Steven Defour has a not-so-secret admirer
At heart, Sir Alex Ferguson is an old man.
Sure he’s old of body too, but there’s always been something a touch romantic about him (beyond the poetic press murmurings and crippling alcohol fancy), and revelations of his recent love missive to injured Standard Liege captain Steven Defour are rich, embarrassing evidence of his old-fashioned ways.
No emails for the drunk Scot, no; this is a hand-written note, probably on some kind of floral print paper, cooing at the young Belgian midfielder from afar.
Oh, and not to mention it’s insanely inappropriate.
To the letter!
“Dear Steven, I have just heard about your injury and, in the name of Manchester United, I would like to wish you a full and speedy recovery,” Ferguson wrote. “I am sure at the moment you must be feeling awful and that you’ll have all kinds of questions. Steven, these are natural worries but I have to tell you that modern medicine and treatments are incredible; you have to have confidence in them. Don’t worry, everything will work out. You will have to work hard to come back and I am going to follow your performances. I will remain in contact with Standard.”
Utterly, unbelievably inappropriate, but then again, at least every Tom, Dick and Harry now knows where some of that C-Ron money will be going in January. Ferguson is said to be embarrassed at the letter emerging to the media and is insistent that he followed proper channels and submitted the note to the club who then passed it along, but nothing about this looks good for the United manager, especially not in an era where UEFA is scrutinizing every single bit of transfer business conducted by the EPL’s Big 4 since the dawn of time.
It sure reads like a bland, innocuous letter of encouragement, but this is Fergie we’re talking above. You don’t have to read too intently to catch the obvious subtext to his communique. Fergie fancies Stevie, and wants him to know of his fondness. After all, Manchester United is more than just a club. It’s a family. (cue vomiting)
Defour says it’s all totally legit and legal, but it’s too late for that:
“I don’t want to talk about it too much,” Defour told the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. “I would like to make it clear that he [Ferguson] followed the official procedure. It’s a really nice gesture but I wouldn’t want people to get the idea that I think I’m already a Manchester United player. But if they come knocking, then I would not cause problems.”
All told, the letter is amusing, timely, and mildly scandalous. It all makes you wonder: just how many letters did he write to Michael Owen over the years? The poor man must have at least transitioned to dictation.
Dammit, Martin, you should have signed him in the summer.
/sigh
I see nothing at all wrong with this. [loud chortle]
I can only imagine what the note to Berbatov said:
“Dear Dimi, I have just heard about your wonderful smoking habit and desire to wear gloves on the pitch regardless of the air temperature and, in the name of Manchester United, I would like to wish you a long and smoky, gloved career. When the official (who is obviously not match-fit and hates you) says you cannot light up on the pitch,I am sure at the moment you must be feeling awful and that you’ll have all kinds of questions. Dimi, these are natural worries but I have to tell you that my anti-official diatribes and airport car services are incredible; you have to have confidence in them. Don’t worry, everything will work out. You will have to work hard to get Spurs to drop you and I am going to follow your refusals to perform. I will remain in contact with your my nearest glove merchant.”
@phil – I see the name “Dimi” and immediately think of the Exorcist. Appropriate, since Boobatov’s play on the pitch makes me want to puke
Wait, is this the guy who had his leg horribly mangled a month ago? And now he’s a Man U transfer target…Cash a bit tight up north if you are dipping into the damaged goods bin, eh Fergie?
No no, Defour is a teammate of the guy who mangled an Anderlecht player’s leg.
JT: this is a wind-up, right? As the lone United fan here, I will answer your clarion call.
/gets on armour (Note Canadian spelling.)
/mounts horse (No, not that way. Get your head out of the gutter.)
/aims horse at JT-constructed windmill
He sent the freakin’ letter to Standard. Standard is apparently on board with the approach. How is this inappropriate?
Let’s say your club and MUFC have worked out a deal for January. Everyone is happy (it’s my hypothetical, and everyone is happy, dammit). Then, you get hurt. You’re sad now. Fergie sends you an official letter through your official employer saying don’t worry. You are now officially happy again.
There is more than enough stuff for which you could target Fergie. Hell, you can made fun of the letter’s contents ad nauseum. But I don’t think this one is inappropriate.
Disclaimer: I reserve the right to retract this statement and no one can pick on me (coz United fans do not, repeat, do not have thin skins about Fergie) if Standard comes out and goes all Col. Klink on this.
/fingers very crossed that Standard doesn’t refute the “everything went through official channels” bit.
as the lone United fan here…
Now you’ve made White Speed Receiver cry.
You’re not the only United fan, WSR is one, and there was a duo of retarded guys that stopped in every once and then. Plus all the Arsenal fans are closet United fans, you’re in good company.
Only thing I see wrong with this is that Rafa f**ked up another transfer decision.
Wedel: if Standard is totally alright with it, how did the letter get out to the Belgian newspapers? Why embarrass the guy whose team is gonna make your team rich in buying your best player?
I think this kind of stuff is inappropriate. If ‘Arry has a quick conversation with a guy in a gas station about a player, that’s not allowed. Just because Fergie sent his lovenote via the club on official MUFC letterhead instead of whispering to an agent makes it ok?
Personally, I find the entire thing hilarious. Fergie is writing Get Well Soon cards to young European starlets. Can’t we all just laugh about that part?
He did it to Mexes too right? That didn’t exactly work out.
Philippe Mexes is absolute s**te.
Dear Philippe,
how’s your wounded pride after another average season in Serie A? Not to worry, lad, Rio’s close to a trip to the glue factory, and if we can mould Jaap Stam into a central defensive force, I reckon we could do the same to ye.
Cheers,
Sir Alex
Dear Diego,
Hope your pre-molded studs are spurring you to greatness in La Liga. Once this Owen fellow gets on the plane to South Africa, we’d be grateful if you’d pack your weather-inappropriate boots and join us once again at Old Trafford.
With love and roses,
Sir Alex
Sorry WSR – get your armor on and we’ll have go at them jointly.
JT: It’s definitely not the greatest system, but how else can it work? If you ask the player before the club, that’s tapping up. But if the player doesn’t want to go to, there’s really no sense in getting rejected by the club, is there? There is a major element of sleeze in transfers; I think that’s undisputed. This one seems kind of above board, relatively speaking.
Now, I have no answer to why it got leaked if Standard is cool with it. So I’ll make one up: Defour’s mum is the club secretary and she doesn’t want her little boy to leave home, so she leaked it to kill the deal.
Georger: I’d say we follow Fergie’s lead in dealing with the Arse. He seems to be getting along better with Arsene, so in turn I’ve been less vitriolic to the gooners I know. However, if I see just one flying pizza, the gloves come off…
Wedel: I guess I’ll say this. Fergie’s been around for decades. He’s a smart guy. He knows the rulebook inside and out, and therefore knows ways around the laws of the game. He’s very good at this sort of thing; while Redknapp runs his mouth to the media about players, Fergie types up an official letter to the club. Sure, it might be technically legal (because UEFA’s not had to really deal with this sort of thing before, at least publicly), but really, does that make it 100% ethical and above-board?
Fergie knows what he’s doing. He can dodge questions of illegality by sending it to the club c/o Mr. Defour, but honestly, it’s every bit as questionable at tapping up itself, at least to my eyes. And ergo, Standard leaks it out.
They avoided selling Defour in the summer, and he’s the best asset they’ve got. I don’t think they want to part with him easily or on the cheap, so maybe leaking this note to the press forces United to come clean and offer a fair price for a highly-rated, highly-talented player. Or, they want to turn Fergie off by making him look the fool. Liege ain’t dumb either.
JT: I don’t dispute your position that transfers generally are tres shady, but I think we’ll agree to disagree on this one. I can’t see it being done better than communicating through the club (of course, continuing my caveat that Standard is part of this particular process).
Is there a prohibition on communicating outside the window (honest question)? I didn’t think there was. That way, clubs can talk and set deals in motion to be completed during the windows. Assuming that some communication can take place (just no actual transfers), is this an over the top love note or is this just good man management for a deal that is all but done?
I don’t know Standard well enough to know if their situation has changed since the summer. Is there a reason why they may have become sellers?
The American sports fan in me says that this is seven shades of shady; while he might not have broken any technical rules, it would seem like in an era of cell phones, e-mail, faxes, agents, and attorneys that there are more official channels to operate within than the old handwritten note approach.
That said, that opinion is mostly formed by following sports leagues where any kind of communication between the coach of one team and the player of another is verboten, and I’m not 100% sure that those values translate. Still, I have to admit, this seems like tapping up to the highest degree even by European standards…and it seems to violate the cardinal rule of doing shady s**t: don’t write s**t down in a way that can be traced back to you.
@NYK: Big girls don’t cry.
I’ve got 3 thoughts on this. 1) Who sends hand-written letters anymore? That is freaking awesome. 2) Like James said, Fergie knows the rulebook inside and out. There’s no way he sneezes without making sure it’s legal. But, that being said…3) This is absolute crap. We all know the reason Fergie did this. It’s the most legal version of tapping up he can do, short of sending Defour’s mom a fruit basket. While I appreciate that he took the route of going through the club instead of doing his Real Madrid impression and unsettling him through the media, it’s still wrong. Contact the club, ask for permission to contact the player, then write the letter.*
*If that’s what happened and Liege still leaked the letter, then f**k them.
And by fruit basket, you of course mean that Fergie sent her a picture of his genitals tucked through his legs.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go vomit after seeing that image in my mind.
I wonder when Standard will leak the love note from Berlusconi to Gooch. This whole thing seems to me like Fergie thumbing his nose at UEFA and their attempts to go after the English Big 4′s for poaching from smaller clubs.
Thank you WSR. Despite the unfortunate nature of the club you love, I appreciate your honesty. Get with it, Wedel! (I kid, I kid)
Magnakai: I was struck by that same logic too. He’s clearly demonstrating his love and attention for another team’s player, one he clearly wants. I don’t remember any other manager ever doing that ever. They normally just gush praises during the transfer window and unsettle ‘em that way.