As John Delaney was unveiling Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane as the new Irish soccer leadership on the Pat Kenny Show Sir Alex Ferguson was staging his own show in Aberdeen in cold northeast Scotland.
At noon he took part in the draw for the fourth round of the Scottish Cup, then had a pleasant lunch with old friends, then a nap, and later he was under the spotlight for a question and answer session with Dougie Donnelly at the 1,300-seater Aberdeen Music Hall.
But under no circumstances would he field any questions on Keano or on whether he felt the new Irish management pairing was a marriage forged in heaven or hell. That was the firm instruction from anxious Scottish FA folk yesterday morning.
Fergie was back in Aberdeen to feel the love – and flog more copies of his autobiography. And while there may be some divided opinions on Ferguson in Ireland there is affection aplenty for him throughout these islands, as is obvious from the fact that "Evenings with Sir Alex. " in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Aberdeen and in the Convention Centre in Dublin this Friday night were sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale.
In total 15,000 will attend the events at €40 or £40 a ticket with a signed copy of the €25 or £25 book thrown in.
It was in the Granite City that the hardest man in football management began to flourish. In the early to mid-1980s he led Aberdeen to four Scottish FA cups, three league titles breaking the Celtic-Rangers Old Firm monopoly, and a European Cup Winners Cup. These achievements, along with his subsequent Manchester United career, were the matters to reminisce about and savour in Aberdeen. Not Roy Keane.
So, there was talk of Aberdeen defeating Celtic and Rangers and even Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. And for a moment too Ferguson took a ride on one of Johnny Giles's hobby horses.
“When I was a kid I was always hitting a ball; in the last couple of decades that has been missing; it’s all TV and games and the rest of it,” he lamented.
Amusement and bemusement
At the cup draw there was both amusement and bemusement among the Scottish football journalists and senior officials at the fixation of the Irish media on Keane and Ferguson. "Ach," said Alan McRae, vice-president of the Scottish FA and a friend of Ferguson's "I don't think it is a very deep spat. He has had fallouts with many people. You fall out and you fall in, don't you? Without a doubt they'll fall in again."
Michael Grant, chief football writer for the Herald and Times group in Scotland and an avid Aberdeen supporter, said his readers "would enjoy the theatre" of the Keane-Ferguson row while fully realising that "Keane and Fergie are exactly the same kind of guy, two peas from the same pod. . .They are both extraordinary characters and it is a pity their relationship has deteriorated".
