Arteta allegedly banned, but it is not the behaviour of managers we should be looking at

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

The speed of decline of Manchester United in the last few years really has been quite dramatic – from league runners-up in 2021, League Cup winners in 2023 and FA Cup winners in 2024, they seem now to be in near terminal decline.

And accompanying this decline there is a piece in Blick Sport, the Swiss newspaper in which Patrice Evra speaks out about the appalling behaviour of  Alex Ferguson towards the players during his time at the club accusing him of regularly throwing objects at players while screaming abuse at them.

He also confesses that this behaviour by the manager influenced the players adding, “I want to apologize to all the young people who trained with us. We were animals.”

It was interesting to read that as it reminded me of the stories we have often covered here of the way documents have been falsified, left undated or unsigned or simply “lost” as clubs have attempted to procure the services of children to their academy.  It appears to be a situation that has been allowed to flourish as naturally young players are utterly desperate to sign up for a big club, parents will go along with anything.

In fact, the stories circulating seem to show that the tapping up of young players is as commonplace now as it ever was – although as ever it is difficult to get many parents to speak out, as they are told that if they do, no club will ever take their son on.

Of course this illegality goes all the way through football and we might recall the case of Southampton asking the Premier League to investigate an alleged illegal approach for Van Dijk from Liverpool, after reports emerged the player had told Jurgen Klopp he wanted to join them.   Liverpool later publicly apologised to Southampton.

And this raises the question: if this sort of behaviour is commonplace, is the Premier League as fit to run its own affairs, as it claims it is?

We have of course often mentioned all sorts of problems from the scandal of the allegedly “lost” medical records when a parent does try to show that a club has been negligent in the treatment of a young player, to the issue of variance in the approach of referees, which the media in England will not touch.

And we might compare this with the situation in Switzerland where instead of utterly refusing to say anything about referees at all, the media speak openly about what they call the number of refereeing controversies.    Also in Switzerland, players are free to comment on what they consider poor refereeing decisions while the media will respond vigorously if the referees fail to explain themselves.  As Blick recently said about one incident, “a lack of explanation does no one any favours. The players are furious, as are their supporters, and it all falls back on the referees.”

The article that raised that point went on, “In the dozens of matches covered this season, I’ve only seen one referee—Fedayi San—explain himself publicly, after a YB-Sion match in early February “

The newspaper columnist then addressed referees generally writing, “Please, speak up. Even briefly. A sentence, an explanation, a gesture toward those who live this sport with passion. It won’t change the score, no. But it will prevent anger from turning into resentment. Swiss football needs clarity. And you, the referees, have everything to gain by breaking your silence.”

Now this of course is exactly what we don’t get in England.  Referees remain silent and the media colludes with this.   Just as it did about the alleged behaviour of Ferguson at ManU.  Just as it does when we hear very little about tapping-up issues.   Just as no one seriously wonders why the media each summer reports stories about transfers, 97% of which never take place.

Surely there is an issue here, and the issue is football journalism.   Issues simmering under the surface all the time are never covered, while instead, all we get are fantasy tales about transfers that don’t happen.  Is this really the coverage of football that those of us who pay to go to games deserve?

What we do get of course is things like full-page articles from the Sun with headlines that read “Mikel Arteta BANNED for Arsenal’s final game of season after touchline antics in clash against Newcastle”   Apparently he was carded for kicking the ball away when it came near him.  It was his third offence of the season, and so, according to the Sun, he can’t be on the touchline.

The Sun article covering the story ends, “Arsenal will be eager to make amends for an underwhelming season…”

And here we might ask, just how underwhelming is it to come second three seasons running, after six seasons in which the club came fifth three times, sixth once, and eighth twice?    The Sun might know, just as it probably knows what the real stories in football are never covered.