Manchester United

[Sarb]

Just read his extract on Benitez. BBC are lapping this **** up. Prick

Going on about Suarez as well.

Was so glad when City beat them to the title with the last kick of the game. Cunt

[Muddled]

I'm kinda interested in what he has to say about Rafa and Rodgers - has that been leaked anywhere?

'The reason he fell out with Rafa Benitez is because the Spaniard made his attacks personal'

EDIT: It's in the Liverpool Echo now:

Writing in his autobiography, Ferguson said: "The mistake he made was to turn our rivalry personal. Once you made it personal, you had no chance because I could wait. I had success on my side. Benitez was striving for trophies while also taking me on. That was unwise.

"So, on television puts his glasses on and produces this sheet of paper. Facts. The facts were all wrong. All I said in reply was that Rafa was obviously bitter about something.

"That was me saying to him: look, you're a silly man. You should never make it personal."

He added that he had heard Benitez was a control freak, "which turned out to be correct" and also said Jose Mourinho was more of a winner, despite Benitez's successes against Chelsea.

[Sarb]

Gerrard apparently has played better for England than Liverpool. Moron

Arn would be lapping that **** up now if he wasn't banned.

[PTP]

I ****ing love that clip.

i knew i shouldn't have looked it up, but i was intrigued, it just got me angry

he says gerrard isn't a top top player, never got a kick against scholes/keane etc

oh but he did want to sign him

just put bias aside - how could anyone not say gerrard is top player - he's been a ****ing monster of player.

re against united, to say he never got a kick is a ridiculous statement

now i agree, scholes/keane was a hell of a midfield - but at their peaks, gerrard was a boy and he still held his own

added to that - that at times the liverpool side has been ****e and gerrard's played on his own

where as, as much as i hate saying it, on paper, that midfield of giggs/scholes/keane/beckham was pretty much perfection - zidane would have struggled getting a kick in at times against them

[Alex]

2007-2009 Gerrard was one of the best plays I have never seen.

[Yozza]

The stinging attack on Liverpool: Rodgers needs EIGHT more players to win the title, Rafa is a Billy no mates and Gerrard isn't a top star

By MATT LAWTON and IAN LADYMAN

Sir Alex Ferguson tears into bitter rivals Liverpool in his new autobiography, claiming Brendan Rodgers is 'eight players short of becoming genuine title contenders'.

Nobody at Anfield is spared, with Rafa Benitez described as a ‘silly man’ and a control freak who has no friends in management.

But there is wider criticism for Liverpool as a club over the Luis Suarez affair and even the appointment of Rodgers as manager.

Ferguson also dares suggest that Michael Owen became a better player once he had joined Manchester United and dismisses the qualities of Kenny Dalglish signings Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll.
But his most scathing words are reserved for Benitez, whom he says would rather destroy a game than win it and claims his own players could not understand what he was saying from the touchline. He also says he consistently played Steven Gerrard in the wrong position.

While he says he could see a strategy in the signings Gerard Houllier made at Liverpool, he could see nothing of the kind during Benitez’s tenure.

He describes Benitez’s team as the ‘most unimaginative Liverpool side I ever went up against’. ‘The mistake he made was to turn our rivalry personal. Once you made it personal, you had no chance, because I could wait. I had success on my side.’
He also claims the famous ‘facts’ press conference was staged with a planted questions, adding that ‘the facts were all wrong’.

He says Benitez showed no interest in forming relationships with other managers, declaring it a ‘dangerous policy’. He also criticises the Spaniard’s transfer policy, questioning the quality of the players as ‘not of true Liverpool standard’.

One Benitez signing he does compliment is Fernando Torres, a player he tried to sign two years before his arrival at Liverpool. He describes him as a player of a ‘great cunning’, a ‘touch of evil’.
On Gerrard, Ferguson says he was ‘baffled’ that Benitez ‘did not trust’ his captain as a central midfield player. He says Liverpool have stopped producing home-grown talents, identifying Owen as probably the last but Ferguson is sure to incense Liverpool for claming that had the player joined United at 12 years old he ‘would have been one of the great strikers’.
He does credit Benitez with getting his players to work for him, acknowledging that you never see one of his teams ‘throw in the towel’.
But he adds ‘Benitez had more regard for defending and destroying a game than winning it’.

He says Jose Mourinho was more astute with dealing with players.

On Dalglish’s return to Anfield, Ferguson says few of the Liverpool manager’s signings gave him nightmares. Ferguson believes Henderson’s gait will cause him problems later in his career because he runs from his knees with a straight back.
He identifies Downing as a £20million player who was neither the bravest, nor the quickest. He is no fan of Carroll either, citing problems with his ‘mobility’ and ‘his speed across the ground’.

He also criticises Dalglish for his blind defence of Suarez over the Patrice Evra race row. ‘If it had been a reserve player, would Kenny have gone to such lengths to defend him?’
On the Suarez T-shirt stunt, Ferguson adds: ‘I thought it was the most ridiculous thing for a club of Liverpool’s stature.’

He expresses surprise that Rodgers was appointed as Dalglish’s replacement, given that he was ‘only’ 39 years old. He also highlights the American fly-on-the-wall documentary that followed Rodgers at the start of his tenure as a ‘mistake’.

Meanwhile, Gerrard is not a 'top, top player,' according to Ferguson.

The former Manchester United manager felt the England captain 'seldom had a kick' when coming up against a midfield of Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.

But despite this, Ferguson admits he did try to sign the Liverpool captain when word reached Old Trafford in 2005 that his days at Anfield were numbered.
Among considered musings about Gerrard, Ferguson questions why he was not played centrally more often under Rafael Benitez - who often positioned him out wide - and claims he was the only midfielder who could hurt United with bursts forward through the heart of his team's defence.

He concluded Gerrard had the ability to beat team's single-handedly.

But he suggests Gerrard only had more success at international level than Michael Carrick because of 'bravado', with the United man suffering because of a quiet personality.
Likewise, Ferguson believes Frank Lampard deserves credit for his club performances, but doesn't not consider the Chelsea midfielder an 'elite international footballer'.
Gerrard has spoken of Ferguson's desire to sign him from Liverpool and the story is confirmed in the Scotsman's autobiography.

'We made a show of him in the transfer market, as did Chelsea, because the vibe was that he wanted to move from Anfield,' writes Ferguson.
'But there seemed to be some restraining influence from people outside the club and it reached a dead end.'

[Sarb]

It's funny though. At a time when the club he managed is in a mini-crisis, he just adds to it with controversial claims in his book. Moyes must be loving this.

I'll always admire him for choosing Moyes as the man to destroy the success he created. Deluded old fool

[Sarb]

Yeah appointing Rodgers doesn't make sense. But choosing Moyes makes perfect sense

[Gibbo]

I think Xabi/Mash/Gerrard is greater than any midfield that Ferguson put out in his career.

[ashey]

I think Xabi/Mash/Gerrard is greater than any midfield that Ferguson put out in his career.

[Chris]

"He has become the most influential player in England, bar none. Not that Vieira lacks anything, but Gerrard does more," Ferguson told the Sunday Times.

Now he's become a **** Michael Carrick. Old people eh?

[Sarb]

"He has become the most influential player in England, bar none. Not that Vieira lacks anything, but Gerrard does more," Ferguson told the Sunday Times.

Now he's become a **** Michael Carrick. Old people eh?

Controversy sells books doesn't it?

For all Rafa played Gerrard out of position, Gerrard was immense for us under Rafa. I'm going to stop swearing at Fergie now. It isn't worth it

[Alex]

Does he mention Bebe?

[Yozza]

Controversy sells books doesn't it?

For all Rafa played Gerrard out of position, Gerrard was immense for us under Rafa. I'm going to stop swearing at Fergie now. It isn't worth it

one more for old times sake eh?

[Gibbo]

Does he mention Bebe?

@SamWallaceIndy: Fergie on Bebe: 'He was capable of scoring 20 goals a season ... he obviously had a hard upbringing wandering the streets of Lisbon'