Published: 10 November, 2011

ARSENAL
IT would be churlish to let this week go by without taking time to congratulate you-know-who on his 25 years with Manchester United.

Congratulations Sir Alex.

There, done.

There Ferguson was on Saturday, brought onto the pitch to celebrate his anniversary.

He clearly considered it a special occasion, with his zipped up turtle neck and never-ending gum chewing.

I estimate it is the same piece he has been chewing for several years, during all of those important football moments he has witnessed: The treble victory of 1999, John Terry missing that Champions League penalty to hand United another trophy (wonderful), Cantona kicking a fan in the air, Lauren kicking Ronaldo in the air.

People were suggesting at the weekend what his dream eleven from his 25 years would be.

Taibi, Kleberson, Veron. Dimitar Berbatov.

That kind of thing.

But perhaps the best trivia about it all came from Four Four Two, the football mag which traced what all the current Premiership managers were doing in 1986 when Sir Taggart first arrived. Andre Villas-Boas was a nine year old, while Mancini was 21.

Arsene Wenger was 37 and manager of AS Nancy-Lorraine, a club which sounds like a deadbeat striptease act rather than a football team.

(The French league can’t resist innuendo, you should have seen the scoreline in the Nice Brest match the other day…) Wenger finished 19th that season and was relegated. His rise to where he is now is just as impressive.
RICHARD OSLEY

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
I'M hoping Harry Redknapp’s family turned off the television before the second-half started in Sunday’s 3-1 win at Craven Cottage.

If he watched it I’m sure it did nothing to aid his recovery following heart surgery. Spurs’ free-flowing football was fabulous in the first 45 minutes.

Then, inexplicably, the second half belonged solely to Fulham and my mate Brad!

It must have been very exciting for the neutral and all those opposed to the Lilywhites’ forward momentum, but it did nothing for my nerves.  

An overstated, but very true, fact is that in days gone by Spurs would have lost this match.

Truth be known I thought they would. Tottenham, though, seem to have discovered some resilience, amiably spearheaded by a goalkeeper they trust. Man-of-the-match Brad Friedel made a string of saves that were brilliant.

Others, in my opinion, were saves you’d expect your keeper to make. Put Heurelho Gomes in the fray and it may well have been a completely different outcome.  

Jermain Defoe’s late decider broke the hearts of the Fulham faithful – and I can only imagine what it would have done to ease the pace of Harry’s.

Hopefully he’d have seen something from the sofa that he wouldn’t have standing on the touchline and, with the international games coming up, he’ll have two weeks to take a look at why we’re not finishing teams off.

If only he could sort out that conundrum, what a wonderful team we could be.
TONY DALLAS