influencing their season, he could never have imagined that
suspensions would play such a major part. Unless, of course,
they involved Arsenal's players.
‘Ferguson, that famed disciplinarian, once fined a player
for overtaking him on the way out of the training ground and
prides himself on the sense of good order that has generally
existed at Old Trafford compared to Highbury.
‘So he will be appalled that Roy Keane's sending-off in
Wednesday's 2-1 defeat away to Porto, plus Rio Ferdinand's
eight-month suspension and impending Paul Scholes and Gary
Neville bans, are enticing the first comparisons with the
ruinous effect that Eric Cantona's enforced absence for
attacking a Crystal Palace fan had on their 1994-1995
season.
‘Uefa's disciplinary committee will meet on Monday to decide
whether to increase the automatic one-match ban that
accompanied the 11th red card of Keane's tempestuous career.
‘In the meantime, the Football Association's video review
panel is investigating provisional dates on which Scholes
will probably be suspended for three matches for lashing out
at Middlesbrough's Doriva.
‘Gary Neville will miss the next four domestic matches for
butting Manchester City's Steve McManaman, and, lurking in
the background, Ferdinand's team of lawyers are preparing
for his appeal with an independent FA commission on March 18
and 19.
‘Ferdinand leads a strange and presumably ill-at-ease
existence right now, training all week then watching
silently from the stands as his team-mates struggle without
him. Rightly or wrongly he is more to blame than anyone for
the defensive malaise that has persistently undermined
United over the past month. Yet in wages and bonuses he will
have collected around £2.4m by the time his suspension ends.
‘Does he feel guilty? Well, he did not look too troubled
when the Manchester Evening News pictured him on Wednesday
night climbing into his new £110,000 silver Bentley GT
Sports Coupe outside one of Manchester's most genteel
eateries. The more United founder the more ridiculous it
seems that nobody from the higher echelons of Old Trafford
has even dared criticise him for missing his now-infamous
drugs test, never mind deem it a matter worthy of in-house
discipline.
‘Keane will not be granted the same leniency and will
remorsefully accept his fine of a week's wages, some
£90,000. United's captain has spent so many years creating a
monster out of himself that the man is often misjudged. He
is never slow to speak out when he believes those around him
have let themselves down but, as his own fiercest critic, he
will be disgusted with himself for living up to his most
popular caricature, that of the brilliant but unhinged
midfielder with an addiction to controversy.
‘Beneath the febrile temper, the slightly threatening stare
and the impenetrable aura, there is a sensitive side that
only the few closest to him are allowed to see properly. He
will be appalled, for instance, to learn that in the 11
years since he signed for England's biggest club his various
suspensions now amounts to 30 matches - not far off a full
Premiership season.
‘Nothing will hurt more, however, than the cold realisation
that, by sinking his studs into Vitor Baia's midriff inside
the Estadio do Dragao, the debilitating effect it will have
on the return leg at Old Trafford on Tuesday week means a
two- or three-match ban could now feasibly run into next
season.‘