FERGIE: reprieve ... or stay of execution?

(From Irish Independent)

The Theatre of Dreams became a theatre of boos last week as Manchester United fans turned against Alex Ferguson. Despite a win on Tuesday, he faces a battle to keep his job, says James Lawton

Suddenly, Old Trafford was singing a different tune. "Stand up all those who love Fergie?," was one cry, and the response was hugely emphatic. It was done without shame or irony because football rarely has time for such reactions. Football, maybe as never before, is about whether your team wins or loses, and last Saturday Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United lost in a particularly depressing way.

They were beaten by lowly Blackburn Rovers, and not only did they lose, they were cast in the role of dull strivers against a team who plainly came to the Theatre of Dreams with more aggressive intent. Ferguson was booed for the first time since he established himself as the great manager of his age. Yet a few days later, on the strength of one streaky win over Benfica, a team who have lost so much of their lustre since they unsuccessfully faced United in the 1968 European Cup final despite the reputation which came with two triumphs in the tournament and the assistance of brilliant players like Eusebio, Coluna, Simoes and Torres, all was forgiven.

Fergie threw down his chewing gum, smiled at the salute to the hero which flowed from the terraces, and happily embraced his rival coach, the former great Dutch player Ronald Koeman.

But then what did it all mean for the man who inherited a sickly old giant of a club and re-established it as the most charismatic sports franchise in the world, who in the space of a decade changed its market valuation by the best part of a billion pounds? Was it a reprieve - or a stay of execution?

Behind the smile of relief, we can be sure that Ferguson was less than sanguine. Nobody knows better than him the realities, and the cruelties, of the football world he has inhabited since he greeted life in a terrace house in the heart of the Glasgow shipyard district. He has seen men he admired more than any others - great compatriot managers like Jock Stein of Glasgow Celtic, Bill Shankly of Liverpool and Sir Matt Busby at his own club - grapple with the truth that whatever you achieve, however many glories you pile one upon the other, you are always obliged to keep winning. When you make your team the best you also accept a relentless obligation: anything less will be seen as failure.