator as he watches from the stand.
“I have got the communication lines in place but the only problem is that it’s such a noisy place,” Ferguson said. “It’s one of these old stadiums – it’s a bit rickety, the stand nowadays. The directors’ box is towards the end where all the noise comes from – the drums and whatever the hell they have got going on at that place. But it’s a good racket. It’s a terrific football stadium, really.”
Ferguson, starting the Football Association’s punishment for his outspoken criticisms of the referee Alan Wiley, has a shortage of defenders going into Avram Grant’s first game in charge of Portsmouth, but the form of Wes Brown has encouraged him when Rio Ferdinand is still weeks away from returning from his back injury, while John O’Shea and Jonny Evans are “very doubtful” to be involved at Fratton Park.
“I must say that Nemanja Vidic and Wes Brown have been absolutely fantastic in recent games and it just reminds me that when, Wes Brown is fit, he’s the best natural defender in the country,” Ferguson said. “He’s as good as anybody else out there and I think that most people recognise it.
“You have to pay tribute to the lad, that he keeps coming back from the serious injuries he’s had over his career. He’s had two cruciates, a broken ankle, other injuries – calf injuries and things like that.
“Last season he had a staggered season in terms of interruptions but the previous season he was our most consistent defender in the year we won the European Cup in Moscow. Now he’s fit again and looking fantastic, he gets better all the time.”
Portsmouth’s new manager, Avram Grant, has said any luck he might possess to help him steer the Premier League’s bottom club from relegation cannot be too great or “John Terry wouldn’t have missed the penalty” that cost his Chelsea team victory over Manchester United in the 2008 Champions League final.
That defeat to United was Grant’s final game in charge at Stamford Bridge. Yet although his re-entry into the sharp end of Premier League has taken 18 months and comes at the wrong end of the division, Grant is enthusiastic about the task he describes as “one of the biggest challenges of my life”.
“The people here, the players, the wonderful supporters, they deserve to be in the Premier League,” he said.
Portsmouth have won twice in the league this season, to leave them with seven points from 13 games. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool also feature on Grant’s fixture list before the close of the year but he believes the club can be saved by concentrating on taking points from the teams around them.
He plans to play with a lone striker rather than use the 4-4-2 his predecessor, Paul Hart, preferred. “We desperately need results because we’ve only seven points and need to do something which we didn’t in the past,” he said. “But what counts is the points.”
Ferguson expressed surprise at Grant’s sacking by Chelsea.
“Sometimes you don’t understand the (logic) of football,” he said. “Getting to the final of the Champions League was an achievement; they were a penalty kick away from winning it.”
Guardian Service
