Wednesday 8 May 2013

Sir Alex retiring - the loss of an unpleasant bully



As much of the biased Manu-luvvie media sings the praises of the retiring Sir Alex Ferguson, it is worth remembering just how unpleasant and nasty a human being Sir Alex is.  No one should forget the bullying and intimidation of officials, the control of the 'free'press and his nasty side in bullying his own players.  I also thought this was a good moment to educate a few people on the real Sir Alex, the bully who has a lot of corrupt dirt to hide:

"Having researched the background to the feud between Alex Ferguson and the BBC, it has become pretty clear that Alex Ferguson may well have created this feud as a smokescreen to obscure our view of the real dirt. They key to the whole affair lies in a racehorse, the Rock of Gibraltar.

Firstly let's go back a few years to 2001 when John Magnier and JP McManus first began buying shares in Manchester United. Alex Ferguson was friendly with these men and was a keen dabbler in horse racing. At around the same time the racehorse, the Rock of Gibraltar, was carving out a reputation as one of the best around. Interestingly the 'gift' of 50% of the Rock to Alex Ferguson occurred at around the very same time that Magnier and McManus began acquiring their first shares in Manchester United. The fact that a senior manager in a PLC should be accepting such a large gift from a major shareholder is dubious in itself.

Whatever the truth behind the Rock, Ferguson was the 50% registered owner and as the horse's value skyrocketed with his success, it became clear that the potential stud value of the Rock would be huge (up to 10million/year). Whether Ferguson had any claim to the stud money was the root of the long running and ugly dispute which would ultimately see Ferguson sue Magnier for 50% of the stud fees.

There is some more interesting background to this affair. Magnier and McManus (via Cubic Expression Ltd) acquired another big chunk of Manchester United from BSkyB; Murdoch's company had their takeover of MUFC blocked which then resulted in them relinquishing their 9.9% stake to the Irishmen. It would therefore appear that Magnier and McManus are on pretty decent terms with Mr Murdoch, no wonder the Murdoch media empire has been so quiet on the Magnier/Ferguson/BBC saga.

Thus the informal gift of the Rock led to a dispute which turned friends into bitter enemies. Magnier was not going to give in easily, he vigorously denied Ferguson's claims and immediately hired Kroll Inc, Wall Street's so called 'private eye', to begin the digging into Ferguson's dodgy dealings. Kroll dug the dirt and this led to the infamous '99 questions' for the board. These 99 questions exposed Alex Ferguson and his son, Jason, as well as casting doubt over the honesty of 13 Manchester United transfers.

As the ante was upped by Magnier, Ferguson realised he was out of his depth and buckled by accepting a tiny settlement fee, of note this was significantly less than he had previously been offered to keep things away from a court. This was in March 2004, a key fact is that this was two months before the BBC's program that detailed some of Magnier's infamous 99 questions.

Ferguson was clearly rather scared that his dirty linen was to be aired in public. This was because neither Magnier or McManus had a seat on the board, meaning that they could at any point have called an emergency general meeting to discuss the 99 questions in front of all shareholders. Ferguson clearly had a lot to hide, he had bitten off more than he could chew in taking on MagnierMagnier had found out things that Ferguson didn't want to see the light of day, Ferguson didn't want the 99 questions to be made public and he quickly dropped the lawsuit.

The BBC program was actually a bit of a damp squib, they were just feeding off Manchester United's internal review which had been forced upon the club by Magnier's 99 questions. Even the club's own internal review found significant problems and irregularities in numerous transfers, as well as breaches of FIFA rules. The release of this internal review was moved forward to reduce the impact of the BBC program 'Ferguson and son' which was initially due to precede it.

In reality Ferguson is probably deflecting anger towards the BBC because he is still fuming that he was completely outmanoeuvred by John Magnier. A man that is used to bullying people into accepting his way was bullied into submission by a more powerful man and made to look very foolish in the process. Alex Ferguson came very close to losing his job in the process, he was also very close to having all his dirty linen washed in public. Magnier and McManus walked away with a huge profit, selling their stake to Malcolm Glazer in 2005.

The wonderful irony of this whole affair is that so much rage is now being directed at people who do not deserve it. Firstly Ferguson's rage with the BBC is completely misplaced, he should be looking long and hard at his own dodgy dealings, he also should never have taken on John Magnier and the muck raking would never have happened. Secondly Manchester United fans direct so much rage towards the Glazers when it is likely if it were not for Alex Ferguson's lawsuit then they would have far more benevolent dictators in charge, it is Alex Ferguson's greed that is really to blame, still it is easier to be angry with anyone other than your beloved bully of a manager.

This story really does have it all, blackmail, dodgy dealings, corruption, horse racing and football. Strangely the Premier League, the FA and FIFA have never looked into the dirt that Magnier exposed at Old Trafford.  It is likely that the 99 questions and Kroll's investigative findings have been locked in a safe somewhere in Ireland, just in case in the not too distant future someone needs reminding who their daddy is."

15 comments:

elvido said...
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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...
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1979gooner said...

Dear Manu fans who ignore the deeply unpleasant man that Alex Ferguson has proven himself to be

Simple points

Winning doesn't justify his behaviour or traits, he is still a deeply unpleasant individual who I have no respect for

You may care to comment on the Rock affair, as your insulting comments will simply be deleted

kind regards

elvido said...

So you delete a comment by me that had no abuse whatsoever or vitriol but a partial agreement to what was written. Seems like the author and moderators need to grow up?

elvido said...

And yes, we get it. You despise the man. So do most opposition supporters. You pick some traits to make him look despicable conveniently ignoring all the good he has done. Statistics and "facts" can be spun anyway you want, you just chose the irritated version.

Unknown said...

I will continue to RAIN INSULTS on u because of your silly POST! you have no BRAIN! we are talking about football! Who told you Arsene is the pinnacle of the society? I cannot blame you though you dont know what winning means.

Unknown said...

On a more calm and serious note, nobody is perfect. Fergie is not God nor is he the best thing since sliced bread however you cannot dismiss what he has achieved as a football man! You are lucky that in your life u managed to witness such greatness in football albeit you were on the end of most of his success. You were brave enough to write this post so be brave enough to allow people comment freely as you have. You didnt think we were gonna tap u on the bakc and say well done son did we?

Nicholas said...

Nobody disputes that Ferguson is/was a fantastic manager, one of the greatest of all time.

That can be true as well as the other, less flattering details.

Uncle Mike said...

The point of the article is that Ferguson is a dishonest, miserable person outside of the sport that made him rich and famous. Any objective person with even the slightest familiarity with the sport knows that he is a dishonest, miserable person within the sport.

I do dispute that he is a fantastic manager. He got more gifts than a marrying couple.

When you compare the actions taken against his club against those taken against ours -- two points instead of one when they started the fight, Paul Davis' offence being far less than Eric Cantona's and Roy Keane's, dive after dive after dive after dive, blatant abuse of officials, "Fergie Time," the works, getting away with tonnes -- you have to ask yourself what he would have done with an unfavoured club.

Wenger took a once-great club in disarray and restored it to greatness. Bill Shankly, Don Revie and Brian Clough took second-division clubs and made them champions. Jose Mourinho took a perennial underachiever and made it a champion. If Ferguson was as good a manager as they were, he would have gone to a club with hardly any resources and done what those men did. But he was too much of a coward to try.

The Scottish FA came down on Rangers and relegated them three divisions. The Italian FA came down on Juventus, relegated them one division, and stripped them of two stolen titles -- about 1/10th of the titles that should have been stripped. Congratuations, "Fergie's Appeasers": You have allowed the Italians to teach you a lesson on how to handle corruption.

elvido said...

At least you have your opinions and your perceived higher ground, whatever that is... We on the other hand have had one of the most helpful managers/human beings. Maybe it is something that you should discuss with the numerous managers present and ex as to what Fergie has done for them. Also we have the trophies, ones which were won on the back of hard work, stability and an eye for talent. Not the idiotic conspiracy theories that you take to bed every night. Whatever rows your boat, i guess...

Unknown said...

I hate Ferfuson but ai respect him. Bad news for English football

nic said...

Hey Gooners.

Can you all please check out this petition I have started to ask the club to end its association with HAGL in Vietnam - https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/arsenal-fc-end-arsenal-s-partnership-with-company-behind-land-grabs-in-south-east-asia

You can read more about it here - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jim-armitage-doan-nguyen-duc-the-vietnamese-arsenal-fan-and-the-land-grab-claims-8621767.html and also on ANR, the Economist and other papers.

We can make a difference.

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