ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE NEWS: ROBERTO MARTINEZ may be squirming with embarrassment over what he is reported to have said about Alex Ferguson and his friends within the Premier League, though in implying Sam Allardyce will be having a convivial drink with his old pal whatever the result of Blackburn Rovers's visit to Old Trafford this evening the Wigan Athletic manager was not exactly revealing a state secret.
“Yes, I’m a Fergie lover,” Allardyce can exclusively confirm. “A loyalist, an admirer, call it what you like. Why wouldn’t any manager in the English league look up to the best in the business, probably the most successful manager this country has ever seen? He’s built six or seven great sides, won two European cups and 11 titles, so why shouldn’t a manager like me admire that?
“What Roberto said is not really a problem for me, but I think he has just learned a harsh lesson about life in this league. If you start departing from your own club’s business, for whatever reason, to talk about other matters, it can easily rebound on you.
“I don’t know quite what happened and what exactly was said but I don’t need to. Roberto has apologised to me and I have accepted his apology.”
The fact that Ferguson and Allardyce have long been buddies was demonstrated last season, when following Rafael Benitez’s attack on the United manager, Ferguson did not fire back directly but later accused his Liverpool counterpart of being disrespectful to Allardyce with seemingly little cause. Martinez’s somewhat clumsy attempt to lend support to his increasingly isolated compatriot on Merseyside only ended up reinforcing an older north-west allegiance.
Ferguson is in regular contact with Allardyce by phone and the pair meet often at charity lunches and functions and regard each other as allies, perhaps because, in his capacity as Bolton and now Blackburn manager, Allardyce has long been in Ferguson’s neighbourhood without being parked on his lawn. The Manchester United manager is never going to be bosom pals with the City manager, for instance, or find it particularly easy to call up whoever is in charge at Liverpool for a chat.
Allardyce is more likely to socialise with younger managers such as Steve Bruce and Peter Reid, though in a professional context he and Ferguson are close.
Martinez possibly feels most sheepish about appearing to suggest Allardyce is lining himself up for Ferguson’s job, though he has only given today’s opponents something else to chuckle about in their post-match get together. And Bruce too, who will be there in spirit. As if to confirm Martinez’s suspicions that the three are in cahoots, Allardyce revealed he had spoken to Bruce following Sunderland’s impressive performance at Old Trafford earlier this month, when they had to settle for a 2-2 draw but almost claimed the points.
“Brucey said they caught them on an off day, Sir Alex was having to pick a team with one eye on the league game and another on the European match in midweek, and that’s going to be the situation again today,” he said.
“Sunderland nearly took full advantage and that’s what we’ll be hoping to do. Possibly this is a good time to be playing United, but if you look at our league record you will also see it is a good time to be playing Blackburn. We haven’t picked up a single point [away from home] yet, so unless we can improve on that fairly quickly it doesn’t really matter what form Manchester United are in.
“I didn’t get any specific tips from Brucey, we all know what we have to do when we go to Old Trafford. Most of the time will be spent trying to stop them playing.”
Allardyce was an Old Trafford winner in his time at Bolton, describing the feeling of beating United on their own turf as one of the best days of his life, though he goes into today’s game on the back of heavy defeats away to Arsenal and Chelsea, as well as an outbreak of swine flu at the club.
- Guardian Service
