With friends like these…Sir Alex certainly doesn’t need enemies!

Football
FanCast columnist Jez
Howard is glad to see at least one
person jump to Sir Alex's defence.

It has only taken 10 days for one manager to dare
come out and stick up for Sir Alex Ferguson and full credit to Gary Megson for
doing so. I use to think that there was a managerial society, who looked out
for one and other, in the face of such provocation, but everyone has decided to
keep quiet and leave Ferguson hung out to dry, so with friends like these, Sir Alex doesn't need enemies.

"Fergie couldn't have done any
more,

"He gets hung out to dry because of who he is. He has apologised and then everyone
criticised the apology, 

"Alan Leighton seems to have a
bee in his bonnet about the apology. I have seen him quoted as saying it is
half-hearted. But you are damned if you don't apologise and damned if you do" (Daily Mail)

Don't get me wrong I certainly don't condone what
Fergie said, or believe he should be free of punishment, but the complete overreaction
that has followed since has turned this whole episode into an absolute circus
with every man and his dog passing comment on it in the Press. You would have
thought that Fergie must had murdered someone given the response and column inches
afforded to the incident, and it sad to see this witch-hunt against arguably
English football's greatest manager of all time.

What I find disappointing about this whole incident
and why I am amazed that others haven't spoke up for Fergie before is that he
has highlighted a serious issue in the game and that is the general
incompetence of the English ref. Take this particular incident out of the
equation and look at the amount of times over any given weekend that Premier
League managers are left flabbergasted by the decisions or mistakes made by the
referees; don't they want it addressed as well and wasn't Sir Alex only saying
what the majority were thinking about the standard of referees in general?

Has
Fergie been hung out to dry, or does he deserve any punishment that comes his
way?

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