Sir Alex Ferguson has slammed neighbors Manchester City for the way in which they handled the sacking of his former player Mark Hughes this week.
City have been widely pilloried in the soccer community for the manner in which the highly respected Hughes was forced to take control of his team in last Saturday’s 4-3 victory over Sunderland before being sacked and replaced by Italian Roberto Mancini immediately after the game.
Now the Manchester United manager, an influential figure at the League Managers’ Association, has added his voice to the general condemnation of City’s behavior, while praising the actions of Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, a former teammate of Hughes at United in the 1990s.
“That is one thing I do not need to discuss, it is so obvious, that kind of behavior is unacceptable,” Ferguson said when asked for his reaction to Hughes’ treatment last Saturday. “It doesn’t matter whether you have lost 20 games or, as in the case of Mark Hughes, two games. There is a way to treat people, surely, but Christmas time seems to bring the worst out of directors. Sitting there throughout the game, knowing something was going on, must have been terrible. Brucey felt that himself, the rumor mill was working overtime.”
“Mark had obviously realized it was his last game, it must have been a terrible position to be in,” Ferguson said. “I think everyone was shocked, obviously. I spoke to Mark the next day and I could tell he was suffering. I was talking to him about Steve Bruce and Brucey was fantastic. In the game of football you have disputes with managers from time to time, as they had had, but what Steve Bruce did was defend an old teammate.”
“They were part of our team in ’94 that stood by each other and fought like the devil together, and what Steve Bruce said was: ‘That’s my teammate you’re talking about,’” Fergusion said. “I was really proud of Steve Bruce and I know Mark appreciated that. He really appreciated that kind of loyalty, which he didn’t get at City, from an old teammate.”
Ferguson, who had traded veiled jibes on occasion with Hughes this season, also backed the Welshman to bounce back from his 18-month City experience.
“Of course he will,” Ferguson said. “He did a great job with Wales, which is not an easy job, a great job with Blackburn and he was the right man for Manchester City at the time.”
Meanwhile, Ferguson had a kinder view of the other major managerial appointment this week, which saw Craig Levein take over from George Burley as manager of the Scotland national team.
“If it was going to be a Scotsman, he was the obvious candidate,” Ferguson said. “He did a good job with Dundee United and, hopefully, he does really well. Being Scottish, you want to see our team in the European Championships next time, see them qualify.”
Meanwhile, Senegal’s Mame Biram Diouf has officially joined United after the forward, signed from Norwegian club Molde earlier this year, received his work permit.
His international clearance, however, will not come through until after the third-round FA Cup tie with Leeds United on Jan. 2.
“Hopefully, we will get his international clearance by the [Manchester] City [League Cup] semi-final,” Ferguson said.
“I don’t want him to start that game, it will be too early for him, but he has been terrific in training with us,” he said.
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