SAF Has A Go At Hansen

Drifter

Sir Alex Ferguson has launched a stinging attack on Alan Hansen after he said Manchester United had not played well for 18 months.

Ferguson has always had a frosty relationship with Hansen, dating back to 1986, when he left the central defender out of his Scotland World Cup squad.

In more recent times, it is a source of some amusement to the United boss that Hansen came out with that famous line about never winning anything with kids in his first assessment of the group that went on to dominate the English game.

However, Ferguson has been annoyed by the recent condemnation of his side, with Hansen at the head of the queue.

And, in his programme notes ahead of Tuesday night's Premier League encounter with Stoke at Old Trafford, the United boss made it clear he feels Hansen is well wide of the mark.

"After the Arsenal game, one of the London papers said we were the worst United team he has seen, and I noticed Alan Hansen was at it again, saying we had not played well for one and a half years," Ferguson told United Review.

"I reckon that comment goes alongside his claim a few years ago that you don't win anything with youngsters, and you know how he ended up with egg on his face after dismissing the Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville crop of kids so foolishly.

"Maybe he was just trying to rattle us on the eve of going to play his old club at Anfield in the cup at the weekend.

"I don't know how some of the critics come to their conclusions.

"Yes, we have had our bad days (who doesn't?), losing to Manchester City and then folding against Blackburn before crashing out of the FA Cup.

"Forget the fact that we had 14 players out with injury for the Blackburn fixture and that we were missing a few at Liverpool; we won't use injuries as a crutch, we will simply concentrate on getting our message across out on the pitch.

"I have every confidence that we will give a good account of ourselves - even perhaps play well enough to convince pundit Hansen."

Neo_Mufc

Not surprised. Hansen's about as biased as they come.

How is he still on MOTD, utter shite. Lee Dixon's the only decent pundit keeping that program going.

londonredmaniac

I think Hansen is fine on MOTD and, if anything, harsher on Liverpool than anyone else.

He's always given us credit.

Dixon is a twat. He's so bias towards the blue shite it's unreal!

Ish84045

Not really a stinging attack, just brutally honest.

"Forget the fact that we had 14 players out with injury for the Blackburn fixture and that we were missing a few at Liverpool; we won't use injuries as a crutch, we will simply concentrate on getting our message across out on the pitch."

If any other club has had such hard luck with injuries, I'd take my "head" off for them if they were still up there challenging. But hey, we're Manchester United. Nothing like a "SAF has lost it" headline.

amolbhatia100

Has.

Hanson's statement is clearly nonsense but also the kind of sensational one liner statements 'experts' love to make and for reason get encouraged to make because 'ordinary folk' want it said simply. I can understand simplifying things making sense, but it usually results in a lot nonsense. That's without getting into the bias that some clearly have.

londonredmaniac

If he said we have't payed consistently attractive football for the last 18 months I'd have agreed.

Hansen is over the top there. He's said before 'United have played within themselves the last year, but still getting results' more than once.

Plechazunga

I kind of agree with Hansen, in a general sense - there are obvious exceptions like the first few games of this season and January and February last year.

We've shown an admirable winning mentality and moments of brilliance, but in general we've not hit the heights of previous United sides.

There's a bit of hyperbole in the way he's phrased it, is all

SteveJ

Much of SAF's supposed comments read like filler by the journalist.
Example:

londonredmaniac

Indeed. I think we have looked the United of old in fits and bursts, but not on a consistent basis.

rcoobc

Yes agreed. Hansen is already aside from the obvious flaws and history. I mean enough people on here have said this isn't a vintage United side, up until the start of this season when it suddenly seemed like we had the world at our feet again.

If we had kept our entire team fit we'd be going strong in all competitions, as it is we're not. C'est la vie.

SteveJ

Perhaps Hansen didn't see the 8-2 demolition of the artists formerly known as Arsenal...

Plechazunga

Good spot, he clearly never said that.

There's also not a single "There's no doubt about that" or "Oh, there's absolutely no question about that...in my mind" in the whole interview. he's clearly pulled it out his arse.

kps88

Its not an interview. Its in his programme notes which he gets ghost written.

Irwin

Yeah, I find it hard to believe those were his words

apotheosis

I agree with that, personally i have always liked Hansen. He obviously has some bias towards Liverpool, but i never feel it affects his objectivity.

I think it would be only the rose tinted brigade who would argue that the quality of our football since Ronaldo left has been to a consistently high standard. Some of the football is dire at times tbh, and only getting the right result more often than not, has stopped more people highlighting how uninspiring our football has been at times.

We are much more a gritty results team nowadays than an exciting team, which with the way football has gone over the last few years, is becoming much more preferable than it would have been 10-15 yrs ago.

Plechazunga

We're not far away though. We've got all the best young centre-halves in the country, cracking wingers and strikers, we just need to sort CM and we'll be back to our best I reckon.

As for Hansen, he's been phoning it in for about the last decade, but he's not said anything outrageous here.

Maajid

It's a good thing MOTD is free; I can't imagine anyone with an ounce of reason paying for that drudgerous wank.

Bryan_Munich

He said we had not played well for 18 months, that's clearly nonsense.

MG

Nice one Fergie.

Plechazunga

I kind of agree, I don't really see the point in football 'analysis'. When I tape MOTD I only watch the United discussion.

If something really 'controversial' has happened, it can be interesting to talk about, but in general the MOTD pundits are insight-free. They'll say things like "no intent there" or "hand-to-ball" without ever really having a coherent sense of why that should be taken into account in the case at hand. They just have a vague sense of what the decision ought to be and then justify it with random phrases that bubble into their dim heads.

I also can't stand the painful 'banter' or the golf clubhouse alpha male complicity in the room, it makes me want to puke.

bananaman

I thought fergie was giving out the band
MMMMMBOOOPPPP
doopy dooop doooo wopppp
(thats in my head now)

noodlehair

I don't even think Hansen's comments are a criticism...Why 18 months though? We were arguably even worse for the previous 12.

It's possible that the current side simply isn't yet as good as the one we had a few years ago? I wouldn't fancy this United side against an opposition with Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez in attack, and Vidic, Rio and Evra in defence and all in their prime, with VDS behind them.

Is Torres still the best striker in the world and just hasn't played well for 18 months?

rcoobc

They came last, got 1 point, could still have qualified on the last day, when 3rd place teams could still qualify. They didn't really do very well.

Edit - Of course I'm not having a go, considering the background of that campaign.

KingMinger22

Hansen is bang on though

MG

Yeah, but I'm not Scottish.

MG

You think we haven't played well for the last 18 months? 18 months, a year and a half, seriously?

That's clearly way over-the-top hyperbolic nonsense. We've played well at many times in that period, including - and some people seem to be forgetting this - winning the league in that period! If the team that wins the league is shit what the hell does that say for the rest of the bunch?

Randall Flagg

This very much. Hansen is an excellent pundit.

Dixon said last week he didnt think it was a red for Ballotelli

Plechazunga

It's a hard one to call as one Rooney would stamp on the other Rooney inside twenty minutes, both Nanis would go down clutching each other's faces, Vidic would get Brwnd, the other Vidic would get Vidic'd, and Evra would skin the fuck out of whichever Evra turned up randomly on the wrong wing.

Ramshock

Technically Hansen is right, but Fergie is going to defend the players and himself. Also our injuries over the last few years have been ridiculous. Apart from the Newcastle game ive not been too angry with our bad results cos of this!

Simon Adebesi

Agreed.

amolbhatia100

So Vidic would get Vidic'd by the brwnd Vidic?

Plechazunga

Yes. Getting Brwnd is not enough to stop Vidic Vidicing someone. Not even Vidic.

Rood

All this 'United havent played well for 18 months' stuff is absolute bullshit and I cant believe some of our own fans agree with it.

Fact is that we play a very different brand of football nowadays than in the past - granted it is not as exciting or attacking as previous Fergie teams, but I would argue that we are now more efficient and more tactically astute - our recent success in Europe is a direct result of this.

Plechazunga

In 07-8 we were more efficient and tactical than the year before, but still brilliant. In 10-11 and this season we've been largely quite dull by United standards, the big exception being the start of this season.

Inigo Montoya

We haven't played up to the standards of old Utd teams this is a fact.

Hansen did also state very clearly that we were the best team he has ever seen for not giving up and coming back when all seems lost.It doesn't equate to playing football of a really high standard.

As for the highlighted part....if only we had we'd still be in the UCL...ah well, there's always next season.

eric le roi

It'll be like one of those 'columns' in the redtops where at the end in tiny print it says "Terry Venables was speaking to Rob Beasley" i.e. an interview re-written to make it look like an 'opinion piece'


It's not free. The annual licence fee is £145.50

Judge Red

It must be getting tough to find something to write in those programme notes. Whether you agree or not, it's unnecessary.

Pundits are there to put their point across, not to keep managers happy.

towcester_red

I could have put 8 past that side on my own.

Dont have a massive problem with Hansen, when we play well he is pretty complimentary. Most of what he has said about us this season you cant argue with.

Lawrenson on the other hand is a grade a cock.

Skholesy

We have played well, its crazy to suggest otherwise. But we haven't been fantastically entertaining. I used to watch united both as a fan and being excited to be entertained...these days i watch united just because i'm a fan - some games are just dead boring, and i don't expect to be entertained that much, especially in the CL games. It all seemed to be changing at the start of this season though, when we were playing marvellous attacking football that got me all excited again. But injuries haven't helped and bar a few splendid attacking displays mid season, there hasn't been much fluid football on display.

We're more solid unit that gets points rather than the super goal machine team we were in the 90s. This is not totally a criticism given what we've still managed to win recently, but first and foremost as a football fan i'd love to see great attacking play. I guess it just is what it is these days.

sajeev

we have played better football at times this season than anything in 08-09 or even 09-10 or the beginning of 07-08 season.