ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE NEWS:MANCHESTER UNITED will be looking for a new manager at the end of next season according to Alex Ferguson's son, Darren, who believes that the longest-serving, and oldest, manager in the business could be in the final 14 months of his epic time in charge at Old Trafford.
“I can see him doing this year and next and then that might be it for him,” said Ferguson Jr, one of the few people in a position to take an educated stab at when the man who took over at Old Trafford 22½ years ago will finally call it a day.
Ferguson himself has already cancelled one retirement date, which was originally scheduled for the end of the 2001-02 season, and passed the normal retirement age of 65 two years ago. Since then he has stubbornly refused to clarify his intentions and has fluctuated from saying he has “many years” left to insisting that he will not work beyond the age of 70.
About the only certainty, according to Darren, is that it will not be at the end of the current season even if United, aiming for a clean sweep of the season’s trophies, reach a position of such success that Ferguson could go out on the biggest high imaginable. “His health is fine and he’s building a new team. If they win [the league] this year, then they catch Liverpool in terms of league titles won and that will be in his mind.”
So what of the possibility of father taking on son as rival managers in the Premier League? Ferguson Jr is going for successive promotions with Peterborough to get them into the Championship and it seems only a matter of time before he is in charge of a top-division club. However, he added: “I don’t think Dad will wait for me before he retires. There’s no guarantee I’ll get to the Premier League.”
Meanwhile, AIG’S outstanding €15 million payment to Manchester United is increasingly coming under scrutiny in the United States amid growing political pressure for the money not to be paid from federal bail-out money.
United have not yet received the final instalment of a €60 million shirt-sponsorship deal with AIG that has coincided with the company going into financial meltdown. A rescue package for the insurance giant, footed by the US government, currently stands in excess of €133 billion, and there has been a huge public backlash from US taxpayers after it emerged the company had used part of the money to pay executives huge financial bonuses.
The terms of AIG’s four-year agreement with United, which is due to expire at the end of next season, are now being investigated and there have been calls for the deal to be scrapped with immediate effect. “I think that AIG should drop the sponsorship deal with Manchester United,” Ed Pastor, a Congressional Democrat, said yesterday.
Guardian Service
