Enduring Genius

When Sir Alex Ferguson arrived at Manchester United in 1986, Wayne Rooney was a toddler just learning to walk, the Berlin Wall was still standing, the footballing world was still recovering from the stupor of Diego Maradona’s heroics in Mexico, and the Indians were world champions in cricket (how far away that sounds!).

United was in shambles, when he took charge in November 1986. They were on the verge of demotion in the league, the players regularly went on drinking binges and reported to training drunk. With a steely determination that has become legend in the world of football, Ferguson turned the fortunes of a club that was deemed to have lost its way eternally. “In his first conversation with the squad,” recalls Bryan Robson, then captain of the team, “we realized that he meant business.”

In 1993, after an evolved resurrection process, United finally got its hands on the league title after 26 long years. This opened the floodgates for a trophy-laden decade, with an astounding eight league titles and a European Cup. Smart buys like Eric Cantona (1m pounds from Nottingham Forest) became United legends. The pinnacle was of course, the unprecedented Treble in 1999, with Man U playing some of the most thrilling, attacking football in Europe.

Yet despite all his success, he has always been courageous and dynamic, never averse to change. The introduction of Giggs, Scholes, Neville and Beckham in 1995 after dismantling the 1994 team that won the Double will surely go down as one of the masterstrokes of his career when everyone had concluded he’d lost his mind. Throughout his career, he’s never been afraid to make controversial decisions as long as he thought it was in the interest of the team (though I cannot really forgive him for dumping David Beckham, my teenage icon).
There has also been the constant tenacity to enforce discipline, in a somewhat authoritarian manner. Yet he has remained an essentially modest man, always looking to the future and reluctantly brushing off the successes of the past.

The two decades have not been without its lows. The frustrating failure of not being able to win the league title in the early years of his tenure, the humiliating exit in the opening round of the Champions League in 2005, the shocking upsets in the FA Cup. Inevitably almost, he has emerged stronger every time.

In the prelude to this season, critics were calling curtains on his reign at Old Trafford – they saw a disastrous season ahead for Manchester United. After a solid three months, Man U has scored more goals than anyone else and look commanding at the top of the league. The critics are again eating crow.
Innumerable amount of paper and mental energy has been wasted in predicting the end of his glorious tenure. Yet he stands as firm as the Theatre of Dreams – his giant stature remains undiminished.

More than any player in the last two decades, Sir Alex Ferguson has come to symbolize the undying spirit of Old Trafford. Yet not surprisingly, he remains interested only in the future.

Pulsating London derbies

Watched pulsating back-to-back London derbies last Sunday, with wholly unexpected results.

Arsenal beat West Ham 1-0 in a controversial game in which Arsene Wenger and Alan Pardew almost came to blows, after Harewood had scored an 89th minute winner to send Upton Park into delirium. Arsenal are once again bearing the brunt of their inconsistency, switching between woeful and scintillating performances. They are now 10 points adrift of the top. Their league hopes look once again in jeopardy.

Tottenham handed Chelsea a lesson in football in a high-tempo game at White Hart Lane, the home team pulling off a 2-1 upset through a sensational Aaron Lennon goal. Chelsea ended the game a shadow of their former selves, unable to find an equalizer despite all of Abromavich’s millions.

Just reiterates my belief in the strength of the English Premier League to throw up unbelievable surprises.

As dull as Italian

The Italian Serie A is once again turning out to be an exercise in boredom.

The brilliant Milan derby that culminated in a 4-3 win for Inter remains the exception than the norm. The Serie A brand of slow paced, inexorably dull football seems set in stone. The brutal competitiveness of the 80’s when it became one of the most attractive leagues in the world is also sadly lacking.
Juventus is gone, the Rossoneri are a wreck after the match-fixing scandal and the departure of Shevchenko and the likes of Roma and Inter are slugging it out for the top despite playing strictly average football.

It needed a Maradona in the 80’s to spark the league with his revolution at Napoli – what will it take now?

Head nods in agreement

The Guardian columnist Simon Hattenstone (a lifelong Manchester City fan), with delectable vindictiveness, sums up his hate for Chelsea.

“My prejudice knows no bounds. I detest Chelsea. I detest everything about their soul- destroying, peasant-plundering, oil-pimping, wallet-waving, ref-abusing, knee-falling, opponent-cussing ways. I despise the fact that they have made me a bigot. I despise the fact that I get more pleasure from seeing Chelsea lose than Manchester City win. I despise the fact I’d rather Manchester United won the Premiership than Chelsea. I despise the fact that I tick off every week Andriy Shevchenko doesn’t score a majority as another victory for the unmoneyed majority. I despise the fact that I take pleasure in Shaun Wright-Phillips having never scored for Chelsea despite the fact that I once loved him so tenderly. I despise the fact that I take comfort in the belief that Chelsea are getting worse and worse – two seasons ago they lost once in the league, last season twice and less than a third of the way through the season they have already been beaten twice. I despise the fact that I know the word schadenfreude means something akin to bitter, vengeful bastard.”

Can’t but agree with delight.

Inside The Doors

Stumbled upon a fascinating insight into the mind, the madness and the genius of Jim Morrison -

You could say it’s an accident that I was ideally suited for the work I was doing. Its like a bowstring being pulled back for 22 years and suddenly being let go. I’ve always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos – especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road towards freedom – external revolt is a way to bring out internal freedom. Rather than starting inside, I start outside – reach the mental through the physical.

This constant living on the edge produced some of the most breathtaking music in the Swinging Sixties, in the haze of drugs and alcohol, when existence became a blur.