The ManicaPost
| ESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction.Sir Alex Ferguson, the fabled Manchester United coach became almost something of an institution following his storied prosperous26-year managerial spell at Old Trafford, a period he famously knocked eternal rivals Liverpool off their perch as the aristocrats of English football, while also being a European champion. |
For his sterling contribution to the English game, as he earned his stripes with peerless distinction, the legendary Scottish coach is memorably remembered for his success strewn time with the Red Devils, a period Manchester United flourished and scaled new heights never before touched – winning a total of 38 trophies spanning over his reign.
While Fergie’s enduring legacy illuminated the land where football was invented following huge success on the pitch, it was some of the ever-gum-chewing gaffer’s sound bites that also set him apart as a rare football brain with so much to offer to the game that gave him a name and fame.
During the 2002-03 championship race, as heat was turned on at the top end of the table with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United all figuring prominently in the picture, Ferguson spewed out what still stands today as one of his most famous juicy quotes.
With the title race hotting up, the spectacled tactician remarked: “It’s getting tickly now –squeaky-bum time, I call it.”
His Red Devils would go on and clinch the title, their eighth in 11 seasons, toppling defending champions, the Gunners, who at one time enjoyed a five-point lead cushion over them.
Manchester United (85) won it five points clear of Arsenal (78). Such was the tantalising nature of this particular charge for the championship that following a morale-sapping 0-2 defeat to Arsene Wenger at home, Ferguson kicked a football boot that flew across the dressing room and gashed David Beckham in the face.
Such has been Sir Alex Ferguson’s huge contribution and influence to the game that some of his popular phrases have become lexicalised in football folklore.
With the way our own local Castle Lager Premier Soccer League title race is panning out, it is easy to invoke Sir Alex’s famed words. With only five games before the season concludes, this race is finely shaping into one that is likely to go down to the wire with each passing weekend.
Table-toppers FC Platinum look like they won’t let upon the lead; second-placed CAPS United appear in hot pursuit of their decade-long dream of being champions again; while Highlanders, placed third, are also putting up a hug fight to land higher with the title. Only four points separate Pure Platinum Play (51), MaKepeKepe (50) and Bosso (47).
Nerves will surely start jingling at this juncture of the season, especially with the way the current log standings are delicately postured. Never mind the prospect of tricky opponents in the remaining fixtures for the respective three title-chasing horses – like the Week 29 fixture between FC Platinum and Highlanders at Mandava– each match now potentially become banana skin.
We could be in for a few more twists and turns as well as drama, suspense, anxiety and intriguingsubplotsto the race.
Tragicomedy cannot be ruled out either.
At the bottom end of the table, where Border Strikers (14), Tsholotsho (19) and Mutare City Rovers (21) are battling to preserve their Premiership status, it is also taking some skating on thin ice.
Everything is possible and anything can still happen between now and when the curtain finally comes down on the campaign. We can cite another of Sir Alex many quotes “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Football. Bloody hell.”?
Just this past weekend, we witnessed another spectacle that only a Ferguson-like expression can aptly describe –the ‘Fergie time’. This was the dramatic moments when Sir Alex’s boys scored very late goals right at the death of the game to win matches – Manchester United were themselves involved “Fergie time’ on several occasions and one such incident that easily comes to mind is the incredible 1999 Uefa Champions League 2-1 win over Bayern Munich that got the Bavarians’ Ghanaian defender, Samuel Osei Kuffour literally weeping and inconsolable. Teddy Sheringham cancelled out Mario Basler’s early lead, while the baby-faced assassin Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stabbed in the winner in injury time as the Red Devils struck twice late in the three added minutes.
(Ferguson once told Goal.com that ‘Fergie time’ was a “little trick” he used when Manchester United were searching for a goal in the closing stages of a game).
Only last weekend we had such matches. Both CAPS United and Highlanders were involved in dramatic late wins over How Mine and Ngezi Platinum Stars respectively and the urge to borrow from Fergie’s rich diction can’t be resisted. Are we in for another or more of these treats in this marathon’s homestretch?
The 2016 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League is certainly answering to Friday Football Echoes’ signature sign-out phrase: It’s Game On, Play On!
Slaven Bilic is a slave to football
West Ham United boss, Slaven Bilicis a man in a very awkward position, indeed!
The Croatian is enduring a difficult start to the 2016-17 Barclays English Premier League, where the Hammers are languishing in the lower reaches of the table after losing five of their opening six matches; this following a high of last season’s sixth-place finish and qualification for European football.
And while the coach was blessed with a new baby only last Tuesday, he has not been able to christen her because of the undivided attention he is giving to his job which is presently on the line. The Hammers’ miserable run has got their manger unable to give his daughter a name.
“Like any father I adore my kids. But I said to my assistants that I feel very strange as I got a baby girl a couple of days ago and I am thinking totally about football,” Bilic was quoted as telling The Telegraph.
Surely, legendary ex-Liverpool coach, Bill Shankly, was absolutely right when he once retorted: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
It’s Game On, Play On!
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