Friday, December 28, 2012

Man in glass house throws stone at man he claims is in glass house throwing stones

Some small satisfaction to take from Boxing Day's 4-3 defeat at Old Trafford (Paul's report to follow): the Silver Fox has royally riled Taggart by having the temerity to suggest that the Man Utd manager should be censured for his blasts directed at the officials in the wake of our second goal.

So incensed is the puce-faced knight of the realm that he (of all people) has had the nerve to claim that our gaffer is a hypocrite: "Alan Pardew is the worst for haranguing referees. His whole staff [do it] every game". Whereas, of course, he and his staff suffer in saintly silence whenever they perceive decisions to have gone against them. The Silver Fox found himself lambasted for his "unbelievable" cheek, and his employers belittled as "a wee club in the north east". How charmingly patronising. Just when I thought it wasn't possible to like him less, too.

Naturally, Taggart has no grounds to stand on. Television cameras plainly showed him "ranting and raving" at referee Mike Dean, his assistant and the fourth official, something he explicitly insisted he hadn't done. Meanwhile the same cameras captured the contentious incident during the match illustrating that, although Papiss Cisse was in an offside position, he wasn't obstructing David de Gea's view of Danny Simpson's shot, he didn't touch the ball, and any foul was actually committed on him by Jonny Evans rather than vice versa.

Referring back to the Silver Fox's misdemeanour on the opening day of the season, Taggart rewrote history by suggesting that he pushed the referee, and also made much of the fact that his initial response was to laugh it off - a response that we here felt was misjudged and for which he subsequently apologised. It's doubtful that Taggart will show any contrition whatsoever for giving Dean et al the infamous hairdryer treatment.

Arguably the key to what has particularly incensed Taggart can be detected in the following comment: "He forgets the help I gave him by the way". Presumably this is the advice the Silver Fox received about club policy on social media last summer - and presumably requests for any such advice in future will be met with a terse Glaswegian "Fuck off".

Of course - and as I'm sure those of a Man Utd persuasion will be quick to point out - the spat means very little. It doesn't change the outcome of the game, and another case of points dropped, despite a refreshing, courageous offensive display. Still, unsettling Taggart with psychological mind games is always worth a chuckle.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous UTD111 said...

Spot On

6:35 pm  
Blogger the transition said...

I was very upset when I read about Ferguson's response, but then reading your take on it made me cool down and laugh. You're right, he is INDEED unsettled by Pardew.

5:13 am  

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