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Sir Alex Ferguson was the king of deflecting attention away from his players if they lost a game or were on a bad run.
The Scot would have a go at any number of things to redirect the spotlight away from his team.
Arguably his most famous parry came in April 1996 when Manchester United were trailing Southampton 3-0 at half time at The Dell.
In the first half Man United’s players were wearing their grey changed strip but for the second half they ran out wearing a blue and white third kit and after the game Ferguson gave his reasoning.
“The players don’t like the grey strip. The players couldn’t pick each other out. They said it was difficult to see their team-mates at distance when they lifted their heads. It was nothing to do with superstition.”
That kit change then became the story rather than the result (they lost 3-1).
There are plenty of other examples of Fergie doing this and it is one of the many reasons why he is considered the greatest manager of the Premier League era.
It appears that the current incumbent of the Old Trafford hotseat is trying to take a leaf out of Sir Alex’s book by doing the same – but the problem is Erik ten Hag is not Sir Alex Ferguson and when he does it, he appears a little desperate.
Following Manchester United’s defeat by Fulham on Saturday, the west London club – high on their first win at Old Trafford in 21 years – posted a clip on their TikTok account of Man United’s captain Bruno Fernandes going down after a challenge from Sasa Lukic, rolling on the ground holding his leg as if he was seriously injured, only to jump up seconds later and join in with the United attack.
Fulham’s TikTok account wrote: “So glad he’s OK…” as the caption.
And it is those four words, and not Manchester United’s inability to beat a side who were for all intents and purposes on the beach, that Ten Hag decided to take issue with.
The Dutchman said: “I would say it is not right. It is absolutely not right that a club makes such a statement, because it is totally out of order and they were wrong so they should apologise for this.”
@fulhamfc
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Why should Fulham apologise? The footage is clear for everyone to see, one second Fernandes is rolling around on the floor trying to win a free kick and the next he is back up on his feet and wanting the ball. So let’s call it what it was, he was trying to con the referee into awarding Manchester United a free kick.
Now Fernandes is not the first player to do this and he certainly won’t be the last and Fulham were having a playful dig on social media at this.
But Ten Hag comes across as a little bit pathetic in his attack on Fulham’s TikTok account, when what is ‘out of order’ is that Manchester United have lost 10 games in the Premier League this season and are currently outside the Champions League places, the fact they crashed out of the Champions League bottom of their group and the fact they needed a last minute goal to scrape past Nottingham Forest in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup and that they are about to go 11 seasons without lifting the title.
As Gary Neville says regularly: “This is Manchester United”. Well yes it is, but at the moment it is in name only and nowhere near the Manchester United side that he played in under Sir Alex Ferguson. And to a lot of United fans, that is what’s ‘out of order’.
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