In the post-match interview following United’s 3-2 win over Liverpool, Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Torres “made an absolute meal” of contact from John O’Shea, saying there was “no doubt he tried to get the player sent off”.

Instead of the back pages full of praise for Dimitar Berbatov, becoming the first United player in over 60 years to score a hattrick against Liverpool, much of the press focussed on Sir Alex’s comments on Torres.

Whilst quoting Ferguson, they put it under the headline that Torres had been called a ‘cheat’.

Roy Hodgson, a friend of Sir Alex’s, didn’t help the situation, when he questioned why our manager called Torres a cheat. Whilst the press like to stir things up, you would have thought Hodgson would at least have the intelligence to read beyond tabloid headlines. Apparently not.

Sir Alex was angry about the portrayal of what he said and voiced this last week.

Today, with our manager set to attend a press conference ahead of our game against Sunderland, it has been announced that he has started a self-imposed media ban that could last a month in protest.

I agree, the press shouldn’t have used the word ‘cheat’, when that’s not what Sir Alex said, but a month’s ban? It’s a fairly petty reason to throw the toys out of the pram, but our manager’s lack of patience for the media gets worse every year. 

It’s getting a bit pathetic to be honest.