Ferguson Pushing His Luck With The FA

For a bloke who said he was no longer going to give interviews to the press, we are certainly hearing a lot from Sir Alex Ferguson at the moment.

The latest bee in his bonnet is the treatment of Wayne Rooney at Goodison Park last week, where the vile chants and jeers were heard from even before the first whistle.

Ferguson had already let his feelings be known after the match, explaining he subbed Rooney off as he feared the referee, Alan Wiley, would have sent the striker off had he stayed on the field. Fair enough. Rooney’s booking was a soft one, particularly in the context of the game and the challenges that had escaped yellow cards, and Fergie was disappointed that he had to take off our most influential player in a game we really needed to win. I get that. But Fergie is really starting to push his luck now.

“I read in the paper a few weeks ago that Alan Wiley phoned David Moyes to apologise for the penalty kick Everton did not get at Stoke,” said Ferguson. “When you see the booking on Saturday you would think he might lift the phone to apologise as well because it was a ridiculous decision. It was unfair and put us under pressure. Wayne is a committed player and he tackles but any more and he would have been sent off. The crowd had got to the referee and it was difficult.”

It’s not often that I criticise Fergie and even this isn’t a massive criticism of him, but he’s going to land himself in trouble if he doesn’t watch his mouth.

A meeting with Keith Hackett has already been organised to discuss a whole host of issues our manager clearly isn’t happy with, including the ridiculous decision to rescind John Terry’s red card. Now, this issue of Rooney is likely to be on the agenda.

Fergie is walking a tightrope at the moment though and needs to watch it, because there’s only so much the FA will tolerate before slapping another charge on our manager!