SOCCER:ALEX FERGUSON has ridiculed Manchester City's U-turn on Carlos Tevez as an act of desperation and warned he has "plenty of ammunition" should United's title rivals challenge him to mind games in the fight for the Premier League.
The Manchester United manager has, by his standards, resisted criticism of Roberto Mancini and his team this season and initially praised his City counterpart’s handling of Tevez following the striker’s refusal to warm up at Bayern Munich.
Diplomatic relations were spectacularly broken off yesterday, however, over Patrick Vieira’s accusation that Paul Scholes’s decision to come out of retirement, the sale of Ravel Morrison to West Ham United and the possible departure of Paul Pogba, another highly rated young midfielder, were clear signs of “weakness” at Old Trafford.
Although he dismissed Vieira’s comments in jest not anger, Ferguson could not resist mocking City’s decision to turn to a player who Mancini had insisted would never play for the club again.
“If it’s desperation bringing back the best midfield player in Britain over the last 20 years then I think we can accept that,” said the United manager. “I think he [Vieira, now football development executive at City] was programmed for that. I think Roberto had a wee dig a couple of weeks back. We’re all going to play our hand that way. I’ve got plenty of ammunition for that.
“The point he makes about Ravel Morrison and losing our young players – we wanted to sell Ravel Morrison, let’s be clear about that, for obvious reasons. But we want Paul Pogba to stay because we think he is going to be a fantastic Manchester United player and hopefully that’s the case.
“If you’re talking desperation, they were playing a player the other night who refused to go on the pitch and the manager said he’ll never play again. He takes a five-month holiday in Argentina. What is that? Could that come under the description ‘desperation?’”
Asked if he would welcome back a player to United in similar circumstances, Ferguson replied: “Do I need to answer that? No. I don’t need to answer that.”
Mancini’s perceived slight was to claim, after City had beaten Bolton on March 3rd, that he would not watch United’s game at Tottenham the following day as he was convinced of the result. “I think United will win because they are strong,” he said.
Ferguson views that as an attempt to apply pressure on his team – “I think it was but there is nothing wrong with that,” he added.
Guardian Service
