Classic case of foot in mouth at Old Trafford

Kuszczak could be on his way out of Old Trafford after an outburst on MUTV

In a move that is likely to anger Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, Tomasz Kuszczak has expressed his frustration with Edwin Van der Sar and his inability to dislodge the Dutch man from the his position as United’s number 1 keeper.

Signed from West Brom in 2006 Kuszczak looked to have a bright future ahead of him and was United’s second choice in the 07-08 season playing a season’s best 16 games and winning the Premier League and Champions League. But his career looked to have stagnated due to the continued good form of Van der Sar and the emergence of Ben Foster.

His discontent does have foundation, as at the start of the season whilst Van der Sar was out with a broken finger he continually found himself behind Ben Foster, despite a string of shaky displays from the English shot stopper.

Van der Sar, 39, a two time goalkeeper of the year and a two time Champions League winner, is known to be a model professional so the outburst from Kuszczak’s will come as a surprise to many.

The Pole, in his fourth season at the club, chose the club’s channel, MUTV, to voice his concerns that Van der Sar does not offer him advice or like him as a person and how this may be hindering his career.

“To be honest, I must say this, and Edwin doesn’t like this too much, for sure, but he doesn’t help me too much,” he said. “I have told him a few times already to give me some more advice because he’s got more experience and got many more games under his belt.

“I say to him: ‘You have to give me something more because I like to know what I do wrong’. I like to watch other people because doing that I can take some good from the advice I get. But I don’t know, maybe Edwin doesn’t like me. You’ll have to ask him.”

This outburst is unlikely to go down well at Old Trafford and could spell the end of his career with United, as from past experience it is well known that Fergie does not take kindly to players publicly criticising each other.

In 2005 after a 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough, Roy Keane also chose MUTV to launch a scathing attack on his team mates including Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher and Kieran Richardson. The rant never made it on air and signalled the end of Roy Keane’s United career as 2 weeks later he left the club by mutual consent.

Whereas Roy Keane was club captain and a massive figure at United, Kuszczak is just a fringe player behind Edwin Van der Sar and marginally behind Ben Foster so the omens do not look good for him.