FERGIE TIME

In what many suspect will be Sir Alex Ferguson's final season, it was expected he may well have broke the bank to ensure his last hurrah ends in a blaze of glory. How typical of Ferguson would it be to draw a line under his incredible Old Trafford career by beating Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid in the Champions league final at Wembley stadium, only then to walk away into the sunset.
Leaving the red hordes pleading, nay begging for just one last encore before the curtain falls on this extraordinary man.
Sadly for all those of red persuasion who adore Sir Alex as one of their own the reality appears tainted by the fact Manchester United football club lies crippled by the Glazer debt that hangs around their necks like a hangman's noose. Each season the knot grows tighter until eventually the trap door opens and United fall like a stone into the financial abyss.
Currently calculated, although of course denied officially by the Glazer family, the debt is over £1billion and escalating faster than a panicking politician returning the keys to his second home. The '˜Pravda' like comments of chief executive David Gill such as 'the debt is not an issue' means he is openly ridiculed and treated with disdain by United fans who dismiss such diatribe.
With the Glazers content to bleed United dry from their Florida fortress, safe from avenging supporters, back in Manchester the unfortunate Gill as their public mouthpiece has become an easy target for the target of open hostility. To the extent many have compared him to Saddam Hussein's infamous, but comical Iraqi minister of propaganda, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf. Otherwise known as '˜Baghdad Bob'!
Saeed al-Sahaf is best remembered for briefing reporters on the ministry roof that '˜there are no Americans tanks in Baghdad'˜. Only then to be asked politely by a journalist to look over his shoulder and witness for himself monster, Abram tanks careering alongside the Tigris river in hot pursuit of fleeing Iraqi troops.
But as dark clouds gather and the day of reckoning draws closer it is to Sir Alex Ferguson that the die -hards now look to and wonder why no eruption?
The present global crisis has confirmed beyond all reason or doubt that no matter your size or standing, debt kills. So why the manager's reluctance to take a stand and speak out on behalf of supporters who are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore his silence? Ferguson's standard quotes of '˜no value in the transfer market' and '˜being happy' with a squad that is clearly lacking in both quality and depth, leaves many to believe he is simply following the party line. Content to see out this last year then walk away £4 million in wages richer.
In this,
United's biggest crisis as a football club since the Munich Air crash, the time has surely arrived for Sir Alex to show his true colours and blow a fuse in a manner that leaves our friends across the ocean in no doubt that the hour has come to bade farewell to Manchester. Despite all during his glorious twenty four years that he has achieved. The joys and highs. Dancing with kiddo on the pitch in 93, Ole's last gasp goal in the Nou Comp in 99. '˜Football bloody hell'˜!
Moscow 2008: a rain drenched night under Russian red skies, on Georgie Best's birthday. John Terry cried, Van der sar dived and a third European cup was won.
Ferguson's legacy on the pitch is already secured. If Sir Alex takes on and beats the Glazers and ensures their departure without a ball being kicked it would be recognised as his greatest victory of all.
The clock is ticking and Manchester United have never needed him more. -- -- -- -- It's Fergie time!

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