I always preach to my players the idea of being 'honest' - not cheating at all when it comes to effort, giving everything that you have.
The key contributors in a successful team are usually also very honest in their effort, and few players have been as honest in that category this season as Manchester United and Scotland international midfield Darren Fletcher.
For that reason, I was totally gutted when I saw 'Fletch' sent off in yesterday's UEFA Champions League semifinal, after a questionable red card on a tackle against Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas. The sending off came after Fletcher won the ball off of Fabregas, and then followed through with physical contact.
Alex Ferguson said: “Darren is one of the most honest players in the game and it’s a tragedy for him to miss the final. The lad is distraught and he has a right to be.
“He gets a touch on the ball. It moves in a different direction away from Fabregas."
"...so disappointing for the boy. Darren has always been a key player for us. I can’t tell you he would have definitely started the final but he would definitely have been in my plans.”
Even Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said: “I don’t believe it was a red card but the referee had a very bad game. He gave many little fouls you don’t get in the Premier League.”
It brought back terrible visions of Roy Keane's second yellow card against Juventus in the second leg of the 1999 UEFA Champions League semifinal tie that kept Keano out of the Final versus Bayern Munich. As much success as Keane had throughout his career, he still looks back on the omission as the biggest disappointment of his career.
Paul Scholes also missed out on the '99 Final versus Bayern Munich, and other than Keane, can sympathise with Fletch better than anyone else.
Scholes said: “It’s not a nice feeling when you have to sit there and watch the final. If your team is in the final, you want to be involved."
“It’s the biggest game of your life, the European Cup final. Everyone wants to be playing and it’s desperately disappointing if you can’t be."
“Especially when it’s something that wasn’t deserved. I think everyone can see that.”
Replays showed Fletcher got a touch on the ball with his last-ditch tackle in the box on Cesc Fabregas. But Italian ref Roberto Rosetti ruled the Scot had tackled from behind and committed a foul.
He awarded a penalty and dished out a straight red as Fletcher was the last defender.
Scholes said: “I don’t think there’s that much you can do if the decision still stands."
“But if you look at the TV replays it looks like a perfectly good tackle. When it happened to me, I’m not sure whether it was a legitimate yellow card that I got."
“But I got one and there weren’t too many complaints about that. This is totally different."
“It was never a red card, simple as that. Even if he did make a foul, we were 4-0 up on aggregate with 10 or 15 minutes to go. It seemed a bit harsh to me."
“I haven’t spoken to Darren. I just shook his hand and said ‘well played’. I told him he was fantastic again, just as he was in the first leg.”
Similar to in Keano's case, I hope that both Keane and Fletcher can appreciate that even though they were not able to play in their respective Final that both of them were as influential as anyone else in helping their team reach that lofty height.
Even though he will miss the match in Rome on May 27th, I wanted to make sure one of United's most honest players gets his just due for his role in their success this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment