well have collected more trophies than true friends. Such is
the nature of his business. But standing with him yesterday,
nattering about the action as though they were two old guys
in a Sauchiehall Street bookie’s, was a genuine comrade and
kinsman. Some 26 years after first trying to get him as an
assistant, Walter Smith was at Ferguson’s side.
‘The United manager hinted last week at the occasional
loneliness of his job. How has he coped with recent
pressures? “Well, you don’t read the papers. You don’t talk
to journalists. You don’t socialise with the players. You
keep your own counsel. You think, you observe,” he said.
Regarding Smith, he added: “No matter what you’ve achieved
in football, or how long you’ve been in the game, you always
need a shoulder to lean on.
‘Smith’s counsel, more than any work on the training ground,
may be the best thing he offers Ferguson in these last vital
weeks of the season.
‘Only Smith might be able to tell Ferguson, for example,
that playing Roy Keane at the back is no longer a viable
idea: age and injury have robbed the Irishman of so much
pace that he is a liability there. This was demonstrated not
only by the Fulham goal, but several instances when the
United captain was outstripped or caught in possession.
‘Smith might also point out to Ferguson that it is a
nonsense to possess the best central attacking midfielder in
the game and then play him on the flank — as he has been
doing with Paul Scholes. Maybe Smith did: at half-time,
Scholes was switched from the left to the centre and United
became masters in the game.
‘Though known in England only as a manager, in Scotland
Smith is remembered not just as the man who bossed Rangers
to nine League titles in a row but, before that, as a
prodigious No 2. Back in 1978, when Ferguson attempted to
prise Smith away from Dundee United and make him his
assistant at Aberdeen, ‘“He’s got in about it straight
away,” Ferguson said of Smith’s first few days. Mick Phelan
stood between Ferguson and Smith at kick-off, but as
yesterday’s game progressed, he found himself displaced as
the two moved together. When Keane was removed, Phelan was
dispatched to the touchline like an errand boy to tell the
players of the tactical reorganisation, while Smith and
Ferguson conferred. Alas Smith and Ferguson. Even in
football, there is a place for friendship’s sustaining
power’