Any amateur psychologist seeking to analyse Alex Ferguson should always remember one important point: the Manchester United manager can be as impenetrable as one of his menacing glares. As he once growled at the Mancunian press corps: "Never try to guess the mind of a madman."
So it is a complicated business trying to unravel the motives behind his decision to opt for a policy of omerta with the media between now and the end of the season, his final six months in office.
What is certain is that by stating he will not speak to the media again, apart from Champions League matches when he is obligated by UEFA, Ferguson is not only embarrassing his employers but highlighting the huge gulf in personality between himself and the man in the opposite dugout at Arsenal tomorrow.
Arsene Wenger is certainly smart enough to realise the benefits of working with the press rather than against it. "I don't kick dressing-room doors or the cat - or even journalists," he says.
So what exactly has incensed Ferguson so much? Those closest to the manager say he has been increasingly irritated by what he perceives as media sniping. The final straw was apparently when an oldish interview in an Italian magazine, in which he bemoaned the increasing demands of management, was reported by various newspapers as though new.
Media-baiting at Old Trafford is not entirely new, although never had it reached this situation where Ferguson will talk only to the club-controlled MUTV channel.
The Daily Mail was banished after he fell out with a former sports editor, the Press Association was turned away three years ago without explanation, Ferguson refuses to speak to BBC Radio 5's Alan Green, and over the years innumerable other individuals have been subjected to periods of exclusion. "Away and write your shite" is a favoured Ferguson mantra of dismissal.
The irony is that United have employed a director of communications, Paddy Harverson, on a six-figure annual salary.
"It has caused severe embarrassment," an informed source at Old Trafford said yesterday. "Most football fans believe the media is incredibly biased towards United but Fergie is a law unto himself. His paranoia is incredible."
A backlash is inevitable, and certain sports editors are even talking of airbrushing out Vodafone's name from photographs of United's shirts.
