* In the first instalment of a new weekly Monday column, Tell Me Why, the Independent’s brilliant man in the north-west, Ian Herbert, asks why Manchester United needed to unveil a statue of their remarkable manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, even before Fergie has left the building. What does it tell us about Sir Alex, and […]

4 September 2011 Sven Goran Eriksson has become the latest big name in football to donate a ‘money can’t buy prize’ for the October auction to raise money for Sir Bobby Robson’s foundation, while Sir Alex Ferguson is the latest to pay tribute to Sir Bobby while donating his own prize. Eriksson, a former England […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 25 April 2011 Sir Alex Ferguson has reiterated that Manchester United can compete with the biggest-spending teams in the word, and while he said United are as ‘sensible’ as possible with transfer fees and wages he added: “When we go for a player, we generally […]

By Alex Miller at SportAccord, London 6 April 2011 Sir Clive Woodward has today implied that Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson is failing to manage Wayne Rooney’s temperament adequately, following the troubled striker’s recent foul-mouthed goal celebration. Rooney shouted an expletive into a live Sky television camera after scoring a hat-trick against West Ham on […]

By Nick Harris 19 December 2010 Few if any Manchester United fans can have failed to notice the recent coverage of Sir Alex Ferguson ‘overtaking’ Sir Matt Busby’s record reign as United manager, but in fact Ferguson overtook Busby 10 weeks ago. And the inconsistency in the way the ‘official’ United figures have been compiled […]

* JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) and Everton (The Official […]

19 October 2010 Sir Alex Ferguson has given an interview to MUTV about the Wayne Rooney situation and the following transcript is on the ManUtd.com website. Q: After all we’ve heard and read, it would be interesting to hear your point of view. Let’s start with where it all began and the question of was […]

By Nick Harris 19 October 2010 Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed first-hand that Wayne Rooney has told the club he wants to quit, and that he has known since August, and that Rooney has reiterated his position since. In an interview with MUTV, Ferguson said talks about a contract extension had begun before the World […]

By Pete Wilson 10 October 2010 All 20 managers in the Premier League have delivered messages backing England’s bid to stage to the 2018 World Cup ahead of the forthcoming visit by Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter to No10 Downing Street to meet Prime Minister David Cameron. The 20 managers comprise five Englishmen, four Scots, three […]

 By Brian Sears  19 August 2016 It was this time a year ago that we wrote that Chelsea’s title hopes were as good as gone after two games – purely from a statistical history point of view. Jose Mourinho’s team (as they were then) had lost both their opening games, and in the piece linked here we […]