LAUREN DALGLISH, we were once famously informed, had more sense at the age of six weeks than the manager of Manchester United. Little Lauren is
now a grown up 23, but she’d still struggle to tell us why Alex Ferguson has just shelled out £16m on a young centre-back with 35 Premier League appearances to his name.
Because the United manager himself might struggle to explain why.
No matter what potential Phil Jones possesses – and he’s already been compared to a young John Terry – he’s joined a club which already has a world class central defensive partnership in Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, a club with accomplished back up in Chris Smalling, a club with another international class defender in Jonny Evans. And if that’s not enough, the small matter of Wes Brown and John O’Shea – with almost 700 first-team appearances between them.
Oh, and Ferguson still has designs on another up and coming young centre-back,18-year-old Raphael Varane from Lens.
Where does Phil Jones fit into all that?
Or could it be, just possibly, that Fergie got wind of Kenny Dalglish’s interest in the young defender and jumped first?
Kenny’s interest in the young Englishman wasn’t just paper talk. And it doesn’t end there.
Fergie 2 Kop 0, trumpeted the back page of one national newspaper this week, as they speculated that Ferguson also intended to ambush Liverpool’s interest in Ashley Young.
That’s another head scratcher.
Young is undeniably a fine player.
But he plays in the same position as Nani - more Premier League assists than any other player last season, the highly regarded Antonio Valencia, the vastly under-rated Ji Sung Park and the legendary Ryan Giggs.
So why would Ferguson be interested?
If you think the United boss wouldn’t be so petty as to snap up players simply because his Scottish rival wanted them, then you won’t remember his discomfiture at Liverpool signing Glenn Hysen back in 1989.
A classy, ball-playing Swedish centre-half, Hysen had toured Old Trafford, enjoyed a buffet lunch, shaken hands on a deal with chairman Martin Edwards then flown back to Italy.
Negotiations mysteriously stalled, and when Ferguson and Edwards flew out to Florence to investigate why, Hysen’s agent told them that his client had already signed for Liverpool.
Ferguson’s fury multiplied when the Swede was named Man of the Match on his debut at Wembley in the FA Charity Shield and became the defensive lynchpin of Liverpool’s last title winning team.
Kenny couldn’t resist having a little nibble in his 1996 autobiography.
“Journalists made a fuss about me nipping in for Glenn Hysen when Fergie was about to sign him. That doesn’t create rancour; that’s business,” he wrote.
“We are both going for the best players. Sometimes managers of PLC clubs like Manchester United cannot spend money quickly.
“They have to get permission from the PLC board. If United’s wheels move slowly, that’s no concern of mine.”
Ferguson will have committed those words to heart. And he was desperate to ensure that the wheels moved quicker this summer.
That Hysen anecdote came in an entire chapter devoted to Dalglish’s relationship with Ferguson.
In it the Liverpool boss stressed over and over that there is no feud, no animosity, no simmering resentment.
I believe him.
But of course there’s a keen rivalry.
How could there not fail to be between two Glaswegians managing Liverpool and Manchester United?
Kenny Dalglish has always got under Alex Ferguson’s skin – and it promises to make for great viewing next season.
Ferguson thinks he’s finally knocked Liverpool off their perch.
But there’s a manager back in town who’s already got him rattled. This week’s transfer business underlines it.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2011/06/10/david-prentice-fergie-already-rattled-by-liverpool-fc-s-squad-plans-100252-28853719/3/#ixzz1OrtrTFj4
