Three men went to mow....

Random moment from history:

Scottish Cup Final, May 21st, 1983: Aberdeen 1 Rangers 0.

(Ten days previously, Aberdeen had won the European Cup Winner’s Cup, beating Real Madrid (2-1) in Gothenburg, becoming the first Scottish team to win a European trophy since Rangers won the same cup in 1972.)

After the final whistle, Alex Ferguson did a pitch-side interview.

Ferguson: "We're the luckiest team in the world. We were a disgrace of a performance. Miller and McLeish won the cup for Aberdeen. Miller and McLeish played Rangers themselves. They were a disgrace of a performance. And I'm not caring; winning cups doesn't matter: our standards have been set long ago and we're not going to accept that from any Aberdeen team. No way should we take any glory from that.”

Hmm. Dodgy.

It would be hard to pick fault with any aspect of his (Ferguson’s) stewardship of Aberdeen, but this was uncool, no? I also don’t think that he was being particularly sincere. I think he was playing the part of the sort of guy who would say such a thing because this was almost what people expected. He was parodying himself, to all intents and purposes, bolstering and forging a reputation at the same time, playing at being Alex Ferguson.

The game was instantly forgotten, obviously, and the majority of the coverage was about his post-match remarks. The players were fairly stunned, as you might imagine, and my mum - still a virgin at this point - solemnly informed me that the manager had been bang out of order and that I shouldn't worry my pretty little head over it. No need to cry. She called his behaviour "classless", which stuck in my head.

Judge for yourselves, my fellow sheep – interview starts at roughly 2:20:

[video=youtube;GoSiBq2Q0MU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoSiBq2Q0MU[/video]


Historical footnote: The players and fans had the last laugh a few years later, though, as Ferguson was slyly manipulated out of the hot seat by an ambitious board that wanted him to make way for Ian Porterfield. The manager grew entirely discomfitted by the bitterly sarcastic way the board would fall at his feet every morning and beg him to stay – “we’ll give you anything, Alex, absolutely anything, oh please, oh please, oh please don’t go” - and his position quickly became untenable. Ferguson eventually found work in England, apparently, whilst Aberdeen’s total supremacy in Scotland continued entirely unaffected – don’t listen to the doubters - for many hours to come.