Wait For It!

A few days ago, a relaxed and benevolent Sir Alex Ferguson was asked in a press conference what he thought of referee’s supremo Keith Hackett paying a visit to Stamford Bridge for an audience with Jose Mourinho who, together with several of his players, had voiced serious reservations about the performance of Graham Poll.

Smiling perhaps a little mischievously, the Manchester United manager reaffirmed his faith in Poll as a top referee and suggested that the idea of Hackett’s domiciliary visit was ludicrous and smacked of the kind of preferential treatment not normally accorded to Arsene Wenger, Raffa Benitez and, as he put it modestly, “this old guy”.

The blue touch paper had been lit and sure enough, in no time at all we were able to read “Jose Hits Back In Ref Meeting Row”. And you could tell how rattled he was, because he allowed his argument to be diminished by exaggeration. Referring to midfielder Pedro Mendes’ ‘goal that never was’ in Manchester United’s game against Spurs at Old Trafford, he said: “I promise you one thing. If I had the ball two metres inside my goal and the referee doesn’t allow the goal, I wouldn’t speak about referees for two years.”

The very thought of Jose Mourinho not speaking for two years is mouthwatering. But we can promise him this. If the ball really was as much as two metres behind his goal line, it would have gone through the net and out the other side - because no goal is that deep.

As for Sir Alex, he’s probably still smiling. Secure in the knowledge that he hasn’t lost his touch.