Anxious Listeners in Manchester : Episode Seventeen

"I was absolutely flabbergasted by that performance. I did not expect that at all. I am not interested in giving reasons or mitigating circumstances. It was just a very bad performance." (Sir Alex Ferguson)

A splendid word, "flabbergasted", which I was told covered two entire pages in one of my sister's books when she was a small child, and which she proclaimed with gusto whenever those pages were turned. Perhaps she and SAF read the same book, being of similar generations. The etymology is unknown, although the word dates back to at least the 18th century; a collision of the roots for "flabby" and "aghast" in a Germanic construction seems the most popular guess.

Because the bus was over an hour late, and I was standing in the pouring rain, I must count myself lucky enough to have missed the first chunk of this match. I hadn't thought to take a radio with me (and anyway I haven't got a portable DAB yet).

So by the time I got home, we were a goal down and obviously playing achieved rubbish. The Sun the next day had a pointless piece about our playing a reserve side (and at the same time forcing the season ticket holders to buy a ticket to watch it), but this wasn't really a side of inexperienced kids. It had six internationals; it had a defence with considerable experience on loan to various clubs; it had a midfield worth a small fortune; it had John O'Shea. It had no strikers to speak of, of course, but that is our current approach. Presumably, if they'd stayed, Rossi and Smudger would have had a game, so you can't really blame them for going.

I can fully understand why SAF thought the side was "good enough to win", and that has more to do with overestimating our own players rather than underestimating the opposition. But it is has happened too often; for SAF to say he "didn't expect it" is surely disingenuous. He should expect it by now, because we have done it so often.

In fact, if we look at the history of SAF's teams, he has never shown himself adept at rotation. Our greatest successes have been achieved with a settled side, most of our blips when that side has been disrupted by injury, suspension, the rules of European competition (in the early days) or managerial meddling.

Although we were the first team to have the brainwave of using the League Cup in its various guises to play our younger reserves, we have never demonstrated notable success at the practice (as distinct from Arsenal, for instance), whether in the League Cup or the early rounds of the FA Cup (0-0 Exeter City, for example) or indeed some dead group ties in Europe. The recent year when we won the League Cup was when injuries virtually forced us to play a stronger side at an early stage.

I really thought he might have given Rooney and Tevez a few more minutes together against Coventry, even from the bench, although bringing on Rooney and Ronaldo last year didn't help. And maybe he should have started with Wesley and Carrick. Even so this is simply the curse of Mickey Mouse again.

Because, generally, this competition has been cursed for United. We were one of the last teams to enter the League Cup when it started and have shown it little affection, enthusiasm or success ever since. Look how long it took us to win it and then only in a fairly shoddy performance in a dreadful powder blue shirt.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the end of Phil Bardsley as a United player. I can well imagine he will be on his way out of the transfer window in December. "Defenestration" is another splendid word. You must have a word for throwing someone out of the window.

It certainly shows us that the quality of our reserve strength is lacking en masse. A number of them may be capable of slotting into an established and settled side and doing a job, but we only seem to grow squad players these days, not players with any touch of greatness. Who was the last great player we produced through our own youth set-up? Scholes, I would suggest. And Giggs before that.

Anyway, as I was saying, I missed the first goal. Apparently "Best's crossfield pass picked out Michael Doyle inside the United penalty area and Doyle hit the ball to the far post, where Mifsud was lurking to turn the ball past the stranded Tomasz Kuszczak". Who would have thought we'd ever hear of Best and Michael Doyle playing on the same side? From the highlights, it didn't appear startling defending, particularly by Johnny Evans. And not long after that, Mifsud hit the post.

Overall, we matched them for goal attempts, apparently, but I suspect many of those were Nani having a blaze from nowhere in particular. It may likely take a season or so to harness his talent, but I suspect we are always going to suffer from the occasional spectacular goal in the middle of rather too many dreadful efforts. Ronnie was wasteful in the early days, but Nani is older and should already have learned better.

The changes for the second half seemed to give us a bit more shape, and it looked as if we might even get away with this sort of thing again, and at least take it to extra time.

There was the one moment when Coventry keeper Andy Marshall produced an outstanding fingertip save to deny Dong after 69 minutes, when a header was floating into the top corner. But within a minute they were down the other end, Mifsud doubled his tally and that was it.

Later, Mifsud should probably have had a hat-trick when Tomasz pushed the ball into his path, but he somehow failed to find the goal.

Manchester United 0 Coventry 2

Goals: Mifsud 27, 70.

Manchester Utd: Kuszczak, Bardsley (Brown 45), Evans (Carrick 56), Pique, Simpson, Nani, Martin (Campbell 45), O'Shea, Eagles, Dong, Anderson.

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Eckersley.

Booked: Pique.

Red shirts, white shorts, black stockings.

Coventry: Marshall, Osbourne (McNamee 88), Ward, Turner, Borrowdale, Simpson, Stephen Hughes, Doyle, Tabb, Mifsud, Best (Adebola 90).

Subs Not Used: Konstantopoulos, De Zeeuw, Thornton.

Attendance: 74,055 Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire).

Anyway, so much for the Glazers' latest attempt to squeeze the fans. No more home cup-ties here for them. And the atmosphere of fans who were there only begrudgingly, and well outsung by the visitors, went some way towards that.

The attendance figure is largely a myth, of course. United have long counted the number of tickets paid for (which includes all season ticket holders whether or not they - or indeed anyone else - are actually in the seats), rather than the number of bodies through the turnstiles. In theory you could have an attendance of 75,000 with less than 20,000 in the stadium.

Wednesday 26.09.2007 : 5Live Extra Radio

The Anti-Semitic Referee and Others

One of the more bizarre follow-ups to the victory over Chelsea was seen in their manager's homeland. In the Maariv newspaper Gady Carmeli, an assistant coach at an Israeli club and a friend and adviser to Grant, wrote: "What the anti-semitic referee did [at Old Trafford] yesterday was worse than injustice. Everybody agrees, Chelsea played its best half an hour of football this season at the start of the game. Avram was at his best preparing the tactics but no British pundit could understand it." (Shaul Adar, September 25, 2007 The Guardian)

This is, of course, a classic example of the tactical paranoia commonly adopted by certain factions in Israel and their support lobby. Any opposition is automatically categorised as "anti-semitic".

But it seems it may also go deeper. Abramovich has long positioned himself as Jewish, rather than Russian, and has been giving financial support to Israeli football, which was how he met Grant in the first place.

A piece in the Daily Mirror noted 'Chelsea were in danger of letting their paranoia take over last night as anti-Tottenham jibes by Blues fans were being seen as a dig at Roman Abramovich...one chant, of "We hate Tottenham", was being seen in the upper echelons of Stamford Bridge as a potentially anti-Semitic statement aimed directly at Abramovich, who has never hidden his Jewish faith.'

Perhaps nobody at Chelsea has ever bothered to tell Abramovich about the traditions of anti-semitism already rooted deeply in their fan-base, elements of which always used to greet Spurs fans with what were supposed to be impressions of the noise a gas chamber makes.

Whether opposition from fans to Grant and Abramovich will indeed express itself as anti-semitism remains to be seen, but I doubt those particular fans will be subtle enough to bother couching it as opposition to Spurs.

Anxious Listeners in Manchester : Episode Sixteen

So the question was always going to be, how will they react. Either way, we seem unlikely to be the story, it's going to be entirely about Chelsea, which must be all to the good.

Not especially concerned, until the television decides to go on the blink about an hour before kick-off. It's clearly the NTL feed, or the Virgin feed as it has now become. The programmes via the roof-top aerial seems fine, so the set itself must be fine.

I call the Virgin call-centre. Their menu has an irritatingly perky female voice; their customer service centre a male voice, which I assume to be on the sub-continent. We try the usual tricks like switching things on and off and unplugging various devices and plugging them back in. I try and explain the problem. It occurs to me that there must be an entire generation that does not understand the concept of "vertical hold"- and its absence - a perennial fault of televisions in my childhood. It is quite hard to explain what's happening without this bit of available vocabulary.

Eventually, we lose the entire Virgin picture, which at least has the advantage of now being extremely simple to describe. By then we have established that it is affecting all their channels, although some worse than others, so it must be the set-top box. I dread the fact that this is one of their old analogue boxes and will probably be beyond repair or replacement (they were unable to replace even the remote a couple of years back). OK, that will pre-empt the decision to go digital, which I would probably have made in the next few weeks anyway, but that in itself is bound to lead to delays, waits for engineers and the usual trappings of any change in service (including an increase in the price). In the meantime, an engineer can come out on Wednesday. Seems pointless to do anything other than agree.

In the more pressing meantime, we need to get to the nearest pub; as it's a standard Sky game, this can be interpreted quite literally for once.

It's somewhere we don't really go that often. The beer is tolerable, rather than good, but as good as the place where we usually go for Setanta games, anyway, although that says virtually nothing. But it isn't a CAMRA branch meeting after all (and frankly they have been known to meet in some of the most bizarre pubs , in the cause of evangelism).

I read bits of the piece in The Observer about how J Terry was the one who pushed Mourinho over the edge. It is strange how Terry seems to have come to believe a lot of the stuff about him being an "icon". This rumour about him demanding a clause in his contract that will always make him their best-paid player was perhaps the start (although I suppose it is only a way of putting some form of inflation-proofing - or Ballack proofing - into a long-term contract, it does have that aura of crazed arrogance - if they sign Kaka or Ronaldinho, for example, does Terry really think he should be in that same bracket? I'm not even sure he should be in the England team).

Useless grainy slow motion montage of Mourinho clips. There is obviously an entire group of television workers who make a living out of putting these things together, for a purpose which is entirely beyond me, other than to use up time which regulation says cannot be used for advertising. It is presumably a cheaper method of programming than many others, although surely not cheaper than talking heads talking bollocks.

As the game is about to start, baskets of "roast" potatoes and chicken are put out on the tables. This is a most civilised version of an old tradition, which harks back to those distant days of the last century when you were only allowed a couple of hours in the pub from 12 to 2, in between church and Sunday dinner. Although it seems like ancient history, it can't really be that long ago, when the only way we could watch the Sunday afternoon game in the pub was via a lock-in. Certainly, less than fifteen years ago.

Saha is on the bench and Tevez starts alongside Rooney is the only notable team news, although it's reassuring that John O'Shea is back on the bench, in case we need an emergency striker.

Chelsea are playing all three of their holding midfielders - Makalele, Mikel Obi and Essien - and Shevchenko on his own up front between Joe Cole and Malouda. The three who might be most upset by Mourinho's departure (Lampard, Drogba and Carvalho) are injured, of course. Grant's fellow Israeli, Ben Haim, replaces Alex. If this is Abramovich's team, the cavalier instinct is not notable. Wright-Phillips, for instance, one of their better players this season, is on the bench.

Early on, Rooney cuts inside Ben Haim on the edge of the box and curls a shot on goal which Petr Cech just finger-tipped wide at full-stretch.

Cech is probably the only player I envy Chelsea. Essien and Mikel we would have had, of course, and would have saved us the need to buy Hargreaves, but they chose the money, or their agents' did. (I don't think either of them are Mourinho men; more like Kenyon men). But I don't think I'd have anyone else from the Chelsea team.

For the first half-hour it's a relatively even game. We probably have the slight edge, whilst Chelsea look half dangerous on the break, only never seem to get their options or final ball right. I am reassured to see that Shevchenko doesn't look like suddenly finding his old form, which I had half worried about. His pace has gone, and without that half-yard the space to apply the ability to control and shoot seems to have gone as well,

We are denied a penalty when Joe Cole slides in on Evra and brings him down, before getting a faint touch on the ball, probably with his knee. That touch may give Mr Dean enough "doubt". Giggs wasted a decent chance (and was to waste another better one in the second half, after a fine ball from Carrick) - perhaps he will never reach 100 league goals and will be forever stranded on 98. I wonder if he regrets the Faustian pact he made with the devil after his first season, when he gave up the ability to score regularly so that he could acquire the ability to tackle.

On the half-hour, Mikel clatters Paddy. It's a poor tackle, but I didn't think there was anything malicious in it. However, Mike Dean is reaching for his back pocket. As a referee, he is fairly trigger-happy with red cards and gestures that he thinks Mikel went in two footed. You can see, from the replay, how Dean might have seen it that way, and Mikel certainly went studs first on to Paddy's metatarsal region, but he didn't go over the ball and the second foot didn't seem to catch him at all.

I think that with ten men and our limited ability to break down the massed defence this season, we are edging ever closer to the 0-0.

Although there are words for the next to last and for the one before the next to last, I don't know a word for the one after the last. The postultimate, I suppose. Anyway, in the last minute, we attacked and got a corner. I am not entirely sure where this concept has come from, but referees these days are clearly reluctant to blow the whistle for the end of a playing period when the ball is either out of play or in either attacking third. It is a very modern idea and can be irritating when referees seem to wait for, for example, a goal kick to be taken, so that they blow whilst the ball is in mid-air over the half-way line.

Anyway, Mike Dean allows time for the corner to be taken on the right. Usually, once the corner is cleared away, he might blow, but Wes Brown comes onto the clearance and heads it straight back wide to Giggs, who's moving out after taking the corner. Giggs turns back along the by-line and puts in a wickedly spinning cross to the near post with the outside of his foot. Cech comes to clear it out by the post and Tevez dives across in front of his hands and deflects it into the net. A great time to score, the postultimate minute.

The second half was largely anti-climactic. I worried that United might have their eye on some record of successive 1-0 victories. Although Chelsea were creating nothing - I don't think EVDS had to touch the ball in anger all game - at 1-0 there is always the fear of a wonder strike, a ghastly deflection or a moment of refereeing madness.

Shevchenko was substituted around the hour mark. Shots of Abramovich (and acolytes) applauding ostentatiously. Perhaps he always applauds when players go off, but the producer doesn't usually bother showing it.

There was one moment when Joe Cole cracked Ronnie from behind that was more deserving of a red card than Mikel's challenge, but gradually things ticked down. Cole was taken off fairly quickly, in case the referee had his eye on him.

Saha came on rather later than usual, as much to let Tevez leave the field to applause as to exploit any gaps. Still he made a run or two and the result was sealed when Ben Haim left a leg hanging for Saha to go over. Quite deliberate, I would imagine, on Louis's part, although he didn't exactly have to swerve into him.

I thought it was a clear penalty, although Louis didn't help by a piece of over-acting. The sort of thing that often puts a referee off. Perhaps this one was subconsciously remembering the one he didn't give earlier, and thought it late enough not to affect the game.

This not being Arsenal, Saha then got straight up to take the penalty. Ronnie looked fairly put out. Giggs had stopped him taking a free-kick earlier in the game and given it to Tevez to blaze over the bar. Although Ronnie had since had the chance to take a free-kick himself (it would have gone into the wall as usual but the wall obligingly let it through for Cech to scoop up with little concern), he may have seen some sort of conspiracy in demoting him for penalties as well. Louis put it hard enough down the centre of the goal, fortunately missing Cech's feet on the way.
Manchester United 2 Chelsea 0

Manchester Utd: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Tevez (Saha 79), Rooney.

Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Nani, Pique, O'Shea.

Booked: Rooney (61 : dissent), Brown (80 : foul).

Goals: Tevez 45, Saha 90 pen.

Strip : Red shirts, white shorts, black stockings.

Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Ben-Haim, Terry, Ashley Cole, Makelele, Essien, Obi, Joe Cole (Pizarro 76), Shevchenko (Kalou 59), Malouda (Wright-Phillips 69).

Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Alex.

Sent Off: Obi (32).

Booked: Joe Cole (73), Terry (83).

Attendance : 75,663 Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).

This is when you really miss Mourinho, of course : a harsh sending off, a goal after time, a soft penalty. How much he would have made of all that. Avram Grant sounded like a low-level trade union official remembering a list of grievances. There was no panache, no histrionics; not even the achieved pout of Benitez.

No longer will we be able to see the man whose entire career was founded on a dodgy linesman's decision ranting on about officials and injustice. In truth, it takes away some of the savour of victory. Some of the savour, of course, but not a lot.

Anxious Listeners in Manchester : Episode Fourteen

Stuff of nightmares. For the first time this season, the pub was actually advertising the game a couple of days earlier, which in itself should have set off the alarms.

We weren't entirely surprised the doors were still shut. They do tend to be open until the early hours, so getting out of bed on Saturday is often a problem and I always worry about an early kick-off. The Police have a lot to answer for.

Peering through the window, there are some signs of activity; well, life at least.

I put the radio on and wait for them to stop talking about rugby. She seems to be polishing tables, I am told; couldn't she do that after she opens the door? Gesticulation through glass. Wonder vaguely how this appears from inside, but never mind, the meaning should be quite apparent. She is holding up two fingers, I am told, but in the informative rather than the demonstrative mode.

They are just about to toss the coin. OK, couple of minutes, shouldn't be a problem. Think vaguely about Gorgeous Gus and his lucky gold sovereign and wonder if each referee has a special coin that he takes out or just fiddles amongst his change on the day. Maybe the FA issues them with a special "tossing disc".

It's hard to work out the team news. Rooney doesn't feature, but I had always thought adding him to the squad was largely a gesture, perhaps to confuse or worry Sporting in their tactical preparation. Ronaldo is back of course; Micky is at left back and Evra in front of him. No Saha and can't work out if he's even on the bench. In the absence of our specialist substitutes, O'Shea and the Scottish player, who is in fact on the bench is an interesting question, but not one the BBC shows any inclination to answer.

No Tim Howard again for Everton. His excuse this time is a finger injury.

Two minutes is nearer to ten, not that we seem to have missed anything that could be described as action, but that's not the point. More research into the finer points of communication through glass. Table polisher disappears totally. Some of those waiting have sat on the pavement across the road, by the cemetery gates. Michael decides to take a chance on another pub, which may be showing it (despite lack pf advertisement), but we hang on a little longer.

When Radio 5 change commentators and the bleating tones of Alan Green take over, I start to get seriously concerned. And I'm not the only one. A screech from beside me; apparently two fingers meant, "We've decided not to open until two o'clock". Obvious, really. It always makes sense to advertise two or three matches you aren't going to show.

So follow Michael to the other pub, half listening to a continuing rant about the failings of publicans in one ear and Alan Green in the other. The game still doesn't sound worth watching but, apart from anything else, I am now desperate for a drink, and even prepared to watch Liverpool or the rugby.

So the first half hour has passed as we get there. I have heard Evra has hit the side netting. Arteta has put a free kick from just outside the box over the bar. Little else. Not missed a lot.

Arrive just in time to see Vidic play a corner up onto his face and wide. Then United suffer a blow a few minutes before half-time when Micky collapses with no-one near him and is carried off with what appears to be a bad knee injury. His knee looked to twist under him as he went down. He's replaced by Nani and Paddy drops back vaguely towards where a full-back might usually be.

Scholes is booked for punching the ball back not quite close enough to where it is supposed to be. Well, probably he was booked for "dissent", because he was certainly displaying clear disagreement with a handball decision that had been given against him, and the crowd were going for it. Scholes does tend to use his hands quite a lot, but on this occasion it was pretty much shoulder. And he was then fortunate not to be sent off for a late challenge on Arteta straight afterwards. Another referee might well have been more pompous and I expect Wiley might well have booked him for the challenge, had it not been for the previous card. I think Scholes is getting increasingly grumpy in his old age.

Watch a bit of the Liverpool game in the interval. Not looking much better than our game, to be frank.

One way and another, Scholes was United's most prominent player in this match. Early in the second half, he is on the far post for an Arteta corner and forced to hack Johnson's header off the line when he flicks it on at the near post. Scholes then wastes our best opportunity of the match after 55 minutes or so when he volleys wide from only about 10 yards, after Tevez has lifted the ball delicately over the defence to leave him clear. Tevez has looked fresh enough after his Australian trip, and shown some lovely touches, but is still not providing any cutting edge. Well, no-one is.

Ronaldo has been whacked a few times and failed to get anything out of the referee. Eventually, he is booked for diving, tumbling under a challenge from Leon Osman, as Ronnie runs along on the edge of the area. Replays seem to demonstrate clear contact. He might well have gone down relatively easily, given the ball was running out of his reach and it was a position he would have fancied, but I don't think that is "simulation" (it isn't when the blessed Michael Owen does it for example) and at that speed almost anything can make your balance go.

Louis is eventually brought off the bench after about 60 minutes, the classic SAF substitution time. He doesn't seem likely to have the same impact as against Sunderland.

In fact, it doesn't look as if we'll get anything from the game, when we make the breakthrough with seven minutes left, Vidic hurling himself in front of defenders at the near post, to head home a fine Nani corner.

Almost immediately, we see the other classic SAF substitution: a defender or defensive midfielder brought on with five minutes to go. It's a tactic I hate, seems generally disruptive and we usually seem to hold on despite rather than because of the change. Nice to see Pique, mind, but I'd have preferred a different context. If Mickey is really bad, perhaps he'll become left-back cover.

Everton put on the midweek hero McFadden in the closing minutes and he instantly brought a decent save from EVDS, although he can't hold it and we have to scramble around until Yobo turns it past the post.

So twice in a row we have disproved my old adage that we never score from corners. Perhaps this is just down to the introduction of Nani, I can't imagine we have been spending any more time on it in training. Obviously the general trend is worrying, but at least we are sneaking these ugly little wins. Apart from anything else, it must be incredibly annoying for other teams, this impersonation of Chelsea. Chelsea themselves can't manage it, which is even better, and have what seems to be a perfectly good goal disallowed. I am not entirely clear how we can be ahead of anyone on goal difference, but so we are.

Arsenal's defeat of Spurs is unfortunate, although it's a pretty good game; the result flatters them and Spurs would probably have won if they'd taken their earlier chances. Maybe it really is going to be a more competitive league this year. Of course, Spurs may panic and Berbatov may be agitating for a move at Christmas. And the other teams are really falling into the "difficult to beat" rather than the "be worried about" category. Leading teams will drop points against several of them, but I can't see any of them going on a devestating run just yet.

Everton 0 Manchester United 1

Everton: Wessels, Hibbert, Yobo, Lescott, Baines, Arteta, Jagielka, Neville (McFadden 85), Osman (Pienaar 73), Johnson, Yakubu (Anichebe 74).

Subs Not Used: Turner, Carsley.

Booked: Neville, Pienaar.

Manchester United: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Silvestre (Nani 41), Ronaldo, Carrick, Scholes, Evra, Giggs (Saha 63), Tevez, Nani (Pique 85).

Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Gibson.

Booked: Scholes, Ronaldo.

Red shirts, black shorts, black stockings.

Goals: Vidic 83.

Attendance: 39,364. Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire).


Learn that Mickey's knee is wholly buggered and he's done for the season. Dopey though he can be, I have a soft spot for him, if only for refusing to play with Joey Barton, and it would be sad to see his career end like this. Knee injuries are increasingly prevalent (I heard someone blame hard pitches, which may have some truth to it) and older players find them harder to deal with, witness Ole. I wouldn't be altogether surprised if that is effectively the end of Mickey.

My Story : Matt Busby

I picked this up the other day. It's no more than the usual Souvenir Press ghosted autobiography of a manager or a player. The journalist involved in pulling this one together, David R Jack, presumably adopted the use of the middle initial to distinguish himself from his namesake, the famous Arsenal player. He worked for a now defunct title called Empire News (a Manchester based Sunday, which was bought by Thomson in 1959 and sold and merged with the northern edition of the News of the World the following year). His other ghosted works included "Finney on Football" and "Mr Cricket", the latter apparently the life story of an earlier Fergie, W H Ferguson, a famous Australian scorer.

What makes this book so different is that it was put together in 1957, just after United had won their second championship in succession, failed in their first bid for the European Cup and been robbed of the first double of the twentieth century by Peter McParland's dreadful clattering of Ray Wood. It is Busby's thoughts without the distortion of hindsight that affected all that came later. The copy I have was given to someone called Robert by his parents as a present for Christmas 1957. Just six weeks later, of course, the author was in intensive care, a majority of his team were dead and nothing he said about football could ever again be free of that shadow.

There was a second edition of the book published in 1958, with a chapter about Munich added. I don't imagine the publishers could resist the opportunity, but as I read the book the whole relevance and weight of it seemed to be given by the absence of the knowledge of what was to come.

It is interesting, for example, how little space is given to Duncan Edwards. In later years, the size of Edwards has seemed to overshadow that team, but from 1957 he seems to be just a component part.

There is a photograph in the book of Busby walking through Nice with four journalists. Three of them died at Munich and the other, Frank Taylor, survived and wrote a book about the crash. But whoever chose that photograph didn't know that would happen.

And the book ends, "I am convinced that the future will prove even brighter.... There is no reason why Manchester United should not remain in the forefront of English - and European - soccer for at least another ten years. I hope to be at Old Trafford to see it, because as I believe I mentioned before, this is the finest club in the world."

Well, so it is, of course, so it is.

Matt Busby, My Story, As told to David R Jack, Souvenir Press, London, 1957; Second edition, with additional chapter, Souvenir Press, 1958; Sportsman's Book Club edition (of 1958 edition) 1959.

Friends of Mr Watkins : Number Four

Leslie S Dalgarno



Les Dalgarno, 56, is a friend of SAF from Aberdeen days and has known him since 1976. He is essentially a commercial property lawyer, although he acted for SAF in his £11 million contract renewal talks back in 2002.

Dalgarno spent 35 years at Paull & Williamsons, Aberdeen, a partner from 1977 and eventually Head of the Commercial Property department. He is described as "one of Scotland’s most highly respected commercial property lawyers". The firm claimed to be "particularly noted for the strength in depth of its corporate, commercial property and dispute services teams and (....) highly regarded for its experience and understanding of the energy sector".

In October 2006 Dalgarno was appointed a non-executive Director of aAIM, a commercial property investment company based in London's Mayfair, and stepped down as a partner, although he remained with Paull & Williamsons as a Business Development Consultant.

This was not a new relationship with aAIM. Commenting on his appointment, Mr Dalgarno said: "I have advised aAIM during its rapid growth in the last three years and I am very keen to add value to the continuing growth of the company in the future."

In January 2003, Robert Whitton, Mark Tagliaferri and Stuart Le Gassick founded aAIM (Active Asset Investment Management) "to promote a more sophisticated and innovative approach to real estate financing recognising the rapid integration of the property market and other capital markets".

But the company's main launch came in July 2003, at a swanky champagne reception in the heart of the City of London. And as a centrepiece of the occasion, Andrew Vicari, the multimillionaire court painter to the Saudi Royal family, presented an oil portrait of Sir Alex Ferguson to none other than the Manchester United manager himself.

From the start, aAIM has used its celebrity investors as a marketing tool, and SAF has been most prominent amongst them. Other football people have also invested, including Alan Smith (even before he signed for United), Gareth Barry and John Terry. Simon Cowell is also said to be involved, and Sir David Frost chairs their advisory panel. Essentially it is a tool for creating "tax-efficient" syndicates of rich people to invest in commercial property. Many of the investors are no doubt anonymous city figures, but the footballers make it all sound sexier.

At the launch party SAF said, "The syndicate fits in well with the balance of my investments. I was impressed by the balance of the company and I liked the team. I like people who are go-ahead, young, energetic and work hard." Presumably he liked the team even more when his friend Dalgarno was included.

At the same time as Dalgarno joined, aAIM set up a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland called the Symmetry Fund, with the intention of spending £2 billion on European property. In December it picked up a string of four-star hotels, including the George in Edinburgh ("Sir Alex Ferguson backer of new owners of top Edinburgh hotel" as The Scotsman put it), the Russell in London, the Royal York in York, the Met in Leeds, the Palace in Manchester and Selsdon Park in Croydon. Since aAIM was launched in January 2003, it claims to have generated an average return of more than 80 per cent.

Another recent report also noted that "aAIM is also advised by James Chapman & Co, which counts Manchester United FC and Sir Alex Ferguson among its clients", so the friends of Mr Watkins know how to keep in touch.

Dalgarno is also a keen golfer (he visited the Masters in Augusta with a select group from the Deeside Golf Club) and is involved in charity work in Scotland. He recently organised a charity lunch on behalf of Voluntary Service Aberdeen, which ten firms each paid £10,000 to attend. Old and new employers were amongst the ten contributors. And the lunch was hosted by SAF himself.

Sources : Faisal Islam, The Observer, July 20, 2003; The Scotsman, 19 November 2006

The Famous Five go to White Hart Lane

“I am an ambitious chairman, we are an ambitious club and we want Champions League football at White Hart Lane. " Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, August 21, 2007

"I was in the hotel because a friend came who had nothing to do with football." Sevilla coach Juande Ramos, August 20, 2007

"You know quite well that if you ever go against the orders of the chief—that's me, my girl, in case you didn't know it—you won't come out with us again. You may look like a boy and behave like a boy, but you're a girl all the same. And like it or not, girls have got to be taken care of." Julian, Five on a Hike Together, 1951

The fiasco of the Martin Jol \ Ramos affair has drawn some unwelcome attention to those in control at Tottenham, a splendid example of the best that English capitalism can offer in opposition to the multifarious international consortia that are hoovering up the Premiership.

There were four men meeting Ramos in that hotel room in Seville (apparently two left by the front door and two by the back) and one more playing golf in the Bahamas. This is a quick guide to the five of them.

Joe Lewis ("Julian")

Lewis is ultimately the money behind Spurs, although he seems to have little or no interest in the day to day business.

He is said to be the 16th richest person in Britain, worth something over £2,000 million. How exactly he counts as being in Britain when he spends all his time in the Bahamas is something The Sunday Times doubtless explains in detail when it does its list. Perhaps it is "British person" rather than person in Britain; as yet, he hasn't renounced his citizenship. He has homes all over the globe; Forbes counts him as the 486th richest person in the world.

Joe Lewis had no higher education. He was born above a pub in "the East End of London" about 70 years ago and made his initial wealth expanding the family's catering business (he started as a waiter and it eventually became the Beefeater pub chain), then selling luxury goods to tourists, before finally moving into currency trading and tax exile in the 1970s.

Lewis is the main investor in the Tavistock Group, which he founded 30 years ago. Tavistock Group is a global, private investment company. The company has grown to encompass "a broad portfolio of interests" in over 170 companies in 15 countries in areas including property, financial services, life sciences, energy, industry and consumer goods. "The company employs a simple investment philosophy looking for value opportunities where its capital, flexibility, management support and strategic hand can build value." Tavistock Group has offices in Argentina, the Bahamas, China, the European Union, Mexico and the United States. Among Lewis's property holdings are 3,600 acres in the Bahamas and 8,000 acres in Florida. He is currently investing heavily in health-care and bio-technology in Florida, which may be a consciousness of his own mortality.

Joe Lewis spends most of his time and much of his money on celebrity golf (he once paid over £1 million to charity for a day's golf with Tiger Woods - his other well-funded celebrity partner is Ernie Els). He owns two golf clubs, which play each other for charity once a year (perhaps this is the model envisaged for football in due course).

Lewis has two children. His son, Charles, left the Enic board along with the finance director in 2001 after "a string of financial misfortunes". His daughter fronts a lot of Tavistock's charitable work.

At one stage Lewis, through Irish connections, was linked with Desmond, JP McManus et al in the plan to bring Celtic and Rangers into the English Premiership.

Sources : Forbes.com; The Sunday Times; Tavistock Group website; Sunday Business Post, November 04, 2001

Daniel Levy ("Dick")

Daniel Levy is chairman of Tottenham Hotspur and Lewis's man at Enic - the English National Investment Company - which owns the controlling interest in Spurs. Levy was reportedly the one who first encouraged Lewis to invest in football clubs.

Levy was born on 8 February 1962, in Essex. His family, through their holding company A. Levy and Sons Ltd, owned the Mr Bywrite "straight talking, no-nonsense" male fashion-retailing group. (Incidentally, this group later changed its name to Blue Inc and was sold in its entirety to Marlow in February 2006).

He has a first class degree in economics and land economy from Cambridge, graduating in 1985. He is married with four children and said to be a Spurs fan of long-standing.

From university, Levy went into retailing, but at some stage he struck up a relationship with Lewis. Levy joined the board of Enic in 1995 and is now chairman.

Enic's ultimate owner is a company, Crailes Holdings, registered in the Bahamas, where little information is provided about companies. Enic , however, have been happy to confirm that Lewis is behind Enic, with Levy, via family trusts, owning 29%.

"It is very much a joint effort between Joe and Daniel," a spokesman said. "Daniel himself takes responsibility for the decisions at Tottenham."

The first grand plan was to build an international sporting group with a strong bias toward media income. This brought them to Glasgow Rangers for their first investment, followed by a £2.4 million stake in Vicenza.

Levy pushed Enic from being a finance operation into a leisure concern. In May 2000 the firm spent £500,000 buying gambling website UKbetting.com, and took a stake in the Streets Online e-tail chain. Enic also took on the Warner Brothers Studio Stores chain in the UK and other bits and pieces, including a restaurant in Las Vegas.

Enic first tried to buy Spurs off Sugar in 1998, when they valued the club at £80 million. At first, Sugar held out for a higher price but eventually in 2000 Enic agreed to pay £22 million for a 27% stake (a valuation of the whole club at about £81 million).

In 2000, Enic was also in negotiations to buy Wembley (at a time when JP McManus and Desmond were pushing the National Stadium concept in Ireland). Levy and Lewis withdrew from the £222 bid for Wembley because it was "too complex", which probably translates as "no clear profit" .

In the mid-to-late 1990s Enic embarked on a wider plan to buy a major football club in every European country. The intention was to pool resources and even players, to cash in on football's revival and television windfalls across the continent. By the time Enic finalised the purchase of 27% of Spurs from Alan Sugar in 2001, the company also owned large stakes in FC Basle in Switzerland, AEK Athens and Slavia Prague as well as the original chunks of Rangers in Scotland and Vicenza in Italy.

This portfolio turned out to be fraught with difficulties. In May 1998, after Slavia and AEK qualified for the Uefa Cup, Uefa had ruled that two clubs in "common ownership" could not play in the same competition. Enic spent £1.3m appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, which allowed AEK and Slavia to compete pending its decision but ultimately upheld Uefa's ruling because Enic owned more than 50% of both clubs.

Levy described the decision at that time as "a retrograde step for football in Europe", but with its multi-ownership plan in tatters, Enic began to sell all the clubs except Spurs. After AEK and Basle were offloaded, Enic sold its 20.2% stake in Rangers in August 2004, then Vicenza three months later.

According to Enic's most recently published accounts in 2006, that left only a 31.5% stake in Tottenham and its 96.7% ownership of Slavia Prague. Enic still appeared to own Slavia up to July last year, but the company says that in fact it had reduced its holding in Slavia to a minority interest. This came to light when Spurs were drawn against Slavia in last season's UEFA Cup. In any event, the tie would have been fine because they owned less than 50% of Spurs at the timr, even though everyone was clear they controlled the club.

With the purchase of Sugar's remaining stake this year, of course, the share in Spurs is now up to about 66%.

Apart from Spurs, Enic's main interest is now said to be "property investment."

In contrast to, say, Kemsley, Levy is not demonstrative with his wealth. He even declines to spend money on shareholders, Enic issuing no dividends but aiming to build capital value, or indeed on himself. In 2000, he was reported to take home just £10,000 a year from his work at Enic (although he does take fair chunks from Spurs and other companies - see below).

Sources : BBC News, 20 December, 2000; David Conn, The Guardian September 27, 2006

Paul Kemsley ("George")

Kemsley (or PK as he apparently likes to be known) is Tottenham's vice-chairman. A long-term Spurs fan, the carpet in his office is navy blue and white stripes and the walls adorned with signed shirts and memorabilia.

He was one of the early public faces of the new ownership, attending Q & A sessions with supporters when Levy was much more reticent. At a session in 2002, he "introduced himself to the members as an Executive Director of the Football Club whose primary responsibility is property". It's noted that several supporters present knew him and had travelled with him to away matches in the past. At that point Kemsley stated clearly that the club was not for sale and that he along with ENIC and other major investors hoped to see a return on their equity as a result of success on the pitch. However, the reference was to a "5 year plan", and those five years are now up.

It was through Kemsley that the meeting with Ramos was set up. He made contact with London based property developer Tony Jimenez, a man with interests in Seville, who has been acting as UK agent for Ramos.

Levy, Lewis and Kemsley, are involved in a property development company, Rock Investment Holdings, which has acquired a spread of commercial and residential sites around England. Lewis holds his 50% stake in Rock via a holding company, Rapallo, of which Levy is the sole director. In the year to December 2004, Levy was paid £240,000 by Rapallo; in the year to June 2005, he was also paid £525,000 by Enic for his work as Tottenham's chairman. Rapallo, like Enic, is ultimately owned by Lewis via a company incorporated in the Bahamas.

Kemsley set up Rock in the 1990s, but the business shot to prominence in 2005 when it became involved in a takeover battle for Countryside Properties. In the end the takeover didn't go ahead, but Kemsley sold the shares at a profit anyway. He said at the time, "It was great profile-wise and we made a few quid along the way. There was no question of the money not being there. The support we had from Lewis was unparalleled. He sent me £300m in cash to buy the equity. Telling him I didn’t want the money was not an easy phone call to have to make.”

More recently, starting late last year, Kemsley appeared to be building up for a takeover of Quintain Property and Development, which has large regeneration projects close to Wembley football stadium and the former Millennium Dome in London. However, in July 2007 he sold his 11.9 per cent holding at a profit. He and HSBC also recently made a profit of more than £30 million in just five months when Rock bought and then sold the Grade I-listed former headquarters of Midland Bank. A hankering towards shorter-term profit taking may not be what Spurs fans really hope to see.

Kemsley is also involved in a profit-sharing deal with the club itself, partly relating to Spurs' long search for a bigger ground. Tottenham have agreed to pay Kemsley 15% of any profits the club makes from its property investments, a deal some fans have raised objections to, but which Levy defends as a fair return for the work Kemsley will do. Piecemeal, land around White Hart Lane has been bought to create a larger footprint for the stadium, but the club insists it will not expand its current ground unless the project forms part of wider regeneration, involving public money, of the rundown area of Haringey around it.

Online gambling is another area that has got Kemsley excited on occasion. He took stakes in a number of quoted businesses, although not all his investments have been successful. Gaming VC is one he prefers not to dwell on. He has had more success with stakes in Party Gaming, the poker operator, Betex, which has a licence to run a lottery in China, and Gaming Corporation, a gambling portal. Arguably his biggest success was with Fun Technologies, an AIM-quoted company that specialises in so-called “skill games”, which allow customers to play solitaire, chess and other games for money. Unlike casino games or sports betting, it is legal in America.

Kemsley also fancies himself as a poker player and was spotted in a big money game with professionals on youtube. "Looks like some novice with lots of money to burn", was one on-line observer's comment.

He certainly has a wide social circle. Alan Sugar and Philip Green are friends. (He has appeared on The Apprentice with Sugar). In July, when Kemsley celebrated his 40th birthday with a grand party in Granada, Spain, entertainers over the weekend included Jackie Mason, the Gypsy Kings, Duran Duran, Billy Joel and Craig David. There were almost enough footballers for a team, including Robbie Keane and Jamie Redknapp. Robert Earl, founder of the Hard Rock cafe, flew in, too.

Another guest was 'Magpie' Mike Ashley, billionaire founder of Sports Direct and the new owner of Newcastle United. One anecdote Kemsley has told is quite instructive about both of them, "When I was 15, I was a Saturday boy at this place called John Paul Menswear. Mike (Ashley)'s first sports shop was opposite, and I'd always be in there playing darts. He would beat me every week and I'd usually go home with no money".

Although the rumours that Ashley had funded the party were denied, he is widely said to be one possible buyer for Spurs if, as also rumoured, the whole plan is to add value to the club before flogging it off.

Sources : Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust Members Meeting, 1 August 2002; Matthew Goodman, The Sunday Times, December 4, 2005; David Conn, The Guardian September 27, 2006 ; The Evening Standard, June 12, 2007; The Financial Times, July 13, 2007 ; The Financial Times, July 18, 2007; Ian Ridley and Daniel King, Daily Mail, 25 August, 2007

Damien Comolli ("Anne")




Comolli was appointed as Director of Football in 2005 after Chelsea "head-hunted" Frank Arnesen. He is now aged 35. Technically, at least, he is Jol's boss, with responsibility for the medical, academy, scouting and club secretarial departments.

Levy does not seem to trust managers and was keen to establish this European model, initially with Arnesen and Santini. Explaining the scouting system in the club magazine this year, Comolli was clear about who governed the process. “Obviously we [the scouting department] come up with all the names and I tell Martin this is the reason why we think this player is No 1, No 2, No 3 and so on. Of course Martin has a vital say in all of this and he might say he prefers one player to another, so we can swap around, but basically we’re always working on a team of players who currently play for other clubs.” In practice, this seems to mean that Jol doesn't necessarily get the players he wants, or even players in the positions he wants.

Comolli started out as a defender in Monaco's youth team but injury and an underlying lack of true quality made him turn to coaching, at the age of 20, with encouragement from Arsene Wenger, then manager at the French club. He started with the under 16s. He spent three years at Monaco, a season in Japan with the Nagasaki Under-18s, and then joined Wenger at Arsenal in 1997.

Comolli also gained a Law degree at the Universite de Nice in 1995.

At Arsenal he was chief European scout. Names such as Kolo Toure, Jeremie Aliadiere and Gael Clichy stand out among the untested players he brought to the club, while he also helped to sign Thierry Henry and Robert Pires.

After leaving Arsenal, he was technical director at Saint-Etienne for a single season, when they finished sixth, but he then fell out with the club hierarchy. "I did not agree with the direction the club was going in terms of management. We had different points of view. I am not in football just to sit behind my desk. I say what I think if I think something is wrong. I am respectful of the people who run the club but I didn't agree and I left."

On his initial appointment at Spurs he portrayed himself as a workaholic. "I have no time for myself,'' admitted Comolli, who is married with two children. "My family is great and very supportive. When you are in professional football and you are passionate you don't even know what time it is. Whatever it takes you do it, because it's a privilege to be working with your passion.

"Football is about details and I think making the right decision in every aspect is important. Otherwise it would be an easy job and it's not an easy job. Football is a very small world but you can still make a difference by working harder. I'm talking about everything. Every detail counts if you want to be successful. "

Levy's take was "He'll be a huge asset to the club with his forward-thinking approach to international networking and partnerships." Whether the discussions with Ramos come under that heading, I really don't know.

Sources : John Ley, Daily Telegraph, Sept 16, 2005; The Evening Standard, Sept 8, 2005; The Sunday Times, August 26, 2007

John Alexander ("Timmy the dog")

Alexander is the club secretary at Spurs and only along at the meeting because he is their contracts man. He is also, presumably, the one who really should have known better.

Born Liverpool 1955, John Alexander signed as a professional for Millwall after graduating from London University with a BA Hons in Geography. He went on to play for Reading, where he was a member of the 4th Division championship winning side in 1979, and later Northampton Town.

On ceasing to be a professional footballer, John worked for the BBC for five years before joining Watford in 1987 where he was Assistant Secretary to Eddie Plumley before becoming Secretary. He joined Tottenham Hotspur as Club Secretary on March 27 2000 from Watford, replacing Peter Barnes, who left White Hart Lane to join West Ham United.

In June 2005 the Football Administrators Association announced that John Alexander was to be their new Chairman. He took over from Alan Jones who served as Chairman for over four years. The Football Administrators Association draws its membership from those concerned with the administrative side of the game, consisting mainly of Club Secretaries and their assistants, but also including several Chief Executives. It is a sister association of the League Managers Association.

Hence, he should have known better than to go behind his manager's back. And to get caught, of course.

As the Daily Mail said "at the very least, (it) shows that the 15th wealthiest club in the world .... are unfamiliar with behaving like a big club". Enid Blyton has nothing on this little adventure.

Sources : FAA website; Ian Ridley and Daniel King, Daily Mail 25 August, 2007

Epilogue

In the meantime, "according to sources at Tottenham and in the City", Enic’s ownership is not intended as a long-term investment. Towards the end of last season talks were held with an American consortium about a potential takeover . Although that approach did not result in a formal offer, ENIC remains eager to profit on its ownership of Tottenham and would sell its holding for an appropriate price. Both club and owners are being advised by Seymour Pierce, City financiers who specialise in Premier League takeovers and who, through Keith Harris, the former chairman of the Football League, brokered the purchase of Manchester City by Thaksin Shinawatra.

After accounting for its complex structure of ordinary and preference shares, Tottenham’s current stock market value is £212m. Last season the word was that ENIC would settle for a 50% mark-up on that figure, but the £470m buyout of Liverpool and the battle for Arsenal have widened their eyes. The asking price for Spurs now stands nearer to £450m.

Two things are essential to "achieve full market potential" (sell for as much as possible) : Champions League football and the redevelopment of the Lane into a larger stadium of Emirates size. Both aims would be largely embraced by fans, whose main complaint about the current ownership has been the time when a sponsor's logo meant they had a bit of nasty red on their shirts.

If Kemsley and Levy can achieve both aims before cashing in, they may yet retain the "best owners in the world" tag they have been given by some groups of fans.