A phone rings in the Ferguson household. Roberto Mancini calling, the display says. Reluctantly, Sir Alex answers:
Mancini: EPL (he starts laughing)
Fergie: I didn’t get it.
Mancini: Exactly.
Whether Fergie read this joke or not, the manner in which his squad was denied an unprecedented 20th title by cross town rivals Manchester City, in the dying seconds of the English Premier League 2011-12, forced the greatest manager of all time to nip the problems in the bud.
Last year at the end of May, Manchester United lost the Champions League for a second time to Barcelona in a space of three years. Sir Alex Ferguson went on to sign Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David de Gea over the summer to bolster his squad to match Barcelona as Europe’s Elite.
United then failed to make it out of the group stage, the first team to do so after playing in the finals the last year round.
Fergie admitted in the post-match press conference that his team was second best.
Signing Robin van Persie from Arsenal makes United’s attacking line-up stuff that fantasy comic books are made of. “Master Wayne. Robin’s at the Theatre” sounds like a line from a batman comic to me.
And that brings us to 16th August 2012.
Location: The Mancini household.
A phone rings. Sir Alex Ferguson calling it says.
Mancini: (answers, laughing) I beat you again. I signed so many Arsenal players
Fergie: b***** please. I signed Arsenal.